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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
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
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
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
one DNF two years ago + three months of slow reading this = somehow i love this book? phedre is a baddie BDSM courtesan and also a spy, discovers a plot that threatens her country, political intrigue ensues. morally complex and sexy with rich worldbuilding. pick it up if you don’t mind something long and slow with a touch of purple prose. don’t worry about keeping your head around all the names, you’ll figure it out by the end.
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I can’t believe I read this whole book before I looked at the page count but more importantly I can’t believe that I’m considering reading the sequels
It took me a little while to get into this book, I suspect because I'd just read all of the Earth's Children series, and was used to everything being repeated all the time. Jacqueline Carey does not repeat stuff all the time - she assumes her readers have a brain, and mine was languishing in a train-oil state.
Continued reading revived my cognitive functions though, and I wound up reading the last quarter in one go, thinking "I'll just do one more chapter, then I'll sleep... oh well, they're short chapters, just another... wait why is it light outside?"
The short chapters go very well with my reading style (when I'm not obsessively bingeing - then they're just enablers), the characters, although a bit two-dimensional, were on the whole enjoyable to read, and the one thing that kind of threw me was how close so much of it was to real-world inspiration. It meant I kept looking for parallels in the bits that weren't - assuming Alba to be Scotland and Terra D'Ange England, my brain couldn't grok the geography of them. A map might've been good. Or a brain that doesn't go "well x is obviously real-world-x, so y must me... waiddaminute"
Continued reading revived my cognitive functions though, and I wound up reading the last quarter in one go, thinking "I'll just do one more chapter, then I'll sleep... oh well, they're short chapters, just another... wait why is it light outside?"
The short chapters go very well with my reading style (when I'm not obsessively bingeing - then they're just enablers), the characters, although a bit two-dimensional, were on the whole enjoyable to read, and the one thing that kind of threw me was how close so much of it was to real-world inspiration. It meant I kept looking for parallels in the bits that weren't - assuming Alba to be Scotland and Terra D'Ange England, my brain couldn't grok the geography of them. A map might've been good. Or a brain that doesn't go "well x is obviously real-world-x, so y must me... waiddaminute"
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-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:
Yes
I loved this book. The political machinations, worthy of game of thrones. The balance of description, of battle, of sex, of hardship, of pain.. she describes only so much as you need to understand but never feels like she goes on too long about anything. I liked the light touch of magic, I liked trying to connect each of the nation states to where they might be in “real” life. Liked where it met and also departed from history and myth that I know. Idk it was great
slow-paced
adventurous
dark
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:
Yes