Apollo

I liked this book a lot! It is one of those stories that has a narrator with their own plot going on in addition to the story they are telling. I liked the characters a lot, and learned some new things that aren't native to North America like the Hoophoe bird even though it is a fantasy story. Also nice to have a character that uses they/them pronouns. They are a cleric and their gender isn't like the focus of the story or anything. I want to read this one in paperback as I read it on an Ereader. Some stories benefit from the feel of paper and ink. Going to get the next one from my library.

I love this series of books and enjoyed being taken along on another journey with Chih, a journey back to their home. Fun to learn more about the neixin and some of the backstory to the relationships amongst the clerics. I wish there had been more dialogue involvement with the mammoth riders/Cleric Thien's granddaughters and this book felt a little less engaging than the others. I also wish the spooky/mysterious aspects around Cleric Thien post mortum had been played up a bit more. I still really enjoyed it though and looking forward to the next one.

I wanted to like this more than I did. I love the character diversity but often felt like there were big gaps/jarring transitions in character motivations, world building, and character conversations. Maybe the writing style wasn't for me shrug ... I did like story on the surface but was missing a lot of detail and needed more consistency in story progression.

I liked the bits about Ojibwe language and hunting culture sprinkled throughout the book. I wish there had been more of it. The book was very repetitive with the hunting stories. Some of them were very enjoyable but many sounded like the same story again and again with only a tiny amount of variation. I still am glad I read it but it took determination to finish it.

Has a classic fantasy setup with a group of travelers (who primarily don't know one another) meet in a bar and decide to set out on some journey together. The main character Chih is a historian/story collector. They end up on an adventure of some kind in each book (3 books total in this series currently) recording stories from the people they meet. I really enjoyed the stories being told within the story that was happening around the story tellers. Really fun, fast read.