Nathalie

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBoom dot com.

Ayden Dracre grows up in a family of great sorcerers, which would normally be fine, but in this world, sorcerers are known for only doing evil magic, while wizards are known for only doing light magic. Ayden is a disappointment to his family, since he quite frankly sucks at being evil. So he decides to go on a quest to prove himself (or not?), and on the way meets some surprising, and pretty fun, allies. (My favorites being the pirates!)

It was nice to get into some family friendly fantasy again, since a lot of what I've been reading lately has been pretty dark. It wasn't at all boring and at times pretty funny, and pretty much the right length. I didn't get as invested in it as I hoped I would, but I liked it and it made my car rides a little more interesting.

HOLY. SHIT.

You know how the middle book of a trilogy is mostly just set-up for the third one, so they save the best for last? That may very well be, but goddamn, if this didn't already feel super intense, I can't even dare to imagine what else is in store.

There was a certain point at which this book just refused to let me go. I did the “One more chapter” thing a little too often every evening and decided I didn't need that much sleep after all. Hell was about to break loose every new chapter and I just couldn't wait to find out. And then it did.

These books do something to me. They make me smile, they make me cry. And to be perfectly honest, not a lot of books (or at least of the ones I've read) have been able to do that to me. This series did it almost from the very beginning, so wow.

Aside from story and the characters I already loved, it also made me see some of the existing characters in a new light. Just one sentence about them, and suddenly, I understand them and fall in love with them and just want the best for them. Which is exactly why I usually prefer series to standalone novels, not everyone gets their chance to shine at first.

Robin Hobb has officially got me, and as much as I want to devour everything in the Realms of the Elderlings series right away, I also never want it to end and want to savour them as much as possible. Which is perhaps the most clear sign that I've fallen in love with this world and its characters.

I don't know exactly when it happened, but maybe nearly halfway through this, I started caring about these kids.

The story starts off slow, and I didn't really have much that made me want to keep reading it, other than that I had bought it and it's not very lengthy, but then at a certain point, maybe as soon as Blue starts interacting more with the Raven Boys and more of it gets explained, I had trouble putting it down.

I like the story, I like the potential of the story, and I quite like the characters, which are all things I honestly didn't quite expect when I first started reading it. I'm pleasantly surprised. And am now very interested in the rest of the series.

Well, that's 2 for 2 for Claudia Gray on the Star Wars front.

I had been looking forward to this one a long time, and I was not disappointed. It answered a lot of the questions people had after viewing TFA, like how long ago Luke had disappeared or when the temple massacre happened, and more on the state of the politics, like how The First Order came to be and why there was a need for the Resistance. Politics are a huge part of this book, but there's so much more.

What I was mostly excited about was more insight on Leia's character, and how she experienced the events in the Original Trilogy. Combine that with some really great side characters (that I came to care about deeply), that were either new or from the movies or other novels, and a great story, and you get this great gem of a book.
Though I was kind of hoping (and I realize this is entirely my fault) that we'd get a bit more on Ben and Luke and Snoke and that entire situation, but we'll likely get into that more in the following two Episodes so they can't exactly spill the beans on that one. The information we did get though, did ruin some popular theories out there (especially for the timeline!), so the mystery thickens!

One day, 23 year old Martin Banks finds a giant text file in which he's able to do things like change people's height, his current location and manipulate time. When he uses it a bit too much to increase the money in his bank account, the police are onto him and he sees no other way out than to escape to Medieval England where he pretends to be a wizard.

Everything about this book is relatively straightforward. The story isn't very complicated and the writing style is very simple and easy to get into. The narration by Luke Daniels elevated this book immensely. It was perfection. It brought some more humor that might not have been as good when reading on a page.

As a fun lighthearted read you don't require that much of, it's great. It is over 10 hours long when listening though, and that was just a little too long for me, because I think it could have been shortened down. There were a few times I started losing interest, and then other times in the book that I was super into it.
I'm not sure I'll be checking out the sequels, since I think this stands on its own and I have no dire need to get more out of these characters.

Okay, so, technically I loved everything about it. I absolutely LOVED the humor, I loved the idea of it and the world and the robots and finally realizing that this is where the “42” thing came from.

Though, at the same time, I think that I overhyped it a bit for myself, since it kind of lost me somewhere halfway and I started losing interest, so this was definitely the right length for me. I loved the beginning though, and I was super into it, but ultimately I wasn't as into the rest of it as much as I wished I was.

I am very glad to have read (or rather listened) to it though! It does feel very much like a “must-listen” and I thought the narration was very excellent!

Oh, man. I had been looking forward to getting into Robin Hobb's books for a while, and my first venturing in it certainly did not disappoint. I love the writing style in which the simplest line almost reads like poetry. I love the world building and how it's a lot of information but yet easy to consume. I also love the characters and I'm excited to see where they go next.

I also was amazed that this book managed to make me feel things. Of course, that's what a good book is supposed to do, but I can't remember the last time one single line on a page almost made me tear up. Most of those moments were with Fitz and Burrich and I've grown very attached to that relationship throughout this book. A lot of times too Fitz was able to find out something, and I was surprised along with him, feeling the same things he felt, and wanting to go back a few chapters to see if it checked out and how I even missed it. That was great. (This made me glad I went with the eBook version of this instead of the Audible one!)

Though I felt that the climax of it felt very... chaotic. Which the situation in itself also was, but I sometimes found it hard to follow during that part of it what exactly was happening or who was talking to whom and I had to reread those parts a few times.

Now more than ever I wish Goodreads had a half star system. I feel this book definitely deserves more than four stars, but I'm not sure about five stars either and I'm not sure why. I might up the rating later when I'm going through the other novels in the Farseer Trilogy as they will probably make me appreciate this book even more since I'm not sure yet what in it might pay off later or what might not.
Needless to say though, I am now very excited to get through the other novels!
EDIT: I'm changing the rating to five because honestly I haven't been able to stop thinking about this book ever since I finished it, and that's quite a feat!

Ah, this saddens me immensely, because I am absolutely in love with the concept of this. Travelling between dimensions? Living the life that could have been yours, if only some choices had been different? Experimenting with what could have been! That is immensely cool! And that aspect of the book I think is great, though I think it's taken further in the next of the series, it's just that I was incredibly bored by everything else. I didn't find the characters too interesting and it probably didn't help that certain plot points about certain characters weren't very surprising at all, which is fine, but it might have helped otherwise.

Also, they touch upon this a bit at the end of the book, and this series obviously can't continue without that aspect of it, but I was a bit bothered with them taking over their other's selves bodies and doing whatever the heck they want with it. Marguerite at one point has sex with Paul while she's a Russian princess, which is sort of gross, but also brings with it that the other Marguerite may very well be pregnant (due to sex she'll barely remember) and that one instant may have just ruined her life. She thinks about that for an instant, and then is obviously distracted by that dimension's Paul being wounded and dying, so it was kind of *shrug* and move on. I mean, if they had to go there, I had hoped for more consequences for it. More repercussions. Anything.

I finished this pretty quickly because it was an audiobook, and maybe some of my lack of enjoyment was due to the narration and perhaps it would have been better if I had read it, but eh. It was a bit too much on the “YA side of YA” for me, if ya know what I mean.

This story follows Zare Leonis, who is a character that originated in the Star Wars: Rebels series, and though his story is lightly touched upon, we never see the resolution to his story. This series of books is looking to change that.
I find it really interesting so far, and I'm assuming it only gets more interesting from here. I like Zare a lot, and this will make me look differently at him whenever I see his Rebels episodes again.

This was a pretty enjoyable story, but then suddenly the unexpected happened... they find Kix, or Clone Trooper CT-6116, who was onto Order 66 from back during The Clone Wars series. That was such a nice surprise that I had to mention this separately. :) It almost made me bump this up to four stars, but I feel like that might have been too high for a short story where you don't get all that much time to invest in a lot of what's going on.
But ayyy, pirates!

I was keeping this book for last in my readings of the new Star Wars canon, mostly because I didn't think this one would interest me that much. I figured this one would spend most of its time on the war, at the cost of developing its characters, but boy was I wrong.

Don't get me wrong though, there's still plenty of battles and fighting in this, and there's characters that you'll grow to like that will eventually die (and you won't be there to witness all of them), but it's still a thrilling read.

We follow various POV characters throughout the book, but the main character is Hazram Namir, a sergeant in Twilight Company. He's a rebel who doesn't believe in the rebellion, which I found very interesting. Though he does get very frustrating at times, but it's also part of what I like about it. He's not 100% a good guy.
We also follow some other characters in Twilight Company, and then also other sides of the war - like the Imperial side and even that of one of the Stormtroopers. It was interesting to see their motivation and why they were doing what they were doing, but in the end I think I would have liked to spend a bit more time with them, just so their stories would have a bit more impact than they did.

But overall, a very enjoyable read. When it was time for the Hoth battle (and its aftermath) I could not put it down. I also very much enjoyed the characters a lot. Even the ones I was never sure how to feel about (looking at you, Governor Chalis!) but I didn't think there was ever a weak point.

Overall this was quite an enjoyable read, but I feel like it was slightly too long and at the same time also slightly too short. I feel like it ends kind of abruptly and therefore I had a harder time caring about Nakari's death
I also was a bit put off by the first person narrative when I first started it, but I stopped noticing it by the end.

Man, I was a bit disappointed with this one.

This one does everything you'd expect it does - give more insights into Tarkin as a character, his relation to the Emperor and Darth Vader (the latter which I find the most interesting aspect of it, because people generally have no idea who Vader is behind the mask, but Tarkin figures it out).

I find it just pretty boring overall. I had trouble getting myself to finish it even when I wasn't halfway the book yet, and I probably wouldn't have if this had had no relation to Star Wars.

Dark Disciple is one of the new media released, the other being comics and story reels, that contain stories that would have normally appeared in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars series if not for its cancellation. This was the last one out of those I had to consume, but I think this was my favorite.

The novel focuses on Quinlan Vos, a quite unusual Jedi Master (he was known to bend the rules every once and a while) and with the ability to see and feel the memories of certain objects when he touched them. The Jedi Order feels the war has gone on long enough and feel Dooku needs to die by assassination, so they send Vos out to find Asajj Ventress so they can take him on together. However, the two form a connection, and things don't turn out as planned.

Once I got about halfway through the story, I didn't stop. It's quite an addictive read, and it was never dull. I took me a while though to see Ventress as someone who was able to love, be selfless, to care. All relatively quickly. But I guess this was because I wasn't used to seeing that from her. In the end I cared though, and I was somewhat rooting for her and Vos.
I also really loved the Jedi parts of it - I loved that Obi-Wan had an important role, and Anakin and Windu and Yoda. A lot of the new canon so far has been in the A New Hope/OT era, so it was refreshing to get to read about those characters again.

I think when starting this, I would have preferred (or just generally would have liked) to have seen this as one big arc in the The Clone Wars series, but as it went on, I don't think they would have been able to go into as much depth as they did here. The psychology of the characters and their relationship probably wouldn't have worked quite as well.

If you've just finished The Clone Wars series and are looking for more surrounding that era, this is a really great read. It gives you closure, and more characterization for Asajj Ventress and Quinlan Vos, both of whom are really interesting characters. I especially like that Vos was featured in this, since there's not much information on him yet in this canon.

A perfectly enjoyable short story about one of the people present in Maz Kanata's castle in The Force Awakens and probably the closest book we got to that movie chronologically (maybe aside from Before The Awakening). It probably won't have much of an impact on later movies or books or comics or the like (though maybe the asylum could end up being relevant?), but it's fun nonetheless.

The reason I was mostly interested in choosing this book next in my adventures of getting caught up with the new Star Wars canon, was because of the release of the new Rebels midseason (two) trailer. I hadn't gotten to Rebels yet (I was still watching The Clone Wars at the time), but I got intrigued by this book mostly because this is set a few years before the TV show.

All in all, this was a fun read. It helps that I'm already interested in Rebels, because I'm not sure how interesting these characters would be if it wasn't for that.
At times, the book felt like a chore to read and I was reading more for the sake of finishing it. Not that I disliked it per se, but it didn't excite me all that much.

However, in the back of my mind I had already known this but for some reason I had forgotten, I was incredibly excited to see Rae Sloane turn up again. She was arguably one of the more interesting characters of the Aftermath novel by Chuck Wendig, and I love getting to know more about her. I also found Count Vidian an interesting adversary.

I recommend this one if you're a fan of Rebels and are interested in how Kanan and Hera met eachother, or if you want just a bit more Rae Sloane after Aftermath, or even if you want to read about a new villain. Though overall I do not consider this a must read.

It's your typical “boy meets girl, they fall in love, and eventually end up on opposite sides of the Galactic Civil War” type of story.

This is probably my favorite Star Wars New Canon book so far. I loved the characters, and the book never felt like a burden to read.

I definitely recommend this for anyone who's just generally a fan of Star Wars. If you've been looking to get into the EU, let this be your introduction. With the only downside being that everything that comes after that will not be as good and engaging.
There's not an overabundance of Star Wars novels that has normal people starring in them, let alone within the Empire. These are just kids who graduated from the Imperial Academy, and then started having doubts of what exactly they were being loyal to. And while the story does feature some known characters from the movies, it's never distracting or shoehorned in. This novel definitely makes me wish for more stories like these.

Though the book ends in such a way that this could definitely be more, like a duology.

I am also hella excited for New Republic: Bloodline now.

I loved this! You'd think the novelization for a movie would be a great waste of time, but this was a great read.

This book was based on the script, and not necessarily on the movie itself (though drastic changes may have been made afterwards), so parts that were eventually removed from the movie are still present in the novelization. You also get more insights into what the characters are thinking, and added dialogue that might clear up some doubts that the movie may have raised.

I definitely recommend this if you've seen the movie, and just want a teensy bit more on it. It's a quick read, because you already know the setting and what happens, but it's enjoyable nonetheless.

I really liked this one! This was my first new canon book set closer to the prequel trilogy than the original trilogy, and I loved that the Empire and its characters were at the center of it. It's set around 8 years after Revenge of the Sith, so both Darth Vader and the Emperor aren't all that known in all parts of the galaxy, so these people think they can take on Vader (and the Emperor) and have no idea they're doomed.
I also liked the other things that were going on. Mors and Belkor were both great characters, and at times I had no idea whom of them I wanted more to survive (though I definitely made up my mind by the end). The Twi'lek stuff was interesting as well, though I didn't particularly care about their characters. But their point of view was interesting.
I have yet to see the Star Wars: Rebels series, but knowing Cham's daughter is in it (and he might show up at one point), made me want to start it even more.

I listened to the Audiobook version of this, and overall I did enjoy it, but most of the characters were so dull and shallow that by the end of it, I didn't care about anything that happened to them. I might still check out the sequel next year since this series could be good if it improved on certain areas (mostly characters) and could end up being very interesting. I guess my decision on whether or not to recommend this book, depends entirely on the following books in this trilogy. In its current state though, I wouldn't recommend this one.