Steve
This is great. Despite being a novella, this manages to feel more weighty than some books twice its size. It uses its fantasy well to deliver both a powerful message and a well-needed history lesson (speaking as someone who knew little about the real events from which this draws inspiration). Highly recommended.
On the positive side, there is some great world-building, taking inspiration for a non-typical (in my experience) culture.
On the negative side, at several points while listening to the audiobook I would get distracted by some external event only to realise, upon returning my attention to the book, that I had missed nothing; I had no need to rewind. There were large swathes of this book that appeared to be there simply to fill the space between largely predictable events. Also, I did not buy the relationship between the two main characters in the slightest; they both seemed to have their own motives and used each other as necessary. At no point did there appear to any basis for their love (other than maybe in a Stockholm Syndrome sense).
This is obviously setup as a prequel, but unfortunately I have no interest to see what happens next.
So, a 3 start review for an ultimately meh book, with maybe an additional half a star for the world building.
A bit of a weird one. This starts off feeling very YA, with an extremely tell-don't-show first half, that rushes through a whole bunch of exposition before things finally pick-up, and get much more violent, in the second half. The story is a sub-Rivers of London urban fantasy, which is set, for no clear reason, in 1983. The author has an odd obsession with unnecessary detail, with the make of every car and gun clearly noted, as is the author of every book (of which there are lots). Whenever a gun is mentioned, the main character's ability to clearly identify the make and model is explained away as the result of a specific film or book (given that there is no other reason why the average British woman - or person in general - in 1983 would have such knowledge).
So, the second half makes the book readable, and gains it the 4th star, but otherwise this feel very uneven.
A classic novel that took me by surprise. I initially read this because, well, “it's The Great Gatsby; what do you mean you haven't read it?” but I was caught off-guard by the fact that it is actually good - in the sense of readable, relevant and enjoyable rather than just well-written.
A true tour de force. A blistering conclusion to an excellent trilogy. Ruka is truly one of the great characters of fantasy.
Much better than I was expecting, but wouldn't have suffered from some editing for length. Looking forward to (albeit a little daunted by) the even longer sequel...
After completing the second part of this trilogy I was left unsure of my feelings about the tale; the story had turned claustrophobic and it didn't really feel like a huge amount of progression was taking place. It is fortunate then that the final book finally gets out of Buckkeep and heads out on something more resembling an adventure, with a suitably neat, if a little predictable, conclusion.
Having said that, although Robin Hobb writes well, there is an awful lot of grind to get from A to B. Dealing with the consequences of the end of the second book, before we set out on the quest, takes about 100 pages without any obvious impact on the overarching story. Of course, that is not to say that the sequence of events does not follow any logic, which illustrates what I think is the main failing of the trilogy: every action, and the actions stemming from that action, are followed though to their logical conclusion and described in great detail. As I say, the writing is good enough to carry the reader through, however this does not make for a quick, fast-moving read. If you start reading this trilogy, you need to face the fact that you are in this for the long haul.
So, where doesn't this leave the trilogy? As mentioned, you certainly get your money's worth; by the time you get the end you can be confident that you will feel like you have been on the quest yourself. The conclusion ends where it should, albeit in a little too predictable manner; there are few surprises given the foreshadowing that comes before, however there is a satisfaction in knowing that it couldn't really end any other way based on what came before.
If you measure your trilogies in terms of pages read and events encountered, you will not be disappointed. This has many of both, with the added bonus of being well written, however personally I could have done with a bit less detail and a few more twists.
A stirring, ship-based story that largely kept me involved to the end. There were one or two points where events felt blatantly contrived to simply setup future events, but not enough to derail my enjoyment. Looking forward to the next in the series...
A dystopian novel about the the struggles of surviving in a society that distrusts you is exactly the wrong description for this book. A better description would be: a warm, sun-kissed hug of a book. For those put off by the “magical kids” label, note that it wears its fantasy roots lightly, being more an examination of people and society than exploring the limits of imagination. If you're looking for the perfect antidote (maybe not the best choice of word at the minute) to doom and gloom, you would be hard-pressed to find a better one than this.
Much as I love to spend time in the company of Peter Grant and The Folly, this tale did feel a little unsatisfactory. Not much magical stuff, and an ending that did not feel like much was rsolved (except maybe to set up future storylines). One for completionists.
A book I was finding excuses to read. Somewhat curious where the story is going next however...
The gateway drug to Lord of the Rings. A simpler, less weighty story, but one that I read repeatedly in my youth. You cannot really read fantasy without reading this; not necessarily first, but all roads lead here in the end.
Repeat after me: “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit...”
An interesting little diversion over to the German division of the Rivers of London universe.
Very grim, very dark but with an incredible Peaky Blinders inspired atmosphere. Although this is slightly more its own thing than the first book (which was basically Peaky Blinders with Swords), I still find that it is Cillian Murphy’s Brummie accent narrating the tale to me, which is no bad thing. I’m not sure I am completely happy with the level of gory violence, but this won’t stop me from reading the next in the quartet.
If you've got this far in the series, you know what to expect: blisteringly-paced space battles. This one felt ever more kinetic than the previous ones. Personally I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes (although slightly concerned about how far the ante can be upped before it starts to really strain credibility).
I thought this book was great: kick-ass, original and lacking pomposity. The sequel is also great, albeit very different. Looking at the other reviews however, it appears this is a chalk ‘n cheese novel; you're either going to love it or hate it.
If the blurb interests you, you should definitely give this a try.
Hmm. The first third was very good, the middle third felt erratic or disjointed, and the final third was underwhelming. Maybe my mind wasn't in the right place, but there were far too many questions left unanswered (in fact, pretty much all of them).
Overall I would class this as intriguing but unsatisfactory. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and rate this a rounded-up 3.5 stars.
An ultimately good, but weirdly uneven book. Blistering fight scenes, and some good character development, but leaves a lot of unanswered questions. The whole Robin sub-plot feels out of place; almost like a cameo from another book (which I now find out it is!). It is a shame that the series has been discontinued, as it held promise, but this did feel very self-published. Maybe if this had been overseen by a traditional publisher, some of the excesses could have been reined in, and maybe the author would have felt more confident to continue. Well, good while it lasted…