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kailey_luminouslibro's review
4.0
Tildi lives a simple life on the farm with her brothers in the land of the smallfolk. But when her brothers are all killed by monsters, the council says that a woman cannot manage a farm by herself, and they say they will force Tildi to get married. So she runs away and travels out into the world of the humans, centaurs, and elves. Before her brother died, he had applied to become an apprentice to a famous wizard, so Tildi dresses up like a boy and takes the letter of apprentice as her own. But first, she has to get to the city where the wizard lives.
I loved the first part of this book where Tildi is running away and then when she is studying with the wizard, but as soon as Tildi goes on a quest with a whole troupe of other characters, the focus shifted a lot more to those other characters, and I lost interest. I wanted more of Tildi and the wizard, but there were a lot of tangents and chapters from other characters' points of view. I ended up skimming some of the other chapters that didn't include Tildi.
The writing is really fun and whimsical, but there is also a lot of violence right at the beginning when Tildi's brothers are killed. It has a good balance of serious themes and light-hearted scenes throughout the book.
The magical setting has all this weight of history behind it. You get the feeling that Tildi is just a very small little blip in all the history of the other characters, because she is so very young compared to the wizards and elves and dwarves who might live for centuries or even longer.
This book ends on a cliffhanger, so I immediately bought the second book so that I could find out what happens to Tildi on her quest!
sparklingreader's review
3.0
Jody Nye is a master of writing fantasy. From the whimsical to high fantasy, she never fails to deliver a good story.
In this, her latest, she gives us a tale reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings. In this case, the part of Frodo is played by a “small folk” girl named Tildi. Her entire family is killed by nasty flying menaces. She goes to the town meeting after the disaster where the male council pick a husband for her – because everyone knows females can’t take care of land or anything beyond washing and cooking. Rather than bow to their dictates, she cuts her hair, dons a disguise and heads for another land to train as a wizard in her brother’s place.
And thus begins her adventures and her quest to find “The Book”, a tome of runes that controls all. Mess with a rune and you mess with life itself. Since she already has a page from The Book, and knows the pain of holding it, she is especially attuned to it. With the help of good wizards, a crown prince, dwarves, and an assortment of other companions, Tildi sets off on her journey. One that actually takes two books to complete.
Miss Nye creates a world that is both fantastical and believable. Her characters are well developed. While I found the story a bit slower than some of her other ones, it is still a good story. And since this is the first of a duology, I am looking forward to the next one as well. If you love high fantasy, give “An Unexpected Apprentice” a try.
katmarhan's review
4.0
7/10
An interesting basis for magic, a plucky heroine, and a diverse supporting cast. Would have benefited from tighter editing, but a good story, told well.
An interesting basis for magic, a plucky heroine, and a diverse supporting cast. Would have benefited from tighter editing, but a good story, told well.
cmbohn's review
2.0
Lots of traveling, which got a little old. So much like a gender swapped version of LOTR.
fletcher's review
2.0
A quick summary of my thoughts...
So much potential, so little payoff.
I was excited by the potential feminist aspect of this book. A sort of retelling of the Hobbit, but with a mostly female cast? That sounded wonderful, but it didn't really work out. Once Tildi, the protagonist, left her hometown, she was never faced with any sexism but her own internalized sexism--and that was very overt. With a mostly female party, it would have been easy to have them face some sort of struggle because of that, thereby pushing the feminist angle, but instead, it's not mentioned except for when Tildi notices that society is different than her smallfolk home. By bringing up the issue like this and then leaving it to be unproblematic for the rest of the story, it really just seemed rather out of place.
And the issue of characters not facing any trials is a common theme in this book. I think there are perhaps two times when the protagonist is in any mortal peril that she faces with her own devices--every other time, someone is helping her, shielding her, or even literally telling her to hide and that they'll take care of it. When Tildi does have to face a threat using her own powers, the solution comes to her almost immediately. Any problems that arise are dealt with immediately and often by contrivance. I'm going to compare this to The Hobbit, because let's be honest--Tildi is Bilbo, Olen is Gandalf, the book is the ring, etc. In The Hobbit, Bilbo's character progression is genuinely heartening and interesting because he has to fight from the very beginning to earn the respect of the dwarves. He's thrown into uncomfortable situations that force him to use his wit and ability progressively more throughout the story, from the very beginning. Tildi, on the other hand, is treated with nothing but respect by every single person she comes across. If she's ever questioned, a figure with more authority hand-waves it away. So when everyone finds her charming and lovely from the get-go, and even escalating problems are solved almost instantly, it really doesn't make for a very compelling story.
This isn't even mentioning the fact that, aside from Bones of Faerie, this book has the slowest buildup leading to the fastest climax (and no falling action) I have ever read. The central conflict begins with only thirty pages left in the book, and I felt like I'd rammed into a brick wall. I understand that there is a sequel, but when everything went so fast that the villain was still ranting and raving two pages before the back cover, I was both over-and underwhelmed when everything came to a screeching halt moments later. This was especially disappointing because the stakes were so high and so interesting; it could have made for a really intense fight scene, but it just wasn't executed. I won't get into the fact that the villain turned out to be nothing more than an exceptionally childish wizard who decided he wanted to destroy literally the entire world because he wasn't appreciated enough and got fired from his job. I was also really disappointed by the fact that the actually interesting part of the story, where a lot of worldbuilding appeared, was only introduced in Magpie's perspective starting almost three-quarters of the way through the book.
I'm just disappointed because there were so many interesting elements, plot bits, and characters, but none of them came together for me. The writing style was perfectly lovely in my opinion, and like I said some of the worldbuilding was genuinely intriguing. It was like Morag's cooking; good ingredients, inedible outcome.
I do want to try reading more of Jody Lynn Nye's work, though, because I really think that she's a strong writer and I hope that she has other better books that I can love.
#readdownyourbookshelfchallenge: Undecided until I read the sequel someday.
So much potential, so little payoff.
I was excited by the potential feminist aspect of this book. A sort of retelling of the Hobbit, but with a mostly female cast? That sounded wonderful, but it didn't really work out. Once Tildi, the protagonist, left her hometown, she was never faced with any sexism but her own internalized sexism--and that was very overt. With a mostly female party, it would have been easy to have them face some sort of struggle because of that, thereby pushing the feminist angle, but instead, it's not mentioned except for when Tildi notices that society is different than her smallfolk home. By bringing up the issue like this and then leaving it to be unproblematic for the rest of the story, it really just seemed rather out of place.
And the issue of characters not facing any trials is a common theme in this book. I think there are perhaps two times when the protagonist is in any mortal peril that she faces with her own devices--every other time, someone is helping her, shielding her, or even literally telling her to hide and that they'll take care of it. When Tildi does have to face a threat using her own powers, the solution comes to her almost immediately. Any problems that arise are dealt with immediately and often by contrivance. I'm going to compare this to The Hobbit, because let's be honest--Tildi is Bilbo, Olen is Gandalf, the book is the ring, etc. In The Hobbit, Bilbo's character progression is genuinely heartening and interesting because he has to fight from the very beginning to earn the respect of the dwarves. He's thrown into uncomfortable situations that force him to use his wit and ability progressively more throughout the story, from the very beginning. Tildi, on the other hand, is treated with nothing but respect by every single person she comes across. If she's ever questioned, a figure with more authority hand-waves it away. So when everyone finds her charming and lovely from the get-go, and even escalating problems are solved almost instantly, it really doesn't make for a very compelling story.
This isn't even mentioning the fact that, aside from Bones of Faerie, this book has the slowest buildup leading to the fastest climax (and no falling action) I have ever read. The central conflict begins with only thirty pages left in the book, and I felt like I'd rammed into a brick wall. I understand that there is a sequel, but when everything went so fast that the villain was still ranting and raving two pages before the back cover, I was both over-and underwhelmed when everything came to a screeching halt moments later. This was especially disappointing because the stakes were so high and so interesting; it could have made for a really intense fight scene, but it just wasn't executed. I won't get into the fact that the villain turned out to be nothing more than an exceptionally childish wizard who decided he wanted to destroy literally the entire world because he wasn't appreciated enough and got fired from his job. I was also really disappointed by the fact that the actually interesting part of the story, where a lot of worldbuilding appeared, was only introduced in Magpie's perspective starting almost three-quarters of the way through the book.
I'm just disappointed because there were so many interesting elements, plot bits, and characters, but none of them came together for me. The writing style was perfectly lovely in my opinion, and like I said some of the worldbuilding was genuinely intriguing. It was like Morag's cooking; good ingredients, inedible outcome.
I do want to try reading more of Jody Lynn Nye's work, though, because I really think that she's a strong writer and I hope that she has other better books that I can love.
#readdownyourbookshelfchallenge: Undecided until I read the sequel someday.
tsbowman1124's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
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
4.0
stilbe's review
3.0
Cute, easy read. Not at all deep or insightful, but a fun afternoon distraction.
hisham's review
5.0
I'm not going to give any plot away (unlike some reviews) but will just say that this is an excellent read. When you finish it, you should definitely buy the sequel.
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