Debora Souza
I hate that this book was in Audible's Fantasy list included with the Premium Plus subscription and that just by looking over the names of books on the list I didn't see right away that this was book 24 (!!) in the series.
It was just halfway through the book that I went and looked into it's page in more detail and realized this.
That being said, the book did a great job of getting me to know and understand the world in a short time so I didn't feel as lost as I probably should have. Worldbuilding was explained very quickly but very effectively in the very beggining.
Apart from that, though, it suffered from me not being into the universe, and the reading was a bit difficult to keep up with at times.
I'm sure I would've enjoyed it better if I had read the previous 23....
Oh, I loved it.
I was immediately transported to an Asian setting by the names, even reading in Kindle and not having the cover to look at all the time, and I'm pretty sure I got the pronunciations right from my Mandarin classes.
I loved how simple and yet full of detail and emotion the story was. It all happens in the course of a hundred days, in only one or two settings, with as few as half a dozen characters, and yet it feels complete.
I like how by now I can pick up on the similarities and differences between world settings and characters by Sanderson, how Shai strongly reminds me of both Vin and Shallan, as she's constantly impersonating a character, how many of his characters revolve around lying, faking, pretending, to make them stronger, but later find that they really have it all in them somewhere, somehow.
The magic system was another very pleasing element. It does remind me of the one of Stormlight Archive, but manages to be different enough. All being from the same universe, I'm guessing the similarities may come in handy and be explained as all being part of how the universe works.
I very much liked Shai and how she set about to both perform her task, plan her escape, make her life more comfortable and study and manipulate the people around her. It was delightful to learn her story and see her passion for the Emperor grow as she worked. The ending was also very satisfying.
I wonder if Hoid figures here...
Brandon's end note made me smile when he described the history and culture of stamps in Asia, as not a month ago my Mandarin teacher taught us the exact same thing. How the artist would place his stamp, then the buyer would place his, and then his child, and their children, and how you can trace back the origin, lineage and heritage of a piece by those stamps.
It was OK... I didn't absolutely hate it, and I think it could've been way better without all the teen romance drama, but it wasn't the worst thing I've ever read.
I felt the characters lacked true feelings and some things were just there to further the plot. I don't like how it made it seem like being genetically altered made you into a brainwashed zombie. The fact that Zoe doesn't like the investigator and he turns out to be a bad guy just out of him questioning her is way too abrupt. So is the fact that she finds a piece of paper with some word in it and then just happens to see someone with that name on TV right after and that someone turns out to be involved. There are millions of people around, and there was no reason for her brother to even have that paper with nothing on it. Also, it doesn't make sense that she doesn't mourn more and try more to convince her boyfriend to help her. Or that she doesn't set out to spy on him. Or that she doesn't simply ask Noah in the first place to help her out of money. It would have made things much easier and quicker.
Many of the things they do are hard to believe and if her parents or the authorities had been truly concerned, they would have stopped them.
But more than anything what bothers me is the romance. She starts to gradually find Noah more and more attractive, but is always comparing him to her perfect boyfriend. She has no feeling of guilt to be cheating on the boyfriend, and when she finally gets to be with Noah, she keeps questioning his love for her just because he doesn't call.
Worst of all is the ending. I can take the kidnapping, the memory returning once the medication wears off, her accepting the situation. What I can't take is ex-BF finding them, and now being a cyborg (in just a few days) and having an abrupt and absurd justification for both finding and taking so long to find them. And, worst of all, how easy it was for them to just walk away after calling the meds on him. She'd just shot him and she's been looked for! They should have run as soon as ex-BF hit the ground, not stood around to see him safely taken to the hospital so he could tell on them and track them again!
I really liked this book.
I liked the worldbuilding behind the story, the little hints that there is more to this world than the story is telling, and that maybe if the author is kind enough, some day he'll tell you. I love ancient mysterious things in books, so I'm dying to know more of the people who used elderglass. It sounds a bit Lovecraftian to me.
I like that the main character is not your typical hero, and I love his relationship with his friends and mentor. Locke turned out to be quite an original character, and I very much think the world might explode if he and Harry Dresden got together, such are their skills at diplomacy and keeping their mouths shut when they should.
Somewhere around the middle of the story I felt that the the “Salvara game” plot was too much left aside in favor of the Grey King one, and I almost feared it wouldn't quite come back again. It did, and it was worth it, but I still felt that segment was a bit slower.
I love how it ended in a way that leaves space for sequels, but manages to finish the whole story at the same time.
Will probably read the sequels in the near future
Gostei bastante do livro.
A história demora um pouco pra pegar, o começo é um pouco parado e só faz não querer largar o livro depois que começa a ação fora do casarão em São Paulo.
Foi muito gostoso ver cenas acontecendo em ruas e lugares que frequento todos os dias, e poder imaginar as cenas com detalhes.
Apesar de me incomodar o fato de um menino de 12 anos que não consegue nem chutar uma bola no chão de repente conseguir lutar contra monstros e sair quase sem nenhum machucado, ignorando esse fato a história é interessante, emocionante e envolvente.
Gostei bastante dos personagens, apesar de ter descoberto todos os segredos antes do tempo, mas não sou exatamente o público alvo.
Gostei especialmente do fechamento, que deixa abertura para uma continuação mas não aquela sensação de precisar ler o próximo volume imediatamente.
Provavelmente vou ler a sequência. Foi muito bom poder ler fantasia com personagens nacionais, pra variar.
It was ok...
I didn't really connect to Eydis, I was always hoping she'd use more of her powers, and we don't get much background from her or much description to know her personality or why she acts the way she does. She comes out very bossy out of nowhere. And I don't get where she learned how to fight.
The others are ok. I did predict the thing about the fall at the end.
Not sure I want to read further.
Oh, I liked this book.
I didn't have any expectations of it, I'm already pretty tired from reading 12 other fantasy books from the bundle, and I think this one should have been placed right at the beginning of the bundle, not at the very end.
It's not much in the sense of story, plot, or anything, but I like very much that it showed the world from the eyes of something not human.
I figure Ren's probably going to join some typical RPG party sometime in the series, and I'm not sure I'm all that excited to see it, but I liked her and loved how she named and described things she'd never seen before. I laughed a lot with things as “body tears”, “outerfeet” and “world bones”, and that's what got it that fourth star there. It gave the book the light, fun, endearing feel I was needing so much.
It was a nice story, different enough, but nothing really happened to make me feel it was great and I don't feel the need to read the next books.
The story dragged and I feel like I'd have enjoyed it more had it been about 1/3 smaller. And if the ending was some chapter or 2 before, I find I didn't need all the details of what happened after Samarand was killed and Cally made his claim. If it had stopped with Dante taking the first step of the journey back and all the rest was left for Book 2 I think it would have made me want to read it more.
Adoro o sistema de classificação do Good Reads... Posso dar 3 estrelas sem peso na consciência, porque 3 estrelas significa “Eu gostei”, e foi exatamente essa a minha reação a esse livro. Eu gostei.
A história é simples, até certo ponto bem previsível, os personagens são interessantes o suficiente, carismáticos o suficiente, com personalidades diferentes o suficiente.
Achei interessante a construção de como chegaram lá, e por que, e o desenvolvimento dos personagens, do grupo, das lutas foi ótimo pra um primeiro livro.
O que me fez não dar mais estrelas: é um livro simples, com uma história e construção simples, pra ser lido casualmente, sem uma imersão profunda em algo fantástico e incrivelmente envolvente (como é, por exemplo, Dragões de Éter).
Me incomodou um pouco o uso excessivo de linguagem técnica científica, tanto biológica quanto física, que por muitas vezes me pareceu colocada simplesmente para dar um tom mais “sci-fi”, mas que não faz muito sentido pra quem está realmente envolvido com essas áreas, e me parece que seria complicada demais pra um leitor jovem e leigo.
A conclusão do arco do demônio-rei me pareceu um tanto apressada, e fiquei confusa e sem entender direito o que aconteceu por conta do discurso, que me pareceu enlouquecido, do demônio-rei.
No geral, é um bom livro para uma leitura casual e despretensiosa.
Read this as part of the Fourteen Epic Fantasy bundle.
I was very disappointed in this book, especially after having paused the bundle to read the sequels to the previous book in the bundle, so good that it was.
The book has several major problems, the least of which being the highly cliche plot, storyline and characters.
The story could have been simple and OK and still be entertaining, but all the problems only made me wish it ended already so I could move on.
There's a lot of info dumping, especially about culture and society, but not once in the book did the reader get to read the so famous prophecy and truly understand what is going on.
The characters are inconsistent and I couldn't relate to a single one of them. They were poorly constructed, as was the world around them.
The group doesn't ever face any real threats, but act like they've been “going through hell” all the time. The bad guys are incompetent enough that it's easy to escape.
The MC spends over half the book denying he's the Chosen One, and nobody ever tells him what he's supposed to do, or how to do it, or how is he supposed to learn to use/control his famous powers, but in less than a week and only two attempts he has mastered his powers and can save the day quite easily.
Apart from all of that, the text is full of editing and writing problems almost to the point of being unreadable. Grammar, spelling and sentence structure made the text hard to flow and the constant and unannounced changes of POV made it very, very confusing.
I will not be reading any of the sequels.
Quick, fun, entertaining.
I love 9 and Rose, and it was great to see Mickey again too.
The story was very engaging and it was great to both see Rose help and be helpless and see the Doctor have a hard time.
Only negative was that in the end you don't get to know the why of the war. And I was kinda hoping in the end the Quevvils would finally enter the center of the Mantodean stronghold and find a huge salt sculpture to steal and go home licking it all the way
Loved it.
Tikaya and Rias don't let you down, even when Tikaya is questioning Rias, it's wonderful to see that she chooses to trust him and save her doubts for when they can talk them over, and even more wonderful to see Rias always stays true to her and trusts her to be smart enough to figure everything out and solve the problems.
I loved it.
I read this as part of the kindle bundle 14 Fantasy Books and it was by far one of the very best.
A mix of Lovecraft, Arthur C. Clarke and Steampunk, the story is engaging, the characters are fun, the romance is there just in the right ballance and isn't one of those teenage romances so popular right now.
I was also very happy that despite being the first to a trilogy, the story starts and ends in the same book, and I can be satisfied with it for some time, though I've already bought the two others.
Would definetly recommend to friends.
Ahh, I loved this one.
I got this book in the Kindle bundle EPIC: 14 Books of Fantasy.
I have to say I was growing tired of reading tragic and action filled first-of-its-trilogy books, and Jade was a much needed and much welcome rest from that.
It was wonderful and refreshing to read an almost fairy-tale story of love and kindness and happy-endings that had started and ended and didn't leave me dying to know if I should pick up the sequel.
Upon finishing I found out there are other books to the series, even previous in chronology to this one, but I felt no need for more information. When there was talk of background and worldbuilding, I just assumed it was to give some depth and in no way did it detract from my enjoyment of the story.
There are some minor writting issues, but nothing serious.
I just loved so very much both Jade and Halfax that I will most definetly pick up the other books to get to know this world better.
I only hope that horrible elf won't hurt future descendants from Jade, or I'll go inside myself to kill him.
What to say of this book?
I liked the overall story, I liked the world and the magic, I liked how the people could turn into dragons, the names, the colors, the lifes... The storyline itself is quite cliche, but bot bad... I quite liked Tilla, and Rune was overal smarter than most main charachters/heroes out there.
But I couldn't get myself to like the bad guys... none of them... they're all “I'm evil because I'm evil and I like it and I'm cruel and I'll kill and torture you all”...
And I found the writing to be a little bit tiring, too repetitive, with characters always introducing other characters all the time, even when you already got used to everyone...
I also think the violence was a bit overdone, specially with Leresy and all the raping going on... I mean, she's your fiancé, and she's willing, you don't have to rape her just to show who's the boss...
But I did like most of it, and I am curious to see more from Tilla, so I probably will read the sequel eventually
I loved this book!
I read it in the 14 Fantasy Books bundle and it was an amazing difference from the past stories. This is my favorite of the bundle so far.
It is always nice to see a differend magic system, and this one was so cool to discover, especially since I've been learning a bit of coding myself and my boyfriend's whole undergrad research is based on writing codes, so that's pretty much all he talks about some days. Its also cool to see how everyday things can turn into great fantasy.
I love the way we first experience the world through the eyes of this alien intelligence and only after start seeing human PoVs.
I really like the characters, I still can't tell who's supposed to be the villain, I know Augusta is trying to kill Gala, but I just can't make myself hate her. And I'm itching to know what the hell Barson is planning, and although he's my least favorite character, I don't hate him either.
I particularly enjoyed seeing the world from Gala's eyes, see her learning, calculating, losing her temper, discovering the world and giving a good excuse to show the worldbuilding.
Will most definetly read the rest of the series.
I really really liked this book when it started.
I loved how it was set in norse culture and mith and how magic and the gods came into play.
But soon as the travels began and the main group parted ways all the characters suddenly couldn't take advice or listen to reason and went head on into all the dangers and traps...
I got bored for most of the middle part of the book when nothing at all happens for oh so many pages...
The ending was good enough to make me like it again and gain this 2 stars, and I love the fact that I can leave the series here without tearing my hears from my head in despair to know what happens next, which means I can get back to the series sometime in the future and give it another shot, just not right now.
2 stars because the last third of the book got me wanting to know what will happen to Klawdia and see the city of Meligna and the other healers.
For the first two thirds I didn't much mind the story, but I positively hated Adenine. I get she had a rough childhood, suffered trauma and never got to learn how to relate to people and behave normally, but I just can't stand her... always moaning noone thinks about what she wants, that nobody loves her, and when someone does she's rude and always thinks its lies... Too much anger and hate towards everyone made me fear she'd willingly run away with the Healer out of spite for everyone who'd always only tried to protect her. It still makes me fear she might turn bad if she doesn't grow up very soon.
Still thinking if I'm gonna pick up volume 2.
Absolutely loved it.
I don't even know how I came to this book, probably a Kindle Daily Deal thing, and I don't regret trusting the title and cover.
I'm crazy for dragons, and I love to read new and different takes on dragons.
I found this book to be very light, fun and entertaining.
Julius is a very likable character and Marci is my favorite, of course. And to see all the other family members was awesome, each with his own personality. Bob is the funniest of all, which makes me scare of him in the future.
I also love the way the author was able to close the book with a proper and satisfying ending while still leaving enough opening for a series. Makes me want to read more, but feel I won't die waiting to see what happens next. If it was a one shot book I'd still be happy with the ending.