Reviews

Breath of Earth by Beth Cato

tinynavajo's review against another edition

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5.0

Breath of Earth was not what I was expecting and I'm so glad for that. It was amazing and it was magical and it was breathtaking. In an alternative universe, the United States of America and Japan are allies against China, working to conquer China for more territory. If you're looking for a book about earth magic, or magic of any kind, this is the book for you.

jessvm's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

silverhawk3799's review against another edition

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3.0

Not my typical fare, steampunk/alt reality etc. But I found I really got into the story and enjoyed the connections to history. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

se_wigget's review against another edition

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4.0

 
This alternative history/Steampunk novel is about the San Francisco earthquake in a different alternate reality—one involving geomancers and a union between the U. S. and Japan. It features a biracial heroine and a diverse cast. 
 
For a while I didn't feel in the mood for this novel. It's not easy for an anxiety-ridden mind to focus. 
40% into the book, I was finally really into it and thought: This is actually brilliant. It's original and a richly crafted world. It has a diverse cast and is quite feminist and even has a nonbinary character (but it's 1906 so without a label). I especially like the magical beings—or fantastics and Hidden Ones. 
 
And it sounds like the next book might be set in Portland, Oregon.... 

gnashchick's review against another edition

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4.0

Finished Breath of Earth by Beth Cato. It was a ton of fun to read and the characters were delightful. Geomancers! Selkies! Hidden Ones! Airships and clockworks, war and danger, near misses, bad guys, and total chaos. There's even a sweet romance with a touch of steam and I don't mean the airships. Cato added an addendum to the book with a brief breakdown between the actual SF earthquake and the fictional SF earthquake of the book. She kept many details of the historical disaster--little things like the opera our heroes attended before the quake--and when it came to the fantastical, she poured magic over everything. That was a nice addition, and I appreciated the amount of work that went into the novel.

Super glad that I have book two already because I want to hang out with all these wonderful characters for a bit longer, and meet some new ones.

kblincoln's review against another edition

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5.0

Dirigibles, alternate-San Francisco, giant hidden geomantic fantastics, and a lovely little romance between an engineer and a girl who is realizing the secret power she's kept hidden all this time is going to matter as San francisco is attacked and all the people she's ever known are torn away.

Ingrid has grown up with her Japanese "uncle" in a house of geomancers- men who can siphon energy from the earth and expell it into stones that act like batteries. There are difficult relations in this alternate San Francisco-- the Japanese and the U.S. have allied and Chinese in the U.S. are suffering as a result. This complicated set of racial relations is a solid basis for the story that I think sets it apart from your usual steampunkery adventure.

Ingrid and her new allies survive the fall of San Francisco, only to go after the culprits who initiated it. It's pretty much non-stop action. The scene that is sticking with me is Ingrid and her love interest, Cy, surviving a mad stampede of cattle. Very gory, quite startling.

I'll definitely be following Ingrid into her next adventure-- which I hear is in Portland! (it's like this book was made for me.)

mountaingirl88's review against another edition

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1.0

DNF at page 98. The story seemed interesting in the beginning, but now I'm bored. The pacing is too slow for my liking, and the main character is kind of all over the place with weird and unexplained abilities she's just discovering and mooning over a dude she literally just met.

bookishcreature's review

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  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.25

rachelini's review against another edition

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4.0

I loved the alt-history world that was created here and the development of the story. The romance felt a bit like an afterthought.

kriedesel's review against another edition

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1.0

This book just wasn’t for me at all.