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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
medium-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:
Complicated
Very nice. Good fantasy for younger readers. Lots of pages, but it moves quickly.
adventurous
lighthearted
Similar to Lyra's Oxford from the Golden Compass, this book tells the story of a wizard's apprentice and his adventures
I thoroughly enjoyed the characters in this book and look forward to reading more about Conn and Nevery!
Quite liked this book and will read the series.
This book is a small miracle, in a way. Despite the fact that almost every aspect of the plot, the settings, and most principal characters can be found in essentially unchanged form in other, earlier books, this novel manages to transcend what could seem like a pedestrian rehash to become a charming, worthy addition to the canon. And it's emphatically not a pleasant but mediocre generic fantasy novel--it's much, much better than that.
Most of the credit goes to the author's making the protagonist so very likable. I'm reminded of Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief who also managed to charm me completely. There's a passage where truth serum forces our hero to babble the truth, and it's a delight.
I imagine it must be more difficult to write a beautifully-crafted, engaging, surprising book from materials that are so well-trodden, so kudos given where kudos are due.
I see others have compared this to the Harry Potter series, or to The Lightning Thief, but the tone seems very dissimilar to me. I thought it more akin to the works of Diana Wynne Jones (not quite as good, nothing ever is--a little more straightforward than she would have written) or to the Flora Segunda.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s).
Most of the credit goes to the author's making the protagonist so very likable. I'm reminded of Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief who also managed to charm me completely. There's a passage where truth serum forces our hero to babble the truth, and it's a delight.
I imagine it must be more difficult to write a beautifully-crafted, engaging, surprising book from materials that are so well-trodden, so kudos given where kudos are due.
I see others have compared this to the Harry Potter series, or to The Lightning Thief, but the tone seems very dissimilar to me. I thought it more akin to the works of Diana Wynne Jones (not quite as good, nothing ever is--a little more straightforward than she would have written) or to the Flora Segunda.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s).
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No