Jurjen
Mark Lawrence is a really good writer, and so this collection of four short stories is very well written. It pontificates on books and the roles of stories in people's lives (but that shouldn't be a surprise as it's part of the “Librarian” series), but also death, immortality and legacy.
Of the four short stories, I only thought one of them was weaker than the rear (the second), but the other three were pretty great.
The Librarian Trilogy has a fascinating quality where there is such mystery in the world that you really want to get to the essence of, but you don't mind that you don't and won't. The Library plays a pretty similar role to The House in Piranesi, in that sense.
Very excited for the finale of the trilogy in a couple weeks!
Another very solid entry, although I did like it a bit less than the previous book. The plot felt a bit too bloated, and I don't really think this had to be 700 pages. Especially the 20-40% mark felt like it didn't really need to exist.
One of my complaints of the early couple books was that there was a bit of a lack of secondary characters. That issue mostly got solved in the last book, and this one continues to build on the expansion of the cast in b4. I really liked the cooperation and complicated team strategies. The way the plot came together in the last 75 pages was also really great! The way the story is expanding big time could have anchored the core of the series down, but it's being executed really well I think.
It took me quite a while–more than 120 pages–to get into this book, but I eventually did, and I ended up enjoying it quite a lot. The setting is extremely vivid, and the world that's explored throughout the book really does feel unique. The character dynamic between the Watson and Holmes archetypes was also really fun. Solid dialogue too.
I didn't really care too much for how the mystery came together, especially one part of it. But that's fine, it wasn't too bad. Will def read the sequel on release next month.
“The great events of an age appear, to those living through them, as backdrops only to the vastly more compelling dramas of their own lives, and how could it be otherwise? In this same way, many of the men and women there in the Hippodrome (and some who were not, but later claimed to have been) would cling to one private image or another of what transpired. They might be entirely different things, varying moments, for each of us has strings within the soul, and we are played upon in different ways, like instruments, and how could it be otherwise?”
I felt as Crispin did, his heart full, putting down that final stone of his mosaic, in starting the epilogue of this book. Reading Lord of Emperors, I think, is an experience unlike any other book I have ever read. It is a love-letter to art, but perhaps even more than that, one to beauty–Its fleeting nature, and sometimes how it can last.
The thesis of this book illustrated in the passage above was executed perfectly. The tragedy and beauty in the lives of these characters as they dance in and out of the events that would define the world, was an utterly compelling narrative.
The depth of dialogue, inner monologue, and characterisation is some of the best in fiction, and a stretch of a hundred pages in the middle of this book–triumph, tragedy and anxiety in equal parts–I could only compare to that stretch of pages at the end of a Storm of Swords.
My greatest criticism of Guy Gavriel Kay's writing in Tigana and Sailing to Sarantium is his approach to writing women. All of them are beautiful, desired, and likely in love with the main character. This book has made me reconsider that somewhat. Yes, all of these things are true, but part of that is GGK's almost fairytale-esque approach to writing all his characters that way, men too. But it's just not the same when you do that with your female characters, and their roles within society during this time period, I think.
That being said, Gisele, Alixana, Kasia, Shirin and Styliane had such depth, oozing with personality. I can't say anything other than that these were very well written characters. I think both my criticism and adoration can exist simultaneously.
There is a passage in this book, lamenting the death of a great figure in all its tragedy. The next paragraph reads:
“Somewhere in the world, just then, a longed-for child was born and somewhere a labourer died, leaving a farm grievously undermanned with the spring fields still to be ploughed and the crops all to be planted. A calamity beyond words.”
This is my tenth 10/10 book. It will stay with me for a long time.
I've quickly fallen in love with Dungeon Crawler Carl, and this one is my favourite yet.
The story expanded in scope quite dramatically with this book, getting a deeper look behind the curtain, as well as challenging some of the fundamental premises of the story. All of that could have been overwhelming and just a bit too much, but for me it wasn't. DCC4 was still able to keep that DCC flavour that makes this series what it is: satisfying, fun, and funny.
Some of the best bits are the creative puzzles that have to be solved with the ever increasing abilities Carl and Donut have. DCC4 does this better than any previous installment. Although sometimes the boss fights and puzzles edge on being convoluted, Dinniman makes it work. The character moments (especially those involving Donut) are as fun as ever, and I'm glad to see the cast of side characters expanding/getting some time to shine.
What I think is going to define Dungeon Crawler Carl, and possibly gatekeep it from being a truly “great” series, is how Carl's struggle within the Crawl is gonna get handled and resolved. The early few books had me slightly worried that a lot of that was gonna get swept under the rug so that the story could stay “fun”, but this book shows to me that Dinniman is more ambitious than that.
Excited to see where this series goes in the future, especially with how everyone says they keep getting better!
I find writing reviews for history books like this one harder than for novels, as commenting on the content is kind of difficult, cus who am I to tell Mary Beard what should and shouldn't have been included?
That said, this was written in a compelling way. I particularly liked Beard's argument for a lot of the founding myths, like Romulus (and the Aeneid), to have been created retroactively, strongly influenced by contemporary values and events in Rome, centuries later. What it meant to be a Roman in 30 CE led to the creation of the historical identity of Romans. The historical Roman identity wasn't so much a reason for why Romans were the way they were, rather the opposite.
Still a bit unsure about the cut-off point in the early 3rd century CE, but oh well.
Another solid read, had a lot fun. That said, this is my least fav DCC book so far. I kinda lost interest in the minutiae of how the puzzle worked. Too much detail about the train tracks, I glossed over much of the explanation. 1 sequence that was important in the story felt very awkwardly written.
I really enjoyed seeing secondary characters being built up, and the ending was solid and made me excited for the next book, just like the previous endings.
I think my reviews of these books are gonna be pretty short, as the series has some universal truths. It's got a clear formula, sticks with the formula, and executes the fuck out of it.
I wasn't quite as enthralled with this book as I was with the first. Not sure if that's because of the difference in writing (i doubt it) or the novelty of b1 and me reading them nearly back to back (which I rarely do). Either way, it picked up near the end, and similar to b1, it made me super excited for book 3!
Thought provoking and evocative, though at times it meanders. A frustration I have is that this book is not particularly interested in telling us a story about Area X, but rather what it does to the people who encounter it. I want to learn more, but that's just not what the series is about.
Authority, much like Annihilation, is a story about losing yourself in something greater than you. What does it mean to be you when forces so much greater push and pull on you?
Similar to Susanna Clarke's Piranesi, the prose, and what it evokes, goes hand-in-hand with the storytelling.
Ultimately, I didn't really get into it, but this world remains incredibly compelling and full of intrigue.
Dungeon Crawler Carl is probably the series that I have seen the most hype for in the past year, and it's well deserved. This was pretty great, and I blazed through this.
The premise for the story is kind of genius. I think it walks the line between taking itself seriously, while at the same time not getting bogged down in what the consequences to the world dungeon would be like for the human psyche too too much. That's really important for the story, and I think the book nails it.
the character dynamic between Carl and Princess Donut is the heart of this story, and just really fun.
The rewards are just as addictive as in roguelike games.
Read this if you like fun and or cats.
Because this book is co-written by Fonda Lee, the author of one of my absolute favourite series, I had very high expectations. Although this was mostly a fun read, it wasn't able to deliver on those expectations, or be up there with previous Fonda Lee books i've read.
The writing felt very inconsistent, varying from solid in a short stretch of chapters (mostly the tournament/action oriented ones), to... quite poor at other times. Unsure if that's due to this being written by someone else who is not as prolific as an author or not. As I'm not an action reader at all, it says a lot that my favourite parts was the action.
The character work was so-so, the worldbuilding was fairly interesting, and the story was mostly fun. Sadly, every time I did get into the book, a not so well written chapter would take me out of it again.
Fonda Lee's next adult fantasy book drops later this year, and I'm really hoping that it's able to match Greenbone Saga. It'd suck if I was only a GB fan rather than a Fonda Lee fan.
Yet another very funny read. I genuinely never laugh out loud when reading books (aside from 1 fantastic scene in the hobbit), but this book had me cracking up several times.
I really enjoyed the expansion of the cast, and how it set up further city watch novels. I missed not getting to see as much from Sam Vimes, though his relative absence was probably necessary to develop the new characters, and that was executed very well. I am Detritus' number 1 biggest fan.
The main reason why I rate this book below Guards Guards was because the plot felt a bit vapid, and a bit too chaotic and messy for me to get into it.
This is now my second Guy Gavriel Kay book after having read (and liked) Tigana last year. I liked this book quite a lot, though I have my issues.
The setting is fantastic. GGK has very clearly spent dozens of hours doing research into the Justinian period, and it really shows. I really enjoyed looking for historical parallels (especially in the prologue), but even when taken in isolation and not contrasted to history, it just feels very vivid and lived-in.
No surprise, Kay's prose is beautiful, and really adds to the storytelling.
Much like Tigana, the characters feel a bit overmuch–too clever, too beautiful, too “desired”, etc. With Tigana, this almost fit as it felt fairytale-esque to match the tone of the book. Sailing to Sarantium is more grounded, so that explanation doesn't work this time. It bothered me a bit.
The biggest problem with this book is the (limited) role that women play in this story. It seems that that's just endemic to his writing.
The ending of Tigana blew me away, and to my surprise, the final 25 pages of this book gave it a run for its money. Kay is able to write such tender sadness, and knows how to wrap things up emotionally. He masterfully employs the English language to do so.
A great book to end the year with. This one surprised me big time. I assumed that I was going to be much more eh on the book than everyone who has recommended it to me, but no, I was wrong. This book is utterly charming and pure fun. I especially like Thimble. He is so chill.
The setting is cosy, the characters are nice to be around, and the prose is really quite good for a first-time author.
I recommend this to anyone who thinks it won't be their thing. Oh, and I don't even drink coffee.
This book charmed me much less than Eragon. It doesn't really succeed at finding its own footing. When conflict arose, I knew what characters would say or do because they say or do what characters do in fantasy stories, the dialogue often felt stilted, the end was very anticlimactic and not well built up, and i'm very weirded out by how Paolini approached an elvish transformation (you're worthy of more respect when you're an übermensch?).
I did quite enjoy Roran's arc (although it is kind of a carbon copy of Perrin's in The Shadow Rises), as well as Eragon with the elves.
It feels strange being done with Stormlight 5. After such a wait and then 1500 pages, the first arc of this story is done. I am so glad to have experienced it. This series is my favourite of all time.
At the same time, Wind and Truth is the Stormlight book I have most issues with. The writing style grated on me at times, the lexiconical transformation of Sanderson's writing culminated in this book, and that bothered me a fair amount. I don't know if some moments had a lot of thematic resonance, and speaking more generally, it feels a bit like Sanderson got “lost in the sauce”.
At the same time, this book is one of the most ambitious and impressive ones I have read. The scope of this story has grown tremendously, and wrapping up arc 1 was a monster task that clearly strained Sanderson's skill as a writer. I think he pulled it off, and that alone is worth congratulating.
As I have written before, Stormlight just feels “home”. Being with these characters and then interacting with each other is such tremendous fun, and this book was no exception. I particularly liked the buddy road trip storyline and was eagerly awaiting their next chapter every time. I do think that the two storylines with the battle scenes were way too similar, the premise, the main chunk of it, and how it ended. I think one of them could have probably been cut, but I did like where they ended.
I think that is my favourite part of this book. The ending sets up Stormlight 6 so incredibly well, and I cannot wait to read that book. Also, the implications for the wider cosmeres has me super excited.
I think some amount of enjoyment was taken from me in being in Stormlight fanspaces a lot. Tons of very clever theories came true, which took away some shock/surprise. I also did not much care for one specific theory that came true, but you can't win them all. Despite this, there were tons of surprises as well, mostly in how Stormlight 6-10 is gonna go. It'll be fantastic.
Overall, I would say Wind and Truth ranks fourth among the Stormlight books (1. WoR 2. WoK 3. OB 4. WaT 5. RoW), but being fourth in a series of which I love every book is no shame at all.
I have a lot of thoughts and reactions to the book that suddenly evade me when trying to write them down, but isn't that always so?
Equal parts funny, heartwarming, and beautiful.
With how highly praised Discworld is, I came in with very high expectations. For most of the book, these were met, but I wasn't blown away–it was thoroughly enjoyable and good, but no more than that.
Those last two dozen pages did blow me away. I almost never laugh out loud from reading, though I cracked up twice within a span of 10 pages. I also had a goofy smile on my face for most of the ending. Death had 3 scenes and 3 lines consisting of less than 10 words, but talk about stage presence. If Discworld only gets better, then I can't wait to read more.
Yeah, I did not much like this book at all.
It's really much the same from book 2, which I already disliked quite a lot, so buying this and reading it is really just on me. This book and series is extremely well regarded, so don't let me discourage you from reading it. Unless you're ambivalent about action, in which case there's almost nothing there for you.
My two favourite aspects of a book are the character work, and dialogue. Both are incredibly bare bones. There's not a single conversation in the entire story that stood out to me, and it felt very low effort. As for character work, the main characters get none, or if I'm being more charitable, almost none. The character work is tied into the theme of revenge which is present in 2 of the 3 main characters as well as a few ancillary ones, but I'm unsure if the author has anything to say about vengeance as a theme at all. The narrative largely being driven by people trying to kill other people because those people took a loved one from them without significant parallels or even variance between them made much of the characters' storylines very uncompelling, and very one-note.
The one character that I ultimately came to see as the single part of the book that I enjoyed is Biorr, and how his arc ties into vengeance was fairly well done by the end of the book I think. It just makes all the other arcs seem confusing in comparison though. It's as though Gwynne is only trying to make a point about vengeance for him, and not all the others?
I am the opposite of an action person, and I generally find action scenes somewhat boring. This series is bursting with action scenes, to the detriment of everything else I'm afraid. Action scenes are probably written well in isolation, but I just felt no emotional investment in any of the characters, so I didn't really end up caring about any of it.
Back to the characters: they are all indistinguishable with the same voice. I'm pretty good at keeping characters apart, but even by the end of the book I didn't really know who was who all that well. The worst part, I didn't even care because they're probably close to identical for the purpose of the story anyway (okay that felt really mean to write out, Gwynne seems like an extremely pleasant person so i'm not sure if he deserved that lmao)
Despite following viking-esque bands around for much of the story, we learn absolutely nothing about what their lives are like. Genuinely, across the entire book I don't really recall more than 2 or 3 scenes that just show the lives of these characters and how they interact with the world and their environment outside of what is directly relevant to the plot.
The premise of these gods is pretty compelling, but sadly they disappoint too. The bad guys are cartoonishly evil, and they're not even remotely menacing. The snake god on the cover was introduced and handled in a very anti-climactic way. I feel like me and a couple of my high school buddies could probably do some real damage to the rat guy if we tried. On top of that, the magic is very uninteresting. Wizards throw ice, fire, and runes that do stuff (?). Also why did the battle with the gods happen like 300 years ago? At least make it a thousand to add a deeper mythology to it or something. like jesus christ dying in 1724 wouldn't be nearly as compelling a tale lol.
This will certainly be the last John Gwynne book that I'll read (though I genuinely wish him all the best), and frankly, my strong disliking of this book came as no surprise to me at all.
So why did I buy it? The cover is fucking sick.
My relationship with Annihilation is a bit odd. I googled movies similar to Arrival about 4.5 years ago, and ended up with Annihilation, and I was ultimately disappointed because it is very different for the most part.
Even then, that disappointment has always puzzled me as Annihilation sounded like it would be something I would love. I just bounced off of it.
For the past half year or so I was excited to start the series, as I was expecting to like the books much more than I did the movie, but then reading those first 50 or so pages, I still did not really connect with it. Fortunately, by the time I finished the book, I was left with a largely positive reaction.
Annihilation's got a wonderfully crafted eerie, ecological cosmic horror setting, and its many unknowns and secrecy makes it all the more intriguing. Area X is the star of the show. The protagonist itself, as well as the plot, however, did not really have me engaged. For most of the book, I felt as though the narrative let down the premise of the story and that it had a lot more potential. It was only really the infodumping segments about Area X that kept me interested. Fortunately, the back quarter of the book drew me in thoroughly.
The protagonist, who is an emotionally distant and cold person, made it difficult to feel close to her. I understand that this is a creative choice, as that feeling is mirrored by that exact same dynamic between herself and her husband. All the same, that emotional distance made it a bit hard to get into the book. Though as the book goes on, and the protagonist sees a transformation, you do get to know her, she does get to understand herself and her husband more, and the story becomes a lot more intimate and introspective.
The book ended on a very strong note, particularly those last few pages. Although I still think this book left something on the table, I am excited to learn much more about Area X in future books. I just hope the narrative can be compelling throughout to match the setting and environmental storytelling.
This novella was very different from what I expected, though quintessential SA Corey. I thought this would have been a somewhat straightforward forward scifi action adventure, but the element of eeriness and mystery is what made the story.
Happy to see this world get expanded upon, and to take a look behind the curtains a little bit. Really curious as to where it's heading.
I definitely read this book at the wrong time, which mostly explains why it took me longer than any book I've read since keeping track 5 or so years ago. Had a lot going on, so I wasn't reading much, which is not the way to go with Malazan due to the massively sprawling scale of the story. It was hard to keep track of everything, which likely hampered my enjoyment. That said, all Malazan books take me ages to read due to how dense they are, so it's also just a Malazan thing.
Overall, this book felt like a sizable step down from books 2 and 3. I felt much more emotional distance to the characters and plot, the plot itself felt very disorganised and all over the place, culminating in somewhat of an anticlimactic ending to the plot. I didn't enjoy the characters as much as the previous two books, and the dialogue as well as themes were less compelling.
All of that sounds super negative, but I did broadly enjoy it. The part 1 Karsa novella was spectacular (and probably should have been expanded upon rather than the next 75% being a regularly structured Malazan book), the last 40 pages were pretty fantastic, and as always, the emotional beats continued to land perfectly. Malazan is pretty special.
I really enjoyed how I wanted neither side to the main conflict to win or lose, and that was represented well by the two side's leaders.
I just wanted to know, ... , why you did it. And why you did not love me, when I loved you. I - I think that's what I wanted to know.Mother, look at us now.
:(
The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite.
I've written a lot of pretty lengthy reviews this year, but for Piranesi, I am having slight trouble with conveying my experience.
Its cerebral beauty; its empathy; its meditative quiet; its kindness–especially Piranesi's kindness; its peripheral eeriness; its atmosphere.
Reading Piranesi was profound, and i don't believe that my words are able to do it any justice. Much like understanding the beauty and kindness of the House, the only way of experiencing it is by doing so yourself.
(Read this the week it released but forgot to add my review to the rating)
This one was a surprise because it's an incredibly different read to the Expanse. Whereas the Expanse is a thoroughly character driven story with a limited set of POVs in each book, The Mercy of Gods is much more plot driven with a sprawling set of POVs. There's positive and negative aspects to this, but how it lands for you will likely be personal preference as I believe the plot-driven approach to be about as well executed as the character driven approach in the Expanse.
The world and plot captivated me immediately. The story was wonderfully confusing, unique, and strange, which had me turning every page just to see what would happen next. The book asks a great deal of questions, most of which you won't get the answers to, but trying to find the answers together with at least one character, Dafyd, is a very immersive experience.
I appreciated how alien the aliens felt. Not just in what they looked like, but in what they believed, and what grounded those beliefs. It got me thinking that if some sort of alien encounter happened in the real world, I could see these truly fantastical events playing out in this way.
I had 3 minor complaints while reading
1 one character, strangely, has no reaction to another character telling them something bizarre about themselves, and what they're there for; I think the book should have done more with that, which is related to:
2 as I said, the book focuses much less on the characters than what i'm used to from Franck and Abraham (both with the Expanse and Kithamar), resulting in me not feeling as much of an emotional connection than I did to the likes of Holden, Alys, Sammish or Garreth, after reading one book of them.
3 This book felt short. It wasn't necessarily rushed, but I think a lot more could have been done if it had been 200 pages or so longer. I don't think it would have been over-indulgent, nor suffered from pacing issues, if it had.
Loved the book an incredible amount, and I can't wait to read Livesuit in October and the sequel whenever it releases.