Ethan Poole
This book very nicely concludes the Earthsea story, and for that, I appreciated it. Overall, Earthsea is a timeless story.
I'm a fan of Phoebe Robinson, but this is the first book of her books that I've read. The essays were funny and insightful. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys her comedy.
This book is the best fantasy novel that I have read in some time. Jemisin has mastered the art of showing, rather than telling. Her daring choice of literary devices, like using the second person, is refreshing, especially in a genre that is distinctly repetitive. The story itself unfolds in the most elegant and natural-feeling way. There are lots of “a-ha” movements towards the end of the book, when so many of the story's events and characters are drawn together—but nothing here feels forced or arbitrary. My single complaint is that the book's ending is not really an ending, but, I guess, this is what you get with a trilogy. It is mitigated by the fact that the rest of the trilogy is already published, so I don't have to wait for a resolution.
Too much happening for a novella, and serious middle-book syndrome. Still, I like the world-building and the protagonist.
Great epic fantasy. Better than the first book—in part, I think, because the characters are better. I really like that there are real stakes, no one is a superhero (à la SA), and problems are won through ingenuity (cool tech, tactic, gambits, etc.) more often than through violence or magic. The world-building is just incredible.
Holmberg dropped the ball on the perfect opportunity to create a strong, independent female protagonist. Though Ceony is courageous and strong-willed, her only motivation for these traits is to save her family and her lover—the “acceptable” motivations for female protagonists handed down to us by the Patriarchy. At the end of the novel, where there is a glimpse of redemption for Ceony as a character, her aspirations to join Criminal Affair are deemed incompatible (by another woman no less) with the social expectation that she be a mother and housewife. Moreover, the romance between Ceony and Emery is based largely on her cooking and cleaning for him—need I say more?
Solid epic fantasy with phenomenal world-building. The characters are somewhat lackluster; it's very much a “warring of ideas”-style book, where the characters are (in essence) representatives of ideals. Overall, it felt like a lot of other epic fantasy—thus, not special per se, but nonetheless very well done.
As a fan of the WoT, I really enjoyed this book. Moiraine is one of my favorite characters, so getting to learn her backstory was fun.
The Name of the Wind was one of the books that helped get me back into reading after a several-year hiatus. I went in again—this time with the audiobook—, knowing full well that I would be getting only the beginning of a story. But I really enjoyed it still!
This was one of my favorite books in elementary school. In anticipation of the movie, I decided to re-read it. As an adult, the book unfortunately doesn't translate well. I can definitely see why I related to the character of Meg, but the other characters felt one-dimensional. The plot jumped around a lot, and the ending was abrupt. That said, I think that it's a great book for kids.
I found this second novel better than the first, perhaps because the plot picked up, and I was more familiar with the world. In any case, I enjoyed it!
While I really enjoyed the Revelations series, I found this prequel novel to be somewhat lackluster. There are a lot of slow points. It provides the backstory for how Royce and Hadrian met, but it overall felt very anticlimactic. Gwen's backstory was nice. I will still read the remaining books in the Chronicles series though.
Hunger Games + Lord of the Flies + too many plot twists. It was entertaining though, so I might pick up the next one.
Interesting and inspirational read. Steinem has lived a fascinating life, and she has many worthwhile tales to tell. It was interesting to read about the development of the women's movement from an insider's perspective.
Such an interesting novel. The stream-of-consciousness writing style was hard to read at times (it required immense focus), but it was also really well done. It felt like reading people's *actual* thoughts—in the disjoint, uncontrolled manner in which they actually occur. I definitely want to reread this book; I know that I'll get more out of it.
I really liked it at the beginning, but it got boring in the middle. I didn't care for the religious mysticism.