Karen
Not quite as exciting or gripping as the past Lady Emily books for some reason, but still fun and a solid read.
This book was really great... right up until the end. It's beautifully written, and it's a good book, but my personal preference is for less... ambiguous endings. I don't need EVERYTHING tied up in a neat bow, but I really don't like “Lady and the Tiger” endings. That's simply personal preference though. Otherwise the book was so great, that the ending was proportionally disappointing to me.
I enjoy this series, but the prose is beginning to get exceedingly repetitive and it really takes me out of the story. I'm only a quarter of the way in and I've already lost count of how many times they've mentioned the fact that Raphael's mother left him bleeding in a field. I'm also pretty sure that if I put this book through a word cloud generator, the biggest one would be the word warrior. I'm listening to it on audio book right now and it feels like every 2 minutes something or someone is described as a warrior.
It was a really original premise, but for me the book was just ok. I realize that this requires a healthy suspension of disbelief, and usually that doesn't pose a problem for me with sci-fi and fantasy, but my brain just required too much explanation that wasn't there. (It doesn't help that my degree is marine biology, so I just kept trying to nitpick things, which just pulled me out of the story too much.) There are tons of people who will probably enjoy this a lot, but it just wasn't there for me.
A very cute book. A bit different than the usual librarian trope. It didn't hook me as deeply as I would have liked, but it was still a fun read and I'll try the next one.
This book was ok. That's about the extent of how I felt about it. It had all the right fantasy elements, but for some reason, it just never really came together for me. I feel like that's probably just my experience, and I think plenty of other people will like this book just fine; there's nothing really WRONG with this book. I just didn't feel drawn in by the characters.
The second book in the series focuses more on the politics of the world rather than the magic, but considering the fact that the narrative switched to the sister's perspective, it makes sense. An enjoyable read and I look forward to the next in the series.
I enjoy the story, but I feel like there wasn't really any character development in this book. I'll be interested to see if this continues or improves in the next book.
This book absolutely caught me by surprise, in the best way. Maybe I should have expected some of the twists, but I didn't and it was an incredibly fun read. Very much looking forward to the next one.
Definitely requires some suspension of disbelief regarding the genetic science part (which is left deliberately vague, and that's probably for the best) and you need to buy into the premise that there's one specific person who is your best fit; but as long as you can get past that, it's an interesting read. How would society actually change if you could be matched to one specific person? And how would different people handle the knowledge? A fun read.
The main character Hiro really did feel like Mary Sue (the constant saying that he's the greatest swordsman in the world, which is totally irrelevant, etc) but despite that, I LOVED this book. The idea of an ancient Sumerian proto-language that allows for linguistic bio-hacking of brains? Sign me up.
I really wanted to like this book. I like the premise. But when you have a computer program rewriting human beings DNA in split seconds, over Wi-Fi, halfway across the globe, with no explanation of how, no nanites, no actual mechanism to do so, I just can't hold it suspension of disbelief long enough to enjoy the story. There were too many things like that, times I threw my hands up in the air and shouted that's not how that works! if you have no technical or computer science background, you may be more comfortable with how these things are glossed over and be able to immerse yourself in the story. But I just couldn't do it.
A really wonderful conclusion to the story. Although I would have wished everyone made it out alive in the end, it felt like the right way to take the plot. I wish we could have another book though; I feel there's another story to be told about Marce's journey to Earth, and I'd love to see that.
Everyone else I know loved this book, and I really wanted to love it. But at best, I felt like it was “ok”. Maybe it's because I'm reading it much later, in a very different political climate? I don't know. But I found myself not really enjoying it.
A good idea, but the characters didn't ring true to me. I think I would have been more interested if the book had continued further to see the characters adjustment to the outside world.
Just as good as the first book in the series. Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Can't wait to see what happens to these characters.
Nope, nope, nope. I loved A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske and was hoping this would be similar. But the one character immediately starts being sexually aggressive towards the other in a very rapey way. And then the second character is like ‘well, if everyone thinks we're having sex, I guess you might as well just have me, so do it' and he doesn't act at ALL like he wants it, like he's interested, just “might as well” and it's not an act he PARTICIPATES in, it's a thing that is done TO him. Shades of rape. I couldn't make it past that scene. Maybe it gets better? Maybe it turns into a healthy relationship? But I'm not going to make it that far.
I think that some people will really love this book. It is a very specific style of prose that will probably appeal to some, but it's just not my cup of tea. There was a lot of ruminating and philosophizing in a very slow, sleepy way. (Listening to it on audiobook may have exacerbated this for me.) There was also a lot of talk (and I mean, a LOT) about the wonder and miracle of being a parent. Just to the point of feeling like it was repeating itself. It makes sense for that to be part of a story that includes characters who are new parents - but it was like reading an Anita Blake book where every four pages there's another steamy group sex scene and you just get to the point where you roll your eyes and think, “again?!”
I found myself feeling like this book was very light on the action and heavy on the poetry and wandering descriptions. And if you like that - and lots of people do, nothing wrong with it - then you'll love this book. I personally just wanted more action.
Extremely fun read. I enjoy the viral/pandemic post apocalyptic stories... even if they feel a bit on the nose these days.
Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries is by lexicographer Kory Stamper. (If you saw the awesome Netflix series “History of Swear Words” then you saw her speak.) Stamper worked for almost 20 years at Merriam Webster, and in this book she explains how they define words, how they choose which words to include in the first place, how it can take literally NINE MONTHS just to fully distill the essence of one word down into what we get in the dictionary.
A book about dictionaries sounds really boring, doesn't it? I promise you it isn't! Anyone reading this review probably loves books, and probably loves words. But trust me, I had NO IDEA how much went into just defining words. In hindsight it makes sense but holy cow... and Stamper doesn't just provide these explanations, she does it with humor that will make you laugh and groan as she tells you about the time a cleaning crew accidentally undid weeks of work in one night.
She also delves into the misconception that the people at Merriam Webster are the ones who decide what is a word, as though they are the arbiters of language rather than the scribes. You wouldn't think the dictionary would provide drama, but then you read about the hate mail they received when the word marriage was updated to include same-sex marriages.
This book is really funny, informative, and one of my favorite non-fiction books. Five stars from me, and I strongly recommend it for anyone who loves words!
If We Were Villains opens with the main protagonist, Oliver Marks, just about to leave prison after serving a 10 year sentence for murder. The detective who put him there is about to retire, and asks him for answers - did he really do it? What actually happened 10 years ago?
The novel follows a group of theater students at an elite arts college. It is darkly atmospheric, and they don't seem to just act out Shakespeare, they live it, completely immersing themselves at times. Like any tightly woven group of friends, the relationships are complex; family, friends, lovers, enemies. Loyalty, obsession, consequences. These people seem to love each other and ruin each other all at the same time. And of course, you can't have Shakespeare without tragedy, can you? This book is half mystery and half literary homage.
Did I like it? I suspect that if I had been a theatre kid, I would have. It was masterfully written, and I was interested enough in the story to stick to the end to find out ‘who dun it' and see if my suspicions were correct. Although, I will ‘WHAT?!' to that ending? I need at least one more chapter! That WAS an entirely unexpected reveal.
But in the end, it's probably not one I'll keep on my bookshelf. As always though, that's because the atmosphere and setting just weren't to my particular tastes. On a technical and artistic level, I believe this is a very good book, and I suspect it will have a very appreciative audience.
You can always count on John Scalzi to write a fantastic science fiction story. Interesting and fully-fleshed out characters, unique story, great world building, fun plot. And if you like audiobooks, this one is narrated by Wil Wheaton, so yay!
I felt like this book was... ok. There's nothing wrong with it. But there's nothing about it that particularly stands out from the crowd either. It felt very much like a run-of-the-mill ya/fantasy book. The world building felt a bit flat, and I didn't really understand some of the motivations of the characters, or why they chose certain actions. Everyone beyond the main character felt extremely 1-dimensional, and even she felt flat as well.
I've liked other Amy Tintera books, so I'm going to give the sequel a try and hope it's just the author hitting her stride in a new series.