Carl's Books by Status
557 Books
See all
Carl's Reading Goals
Carl's Most Popular Reviews
I was immediately hooked from the onset. At the start of the first book we are introduced to the main character ‘Pug' who is a local teen-aged orphan boy of limited prospects. He is shortly chosen for an apprenticeship to the local magician Kulgan, much to Pug's surprise as he isn't even aware that he has any magical skills at this point.
Some other notable characters introduced are Pug's best friend Tomas, and also the Princess Carline whom Pug has a slight ‘crush' on. The characters themselves at this point seem a little... flat. It's quite difficult to connect with them or get too emotionally attached to them or the story. Kulgan is a fairly stereotypical wizard, he wears robes and a pointy hat, he has a beard and smokes a pipe, he is mysterious, he has a weird pet creature thing (a sort of small dragon) etc.
Not much happens for a fair chunk of the book. Pug chills out with his buddy, has awkward meetings with the princess, reads a lot of magic books etc. It isn't until the characters become aware of the upcoming invasion that the plot really starts to develop. The plot itself was very promising at first. The invasion via ‘Rift' from an otherworldly race was genius but poorly presented. Feist could have done a lot more with the plot than he did. The plot kept jumping ahead by years and missing out a lot of the action. We didn't even really see the start of the war. They were about to be invaded and then suddenly it was years later and they were tired of fighting? Also the supposedly main character Pug disappears for quite a large chunk of the book.
As you can probably guess from the title: this book deals with the subject of introversion and extroversion within humans. It's written from the point of view of an introvert, and focuses more on them than extroverts. Extroverts are usually brought up more as a comparison than anything. Ergo this book would probably appeal more to fellow introverts than any extroverts reading this. There is still a fair bit of information on extroversion in here however so don't let that discourage you too much!
The author is a self-described introvert and a former Wall Street lawyer named Susan Cain. Susan Cain is an American and so almost all of the book is set in, and directed towards, America and Americans. While some of it might not be relevant to you if you're not American (A/N: I'm not!), such as if you're from a mostly introverted country (an example she uses is China I believe) most of the book is still useful to you. Just keep in mind that she is using a mostly extroverted country as a background.
The book covers a lot of varying topics such as how introversion affects both your personal life, your career, and your relationships. There is a veritable wealth of knowledge in this book, Cain sure has done her research into this topic. It is well presented, with each chapter focusing on a different aspect of your life and how introversion can affect it.
She also gives examples of introverts and extroverts she has met throughout her life to help illustrate how certain obstacles in our life can be overcome or used to our advantage. I say obstacles here in reference to her common statement in the book that we are living in a world where extroversion is the ideal. In a world of extroverts it can be difficult to fit in, or to fake your way into being a pseudo-extrovert (more on that inside the book).
She describes introverts as a necessary part of society, indeed that society could not function without both introverts and extroverts. That the existence of the two in perfect harmony is the natural state of human society.
The book is useful to pretty much anyone, whether you're a parent trying to understand your introverted child, or an introvert trying to better understand yourself and how to achieve success in whatever you want and/or happiness.
The book is great in that it doesn't describe either introversion or extroversion in negative terms, but rather explains that they're both highly useful in their own ways. Neither one is better over the other. Cain was very non-judgemental when writing Quiet.
As an introvert I found the book to be very relatable at times. The title was especially appealing to me. The book wasn't perfect, but it was close enough. The book sometimes seems to read as fiction, to me anyway. Possibly it is the author's style of writing which gives that impression. I was also a bit turned off because of all the Americanism, but the author is American so I can't be too disappointed by that. I almost rated it a 5/5, it was a close call but ultimately decided on 4/5 mostly for the reasons I just listed.
This is a book I previously read when I was much younger (can't recall exactly how young). I picked it up again because I remembered that I had enjoyed the series immensely, but that was literally all I could remember about it. That, and that it had ‘something to do with death'.
My younger self would probably have rated this 5/5. I have rated it only 4. The quality of the book has obviously not changed, but it was originally intended for those in their very early teens. Which I no longer am, by at least a decade.
This story is based around Sabriel, whose father is (the) Abhorsen. He is essentially a necromancer, except he puts dead things back ‘into death' rather than raising them from the dead. (No wonder I remembered this book had something to do with death, it's all based on death!)
When Sabriel was very young her father sent her to live at a boarding school in Ancelstierre, outside the Old Kingdom. Ancelstierre remained relatively unaffected by what was happening in the Old Kingdom while she was growing up, namely that the dead weren't staying dead. However in her last year of school Abhorsen goes missing, and she has to venture back into the Old Kingdom to locate him, and as she undergoes her journey she discovers more about herself, her heritage, and just how bad things are in the Old Kingdom.
Overall it is a wonderful, and highly imaginative story. The world that Garth Nix wrote about is intriguing and I loved reading about it. The creatures and the characters he created are unique, particularly Mogget and Touchstone.
However, there are certain points that I didn't enjoy as much.
1. Sabriel has very little knowledge of how to deal with the dead or about the roles of the Abhorsen and yet she defeats everything she comes up against, including essentially the ultimate bad dead guy of the bad dead guys in the Old Kingdom. But this is something you see often in YA/Fantasy novels so I'm not that bothered.
2. A lot of how the magic works in the world of the Old Kingdom is a little vague in my opinion, particularly the ‘free magic'.
3. At times the plot felt like it just draaaaaaaagged along.
In conclusion: I enjoyed it (mostly), I'll probably at least consider re-reading the rest of the series, but it's just not quite as great as I remembered it being.
I would recommend it for fans of young adult and fantasy novels. If you like things like His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman you'll probably like this (he was even a reviewer for it – look at the bottom of the cover).
