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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
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
Well written and interesting concept but I wasn't as invested as I hoped I would be.
N. K. Jemisin doesn’t hold your hand, she really throws you in the deep end and it takes a bit of struggling until you are able to really know what is happening and it’s always worth it.
challenging
emotional
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
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-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
(Review Below)
Bought this as a "Blind Date With A Book"
All I know about it is four bullet points:
•Fantasy
•Ancient City-State
•Dream Magic
•Ninja Priest
Excited to read this some time this year and find out what these ninja priest are all about!
Thoughts from the beginning portion of the book (to about page 70-ish):
•Not a fan of the writing style what-so-ever.
•The world feels muddy, like I'm not able to see it clearly.
•Characters are pretty much in the same boat, I don't feel even a little bit for any of them. It actually feels like I'm just reading words on paper. Not being in a world and living it, which is what most books make me feel.
•I'm constantly finding little excuses to put the book down and not open it back up:
-"Oh hey let's get a snack."
(I never eat while I read.)
-"Oh I gotta pee. "
(TMI?)
-"Oh let's lay on the floor and pet my dog for 30 minutes instead."
(I mean who can turn down petting their dog? He sure wasn't complaining.)
•Basically, by even page 30 I wanted to be done with this book already.
Thoughts (Chapter 5 & after):
•Got a bit better, I will admit.
•Can deal with the writing style, it's more "normal", maybe I was just out of it in the beginning but the writing feels like a different person now.
•Not everything is clear still though.
& it's not the kind of blurry that just takes time to unravel during the story, it's the kind where stuff just wasn't explained.
•Throwing random words at me, cities and cultures with no help along the way just creates a very frustrating read.
•I didn't get anywhere near enough description!
-"hey this is a new book with a lot of new stuff, let's explain it a little bit to help the reader out." Nope.
•Magic system wasn't really delved into either and that really bummed me out because I'm always game for some solid magic.
•I would have GLADLY accepted an info dump and a freaking map at any point!
•I wasn't able to picture it that well, I'm a reader that loves knowing the little things about a world.
Ex. How are the houses designed?
But with this book all I got was:
-"So these houses look different from these ones over here because they take inspiration from (insert other unknown cities names.)"
NOO. Don't just tell me they are different, SHOW me they are. Describe what makes them distinctly their own to me.
•It had a cool and unique concept of being an ancient Egyptian city but it just wasn't executed nicely to me.
I was never able to get into this book fully and accept it as something that I wanted to read. I felt going on with it would be a waste of my time at this point and didn't want to continue.
To know how it ends I'm honestly just going to go through other reviews and find out.
Bought this as a "Blind Date With A Book"
All I know about it is four bullet points:
•Fantasy
•Ancient City-State
•Dream Magic
•Ninja Priest
Excited to read this some time this year and find out what these ninja priest are all about!
Thoughts from the beginning portion of the book (to about page 70-ish):
•Not a fan of the writing style what-so-ever.
•The world feels muddy, like I'm not able to see it clearly.
•Characters are pretty much in the same boat, I don't feel even a little bit for any of them. It actually feels like I'm just reading words on paper. Not being in a world and living it, which is what most books make me feel.
•I'm constantly finding little excuses to put the book down and not open it back up:
-"Oh hey let's get a snack."
(I never eat while I read.)
-"Oh I gotta pee. "
(TMI?)
-"Oh let's lay on the floor and pet my dog for 30 minutes instead."
(I mean who can turn down petting their dog? He sure wasn't complaining.)
•Basically, by even page 30 I wanted to be done with this book already.
Thoughts (Chapter 5 & after):
•Got a bit better, I will admit.
•Can deal with the writing style, it's more "normal", maybe I was just out of it in the beginning but the writing feels like a different person now.
•Not everything is clear still though.
& it's not the kind of blurry that just takes time to unravel during the story, it's the kind where stuff just wasn't explained.
•Throwing random words at me, cities and cultures with no help along the way just creates a very frustrating read.
•I didn't get anywhere near enough description!
-"hey this is a new book with a lot of new stuff, let's explain it a little bit to help the reader out." Nope.
•Magic system wasn't really delved into either and that really bummed me out because I'm always game for some solid magic.
•I would have GLADLY accepted an info dump and a freaking map at any point!
•I wasn't able to picture it that well, I'm a reader that loves knowing the little things about a world.
Ex. How are the houses designed?
But with this book all I got was:
-"So these houses look different from these ones over here because they take inspiration from (insert other unknown cities names.)"
NOO. Don't just tell me they are different, SHOW me they are. Describe what makes them distinctly their own to me.
•It had a cool and unique concept of being an ancient Egyptian city but it just wasn't executed nicely to me.
I was never able to get into this book fully and accept it as something that I wanted to read. I felt going on with it would be a waste of my time at this point and didn't want to continue.
To know how it ends I'm honestly just going to go through other reviews and find out.
Not my favorite from Jemisin, but worth reading. I think it was maybe the pacing that didn't work well for me? Curious to read the second book in the duology as this book wrapped up pretty well, so idk what it could be about.