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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
Complex magic systems, beautiful and humorous writing, dual POVs, witty heroes and a tyrannical leader made for a great read! The pace is very slow in the beginning as you wrap your head around the magic, the world and its inhabitants but the payoff is so worth it- I was rooting hard for the protagonists and found myself more invested in them than I’d expected! The writing is beautiful and descriptive and I am eager to see where this story leads. Thank you to NetGalley for the e-ARC!
ARC copy from
Net gallery. Was a slow read for me but still good. Liked the concept just a little slow going for my liking. Story was good needed something more for me
Net gallery. Was a slow read for me but still good. Liked the concept just a little slow going for my liking. Story was good needed something more for me
Thank you to the author for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
I’m always intrigued by stories that follow an ‘order’ of individuals who all share the same abilities — in this case, it’s the dactyli, rangers and scholars who read and collect stories from nature (very cool magic system! and very cool lore!). This book had absolutely everything I look for in fantasy; I adored the characters, Lovelace and Gunnar specifically, the world they occupied was so immersive, and the writing was beautiful. The plot is definitely slow moving, but the build up to the end was so worth it in my opinion. Very excited to read more from Maressa Voss and I would LOVE to explore more of this world & these characters!
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
This was a different book for me. It's more high fantasy than I'm used to. However, it's beautifully written. Very descriptive and almost lyrical at times. I may not have understood everything but I got the gist of it.
Maressa Voss’s novel introduces an order of wizards that are able to control the four elements and gain insights from them. These wizards live separate from normal people because they’ve been labeled as charlatans and scammers. However, the order—called dactyli—have to interact with the world surrounding them and multiple people to collect varied points of view and memories in order to construct the objective truth. This was enough to grab my attention.
In addition to the mages, there are other groups of people besides the common folk, who are ruled by a totalitarian and abusive leader. When Shadows Grow Tall does a very good job of bringing people of all backgrounds together in a sort-of-happenstance way. The dactyli Lovelace and Gunnar are out to gather information and resources to stop a rogue dactyli from getting more powerful. Kylene, a common girl, begins her quest for her rebel father and that takes her to encounter a tribe of wise people deeply connected to nature.
Full review here: https://www.metastellar.com/nonfiction/reviews/when-shadows-grow-tall-maressa-voss-review/
Full review here: https://www.metastellar.com/nonfiction/reviews/when-shadows-grow-tall-maressa-voss-review/
(Advance Review through NetGalley)
When Shadows Grow Tall was an interesting read for me. Fantasy is a favourite genre for me, however I feel there are a lot of things to get right and a lot of risky tropes that can ruin a book (I suppose that's not unique to fantasy, but I have a sense fails in fantasy are more severe).
The strengths of Voss' novel are the great pacing - I don't think I experienced boredom at any stage of the story, nor little desire to speed things up to get to the 'good parts' the story had a good balance of exposition and world building, very epic and vivid action, and overall was always fun to be in the pages of this one.
Our MCs are Lovelace - a good, albeit rebellious, ranger mage who is desperate to save young mages from a an evil outcast who keeps finding and murdering emerging mages before his order can recruit them.
And Kylene, whose story is a little more mysterious - her father has disappeared after being revealed to be too seditious for the dystopian regime in place over 'The Grasp' and Kylene is willing to risk it all to find him.
While the story was good fun there were a few flaws in my eyes.
The prose was on the odd occasion, a bit much, I never realized a dawn could be "fresh and crisp as a new apple" but also break "as easy as an egg." To be honest, its not quite purple but there were moments that the simile were just enough to push me out of the story. (Although I will say use of the word 'Lumpsucker' wins a lot of points from me)
While the world building was really well delivered throughout the story rather than big info dumps, it felt like the whole story was interspersed with lore and particularly towards the end I really wanted more ACTION not more exposition. Especially the last few chapters - there was a bit of a sense of 'first book in a series' syndrome where not a huge amount of significant plot points happened as obviously enough needed to be saved for later books.
My final beef was that the villains were just a bit shallow and cheesy, their dialogue very "mwah ha ha." while the mythos around them was suitable, the delivery of their actual presence was somewhat flat.
Overall this book is great for fantasy lovers, especially if you're looking for intense magic battles but based in a relatively gritty grimy mundane world.
When Shadows Grow Tall was an interesting read for me. Fantasy is a favourite genre for me, however I feel there are a lot of things to get right and a lot of risky tropes that can ruin a book (I suppose that's not unique to fantasy, but I have a sense fails in fantasy are more severe).
The strengths of Voss' novel are the great pacing - I don't think I experienced boredom at any stage of the story, nor little desire to speed things up to get to the 'good parts' the story had a good balance of exposition and world building, very epic and vivid action, and overall was always fun to be in the pages of this one.
Our MCs are Lovelace - a good, albeit rebellious, ranger mage who is desperate to save young mages from a an evil outcast who keeps finding and murdering emerging mages before his order can recruit them.
And Kylene, whose story is a little more mysterious - her father has disappeared after being revealed to be too seditious for the dystopian regime in place over 'The Grasp' and Kylene is willing to risk it all to find him.
While the story was good fun there were a few flaws in my eyes.
The prose was on the odd occasion, a bit much, I never realized a dawn could be "fresh and crisp as a new apple" but also break "as easy as an egg." To be honest, its not quite purple but there were moments that the simile were just enough to push me out of the story. (Although I will say use of the word 'Lumpsucker' wins a lot of points from me)
While the world building was really well delivered throughout the story rather than big info dumps, it felt like the whole story was interspersed with lore and particularly towards the end I really wanted more ACTION not more exposition. Especially the last few chapters - there was a bit of a sense of 'first book in a series' syndrome where not a huge amount of significant plot points happened as obviously enough needed to be saved for later books.
My final beef was that the villains were just a bit shallow and cheesy, their dialogue very "mwah ha ha." while the mythos around them was suitable, the delivery of their actual presence was somewhat flat.
Overall this book is great for fantasy lovers, especially if you're looking for intense magic battles but based in a relatively gritty grimy mundane world.
This novel was BEAUTIFUL. A fantasy that was subtle and and encouraged moral platitudes that had me pausing to think about the learnings I wanted to take from this story.
The characters are delightful and I really enjoyed the pacing and composition of the timeline and plot. It felt unexpected and not at all formulaic. I welcome this new author into my library and can’t wait to read more.
The characters are delightful and I really enjoyed the pacing and composition of the timeline and plot. It felt unexpected and not at all formulaic. I welcome this new author into my library and can’t wait to read more.
I was very excited to read this eARC but unfortunately it didn't quite hit the mark for me.
Let's start with the positives - it's beautifully written, I loved the descriptive and lyrical prose. The world-building is very well done, I got a good feel for environment and enjoyed the idea of the elemental powers and how they work. We're dropped right in it with regards to the magic system, but I like that. I love to figure things out as I go rather than being spoon-fed everything.
It's quite a slow-burn, which isn't necessarily a negative but it did take me quite a while to get through and I prefer a page-turner. It picked up around 40% when I started to get more invested in what was happening, but then dropped off again at about 60%. The order of the chapters is quite confusing - I understand that we're going back and forth in time but there didn't seem to be a clear pattern to it which affected the pacing.
There's a big gap between the end of Kylene's backstory and where she is now that disconnected me from who she is as a character in the present, and that brings me to the crux of the issue for me: I just didn't feel very connected to any of the characters. Kylene is the most well-developed but suffers from the latter, and Gunnar and Lovelace felt more surface level. I just wasn't invested enough in what was happening as I'd like to be.
Overall this is a very impressive and imaginative debut novel, but does suffer from a few issues as mentioned. Thank you so much to Maressa, the publisher and Netgalley for the eARC.
Let's start with the positives - it's beautifully written, I loved the descriptive and lyrical prose. The world-building is very well done, I got a good feel for environment and enjoyed the idea of the elemental powers and how they work. We're dropped right in it with regards to the magic system, but I like that. I love to figure things out as I go rather than being spoon-fed everything.
It's quite a slow-burn, which isn't necessarily a negative but it did take me quite a while to get through and I prefer a page-turner. It picked up around 40% when I started to get more invested in what was happening, but then dropped off again at about 60%. The order of the chapters is quite confusing - I understand that we're going back and forth in time but there didn't seem to be a clear pattern to it which affected the pacing.
There's a big gap between the end of Kylene's backstory and where she is now that disconnected me from who she is as a character in the present, and that brings me to the crux of the issue for me: I just didn't feel very connected to any of the characters. Kylene is the most well-developed but suffers from the latter, and Gunnar and Lovelace felt more surface level. I just wasn't invested enough in what was happening as I'd like to be.
Overall this is a very impressive and imaginative debut novel, but does suffer from a few issues as mentioned. Thank you so much to Maressa, the publisher and Netgalley for the eARC.
adventurous
dark
hopeful
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
thanks to netgalley for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for a review.
this was a dense debut fantasy with an interesting magic system and slowwwww burn. i think the biggest strength in this is the world building, so lush and just as dense as the plot. the author does an incredible job of building this world in its mundanities as well as the supernatural forces that rule it. the perfect blend between a cozy and epic fantasy.
this was a dense debut fantasy with an interesting magic system and slowwwww burn. i think the biggest strength in this is the world building, so lush and just as dense as the plot. the author does an incredible job of building this world in its mundanities as well as the supernatural forces that rule it. the perfect blend between a cozy and epic fantasy.