Kane
Thankyou to Netgalley and PanMacmillan/Tor for this ARC.
## Ratings
Cover: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Initial Draw: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Pacing: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Finish Line Feeling: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
## Review
Tchaikovsky is undoubtedly one of the premier authors when it comes to writing from the perspective of different species/cultures. The world he developed in Shroud was just as strong as Children of Time, with similar plot beats and pacing but a completely new species and new hostile environment to live through and contemplate. The way Tchaikovsky writes from the perspective of non-human characters makes you realise how anthropomorphized most sci-fi species are and is a breath of fresh air when it comes to thinking about what could be out there.
I was on the edge of my seat the entire time - not because I didn't expect the ending; but, because the pacing was completely on point, always tempting you to know what happens next at every page and every chapter.
I don't really want to go into finer plot points any more because you should definitely just experience it for yourself. Overall if you enjoyed Children of Time or Tchaikovsky's other works relating to alternate species then you will love this one. I can't wait for the sequels to explore this world and species more.
Ratings
Cover: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Initial Draw: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters: ⭐⭐
Pacing: ⭐⭐
Finish Line Feeling: ⭐⭐⭐
Review
Thank you to Titan Books and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to review this eARC.
First of all the cover for this book is absolutely beautiful. It features a striking colour pallet and a beautiful scene of a girl in the wind in a traditional asian block print art style. The issue I have with this is the girl on the cover is clearly human but the main character is a "tree person" with bark like skin and pine needle hair. Who is this person on the cover?
Besides the cover, the blurb really drew me in. As an activist myself I love the idea of a story that draws parallels between a Chinese fantasy setting and the constant human expansion into and exploitation of the natural world. The execution of this though really lacked any impact on me. The characters were physically described at a basic level but by the end I really felt like I had no better idea about them as people and didn't care about them more than a superficial desire for the the protagonist to succeed. The natural land of 'Feng' they were attempting to protect was also only briefly described and instead the entire story could have largely been in any setting. The main plot was quite heavy handed with a constant reminder the protagonist intended to assassinate the king followed by a change of tact and a then a constant reminder they intended to escape the palace (This is all in the synopsis and not a spoiler.)
Going into this book I also expected there to be more of a linkage to Chinese mythology/religion but besides a relatively generic elemental magic linkage and some of the characters/regions having Chinese names I didn't really get that.
Overall I didn't really enjoy this book but I did enjoy the premise and I am very keen to hear more about Feng and about the industrial nation that attempts to destroy it. I hope the author continues this story and focuses more on what makes this story exciting and less on the generic assassination/escape plot lines.
## Ratings
Cover: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Initial Draw: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Pacing: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Finish Line Feeling: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
## Review
#### Cover
Epic! The black and yellow colour scheme and sharp lines draw you to it on the shelf instantly.
#### Initial Draw
I love a good thief/rogue centric book so I picked this up in the book store, read the blurb, and needed to buy it. It also sounded dark yet silly enough to be a quick refreshing palate cleansing read.
#### Characters
The characters were all great and expertly described. The humour that the main character, Kinch, conveys to every scenario made this a super enjoyable read.
#### Pacing
Super quick. There was never a dull moment in this book and I read it in two sittings.
#### Finish line feeling
Sufficiently wrapped up the main quest line of the first book and left me yearning for more! Overall it was a great short start to a new series that would serve a great entry point to the fantasy genre.
## Ratings
Cover: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Initial Draw: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Pacing: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Finish Line Feeling: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
## Review
#### Cover
Great matching cover to the rest of the series and most importantly they stand out on the shelf.
#### Initial Draw
This is the first standalone after the First Law trilogy so is a must read for anyone who loved the trilogy. It has just enough linkages to the trilogy while also working well as a standalone that could be read (or watched with the upcoming TV series) without having read any other "First Law" books.
#### Characters
Nobody writes characters like Joe. You can tell the character without their name ever being uttered by his excellent portrayals and mannerisms.
Shivers does an excellent job of filling the lead character role despite his relatively brief involvement in the first trilogy.
#### Pacing
With an almost 700 page book the pacing is expertly handled with fast and medium portions expertly weaved to keep things flowing. None of it slowed down sufficiently to make it feel like it was dragging on.
#### Finish line feeling
Excellent. Can't wait for the TV show and I can't wait to read the rest of the first law series and Joe's new book "The Devils"
While it was still and enjoyable book it felt very much like suddenly the author realised near the end that they were writing a trilogy and rushed to wrap up as many loose ends as possible. I feel many of the plotlines of this book could have taken another book to expand and explore more thoroughly and be written with more suspense.
## Ratings
Cover: ⭐⭐⭐
Initial Draw: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters: ⭐⭐⭐
Pacing: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Finish Line Feeling: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
## Review
#### Cover
The cover of These Burning Stars is nice and simple if not a little generic. It doesn't really give you any insight into the story or evoke any particular emotion.
#### Initial Draw
I love sci-fi so any new sci-fi that pops up I am willing to give a go. The main plot reads as:
Jun Ironway, hacker, con artist, and only occasional thief, has got her hands on a piece of contraband that could set her up for life: evidence that implicates the powerful Nightfoot family in a planet-wide genocide seventy-five years ago. The Nightfoots control the precious sevite that fuels interplanetary travel through three star systems. And someone is sure to pay handsomely for anything that could break their hold.
Which sounds intriguing in itself. I work in cyber security so anything in the hacker culture vein gets extra points for me when it comes to picking it off the shelf.
#### Characters
The characters overall I didn't find particularly exciting. Not great but not bad either. I'm a sucker for a strong character driven story but this delivered less in character development and more in political intrigue and cat and mouse.
Esek and Chono were the two supposed “good guys” but it was clear that Esek was being portrayed as unhinged from the start so it really didn't provide much in the way of shock factor the more she did anything and everything in her persuit of justice.
The hacker Jun, Six and associated cast were much more engaging. I'm not sure if the intention was for the reader to engage with them more from the start but that was certainly what kept me interested.
#### Pacing
Pacing was fast and flowing but the jumping around between characters and time periods did break the flow a bit. In general it could do with a more engaging overarching story as a large chunk of the book was just between the hands and six going tit for tat over finding or evading each other.
I did enjoy the pace and constant action though as without it the story could easily have lost me.
#### Finish line feeling
Overall I found this book enjoyable but I don't think it will turn out to be overly memorable. It's an amazing effort for a debut novel and I am really keen to read the remaining books in the trilogy.
My hope is that the world that Bethany has created gets fleshed out more in future series as it seems to have a lot of potential to be explored and expanded upon with other stories. Similar to something like the Scythe book series.
Received this as an eARC on netgalley
Overall it's a masterclass by some of the current greats of SciFi in how to write speculative fiction. Some of these short stories were 5/5 blackmirror-esq masterpieces articulating a bleak but realistic picture of where the current AI obsession is taking us. There are a couple of the stories though they completely lost me on what they are trying to convey and didn't have nearly the witty point of the majority of the stories bringing this down to an overall 4.5.
I'd recommend this as a read for anyone into sci-fi, speculative fiction or who works on or with AI.
A strong finish to the trilogy that I didn't find as engaging as the first two books but I loved all the same.
Abercrombie still showed his mastery of character development and wrapped the various story lines up well.
Some twists I saw coming but others like the first magi being in control of the bankers I did not
Overall - amazing. I can't wait to read the other books in the universe.
Ratings
Cover: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Initial Draw: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters: ⭐
Plot and Pacing: ⭐⭐⭐
Last Page Feeling: ⭐⭐⭐
Note: For transparency - I received this book as an eARC from NetGalley. This will not impact my review.
Synopsis
A young royal “musketress”, Lilith, lives an isolate life in a citadel with her family controlling an infinite source of resources, created by the gods as well as sole control of muskets/firearms giving them military might over other classes of citizen.
Reading and writing are forbidden acts in this world. “You shall not suffer a librarian to live”; but, one day a librarian shows up at the citadel and Lilith discovers her families secret which changes her perception of her family and the world forever.
Review
Cover
The cover is beautiful and represents the plot well with the frequently chanted slogan “You shall not suffer a librarian to live” emblazoned on the front.
Initial Draw
The initial draw for me was the premise of a fantasy retelling of the true history of book burning and the suppression of knowledge transfer between classes keeping a status quo that keeps the powerful in charge and the poor under their foot.
Characters
The characters were simply... not interesting and not well described. I could not explain to you what anybody looks like or any of their characteristics except the guardians dress in green and the ruling class carry muskets around.
I ultimately didn't care about any of the characters and most of all found Lilith, the focus of the narrative, extremely dull. She had no growth across the entire book and instead just served to pull the plot along.
The twist of Lillith wanting to persue being a librarian at the end was really not a twist at all. You could tell from the very start that she was going to sympathise with the librarian and ultimately replace him or become his disciple or something of that type.The alliance with Kira at the 70% mark and the ultimate betrayal at 99% was also not at all surprising.
Plot and Pacing
Firstly be warned it takes until almost exactly the 50% mark for anything to truly progress the plot.
You spend the first half of the book being introduced to Lillith, her teacher/guard captain Kira, and the Librarian. As mentioned in the character section though I don't think the book is any better off character development wise for such a long on ramp. At 50% Lillith finally reveals the big secret to Kira and that is where the plot finally leaves what is already covered in the official synopsis and jumps into new content.
The content from the 50% mark takes a fairly meandering path.
The rest of the book basically being a slow foot chase away from the archangel and it really dragged on and his “death” really didn't answer anything for me about the lore of the world.
Last Page Feeling
Ultimately it was a quick and enjoyable enough read - I just felt unfulfilled at the end. I assume this is lining up for a sequel as by the end I still didn't know the real answer behind the big questions like why literature/writing/reading is banned what the archangel was really about, what happens with the newfound knowledge that Lillith returns to Alexandra with etc.. I assumed towards the start there was going to be some kind of lore about this being a dystopian future of our reality or something but nothing of that kind or any in depth lore was ever discussed.
Overall a pretty enjoyable book but it just didn't have the plot or character development to make it completely satisfying. Not helped by the fact the book finishes on a cliffhanger with most arcs unfinished in preparation for a sequel.
The concept of the pandomonium planet collective and “The Registry” (Think Thunderhead from Sythe) really intrigued; but, they got barely more than a mention as to their existence. Hopefully book 2 actually explores these concepts more and brings the much needed depth to the world.
Foodmeat.
I don't really get it. The native dialect poetry was lovely to read and I appreciate the effort to try something new; but, the narrative and characters were uneventful and forgettable.
What really lost it for me though was the extremely odd choice to concatenate a string of synonyms together in the translation even if clearly some of them made no sense in context. I can understand there may not be a perfect 1:1 translation for some things; but, at points it became a little obsurd.
What happened to the end of my book? It literally just ended at the end of a random anecdote and shifted into notes.
In fact the entire book was just a random selection of anecdotes. It just shifted between them with no consistent narrative nor any conclusions.
This book was so disappointing. I am very passionate about the topic but this did nothing to help the cause or help me with my activism. As a background on the topic to read in combination with other books on the same topic it is probably okay, but as a standalone book it is not great.
This book took me to space in a way that no other book has for a long time. You fall in love with the characters yes there is more than one and humor of the writing. Much like Pringles - once you pop you can't stop (turning pages).
Characters and DevelopmentPersonally I found this one of the weakest elements. The characters were good but they didn't develop in any meaningful way. They started off as well thought out characters and remained solid throughout; but, I didn't feel like they developed over the time we are with them or reach any drastic developments.
PlotSimple plot, in theory. Earth is in trouble and Ryland, a former discredited academic and current high school science teacher, is sent to space to find the solution. What happens while he is out there is unexpected (having not read some of the more spoiler synopsis), funny, and heartwarming. I feel like the less you know about the plot the better for this one.
Setting
The majority of the book is spent on a tiny ship but that didn't limit the enjoyment at all. If anything the environment allowed the focus on the plot and the simple but impactful story it tells.
TL;DR
Pros
- Funny and feelgood writing
- Scientific accuracy (as far as I can tell - not being an astrophysicist)
- Unputdownability (Con: lack of sleep)
Cons
- Character development is eh
- Ends on a bit of a cliffhanger
This was a good overview of Biden and his time in politics. It shows that as much as he is an improvement on the Trump era of politics - he was never going to be the liberal and progressive savior that we hope for. Definitely check out Bernie Sanders books on a more positive look at what US politics could be.
TL;DRPros
- Quality summary of Biden's beginnings in politics
- Explains his motivations, strengths and weaknesses
Cons
- Finishes just at the presidential race with a small and unsatisfying epilogue
A good second installment in the series and progressed the story well and introduces some more elements of the world and magic system. I doubt this is going to be anyone's favourite in the series but it was a strong addition.
Overall a hard one to review without spoiling elements of the series.
Characters and DevelopmentThe main characters are split up once again in this book. A large amount of time is spent with Rand and Loial and a seperate plot line follows Egwene and Nynaeve. I didn't feel Rand developed significantly as a character in this one overall, while the events probably permanently modified the girls' for the remainder of the story.
Plot
The beginning opens up a new and exciting plot line involving the girls while I feel Rand's plot line doesn't progress in a meaningful way until the very end. All the “filler” in the middle is still extremely high quality and enjoyable for a fan of the series but I don't feel most of it is strictly necessary for the story to progress (I'm sure some of the characters and themes reappear in future books though so I may have to come back and modify this).
SettingA new group is introduced with their own customs and a new world and way of travel is introduced. Not going to say much more here for spoiler reasons.
TL;DRPros
- Introduces more elements of the world and magic system
- Progresses the major plotline in a big way right at the end
- Begins a major plot line about Tar Valon and Aes Sedai
Cons
- Overall lots of it is probably not critical to the story except the very beginning and very end
Umm .. just read this book if you love fantasy. I can't believe it took me so long to start the series.
The first season of Amazon's series follows this book. If you have watched the TV series and are confused then reading this book will make everything much much much clearer. The book and series start and end at basically exactly the same place so don't worry about spoiler one or the other by reading/watching the first book/season. The more minor plot lines of the TV series deviate wildly from the book and generally not in a good way but they mostly fold back into the same end result and ready for you to start book 2/season 2.
TL;DRRead it. If you enjoyed the TV series then definitely read it. If you didn't enjoy the TV series then this will probably make you mad about the weird changes, but still read it.
Dull. Really dull.
Plenty of opportunity for character growth but they are all so flat. The main character does nothing but pine for another character. I feel like I know nothing else about her.
The entire premise of the story is entirely predictable after the first quarter or so too. I finished it for completion rather than any need to find out how it ended.
Overall - dull.
