Scan barcode
A review by goodkoopa
The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher
1.0
Warning! ... This book has talking cats. Talking cats are cheesy. Why is this not classified as a young adult novel? It really felt like it.
One little thing that kept bugging me was that characters can't just make facial expressions the normal way; instead, everyone FEELS themselves make facial expressions.
"Then he felt his lips bare his teeth in smile"
"Gwen felt her eyebrows climb toward her hairline."
"Bridget felt her eyebrows lifting."
That's not how I experience a facial expression. "Oh what do ya know, I just felt my eyes roll. I must find what I'm reading quite cheesy."
In the heat of a battle, things are blowing up, people are dying, yet the captain keeps taking time to explain battle tactics to the children. Shouldn't he pay attention to the battle? Okay, we get it, authors aren't supposed to just explain things directly. They are supposed to make the explanation part of the dialog or the story so we don't notice that stuff is getting explained. Except here, ya really notice it.
And what are children doing taking on major roles in a war anyway? Well, if you are an author, with some main characters who are kids, and most of the book is battle, you have to figure out a way to get the kids in the battle. Just make up something stupid, like: the enemy knows who all the adults in our army are, so if we send these kids... well... just... I'm sending the kids, shuddup!
As you can tell, I didn't really like this book. I didn't care about any of the characters. The plots basically seemed like battle after battle. And too many of them. It was too long.
One little thing that kept bugging me was that characters can't just make facial expressions the normal way; instead, everyone FEELS themselves make facial expressions.
"Then he felt his lips bare his teeth in smile"
"Gwen felt her eyebrows climb toward her hairline."
"Bridget felt her eyebrows lifting."
That's not how I experience a facial expression. "Oh what do ya know, I just felt my eyes roll. I must find what I'm reading quite cheesy."
In the heat of a battle, things are blowing up, people are dying, yet the captain keeps taking time to explain battle tactics to the children. Shouldn't he pay attention to the battle? Okay, we get it, authors aren't supposed to just explain things directly. They are supposed to make the explanation part of the dialog or the story so we don't notice that stuff is getting explained. Except here, ya really notice it.
And what are children doing taking on major roles in a war anyway? Well, if you are an author, with some main characters who are kids, and most of the book is battle, you have to figure out a way to get the kids in the battle. Just make up something stupid, like: the enemy knows who all the adults in our army are, so if we send these kids... well... just... I'm sending the kids, shuddup!
As you can tell, I didn't really like this book. I didn't care about any of the characters. The plots basically seemed like battle after battle. And too many of them. It was too long.