C10
DNF 20%
This is feminism at its most uninteresting point. And it does not make any sense
Still good german training.
Still too old for this. Why are all adult characters so uninvested ?
J'ai réussi à terminer ce tome mais ne lirai pas la suite. Possible spoilers :
Tout est superficiel, précipité, et caricatural.
L'histoire prend place dans un monde fantastique sous-développé : ce qu'on en retient principalement c'est un ghetto mafieux et des aristocrates débauchés et sadiques “plus cliché tu meurs”. La magie et la prémonition semblent être un moyen pratique pour couper l'action ou donner une échappatoire facile aux personnages quand il y en a besoin plutôt qu'un réel élément scénaristique.
La trame est en grande partie une enquête, mais la narration semble s'appliquer à éviter d'aborder tous les moments qui pourraient apporter une quelconque tension. On préfèrera changer de point de vue et revenir sur le personnage plus tard et lui faire raconter ce qu'il a vu/fait en rétrospective.
Les personnages sont inintéressants : ils sont dépourvus d'émotions, ou alors elles sont décrites si rapidement qu'on ne se sent pas concerné.
L'ensemble de l'humanité est en rut constant et n'est intéressé que par le sexe et la violence. Violence qui est omniprésente et dont je n'ai pas trouvé l'intérêt, étant donné qu'on ne ressent aucune compassion pour aucun personnage.
L'ensemble de ces facteurs m'a donné l'impression de survoler tout ça sans jamais me donner l'envie de m'y intéresser : à quoi bon ?
Author forgot to include a plot.
Characters are too numerous, dull and forgettable.
Narration robs the book of suspense : if a character has a narrated point of view he/she won't die. Meh.
Overall a nice read even if sometimes a little hard to read. Lots of space acronyms
Characters meh
So long and boring.
More than ever, Harry cannot do anything by himself, even when people give him major hints.
It is a shame that some mysterious elements are given at the very beginning of the book, and get suddenly answered in the “answers chapter” where everything is explained in an unending tirade.
As a reader, you do not have enough information to figure things out. You are just like Harry, going on and hoping things get explained at some point. Meanwhile, enjoy you childlish arguments and senseless elf-rights strife.
This book should be much shorter.
Additionally, there are many things that don't make sense : Truth serums not used in life-and-death trials, foreign students and directors spending MONTHS in Hogwarths doing nothing are only examples.
It was hard to get into. The author style didn't click right for me. I couldn't really like Lyudmila.
The male characters are not very likeable.
I still finished it but kinda meh
I read this book because I enjoyed the Winnowing Flame trilogy by Jen Williams.
The beginning was promising and had me hooked : the atmosphere was dark and the author managed to build a nice bit of insecurity. I really like the writing style.
However Heather is very unlikable and all the other characters are dull. Nikki in particular is the perfect no-personality side-kick.
I am not used to police mysteries but I still found the story very predictable. The culprit was obvious from the first time they appeared even if their motives were not.
In general I was disappointed since the strength of the Winnowing Flame trilogy were the world-building and imaginative elements that we do not have in A dark and secret place. The plot or characters do not make up for it so this strikes me as “just another serial killer story”.
Tuyo is filled with good ideas. I loved the worldbuilding and the flesh given to both countries.
However the writing in general feels lacking. It looks like the author is new, and sometimes even feels like a bad translation.
The story is written through Ryo's POV, and I am saddened to say he has not much of a personality. He feels flat. His thoughts are often very repetitive. He can be described as : Honorable, honest and stubborn. IMO, this doesn't rhyme with "interesting".
The other characters are not any better. Aras in particular is generous and honorable, and that's it. Esau, Geras and Suyet are nothing more than sidekicks. I felt that Tuyo in general is very predictable : that is the problem when both societies are so based on honor they would put feodal Japan to shame.
The antagonist was just an ordinary villain. Why is he so mean and cruel ? Because that is how he is. Well.
The magic part is tricky to describe in a book, by its nature. I would say it was ok-ish, but I would have enjoyed a little more substance. The "big fight" felt a bit messy.
Overall an OK read, but I am not sure I will read the next tomes. At the end of Tuyo the author advertised a spinoff about Nikoles : why would I want to read a whole book about a guy I absolutely don't care about ? He was not intriguing nor "story-worthy" to me. Make it about the winter people and their songs, or the Lakasha.
3.5
The main character is soooo cringey. I didn't enjoy being in his head. On the other hand, Rocky is very nice.
-1 star for apache helicopter pronouns. It only makes it harder to read and does not bring anything to the story or characters.
Apart from that, book is fine. Not genius-like good, but fine.
The story is simple, I don't see any major twists happening. Still enjoyable.
Pacing is slow. Overall, I'm under the impression that not much happened. This feels like a giant prologue for the next book(s).
I didn't have any problem with the writing style.
Xiala and Serapio are ok. Okoa felt dull and Naranpa annoying.
Overall an ok read.
I really tried to love this book. Unfortunately it was a disappointment.
The beginning had me hooked : the world-building was well-thought and worked on, I liked the idea of colonizing a new land with dragons, and the Gifted mechanics had a lot of potential.
Sadly it quickly turned into a revengeful-teenage-boy-who-goes-to-sword-school type of story, letting the originality of the world-building go to waste for most of the book. I would still have found the book okay-ish if not for Tau, which is the less likeable main character I have seen in a while.
He is immature, reckless and selfish, and seems able to make only stupid decisions. The worst part is that the character development goes backward : he keeps getting more selfish and stubborn, even though he is gifted with side characters who have an irrational amount of patience with him.
The narration is very, very descriptive, to the point where the reader never gets to be personal with the characters. Maybe I could have sympathised with some of Tau's decisions and behaviors if I had known how he felt at the moment ?
Thus a lot of aspects of the book seem unexploited. For example I could never determine if Tau even liked Zuri or if he only thought about her when he had nothing else to think about. His reaction at the end is so excessive compared to what happened in the whole book, I was like « Oh, I had no idea he liked her that much ».
He went to Isihogo multiple times and got to see demons even in the real world, but we don't know if he was afraid, or anxious, or did he ever doubt his own sanity ? Those real-world demons were only described as « Tau saw a demon instead of XX's face and had to blink it away ». Then proceed with the next sword fight without further consequences of Tau seeing demons.
The story is very linear and feels unfinished. Sword school takes a good 60% of the book and feels like a shounen manga : Tau gets stronger until he can face 10 enemies all by himself without breaking a sweat. The side characters are dull and are nothing more than Tau's sidekicks, their only use is to emphasize Tau's greatness. Tau doesn't even seem to consider their feelings : he does not feel any remorse or guilt when he causes the whole scale to fail a skirmish because of his recklessness. No friendship or relationship is grown during those endless pages of sword training.
Poor Jabari never even gets a thought even on the brink of death.
Some parts of the school system feel irrational : why would the Chosen train fighters for years to have them kill each other in skirmishes when they are at war and vastly outnumbered by the hedeni ?
I found this book frustrating because in my opinion it is a waste of good ideas : a lot could have been done with the social system, the war with the hedeni, the Chosen's past, their royalty, Isihogo, the demons, the dragons, etc. Instead we have another sword school book. The ending of this first volume lets me foresee nothing else than a full revenge series where Tau ends up killing the whole hedeni army by himself.
Pacing is panifully slow
Lots of convenience (discovery of mysterious and powerful ship, what a coincidence to have a mechanic nearby who can fix those unknown technologies without any problem. M-Bot goes to sleep and wakes only when it is most convenient. Etc)
Annoying MC. When she stops being cringe the AI takes it up.
Plot is nothing special
DNF.
Yet another “annoying genius girl who goes to military school” type of story.
Reminds me a lot of Skyward from Brandon Sanderson
Characters are meh. Locke is reduced to a loverboy and is not nearly as smart as he should be. Sabetha is a bitch and I couldn't come to like her. Jean is as ever the too-perfect support bro.
Schemes are close to nonexistent and get done without difficulty. Nobody ever suspects they're being lied to. This makes everything too easy for our con artists and I got quite bored.
The whole bondsmagi thing feels out of place since book 1.
