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zoe_94's review against another edition
4.0
Eh bien franchement, j'ai bien aimé ce livre! Pourtant, je n'ai pas l'impression que l'on en parle beaucoup, et c'est très dommage. Ce qui m'a tout de suite emballée, c'est cette histoire de continents et pays propulsés dans différentes périodes historiques. Peut être que ça a déjà été fait, mais en tous les cas, moi, c'est la première fois que je lis un livre avec cette idée et je la trouve vachement cool! J'ai quand même eu un petit peu de mal à vraiment entrer dans l'histoire, mais je me suis ensuite laissé prendre au jeu et j'ai fini par bien accrocher et à apprécier les personnages. Bref, chouette lecture!
kristenremenar's review against another edition
4.0
Involved, intricate alternate history with a unique premise. Strong female lead, cool boy sidekick, pirates, pistols, adventure, no sex-drugs-rock-n-roll. Really cool!
cozycat's review against another edition
4.0
Great Fantasy adventure. The descriptions of the characters and the surroundings are amazing. Its a really cool book! Filled with moments of wonder and discovery. Great read can't wait for the next one .
After reading other reviews I'd thought I'd add a couple things that other readers pointed out :)
The bad guys in this book are pretty scary so parents may want to supervise their kids. Also with the many ages contained within this story it can provide parents with s good way to talk about culture differences and misunderstandings with their kids.
After reading other reviews I'd thought I'd add a couple things that other readers pointed out :)
The bad guys in this book are pretty scary so parents may want to supervise their kids. Also with the many ages contained within this story it can provide parents with s good way to talk about culture differences and misunderstandings with their kids.
jjbankhead's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
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? No
5.0
cimorene1558's review against another edition
5.0
Fantastic! As is splashed all over the cover in quotes from other authors, this is a very well-done fantasy world. It's a little bit Golden Compass and a little bit Thirteenth Child (by Patricia Wrede) and it's altogether terrific, and thank God, a complete story in itself, despite being book one of a trilogy.
em_harring's review against another edition
4.0
I want to read the second one immediately. Solid story, with great characters, and awesome world building. I recommend it!
paragraphsandpages's review against another edition
4.0
“Make of time what you want.”
Stars (Out of 10): 8.5/10
Overall Thoughts: I loved this book. I loved the idea of this book, of separated ages spread across the world, of time being much less of a rigid thing. I loved the way the story flowed, even though it traveled between ages. The characters were so different, but clicked together perfectly. And all the twists caught me off-guard, which are definitely my favorite kinds of twists. Overall, a great read, and I definitely recommend it!
SPOILERS BEGIN HERE
The Good: I loved so many things about this book. The story idea already intrigued me so much, and the way the author wrote it was amazing. The world building was definitely my favorite part, as how the Ages coexisted with each other was such a tough thing to do properly, but the way it was done was perfect. I loved reading the history and culture of each Age, and how that then affected the other Ages and their peoples.
The Bad: The book did drag at some points, especially near the beginning as it built up. This is definitely understandable, but made it hard to continue at some points.
The Characters: These were amazing. Almost no one was perfect, and yet everyone was interesting. We did not have the villain be inherently bad, nor the heroes be overly good. It was a perfect balance that added to a perfect conflict. The relationship between Theo and Sophia was definitely a rocky one, but one that made perfect sense. All the conflicts between characters seemed to be realistic as well, which added to how “absorbed” I was in the book.
The Plot: While I felt it was a bit slow at first, it completely picked up near beginning of Part 3, and kept me completely enraptured for the rest of the book. And all those twists! From the small twist Theo having a Mark of Iron, to Blanca being a Lacrima and the maps being about Sophia, I was shocked at every turn, and loved it! Definitely the best presentation of this story idea I could’ve thought of!
The World Building: This was absolutely phenomenal. The plot of the story made this task much harder, as not only did one world/Age have to be built, but millions of others. And on top of that, they all had to fit together! I thought the author did this phenomenally, spending enough time describing the culture and history of each Age without overdoing it, and I always felt like the world made sense.
The Favorite Character: I loved Calixta!
Buy it, Borrow it, or Bin it: Buy it! (The hardcover is beautiful!!!)
This review can also be found on my blog: https://paragraphsandpages.wordpress.com/
Stars (Out of 10): 8.5/10
Overall Thoughts: I loved this book. I loved the idea of this book, of separated ages spread across the world, of time being much less of a rigid thing. I loved the way the story flowed, even though it traveled between ages. The characters were so different, but clicked together perfectly. And all the twists caught me off-guard, which are definitely my favorite kinds of twists. Overall, a great read, and I definitely recommend it!
SPOILERS BEGIN HERE
The Good: I loved so many things about this book. The story idea already intrigued me so much, and the way the author wrote it was amazing. The world building was definitely my favorite part, as how the Ages coexisted with each other was such a tough thing to do properly, but the way it was done was perfect. I loved reading the history and culture of each Age, and how that then affected the other Ages and their peoples.
The Bad: The book did drag at some points, especially near the beginning as it built up. This is definitely understandable, but made it hard to continue at some points.
The Characters: These were amazing. Almost no one was perfect, and yet everyone was interesting. We did not have the villain be inherently bad, nor the heroes be overly good. It was a perfect balance that added to a perfect conflict. The relationship between Theo and Sophia was definitely a rocky one, but one that made perfect sense. All the conflicts between characters seemed to be realistic as well, which added to how “absorbed” I was in the book.
The Plot: While I felt it was a bit slow at first, it completely picked up near beginning of Part 3, and kept me completely enraptured for the rest of the book. And all those twists! From the small twist Theo having a Mark of Iron, to Blanca being a Lacrima and the maps being about Sophia, I was shocked at every turn, and loved it! Definitely the best presentation of this story idea I could’ve thought of!
The World Building: This was absolutely phenomenal. The plot of the story made this task much harder, as not only did one world/Age have to be built, but millions of others. And on top of that, they all had to fit together! I thought the author did this phenomenally, spending enough time describing the culture and history of each Age without overdoing it, and I always felt like the world made sense.
The Favorite Character: I loved Calixta!
Buy it, Borrow it, or Bin it: Buy it! (The hardcover is beautiful!!!)
This review can also be found on my blog: https://paragraphsandpages.wordpress.com/
brandypainter's review against another edition
3.0
Originally posted here at Random Musings of a Bibliophile.
The Glass Sentence by S.E. Grove is an ambitious fantasy with an intriguing concept.
The Glass Sentence is pretty much all about the world building. The world is complex. Complex in a way that the author felt the need to be extraordinarily detailed in its description. In fact, I found myself getting lost in the details and explanations and long dialogues about how things work. Not lost in a good way. I confess it. I was bored in several places. The world is fascinating in many ways. I was immediately intrigued by the Great Disruption and how it created different eras in different parts of the world so that it was difficult for international cooperation to work because no one was in the same era. The idea of all the different sorts of maps and their powers and legends was a bit much though as were the lessons full of dialogue where they were explained. So much exposition. So much info-dumping. Both of these things are somewhat necessary in a large scope fantasy world, but then again an author with a deft hand can convey reams of information with few words. Megan Whalen Turner has spoiled me I suppose, but I have little patience for books where the author feels their knowledge of the world and all of its small parts is so important that every minute detail needs to be shared with the reader in order for them to understand the story. I skimmed a lot here and got the story just fine.
The plot minus all the exposition is a good one if a tad predictable. (Predictable for an adult reader, probably not for child readers.) The politics, the mystery, the journey, and the working with maps is all a lot of fun. There are creepy bad guys, helpful pirates, and hidden things that must be found. It is a story where the kids take center stage without grown up supervision or interference for most of it. It would have been thoroughly engrossing if not for the details. Oh so many details.
What suffered the most from all those world building details? The character development. This is what made the book only average for me. I may have overlooked the amount of world building minutia if the characters had managed to crawl out from under it to shine. But for me they didn't. They are your basic caricatures of fantasy characters seen a thousand times with little development an no arcs.
I can see myself recommending this book to patient kids I know who love fantasy with intricate world-building, but it fell far short of being a favorite of mine. In a year where so many amazing MG fantasy novels came out and told amazing stories within fewer pages, this can't stand out for me.
The Glass Sentence by S.E. Grove is an ambitious fantasy with an intriguing concept.
The Glass Sentence is pretty much all about the world building. The world is complex. Complex in a way that the author felt the need to be extraordinarily detailed in its description. In fact, I found myself getting lost in the details and explanations and long dialogues about how things work. Not lost in a good way. I confess it. I was bored in several places. The world is fascinating in many ways. I was immediately intrigued by the Great Disruption and how it created different eras in different parts of the world so that it was difficult for international cooperation to work because no one was in the same era. The idea of all the different sorts of maps and their powers and legends was a bit much though as were the lessons full of dialogue where they were explained. So much exposition. So much info-dumping. Both of these things are somewhat necessary in a large scope fantasy world, but then again an author with a deft hand can convey reams of information with few words. Megan Whalen Turner has spoiled me I suppose, but I have little patience for books where the author feels their knowledge of the world and all of its small parts is so important that every minute detail needs to be shared with the reader in order for them to understand the story. I skimmed a lot here and got the story just fine.
The plot minus all the exposition is a good one if a tad predictable. (Predictable for an adult reader, probably not for child readers.) The politics, the mystery, the journey, and the working with maps is all a lot of fun. There are creepy bad guys, helpful pirates, and hidden things that must be found. It is a story where the kids take center stage without grown up supervision or interference for most of it. It would have been thoroughly engrossing if not for the details. Oh so many details.
What suffered the most from all those world building details? The character development. This is what made the book only average for me. I may have overlooked the amount of world building minutia if the characters had managed to crawl out from under it to shine. But for me they didn't. They are your basic caricatures of fantasy characters seen a thousand times with little development an no arcs.
I can see myself recommending this book to patient kids I know who love fantasy with intricate world-building, but it fell far short of being a favorite of mine. In a year where so many amazing MG fantasy novels came out and told amazing stories within fewer pages, this can't stand out for me.
atmorrell's review against another edition
5.0
The Glass Sentence is a unique middle grade fantasy--probably one of the most interesting and quirky premises I have read in a long time. As a former Geography major, I really enjoyed the use of maps and the different forms they took. I also really like the idea of a sort of bastardized "time travel" where different parts of the world are different ages.
The main character, Sophia, seemed really relatable to me, as well. I like that she was timid and emotional and didn't always make good choices. Most young teens are like that, but with most middle grade adventures it's like they suddenly burst from their shell as full-fledged, confident adults. Sophia's anxiety was a breath of fresh air.
What I didn't like about this book is the way the plot progressed. A lot of things seemed to just work themselves out and happen by chance, rather than through the actions of the characters. However the overall story is still very compelling despite some of those pitfalls.
The main character, Sophia, seemed really relatable to me, as well. I like that she was timid and emotional and didn't always make good choices. Most young teens are like that, but with most middle grade adventures it's like they suddenly burst from their shell as full-fledged, confident adults. Sophia's anxiety was a breath of fresh air.
What I didn't like about this book is the way the plot progressed. A lot of things seemed to just work themselves out and happen by chance, rather than through the actions of the characters. However the overall story is still very compelling despite some of those pitfalls.
hulahoopes's review against another edition
5.0
Simply marvelous! Well crafted world with endearing characters. The comparisons to Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy are interesting and in some ways accurate. Will be glad to read book 2.