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4.26 AVERAGE
4.26 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book starts slow and focuses on world building. You get sucked into the politics, customs, and beliefs the the west, east, and south. By the middle of the book the pace has picked up and world building switches to plot focused stories that weave the past and the present together. At the end of the book the pace moves quickly through a final battle (that could have and should have been longer) and comes to a resolution that leaves the door open for a second story. As for the characters of the story some of the them were easy to love while others managed to survive despite wishes that they wouldn't. Overall, the book was a great one that I would recommend to anyone who loves intense fantasy stories and enjoys queer representation.
adventurous
inspiring
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
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:
No
adventurous
emotional
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
This is the second time I’ve read this book and I honestly think it’s her magnum opus.
As always, the audiobook was an incredible way to get through this quickly and I continue to sing its praises (occasional dodgy american accents aside)
It’s such an epic that it’s hard to believe it fits into one novel.
Love this universe and the tree mythology, I find Kalyba such a compelling villain.
It’s such a masterclass in plotting - at each point, it’s asking the question, what if the worst possible thing happened? What if someone’s life’s work means nothing? How do they react? What happens next? Can they still win?
( see: sabran losing the baby, tane losing her dragon, ead turning away from the priory, loth Losing His Religion and so on and so forth )
I want more trees! (I cannot express how much I love the tree lore.)
And also more in this universe that takes it beyond this novel chronologically - do they find Fyredel?
What empire does the Emperor’s spurned lover found? Who is she?
Will Loth get with Marosa?
What stories will they sing about Ead, Tane and Sabran a thousand years from now?
Also potential mandela effect:
I swear Niklays died??? Like I kept waiting for it to happen, I read this originally in 2023 and I had zero memory of him making it past the midpoint of the novel
As always, the audiobook was an incredible way to get through this quickly and I continue to sing its praises (occasional dodgy american accents aside)
It’s such an epic that it’s hard to believe it fits into one novel.
Love this universe and the tree mythology, I find Kalyba such a compelling villain.
It’s such a masterclass in plotting - at each point, it’s asking the question, what if the worst possible thing happened? What if someone’s life’s work means nothing? How do they react? What happens next? Can they still win?
(
I want more trees! (I cannot express how much I love the tree lore.)
And also more in this universe that takes it beyond this novel chronologically - do they find Fyredel?
What empire does the Emperor’s spurned lover found? Who is she?
Will Loth get with Marosa?
What stories will they sing about Ead, Tane and Sabran a thousand years from now?
Also potential mandela effect:
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-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:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
tense
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
I finished this at about 2AM and my brain is still reeling from it!
I don’t know if it’s exactly a 5 star. It took me like 2 weeks to get through the first 400-500 pages and then I spend all yesterday saying I’m going to try and make more of a dent. Then I finished this at 2 AM. SOO I will probably dock it maybe like a quarter of a star. But I need to like sit on this longer to decide.
It was SO dense. I’m a pretty fast reader usually. I don’t know how many pages an hour I normally read but with this one I was maybe reading only 50 pages an hour. It was a hard book to push through in the beginning of this. Yes maybe, I was trying to read this at the same time of watching Game of Thrones for the first time so that didn’t help. Yesterday I was trying to do 50 pages/1 episode type of deal because they were both an hour each. But then I ended up so enthralled by this book that I was like I just want to read. I was at a point last night where I had like 200 pages left and I was like I’ll read 100 and then watch an episode so I had like 3 episodes last night. But then all I wanted to do is read and I couldn’t put it down and was like this book is higher priority.
As we see all the different perspectives in this, I loved Tané the best. I loved her storyline and wish she had more in the story. I did also love Ead and everything that was going on with her. I loved seeing the stories of Loth and his adventures. Niclays was an interesting side too but his was probably the least favorite but I at the same time did enjoy it.
I loved seeing the different sides of this entire world. It’s such a vast place that Samantha Shannon created and I hope that she will do other things inside this world!
I don’t know if it’s exactly a 5 star. It took me like 2 weeks to get through the first 400-500 pages and then I spend all yesterday saying I’m going to try and make more of a dent. Then I finished this at 2 AM. SOO I will probably dock it maybe like a quarter of a star. But I need to like sit on this longer to decide.
It was SO dense. I’m a pretty fast reader usually. I don’t know how many pages an hour I normally read but with this one I was maybe reading only 50 pages an hour. It was a hard book to push through in the beginning of this. Yes maybe, I was trying to read this at the same time of watching Game of Thrones for the first time so that didn’t help. Yesterday I was trying to do 50 pages/1 episode type of deal because they were both an hour each. But then I ended up so enthralled by this book that I was like I just want to read. I was at a point last night where I had like 200 pages left and I was like I’ll read 100 and then watch an episode so I had like 3 episodes last night. But then all I wanted to do is read and I couldn’t put it down and was like this book is higher priority.
As we see all the different perspectives in this, I loved Tané the best. I loved her storyline and wish she had more in the story. I did also love Ead and everything that was going on with her. I loved seeing the stories of Loth and his adventures. Niclays was an interesting side too but his was probably the least favorite but I at the same time did enjoy it.
I loved seeing the different sides of this entire world. It’s such a vast place that Samantha Shannon created and I hope that she will do other things inside this world!
I had read in many places that this was the sapphic ACOTAR, and I was SO excited. But not. Not at all. I wanted spice, and this was mayonnaise. Quite disappointing.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I thought it was an interesting world but I didn't really like any of the characters. And whenever I did end up liking a character for a few chapters, I then found myself wanting more and it never delivered.