Reviews

Czas Żniw by Samantha Shannon

rihcochet's review against another edition

4.0

woahhh le banger! goodreads met que je le lis depuis le 19 mars mais en vrai de chez vrai je le lis depuis décembre dernier désolée ines <3
l'univers est fou, tout est super bien cousu et les personnages sont super attachants et dimensionnels. j'adore la relation entre paige et arcturus et l'évolution qu'il y a eu a été giga bien rythmée !!!! le début était vraiment lent mais vers les 25% j'arrivais plus à lâcher le livre. je sens un brainrot qui arrive je suis pas prête, j'ai tellement hâte d'en découvrir plus!! arcturus mon amour j'espère qu'on le reverra tôt dans le tome 2 svp flemme de tolérer l'autre nick là il sens mal
bref écoutez les conseils d'ines she never misses je t'aime fortfort si tu passes par là <3

caramisha's review against another edition

I simply do not care about any of this.

evibuzz's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

severine_fg's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.0

healreads's review against another edition

4.0

4.5

Excellent, j’ai adoré le worldbuilding, le slowburn, le mélange de fantasy/dystopie avec de la magie vraiment c’était trop bien. Enfin une bonne fantasy adulte qui ne me fait pas décrocher de ma lecture.
Lisez la nouvelle (le tome 1.5) pour mieux comprendre la relation entre les Sceaux mais lisez le après le tome 1.

eawortman's review against another edition

3.0

I liked the premise, but I wasn't a fan of the writing. The book was hard to follow and felt disjointed. More than once I had to go back and check if I had missed something. The only character I even liked much was

Spoiler

Arcturus. He was the only one with a compelling story. I cared far more about him than I did for the main character Paige. To me, Paige was among the most annoying characters in the entire book, and that's not good when she is the sole point of view.

All in all I am in no hurry to read another one, but maybe I will some day. I'm curious what happens to

Spoiler

Arcturus after all.

zoer77's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

owlsreads's review against another edition

adventurous tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

First read: 11-14 May 2016
Reread: 10 June 2024

Okay! Very glad to have picked up the revised edition since I had a wonderful time reading this. Apparently, very different from my experience in 2016.

I still loved the world-building and how detailed it was. Shannon did a fantastic job at introducing and developing all elements and I didn't find it as heavy this time around--I have years and years more experience with reading about complex worlds like this one :D This meant I was hooked instantly by the story and had a hard time putting the book down!

The time jumps weren't choppy at all this time, though I wasn't a big fan of them? I did appreciate that they gave us more about Paige and her story, but... eh. I wish we could have gotten that information in some other way.

The best thing about the revised text was that it totally changed Warden as a character for me! I liked him so much more in this reread and felt his journey and development throughout the story to be very intriguing and engaging. This leads me to my other big big positive about the new edition:

Shannon removed any and all mentions of slavery as part of the world-building and story. I'm not sure if I would have liked that to be addressed publicly in some way by the author (I don't know if she did clarify it or not), but it was still such a good call. That was my biggest problem with the book, its plot, and the romance and not have to read about a slave slowly coming to trust and like her master was A+. As such, I bump my rating to 4 stars for growth!

2016 Review:
3 stars.
 
*
 

 “Knowledge is dangerous. Once you know something, you can't get rid of it. You have to carry it. Always.”

 
The Bone Season was… a lot. It was almost 500 pages of this intense, incredibly complex, and dark story. There was just so much packed into this first installment, so many things to keep track of, that I had to be very careful with my reading to make sure I understood everything that was going on. That made this a rather heavy book for me, mostly because it forced me to really pay attention to everything. That said…

The world-building in this was amazing!!! It was so extensive and, while it was a bit hard to follow at times, it made the story so rich. And, in my opinion, it was done really really well, because there was not a moment in which I thought it was taking away from the plot.

It took me a little while to really get into the story, mostly because of what I said above. But as I learned about this new world and immersed myself in it, I was hooked. The Bone Season did an amazing job at grasping my attention and keeping me invested, even through the most difficult parts.

The jumps in timeline did seem a bit choppy to me, though. Some passages were in the present time, while others went as far back to Paige’s childhood, and there was a bit of how she came to work in the criminal Underworld. They disrupted the flow of the story a little, and a couple of them felt unnecessary.

A little bit about Paige: she was actually a great character most of the time. She had her strengths, which she was not afraid to use if it meant surviving another day, but she also had her weaknesses. One of those weaknesses was that she put her self-worth in the hands of other people. She didn’t think she was anything more than her gift unless someone else loved her. That was something I struggled a bit with, but hopefully that will turn into something she overcomes as her character develops throughout the series.

As for the other characters, Warden was probably the one I had most problems with. It was clear we were supposed to both distrust him and feel sympathetic towards him as the plot progressed, but I just disliked him. He was Paige’s master and he violated her privacy and stripped her of her agency so many times along the way that I honestly just wanted her to leave him to die, basically.

So you can guess that I also had a huge problem with the romance.  This was Paige, as a slave, who fell in love with Warden, her master.  I have no idea what made the author think this was a good idea. And I don’t know why none of her editors stopped her and pointed out why this kind of thing was Not Okay.

Overall, The Bone Season is a book that will take you to a whole new and imaginative world, if you don’t frustrate easily and have the patience to focus on the very extensive world-building. The ending is action packed, and despite the Very Bad romance, it is still an enjoyable read with a lot of potential. I’m curious about where this is going, enough so that I will pick up the next book: both because I want to figure out what happens, but also because I want to see where this train-wreck romance is going. 

jess_shortman1's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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

4.5

bstayslay's review against another edition

3.5

I see great potential in these books but the world building felt a little dense and clumsy, which is what knocked it down a bit for me. Considering this was a debut from a college kid though it was solid and fun.