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A review by guillejican
Geist by Philippa Ballantine
3.0
Geist is an example of a good and original idea with a bad development. Also, the way it goes through the story is also the opposite as someone normally would think: It goes from the top towards the darkest bottom.
The book starts incredibly well. The first chapter has everything, and is unbelievably hooking. As we read we meet very interesting characters that are not cliché, and they bring a new perspective to the fantasy novel. Everything about the characters is fine to me.
But, the books starts spiraling down when we reach the 75% mark. And I mean in a bad way. Characters go from here to there without any kind of transition, start doing weird things and only questions arise instead of answers. The final battle tried to be clymatic, but... The book ends with a kind of half-conclussion looking to be open to the following novels.
Good things about the book:
-Original magic system.
-Original characters and conflicts around them.
-Very hooking at the beginning.
-I liked the concept about geists and the Order, and the Active-Sensitive pairing.
Bad things about the book:
-Doesn't follow Sanderson's first law: We don't really know what magic does, and we can't compare Sorcha's powers to anyone. This makes resolution of problems via magic a bit cheesy. It's like: "OHMYGOD HE BROKE THAT SACRED LAW OF OURS" and we are like "what law you say?".
-So many secrets and things not foreshadowed: The author puts a lot of hidden tricks simply from the fold of her sleeve. She also tries to explain a lot of things in the wrong places but ends out without saying anything relevant.
-Nynnia. This character is awful, and only serves plot-purposes. In my opinion, the story would be better without it. It's also behaviorally erratic, and in the end we don't even know what she is (we get hints, but still).
-Lacks worldbuilding.
-The author teases so much about the secrets of the Sensitives. It's a hook to make you read book 2.
Conclusion: Decent book, with cool concept i hope it's better used in next books. If you like original characters and the ghost theme, it's a good choice.
The book starts incredibly well. The first chapter has everything, and is unbelievably hooking. As we read we meet very interesting characters that are not cliché, and they bring a new perspective to the fantasy novel. Everything about the characters is fine to me.
But, the books starts spiraling down when we reach the 75% mark. And I mean in a bad way. Characters go from here to there without any kind of transition, start doing weird things and only questions arise instead of answers. The final battle tried to be clymatic, but... The book ends with a kind of half-conclussion looking to be open to the following novels.
Good things about the book:
-Original magic system.
-Original characters and conflicts around them.
-Very hooking at the beginning.
-I liked the concept about geists and the Order, and the Active-Sensitive pairing.
Bad things about the book:
-Doesn't follow Sanderson's first law: We don't really know what magic does, and we can't compare Sorcha's powers to anyone. This makes resolution of problems via magic a bit cheesy. It's like: "OHMYGOD HE BROKE THAT SACRED LAW OF OURS" and we are like "what law you say?".
-So many secrets and things not foreshadowed: The author puts a lot of hidden tricks simply from the fold of her sleeve. She also tries to explain a lot of things in the wrong places but ends out without saying anything relevant.
-Nynnia. This character is awful, and only serves plot-purposes. In my opinion, the story would be better without it. It's also behaviorally erratic, and in the end we don't even know what she is (we get hints, but still).
-Lacks worldbuilding.
-The author teases so much about the secrets of the Sensitives. It's a hook to make you read book 2.
Conclusion: Decent book, with cool concept i hope it's better used in next books. If you like original characters and the ghost theme, it's a good choice.