I was excited to read a fantasy book set in a Chinese based culture rather than the usual European culture found in most fantasy books. However I couldn't get past a certain event that happens early in the book, and was clearly going to have ongoing effects on the character. The descriptions are very evocative, which probably didn't help me in this case. And I could see the book turning into a great read.
Invaluable. I've always been terrified of this subject, and it took me two attempts to go through this book, but it is so well told and knowing it has a “happy ending” that it was well worth paying through my personal discomfort to gain the information and most importantly lived experience this book offers
Contains some useful tips but is very consumerist. Some of the advice seems to be to get rid of stuff for the sake of getting rid of it because you can always but it again later. While that may be true, it's also very wasteful. There is a balance between the two.
I'm also not a fan of the idea of thanking my possessions for doing their job, it's ridiculous
A good follow up to Dreadnought. Some of the characters are basically caricatures, I suppose that fits in with the comic book feel of the setting. I do think Greywytch was too much though, and found it unbelievable that Danny's presence would drive her to take the action she did. Looking forward to book three
I'm being generous giving this 5 stars, it's more of a 4, but given how quickly I readit (I only started last night) I clearly enjoyed it. This reminded me of Sookie Stackhouse novels in style, as it was quite light, and the letters mechanism doesn't stand up to too much scrutiny within the plot, but are a good storytelling device.
A fun read, and I'm planning to read the next book
Read this as it was the banging book club pick for last month and they gave it rave reviews. Really similar to Silver which I read a few years ago and also loved, but this one has the added element of Sophie Stones' book and therefore of privacy after death. It's made me think about various biographies I've read and wonder how their subjects would feel about a book being written about them - and particularly I'm questioning whether I should ever read the book about Billy Tipton which clearly inspired this book and I've always planned to read.
I liked this well enough, it just felt lacking in some way. Once the stone appeared in the story, it felt like things happened very quickly with no time to process it - though that could be because I listened to it and it wasn't holding my attention for processing.
I like the world building so would pick up the second book for that alone - kind of similar to The Long Earth series with Kel as the only stepper, and magic :)
Definitely a book which shows its age; I've not read a lot of classic science fiction, but what I have read seems to be quite shallow in terms of character development and this book is the same. I actually thought during the last plot arc that this could have made quite an entertaining film, because films can get away with less characterisation. Overall, a decent plot, decent world building, and a mildly enjoyable read.