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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
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
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
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:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
After waiting over three years for this book, I am sad to say I am disappointed. The first book to this series was phenomenal. It made it into my favorites, but the sequel was not nearly as good. Although there were many things that I enjoyed about it, I felt it strayed to far from the original themes in the first one. There were many aspects that felt wrong for the time period, and it seems as if the main character did not develop as much as she could have. Shadow Scale is about Seraphina Dombegh and the kingdom of Goredd. They are facing a multi-sided war, and meanwhile Seraphina is exploring her mind. The idea and plot for it is very interesting and brings hope of entertainment, but it didn't quite live up to that.
One of the aspects I did not enjoy was the technology. There is a very large part of the book where dragons are using these devices to catalog things that are essentially computers. It seems uncharacteristic for the time period and for dragons to be using computers. There was too much advanced technology and it took away from the setting of medieval times. If there wasn't any of this, it would have significantly raised my opinion of the book.
Another aspect of Shadow Scale that I didn't appreciate was the ending. The story built up slowly (although it was not a particularly slow book) and reached a climax way to close to the end. This climax was a bit over dramatic, and I got the sense that it was not planned out as well as it could be. Since the ending was mostly the climax, it did not tie up loose ends, so an epilogue was required to do that job. I usually love reading epilogues, but only if there was a distinct climax and ending before it, and all the major issues were resolved. The epilogue in this book had to do a lot of work. The climax/ending showed the resolution of the war theme, but little else. If there was more of an ending and a less melodramatic climax, I would have been more content with it.
One of the things I did enjoy about Shadow Scale was the theme of Seraphina's mind. A lot of the plot revolves around her and the garden she created in her mind. It reveals many unknowns from the first book and explains them in an interesting and satisfying way. The biggest thing that was focused on in her mind was Jannoula, the girl who basically broke into her mind years before. The reader finally gets to learn the story of what happened and and see it come to a resolution. The character Jannoula is easily one of the most dislikeable characters. She is not fun to hate, you just hate her. It was a nice touch, because it added contrast and depth to the book. She was very interesting, and definetly was one of the main things that kept me reading.
There were also many plot twists in Shadow Scale, and they were gripping. In this sense Rachel Hartman did an excellent job of keeping the book from becoming predictable. I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen on each page, and it was often very intense and exciting.
Overall, Shadow Scale was not nearly as good as the first book, Seraphina. It forsakes a lot of important themes from the first book, and added things that took away from the medieval feel. It was an interesting read, but I was very disappointed. There were too many aspects I didn't like, and not enough good ones. I think the reason I kept reading was because the first one was so good and I had become so attached to the characters due to the development done in Seraphina. I wasn't willing to put it down because I loved the first one so ,uch a do in a way wanted to stay faithful to the series. If you don't have a lot of time on your hands though, and choose your books sparingly, I would not read this. I highly recommend reading the first one though. It is conclusive enough that you don't need to read the sequel if you don't want to. Although I did not enjoy this. Book as much as I would have liked, I think I will read the. Next installment in the series if Hartman writes one. My love for the first one I strong enough to override not enjoying Shadow Scale.
One of the aspects I did not enjoy was the technology. There is a very large part of the book where dragons are using these devices to catalog things that are essentially computers. It seems uncharacteristic for the time period and for dragons to be using computers. There was too much advanced technology and it took away from the setting of medieval times. If there wasn't any of this, it would have significantly raised my opinion of the book.
Another aspect of Shadow Scale that I didn't appreciate was the ending. The story built up slowly (although it was not a particularly slow book) and reached a climax way to close to the end. This climax was a bit over dramatic, and I got the sense that it was not planned out as well as it could be. Since the ending was mostly the climax, it did not tie up loose ends, so an epilogue was required to do that job. I usually love reading epilogues, but only if there was a distinct climax and ending before it, and all the major issues were resolved. The epilogue in this book had to do a lot of work. The climax/ending showed the resolution of the war theme, but little else. If there was more of an ending and a less melodramatic climax, I would have been more content with it.
One of the things I did enjoy about Shadow Scale was the theme of Seraphina's mind. A lot of the plot revolves around her and the garden she created in her mind. It reveals many unknowns from the first book and explains them in an interesting and satisfying way. The biggest thing that was focused on in her mind was Jannoula, the girl who basically broke into her mind years before. The reader finally gets to learn the story of what happened and and see it come to a resolution. The character Jannoula is easily one of the most dislikeable characters. She is not fun to hate, you just hate her. It was a nice touch, because it added contrast and depth to the book. She was very interesting, and definetly was one of the main things that kept me reading.
There were also many plot twists in Shadow Scale, and they were gripping. In this sense Rachel Hartman did an excellent job of keeping the book from becoming predictable. I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen on each page, and it was often very intense and exciting.
Overall, Shadow Scale was not nearly as good as the first book, Seraphina. It forsakes a lot of important themes from the first book, and added things that took away from the medieval feel. It was an interesting read, but I was very disappointed. There were too many aspects I didn't like, and not enough good ones. I think the reason I kept reading was because the first one was so good and I had become so attached to the characters due to the development done in Seraphina. I wasn't willing to put it down because I loved the first one so ,uch a do in a way wanted to stay faithful to the series. If you don't have a lot of time on your hands though, and choose your books sparingly, I would not read this. I highly recommend reading the first one though. It is conclusive enough that you don't need to read the sequel if you don't want to. Although I did not enjoy this. Book as much as I would have liked, I think I will read the. Next installment in the series if Hartman writes one. My love for the first one I strong enough to override not enjoying Shadow Scale.
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:
Yes
A very slow start that had me tempted to drop it, with some characters acting rather differently from book 1, but eventually it gets better.
I wouldn’t call it wholly a disappointing sequel, as it ties up a lot of loose ends from the first book, but it felt like a very different experience and too much like a fetch quest for the first half (which is a lot, given the book itself is 500 pages long)
I wouldn’t call it wholly a disappointing sequel, as it ties up a lot of loose ends from the first book, but it felt like a very different experience and too much like a fetch quest for the first half (which is a lot, given the book itself is 500 pages long)
The ending seemed a wee bit rushed. I think the author should've just left the thing with unresolved, and finished that up in a later book.
Spoiler
Janoula
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes