altlovesbooks
I'm apologetic and sad that it took me this long to read this book.
I won't summarize the plot here, because it's a very hard book to summarize convincingly. In brief and using not-book-specific terms, earth mages (sort of) are the crux of an empire about to fall. We get three narrators of this falling, and three different points in time telling the story. Nothing is quite as it seems up front.
It's dense to start, but I didn't find it unreasonably so. I thought the author does a really good job of onboarding the patient reader; if you give the story a chance to unfold and hold your questions for the end, you'll be rewarded along the way. The magic system is incredibly unique, and the author does a good job of explaining it and layering on complexity as the story goes along using the plot. This book is a journey in all senses of the word, and I never really found myself bored, even during the middle part that receives mixed reviews. Several moments in the story drew an audible noise from me, both in realization and in shock. The use of the different narrators was especially fun (if you can use fun to describe this bleak book), in that it kept me wondering how things tied together.
Just a really great complex, interesting, engaging, (insert additional awesome adjectives here) book. Can't wait to start book 2.
I'm apologetic and sad that it took me this long to read this book.
I won't summarize the plot here, because it's a very hard book to summarize convincingly. In brief and using not-book-specific terms, earth mages (sort of) are the crux of an empire about to fall. We get three narrators of this falling, and three different points in time telling the story. Nothing is quite as it seems up front.
It's dense to start, but I didn't find it unreasonably so. I thought the author does a really good job of onboarding the patient reader; if you give the story a chance to unfold and hold your questions for the end, you'll be rewarded along the way. The magic system is incredibly unique, and the author does a good job of explaining it and layering on complexity as the story goes along using the plot. This book is a journey in all senses of the word, and I never really found myself bored, even during the middle part that receives mixed reviews. Several moments in the story drew an audible noise from me, both in realization and in shock. The use of the different narrators was especially fun (if you can use fun to describe this bleak book), in that it kept me wondering how things tied together.
Just a really great complex, interesting, engaging, (insert additional awesome adjectives here) book. Can't wait to start book 2.
Added to listAudiobooks Readwith 171 books.
"Here at the beginning, it must be said the End was on everyone's mind."
Rainey is a guitar player holed up in a small town surviving after climate change works its terrible magic on the world. Society has collapsed, but small towns like Rainey's survive through helping each other and forming close social ties. A visitor drops in on Rainey and Lark's house to rent their upstairs room, and it's through this roommate that the story really gets started. The roommate vanishes unexpectedly, but someone comes looking for him and ruins Rainey's life along the way. Rainey uses his boat to escape, and we're brought along his tour of Lake Superior and his musings along the way.
Not quite what I expected, but not unwelcome either. Things seem a bit confused in places, if only because there's a few world-specific terms used as if we should be aware of what they mean, but never really are. This was a surprisingly beautiful book about life in the End Times as they impacted an average man, though. Things start out oddly hopeful, get progressively bleaker as the book goes on, and still manages to wrap all the way back around to hopeful by the end. Things never went quite as I expected at any point in the book, which added a bit to my enjoyment.
The book does meander quite a bit, so if the musings of a sad guitar player about the world around him don't interest you, you probably won't like this one. I did feel like the book was slow in places, but ultimately enjoyed how things played out.
"Here at the beginning, it must be said the End was on everyone's mind."
Rainey is a guitar player holed up in a small town surviving after climate change works its terrible magic on the world. Society has collapsed, but small towns like Rainey's survive through helping each other and forming close social ties. A visitor drops in on Rainey and Lark's house to rent their upstairs room, and it's through this roommate that the story really gets started. The roommate vanishes unexpectedly, but someone comes looking for him and ruins Rainey's life along the way. Rainey uses his boat to escape, and we're brought along his tour of Lake Superior and his musings along the way.
Not quite what I expected, but not unwelcome either. Things seem a bit confused in places, if only because there's a few world-specific terms used as if we should be aware of what they mean, but never really are. This was a surprisingly beautiful book about life in the End Times as they impacted an average man, though. Things start out oddly hopeful, get progressively bleaker as the book goes on, and still manages to wrap all the way back around to hopeful by the end. Things never went quite as I expected at any point in the book, which added a bit to my enjoyment.
The book does meander quite a bit, so if the musings of a sad guitar player about the world around him don't interest you, you probably won't like this one. I did feel like the book was slow in places, but ultimately enjoyed how things played out.
Added to list2025 Favoriteswith 13 books.
Added to listSci Fiwith 79 books.
Added to listFantasywith 141 books.
I'm apologetic and sad that it took me this long to read this book.
I won't summarize the plot here, because it's a very hard book to summarize convincingly. In brief and using not-book-specific terms, earth mages (sort of) are the crux of an empire about to fall. We get three narrators of this falling, and three different points in time telling the story. Nothing is quite as it seems up front.
It's dense to start, but I didn't find it unreasonably so. I thought the author does a really good job of onboarding the patient reader; if you give the story a chance to unfold and hold your questions for the end, you'll be rewarded along the way. The magic system is incredibly unique, and the author does a good job of explaining it and layering on complexity as the story goes along using the plot. This book is a journey in all senses of the word, and I never really found myself bored, even during the middle part that receives mixed reviews. Several moments in the story drew an audible noise from me, both in realization and in shock. The use of the different narrators was especially fun (if you can use fun to describe this bleak book), in that it kept me wondering how things tied together.
Just a really great complex, interesting, engaging, (insert additional awesome adjectives here) book. Can't wait to start book 2.
I'm apologetic and sad that it took me this long to read this book.
I won't summarize the plot here, because it's a very hard book to summarize convincingly. In brief and using not-book-specific terms, earth mages (sort of) are the crux of an empire about to fall. We get three narrators of this falling, and three different points in time telling the story. Nothing is quite as it seems up front.
It's dense to start, but I didn't find it unreasonably so. I thought the author does a really good job of onboarding the patient reader; if you give the story a chance to unfold and hold your questions for the end, you'll be rewarded along the way. The magic system is incredibly unique, and the author does a good job of explaining it and layering on complexity as the story goes along using the plot. This book is a journey in all senses of the word, and I never really found myself bored, even during the middle part that receives mixed reviews. Several moments in the story drew an audible noise from me, both in realization and in shock. The use of the different narrators was especially fun (if you can use fun to describe this bleak book), in that it kept me wondering how things tied together.
Just a really great complex, interesting, engaging, (insert additional awesome adjectives here) book. Can't wait to start book 2.
"The sea is broad and her paths are many."
I read Sancton's other book, Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night, as part of my deep dive into arctic exploration, and was really pleased with the result. I somehow missed(!) that he has another book coming next month (and will absolutely pick it up soon), but did manage to snag the ARC for this upcoming book of his. I went into it basically blind; I didn't know much about either the San Jose or treasure hunting in general, but I ended up walking away with more treasure hunter knowledge, historical and naval knowledge, and information about the players involved than I expected.
This book covers a lot of ground in its journey to the San Jose. The opening few chapters recounting how and why it sunk in the first place set the stage for later on, but also were interesting in their own right. I thought the different accounts for the lead up to and the actual battle of was a nice touch; you get to experience multiple angles of the incident. After this introduction of sorts, we're thrust into the role of Dooley-watcher, where we're introduced to him first later in life and then from childhood on up in Cuba. I sort of thought the Dooley life chapters were a mixed bag; some were really interesting, and sort of shows how and why Dooley made the choices he made later on, and some felt a bit extraneous and made things feel a bit slow. The treasure hunter asides were universally interesting to me, as was the actual search for the San Jose later on. Lots of neat footnotes are included here, particularly about the preponderance of shells around the wreck site and the connection between them and bones. Nature is metal.
I will say that I sort of expected a bit more about the wreck itself. It felt like by the time it was located, the book was basically over. With what happens later, I guess that's to be expected, but it felt a bit anticlimactic given the title of the book. But as a book about treasure hunting vs. deep sea archaeology, I was very pleased.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
"The sea is broad and her paths are many."
I read Sancton's other book, Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night, as part of my deep dive into arctic exploration, and was really pleased with the result. I somehow missed(!) that he has another book coming next month (and will absolutely pick it up soon), but did manage to snag the ARC for this upcoming book of his. I went into it basically blind; I didn't know much about either the San Jose or treasure hunting in general, but I ended up walking away with more treasure hunter knowledge, historical and naval knowledge, and information about the players involved than I expected.
This book covers a lot of ground in its journey to the San Jose. The opening few chapters recounting how and why it sunk in the first place set the stage for later on, but also were interesting in their own right. I thought the different accounts for the lead up to and the actual battle of was a nice touch; you get to experience multiple angles of the incident. After this introduction of sorts, we're thrust into the role of Dooley-watcher, where we're introduced to him first later in life and then from childhood on up in Cuba. I sort of thought the Dooley life chapters were a mixed bag; some were really interesting, and sort of shows how and why Dooley made the choices he made later on, and some felt a bit extraneous and made things feel a bit slow. The treasure hunter asides were universally interesting to me, as was the actual search for the San Jose later on. Lots of neat footnotes are included here, particularly about the preponderance of shells around the wreck site and the connection between them and bones. Nature is metal.
I will say that I sort of expected a bit more about the wreck itself. It felt like by the time it was located, the book was basically over. With what happens later, I guess that's to be expected, but it felt a bit anticlimactic given the title of the book. But as a book about treasure hunting vs. deep sea archaeology, I was very pleased.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Very hyper specific information for libraries about data and how to use data. Not a lot was particularly applicable to me and my library, but it does go very in depth into how to analyze the data you do collect. I liked the breakdown of Operational Planning vs Tactical Planning vs Strategic planning and all of the high level concepts this book described in a general sense.
A decent read, especially if you have the library framework to put a lot of the assessments discussed into practice.
Very hyper specific information for libraries about data and how to use data. Not a lot was particularly applicable to me and my library, but it does go very in depth into how to analyze the data you do collect. I liked the breakdown of Operational Planning vs Tactical Planning vs Strategic planning and all of the high level concepts this book described in a general sense.
A decent read, especially if you have the library framework to put a lot of the assessments discussed into practice.
Added to listFantasywith 140 books.
