Kate

You can tell Flynn is brilliant. I had to stay up late to finish but it was worth it.

I hated the first few pages. So much purple prose. Something was described as “Sisyphean” and I had to roll my eyes.

But the book redeemed itself, with the plot and characters. I loved Graham and the expats and the concept of the ministry. I loved learning about the arctic expeditions.

I felt like High Fidelity did it better but the Julian Assange bits almost made up for it

Love this book. It reminded me of Robin McKinley's writing, and had wonderfully deep characters.

This book was “recommended” by Goodreads, but honestly, it was straight up terrible. I had to stop at page 26. The reader is constantly told how beautiful and talented the main character is, as well as how handsome everyone else is. In the very first paragraph, the main character is “Adarlan's most notorious assassin.” On the second page: “It was true that she had been attractive once, beautiful even, but – well, it didn't matter now, did it?” A little later, “She was important enough to warrant an execution from the Captain of the Royal Guard himself.” (Thanks for letting me know!)And, “She looked at her rags and stained skin, and she couldn't suppress the twinge of shame. What a miserable state for a girl of former beauty!” (Truly a tragedy!)And others are described thusly: “Yet there was something in his eyes, strikingly blue – the color of the waters of the southern countries – and the way they contrasted with his raven-black hair that made her pause. He was achingly handsome, and couldn't have been older than twenty. ‘Princes are not supposed to be handsome! They're sniveling, stupid, repulsive creatures. This one... this... How unfair of him to be royal and beautiful.'” (How unfair indeed!)That's only up to page 8. Nope, Nope, Nope. Edit: Almost forgot to add books that are actually worth reading. If you liked the idea of this book, read either [b: The Blue Sword 407813 The Blue Sword (Damar, #2) Robin McKinley https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1286927812s/407813.jpg 2321296] or [b: The Hero and the Crown 77366 The Hero and the Crown (Damar, #1) Robin McKinley https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386642407s/77366.jpg 2321243]