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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
I really liked the Oressa sections, but I can see why the author decided Gulien ones were required to tell the story as well.
(Disclaimer: I received this free book from the author. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
I am going to list the five reasons why I think you should read this book!
1- The relationship between the two siblings
2- They're grappling with a really hard question about how to be a good ruler
3- The world building is fascinating
4- During the book we have to challenge our expectations about our 'enemy'
5- The plot is so twisty
Characters: 4, World: 4, Plot: 5, Writing: 4
full review: https://utopia-state-of-mind.com/review-the-mountain-of-kept-memory-by-rachel-neumeier/
I am going to list the five reasons why I think you should read this book!
1- The relationship between the two siblings
2- They're grappling with a really hard question about how to be a good ruler
3- The world building is fascinating
4- During the book we have to challenge our expectations about our 'enemy'
5- The plot is so twisty
Characters: 4, World: 4, Plot: 5, Writing: 4
full review: https://utopia-state-of-mind.com/review-the-mountain-of-kept-memory-by-rachel-neumeier/
DNF @ 120 pages.
This started off promising, but the more that I read the more bored I grew with the plot and the characters. Oressa, the female POV, was infuriatingly annoying. She was talked like an uppity damsel in distress which Neumier made worse by italicizing TOO MANY FUCKING WORDS.
This started off promising, but the more that I read the more bored I grew with the plot and the characters. Oressa, the female POV, was infuriatingly annoying. She was talked like an uppity damsel in distress which Neumier made worse by italicizing TOO MANY FUCKING WORDS.
About 20 pages in, this book went from "I have no idea what's going on" to "I still have no idea what's going on, but I need to find out right now, why can't I read faster?"
I picked this one up because it was recommended to someone else as a mix of Guy Gavriel Kay and Robin McKinley so how could I not? Neumeier shares Kay's sense of carefully constructing countries in conflict and McKinley's precision in deploying romance that is both subsidiary to the plot and enmeshed in it. But this is very much its own book as well - Neumeier's interest in articulating the magic behind her world and playing out its consequences through the text makes this book at times twisty and confusing, but always compelling and, by the end, completely un-put-down-able.
I picked this one up because it was recommended to someone else as a mix of Guy Gavriel Kay and Robin McKinley so how could I not? Neumeier shares Kay's sense of carefully constructing countries in conflict and McKinley's precision in deploying romance that is both subsidiary to the plot and enmeshed in it. But this is very much its own book as well - Neumeier's interest in articulating the magic behind her world and playing out its consequences through the text makes this book at times twisty and confusing, but always compelling and, by the end, completely un-put-down-able.
Original review posted on October 17th, 2016 on The Book Adventures. In the past few months, my life has been in a state of near-constant chaos, so when I've made time to read, I've been reading comfort books and nonfiction. This, my first foray back into new books, enthralled me. I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning more than once because I couldn't put it down. I read it during every free moment I had. My first book by Rachel Neumeier, it definitely won't be my last.
Princess Oressa's country is threatened by its neighboring countries, by the rift between the Kieba and her father, by a half-dozen godly artifacts, and by potential plagues. Oressa and her brother (the other narrator), Gulien, must find a way through the tangle to save their kingdom, their people, and even the world. No pressure. They find unexpected allies in the first invading prince. Despite all rumors to the contrary, he's actually a pretty decent (and handsome, and clever) guy.
There are so many twists and turns in the plot, it will keep you on your toes. The intrigue and action kept me reading at a speedy pace throughout. There are so many little exciting moments that combine to make up the whole exciting plot.
Oressa is a fun heroine: clever, outspoken, determined, unpredictable. Gulien is an interesting hero: kind, smart, and loyal. They both know things about the other that only come from lifelong familiarity, and they squabble, but they always remain steadfastly loyal to each other. Admittedly, I'm a sucker for realistic, strong relationships between siblings. The romantic relationship is minor, compared with the adventurous plot and relationship between Oressa and Gulien, and I wish it had been more prominent. In the end, though, it works out, and with all the other awesomeness in this book, well, it's a small complaint.
Last thing: I loved that this was pretty light. There's danger, and violence, and death, but it's muted. Not explicit, not graphic, not pervasive, and most of the people are really good people. Or only mostly bad people, with some good in them. The villains mostly get what they deserve, including redemption.
Overall, The Mountain of Kept Memory is a light, fun, compelling fantasy adventure with a dash of romance that really works. Highly recommended. Start it on a weekend, you may not be able to put it down.
Princess Oressa's country is threatened by its neighboring countries, by the rift between the Kieba and her father, by a half-dozen godly artifacts, and by potential plagues. Oressa and her brother (the other narrator), Gulien, must find a way through the tangle to save their kingdom, their people, and even the world. No pressure. They find unexpected allies in the first invading prince. Despite all rumors to the contrary, he's actually a pretty decent (and handsome, and clever) guy.
There are so many twists and turns in the plot, it will keep you on your toes. The intrigue and action kept me reading at a speedy pace throughout. There are so many little exciting moments that combine to make up the whole exciting plot.
Oressa is a fun heroine: clever, outspoken, determined, unpredictable. Gulien is an interesting hero: kind, smart, and loyal. They both know things about the other that only come from lifelong familiarity, and they squabble, but they always remain steadfastly loyal to each other. Admittedly, I'm a sucker for realistic, strong relationships between siblings. The romantic relationship is minor, compared with the adventurous plot and relationship between Oressa and Gulien, and I wish it had been more prominent. In the end, though, it works out, and with all the other awesomeness in this book, well, it's a small complaint.
Last thing: I loved that this was pretty light. There's danger, and violence, and death, but it's muted. Not explicit, not graphic, not pervasive, and most of the people are really good people. Or only mostly bad people, with some good in them. The villains mostly get what they deserve, including redemption.
Overall, The Mountain of Kept Memory is a light, fun, compelling fantasy adventure with a dash of romance that really works. Highly recommended. Start it on a weekend, you may not be able to put it down.
Disclaimer I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
DNF @ 23%
This SCREAMS everything that I would love from the description but oh man is that first bit hard to get through. Not only did the story slowly trudge along after an initial burst but the writing was just not good. Paragraphs would be dedicated to saying the same thing over and over in slightly different ways. It was like when you know you need more words for your essay but have nothing else to say. I think maybe the writing was trying to be somewhat Purple Prose-y but it failed completely. I had such a hard time getting to this percentage to be honest so I just am not going to move forward.
DNF @ 23%
This SCREAMS everything that I would love from the description but oh man is that first bit hard to get through. Not only did the story slowly trudge along after an initial burst but the writing was just not good. Paragraphs would be dedicated to saying the same thing over and over in slightly different ways. It was like when you know you need more words for your essay but have nothing else to say. I think maybe the writing was trying to be somewhat Purple Prose-y but it failed completely. I had such a hard time getting to this percentage to be honest so I just am not going to move forward.
This was a pleasant surprise for me! It's a new release that I haven't seen getting much attention at all here at the end of 2016/beginning of 2017.
The narrative switches between two protagonists, Gulien and Oressa, prince and princess of Carastind. The plot is instigated by an invasion of the capital city of Carastind by a foreign prince, but that is just the start. It's a wild ride of shifting situations and allegiances (well, wild by my standards; I like my fantasy pretty tame) that kept me on my toes guessing from start to finish!
It's all to do with the Kieba, an immortal woman believed to be a former goddess, and the use of her magic, the remnants of the magic of the dead gods. She dwells inside a mountain in Carastind, and the kingdom has always relied upon her protection, but now they can no longer be certain of it. And it turns out that various factions have very different ideas about what and who the Kieba really is, how her magic works, and how it might be exploited.
And this is where The Mountain of Kept Memory rubs up against the border between fantasy and sci-fi, because elements of the Kieba's "magic," when seen in action, look a quite a bit like far-future SF technology. So this could be a far-future regressed society, or a fantasy world that happens to have had an incredibly high-tech past. The ambiguities in the worldbuilding appealed to me, and I liked that Neumeier refrained from giving us clear-cut answers.
But what I honestly enjoyed the most about Neumeier's writing was how intelligent all of the characters evidently are (and all differently so), without her ever having to TELL us how intelligent they are. The plot is driven by the ways the protagonists (and antagonists) interpret constantly-changing situations and decide upon courses of action accordingly.
There are quite a few comments here on the promotional comparison to [a:Robin McKinley|5339|Robin McKinley|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1314406026p2/5339.jpg] and [a:Guy Gavriel Kay|60177|Guy Gavriel Kay|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1218804723p2/60177.jpg]. I'm a huge fan of McKinley, and though I have never read anything by Kay, I wouldn't have thought of lumping those two authors together. Though McKinley's books are often quite different from each other, the element of ambiguity and complexity in Neumeier's writing reminded me a bit of hers. If you're going to compare Mountain of Kept Memory to a McKinley book, I'd say that [b:Pegasus|7507951|Pegasus (Pegasus, #1)|Robin McKinley|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1265406037s/7507951.jpg|7147745] is the one to compare it to (though Mountain of Kept Memory stands alone, as Pegasus does not).
The narrative switches between two protagonists, Gulien and Oressa, prince and princess of Carastind. The plot is instigated by an invasion of the capital city of Carastind by a foreign prince, but that is just the start. It's a wild ride of shifting situations and allegiances (well, wild by my standards; I like my fantasy pretty tame) that kept me on my toes guessing from start to finish!
It's all to do with the Kieba, an immortal woman believed to be a former goddess, and the use of her magic, the remnants of the magic of the dead gods. She dwells inside a mountain in Carastind, and the kingdom has always relied upon her protection, but now they can no longer be certain of it. And it turns out that various factions have very different ideas about what and who the Kieba really is, how her magic works, and how it might be exploited.
And this is where The Mountain of Kept Memory rubs up against the border between fantasy and sci-fi, because elements of the Kieba's "magic," when seen in action, look a quite a bit like far-future SF technology. So this could be a far-future regressed society, or a fantasy world that happens to have had an incredibly high-tech past. The ambiguities in the worldbuilding appealed to me, and I liked that Neumeier refrained from giving us clear-cut answers.
But what I honestly enjoyed the most about Neumeier's writing was how intelligent all of the characters evidently are (and all differently so), without her ever having to TELL us how intelligent they are. The plot is driven by the ways the protagonists (and antagonists) interpret constantly-changing situations and decide upon courses of action accordingly.
There are quite a few comments here on the promotional comparison to [a:Robin McKinley|5339|Robin McKinley|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1314406026p2/5339.jpg] and [a:Guy Gavriel Kay|60177|Guy Gavriel Kay|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1218804723p2/60177.jpg]. I'm a huge fan of McKinley, and though I have never read anything by Kay, I wouldn't have thought of lumping those two authors together. Though McKinley's books are often quite different from each other, the element of ambiguity and complexity in Neumeier's writing reminded me a bit of hers. If you're going to compare Mountain of Kept Memory to a McKinley book, I'd say that [b:Pegasus|7507951|Pegasus (Pegasus, #1)|Robin McKinley|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1265406037s/7507951.jpg|7147745] is the one to compare it to (though Mountain of Kept Memory stands alone, as Pegasus does not).
I was excited by the premise of two royal sibs working together to save the kingdom, rather than vying against each other for power. And for the most part, this was very satisfying. Even the evil father turned out to have more depth than first appeared. I did find the whole Kelian thing annoying, because even if Oressa didn't suspect him of being a spy, she should have realized he was not a good person to have at her side when he was so snotty and dismissive on the first trip to the mountain. What about that behavior makes you want to take him on a special mission?