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reasonpassion's review against another edition
4.0
I wasn't sure that I was going to like this. Nothing truly happens for the first 250 pages, it's all not even world-building though there's some of that, it's the careful accrual of a singular character that makes you feel like they're wandering around in the reader's world. It doesn't read like an epic but it ends up being so, an epic of singular proportions though as the entirety of the story rests within the eyes of the downtrodden and dismissed faerie woman. Will definitely be going on to the sequel.
digerbop's review against another edition
3.0
Originally posted at Daniel J. Weber Creates
A fantasy tale about fiery nymphs and flaming lust
Mature-content Rating: PG-13 (Sexual content, fantasy violence)
Fire. It is in us all. Sometimes it comes out, forged with passion or shaped by rage. Ears turn red, face ruby from infused flames licking beneath flesh. Fire can be strong or weak, fighting from beneath rain's blanketing assault, or combusting the world with spontaneity like a desert: dry. Yes, I speak figuratively, but what if such flaming manifestations could be a reality. Imagine, living in a world full of wonder, a fantasy world with flames bursting from ears, licking beneath flesh, destroying all in its wake (wilfully or by accident's design). If you can imagine such, then your mind is comparable with Sabrina Flynn, the author of A Thread in the Tangle.
The Good:
The above description does no justice to this book, but instead (like a raging fire) is a spark to catch the dry wood in imagination's realm, drawing in the reader before consuming them completely. A Thread in the Tangle implements a similar technique, drawing in the reader with beautifully crafted prose and life philosophising from the first line. I can say it no better than the author herself.
This prologue drew me into a story full of emotional turmoil, political intrigue, love, loss, and all that is in between. The characters are wonderfully crafted so that, by the time this story's fire is raging, the reader can see all shades of blues and reds amidst the orange flames. The banter between said characters is delicious. It adds a fresh element of humour to some of the longer scenes that would be, otherwise, dry. This keeps the pacing up during character development.
Most of the story is told from select points of view. Shifting between these, speckled with a touch of intrigue, works great for building suspense. Some of the concepts have just enough explanation to make them believable, then are left to linger, keeping the reader invested, turning pages faster before the flames catch hold -- the story dying in such wake.
The Bad:
Despite all of the glory seen in this flame, sometimes fire can be destructive, leaving nothing but charcoal and death behind. The story is mostly believable and manageable, but in a few places it rages out of control, getting lost in it's own beauty without realizing there is a story to tell. Behind all the character magic and descriptive excellence, the plot stands still, like logs waiting to be lit. Once the plot starts, it progresses nicely, but lighting this flame earlier would have enhanced this book immensely.
Once fires rage too high, they begin to lose some beauty. This is the case with some longer, drawn-out descriptions of the world's history and concept explanations through dialogue. These are brief and easily forgettable, but bring the book to a screeching halt like a water barrel to snuff out flames. These wet logs, then, take some time to get started again, creating pacing issues.
Conclusion:
Despite some too-extensive, dry world development and a plot coming too long over-due, A Thread in the Tangle is enjoyable. The philosophising through prose is wonderful, and the characters are well developed. If you enjoy fantasy with flame-eared nymphs tangled in the treads of time, this book is for you.
Where you can find it:
A fantasy tale about fiery nymphs and flaming lust
Mature-content Rating: PG-13 (Sexual content, fantasy violence)
Fire. It is in us all. Sometimes it comes out, forged with passion or shaped by rage. Ears turn red, face ruby from infused flames licking beneath flesh. Fire can be strong or weak, fighting from beneath rain's blanketing assault, or combusting the world with spontaneity like a desert: dry. Yes, I speak figuratively, but what if such flaming manifestations could be a reality. Imagine, living in a world full of wonder, a fantasy world with flames bursting from ears, licking beneath flesh, destroying all in its wake (wilfully or by accident's design). If you can imagine such, then your mind is comparable with Sabrina Flynn, the author of A Thread in the Tangle.
The Good:
The above description does no justice to this book, but instead (like a raging fire) is a spark to catch the dry wood in imagination's realm, drawing in the reader before consuming them completely. A Thread in the Tangle implements a similar technique, drawing in the reader with beautifully crafted prose and life philosophising from the first line. I can say it no better than the author herself.
Time is fickle, ever changing and flowing, ebbing like the sea. A vast ocean of moments brushing against the next, rippling beneath waters both turgid and calm. It slips between our fingers when we wish to hold it, yet moves with sluggish stubbornness when we seek to flee it, riding upon our shoulders like an oppressive yoke. Time is a burden we cannot escape. Our lives are swallowed in the cold, dark waters of its unfathomable depths; never to be remembered or recalled, fading like a whisper that never was. On occasion—a very rare occasion—one moment will brush against the next and a spark will flare to life that refuses to be extinguished. This is the moment, the spark, and this is how the end begins for a shattered realm—with a small nymphling who was cold.
This prologue drew me into a story full of emotional turmoil, political intrigue, love, loss, and all that is in between. The characters are wonderfully crafted so that, by the time this story's fire is raging, the reader can see all shades of blues and reds amidst the orange flames. The banter between said characters is delicious. It adds a fresh element of humour to some of the longer scenes that would be, otherwise, dry. This keeps the pacing up during character development.
Most of the story is told from select points of view. Shifting between these, speckled with a touch of intrigue, works great for building suspense. Some of the concepts have just enough explanation to make them believable, then are left to linger, keeping the reader invested, turning pages faster before the flames catch hold -- the story dying in such wake.
The Bad:
Despite all of the glory seen in this flame, sometimes fire can be destructive, leaving nothing but charcoal and death behind. The story is mostly believable and manageable, but in a few places it rages out of control, getting lost in it's own beauty without realizing there is a story to tell. Behind all the character magic and descriptive excellence, the plot stands still, like logs waiting to be lit. Once the plot starts, it progresses nicely, but lighting this flame earlier would have enhanced this book immensely.
Once fires rage too high, they begin to lose some beauty. This is the case with some longer, drawn-out descriptions of the world's history and concept explanations through dialogue. These are brief and easily forgettable, but bring the book to a screeching halt like a water barrel to snuff out flames. These wet logs, then, take some time to get started again, creating pacing issues.
Conclusion:
Despite some too-extensive, dry world development and a plot coming too long over-due, A Thread in the Tangle is enjoyable. The philosophising through prose is wonderful, and the characters are well developed. If you enjoy fantasy with flame-eared nymphs tangled in the treads of time, this book is for you.
Where you can find it:
warriorpickle's review against another edition
4.0
This book was so much fun! Like a good comic book character origin story film, this book feels oddly similar in all the best ways.
I started reading this book in the strangest of ways. I was home for lunch one day and my wife was out doing something with the kiddos. I decided I was going to start a book on Kindle (it had been a while as I do lots of my "reading" through Audible now). I started flipping through my library and since I didn't really know what I wanted, I closed my eyes, started scrolling up and down until I landed on a Brandon Sanderson book I'd already read.
I started reading this book in the strangest of ways. I was home for lunch one day and my wife was out doing something with the kiddos. I decided I was going to start a book on Kindle (it had been a while as I do lots of my "reading" through Audible now). I started flipping through my library and since I didn't really know what I wanted, I closed my eyes, started scrolling up and down until I landed on a Brandon Sanderson book I'd already read.
secre's review
3.0
This is a review of two halves in many ways, for if the first three quarters of this novel were taken alone, it would score two stars at absolute best. However the final sprint to the end had everything the rest of the novel was sorely lacking and would easily reach the pinnacle of four stars without any effort at all. Put the two together however, and you have a book I was ploughing through for the sake of it for the majority that somehow managed to truly capture my attention at the end. It's a strange combination and not one I often come across; normally an author is fairly consistent and it is therefore unusual to find such an abrupt change of tone and style.
It's safe to say that nothing much happens in the first three quarters of this book; or at least nothing of vast import. There is a certain level of action at the very beginning and then from there... very little. Isiilde is a nymph in a world where those of her kind are bought and sold as mere property to the highest bidder, and the bidding will go very high indeed. For a nymph is a rare and much coveted creature, and wars have been fought over who owns and keeps them. Until the nymph comes of age, they are similar in many ways to the human child, although more flighty and living ever in the present. Once they come of age however, they are a temptation to any man but their own father; the mere touch of a nymph can send a man insane. In the distant past, nymph's were protected by the druids, but the druids are long dead and now they are mere property, as much as a cow or a pig might be.
Isiilde is somehow different though; a creature of fire and mischief, trouble follows whereever she leads and it is only due to the protection of her mentor the Arch Mage and her brutally powerful guardian that she is allowed to stay on the Isle of the Wise Ones. Much of the book focusses on building up the world and the politics that are in play here, often through whatever mischief Isiilde has managed to cause this time. This in some ways wouldn't have been a problem if I had been grabbed by the characters antics from the beginning - indeed, I would likely have revelled in it. The problem is there are too many inconsistencies in the characters and too much repetition throughout and it all became rather tiresome.
What do I mean? Well Isiilde is a nymph and it is well known that a nymph of age needs to be protected against men, for their own sake as much as anything else. Their touch sends men mad, the sight of them draws stares and attention, and a young man may find himself acting in ways unlike his usual self. So why the hell does nobody tell the nymph this?! One single sentence; don't touch blokes now, your mere touch makes them mad with lust and go bat shit crazy. That's all it would need. Instead, Isiilde is never told and so gets upset and hurt that Marsais her mentor won't even touch her hand, along with throwing herself into various situations that could so easily have been prevented. She's told to stay away from men, but not why and she seems to be utterly naive as to the reaction she causes.
On top of that, she is meant to be innocent and naive and yet the authors depictions of her - even before she comes of age - are actively sensual if not sexual. The groans she makes eating strawberries for example and the descriptions of her lips or her figure. This, along with many other aspects, are repeated mercilessly and shoved down your throat. You aren't told once, twice or even five times that she loves strawberries. No, it has to be hammered at you. The other main characters have similar character traits that are repeated time after time after time at you, whilst the background characters are more like two dimensional backdrops rather than fully fledged individuals with motivations and betrayals of their own.
This all changes in the final quarter of the novel however and is the reason behind both my re-thinking my overall score and why I have continued onwards into the next book. When things start to go really wrong, the author suddenly comes into her element and the novel jolts forcibly to live. Suddenly these rather limp and annoying characters are thrown into situations where they have to react, they have to dazzle, they have to come to the fore because otherwise the results will be damning. Flynn goes from an insipid and slow writing style into something that takes no prisoners and can be quite shocking in its brutality and raw power. Some of the scenes she depicts here are actively disturbing and whilst I saw one of the twists coming, I had no idea of several other twists and turns that she took.
All in all, whilst I wasn't initially impressed, Sabrina Flynn pulled it all together well enough at the end that I have started reading the second in the trilogy. If you'd have asked me if I would bother at the half way point you'd have got a grunt of dismissal, so there is certainly something there. Let's see if she can keep the momentum up.
It's safe to say that nothing much happens in the first three quarters of this book; or at least nothing of vast import. There is a certain level of action at the very beginning and then from there... very little. Isiilde is a nymph in a world where those of her kind are bought and sold as mere property to the highest bidder, and the bidding will go very high indeed. For a nymph is a rare and much coveted creature, and wars have been fought over who owns and keeps them. Until the nymph comes of age, they are similar in many ways to the human child, although more flighty and living ever in the present. Once they come of age however, they are a temptation to any man but their own father; the mere touch of a nymph can send a man insane. In the distant past, nymph's were protected by the druids, but the druids are long dead and now they are mere property, as much as a cow or a pig might be.
Isiilde is somehow different though; a creature of fire and mischief, trouble follows whereever she leads and it is only due to the protection of her mentor the Arch Mage and her brutally powerful guardian that she is allowed to stay on the Isle of the Wise Ones. Much of the book focusses on building up the world and the politics that are in play here, often through whatever mischief Isiilde has managed to cause this time. This in some ways wouldn't have been a problem if I had been grabbed by the characters antics from the beginning - indeed, I would likely have revelled in it. The problem is there are too many inconsistencies in the characters and too much repetition throughout and it all became rather tiresome.
What do I mean? Well Isiilde is a nymph and it is well known that a nymph of age needs to be protected against men, for their own sake as much as anything else. Their touch sends men mad, the sight of them draws stares and attention, and a young man may find himself acting in ways unlike his usual self. So why the hell does nobody tell the nymph this?! One single sentence; don't touch blokes now, your mere touch makes them mad with lust and go bat shit crazy. That's all it would need. Instead, Isiilde is never told and so gets upset and hurt that Marsais her mentor won't even touch her hand, along with throwing herself into various situations that could so easily have been prevented. She's told to stay away from men, but not why and she seems to be utterly naive as to the reaction she causes.
On top of that, she is meant to be innocent and naive and yet the authors depictions of her - even before she comes of age - are actively sensual if not sexual. The groans she makes eating strawberries for example and the descriptions of her lips or her figure. This, along with many other aspects, are repeated mercilessly and shoved down your throat. You aren't told once, twice or even five times that she loves strawberries. No, it has to be hammered at you. The other main characters have similar character traits that are repeated time after time after time at you, whilst the background characters are more like two dimensional backdrops rather than fully fledged individuals with motivations and betrayals of their own.
This all changes in the final quarter of the novel however and is the reason behind both my re-thinking my overall score and why I have continued onwards into the next book. When things start to go really wrong, the author suddenly comes into her element and the novel jolts forcibly to live. Suddenly these rather limp and annoying characters are thrown into situations where they have to react, they have to dazzle, they have to come to the fore because otherwise the results will be damning. Flynn goes from an insipid and slow writing style into something that takes no prisoners and can be quite shocking in its brutality and raw power. Some of the scenes she depicts here are actively disturbing and whilst I saw one of the twists coming, I had no idea of several other twists and turns that she took.
All in all, whilst I wasn't initially impressed, Sabrina Flynn pulled it all together well enough at the end that I have started reading the second in the trilogy. If you'd have asked me if I would bother at the half way point you'd have got a grunt of dismissal, so there is certainly something there. Let's see if she can keep the momentum up.
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