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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
This was much better than I expected. Fully captivating and a delightful read for anyone who likes history or fantasy (or both)
A lovely romp through time and space
A *very* interesting format for a story. Many storytellers, formats, and narrative arcs. Lots of time travel fun and surprises with some nice allusions to current events without any heavy handed editorialization. Requires a heavy dose of suspension of disbelief as do most time travel tales, but well worth the effort. A wonderfully fun read!
A *very* interesting format for a story. Many storytellers, formats, and narrative arcs. Lots of time travel fun and surprises with some nice allusions to current events without any heavy handed editorialization. Requires a heavy dose of suspension of disbelief as do most time travel tales, but well worth the effort. A wonderfully fun read!
Love the premise of the book. Kind of frustrated that the characters are not more developed and are a little bit one dimensional.
Overall like the story.
For the first quarter-to-third of this book I thought it was pretty great. Wasn't too lost on the logical conundrums that any time-travel story risks getting bogged down in, was enjoying the humorous bits here and there, enjoyed the historical aspects of some of their dedes.
Somewhere around the halfway mark though I think my mind started to wander a bit more as I was getting through this. I also started wondering more about how some of the dangling story threads were going to get tied up.
I don't feel like many of these things really did get resolved; it was buildup for maybe 80% of the book and then this hasty conclusion which didn't really conclude much at all but seemed like a setup for "tune in next week when we turn this into a series!"
These misgivings aside, there were definitely some pretty funny bits; and I did laugh aloud at some parts, so I want to give credit for that.
Somewhere around the halfway mark though I think my mind started to wander a bit more as I was getting through this. I also started wondering more about how some of the dangling story threads were going to get tied up.
I don't feel like many of these things really did get resolved; it was buildup for maybe 80% of the book and then this hasty conclusion which didn't really conclude much at all but seemed like a setup for "tune in next week when we turn this into a series!"
These misgivings aside, there were definitely some pretty funny bits; and I did laugh aloud at some parts, so I want to give credit for that.
Annoying structure. Reading other people's email is tedious.
I give up. Time of death: 60%
I've read for 14 hours. All forward progress halted and the past 3 hours have been bad transcripts of of congressional budget hearings, email exchanges between snippy colleagues, some of which are literally just "email to X from y re: that email you just sent. REDACTED." It actually said redacted.
More than once.
All the women are so far overbearing or are defined at least part of the time by their availability for sex. The dudes are caricatures, and as I mentioned it's more boring than doing dishes with it on. It's also uh...not at all right on the agency side lol. I think the only person I have respect for is Grainne.
I'm not impressed. I feel like poor Ms. Galland had a tough job making anything useful out of the rambling, nonsensical, offensively stereotyped book that Stephenson wanted to write.
Pbbbbt.
CONTENT WARNINGS:
I've read for 14 hours. All forward progress halted and the past 3 hours have been bad transcripts of of congressional budget hearings, email exchanges between snippy colleagues, some of which are literally just "email to X from y re: that email you just sent. REDACTED." It actually said redacted.
More than once.
All the women are so far overbearing or are defined at least part of the time by their availability for sex. The dudes are caricatures, and as I mentioned it's more boring than doing dishes with it on. It's also uh...not at all right on the agency side lol. I think the only person I have respect for is Grainne.
I'm not impressed. I feel like poor Ms. Galland had a tough job making anything useful out of the rambling, nonsensical, offensively stereotyped book that Stephenson wanted to write.
Pbbbbt.
CONTENT WARNINGS:
Spoiler
rampant sexism, casual racism, sexual coercion, loss of a loved one.
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I rarely give up on books, but I gave up on this one. The plot drags on and on, and when I realized I was only 37% of the way through the book (reading on a Kindle), I just couldn't handle it any more. Maybe a great book for some, but not a great book for me.
Witches witches here and there,
Magic witches everywhere,
In the strands, it's out of hand,
The chronology is all mixed up,
What comes first and what comes last?
I ended up enjoying this, and mostly teaching through, but didn't enjoy when the style switched to bureaucratic memos through the middle of the story.
Magic witches everywhere,
In the strands, it's out of hand,
The chronology is all mixed up,
What comes first and what comes last?
I ended up enjoying this, and mostly teaching through, but didn't enjoy when the style switched to bureaucratic memos through the middle of the story.