Sean

Blood Over Bright Haven was an enjoyable read, with fast-pacing, an interesting magic system, and some important themes, but lacked some of the nuance and character work that could have really elevated it. The ending of this book carried it by making some early moral debates tangible through Sciona’s actions.

Sciona is one of the most frustrating main characters I’ve read. Despite being a brilliant mage, she doesn’t have any sense of logic or emotional intelligence. At times she had me wanting to rip my hair out. I know her naïveté was necessary to enable her journey and it pays off in the end, I just didn’t enjoy the experience of reading about it. Thomil on the other hand, was a very solid side character, mostly because of the way he would argue with Sciona. I even found myself rooting for them to have a romance in a way I rarely do.

This may not be ML Wangs best work (it’s hard to live up to sword of kaigen), but it solidified her as an author I’ll be eagerly awaiting more from, and is a book I would definitely recommend.

Boys in the Boat had a huge impact on me when I first read it almost ten years ago. It was a big part of the reason I started rowing and taught me a lot when I was in a very impressionable stage of life. Coming back to it now, at the same stage of life as the guys in the book, I look at the stories in a new light and hope that they can have a similarly positive influence on me now. That may not mean picking rowing back up, but at its core The Boys in the Boat is a story of being a young man finding his way through tough times and whether I go to the Olympics or not (probably not lol), I can still apply lessons from Joe and the gang to my current situation.

Disquiet Gods is quintessential Suneater at its best. It is the first book in the series that retraces the events of earlier books, but does it in a way that makes those events all the more impactful in reflection. The politics brought back memories of Demon in White, and are an aspect of the series I wish was more prominent. The second act of the book, on Sabratha, gave me all the supernatural worldbuilding I’ve come to love about this series, combined with a bit of horror through contact with The Watchers and the Cielcin. It felt like a combination of Demon in White and Kingdoms of Death. And the ending was a direct callback to the last third of Howling Dark, when this series really started to have an impact on me. I’d been waiting for that to happen and worried that the foreshadowing of it might reduce the impact. Boy was I wrong. While I’d say this is my third favorite book in the series, the ending of it was probably the best. We’re so close now to the fateful events on Gododdin that are revealed on page 1 and have been built up to for six books. November can’t come soon enough…

Ashes of Man was a letdown as far as Suneater books go. Each of the last four books have expanded upon the world, plot, and characters in major ways. This one felt like replaying the hits. It’s the same characters, with even Hadrian not undergoing much development (until maybe the very end), same plot devices, an impossible mission, followed by a huge culminating battle, and mostly planets and groups of people that have made appearances already.

🚨SPOILERS🚨

What really disappointed me was Valkas death. Valka had grown into a character I absolutely loved. Her relationship with Hadrian, her cool half-computer brain and everything she could do with it, even the way she connected with Gibson and other side characters were some of my favorite parts of the series. It’s foreshadowed throughout the book that she’s probably gonna die at the end, so I was ready for a massive emotional impact or a dramatic death. It didn’t give me either of those. She just kinda dies. It felt like a disrespectful write-off of a key character. In the manner of her death she gets reduced to little more than any other side character Hadrian cared about, which is not what she’d been at all. The fallout from her death, specifically hadrians reaction, ended up as the part with big stakes and impact on the story. Ultimately, setting up what feels like the very end of this long saga, now that Hadrian truly has no one left.

Demon in White leveled up from Howling Dark in a lot of ways. There were five distinct acts and each of them delivered what they were meant to. It started by adding genuine political intrigue by having Hadrian tangle with the emperor and make strong friends and stronger enemies at court. That was a completely new element. The battles with the Cielcin were as scary and epic as always. I wish Dorayaica had been a bit more involved given how much it’s built up as the true enemy, but it’s set up for more from it going forward. Finally, the academic and then quest parts of the book that went together were spectacular. Particularly the supernatural contact with the Quiet was a stunning scene that marked a real shift in who Hadrian is and will be. He’s still ridiculously dramatic about literally everything but now I feel like he’s earned it given everything he’s been through and the level of power/respect he’s cultivated amongst humanity.

Somehow this series just keeps getting better. The emotional impact of this book was off the charts. To see what Hadrian goes through, what he’s reduced to, was jarring. And the ending…holy shit. That’s how a battle should be written. Then what happened next added a completely new emotion to the story that topped it off perfectly.

This was an inspirational story of what it means to connect with a place and be physically and spiritually immersed within it. It changes the way I want to think about time spent in the mountains. I also might just have to run away to the Sierra to get even a fraction of what Stan and co have experienced there.

Howling Dark takes a major step up from empire of silence in terms of the scope of the world and the relevance to the bigger story. The worlds they visit in this book are wonderfully weird, exploring what it even means to be human in the far future, while still working towards the goal of making contact with the Cielcin. When contact is made eventually, it feels like the true start of this series. The entire negotiation drives home the major differences between humans and Cielcin before culminating in an incredible battle scene that seems like it will have major impact going forward. The concept of The Quiet, this almost supernatural group of beings, is probably my most pressing question going into book 3. They’re clearly pulling some strings and have a vested interest in Hadrians success.

The main reason this book isn’t five stars for me is they skipped an entire book in between 1 and 2. The first 200 pages of Howling Dark are talking about this campaign they’d been on and all the crazy events that happened, but we don’t get to see any of it and so the first part of the book just doesn’t have the impact it should. He clearly wanted to emphasize the found family aspect of the Red Company but didn’t do enough to develop the side characters to make it hit hard. I really hope book 3 continues developing Valka well and adds some more interesting secondary parts.

Empire of Silence is epic sci-fi, very much in the tradition of Dune and the later Enders Game books(some of my favorite of all time). It’s written as Hadrian’s memoir, thousands of years after the events of the first book, and is constantly dropping hints about what’s to come in the future as Hadrian evolves into this emperor/deity who is retelling his own story. This book is full of his personal philosophy and the phases of it each teach him some new lesson, in an almost religious way. Until the end when he meets the Cielcin, it doesn’t feel like the events of this book have major stakes for the story at-large outside of evolving Hadrians character. The most interesting part is the Cielcin, how unknown and inhuman they are, and how the majority of humanity views them compared to how Hadrian does, feels like the foundation of the series going forward and I’m glad I got to read about Hadrians first encounters with the aliens he’s so obsessed with. Knowing where the story goes makes me so excited to know how it gets there. This book itself wasn’t that great, but the world it builds and the future it sets up is what has me hooked.

Where the Water Goes is written as someone who doesn't know anything about the Colorado River going on a source-to-sea trip and learning the basics of an incredibly complex network of legal, social, and environmental factors dictating how water is supplied to essentially the entire southwestern US. It did an excellent job explaining everything the author saw on his trip, however, I went into the book with a solid understanding of the majority of these systems already and so didn't gain as much from it as I would have. If you're at all interested in learning about the Colorado River, this is definitely a good place to start and will make you want to know even more.

Warbreaker is such an interesting book with so many classic Sanderson elements, but just doesn’t quite put them all together as effectively as a lot of his other works do. The worldbuilding is incredible as always. It’s almost mistbornesque in that it’s urban based, with gangs of thieves and mercenaries, as well as an extremely powerful religious group running the show while leaving the commoners in the dark. Where it differs from mistborn is the colors. Mistborn is dark and grimy with ash falling nonstop and general despair, while Warbreaker is full of life with splashes of color all over the place and the people prioritizing leisure and entertainment even during their struggles.

Perhaps my problem with this book stems from false expectations. I thought it was going to be the story of Vasher creating Nightblood, or at the very least centered on those two, but they were auxiliary characters who played massively important roles, especially at the end of the book, but I’m left with more questions about them and even more desire to know their full story. That’s not to say that Vivenna and Siri are not interesting characters. The dichotomy and role switch between the sisters is an excellent plot. I just felt more drawn to Vasher’s story.

Lastly, how the hell is there not a sequel to this book. The sanderlanche was all about setting it up for future adventures, which was frustrating because there aren’t any yet and it made the events at the end of the book feel less impactful than they should have.

I didn’t realize the power of Babel until the last fifty or so pages, but then it all clicked for me. The story wasn’t really about the characters themselves, rather the imperialist system they found themselves in. Using a magic system based on translation was a stroke of genius when it came to enforcing the message of the book. Language is the backbone of cultural identity, so to weaponize it as silver does, using a cultures own words to oppress them, was incredibly effective. Rf Kuang was not subtle in communicating the themes in this book, but maybe that was the point. There isn’t subtlety to the impacts of colonialism so why pretend that the book is about anything else. I do wish she’d spent more time building up the characters, especially as we get to know them in their formative years at Babel. I felt like I was being told about the bonds between the four main characters more than I was seeing them develop naturally. That led to a frustrating first half of the book, but from the trip to Canton onwards a switch was flipped. This is a book I think everyone should read at some point, I certainly am glad I gave it a second try.

A World on the Wing dives deep into the world of migratory bird research through ten poignant stories. In reading this book, I learned about the pure endurance required of migratory birds to complete the jaw dropping migrations they undertake, the challenges of actually doing the research, and, most impactful, the risks posed to migrants who rely on climatological signals across the globe in a rapidly changing world. There is still so much unknown about the lives of migratory birds, this gave me a peek behind the door, and made me even more interested in what the full story might be.

I have never been and likely never will be more excited for a book than I was for wind and truth. There is very little Brando could have written that would have made this book less than a five star read for me. That being said, wind and truth earned that rating. The character work is as impeccable as ever. From adolin defining his own role in a changing society and, in doing so, catapulting himself, briefly, to the top spot on my favorite characters list. To kaladins incredible, emotional journey that began on the edge of a chasm way back in the way of kings culminating with some of the deepest, most inspiring moments I’ve ever read. And everyone else in between who faced and were able to overcome their personal challenges in this book. Tears were flowing many times in this one. The entire series was always about these characters more than any overarching plot and wind and truth dove into that even more(although the plot is very much there, and also great).

It’s not a perfect book. I wish he had stuck with classic parts rather than each day being its own. Whereas the earlier books build to a mini climax at the end of each part, some days felt a little flat and I think could have been combined while sticking to the ten day timeline for greater impact in the middle of the book. My only other criticism is that I wished we had more sections like day one where it was just kaladin and shallan. As more and more povs get added, the impact reduces slightly and ultimately there are about five characters I consistently want to hear from and know the inner workings of their minds, leaving more mystery around less important characters and their motivations.

Overall, I leave the storm light archive feeling fulfilled. This series was solely responsible for reintroducing me to the beauty of reading two years ago. I love each and every one of the characters for different reasons and it will be a long seven to ten years without hearing from them or knowing if I’ll ever see some again, but I know it will be worth the wait.

The Will of the Many was textbook entertaining fantasy. It’s fast-paced, easy to digest, and has enough magic and politics to keep it interesting without going too much in depth. I also thought Vis was a strong narrator and I liked his emotional/intellectual depth, where I struggled with him was that he was just too overpowered. I recognize that he’s meant to be talented and have trained for a long time, but the fact that everywhere he goes he instantly is the best without really having to try too hard was frustrating. I feel like I’m leaving the book with a lot of unanswered questions, but it’s set up well to answer those and go beyond in the next book, which I will certainly be reading when it comes out next year.

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.

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 has to be read exclusively in your best impression of Sir David Attenborough’s voice.

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.

There should be a separate star system for the stormlight archive. I’ve given plenty of books 5 stars but this reread made me realize how much more of a 5 star book this is compared to others. It’s a daunting reread but so worth it with all the Easter eggs for the rest of the series I had no idea about on my first read that had me excited every time something important was casually mentioned.

My review of the wager was all about how audiobooks didn’t work for me but I felt the opposite in this situation. Maybe to enjoy an audiobook all I needed was for it to be a reread of my favorite series of all time. The jury’s still out on audiobooks as a whole for me but I will continue with them as my stormlight reread preparing for Wind and Truth.

This was my first time listening to an audio book and my opinions of this book are more shaped by that than by the book itself. I just struggled to engage with it in the audiobook format and while it was an interesting story I just didn’t quite get as into it as I would have if I’d been reading it for real. I’m not saying I’ll never try audio again, but I won’t be going straight for another one either.

What an incredible, incredible, incredible book. As someone who’s never read this style of book before I was unsure that a story about game developers would have enough to it to engage me, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. I ended up forcing myself to slow down and savor this story because i wanted to spend as much time with Sadie and Sam as possible. They are two of my favorite characters ever, the dynamic between them and the way it evolves throughout the story is what makes this book shine and the place it leaves them in I think was exactly where they were meant to be, despite all the ups and downs they faced on the journey. I also wanted to mention the NPC chapter. It was stunning and devastating, but so beautifully written. I felt like I should be in tears, and I think I would have been if I hadn’t been too busy being engrossed in the writing, specifically the way it was switching states of consciousness at all times. This became an instant classic in my mind and a book I will remember reading forever.

The Hero of Ages was the perfect conclusion to the mistborn trilogy. This group works better as underdogs trying to solve an impossible challenge than as rulers like they were in book two(technically they’re in control in this book but their backs were to the wall the entire time). Where the first two books had concrete villains in them, in the hero of ages the world itself is the villain until it is revealed who/what is controlling the world and it does terrible things to the people living in it. Vin’s storyline is as great as always. She’s one of my favorite characters ever. What really surprised me about this book, though, and the storyline i was most engaged in was Spook. I’d honestly pretty much forgotten he existed but his transformation and role in Urteau filled the void left by kelsier in book one. I constantly found myself waiting for more spook chapters.

Last, the avalanche in this book starts early and never slows down. Sanderson avalanches are my favorite thing to read and this might be my favorite of all of them. So far…

The Well of Ascension was a great read, it just didn’t quite live up to the insanely high standards set in book one. Vin really carries the story and is amazing. She grows a ton from where she started the series and where she started this book to who she is at the end of it. The problem with this book was that she didn’t have great support. It really missed Kelsier. The rest of the crew falls off without him and Elend doesn’t fill the gap like he was supposed to. At the end of the day, this was still a great story in such a cool world that any flaws didn’t take away from my overall enjoyment.