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noveen's review against another edition
2.0
I can't quite figure out why I didn't like this book. Maybe it's just me, but the writing is very vague. I never get a feel of what kind of city the story is taking place or of what the characters look like.
I get that the author is trying really hard for us to believe that everyone loves the main character Kaylin, but she just sounds like she's too incompetent to be a Hawk. She apparently failed all the classes she had to take to become a Hawk. Which makes me wonder what kind of organization the Hawks are if they're going to allow her to be one of them?
Maybe Michelle Sagara is trying to show us that Kaylin is an underachiever but because there was something special about her everyone wanted to keep her. I don't know, there was just too much going on here with a lot of back story that was only somewhat hinted at. And NO ONE wanted to tell Kaylin anything. She asked "why?" a lot and the answers were just so...vague that I don't think I learned anything about anyone.
And my review is so all over the place that I don't know if I'm making any sense now.
Basically, the story is really compelling and so is the world that the author has created but I think that she didn't really do a great job at bringing the world to life and making us care about the main character. I think she has potential which is why I'm going to continue reading this series while I hope it gets better.
I get that the author is trying really hard for us to believe that everyone loves the main character Kaylin, but she just sounds like she's too incompetent to be a Hawk. She apparently failed all the classes she had to take to become a Hawk. Which makes me wonder what kind of organization the Hawks are if they're going to allow her to be one of them?
Maybe Michelle Sagara is trying to show us that Kaylin is an underachiever but because there was something special about her everyone wanted to keep her. I don't know, there was just too much going on here with a lot of back story that was only somewhat hinted at. And NO ONE wanted to tell Kaylin anything. She asked "why?" a lot and the answers were just so...vague that I don't think I learned anything about anyone.
And my review is so all over the place that I don't know if I'm making any sense now.
Basically, the story is really compelling and so is the world that the author has created but I think that she didn't really do a great job at bringing the world to life and making us care about the main character. I think she has potential which is why I'm going to continue reading this series while I hope it gets better.
gwynt's review against another edition
2.0
DNF at 200 pages or so. I wanted to like this book so badly. The premiss seems very fun, and the world building was ok, but the beginning of it was a soup of information. I was constantly looking back to check species names and groups within the three factions. I found the information confusing in how it was laid out, and ultimately, I couldn't get past feeling like something was terribly incomplete. A huge disappointment as she is a Toronto writer and I wanted really badly to like this one.....
meganphilippa's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
elianara's review against another edition
3.0
Dark and strange. I have a feeling I need to take a few days, and read some of it again, because I didn't get all about the magic in the book. I had trouble understanding anything really at the end.
annamariahz's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Kaylin is part of the selective Hawks that patrol the City of Elantra. But before she became a Hawk, she was an orphan living on the streets, and children were dying. Children that had the same mysterious marks that she has on her arms and legs. Now children are dying again, and the Hawks decide Kaylin should investigate how these deaths are connected to her marks. But can she control her new powers when her companions are a mysterious Dragon Lord, and her old friend turned enemy? The plot of this book was excellent, but it got confused and rushed at times. I enjoyed the complicated magic system and the different fantasy creatures involved! But the book didn't do a great job explaining and developing the fantasy world, so it was often confusing to read the development of the plot. So even though I did enjoy this book, I don't think I will continue the series.
vaderbird's review against another edition
3.0
5 star - Perfect
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish
anliena's review against another edition
adventurous
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? Yes
4.0
wordnerdy's review against another edition
3.0
https://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2021/10/2021-book-207.html?m=1
I fully admit that I've had a hard time starting this series because of its name: The Chronicles of Elantra. Because I DRIVE AN ELANTRA. How did no editor put a stop to this?? The car definitely predates these books! Anyway, this weirdly has like an urban fantasy feel re: characters and plots, but set in a high fantasy world. Our protagonist has a Sad and Mysterious childhood backstory (and magical tattoos of unknown origin), but now works for a branch of local law enforcement, where she's assigned to work a case with a dude from her Sad Past and also with a Dragon person (this world also has lion people and eagle people, among others, it rules). But the case is related to her Sad Past and she is the key!!!! Ok, I know I sound facetious, but this was actually a fun read, I will definitely check out more in this series. B+.
I fully admit that I've had a hard time starting this series because of its name: The Chronicles of Elantra. Because I DRIVE AN ELANTRA. How did no editor put a stop to this?? The car definitely predates these books! Anyway, this weirdly has like an urban fantasy feel re: characters and plots, but set in a high fantasy world. Our protagonist has a Sad and Mysterious childhood backstory (and magical tattoos of unknown origin), but now works for a branch of local law enforcement, where she's assigned to work a case with a dude from her Sad Past and also with a Dragon person (this world also has lion people and eagle people, among others, it rules). But the case is related to her Sad Past and she is the key!!!! Ok, I know I sound facetious, but this was actually a fun read, I will definitely check out more in this series. B+.
alysh_ugh's review against another edition
2.0
I gave this book 2 stars and, to be quite honest, I'm not sure if I should have given it 1 star or 3.
In terms of the actual story...it's quite interesting. I would give that 3 or 4 stars. It's a very intriguing story that has the potential to draw the reader into a new and fascinating world.
Unfortunately, the author's writing style deserves negative stars, if that were at all possible.
Like many other readers' reviews state, I found myself Googling multiple times to ensure that this actually was the first book in the series. The author seems to delight in keeping the reader ignorant about what is actually going on in a way that made me question if I was missing something (say, the first book in the series) or want to just quit reading in the middle of the book altogether.
In addition, the narrator seems to not only be okay with, but indeed encourage herself in, being ignorant. It seems that on every other page she says to herself, "I didn't really want to know why." Children are being murdered and she refused to ask the questions that she should have been asking! This lead to not only her ignorance, but the readers' as well. Even when she did manage to ask questions, they were asked and answered in such a way that the reader was still left confused (but the narrator apparently knew what was going on). There are many, many questions I still don't have answers to, and whether that's by the author's design (because she wants me to purchase the next book in the series) or because she lacked the ability to create any closure in this book is unclear, although if it was by design, it certainly wasn't well thought out and planned design.
To be clear, I love books that don't give you the answer right away. I love having to guess at what is happening and try to solve the mystery on my own. What I don't love, however, is a book that looks like it wasn't even edited--because really, what kind of editor would allow this to be published? It read like a rough draft at best, and felt like I was several books into a series. It was clumsily written with weird punctuation that felt as though every conversation was stilted with awkwardness.
Moreover, the author didn't take the time to fully develop the world, leaving the reader confused, and going into weird descriptions that seem to have the purpose of taking up space on a page without actually describing anything. Some of the paragraphs felt to me as though they were the drunken ramblings of an incredibly talented author, but drunken ramblings none the less.
Additionally, while the author seemed to take great lengths to describe situations, she didn't really describe things. What exactly is this bracer? I have no clear mental picture, because she never described, which just lead to my distraction whenever it was mentioned. She vaguely describes people, places, and things, but never enough to fully form any sort of cohesive visual idea. Conversely, she describes what's happening in that drunken rambling way I mentioned earlier far too much, leaving me as the reader confused, bored, and frustrated all at once.
I think this series has amazing potential, but after reading the first chapter of the second book, I'm unsure if I will continue on as that first chapter also left me feeling as though I've skipped over several books. There seems to be a huge time jump between book 1 to 2 (or at least huge jumps in the main character's situation) without any explanation of what's happened between where book 1 ended and book 2 begins.
TL;DR--Overall, I think it's a great story with fantastic potential, but sloppy writing and even worse story telling makes me regret wasting my time on this book. My recommendation is that it is simply not worth it.
In terms of the actual story...it's quite interesting. I would give that 3 or 4 stars. It's a very intriguing story that has the potential to draw the reader into a new and fascinating world.
Unfortunately, the author's writing style deserves negative stars, if that were at all possible.
Like many other readers' reviews state, I found myself Googling multiple times to ensure that this actually was the first book in the series. The author seems to delight in keeping the reader ignorant about what is actually going on in a way that made me question if I was missing something (say, the first book in the series) or want to just quit reading in the middle of the book altogether.
In addition, the narrator seems to not only be okay with, but indeed encourage herself in, being ignorant. It seems that on every other page she says to herself, "I didn't really want to know why." Children are being murdered and she refused to ask the questions that she should have been asking! This lead to not only her ignorance, but the readers' as well. Even when she did manage to ask questions, they were asked and answered in such a way that the reader was still left confused (but the narrator apparently knew what was going on). There are many, many questions I still don't have answers to, and whether that's by the author's design (because she wants me to purchase the next book in the series) or because she lacked the ability to create any closure in this book is unclear, although if it was by design, it certainly wasn't well thought out and planned design.
To be clear, I love books that don't give you the answer right away. I love having to guess at what is happening and try to solve the mystery on my own. What I don't love, however, is a book that looks like it wasn't even edited--because really, what kind of editor would allow this to be published? It read like a rough draft at best, and felt like I was several books into a series. It was clumsily written with weird punctuation that felt as though every conversation was stilted with awkwardness.
Moreover, the author didn't take the time to fully develop the world, leaving the reader confused, and going into weird descriptions that seem to have the purpose of taking up space on a page without actually describing anything. Some of the paragraphs felt to me as though they were the drunken ramblings of an incredibly talented author, but drunken ramblings none the less.
Additionally, while the author seemed to take great lengths to describe situations, she didn't really describe things. What exactly is this bracer? I have no clear mental picture, because she never described, which just lead to my distraction whenever it was mentioned. She vaguely describes people, places, and things, but never enough to fully form any sort of cohesive visual idea. Conversely, she describes what's happening in that drunken rambling way I mentioned earlier far too much, leaving me as the reader confused, bored, and frustrated all at once.
I think this series has amazing potential, but after reading the first chapter of the second book, I'm unsure if I will continue on as that first chapter also left me feeling as though I've skipped over several books. There seems to be a huge time jump between book 1 to 2 (or at least huge jumps in the main character's situation) without any explanation of what's happened between where book 1 ended and book 2 begins.
TL;DR--Overall, I think it's a great story with fantastic potential, but sloppy writing and even worse story telling makes me regret wasting my time on this book. My recommendation is that it is simply not worth it.
alassea's review against another edition
4.0
This was a wonderful easy read, following a heroine that is believable in all her shortcomings, and always late to everything. Loved that she's so human.
Also: crimes to solve, people with wings and fur in a well-developed world, complete with dragons and dangers of saying too much.
Really liked it, and will definitely read the sequel.
Also: crimes to solve, people with wings and fur in a well-developed world, complete with dragons and dangers of saying too much.
Really liked it, and will definitely read the sequel.