Silviya

Not sure how to rate a history book of a made up world

DNF at 40%

Despite enjoying immensely this world and loving book 1, the further I got into the series, the more frustrated I felt.

I started to realise that the way this author tells her stories does not work for me whatsoever.
More specifically, I find the way she introduces and resolves conflict boring and unsatisfying.
Her characters are interesting, but inconsistent, which can drive any character driven reader crazy.

As such, I choose to DNF this series, at least for the time being.

I am probably the most surprised that I actually liked this book.

I picked it up after a friend mentioned that he had read it multiple times. Within 2 pages I was sure this is not for me. And it probably isn't. Although the book is about women, it's not written for them. I think the author wrote it mostly for himself.
Knowing that, I still couldn't stop reading and before I knew it I was turning pages and getting annoyed that I have to stop.
Let me be frank, most of this book is just sex. There's a very generous amount of drinking as well. There's no particular plot as such, it's mostly just the ramblings of a tired, scared man, who has no idea what to do with himself. It's kind of like a diary.
The whole thing is brutal and ugly, yet I liked it. I'm not sure I can explain it properly.
Every other scene either gets you to laugh out loud or stare at the wall.

Again, I liked it and I will read more from the author.

A great read!
I love the world building and writing style. It is not often that a book makes me chuckle and this one did so repeatedly.
I am looking forward to delving deeper into the Discworld.

Cohesive and thorough description of the events leading to the scandal surrounding Theranos.
The author has managed to weave the multiple participans and seemingly dry facts into a compelling story. Once i started it, I couldn't put it down.
All in all, a great read.

Oh, what a sweet lovely adorable story!

I wish I had read it as a child, but I am so happy I read it at all! It taught me more about horses than I've ever known and more than that, it made me smile and even shed a few tears.

If you have kids, please read them this story! And if you don't - please read it to yourself.

Highly recommend!

Episodic travel story.
Really fun and entertaining.

Not quite what I expected. Yet I did like it.
I was able to guess all the twists though that was because I was expecting twists and because they were quite clearly laid out, once you knew to look for twists.
It was well written and I did like the family dynamic, though to be honest, I felt slightly bored at times.
i would be happy to read more from the author.

This was a nice book. Not spectacular, not terrible, just nice.

Things I liked were... well, mostly just the main female character. Stella was awesome! The way she saw the world and interacted with it was pure gold! I liked her so much, halfway through the book I found myself wishing we were friends.
Michael, on the other hand... Well, he was nice. Too nice in fact. His entire persona was crafted so precisely as to make the possibility of his existence hard to believe. He was painfully handsome man, yet insecure; he was a clothes designer who trained martial arts; he was an escort, who is super monogamous and possessive... It just felt like something that doesn't exist.
The relationship between the two was also a bit too sweet to be believable. The obsession he developed for her from the get go was, frankly, weird. A man who has had so much sex for pay, against his wishes mind you, but was not scarred by it at all, is something I just don't buy. I wish the book would've touched on that, not just his father issues.
And the other guy (what's his name?) who was running around Stella was such a damn cliche and acted so weird, I just had to scoff.
There were so many undeveloped threads, a few unfinished ones and one that just showed up out of the blue at the end. It felt disjointed and unfinished.
Other than that, if you're looking for a (too) sweet romance with a great female lead and some steam, that's the book for you.

What a massive disappointment.
The last book took a direction which I wish it hadn't. It became a sci-fi adjacent melodrama, where the focus is on, what I can only describe as navel gazing. The setting could've been so interesting, but all mystery, science and excitement were taken away and replaced with everyday minutia and a repetitive barrage of platitudes.
In combination with the deterioration of the characters, which were either useless or frustrating, or both, this book is a really disappointing ending to an otherwise amazing series.

This is an adult grim dark political high fantasy, which follows the First law series, as well as the 3 standalone written after it. Now, you don't have to read any of the other books I just mentioned before you pick this one up, but I'll advise you to have read at least the First Law trilogy prior. Because it will give you much needed context and will introduce you to some of the keyed secondary characters.

I didn't know what to expect from this book and when I initially saw the setting, I will admit, I was a bit disappointed. Not because of the place, but because of the time. To be frank, I was hoping for a smaller time gap and a bit more focus on magic.

Still, the more I read, the more I got into the book and I have to once again, applaud the author's fantastic writing style. He creates such bleak atmosphere and such vivid characters, and even better than that, he writes dialog that has me laughing out loud, and inner monologues that have me nodding along with how accurately they describe some elements of the human condition, which we sometimes struggle to define for ourselves.

There were many chapters I wanted to highlight but I will only stop at one - The Little People. This one is a great example of a device, if you can call it that, which the author likes to utilise in tense action packed chapters. Where he will switch rapidly between different povs and draw subtle, or not so subtle, parallels between them. He did that masterfully in this chapter and what made it even better was the fact that it featured almost exclusively random inconsequential to the major plot characters, some of which we would never see again. It helped level up the whole “reality” of the story and allowed for better involvement of the reader.

There's a lot I want to say about the surprises we were served and the theories I have, but I don't want to spoil anything for you, so I shall leave it here.

I gave the book 5 stars and I am so excited to continue with the series (especially what I am suspecting turns out to be true).

I am so conflicted about this book.
I spent the majority of reading it pissed off and/or confused.

Here's why (this is going to be a long one, sorry):

Characters - Almost all of the main characters are detestable. Arrogant, ignorant, rude, stubborn, impulsive and ungrateful. Think about their behaviour and tell me it's not true. Could you imagine having to travel with these people, or even spend a day with them, throwing tantrums about everything?
I am tired of characters who keep insisting that they will not be manipulated, while being manipulative. Of characters who demand to be told everything, while being unwilling to share anything themselves, or even to ask a question in a normal tone.
I'm even more tired of rude women, waving long-handled wooden spoons, yelling and bossing men around. In the entire book, there were exactly 2 notable women, who could be considered somewhat reasonable - Moiraine and Elayne (and even Elayne was quite arrogant at times). All the others grated on my nerves endlessly.
The characters were the main reason for my displeasure with this book, and this series so far. I have always found them somewhat annoying, but until this moment I was hoping for some sort of growth, for some sort of an arc. I'm starting to doubt there will ever be any. At this point, if any of them died, I wouldn't care one bit.

Relationships - The author seems to be unable to write human relationships of any sort. The love subplots, the arguments, the day to day communication between people - all of those are written choppy and clunky. None of it is believable. Every time I feel as though we are missing the setup for what we are looking at. It makes it feel unnatural and frustrating.
Pretty much none of the behaviour people exhibited made sense. It seems as though it was added there to serve the plot (not that it did in most cases), without a second thought of whether it made sense or not. Can anyone show me the setup for Egwene and Nynaeve's fight, please? Or the point of it, for that matter?
I understand that human communication is often complicated. But the author seems content to just show us conflicts and arguments, and call it bonding between characters. Completely omitting any actual endearing moments between them. Can you show me one scene in this book that displays any acts of warmth or kindness? Any friendly conversation between people?

Too much of... everything - Too many named characters and places. Too much repetitiveness. I lost the track of named inns and named innkeepers, of named random characters met on the road. Not all of whom were needed and mostly bloated the storyline unnecessarily.
What happened to the white cloaks we read about in the beginning? Why put them in the book at all? What happened to Thom? If you think about it, did he have any prominent role in this book? If he wasn't in it, would anything change?
I am tired of reading about the embroidery of dresses and shirts, or the silverwork on boots, or the cut of trousers... As an example, around the 80% mark of the book, the author has written the description of the garments in a given city 3 times from 3 different characters. In detail! Followed by 3 pages(!!!) description of the city. Which was already described prior to it... Who the hell needs that??
Creating an atmosphere is important and I love it. But this was too much. It felt like a filler, and artificially dragged the plot.

Rushed ending - To contrast the above, the ending went really quick, and I wanted more, because it was well written. But a lot was omitted. As though the author was tired of describing the town, so he just wanted to be rid of the ending as fast as possible.

The one thing that saves this book is the plot. I am curious about what is going to happen next, and all the above didn't diminish my interest. I will continue with the next book as a single last chance for this series.

Sorry for the long review.

I liked the story, but Lyft is an annoying Mary Sue.
Sure, she has had a difficult past and supposedly good intentions, but she is somehow better than anyone at everything, while completely disrespectful to absolutely everyone she meets.
Moreover, the way she thinks, speaks and acts is inappropriately comedic, which creates a tonal inconsistency to the Stormlight Archive.
Maybe the author has a soft spot for her, but to me she is the weakest character of his so far.

2nd try 2023: 2 ⭐️

Nothing has changed in my opinion from last time (I had to finish this book for a reading challenge), I am only going to add that, on top of everything else, this book is so vulgar, I wanted to puke at a few spots.

The only reason this book isn't getting 1 star is because I think the plot was quite good (even if I couldn't enjoy it, being that I was annoyed the whole time).


1st try 2022: DNFed at 54%

This is the first book I DNF in my life.
I will not discuss the plot, as it mostly had nothing to do with my decision.

Why I ultimately chose to DNF this book is the main character (and to a smaller extent the caricatures most of the supporting characters were).
Rose was the epitome of every main character I have ever hated - she is rude, arrogant, judgemental, outright stupid, superficial, and a hypocrite.
But worst of all, she failed at being the one thing we were beaten over the head with - a friend. She was so overbearing on Lissa, to the point where it was verging on abuse (and I know this word is being thrown around quite lightly these days, so excuse my use of it).
You can not call yourself a friend when you are intruding on her personal moments of bonding with someone else, just because you are suspicious of him. Then go ahead and, behind her back, lie to the person she likes, with the clear intent of ruining their relationship. You can't decide that you will be the one who chooses who Lissa hangs out with or not, completely disregarding how she feels on the matter. Even if you are technically her guardian. This crosses a line.
First of all, you have already admitted that you are jealous of her getting close to other people. And how exactly do you deem yourself good enough to make decisions for your friend, against her will mind you, when you yourself have proven reckless and have made tons of mistakes.
You think you are good enough to choose who your friend gets close to, when the ones you get close to are beyond trash?
And the moment people point that out to you and you have to face the consequences to your actions, you turn on the self-pity.
The fact that this book is narrated from 1st person pov only made things worse.
I hated every minute or reading it.

I am not giving this book a rating, because I don't think it's fair to rate a book before finishing it.
It's the only grace I can show.

What a fantastic book!

We have a fascinating world full of horrors and wonders (mostly horrors though) where on the forefront there is a losing battle being fought against a cruel rigid empire.
On the background though there are supernatural forces at play which threaten reality itself.
We follow a handful of fantastic characters, who struggle with the paths chosen for them and a whole lot of inner demons.
The book offers a delightful mix of politics, religion, magic, heroic quest, revenge, found family, redemption, sacrifice and world-ending stakes. I absolutely loved reading it and will definitely continue with the series at first chance.

The story was good. The main characters were likeable, once I got used to them. The world was very interesting, though not fleshed enough for my liking.
The writing style wasn't the best though. The author tried hard to sound profound and it didn't land most of the time.
Overall, a good retelling that would probably be appealing to its intended audience.

4 - 4.5 ⭐️

This was a great second entry - we got way more revelations (some of which straight up crazy), way more character and relationship complexity and all things hit all the fans.

Beware though, this was a rather frustrating read at times, mostly because so many bad things happened in so many unexpected ways.

P.S.: Vincenza “Vintage” De Grazon is a saint and deserves way better!!!

This is the first time I read Peter Pan and I quite enjoyed it, though I believe I am too grown up and seem to have forgotten how to fly.
I recommend to everyone with kids, it's really heart warming.

What is the meaning of suffering? What was the point of this book? These are the questions I asked myself upon finishing it.

This is a massive book that follows a few generations of people during a very difficult period of time in Korea and Japan.
For what is worth, I found the historical components of this story (of which there are many) quite fascinating. There is so much I didn't know and managed to learn from this book; it sparked interest in exploring the history of Korea and Japan more deeply and for that, I have to give it praise.
I also would like to highlight the beginning of the story - both the plot and the characters of the first third of it were fascinating and I ate it up greedily.
But there are things about this book that left me very dissatisfied and a bit bored.
To begin with, the book is too long (much like this review). And this comes from a person who prefers longer books.
For one, the pacing of the book is completely unbalanced. We would spend a ton of time on some minute detail about a certain aspect of life, which while interesting on its own, was ultimately irrelevant to the story and as such slowed it down to a glacial pace for a period of time. As a contrast, we would barely brush over a massive world shattering event, as though it's an annoying fly to be rid of. For example, she would spend pages upon pages on the minutia of cooking and then spare a single sentence on the death of a very important character. Either end a chapter with “And then he died” - no preamble or anything, or start a chapter with “After his death...” - again no lead up to it.
I felt as though the author had no idea what we're here for.
Secondly, we follow way too many characters. We witness the lives of almost 4 generations of people pretty much entirely (I say almost because the first generation we only follow for a chapter of two).
And the truth is, there are only so many people one can care about. You can't both develop a generation of characters and fully complete the entirety of their lives' arc in a third of a book. And then successfully transition into another generation of characters and keep our interest. That is applicable to me at least.
In all honesty, the further I got into the book, the less I cared. I loved the first third, I was lukewarm on the second and outright did not care one bit about the third. I felt like the story overstayed its welcome which led me to view the youngest generation as intrusive strangers who are wasting my time.
I firmly believe that it would've been way better to split the story into 2 or even 3 books. This way we wouldn't have to cut down on the historical and daily life details, but we would be able to spend more time with the big important moments. And the newer generations of characters would have the chance to be the main focus of interest in their own books.
And lastly, this is a very tough book to read. From the abuse of Koreans, to the abuse of the poor, to the abuse of women... There is no end to the frustration one experiences reading this book. And while it's important to have these aspects of history represented and portrayed in an honest way, i believe it is equally important to offset that by some deeper meaning. At least in fiction. Why? Because this is where the value of fiction lies. This is why reading and writing fiction is important as opposed to nonfiction.
Let me explain. Nonfiction is meant to represent the facts objectively and portray historical events as they were (as much as it's possible). It is as it is - sometimes bleak, sometimes horrible. We learn what got us here and what not to do. That's how we evolve as a society. Fiction on the other hand gives the author the ability to take the background of these awful bleak events and weave a story that can give them meaning. Allow us to view tragedy and suffering differently and make sense of it. This is how we evolve as individuals.
So when you have a story that follows such bleak reality and no philosophical way to look at it, you're just left with the frustration. And no matter how historically accurate it is, to me it's borderline meaningless to read.
So the 3 ⭐️ I am giving are only earned by the setting and the first third of the book.

I read this book for the first time in 2020 and it took me nearly 3 months to complete it. While I enjoyed it back then, I felt that it was the weakest in the series.

Now, 3 years later, I give it full 5 stars and leave it full of emotion and satisfaction.

The change in rating comes partially from a change in me, but also as a consequence of the better understanding that comes with re-reading a good book.

This time around, I view both the plot and the characters slightly differently, while the world building still impresses me beyond measure.

Another great entry in the Stormlight Archive!

I loooooved the story!
But I had a bit of an issue with the art style - it was way too busy with tons of unnecessary and, worst of all, unclear details. The artist also didn't do a great job of drawing action scenes, making it near impossible to understand what was going on.

I am super excited about volume 3 though!

This is such a fascinating story and such a quick read!
There is a plethora of plot twists and a rather ambiguous ending, so be prepared for that. The book requires a lot of thinking and even after I am done reading it and thought about it for a long time, I am still not 100% sure that what I think happened, actually happened.
I quite liked this read and I would recommend it, but beware - there are some very heavy subjects being discussed and displayed in the book.

This book was such a rollercoaster!

I was quite skeptical in the beginning - a historical fiction about a Hollywood star, boring as hell.
Then, during the first 15 to 20% of the book, I kinda hated Evelyn - she was an immoral person, who used people and then dropped them without a second thought.
And then the story of her life, who she was, how she grew, the relationships she did her best to maintain, the sacrifices she had to make, and most of all her honesty about why she did it all made it all worth it.
By the time the book came to it's ending and the conclusions of a life lived so tumultuously, I was sobbing like an idiot and am not even ashamed of it.

A great book that addresses some very hard topics with the deserved respect and nuance.

I have no words good enough to do this book any justice.
I have never cried so much reading a book and I have never loved a story, like I love this one.

Loved this!

It gave many answers, and sparked even more questions.
Sanderson was able to fit a fascinating and properly paced story within 150 pages, and has done so masterfully!

Highly recommend to anyone who has completed the Original Mistborn trilogy.