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| 0007101112
| 9780007101115
| 0007101112
| 3.83
| 1,653
| Jan 01, 2002
| Aug 01, 2009
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it was amazing
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Read the full review here: https://www.bookwormblues.net/2023/11... Janny Wurts is a hugely inspirational author for me. Not only is she a strong, fema Read the full review here: https://www.bookwormblues.net/2023/11... Janny Wurts is a hugely inspirational author for me. Not only is she a strong, female voice in the genre, but her books are so intricately crafted, every word perfectly placed for maximum impact, every element of character and plot precisely developed. Reading her books isn’t just entertaining, it’s also educational and something I recommend everyone experience. There is absolutely nothing like sitting at the feet of a master and studying their art. To Ride Hell’s Chasm was a book I was very excited to read, and I was even more excited to receive a signed copy of it, which I have put next to my Tad Williams signed books. This is a standalone, which is something I’ve discovered I tend to enjoy in fantasy, and something we don’t see a whole lot of in this genre. Fantasy is full of series, duologies and trilogies, and Wurts herself has penned a massive epic fantasy series (It is absolutely amazing, by the way. One of the best series out there, full stop, and if you have not read it yet WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?). So this standalone felt like a true switch of gears for this author. I was excited to see what a writer of this caliber could do with less space to work with. Wurts is a writer who puts herself on the page. Her books are layered and passionate, with deep explorations of characters and cultures, of the way people work both together and against each other. Here, in To Ride Hell’s Chasm, she pushed herself to a whole new level. Her passion and care for the story she’s telling positively shines. A book has a certain magic when you can tell the author loved the story they were telling, and I felt that here, in every word and on every page. Wurts is such a passionate, visionary, artistic person and that’s felt, profoundly, in this book. And perhaps that is one reason why this book felt a bit personal. I could feel Wurts throughout the story, her hand carefully moving characters, pushing events, exploring ever deeper layers and themes, delicately touching the nuances of human nature. With raw honesty she crafts her characters and with a precise, goal-focused eye she writes her story. Like the finest dark chocolate, this is a book I advise you savor. Trust Wurts to take you where you need to go. She is a master of her craft and you are in good hands. The plot of To Ride Hell’s Chasm is deceptively simple (pay attention to the word “deceptively”). Princess Anja of Sessalie has disappeared on the night of her betrothal feast. The king assigns his guard commander, Taskin, to find her. Then also adds the new gate captain, a foreigner named Mykkael to find her as well. The story looks simple enough on the surface, but Wurts quickly subverts any idea that this will be simple or straightforward. The mystery went in a direction I didn’t expect almost instantly. There were numerous times when I could not fathom how characters would get out of certain situations and plenty of plot twists that had me reeling. Yes, this book is fantasy but it is also shockingly human, driven by characters who live and love, who laugh and are betrayed, making this book feel both fantastic and relatable all at once. To Ride Hell’s Chasm is an incredibly dense book. It’s not one you can sit back and let happen, but will require some focus and you’ll likely need to be in the right mood (Or maybe that’s just me? I’m a mood reader.). However, in my estimation, the effort it took to fully grasp all the layers and depth, the nuances and detail of this story made the experience (and that fantastic ending) even richer. In truth, Wurts’s best traits as an author are her dense prose and plots. She does nothing in half measures. I love that she’s not afraid to reach for the heart of every part of her story, and then carefully examine what makes it beat. There is a painting technique called Pointillism. If Janny Wurts’s books were paintings, I’d think of them as a perhaps more fluid pointillism. The stories are meant to be viewed both from a distance and up close. There is both forest and trees and all of it is important. I say this because it’s an important factor in this story. To Ride Hell’s Chasm was a book that required me to carefully examine all of its parts to fully grasp the whole. The story covers only five days, but it’s spread out across over 600 pages. The first day takes almost 200 pages, because every element, every emotional nuance is explored. Now, this might seem overwhelming, but it never felt so. This level of detail made the story so much more rich and vivid, so much more intricate. Do not mistake this to mean the book is slow, because it’s anything but. There is so much relentless forward motion throughout, it was hard to find a place to pause my reading. And the action is both frequent and gripping, written with just as much detail as everything else, making me feel as though I was immersed in it. I will say, however, that the density of this book is something to consider before diving in. It’s a unique style which I love, but it’s not going to appeal to everyone (but nothing ever does). I am frankly surprised by how much Wurts managed to pour into this one volume, and it’s all because of that depth, those layers, the incredible prose. All elements of her execution work together to create a nuanced tale, from mystery to action to raw moments of humanity, I was constantly engaged. There was something happening at every moment. The plot was tight and paced with precision. The book felt like a well-oiled machine: storytelling at its finest. No word wasted. The world is stunningly well built. Every element has been crafted with care and an eye toward how it impacts the whole. Every detail is described with rich words and richer colors and contrasts. It feels lived in, with all social strata and cultural pressure points you’d expect in something that well-realized. Readers who love details will find a haven here: Wurts spares none and her world is so textured because of it. Everything from boiling laundry to dressing wounds and strategy and horses are intricately covered, and all written with such precision it makes me wonder how much research she did while drafting this book. It’s these details that I love though, because it makes the world blaze with such glorious realism. And these strengths in her worldbuilding bleed into the characters, each of them exploring and experiencing the world in different ways, each of them just as vivid, messy, textured, and nuanced as the world they inhabit. Here, you will find the book grounded by the happiness, joy, grief, sorrow, worry, loss, and mystery. Moments that pull us into the story, make it relatable, help us see a bit of ourselves in what we’re reading. I realize I am saying a lot here without saying much. I tend to try to avoid specifics in a book review, but I am trying doubly hard in this one, because I think half the joy of reading a Janny Wurts book is the experience of diving in and realizing you’re getting so much more than you expected. What you need to know is that this was an incredible book, written by a master of her craft. Standalone fantasy at its finest. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 08, 2023
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Nov 08, 2023
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Nov 08, 2023
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Mass Market Paperback
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| B0BV8RMX4N
| 4.44
| 337
| Oct 31, 2023
| Oct 31, 2023
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None
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1
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not set
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Jan 2023
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Sep 05, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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| 1250810183
| 9781250810182
| 1250810183
| 3.64
| 44,377
| Aug 02, 2022
| Aug 02, 2022
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it was amazing
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https://www.bookwormblues.net/2022/08... Somehow, I managed to nab an arc of this book about a hundred years ago. I read the entire thing in two days, https://www.bookwormblues.net/2022/08... Somehow, I managed to nab an arc of this book about a hundred years ago. I read the entire thing in two days, and then I went online to gush about how amazing it was and realized the book didn’t publish for months yet. So, I sat on all my thoughts. I recently realized the book published and I’d forgotten to gush about how much I loved it (I’ve been so busy it’s ridiculous), so here I am. Better late than never, right? I don’t even really know where to start with this one, which is surreal because books are my livelihood and I always seem to know what to say about them. This one, though, crosses a lot of streams, all of which I love, and it left me with so many thoughts. How do you discuss a book that defies explanation? Basically, living on the fringes of UK society is a secret group of people known as book eaters. They consume books for food, and then retain the knowledge they gain by eating said books. This subset of society is dwindling, and Dean shows how they’ve survived. It’s a secret society wherein women are bound by strict rules, obligations, and marriage contracts. Devon Fairweather is the only daughter of an ancient clan. When her firstborn daughter is seized and she gives birth to a son, who is a mind eater (an even darker subset of book eaters), she sees the writing on the wall and goes on the run with her son, Cai. However, her search for freedom is not all it is cut out to be, and soon Devon finds herself mired in a situation where the cost for freedom might be too high, and the promise of of it might not be all she’s anticipating. While she and her son try to live among the humans, Devon is forced to do ever darker things to survive. There’s a whole lot of soul searching in this book, and crossroads where decisions must be made, and no matter which way you go, it’s going to hurt. The thematic threads in The Book Eaters highly appealed to me. The cost of freedom, the battle to liberate oneself from an extremely restrictive upbringing, and the relationship between choices and consequences are the lifeblood that run through this book. Explored in many different ways, these themes give the book a soul that is undeniable and unavoidable. Not only are we reading a story that is entertaining and engrossing, but we’re exploring fundamental parts of the human experience, made even more dramatic through the world Dean has created. Told in alternating bursts between the past and the present, Dean uses a distinct narrative style to show how past choices impact present decisions with some delicious and delicate layering that added so much dimension to the story without ever being overwhelming. I loved the choices Dean made in how she wrote this book. She didn’t just want to tell a story, but she made fundamental decisions in how she told the story that made the story itself that much better. This is what I mean when I tell authors they need to make narrative decisions. Don’t just fall into the plot, but make a distinct choice in how you navigate your book’s terrain, because as Dean shows, those decisions can push your story to a whole new level. Showing the impact and relationship between past and present as a narrative style was nothing short of inspirational. Devon is an amazing character to follow, and watching her change and grow throughout the book is that much more dramatic due to the interplay between past and present. This is the artistry of character development, and the subtle grace of character-as-plot. It was… magnificent. Here, we don’t just see a woman pushed to her limit and left to flounder, but we understand what pushed her and we see the results of all that pushing. Dean takes us on a subtle emotional exploration as Devon descends into disillusionment and then her fight for both her and her son’s freedom. We witness the transformation of self through both choice and pressure. It was profound and captivating, and done with such a delicate hand, but with such purposeful intent. Perhaps my favorite aspect of this book, however, is the atmosphere. Gothic horror is something I love, but I read very little of because I think it’s hard to get right. I wouldn’t call this horror, per se, but I would absolutely call it gothic, and Dean knows exactly when to make those gothic notes sing, and when to pull back and let implication reign. This isn’t a light book, so I would advise readers who enjoy more uh… happier and jovial tales to probably be aware. Go into it with the right mindset. This one will make you hurt, and it will make you uncomfortable, but sometimes that’s the point. And oh, that atmosphere. It truly does reign, filling each page until Devon’s world, her story, were more real than real, and I couldn’t tell where the book ended and I began. All of this works together to create a nearly flawless story that explores themes that profoundly resonated. I loved how Dean dove into aspects of self, motherhood, love, and control. Ultimately, as someone who edits full-time, reads a whole lot, and writes my own books, the thematic exploration of how stories can shape our minds and even our realities was hit my soul just right, and resonated with me in a way that very few things have thus far. The Book Eaters was an absolutely brilliant debut. Stunningly written and crafted with such purpose and intent, it truly shines. This book deserves every bit of praise it is receiving and more. I don’t know what Sunyi Dean has in store for her literary future, but I recognize a star when I see one. This is an author to watch. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 16, 2022
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Aug 16, 2022
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Aug 16, 2022
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Hardcover
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| 4.26
| 1,245
| Dec 02, 2022
| Jul 2022
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it was amazing
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This is, hands down, one of the best books I've read all year. I mean, it is SO FREAKING GOOD I CANNOT EVEN. Working on it was an absolute honor. One o This is, hands down, one of the best books I've read all year. I mean, it is SO FREAKING GOOD I CANNOT EVEN. Working on it was an absolute honor. One of those books that just reminded me why I do what I do for a living. Really cut all the way into my soul and planted itself there. I will write a full review a little closer to publication. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 06, 2022
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Jul 06, 2022
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Jul 06, 2022
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Kindle Edition
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| 0578879239
| 9780578879239
| 0578879239
| 4.21
| 1,129
| Apr 21, 2021
| Apr 16, 2021
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it was amazing
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https://www.bookwormblues.net/2022/04... Idols Fall is the conclusion of the Iconoclasts series, which has truly become one of my favorite fantasy seri https://www.bookwormblues.net/2022/04... Idols Fall is the conclusion of the Iconoclasts series, which has truly become one of my favorite fantasy series out there. This book starts out with a bang and doesn’t really let up until the very end. Here, you see the true majesty of the series in its entirety. Before going further, I will say to avoid spoilers, I’ll be pretty vague about specifics in this review. You do need to read the previous two books before you read this one, but they are all amazing so that news should really excite you more than anything else. Part of the reason I have put off writing this review is because I don’t really know what to say. Sometimes you read a book, a series, that just wows you so much you’re left speechless. It took me a while to process the book, the series. Took me even longer to really grasp how much I enjoyed it. Idols Fall really is the culmination of a sprawling masterpiece. The series itself took me places I didn’t expect, in just about every respect. What truly amazed me about the conclusion, however, was how many threads Shel managed to weave together, aspects of the plot that I didn’t even really realize needed a conclusion until Shel neatly braided them into the plot. Small details I noticed in passing in previous books ended up being huge, fundamental points of the plot. I had a lot of “Ah ha!” moments while reading this one. I didn’t expect that kind of subversion, and I quickly realized that’s what I loved most about the book, about the series as a whole. Shel has managed to take nearly every fantasy trope and spin it so it was completely his own thing. He did this so masterfully, I didn’t even realize it was happening until I stopped reading and thought about the story itself, and all the elements of it. Shel is busy subverting throughout the series, but it really shows here in Idols Fall, and the book is so powerful for it. I have never thought Shel’s writing anything but the best. He’s got tight prose, a knack for knowing when to lean into poetic description and when to use words like a hammer. His fight scenes are… I mean, amazing. I really struggle with fight scenes, both in editing and in writing. I have a hard time processing them if there’s too much battle-specific lingo. It sort of feels like I’m reading a math equation after a certain point. Shel’s fight scenes, his tense moments, the character arcs that require inner battles as well as outer, are all done with such poise, such mastery, it really blew me away. In fact, I’ve had a few edits since I’ve read this series, where the authors struggle with this sort of thing, and I’ve recommended all of them a few books to read for a good example of technique. I’m more of a character reader than anything else, so let me focus on that for a minute. Throughout this trilogy, we’ve followed characters who have spanned the gamut of the human condition. Ultimately, I think Shel’s characters are absolutely amazing. The way he’s managed to make them so real, and yet balanced their development with the plot itself makes this one of those Goldilocks Zone series that will appeal to plot-based readers and character-based readers alike. However, it’s the characters that really made the plot matter to me. Their struggles, emotional landscapes, the way they had to make impossible decisions, and then push, push, push through the fallout. Here, in Idols Fall, we have the culmination of a long, fraught arc. Shel doesn’t shy away from showing both the emotional highs and lows of his characters. With a careful hand, he addresses pain, but there’s also moments of levity. What I enjoyed most, though, was seeing how much the characters evolved over three books. Somewhere in this journey, they stopped being random characters and turned into people I knew, worried about, and cared for. Throughout this series, Shel has unashamedly pushed his characters to the breaking point, and then let them break. Some of them pick up the pieces, some don’t. None of them are who they were in the first book. Everyone changes, evolves, and it’s these evolutions, sometimes subtle and sometimes overt, that really put the characters over the top for me. Just as dramatic as the plot themselves, Shel doesn’t overlook anything in their construction. The balance between character development and plot was nothing short of masterful. I have a really hard time finishing series, to be honest with you. Even when I edit, if I like the book I’m working on a lot, I will honestly delay editing it until I absolutely cannot delay it anymore. Why? I don’t want it to end. I’m the same way when I read. I have a really, really hard time driving myself toward “the end” because “the end” is almost physically painful. I don’t want it to end. I don’t want to leave these people behind, and I certainly don’t want to stop exploring this world, which is so rife with conflict, darkness and light. I felt that keenly with Iconoclasts. I just did not want it to end, and now that it has, I’m overjoyed that I read it, and also a little sad that I’ll never get that “first read” experience back again. The fact of the matter is, this is less a review of a book and more a review of a series. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I read this. I saw a lot of my friends reading these books and raving about them, but I just wasn’t sure. I decided to take a chance, and I think that’s one of the best decisions reader-me has made. Shel is an incredible author who knows how to tell a story, subvert tropes, layer in absolutely unforgettable atmosphere, and play tension like a fiddle. I don’t really know what to say other than that. Idols Fall was the culmination of a journey that took me through some extreme highs and some unforgettable lows. Shel gave the world a gift with this series. If you’re a fantasy reader, do yourself a favor and read these books. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 26, 2022
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Apr 26, 2022
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Apr 26, 2022
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Paperback
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| B09R9FSZB5
| 4.11
| 227,227
| Feb 22, 2022
| Feb 22, 2022
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it was amazing
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https://www.bookwormblues.net/2022/03... Recently, I needed something… different. Something a bit lighter. Something that gave me hope in humanity. My https://www.bookwormblues.net/2022/03... Recently, I needed something… different. Something a bit lighter. Something that gave me hope in humanity. My kids were sick, and then sick again. I’ve got people trapped in a war zone in Ukraine. My mother has cancer. So yeah, I needed something lighter. Something a bit different. A warm hug, as opposed to my usual. I was settling in for some “me” time one night (“Me time” involves either a true crime podcasts or a book). I wasn’t in the mood to hear about murders, so I opened up my audible app, and started scrolling through the hundreds of books I have in an attempt to find something that was more comfort, less brutality. I happened upon this book, which I’d apparently picked up at some point and promptly forgot about (sorry). I thought, “Yeah, this feels right…” and downloaded it. Legends and Lattes isn’t a long book, but you’ll kind of wish it was. You won’t want it to end. It’s not huge, pulse-pounding, or incredibly intense. Here, you have a gentle little thing. The audiobook is about six hours long, give or take a bit, and it’s narrated by the author, who happens to be a well-known voice actor. It was the easiest thing in the world to turn this on and listen while I did my art stuff and unplugged from the day. So, if you’re an audiobook fan, this one is worth adding to your collection. This book is a bit different, in that it’s low stakes—“cozy fantasy”—which the author says up front. Here, we follow the story of Viv, who has spent her life adventuring. Viv, however, is sick of all the get-up-and-go, the worrying, the life so she retires and decides to follow her dream and open a coffee shop. And basically, that’s the story. From top to bottom: a day in the life of a small business owner. There it is, only it’s so much more than that too. Viv is a fantastic character to follow. Her voice is unique, as is her perspective of the world, and her dogged determination is really something to behold. Here, you’ll follow her story as she opens up a coffee shop, and all the ups and downs that entails. Soon, Viv finds herself converting an abandoned livery into a café, along with friends she meets along the way. The banter was fantastic and kept the book light and seriously engaging. This lifestyle change, however, is a pretty big deal. Dare we say, a reinvention. Going from an adventuring life to this new stable, business-owner life is quite a swing, and Viv has a few growing pains that Baldree handles with a delicate touch. While Viv might not completely believe in herself, she believes in her idea, and for a while, it’s that belief in that specific idea that really keeps her going and pushes her ever forward. However, it’s not hard to see that there’s something about Viv that is just special, and I say that both in reference to how she’s written, and also because she’s a character who really stood out to me. It’s Viv’s personality, the fact that she seems to shine no matter where she is or what she’s doing, that attracts people to her. Soon, she’s got friends, and there’s a whole crew of secondary characters who flow in and out of the book. She gathers around herself a little ocean of people, and starts developing a support system, and dare I say it, a found family of sorts. Maybe it was the normalcy that I loved most about this book, as it’s not something I see a lot in fantasy. In Legends and Lattes, fantasy creatures are everywhere, from orcs to a succubus, you’ll recognize each of these trope-laden creations in this book but what makes them special is how mundane they are written (and thus, Baldree subverts the tropes). Yes, they are fantasy characters and magic is a thing… but Viv is an orc opening a coffee shop which she plans to run in her retirement. One of her friends is a succubus who feels bogged down by her history. I just can’t remember the last time I read a book where these extraordinary characters were given such ordinary concerns and reader, you have absolutely no idea how much I loved that aspect of this book. It’s this mundanity, this fundamentally grounded spin on a secondary fantasy world that really makes this book glow, because I related to every part of it. Someone I know could fit each character role in this book. They are so extraordinary ordinary, which allowed me to connect with the story in a way that I usually don’t. Yes, there are some wrinkles in the book as things unfold, and yes, there are some (low-stakes) complications to navigate, but it never steps away from being what it is at heart: cozy. That coziness is just magnified by how relatable the characters are. No matter how fantasy this fantasy is, at the core of it, this might be the most “human” book I’ve read in a very, very long time. Reader, there was kindness in this story, and my soul really needed that. So, as you can see, I loved Legends and Lattes and I have literally nothing bad to say about it. It’s exactly what I needed, and exactly what I wanted. This is a warm hug on a cold day. Written with care and attention, Baldree’s delicate touch and vibrant characters make this story shine. More, I think this is what the world needs right now. Books have their own kind of magic. Legends and Lattes was positively enchanting. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 30, 2022
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Mar 30, 2022
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Mar 30, 2022
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Kindle Edition
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| B09T4ZWT3K
| 4.10
| 951
| May 15, 2022
| May 15, 2022
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it was amazing
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https://www.bookwormblues.net/2022/04... Well, I’m going to do it. I’m going to attempt to do this book some sort of justice, but oh, it’s going to be https://www.bookwormblues.net/2022/04... Well, I’m going to do it. I’m going to attempt to do this book some sort of justice, but oh, it’s going to be hard. This might be one of the most difficult books I’ve ever reviewed. How, dear reader, can one person really articulate how amazing this book truly was? The fact of the matter is, I still don’t quite know what to say. This book just floored me, and in the closing of one series, Fletcher opens some doors that only made his particular universe even larger. I mean, how is that even possible? The guy, at this point, defies the laws of nature. An End to Sorrow is nothing short of magisterial. This is the kind of series ender that should be used to teach all authors how to end a series. Here, we have epic highs and the lowest of lows. Relentless battles and extreme odds make this read like a pulse-pounding thrill ride, but then there are quieter moments as well, emotional depths that I’ve learned, over the course of editing six of the guy’s books, to expect, but still always manage to surprise me. I don’t really know how to talk about An End to Sorrow without giving all of it away. I still, honestly, am trying to sort through the impact of this series. Editing it has been an adventure. I’ve learned a lot about writing and editing by working on Fletcher’s books. More, I’ve been gifted the opportunity to watch a master artist at his craft, to watch him evolve and grow with each installment, see how he hones his craft and grasps his story with both hands, aggressively pushing it to the furthest extremes. And somehow, he wrestles the bear and wins. Editing for Fletcher has been one of the most illuminating experiences in my professional life. Editing this series for him has been nothing short of incredible. Khraen is one of the most morally ambiguous characters I’ve ever read, and that’s part of why I love the guy. He’s just so completely… Khraen, and Fletcher knows how to tap into that moral ambiguity and confusion and make it truly shine. Here, in An End to Sorrow, is Khraen’s long-awaited crescendo. We’ve been building up to it over two books. What I love most about his arc, specifically in this book, is how perfectly Fletcher managed to balance Khraen’s inner landscape with his outer struggle. There’s a lot of introspection here, Khraen not only trying to figure out what to do next, but also trying to figure out where he fits in all of this, and how much of himself is truly worth knowing. Acceptance and rejection were core themes here, both on personal levels and on a much larger, external scale. What happens in the journey, the battles Khraen faces, the decisions he makes, are all mirrored in his inner landscape. It was absolutely astounding, how each thrust of a weapon, each maneuver, each decision made that furthered the plot, opened up a wellspring of inner strife, turmoil, and confusion. Emotional notes that hit just as hard as any sword thrust ever could. Ultimately, this series is about a fundamentally wounded, flawed man picking up the pieces of himself, and it’s not easy. It never is, but that is a story we all relate to. This breaking, fracturing, loss and then the slow, painful process of putting ourselves back together after the cataclysm. That’s the ultimate power of the story. Fletcher takes an experience we all relate to and makes it uniquely his own. We connect, and through that connection, we’re captivated. It’s that powerful connection that Fletcher uses to toy with us so very well. An End to Sorrow is a masterpiece. It took me a few weeks after editing it just to process how much I loved this book, and then a few more weeks to get up the courage to message Fletcher and bounce some theories off him. I’m still sitting here, so long after the edit, kind of reeling. I don’t feel like I’ve stopped yet. I’ve honestly never read anything like this, and I’ve never had a book hangover that sunk its claws in this deep. I’m not quite sure how it happened, but at some point along the way, this entire series became part of me, etched in bone, spoken into my marrow. Pulse-pounding? Yes. Thrillride? Yes. Moral ambiguity? Oh yeah. It’s all here… but the series never loses its fundamental humanity, neither does it ever lose the voices of both the author and the characters, and that’s the true power of this series. Here are characters with abilities one could ascribe to divinity, and yet they are all flawed, with pieces missing. So incredibly human. Here, Khraen, despite how much he changes, is fundamentally still the Khraen I was introduced to in book one. So much is different, and yet the important stuff stays the same: the voices, the artistry, the authors ability to tell a story. Fletcher flagrantly breaks the rules, and shows how powerful rule breaking can truly be. The plot is relentless. It never lets up. There isn’t much time for quiet moments, but there are some, and Fletcher uses them like a hammer to hit the emotional notes just right, making the entire work feel so perfectly balanced. The fights are extremely well written, with almost surgical precision. The creatures you’ll see are things that HP Lovecraft would look at with awe. The ending is… I mean, wow. I realize this is less of a book review, and more of a… I don’t even know what. The issue is, this series is just amazing, from top to bottom. It started out fantastic, and then it just kept getting better, until the ending, which is its own sort of Fletcheresque subversion that I am absolutely *dying* to talk to someone about because I’m still reeling, honestly. I don’t quite know what to say. Editing for Fletcher has been one of the best parts of my career. Every time he throws a book at me, I get excited in a way that is unique to him. It’s been incredible to watch his writing evolve, the way he pushes himself to new heights, new extremes, new highs and new lows. I haven’t ever really seen anything like it, and being behind the scenes, being able to watch the master at work in some small way has been, well, formative. Being part of this series in the tiny capacity I’ve been from beginning to end is a true feather in my cap. I cannot believe I was lucky enough to work on these books. I don’t know if this is a review or just a 1000+ word diatribe wherein I tell you how fantastic I think Fletcher is, but I should probably cover my bases here and talk a bit about the book itself. An End to Sorrow is the best series ender I’ve ever read, period. Action packed, with no detail overlooked, this book was the culmination of a journey I should have prepared myself for first, but looking back on it, I know there’s no way to prepare for something like this. I don’t think I’ve ever been this engrossed by a series, much less a book. I’ll be picking pieces of Khraen from my soul for a while yet. ...more |
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1
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Mar 14, 2022
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Mar 14, 2022
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Mar 14, 2022
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Kindle Edition
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| B095JRNDF6
| 4.33
| 248
| Jun 10, 2021
| Jun 10, 2021
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it was amazing
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https://www.bookwormblues.net/2022/02... I came across this book because one of my friends recommended it. I was in the mood for something a bit enchan https://www.bookwormblues.net/2022/02... I came across this book because one of my friends recommended it. I was in the mood for something a bit enchanting, a bit lighter and this sounded like exactly my thing. Plus, it’s LGBTQIA+ friendly, which is always a huge, huge bonus. So, I jumped on it. I bought a copy, and reader, I blazed through this thing. I mean, I opened the book, and I basically read it in one sitting, and then immediately upon finishing it I thought, “I really want to read that again.” Farview is… I can’t even figure out how to sum up this book. To say it’s utterly charming is one of the biggest understatements I can think of. To say it’s captivating doesn’t do it justice. Farview is… I think it’s as close to perfection as a novel like this can be, and I don’t say that lightly. What you first need to know, is that while this is billed as the second book in a series, it stands perfectly on its own. I did not read the first book in this series before I got to Farview, and I felt absolutely no drawback due to that. The story is its own thing, perfectly encapsulated here, with no real need for book one before you enjoy book two. Oliver Webb arrives in a small, quiet seaside village and the cottage he inherited from his mother (and has never seen) in an effort to basically just fade away. He is running from something and he’s coming to this place to get away from it, live in this cottage alone, and waste away quietly. He’s a rather cantankerous man at the start of the book, unimpressed and doesn’t want to be messed with. Almost as soon as he arrives in Croftwell, Felix, a local storyteller and bard, attaches himself to Oliver. The two couldn’t, at first, be more opposite, and that’s where part of the magic is. But only part of it. First, let me talk a bit about Oliver and Felix, because it is very rare I come across such a perfectly suited couple in a book. Oliver’s cantankerous, closed off nature and Felix’s overflowing excitement and enthusiasm really pair well, like wine and cheese. It’s really nothing short of absolutely delightful to watch these characters become attached, and how they not only complement each other, but change each other for the better. Furthermore, both Oliver and Felix have secrets, have things the other needs to work around and account for, and never once was any of that excused away, or downplayed. Their strengths and weaknesses were fundamental parts of their characters and narrative arcs, and that just made them feel so much more real to me. Oliver and Felix are an interesting couple in the fact they are both grappling with aspects of their pasts, and their present. They are, in a lot of ways, getting to know themselves as well as each other, and while Felix’s life is a bit more… imbedded in a certain routine, I’d say they are both at a time of transition and change. They end up being each other’s strengths during the unexpected storms they must weather. Their unlikely partnership is really the shining light of the book, so sweet and natural, so true, it’s an unfolding romance the way a romance should be written with high and low notes, emotional intensity, and moments of genuine, soul-deep connection. And oh, reader, in this book, we get men that cry and I love that. Magic, as I mentioned above, is prevalent. It’s everywhere, from imps who hang around and steal things that are left unaccounted for, to firestones, to magic flowers, and ghosts, merpeople, winged people… it is all here, and its everywhere. When I say, this world is steeped in magic, I mean it. Every page positively sings with enchantments. What’s more, it was so cleverly done, so carefully woven together, and somehow, it felt so natural to the world Fielding created, I never once doubted it. Elements I might otherwise have written off as “too ham-handed” became enchanting under this author’s careful ministrations. Slowly the world unfolded itself to me, and I realized, by the end of the book, I had fallen so much under its spell, I felt like Farview had worked a bit of its own magic on me. If you’re looking for a fairytale, you really can’t do better than this. This is the sort of fantasy that does the soul good, but it’s also just stunningly well written. The world is absolutely breathtaking, and the love story is nothing short of pure perfection. Rarely have I seen an author master a story so well, and I know this one will be a re-read. If you like Quenby Olson, you’ll like this book. I sat down to read this book hoping for something a bit softer, a bit enchanting, a bit sweet, and in every respect, Farview knocked it out of the park. I don’t think I’ve been this delighted by a book in a long, long time. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Feb 15, 2022
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Feb 20, 2022
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Feb 15, 2022
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Kindle Edition
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| 1250073022
| 9781250073020
| 1250073022
| 4.22
| 102,533
| Aug 09, 2016
| Aug 09, 2016
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it was amazing
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https://www.bookwormblues.net/2023/01... Nevernight tells the story one Mia Corvere, daughter of a failed revolutionary who was put to death along with https://www.bookwormblues.net/2023/01... Nevernight tells the story one Mia Corvere, daughter of a failed revolutionary who was put to death along with his followers, leaving Mia almost alone in the world. The operative word in that last sentence is “almost”. She isn’t quite alone. After Mia escapes the imprisonment her mother and brother face, she loses herself in the city and takes to hiding in shadows, which is something Mia is very, very good at doing. With a special ability she doesn’t quite understand, Mia has an intense and unique relationship with the dark. She can manipulate it, use shadows to hide and travel. And she has a familiar (I think?) named Mister Kindly, a not-cat with not-eyes who eats her fear and helps her survive. I’m not going to lie, Mister Kindly was one of my favorite parts of the book. Some of his dialogue with Mia just did it for me. Snappy and subtle, their banter often served to lighten the moment, but at times, it functioned like a knife in the ribs. Some of the cat’s lines made me stop in my tracks to just admire them. He had a way of cutting through everything to get right to the heart of things, and since one of his primary roles is devouring Mia’s fear, he often senses things about her that she might not be willing to admit to herself. “… mia …?” “Yes?” “… there is no need to be afraid…” “I’m not.” A pause, filled by the whispering wind. “… no need to lie, either…” Mia, however, is truly the star of the show. She spends her life after her numerous tragic losses living on the streets, surviving, often with the help of Mister Kindly. Taken under the wing of one rather questionable soul named Mercurio, Mia learns the art of ruthlessness. Though, much like Arya Stark, she’s got a list of names in her head, people who need to be dealt with on her quest for vengeance, and she cannot and will not be satisfied with street life and petty thievery. Following Mercurio’s instructions, she decides to go on a bit of a journey to find the Red Church, where the Republic’s fiercest killers and assassins are trained. This is really where the book gets going. Now, before you continue reading, please know something about me. There are three things I really, really struggle with when reading. I mean, if I come across books that are largely filled with any one of these three things, I usually do not finish them. One of the things on this list is schools or training academies. I almost never finish books where most of the plot takes place in a school or training academy. Now, there’s a reason for this, and I think it’s an alright one: authors really tend to struggle with infodumps in settings like this. It allows them too easily. When I start feeling like I’m sitting in class with the protagonist, I’m out. However, on the rare occasion that I find a book that doesn’t use such settings in that way, it really, really works for me. This is one of the latter. Someone on Twitter called this “Murder Hogwarts” and that fits perfectly, but you don’t really get any of those scenes I truly despise, wherein I’m sitting in the chair with the protagonist while they are being lectured about the nuances of magic or history or whatever. Kristoff deftly sidesteps all those pitfalls that really makes me struggle with these settings and by doing, he makes the entire thing sing. In fact, despite my strong feelings about schools/training academies I do not think this book could have worked nearly so well in a different setting, and Kristoff really displays his writerly prowess by how easily he sidesteps all the pitfalls that make these settings such a slog for me (usually). In fact, he turned something I generally avoid into one of the greatest strengths of the book. Here, Mia not only gets to be young and fallible but (especially toward the end) you get to see a hint of what she’s truly capable of. Here Kristoff gets to work in a fairly closed environment which allows him more time to build up characters and use them against each other in some extremely clever ways. Here, Kristoff really shines. Iron or glass? they’d ask. She was neither. She was steel. Perhaps one of the greatest delights of this book was how easily Kristoff worked on so many different levels. Mia is an extremely complex character. At the end of the book, I was stunned by how much I both knew about her, and all the stuff I still don’t know. Usually, I have a pretty good idea of who/what a person is by the end of a book, but by the end of Nevernight, I really felt like I was just starting to crack the envelope on Mia. Now I’m almost a hundred pages into book two, and I’m still trying to figure out the riddle of who exactly this protagonist is. It’s so rare to find a character who is this nuanced, that her mystery is part of what draws me to her. Who is she? No, more than that, what is she? She’s something. I don’t know what yet, but she’s something and I’m dying to find out more. Mia is also dying to find out more. I’m excited to find out with her. But you see, this really is where Kristoff shines. On her surface, Mia is a very screwed-up, angry teenager who often lashes out before she thinks. But in this school setting that I shockingly did not hate, you get to see more teenaged bits of her. There’s some sex. She kind of has a crush on someone for most of it. She has friends, falls into a clique, etc. All that teenage stuff. Underscoring all that, however, is the darkness, the death, the murder, the Mister Kindly and his not-eyes seeing too much. And Kristoff works effortlessly on both planes. At times there’s a rather discordant note with it all because Mia is so young to be doing all this stuff, but that’s part of the draw, and that discordant note makes Mia and her various surface/deeper struggles that much more compelling. It gives her an extremely subtle vulnerability that made the entire package that is Mia truly sing. The ending hit me like a freight train. There was a moment around the 75% mark where I was so surprised I had to put the book down, go into my beta reader group, and ask if anyone has read this book because I had to talk to someone about it. I just had to let out the “HOLY CRAP THIS IS AMAZING OMG” feels, you know? The thing is, around the 75-80% mark, stuff starts happening. The ending is intense and incredible and it goes off like a bomb, but what really got me is how Kristoff set all this up so subtly, I didn’t even realize stuff was being set up until the Big Thing starts to happen. That’s what had me so amazed. That’s why I had to run to my beta group and go “I NEED TO TALK TO SOMEONE ABOUT THIS RIGHT NOW BECAUSE IT’S SO FREAKING INCREDIBLE.” Here we have an ending, and it’s a powerful one, and it was so subtly set up I didn’t even realize a setup was taking place until it was too late. I edit so many books each year. I read even more than that. Do any of you have any idea how hard it is to surprise me these days? I appreciate books, I love books (my full-time career is working with books, so I better) but sometimes I feel like it’s almost impossible to surprise me anymore and the fact this book managed it says… a lot. The wolf does not pity the lamb. The storm begs no forgiveness of the drowned. In fact, the ending was so masterful, I immediately went to the library to pick up the rest of the series. As someone who prefers to let a book sink into me for at least a few weeks before I move on to the next book in the series, the fact that I immediately went into book two without hesitation also says a lot. Now, as for Kristoff’s prose, I devour things written with heavy metaphor, and some of the lyrical twists of phrase really got my blood pumping. It won’t be for everyone, but if anyone reading this review has read my books, they’ll know I dig a good, meaty metaphor and I love books that work on numerous layers with poetic turns of phrase that are pretty on the surface but hide truckloads of deeper meaning beneath. This book was that exactly. I know some people don’t like that kind of thing, so be aware before you go in, but for me, it ticked off all my boxes. The prose was sublime, and like so much of the book, there is a lot of development that happens beneath the surface. However, in these pages, Kristoff used his prose like the tool it is and often married beauty and pain in a way that zapped me all the way to my marrow. This book is extremely quotable, extremely beautiful, and full of pain. Be still, my heart. So, where does that leave us? If I can leave you, dear reader, with two summary phrases, they’d be: Nevernight is dark fantasy done the way dark fantasy should be done. It’s one of my best discoveries in years. ...more |
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1
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Jan 11, 2023
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Jan 11, 2023
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Feb 08, 2022
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Hardcover
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| B00IYTO9GK
| 3.57
| 1,004
| Jul 31, 2014
| Jul 31, 2014
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really liked it
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https://www.bookwormblues.net/2022/01... This book first came out in 2014, and only in the UK with a publisher I did not, at the time, have connections https://www.bookwormblues.net/2022/01... This book first came out in 2014, and only in the UK with a publisher I did not, at the time, have connections with. Reader, I was so incredibly bummed that I did not get an ARC of this book. I heard amazing things about it, and I just really, really wanted to read it. I told myself I’d remember to read it when it was released in the US and I just… forgot… until a friend mentioned it a few weeks ago. I nabbed a copy on Amazon and plowed through this book so fast it was incredible. Smiler’s Fair is dark, with some extremely unique worldbuilding. I will say, if you aren’t a fan of dark books, of grimdark specifically, you might want to steer clear of this one. The book itself seems to be pretty polarizing. When I scroll through reviews, the people who tend to really enjoy grimdark seem to love it, and the people who don’t… don’t, so keep that in mind. The worldbuilding is really where this book shines, and it shines in a different way than you might expect. Let me explain. There’re some incredibly unique aspects of development here that really intrigued me, from societies that are constantly on the move, to cities pulled by mammoths, and Smiler’s Fair itself. I enjoyed seeing how the author used magic and her world as two forces that impacted each other. Also, there are just so many different people in this world, and each different group has its own god, so there are lots of gods too. Cults and the like spring up. It was fascinating to see how Levene gathered all that together to create subtle (and not so subtle) friction throughout. Nothing exists in a vacuum, and Levine had a pretty good grasp of how, if you pull one thread somewhere, then it’s going to impact something somewhere else. In a world a fluid and moveable as this one, it really added a lot of nuance and texture to the book’s development that I truly appreciated. However, there aren’t a lot of details about the fair itself. Levene doesn’t really lean into descriptions, and they are used sparingly. Sometimes it’s hard to get a “visual” of where the characters are. At first, this frustrated me. It made the novel feel a bit disjointed since I couldn’t “see” everything I wanted to see. Then, the further I got into the story, the more I realized what an innovative choice this was on the author’s part. The fair itself almost seems to be a different thing to everyone who goes there, and in this book, Levine is using it as a vehicle to connect a handful of characters that have nothing really to do with each other. I felt like the decision to not lean too heavily into descriptions in favor of leaving a lot of this open to interpretation actually made the fair a bit more powerful and immersive in the end. Odd to say that, but I think she made the right decision here. In the style of epic/grimdark fantasy, this book is told from numerous points of view. The perspectives, at first, aren’t really attached to each other. They read more like stories tied together in a world they share. It takes time for the threads to bind together and for the characters to start telling one story, instead of a few different stories, if that makes sense. The benefit of this is, each character gets his or her own time, and you’ll become invested in them before they become invested in each other. When things really start rolling, you’ll be rooting for people. That being said, in the style of grimdark fantasy, the characters are darker. All of them flawed and emotionally tortured somehow, with pasts they drag around with them. They are loaded down with baggage and while I absolutely love that sort of thing, not everyone wants to read books about potentially unsympathetic characters. I liked all the characters for one reason or another, but Krish’s personal growth over the story really impressed me. By the end, he’s broken the boundaries of his former life and has perfectly set himself up for whatever comes next. While I do think some of the characters could have used a little more depth, Krish’s evolution shows what Levene is capable of, and that really excites me. Is the book perfect? No, but the author made some very real choices in how she spun her yarn that made characters like Krish shine. I need to take a moment to address diversity as well, because in this book, Levene has taken care to even out gender roles and sexuality so both men and women are equal in that regard, and it was really a breath of fresh air and very well done. The plot itself is an interesting blend of epic fantasy and dark fantasy. There are some graphic scenes, some dark emotional depths, some gray morality, and situations that might make you uncomfortable. Paired with this, is a vibrant magical system, an absolutely fascinating world unlike I’ve ever seen before, and some characters you’ll love (or love to hate, depending). Also, add a dash of cults and serial killers and you’ve got a book basically written for me. The end of Smiler’s Fair is a perfect setup for the next installment of the series, which I plan on devouring ASAP. But there are elements (I dare say, tropes) that you’ll recognize from epic fantasy. A “chosen on” (of sorts), prophecy and the like. Touchstones to help guide you through. You might see the cover and expect something light and fluffier, but this isn’t that. It’s not young adult, nor is it light and fluffy. This is a brutal, dark world full of flawed, sharp characters. The morality is murky, and there are very few redeeming qualities. This is how I like my dark fantasy. I want it to be brutal and knife-sharp. I want it to cut. But not everyone likes that sort of thing, so be aware going into it. I would say this one is solidly grimdark, and if you aren’t a grimdark reader, you might want to pass it by. But oh, grimdark readers, this is such a fantastic start to a series. It’s not perfect, but it’s really, really good and it’s absolutely worth your time. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 31, 2022
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Jan 31, 2022
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Jan 31, 2022
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Kindle Edition
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| 0648663590
| 9780648663591
| 0648663590
| 4.23
| 314
| Feb 15, 2020
| Feb 15, 2020
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it was amazing
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https://www.bookwormblues.net/2022/02... I first ran across T.R. Napper when I was editing the most recent edition of Grimdark Magazine. I was editing https://www.bookwormblues.net/2022/02... I first ran across T.R. Napper when I was editing the most recent edition of Grimdark Magazine. I was editing his story and was absolutely blown away by every part of it. The story itself, the execution, the way Napper uses words like a sledgehammer. I’ve never seen someone use prose so carefully, so each word not only carried its own weight, but so fundamentally impacted how I read and enjoyed the story. I knew this was an author I could read over and over again, and so I took myself to Amazon to buy his books. I ended up picking up Neon Leviathan and starting it right away, and then pre-ordering his book 36 Streets, which I will start soon. What really intrigued me about Napper, and the reason why I tracked down more of his work, was really the prose. He’s almost a lyrical writer in the fact that some of his turns of phrase just sing. His writing feels poetic and rich, without ever really dipping into poetry. He makes each word count. There were quite a few times when I was editing his story when I just had to sit back and admire how he was using words. His writing is a unique blend of aggressive and beautiful, and it just worked for me on a fundamental level. I’ve seen a few people compare his prose to Richard K. Morgan, and I think that is probably a good one. Morgan’s writing always strike me a similar way: visceral, with a hint of raw beauty in the most unexpected places. And that spark of his, that gift he has for an eloquent, visceral turn of phrase was not unique to that story I edited for Grimdark Magazine, but it’s a trait of Napper’s entire body of work. It’s one of the many elements of Neon Leviathan that sets this author head and shoulders above the rest. He not only knows how to tell an interesting story, he also knows how to connect it to his readers. Set against a rich near(ish)-future world, Neon Leviathan tell twelve different stories, most of them set around the year 2090. These stories are loose and unconnected, and yet there’s an overarching narrative arc that each one helps sustain as well. This was another element of Neon Leviathan I enjoyed. I went in expecting a loose collection of stories with a unifying theme. I did not expect stories that not only stand alone, but also work together. This is, I’m learning, one of Napper’s best skills. He works on multiple levels, and often times I don’t quite understand the genius of what he’s doing until an “ah ha” moment comes along that is so profound, I have to put the book down and walk away for a while just to absorb it. The unifying theme in Neon Leviathan is that of a world on the brink. Things have progressed, and everything is out of control, from people to their private lives, to the political and global situation, to the relationship between humanity and technology. There’s a lot happening on numerous different levels from war to personal strife, and, through twelve different stories told through twelve different perspectives, we get to explore different dimensions of life in this world. This is really where those layers I mentioned come to play, because each story works on several levels. There’s the surface level, entertaining story, but that entertainment is often buoyed by some hefty ideas that Napper explores from numerous different angles. The relationship between humanity and technology is a complicated one with some surprising fallout, and Napper really gets in there and explores that space with visceral prose and interesting characters. Stories that feel real and possible. I often left a story surprised, not just by how much I enjoyed it, but how much it gave me to think about. The characters we read about here are the outsiders, which was an interesting and effective choice. The everyman, the washed-up has-been, the criminals who navigate the societal underbelly, those who operate best with gray morality. It allowed Napper to give me a feel for more of the average person, the average life, the ways we all choose to survive. These are the people who interest me, and the stories I tend to connect with. More, it allowed Napper to play with some interesting ideas with a bit more liberty than he might have otherwise been able to use. One of my particular favorites, was a person who got a memory reassignment surgery to deal with some extreme PTSD as a result of fighting in the war. Interesting story on the surface with a lot of hefty supporting themes. I love stuff like that. I’m a sucker for cyberpunk and near-future SciFi, I will admit. The really, really good ones will not just entertain you, but show you a future that feels like a possibility, and that’s what Napper did with Neon Leviathan. He told stories that work on so many different levels. He explored a futurescape that was so thoughtfully wrought, it felt real. Through his stories, we see a landscape of dark possibility, and using his stunning prose as a vehicle, he brought it to life. Neon Leviathan was a lot of fun, but I was also almost overwhelmed by the author’s attention to detail, his ability to craft the perfect sentence for the perfect moment, his marriage of beauty and pain, his unflinching desire to go spelunking down the dark cave of “What if”. Mostly, what impresses me about Napper is his ingenuity and his cunning use of layers. I was never just reading a story, rather I was exploring an idea and Napper was the perfect guide. Neon Leviathan really knocked my socks off. Napper is an author to watch. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 13, 2022
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Feb 08, 2022
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Jan 13, 2022
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Hardcover
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| 1777479207
| 9781777479206
| 1777479207
| 4.27
| 492
| Feb 18, 2021
| Feb 18, 2021
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it was amazing
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https://www.bookwormblues.net/2022/01... I’ve been meaning to write this review for about a hundred years, so I apologize for the delay, but better lat https://www.bookwormblues.net/2022/01... I’ve been meaning to write this review for about a hundred years, so I apologize for the delay, but better late than never, right? The Legacy of the Brightwash is a book I wasn’t sure I was going to like, and while I will say it’s not perfect (What is? Also, if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times: Perfect is boring.) it far exceeded my expectations, especially with characterization. I can see why it made the SPFBO finalist pool, and I’m glad it is getting the praise it is receiving. As I mentioned, characterization is really where this book shines, sometimes at the cost of other elements, but honestly, that didn’t bother me in the least. To me, the most interesting stories are about people, and the best emotions are the raw ones, and this book really nails both of those aspects. In fact, I’ve already told a few of my authors I edit for to read this book as a great example of characterization. Even the secondary characters shine. It’s obvious that Matar’s primary focus are the people experiencing the events that transpire here. No detail is too small, nothing is overlooked. Everyone is real and vivid, complex, three-dimensional and full of emotional notes that are so raw and real, they breathe on and off the page. This is a darker read, with a lot of trigger-potential here in the form of substance abuse, addiction and the like. Matar doesn’t hide from the harsh truths of life, the ugly, raw qualities or the dark depths the soul can travel to in times of greatest need. Her world is equally dark, and the atmosphere was spot on. I felt at once the beauty and possibility in her world, but also the darker currents that are pulling everything apart, fraying it all at the seams. This tug-of-war was at times subtle and spectacular. The creeping ominous sense of something is going to happen and it’s going to be massive was so real and pervasive it almost became a character all on its own. The mystery at the heart of the novel is probably the one thing that I felt left the stage for a while in the book, but I also don’t really see how it could have been any other way, considering. That being said, I found it really fascinating how many different ways Matar connected people and events, strengthening and fraying bonds, using the past and the future to establish the now. I also loved how she thrust moral quandaries on her characters that had no clear or neat answer, and let those situations not only add depth to her characters, but to her world as well. So, if the mystery felt a little forgotten at points, I think we ultimately gained more for it and I was happy to sit back and just experience the characters as they lived, struggled, loved. One of my favorite things is a careful pairing of beauty and pain. I love dark stories told lyrically, and that’s what you get here. The story is harrowing, and personal, and it will likely make you inspect the characters and yourself as you read. It’s the kind of book that opens you up until your soul pours out, and yet it never became overwhelming, likely because of that delicate balance between beauty and pain that that Matar struck so well. Stunning prose are married with elements of wonder, moments of deep, profound love and connection. The aspects of humanity that pull us through the dark times and make us keep going despite how low we feel. This silver lining is the balance this book needed to bring it from a good story, to a marvelous one. In a lot of ways, this is both a story all on its own but also a setup for the rest of the series. There are enough questions answered to leave me feeling satisfied, and enough left hanging to keep me engaged and eagerly waiting for the rest of the series. I will say that readers who are more plot oriented might want to make note: This book does have plot, but it’s more a story about people, and if that sort of thing bothers you, go into this knowing what you are getting. There were times when I felt scenes went on a touch too long, or the plot was overlooked in favor of the characters. Ultimately, I think those were conscious decisions the author made, and they really worked for me because it felt true to the story she was telling (more, her love for her story really came through). If you’re more of a plot reader than a character one, though, that might bother you. Ultimately, this book blew my socks off. It’s the exact kind of story I love to read and is probably one of the strongest debuts I’ve come across with characters that were so real, they became part of me. I can’t wait for more. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 12, 2022
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Jan 12, 2022
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Jan 12, 2022
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Paperback
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| 1250224357
| 9781250224354
| 1250224357
| 3.84
| 9,581
| Mar 09, 2021
| Mar 09, 2021
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it was amazing
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This book was amazing. Review to come.
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Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 19, 2021
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Dec 20, 2021
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Dec 20, 2021
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Hardcover
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| 1250816211
| 9781250816214
| 1250816211
| 3.58
| 29,483
| Nov 09, 2021
| Nov 09, 2021
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it was amazing
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https://www.bookwormblues.net/2021/11... Catherynne M. Valente is an auto-buy author for me. No, let me up the level of this a bit. Catherynne M. Valent https://www.bookwormblues.net/2021/11... Catherynne M. Valente is an auto-buy author for me. No, let me up the level of this a bit. Catherynne M. Valente is hugely informative to the way I write. I buy all of her books, pre-order, if I remember to, and then read and re-read them all year. I study her prose. I study the way she uses language and words, and how she tells her stories. The way she dishes out information, and clues like breadcrumbs for her readers to follow, and while I don’t try to emulate her, exactly, I do look at her as a guiding light for how I want to tell stories. I see what she has done, how widely she has veered from the expected fantasy path and how fantastically she’s flourished out there, carving her own way through this unique landscape of hers, and I use that as inspiration. In my opinion, she’s one of the best storytellers out there right now, full-stop. So when I saw Comfort Me With Apples was coming out, I jumped on it. Her novellas, for whatever reason, hit me right where it counts. It’s amazing to see what she’s capable of with a shorter length book. In 112 pages, we have a book that was just as deep and fleshed out as any novel double or triple its size. Each word counts and is carefully put exactly where it needs to be. Each twist of the story is deftly orchestrated, the clues laid out in such a way that you don’t really see them until later, but that “ah ha” moment I so love is doubly intense due to it. Comfort Me With Apples is a book that you might not fully grasp right away. I started out reading this not really knowing what I was reading, but it’s Catherynne M. Valente, so I put my trust in the author and knew that, when the time was right, I’d figure it out. So, I sat back and I read. I just gave myself to the story. I watched events transpire through Sophia’s eyes and let her carry me away. Valente is an author you need to trust, because she works on numerous levels, both surface and deeper, and it usually isn’t until somewhere past the halfway point when I really see all the threads she’s working with, and how she’s binding them together. That’s half of what thrills me when I read her work. She trusts her reader to figure it out, and her readers trust her to lead them where they need to go. In the meantime, you get to sit back and enjoy some of the most spectacular writing you’ve ever read. Seriously, her prose drips with beauty. There were so many passages in this novella I highlighted. I think nearly half the book highlighted in my kindle, honestly. She has a way with taking these small moments so many of us wouldn’t notice and making them breathtakingly beautiful. There’s a part toward the start of the book, for example, where Sophia is dusting, and Valente describes how the dust motes catch the light and I just sat back in awe. It’s a tiny thing, something so many of us wouldn’t take the time to notice, much less write, and yet somehow she made it feel like a moment of pure artistry, not just through her description, but through Sophia as well. Not only was it beautiful, but it helped me understand how our protagonist sees the world. Tiny moments of breathtaking beauty, and small moments of unimaginable emotional pain sprinkled throughout. There’s a mystery at the core of this book, but it’s not exactly what I was expecting it to be, and it didn’t end how I expected it to end, either. In fact, for a novella, this one really packed a punch. When I started seeing how all those threads wove together, I honestly had to put the book down and just bask in the glory of it all. Valente paints a picture of this nearly perfect world, think Stepford Wives, and then slowly, carefully peels the layers away and as she does so, twists things just enough. These cracks in this perfect facade is where the story truly dwells. The feeling of wrongness, of everything being awkwardly off-kilter is pervasive, and creeping, almost like a certain understated dread. Sophia doesn’t understand it, and neither will the reader. Not for a while, at least. Then, we layer in the mystery and that growing sense of not-right becomes less creeping and more overt. By that point, things start happening, and the book becomes almost impossible to put down. There’s a lot of comparisons I could use for this novella to other fables and mythology and the like, and I’m afraid if I tell you what they are, it’ll give the book away and I really don’t want that. Suffice it to say, I think everyone will take something different from reading this. I will also say that it might not be the perfect fit for every reader. There’s a lot of twists and turns and a lot of them are subtle, a lot of reality fraying, and plenty of the book will leave you wondering what is happening. If you trust Valente as an author, you’ll understand, this is how she works. She’ll bring you through it, you just have to wait. You have to be patient for it all to unfold. On the other hand, not everyone likes to drink tea with a helping of what the fuck instead of sugar, so depending on which camp you fit into, this may or may not be your fit. I loved Comfort Me With Apples. I can already feel myself aching to re-read it so I can catch all the subtle clues I missed on my first read-through. I think it will likely take its place on my shelf next to Six-Gun Snow White as a book I re-read about once a year just so I can study how she uses words, and so carefully unfolds her story. Valente is one of those authors that I admire so much, not just for how she tells her stories, but for the substance of the stories she tells. This might be a novella, but there is a lot happening here, a lot to unpack, a lot of deep themes about personhood, and independence, about relationships and life itself, all written in a dreamy, almost fairytale way. If you’re looking for a quick-ish read that defiantly deviates from expected fantasy norms, this is your book. Valente is daring and bold, with a grasp for prose, characterization, and story that just wows me every time. She does things with narrative voice here that astounded me and left me reeling. The story itself was a delight, and I didn’t mind a bit that I had to figure things out as I went and wasn’t always completely sure what I was reading. That’s part of the delight of Valente’s work: the exploration, the quick turn off the well-trodden path into a place that blends pure artistry and genius storytelling. I could rave about how much I love Valente’s work for years. Suffice it to say, Comfort Me With Apples is exactly my kind of weird. It’s going to be a re-read for me. Over and over again. Just… wow. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 12, 2021
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Nov 12, 2021
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Nov 12, 2021
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Hardcover
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| 1734601132
| 9781734601138
| B089KDMJD6
| 4.21
| 963
| Apr 04, 2021
| Apr 04, 2021
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it was amazing
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https://www.bookwormblues.net/2021/11... I really enjoyed Zack Argyle’s debut book. It wasn’t perfect, but I loved the story it told and the foundation https://www.bookwormblues.net/2021/11... I really enjoyed Zack Argyle’s debut book. It wasn’t perfect, but I loved the story it told and the foundation it established in this new world. Argyle has long said that he thinks book two is stronger than the first book, and so I was pretty excited to read Stones of Light. Added to this, I’ve been on a bit of a “nostalgic fantasy” kick recently, and this fits the bill in some ways. When I had a window open up in my fantasy reading routine, I jumped on this book, and I’m glad I did. Stones of Light took everything I loved about Voice of War and improved upon it. I will say, this is the second book in a series. You need to read Voice of War before you read Stones of Light. I’m also going to try very hard to not drop any spoilers in this review. Some points I’ll make will be vague due to this. This series is scratching a certain itch at the moment. In a lot of ways, Argyle has taken me back to the glory days of fantasy, where there were civilizations rising and falling. Life is perched on the brink, and there is darkness all around. People from numerous walks of life are thrust into the center of a situation that is far larger than anyone anticipates, and it’s through their own ingenuity, and strength of character that they see it through. Add in a helping of magic that kind of reminds me a bit of both Sanderson and Weeks, some poignant emotional moments, and a quiet, simmering malice lurking around the periphery, and we’ve got something quite engrossing on our hands. Stones of Light, as I’ve said above, takes everything I enjoyed about the first book and improves upon it. It also takes some of the aspects that didn’t quite hit the mark in Voice of War and actually makes them work, and made me think, in retrospect, “I understand why that needed to be that way in the first book” (read: AH HA moments all around). I honestly am not sure how Argyle did it, but he basically took book one, which was already amazing, mind you, and levelled up in just about every respect. Even the prose, which was anything but bad to start with, were tighter, more fluid, with some turns of phrase that filled me with admiration. Stones of Light, in a lot of ways, is a book about expansion. The world gets larger, and a bit more firmly realized. There’s a lot of depth added to what readers do see, which makes it feel a bit more realistic. This had the wham-bam effect of making events that transpire in this book feel real, weighed down with higher risks and rewards that mattered to me, personally. I was invested, because I was living it rather than reading about it. The impact of this was felt throughout the novel. The risks were greater, the moments were darker, the attacks and action were more fraught. The characters were more emotionally gripping and memorable. From the ground up, this infusion of realism and carefully executed detail seemed to be the thing that elevated this book to a whole other level. I also want to briefly touch on characters. Similar to the previous paragraph, I felt like the character development and overall character arcs were a lot more firmly rooted in this book. The characters I struggled with the most in Voice of War ended up being some of my favorites in Stones of Light. I was also introduced to some new faces that all offered unique perspectives to the looming conflict(s). What, perhaps, pleased me the most, was the emotional depth layered into these character arcs. There were quiet moments of reflection, and plenty of pain and angst and anger. Things got nice and messy, and it was in all that chaos of emotion and movement that the character arcs and development truly shone. Like the world, I felt like Argyle expanded his skillset a bit in regards to characters, and due to that, they all felt so real to me, which made me feel so invested in their various plights. It made them matter. They stopped being people on the page, and became people that lived and breathed on and off the page. The book is perfectly paced, with a depth of plot and a cadence to the events that transpire that really sucked me in, to the point I found it almost impossible to put it down. I was “just one more chapter”-ing this sucker for hours because I was just that engrossed. When I wasn’t reading it, I was wishing I was reading it. I was surprised by a lot of the twists and turns, by the depth and darkness of some of the plot elements. Mostly, I was in awe of just how Argyle used the foundation he set in Voice of War, and expanded on it, from the world, to the magic, to the characters themselves. There was a lot of artistry here, but the plot never got overwhelmed or bogged down by any of it. The thread of the plot, as complex as it is, stays true to itself throughout, never losing sight of just where things are going, and where they’ve been. There were enough answers at the end of the book to leave me satisfied but I NEED TO READ THE NEXT BOOK, ZACK. LIKE, NOW. I don’t mean to be one of those people who is demanding authors adhere to their personal schedule, but I am really, really excited about this series. I am positively aflutter with anticipation. I want, desperately, to know what happens next. So, where does that leave us? Stones of Light blew me away. A perfect blend of nostalgic fantasy and something that is purely Argyle’s own, reading this book was like drowning in an ocean of awesome. (Okay, worst metaphor ever.) A gripping continuation of an unforgettable saga, Stones of Light truly swept me away. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 02, 2021
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Nov 02, 2021
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Nov 02, 2021
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Kindle Edition
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| unknown
| 4.13
| 3,001
| Oct 26, 2021
| 2021
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it was amazing
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https://www.bookwormblues.net/2021/10... Last night I was up until five in the morning with COVID booster shot symptoms. I was pretty miserable, and fo https://www.bookwormblues.net/2021/10... Last night I was up until five in the morning with COVID booster shot symptoms. I was pretty miserable, and for a while I watched TV but then I flipped it off (it was making me dizzy) and decided to read until I finally managed to pass out. I ended up trying to read a few things, but my mind just wasn’t there for any of them. Then, I landed on Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide, and blazed through it in one sitting. First, I should say I was 900 different kinds of miserable, and this book got me to forget about all of that. If you understand how terrible I felt, you’d know what an accomplishment that was. Secondly, it should also say a lot that I read it in one sitting. I don’t have a ton of time these days, for reading outside of my own editing and writing, so devouring a book in one sitting is pretty much something that never happens anymore. I really admire Olson. I guess that’s a weird thing to put in a review, but I kind of want you to know where I’m coming from with her stuff because I feel like the author, in this particular case, is just as important as her work. So, I really admire Olson. I read one of her books for the first time earlier this year, and I knew instantly she was someone special. Someone I wanted to watch. She is unapologetically who she is. In a world where I feel like so many fantasy books are aspiring to the same markers and the same heights, Olson writes exactly what she wants to read, and due to that, her books are infused with a passion and love that I find a lot of others lack. Her enthusiasm for the stories she tells is infectious. Olson is a huge, huge inspiration for my own writing, and a large reason why my upcoming book, The Necessity of Rain, is even a thing that is happening. I look at her, and I see someone who is not only brave, but full of refreshing zeal, and I admire that so much. Okay, so now I’ve told you all about how sick I was, and how amazing Olson is. What about the book itself? Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide is both exactly what I expected, and nothing that I anticipated. I’m not a huge fan of regency books (I know, I know. Don’t kill me.) However, sometimes I find one that just works for me, and this is that. There are a few unique approaches here that kept me from feeling like this is the same old, same old. Our protagonist, one middle-aged Mildred, is the primary reason for this. I haven’t read a ton of books with middle-aged protagonists, and I have absolutely never read a regency-style one and I loved it. Mildred is one of the most vibrant, human, relatable characters I’ve ever come across. She is both flawed and captivating, with a unique voice that really kept me engaged as the book progressed. More, I could feel Mildred. Under Olson’s care, Mildred became three-dimensional. She was positively infused with life and blinding realism. She’s had a rough go at life, and that is evident in her sarcasm and wit, her absolute emotional exhaustion in some ways, and yet she is full of wonder as well. I was actually pretty surprised by how Mildred seemed to punch her way right into my soul and make a home there for herself. By about the fourth paragraph, she stopped being a character I was reading and became part of me. As the book progresses, Mildred sort of comes into her own, and I was really surprised by how empowering that was, and how much I connected with that aspect of her story. Mildred is a bit of a spinster, and in a lot of ways, her world has been grayscale for a while. Then, she inherits a dragon egg, discovers magic, and a bit of romance as well. The transformation from grayscale to her life slowly gaining vibrant dimension and hues is nothing sort of enchanting. This isn’t really a romance, though, and to bottle it as one would be, I think, packaging the book wrong. There is love here, and a touch of that romance, but really at its heart, this is really about the dynamics of power and powerlessness, about self-acceptance, and self-confidence. The force that upsets Mildred’s ho-hum existence is a dragon named Fitz, and he was an absolute delight. Olson weaves humor throughout her book, balancing out the light and dark moments with a bit of levity that worked really well for me. This kept the book from every feeling too weighty, and yet it never came across as ham-handed, nor did it obscure the glory of what was happening in the plot and with the characters. It is very rare that I read a book where I feel like the humor was so effortlessly natural, and yet didn’t overwhelm the book itself. It was, if anything, icing on the cake. The element that tied all of this together stylistically, and brought it from charming, to positively enchanting. Olson has a gift for writing. Her prose are fluid and effortless, never purple and never too dry. She has a knack with hitting the exact tone each scene needs to make it land the way it needs to land. Her world comes to vibrant, blazing life, and so do her characters. Mix that dollop of humor in there as well, and you’ve got this brilliant blend of elements that transported me almost instantly out of my body and into Mildred’s world. I could see the landscape, and the people, and smell the food. Olson is one of those authors I read as much to admire her prose and appreciate how she uses words, as to immerse myself in her stories. I’ve said a few times that this book is empowering, and it really is. Mildred learns to accept and love herself. In spite of outside forces, of the hijinks and the shenanigans that ensue throughout the book, it’s the love story of a middle-aged woman learning to accept herself that really spoke volumes to me. It’s something, I think, I needed to read, and I was left after finishing the book feeling like this is a story a lot of us need right now. Ultimately, Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide left me feeling like I’d just experienced the warmest of hugs. Flawlessly written, enchantingly told, with an unforgettable protagonist and a relentless plot, reading this book was an experience I won’t forget anytime soon. Last night, I felt sicker than I’ve felt in a very, very long time, and Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide got me outside of my body, away from my misery, and pulled me through the darkness. That really says all that needs to be said. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 28, 2021
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Oct 28, 2021
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Oct 28, 2021
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ebook
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| 1399900676
| 9781399900676
| B09CW634WH
| 4.16
| 445
| Sep 29, 2021
| Oct 13, 2021
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it was amazing
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https://www.bookwormblues.net/2021/10... There are some people in the world I want to succeed purely because I think they are good humans who deserve w https://www.bookwormblues.net/2021/10... There are some people in the world I want to succeed purely because I think they are good humans who deserve wonderful things in their life. Trudie Skies is one of those people. This made the reading of her book kind of awkward. I want her to do so well, because I genuinely feel like she deserves success, so what if I read this book and hate it? What then? So, as with most books that I straddle this particular line on, I put off reading it. And then I read it in fits and starts, constantly anticipating something to happen that would ruin the entire experience for me, because isn’t that how life works? You want good things to happen, and the skies pour mud. It is with great relief that I can tell you, that never happened. This book started out, charming me to bits, and ended with me reeling and almost aggressively wanting more. There was never a moment when The Thirteenth Hour was anything less than superb. The first thing I noticed was the worldbuilding, which really deserves a review all on its own. Set in a truly complex world, I was amazed by how much thought and insight went into its crafting. No detail was overlooked. It took a bit of time for me to gather my bearings due to said complexities, but I didn’t honestly mind this in the least. I never felt overly confused or lost in information. Rather, this was a place I didn’t understand, and I wanted to understand it. Different realms ruled by different gods and inhabited by different people with different rules all clash together to create something truly unforgettable. What’s more, Skies’s writing is fluid and careful, staying light and humorous in the right places and somber when needed. Her thoughtful use of words allowed the world to unfold naturally. Gaslamp fantasy with some steampunk-ish minor elements, this book straddles a few lines, and never fully adheres to any one category, which is something I love. Perhaps it is this element of balance which really makes The Thirteenth Hour shine so bright. There is a lot happening in this book. The worldbuilding alone made my head spin (it’s really amazing) and yet Skies kept everything perfectly balanced. Information is offered in easy to digest bites at the perfect moments. Details are given when they are most relevant, and then there is time to let it all sink in and gel in your mind as you read. Yes, it is complex, but Skies balances complexity, plot, and characters perfectly, which combined to make this world something I wanted to explore and study. Chime is an amazing place, and the perfect setting for this book. Here, you get a taste of all the domains. Chime is a place the gods cannot tread. That gives it a sort of tug-and-pull feel, where there’s an intoxicating (and sometimes uncomfortable) clash of cultures, and yet it’s one step removed from the truly terrifying power players. Influence is important, and it is felt everywhere. An ominous feeling sort of crept up on me as the book progressed, as I could see strings being pulled by unseen puppet masters, and while some of them are easy to guess, there’s an ambiguity there as well, which only served to heighten the tension. The Thirteenth Hour is told through two first-person perspectives. I’m a big sucker for first person POVs. I love how they allow me to get into a character’s head, but when you write with more than one first-person POV, it’s important to be able to keep the voices distinct so there’s no confusion. It’s always a risk, and I feel like Skies did a great job here. Kayl and Quen are easy to tell apart, with unique voices and traits. Perhaps the thing that I loved the most about them was how real they were. Kayl forgets everyone’s name and is always late. Quen is kind of dorky but in a really loveable way. They both were so real, I felt like they could hop right out of the book and visit with me in my living room. My attachment to them, my relationship with their quirks, made me care so much about them. It invested me in the story. I wasn’t reading about interesting characters, I was experiencing these events along with two friends. Skies ability to transport me from reading a book to experiencing a story is truly masterful, and it is owed, in large part, to her realistic, carefully crafted characters. The Thirteenth Hour is one of those books that starts out small and gets bigger as things progress. The atmosphere gets more ominous, the characters risk more, lose more, want more. There’s a sort of caper-like vibe to it, but not quite. Again, this book seems to straddle a bunch of lines, never quite being one thing, but rather being the best part of a whole bunch of different things. There are alliances and betrayals, antagonists, and uncomfortable moral quandaries. The surface-level story is gripping and absorbing, extremely hard to put down, and I dare you not to enjoy it. There’s dark moments and light, and plenty of tea and British humor that really round things out nicely… but there were deeper themes here as well, and Skies ability to play on both levels—surface and deeper—truly delighted me. Free will is an important concept in this book, and it can both be limiting and liberating. Skies plays with this idea throughout, in some surprising ways. While there are some truly reprehensible characters in this book, the theme of free will, the puppet master vibe I mentioned above, the very world itself all work together to humanize even the characters I ended up loathing. There are some I never liked, and never will like, and that’s fine because that’s how it’s supposed to be, but even then, through the “free will” lens that Skies crafted, they are somewhat human, and that makes them, in their own way, tragedies. And yeah, I love stuff like that. So where does that leave us? The Thirteenth Hour blew me away. Phenomenal worldbuilding, stunning prose, attention to detail, characters I love, and numerous layers to the story all work together to create one of those gems that I want everyone to read. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 26, 2021
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Oct 26, 2021
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Oct 26, 2021
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Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||
| 150119917X
| 9781501199172
| 150119917X
| 4.64
| 3,534
| Mar 05, 2020
| Sep 22, 2020
|
it was amazing
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https://sarahsdeepdives.blogspot.com/... “Around the world, a woman's body is still very much a battlefield and hundreds of thousands of women bear the https://sarahsdeepdives.blogspot.com/... “Around the world, a woman's body is still very much a battlefield and hundreds of thousands of women bear the invisible wounds of war.” I read a lot of different stuff when I’m cooking plot points for the books I’m writing. This was one that flew across my radar a few weeks ago, and as soon as I saw it, I knew it was a book I absolutely had to read. I also knew it would be brutal, and difficult to get through, and I was not wrong. This might be one of the most important books I have ever read, but it is also one of the most harrowing, and one of the only books I’ve had to put down and walk away from before I could continue reading it. Christina Lamb is a well-known journalist and author. She worked on I Am Malala and few other big-name projects. She has spent much of her professional life in war zones, reporting on crises and the like, and in this book she openly talks about her motivations for writing about this topic, as well as the emotional fatigue she dealt with while interviewing, researching, and writing. Both of these things prevented the narrative from every straying into the dusty, scholarly halls that some books of this nature wander down. Lamb’s personal interest, and the emotional toll it took, was clear throughout the book. Due to that, her narrative was personal, and it was probably that personal element that made it feel all the more jarring as I read. “Rape is the only crime in which society is more likely to stigmatize the victim than punish the perpetrator.” Our Bodies, Their Battlefields, is one of the most important books I have ever read, and it’s right up there with The Unwomanly Face of War and the Rape of Nanking in how difficult it was for me to get through, emotionally. Through the eyes of women in numerous parts of the world, readers are taken on a tour de force of war, and the often unmentioned and extremely high toll women pay for the battles men often fight. Rape used as a weapon, and then the social fallout from being a woman who was raped is what you'll read about, and yet it is the human perseverance and personal agony that really stuck to my ribs. Rather than focusing on one area, each chapter (sometimes a few chapters) focus on a different region of the world, a different conflict, and different women, but the core of the stories told, regardless of location and regardless of the person interviewed, are the same. It is heartbreaking, and soul crushing, and impossible to look away from. This is a story that spans borders, and nationality. It’s a female story, and one historically rarely told. While men play at war, it has been the women who have suffered, voices muted, overlooked and relegated to the shadows. Here, Lamb interviews Yazidi women, Boko Haram survivors and families of the missing, women who survived mass rape in Bangladesh, survivors of the Rwanda genocide, survivors of the Rohingya genetic cleansing, survivors of rape camps in the Bosnian War, and many more. She does not glorify the details, but neither does she deny them or gloss over them. With incredible care and respect for both the dead and the survived, she tells their unvarnished stories, never once glossing over the emotional, psychological, or physical tolls these women have paid. “Rape is as much of a weapon of war as the machete, club, or Kalashnikov.” What surprised me, perhaps, was the fact that she did not stop with the women who have undergone these personal traumas, but rather there are a few sections where she talks to the next generation as well, people who were born of these events, children whose birth parents are known by the ominous moniker of “the disappeared.” Born in horrible conditions, and then given to the jailers, the captors, those who were highly placed to be raised as their own children, their actual parentage erased from the records and from memory. Lamb details the plight of the families to try to find their missing members, and the struggle of the survived to, in some way, pick up the pieces of their lives. Trauma leaves its mark, and it spans generations. In these stories, Lamb does not just discuss what happened to the women during these fraught, impossible times, but also to the children, to those who survived. The story of survival is often as brutal and heartrending as the war, the rapes, the abuse itself. There are no happy endings, or at least, there are very few. The war for some might end, but it seems as though it continues relentlessly on, carving a niche out of each woman's life, every day it is lived. An echo, a palimpsest of pain. In some places, the story is more hopeful than others, but the thread of misery is woven throughout. “You meet these women, here in the city, or go out to the village, to Taba, and meet them and they seem normal. But I think when they go home and close their doors at night, there is a space inside them which no one can break into, no matter what you do.” Ultimately, I feel like whatever I write about this book isn’t going to be enough, and I honestly can’t quite find the worlds to tell you just how powerful, important, and painful Our Bodies, Their Battlefields truly is. In the annals of history, it’s the stories about men we read more than those about women, but women are always present. We have been relegated to the margins, to the shadows, to the corners where the deepest wounds are often invisible, and the pain and blood is easy to overlook. Here, Christina Lamb gives voice to the voiceless, to those throughout history who have stood as battlefields, unrecognized and silent. One of the most powerful books I have ever read. I firmly believe this needs to be mandatory reading. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 21, 2021
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Nov 2021
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Oct 21, 2021
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Paperback
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| 4.18
| 1,933
| May 16, 2019
| May 20, 2019
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it was amazing
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https://www.bookwormblues.net/2021/10... Aching God was a book that blew me away. I almost immediately moved on to Sin Eater because how could I not? A https://www.bookwormblues.net/2021/10... Aching God was a book that blew me away. I almost immediately moved on to Sin Eater because how could I not? Aching God left me, well, aching. I ended up devouring Sin Eater. I enjoyed this book in a way I haven’t enjoyed a book in a while. Shel can tell a story in a way that just gets under my skin. The culminating events in Aching God were rough, and one thing I wanted to see was how Shel handled the fallout of such a conflict. One of my big bugaboos in fantasy is this odd proclivity protagonists have to undergo these massive confrontations and then bounce back from them (mentally, emotionally, and physically) as though almost nothing happened. I had a feeling Shel wouldn’t do that, though. He seems like an author who relishes the reality of his characters’ conditions too much to allow them to simply move past something as weighty as what Auric has had to undergo. The Auric in Sin Eater is a different character than the one you were introduced to in Aching God. He’s aged, and stooped, wizened almost, as though the confrontation took something away from him he will never get back. His daughter, Agnes, worries over his mental and physical health. Auric has been indelibly marked by what he underwent in the first book in the series, and it’s not easily gotten over or moved past. It has left him changed and honestly, I loved that about him. The raw, realness of his condition was both sad, but it also really delighted me. Here, we have a character who has suffered, who is suffering, and who will continue to suffer. He has to fight to return to some semblance of himself. It’s not the suffering I like, rather Shel’s unflinching desire to show the ramifications of large events on a personal, powerful level. Does this mean Auric is a dull character? Not in the least. In fact, he only seemed to gain interest for me in Sin Eater. He’s complex, and maybe a bit darker than he felt in Aching God. If anything, his changes just made him feel that much more real. Agnes also gets a perspective in this book, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about her. Agnes has had a complicated life, and now that she has survived, she has grown into herself. She is, perhaps, harder because of what she had underwent (who wouldn’t be?) but no less fascinating for all her callouses. There is also another, more mysterious, perspective that enters the fray. I was a bit worried how Shel would transition from one perspective to multiple in the second book, but he did a great job with it. I think this might be a bit of the book’s strength, because having numerous perspectives gave me a different, more well-rounded view of the world and the events that transpire in it. Soon, Agnes and Auric are called away and thrust into another question and Shel gets to display his writing prowess again. There are very few authors who can match the worldbuilding mastery of Mike Shel. The world they travel through is strange and captivating. There is an atmosphere infusing this book that I loved, dark and mysterious, and yet balanced by the light found in the bonds that form between the characters. Shel expands the world and adds detail and nuance to it. He gives readers time to breathe and absorb everything he has and is creating. His prose brought landscapes and scenes to life with an almost brutal poetry. This made scenes, like some of the battles, and scenes toward the finale come to blazing life in my mind’s eye. There is a bit of a mystery at the core of Sin Eater, and it seems to only loom larger as the book progresses. In some ways, I felt like this was a “roll the snowball down the hill” kind of plot. Things start out well enough, smaller and fairly contained, and then as the book gets going, everything seems to get larger, more complex, more immediate, and darker. There are threads here that will clearly bind the series together, and then there are some that are going to likely end up being book-specific. What I mean is, this book answers enough questions to satisfy the reader, but will also leave you gaping, and eagerly tracking down the next book. The core of Sin Eater was fascinating, and I felt, in some ways, like Shel wasn’t just telling a good story but playing on a deeper theme as well. Sin Eater is a fun book to read, but it works on numerous levels. The evil god, the religion, the violence, the corruption was all interesting (and honestly, some of the best antagonist work I’ve ever seen), but it all felt a bit deeper as well. Here, we have a book that examines the fears we carry within us, the weight of pain, the burden of morality. Characters don’t miraculously heal. Previous trauma isn’t forgotten. Life is messy and hard, and pain is felt physically, mentally, and emotionally and that matters. And still, the characters push through because that’s life. You keep going–for belief, for duty, for love, for curiosity, or desire–because what other option is there? In the face of extreme odds, of dark shadows, violence and outrage, mystery and mayhem, they keep going. This humanization, this realism, made every part of Sin Eater shine. And so we are left with a tapestry created by a master artist. Shel knows exactly how to weave his story together with the greatest finesse. Sin Eater is combination of complex elements that, under his skilled touch, combine to create a book that had me holding on with bated breath until the very last page. Sin Eater was a stunning installment to a series that has quickly turned into one of my favorites out there. Mike Shel is a fantasy master. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 07, 2021
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Oct 07, 2021
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Oct 07, 2021
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Kindle Edition
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| 0316430773
| 9780316430777
| B08PV49R1G
| 4.19
| 13,704
| Aug 24, 2021
| Aug 24, 2021
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it was amazing
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https://www.bookwormblues.net/2021/10... Anthony Ryan is one of those authors whose books I almost hate reading because they are so good it’s hard to p https://www.bookwormblues.net/2021/10... Anthony Ryan is one of those authors whose books I almost hate reading because they are so good it’s hard to parse out all the ways they are amazing. I’ve read almost all his books now, and I will say, The Pariah is probably my favorite one he’s written. So, keep that in mind as you read this review. Anthony Ryan is an incredible author, and in this book he takes everything that makes him so amazing and magnifies it. Honestly, I’ve been a bit burnt out on epic fantasy and grimdark in my free time reading, not because I don’t like the genre, rather because I have been editing a lot of epic fantasy for my day job and it makes reading it feel like work. For that reason, I put off reading Ryan’s newest book for a while. Eventually, however, I saw enough people foaming at the mouth about how wonderful it is, I realized I needed to just read it and see how great it is for myself. Reader, it’s amazing. Ryan has a way with writing that captivates me. He’s known for strong worldbuilding and captivatingly created characters, and in both of these respects, I feel like he’s taken his strong points, and really leaned into them. The world was brilliantly created, with every detail perfectly captured and his characters were so real, they breathed on and off the page. These two elements worked together to make The Pariah not just a book that was interesting, but a book that made me feel like I wasn’t reading the story but living it. If good fantasy is supposed to transport the reader, that’s exactly what this book did. I lived this story while I was reading it. The real world fell away, and I was transported to somewhere else. A dark reality fraught with mystery and drama, personal stories that were woven through a tapestry that felt both familiar and strange. Alwyn was a character with a powerful voice and a unique perspective. A man with a dark past, and darker experiences, he’s both an outsider and… not. Valuable skills keep him connected to others, and yet he always seems to be hovering on the fringes, not quite accepted, which gives the reader a unique perspective into events. Alwyn always seemed to be gathering more depth and nuance as well, to the point where he was both unpredictable and dazzling, surprising me with, if not his actions, his clarity. It’s rare I see a character in a book that is this fully realized, this cunningly developed, with a voice that is this remarkably memorable. The plot is masterful as well, twists and turns, hidden elements around each corner. I quickly learned to try not to predict where things were going, because I was always wrong. Where I’d think the plot would go right, Ryan wouldn’t even go left, but rather he’d do something just completely and absolutely unpredictable. I fell in love with the dark notes woven throughout, the intense atmosphere and succulent tension so thick I could taste it. the best way to approach The Pariah is to sit back, and just read the story. Don’t think about it, just read. I tend to read and edit so many books these days, it’s really hard for me to find one I can’t predict, and yet here was one. Almost from cover to cover, I found myself surprised, and I savored that. The Pariah has a lot of your standard grimdark offerings, gods, churches, power plays, secrets, and Alwyn woven throughout all of it. I am a huge fan of first-person narratives. I love how deeply entrenched they allow the reader to get in the character’s perspective, and that was a big benefit here, making this grimdark story and world really shine. I love grimdark. I even write grimdark. I love the gray morality, and the characters who are often bogged down by pasts that are as dark as the story I’m reading about. Ryan unflinchingly leans into this. Yet the book itself never really felt like something I’ve read before, which I was concerned about when starting it. Through a crafty weaving of Alwyn’s voice, perspective, and the plot itself, The Pariah felt continually new, like he was exploring undiscovered grimdark territory and that newness was something I truly enjoyed. The ending was great. It had me on the edge of my seat, and answered enough questions to satisfy me, but left doors open for future installments in the series. Honestly, reader, I’m almost mad at Ryan for not having book two ready right away. I mean, the sheer audacity of making me wait. (/sarcasm font) As you can see, I loved this book. The Pariah hit all my buttons. Fantastic writing, an amazing world, a plot that won’t quit, and an unforgettable character, The Pariah starts out a new fantasy series that is sure to become one of his best, foraging new ground and, at the same time, reminding readers why Anthony Ryan is one of the best epic fantasy authors out there. His skill is unmatched. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 2021
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Oct 2021
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Oct 01, 2021
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ebook
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my rating |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| 3.83
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it was amazing
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Nov 08, 2023
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Nov 08, 2023
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| 4.44
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Jan 2023
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Sep 05, 2023
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| 3.64
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it was amazing
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Aug 16, 2022
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Aug 16, 2022
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| 4.26
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it was amazing
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Jul 06, 2022
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Jul 06, 2022
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| 4.21
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it was amazing
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Apr 26, 2022
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Apr 26, 2022
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| 4.11
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it was amazing
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Mar 30, 2022
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Mar 30, 2022
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| 4.10
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it was amazing
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Mar 14, 2022
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Mar 14, 2022
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| 4.33
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it was amazing
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Feb 20, 2022
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Feb 15, 2022
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| 4.22
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it was amazing
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Jan 11, 2023
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Feb 08, 2022
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| 3.57
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really liked it
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Jan 31, 2022
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Jan 31, 2022
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| 4.23
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it was amazing
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Feb 08, 2022
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Jan 13, 2022
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| 4.27
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it was amazing
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Jan 12, 2022
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Jan 12, 2022
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| 3.84
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it was amazing
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Dec 20, 2021
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Dec 20, 2021
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| 3.58
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it was amazing
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Nov 12, 2021
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Nov 12, 2021
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| 4.21
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it was amazing
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Nov 02, 2021
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Nov 02, 2021
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| 4.13
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it was amazing
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Oct 28, 2021
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Oct 28, 2021
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| 4.16
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it was amazing
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Oct 26, 2021
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Oct 26, 2021
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| 4.64
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it was amazing
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Nov 2021
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Oct 21, 2021
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| 4.18
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it was amazing
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Oct 07, 2021
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Oct 07, 2021
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| 4.19
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it was amazing
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Oct 2021
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Oct 01, 2021
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