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heidi_mcj's review against another edition
4.0
A bit slow at times but I still enjoyed it. Now if only I don't have to wait years for the next installment!
katyanaish's review against another edition
5.0
Really great book. But heartbreaking. There were a couple points where I had to take a break, because it was just so heartbreaking.
I love the world and all its complexities. I love the characters. I love the slow unfolding of history - the discovery of firstborn, of Meralonne, and finally getting some idea of who Andrei is.
But I'm so very afraid that in the end, Jewel will lose everything she is, in order to preserve what she loves. And it just kills me. Because aside from her den-kin and her handful of allies, they don't deserve it. What have the Kings/Exalted/Ten/Astari ever done to deserve such a sacrifice from her? She's been treated like an enemy. Fuck them all. She can protect her people, and the rest of them can try their luck with Allasakar or the Sleepers, since they seem to so disdain her and/or find her so dangerous.
I love the world and all its complexities. I love the characters. I love the slow unfolding of history - the discovery of firstborn, of Meralonne, and finally getting some idea of who Andrei is.
But I'm so very afraid that in the end, Jewel will lose everything she is, in order to preserve what she loves. And it just kills me. Because aside from her den-kin and her handful of allies, they don't deserve it. What have the Kings/Exalted/Ten/Astari ever done to deserve such a sacrifice from her? She's been treated like an enemy. Fuck them all. She can protect her people, and the rest of them can try their luck with Allasakar or the Sleepers, since they seem to so disdain her and/or find her so dangerous.
winterreader40's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars
This is one of my least favorite from this series, it was overwhelmingly long and very little happens. Going off the title and how the rest of the story has gone you'd think this would mostly be about Jewel taking the Oracle's test but less than half maybe not even a third of the story is about this. The rest is just really slow moving political stuff.
We do get to see more of Jester in this then we have before though which was nice.
This is one of my least favorite from this series, it was overwhelmingly long and very little happens. Going off the title and how the rest of the story has gone you'd think this would mostly be about Jewel taking the Oracle's test but less than half maybe not even a third of the story is about this. The rest is just really slow moving political stuff.
We do get to see more of Jester in this then we have before though which was nice.
laurla's review against another edition
5.0
"andrei was practically shrieking - in his perfectly silent way."
"he desires power because he believes it will allow him to live without consequences."
"pity is what we offer those who are so unfortunate we cannot conceive of living their lives. sympathy is what we offer when we have lived their life, or when we've feared to have no choice but to live it. we offer it because we understand what the other person now faces."
"she thought of the ways in which everyone she knew had been half-broken; they'd retained enough of their sanity to remake themselves, but not enough to become whole. that is the fate of humanity; we are fragile and simultaneously strong enough to keep moving."
"we cant be protected from life. we can - while we are very young - be protected from death."
"i want you to be happy." (Levec).
"that is a sad definition of happiness. you believe that we cannot see the world as it is and know happiness. and so we must be raised and coddled in ignorance. perhaps, if we never learn what a sword is, we will somehow never die at the end of one. perhaps if we never learn that people do bad things, bad things will never happen to us." (Adam).
"Happiness is not all of one thing, and sorrow doesnt obliterate happiness. it might, if we were trapped forever in the moment of sorrow. if the rest of life couldnt touch us or warn us. but we're not."
"you cant protect me from life. not even the matriarch could do that. you can help me to see life clearly. you can help me to see whats in front of my face, because sometimes the sun is in my eyes, and i cant. but you cant decide -for me- what my life has to be about, or what it has to mean, or what it cant mean. i am not you. you are not me."
"lies were meant to face outward, like a mask; no one wise turned lies inward."
"jester, i have half a mind to strangle you."
"i'll take the other half."
"your answer is yes. and it is no. and it is yes. it revolves, evolves, shifts. it is built on the folly of hope; it is shredded by frustration and despair; it is tainted by guilt and grief. and yet, at its core, it remains."
"i only have the time for so many battles in a day, so i have to choose the right ones. i've been called far worse than stupid in my life, its mostly harmless." (Jewel)
"it is a very good thing that i cannot travel back in time and give my younger self the dressing down he so richly deserves." (Jarven)
"she often thought that fingernails served no actual purpose except to accrue evidence of the labor that divided the patricians from the working class." (Birgide, botanist/gardener)
"joy had been the absence of pain. what then did planting and nurturing and tending have to do with joy? pain was absent, yes. pride was present - when the careful nurturing and planning actually worked. but it was more than that. these were alive. they took root, they grew, they aged - and yes, they died. they did not war; they did not politic; they did not rage. they existed and they offered - to those who could grasp it, peace." (Birgide)
"no one can make the choices you will have to make for you. no one can absolve you of them."
"if i make a mistake-"
"yes. large choices have large consequences. that is what power is."
"he wasnt certain if he was offering comfort or seeking it."
"grief could, and did, destroy the living if the living couldnt somehow make peace with it."
"change is inevitable." (Andrei)
"no two oak trees are alike. but they are recognizably the same type of tree. i want to change the way an oak sapling does. i want to grow deeper roots. i want to grow thicker branches. i dont want to become an apple tree or a rose bush or whatever else other people value. so i will change, because i am a man, and all men change." (Hectore)
"and you will remain constant, because you are hectore and you will always be hectore."
"that is the mistake you make. you think 'hectore' describes one thing. it does not. all men - all people - are many, many things. monstrous men are capable of great acts of kindness, kind men of monstrous selfishness. we dont want one thing we want many, many things, all at once, some contradictory. we are shadowed at times by regrets and desires that make no sense at all to us."
"you will not bow to the inevitable."
"i will bow to any inevitability that i see. your fear is not my certainty."
"he desires power because he believes it will allow him to live without consequences."
"pity is what we offer those who are so unfortunate we cannot conceive of living their lives. sympathy is what we offer when we have lived their life, or when we've feared to have no choice but to live it. we offer it because we understand what the other person now faces."
"she thought of the ways in which everyone she knew had been half-broken; they'd retained enough of their sanity to remake themselves, but not enough to become whole. that is the fate of humanity; we are fragile and simultaneously strong enough to keep moving."
"we cant be protected from life. we can - while we are very young - be protected from death."
"i want you to be happy." (Levec).
"that is a sad definition of happiness. you believe that we cannot see the world as it is and know happiness. and so we must be raised and coddled in ignorance. perhaps, if we never learn what a sword is, we will somehow never die at the end of one. perhaps if we never learn that people do bad things, bad things will never happen to us." (Adam).
"Happiness is not all of one thing, and sorrow doesnt obliterate happiness. it might, if we were trapped forever in the moment of sorrow. if the rest of life couldnt touch us or warn us. but we're not."
"you cant protect me from life. not even the matriarch could do that. you can help me to see life clearly. you can help me to see whats in front of my face, because sometimes the sun is in my eyes, and i cant. but you cant decide -for me- what my life has to be about, or what it has to mean, or what it cant mean. i am not you. you are not me."
"lies were meant to face outward, like a mask; no one wise turned lies inward."
"jester, i have half a mind to strangle you."
"i'll take the other half."
"your answer is yes. and it is no. and it is yes. it revolves, evolves, shifts. it is built on the folly of hope; it is shredded by frustration and despair; it is tainted by guilt and grief. and yet, at its core, it remains."
"i only have the time for so many battles in a day, so i have to choose the right ones. i've been called far worse than stupid in my life, its mostly harmless." (Jewel)
"it is a very good thing that i cannot travel back in time and give my younger self the dressing down he so richly deserves." (Jarven)
"she often thought that fingernails served no actual purpose except to accrue evidence of the labor that divided the patricians from the working class." (Birgide, botanist/gardener)
"joy had been the absence of pain. what then did planting and nurturing and tending have to do with joy? pain was absent, yes. pride was present - when the careful nurturing and planning actually worked. but it was more than that. these were alive. they took root, they grew, they aged - and yes, they died. they did not war; they did not politic; they did not rage. they existed and they offered - to those who could grasp it, peace." (Birgide)
"no one can make the choices you will have to make for you. no one can absolve you of them."
"if i make a mistake-"
"yes. large choices have large consequences. that is what power is."
"he wasnt certain if he was offering comfort or seeking it."
"grief could, and did, destroy the living if the living couldnt somehow make peace with it."
"change is inevitable." (Andrei)
"no two oak trees are alike. but they are recognizably the same type of tree. i want to change the way an oak sapling does. i want to grow deeper roots. i want to grow thicker branches. i dont want to become an apple tree or a rose bush or whatever else other people value. so i will change, because i am a man, and all men change." (Hectore)
"and you will remain constant, because you are hectore and you will always be hectore."
"that is the mistake you make. you think 'hectore' describes one thing. it does not. all men - all people - are many, many things. monstrous men are capable of great acts of kindness, kind men of monstrous selfishness. we dont want one thing we want many, many things, all at once, some contradictory. we are shadowed at times by regrets and desires that make no sense at all to us."
"you will not bow to the inevitable."
"i will bow to any inevitability that i see. your fear is not my certainty."
tatere's review against another edition
4.0
Long anticipated, which puts a bit of a strain on things. Too much Jarven for my tastes, and so very talky in parts, in a way that doesn't add much. The scenes with Jewel and crew are better. The new characters are great. As usual, my main reaction at the end was "noooo want moooooarrr!" And so back to waiting ...
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