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A review by rebicon
Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi
Did not finish book. Stopped at 27%.
1 star đź’«
Sadly, this wasn’t the book for me and I did not finish the book. This was marketed as an epic fantasy but it is not, with only mentions of a dragon’s eye. If you’re one who is interested in historical fiction with heavy political themes, this is the book for you.
Overall, the book is very slow paced and I really wish there was a glossary so I could follow what I assume is Italian or Latin phrases, which were partly explained, and go back for reference. I wanted to keep going to keep trying to give the book more and more of a chance, but I sadly couldn’t stick with this one. It’s very hard for me to not finish a book so i was disappointed.
There wasn’t anything at the beginning that happened to truly draw me in and feel connected to Davico as the main character. I don’t empathize or relate to him. There is a lot of information thrown at you so it was a little hard for me to follow along. I believe a glossary and a map could help with that.
I haven’t read very many first person books in a while and it was refreshing to see, especially as there are parts where Davico is talking to us, the reader. Davico starts the story off as a young boy who looks up to his father, a man with strong political power. There are time jumps over several chapters that disrupt the flow of the story and quite frankly reading the chapter where he hit puberty made me uncomfortable. It could have been the way it was written or how I am as a person but that was a no go for me. I can understand and am all for curiosity, but that’s not the way to do it and made me feel even more disconnected from the character. He became someone I didn’t want to root for. Celia is probably the most interesting character here due to what has happened to her and how she’s choosing to survive but not a lot is going on to further drive me to finish either of their stories.
I received an eARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Sadly, this wasn’t the book for me and I did not finish the book. This was marketed as an epic fantasy but it is not, with only mentions of a dragon’s eye. If you’re one who is interested in historical fiction with heavy political themes, this is the book for you.
Overall, the book is very slow paced and I really wish there was a glossary so I could follow what I assume is Italian or Latin phrases, which were partly explained, and go back for reference. I wanted to keep going to keep trying to give the book more and more of a chance, but I sadly couldn’t stick with this one. It’s very hard for me to not finish a book so i was disappointed.
There wasn’t anything at the beginning that happened to truly draw me in and feel connected to Davico as the main character. I don’t empathize or relate to him. There is a lot of information thrown at you so it was a little hard for me to follow along. I believe a glossary and a map could help with that.
I haven’t read very many first person books in a while and it was refreshing to see, especially as there are parts where Davico is talking to us, the reader. Davico starts the story off as a young boy who looks up to his father, a man with strong political power. There are time jumps over several chapters that disrupt the flow of the story and quite frankly reading the chapter where he hit puberty made me uncomfortable. It could have been the way it was written or how I am as a person but that was a no go for me. I can understand and am all for curiosity, but that’s not the way to do it and made me feel even more disconnected from the character. He became someone I didn’t want to root for. Celia is probably the most interesting character here due to what has happened to her and how she’s choosing to survive but not a lot is going on to further drive me to finish either of their stories.
I received an eARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.