Tanis Parenteau, Rebecca Roanhorse: Storm of Locusts (AudiobookFormat, 2019, Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio, Audible Studios on Brilliance)
mp3 cd
Published Aug. 6, 2019 by Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio, Audible Studios on Brilliance.
Picks up after the first book and does everything a sequel’s supposed to: we go outside the walls of Dinétah, Maggie gets a badass lightning sword, encounters more tricksy gods and a more powerful adversary. Everything feels bigger. But it’s not as good as the first book. Still, a fascinating world with some good character progression.
I loved the additional worldbuilding and I can't wait to read more of Maggie.
The only drawback I had is that it has been a couple years since I read Trail of Lightning. Unfortunately, Storm of Locusts requires remembering what happened in Trail of Lightning in decent chunks with vague references and no summaries. And I don't remember the details well enough after so many (waves hand at the last two) years. And the story does not quite stand well enough as a stand-alone if you don't remember Trail of Lightning details. It's a choice not to include the summaries or specific refences, but readers should know to either have an excellent recall of the earlier book or read them back-to-back.
Sloppy. (I'm sorry.) Parts of it just didn't cohere, other parts felt too hard to relate to. A few too many conveniences for advancing the story, never you mind the characters or their motivations. I had the sense that there were missed deadlines, rushed editing, and don't even get me started on the lack of proofreading! Grrrr!
Roanhorse really can write, but it takes a team to make a book: we need editors to catch weaknesses, reviewers to note subject gaffes (such as: airplanes don't work that way), and, dammit, proofreaders, not just spellcheck (there are no misspelled words in "airplane hanger" or "knife sheathe", yet no way to program a computer to cringe when it sees words used that way). I may have cringed often, but I eagerly kept going and consider it time well spent: I really do love how Roanhorse writes, her dialog, how she builds tension, …
Sloppy. (I'm sorry.) Parts of it just didn't cohere, other parts felt too hard to relate to. A few too many conveniences for advancing the story, never you mind the characters or their motivations. I had the sense that there were missed deadlines, rushed editing, and don't even get me started on the lack of proofreading! Grrrr!
Roanhorse really can write, but it takes a team to make a book: we need editors to catch weaknesses, reviewers to note subject gaffes (such as: airplanes don't work that way), and, dammit, proofreaders, not just spellcheck (there are no misspelled words in "airplane hanger" or "knife sheathe", yet no way to program a computer to cringe when it sees words used that way). I may have cringed often, but I eagerly kept going and consider it time well spent: I really do love how Roanhorse writes, her dialog, how she builds tension, the way her characters demonstrate decency and integrity without going preachy or saccharines. (Sometimes just by a hair). I love the relationships between her characters. And I will unabashedly look forward to her next, but please, Ms. Roanhorse, take your time, don't rush; and please, Simon & Schuster, don't skimp on editing.
Seriously solid story telling, place, and characters. Or, everything I ask for in a book - and series - done right.
Loved it! I love this series and love these characters. This went by so fast, just like the first one, and all I want is to read more. I need more Maggie and Kai time!
Storm of Locusts : 4.25 stars:
I looved it, even when the scenes were more of a "down" moment, I wasn't bored because the characters were well written ! I think the relationship more highlighted in this book is not the romance, but the friendship, but that didn't bothered me in the slightest, I loved seeing this type of relation for Maggie^^
I will not say much, since this is a second book , but I really liked this adult fantasy, the characters and the plot are very "fresh" and interesting, I highly recommend it !
