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kjjohnson's review against another edition
5.0
4.5
I thought this was a great book overall, and a big improvement over the first two in the series. Part of this may be that it had more POV sections from characters I liked or found interesting, and fewer from those I found boring.
I am still really attached to Jewel, and I think one of the things I enjoy most about her was that while she does have a special gift, she’s not the only one who does, and it isn’t of itself the reason that people collect around her. That’s her loyalty and sense of duty and responsibility to the people she cares about, and her willingness to go to bat for them at any cost. I enjoyed her being mentored, particularly by the Terafin, and learning and discussing more how to be a leader and how complicated the world and potential actions are, while remaining herself.
The pacing was a lot better, although I still find West’s prose unnecessarily wordy and occasionally repetitive (and why all the em dashes?). A lot of this book was very tense and foreboding, and her descriptions of the tortured voices rising from the ground and there being nothing anyone could do about them, for weeks, was haunting. I also loved the sections where Finch and Teller went to work for different areas of the House and learned and carved little places for themselves - I found it both endearing and interesting, and a great way to expand the world.
It was an interesting choice to have Jewel sit out almost the entirety of the final conflict between Allasakar and our group of heroes, but I think it was a good one. She isn’t a fighter and doesn’t have great magical power, so it makes sense that she wouldn’t be there. It also shows her character growth, as one of the things she’s consistently hated most has been people she cares about being in danger while she is unable to do anything about it; she accepted that she couldn’t here and that people have different roles and can’t do everything themselves.
The fight was good and tense, and left intriguing plot threads, but I think I liked even more the epilogue-ish ending. It was unexpectedly funny, for one, and I thought the den throwing a party that included all of their old friends who helped them when they were nobodies was a great choice to tie everything together.
I still don’t understand the purpose of Jester in the story, and chuckled a little when the Terafin was giving him the House name and was basically ‘I don’t really know what you do but you make your friends laugh, so that’s something’. I also thought it was a little cheesy that almost everyone her den interacted with ended up liking them, but you know what? They’re good people and I like them too, so I don’t mind.
All in all, I enjoyed this book a lot, primarily for the characters but also for the tension and world, and look forward to reading the Sun Sword series, which apparently comes next chronologically.
I thought this was a great book overall, and a big improvement over the first two in the series. Part of this may be that it had more POV sections from characters I liked or found interesting, and fewer from those I found boring.
I am still really attached to Jewel, and I think one of the things I enjoy most about her was that while she does have a special gift, she’s not the only one who does, and it isn’t of itself the reason that people collect around her. That’s her loyalty and sense of duty and responsibility to the people she cares about, and her willingness to go to bat for them at any cost. I enjoyed her being mentored, particularly by the Terafin, and learning and discussing more how to be a leader and how complicated the world and potential actions are, while remaining herself.
The pacing was a lot better, although I still find West’s prose unnecessarily wordy and occasionally repetitive (and why all the em dashes?). A lot of this book was very tense and foreboding, and her descriptions of the tortured voices rising from the ground and there being nothing anyone could do about them, for weeks, was haunting. I also loved the sections where Finch and Teller went to work for different areas of the House and learned and carved little places for themselves - I found it both endearing and interesting, and a great way to expand the world.
It was an interesting choice to have Jewel sit out almost the entirety of the final conflict between Allasakar and our group of heroes, but I think it was a good one. She isn’t a fighter and doesn’t have great magical power, so it makes sense that she wouldn’t be there. It also shows her character growth, as one of the things she’s consistently hated most has been people she cares about being in danger while she is unable to do anything about it; she accepted that she couldn’t here and that people have different roles and can’t do everything themselves.
The fight was good and tense, and left intriguing plot threads, but I think I liked even more the epilogue-ish ending. It was unexpectedly funny, for one, and I thought the den throwing a party that included all of their old friends who helped them when they were nobodies was a great choice to tie everything together.
I still don’t understand the purpose of Jester in the story, and chuckled a little when the Terafin was giving him the House name and was basically ‘I don’t really know what you do but you make your friends laugh, so that’s something’. I also thought it was a little cheesy that almost everyone her den interacted with ended up liking them, but you know what? They’re good people and I like them too, so I don’t mind.
All in all, I enjoyed this book a lot, primarily for the characters but also for the tension and world, and look forward to reading the Sun Sword series, which apparently comes next chronologically.
vailynst's review against another edition
4.0
Note:
Rating is based on the story and does not reflect my opinion of the narration. Great story. Shoddy narration.
Rating is based on the story and does not reflect my opinion of the narration. Great story. Shoddy narration.
sniperpumpkin's review against another edition
4.0
I found House Name to be a bit of an odd duck, compared to West’s other books in this series. In many ways it is a return to form, due, I suspect, to the position that this book holds bridging so many series. The previous two books in this series (Hidden City, City of Night) felt different in tone than other West novels. They didn’t feel like Sagara novels, but they were clearly influenced by her experience writing those books. This novel, as I said, is more of a return to form, as the scope of the difficulties increases, the language broadens and becomes very similar to the language of the Sun Sword series. This is not altogether a good thing, the Sun Sword novels are many things, an easy read is not one of them. When we rejoin the timeline post SS, I hope that we can keep the increased clarity of prose, without sacrificing the complexity of the plot.
There were some issues with the pacing of this novel, mostly because none of the den were really involved in the ‘action’ climax of the novel. This is probably due to the existence of the Sacred Hunt duology, which I have not yet read, which I believe also contains this book’s climax. I think that she may have had some difficulty working through the elements of the book that are already published, and therefore fixed. That said, this book does work, and I enjoyed it. I do not recommend that people start their Michelle West journey with this book however. Start with Hidden City (the first book chronologically).
There were some issues with the pacing of this novel, mostly because none of the den were really involved in the ‘action’ climax of the novel. This is probably due to the existence of the Sacred Hunt duology, which I have not yet read, which I believe also contains this book’s climax. I think that she may have had some difficulty working through the elements of the book that are already published, and therefore fixed. That said, this book does work, and I enjoyed it. I do not recommend that people start their Michelle West journey with this book however. Start with Hidden City (the first book chronologically).
kurenai's review against another edition
4.0
I had a rocky start with this book; it had been too long since I finished the second that the finer nuances were lost to me, at least at first. There were many places that I wanted this book to go and many character interactions that I wanted to happen and also many parts that I just wanted to skim through because they were not what interested me so much about The House War series.
I'm giving this a 4 anyway, even though I feel it more towards a 3.5 but because I liked the first two books so much that my decision is very much colored by the beginning of Jewel Markess's story. The book finished on a very high note with various things left unraveled so I am quite relieved to see that a fourth book is scheduled for 2012 because if this was but a trilogy I'd find myself upset with the way things ended. I'd definitely start hunting up other series to see if there was mention of The Terafin or of Jay or even Old Rath before he was old. I thought this was a trilogy so I was all set to rant a bit but I am so incredibly glad that I was mistaken and I still love this story and these characters enough that I will wait for the next book to come out and read it and enjoy it but perhaps I might need to skim her first three books so that I don't have the same problem that I had trying to get through this one; memory lapses.
I still very much enjoyed being sucked back in to this world and I generally enjoyed the characters (though some are starting to fall a bit flat but others are starting to come alive) so I am still on for the long haul and when 2012 comes to pass I will be right there waiting to get my hands on the next book.
I'm giving this a 4 anyway, even though I feel it more towards a 3.5 but because I liked the first two books so much that my decision is very much colored by the beginning of Jewel Markess's story. The book finished on a very high note with various things left unraveled so I am quite relieved to see that a fourth book is scheduled for 2012 because if this was but a trilogy I'd find myself upset with the way things ended. I'd definitely start hunting up other series to see if there was mention of The Terafin or of Jay or even Old Rath before he was old. I thought this was a trilogy so I was all set to rant a bit but I am so incredibly glad that I was mistaken and I still love this story and these characters enough that I will wait for the next book to come out and read it and enjoy it but perhaps I might need to skim her first three books so that I don't have the same problem that I had trying to get through this one; memory lapses.
I still very much enjoyed being sucked back in to this world and I generally enjoyed the characters (though some are starting to fall a bit flat but others are starting to come alive) so I am still on for the long haul and when 2012 comes to pass I will be right there waiting to get my hands on the next book.
bookdragonshoard's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
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