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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
I like the worldbuilding, and the serpent priest is the best character. the main character wasn't great, but I like the way the magic is handled. There's room to grow, so I'll probably read the sequel.
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
1. Omg that cover!
2. This story starts out bleak, harsh, cold. But if you stick with it it sucks you in.
3. There's a lot of violence.
4. I began to think about the agency of the mc and her rather serious lack thereof when I was about 75% of the way through the book. However two reminders helped me look past that. First, I hadn't finished the book yet, and second, this is book one of a planned trilogy. This is an origin story.
5. Before reading this look up content warnings, it's not a nice world and it is populated by both flawed and truly horrendous characters.
2. This story starts out bleak, harsh, cold. But if you stick with it it sucks you in.
3. There's a lot of violence.
4. I began to think about the agency of the mc and her rather serious lack thereof when I was about 75% of the way through the book. However two reminders helped me look past that. First, I hadn't finished the book yet, and second, this is book one of a planned trilogy. This is an origin story.
5. Before reading this look up content warnings, it's not a nice world and it is populated by both flawed and truly horrendous characters.
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
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:
Complicated
adventurous
medium-paced
Personal rating - 4.5 stars
This is an epic fantasy about tribes of shapeshifters. I loved the world building in this and the attention to detail on how the different tribes interact with each other! Definitely continuing with he series!
This is an epic fantasy about tribes of shapeshifters. I loved the world building in this and the attention to detail on how the different tribes interact with each other! Definitely continuing with he series!
What in the world was this? I loved it so much and if I hadn’t been told to read this, I wouldn’t have heard of it, much less picked it up. But this was incredible. It took me a little to get into it, but once I did, it was such an adventure.
3.75 stars
For all that I didn't like his other book at all, I very much enjoyed this one. His writing style is not my favourite (although it somehow works well with the world he's created). I think if I'd have liked the writing style more, I would have rated this even higher. I loved the world and found the story and characters compelling. I look forward to continuing with this series.
For all that I didn't like his other book at all, I very much enjoyed this one. His writing style is not my favourite (although it somehow works well with the world he's created). I think if I'd have liked the writing style more, I would have rated this even higher. I loved the world and found the story and characters compelling. I look forward to continuing with this series.
And yet she did not want to choose. She had lived the world on a wolf's swift paws, drunk the wind with its nose, seen the night through a cat's mirror eyes, danced up trees and sheer walls with a fluid grace. Each of these was equally a part of her. To choose one over the other would be like being asked to choose her left hand over her right, and then to hack the other away.
I was more excited to read this book than any new series yet this year probably. The cover is absolutely gorgeous, and the plot focuses entirely around people who shift into different animals. I was absolutely certain that I was going to love it, that this was the book that would fill that Redwall/Warrior/David Clement-Davies shaped hole in my heart. My love for fantasy was founded upon these types of books. And yet....sigh.
I didn't love it.
By the end I was engaged and cared enough about the characters to be on the edge of my seat, but I didn't cry. Now this is important because I will cry at the drop of a hat, and there were times that I thought, "huh, that's sad" but didn't care enough to cry. I am so disappointed. I wanted so badly for this to have been a top read of the year. But enough of my complaining, here is what I did like, but why ultimately I couldn't love it:
What is this story about?
Essentially, this story is set in a Bronze Age type time, right on the cusp of the Iron Age. The world is divided up into different tribes of people who are able to step into different animals such as Wolf, Tiger, Bear, Horse, Hawk, Boar, Deer, Crocodile, Serpent, Hyena, Lion, etc. Each people have their own culture and customs and live apart from each other but still interact. Maniye is a child born to the chieftan of a Wolf tribe who had conquered the Tiger Queen. After her Tiger mother bore her, he ordered her killed. Maniye has grown up without a real place among the Wolf because of her Tiger heritage and her ability to Step into both forms. She must choose one over the other or it will destroy her.
Maniye's childhood is very grim, and we meet her right as she is to take her place as an adult in Wolf society. However, after completing her task, her father reveals his grand plans for her in his ambitions to conquer Tiger once and for all, and she steals a Serpent prisoner, Hesprec, and runs. The rest of the novel follows Maniye as she attempts to find her place in the world and determine who exactly she is, a child with two souls. We see much of the world as she flees from her enemies and get insight into many different clans. Much of the story focuses on family, honor, duty, and remaining true to oneself.
What I liked:
- I absolutely love the concept of this world and the world building. It is so different from most fantasy and it seems to draw influence from many different places. However, disclaimer, I am not very familiar with Bronze Age societies, so I cannot say whether they were portrayed well. I felt that they were done in a believable way, and I appreciated that there were immense differences between the different clans, even those that share a similar homeland.
- The shifters. This is honestly what drew me to this novel. The Stepping between forms and between souls. I also appreciated the aspect of spirituality and religion that was instilled in this. It wasn't pushing an agenda, but rather it just highlighted that it was important to some of the peoples in this story, and really showed how that could play out.
- I was quite fond of several of the characters by the end. I wasn't crazy attached, but I liked them well enough.
What I didn't like:
- The pacing & unnecessary content. Now, I know that a lot of people will say that epic fantasy series often start out slow and that is a norm. However, I felt that the pacing on this was way off kilter, even for world-building and such. There is not much hint of a plot or direction that the book is going to take until halfway through, and even then, the true direction that it was taking was not fully evident until about 75% of the way through. I felt like there was just a LOT of content focused on Maniye and her friends running from one issue to the next that could have been cut. There were also a lot of fight scenes that all started to sound exactly the same. They were all very long and drawn out descriptions of jaws snapping, blades swinging, and the people Stepping. By the end I found my self skipping paragraphs at a time just to reach the end result because they were no longer interesting.
- The toxic masculinity. Now, I recognize that this is a fantasy world, but honestly the toxicity of the culture that was created by the author was very draining. Especially in the first half of the book when the focus of the story was on the world building. Even in the small descriptions we got at the beginning of the matriarchal societies, I felt like there were still overtones of the absolutely toxic male-dominated culture that make up the majority of these clans. The tribe of the Wolf is male-dominated with some incredibly nefarious men in power, and there are so many descriptions of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse as well as slavery and human trafficking that it just became very disheartening to read. Once I got to about the halfway point, I noticed that the prevalence of these descriptions was lessened, but they were still very much present.
- The unnecessary content. As I said above, there was so much that could have been pared down. The flight and fight scenes in particular could have shaved about a third of this book away if they were edited down some.
- The monologues. This isn't something that I notice that often, but I found it rather frustrating that there was not much dialogue in this story. For much of it, it is description of what is happening, but then it also depends heavily on internal monologues of the characters. This also resulted in a lot of telling rather than showing. I think that there could have been more interaction and dialogue between the characters that could have led to the reader discovering some of the things that were just told to us in monologues for ourselves. It also would have helped build a better connection to the characters for myself as a reader. I felt very much distanced from the characters until the last third or so of the book.
Overall, this book didn't live up to my expectations. However, once it got going, it was interesting. I want to know what happens, but I'm not sure yet if I want to know badly enough to continue on with the series. I think I will have to sit with this for a while and see how much I think on it. I may end up changing my rating as I sit with it too. We shall see.
I was more excited to read this book than any new series yet this year probably. The cover is absolutely gorgeous, and the plot focuses entirely around people who shift into different animals. I was absolutely certain that I was going to love it, that this was the book that would fill that Redwall/Warrior/David Clement-Davies shaped hole in my heart. My love for fantasy was founded upon these types of books. And yet....sigh.
I didn't love it.
By the end I was engaged and cared enough about the characters to be on the edge of my seat, but I didn't cry. Now this is important because I will cry at the drop of a hat, and there were times that I thought, "huh, that's sad" but didn't care enough to cry. I am so disappointed. I wanted so badly for this to have been a top read of the year. But enough of my complaining, here is what I did like, but why ultimately I couldn't love it:
What is this story about?
Essentially, this story is set in a Bronze Age type time, right on the cusp of the Iron Age. The world is divided up into different tribes of people who are able to step into different animals such as Wolf, Tiger, Bear, Horse, Hawk, Boar, Deer, Crocodile, Serpent, Hyena, Lion, etc. Each people have their own culture and customs and live apart from each other but still interact. Maniye is a child born to the chieftan of a Wolf tribe who had conquered the Tiger Queen. After her Tiger mother bore her, he ordered her killed. Maniye has grown up without a real place among the Wolf because of her Tiger heritage and her ability to Step into both forms. She must choose one over the other or it will destroy her.
Maniye's childhood is very grim, and we meet her right as she is to take her place as an adult in Wolf society. However, after completing her task, her father reveals his grand plans for her in his ambitions to conquer Tiger once and for all, and she steals a Serpent prisoner, Hesprec, and runs. The rest of the novel follows Maniye as she attempts to find her place in the world and determine who exactly she is, a child with two souls. We see much of the world as she flees from her enemies and get insight into many different clans. Much of the story focuses on family, honor, duty, and remaining true to oneself.
What I liked:
- I absolutely love the concept of this world and the world building. It is so different from most fantasy and it seems to draw influence from many different places. However, disclaimer, I am not very familiar with Bronze Age societies, so I cannot say whether they were portrayed well. I felt that they were done in a believable way, and I appreciated that there were immense differences between the different clans, even those that share a similar homeland.
- The shifters. This is honestly what drew me to this novel. The Stepping between forms and between souls. I also appreciated the aspect of spirituality and religion that was instilled in this. It wasn't pushing an agenda, but rather it just highlighted that it was important to some of the peoples in this story, and really showed how that could play out.
- I was quite fond of several of the characters by the end. I wasn't crazy attached, but I liked them well enough.
What I didn't like:
- The pacing & unnecessary content. Now, I know that a lot of people will say that epic fantasy series often start out slow and that is a norm. However, I felt that the pacing on this was way off kilter, even for world-building and such. There is not much hint of a plot or direction that the book is going to take until halfway through, and even then, the true direction that it was taking was not fully evident until about 75% of the way through. I felt like there was just a LOT of content focused on Maniye and her friends running from one issue to the next that could have been cut. There were also a lot of fight scenes that all started to sound exactly the same. They were all very long and drawn out descriptions of jaws snapping, blades swinging, and the people Stepping. By the end I found my self skipping paragraphs at a time just to reach the end result because they were no longer interesting.
- The toxic masculinity. Now, I recognize that this is a fantasy world, but honestly the toxicity of the culture that was created by the author was very draining. Especially in the first half of the book when the focus of the story was on the world building. Even in the small descriptions we got at the beginning of the matriarchal societies, I felt like there were still overtones of the absolutely toxic male-dominated culture that make up the majority of these clans. The tribe of the Wolf is male-dominated with some incredibly nefarious men in power, and there are so many descriptions of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse as well as slavery and human trafficking that it just became very disheartening to read. Once I got to about the halfway point, I noticed that the prevalence of these descriptions was lessened, but they were still very much present.
- The unnecessary content. As I said above, there was so much that could have been pared down. The flight and fight scenes in particular could have shaved about a third of this book away if they were edited down some.
- The monologues. This isn't something that I notice that often, but I found it rather frustrating that there was not much dialogue in this story. For much of it, it is description of what is happening, but then it also depends heavily on internal monologues of the characters. This also resulted in a lot of telling rather than showing. I think that there could have been more interaction and dialogue between the characters that could have led to the reader discovering some of the things that were just told to us in monologues for ourselves. It also would have helped build a better connection to the characters for myself as a reader. I felt very much distanced from the characters until the last third or so of the book.
Overall, this book didn't live up to my expectations. However, once it got going, it was interesting. I want to know what happens, but I'm not sure yet if I want to know badly enough to continue on with the series. I think I will have to sit with this for a while and see how much I think on it. I may end up changing my rating as I sit with it too. We shall see.
I have a passion for stories about shapeshifters, and this one, where a persons souls fight for dominance and long dead beasts can be summoned to fight, really makes me happy
Audio. This had a really slow start for me. I actually listened to sections of the first few hours repeatedly as I kept drifting off. I’d decided to abandon it when I realised that it had my attention.
Set centuries ago, different tribes of people are able to transform into different types of animals. And fight! One girl tries to overcome her family and tribe.
Set centuries ago, different tribes of people are able to transform into different types of animals. And fight! One girl tries to overcome her family and tribe.