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adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
jester that flakes from groups more than neil young
plot and dialogue can sometimes be hard to follow. jumps around a lot on its timeline which can make it take a while to reorient yourself, but the jumps do effectively make multiple fictional lives feel full. you really do develop an attachment to the characters -- not too much though for myself personally as i feel the more literal war plot took the wheel a bit too much and tyll got left in the boot sometimes (i'm sure tyll would love being in a boot, but i think a bit too much for too long).
i found the opening hundred(ish) pages to be extremely immersive and beautifully handled, but i feel my investment slightly lost itself during timeline jumps because it sometimes felt too far away from Tyll as the focal character; though i understand why Tyll was left in the mid-ground/background for large segments of the book for the sake of the plot, i feel like the book lost the purpose of its namesake the further towards the end of the book it got.
i will, however, say that kehlmann has an absolutely stunning ability to describe death -- specifically the decline into death, the physical/mental corrosion, the confusion and abstraction of oneself, one's environment, and one's understanding of time, their own life, and the people around them. i found myself reading faster and more intensely when combatting the death of the Winter King and the mineshaft deaths, and overall i adore kehlmann's (and benjamin's) literary style and the clarity, humour, and attentiveness given to dialogue. he is extremely good at making dialogue or descriptions seem half-assed in the best way. the opening scenes of the witch/warlock trial and the build-up to it were phenominally done in terms of historical value, dialogue, and the clusterfuck of emotions behind it all.
overall, a fabulous and thoroughly enjoyable book. sometimes a bit hard to get through if you're not used to medieval politics, but there are many scenes that just make grateful for being able to read.
plot and dialogue can sometimes be hard to follow. jumps around a lot on its timeline which can make it take a while to reorient yourself, but the jumps do effectively make multiple fictional lives feel full. you really do develop an attachment to the characters -- not too much though for myself personally as i feel the more literal war plot took the wheel a bit too much and tyll got left in the boot sometimes (i'm sure tyll would love being in a boot, but i think a bit too much for too long).
i found the opening hundred(ish) pages to be extremely immersive and beautifully handled, but i feel my investment slightly lost itself during timeline jumps because it sometimes felt too far away from Tyll as the focal character; though i understand why Tyll was left in the mid-ground/background for large segments of the book for the sake of the plot, i feel like the book lost the purpose of its namesake the further towards the end of the book it got.
i will, however, say that kehlmann has an absolutely stunning ability to describe death -- specifically the decline into death, the physical/mental corrosion, the confusion and abstraction of oneself, one's environment, and one's understanding of time, their own life, and the people around them. i found myself reading faster and more intensely when combatting the death of the Winter King and the mineshaft deaths, and overall i adore kehlmann's (and benjamin's) literary style and the clarity, humour, and attentiveness given to dialogue. he is extremely good at making dialogue or descriptions seem half-assed in the best way. the opening scenes of the witch/warlock trial and the build-up to it were phenominally done in terms of historical value, dialogue, and the clusterfuck of emotions behind it all.
overall, a fabulous and thoroughly enjoyable book. sometimes a bit hard to get through if you're not used to medieval politics, but there are many scenes that just make grateful for being able to read.