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dieuwkemonica's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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? No
4.75
blastoise's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
4.0
Couldn't put this book down. Well developed strong female protag. Shares a lot of themes with Anne Mcaffrey's Dragonrider series.
tonydragon's review
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Fantasy with a very strong feminist drive
luinmirwen's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
sofijakryz's review against another edition
3.0
Overall, I liked this one. A strong, main, female character, a decent level of drama (going darker with every part), the main character's story constructed through snapshots of distinct life stages: adolescence, mid-twenties or some such, middle age and old age. The latter, unless one writes an epic story, is not that frequent and deserves a star on its own. The style is quite literary, too, I quite enjoyed that.
And yet, the drawbacks! The book was so slow to pick up - well over a hundred pages until we finally get a decently antagonistic figure and the stakes begin to go up. I had to make myself not to drop the book (and happy that I suceeded, but initially that was so hard!). In those 110 pages or so, there is little character building too (apart from the protagonist). Which made it all the worse - I wasn't sure if I picked up a children's story with yet another Mary Sue or not. Later, it gets so much better, but even so, the story focuses on some 4 characters, most of them going support full time, development happens but then the story is not really about them.
The world would be quite interesting - exotic windy planet with bits of land scattered in a neverending ocean full of sea monsters - but mostly it is a painted decoration. We mostly learn about flyers (human messengers using artificial wings to fly), how elite and cliquey they are, how flying is everything to them, the inner struggles between progressive flyers and the conservative flyers (driven by the protagonist and one supporting character), their rules, laws, traditions and how cool they are, how difficult it is for an outsider to join and how they, if they succeed, are never ever accepted. How cool they are to oppose a local tyrant. How important, for reasons not fully clear, they are to the local social ecosystem.
That's it.
The rest is decoration. And contradictions. We know very little about the life of non-flyers (apart from what we learn from the prologue on Maris's life prior to becoming a flyer and bits and pieces from Val's back story. Part 3 on Maris suffering a life-changing injury provides more info, but still, gives a very narrow explanation of what that world is like in terms of society or culture). For instance, I did not even understand why the fliers are so important. Yes, they fly. Cool. Yes, they serve as messengers (something like living gmail/telephones). All is written as if they are a centre of everything, really, connecting disjunct isles or groups of isles and keeping them in order. Cool. But there are ships there in that world. Some bits of the book give impression that the ocean is too dangerous to cross by ship - a sea monster will eat you! Or storm will drown you. Fine. But in the end it is ships and merchants that do the trade, not flyers. Characters somehow cross the ocean from the easternmost to westernmost isles. By ship, not flyers. So what's the point? Why are flyers so important? (Apart from being direct descendants of some ancient human race - but then so are the other humans, aren't they?). Even if someone hunted out sea monsters in the time/events between different parts of the book and made the ocean safer, that should make flyers less important - whatever the original source for their importance was, right?
F... knows. Put up with that.
Those bits annoyed the hell out of me.
But if you ignore them - themes and associated drama were quite enjoyable. What happens if there is an isolated clique of privileged, self-important, conservative socialites? If you can't change their structure/set-up from down bottom, how do you do it from within? If you change one bit, how it disrupts a system in a long term? How do you cope if you have to help someone you think is your enemy? How do you deal with systemic discrimination knowing you have no way to change it immediately? How long does it take to change a whole system?
Motivations suffered in some places but overall the book kind of caught me in the end. Were I a teenager, it would have even given me some food for thought. Now - we've been there, we've seen that. But still good enough to mostly care.
I liked the protagonist and how she was depicted in different stages of her life - a teenager, a young woman, a middle-aged woman, an old woman. Same same but different - you recognise Maris but she is different in every part. In a good way - depicting different levels of maturity. The jump between adolescent and adult Maris felt a bit too drastic (nothing about the formative events that changed Maris) but was logical considering how important to the formation of you as a person is that time of life when you are 18-25. So believeable, but I wanted that in-between trigger event and did not get it.
Expected more at first, was then disappointed and then quite pleased. But not to the level I would be overjoyed.
And yet, the drawbacks! The book was so slow to pick up - well over a hundred pages until we finally get a decently antagonistic figure and the stakes begin to go up. I had to make myself not to drop the book (and happy that I suceeded, but initially that was so hard!). In those 110 pages or so, there is little character building too (apart from the protagonist). Which made it all the worse - I wasn't sure if I picked up a children's story with yet another Mary Sue or not. Later, it gets so much better, but even so, the story focuses on some 4 characters, most of them going support full time, development happens but then the story is not really about them.
The world would be quite interesting - exotic windy planet with bits of land scattered in a neverending ocean full of sea monsters - but mostly it is a painted decoration. We mostly learn about flyers (human messengers using artificial wings to fly), how elite and cliquey they are, how flying is everything to them, the inner struggles between progressive flyers and the conservative flyers (driven by the protagonist and one supporting character), their rules, laws, traditions and how cool they are, how difficult it is for an outsider to join and how they, if they succeed, are never ever accepted. How cool they are to oppose a local tyrant. How important, for reasons not fully clear, they are to the local social ecosystem.
That's it.
The rest is decoration. And contradictions. We know very little about the life of non-flyers (apart from what we learn from the prologue on Maris's life prior to becoming a flyer and bits and pieces from Val's back story. Part 3 on Maris suffering a life-changing injury provides more info, but still, gives a very narrow explanation of what that world is like in terms of society or culture). For instance, I did not even understand why the fliers are so important. Yes, they fly. Cool. Yes, they serve as messengers (something like living gmail/telephones). All is written as if they are a centre of everything, really, connecting disjunct isles or groups of isles and keeping them in order. Cool. But there are ships there in that world. Some bits of the book give impression that the ocean is too dangerous to cross by ship - a sea monster will eat you! Or storm will drown you. Fine. But in the end it is ships and merchants that do the trade, not flyers. Characters somehow cross the ocean from the easternmost to westernmost isles. By ship, not flyers. So what's the point? Why are flyers so important? (Apart from being direct descendants of some ancient human race - but then so are the other humans, aren't they?). Even if someone hunted out sea monsters in the time/events between different parts of the book and made the ocean safer, that should make flyers less important - whatever the original source for their importance was, right?
F... knows. Put up with that.
Those bits annoyed the hell out of me.
But if you ignore them - themes and associated drama were quite enjoyable. What happens if there is an isolated clique of privileged, self-important, conservative socialites? If you can't change their structure/set-up from down bottom, how do you do it from within? If you change one bit, how it disrupts a system in a long term? How do you cope if you have to help someone you think is your enemy? How do you deal with systemic discrimination knowing you have no way to change it immediately? How long does it take to change a whole system?
Motivations suffered in some places but overall the book kind of caught me in the end. Were I a teenager, it would have even given me some food for thought. Now - we've been there, we've seen that. But still good enough to mostly care.
I liked the protagonist and how she was depicted in different stages of her life - a teenager, a young woman, a middle-aged woman, an old woman. Same same but different - you recognise Maris but she is different in every part. In a good way - depicting different levels of maturity. The jump between adolescent and adult Maris felt a bit too drastic (nothing about the formative events that changed Maris) but was logical considering how important to the formation of you as a person is that time of life when you are 18-25. So believeable, but I wanted that in-between trigger event and did not get it.
Expected more at first, was then disappointed and then quite pleased. But not to the level I would be overjoyed.
nicwebzzz's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0