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4.29 AVERAGE
4.29 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
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
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was a very solid story of a soldier. There's very little magic, just a lot of instinct and strategy. The tale itself is really only about 1/4 about battle, even in the midst of war. Solid grit based soldier's story. Adds in pretty good world building, and the promise of something more in later books.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Juste waouh ! Ce roman est tout simplement génial ! L'univers est incroyablement bien construit, et les personnages sont aussi complexes qu'attachant. L'auteur nous parle d'amitié, d'amour et d'honneur mais aussi de cruauté, de peur des autres et de trahison. Je me suis sentie grandir avec les personnages et chacune de leurs épreuves m'a marquée tout autant qu'eux..
A poignant, riveting, page-turning coming of age tale and beyond. Much more than I expected from a typical fantasy novel. I expected good entertainment, and I got a deliciously sensitive ride along with a young boy on a difficult path.
A list of things that I personally think make it hard for a writer. Writing several third person perspectives, you have to spread your time between characters and balance their time in the limelight so it doesn't diminish others or be out shown and thus less interesting than the others. Multiple first person perspectives where not only do you have to do the above, but also have distinct enough voices that you don't feel like you're reading the same person in multiple bodies. Flashbacks, because we know where the character is going to end up. Seriously, I don't get why so many stories are flashbacks now. Do you know how good you have to be in order to weave a tale where I will care about the past of a character? I know where he ends up, I don't need or want details of how he got there. In order for this to work the character has to come across as incredibly interesting or have a back story that I'm interested in, like Vicious I was alright with the Flashback format because I'm interested in villain back story. Here? Generic over thrower brought down that is praised by someone who should hate him (so obviously is really a "good" guy) and hated by a guy who only knows him by reputation, in other words who will probably be swayed to at least respect him by the end of the story.
Yeah, that's not interesting, and after reading all this, my reaction is "what was so important in the back story that I just had to know?" Because this had no reason to be in flashback mode. Let's get something clear, The Name of the Wind only got away with this because the character was, well yes a gary-stuish character, but he still did a lot of dumb shit and instead of the back story being irrelevant, him telling the story to the guy writing it down seems irrelevant. Basically I don't like the whole, "contrive a way for the main character to talk to a historian to have his story told".
That said, well, one, the story is not bad. I thought it was ok. I know that's a low rating, but goodreads says ok is two stars, so, sorry. But Vaelin is not an interesting character. None of his friends are very interesting. None of the women or masters or magic is very interesting. Oh, it's all serviceable and they do their jobs well enough, but this just doesn't grab my attention. In a list of books that I want to strangle for being "quirky" and telling their stories with oddball characters in skewed situations, this seemed very happy to follow the post scribe script of what a great hero in a dirty, gritty book should go through and didn't really stray or bring up anything really of merit. That said, I found the fact that the first person perspective was when we were in the moment of when the writer is writing this down and third person was when Vaelin was telling his story. It allowed for us to know the truth when he lied to the recorder, but still, it was an interesting stylistic choice.
That said, for Epic, High fantasy this is totally worth a read. As I said, nothing really new or attention grabbing, but it might be that I just don't have a personality that fit any of the characters well enough that I could get into and engrossed in the story. The first book is worth a read if you're into this sort of fantasy to at least see if it is something you enjoy.
Yeah, that's not interesting, and after reading all this, my reaction is "what was so important in the back story that I just had to know?" Because this had no reason to be in flashback mode. Let's get something clear, The Name of the Wind only got away with this because the character was, well yes a gary-stuish character, but he still did a lot of dumb shit and instead of the back story being irrelevant, him telling the story to the guy writing it down seems irrelevant. Basically I don't like the whole, "contrive a way for the main character to talk to a historian to have his story told".
That said, well, one, the story is not bad. I thought it was ok. I know that's a low rating, but goodreads says ok is two stars, so, sorry. But Vaelin is not an interesting character. None of his friends are very interesting. None of the women or masters or magic is very interesting. Oh, it's all serviceable and they do their jobs well enough, but this just doesn't grab my attention. In a list of books that I want to strangle for being "quirky" and telling their stories with oddball characters in skewed situations, this seemed very happy to follow the post scribe script of what a great hero in a dirty, gritty book should go through and didn't really stray or bring up anything really of merit. That said, I found the fact that the first person perspective was when we were in the moment of when the writer is writing this down and third person was when Vaelin was telling his story. It allowed for us to know the truth when he lied to the recorder, but still, it was an interesting stylistic choice.
That said, for Epic, High fantasy this is totally worth a read. As I said, nothing really new or attention grabbing, but it might be that I just don't have a personality that fit any of the characters well enough that I could get into and engrossed in the story. The first book is worth a read if you're into this sort of fantasy to at least see if it is something you enjoy.
Still a five out of five stars for me. I absolutely love this book!!
I just... I'm still in shock at how fantastic this book was. I couldn't put it down - I would lay in bed, tossing and turning, wondering about Vaelin and the world in which he lives. Ryan does an epically good job with the worldbuilding and character building - the world feels real, with specific rules, laws, etc. that carry across logically, like the best worldbuilding fantasy holds. Overall, one of my highest recommendations for fantasy lovers, and I'm officially a massive Anthony Ryan fan.