Daniel Williams

More of a 3.5, but rounded up for benefit of the doubt. Lost me a bit in the last 150 pages with Joe's decision and the time jump.

I wanted to love this. I think taking taking the story of individuals impacted by a war-torn country and placing it in a “Western Country” is a brilliant way to break the complacency that can come with reading similar, real stories in the news. Of course, the rise of authoritarian governments also makes this a little too timely. However, the strange formatting added nothing for me and detracted from the book. At first it did add to the frenetic pace, but it did make it feel jumbled in the middle and like I missed some important details and prose. It worked well to sit up the beginning slow creep and the frenetic pace of the ending, but was also an impediment.

Loved the world this created - The characters, the lore, the world building (taking fantasy away from a vaguely European setting and placing it in pre-Columbia Americas). However, it definitely felt like an introduction to a series. It felt sort of plodding and that it was just prepping the reader for what was to come in the next book. I will certainly read that one too due to the brilliance of the world that was created here.

Andrew Garfield/Cynthia Erick audiobook - Superb!

The concept and execution of this was really interesting and went in ways I didn't expect (the political aspect particularly). It wasn't the best or most interestingly written (some overwhelmingly corny and cliche lines), but all of the emotional notes hit for me. Would recommended.

Slow until the arrival of Mosscap, but absolutely adored it after that. Can't wait to read number 2!

Not sure I've ever been more hypnotized by a book.

The best way I can think to describe this is a very impressively written book that was (for my taste) poorly written. The fact that he made up his own science system and could justify it was very cool, but then the book was him or (SPOILERS) his alien friend (and I did love Rocky) either explaining the science or making sarcastic comment. Grace was both a walking textbook and had the vocabulary of a wise cracking teenager. The prose was incredibly underwhelming. And while the science system was impressive, it was like reading a murder mystery without the author ever giving you clues as to how to actually solve it (unless you are also a super scientist). “Ope Ryland and Rocky are in another conundrum, guess I'll read four pages of a scientific explanation to see how they get out of it.” Again, incredibly impressive book and I am excited for the movie because I think the idea was very cool, but the execution as a novel was incredibly underwhelming at best for me.

The first book was a brilliant, complex and easy to follow all at the same time. This one was brilliant, complex, and introduced so many new concepts that it was difficult to follow at times. I was still enraptured, but the “science” or “facts” of the world didn't seem as well explained which was the focus of the book, which made it fairly frustrating at times.

Read as curriculum for my sociology class, Spring 2024.

“The death penalty is broken, and you are either part of the death squad or you are banging on the bars.”

This was beautifully written, gripping, and had stellar characters. With all that said, it was so overwhelmingly sad that I'm not sure how much I truly enjoyed it. Will have to reflect for a bit.

Not a groundbreaking book by any means, but so nice and pleasant. Exactly what I was looking for and was able to read it in a day.

It started slowly, but by the time Stoner was married to Edith the book had its claws in me. I've never had such complicated feelings towards a character as I did for Edith. Also potentially one of the best endings I've ever read. Bitterly sad story, but also so beautiful.