Victor Hugo Kebbe
Original Review (2014): I have mixed feelings about this book. Sanderson came with such an amazing setting and, despite hating all this need to every single fantasy title to have a magic-system-mumbo-jumbo, his is very original. Nevertheless, plot is quite mediocre, with cardboard characters. It is somehow a fast read, but the writer repeats several phrases throughout the book. A fine piece of entertainment, but entertainment only.
Updated Review (2024): I've been venturing into TikTok for the past few days, mainly following booktokers. After several days following these people, I realized that, in the area of Fantasy literature, many have a great appreciation for Brandon Sanderson and the entire unfolding of his production that, now unified, he calls Cosmere. Nothing against the author, but I wonder about his quite expressive popularity there. I read Mistborn in 2013 after following several recommendations and I was quite disappointed with this particular title. At the time, everyone extolled the importance of having a “coherent magic system”. At that time, it seemed, due to the amount of articles and comments about it, that this would mark the quality of the narrative, as if we needed very well-defined rules (like the scientific method) to explain the fantastic elements such as Magic in these stories. However, this is, in my opinion, the biggest flaw in the proposal: when the fantastic elements need to be explained within a pseudo-scientific rationality, it ceases to be fantastic. The various societies of the world have never needed this Western rationality to create their stories and complex mythologies. This has always been the fight between the genres of Fantasy and Science Fiction, the latter of which, in fact, relies on this idea of scientific rationality to tell captivating stories. I understand Sanderson's appeal at the time. And I also understand the success of Sanderson and his books in our Western context, which values this specific idea of rationality. With his idea of Allomancy, he created rules that seemed important at the time. But I went back to my notes on Mistborn and came across, at the time, a finely crafted “magic system” with two-dimensional characters and a rather average narrative. A “coherent magic system” does not make a book a book.
Original Review (2014): I have mixed feelings about this book. Sanderson came with such an amazing setting and, despite hating all this need to every single fantasy title to have a magic-system-mumbo-jumbo, his is very original. Nevertheless, plot is quite mediocre, with cardboard characters. It is somehow a fast read, but the writer repeats several phrases throughout the book. A fine piece of entertainment, but entertainment only.
Updated Review (2024): I've been venturing into TikTok for the past few days, mainly following booktokers. After several days following these people, I realized that, in the area of Fantasy literature, many have a great appreciation for Brandon Sanderson and the entire unfolding of his production that, now unified, he calls Cosmere. Nothing against the author, but I wonder about his quite expressive popularity there. I read Mistborn in 2013 after following several recommendations and I was quite disappointed with this particular title. At the time, everyone extolled the importance of having a “coherent magic system”. At that time, it seemed, due to the amount of articles and comments about it, that this would mark the quality of the narrative, as if we needed very well-defined rules (like the scientific method) to explain the fantastic elements such as Magic in these stories. However, this is, in my opinion, the biggest flaw in the proposal: when the fantastic elements need to be explained within a pseudo-scientific rationality, it ceases to be fantastic. The various societies of the world have never needed this Western rationality to create their stories and complex mythologies. This has always been the fight between the genres of Fantasy and Science Fiction, the latter of which, in fact, relies on this idea of scientific rationality to tell captivating stories. I understand Sanderson's appeal at the time. And I also understand the success of Sanderson and his books in our Western context, which values this specific idea of rationality. With his idea of Allomancy, he created rules that seemed important at the time. But I went back to my notes on Mistborn and came across, at the time, a finely crafted “magic system” with two-dimensional characters and a rather average narrative. A “coherent magic system” does not make a book a book.
Updated a reading goal:
Read 30 books by December 31, 2024
Progress so far: 26 / 30 87%
It's already the best book I read this year (and we're still in April).
It's already the best book I read this year (and we're still in April).
It's already the best book I read this year (and we're still in April).
It's already the best book I read this year (and we're still in April).
It's already the best book I read this year (and we're still in April).
It's already the best book I read this year (and we're still in April).
Path of Deceit is one of the first titles of Phase II of Star Wars High Republic. I decided to give the new phase a chance, knowing that I did not have the best experience with Phase I (I lost the desire to follow this series at the time thanks to the book Light of the Jedi, by Charles Soule), a book that was sold as being for adults, but was practically written as a YA book). This time I saw that Path of Deceit was written as YA, which helped me adjust my expectations. Compared to the themes of Phase I, Phase II seems much more interesting. The idea of explorers and Pathfinders is really cool and the threat to the established order makes more sense than the space bikers who are the Nihil. I intend to continue following Phase II.It's not easy to judge or analyze a YA book as an adult. We assume that some tropes are expected and others should be avoided.
There isn't much room (nor the intention) for the development of more three-dimensional characters, which means these books don't provoke some kind of connection with mature readers.With Path of Deceit it's no different. The characters are flat and do not show great development. For example, the character Marda Ro, who is a naive and fanatical teenager from the Path of the Open Hand sect, ends the book as a naive and fanatical teenager (perhaps even more fervently fanatical than before). Kevmo Zink, the Jedi padawan of the story, is the same: he appears and disappears in the same way he appeared, without significant developments.I have this impression that, unfortunately, the current Star Wars YA books follows the same formula, which focus on two teenagers of opposite sexes living a forbidden or impossible romance. This appears in Claudia Gray's Lost Stars, but perhaps because of its novelty, Lost Stars was better in this respect.
In Path of Deceit we have the same formulaic solution of the love-struck couple who cannot get involved, but ends up being the focal point of several major events happening in the background, such as the theft of Jedi artifacts on one side and a plan to destroy the Jedi Order on the other. As the goal of the story is to tell about this romance and not about everything else surrounding it, other characters and/or factions appear more or less unbalanced. If you expect to read a book with a Jedi adventure or something similar, perhaps this title will be a disappointment.
Despite my criticism, the writing is fluid and very well articulated. Tessa Gratton and Justina Ireland know what they're doing. I would have loved this book if I had read it at 15 years old. The book deepens some knowledge of the Star Wars universe and expands a bit more on canon. I confess that I am not excited to continue with Path of Vengeance by [a:Cavan Scott (mainly because of the author's writing style, which I am not very fond of).
Path of Deceit is one of the first titles of Phase II of Star Wars High Republic. I decided to give the new phase a chance, knowing that I did not have the best experience with Phase I (I lost the desire to follow this series at the time thanks to the book Light of the Jedi, by Charles Soule), a book that was sold as being for adults, but was practically written as a YA book). This time I saw that Path of Deceit was written as YA, which helped me adjust my expectations. Compared to the themes of Phase I, Phase II seems much more interesting. The idea of explorers and Pathfinders is really cool and the threat to the established order makes more sense than the space bikers who are the Nihil. I intend to continue following Phase II.It's not easy to judge or analyze a YA book as an adult. We assume that some tropes are expected and others should be avoided.
There isn't much room (nor the intention) for the development of more three-dimensional characters, which means these books don't provoke some kind of connection with mature readers.With Path of Deceit it's no different. The characters are flat and do not show great development. For example, the character Marda Ro, who is a naive and fanatical teenager from the Path of the Open Hand sect, ends the book as a naive and fanatical teenager (perhaps even more fervently fanatical than before). Kevmo Zink, the Jedi padawan of the story, is the same: he appears and disappears in the same way he appeared, without significant developments.I have this impression that, unfortunately, the current Star Wars YA books follows the same formula, which focus on two teenagers of opposite sexes living a forbidden or impossible romance. This appears in Claudia Gray's Lost Stars, but perhaps because of its novelty, Lost Stars was better in this respect.
In Path of Deceit we have the same formulaic solution of the love-struck couple who cannot get involved, but ends up being the focal point of several major events happening in the background, such as the theft of Jedi artifacts on one side and a plan to destroy the Jedi Order on the other. As the goal of the story is to tell about this romance and not about everything else surrounding it, other characters and/or factions appear more or less unbalanced. If you expect to read a book with a Jedi adventure or something similar, perhaps this title will be a disappointment.
Despite my criticism, the writing is fluid and very well articulated. Tessa Gratton and Justina Ireland know what they're doing. I would have loved this book if I had read it at 15 years old. The book deepens some knowledge of the Star Wars universe and expands a bit more on canon. I confess that I am not excited to continue with Path of Vengeance by [a:Cavan Scott (mainly because of the author's writing style, which I am not very fond of).
