Farhan

I thought I'd like this book a lot more than I did, but the characters were not very compelling and the relationships very typical YA. The plot was also kinda eh it was in the water...really?? that actually made me laugh . It was a quick read though and fun if you turn your brain off. Also the constant christ-it-was had me banging my head WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN

This series was sooo good, this and Aurelian cycle are making me believe in the readability of YA fiction again. The characters are each unique in their own way, and the world building is fantastic. I found the finale was both heartbreaking and uplifting at times. I guess this would be called “prose” but I love how the author puts together sentences. The chapter First Place is going on my all time fav chapters list.

I loved this book, but I'm genuinely surprised it's as loved across the bookie world as it is. It is very academic, and honestly I feel like many people would find the majority of this book boring. I think for me it's a 5 star because of the amount of work R.F. Kuang put into realizing this work comes across so clearly, and I think it's incredibly unique for it.

My only gripe with this book is that the way it ends is a little obvious early on, with a very unsubtle checkhov's gun introduced. I guess I just like being surprised!! But in a way, it's obvious just from the title alone, so I can't really hold it against the book since the journey is what was important to conveying the message.

I think I can confidently say Babel is the most “work of passion” book I have ever read, and taking a dive into R.F Kuang's mind alone makes it worth it.

I have to say I wasn't pulled in like the previous book. I figured out some major twists within the first few chapters so the rest of the book became a slog waiting for the narrative to catch up. Also there were really questionable relationship decisions that occurred?? Also also a lack of Orion screen time. I did like the ending and the atmosphere of the book so not a complete dud, but leaving the magic school left some of the magic out of the story too.

3 million words (like 30 books!!) and 3 years later, I finally complete this series. I was first intrigued to read this because the core concept of the story is super unique and fascinating. The “magic” system of Guide revolves around Stories, and classical story tropes. There is naturally Good vs Evil, and the story tropes that are typical actually manifest in the world, with fate shaping itself so those story beats are followed, and are used by both heroes and villains to achieve their ends. A simple example is that sometimes, a hero is thrown into impossible odds, and whoever is doing the throwing, knows the hero will win because it is only natural for heroes to overcome impossible odds. The protagonist weaving and manipulating stories for her goals is very satisfying to witness. This makes the Guide at times immensely familiar, because what reader is not familiar with knowing saying “This couldn't get any worse” is immediately followed by things getting worse, yet new because of how those tropes are baked into the setting and story.

I don't think it's ever taken me this long to read something, this normally would be like a 2 week affair, so I ended up reading this series in spurts. I actually read the first two books twice because I forgot what happened and wanted to get serious about finishing it. I think it took so long because at times, it was hard to get through, but it is very worth it! There are a couple things I think the Guide does better than ANYTHING I've read.

1. Characterizations and dialogue
The main character, Catherine, and her friends are all well developed, each with their own motivations and personality. And put together is really where this story shines, because I have never read anything that so easily demonstrates the chemistry between the cast, their witty dialogue and funny banter. Character development and interaction is really what drove this series for me because it was always interesting.

2. Argument and philosophy
This goes along a bit with the previous point, but I have never read anything where argument was so complex, I could never decide which way I was leaning in an argument. More than once I thought to myself how does the author even come up with these arguments, because it always made sense when explained to me, but I could never have done it myself. It's interesting because you can't write clever characters without being clever yourself, and the author is definitely clever. I think this is so strong because the characters are so strong, and the author knows them so well.

3. Enemies to lovers
Haha this one is a little different from the other points, but generally speaking, enemies to lovers, is usually just dislike to lovers in most things I've read. This is I think the truest example of enemies to lovers I have read because they are most definitely enemies in the beginning, with a huge enmity, and very very good reason for that enmity, and there is a slow-burn that takes pretty much the whole series to resolve. It also develops into one of the best redemptions arcs I've read.

4. Epithets

At which point Lord Bujune and Lady Rania both accused the other of being the Emperor in disguise, and the meeting devolved into protracted argument until the final quarter hour had passed.” – Extract from the minutes of the fourth meeting of the Red Fox Conspiracy, as taken by the stenographer Shamna Mehere (later revealed to have been Dread Emperor Traitorous all along)

Aw man. Going to miss this world :( Stunning conclusion.

Objectively, a well-written book. But idk. I didn't like how it ended but I can see why others might.

I think with time travel stories, there's only so many different twists people can come up with and it's evident in Lost in Time, because the main twist has already been done before and if you know enough time travel stories, can probably figure it out. However, the lynchpin of the conclusion, the final “twist,” I think I've seen done in time travel stories, but not the way it's done here, and gives it a very satisfying ending. Given that, I think this book is a worthwhile addition to the time travel genre. And personally just because I love time travel stories, this book was very entertaining to me and I was very invested in seeing how it all wrapped up.

My only gripe with the book is that the marketing is pretty misleading and the actual book is very different than what I expected. You're lead to believe that the time traveling to the past is very important, and that dinosaurs and everything would be a large part of the book but they really aren't. In fact you're also led to believe that Sam is the main character of the book but he really isn't. There's a line in the book's description that says "But he can't give up, because he has to save his family who are 200 million years in the future" which makes you think he would do something to save his family somehow. But in fact it's him who gets saved by Adeline, the true main character of the book. Sam doesn't really contribute to the plot at all so his time in the past is largely irrelevant. Everything about the marketing makes you think it's super important, that Sam contributes significantly, but it's Adeline the story revolves around and the present timeline that's relevant. I am not sure if this was done on purpose to hide the twist, but it was just strange having this disconnect between the description of the book and the reality.

I feel like the author doesn't really understand the science behind his concepts or base it on something real, but the take on time trial was kinda novel. I wasn't a fan of one of the revelations at the end because it made me feel like I wasted my time reading this, but as I write this review I've just thought about how this revelation and ultimately the resolution at the end of the novel is very similar to what happens in the TV show Dark which I think is masterpiece. So I guess it's the journey that makes the difference and I didn't really find it as compelling as in Dark. The book is really well written though and has this haunting undertext woven through in descriptions of scenes. Overall I think within time travel media this book is probably solidly middle of the pack.

Also this blurb:

“I promise you have never read a story like this.” —Blake Crouch, New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter

Ugh I will read literally anything Rosaria Munda writes.

This was a fabulous, emotional, touching ending to a series that has set the bar to what YA fantasy can and should be. I only regret that it's over.

Just a fun ride, knowing exactly what kinda book it is. Would consider this a ‘popcorn' book. I don't think the author leaned on the part where this is a crossover of 3 previous books MCU style as hard as he could have so that was disappointing.

Having read most of the preeminent Male Urban Fantasy series, The Dresden Files, I can say that in many ways this is the superior series. Criminal it's not more well known.

What does it mean to be human?

That is that question at the heart of this novel. All of Blake Crouch's recent novels have just set my mind thinking after turning the last page, but I think none more so than Upgrade. Of Dark Matter and Recursion, Upgrade is the closest to our current reality which makes it the most relatable.

Upgrade is just a fun read and an easy page turner, because basically what you have is a more realistic and grounded take on Captain America, but Upgrade isn't defined by The Upgrade, it's defined by that question.

I think Crouch arrived at the correct answer to it, which made me love the ending of the book and the final solution. If only it were that easy in real life.

Overall I liked the story but it was sooo slow and the flashback chapters every few chapters didn't help with that. If I really think about it, not much actually happened in this book until the end? The main twist I think was painfully obvious and I found myself reading just to see when that shoe would drop. I also liked the atmosphere of this book, and think this might have worked better if it wasn't Urban Fantasy because all the references to real life things just took me out of the story (NFTs really??).

Regardless of all that complaining though, I don't regret reading the book and will likely read the sequel. Something about the way Holly Black writes just makes me get invested..

I am left baffled but not for the reasons I expected

Super interesting concept, execution could have been more solid.

Omg the badassery in this book popped off..

I loved this novel. And The NPC was such a brilliant chapter I cried.

This book was too smart for me in a good way

Delightfully interesting and distinctly unique, and absolutely never what I expected.

Honestly my opinion after the end of this volume, the longest of them all, is that the controversial ending of Volume 7 improved the story and gave us a more interesting Volume 8. SO MUCH happened in this Volume and there were so so many great moments and interesting plotlines. I think many of the characters in this hugeee cast really came into their own in this volume and that was just awesome to see. The end of this volume was unlike anything I've read in fantasy, and was like what it was like to watch Endgame, but in novel form and with even more epic scope. It's left me questioning where we even go from here but I have trust my expectations will only continue to be topped in the future.

Finally an ensemble cast I can get behind. Each and every one of these characters felt distinct to me and I enjoyed all their viewpoints. This book read a bit more intellectual and less actiony that I anticipated but it was engrossing nonetheless just seeing the characters bounce off each other.

For the most part I did like this book, but I do feel like Alex's hacking skills were very unrealistic, and that the author does not understand what a mechanical engineer does

This whole book was basically one long action sequence, which gets tiring after a bit, and also means there isn't much of a plot beside bam blam kapow.

I really liked how time travel worked in this book with each “flux” collecting all the people in the town of the current time period and sending them back together. Leads to people of different time periods hobblin through time periods, even versions of the same person which was interesting. Definitely not your typical time travel story. I liked the characters for the most part, I think Owen's leadership capabilities keep everyone, including the reader, grounded with all the wackiness happening. I didn't really know where exactly the plot was going, a lot of this author's works read like he's discovering where to go next as he writes but it worked here and I was solidly entertained. I did think it wraps up a tad bit too nicely, although I wasn't really unhappy with it. The subtle (and overt) connections to the author's previous books in this universe are also neat and I'm excited to see it potentially come together in future books.