Alex
Too much action and characters for my taste. I was phasing off during some action scenes.
It's still top-notch book with same amazing narration by Steven Pacey.
What's interesting is that the book covers just three days of a single battle through the eyes of some participants.
I loved the arc of Bremer Dan Gorst the most and was excited to meet Shivers and Bayaz again. I definitely didn't have a good grasp on what was going on on the battlefield (a lot of names and regiments and whatever) and felt guilty about it.
I mean it's alright. It's kinda hard to relate to immortal being but some parts are really good. Like reasons for Circe to be cruel to the sailors and her motherhood.
But ending feels watered down. I got what author wanted to picture there but it just didn't feel that significant to thousands years of Circe life before.
And in-between stories come and go without leaving any trace on the plot.
Story of a man who moved to a different country to “be a good man and do the right thing” and failed at that spectacularly.
The book is still very good and it's very cool to meet characters from the original trilogy. I would say it's actually 5 stars but on an Abercrombie scale it's not on par with The First Law IMO.
Too long action scenes, too many deus ex machinas, and some characters annoyingly to survive (multiple times!!!) impossible things.
I also found a thing which I don't like about Abercrombie's writing (it was also present in the original trilogy) - there are some places where he tries to present situation as something different and then jumps on you with “AHA, IT'S THE REVERSE OF THAT” - it's pretty cheap and usually visible from a mile away. Thankfully it's not more than once or twice per book.
Steven Pacey is still the god of narrating and I didn't have to speed up a second of this book.
This is absolutely the best book series I've ever read. Audiobooks narrator gave a lot of life to already very interesting characters.
Ending is also very “unconventional”, leaves you with some questions and wishing for more.
10/10 all three books. I hope my depression about finishing them won't be too overwhelming.
Wow, what a great fantasy. I like that it's pretty light-hearted and even most serious characters cracking jokes pretty often.
The characters themselves are GREAT - different, alive, problematic, funny (until it's time to burst someone's head) - I haven't read something like that for a while.
Audiobook narrator performance is also 10/10. So glad that there are more books in the series.
Very educational but not very entertaining. I guess because it's collection of the myths (some are pretty boring) without overarching plot it's hard to keep being engaged with the book.
I listened on x2 and still got annoyed from time to time. I feel like the Greek myths are much more interesting to talk about than to read them - I was pretty bored ~50% of the book but now very enthusiastically retell those myths to anyone willing to listen.
I absolutely loved it. Everyone knows how it ends but it is still insanely enjoyable. It's much better than movie Troy by all accounts, even though the book is not about Trojan war as is and wooden horse only mentioned there (I mean fuck wooden horse, wtf trojans were even thinking). Audiobook performance is top notch as well.
Together with Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City this is one of the best books I've read about America. It's hard to believe what medieval shit is going on here.
The book is incredibly sad, it doesn't try to paint a happy picture at all.
If you care about the US you definitely should read it.
It's surprisingly not the first book I've read about a girl living in the marsh. Not sure why but that trope seems to attract writers.
Anyway, it's a mix of southern gothic + courtroom drama (much like To kill a mockingbird but with a different kind of tension) + feel good story. It's boring at places and I was definitely thinking about solid 3 stars until the end which actually was good.
If you haven't read any books about “girl in the marsh” try this one.
This book has some very disturbing content, so beware.
The first 20% are really hard to read - Eva's language is unlike anything I saw before, I almost dropped the book because I was annoyed. It gets much better and much darker after Kevin is born.
In the end I couldn't put it down until I was done with it. Great book, would recommend.
I hated it. There are some ups (like stories about El-ahrairah) but mostly it's downs all the way. It's boring and very wordy. Peter Capaldi performance in audiobook isn't that great, too. There was no single time where I was like “alright, I want to listen this book now”, I had to push myself.
I should've just dropped it after couple of hours, just not my type of book.
Even though I didn't like ending too much and there is way too many magical resurrections for my taste, this series is a solid one.
Art is mostly good (I didn't like issues where everyone is “baby-faced”, I even thought that it's some kind of parallel universe and part of the plot) and story runs smoothly through issues.
I'm so glad I didn't start it when it was unfinished - it's great book but dropping ongoing series forever is just what happens to me.
Totally worth a read.
