Time travel is something that gets a strong reaction when it’s coming from a science fiction point of view. This time travel is coming from a mystery point of view and that helped the story a lot. It had a cast of characters that were believable. The setting was limited, but contained a number of interesting bits that could keep a reader guessing.
My biggest issue with this book was the way the main character is portrayed. The main character is a woman, but is written exactly like a man with makeup and a pony tail.
I think this is a worthy entry into the time travel genre – a discussion generator.
I have learned over time that I prefer characters that are at least a little bit heroic. I understand the preference and try to keep it in mind when I’m reading books containing anti-hero types.
I don’t think I would classify this characters in this book as anti-hero types. I would classify them as horrifyingly narcissistic. They can’t get past their own hang-ups and it costs them, and all of the people around them everything.
I really struggled with this book. I wanted to like it, and I just couldn’t stand these characters. I liked different world building and different myths, but it wasn’t enough for me.
I have been meaning to pick up one of the works of this author for some time now. I’m glad I picked this book up and got into it. It took me a minute to get into the story, but once I was in, I finished the book in a day.
The characters were very believable. They were real. I could easily picture them in my mind’s eye. The world building was slightly off to me. I might have missed something early on? I’m not sure. The beacon could easily fit into a ‘current day’ scenario, but I’m not sure this was supposed to be ‘current day’ and that’s where my disconnect happened. It was not enough to pull me out of the story, so I just rolled with it.
I have figured out that heroic stories work for me. I know this about myself and I try to temper my reviews with that understanding. The characters in this story were absolutely heroic… but absolutely not in the old school / traditional sense of the square jawed action man. It was delightful and refreshing to see this in a story. I don’t want to go deeper into the differences for fear of spoiling it for anyone else.
My one and only quibble is something that I understand is completely on me. This does not have to do with the work or the author, just me. The constant pronoun thing was annoying. I know I’m old and this is something that should be part of normal – but it’s not that for me. As I said, minor quibble and all about me, not the work.
This was a fast read, and exciting story and a lot of fun to ride along with. I intend to recommend it to my fan group and hope it makes the selection list!
I don’t know if I would have ever picked this book up were it not a book club pick. This book is a fantastic example of why a person should join book clubs. Read something you didn’t think you would, you might find a gem.
This book is exactly that. A multifaceted, shining gem of a story. Making a deal to save yourself only to find out the deal was not so clean and easy as all that. What do you do if nobody remembers you? Are you still you? What power does your name have? This is a fantastic reversal of the old “don’t tell a wizard your name” concept. Tell a wizard your name and give him power over you. And when nobody knows or remembers your name, what power remains?
Along with the concept, the author does an excellent job exploring the feelings of Addie and the ways she has been forced to move over her long, unyielding life. How does it change your feelings when having them no longer has meaning to those around you? What will you be willing to do? How clever do you need to become to get what you need?
I enjoyed the story. I enjoyed the characters and the many lives they led. It was also a really well done ending – and that’s something I don’t get to say very often. A satisfying work with an excellent sense of completion. If you get the chance, you should pick this one up.
The story of Csorwe, the bride of the Unspoken god and sentenced to die is a fantastic journey. I found it refreshing to hear the story of a character with tusks. I know this seems like a small detail, but the smallest diversity struck me as important. I enjoyed the journey from priestess to sacrifice to warrior, assassin, spy and so much more. There was real character growth through the course of the book.
I could have stopped at a couple of points in the story. It felt like there might have been more than one “book” in here… or maybe it could have been broken out into novellas or serialized somehow. It was a minor distraction, but it was there.
I was put off by the list of names up front, but I am always put off by those so this was not unique to this book. I made up my own names for characters as the fantasy names just didn’t hang together for me. Csorwe became Crow – visually close and an easy to keep the flow of the story – is just one example. Some people will struggle with that, some won’t – but I think the ability to actually say the name of the main characters matters.
I enjoyed the world building. Having various worlds connected by the maze was an interesting concept. There wasn’t a ton of detail about the ships, the gates or how the various parts worked but it was enough to spark the imagination and make the story / journey flow.
I don’t think 3 stars is quite right. It might be closer to 3.5. The book gives me a very “Umbrella Academy” feel. The story of an adopted family of children who all gain some kind of special abilities. A minor difference / quibble there being that the children don’t naturally have any of their abilities, they study to gain them.
The world building here was interesting. I say interesting because normally the “real world” as a basis for your story allows for a great many short cuts, but the author managed to give the feeling of things being ever so slightly ‘off’ with the descriptions of time. I had a thorn stuck in my head by this story via the use of a military character. The total time in service for the stated rank and exit from service for Erwin just did NOT ring true. It was really my biggest complaint about the world building – if you’re using the real world army, talk to somebody about it and pick up the details.
The characters were interesting. Some grew to be irritating more than anything by the later stages of the book, but the main ones kept things fresh as the story progressed. I knew the person behind the plot fairly early on, but did not see nor expect what the author did with the ending.
In all it kept me reading to the end. I look forward to our book group’s discussion on this one.
I will restate that I really like this author’s work. I have a bias, know this going in.
At first glance more than 600 pages looked daunting. Then I remembered who wrote it. I’ve plunged through some of his other works at very rapid pace. Then I hit right about the 40% mark of this one and it really slowed down. It was all politics and wrangling of people and just slow. It was all part of building to an ending that made sense and it all fit, but I struggled. I know I generally like what he writes, so I pushed through. I’m glad I pushed ahead. Once I got past the slow bit I dashed across the finish line.
I enjoyed the characters in this story. The world building and magic system was a very big deal in this and it came through. I am still chewing on implications in my head for various aspects of the world.
Was there negative stuff? Yeah, actually there was. This was his first book and there were aspects of the flow and the narrative that felt that way. Perhaps it’s unfair to say that, but I’ve read a number of his other works first so coming back to this made the small things stand out more. One thing that I always find a bit… I don’t know if ‘cringy’ is the right word, but it seems to fit, is when authors give numbers to troops. There’s a non zero number of authors I’ve read where it just doesn’t feel like they’ve got a good handle on how big the army of an entire nation should be. This is one of those books. It’s generally vague, but there are a few mentions in there about troop numbers and they feel like they were just made up. I chalk that one up to my own pet peeve.
This book does a lot of good things too. It avoids certain tropes, and gives real thought to what variations in magic and politics do to the people in the world. The hero isn’t “the chosen one” or “destined to be” or anything like that. He’s a guy that gets handed crap circumstances. The other characters are a priest who questions his faith and a woman that doesn’t like being told what role she’s allowed to have in society. In general I would recommend reading this book if you’re into fantasy. Very enjoyable!
I’m combining both of my reviews for the series on this page for any folks that don’t happen to have (or maybe don’t want) access to Goodreads. I have been using that site to track my books for quite some time now, but sharing here also means I get to keep some small part of what I write down here.
I read this today ~ all of it. I’m delighted that I picked it up. I am planning to write out a longer, more detailed review when I finish reading the second book.
FUN!
Barf quest. Right in a kids wheelhouse (and mine)!
The second book in the series Fart Quest was just as amusing as the first one. I had fun reading this one. Yes, it’s aimed at kids. Yes, it’s still essentially an extended fart joke HOWEVER – there’s a good story in there too.
The companions that are travelling and having adventures together learn valuable lessons along the way. While these things are being done, the book itself is actually introducing kids to some of the concepts of role playing games – including experience points and levelling up.
I don’t have an elementary schooler anymore, but these are exactly the sort of books I’d be reading with a kid in that age group. I’m really glad I picked this series up.
I’m so happy to have gotten this book as a gift. While the text is not lengthy, it does give an excellent primer on the life of the photographer. I suspect many people see the name and think something like, “Oh, yes. Tree pictures…” and then move on. Well, the essay in here gave me a lot more things to dig up and sink my teeth into.
If you’re looking for a quick hit of biography, just enough to get you interested, and you can get a copy of this book, I recommend that you do.
I actually finished reading this a couple of weeks ago but haven’t gotten to the review part until just now. I’m glad I picked this book up and read it. Adding stories to the world built by the author in the Iron Druid series could have been really good or really bad.
This story, describing the world of magic as inhabited by those who can use alchemical ink combinations to create magic follows one of the members of this secret society. Al is a gifted worker of inks but struggles to pass on his lore as his apprentices keep dying in odd ways. Al sets out to discover what happened to his most recent apprentice and uncovers an entirely different mystery to solve along the way.
There were some nit-picks that some people might not have trouble with. I really didn’t want or need the primer on Scottish slang. The explanation of it felt like it got in the way. There’s a little bit of a feeling like you’re missing out if you haven’t read the Iron Druid stories. Al even has a section of the story that describes meeting the character from the other series. I suppose it’s difficult to get away from such a dominant character in the world building, but this was just a blip in the story to me. It may have had deeper meaning to those who have read more, but it was lost on me. I really liked the magical ink mixes, the curse(s) and the modern lives of fairies in our world. It was fun.
All in all, I really enjoyed the story. I’m glad I picked it up. I’ll be interested to see if there are more on the way.
