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clairetrellahill's review against another edition
3.0
jay_bubblez's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
lavendermarch's review against another edition
5.0
zahraanjum's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
alienor's review against another edition
5.0
4.5 stars rounded up. Sunbolt, the first tome of a promising Fantasy YA series written by Intisar Khanani, might be the best surprise of the beginning of the year for me, and I genuinely believe that it deserves way more high praise than it gets. Curious to know why?
Let's make a list of why you should read it too, shall we?
► Sunbolt reminded me why I loved the Fantasy genre in the first place. I don't know when 1K+ novels have become the norm in that genre, and I don't deny that several of my favorite books are (very) long but in my opinion it allowed the genre to become a bit... self-indulgent sometimes. Does your story need 1,000 pages? GOOD. Do it. However, if the story is over winded and wordy for the sake of being wordy, crammed with filler parts, I'll side-eye you. Hard. No such thing with Sunbolt : indeed Intisar Khanani manages to pack more action in 150 pages than others would in 1,000 (I wish I'd joke. I do not). Boredom never even grazed me, but rather : the story was engaging from the very first page and never lost momentum.
► Hitomi, the main character, is smart, resilient and loyal and I love her very much. I cannot see why you wouldn't too. Plus she's biracial (her father is from a Middle-Eastern inspired region and her mother, I think, is from a Japanese-inspired region) and the difficulties she meets because of other people's prejudices are briefly discussed in text, which is something I really appreciated. Yet above everything, what I liked the most about her was the way she challenged her own stereotypes - about the fangs, the breathers, who are different races present in the book - and evolved. The Fantasy genre often revolves around coming-of-age stories, and Sunbolt is no different in that aspect, but we get a real and believable character growth and that's not so frequent, unfortunately.
► The secondary characters - and one especially, but I won't say - were intriguing and interesting enough for me to be eager to meet them again in the sequel. I never got the feeling that Intisar Khanani wasted any one of her characters, but on the contrary, they were given the depth they needed to keep me guessing.
► The world-building, albeit classic at first glance, is so well-crafted and rich that it felt refreshing : sure, Intisar Khanani's world includes magic, supernatural creatures and a political landscape that could appear similar to other stories, yet the way she winded all these elements together made me feel like I was reading something new. I wanted to know more, and I even started to take notes about the different creatures in order to... what, exactly? Prepare myself for a fight? I do not know, except that I found myself shaking my head slightly and resuming my read, lol.
► The plot is so compelling, and, again, gave me the impression that the author created something really original, even though it's a coming-of-age at heart, as it's often the case in Fantasy. Yet there's no romance, which is rare enough in Fantasy YA to deserve our attention : I mean, you know I love romance, but I'm pretty tired of the way every Fantasy YA ever needs to include a romance, and who cares if the relationship lacks chemistry and you know, sense.
In a word : Sunbolt is an action-packed and surprising YA novel, served with a great writing, to the point, and I cannot wait to read the sequel, Memories of Ash.
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gabs_myfullbookshelf's review against another edition
2.0
First off, it's shorter than I would have expected. The longer the fantasy book is, the better, in my opinion, because there's a lot of ground that needs to be covered in a fantasy novel. It needs to create a new world within its pages, and to do that sometimes you need length. There was not length here, and the world suffered because of that. It wasn't a cheaply created setting--on the contrary, there are some new things in here that I've never read about before. It just needs some more depth in it to make it seem real to me.
The second thing is the fact that the plot flowed choppily. In my opinion, the story had evolved drastically from what it was at the beginning to what it was at the end. It was like there were two different plots, in a way. I didn't necessarily like it.
The characters were alright. I didn't have any significant qualms with Hitomi; however, she failed to really stand out to me. I'm having trouble remembering any traits I really loved in her. She did her job as a main character, but she didn't do an outstanding job.
I have no plans to continue the Sunbolt Chronicles at this time. It was kind of forgettable, with all its flaws. Sunbolt didn't meet the expectations that I had for it.
jnikolova's review against another edition
3.0
Sunbolt is a fun short book set in a fantasy world of magic, vampires and adventures. It introduces the reader to an entirely new universe, in which the world is divided to kingdoms and is populated by different races, such as the above mentioned vampires, also mages, lycans and much more.
On the plus side, overall Sunbolt is fast and enjoyable. Action-filled and not heavy on the romance like some contemporary novels, promoted as YA adventures, which turn out to be sappy drama with a side of "OH! YOU ARE SO SPECIAL THE WAY YOU HAVE ALL THOSE POWERS"(Yep, I'm still talking about my most hated series of last year - Newsoul). There is a lot happening, several developing stories, many characters, most of which powerful and mysterious. Also, the writing is lovely, flowing, interesting and smart. The dialogues are pleasant to read as well.
On the minus side, though, the book is just too short for so much action. At first we have the Ghost storyline, then there's Blackflame, Kol, then Val, the sunbolt, and then, and then... It's too much. I'm definitely not saying that it should have been moody and slow, I'd preferred it if it was a tad longer maybe. I wasn't able to fully grasp this new world and what's going on in it. Why are different races bad(meaning Hitomi is like a sore thumb out on the streets), what's with the Kingdoms(even though one of them is actually not ruled by a king but by a sultan and then another one - by a prince?!) Also, a question very important for me - why is it that Intisar Khanani chose to write such a compelling female character, only to make her Asian, considering, after a short search, that Khanani is of Pakistani origin? I am a fan of Middle Eastern culture and I would have enjoyed reading about a strong female coming from that part of the world, as a change to the portrayal of weak and oppressed women in the Middle East that is fed to us daily.
The background of Hitomi's life just before the book and her relationship with the Ghost was also insufficient for me, I thought that there might be something going on between them and briefly there WAS something mentioned, but that story got lost among everything else. I was also rooting for Val later, but we didn't see much of him either, as he abruptly left and then the book abruptly ended.
In case you are not understanding me correctly: I was on the way of loving this book. I really was, and I'm really enthusiastic about reading the next one as well. I just wanted more from this one, too. That's why I have very high hopes that in the second book many of my questions are going to be answered. It's often hard and confusing at the beginning of the series and it gets better later on. But there are instances in which the first book is full of promise and it goes downhill from there, such as Poison Study series by Maria Snyder. In fact, I see many similarities between the two series: a completely new universe, certain people who possess magical abilities, dictatorship and evil-looking puppeteers in the background, a mysterious dark man with a bad reputation who joins forces with the main heroine. I'm really, really hoping that The Sunbolt Chronicles are going to kick a** all the way to the end, unlike the Poison Study series. It's ever so hard to find a good YA series and I'm maybe too enthusiastic about The Memories of Ash, as high expectations often lead to disappointment.