Rai
I have not read any Paolini before, so I am not coming in with any nostalgia over Eragon. I umm-ed and ahh-ed about the star rating for this but in the spirit of trying to be a bit more generous with my ratings I'm plumping for 5 stars.
I read the ‘sneak peak' last year, which comprised of “Part One” of the total novel, and really enjoyed it. It took me a while to get back to finish it off as I am a mood reader and the intervening mood between TSIASOS's release and now has been overwhelmingly fantasy based. It took a while to get back into it given the almost-a-year gap between reading Part One and continuing from Part Two and I had forgotten a couple of things but nothing that made too much difference.
Looking through other reviews, this seems to have been a polarising book but I'm definitely in the positive camp. I was possibly a little more invested in the story/history of the xeno/alien that Kira first encounters as opposed to the, erhum, ‘space squid' as others have dubbed them. I would certainly read more around Kira in the future and the crew of the Wallfish who she encountered along the way.
No, it isn't perfect but no book really is. Some of the dialogue/language used was a little hammy but I can forgive it because of the enjoyment I had from the rest of the book. Yes, it is long. I think it was worth it. If you don't want to read 800+ pages though, don't, that's up to you.
A lovely, cosy, found family sci-fi focussing on the two characters we saw departing the Wayfarer at the end of [b:The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet 25786523 The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1) Becky Chambers https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1435140741l/25786523.SY75.jpg 42270825]: Pepper and Sidra (Lovelace).There are two narratives to follow in this book, the first immediately follows that departure from the Wayfarer and the other begins around 20 years (or, standards) earlier and shows us the story behind Pepper's comment that she was raised by an AI. As with the first book, this is a great story of misfits finding their place that is an inspiring, sometimes sad, tale set in a multispecies future space society. Just as beautiful as the first book but not a carbon-copy.
An exciting read in the first installment of a new book series, inspired by Norse mythology and history, from reknowned fantasy author John Gwynne.
This was my first John Gwynne (I know, I know, for shame!) and I was not disappointed, especially given the hype around him as an author among fantasy bookish types! I am usually one to avoid hyped books/authors for fear of being let down but I can attest that neither he, nor this book, did that.
The book is well-written and well-researched, which is a boon to any fantasy story. The characters feel real and the prose is easy to read. Yes there are some Nordic words in there but what you can't interpret from context only adds to the flavour.
The story is fairly fast paced but never feels rushed. There's action and violence that is well balanced and doesn't veer into goreporn (thankfully). Some of it is grim but it is never over-described to the point where you'll lose your lunch. Consequences are legit in this world and there are no lazy shortcuts in the story/writing.
Overall, a great book and I can't wait for the next installment to get some more of those ravens!
A historical and military fantasy telling an alternative tale of the first emperor of the Ming dynasty. Part One is very much a coming-of-age tale compressed into the first section of this book, where Zhu successfully joins a monastery as her only means of survival and grows up there until she is ordained as a monk. Parts Two & Three are much more military fantasy focussed with new POVs being added into the mix. There's a lot of army moving, taking and losing of cities and power-plays in these parts.
The ‘fantasy' elements are quite limited altogether however, there's only a couple of aspects one could view as fantastical, most of the book is simply an alt-history story. Personally, I would've liked more fantasy and less military movements but nevertheless I can see the value in the text as is. There are some interesting questions of sex and gender that aren't too deeply probed and are not a main feature of the storyline.
Overall, it is well written and engaging. Excellent as a character focussed story as we see how Zhu changes over time.
An entertaining gothic with supernatural elements and a lot of Sapphic romance. The only thing that bothered me about this was the occasionally odd sentence structure and some of the txtspk going over my head. I may be a millennial but we don't all know every meme-y acronym going! The prose is written in a very conversational tone, constantly referring back to you as ‘Dear Readers' that did get a little tiring towards the end.
The story (stories) itself was engaging and suitably creepy. I enjoyed the swapping back and forth between the present and the past with the varying intricacies of the curse of Brookhants. Despite some of the meme-speak, I did find myself liking the present day chapters a little more. Yes, it is quite long with these dual-stories, but you can't really have one without the other.
A beautifully written book with subtle complexities, glorious prose with clever time-travel and a warming story of falling in love. If enemies-to-lovers is a trope you like, this pulls it off in a totally uncliched way with a deep Sapphic love borne on letters across time and space.
I can see how this might polarise some opinions and I held off reading it for so long because I was worried I might fall into the dislike camp - not so! I've heard this book accused of being too complicated and boring people but I couldn't disagree more. It is perfectly balanced and brilliantly executed; I found myself hungry to read the next chapter every time I got to the end of the previous. Clever, then, that ‘hunger' is a theme Blue and Red explore in their missives to each other.
As a debut novella this is a good start to a larger world that did intrigue me to want to learn more about it. You can tell it's a debut and a self-published one (take that how you will). Greene's prose does feel like it lacks some of the maturity you find in a more established author - at times feeling a bit more like a script, describing how an actor should move in a scene - but I expect this will develop as he hones his writing over time. I caught one typo in the text overall but I'm more than happy to allow for that in self-published work. Overall I liked it and look forward to seeing the story evolve as Daniel evolves as a writer.
An Asian-inspired fantasy steeped in ancestry, obligation and magics, The Hand of the Sun King is an excellent debut fantasy novel from J.T. Greathouse and offers an alternative pace and focus to the much loved coming-of-age trope.
For my full review of The Hand of the Sun King please head on over to BookNest: https://booknest.eu/reviews/rai/2367-the-hand-of-the-sun-king-pact-and-pattern-1-by-j-t-greathouse-book-review
If you've watched Kindred Spirits, some of the stories Amy recounts as examples in each chapter may be quite familiar! This is an interesting memoir of a paranormal investigator who was at the forefront of the resurgent wave in the early 00's when TV shows hunting ghosts saw a huge boom. She talks about her paranormal experiences as a child growing up in a haunted house and her amateur/hobby investigations before joining up with the team that'd later land her in front of the camera. Amy speaks about the change in her investigation style to try and focus more on helping spirits and the humans they share spaces with - resulting in the Kindred Spirits show. There are plenty of spooky encounters she speaks about and quotes some of her colleagues and other paranormal experts throughout. While probably not appealing to hard sceptics; this memoir will likely still be interesting to some softer sceptics, those who are on-the-fence and believers in the paranormal.
3.5 stars
An interesting novella that explores the tale of two empresses through the medium of oral histories passed down from an older generation to a younger one. As a story this could've easily filled a whole novel with deception, intrigue, revenge and a splash of magic here and there.
It borders a little on being an info-dump - and if this were a preface to a full novel or series then it certainly would qualify as one - which made me feel it was, at times, a little dry. Cleric Chih is the protagonist but they aren't really developed; they just listen, which is their purpose, yes, but I would've like to know more about them as opposed to looking over the shoulder of this very passive character.
Well, then. What can one say about Dune that has not already been said in the last half a century? Only my own thoughts. This took me a while to read; longer than I've taken with even longer books. I enjoyed it when I read it but never found myself yearning to read it. I understood things and was really interested in the schemes and control of the Bene Gesserit over the empire; seeding legends into cultures in order to serve their best interests. It's a great book; it isn't a 5 star for me simply because the ending felt a little flat and I didn't love it like I have loved some others that have got 5 stars from me.
3.5 Stars
Like Scalzi's series ‘Lock In', this features a police investigation in a world that has subtly changed from our own. In ‘The Dispatcher', if someone else causes your death you have a 999 times in 1,000 chance to come back, reappearing somewhere you love/feel safe (usually at home in your bed). Our MC is a dispatcher, which is someone who is licenced to purposefully cause death in order to preserve life. For example, you get hit by a truck and you are beyond saving, they'll kill you in order for you to come back with your body restored to pre-truck status.
At the time of the story, dispatchers have been around 8 or 9 years and the phenomenon of returning has been happening for maybe a decade so there's a whole lot of industries taking advantage of dispatchers in different ways. One has gone missing and Tony Valdez (our protag) is convinced to consult with a detective in charge of finding the missing dispatcher.
This isn't a in depth mystery, as there's not enough time for it, but this is a great introductory story for this slightly-altered world that Valdez inhabits. It raises some interesting theological and moral questions along the way that add to the interest. I'd definitely consider a longer novel set in this scenario.
On the audiobook performance, Zachary Quinto has an excellent voice for this sort of work and the performance was great.
Oh what a truly charming, wonderful, and heart-warming story. It made me smile, chuckle and tear up. I'm not the most externally-expressive reader so that really is a feat! I wasn't sure if it was going to be “my thing” as most fantasy I read is a little darker and I nevertheless fell in love with this troop of characters. I listened to the audiobook and I think that added to the charm, hearing the voices of everyone performed differently to the others and some of the children's voices made the funny moments even better. However you decide to consume this book, I hope you enjoy it as thoroughly as I did. It made a glorious bright little break from gloom of the world.
A book with much more to it than the blurb suggests. Narrated by Tim from a much later point in his life as he looks back on his even-more-than-average tumultuous teenage years. Set in England in the 1970s, Tim gets caught up in an experiment to find a ghost at an aged country house in Suffolk with some explosive consequences.
The prose and pacing are both excellent from Maclean and here he has produced a great haunted house tale with a twist. Without giving too much more away, this is a great read and - as a debut - a definite indicator a talent I will be keeping an eye on!
3.5 stars. Slow going, heavy character study.
I had a bit of a struggle with this (my first Hobb read) and unfortunately that's where it losing some star-points. It is very slow paced. Apparently, that's a staple of Hobb, though I didn't know that in advance.
What it is, however, is an excellent character study following Fitz from aged 5 to 17-ish(?) as he grows up the bastard son of a prince, learning the skills and politics to survive as such. I initially was expecting the childhood to just be a flashback but it is the entire book. There were a couple of small continuity issues that bugged me that broke immersion for me but bear in mind I can be quite picky on these things.
I do want to read more of Fitz's life so will continue the series, albeit with a faint hope of a little more action in the sequels.
3.5 stars
This was an enjoyable novella with some great ideas around time travel, the editing of history and a hint of chaos theory in there. Owing to the format however it did feel a little too fast and I would've liked more exploration into the characters and the whole ‘History Wars' idea.
It features a (closeted) wlw relationship in the 1788 timeline between Alice Payne and her companion Jane although we don't get to see much of them just being together as the pace is so fast there's always some new urgent matter for them to tackle together.
It was a good, if quick, sci-fi read with a queer MC that I really would've liked to have been longer.
4.5 stars
This was my first foray into any of Sanderson's work and it seems to have been a good entry point. For me, it lost that last half-star as there were times where the plot felt a little nebulous and the pacing was a little slow however once I got used to that I didn't have any other complaints. The world- and character-building were both great and the prose was rich without being dense.
It is a multi-POV fantasy that spans less than a year of in-world time but that draws on a lot of history and lore to build up the story. The magic system is clever and makes sense without being difficult to grasp. Through the three key characters, Siri, Vivenna & Lightsong, we see two countries pushed to the brink of war and their efforts to prevent it. The characters develop and change over the course of the novel, learning and growing as events unfold.
I specifically decided to start with something that wasn't Mistborn or Stormlight Archive as I didn't want his works outside of those two series to be spoiled by raising the bar too high as I've seen a lot of people who have read Mistborn first going back to Warbreaker or Elantris and not liking them as much. If that's a consideration for you, I can certainly recommend Warbreaker as I am now quite keen to read some more of Sanderson's books.
Fun, fast-paced and engaging fantasy/dystopia based on the history and culture of (primarily) the Navajo people. These are some flawed characters and the story doesn't shy away from that. Occasionally felt a little choppy in terms of the flow. Great world-building, character development, stakes and magic. I look forward to reading more from Roanhorse.
