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turtles1738's Reviews (93)
To say The Toll was a disappointment would be an understatement. I’m actually baffled by how bad it is. Especially coming off Thunderhead which I found to be the best book in the series. Everything from the poor pacing, lackluster plotlines, unnecessary new characters, and disappointing treatment of existing characters left me wishing that I left the series unfinished.
One of the most glaring issues I had with The Toll was how the characterization of several key characters from the previous two books were completely undermined. One of the worst being Scythe Constatine. In book two he comes off as reasonable, intelligent, and always looking for the truth. However, in this book he blindly follows Goddard and doesn’t even seem to suspect his involvement in the fall of Endura. Most of the old guard don’t seem to question Goddard’s involvement in Endura which made me feel insane. Like they all just became stupid and forgot everything Goddard had done in the last two books.
The most jarring characterization choice has to be the fate of Citra and Rowan though. The book essentially ends with them abandoning earth to form a new colony on a different planet. Which was an extremely baffling and unsatisfying conclusion to their arcs. After everything they've experienced throughout the trilogy, the decision to leave behind the world they fought to change felt completely contradictory to what their characters were.
Another issue I had was the sudden and somewhat forced exploration of gender fluidity in the novel. For some reason, Shusterman decided to introduce a new character named Jerry. Whose only purpose was to be a token LGBTQ+ person. Multiple chapters and instances were dedicated to Jerry explaining what it means to be gender fluid. Which all felt like politically motivated insertions rather than natural parts of the narrative. The heavy-handiness of it really took me out of the book every time. It was that jarring and ungenuine feeling.
I could go on and on about how bad the Tonist plot line was, but I feel I’ve given this book more time than it deserves.
One of the most glaring issues I had with The Toll was how the characterization of several key characters from the previous two books were completely undermined. One of the worst being Scythe Constatine. In book two he comes off as reasonable, intelligent, and always looking for the truth. However, in this book he blindly follows Goddard and doesn’t even seem to suspect his involvement in the fall of Endura. Most of the old guard don’t seem to question Goddard’s involvement in Endura which made me feel insane. Like they all just became stupid and forgot everything Goddard had done in the last two books.
The most jarring characterization choice has to be the fate of Citra and Rowan though. The book essentially ends with them abandoning earth to form a new colony on a different planet. Which was an extremely baffling and unsatisfying conclusion to their arcs. After everything they've experienced throughout the trilogy, the decision to leave behind the world they fought to change felt completely contradictory to what their characters were.
Another issue I had was the sudden and somewhat forced exploration of gender fluidity in the novel. For some reason, Shusterman decided to introduce a new character named Jerry. Whose only purpose was to be a token LGBTQ+ person. Multiple chapters and instances were dedicated to Jerry explaining what it means to be gender fluid. Which all felt like politically motivated insertions rather than natural parts of the narrative. The heavy-handiness of it really took me out of the book every time. It was that jarring and ungenuine feeling.
I could go on and on about how bad the Tonist plot line was, but I feel I’ve given this book more time than it deserves.
As with everyone else recently, I read this book before going to see the movie this week. My main takeaway is I don’t understand how it got a big blockbuster movie deal. It’s not bad, per se, but in terms of sci-fi it’s a painfully average book with its only saving grace being the concept itself. Which even then is just a riff on the movie Moon from 2009. The characters themselves are all pretty one note and a majority of the book is dealing with them having the same conversations over and over again. Most of which deal with how hungry they are and how little food they have available. Which is an issue that never made sense to me, because they’re a civilization that has developed cloning and interstellar space travel. Yet they couldn’t figure out how hydroponics work or develop a greenhouse that mimics the ecosystem of the planet they just left? Seems like two major things they should have figured out before sending off ships to colonize other planets. I digress. At least the movie looks a 1000x more interesting than this book was.
This book started really strong for me. I was bought into Abe and Dans grief and their bond over that and fishing. Where it lost me was the unnecessarily long frame narrative wedge into the middle, that drags for over 70% of the total book. This narrative is all about the history of the creek Abe and Dan are about to go fish. Told to us by Abe who had just heard it from the cook at a diner, who had heard it from a reverend, who had heard it from a girl that second handily experienced it. Confused yet? It gets worse. Abe for some reason is an omniscient narrator. For events he never personally experienced and was only just told about them. Further adding onto that confusion.
After this ungodly long frame narrative within a frame narrative, we finally get back to Abe and Dan's story. Which at this point very little mystery remains, because we just spent 70% of the book going over the history of the creek. Sucking any horror that might remain right out of the book. Nothing ruins horror more than over explaining everything.... The books ending was alright, but nothing to write home about.
After this ungodly long frame narrative within a frame narrative, we finally get back to Abe and Dan's story. Which at this point very little mystery remains, because we just spent 70% of the book going over the history of the creek. Sucking any horror that might remain right out of the book. Nothing ruins horror more than over explaining everything.... The books ending was alright, but nothing to write home about.
Disquiet Gods starts extremely strong and was on track to surpass Ashes of Man and Howling Dark as my favorite in the series. Then chapter 40 hits.... Which I can only describe as a 100+ page church sermon with bible verses and all. In the chapter it reveals that The Quiet is God, The Watchers are Archangels, and Hadrian is mfing Jesus. I wish I was joking, it’s has to be the biggest bait and switch I’ve personally ever experienced in a series. The thing is I do think exploring the concept of a God being real is interesting. However, it’s not explored and just comes off as a Catholic fanfic. Where Ruocchio can pretend his version of God is the absolute power. I digress.
After that, the story starts to pick up again with Calen Harendotes and learning all about his lore. However, that is short lived as we soon speed off to Vorgossos. Where the book then rushes to its climax. Leading to a somewhat anticlimactic and rushed ending. I completely forgot about Cassandra. The girl on the cover. Hadrian's kid, but I guess that's apt since she's not really a character and more serves as a plot device to give Hadrian someone to care about. Overall, I’ll probably end up reading the last book, since I’m already so deep into the series, but I don’t see myself reading anything else from Ruocchio in the future.
After that, the story starts to pick up again with Calen Harendotes and learning all about his lore. However, that is short lived as we soon speed off to Vorgossos. Where the book then rushes to its climax. Leading to a somewhat anticlimactic and rushed ending. I completely forgot about Cassandra. The girl on the cover. Hadrian's kid, but I guess that's apt since she's not really a character and more serves as a plot device to give Hadrian someone to care about. Overall, I’ll probably end up reading the last book, since I’m already so deep into the series, but I don’t see myself reading anything else from Ruocchio in the future.
Alright, I get the Robin Hobb hype. Such strong characters in this book all with distinct personalities. Very much felt like this was setting up the building blocks for a banger of a series. My only complaint is the ending felt a bit rushed. Which made it hard to comprehend what was going on
Well the illustration are good, the whole story kind of just falls flat. With the book quickly moving from one vignette to another until you reach the end of the book. Resulting in nothing really coming together to feel like a singular cohesive story.
It's a collection of web comics I believe. They don't ever really string into any type of coherent story. I'm also not sure if it's the same person in every story. Very confused overall.
3.5
Artwork was great and the overall story was awesome too. My only issue was the pacing got a bit weird and confusing toward the middle of the book. I read the 5th anniversary addition.
Artwork was great and the overall story was awesome too. My only issue was the pacing got a bit weird and confusing toward the middle of the book. I read the 5th anniversary addition.
Fun read and I loved the world building. For such a short book it was extremely well thought out and deep. I guess that's GRRM for you. The art was amazing too. My only complaint was the ending was a tad confusing.
I guess you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, because this one sucked. The art was good, but I honestly couldn't make heads or tails of the story.