Ninett

Not bad, just very slow. The finale is not what I expected, but I guess it is what the main characters deserved. I really thought that at least Asta Sollilja would end up with a brighter future, but her fate is bleak and broke my heart. Bjartur - nothing really could redeem this man who puts his silly pride before the lives of others. I disliked him from the start. Putting his selfish and rude demeanor down to an intense desire to be independent just did not cut it for me. Humans are made to be social and to survive together - no man is an island. I suppose the point of the novel is to prove this, and it does that well. It is very difficult to write a loathesome character and still elicit some shred of empathy for him by the reader, but when his house was taken away I felt a twang of pity.

The depth and the complexity of the writing kept me reading, the emotional lives of the characters often striking a chord within me that made me feel seen by the author, even as someone from a vastly different place and time than the characters. There is something universal about the human experience that was captured by Laxness in the lives of these miserable sheep farmers.

This memoir was so other from my own personal experience in its setting and depictions of daily life, and yet at the same time I felt so connected to the author through the common thread of struggling to get educated. Tara's abuse and her story are far sadder than mine, but I know how it feels to be fighting the odds as an independent adult, trying to go places in the world where there aren't many like her, and it was absorbing to read some reflection of myself in the perspectives of someone so completely different.

I found the family Tara grew up with to be very interesting, never having come across any fundamentalist christians before. It is positively baffling to me that some people choose to live like this, and I suppose that in its own right is enough to warrant this type of memoir.

I love the character dynamic between Howl, Calcifer, and Sophie, and would have loved to see more books featuring these characters front and centre. They do make an appearance in this book, but the main characters are two young magicians tasked with looking after a multi-dimensional house while the wizard who owns it is away sick.

Even so, the storytelling was full of the hallmark whimsy and adventure of Diana Wynne Jones. The magic in the book is classical in every sense of the word, and her books feel like touching grass to a fantasy reader.

Hobb's writing is definitely a slow burn. I got stuck near the middle, not sure if the story was progressing onwards or just stagnating, everything felt like a side quest. I put it down for a few days before picking it back up and plowing through the 'training arc'/setup sections.

Given this early floundering, I thought I wouldn't be rating the book higher than three stars, but the second half more than made up for it. I rarely read more than an hour of a book at a time, but this gripped me completely. The ending was unexpected and sort of beautiful in a way.

Though I never liked him much, I was devestated that Shrewd died after such a long suffering. I really thought he'd shake his tormentors and make a comeback. It was a great piece of writing to have Shrewd apologise for what he has made of Fitz. I am not a fan of the Molly storyline, once again I think it detracts from the story, but I reckon she'll be back - and pregnant - in the next book. We also didn't get any inkling on whether Nighteyes will be back after that ending, poor fella.

The writing has emotional depth and the characterisation is impeccable. Everyone is a real person, people with flaws, realistic motivations, goals, and agendas.

4.2