Elizabeth

Well. I was yawningly bored until the very last chapter which made me stay up past my bedtime and reminded me this is a fairytale. Without the hype, I think it is an ok book, not fantastic. But, without the hype I wouldn't have picked it up in the first place, having not particularly enjoyed [b:Uprooted 22544764 Uprooted Naomi Novik https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1550135418s/22544764.jpg 41876730] either.OTOH, having studied medieval fairy lore and trope, medieval Judaism, and medieval history, this book ticks all the right boxes.

I bought this for bedtime reading and while some of it is interesting, the style and the majority of it is eh. Not recommended unless you need it for research.

I liked this book in much the same way that I liked [b:Daughter of Smoke and Bone 13600168 Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #1) Laini Taylor https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1334320707s/13600168.jpg 13355552]: pretty places and pretty words held together with some enjoyable characters and (of course) solid YA Feels.

A little bit scary for the targeted age range, but not too much, and a girl who kicks ass because she has to even though she's scared. And a black cat familiar.

I read this because I bought it for my kid to listen to/read on a long journey. She liked it, which was the point.

I was surprised to find this is an excellent exploration of loss and grief, wrapped in an otherwise pedestrian intrigue/heist/long-con by unknown (and unknowing) greater forces at play sort of fantasy. I won't pick up the sequels. 

Yes? I think so, yes. The writing was beautiful, as always - this is a lovely series, but most of it comes from the delicious writing, rather than the story or characters themselves. This book is full of squishy feelings and YA-romance moments and I'm totally ok with that, but I'm also totally ok with leaving Karou, Akiva, Zuzana and Mik and not coming back. This isn't a series that will be on my re-read list anytime soon.

It was nice to not get a traditional happily ever after. But as the universe(s) expanded I really wanted to learn more about what happens after the End. Not to Karou, but maybe Scarab and Eliza and the nihilim. I really wanted to see Brimstone and his reaction to Karou post-wishbone, and see the 'family' reunited. But as it stands I am mostly satisfied.

That moment when you type out a review and then the browser crashes. Nevermind.

I can't decide if I enjoyed this book or not: it's something I picked up because it's the Sword and Laser read for this month, and the Kindle sample chapter didn't suck. I'm not particularly interested in having guns in fantasy, and I'm not interested in steampunk worlds, but that's not the fault of the book. The fact that I kept reading says it didn't completely suck, but at the same time none of the characters, the politics, or the more interesting layers of mages and ‘gods' are enough to make me want to go on to the next in the series, despite ending on a cliffhanger (although at some point I will ask Wikipedia what happened to Ka-Poel).

As previously noted, the naming stuff really bugged me. Although taking ‘real' names and giving them a slight twist is a deliberate action on the part of McClellan, next time maybe choose a less universally recognised name than Karolus Magnus. I did have fun, however, imagining Ricard to be a shorter, fatter, equally bald version of Jean-Luc Picard.

The addict storyline also bugged me, for reasons I can't put my finger on. It makes complete sense in the world: of course the powder and the accompanying trance would become a habit and then a necessity, and I think it's important to explore that facet of the mechanics of gunpowder mages. But it still bugged me.

Overall, I would actually give this book three stars, but I stick closely to the Goodreads ratings and for me, this one was ok, but I wouldn't say I liked it. Hence two.

ETA: I have to mention I really did like that the impressions of the powder mages and Adamat about third parties were different, rooted in their backgrounds and social positions, and that different characteristics about each of the third-party people were noted by Adamat when he met them for the first time, as opposed to Tamas who has obviously known them for decades at this point in time.

Yesss. This had the perfect mixture of ass-kicking teenage girl (blue-haired and living in Prague, of course), fantasy, angst, romance and heartbreak. Enough fairy tale to weave it all together but not break the spell. Not perfect, but I loved it.

This was my first GGK, and it won't be my last. I did the audio version, impeccably read by Kate Reading, and my only gripe was not having enough time to listen as quickly as I wanted to.

If you're a fan of Felicia Day this is a short-but-interesting read. If you're not into her, this is probably not the book for you.

It's about time I read this. Also, fucking pigs.

This is probably the first audiobook narrated by Wil Wheaton where I think he is actually suited to the task, because this is short snippets of fun science rather than a dramatic production.

I enjoyed the short snippets of fun science, too. Short enough chapters to listen to a few while doing household chores. I pretty much treated it like a podcast. While the audio version lacks the fun of Randall Munroe's drawings to go alongside the text, the lack doesn't detract, and I found the science easier to follow by having it read to me rather than trying to read it myself.

(I also have the dead-tree version in the house, because my husband doesn't like audio books and I knew he'd like this, so I have the pictures anyway.)

A behind-the-scenes look at personal and official documents of the Cooper family and the related Shadow Service. Obviously, full of spoilers from the rest of the Tortall series, and clearly for diehard fans.

Many of these stories were pure squee for this girl who met Alanna ([b:Alanna: The First Adventure 13831 Alanna The First Adventure (Song of the Lioness, #1) Tamora Pierce https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388206270s/13831.jpg 1936544]) half a lifetime ago. Short snippets of how my friends were going was lovely. And, because they are my friends, I probably forgive this book some sins. Certainly, I wasn't a fan of the urban fantasy story, the straight up fiction-based-on-reality story right at the end.If you're a fan of Aly (or Nawat), or Kitten (or Daine and Numair), or want to know what happened to that tree Numair turned into a man, read this book.

For all that this story started well, creepy and gripping, with religious lockdown of women (hence comparisons with The Handmaid's Tale), the second half fell into well-worn tropes and predictable plot twists.  Which might be cool - I don't read much horror so I don't know how much is expected in the genre versus how much is overused. 

I found the character development uneven, the leaps of logic unexplained, the dialogue a weird mixture of formal (One character literally apologises for using a “colloquialism” which felt very out of place in an otherwise normal chat with a stranger). The religion-based lockdown on women's behaviour and movement only applied when the author wanted it to? 

On the other hand, I still finished it, I still wanted to know what happened, I still wanted the bad guy to get their comeuppance and the good guy to win. I think it's a good, scary debut.

This is firmly horror, to the point that my brain was giving me utterly pedestrian dreams such as going to the shops, and doing my favourite work tasks.

This is an excellent overview of the entire crusading movement, and Tyreman has done a very good job with a very difficult task. Even at almost 1000 pages, he is barely scratching the surface of such a long and involved period of history. For those who want an introduction to the Crusades, this might be a little heavy-going, but for a deeper understanding or for working at an undergraduate level, God's War is a fantastic resource, if perhaps too long to prescribe as an undergraduate textbook.

For the major (numbered) crusades through to Louis IX's misadventures in Egypt, Tyreman takes a two-chapter approach, the first giving context, and the second examining the events and outcomes of the conflict. This ensures the reader is grounded in the wider events of the period - the Crusades did not happen in isolation, and events throughout Europe and, later, throughout Asia, combine to influence crusade momentums and outcomes. Smaller crusade movements get a more cursory treatment, I suspect due to length constraints than any comment on their importance within the wider movement; the insightful evaluation of motives and outcomes is no less for these ‘lesser' crusades.

Thoroughly researched and riddled with citations, with the delightful addition of academic snark, I highly recommend.

I think this book could have used some more input from an editor, there were definitely some scenes that could have been cleaned up, for example towards the end of the book the need for characters to internally debate a point for 3 or 4 pages, and then have other characters bring up the same point 3 or 4 times got tedious. We know Richard won't marry Bess, why labour the same point with the same argument in 4 different instances within such a short amount of pages? At least the other repetitions - Elizabeth Woodville's cunningness, Edward's getting fat and unhealthy, the Princes in the Tower - were all spread out a bit.

Some of the anachronisms in descriptions annoyed me (one character thinking about something as ‘newfangled', one description of ‘static electricity' etc).

But, minor criticisms. Overall it didn't suck (because I finished it), but I don't think I would read again.

An absolutely excellent academic overview of the history and historiography of witch beliefs, placed in a world context. Highly recommend if you have an interest, particularly in early modern European witch beliefs, and have a passing knowledge of the history and historiography. (Although it's not required, you'd get more from Hutton's critique of the developments and trends in witchcraft historiography if you knew the works of [a:Richard Kieckhefer 184604 Richard Kieckhefer https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png], [a:Carlo Ginzburg 40230 Carlo Ginzburg https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1392573232p2/40230.jpg], [a:Norman Cohn 53186 Norman Cohn https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png], [a:Robin Briggs 41776 Robin Briggs https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], [a:Lyndal Roper 223364 Lyndal Roper https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_50x66-6a03a5c12233c941481992b82eea8d23.png], to name just a few titans.)

Well I can see why some of the reviews on this book were not as effusive as for [b:Mistborn: The Final Empire 12968705 Mistborn The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1) Brandon Sanderson https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1400264919s/12968705.jpg 66322]. Despite some siege warfare and a little bit of politicking, nothing really happened. A desperate attempt at a YA love-triangle was quickly dealt with, thank goodness.But the parts that happened in between that, the history and lore and religion and scholars doing their scholarly thing and the what-happens-after-the-happily-ever-after was, for me, fantastic. My kind of story.And the end, spoiler-free, frankly scared the crap out me as a historian relying entirely on written material. LOVE.

Spoilery? Yeah.For a series that started out with Maerad and her being The One, the sections of this book that focused on her brother were much more interesting, with much more warmth and movement: I don't mind a bit of road trip in my stories.Croggon still manages to hit all the fantasy tropes without being self-conscious about it: without too much effort Hem saves someone he loves from an incurable disease, Maerad suddenly works out how to defeat the Elemental that held her captive for a good chunk of [b:The Riddle 393145 The Riddle (The Books of Pellinor, #2) Alison Croggon https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1360170670s/393145.jpg 858967], and then they meet up and save the world. Pretty much as I expected it to go, but I still found myself skimming Maerad's parts in order to get back to Hem and Saliman.Although it's written as a ‘look what historians dug up, we don't know the full story', I want to know what happened to the bad guys who were human? Did they puff off into smoke and ash like The Nameless One? Are the Elementals still there? How did the events of the book affect the other people Maerad met in the second book? Too many un-wrapped up threads.The worst part, and this is petty, is that there was no payoff on the Maerad/Cadvan story. All the cliches were in place, down to the third party telling Maerad that Cadvan is in love with her (DUH), while she (obviously) freaks out and decides that he's not so bad. And then the end, when she's done saving the world and nearly dies but of course doesn't, THERE IS NO KISS. Well, there's a kiss, told in flashback. There's no acknowledgement of a relationship - there is no conversation between them at all. It's hardly fair to come through four books of fantasy cliche and then the one that I don't really mind doesn't get played out at all.

I wanted to highlight so much of this book I would have ruined it with pages full of yellow ink.

Part of me wishes I'd first read this alongside the other classic dystopias as a teenager, but I think it has more horrific impact for me now.

And now finally I can social media without spoilers for/from the tv adaptation.

I read this simply because I'd just finished [b:Persuasion 2156 Persuasion Jane Austen https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1385172413s/2156.jpg 2534720] and this had been sitting on my Kindle for several years without being touched. I've not read or seen an adaption of it before, and I can see I didn't miss out on much. It is obviously Austen's first published work. The minutiae of the social life of teenage girls in the late 18th and early 19th Century is fascinating, but is pretty much the only redeeming feature of this book which lacks depth, going on for far too long and saying not much. While Marianne, the youngest of the two Dashwood sisters, gains sense to moderate her sensibility (after heartbreak), the main character Elinor doesn't appear to gain any sensibility to temper her sense.It wasn't enough to hold my attention for long, until I reached the point where I decided I may as well just get it over with, but it also didn't suck enough to abandon it completely. Disappointing overall but leaves me with only one Austen unread, so I can tick that off the list of things to do before I die.

Nope. I can't even. I was really struggling, but then when That Guy who was dead at the end of the last book turned up again, nope.

(Adare's story was picking up, though, and Kaden's was strong the whole way even if he did make stupid STUPID choices).

 I really dithered between 2 and 3 stars here (I like the GR guide rating, 2 means it was ok).

This is a big book full a diverse cast and massive worldbuilding, and I think it's aiming for too much in a single volume. The biggest criticism I've read is that the Epic Life Or Death Showdown (not a spoiler if you've ever read a book) is over in mere minutes, which I agree, but also I enjoyed because I find epic battle scenes tedious to read.

There are a lot of cast members, none of whom get enough screen time, and maybe I would have preferred a trilogy here (although let's be honest, I probably would only read the first one anyway). The big concepts and worldbuilding tackled in a YA breadth, not depth, style; of course this is fine, but felt hollow to me here. A deep dive into each of the cultures we met would have been awesome.

By 75% I was extremely ready for the book to be over, having read enough Fine, not Great story for 200 pages, and still having another 200 pages ahead of me. It's a perfectly ok story, and you'll likely enjoy it because you're not a book curmudgeon like me.

I'm not going to not like anything from the World of the Five Gods (fantasy! magic! religion! theology!) but (not a spoiler if you've read literally anything else in this universe) I do greatly enjoy a legitimate reason for deus ex machina.