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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
Great complex plot line, lot of character development- overall worth the time. I didn't find this writing the sort of thing you can pick up and put down frequently, without a lot of back-tracking (which is a good thing!). Looking forward to book 2.
1.5.
Listen, I know genres have this weird thing about staying true to their roots but EVERY genre has switched it up to appeal to newer and growing audiences. Including Westerns. I've read the likes of Red Country by Joe Abercrombie and The Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede and loved both. Both Western genre books starring a female lead that had strong characteristics, drive, and will. And despite this book being written in 2014 (only 5 years ago?) it shows none of the progressiveness I've grown to expect from relatively new books.
It's ridiculous within the first 30 pages I was bombarded with disgusting, parasitical verse on the damnation of vaettir (white elf-like creatures that were the original inhabitants of the plain before the main character and a clump of other characters' forefathers invaded and pushed them to the edges), a million ugly ass words to describe woman; amendment: only the female body (don't look me in the eye and tell me this book has any literary value when it uses the word 'p*ssy' like it's a medical term), the heartless treatment of dvergar (also white, dwarf-like people that have been rendered to slaves or social outcasts). Do the vaettir and dvergar sound familiar to you? It's literally Native Americans and African Americans demeaned to their most racially-fueled stereotypes only homeboy doesn't have to take the fall for racism because despite his wanting to include 'savages and slaves' he made them all white so no one can call him out on it without appearing to be 'reaching'. Despite changing the skin palour of these people to be white the treatment of them doesn't fly under the radar, it doesn't make it okay because they're white now. It felt disgusting reading it.
The book's r*pey, just saying it now. Why every women got to be introduced with her neck in centimeters and her damned bra size. Leave them alone. If you can't write women without commenting on their physical appearance (yes, that includes hiding behind your narrating characters' perspective with your mains roving, perverted eyes) THEN DON'T WRITE THEM AT ALL. Just leave them out. Learn to write about women as though they're oh, I don't know, HUMANS please?! Just do that.
I don't care if it's Western genre culture to have Native American and African American equivalents or to have them as the unintelligible, violent enemy: Stop It. It's 2019 for god's sake. I don't care if back in these 'good ole days' sissies were killed by the hardship of the plain and women were tucked away to be forcefully bedded by men that could only be described as animals, cease your nonsense.
I'm more angry now after finishing the book because I realize this only happened in roughly the first hundred pages and that the nonsense did, in fact, cease. Because there was actually plot, and it focused heavily on it so that by the time you got to the last 50 or so pages you forgot about that shit storm that preceded it (unless like me, you wrote notes, and then it all comes back when you're writing the review).
The writing with dense, bogged down with a little too much description of the ever-changing yet unchanging plains (and the 'racist-not-racist', sexist drivel). Had inclusions from the steam punk and fantasy genre, maybe even dipped into YA there for a second with the characters and plot progression, influences of Roman garb and some paranormal/supernatural stuff too. A very new, ambitious mix. How are you able to join 4-5 different genre fictions and still aren't able to write non-racist/sexist characters and plot lines? The pacing was way off, too slow with the main character just a witness to the events rather than playing an active role in anything, plot only picked up in the last two chapters or so for me. Cliff-hanger ending in attempt to make you pick up the second book. Riddled with Latin, pretentious philosophical waxing, and made up swear words.
In the name of our lord, Ariana Grande, Thank U, Next!
Listen, I know genres have this weird thing about staying true to their roots but EVERY genre has switched it up to appeal to newer and growing audiences. Including Westerns. I've read the likes of Red Country by Joe Abercrombie and The Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede and loved both. Both Western genre books starring a female lead that had strong characteristics, drive, and will. And despite this book being written in 2014 (only 5 years ago?) it shows none of the progressiveness I've grown to expect from relatively new books.
It's ridiculous within the first 30 pages I was bombarded with disgusting, parasitical verse on the damnation of vaettir (white elf-like creatures that were the original inhabitants of the plain before the main character and a clump of other characters' forefathers invaded and pushed them to the edges), a million ugly ass words to describe woman; amendment: only the female body (don't look me in the eye and tell me this book has any literary value when it uses the word 'p*ssy' like it's a medical term), the heartless treatment of dvergar (also white, dwarf-like people that have been rendered to slaves or social outcasts). Do the vaettir and dvergar sound familiar to you? It's literally Native Americans and African Americans demeaned to their most racially-fueled stereotypes only homeboy doesn't have to take the fall for racism because despite his wanting to include 'savages and slaves' he made them all white so no one can call him out on it without appearing to be 'reaching'. Despite changing the skin palour of these people to be white the treatment of them doesn't fly under the radar, it doesn't make it okay because they're white now. It felt disgusting reading it.
The book's r*pey, just saying it now. Why every women got to be introduced with her neck in centimeters and her damned bra size. Leave them alone. If you can't write women without commenting on their physical appearance (yes, that includes hiding behind your narrating characters' perspective with your mains roving, perverted eyes) THEN DON'T WRITE THEM AT ALL. Just leave them out. Learn to write about women as though they're oh, I don't know, HUMANS please?! Just do that.
I don't care if it's Western genre culture to have Native American and African American equivalents or to have them as the unintelligible, violent enemy: Stop It. It's 2019 for god's sake. I don't care if back in these 'good ole days' sissies were killed by the hardship of the plain and women were tucked away to be forcefully bedded by men that could only be described as animals, cease your nonsense.
I'm more angry now after finishing the book because I realize this only happened in roughly the first hundred pages and that the nonsense did, in fact, cease. Because there was actually plot, and it focused heavily on it so that by the time you got to the last 50 or so pages you forgot about that shit storm that preceded it (unless like me, you wrote notes, and then it all comes back when you're writing the review).
The writing with dense, bogged down with a little too much description of the ever-changing yet unchanging plains (and the 'racist-not-racist', sexist drivel). Had inclusions from the steam punk and fantasy genre, maybe even dipped into YA there for a second with the characters and plot progression, influences of Roman garb and some paranormal/supernatural stuff too. A very new, ambitious mix. How are you able to join 4-5 different genre fictions and still aren't able to write non-racist/sexist characters and plot lines? The pacing was way off, too slow with the main character just a witness to the events rather than playing an active role in anything, plot only picked up in the last two chapters or so for me. Cliff-hanger ending in attempt to make you pick up the second book. Riddled with Latin, pretentious philosophical waxing, and made up swear words.
In the name of our lord, Ariana Grande, Thank U, Next!
Maybe more like 3.5... kind of really liked it. preferred the buildup to the ending as i felt it was a tad rushed. Think it could have used a few more chapters-worth to fill in a bit more historical detail. overall tho, loved the world that has been created and the characters seemed well rounded [shoestring is the man! well, the dwarf... well the half-dwarf.] would probably goto 4star if a sequel digs more into the history and politics etc...
adventurous
dark
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:
Complicated
3,5 stars
This book had caught my eye early on because of its beautiful cover. Even now I can’t stop staring at it. It reminds me of the drawings I used to make: colour a whole page, paint over it with black paint and then use something sharp to draw whatever you wanted. It would come out beautifully in the colour(s) you’d used first with a stunning black background. Not only that, but I’d also read a lot of very positive reviews about it. I was intrigued by the quote by Patrick Rothfuss stating it was “a strange alchemy, a recipe I’ve never seen before”. I went in with high expectations.
It is certainly a very interesting book. Patrick Rothfuss was right in saying it is a strange mixture of different genres. Fisk and Shoestring are two very different men who have been roaming the lands as mercenaries together for nearly a decade. This time they have taken an escort contract. They have to escort the Cornelian, a boat with a Governor and his family on board. They are supposed to follow the boat on the banks of the river, scouting the territory and keeping an eye out for the stretchers, or Vaettir. The stretchers are elf-like creatures, but nothing like the ones we’re used to read about. No beauty and grace here, but deadly speed, sharpened teeth and a bloodthirst that will make your skin crawl. Shoestring himself has dvergar blood, so as you can see there are some typical high fantasy elements in here, though they haven been turned upside down. An interesting factor was the major role that engineering plays in this world. The engineering here uses daemonfire to power everything. Even bullets are propelled by releasing little daemons that are trapped in with the bullets. Every experienced reader of SFF or horror knows that daemons mostly aren’t good news. Neither are they here. Shoestring even believes that the using daemonfire will taint your soul, so he’s one of the only characters in this book who refuses to use the guns.
I absolutely loved the characters in this book. Fisk and Shoestring are two unlikely friends, Fisk being a scarred, distant man with a particular hate for the stretchers and Shoestring being more open and caring. The family of Governor Cornelius are quite a special bunch of people. The Governor himself spends most of his time drunk and overconfident, a characteristic that will ultimately cost him dearly. His eldest son isn’t much better and possibly even worse. The youngest daughter is a typical socialite, laughing everything away and taking nothing seriously. The only two sane people in that family are the youngest son, Secundus and the oldest daughter, Livia. The engineer on board of the ship controlling the powerful daemon that powers the ship is a character you can’t wrap your head around at first, though he shows his true colours ultimately. Put a cast of characters that clash like that in a land full of hostile killers and you’re sure that get a lot of spectacle. On that front, the reader won’t be disappointed. From exhilarating to gory, the action keeps you on the edge of your seat.
Nearing the end of the story the book takes its use of daemons even further and deals with possession and its repercussions. This too makes for spectacular and gruesome reading. Enough to keep a reader satisfied, you would say, and it is, though somehow I felt like something was missing when I flipped the last page. Though there is enough action and the characters are very entertaining, I would have liked a bit more depth. This is a very personal feeling, as I’m sure the book was simply written this way, focussed on the ship, the family, the mercenaries and their quest. I missed some more background about the Vaettir, about the place they discover at the end of the book, about the daemons and their realm. It could be that these subjects will be elaborated on in the second book in this series, Foreign Devils, but for now I am left with a feeling of incompleteness. Aside from that, this was a very special book with a mix of several elements that might be difficult to combine with as much success by a less skilled writer.
This book had caught my eye early on because of its beautiful cover. Even now I can’t stop staring at it. It reminds me of the drawings I used to make: colour a whole page, paint over it with black paint and then use something sharp to draw whatever you wanted. It would come out beautifully in the colour(s) you’d used first with a stunning black background. Not only that, but I’d also read a lot of very positive reviews about it. I was intrigued by the quote by Patrick Rothfuss stating it was “a strange alchemy, a recipe I’ve never seen before”. I went in with high expectations.
It is certainly a very interesting book. Patrick Rothfuss was right in saying it is a strange mixture of different genres. Fisk and Shoestring are two very different men who have been roaming the lands as mercenaries together for nearly a decade. This time they have taken an escort contract. They have to escort the Cornelian, a boat with a Governor and his family on board. They are supposed to follow the boat on the banks of the river, scouting the territory and keeping an eye out for the stretchers, or Vaettir. The stretchers are elf-like creatures, but nothing like the ones we’re used to read about. No beauty and grace here, but deadly speed, sharpened teeth and a bloodthirst that will make your skin crawl. Shoestring himself has dvergar blood, so as you can see there are some typical high fantasy elements in here, though they haven been turned upside down. An interesting factor was the major role that engineering plays in this world. The engineering here uses daemonfire to power everything. Even bullets are propelled by releasing little daemons that are trapped in with the bullets. Every experienced reader of SFF or horror knows that daemons mostly aren’t good news. Neither are they here. Shoestring even believes that the using daemonfire will taint your soul, so he’s one of the only characters in this book who refuses to use the guns.
I absolutely loved the characters in this book. Fisk and Shoestring are two unlikely friends, Fisk being a scarred, distant man with a particular hate for the stretchers and Shoestring being more open and caring. The family of Governor Cornelius are quite a special bunch of people. The Governor himself spends most of his time drunk and overconfident, a characteristic that will ultimately cost him dearly. His eldest son isn’t much better and possibly even worse. The youngest daughter is a typical socialite, laughing everything away and taking nothing seriously. The only two sane people in that family are the youngest son, Secundus and the oldest daughter, Livia. The engineer on board of the ship controlling the powerful daemon that powers the ship is a character you can’t wrap your head around at first, though he shows his true colours ultimately. Put a cast of characters that clash like that in a land full of hostile killers and you’re sure that get a lot of spectacle. On that front, the reader won’t be disappointed. From exhilarating to gory, the action keeps you on the edge of your seat.
Nearing the end of the story the book takes its use of daemons even further and deals with possession and its repercussions. This too makes for spectacular and gruesome reading. Enough to keep a reader satisfied, you would say, and it is, though somehow I felt like something was missing when I flipped the last page. Though there is enough action and the characters are very entertaining, I would have liked a bit more depth. This is a very personal feeling, as I’m sure the book was simply written this way, focussed on the ship, the family, the mercenaries and their quest. I missed some more background about the Vaettir, about the place they discover at the end of the book, about the daemons and their realm. It could be that these subjects will be elaborated on in the second book in this series, Foreign Devils, but for now I am left with a feeling of incompleteness. Aside from that, this was a very special book with a mix of several elements that might be difficult to combine with as much success by a less skilled writer.
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
VERY good. I love the setting - so creative and inventive. I'd not have thought the disparate elements would have worked together so well, but they did.
I like my fantasy dark, creative, and touched with horror and this definitely is that.
I like my fantasy dark, creative, and touched with horror and this definitely is that.
Came close to reading this in one sitting because it never lets up from the start.