Erin

My favorite part about this book is the fact that I bought the annotated ebook version of it. Reading Sanderson's notes after each chapter was very revealing about his methods, thoughts, and techniques, and as an aspiring writer, I was inspired by them. Brandon Sanderson inspires me to write, to find passion in the stories that I write, and I think that is why I love his books so much. I learn from each and every one of them!

I keep picking up Sanderson's books and hoping they'll blow my mind as much as the Mistborn trilogy did. So far, none of his other books have topped Mistborn for me, but I'll keep trying :P

Warbreaker is told from the perspective of 4 different characters: Siri, Vivenna, Lightsong, and Vasher. The story takes place in a city called T'Telir, the city of the gods, in the country of Hallendren. Vivenna has been raised for the sole purpose of being married to the God King to fulfill a treaty between her country and Hallendren. Susebron, the God King, is the deity of Hallendren's religion, and the most powerful man in existence. However, when the time to honor the treaty has finally come, Vivenna's father can't bear to send her to T'Telir – he doesn't believe fulfilling the treaty will avert a war, and if a war came about, Vivenna would be killed. So he sends his other daughter, Siri. Siri is the youngest. She has grown up without any responsibility, and enjoys the fact that she is essentially the useless child.

The backdrop of this story is the war that everyone believes is inevitable. Some characters support it, some characters fight it. It carries the tension of the story, and is the main driving force for many of the events, especially the endgame.

I inhaled this book! Cat was an absolute delight, and her friction with Beta Team was absolutely hilarious and completely engaging. The tension between her and Griffin (Beta Sinta) was palpable from the second they meet. The romance was very slow burn, with plenty of banter leading up to their eventual coming together. Even better than the romance though, was the actual plot and worldbuilding in this book! There are so many fantasy-romance novels out there where the plot and world takes a backseat to the romance; my biggest pet peeve is when the hero and heroine are indulging in a moment of romance that makes absolutely no sense given what's going on around them. Griffin and Cat keep their eyes on the ball, and the author does a great job of weaving the romance with the plot. I loved this world that Amanda Bouchet built; the mix of tribes with Greek gods, magic, and creatures was chef's kiss perfection. In particular, I loved her description of what dragons look like in this world. I won't spoil it, but it was completely unique!

My only gripe with this story was Griffin's alpha-male-ness. Which, a certain amount of, you expect in a romance novel. But I was definitely feeling uneasy with how much emotional manipulation Griffin was exerting over Cat throughout the story. The story is written in a way where you know that Cat wants to make the decision, but is being held back by very real fears, and Griffin just coaxes her past her fear. But they way he was doing that was very clearly problematic behavior. I truly think it's possible for us to have alpha male heroes that still respect the heroine's right to make her own decisions.

SPOILERS

This was the first book of Stephen King's that I've read. I loved the way he played with words, played with the reader, and immersed the reader into the story. The cast of characters was huge, and King handled them masterfully. I was constantly impressed with his ruthlessness. The book begins and ends with killing, gore, and horror. The idea of a city being isolated from the rest of the world by an impenetrable, invisible dome is unique and entertaining. King did a great job exploring the possible consequences of an event like that, exploring the nature of human fear especially. The main villain became more and more horrifically inhuman as the novel went on (before dying a completely human death). The reader was taken to the very edges of hope and pulled along toward the end, constantly wondering how King was going to pull this off. Several times I thought he would just end it with everyone getting blown up, or suffocating, or killing themselves.

The only thing I was disappointed about was that it was aliens. I personally prefer explanations that are a little more terrestrial, since I tend to think that ‘it was aliens' is a bit of a cop-out.

SO BORING

I am thoroughly enjoying this retelling of Kushiel's Dart from Joscelin's perspective. I was a little skeptical at first. Retellings from another point of view have never been a favorite of mine. At most, they've felt like an easy way for an author to bring in more money. HOWEVER, I think Jacqueline Carey puts a lot of thought and quality into her novels, and this one is no different. Yes, it follows the same storyline as Kushiel's Dart very closely. I think the best time to read this is when you're craving a re-reading of Kushiel's Dart. I reread the Kushiel's Legacy series fairly often, so it was a joy to return to this world with a fresh perspective. There were some genuine laugh out loud moments for me, particularly when Joscelin is meeting Phedre for the first time and they don't exactly get along. His repulsion to her anguissette lifestyle is relatable; I don't know many readers who actually enjoy Phedre's assignations in the original novels. In general, Joscelin's perspective on sex is a lot closer to the American perspective on sex, so it's an easier lens to view Phedre's world through. They both grow a lot throughout the events of this novel, and getting Joscelin's internal dialogue during those events sheds a light on why Joscelin acts as he does, which isn't exactly clear in Kushiel's Dart.

I'll be interested to see if Jacqueline Carey returns to Joscelin's perspective for the events of Kushiel's Chosen. There is a good chunk of time during that novel where Phedre is off traveling the seas after her imprisonment and while we get a short summary of Joscelin's story during that time, there's certainly room for a lot more. Whether that story would be interesting without Phedre's presence, I'm not sure, but if anybody can pull it off, it's Jacqueline Carey. Whether she does or not, reading this book was exactly the return to Terre D'Ange that I needed.

Waaaaayyyyyyyy too many characters! I was getting fatigued just trying to remember all of the characters in this book; I actually had to start a notes page just to remember who some of them were. That being said, I really enjoyed Alex and Caleb's chapters. And I am interested to see where the story goes. I just hope the author isn't planning to introduce too many more new characters in the next book!

I'd read this before a couple of years ago, but listened to it on audiobook this time around and it was SO GOOD. The writing, the narration, the story were all just beautiful.

Kind of disappointing, to be honest. I love Carey's Kushiel's Dart series and I was expecting another story with the same sort of epic impact. I think that this story could have been easily stretched out into a trilogy, and I think that's the reason that I found it so difficult to be invested in it. The true action of the story didn't even start until 300-400 pages in. For so much time spent with Khai going through his education and training process, it didn't really seem to have much of an impact on the end of the story. He was a good fighter and he killed a lot :shrug:

This story was missing the same depth that the Kushiel's Dart series has. Everything was too easy. Every step was laid out before the characters and they followed the plan. By the time Khai and Zariya met up with the other defenders, the majority of the prophecy had already been figured out. Nothing went awry. There were no difficult decisions to make or agonize over. Without seeing the characters really overcoming anything, I couldn't find it in myself to care about any of the characters, or the family they built with each other. The characters built bonds with each other, but I didn't feel like a part of that process. Even the villain of the story was kind of lame.

I think the premise of the story was interesting. I would have liked to have seen more of the impact of Miasmus' forces returning. I would have liked to have seen more of the impact of the stars being missing, and then returning. I can't imagine Zariya's family was happy to have lost their long lives so quickly. It was pretty glossed over at the end. I think the story had a lot of potential but in the end I just don't think it was executed well. It's really unfortunate because I consider Carey to be a pretty talented storyteller.

First impressions (of Book 1, Mistborn):

So far, I'm most interested in the characters Vin and Kelsier. I'm only five chapters in at this point, and Vin has potential. She's paranoid and alert right now, but already you can see how Kelsier's appearance into her life is changing her perspective on her future. Instead of simply lurking in corners, she sees herself as a major player in the Empire's future. Life is no longer about simply surviving, but making use of the opportunities suddenly offered. Her paranoia colors all of her observations of Kelsier and his crew, which, despite my own theories, throws uncertainty into an otherwise predictable storyline. Kelsier's robust confidence makes him an easy character to trust, but Vin's thoughts remind us that, in this world (with which the reader is much less familiar), betrayal is everywhere and the only person you should trust is yourself. Vin's paranoia is directly juxtaposed with Kelsier's concrete confidence and trust in his plan and his crewmates. This creates an essential element of tension.

I thoroughly enjoyed the technique with which Brandon Sanderson chose to explain the magic system of allomancy. The scene in which the reader follows Kelsier as he ‘flies' to Keep Venture was a perfect introduction. The elements of how Allomancy works are hinted at throughout the beginning of the novel, but in this chapter, the reader is given a full explanation which ties in those elements. It is a magic system with strict rules and logical execution. I'm interested to see what kind of magical effects atium and the eleventh metal have.

Final Impressions:

I finished the first book last night. The ending was so tension filled that I spent my entire night reading the last quarter of the book, and stayed up until almost 2 in the morning to finish. Not good for my workday today, but it was worth it.

The twists at the end were quite unexpected, though there were several hints throughout the novel that lead there, so when you finally arrived at that “OHHHHH” moment, things made sense. The subtlety of Brandon Sanderson's writing is astonishing to me, and definitely a characteristic I'd like to be able to incorporate into my own writing at some point. I have no idea how he pulled it off.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Each chapter starts with an excerpt from a logbook, supposedly written by the Lord Ruler, a realization the characters come to in the second half of the story, but which I had started to suspect early on. Those excerpts added quite a bit of tension and uncertainty to the story, because the character that the excerpts established didn't match the description of the Lord Ruler himself, millenia after the logbook was written. It made me question Kelsier's plan and the entire Final Empire, which establishes unreliable narrators. Due to this, I was constantly questioning Kelsier and Vin, the characters from which we experience most of the story. I loved that tension.

As I mentioned earlier, Sanderson's use of subtle observations to highlight later epiphanies is marvelous. Especially when there are epiphanies layered on epiphanies, where the characters realize they were assuming one thing, and then learning later that their assumption had been entirely wrong. Moments that caught my breath:

- Kelsier's death: His death seems so sudden and easily achieved that the reader is simply left in shock, a reaction mirrored by the characters. But the characters and the reader come to realize together that this was part of Kelsier's plan all along. He knew he needed to become a martyr to make the skaa rise against the Empire–which Sazed had been telling him all along while answering Kelsier's questions about religion, and the culture who had resisted the Empire the longest.
- The Lord Ruler's true identity: He is not the Hero of Ages. He's Rashek, the Terris packman who had hated the Hero so much that he killed him. Not to mention that he can practice both Allomancy and Feruchemy, which explains why he tried to wipe out all the Terrismen–so that they couldn't breed with anyone with Allomantic powers and create someone capable of defeating him. With this realization also comes the questions: What happened at the Well of Ascension then? Did the Hero stop the Deepness before Rashek killed him? If not, is that why the land is dead? But the hero describes the Deepness as quick-moving, and the Lord Ruler's words as he dies cast doubt; was Rashek holding back the Deepness? What will happen now? This ending establishes a very natural transition for its sequel.
- Reen's true nature: The entire novel is interspersed with words of wisdom from Reen, telling Vin never to trust, that she will always be betrayed if she let's anyone get close. Vin eventually learns to push aside some of his advice, but these quotes add an uneasiness to Vin's newfound friendships. In the end, Kar reveals that Reen never left Vin, as she had assumed. Reen had always told her that he would leave, he would betray her, and that had seemingly happened, when he disappeared one night and never came back, leaving Vin to survive on her own with Camon's crew. Vin's assumptions, and Reen's teachings, are turned on their heads when we realize that Reen didn't leave: he was captured by the Inquisitors and tortured until he died. Not only that, but he never betrayed her. He died protecting her, swearing up and down that Vin had died of starvation years ago, rather than giving up her location. This realization allows Vin to stay with Elend.

Other things that I admired about this novel was the way Vin changed. At first, she is paranoid and distrusting and uncomfortable in dresses and learning noble manners. However, as she grows into the role she will play for the crew, she becomes more and more comfortable with making friendships, talking to the nobility, and wearing dresses. As she grows into these things, she occasionally stops and mourns the changes, doubts the person she is changing into, and worries about the consequences of these changes. She wonders if she is losing her essential self by mingling with all these new people, and that makes her an entirely real person. Everybody has, at some point or another, questioned the choices they're making, the people they're hanging out with, and the things they're doing that they always said they would never do. The characters in this book, in general, are real 3D people: they have pasts, strange quirks, and doubts. Many want to believe, but are held back by doubts, and often make a conscience decision to ignore their doubts and have faith. Faith itself is a major theme in this novel as well. Not only is the Final Empire based on a faith, but there is constantly the question of what faith is, and should faith overrule common sense.

The first novel of this trilogy is freshly written and very enjoyable. I'm very much looking forward to starting the second!



BOOK 2 Impressions - The Well of Ascension:

The ending of this book was full of TWISTS. It was TWIST-tastic. Suddenly everything you thought about the Final Empire and the Lord Ruler and the PROPHECY–thrown on its head. You are COMPLETELY WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING.

SPOILERS

The prophecy is fake! That, in and of itself, is amazing. The most evil of all evils (Ruin, as we find out in Book 3) has been manipulating memories and written word to prophesize the coming of the HERO OF AGES. The Hero is meant to find the Well of Ascension and release the power in order to defeat the Deepness. Turns out that the Deepness is made up, and when Vin releases the power from the Well of Ascension, she ends up releasing the big bad instead of defeating “the Deepness”.

There are some other pretty bad-ass moments in this book, mostly toward the end. Much of the beginning and middle of the book is made up of political fumbling from Elend, intense study from Sazed and Tyndwyl, and excessive moping and self-doubt from Vin. But the END of the book nearly makes up for all this set-up. The koloss attack Luthadel, and the pathetically small armies of Luthadel are fighting these giant powerful creatures. Vin makes a mad dash back to Luthadel and drops about a hundred koloss on her return. As she is trying to save some skaa refugees, she discovers that with a powerful enough bronze push, she can turn the koloss and control them. The attack ends, and Vin waits for Elend to return. The two of them proceed to the Well of Ascension to release the power within. And as Sazed is running to stop them, he is attacked by Marsh, who is controlled by the big bad. Sazed reaches Vin too late, the big bad is released, and then Elend is saved from death by a Mistborn-creating metal. There's just one question: who is the mist spirit who ends up saving Elend, who was trying to warn Vin about releasing the power? Is it Kwaan, perhaps? Maybe Alendi? Not sure at this point, but I'm sure it is one of the mysteries that will be revealed in Book 3.


BOOK 3 First Impressions - The Hero of Ages

This book is named after the false prophecy that lead Vin to release Ruin, an evil god (?) of destruction. So perhaps this is a prophecy that was true to begin with, and which Ruin simply manipulated for his own ends? I guess we'll see.

This book starts out right in the action: Elend saving a village from Inquisitor-controlled koloss with his new Mistborn powers. As usual, an entire year has passed between the events of book 2 and the beginning of book 3. Elend is well trained in his Mistborn powers and is, in fact, incredibly strong when it comes to Pushing and Pulling. Vin appears in the middle of the fight, and together they start turning the koloss to their side using Bronze pushes. The Inquisitor which was controlling those koloss comes to protect his property, and Vin and Elend proceed to slaughter him. Then they walk into town, and suddenly their purpose here is revealed: there is a secret stockpile of supplies beneath one of the Obligator headquarters there. It is full of canned food, and, even better, a message from the late Lord Ruler, providing them with valuable information about the nature of Ruin, and the metals which Mistborn are capable of using, and their properties. Elend and Vin seem about at the ends of their rope. Vin is tense about Ruin, and Elend is just trying to keep his empire together. They've both changed significantly, however, and those changes have made them a power couple. I hope that this book is much more action-filled than the rest, and I'm eager to see what sorts of revelations they'll come to as the book progresses :)

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel by Brandon Sanderson! I've been meaning to read it for some time now, after finishing the Mistborn trilogy and Way of Kings. I knew right off that this was Sanderson's first novel. I felt like the characters and plot were less complex than his later novels. As a writer, I enjoyed the simplicity of the story structure. The plot felt like a lot of concentric circles of ideas. This one simple event occurred, which struck off a ripple of complication, which created another ripple. These ripples collided with ripples from another set of complications, creating new ripples. The characters worked backward through the complications to determine what caused the big overlying issues of the story. I think I could use this technique in my own writing. I really appreciate Sanderson's writing for this reason alone. He uses simple techniques to create complex worlds and characters, and builds idea upon idea for a logical story structure.

SPOILERS

As I mentioned previously, I did feel that this novel's characters were less developed, or maybe just less complex than his later characters. Their motivations and masks were two-dimensional. The most complex character was Hrathen, who was the only character to go through a significant transformation by the end of the novel. His history, personality, and motivations were hidden further beneath the surface than the rest of the characters. I had trouble deciding whether I liked him or not, throughout the novel, and I'm not sure if that is because of Sanderson's writing, or because his character seemed wishy-washy. Was the character insecure and undecided, or was Sanderson undecided about the character? At times, I felt that I should hate Hrathen. But at the end, he came through for the characters I was rooting for when the real villain came to light. I kept mistaking Hrathen for the cold-hearted conqueror, and then getting thrown every time he showed remorse or regret for his actions.

Another very fun couple to get to know! I thought the speed with which Val warmed up to Gregor was a little fast, given that she had spent the last 10 years basically hating his guts. But the banter between them, the awkward interactions from Gregor and Val's teasing, were adorable. I really liked Gregor. Val was less fun as a heroine than Ankari was in the first book; she spent a lot of time feeling self-conscious about her piloting abilities. The plot in this one was a little thin, and the conflict at the end was kind of out of nowhere. But the situations that Val and Gregor ended up in and the way that they worked together in symphony were very satisfying to read.

“If they've linked us to the kidnapping, we may face aerial resistance when we leave,” Gregor said.
“It's somewhat alarming that you sound excited by that,” Val said.
“I am a combat pilot.”

“Did you just break free from the airlock with the clamps still attached? That is not the technique you taught us in the academy.”
“Due to the impound, the station automation refused to acknowledge the command to release the craft. I was forced to employ unsanctioned departure techniques.” He sounded excited by that too.
“Crazy bastard,” Val muttered...

I really enjoyed the characters in this book; Ankari and Viktor are a lot of fun. Plus there was an actual plot, and a competent main female character. This book really stood out from other sci-fi romances for me. Viktor doesn't make unilateral decisions to “protect” Ankari; he actually goes and talks to her and they come up with a plan together gasp. Ankari's talents are realistic and I particularly enjoyed her constant escapes and pick-pocketing. There were no TSTL moments. Every obstacle felt real and wasn't the result of a character overlooking an obvious-to-me eventuality. There was a little bit of an insta-love aspect, but it was couched as more insta-lust with feelings coming later. And I liked that the conclusion of the story ended up Spoilerwith Ankari working out a deal with Viktor so that she could continue her business.

I binged this book in a single day. I've been on a kick with sci-fi romances (just finished basically everything by Jessie Mihalik) and this definitely fell into that category. This is the first book I've read by Amanda Bouchet, and I think she's a fairly strong writer, although not the strongest. There were some phrases of hers that I really loved; I really enjoyed her writing style.

My name was a bomb. It blew people away.

I didn't feel like there was any clear plot driving this story. I didn't like any of the characters, except Marx. In fact, Sam and Sadie are at each other's throats for the majority of the story. Both holding grudges against perceived slights that have been blown way out of proportion and exacerbated by refusing to talk through their issues. I dislike stories where the main conflict is caused by miscommunication.
I enjoyed the discussion of game design and I would love a chance to play Pioneers!

Entertaining at times, perplexing at others.

At the start of the story, Sirantha Jax is “recovering” from a crash that killed her pilot and every other person aboard ship. She is a jumper, meaning that she has a special gene that allows her to navigate grimspace, essentially a faster than FTL method of navigating large distances in space. Being a jumper requires being metaphysically linked with a pilot, which usually results in a romantic connection as well. Jax is reeling from the loss of her pilot and the trauma of the crash, while her employers are forcing psych visits on her that are meant to break her, so they can pin the whole thing on her. It takes a while for Jax to come to that realization though.

Before she breaks, she's rescued by a grim, gruff man named March. He convinces her to leave with him and together they make it back to his ship, where the rest of his crew waits for her. They literally cannot leave without her, because their previous pilot and jumper are both dead, having died in the effort to retrieve Jax. She immediately takes the guilt of their deaths on herself and forces herself to jump with March as her new pilot, which feels like a betrayal to her previous pilot Kai.

From this escape, they pretty much jump from disaster to disaster, all the while Jax is taking every little bit of guilt she can gather from every interaction. This is around the time where I start to get pretty frustrated by Jax. She's literally making no decisions for herself; she is a passive crewmate that allows everyone else to make decisions for her and just goes with the flow. She asks zero questions about what her rescuers intentions are. Eventually we get a few answer, but Jax's passivity is incredibly frustrating, especially since she's our narrator for the entire story. It's all just happening around her.

In addition, she starts to take on a familiarity with the rest of the crew that is really difficult to believe, given that she's know them for all of a day or so? The timeline is pretty blurry, especially in the beginning. She starts to make comments about the other characters, like how “March is never not mean to her” which is a pretty big generalization when he really hasn't been mean to her at all and if anything, she's been pretty mean to him; not to mention that, again, she's been with him for about a day or two and that whole time they've been constantly running from things. She makes these sorts of generalizing comments about all of the characters, with very little basis to them.

The only relationship that feels remotely well-paced is the one between Jax and Dina. They start out pretty openly disliking each other, but the way their relationship evolves over time feels much more realistic than the rest of Jax's insta-connections, and I found myself really enjoying a lot of the banter between them.

The first time I really start to like Jax, and actually connect with her character, is when she says enough is enough and leaves the crew. She finally makes a decision for herself and actually voices an opinion of her own, and stands her ground! Granted it's 70% of the way through the book at this point, but it was nice to see her with some actual backbone. Obviously she eventually has to go back, and Doc makes sure that she does go back. But it's easier to accept her relationship with March when she does go back, because she's had time to process her trauma and her conflicting feelings about him after the loss of Kai.

The ending gets wrapped up pretty quickly after this. The foreshadowing from all the times where March warned Jax about his dark past is fulfilled when he decides to take a bunch of hostages and threaten to blow up an entire city when he thinks Jax is dead. Luckily Jax shows up just in time to talk him off the ledge, while her brand new bounty hunter friend releases recordings of Jax's innocence and the Corps' evil plans to the public, resulting in riots and rebellion across the galaxy.

Sure, sure sure sure.

In the end, I think this story wanted to be big and epic with some dark, scary, bad-ass characters. But it tried to do that without doing a lot of the work to make it believable. I had a hard time suspending my disbelief long enough to feel the things I think the author wanted me to feel. There were moments that I genuinely enjoyed, and I'm hoping that maybe the next books will improve on the story-telling enough to let me fully enjoy the story!

After reading through Seraphina as quickly as I possibly could, including finishing it at 3AM on a work night (morning?), I was excited to get to Shadow Scale. I was eager to see how Seraphina's life changed and how her romance with Kiggs proceeded, given their agreement at the end of the first book. Unfortunately, Shadow Scale was not nearly as fun a read as the first novel.

The things that I loved about Seraphina in the first novel were gone in the second. There was nothing that happened in book two that wouldn't have occurred if Seraphina wasn't there. She was merely an observer through the whole novel. She leaves Goredd to find the other half-dragons, but really, Abdo and Jannoula find them all for her. She tries to find Orma, but fails. She tries to recreate St. Abaster's fire, but Jannoula and the other half-dragons do it without her. She tries to sneak into Castle Orison and save Glisselda, but Selda saves her. She tries to mirror St. Abaster's fire back at Jannoula, but fails, and Pandowdy wakes up and takes Jannoula away (even after telling Seraphina that he wasn't going to help her).

What happened to the girl that investigated a murder without any help? What happened to the girl who bluffed her way into interrogating prisoners? What happened to the girl who faced down a dragon with nothing but words? What happened to the girl who bravely bared her scales to those around her and kept going through every obstacle, even though no one trusted her?

The ending was terrible. Seraphina accomplished nothing, and then Kiggs marries Glisselda anyway, even though both he and Selda are in love with Seraphina (whaaaaat??).

Eve Duncan is not my favorite main character. She is so oblivious to the relationships around her, which I think is intentional, but it's not my favorite strategy for inserting twists into a story. She's set up as this character with a tragic background, who has focused on her work intentionally to forget her grief. Joe tiptoes around her and kind of puppeteers her recovery behind the scenes (Spoilerand he is also in love with Eve, which I called in Chapter 15 but was disappointed to find that Eve couldn't just have one male friend). Logan sees her soft side behind her walls and falls in love with her because of it (called it in Chapter 1 that John Logan was going to fall in love with Eve).

I think I had a hard time feeling anything for Eve (or really, any of the characters) because even though she's the main character, we as the readers are removed from her thoughts and decision-making. The story is written in 3rd person, and it doesn't really feel like we are any closer to Eve's thought processes than we are with the other characters in the story whose POVs we are given (Logan, Joe, Lisa, Fiske, etc). Everything is external: all decisions and plans are made in dialogue. Even Eve's personality is expressed entirely through dialogue. She basically just argues with everybody the whole time :shrug:

Fiske is a pretty scary character, but I didn't feel it viscerally. I didn't feel personally threatened by him. I've read much scarier, unnerving villains in the past, ones that made me personally afraid for my safety just by reading the book. I feel like Fiske should have added a layer of dread to the reading of this book, and he just didn't.

The twist at the end (Spoilerwhere Lisa reveals that Ben knew he was going to die and planned the whole thing) didn't feel as impactful as it should have. I had a hard time believing Lisa-as-a-cold-murderer was actually SpoilerLisa-the-mournful-widow who is just executing a plan that her husband engineered.

The initial story where Eve believes Logan is looking for Kennedy's skull was SO cliché, I'm glad it changed into something else. But I feel like the author was going for this epic story, and it sort of just got lost in the logistics. It's just a lot of driving around between places and waiting for things to happen.

Also was really disappointed to find that there were no on-stage romance scenes with Eve and Logan at any point in the book. We just get some vague impressions of things happening behind-the-scenes in the epilogue.

Speaking of the epilogue: the interludes where Eve dreams about Bonnie were sort of odd. I'm not sure how I feel about them. Bonnie insists that she's not a dream, and Eve insists that Bonnie is just her imagination. They sort of serve as foreshadowing within the story, where Bonnie warns Eve about something, in case the reader didn't already pick up on the previous clues dropped in the story.

I truly enjoyed the sections of the story where Eve is actually doing her work. I most enjoyed the sections where she explains how certain processes work. She explains the process of reconstructing the skull, doing the superimposition of the reconstructed skull and pictures of the victim, and the use of chemiluminescence for DNA printing. Those details were fascinating and I'm really glad the author chose to include them.

This book was a retelling of Cinderella. That became clear pretty quickly. Alizeh is an orphan, working in a noble house in Setar, the capital of Ardunia. She is scrubbing the house by day, until her hands are literally in shreds, and by night she is working as a seamstress to try to make enough money to get herself out of her servitude.

Not a bad premise so far. There are a million retellings of Cinderella though.

Alizeh is also a Jinn, which means that she's got powers that humans (the Clay) don't have. But Alizeh is special. While most Jinn are “forged from fire” whatever that means, she has ice in her veins. Which means she's literally freezing all the time (...I feel like I can relate lol). She can literally sit in a fire, all of her clothes will burn away, but she won't burn. Plus she can heal super well but apparently despite her servitude for the last several years, only realizes it halfway through the book... AND Alizeh is haunted by the devil, Iblees. He whispers riddles to her, which causes her to fall into a state of terror for some reason. AND she's afraid of the dark. She's extra special.

Kamran is a prince. A whiny, spoiled, angry, judgemental heir-to-the-throne-that-he-doesn't-want. He's recently returned to Setar from fighting in a war against Tulan, even though apparently they aren't actually at war so I'm not really sure what he's been up to. His grandfather Zaal is currently the King. Kamran's father died 7 years prior.

But the time is coming where Kamran is going to have to choose a bride and provide an heir! Which of course he doesn't want to do because all women are boring ugly sycophants.

UNTIL he meets Alizeh.

The whole romance was pretty insta-love. They've literally only met three times before they're making out (and the first time they're in the same scene together, they don't even meet so it doesn't even count).

Honestly the whole book was so rushed. Everything is very surface-level. The author never really digs in deep to the world-building (which could have been really interesting!), or any of the characters. She just rushes plot point after plot point. And at the end the villain reveals the answers to all of the mysteries. None of which were remotely hinted at in the rest of the book. It's just Alizeh being sad and cold and broken and poor. And Kamran being angry and handsome.

Wow, just wow. I could not put this book down. This was a beautifully-written, well-executed story. I was expecting another smut fantasy with a tepid plotline. I am so glad to be wrong! This story was steamy as hell, don't get me wrong, but also had a badass heroine who literally saves the world by the end. Khamsin is fiery, stubborn, and rebellious and manages to grow in character and power throughout the story. Wynter is cold and unapproachable in the beginning, but eventually the sweet man beneath the icy exterior is revealed. All the characters were amazing, full of depth and complexity. I will likely return to this one over and over again!

I was honestly surprised by the number of good reviews on this book. The dialogue was awful, the characters were uninteresting, and Nora skipped all the potentially exciting parts in the book to move the plot along! It honestly seemed like a setup for book 2, which is weird for the first book in a series. It felt like all the action happened off-screen, and then I had to sit through monotonous conversations about the characters' plans for the future.

I think there was a lot of potential here, but it did not hit the mark.

I have thoughts... Not entirely done processing the story yet.
There's a lot of good stuff in here, but I feel like the time spent describing how magic works took the place of the fun relationships and banter that I loved from books 1 and 2.
El is dealing with a lot and we see her struggling to process it. She becomes very passive in several parts of the book, which felt like a very big turn from her usual self. Is that an effect of her trauma, or bad writing/plot development?
El's relationship with Liesel certainly changed a lot. It felt like an odd choice for El's main sidekick throughout the book. Still thinking over this character...
I really wanted to see more of El and Orion together. That was definitely missing from the story.
Mostly I feel like Novik tried to touch on some great themes, like processing trauma, but lost a lot of fun parts of books 1 and 2 that makes it worth slogging through the emotional trauma parts.
I need to read this again, when I'm not recovering from covid and fighting off migraines. I'm really curious what a reread will reveal.

First Impressions:

I've never been a Wheel of Time fan. I read this book sometime back in high school, and was not really inspired by it. I started book 2, but never finished. It was too high fantasy for me, if you can believe it.

Since I remember so little of the book from when I read it in high school, and since reading Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson keeps me up at night, I decided to give this novel another try. So far, 20 pages in, I feel the same as I did back then. Although the prologue was intriguing, especially the part where Dragon turns himself into a volcano, the narrative itself is wordy and uninteresting.

After the prologue, we have Rand al'Thor riding with his father to the Bel Tine festival. There are some interesting elements that caught my attention: the ‘traditional' elements, where the people of the town don't remember why things are done, but just that it's always been done, so why change? I am also interested in seeing the role of women in this world. This town has a Women's Circle, which the men are not allowed to interfere in. They elect a woman to be ‘Wisdom', whose role seems to be predicting the future–how the weather will be, what kind of harvest they can expect that year, etc. So far, the reader has had only one interaction with a woman, Wit's wife, and she seems unpleasant. I usually enjoy stories with a more direct female role, someone who I can directly relate to, so I'm not sure how much I'll enjoy this novel as it is told (so far) from the perspective of an adolescent male.

Other than my thoughts on the traditional elements and the gender perspective, I haven't found a lot to pull me in. I'm not fond of the writing style. Robert Jordan spends a lot of time describing the surroundings. As a reader, I don't find it necessary to know exactly how much snow is under the trees. I can appreciate that winter is lasting much longer than it should, but how many times do I need this thrown in my face? I get it already, Jordan! The winter is lasting too long and no one is even sure they're going to get a good harvest. So far we've heard this from 3 or 4 characters, and from the descriptive narrative from Jordan himself (omniscient). I get the point. Stop beating the dead horse.

That said, this will certainly help me sleep better at night.


UPDATE

Dammit, it started getting good. Had to force myself to put the book down at 11:30 last night. This may not help me sleep after all. Robert Jordan is painting this idyllic setting of the inside of Tam and Rand's home–cozy fire, stew bubbling, the two men performing their tasks in harmony and without complaint–when suddenly, there is a pounding on the door, followed by the door being kicked down by a giant man with a snout, ram's horns, and hooves. I have to say, it caught me by surprise. Jordan had pulled me in with his slow descriptions, and the leisurely pace of the events. I was expecting to be bored for another few chapters based on this presumption. Then suddenly, Tam is hacking Trollocs down at the door, and Rand is running for the woods. In rapid succession, Rand reunites with Tam–who is now injured and feverish–in the woods behind their home, Rand then goes back to the house for supplies, kills another Trolloc, fashions a litter, and starts dragging his father toward Emond's Hill. Along the way, a troop of trollocs passes, lead by the mysterious horseman, and Tam is muttering feverishly, telling stories of war and finding a baby, blue in the cold, and taking it home because he and his wife cannot have children. That's the chapter I finished the night with. Dammit Jordan, why couldn't you have continued to disappoint me? Now there are two books I can't read during the week because I will never sleep.

UPDATE

It took me a long time to finish this book. It is a very large book, and parts of it are very interesting, while other parts are pretty mediocre. My boyfriend promises me that things get better by book three. Book 2 is in my queue, so we'll see how far I get this time around.

Could not put it down, literally stayed up to 3 in the morning on a work night to finish!

 Honestly, pretty boring. I get that this author focuses on characters, but there's literally nothing driving the “story” until the very end. I also didn't understand how Tessa's narrative fit in with the rest; at least all the other characters were directly affected by Sawyer's death. Tessa and her family basically just use it as a reason to move to a planet. I'm not sure that was a worthwhile arc to include in this book. 

FMC is almost TSTL