pewter's reviews
97 reviews

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Yet another lovely little adventure with Murderbot, this time letting the reader in on a little more of the overarching plot and themes, but still keeping lots of suspense and intrigue for next time. Love this series! 

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

adventurous emotional funny informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Is there a character more relatable than Murderbot? This was awesome and I loved it. 

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

An absolute must read short story. It is NOT ENOUGH to walk away from suffering - we should be sprinting towards the suffering, destroying it

The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Oh yes. Note to self to read more short stories. Punchy and I liked it. 

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Ah what a great premise and great cast. 

Firebrand by Kristen Britain

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

Alright. So we're back to the actual plot and familiar characters after a wild and untimely detour. But with this return comes some of the repetitive plot points. Firebrand is cliché. Honestly, all of the books are so far- but they're fun enough. But Firebrand was a lot less fun - dragging pace, painfully long plot where the reader has info that the characters do not. Lots of dread and torture in disguise of development. 

And the payoff... (yet another!) divine intervention. Quite literally plot armor. Do these characters have any agency at all?

Mirror Sight by Kristen Britain

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.25

You can skip this one. No, seriously - the whole nearly-800 pages of it reads as a "very special episode / filler" that has practically no consequence to the rest of the story. Clearly the author wanted 2 things: to try writing an entirely different type of book (was she bored of the series?) and to force Karigans development into a very specific direction. I'd say it feels lazy, but that's a biiiig book that should have been a short story. 

If this were not in the middle of a very pivotal point in a long series, I'd probably have enjoyed it more. But now is not the time for this book! Just goes to show that Karigan alone can really fall flat without the full Green Rider /Grandmother villain cast.

Blackveil by Kristen Britain

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The main plot of this series is in full motion in this book, where the story and writing shine the brightest in the series. The main cast of protagonists, the evil baddies, and the mysterious fae-like folk are all on a wild crash-course, but even the side plots get some great attention. The pace is snappy, we get lots of different perspectives, and finally we have what seems like an end game to the series. 

Now writing this in hindsight, this would be an excellent penultimate book to set up a banger of a finale. However, I know now of course we're on a much longer journey...

The High King's Tomb by Kristen Britain

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Perhaps one of my favourite of the series, The High Kings Tomb let's us see even more of the world, invites new big enemies and bigger magical concepts, all while maintaining heartfelt relationships and little adventures with more cast members that make for great foils for Karigan, both in terms of her development and just great dialogue. 

First Rider's Call by Kristen Britain

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Probably one of the strongest (and fastest paced!) of the early Green Rider books, this introduces us to a wider and more loveable cast, a more in-depth understanding of the political and world that we're in, and just some fun adventure. It's not excellent - at times Karigan has very little agency and is basically pulled from plot point to plot point without much to do with it. But, it's still snappy fun in an enjoyable world.