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ellivdlinde's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
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? No
5.0
fedak's review against another edition
5.0
My first of McGuire’s extensive catalog and easily my favorite out of the 2020 Hugo nominees (And despite the Hugo nod, this was much more gothic horror than science fiction)
Reminded me a lot of vintage Stephen King (particularly in her writing of the child characters and her habit of throwing out foreshadowing asides at the end of chapters)
And it is always nice to see a time travel/parallel universe narrative that doesn't implode on itself.
My only (minor) gripe was that the two protagonists were supposed to separately be the literal embodiments of mathematical logic and verbal communication.
And the speech patterns of the two weren’t really as reflective of that as one would have expected- particularly the math genius.
Reminded me a lot of vintage Stephen King (particularly in her writing of the child characters and her habit of throwing out foreshadowing asides at the end of chapters)
And it is always nice to see a time travel/parallel universe narrative that doesn't implode on itself.
My only (minor) gripe was that the two protagonists were supposed to separately be the literal embodiments of mathematical logic and verbal communication.
And the speech patterns of the two weren’t really as reflective of that as one would have expected- particularly the math genius.
wxlamora's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
timinbc's review against another edition
1.0
Inside back cover: "she also writes darker fiction as Mira Grant". I read this right after the part where Leigh kills a family of five with a knife and some unexplained psychic power. What's darker? Making muffins out of the bodies?
I knew we were in trouble on page 29. The first time a character's eye colour is mentioned, and (fantasy readers, I know you're with me here) are they brown? blue? hazel? nooooo, they are good old gray.
Trouble got worse when I hit page 39 and saw "astrolabe" for what is obviously an orrery, a very different thing. You can't do that when you use the word for a CHAPTER TITLE!
So, we meet Roger and Dodger, and this was OK, except that it all felt quite familiar. I'm not going to look up which one, but it's certainly one of Rob Sawyer's multi-volume stories. It's OK, that can happen, it's not at all hard to imagine the ideas developing completely separately. It just felt odd to me, that's all.
Reed and Leigh. After a while I thought. "I am reading a graphic novel/comic in text format." I didn't notice whether Reed actually HAD mustachios, but he was sure twirling them, bwah-hah-hah! I gues it was important to McGuire's vision to have Reed and his creations be so utterly vicious, but it's not what I read books for. There's too much of that in real life, people wielding power simply because they can and they enjoy it, all the while marching toward an insane vision.
And so we develop, with one alchemist then another doing magical things in a magic system that isn't explained AT ALL, and I'm told there's even time travel later on. We're promised an Improbable Road and all kinds of stuff, and I'm so glad I came on here and learned that if they are ever explained it isn't in THIS book.
When I decided to DNF, it was because it was becoming clear - and I would be happy to be proven wrong on this - that Roger and Dodger are going to be horribly mistreated by this Bad Guy who's even more EEE-villlll than we thought, and it's going to be so unFAIR, and we're going to be told over and over again how powerful and unstoppable Reed is, and there's going to be a showdown, and R&D will finally realize their true power is Together (cue the choir) ....
Don't get me wrong; about half of SF/F uses some form of that plot, and I'm OK with it. But I need it to happen in a world that's been worked out and partly explained. This one leaves it way too open, because McGuire has not at all ruled out that Reed can snap his fingers and make 259 Mr-Smith-Men-in-Black copies of himself that can go invisible, fly and shoot death rays.
I don't care how weird your world is but you have to tell me about it and it has to have limits.
Yes, many people liked this, and good for them. I didn't say it was bad, just that I disliked it quite a lot.
I knew we were in trouble on page 29. The first time a character's eye colour is mentioned, and (fantasy readers, I know you're with me here) are they brown? blue? hazel? nooooo, they are good old gray.
Trouble got worse when I hit page 39 and saw "astrolabe" for what is obviously an orrery, a very different thing. You can't do that when you use the word for a CHAPTER TITLE!
So, we meet Roger and Dodger, and this was OK, except that it all felt quite familiar. I'm not going to look up which one, but it's certainly one of Rob Sawyer's multi-volume stories. It's OK, that can happen, it's not at all hard to imagine the ideas developing completely separately. It just felt odd to me, that's all.
Reed and Leigh. After a while I thought. "I am reading a graphic novel/comic in text format." I didn't notice whether Reed actually HAD mustachios, but he was sure twirling them, bwah-hah-hah! I gues it was important to McGuire's vision to have Reed and his creations be so utterly vicious, but it's not what I read books for. There's too much of that in real life, people wielding power simply because they can and they enjoy it, all the while marching toward an insane vision.
And so we develop, with one alchemist then another doing magical things in a magic system that isn't explained AT ALL, and I'm told there's even time travel later on. We're promised an Improbable Road and all kinds of stuff, and I'm so glad I came on here and learned that if they are ever explained it isn't in THIS book.
When I decided to DNF, it was because it was becoming clear - and I would be happy to be proven wrong on this - that Roger and Dodger are going to be horribly mistreated by this Bad Guy who's even more EEE-villlll than we thought, and it's going to be so unFAIR, and we're going to be told over and over again how powerful and unstoppable Reed is, and there's going to be a showdown, and R&D will finally realize their true power is Together (cue the choir) ....
Don't get me wrong; about half of SF/F uses some form of that plot, and I'm OK with it. But I need it to happen in a world that's been worked out and partly explained. This one leaves it way too open, because McGuire has not at all ruled out that Reed can snap his fingers and make 259 Mr-Smith-Men-in-Black copies of himself that can go invisible, fly and shoot death rays.
I don't care how weird your world is but you have to tell me about it and it has to have limits.
Yes, many people liked this, and good for them. I didn't say it was bad, just that I disliked it quite a lot.
annlouise's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-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? It's complicated
4.5
alexandria9595's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
2.5
hoila's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.75
triplebriiii's review against another edition
4.75
This was excellent. The pacing was great, the reveals were expertly timed. I am so in love with the relationship between Roger and Dodger (their names are so funny). Their dynamics were really a highlight of the book and seeing it develop from when they were kids through adulthood was really impactful. The writing has VE Schwab vibes, a mix between The Wizard of Oz and The Magicians (like a LOT of the latter).
I think the only thing that kept this a 5 ⭐ was the narrator. This is definitely just a me thing, I think. I love Amber Benson and her narration style wasn't... it's not that it didn't fit, it just wasn't my preferred. Testament to how good the book is, generally, a narrator I'm not fond of can drop the rating by as much as one star whoops 🤷🤷🤷
I think the only thing that kept this a 5 ⭐ was the narrator. This is definitely just a me thing, I think. I love Amber Benson and her narration style wasn't... it's not that it didn't fit, it just wasn't my preferred. Testament to how good the book is, generally, a narrator I'm not fond of can drop the rating by as much as one star whoops 🤷🤷🤷
elizabethscott's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
marthauhlig's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
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
4.5