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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
wooooooow. I first read Bacigalupi's work as a child (too young, probably, to really grasp that book, the Wind Up Girl) and I remember being entranced by the worldbuilding. Returning to his work now with this new fantasy series. OOOF. I had forgotten how it felt to be sucked into an intricate, sprawling, epic fantasy novel. the 600 pages were worth it.
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Navola is a fantasy novel where the fantasy elements are so minimal that sometimes you forget about them. Instead you have intrigue, deception, a good main character and a lot of very interesting secundaries. And of course the world.
Because the main strenght of Navola is the amazing worldbuilding. Instead of the traditional European Middle-age setting that you find in most fantasy novels, Navola´s world is inspired in the Italian Rainassance. The stories about the Medicis or the Borgias come constantly to your mind while reading the book. You find houses struggling for power, secret plots, hired assasins, politics mixed with religion... And a bunch of Italian sounding terms that contribute to the atmosphere.
And besides the world that is directly connected to the plot inside the city of Navola, there is the wider world outside the city. We learn about other city-states, and what they think about each other. The book is rich in mythology, both as an official religion and as old and almost fairy-tale stories. There is magic in the world, but we only get small hints of it, showing that there is something bigger than the petty struggles of the human. It is fascinating.
But beware that the book is also brutal. The fight is done mainly in the shadows, but when it comes to the surface, Bacigalupi does not shy away from being explicit in his descriptions.
The book pace is slow, which suits the narrative, but sometimes it is too slow. This is the only reason I have not given it a perfect score.
Because the main strenght of Navola is the amazing worldbuilding. Instead of the traditional European Middle-age setting that you find in most fantasy novels, Navola´s world is inspired in the Italian Rainassance. The stories about the Medicis or the Borgias come constantly to your mind while reading the book. You find houses struggling for power, secret plots, hired assasins, politics mixed with religion... And a bunch of Italian sounding terms that contribute to the atmosphere.
And besides the world that is directly connected to the plot inside the city of Navola, there is the wider world outside the city. We learn about other city-states, and what they think about each other. The book is rich in mythology, both as an official religion and as old and almost fairy-tale stories. There is magic in the world, but we only get small hints of it, showing that there is something bigger than the petty struggles of the human. It is fascinating.
But beware that the book is also brutal. The fight is done mainly in the shadows, but when it comes to the surface, Bacigalupi does not shy away from being explicit in his descriptions.
The book pace is slow, which suits the narrative, but sometimes it is too slow. This is the only reason I have not given it a perfect score.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Violence
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Ponderous and stupefying. In a fantasy Italy, a very boring story takes place. The map at the beginning shows a distorted Eastern Mediterranean, but the placement of the city and the shoreline makes clear where it is. The place names and people's names make that very clear. Then, just to hammer it into your head in the dumbest way, occasionally the author has words in Italian. Now, since it's Italy, the characters are already speaking Italian. Therefore, what language are they really speaking when they change language to Italian?
The plot doesn't matter. It's so slowly paced that I couldn't care. After a quarter of the book, I gave up.
The plot doesn't matter. It's so slowly paced that I couldn't care. After a quarter of the book, I gave up.
Very slow. 25% in the story and nothing happened. You’re following a young boy as he comes of age but I expected a fantasy novel.
slow-paced
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes