Jonas

Very special read, I did not except a lot of fantasy from this one at first but there was actually a bunch! While the main character is mute, there still is a connection with him. All the shit he goes through, the pain, the misery and still he's able to find happiness in the small things. The storyline from the commander of the knights of Jade and Ash was a bit unexpected and sudden. Overall the line between good and evil is very thin, which displays itself in some stunning events. Looking forward to the second one.

This book does not really know what it wants to do.

The outset is clear: an organised mind in an age of information overload. What does it do: overload you with information in a ‘somewhat' organised manner. Well, that's awkward..
Most of the chapters felt like: “Watch out for this mindtrap, don't be stupid and do this thing,.. here's the reasons why.”

There are some nuggets in this, though I'd recommend seeking them elsewhere in books dedicated to the topic. If you do read it: skip chapters you don't like, some overstay their welcome.

Had some real creepy bits, the slow subtle scares which I love. Some inconsistencies to timings (shift from night to day) which happened randomly or I read over. The weather felt also like a gimmick for effect, one day everything is frozen over and stormy, the next night you can trod around without shoes? These pulled me out of the immersion.

I'm not a fan of where the story ended, I expected more resolution or more despair. This ended somewhere in between.

I liked the early chapters, the others did not age well for me.
The edition itself is 5 stars! They added a ‘countdown' to the bottom right page which always shows the number of pages to go in the chapter (like an e-reader). More books should implement this.

Very unexpected read. For me this was a book about gods (in a fantasy setting) done right. The texts, the references to the stories, the twisted beliefs. It all clicked for me.
The book itself felt a bit like The Name of the Wind. The origin story, the hard world, bullying.. It felt the same but it was brought in a fresh coat. The magic was a bit of everything not nuanced like Name of the Wind, more like Dungeon & Dragons: the monsters, wands, magic items & the bag of holding. Maybe that's why it clicked so easily for me.
The only ‘problem' I had was the timing. It all felt a bit rushed because everything happens in a span of 3-4 days? And while it was a good rush, it took a bit away from how ‘real' this could be, sometimes it almost felt like a cheatcode being entered. I believe some weeks or months passing between events would have given it some breathing room.
While the ending was a bit expected, it was unexpected the way it was actually played out. I didn't expect that big of a change but it makes me very curious where this will be going. While I relate it to the Name of the Wind, I really hope the writer doesn't follow there for the next books