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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
fast-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
My head literally hurts from space/time travel. I’m serious, this book is a portal and it just keeps unraveling the more you read it. As a long time lover of Journey to the West, this book has become an instant “must have”. I will be thinking about this book for a long time.
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
How the hell have I been sleeping on Max Gladstone. Absolutely delightful. I’d spend an eon with Viv no questions asked.
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
So, I saw a spoiler for this which kind of made a major aspect of this book more obvious to me than it otherwise would have been. Getting that aspect is necessary for understanding the book, but I am watching a YouTube series about it, so with the spoiler I mostly understood what was going on. Since that spoiler isn't in the blurb and easily could have been, and most of my Goodreads contacts would get that aspect more easily than I would, my main recommendation for this book is to avoid spoilers and reviews at least until you get to the end of chapter seven. Beyond that, there are some reasonable criticisms to be made, but I found the book really fun. Part of that is that I like Gladstone's writing style.
adventurous
emotional
medium-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
More like a 3.5 in terms of my actual personal assessment, but rounded up on account of some wicked cool worldbuilding and my fetish for one specific aspect of the book that would be a massive spoiler to share here.
I tried to read this book several times and just couldn't get into the story. With that said, it's not really my genre so I am not blaming the author as I know he has lots of fans. The first couple of chapters need to be more engaging for the average reader.
This was a profoundly odd book that I couldn't quite wrap my head entirely around. The premise was interesting and I have loved a lot of other books by Max Gladstone.
Characters: 3.5*
Plot: 3*
Universe: 4.5*
First off, I loved the universe and the work that went into it. It was detailed, if a bit wonky. The characters, although they grew throughout the story and learned as they went along were largely one-dimensional to me (especially the antagonist). The plot was generally predictable.
Overall, the story was a fun one - just one that seemed as though it should have been 250 pages instead of 480.
Characters: 3.5*
Plot: 3*
Universe: 4.5*
First off, I loved the universe and the work that went into it. It was detailed, if a bit wonky. The characters, although they grew throughout the story and learned as they went along were largely one-dimensional to me (especially the antagonist). The plot was generally predictable.
Overall, the story was a fun one - just one that seemed as though it should have been 250 pages instead of 480.
This book never came together or me.
This has some absolutely fascinating world building, a really imaginative take on the future based on some of the latest technology, and ideas about the near future of technology. That will be enough (and more) for some people. But not for me.
The plot wandered about. Rationally, I can say where just about everything connected, but the plot didn't absorb me as it moved from here to there, it got me lost.
And the big issues was the characters. They weren't completely flat, but they weren't meaty either. They weren't the same old characters I'd seen before, but they weren't flushed out for all their newness, and that's what really got me. It probably contributed to my feeling that the plot didn't come together. We do visit places that are important to some of the characters (Zanj especially) but not really being connected to Zanj, I didn't care.
And, frankly, I might not have cared about the characters being a bit thin, if the story weren't so heavily reliant on the characters. In addition to the relations of Zanj to figures out of her past, there is also Viv's relationship with the Empress. Which could have made this amazing, if we knew more about both Viv and the Empress.
And the annoying this, is that I know Gladstone has the ability to do what I found lacking (though I think some of the same issues crops up in some but not all of the craft sequence books).
This has some absolutely fascinating world building, a really imaginative take on the future based on some of the latest technology, and ideas about the near future of technology. That will be enough (and more) for some people. But not for me.
The plot wandered about. Rationally, I can say where just about everything connected, but the plot didn't absorb me as it moved from here to there, it got me lost.
And the big issues was the characters. They weren't completely flat, but they weren't meaty either. They weren't the same old characters I'd seen before, but they weren't flushed out for all their newness, and that's what really got me. It probably contributed to my feeling that the plot didn't come together. We do visit places that are important to some of the characters (Zanj especially) but not really being connected to Zanj, I didn't care.
And, frankly, I might not have cared about the characters being a bit thin, if the story weren't so heavily reliant on the characters. In addition to the relations of Zanj to figures out of her past, there is also Viv's relationship with the Empress. Which could have made this amazing, if we knew more about both Viv and the Empress.
And the annoying this, is that I know Gladstone has the ability to do what I found lacking (though I think some of the same issues crops up in some but not all of the craft sequence books).