Reviews and Comments

Paul

pwaring@ramblingreaders.org

Joined 10 months ago

Reader of a wide range of genres, including a lot of non-fiction. I’m an active member of a sci-fi book club and occasional attendee at a post-apocalyptic book club.

Trying this out as an alternative and hopefully replacement for Goodreads, though I'm posting on both sites at the moment.

I don't follow from here, my main Fediverse account is: @pwaring@fosstodon.org

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reviewed Winterkeep by Daisy Meadows (Graceling Realm)

Daisy Meadows: Winterkeep (Hardcover, Dial Books For Young Readers) 4 stars

Four years after Bitterblue left off, a new land has been discovered to the east: …

Enjoyable but watch out for spoilers if reading out of order

4 stars

A note of caution for anyone reading this out of order (as I did): Although the author says that each book is standalone and there aren't many spoilers, you do hear about characters from previous books who are alive/dead. This isn't a 'massive reveal' spoiler, but you can work out who 'wins' in previous books as a result.

Sarah J. Maas: Heir of Fire (Paperback, 2014, Bloomsbury Publishing) 4 stars

A drop in pace from previous books

3 stars

I enjoyed this book - the third in the Throne of Glass series - but not as much as the previous two. I think the reason for this is that the main characters are split up, and therefore the narrative has to keep jumping between them, which slows down the pace. It wasn't clear how some characters - especially the witches - fitted in to the story, although perhaps that is revealed in later books. The ending was quite grim as well, with a negative outlook for the characters I liked.

Aliette de Bodard: The Tea Master and the Detective (2018) 4 stars

Welcome to the Scattered Pearls Belt, a collection of ring habitats and orbitals ruled by …

Okay, but too short

2 stars

I quite like the setting of this book, but as with most novellas it feels like I've been short-changed - half the price of a novel but one quarter the content. As such there's minimal world-building or character development, and the story gets wrapped up too quickly.

A different perspective but not worth a new book

2 stars

This book tells the story of 1984 from the perspective of Julia instead of Winston Smith. An interesting idea, but I don't think it is worth a new book - especially as there is quite a bit of overlap between the two characters, given their relationship forms a key part of the story. The only way I could see this working is if chapters alternated between viewpoints - a bit like Game of Thrones where you read about the same scene from different perspectives.

I didn't feel that the situation was anything like as chilling as the original. Smith feels constantly watched and oppressed (which he is), whereas Julia seems to have more freedom and agency - or at least the impression of such. Smith is also an integral part of the rewriting of history - that's literally his job - even though he's uncomfortable about it, whereas Julia is …