Scan barcode
sergek94's reviews
146 reviews
Godkiller by Hannah Kaner
This was the monthly pick of The Fantasy Guild book club for March 2023!
In a world where humans and gods lived side by side, a deadly clash between the two parties was an inevitable consequence. Back in the day, a mutually symbiotic relationship existed between humans and the gods. The humans used the god's supernatural abilities to achieve their own selfish ends, and the gods basked in what they enjoyed the most, attention and praise. However, when the gods began overpowering humans and many atrocities followed, this mutually beneficial friendship came to an end. This fantasy novel, the beginning of a series, explores the world after this clash occurred. We follow 3 characters, a god killer named Kissen, a noble girl named Inara alongside her very own god companion, the god of white lies, and a loyal knight of the king, Elogast. As the paths of these characters intertwine, we follow their story as they navigate through a world still brimming with tension of past events.
What I enjoyed most about this book was the world building, which I found to be unique. The creatures known as the gods here, literally draw power from the worship and admiration bestowed upon them by humans, and the more offerings and shrines they receive, the more "real" they become, gaining a lot of power and domination over the world around them. I find this to be a very clever recreation of the actual religious reality of the world today, and the impact deities have on a human's psyche, which is directly proportional with the level of faith humans place in these deities. One of the things I am looking forward to in this series is how the author will further develop the lore of these gods and explore the wide range of powers they have.
The interaction between our main characters was very enjoyable, and tagging along with them on their journey was a fun reading experience. I always love a nice fantasy novel full of a vibrant and creative world, and a nicely paced questing journey. The book wasn't too long, and neither was it too slow, and it made for an enjoyable reading experience. It didn't offer anything groundbreaking, but I am very willing to come back and read the sequel to see where this story goes!
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This was the monthly pick of The Fantasy Guild book club for March 2023!
In a world where humans and gods lived side by side, a deadly clash between the two parties was an inevitable consequence. Back in the day, a mutually symbiotic relationship existed between humans and the gods. The humans used the god's supernatural abilities to achieve their own selfish ends, and the gods basked in what they enjoyed the most, attention and praise. However, when the gods began overpowering humans and many atrocities followed, this mutually beneficial friendship came to an end. This fantasy novel, the beginning of a series, explores the world after this clash occurred. We follow 3 characters, a god killer named Kissen, a noble girl named Inara alongside her very own god companion, the god of white lies, and a loyal knight of the king, Elogast. As the paths of these characters intertwine, we follow their story as they navigate through a world still brimming with tension of past events.
What I enjoyed most about this book was the world building, which I found to be unique. The creatures known as the gods here, literally draw power from the worship and admiration bestowed upon them by humans, and the more offerings and shrines they receive, the more "real" they become, gaining a lot of power and domination over the world around them. I find this to be a very clever recreation of the actual religious reality of the world today, and the impact deities have on a human's psyche, which is directly proportional with the level of faith humans place in these deities. One of the things I am looking forward to in this series is how the author will further develop the lore of these gods and explore the wide range of powers they have.
The interaction between our main characters was very enjoyable, and tagging along with them on their journey was a fun reading experience. I always love a nice fantasy novel full of a vibrant and creative world, and a nicely paced questing journey. The book wasn't too long, and neither was it too slow, and it made for an enjoyable reading experience. It didn't offer anything groundbreaking, but I am very willing to come back and read the sequel to see where this story goes!
Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie
“You were a hero round these parts. That's what they call you when you kill so many people the word murderer falls short.”
Monza Murcatto, also known as The Snake of Talins, is the most feared mercenary of the Grand Duke Orso, ruler of Styria. She fights his battles, spreads fear into all who dare oppose his rule, and does not shy away from ruthless bloodshed. One fateful day, the tables turned, and Orso began seeing Monza as a threat to his rule, and in an attempt to get rid of her, had her brother murdered in front of her eyes and had Monza stabbed multiple times and thrown off a cliff. Unbeknownst to him, Monza survived this attack, and was left as a crippled and broken version of her former self. But her iron-will had only grown stronger, and she had become hell-bent on murdering Orso and everyone else who had a hand in what happened to her and her brother. She goes out of her way gathering a group of warriors, thieves and assassins, and all sorts of devious people, to help her on her bloody path. Thus begins this classic tale of revenge, as we are plunged back into Joe Abercrombie's "The First Law" universe.
If you had read my previous reviews on The First Law trilogy, you would know that I had started off really enjoying the series, only to be disappointed by it at the end of the third installment, because I was taken aback and surprised by how Joe Abercrombie decided to conclude the trilogy, more specifically, without giving much substance to the plot and world-building. Now, as I became a seasoned reader of his works, I approached this book with more experience regarding his writing, knowing better what to expect from him, and that really helped, because the things I found to be lacking in his writing did not bother me, since I didn't get into the book expecting them in the first place.
Abercrombie is a firm writer of character-driven stories, and the great emphasis he places on the characters he writes, leaves little room for an extremely richly developed plot and worldbuilding. If you approach this book with that knowledge, you won't be disappointed, and this doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing, because the vividly crafted psyches of the characters we are following and the in-depth exploration of their motives and interactions, make up for it quite well.
Monza is a person of deep conviction and her inner moral compass plays a firm role in guiding her decision making process, and as any Abercrombie reader knows, good and evil are two dichotomies that are very hard to pinpoint in his stories, since all the characters solely operate out of self-interest, and with Monza, we see very well how she uses her convictions to justify the bloody path she decided to take. We start the journey off from the perspective of how terrible it was for Monza to be betrayed by the man she works for, and how traumatizing it must of been for her to see her brother brutally murdered in front of her eyes. However, throughout the book, as we begin seeing the situation from multiple perspectives, we can equally ponder about whether Orso was justified in what he did, and we might even begin to think that Monza and her brother actually deserved what happened to them.
This is the beauty of Abercrombie's writing. We get introduced to very horrible characters, and we have no "good side" to root for. We just have to choose which terrible person we prefer over other terrible people. We also have hundreds of pages of sharp cynical wisdom, which is Abercrombie's forte.
“Good steel bends, but never breaks. Good steel stays always sharp and ready. Good steel feels no pain, no pity, and above all, no remorse”
This story takes place some time after the events of the third book of The First Law trilogy, and we see some characters from there make appearances in this book, some having more major roles than others, so I definitely recommend reading that trilogy first. Monza really reminds me of Ferro from the First Law trilogy, but a tad bit less brutal and more in touch with her emotional landscape. The plot itself is pretty straightforward, but the character interactions are satisfyingly intricate. The world is as harsh as ever, and Abercrombie subverts any potentially heartwarming and morally "good" moment with his unrelenting cold fist of cynical realism.
Overall, a nice read that makes me want to continue reading Abercrombie's standalones in this universe.
“That was the difference between a hero and a villain, a soldier and a murderer, a victory and a crime. Which side of a river you called home.”
4 stars.
adventurous
dark
funny
reflective
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
“You were a hero round these parts. That's what they call you when you kill so many people the word murderer falls short.”
Monza Murcatto, also known as The Snake of Talins, is the most feared mercenary of the Grand Duke Orso, ruler of Styria. She fights his battles, spreads fear into all who dare oppose his rule, and does not shy away from ruthless bloodshed. One fateful day, the tables turned, and Orso began seeing Monza as a threat to his rule, and in an attempt to get rid of her, had her brother murdered in front of her eyes and had Monza stabbed multiple times and thrown off a cliff. Unbeknownst to him, Monza survived this attack, and was left as a crippled and broken version of her former self. But her iron-will had only grown stronger, and she had become hell-bent on murdering Orso and everyone else who had a hand in what happened to her and her brother. She goes out of her way gathering a group of warriors, thieves and assassins, and all sorts of devious people, to help her on her bloody path. Thus begins this classic tale of revenge, as we are plunged back into Joe Abercrombie's "The First Law" universe.
If you had read my previous reviews on The First Law trilogy, you would know that I had started off really enjoying the series, only to be disappointed by it at the end of the third installment, because I was taken aback and surprised by how Joe Abercrombie decided to conclude the trilogy, more specifically, without giving much substance to the plot and world-building. Now, as I became a seasoned reader of his works, I approached this book with more experience regarding his writing, knowing better what to expect from him, and that really helped, because the things I found to be lacking in his writing did not bother me, since I didn't get into the book expecting them in the first place.
Abercrombie is a firm writer of character-driven stories, and the great emphasis he places on the characters he writes, leaves little room for an extremely richly developed plot and worldbuilding. If you approach this book with that knowledge, you won't be disappointed, and this doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing, because the vividly crafted psyches of the characters we are following and the in-depth exploration of their motives and interactions, make up for it quite well.
Monza is a person of deep conviction and her inner moral compass plays a firm role in guiding her decision making process, and as any Abercrombie reader knows, good and evil are two dichotomies that are very hard to pinpoint in his stories, since all the characters solely operate out of self-interest, and with Monza, we see very well how she uses her convictions to justify the bloody path she decided to take. We start the journey off from the perspective of how terrible it was for Monza to be betrayed by the man she works for, and how traumatizing it must of been for her to see her brother brutally murdered in front of her eyes. However, throughout the book, as we begin seeing the situation from multiple perspectives, we can equally ponder about whether Orso was justified in what he did, and we might even begin to think that Monza and her brother actually deserved what happened to them.
This is the beauty of Abercrombie's writing. We get introduced to very horrible characters, and we have no "good side" to root for. We just have to choose which terrible person we prefer over other terrible people. We also have hundreds of pages of sharp cynical wisdom, which is Abercrombie's forte.
“Good steel bends, but never breaks. Good steel stays always sharp and ready. Good steel feels no pain, no pity, and above all, no remorse”
This story takes place some time after the events of the third book of The First Law trilogy, and we see some characters from there make appearances in this book, some having more major roles than others, so I definitely recommend reading that trilogy first. Monza really reminds me of Ferro from the First Law trilogy, but a tad bit less brutal and more in touch with her emotional landscape. The plot itself is pretty straightforward, but the character interactions are satisfyingly intricate. The world is as harsh as ever, and Abercrombie subverts any potentially heartwarming and morally "good" moment with his unrelenting cold fist of cynical realism.
Overall, a nice read that makes me want to continue reading Abercrombie's standalones in this universe.
“That was the difference between a hero and a villain, a soldier and a murderer, a victory and a crime. Which side of a river you called home.”
4 stars.
Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong
Chloe Gong's fictitious and alternate interpretation of Shanghai continues its descent into chaos in this second and final installment of These Violent Delights. The monster that was terrorizing the city by releasing swarms of insects that crawl inside their victims and force them to violently kill themselves has been defeated, however, we end the first book with the terrifying discovery that more of these creatures exist. After the tumultuous end of the previous book, Juliette and Roma, two heirs to two opposing gangs in Shanghai, who have a lot of power on their hands, have switched from lovers to arch enemies,after Roma believes that Juliette murdered her cousin's friend/lover. This retelling of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliette continues, and despite not having been a fan of the first book, I had a sudden craving to read something light and easy, so I picked this up, having forgotten how much the first book had frustrated me. Unfortunately, not much has really changed in this one, except for it being longer and hence more frustrating to get through.
The same problems that plagued the first book for me continue to persist in this one. The writing is quite redundant, with the same concept of the city of Shanghai being a broken, divided and dangerous place being repeated over and over again throughout 500 pages, in an attempt to give the book a dark and gritty atmosphere but ultimately ending up taking away from its quality for me.I was left wanting to get to the point of the plot but instead having to read several paragraphs explaining how dangerous and divided Shanghai was. The relationship between Roma and Juliette continued to be quite infantile to read about,and the chemistry was very bland and not impactful for me. Interestingly enough, the side characters, especially Benedikt and Marshall and Kathlynn, were more interesting to read about than our main couple.
There were slight improvements in this book when it came to plot, with more action-packed scenes, but they were unfortunately dulled out by the incessant unnecessary descriptions about how dangerous the city was, and a writing style that didn't do a great job in getting me hooked to the story as much as I would have liked. Roma's character was underdeveloped and lacked a backbone in the first book, but he was better written in this one. Juliette was still her intense violent self, but she wasn't as intense and as irrational as she was in the first book. There was definitely an improvement to the side characters, and if they weren't there, this book would have been even more difficult to read for me.
I'm not sure how I feel regarding the ending, since the open-ended nature of it didn't really have the intended effect on me and left me more frustrated than satisfying. I was left thinking "is that it, after all the effort I've put into reading this book?".
I'm giving this one a 2.75 just like its predecessor. It just didn't do much for me and I wasn't feeling the compulsion to get back into the world every time I put the book down. Important to note that this had even less fantasy elements than the first one, so don't go into this expecting heavy fantasy.
“They had always been two mirrored souls, the only ones who understood the other in a city that wanted to consume them whole, and now they were joined, mightier when together.”
You can also read my thoughts on:
#1. These Violent Delights (These Violent Delights, #1) by Chloe Gong.
----------------------------------
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Chloe Gong's fictitious and alternate interpretation of Shanghai continues its descent into chaos in this second and final installment of These Violent Delights. The monster that was terrorizing the city by releasing swarms of insects that crawl inside their victims and force them to violently kill themselves has been defeated, however, we end the first book with the terrifying discovery that more of these creatures exist. After the tumultuous end of the previous book, Juliette and Roma, two heirs to two opposing gangs in Shanghai, who have a lot of power on their hands, have switched from lovers to arch enemies,after Roma believes that Juliette murdered her cousin's friend/lover. This retelling of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliette continues, and despite not having been a fan of the first book, I had a sudden craving to read something light and easy, so I picked this up, having forgotten how much the first book had frustrated me. Unfortunately, not much has really changed in this one, except for it being longer and hence more frustrating to get through.
The same problems that plagued the first book for me continue to persist in this one. The writing is quite redundant, with the same concept of the city of Shanghai being a broken, divided and dangerous place being repeated over and over again throughout 500 pages, in an attempt to give the book a dark and gritty atmosphere but ultimately ending up taking away from its quality for me.I was left wanting to get to the point of the plot but instead having to read several paragraphs explaining how dangerous and divided Shanghai was. The relationship between Roma and Juliette continued to be quite infantile to read about,and the chemistry was very bland and not impactful for me. Interestingly enough, the side characters, especially Benedikt and Marshall and Kathlynn, were more interesting to read about than our main couple.
There were slight improvements in this book when it came to plot, with more action-packed scenes, but they were unfortunately dulled out by the incessant unnecessary descriptions about how dangerous the city was, and a writing style that didn't do a great job in getting me hooked to the story as much as I would have liked. Roma's character was underdeveloped and lacked a backbone in the first book, but he was better written in this one. Juliette was still her intense violent self, but she wasn't as intense and as irrational as she was in the first book. There was definitely an improvement to the side characters, and if they weren't there, this book would have been even more difficult to read for me.
I'm not sure how I feel regarding the ending, since the open-ended nature of it didn't really have the intended effect on me and left me more frustrated than satisfying. I was left thinking "is that it, after all the effort I've put into reading this book?".
I'm giving this one a 2.75 just like its predecessor. It just didn't do much for me and I wasn't feeling the compulsion to get back into the world every time I put the book down. Important to note that this had even less fantasy elements than the first one, so don't go into this expecting heavy fantasy.
“They had always been two mirrored souls, the only ones who understood the other in a city that wanted to consume them whole, and now they were joined, mightier when together.”
You can also read my thoughts on:
#1. These Violent Delights (These Violent Delights, #1) by Chloe Gong.
----------------------------------
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
“It is a well-known fact that of all the species on earth Homo sapiens is among the most adaptable. Settle a tribe of them in a desert and they will wrap themselves in cotton, sleep in tents, and travel on the backs of camels; settle them in the Arctic and they will wrap themselves in sealskin, sleep in igloos, and travel by dog-drawn sled. And if you settle them in a Soviet climate? They will learn to make friendly conversation with strangers while waiting in line; they will learn to neatly stack their clothing in their half of the bureau drawer; and they will learn to draw imaginary buildings in their sketchbooks. That is, they will adapt.”
Count Alexander Rostov has fortunately evaded a death a sentence after the new Soviet administration deemed him as an irredeemable aristocrat. The catch is that he is sentenced to a life of house arrest at a luxurious hotel called the Metropol. Should he dare to come out, he would be shot instantly, thus he has to come to terms with a life of confinement, quite contrary to what he was used to. Therefore, we follow Alexander on his journey of confinement within the walls of this hotel, as he tries to make peace with the fact that he is never leaving that place again, and tries to avoid the tempting arms of suicide while trying to find a new sense of purpose.This is a humorous and reflective work, full of flowery prose that adds a shade of elegance to the mundane, though to be fair, one can't categorize Alexander's life as mundane, since he lives quite the privileged life compared to the millions of people who bore witness to the dark transition of Russia from a monarchy to a communist nation.
“Alexander Rostov was neither scientist nor sage; but at the age of sixty-four he was wise enough to know that life does not proceed by leaps and bounds. It unfolds. At any given moment, it is the manifestation of a thousand transitions. Our faculties wax and wane, our experiences accumulate and our opinions evolve--if not glacially, then at least gradually. Such that the events of an average day are as likely to transform who we are as a pinch of pepper is to transform a stew.”
There is no shortage of philosophical musings throughout this work, and many tidbits of wisdom are sprinkled here and there, making this an enriching read if one is in the mood of some reflection. Amor Towles certainly does some brilliant writing here, and despite its relative length, this book, for the most part, felt smooth to read, because the musings of the characters and the witty banter and dialogue was entertaining. This book was an exploration of ideas above everything else, because when someone is sentenced to a lifetime of house arrest, it is only natural for them to start thinking too much, and be in a relentless pursuit of meaning.What are the aspects that truly matter in life? How can one deal with difficult times such as the loss of a loved one, and other tragedies that are inevitable with the ceaseless marching of time? One can open almost any page of this book at random and find a wise quote they would want to write down to remember.
“If you are ever in doubt, just remember that unlike adults, children want to be happy. So they still have the ability to take the greatest pleasure in the simplest things.”
Spending your life inside a hotel surely does make life seem to pass by slowly, and that is the tone of this book. Despite it spanning decades, there is a slowness to it that is best appreciated when the reader immerses themself in the prose and the environment.The character interactions here were done nicely too, and they were heartwarming and cozy to read. This book is something one can reread more than once because what makes it good isn't really the plot or the curiosity about how it's going to end, but the collection of little moments Alexander has with several people in the hotel, which quickly feels like home due to the superb writing.
I wouldn't really call this a realistic story however, and if one wants to read it to experience what it was like living in Russia during that time, then this book won't really be satisfying, because what we have here is a character who is sheltered from the horrors of that time,and the harsh reality under Stalin's iron grip is softened and only slightly recognized. I would say that the time period here is largely used as some form of idealized aesthetic to tell an over-the-top lavish story. It isn't a true exploration of the essence of that time, signified by hardship.I don't have a lot of historical context regarding Soviet Russia as of the time I'm writing this review, but I can't help but suspect that not much historical research has been done here and this reads like an American view of a stereotypical bougie Russian social life. Therefore, I caution any reader against going into this expecting a serious account of what life was like in those days, lest they find this book to be offensive since it tends to paint a really light picture of these times.
Nevertheless, I liked this for what it tried to do, and it was a cozy book to read. I would give it somewhere between a 3 and a 4 stars, perhaps a cautious 3.5 for now, though I would probably want to reread this one day because despite all the unrealistic fluff, I would like to revisit the Metropol hotel.
Thank you to Maria and Sulla for buddy reading this with me!
“To what end, he wondered, had the Divine created the stars in heaven to fill a man with feelings of inspiration one day and insignificance the next?”
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
“It is a well-known fact that of all the species on earth Homo sapiens is among the most adaptable. Settle a tribe of them in a desert and they will wrap themselves in cotton, sleep in tents, and travel on the backs of camels; settle them in the Arctic and they will wrap themselves in sealskin, sleep in igloos, and travel by dog-drawn sled. And if you settle them in a Soviet climate? They will learn to make friendly conversation with strangers while waiting in line; they will learn to neatly stack their clothing in their half of the bureau drawer; and they will learn to draw imaginary buildings in their sketchbooks. That is, they will adapt.”
Count Alexander Rostov has fortunately evaded a death a sentence after the new Soviet administration deemed him as an irredeemable aristocrat. The catch is that he is sentenced to a life of house arrest at a luxurious hotel called the Metropol. Should he dare to come out, he would be shot instantly, thus he has to come to terms with a life of confinement, quite contrary to what he was used to. Therefore, we follow Alexander on his journey of confinement within the walls of this hotel, as he tries to make peace with the fact that he is never leaving that place again, and tries to avoid the tempting arms of suicide while trying to find a new sense of purpose.This is a humorous and reflective work, full of flowery prose that adds a shade of elegance to the mundane, though to be fair, one can't categorize Alexander's life as mundane, since he lives quite the privileged life compared to the millions of people who bore witness to the dark transition of Russia from a monarchy to a communist nation.
“Alexander Rostov was neither scientist nor sage; but at the age of sixty-four he was wise enough to know that life does not proceed by leaps and bounds. It unfolds. At any given moment, it is the manifestation of a thousand transitions. Our faculties wax and wane, our experiences accumulate and our opinions evolve--if not glacially, then at least gradually. Such that the events of an average day are as likely to transform who we are as a pinch of pepper is to transform a stew.”
There is no shortage of philosophical musings throughout this work, and many tidbits of wisdom are sprinkled here and there, making this an enriching read if one is in the mood of some reflection. Amor Towles certainly does some brilliant writing here, and despite its relative length, this book, for the most part, felt smooth to read, because the musings of the characters and the witty banter and dialogue was entertaining. This book was an exploration of ideas above everything else, because when someone is sentenced to a lifetime of house arrest, it is only natural for them to start thinking too much, and be in a relentless pursuit of meaning.What are the aspects that truly matter in life? How can one deal with difficult times such as the loss of a loved one, and other tragedies that are inevitable with the ceaseless marching of time? One can open almost any page of this book at random and find a wise quote they would want to write down to remember.
“If you are ever in doubt, just remember that unlike adults, children want to be happy. So they still have the ability to take the greatest pleasure in the simplest things.”
Spending your life inside a hotel surely does make life seem to pass by slowly, and that is the tone of this book. Despite it spanning decades, there is a slowness to it that is best appreciated when the reader immerses themself in the prose and the environment.The character interactions here were done nicely too, and they were heartwarming and cozy to read. This book is something one can reread more than once because what makes it good isn't really the plot or the curiosity about how it's going to end, but the collection of little moments Alexander has with several people in the hotel, which quickly feels like home due to the superb writing.
I wouldn't really call this a realistic story however, and if one wants to read it to experience what it was like living in Russia during that time, then this book won't really be satisfying, because what we have here is a character who is sheltered from the horrors of that time,and the harsh reality under Stalin's iron grip is softened and only slightly recognized. I would say that the time period here is largely used as some form of idealized aesthetic to tell an over-the-top lavish story. It isn't a true exploration of the essence of that time, signified by hardship.I don't have a lot of historical context regarding Soviet Russia as of the time I'm writing this review, but I can't help but suspect that not much historical research has been done here and this reads like an American view of a stereotypical bougie Russian social life. Therefore, I caution any reader against going into this expecting a serious account of what life was like in those days, lest they find this book to be offensive since it tends to paint a really light picture of these times.
Nevertheless, I liked this for what it tried to do, and it was a cozy book to read. I would give it somewhere between a 3 and a 4 stars, perhaps a cautious 3.5 for now, though I would probably want to reread this one day because despite all the unrealistic fluff, I would like to revisit the Metropol hotel.
Thank you to Maria and Sulla for buddy reading this with me!
“To what end, he wondered, had the Divine created the stars in heaven to fill a man with feelings of inspiration one day and insignificance the next?”
The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman
adventurous
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
This was The Fantasy Guild Book Club pick for June 2022!
“I was so scared, I half wanted to piss myself, but the difference between the strong and the weak isn’t that the strong don’t piss themselves. It’s that they hitch their pissy pants up after and go through with it.”
If you're looking for a fantasy book that scratches that classical fantasy questing itch for you, then this might be a potential choice. This book has quite the overabundance of that since our main character, Kinch, owes his guild a debt that must be repaid through robbery, but his latest objective leads him down a new questing path that puts him on a dangerous path, when he comes across a woman called Galva, a knight, who is on her own quest that is drastically at odds with his guild's ambitions. Kinch's fate becomes entwined with hers and together they embark on an adventure that expands into a questing group navigating a very dangerous and exciting world, trying to find a missing queen, who went off the grid after the city she was in got ransacked by giants.
Our main character Kinch isn't our typical knight in shining armour protagonist, since his strength lies in his intellect and wits, and ability to charm people with his tongue. It's not a surprise since he is a member of a thieves' guild and that is where his assets lie, alongside stealth and nimble agility. The book adopts a first-person point of view and Kinch is our narrator, hence his character is the one that is most thoroughly developed though the voices of his companions are still satisfyingly strong and individuated.
Despite the dark reality of the world, there is a distinct humorous streak in this book that makes it hard for the reader to take things too seriously, which is interesting because the stakes are quite high for most of the book and we lightly skip around from one funny moment where everything is light and casual to a tragic one where characters we have been following for quite a number of pages meet brutal ends, at which time the author delivers well targeted one-liners that make the reader feel the sting of the tragedy with shocking vividness in a way that catches one off guard, only to hop right back into light banter-filled humour land.
The writing here is quite powerful and Christopher Buehlman is certainly gifted with his lexical capacity.This reads like it came right out of a medieval-inspired fantasy realm and it that adds bonus points to immersion. Despite believing this has an objectively decent writing style, I'm afraid it didn't really work well for me because it exhausted me in the end. Despite it being a seemingly plot-drive fantasy book, it somewhat reads like an exploration of chaotic tangents with an overabundance of metaphors and roundabout ways of getting a point across, which made it difficult for me to keep my attention sustained.It was a fresh and original aspect during my early reading phase of this book but it eventually wore me out and I was just waiting for it to end without truly being invested in the story.
Additionally, all the questing and journeying felt overstretched and that says something because I'm typically a huge fan of classic questing fantasy, but the way this was written, with all of its density took away from my enjoyment of the book. There were certainly some warm and enjoyable moments that kept my mood high while reading, but somehow, these aspects don't quite "save" this book for me.
I was leaning on giving this 3 stars but upon further introspection I realized I can't truly bump it into that category, because despite it being relatively fresh in my mind at the moment, I don't see this book sticking with me in any meaningful way. I wish I had consumed this in audiobook format, perhaps I might have appreciated it more. There is definitely potential here and I do recognize that this is a good book, but perhaps it wasn't the book that was quite for me during this stage. There is a possibility that I will re-consume this story in audiobook format should I decide to read the sequel once it comes out, because a part of me truly wants me to like this more. I'm giving this a 2.75 rating.
Don't let my review necessarily deter you from reading this though, since I do recognize that it's a good book for the right people.
“I won’t be your dog, but if you’re half the wolf I think you are, you’ve found a fox to run with.”
“I was so scared, I half wanted to piss myself, but the difference between the strong and the weak isn’t that the strong don’t piss themselves. It’s that they hitch their pissy pants up after and go through with it.”
If you're looking for a fantasy book that scratches that classical fantasy questing itch for you, then this might be a potential choice. This book has quite the overabundance of that since our main character, Kinch, owes his guild a debt that must be repaid through robbery, but his latest objective leads him down a new questing path that puts him on a dangerous path, when he comes across a woman called Galva, a knight, who is on her own quest that is drastically at odds with his guild's ambitions. Kinch's fate becomes entwined with hers and together they embark on an adventure that expands into a questing group navigating a very dangerous and exciting world, trying to find a missing queen, who went off the grid after the city she was in got ransacked by giants.
Our main character Kinch isn't our typical knight in shining armour protagonist, since his strength lies in his intellect and wits, and ability to charm people with his tongue. It's not a surprise since he is a member of a thieves' guild and that is where his assets lie, alongside stealth and nimble agility. The book adopts a first-person point of view and Kinch is our narrator, hence his character is the one that is most thoroughly developed though the voices of his companions are still satisfyingly strong and individuated.
Despite the dark reality of the world, there is a distinct humorous streak in this book that makes it hard for the reader to take things too seriously, which is interesting because the stakes are quite high for most of the book and we lightly skip around from one funny moment where everything is light and casual to a tragic one where characters we have been following for quite a number of pages meet brutal ends, at which time the author delivers well targeted one-liners that make the reader feel the sting of the tragedy with shocking vividness in a way that catches one off guard, only to hop right back into light banter-filled humour land.
The writing here is quite powerful and Christopher Buehlman is certainly gifted with his lexical capacity.This reads like it came right out of a medieval-inspired fantasy realm and it that adds bonus points to immersion. Despite believing this has an objectively decent writing style, I'm afraid it didn't really work well for me because it exhausted me in the end. Despite it being a seemingly plot-drive fantasy book, it somewhat reads like an exploration of chaotic tangents with an overabundance of metaphors and roundabout ways of getting a point across, which made it difficult for me to keep my attention sustained.It was a fresh and original aspect during my early reading phase of this book but it eventually wore me out and I was just waiting for it to end without truly being invested in the story.
Additionally, all the questing and journeying felt overstretched and that says something because I'm typically a huge fan of classic questing fantasy, but the way this was written, with all of its density took away from my enjoyment of the book. There were certainly some warm and enjoyable moments that kept my mood high while reading, but somehow, these aspects don't quite "save" this book for me.
I was leaning on giving this 3 stars but upon further introspection I realized I can't truly bump it into that category, because despite it being relatively fresh in my mind at the moment, I don't see this book sticking with me in any meaningful way. I wish I had consumed this in audiobook format, perhaps I might have appreciated it more. There is definitely potential here and I do recognize that this is a good book, but perhaps it wasn't the book that was quite for me during this stage. There is a possibility that I will re-consume this story in audiobook format should I decide to read the sequel once it comes out, because a part of me truly wants me to like this more. I'm giving this a 2.75 rating.
Don't let my review necessarily deter you from reading this though, since I do recognize that it's a good book for the right people.
“I won’t be your dog, but if you’re half the wolf I think you are, you’ve found a fox to run with.”
Berserk Volume 1 by Kentaro Miura
“If I have to worry about the ants I crush beneath my feet, I couldn't even walk around”
Guts, more commonly known as The Black Swordsman, is known for his callous ruthlessness, and wielding his gigantic sword, he brings nothing but terror in his wake.He seems to fear no man, or demon, or spirit, or any entity, and despite how formidable his adversaries are, he always seems to come out on top. In this volume, we get a vague introduction to Guts, see how he's on a seemingly senseless murder spree, during which he ends up saving a fairy who becomes quite obsessed with him and follows him around everywhere, making him our main hero's sidekick who heals him and gives him seemingly unneeded emotional support, every time people are brutally slaughtered around Guts.
“I will never draw my sword for another man again, or be dangled by another mans dream. From now on, I will fight my own battles."
This volume has 3 chapters, and they don't really give much information regarding Guts's motivations. We can see that he's on some form of vendetta, and his vigilante-like behaviour must be coming from a much deeply seated wound.Despite his brutality, we do see that he is the protagonist of the story, after having murdered a group of thugs in a tavern and saved his new fairy friend, even though that little encounter led to The Snake Lord feeling threatened over his domain and unleashing hell (quite literally) in town as a response to Guts's transgression. We can see that Guts is some form of grimdark antihero character.
The world seems to be quite a cruel one, and this manga doesn't shy away from very graphic murder scenes.It nicely sets the stage for some grimdark dark fantasy and we get to have a limited exploration of this world and the creatures it holds, from spirits that animate the skeletons of the dead to snake demons. Apart from that, since this is the introductory volume, I didn't really get much depth out of it and haven't developed any relevant sentiments regarding the characters, and I'm mainly intrigued by the medieval-European inspired dark fantasy world, which is something we do see quite commonly in fantasy, but that atmosphere always has its charm and allure for me.I will be reading the next volume of this manga to see if I'm able to get more invested in the story, and I see this as a decent entry into this world.
“In this world, is the destiny of mankind controlled by some transcendental entity or law? Is it like the hand of God hovering above? At least it is true that man has no control, even over his own will. Man takes up the sword in order to shield the small wound in his heart sustained in a far-off time beyond remembrance. Man wields the sword so that he may die smiling in some far-off time beyond perception.”
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
“If I have to worry about the ants I crush beneath my feet, I couldn't even walk around”
Guts, more commonly known as The Black Swordsman, is known for his callous ruthlessness, and wielding his gigantic sword, he brings nothing but terror in his wake.He seems to fear no man, or demon, or spirit, or any entity, and despite how formidable his adversaries are, he always seems to come out on top. In this volume, we get a vague introduction to Guts, see how he's on a seemingly senseless murder spree, during which he ends up saving a fairy who becomes quite obsessed with him and follows him around everywhere, making him our main hero's sidekick who heals him and gives him seemingly unneeded emotional support, every time people are brutally slaughtered around Guts.
“I will never draw my sword for another man again, or be dangled by another mans dream. From now on, I will fight my own battles."
This volume has 3 chapters, and they don't really give much information regarding Guts's motivations. We can see that he's on some form of vendetta, and his vigilante-like behaviour must be coming from a much deeply seated wound.Despite his brutality, we do see that he is the protagonist of the story, after having murdered a group of thugs in a tavern and saved his new fairy friend, even though that little encounter led to The Snake Lord feeling threatened over his domain and unleashing hell (quite literally) in town as a response to Guts's transgression. We can see that Guts is some form of grimdark antihero character.
The world seems to be quite a cruel one, and this manga doesn't shy away from very graphic murder scenes.It nicely sets the stage for some grimdark dark fantasy and we get to have a limited exploration of this world and the creatures it holds, from spirits that animate the skeletons of the dead to snake demons. Apart from that, since this is the introductory volume, I didn't really get much depth out of it and haven't developed any relevant sentiments regarding the characters, and I'm mainly intrigued by the medieval-European inspired dark fantasy world, which is something we do see quite commonly in fantasy, but that atmosphere always has its charm and allure for me.I will be reading the next volume of this manga to see if I'm able to get more invested in the story, and I see this as a decent entry into this world.
“In this world, is the destiny of mankind controlled by some transcendental entity or law? Is it like the hand of God hovering above? At least it is true that man has no control, even over his own will. Man takes up the sword in order to shield the small wound in his heart sustained in a far-off time beyond remembrance. Man wields the sword so that he may die smiling in some far-off time beyond perception.”
Pines by Blake Crouch
"Since the Industrial Revolution, we’ve treated our world like it was a hotel room and we were rock stars. But we aren’t rock stars. In the scheme of evolutionary forces, we are a weak, fragile species. Our genome is corruptible, and we so abused this planet that we ultimately corrupted that precious DNA blueprint that makes us human.”
Secret service agent Ethan Burke is sent to a small town called Wayward Pines to find two agents who have gone missing. On his way there, the car he's in with his partner gets hit by a truck. His partner loses his life while Ethan survives, but he's in a state of amnesia and can't remember all the details of what happened. He finds himself sprawled on the ground by the river and eventually makes his way to Wayward Pines and tries to find more information on where he is and what exactly happened after the accident. The town is quaint and serene, and everything seems normal at first, but the more time he spends in that town, the more he realizes something isn't quite right. The people here are acting too calm, too unbothered, and anytime Ethan presses for more information, he receives vague answers or blank stares. What happened to Ethan, and why does he find himself trapped in this town?
I had this book on my to read list way before I knew that this author was the same person who wrote Dark Matter, so after really liking that book, I had mixed expectations regarding this one because the ratings weren't so high. Fortunately though, I ended up really enjoying this story and the very interesting and drastic twists that it took. It's best to go into this book without knowing too many details, since the whole premise is centered around the mystery of Wayward Pines and on what happened to Ethan, so I won't be mentioning these details in this review.What I really enjoyed here though was the sense of the unknown, and the very chilling atmosphere that was present throughout the book, even when the town residents were generally quite nice and amicable. It was written in such a way that the excess niceness began signaling that something is drastically off about this place, and I like the way the author handled that. With all the mystery going on, I also enjoyed the little interactions Ethan had with people, and despite how creepy this town was, it did feel like home, and a "warm" place I was curious to be in, which speaks to the author's ability to build an immersive setting. We had occasional point of views centered around Ethan's wife, who, left behind after Ethan left, is left with no trace of her husband. This perspective added more intrigue to the mystery, and gave us some outside perspective that served to make the events at Wayward Pines seem even more absurd and terrifying.
“Nature doesn’t see things through the prism of good or bad. It rewards efficiency. That’s the beautiful simplicity of evolution. It matches design to environment.”
Blake Crouch is pretty good at writing mysterious thrillers and I'm glad I came across this book. I listened to this as an audiobook and it added to the fun and the immersion. This doesn't seem to be a very high-rated book by the author but if you are a fan of his work and the sci-fi/thriller melange, I would recommend you give this book a try. It starts off as mysterious and confusing, and picks up pace and turns exciting, and ends up being a surprisingly deep story that makes us question whether collectively good motivations can justify certain immoral actions.
“You think man can destroy the planet? What intoxicating vanity. Earth has survived everything in its time. It will certainly survive us. To the earth...a million years is nothing. This planet lives and breathes on a much vaster scale. We can’t imagine its slow and powerful rhythms, and we haven’t got the humility to try. We’ve been residents here for the blink of an eye. If we’re gone tomorrow, the earth will not miss us.”
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
"Since the Industrial Revolution, we’ve treated our world like it was a hotel room and we were rock stars. But we aren’t rock stars. In the scheme of evolutionary forces, we are a weak, fragile species. Our genome is corruptible, and we so abused this planet that we ultimately corrupted that precious DNA blueprint that makes us human.”
Secret service agent Ethan Burke is sent to a small town called Wayward Pines to find two agents who have gone missing. On his way there, the car he's in with his partner gets hit by a truck. His partner loses his life while Ethan survives, but he's in a state of amnesia and can't remember all the details of what happened. He finds himself sprawled on the ground by the river and eventually makes his way to Wayward Pines and tries to find more information on where he is and what exactly happened after the accident. The town is quaint and serene, and everything seems normal at first, but the more time he spends in that town, the more he realizes something isn't quite right. The people here are acting too calm, too unbothered, and anytime Ethan presses for more information, he receives vague answers or blank stares. What happened to Ethan, and why does he find himself trapped in this town?
I had this book on my to read list way before I knew that this author was the same person who wrote Dark Matter, so after really liking that book, I had mixed expectations regarding this one because the ratings weren't so high. Fortunately though, I ended up really enjoying this story and the very interesting and drastic twists that it took. It's best to go into this book without knowing too many details, since the whole premise is centered around the mystery of Wayward Pines and on what happened to Ethan, so I won't be mentioning these details in this review.What I really enjoyed here though was the sense of the unknown, and the very chilling atmosphere that was present throughout the book, even when the town residents were generally quite nice and amicable. It was written in such a way that the excess niceness began signaling that something is drastically off about this place, and I like the way the author handled that. With all the mystery going on, I also enjoyed the little interactions Ethan had with people, and despite how creepy this town was, it did feel like home, and a "warm" place I was curious to be in, which speaks to the author's ability to build an immersive setting. We had occasional point of views centered around Ethan's wife, who, left behind after Ethan left, is left with no trace of her husband. This perspective added more intrigue to the mystery, and gave us some outside perspective that served to make the events at Wayward Pines seem even more absurd and terrifying.
“Nature doesn’t see things through the prism of good or bad. It rewards efficiency. That’s the beautiful simplicity of evolution. It matches design to environment.”
Blake Crouch is pretty good at writing mysterious thrillers and I'm glad I came across this book. I listened to this as an audiobook and it added to the fun and the immersion. This doesn't seem to be a very high-rated book by the author but if you are a fan of his work and the sci-fi/thriller melange, I would recommend you give this book a try. It starts off as mysterious and confusing, and picks up pace and turns exciting, and ends up being a surprisingly deep story that makes us question whether collectively good motivations can justify certain immoral actions.
“You think man can destroy the planet? What intoxicating vanity. Earth has survived everything in its time. It will certainly survive us. To the earth...a million years is nothing. This planet lives and breathes on a much vaster scale. We can’t imagine its slow and powerful rhythms, and we haven’t got the humility to try. We’ve been residents here for the blink of an eye. If we’re gone tomorrow, the earth will not miss us.”
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
After discovering a prehistoric woman trapped in ice at the Arctic Circle, a group of scientists accidentally unleash a virus upon the world that has catastrophic events. This virus turns human organs into weird versions of brains, causing excruciating deaths.Life expectancy isn't that high but can be prolonged through organ transplants, but even that will eventually fail and the person effected will succumb to death. This book explores the effects of this pandemic through various short stories, showing how different people and different organizations deal with this tragic reality.
We see how humanity adapts to this virus. Some make a business out of unique ways of disposing of the dead, with special customized funerals that bring peace to the families of the victims, which sheds light on the opportunistic tendencies of human nature, and rings true to reality.Others try to find ways to defeat this virus, by finding out how it functions by studying its decomposition process through placing the victims in body farms. Others take it a step further and try to find new planets to transport humanity to, having given up on life on earth. Within this collection, we also get to know regular human beings and how they cope with potentially losing their lives or losing the lives of their loved ones.
Despite the interesting premise here, I didn't really have a positive experience reading this book. I don't know if I was just not in the mood for this sort of read, but I found most of the short stories to be redundant and to be regurgitating the same ideas over and over again.I wasn't even expecting this to be a collection of short stories set in the same world, having expected it to be one story instead, so this took me by surprise and negatively impacted my reading experience, since I'm not really in the right mental space to appreciate short stories, knowing that it's hard to form attachments to anyone through this format. I felt like the author tried to fit too many different things into one work, and it just didn't work for me.We even go as far as discovering a new planet and meeting aliens, as well as dipping our toes into some form of fantasy which explores how the universe was created. It just felt like a weird soup of different things that didn't quite mesh well together for me.
This might be enjoyable to some readers though, but just keep in mind that there is no one narrative and this is a collection of short stories. It's a very bleak book with graphic descriptions of death and decomposition, so be prepared for that too.In conclusion, despite the potential, this book wasn't really for me.
“Opportunities are like little seeds floating in the wind. Your life is there. Some people have a big net to collect them all. Other people need to pray that the right seeds, the best ones, make their way to them with just enough bad ones to appreciate the good.”
We see how humanity adapts to this virus. Some make a business out of unique ways of disposing of the dead, with special customized funerals that bring peace to the families of the victims, which sheds light on the opportunistic tendencies of human nature, and rings true to reality.Others try to find ways to defeat this virus, by finding out how it functions by studying its decomposition process through placing the victims in body farms. Others take it a step further and try to find new planets to transport humanity to, having given up on life on earth. Within this collection, we also get to know regular human beings and how they cope with potentially losing their lives or losing the lives of their loved ones.
Despite the interesting premise here, I didn't really have a positive experience reading this book. I don't know if I was just not in the mood for this sort of read, but I found most of the short stories to be redundant and to be regurgitating the same ideas over and over again.I wasn't even expecting this to be a collection of short stories set in the same world, having expected it to be one story instead, so this took me by surprise and negatively impacted my reading experience, since I'm not really in the right mental space to appreciate short stories, knowing that it's hard to form attachments to anyone through this format. I felt like the author tried to fit too many different things into one work, and it just didn't work for me.We even go as far as discovering a new planet and meeting aliens, as well as dipping our toes into some form of fantasy which explores how the universe was created. It just felt like a weird soup of different things that didn't quite mesh well together for me.
This might be enjoyable to some readers though, but just keep in mind that there is no one narrative and this is a collection of short stories. It's a very bleak book with graphic descriptions of death and decomposition, so be prepared for that too.In conclusion, despite the potential, this book wasn't really for me.
“Opportunities are like little seeds floating in the wind. Your life is there. Some people have a big net to collect them all. Other people need to pray that the right seeds, the best ones, make their way to them with just enough bad ones to appreciate the good.”
Mind of My Mind by Octavia E. Butler
In a Southern Californian town bustling with what you would call normal human beings, a girl called Mary, who is pretty much anything but normal, is being raised. She is one of the thousands of results of a breeding experiment being undertaken by an immortal man named Doro,who, thanks to a rare mutation in his genes, was able to tap into psychic powers that allows him to transfer his consciousness from one body to the next, which has given him an unlimited lifespan. For thousands of years, Doro has been wandering this earth, firstly trying to mentally consume regular humans around him to satisfy his unending hunger, but at some point in his life, he began to develop a vision of forming his very own society, a society of people blessed with this psychic ability, his very own large "family" he would be the head of.In order to do so, Doro had to cherry pick people who have inklings of these psychic powers and have them mate in order to reproduce and bring about more and more children who would eventually grow up and mate with other people of their kind, hence creating a highly concentrated genetic pool of people with powerful psychic abilities they can use to bend humanity to their will, while also ultimately submitting to Doro's authority.
Following a snippet of Mary's journey in this book allows us to further delve into the central theme Butler seems to be exploring in the Patternmaster series, the value of free will and what it means, and how human beings can react when that free will is forcibly taken away from them.Mary is by far the most successful "experiment" Doro was able to breed, since she not only has very similar psychic powers to Doro, but she's also proficient in telepathy, being able to mentally connect with other psychics and bind them to her, irreversibly placing them under her mental mercy.Whatever she wills, the people bound to her must do, and if they resist her, she can easily kill them just by releasing that thought. Not only that, but once Mary discovers these powers, she begins developing an insatiable hunger for expanding her influence, wanting to bring more and more people into this mental "pattern" she's building.In this book, we explore how Mary's victims react to her psychic intrusions, and the struggles they deal with accepting that Mary will always have dominance over their free will, and the only two things they can do is to either give in, or die.As for Doro, he finds himself increasingly alienated from the empire he himself began building, since he doesn't have the power of telepathy and is ultimately shut out from the mental pattern Mary keeps creating with thousands of people. He expects Mary to be in a constant state of subservience towards him, but how long will Mary manage to not get drunk from her own power?
Octavia Butler's writing style is very heavy in theme exploration, and the plot and characterization are secondary components that help drive the central theme forward. In this book, we go a few thousand years back from the first book that was published in the series. Here, human beings still ruled the world, but the Patternmasters, who would inevitably become the ultimate rulers and enslave regular human beings and reduce them to mere servants, have begun establishing their dominions within human society, thanks to Mary's psychic expansion. I'm still glad I chose to read this series in publication order as opposed to chronological order, since it's interesting to see how the seeds to that desolate world we read about in Patternmaster are beginning to be planted here, thanks to Mary. Octavia Butler's authorial voice is a bit distant and remote, which adds a bleak atmosphere to the narrative and a sharp cruel edge to the unpleasant events that happen, those little moments where people know that their freedom has been snatched away, and that the only thing they can do to avoid death is to bend their heads down and accept ultimate submission and the loss of autonomy, and learn to like it.This theme closely parallels the same phenomena that takes place in our human societies, where the norm is for people to bow down to a power they feel like they can never win against. The hierarchical nature of human society is given spotlight, and there is no egalitarianism here. Through Mary, we get to see the same person experience both sides of the coin. She is in control of thousands of people who learn to follow her like sheep, yet she also finds herself forced to submit to Doro's authority.
An interesting novel that serves as a prequel to the first novel published in the series. I'm curious to see how the next one in this series will be, and I recommend this to fans of Sci-fi who are into theme heavy explorations, and not necessarily an extraordinary plot or character work.
“Could a creature who had to look upon ordinary people literally as food and shelter ever understand how strongly those people valued life?”
----------------------------------
You can also read my thoughts on:
#1. Patternmaster (Patternmaster, #4) by Octavia E. Butler.
----------------------------------
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
In a Southern Californian town bustling with what you would call normal human beings, a girl called Mary, who is pretty much anything but normal, is being raised. She is one of the thousands of results of a breeding experiment being undertaken by an immortal man named Doro,who, thanks to a rare mutation in his genes, was able to tap into psychic powers that allows him to transfer his consciousness from one body to the next, which has given him an unlimited lifespan. For thousands of years, Doro has been wandering this earth, firstly trying to mentally consume regular humans around him to satisfy his unending hunger, but at some point in his life, he began to develop a vision of forming his very own society, a society of people blessed with this psychic ability, his very own large "family" he would be the head of.In order to do so, Doro had to cherry pick people who have inklings of these psychic powers and have them mate in order to reproduce and bring about more and more children who would eventually grow up and mate with other people of their kind, hence creating a highly concentrated genetic pool of people with powerful psychic abilities they can use to bend humanity to their will, while also ultimately submitting to Doro's authority.
Following a snippet of Mary's journey in this book allows us to further delve into the central theme Butler seems to be exploring in the Patternmaster series, the value of free will and what it means, and how human beings can react when that free will is forcibly taken away from them.Mary is by far the most successful "experiment" Doro was able to breed, since she not only has very similar psychic powers to Doro, but she's also proficient in telepathy, being able to mentally connect with other psychics and bind them to her, irreversibly placing them under her mental mercy.Whatever she wills, the people bound to her must do, and if they resist her, she can easily kill them just by releasing that thought. Not only that, but once Mary discovers these powers, she begins developing an insatiable hunger for expanding her influence, wanting to bring more and more people into this mental "pattern" she's building.In this book, we explore how Mary's victims react to her psychic intrusions, and the struggles they deal with accepting that Mary will always have dominance over their free will, and the only two things they can do is to either give in, or die.As for Doro, he finds himself increasingly alienated from the empire he himself began building, since he doesn't have the power of telepathy and is ultimately shut out from the mental pattern Mary keeps creating with thousands of people. He expects Mary to be in a constant state of subservience towards him, but how long will Mary manage to not get drunk from her own power?
Octavia Butler's writing style is very heavy in theme exploration, and the plot and characterization are secondary components that help drive the central theme forward. In this book, we go a few thousand years back from the first book that was published in the series. Here, human beings still ruled the world, but the Patternmasters, who would inevitably become the ultimate rulers and enslave regular human beings and reduce them to mere servants, have begun establishing their dominions within human society, thanks to Mary's psychic expansion. I'm still glad I chose to read this series in publication order as opposed to chronological order, since it's interesting to see how the seeds to that desolate world we read about in Patternmaster are beginning to be planted here, thanks to Mary. Octavia Butler's authorial voice is a bit distant and remote, which adds a bleak atmosphere to the narrative and a sharp cruel edge to the unpleasant events that happen, those little moments where people know that their freedom has been snatched away, and that the only thing they can do to avoid death is to bend their heads down and accept ultimate submission and the loss of autonomy, and learn to like it.This theme closely parallels the same phenomena that takes place in our human societies, where the norm is for people to bow down to a power they feel like they can never win against. The hierarchical nature of human society is given spotlight, and there is no egalitarianism here. Through Mary, we get to see the same person experience both sides of the coin. She is in control of thousands of people who learn to follow her like sheep, yet she also finds herself forced to submit to Doro's authority.
An interesting novel that serves as a prequel to the first novel published in the series. I'm curious to see how the next one in this series will be, and I recommend this to fans of Sci-fi who are into theme heavy explorations, and not necessarily an extraordinary plot or character work.
“Could a creature who had to look upon ordinary people literally as food and shelter ever understand how strongly those people valued life?”
----------------------------------
You can also read my thoughts on:
#1. Patternmaster (Patternmaster, #4) by Octavia E. Butler.
----------------------------------
The Bitter Twins by Jen Williams
This was The Fantasy Guild Book Club monthly pick for May 2022!
“Dark things are happening here, don't be getting me wrong. Young people lost, their poor families going out of their minds, and that evil thing lurking... It should have been dealt with a long time ago, but how could we have known?”
It's been quite a while since I've read the first book of this fantasy trilogy, and I enjoyed it so much because of the very exciting plot and the fascinating world building and the likeable characters. It's safe to say that I had high expectations jumping into the sequel, and fortunately enough, my expectations have been met. In this installment, the beautifully diverse world Jen Williams built kept expanding, and the wish I had after having finished the first book, which was to explore the world in more depth, has been fulfilled in this one. Since this is the middle book of a trilogy, it has to play a delicate balance of moving the plot forward but leaving a great chunk of it unresolved in order to create a suspenseful conclusion in the third book, and one of the ways Jen Williams did this was to incorporate a very interesting side-quest a group of our characters end up embarking on, which serves to expand on the world-building and explore the origins of this vivid fantastical space our characters live in.Meanwhile, we also tackle with the aftermath of the bloody conclusion the first book had, and explore the villains of our story in much more detail, which sheds more light on their origins and their motivations, and the villains in this book are interesting indeed.
Our heroes are fighting an ancient insect civilization led by a menacing queen who will stop at nothing to achieve the ultimate end goal of consuming all life in the world and using that life as a breeding ground for her people to reproduce.As I mentioned in the first review, the villains here are very disgusting to read about, since they're quite literally giant and intelligent insects that unleash their monstrosities on human villages, having hundreds of tiny bugs called burrowers get inside humans and consume them from within, leading to an agonizingly painful death and eventually turning them into mindless zombies that follow the queen's commands.We dig a layer deeper in this book and discover how this insect civilization follows the model of the hive mind, a system our real-life creepy crawlies follow as well. Seeing this mode of functioning on a larger and more intelligent scale was very interesting to read about, and very unnerving. The notion of individuality that is heralded by human societies doesn't exist in their civilization, since everyone is just part of a complex system and the role of the individual is nothing more than to serve the collective.This is why this enemy civilization, the Jure'lia, is a severe threat to everyone, because of their unyielding unity.
As I mentioned earlier, since this is the middle book of the series, there was a limit as to how much the plot could progress, and the major plot progression we saw was with the secondary quest some of our characters embarked on. This might be frustrating to some readers, which is why it's important for the reader to actually like the characters in this series, because this book represents a space where we can hang-out with the characters and go through some tribulations with them, without necessarily resolving the major plot in any significant way.This was an excellent opportunity for lovely relationships to flourish between some characters, and some previously cherished relationships to fall apart among others. Despite not much movement to the central plot, there was significant movement characterization wise which allows the reader to form solid emotional bonds with them. Some characters I liked in the first installment such as Hestillion gradually moved themselves into the list of characters I dislike. Despite being intrigued by Hest in the first book, her actions stopped making sense to me in this one. Other characters, like Aldasair and Bern, became all time favourites. A new character called Eri was also introduced in this book and he put me through an emotional roller-coaster, which attests to Jen Williams's talent for getting the reader attached quite quickly to characters.
I'm glad there's still one book left to read that will let me rejoin these characters and this world, but I'm also sad at the same time since that means it's almost over. I'll be looking forward to reading the third installment, and I definitely still recommend this series to anyone who likes nice adventure fantasy with a small hint of Sci-fi here and there.
“To be suddenly alone when all you have ever known is connection. To be alone in the dark while you felt the distant pieces of yourself decay.
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This was The Fantasy Guild Book Club monthly pick for May 2022!
“Dark things are happening here, don't be getting me wrong. Young people lost, their poor families going out of their minds, and that evil thing lurking... It should have been dealt with a long time ago, but how could we have known?”
It's been quite a while since I've read the first book of this fantasy trilogy, and I enjoyed it so much because of the very exciting plot and the fascinating world building and the likeable characters. It's safe to say that I had high expectations jumping into the sequel, and fortunately enough, my expectations have been met. In this installment, the beautifully diverse world Jen Williams built kept expanding, and the wish I had after having finished the first book, which was to explore the world in more depth, has been fulfilled in this one. Since this is the middle book of a trilogy, it has to play a delicate balance of moving the plot forward but leaving a great chunk of it unresolved in order to create a suspenseful conclusion in the third book, and one of the ways Jen Williams did this was to incorporate a very interesting side-quest a group of our characters end up embarking on, which serves to expand on the world-building and explore the origins of this vivid fantastical space our characters live in.Meanwhile, we also tackle with the aftermath of the bloody conclusion the first book had, and explore the villains of our story in much more detail, which sheds more light on their origins and their motivations, and the villains in this book are interesting indeed.
Our heroes are fighting an ancient insect civilization led by a menacing queen who will stop at nothing to achieve the ultimate end goal of consuming all life in the world and using that life as a breeding ground for her people to reproduce.As I mentioned in the first review, the villains here are very disgusting to read about, since they're quite literally giant and intelligent insects that unleash their monstrosities on human villages, having hundreds of tiny bugs called burrowers get inside humans and consume them from within, leading to an agonizingly painful death and eventually turning them into mindless zombies that follow the queen's commands.We dig a layer deeper in this book and discover how this insect civilization follows the model of the hive mind, a system our real-life creepy crawlies follow as well. Seeing this mode of functioning on a larger and more intelligent scale was very interesting to read about, and very unnerving. The notion of individuality that is heralded by human societies doesn't exist in their civilization, since everyone is just part of a complex system and the role of the individual is nothing more than to serve the collective.This is why this enemy civilization, the Jure'lia, is a severe threat to everyone, because of their unyielding unity.
As I mentioned earlier, since this is the middle book of the series, there was a limit as to how much the plot could progress, and the major plot progression we saw was with the secondary quest some of our characters embarked on. This might be frustrating to some readers, which is why it's important for the reader to actually like the characters in this series, because this book represents a space where we can hang-out with the characters and go through some tribulations with them, without necessarily resolving the major plot in any significant way.This was an excellent opportunity for lovely relationships to flourish between some characters, and some previously cherished relationships to fall apart among others. Despite not much movement to the central plot, there was significant movement characterization wise which allows the reader to form solid emotional bonds with them. Some characters I liked in the first installment such as Hestillion gradually moved themselves into the list of characters I dislike. Despite being intrigued by Hest in the first book, her actions stopped making sense to me in this one. Other characters, like Aldasair and Bern, became all time favourites. A new character called Eri was also introduced in this book and he put me through an emotional roller-coaster, which attests to Jen Williams's talent for getting the reader attached quite quickly to characters.
I'm glad there's still one book left to read that will let me rejoin these characters and this world, but I'm also sad at the same time since that means it's almost over. I'll be looking forward to reading the third installment, and I definitely still recommend this series to anyone who likes nice adventure fantasy with a small hint of Sci-fi here and there.
“To be suddenly alone when all you have ever known is connection. To be alone in the dark while you felt the distant pieces of yourself decay.