Jasher Drake
best stormlight book by far! focuses on a small scale siege scenario and sprinkles a little courtroom drama into the mix.
love how much time is devoted to both kaladin and navani while all the other less interesting characters are pretty much resigned solely to supporting roles this time around. it was really appreciated after the previous few books felt too wide in scope and had too many story arcs to keep track of - meant it was seldom that anything actually connected or left a lasting emotional impact.
so many moments in this book truly truly wrecked me and i'm thankful the story made space for them. my biggest issue with this series boils down to the fact that the story has gotten so huge and epic and i'm glad this one went back to a bit of single location intrigue filled with all the political backstabbing i've been missing since the way of kings.
such a fun read! quick little treasure hunting adventure/mystery that introduces some really interesting things into the cosmere. rysn may be one of my fave stormlight characters of them all now, and i appreciated the effort put into making the lopen at least a little bit likeable.
begs the question, should every sanderson book be 300 pages long?
found it a real real slog to get through most of this, and honestly should've probably rated it 2 stars, but storms - sanderson got me with that finale.
not a fan of how characters are treated in this book though. they're pulled from scene to scene and place to place with no real rhyme or reason or personal urgency. people are killed off without satisfying arcs or any redemption, while others never seem to face consequences for choices made in previous books.
still find the shallan personality split stuff infuriating too, and i don't understand why so much time is spent on the shallan/adolin/kaladin drama when there's not even much there to devote time to.
dalinar's backstory was eye-opening and i love how it changes how we view him as a person, but i kinda wish at least some of it was left to the imagination. we've been told time and time again about the deal he's made and the things he's lost - do we really need to see the whole scene play out at this point?
in the end though, i did enjoy the journey. seeing the radiants on the field together was worth the wait, and i'm really engaged with the questions being asked about morality and right and wrong. i hope we get more of that going forward and maybe even switch back to focusing on a core few characters rather than this ever-expanding cast we don't care that much about.
five different godzilla fans showcase their art styles while each tackling the prompt of ‘godzilla in hell' in strikingly different ways. love the concept more than the actual execution of some of these stories, but the artwork pops and i really enjoyed the wild and wacky places these issues go. i mean, godzilla taking on angels, demons, god and the devil before coming out the victor?? insane stuff. so cool that people can play with these out-there ideas.
such a cool idea to bring together all of these iconic monsters and weapons and story beats from 60 years of the godzilla franchise and to show them all through the eyes of one character as he grows older.
the red and blues pop, spacegodzilla goes hard, and the anti megalosaurus force rules. an awesome little comic!
had no clue that this was basically just an additional chronicles book! loved having the gang back together, there's some really great stuff with both kitiara and tasslehoff specifically. and that final moment in the inn of the last home?? goosebumps. fist pumps. teardrops.
raistlin's story is definitely the main focus though and it's pretty astounding how much weis lets you get into his head this time around. everything about his personal story and advancement through the mages of high sorcery was perfect... up until the actual test which was a huge anticlimactic bummer. throughout the whole dragonlance series you're told how harrowing and soul-destroying and physically devastating it was for raist, which i felt nothing of here.
perfect little book outside that ending though!
genius of sanderson to flesh out stormlight side characters with their own novellas, and the everstorm is such a dope backdrop for this story but it just feels super underwhelming imo! last few chapters rock but there are so so many more chapters beforehand where nothing much really happens apart from pancake after pancake being eaten by an annoying little girl.
this book had some serious highs! love how sanderson builds up to the epic battles, specifically the big arena showdown and the whole finale in this one. but tbh the book felt pretty bloated overall.
kaladin's still my fave, but some of the earlier chapters with him and adolin and shallan always switching pov are so stormin' infuriating. i get the whole clash-of-personalities thing, but it got old real quick, especially when so many more interesting story elements were glossed over instead.
the world-building still takes my breath away however, and i found myself really falling head over heels for the interludes this time around, such a neat way to expand the wider world as the story rolls on.
this was really fun! all the raistlin and magius stuff ruled and i enjoyed seeing more of sturm, even if he was pretty underused.
my biggest issue is that this completely retcons the legend of huma books, and even totally erases kaz from existence. sad to see such well-established lore, and some of my favourite stories, completely written off like this.
great finale though, and weis and hickman's writing style really does it for me.
Weakest of the trilogy by far, but still has a few fun moments and memorable fights.
Definitely think I did myself a disservice by having such a big break between reading this and the previous book; I'd forgotten so many of the returning characters and plot points.
Pretty stoked John Carter and Dejah Thoris finally get to spend some time together though. What a friggin' romance. ❤️
Found this one tough to get through at first, but man alive, those last few books are something else!
Not too sure about Sanderson's writing overall yet, to be honest. The constant lore dumps during the first half of the book were often distracting and tiresome. I also found myself struggling to visualize people and creatures throughout the story, especially in a lot of the skirmishes and battle scenes later on.
The thing I did fall absolutely in love with were the characters. Well, most of them. Dalinar was the standout, and Kaladin's arc was really engaging. Shallan's stuff, on the other hand? Abyssal. Everything slowed to a crawl when it came to a chapter of hers, and it all feels like wasted time, especially with how abruptly it ends.
I think my favorite thing about Sanderson, though, is the way he does dialogue. Brilliant, captivating, and real. I could read any of these characters talk to each other for hours on end; he just makes it all so interesting.
Gonna try and burn through the rest of the Stormlight books early next year if the Almighty wills it!
Who doesn't love a tragic little gothic horror?
Really dug the three-part layout of this story with the focus on different characters each time, but it did seem to lose its momentum a little bit in the middle.
Great conclusion though, and Morgoth was a super memorable villain (even if his name was directly stolen from Lord of the Rings haha).
Absolutely love the character of Kaz and this book did such a great job at completing his journey - but I sadly found a lot of the Minotaur stuff a tad tiresome, and a few of the plot beats a little uninspired.
Really gonna miss this series though! Knaak has a truly engaging, unique writing style that pulls you right into the action and doesn't let go.
