Nathan
I enjoyed this book. I liked how the time travel worked (although the last time travel had an aspect that didn't really seem like it should have worked). Makes you think about what the consequences of our actions are and what could have been done to rectify them.
7/10
“Happiness is not a life without pain, but rather a life in which the pain is traded for a worthy price.”
It was good. I liked that one of the main characters was an older woman. It was fun having a more unique pov to observe and she was a really cool character to. I liked the the prophesied warrior's development as well. And the medicine apprentice was funny. It is a solid fantasy book.Reminded me of [b:The Grace of Kings 18952341 The Grace of Kings (The Dandelion Dynasty, #1) Ken Liu https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1743119277l/18952341.SY75.jpg 26965646] by Ken Liu because they are both china themed fantasy. Though I prefer Liu's series. “Authority is earned, not given. A strong leader is forged, not born.” 7.4/10
One of the pieces of media that has affected how I want to live my life most. The only manga I've read that really interacts with Christian thought. An incredibly powerful story about repentance. Similar to Les Mis. Also quite similar to “Speaker For the Dead” by Orson Scot Card, in the arc that the main character goes through.
I want to be a stronger person, a kinder person. 9.8/10
“Listen to me Thorfinn. You have no enemies. No one has any enemies. There is no one that you should hurt”
2 Nephi 4:27 And why should I yield to sin, because of my flesh? Yea, why should I give way to temptations, that the evil one have place in my heart to destroy my peace and afflict my soul? Why am I angry because of mine enemy?
A wonderful novel on the nature of humanity and intelligence . Really makes you consider what the real value of intelligence is. All humans, even the greatest genius, are ultimately foolish. And all humans despite our foolishness deserve love and compassion. For aren't we all really in so many ways just rats running in a maze.
Algernon ran. 9.3/10
“I wept as I put a bunch of wildflowers on his grave”
I thought it was really bad or at least unfun. When reading a first person book I like to like the character, I never saw many if any good attributes about Jude. She was traumatized but was still just an unpleasant experience to read. When a book is the first person perspective being weird for a literary reason I can appreciated it. But this one just felt like a poor self insert character which fit for the type of story it is but I don't enjoy.
There wasn't anything fun or whimsical about the fae either they are all just terrible and about power.
Just leave the fae to their own devices, and get a life of your own.
My dad's favorite book. It has wonderful language that draws you in and is a pleasure to experience. I can tell that it is doing a lot of metaphors with the fishing and everything. But the themes I picked up on this first read was: How can we really know someone, and how can we really help each other. I hope to read this again soon. 8.6/10
“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
I am haunted by waters.”
Quite a good book with some strong theming. It was very good at showing different ways people are “educated” to become the people that they are. Every character shows ways they have learned and why they have become the way they are. Very thought provoking to me on that topic. 8.2/10
Small side note here, I am a latter day-saint, so I appreciated that the way she wrote about the church was fair to us. When so much that's written about us is filled with Vitriol.