Reviews tagging 'Death'

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: The Druid's Call by E.K. Johnston

8 reviews

inkcharm's review

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adventurous inspiring lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Overall I wanted to like this book more than I did. The plot is fine, and Doric is a great character, but ultimately the book as a whole falls flat due to the writing style. We're meandering our way through so much telling instead of showing. Rarely will you feel transported into the story, setting r character's state of mind; instead you will be told things with the briefest of brushstrokes. 

Worth a read only if you're interested in more of the character's backstory, decidedly not a great book on it's own - especially as the overall plot is merely setup for the movie and therefore remains largely unsolved and open in this novel.
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the_reading_wren's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

Great story with a lot of interesting reflections on trauma and healing. 
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rxanne5's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I loved the movie and this character, I decided to read this book.

I typically like a lot of action and drama happening. The first half of this book, for my feeling didn't happen as much. That is why this book put me in a bit of a reading slump and I kept putting it off.

However, I loved the second half of this book. More action, character development, interaction with characters. I loved getting to know Doric as a character more as well. I think it is beautifully written and worth a shot if you're thinking of reading this book.

It wasn't anything special, but it wasn't bad. Just took some time getting into it.
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y3llow_umbr3lla's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring reflective 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

5.0

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emohell's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

2.0

this was cute! didn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to, but it was nice to get some more insight into Doric’s character. 
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lizgriffinwords's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful lighthearted 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? It's complicated

4.75

A charming and tender-hearted fantasy with excellent found-family vibes. Doric longs to belong and, like many of us, tries to prove her usefulness in order to deserve that belonging, only to discover the love of her guardian was freely given all along. Plus a diverse cast that is worthy of many an adventuring party!

Note: I am baseline familiar with D&D and have seen the movie D&D: Honor Among Thieves. Those who aren’t familiar with any D&D concepts or creatures may need to look more things up (ie what a firbolg looks like). Additionally, I’m glad I saw the movie first, as it made the brief interactions with Simon extra hilarious.
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jazhandz's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I’ve read some of EK Johnston’s Star Wars stuff, which is so rigorously cross-checked for canon compliance that it really caught me off guard how inconsistent this book is with the movie. There’s not much of a plot to speak of here, and the plot that is here doesn’t make much sense, but it’s a fun vibey character study. I could read Johnston write about weird magic forever.
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kenmarable's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Quick version:
It was a really enjoyable story of Doric's origins and learning to be a druid that would otherwise be a 5 star review except for some really shoehorned in movie links and an unresolved major plot point (again, maybe to leave it for the movie?)

Longer version:
This was a entertaining and emotional story of Doric finding a home and learning to be a druid that I thoroughly enjoyed! She is a fun character and has a believable and well written growth arc that is the focus of the story. The secondary characters are all enjoyable even if they don't all get much depth which makes sense given the length of the story and focus on Doric. Also, having read a lot of D&D novels in the past, this is the best one I've come across that explores becoming and being a druid, an often overlooked character type in the other novels.

The audiobook narration is also incredible with distinctive but not distracting voices, and solid emotional range!

However, there are two things that shift this from "a really great book" to "a really great book BUT..." and the first is the obvious links to the movie. When
Simon the sorcerer
first appears, it actually works rather well with the story. The other appearances or mentions on top of obvious movie references are so forced and tangential to the actual plot that even Doric mentions how forgettable they are! Given how solid the rest of the writing is, it feels very much like pieces forced in by editorial decree after the book was already written. Thankfully they are small and pass quickly, but they are jarring enough to momentarily knock me out of the story. Certainly not nearly so much to ruin it, but enough to keep it from being 5 stars.

Secondly, and this might be a movie thing as well, but I haven't seen it yet, is that
a larger plot issue builds to a climax for the final resolution and... it just ends. Again, maybe this is just to set stuff up for the movie, I don't know. But the plot just sort of ends in a way that doesn't even feel like "and this is just the beginning" or "ambiguous ending" or anything as much as feeling like a couple chapters were just edited out.
Hopefully, it's just a set up of something to be resolved in the movie, but either way, it was more jarring than the other shoe-horned movie links (which just amounted to a sentence or paragraph here and there, so they breeze by bumpily but quickly).

However, if go into this knowing that it is a CHARACTER ARC story and that the plot is secondary, then it is very enjoyable and fun read that helps you really understand Doric well!
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