MeowMeow
2.5 stars. This is a literary novel trying to be a thriller. There was tension/dread while reading only because the opening scene contained murdered kids. There were no surprises, no twists and turns, no significant revelations or anything. With that said, it was an okay novel. The writing style was lofty and somewhat lyrical, but what let the entire story down was the detached omniscient narrator that never came to a satisfying end/conclusion. I liked it, just barely.
I thought I was going to like this one, but in the end was pretty disappointed.
The writing is a notch up from the crappy paranormal cozy I read a couple days ago, but that doesn't say much considering the last one's author writes like she barely reads any books. This one is ok. But the book is rambling, there are scenes that suddenly transition into another scene rather suddenly, and it's also repetitive. I feel like she writes scenes in different order or something before stitching them together linearly, because there will be times where a character asks the MC something that the MC has ALREADY TOLD THEM previously. “Why do you care about Talyn so much?” is a question that was asked like twenty freaking times.
Also, I knew who was the killer as soon as the character was introduced.....
Suffer and suffer and suffer some more, for suffering's sake. Oh, and whine, and whine, and whine while you suffer.
Come on. I get it, “kill all your darlings” and “make your protagonist suffer the worst thing you can think of, and make him go through even worse” is always being told to authors, which is why a lot of books (but especially those in the fantasy genre) are so fucking cliched and infuriating to read. This book was the same. And it's exhausting and tiresome to just have people shitting on and hating the main character and having him suffer just to suffer. How miserable to read. I didn't necessarily mind the slowness nor the training scenes; but it was like Hobb didn't know where to go with the story and just threw in all sorts of plot threads before thinking, oh yeah let's torture the character some more.
According to Hobb's own system of reviewing (“books I like get 2 stars! why is everyone mad about that?!”), this book should get negative two stars from me.
Imagine yourself sitting in your favorite place (an armchair, a sofa, whatever). Imagine the temperature at just the right degree that you love, and you are wearing the most comfortable clothes ever, feeling contented and cozy. Sipping your favorite drink, just allowing your mind to drift into thoughts that make you feel good.
That's what reading this book is like. Fair warning that yes, it can be slow, but it's the kind of deliberate slowness that makes you savor it like a hot chocolate on a chilly morning. There were times when I had tears sliding down my face when reading about the realizations that the characters had, feeling a quiet pain in my heart in acknowledgment.
I know I can be pretty harsh when I rate/review books, especially ones that disappoint me greatly because in that moment of emotion I feel betrayed and foolish for wasting my time. But when I do come across a book that gets my cold, bitter heart feeling a rush of warmth, I pay attention.
This is a character-driven story through and through. You won't go on an adventure, nor will you fight enemies or save the world. But that's not what this book is about. If you're willing to read a character study and allow yourself to let go of expectations for a plot-driven story, then you will be in the right mindset to read this book.
After such an amazing book description, it was a mega disappointment to sit down and read this novel.
All I could think while reading this book was that it was tiresome to read, disjointed, filled with flashbacks that you realize are pointless and not something the author put in to give you clues about anything, the characters are flat, and the story just didn't make sense. It was a meandering mess, and tries too hard to be both hard SF and literary — a combination that only wins if you're out to bore the shit out of people with stuffy, pretentious writing and wandering scenes. In addition, the author is so in love with throwing whatever technical or psychological factoid/know-how/whatever he had into the mix. This is my main complaint about a number of hard SF books — it's like hard SF writers write something just to get off on vomiting as much jargon as they possibly could, story or plot or characters be damned. I would be far more interested in learning or reading about whatever the heck technical crap is in your book if I actually gave a shit about anything you've written, but the way you write it means I don't, and then I get bored.
Started with a strong, interesting hook but then devolved into such tediousness that left me so bored, I skipped hundreds of pages to the end to find out the identity of the villains – which I'd guessed at within the first couple of chapters. Wow. Thank goodness I didn't waste more of my time on this novel.
This novel was quite engaging for the first 75 pages, but then it quickly devolves into a horrifyingly unprofessional shitshow by the main character. Reminded me of [b:Need to Know 40647345 Need to Know Karen Cleveland https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1529995079s/40647345.jpg 55506959], the other novel with an abysmally STUPID main character who is also completely unprofessional. Just once, I'd love to read about a competent woman character who doesn't go around kissing local cops and doing stupid crap like antagonize everyone and being a rebel maverick and all that.It boggled my mind to read all the idiotic, unprofessional things that a supposed FBI agent who “possesses good instincts” like Violet Darger did when she was working this case. Just, wow... The entire book and story is marred by it. And by the seemingly endless amount of pages that rambled on from the killer's perspective, talking about darkness and the abyss and falling into it and darkness and the abyss and falling into it and getting caught in it and being alone and the darkness and the abyss and falling into it and getting caught in it and being alone darkness and ... You get my drift. Like. For goodness sake!
1. I wish we got to spend more time reading about Alfgyfa's life and training during her apprenticeship with Tin, instead of just having seven years basically go by from one sentence to another.
2. I wish the ending wasn't so damn rushed. It felt like all the threadplots from 300+ pages got resolved in a single short paragraph or something. Felt unsatisfying, like the authors just wanted to just get this book over with.
If you are the sort of reader who enjoys slice-of-life stories and don't need “save the world” quests in your fantasy, do not be afraid by the low stars and angry reviews of others who decry this book as a middle book that middles. This second book is quieter, and I understand why some people may dislike it because of that. However, there are those of us who like – and wish to find more of – stories that are more about the day-to-day lives and adventures of characters we have grown fond of. This story is like the wolfish, gay fantasy equivalent of Becky Chambers' science fiction book [b:The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet 22733729 The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1) Becky Chambers https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405532474l/22733729.SY75.jpg 42270825] – a simple telling of all the happenings that befall the people we've read about in the first book (yes, the first book is more fantastical/heroic once it got going into wars and such). I'm not saying the second book doesn't have exciting moments – it does – but you shouldn't go into it expecting the same world-changing adventures as the first. Isolfr isn't a viewpoint character this time, and you may miss him (as I did at the start), but I find that the more nuanced views of other characters to more than make up for it. I enjoyed reading things from others' perspectives and feelings, and reading about their days, their trips, their ‘quieter' adventures (and misadventures). So, fellow fans of slice-of-life stories, don't be afraid to pick this one up, especially if you enjoyed the secondary characters in the first book.
3.5 stars. Didn't have the magic of the first in the series, but I liked it well enough. A particular character was extremely annoying, but he grew on me. I had hoped for a bit more, but ... well. Still very warm.
Wish there were more slice-of-life SF and Fantasy books like this. I'm pretty tired of saving the world, you know? Heh.
Aieeee..... The first 20% scored about 3 stars for me, but the book rapidly devolved into “Me believer. Me do what god want. Aieeeeeeee...”
It gets really difficult to give a crap about the characters when they are just blindly following whatever they think that their god is telling them to do. I get it, maybe once in a while, whatever, but every single time and every single thing? Aieeee..... Come on. Instead of rich, complex characters who are spiritual or religious, we get one-dimensional nothing characters who try to convince you that they have no will or desires of their own save for what their god wants.
Aieeeeee, such a tragedy.
If you got annoyed by all the “Aieee...” in this review, you're in for an AWESOME treat in this book. There's probably like 5-10 different instances of “Aieeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...” in every chapter – or that's how it seems. If there weren't, then “Tcha!” was there instead.
Entertaining book with nice world building. Reminded me a little of the Kushiel series. Great main character, great secondary characters. Halfway through the book I realized that this was the first time in a very, very long time where the main character had yet to annoy me with some questionable decision making.