Mer Barr

I threw the penalty flag with emphasis, several times during the second half of the book. How can you whip out something magical in the plot and not give any infrastructure to its existence?

How the heck do these places come into being? According to the plot, they just are and the characters, I have to assume, are ok with that.The author mentions individuals can recognize these places when looking at a map and yet give no details as they do it. Is it something about these individuals? Their mindsets? Comparing 1 map meticulously to another edition of the same map? What?

To the positive, I'll say I've not run into a plot involving map mysteries so this was interesting, and the audio narrator does a good job of making her character voices distinct enough for me to catch when there's a shift in speaker.

I felt the beginning a bit confusing because the scene at the start was so different from the scene that followed. I eventually figured out the moment my focus had shifted to my own world was when I would have caught that the 2 scenes are for the same woman, just her present and her backstory.

The characters were interesting and unique, I enjoyed getting to know them. The storyline moved along nicely, a few sidetracks that added new characters and moved the story along in some way. Well done author! I think the sidetracks are a tricky edge to walk.

If this is the first in a series, I'd read the next.

I found the connection of tarot, astronomy, and physics very interesting however I thought the ending could have been about 60% of the way in. I applaud Mr. Powers for his skill at crafting one of the longest endings I've ever read.

Decades ago I read a great book on sleep and I've been wanting to read more on the subject, which is why I picked up this recently released book.

I couldn't finish the book only because the author spends quite a bit of time in the depths of the science (I was wanting something more for a lay person), not because the writing or topic is of poor quality. Maybe she has a lighter read on her work?

I couldn't get interested in this book for some reason. Maybe it was because it hinted at some interesting beings and then for chapters spent time with other characters in the book, doing ?world building? I'm not sure.

I read this as a book club read not as a series or author I love or as a recommend from a friend, which might also explain why I wasn't enthusiastic at the start. It may also be that I'm diving into the 5th book of a series and some of the bits I need to picque my interest were taken care of in earlier books.

I may give this world another try by starting in book 1.