Raising my rating to a clean 4 stars. I enjoyed the book much more on re-read as I already knew that it wouldn't be as perfect as Book #ETA on re-read
Raising my rating to a clean 4 stars. I enjoyed the book much more on re-read as I already knew that it wouldn't be as perfect as Book #1 so I was spared the original disappointment.
Original review: 3.5 stars. This is actually a nice book, but Sharon Shinn set the mark so high with Troubled Waters, the first novel in the „Elemental Blessings”series that this one unfortunately falls short of great expectations.
The major „problem” is with the main characters Josetta, Princess of Welce -one of the possible heirs to the throne - and his love interest Rafe Adova, a guy with a mysterious past, who seems to be standing above the elemental blessings (he does not have any and always gets the extraordinary ones: time, synthesis, triumph) that govern the Welchin society. And this „specialness” is actually one of the major drawbacks for Rafe: he seems to be without any interesting character traits. Yes, he is nice, yes he is adventurous, yes, he likes to gamble , yes, he only pulls ghost coins from the wells of blessings, but nothing else really and this gets so often repeated about him that gets slightly annoying.
As for Josetta, she also falls under a similar fate: she is nice, kind, caring, the lovely girl next door and yet her character is not enough to carry the novel forward even combined with Rafe's story. Their romance is much more pronounced than Zoe’s & Darien’s in the first book, but it does not help.
The novel relies strongly on the great supporting cast of characters from the first novel – thank God for Zoe, Darien, Corene, Alys, the other Primes - & on the secondary plot of who should ascend the throne of Welce. This one was way more interesting & intriguing than the nice, but straightforward & boring romance of Josetta & Rafe.
Flying machines? Who cares, just give me the political intrigue Sharon Shinn is soooo very good at.
Merged review:
ETA on re-read
Raising my rating to a clean 4 stars. I enjoyed the book much more on re-read as I already knew that it wouldn't be as perfect as Book #1 so I was spared the original disappointment.
Original review: 3.5 stars. This is actually a nice book, but Sharon Shinn set the mark so high with Troubled Waters, the first novel in the „Elemental Blessings”series that this one unfortunately falls short of great expectations.
The major „problem” is with the main characters Josetta, Princess of Welce -one of the possible heirs to the throne - and his love interest Rafe Adova, a guy with a mysterious past, who seems to be standing above the elemental blessings (he does not have any and always gets the extraordinary ones: time, synthesis, triumph) that govern the Welchin society. And this „specialness” is actually one of the major drawbacks for Rafe: he seems to be without any interesting character traits. Yes, he is nice, yes he is adventurous, yes, he likes to gamble , yes, he only pulls ghost coins from the wells of blessings, but nothing else really and this gets so often repeated about him that gets slightly annoying.
As for Josetta, she also falls under a similar fate: she is nice, kind, caring, the lovely girl next door and yet her character is not enough to carry the novel forward even combined with Rafe's story. Their romance is much more pronounced than Zoe’s & Darien’s in the first book, but it does not help.
The novel relies strongly on the great supporting cast of characters from the first novel – thank God for Zoe, Darien, Corene, Alys, the other Primes - & on the secondary plot of who should ascend the throne of Welce. This one was way more interesting & intriguing than the nice, but straightforward & boring romance of Josetta & Rafe.
Flying machines? Who cares, just give me the political intrigue Sharon Shinn is soooo very good at....more
Need to think a bit whether I'm upping or lowering the rating. But all in all, I was pleasantly surprised at my mostly enjoying this well-wri3,5 stars
Need to think a bit whether I'm upping or lowering the rating. But all in all, I was pleasantly surprised at my mostly enjoying this well-written and atmospheric book, a mix of historical fiction, magical realism and romance (this was my least favourite part, but it never much hijacked the story thankfully) .
I only read one other book by Bardugo, Shadow and Bone, which I disliked, so all-in-all: positive feelings....more
I am not a fan of Grimdark Fantasy in general and this book has not made me a convert either. However, I did not hate it, so I guess that can be consiI am not a fan of Grimdark Fantasy in general and this book has not made me a convert either. However, I did not hate it, so I guess that can be considered a "success". :)
Will I go on with this series if the author publishes a next book? No.
“Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
The weirdest of journeys4,5 stars
“Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
The weirdest of journeys down the rabbit hole continues with author Andrew Caldecott making you believe countless impossible things the whole way, because he has the genius to do that.
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He also has the genius to make me find his dystopian duology tale, started with Momenticon utterly exciting and enjoyable.
Simul: Momenticon, Book 2 is taking up the thread of the plot exactly where Momenticon ends while giving us flashback of past events previously unexplained (or only partly explained). The main characters, Morag and Fogg, accompanied by Niobe and the mysterious Benedict have to leave Deception Island and go down their own rabbit holes in search of answers of what exactly is Simul? and how find a tree of life (able to purify the toxic air of the Murk) that could save mankind or kill it once and for all.
Again it is a crazy, but captivating journey that reaches its climax in a very satisfying way.
ARC provided by the Publisher via Netgalley for an honest review....more
I went into this book blindfold so to speak. I read the cover blurb to establish that it will not have the vastly overused and irritating trope of a fI went into this book blindfold so to speak. I read the cover blurb to establish that it will not have the vastly overused and irritating trope of a fae(rie) pissing contest about who can act as a bigger d*ck toward the MC, but that was it.
Of course, it still could have gone either way, but I was pleasantly surprised about how much I enjoyed this book. For me it was a refreshing take on faeries/faerie stories and I really liked Emily Wilde and his colleague with the very stupid name: Wendell Bambleby.
The surnames Wilde and Bambleby reminded me of "Bunbury" from The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde and Bambleby did share quite a few traits with Algernon Moncrieff, so these associations were also very pleasant and a definite booster for my enjoyment factor.
Will definitely read Book 2 when it is published and at one point I can imagine rereading this one....more
I don't think I've ever been happier to have finished a book in my life. Talk about a Neverending Story.
Sadly, it goes to my books-everybody-likes-butI don't think I've ever been happier to have finished a book in my life. Talk about a Neverending Story.
Sadly, it goes to my books-everybody-likes-but-me shelf. And it is NOT a bad book at all. But I felt disconnected all the way through the -literally- bloody 500+ pages and it just seemed to go on interminably.
I may write a review ... or offer some more excuses of why I won't be writing one. Also, leaving it deliberately without a rating....more
Having read Legends & Lattes last year, I did not have any expectations this time round, concerning plot or characterisation 3,5 stars rounded up to 4
Having read Legends & Lattes last year, I did not have any expectations this time round, concerning plot or characterisation (or world-building, for that matter) and felt more satisfied.
This is a very light, cosy-fantasy story about which everything is pretty generic (even lazy), but it certainly delivers on the relaxing and heart-warming front....more
This book is in perfect line with what is now tagged as "cosy fantasy" (courtesy of an article I read in Book Riot), undemanding, low-angst/stakes (thThis book is in perfect line with what is now tagged as "cosy fantasy" (courtesy of an article I read in Book Riot), undemanding, low-angst/stakes (though this may vary), containing "slice-of-life" events which can be extremely comforting or extremely boring according to your booktastes. I am mostly all for this type of reads, but book-chemistry being what it is, we do not always click, as you can see from my original review below.
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2,5 stars
Mixed feelings and reading experience.
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When I started listening to this story, I thought I would be able to give it 4 stars, but by the last third the author unfortunately lost the plot (that wasn't that much to begin with) and my attention as well as my goodwill by letting it dissolve into a completely silly and annoying will-they/won't-they/why-the hell-just-don't-they-so-we-can-FINALLY!!-get-to-the-interesting-bits. (The chemistry between the would-be couple was nonexistent, btw, so that made this all the worse.) I really enjoyed the book until about 40-50%, but after the cosy-comfy feelings it originally evoked in me, it let me down by the thin plot being dragged out interminably into precisely nowhere.
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The clumsy attempts by the author to insert all the critical issues of our day and age were very worthy in themselves, but they did not mix well with this particular, middle-ages-ish fantasy background as written by them. Instead of being organic to the whole story, they felt forced and crude, and sometimes downright silly. (view spoiler)[I mean "royal employee appreciation day"? Oh, pur-lease!! (hide spoiler)] The "humourous" bits were the slapstick kind which may entertain a 10-year-old, felt also totally out-of-place and were repeated to the point of ridiculousness.
To say that the 472!!-page-long book ends on a cliffhanger would be unmerited flattery. But I just checked out to see how Book 2 is going on and it is clear both from the reviews and the cover blurb that the going-nowhere-very-slowly is still there and there will be a book 3, so I just returned Book 2 to Audible, because I do not want to go on with the series.
Anyways, to give praise where it is due, the narrator did a very good job of a very messy book....more
I'd never would have thought that I would ever rate a dystopian book to almost 5 stars, but author Andrew Caldecott proved me wrong.
Having re4,5 stars
I'd never would have thought that I would ever rate a dystopian book to almost 5 stars, but author Andrew Caldecott proved me wrong.
Having read and loved his Rotherweird, I was both curious and apprehensive of this new novel of his, but I lapped it up in record time.
It is a post-apocalyptic world, Caldecott is serving up on his literary plate. Due to humankind's worst efforts, Earth's atmosphere turned poisonous destroying almost all lives, except a select few (and the word "select" certainly has literary meaning here) who are under the dominion of two powerful potentates. One of them is Lord Sine, leading the company Genrich, a believer in the exclusive use of science and technology including genetic manipulation to perfect mankind. The other is Lord Vane II, a fan of arts and artistic impressions who has employees controlling the weather (his company is called Tempestas) and just as many hidden agendas as Lord Sine. For their open and secret projects as well as for their own survival, they need a metal called tantalum as humankind seems to be running out on it.
In this impossible setting we meet Fogg (and I am guessing it is an intentional reference to the protagonist of Around the World in 80 Days: Around the World in 80 Days, Phileas Fogg, though I may be wrong), curator of a museum with the finest artefacts of the world, who has never had a single visitor in the days since he moved there. But suddenly it all changes, when he meets a mysterious girl, named Morag, who has the ability to create Momenticons: tablets that can transport you into paintings during the moments of their creation.
Fogg and Morag have to flee for their lives, aided or hunted by the strangest or weirdest characters (among them Tweedledum and Tweedledee). Their quest is down-the-rabbit-hole harebrained and, like the reader, they have no idea where they'll end up next and at first they have no idea what they are searching for (view spoiler)[(and here we have some more literary references to Paradise Lost) (hide spoiler)].
The world and the plot are weirdly fascinating and fascinatingly weird. Despite the heavy references to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass the novel is not a rehashed Alice-dystopia at all. It's closer to the truth to say that the reading of both books evoked similar bewilderment and allure while trying to find sense in a crazy and unpredictable world and enjoying the ride.
Momenticon is a perplexing and brilliant story full of literary and artistic rabbit holes and quirky characters. It ends on a cliffhanger and I want to continue this journey for sure.
ARC provided by the Publisher via Netgalley for an honest review....more
2,5 stars rounded up to three because the audiobook was included for free in my Audible membership and both the writing and the narration is quite goo2,5 stars rounded up to three because the audiobook was included for free in my Audible membership and both the writing and the narration is quite good.
The same goes for the story: it is OK, mildly interesting but not outstanding in any way.
The worldbuilding starts interestingly enough. We are in an alternate land strongly resembling Victorian/Edwardian England with electricity and some form of cars AND magic and there are strong differences between an urban, more liberal South and a provincial, conservative North. At first I thought that all landowners are magically connected to their lands and after their death, the lands choose their next heirs, but it later turns out to be true for the land called Stariel only.
Anyhow, as the story went on, the worldbuilding became thin and information was given in a rather haphazard and unsatisfying way, making the plot sloggy and a bit boring.
It did not help that some of the issues that should have been of great momentum, I guessed from almost the first. The intended "big reveals" that were being dangled in front of the reader's nose from time to time and then withheld became underwhelming when we were finally told of them. The author did not give enough information of the customs and social norms of the land for us to feel why some turn of events should be so shocking or had to be agonised over all the time. Also the late discoveries of these issues by characters just made them appear incredibly dense and careless - not good. (view spoiler)[As soon as Marius appeared in the story, it was clear that he was gay and hiding it. Hetta, by not trying to find out about his agony or failing to spot the obvious, feels rather unobservant and selfish. And while I assumed that being homosexual is a big deal in that world, it just did not carry any weight b/c of the patchy worldbuilding. (hide spoiler)]
Characters, especially the MC Hetta, came off as annoyingly inactive, just drifting helplessly or carelessly with events or worse: catching up with them too late. Important details, like why the "choosing" went the way it did were glossed over for the sake of possible suspense. Instead, they just dwindled away into insignificance, as we did not know how it was conducted generally and how it should have gone in the first place. When some info was thrown in quite a few chapters later, the momentum had already been lost. Hetta was fine with leaving it to her brother to find out about all the "land sense", the choosing and the history of the estate. Once again, this meant that neither she, nor the reader got to know about them in time. Marius conducted the digging in the background and we were only offered scraps here and there without structure or much impact.
The "love triangle" was a very thin smokescreen and the romance unconvincing. (view spoiler)[ From the moment Guy 2 appears on the scene, you know whom Hetta will end up with. Plus, I don't care about faes at all, but that's just a personal thingy. (hide spoiler)]
Kudos to the author as I understand this has been her first book and it was a good effort for that - but it did not made a lasting impression on me and I am not at all interested to go on with Book 2....more
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