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divineblkpearl's Reviews (732)
A good hearted retelling of a fairytale that features a princess who matures from being spoiled and self-centered and Evolves into a woman who kills giant spiders, uses her magic to make the lives of others easier and ultimately saves a kingdom. I like the author’s spin on transforming the “man teaches the woman a lesson” underlining theme to the “ sure he teaches her a lesson but she makes him learn one too—giving them some equal, common ground as the princess is as important to the story as he is!
Surely a book that should be rated at least 3 1/2 stars. I have a fondness for historical fiction and this one nails it with a dramatic flair for the supernatural. The protagonist of the book The young woman the middle class background who is known sorrow and knows her lot in life.
She gets caught up with class politics and a family that is wealthy but just no good. What follows is this extraordinary tale of her being haunted and her taking this amazing trip And becoming a person who has survived hell and beyond. This is a beautiful book with great detail and cultural significance that I loved reading.
The audiobook is narrated by the author and it was really lovely to hear all the proper pronunciations get a real feel of the characters and the culture from her point of view.
She gets caught up with class politics and a family that is wealthy but just no good. What follows is this extraordinary tale of her being haunted and her taking this amazing trip And becoming a person who has survived hell and beyond. This is a beautiful book with great detail and cultural significance that I loved reading.
The audiobook is narrated by the author and it was really lovely to hear all the proper pronunciations get a real feel of the characters and the culture from her point of view.
Trail of Lightning is an electrifying debut novel from Roanhorse and I cannot wait to get my hands on what she blesses us with next!
Straddling the line of woman and something entirely else is the main character: Maggie aka Maddalena Hoskins. She is an outsider with a specialized skill set: killing the monsters that threaten the peace. She was brought up under the tutelage of an immortal, ancient being named Neizghani, known to the locals as Monster slayer. Maggie is an old soul in a young woman’s body who knows sorrow. She keeps mostly to herself. Her profession as a killer of the monstrous has made her many things: a target, an eye sore, a feared one, and an outcast with few friends or allies to depend on — in fact she could probably count them all on one hand. Just one.
The world building that Roanhorse does is one of the best parts of this book: this is a world akin to ours that becomes magnified by Gods and creatures and the awful things they do to serve their interests. I fell in love with just how deeply the extraordinary live among the ordinary — how these more divine beings were everywhere in places where you wouldn’t expect, like a place where you would grab a drink. You just have to have the eyes to see them. Each one we meet, from Maggie’s legendary mentor to the trickster God Coyote, gives us layers to the narrative that add to this wonderful mythology.
Read more of my review here: http://blacknerdproblems.com/trail-of-lightning-roanhorse-book-review/
Straddling the line of woman and something entirely else is the main character: Maggie aka Maddalena Hoskins. She is an outsider with a specialized skill set: killing the monsters that threaten the peace. She was brought up under the tutelage of an immortal, ancient being named Neizghani, known to the locals as Monster slayer. Maggie is an old soul in a young woman’s body who knows sorrow. She keeps mostly to herself. Her profession as a killer of the monstrous has made her many things: a target, an eye sore, a feared one, and an outcast with few friends or allies to depend on — in fact she could probably count them all on one hand. Just one.
The world building that Roanhorse does is one of the best parts of this book: this is a world akin to ours that becomes magnified by Gods and creatures and the awful things they do to serve their interests. I fell in love with just how deeply the extraordinary live among the ordinary — how these more divine beings were everywhere in places where you wouldn’t expect, like a place where you would grab a drink. You just have to have the eyes to see them. Each one we meet, from Maggie’s legendary mentor to the trickster God Coyote, gives us layers to the narrative that add to this wonderful mythology.
Read more of my review here: http://blacknerdproblems.com/trail-of-lightning-roanhorse-book-review/
'Pemmican Wars' is the first graphic novel in a series titled A Girl Named Echo centering on 13 year old Métis girl named Echo Desajardins. I picked up this book cause seeing Indigenous protagonists in books (and furthermore comics/graphic novels in the mainstream publishing circles) isn't something I see everyday. Also seeing disabled characters (Echo wears a hearing aid) and youth in foster care situations adds depth to her as a character and makes her someone a lot of kids I know can relate to.
Echo is commuting and going to school just trying to make it and survive and one day in her history class she's transported to the past in another time and another place. She finds herself in the Qu'Applelle Valley in 1814 right before a bison hunt goes down. For here the narrative is exciting and interesting: Echo is a time traveler coming and going back to the past and experiencing life as one of her Métis kin, or possible ancestors. These pages bring all types of emotions to the front as they are beautiful and heartwarming and also saddening. Echo is a girl who feels cut off her her heritage, her mother and who is she supposed to be.
So as a lover of reading up on the histories of people of color around the world, indigenous folks included--this offering in comic book form is a great intro to the indigenous people that made their home in what we know now as Western Canada. The timeline of the Pemmican Wars at the end of book including the two pages of other Metis info was a great touch. I think this is easily digestible for the YA crowd. Also having a Metis female writer handling Echo's story proved to be a good look. Yet as a reader, reviewer and consumer of comics I feel the pacing is a bit off. And the narrative is just a bit too weak with less than fifty pages to tell this first part of the story. I think this would be been served better couple with the second part of this series.
Echo is commuting and going to school just trying to make it and survive and one day in her history class she's transported to the past in another time and another place. She finds herself in the Qu'Applelle Valley in 1814 right before a bison hunt goes down. For here the narrative is exciting and interesting: Echo is a time traveler coming and going back to the past and experiencing life as one of her Métis kin, or possible ancestors. These pages bring all types of emotions to the front as they are beautiful and heartwarming and also saddening. Echo is a girl who feels cut off her her heritage, her mother and who is she supposed to be.
So as a lover of reading up on the histories of people of color around the world, indigenous folks included--this offering in comic book form is a great intro to the indigenous people that made their home in what we know now as Western Canada. The timeline of the Pemmican Wars at the end of book including the two pages of other Metis info was a great touch. I think this is easily digestible for the YA crowd. Also having a Metis female writer handling Echo's story proved to be a good look. Yet as a reader, reviewer and consumer of comics I feel the pacing is a bit off. And the narrative is just a bit too weak with less than fifty pages to tell this first part of the story. I think this would be been served better couple with the second part of this series.
My favorite novella of the year!
From L.D Lewis' mind comes this wonderful universe of one aging General Dayna Edo who is weary of war and conquest. She's tired of the work of brutality and troubled by the legacy that she's brought with her: a group of ruthless assassins that she's brought up since their childhood--in another life she could have been their mother. When her empire decides that they no longer need her as they see her as inflexible and question her loyalties regardless if she's given her entire life to them, her shadow army of seven, her assassins that' she's trained come after her and it is a ride full of well crafted fight scenes, magic and intrigue. Loved reading a story centered on an older, aging woman. And this book cover is a fave too!
From L.D Lewis' mind comes this wonderful universe of one aging General Dayna Edo who is weary of war and conquest. She's tired of the work of brutality and troubled by the legacy that she's brought with her: a group of ruthless assassins that she's brought up since their childhood--in another life she could have been their mother. When her empire decides that they no longer need her as they see her as inflexible and question her loyalties regardless if she's given her entire life to them, her shadow army of seven, her assassins that' she's trained come after her and it is a ride full of well crafted fight scenes, magic and intrigue. Loved reading a story centered on an older, aging woman. And this book cover is a fave too!
