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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I think this might be my favourite world that Kova has come up with! I’m starting to realize I’m a fan of steampunk haha. Love the concept of a world in the sky and one below. The characters so far are excellent - Ari gives me huge Celaena vibes, if you’ve read Throne of Glass by SJM, and I am living for the relationship between Ari and Florence, such a great friendship there. The banter between Ari and Cvareh is sometimes hostile but also fun, poor dragon is probably going to fall in love ahahaha. I feel like this book is very well balanced, the plot is action packed and fast but there is a good amount of politics and moments with the characters that allows to reader to grasp the complexities of both the world and the characters in it.
My only qualm is that sometimes I felt like some scenes that could’ve been interesting (like following Ari around when she disappears hahaha) were skipped over due to a POV change. It just made me sometimes wonder why did she disappear, how did she get there now, etc lol.
Content warnings: cannibalism (nothing that crazy just dragons gain power by eating their foes heart…), violence, death/murder, organ trafficking, racism (between dragons and Fenthri/chimera).
A huge thanks to the author and Book of Matches Media for the e-copy for review. All opinions are my own.
My only qualm is that sometimes I felt like some scenes that could’ve been interesting (like following Ari around when she disappears hahaha) were skipped over due to a POV change. It just made me sometimes wonder why did she disappear, how did she get there now, etc lol.
Content warnings: cannibalism (nothing that crazy just dragons gain power by eating their foes heart…), violence, death/murder, organ trafficking, racism (between dragons and Fenthri/chimera).
A huge thanks to the author and Book of Matches Media for the e-copy for review. All opinions are my own.
OMG this was weird as hell. Cover looked cool but story was nothing special.
There's dragons in this but very different from what fantasy usually has. The MC is a Chimera, i.e., she's made up of dragon parts. (The dragons are humanoid beings and not flying winged creatures). If you cut off a part of a dragon, it regrows that part (omg so much gore).
It should've been more interesting, but the whole vampiric sub plot between Savare and Auri was forcefully introduced, even though you have no vampires in the story. Your characters should not fall in love because of the vampiric subplot you've put in. Baaaaaad!
TW: Blood, gore, killing, eating hearts, regrowing body parts, just lots of blood.
Florence was a good character. That is all!
There's dragons in this but very different from what fantasy usually has. The MC is a Chimera, i.e., she's made up of dragon parts. (The dragons are humanoid beings and not flying winged creatures). If you cut off a part of a dragon, it regrows that part (omg so much gore).
It should've been more interesting, but the whole vampiric sub plot between Savare and Auri was forcefully introduced, even though you have no vampires in the story. Your characters should not fall in love because of the vampiric subplot you've put in. Baaaaaad!
TW: Blood, gore, killing, eating hearts, regrowing body parts, just lots of blood.
Florence was a good character. That is all!
I'm vacillating on this book. Some aspects of it I absolutely adored. But I also found it painfully slow at times and was disappointed to find that it didn't wrap up nicely in the end. It's not a precipitous cliffhanger, but it's not really and ending either.
On the positive side of the equation, I found that once I had enough information to understand what was happening (and this took a while) I liked the world and the characters. There is a lot going on here, with the large, multi-cultured world and several races. I appreciated that the romantic subplot was slow to develop and didn't take over the plot when it did. And I think most of the writing was really lovely. It got a little purple at times, but mostly it was quite lyrical and a pleasure to read. Oh, and the cover is Awesome!
This was the first book by Kova I've read, but I'd be well up for another one.
On the positive side of the equation, I found that once I had enough information to understand what was happening (and this took a while) I liked the world and the characters. There is a lot going on here, with the large, multi-cultured world and several races. I appreciated that the romantic subplot was slow to develop and didn't take over the plot when it did. And I think most of the writing was really lovely. It got a little purple at times, but mostly it was quite lyrical and a pleasure to read. Oh, and the cover is Awesome!
This was the first book by Kova I've read, but I'd be well up for another one.
adventurous
medium-paced
(This is listed as a YA book, but I think it's more New Adult, because while there's definitely a slight hint of romance, there's no love triangle, and it's not the focus of the book.)
I borrowed this as an audiobook from Hoopla. It is narrated by a pair of narrators, Erin Moon and Tim Campbell. I liked the two narrators, and both were good at having multiple voices for different characters, but the POV change seemed random. However, because they state the name of the POV character before launching into that section, I think this was more on the author than on the narrators. I did like that the POV change mostly stays in the same area or comes at a logical breaking point; unlike some POV change High Fantasy stories, there were only a handful of POV characters, and they were mostly all in the same city. It didn't bug me as much as POV changes in other situations have bugged me, is what I'm saying.
Oddly, Erin Moon mispronounces words several times that she pronounces correctly elsewhere. This happened multiple times. For instance, she pronounced "sconce" as "scone" but pronounced it correctly elsewhere. A "reevo" was pronounced "rehvo" just once; "Sophie" was pronounced "Sophia" another time. (There were more instances; these are just the ones I remember.) It was jarring, to say the least.
Another thing that made this book a little difficult to understand is that while there is an info dump explaining the two races, it doesn't happen immediately. So Ari is attempting to fight Cvareh, a "dragon", but it's not until a few chapters later that we get an explanation that "dragons" are nothing like what you imagine--they have claws and fangs and magic, sure, but they're mostly humanoid apart from those features. "Dragon riders" are these "dragons" who ride magical gliders. There's nothing of Pern here, is what I'm getting at. (The book even lampshades this.)
Also, the author couldn't decide what color Ari's eyes were. They were purplish for sure, but they were called so many different shades, it read like the author opened the thesaurus to "purple" and was like "purple prose is a no-go? CHALLENGE ACCEPTED" and then was like "haha I am so punny". It wasn't a huge issue, but it was something I think an editor should have asked about. Also also, the book takes place over the course of several weeks/months, per the characters' own statements, but it definitely doesn't read like that. If you told me it took place over the course of 1-2 weeks, that seemed much more plausible. Minor quibbles, tho.
I wouldn't say this book ends with a cliffhanger, but it's definitely not a completed story. Florence is clearly just coming into her own; Ari has a backstory that was deftly hinted at but not completely explained; I would not be surprised if Cvareh ended up having some secrets as well. Also, despite being in the title, the Alchemists don't show up until almost the end of the story.
It was, however, extremely compelling to listen to, and I really liked the characters. It was new and interesting and quite different than most of the other stuff that gets published, trying to be "the next Twilight" or "the next Harry Potter". It's closest in tone to Philip Reeve's Fever Crumb books, in my opinion, which have a similar theme of guilds of engineers and a race of those who believe themselves superior and a main character who's more than she seems (of course she is! she's the main character, that's how these things work).
Will I listen to or read the sequel? Maybe. I think I'd be more likely to read it rather than listen to it, as this audiobook was a whopping 10+ hours long, which was a little too long for my tastes. I prefer to get through stories more quickly! I did like the author, and will look for more by her.
I borrowed this as an audiobook from Hoopla. It is narrated by a pair of narrators, Erin Moon and Tim Campbell. I liked the two narrators, and both were good at having multiple voices for different characters, but the POV change seemed random. However, because they state the name of the POV character before launching into that section, I think this was more on the author than on the narrators. I did like that the POV change mostly stays in the same area or comes at a logical breaking point; unlike some POV change High Fantasy stories, there were only a handful of POV characters, and they were mostly all in the same city. It didn't bug me as much as POV changes in other situations have bugged me, is what I'm saying.
Oddly, Erin Moon mispronounces words several times that she pronounces correctly elsewhere. This happened multiple times. For instance, she pronounced "sconce" as "scone" but pronounced it correctly elsewhere. A "reevo" was pronounced "rehvo" just once; "Sophie" was pronounced "Sophia" another time. (There were more instances; these are just the ones I remember.) It was jarring, to say the least.
Another thing that made this book a little difficult to understand is that while there is an info dump explaining the two races, it doesn't happen immediately. So Ari is attempting to fight Cvareh, a "dragon", but it's not until a few chapters later that we get an explanation that "dragons" are nothing like what you imagine--they have claws and fangs and magic, sure, but they're mostly humanoid apart from those features. "Dragon riders" are these "dragons" who ride magical gliders. There's nothing of Pern here, is what I'm getting at. (The book even lampshades this.)
Also, the author couldn't decide what color Ari's eyes were. They were purplish for sure, but they were called so many different shades, it read like the author opened the thesaurus to "purple" and was like "purple prose is a no-go? CHALLENGE ACCEPTED" and then was like "haha I am so punny". It wasn't a huge issue, but it was something I think an editor should have asked about. Also also, the book takes place over the course of several weeks/months, per the characters' own statements, but it definitely doesn't read like that. If you told me it took place over the course of 1-2 weeks, that seemed much more plausible. Minor quibbles, tho.
I wouldn't say this book ends with a cliffhanger, but it's definitely not a completed story. Florence is clearly just coming into her own; Ari has a backstory that was deftly hinted at but not completely explained; I would not be surprised if Cvareh ended up having some secrets as well. Also, despite being in the title, the Alchemists don't show up until almost the end of the story.
It was, however, extremely compelling to listen to, and I really liked the characters. It was new and interesting and quite different than most of the other stuff that gets published, trying to be "the next Twilight" or "the next Harry Potter". It's closest in tone to Philip Reeve's Fever Crumb books, in my opinion, which have a similar theme of guilds of engineers and a race of those who believe themselves superior and a main character who's more than she seems (of course she is! she's the main character, that's how these things work).
Will I listen to or read the sequel? Maybe. I think I'd be more likely to read it rather than listen to it, as this audiobook was a whopping 10+ hours long, which was a little too long for my tastes. I prefer to get through stories more quickly! I did like the author, and will look for more by her.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
tense
medium-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
ari is kaz and inej’s child. god this was amazing! the world building, the character, the tension….
everything was so unique and well written, I had a great time
everything was so unique and well written, I had a great time