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missdanielle 's review for:
Stormdancer
by Jay Kristoff
Read it as if it's a movie and you don't care about Japanese culture and language being portrayed even somewhat accurately, and you may enjoy this book.
If this book were to be made into a movie I believe that it could be visually stunning and unique. And if the plot was re-worked a bit (and the Japanese language/culture issues taken care of), I think it would be a box office hit. Quite honestly, it seems as though that was the intention of the author as he wrote it. Because it does not work well as a book.
Personally, I'm not a big fan of the steampunk genre to begin with, but I thought I'd give this book a shot because of the cool-sounding fantasy elements. Unfortunately the bits of fantasy I got were overshadowed by the overall depressing tone and the stuuupid infatuation with the boy with green eyes. Oh, and the weird mix of English and Japanese terms in a way that did not heighten the fantasy element at all. I mean, I get that "punk" genres make room for being creative with slang words and social relationships, so I can handle his misuse of the word "hai." But when it came to Yukiko translating words for Buruu, both in English and in Japanese, it really took me out of the story. Which language are they speaking, man!
I also found myself sighing fairly often when yet another used-up trope or obvious plot mechanism entered the story and I realized that basically any somewhat competent screenwriter could write the beats of this story in their sleep. I pretty much skimmed through the last half of the book just to get it over with. I don't feel like I missed out on much.
The relationship between Yukiko and Buruu developed far too quickly, and while their tandem action scenes were super cool they were disappointingly short. And sometimes completely pointless in terms of plot, character-building, relationships, world-building - anything that would make the scene more than just a cool action sequence.
That being said, the steampunk world that relies on a single resource, while a little obvious a parallel to the real world, was very well thought out and clearly conveyed. I did not enjoy reading 5 chapters of almost pure world-building before getting any real action out of the story. But I do appreciate the detail with which Kristoff imagined it. Points for him there.
That is all.
If this book were to be made into a movie I believe that it could be visually stunning and unique. And if the plot was re-worked a bit (and the Japanese language/culture issues taken care of), I think it would be a box office hit. Quite honestly, it seems as though that was the intention of the author as he wrote it. Because it does not work well as a book.
Personally, I'm not a big fan of the steampunk genre to begin with, but I thought I'd give this book a shot because of the cool-sounding fantasy elements. Unfortunately the bits of fantasy I got were overshadowed by the overall depressing tone and the stuuupid infatuation with the boy with green eyes. Oh, and the weird mix of English and Japanese terms in a way that did not heighten the fantasy element at all. I mean, I get that "punk" genres make room for being creative with slang words and social relationships, so I can handle his misuse of the word "hai." But when it came to Yukiko translating words for Buruu, both in English and in Japanese, it really took me out of the story. Which language are they speaking, man!
I also found myself sighing fairly often when yet another used-up trope or obvious plot mechanism entered the story and I realized that basically any somewhat competent screenwriter could write the beats of this story in their sleep. I pretty much skimmed through the last half of the book just to get it over with. I don't feel like I missed out on much.
The relationship between Yukiko and Buruu developed far too quickly, and while their tandem action scenes were super cool they were disappointingly short. And sometimes completely pointless in terms of plot, character-building, relationships, world-building - anything that would make the scene more than just a cool action sequence.
That being said, the steampunk world that relies on a single resource, while a little obvious a parallel to the real world, was very well thought out and clearly conveyed. I did not enjoy reading 5 chapters of almost pure world-building before getting any real action out of the story. But I do appreciate the detail with which Kristoff imagined it. Points for him there.
That is all.