Sean

I’ve never read a book where so little goes right for its characters. Within the first part, they’d all taken an emotional and physical beating. Most had both. In a lot of books, that would be followed by some sort of recovery. Not here. Robin Hobb sees those characters laying on the deck and just keeps hitting them with haymakers. There were a couple instances where I thought things were looking up for a character, but I should have known better because every single time they got knocked right back to where they were, or worse. While that is my main takeaway, it’s not what brings this rating down. I felt that Hobb got caught up trying to tell too many stories at once, and they all suffered for it. This is completely different from the farseer trilogy which I complained needed more characters, but it modulated too far the other way. I really wish I could have spent more time with Althea and kennit as those two characters had exclusively enjoyable chapters, but there wasn’t enough time devoted to them. All that being said, I feel the three star rating I gave is slightly harsh and doesn’t entirely reflect my reading experience. There was enough there that I’m certainly going to continue at some point, despite the low rating.

Kat Hill is a bad influence…she made me want to drop everything and go explore the network of bothies all around Scotland. This book at its core is a cozy, personal story about the charms of bothers and the wilderness, as well as how the huts helped the author through some hard times. But more than that, there are deeper themes of contending with change when you maybe aren’t ready for those changes to occur. Each chapter focuses on a different bothy, what makes them unique, the authors personal story of visiting them, and the surrounding areas history, but then uses the bothy as a way to explore important topics in the modern world.

This book will never get old. The wow moments are a little less impactful on audiobook than they were reading it the first time but I still had chills and had to completely stop to process at a few different points. If you listen, just be ready for the sanderlanche to be interrupted by long strings of numbers every once in a while. The first time that happened I was completely thrown off.

This could not have been closer to being a 5⭐️ read. The sword of kaigen was one of the most unique fantasy books I’ve ever read. Hidden behind the usual fantasy elements like complex magic systems, political intrigue, and epic action sequences was a really deep story about family and loss and gender roles that gave it a very real feel in an otherwise fantastical world. Each character experienced real growth in the book in ways I didn’t see coming. That rings particularly true for Takeru who I feel I owe an apology to for how much I criticized him before finally learning who he was and instantly relating to him. My criticism of this book is the world building didn’t feel complete. There were snippets every once in a while but I need more to fully grasp the scope of the world. Also, misakis flashbacks to Livingston were almost entirely stolen from Batman Im pretty sure, right down to the characters name being robin and him shooting a signal over the city to communicate with the police. It was entertaining but I’m not sure why it was in this story. My only other thought is there better be a sequel soon. I need more and will absolutely read it the day it comes out.