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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
So I was wary of beginning this series, first because I had seen a lot of reviews about the cultural issues with the Japanese inspiration of the book, and then later because I know that Jay Kristoff doesn't believe in happy endings. However, I decided to go ahead and start it.
I actually ended up really enjoying it. It was a slow start as the world was established, as is the case with many fantasies, but once we got into the meat of the story, I loved it. Buruu is precious and must be protected at all costs (although I'm terrified that he will die by book 3) and Yukiko is a lovely protagonist who has a lot more depth than I initially anticipated.
I don't want to discount what I read about all the issues with the Japanese language being used incorrectly throughout the story and the stereotypical portrayal of different parts of the Japanese culture. I find this rather disappointing because I know that Jay has spent significant periods of time in other countries as he does research for and writes other books, and I would have hoped that he would have done enough research that this would have been a better reflection of the culture that he was drawing inspiration from.
However, despite any problematic usage of his inspiration source, I think that Jay Kristoff really shows his talents as a compelling story-teller. I feel like when I looked back and I was thinking about what actually happened over the course of the book, there wasn't some grand sweeping plot, but there were a lot of little moments that just added up into a very enjoyable story. I really appreciate that Yukiko isn't trying to save the world and isn't on a crusade for the environment or anything like that. She just wants to save her little family. It feels more authentic, and I can relate to it more than her going on a quest for the good of all mankind.
I am interested to see what happens over the course of the series and where all the characters end up. Fingers crossed that Yukiko and Buruu both make it out, but I don't know that I should hold my breath!
I actually ended up really enjoying it. It was a slow start as the world was established, as is the case with many fantasies, but once we got into the meat of the story, I loved it. Buruu is precious and must be protected at all costs (although I'm terrified that he will die by book 3) and Yukiko is a lovely protagonist who has a lot more depth than I initially anticipated.
I don't want to discount what I read about all the issues with the Japanese language being used incorrectly throughout the story and the stereotypical portrayal of different parts of the Japanese culture. I find this rather disappointing because I know that Jay has spent significant periods of time in other countries as he does research for and writes other books, and I would have hoped that he would have done enough research that this would have been a better reflection of the culture that he was drawing inspiration from.
However, despite any problematic usage of his inspiration source, I think that Jay Kristoff really shows his talents as a compelling story-teller. I feel like when I looked back and I was thinking about what actually happened over the course of the book, there wasn't some grand sweeping plot, but there were a lot of little moments that just added up into a very enjoyable story. I really appreciate that Yukiko isn't trying to save the world and isn't on a crusade for the environment or anything like that. She just wants to save her little family. It feels more authentic, and I can relate to it more than her going on a quest for the good of all mankind.
I am interested to see what happens over the course of the series and where all the characters end up. Fingers crossed that Yukiko and Buruu both make it out, but I don't know that I should hold my breath!
adventurous
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Eh not the worst thing I’ve ever read (at the moment wizard’s first rule wins that award), but pretty flawed.
As other comments mention, Kristoff seems to have gone more for the flavour of Japanese steampunk than decent historically inspired fantasy world building. Many aspects were just not explained or didn’t make sense, including the political system of the empire. It appeared to be a feudal system, which works with incorporating samurai and having peasant workers beholden to their lords. But then there were also unions explicitly mentioned? If the workers (which would include peasant farmers) are able to unionise under the laws of the country why haven’t they? And why is the Guild permitted such power by the emperor whose rule is absolute? Maybe these questions are answered later in the series, but at the moment it just seems to be bad world building.
(Also why are they using human blood as fertiliser? Just for the aesthetic? If the lotus needed food the sheer amount of human shit the capital city is producing would probably suffice. That plot point really needed more to back it up because at the moment it just makes no sense)
Additionally, the period of Japan it was emulating seemed quite unclear. There were samurai and salarymen walking around at the same time... to me at least the corporate wage-slave would exist under modern capitalism with large powerful businesses (which don’t appear to exist in stormdancer) and consumer culture, whereas the samurai wouldn’t. Again more trying to flavour a poorly thought out fantasy setting without coherent word building. I had this issue with his later work Nevernight, where aspects of Roman society (gladiator arenas, two consuls) were mingled with more modern/ medieval Italian stuff (Venetian masquerade) in an annoying way as if they were the exact same cultural thing, and in Stormdancer this distortion is even more pronounced.
The author just decided to splash in as many Japanese words and concepts as he could, often in the wrong context/ usage, as opposed to building his own inspired and coherent Japanese inspired world. It was just annoying. Either make your own or do your research, but Stormdancer just didn’t.
Another problem for me lies in the main character of Yukiko. She’s 16 and thinks constantly about boys and sex even when her life is in danger. Why? It isn’t necessary to the plot, nor really to her character. She seems silly and shallow because of it, which isn’t a good look for your badass female protagonist. I’m not saying that women don’t think about and enjoy sex/romance, but come on. She meets some guy for all of three seconds and then moons over him for the rest of the book as if she has nothing better to think about.
The two decent characters were probably Kin and Buruu. Kin because although he was basically a lonely nerd whose mad Yukiko liked someone else, he actually got over it instead of getting his revenge like I expected. And Buruu because i like stories where people befriend mythical creatures (even if he is a bland version of).
Plotwise, it’s fine. It fits into the ya teen girl starts a rebellion thing, but I appreciate that Yukiko wasn’t particularly interested in how it turned out and cared more for her family and friends.
It had a lot of potential to be enjoyable, but bad world building and flat characters sucked all the fun out of it.
As other comments mention, Kristoff seems to have gone more for the flavour of Japanese steampunk than decent historically inspired fantasy world building. Many aspects were just not explained or didn’t make sense, including the political system of the empire. It appeared to be a feudal system, which works with incorporating samurai and having peasant workers beholden to their lords. But then there were also unions explicitly mentioned? If the workers (which would include peasant farmers) are able to unionise under the laws of the country why haven’t they? And why is the Guild permitted such power by the emperor whose rule is absolute? Maybe these questions are answered later in the series, but at the moment it just seems to be bad world building.
(Also why are they using human blood as fertiliser? Just for the aesthetic? If the lotus needed food the sheer amount of human shit the capital city is producing would probably suffice. That plot point really needed more to back it up because at the moment it just makes no sense)
Additionally, the period of Japan it was emulating seemed quite unclear. There were samurai and salarymen walking around at the same time... to me at least the corporate wage-slave would exist under modern capitalism with large powerful businesses (which don’t appear to exist in stormdancer) and consumer culture, whereas the samurai wouldn’t. Again more trying to flavour a poorly thought out fantasy setting without coherent word building. I had this issue with his later work Nevernight, where aspects of Roman society (gladiator arenas, two consuls) were mingled with more modern/ medieval Italian stuff (Venetian masquerade) in an annoying way as if they were the exact same cultural thing, and in Stormdancer this distortion is even more pronounced.
The author just decided to splash in as many Japanese words and concepts as he could, often in the wrong context/ usage, as opposed to building his own inspired and coherent Japanese inspired world. It was just annoying. Either make your own or do your research, but Stormdancer just didn’t.
Another problem for me lies in the main character of Yukiko. She’s 16 and thinks constantly about boys and sex even when her life is in danger. Why? It isn’t necessary to the plot, nor really to her character. She seems silly and shallow because of it, which isn’t a good look for your badass female protagonist. I’m not saying that women don’t think about and enjoy sex/romance, but come on. She meets some guy for all of three seconds and then moons over him for the rest of the book as if she has nothing better to think about.
The two decent characters were probably Kin and Buruu. Kin because although he was basically a lonely nerd whose mad Yukiko liked someone else, he actually got over it instead of getting his revenge like I expected. And Buruu because i like stories where people befriend mythical creatures (even if he is a bland version of).
Plotwise, it’s fine. It fits into the ya teen girl starts a rebellion thing, but I appreciate that Yukiko wasn’t particularly interested in how it turned out and cared more for her family and friends.
It had a lot of potential to be enjoyable, but bad world building and flat characters sucked all the fun out of it.
One of the most anticipaded reads this year, brought by Jay Kristoff. It got steampunk, Japan, griffins, who wouldn't be excited to read about it!
Well, pity the book did not live up to my expectations.
Stormdancer follows Yukiko Kyuubi, descendant of the Fox Clan, in the impossible quest of finding and capturing an arishitora (basically a griffin), though they are believed extinct.
The phasing was a bit slow, since the author takes a lot of pages to try to explain everything. But once Yukiko finds the griffin the story does take off.
The characterization was good, how Yukiko and Buruu's relationship developed was cute.
But all is overshadowed by Kristoff's poor research, because reading Wikipedia and some manga is NOT research; the story was good, the characterization was good, but the cultural mistakes were disastrous, and I don't even know that much about Japanese culture, yet even I know that -sama is a suffix, hai is not literally yes, that 'I love you' in Japanese is Aishiteru, and that bowing got different "degrees". Sometimes he even confused Japan with China!
I hope Kristoff does some real research for his next book, otherwise I don't think I'll keep reading this trilogy (it's a trilogy, hai?)
Well, pity the book did not live up to my expectations.
Stormdancer follows Yukiko Kyuubi, descendant of the Fox Clan, in the impossible quest of finding and capturing an arishitora (basically a griffin), though they are believed extinct.
The phasing was a bit slow, since the author takes a lot of pages to try to explain everything. But once Yukiko finds the griffin the story does take off.
The characterization was good, how Yukiko and Buruu's relationship developed was cute.
But all is overshadowed by Kristoff's poor research, because reading Wikipedia and some manga is NOT research; the story was good, the characterization was good, but the cultural mistakes were disastrous, and I don't even know that much about Japanese culture, yet even I know that -sama is a suffix, hai is not literally yes, that 'I love you' in Japanese is Aishiteru, and that bowing got different "degrees". Sometimes he even confused Japan with China!
I hope Kristoff does some real research for his next book, otherwise I don't think I'll keep reading this trilogy (it's a trilogy, hai?)
⭐️4.5⭐️ because I am incapable of the commitment that comes with giving a book 5⭐️
A mix n' match fantasy novel. Sub-Tolkein (there's Orcs, though they go by another name), sub-Dune, and a sprinkling of just about every other recent F-novel you've read with a 'feisty' heroine. Add a handful of Japanesy key-words - oh! hey! there's a nightingale floor! How cool is that? - and we have *exotic* fantasy.
I don't object to the 'cultural appropriation': it's not like the author has ripped anyone off. I can't imagine anyone reading this to find out about Japan.
The pacing is odd: the author takes a long time on inessentials, and then rushes through the development of crucial relationships. And much of the time the heroine seems distracted because - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPRy1B4t5YA
DNF
I don't object to the 'cultural appropriation': it's not like the author has ripped anyone off. I can't imagine anyone reading this to find out about Japan.
The pacing is odd: the author takes a long time on inessentials, and then rushes through the development of crucial relationships. And much of the time the heroine seems distracted because - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPRy1B4t5YA
DNF
It was a slow start but once Buruu, the arishitora aka the stormtiger (yes, he is as badass as it sounds) shows up the story pick up quickly. I love the bond that develops between Buruu and Yukiko. It’s not like anything I have ever read before. Reading about the way Yukiko and Buruu evolve due to their bond was fascinating. I can’t wait to see how their bond grows and evokes in the rest of the series. While This book wasn’t nearly as good as Kristoff’s other books, I still enjoyed the story.
I’ve owned this book for some years now. Initially I found it so-so, I almost put it aside thinking it would clash with my audio (Poppy War) but I’m glad I didn’t as it shaped up nicely. Plus who doesn’t love a Storm-Tiger?!