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mamap's review against another edition
4.0
gothic romance with a little magic/adventure/danger thrown in.
suzemo's review against another edition
3.0
Slightly steam-punky alternate Europe trapped in a kind of ice age? Different magic system? A some-what magically gifted young woman forcibly married (but not rapey - yay) to a hot, complicated mage? sounds fantastic!
Except for the writing. It was sluggish and bloated. There was a lot of info dumping. I mean, it was okay. And Okay enough (and priced well enough) that I'll continue with the series, because it could be more interesting.
Cat and her cousin, Bee are young ladies in an impoverished, formerly great?, family/House. Through some previous pact, the daughter of the house was forced to be wed to a mage from a big-bad powerful house. the wrong girl was married, the mages were cranky, and then we start the headlong pursuit to escape death (and probably marriage as well). The romancey bits were there, but low key. I kinda heart both Vai and Rory. The girls are OK, and the secondary and tertiary characters were interesting enough.
There's nothing earth shatteringly original about anything going on in the story, but I did like the characterizations. But the bloat... oh the bloat. Oh, and the fact that it's not a complete novel, I at least like my books in series/trilogies to be individual stories.
Except for the writing. It was sluggish and bloated. There was a lot of info dumping. I mean, it was okay. And Okay enough (and priced well enough) that I'll continue with the series, because it could be more interesting.
Cat and her cousin, Bee are young ladies in an impoverished, formerly great?, family/House. Through some previous pact, the daughter of the house was forced to be wed to a mage from a big-bad powerful house. the wrong girl was married, the mages were cranky, and then we start the headlong pursuit to escape death (and probably marriage as well). The romancey bits were there, but low key. I kinda heart both Vai and Rory. The girls are OK, and the secondary and tertiary characters were interesting enough.
There's nothing earth shatteringly original about anything going on in the story, but I did like the characterizations. But the bloat... oh the bloat. Oh, and the fact that it's not a complete novel, I at least like my books in series/trilogies to be individual stories.
riotsquirrrl's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars
The premise is interesting, as are the characters. I'm just much more used to authors throwing me in the deep end instead of "helpfully" having their characters give pages of exposition about the world. It could probably be cut by a quarter; the prose feels bloated.
The premise is interesting, as are the characters. I'm just much more used to authors throwing me in the deep end instead of "helpfully" having their characters give pages of exposition about the world. It could probably be cut by a quarter; the prose feels bloated.
cimorene1558's review against another edition
Will maybe resume someday. It's a cool book, I'm just not feeling it right now.
hummeline's review against another edition
4.0
I really dug this one. Really interesting world, neat conceits, nice twists of working with fantasy, and a good heroine. Folks have said it was long on world building but I rather liked that part of it. Definitely got a bit long in the middle (seemed like Cat was in a holding pattern) but then once things started to roll again, it roped me back in.
meredithghs's review against another edition
4.0
A fun, easily read fantasy series with a steampunk influence
porgs's review against another edition
3.0
I quite liked this book although I did feel that there were too many mythological stories and other details told to us at once that it became convoluted.
tessisreading2's review against another edition
4.0
A slow start as we're introduced to our narrator Cat and her cousin Bee in a sort of alt-Regency (okay, so it's 1840s, and obviously there is no Regency here, hush) with Elliott's usual precise anthropological detail. This has kept me from reading the series for - well, fourteen years: I just couldn't get past the first chapter or so. Once the action started picking up, it really picked up, although again the world-building is meticulous and perhaps overly so. I'm very glad to have a new series to immerse myself in, though, so I'm just as happy that I waited to start it until today.
blodeuedd's review against another edition
4.0
My thoughts:
I liked this book from the first sentence; ”The history of the world begins in ice, and it will end in ice.” After that I just liked it more and more and cursed the fact that it had been sitting on my shelf for 5 months before I read it.
The author describes the book as this: “Afro-Celtic post-Roman icepunk regency novel with airships, Phoenician spies, and the intelligent descendants of troödons.” Now if that did not catch your attention then I do not know what will.
I do not know how to start to tell you about this book. The Roman Empire lasted longer than it should have (and actually still exists just smaller) and when it fell Europe broke down into places ruled by Princes and more. The plague of ghouls in Africa made the Mande people come to Europe where they met the Celts and formed the Mage Houses. There is magic (we meet the Cold Mages in this one), spirits and the spiritworld, trolls and airships. It’s a world struggling between new things and magic. And the north of the world is covered is still covered by ice.
Cat who is the heroine is someone I liked at once. She had a lot of things to figure out. I do not want to tell you too much but something will make her stand in the middle of something bigger. She does not know who to trust. And I read on and on wondering what would happen next and what really was going on. Then we have Andevai, and I can’t tell you what I feel about him and I just gonna leave you with this and insert an *evil smile*. I know what I feel but to tell you, nope that might be a spoiler. Bee her cousin was nice and sweet and the cousins truly cared for each other and would walk to hell and back to save the other one. Then there is Rory, oh I loved him, and again *evil laugh* I will not tell you anything more.
Again I can’t do the book justice. I could not put it down; it grabbed me at once with its mysterious and its wonderful worldbuilding. It’s such a rich world to explore. And the story never slows down, there is danger and there are questions and she has quite the adventure. There is also a hint of romance that might get explored more in the next book.
Anyway to make a long story short: I liked the book, I really liked it.
Conclusion:
I recommend this book to fans of fantasy and steampunk. It’s such a wonderful mashup of genres and I fell fast for the book. I can’t wait for book 2 to come out so I continue the story and yes I hope I can buy it the same month.
Rating:
Go and read it.
I liked this book from the first sentence; ”The history of the world begins in ice, and it will end in ice.” After that I just liked it more and more and cursed the fact that it had been sitting on my shelf for 5 months before I read it.
The author describes the book as this: “Afro-Celtic post-Roman icepunk regency novel with airships, Phoenician spies, and the intelligent descendants of troödons.” Now if that did not catch your attention then I do not know what will.
I do not know how to start to tell you about this book. The Roman Empire lasted longer than it should have (and actually still exists just smaller) and when it fell Europe broke down into places ruled by Princes and more. The plague of ghouls in Africa made the Mande people come to Europe where they met the Celts and formed the Mage Houses. There is magic (we meet the Cold Mages in this one), spirits and the spiritworld, trolls and airships. It’s a world struggling between new things and magic. And the north of the world is covered is still covered by ice.
Cat who is the heroine is someone I liked at once. She had a lot of things to figure out. I do not want to tell you too much but something will make her stand in the middle of something bigger. She does not know who to trust. And I read on and on wondering what would happen next and what really was going on. Then we have Andevai, and I can’t tell you what I feel about him and I just gonna leave you with this and insert an *evil smile*. I know what I feel but to tell you, nope that might be a spoiler. Bee her cousin was nice and sweet and the cousins truly cared for each other and would walk to hell and back to save the other one. Then there is Rory, oh I loved him, and again *evil laugh* I will not tell you anything more.
Again I can’t do the book justice. I could not put it down; it grabbed me at once with its mysterious and its wonderful worldbuilding. It’s such a rich world to explore. And the story never slows down, there is danger and there are questions and she has quite the adventure. There is also a hint of romance that might get explored more in the next book.
Anyway to make a long story short: I liked the book, I really liked it.
Conclusion:
I recommend this book to fans of fantasy and steampunk. It’s such a wonderful mashup of genres and I fell fast for the book. I can’t wait for book 2 to come out so I continue the story and yes I hope I can buy it the same month.
Rating:
Go and read it.
twowhoodles's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed reading it, but felt like the world was really disjointed.