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zitongren 's review for:
Stormdancer
by Jay Kristoff
So this is Kristoff’s debut eh? Just based of this novel, his writing style and sense of creativity have evolved greatly over the past few years. There is already some use of the weird similes and metaphors that is often talked about, though they are much more sparse compared to his newer works. So far with Kristoff, is that I liked [b: Illuminae|23395680|Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1)|Amie Kaufman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1443433956l/23395680._SY75_.jpg|26653661] and really loved the first two books of the Nevernight Chronicles(I still need to get the third book), yet really disliked [b: LIFEL1K3|29456569|LIFEL1K3 (Lifelike, #1)|Jay Kristoff|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1516369970l/29456569._SY75_.jpg|49731905], so I suppose some of his books suit my taste and others don’t really.
I do think that Kristoff is an incredibly talented and capable author, regardless of what people make of his writing style. Since it was his debut, I found the writing to be more on the amateur side of things and I certainly did not like it as much as Nevernight, which just felt so mature, if that makes sense.
The world building in here is blatantly copied from Japan, and features Samurai, Daimyo’s and Shoguns. It really is not the most creative, though I do like that he focused his world on an Eastern culture instead of a Western one. It does rely heavily on Japanese lore and myths, which led to me to want some more original stuff from this novel. The geography is different obviously, and I did like the concept of the lotus killing off the land, though it would appear the overseas war was likely based of the Japanese wars against the Koreans and Chinese.
The book did end up being fairly predictable, perhaps simply that I have read a lot of books and can sort of just tell where the direction of a story is going to end up. The ending reminded me of the ending from [b: The Final Empire|68428|The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1)|Brandon Sanderson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1480717416l/68428._SY75_.jpg|66322], which I had nothing wrong with. It simply was not as exciting as I would have liked it to be, even though I managed to plough through the book pretty quickly, as things just keep happening. The novel isn’t very fast paced, but I would not say it is slow either, though their are the occasional lengthy descriptions that do slow down the story a bit.
I found the characters to be fine and well written, though I wasn’t there to root super heavily for any of them. The characters do change and develop, into what I would like to think into more sensible and responsible people that does not trust everyone, especially Yukiko, our main character. Yukiko was a character with an interesting backstory and was well realised as a person with lots of ideas and passions, with people that she cares dearly about.
Overall, I found the book to be fairly average, though it is understandable since it was the author’s first book, and I can happily say that the Nevernight Chronicles are awesome. 5.5/10
I do think that Kristoff is an incredibly talented and capable author, regardless of what people make of his writing style. Since it was his debut, I found the writing to be more on the amateur side of things and I certainly did not like it as much as Nevernight, which just felt so mature, if that makes sense.
The world building in here is blatantly copied from Japan, and features Samurai, Daimyo’s and Shoguns. It really is not the most creative, though I do like that he focused his world on an Eastern culture instead of a Western one. It does rely heavily on Japanese lore and myths, which led to me to want some more original stuff from this novel. The geography is different obviously, and I did like the concept of the lotus killing off the land, though it would appear the overseas war was likely based of the Japanese wars against the Koreans and Chinese.
The book did end up being fairly predictable, perhaps simply that I have read a lot of books and can sort of just tell where the direction of a story is going to end up. The ending reminded me of the ending from [b: The Final Empire|68428|The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1)|Brandon Sanderson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1480717416l/68428._SY75_.jpg|66322], which I had nothing wrong with. It simply was not as exciting as I would have liked it to be, even though I managed to plough through the book pretty quickly, as things just keep happening. The novel isn’t very fast paced, but I would not say it is slow either, though their are the occasional lengthy descriptions that do slow down the story a bit.
I found the characters to be fine and well written, though I wasn’t there to root super heavily for any of them. The characters do change and develop, into what I would like to think into more sensible and responsible people that does not trust everyone, especially Yukiko, our main character. Yukiko was a character with an interesting backstory and was well realised as a person with lots of ideas and passions, with people that she cares dearly about.
Overall, I found the book to be fairly average, though it is understandable since it was the author’s first book, and I can happily say that the Nevernight Chronicles are awesome. 5.5/10