Calder has been declared Imperial Steward, the official successor to the Emperor. He leads the …
Review of 'Of Kings and Killers' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
3.5/5
Following Shera as the last book out of the two trilogies was something I wasn’t really thrilled about at first considering I wasn’t the biggest fan of her in the previous books. It still feels like the book had a far more interesting story in all of the past chapters instead of the present. However the ending for this book was certainly much better than the ending for Calder’s side which was a surprise.
Overall I still believe that a far better story could have been told with a smaller scale conflict building up over more books. I would have loved to see the past chapters as real time events rather than snippets that constantly interrupted the present timeline. But as mentioned the end was definitely more gratifying and it makes sense to finish with this book last.
Calder has been declared Imperial Steward, the official successor to the Emperor. He leads the …
Review of 'Of Kings and Killers' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
3.5/5
The book ended with a bang but I can’t help but be disappointed. The whole story shines in the adventure and the magic of the past, and not in the preset. And that is a real shame as I would have loved to read a story about the adventures of Calder and his crew out on the sea rather than him sitting on a throne and making bad decisions.
The book felt like it missed the mark for me, focusing on the wrong things. It felt like it had grown far too much in scope and the characters never caught up and so it spun out of control.
I really like the world and the lore and the Elders, I just didn’t like the story that was told in it. Which is my biggest disappointment.
Calder has survived the battle on the Gray Island, and escaped the Heart of Nakothi …
Review of 'Of Dawn and Darkness' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
3/5
As Shera’s life gets more and more complicated I seem to care less and less about her as a character. She had already been quite devoid of emotion and it seemed that has gotten even worse. Now the only thing she seems to care for is killing people. Literally anyone and everyone. It just felt exhausting reading from her viewpoint and I actively rooted for the other side whenever she got into a fight.
The upside were the other points of view throughout the book which added some depth to the world at least. They had actual curiosity and emotions which was really nice to see, but the way the stories intertwined with the present chapters and randomly assorted past chapters was jarring. At some points we skipped back thousands of years and then back to present before going back twenty years and so on. It felt far more …
3/5
As Shera’s life gets more and more complicated I seem to care less and less about her as a character. She had already been quite devoid of emotion and it seemed that has gotten even worse. Now the only thing she seems to care for is killing people. Literally anyone and everyone. It just felt exhausting reading from her viewpoint and I actively rooted for the other side whenever she got into a fight.
The upside were the other points of view throughout the book which added some depth to the world at least. They had actual curiosity and emotions which was really nice to see, but the way the stories intertwined with the present chapters and randomly assorted past chapters was jarring. At some points we skipped back thousands of years and then back to present before going back twenty years and so on. It felt far more chaotic and keeping the timeline in my head was a struggle.
Unfortunately my favorite character from the Shadow side also died in this book which makes me worried for the last in the trilogy and how it will shape up considering my current dislikes.
Overall it was worth reading only to get an idea of what this side of the world was doing and thinking. Otherwise the Sea trilogy seems like a far better story and set of characters.
Calder has survived the battle on the Gray Island, and escaped the Heart of Nakothi …
Review of 'Of Dawn and Darkness' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
3.5/5
Following the first book of the series the world continues to evolve further and new plots develop. It’s certainly not as groundbreaking as the first book as in present time we spend most of the time in one area and the only real adventure happens in the past timeline.
As much as I appreciate the background on how everyone was recruited it was not nearly as well integrated into the present story line as the previous book. However it was really the only thing holding my interest in continuing. The present timeline stopped focusing on exploration and turned to mostly politics and a battle which were the weakest parts of the book.
Overall though I enjoyed the story and am curious to see the conclusion.
The Guild of Navigators has ruled the Aion Sea for centuries, using their fleet of …
Review of 'Of Sea and Shadow' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
3/5
When I read the Sea and Shadow first I was excited for the possibilities of this world and story and loved every minute of reading. Unfortunately it’s counterpart, Shadow and Sea, does not have the same effect at all. It felt far more generic, mostly due to the cast of characters who seem to have little in terms of personality.
Shera specifically, being the main character, should be the driving force of the book but her boring outlook and emotionless responses leave me not being able to root for her cause at all. All she wants to do it sleep, and so do I. The supporting characters do not feel much better except Lucan who actually seems to have some emotions and curiosity.
My biggest disappointment in the Shadow series is how little magic there is, not just actual magic but the magic of the unknown. There is little …
3/5
When I read the Sea and Shadow first I was excited for the possibilities of this world and story and loved every minute of reading. Unfortunately it’s counterpart, Shadow and Sea, does not have the same effect at all. It felt far more generic, mostly due to the cast of characters who seem to have little in terms of personality.
Shera specifically, being the main character, should be the driving force of the book but her boring outlook and emotionless responses leave me not being able to root for her cause at all. All she wants to do it sleep, and so do I. The supporting characters do not feel much better except Lucan who actually seems to have some emotions and curiosity.
My biggest disappointment in the Shadow series is how little magic there is, not just actual magic but the magic of the unknown. There is little curiosity about the world as the characters just go where they are told and kill who they are told to kill.
The consultants also seem to have superhuman powers but are just highly trained which feels so jarring. It feels like there should have been something more special about them to give them such super-human feeling abilities to blend into shadows and disappear into thin air. It just feels so incomplete.
Overall I will give this series a fair try and I hope the rest of the series feels better, but the Sea side is certainly a far better story.
The Guild of Navigators has ruled the Aion Sea for centuries, using their fleet of …
Review of 'Of Sea and Shadow' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
4.5/5
What an incredible journey filled with pirates, horrifying monsters that will surely give me nightmares and a really cool magic all wrapped together in a captivating plot. The world felt so alive and filled with mystery that I couldn’t stop reading.
What a great world that Will has managed to put together and filled with great characters. It’s so hard for me to choose which side to root for (Sea of Shadow) as they all fight for what they believe is the right thing to do. Love the book and I can’t wait to dig into the rest of the story!
On a mountainside at the edge of the Kaigenese Empire live the most powerful fighters …
Review of 'The Sword of Kaigen' on 'Goodreads'
1 star
DNF @ 50%
Honestly I did not enjoy this at all. There were just far too many issues that I could not get past and I am putting this down.
Starting with the prose. There were just so many gibberish sentences that required a dictionary and the glossary to make any sense of. There were so many Japanese and made up words thrown in constantly that absolutely killed my reading pace. Why are there new words used for simple things like second, minute and hour? Why are there just so many random terms thrown in with no context at all? I’m no stranger to dense fantasy but this was just incredibly frustrating and really killed my enjoyment when I couldn’t understand what the author was even trying to say half the time. And the info dumps were just unbearable. We spent so many pages sifting through the whole history of …
DNF @ 50%
Honestly I did not enjoy this at all. There were just far too many issues that I could not get past and I am putting this down.
Starting with the prose. There were just so many gibberish sentences that required a dictionary and the glossary to make any sense of. There were so many Japanese and made up words thrown in constantly that absolutely killed my reading pace. Why are there new words used for simple things like second, minute and hour? Why are there just so many random terms thrown in with no context at all? I’m no stranger to dense fantasy but this was just incredibly frustrating and really killed my enjoyment when I couldn’t understand what the author was even trying to say half the time. And the info dumps were just unbearable. We spent so many pages sifting through the whole history of this area in a “school history class”. Seriously.
The plot and pace were also a huge weakness. The first 1/3 of the book was just incredibly slow and filled with unnecessary dialogue. I don’t need pages and pages of Misaki talking with her infant, or gossiping about other people. I really don’t. The only interesting bit here was Mamoru talking with the new kid and slowly learning about the outside world. Then when things do finally pick up at almost 40%(!) we are then trust into the world’s longest fight scene that clearly was not actually that long in real time (and this was by far the best part of the book).
The only interesting characters were Mamoru and seeing as his idea of the world is slowly shattered by the revelations from his new classmate and his uncle, who is just a badass and cool guy but was definitely barely in the story.
Misaki was just such a letdown. Other than one flashback chapter where she is a total badass, and one moment in present time where she finally does something noteworthy she is just incredibly uninteresting. She spends 1/3 of her time taking care of annoying kids, 1/3 gossiping with friends and 1/3 being horribly abused by her misogynistic and emotionless husband, who she decided to stay with.
Now, personally, my absolutely least favorite trope in fantasy is the archaic gender roles. And so when it became clear at 50% that this story was actually about Misaki and not Mamoru I was ready to put this down.
The only redeeming part of this book was the use of magic in the fight scene. This was what I was expecting from the book, badass fighters and clever interesting characters and their relationships. Not the story of an abused housewife who clearly hates her husband and herself and her children.
Overall I did not like this book. I scoured reviews to see if things improve at all in the second half and based on what I’ve found it only gets worse. So into my DNF pile this goes.
"As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."
In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, …
Review of 'All Systems Red' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
4.5/5
Who doesn’t love a sarcastic and slightly shy murderbot? The story grips you from the start and the main character, a bot with human flesh incorporated into it is the perfect amount of robot who would rather watch TV and human who cares for saving those around it. Loved it! My only complaint was that I wanted more as it was a rather short book.
It feels like there are good ideas in this story but not so great execution of them. There is far too much world building thrown in too short of a time, and new locations and peoples names mentioned offhandedly as if the reader was already familiar with them. There were oddly paced sections where long distances would be traversed within a single sentence which made little sense as the character was completely unfamiliar with them. Which brings be to the characters who do not feel very well developed. Their interactions are a bit stilted and awkward and the decisions made by then make little sense sometimes. The pieces that I did enjoy were the magic and fight scenes which flowed much better than the rest of the story. Overall this book felt like it was underbaked and needed more time to develop as well as be better edited.
Review of 'The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
3/5
If you love goofy stories with silly humor and a gang of monsters this is the book for you. For me it was a bit too much on the silly side though and so it didn’t quite hit the notes I was hoping it would. The characters are a bit too one dimensional and there is a fair bit of unnecessarily immature descriptions of women for my tastes. Overall it’s a decent casual read split into a handful of separate stories put into a book format.
A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret.
Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary …
Review of 'The House in the Cerulean Sea' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
5/5
What a wonderful story that had me fall in love right from the start. Set in a magical world where anything is possible and so misunderstood, it was a beautiful story about accepting others despite their differences. Yes it was very obvious in its message but it certainly did not detract from the beauty of it all. I just love all the children and Linus and Arthur, and despite me not being one for romances in general I couldn’t help but really root for them. Absolutely lovely book! (Also my favorite character was definitely Talia and her little shovel.)
In addition to their honest and insightful humor, Sarah's Scribbles comics also contain a social …
Review of 'Oddball' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
5/5
Love the quirky humor and cute art style that Sarah uses for her comics. I read the whole book as soon as I got it in my hands and laughed and connected with many of the comics inside.
A story full of twists and turns. Just when you think things are solved and explained away another string of mysteries and murders pulls you right back in. The book itself has the problem of being written at a time when casual racism and sexism were acceptable and it really shows in how the characters talk to/about others. It was my one major dislike of the novel. However, the mystery and fast-paced plot really pulled me in and I couldn't put the book down until I finished each part, resolving the twists within it. Overall, a good mystery novel set in a time period I would hate to be part of.
"Clay Cooper and his band were once the best of the best -- the meanest, …
Review of 'Kings of the Wyld' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
4.5/5
Amazing adventure, lots of laughs and great jokes. Clay was the best main character you can ask for, a loyal and solid man who got his friends through tough times and with great laughs. Loved the book and everyone in it, one of my favorites being Moog the wizard who always had a surprise up his sleeve. The story was fun and exciting throughout and I loved the idea of a bunch of old out-of-prime adventurers coming back to do it one more time. There were certainly some situations that were a bit too convenient but the story didn’t lose its charm because of them so they are easily excused. Overall it was a fun read and I’m excited to read the next in the series.
