Reviews and Comments

I had high hopes as I LOVE a good space opera and I've never read a serialized work like this before.

The diverse cast of characters and morally ambiguous questions that were posed were interesting to me but the plot and pacing were all over the place. The book really dragged on and I found myself skipping much of the last couple chapters because I just wanted to be done with the whole thing. It also felt really disjointed in terms of the writing, with some chapters including plot holes or requiring further editing (poor grammar and awkward sentence structure).

I wanted to enjoy this more than I did and I don't think I'll be continuing to read the rest of the series :(

This was fine. I found the protagonist irritating and had trouble telling many of the other characters apart. 

I think part of what I loved about Weir’s other books was that the main character was busy problem-solving things in interesting ways and this was mostly an emotionally immature non-astronaut having feelings. Weir clearly struggled to write a woman of color character and it comes off as awkward and cringey (though not nearly as bad as some other male authors 🙄) like, what was with the <spoiler>reusable condom</spoiler> subplot? 

Skip this one.

I'll admit this was probably not the greatest pick for my bedtime reading as I was half asleep for much of the book... but I didn't really care for the plot or the romance or the characters. The prose was beautifully written though.

I was worried that this re-read wouldn't hold up to my fond memories of having first read Name of the Wind almost 15 years ago. I'm pleased to say that I enjoyed it even more than the first time! Perhaps a decade+ of life experience has given me a new appreciation for our brilliant, impulsive, egotistical, traumatized protagonist.

 "This story is for all the slightly broken people out there.

I am one of you. You are not alone. You are all beautiful to me."

As a slightly broken person this was sweet to read. Getting a glimpse inside Auri's world and mind was both touching and illuminating. Now I'm even more excited to re-read The Name of the Wind.

I love Patrick Rothfuss and I will FIGHT anyone who tries to give him a hard time ESPECIALLY the whiny babies who leave 1-star reviews on unreleased books because they think he owes them something what is wrong with you????

I really wish I liked this series more than I do. The third book is much stronger than the other two and the ending wasn’t as bad as I expected, but I still don’t feel like it was worth reading 700+ pages. Once again I had trouble connecting with all of the characters and the character I found more intriguing (Zaynab) gets maybe a paragraph of dialogue across the whole book. Couple that with some repetitive writing (if I read about a character’s eyes flashing one more time…) and call me bored. I kept reading only because I was curious to know if all 300 subplots would actually be resolved and I was pleasantly surprised that most were. I’m glad others enjoy this series and I’m VERY glad that I enjoyed this author’s other book because she had some interesting ideas.

This was fine. The plot and character development were quite a bit stronger than in the first book which I appreciated but the pacing in the beginning still felt murderously slow. I couldn't find it in myself to root for any of the characters because constantly hopping from subplot to subplot meant never getting a chance to let personalities breathe and develop. In the end I felt a bit bored by the whole thing and hope the final book provides some semblance of satisfying closure.