smartflutist661's reviews
1354 reviews

Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery by Brom

3.75

I was pretty bored for most of the beginning, and also knew exactly where it would end up going. And while I usually love a death march towards inevitable doom, usually the doomed have done something to deserve it. But the

slaughter of the entire village by "the Devil"

at the end made up for some of that.

The Sundering: Dread Empire's Fall by Walter Jon Williams

3.5

A fun continuation of the (anti-)rebellion. Enjoyed Sula a lot more than Martinez in this one. Also kind of hope there's a bit more interrogation of the status quo—though the Naxids claiming dominion over the Praxis is clearly bad, I'm not convinced the Praxis continuing to exist is that much better. Will definitely continue to see how this ends.

Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson

4.0

This suffered a little bit from being both a middle book and a conclusion at the same time, I think. But it definitely fulfilled the promise of moving into the more Cosmere-aware phase of the various series. I was most surprised by how much I enjoyed Szeth's plot/chapters. Also loved that we got a bunch of Rosharan pre-history. 

Fairy Tale by Stephen King

4.25

I feel like a decent chunk of the first 200 pages or so could be cut without losing anything particularly important. On the other hand, in some ways I enjoyed the beginning more than the end (once

the quest starts

). The (real) world had an interesting retro-contemporary feel; I'm not sure if that's because most of the King I've read was set in the 80s, because Charlie felt like a teen from the 80s, if it was intentional or just because King's... of advanced age.

Overall an excellent story, though I definitely expected

Charlie to destroy the passage completely

at the end.

The Narrow Road Between Desires by Patrick Rothfuss

hopeful lighthearted reflective

4.5

Not as good as the other novella, The Slow Regard of Silent Things. But Rothfuss remains a wordsmith, and Bast is certainly interesting enough to base a few ten-thousands of words on. I also liked the theme of "your self is better than you think, if only you think it is"... though dangerous if misapplied.

The Praxis by Walter Jon Williams

adventurous medium-paced

4.5

I feel like I've seen a lot of "Roman Empire... in SPAAAAACCCCCEEEEEEEEE!", but much less "collapse of the British Empire... in SPAAAAACCCCCEEEEEEEEE!". So I really enjoyed this one. Well-plotted, strong characterization, uses the sociopolitical framework and the aliens to great advantage. Feel like there are a lot of alien species off-screen still. Excited to read about the fall of the Dread Empire.

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

1.0

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

4.0

Battle of the Linguist Mages by Scotto Moore

lighthearted medium-paced

4.0

Not as good as I was hoping it would be, but still pretty good. I think I was expecting a little more TTRPG inspiration, and it seemed to be trying to avoid leaning into the ridiculousness of the power morpheme concept in the beginning, which just made it awkward. Also Isobel was lowkey a terrible narrator. 

The Night Realm by Annette Marie

3.0

Pretty mil-spec fantasy romance—neither Clio nor the incubus are nearly as interesting as the various Guild Codex protagonists. But fun enough, I suppose.