the_lirazel rated The Eagle of the Ninth: 4 stars
The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
A young centurion ventures among the hostile tribes beyond the Roman Wall to recover the eagle standard of the Ninth, …
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A young centurion ventures among the hostile tribes beyond the Roman Wall to recover the eagle standard of the Ninth, …
4.5 for my personal enjoyment rounded up because it's so well done.
It's such a joy when a writer you already like gets better with each new book. I can't wait to see what Everina Maxwell does next.
Things this book is about that I am very into:
+ Knowing and being known and how that's scary and also the only thing that matters
+ Mental health and learning to live with your own screwed-up brain
+ Vivid sensory descriptions of weird magic
+ Love being earned through experience and choosing each other and getting to know each other and working together
+ How important it is to disobey orders when the orders are wrong and follow your own principles instead
+ Wow, family is complicated!
3.5 stars
I like Hambly's style, I like Joanna and Antryg, I like the aggressively '80s-ness, I like the twisty plot stuff at the end, but there was a long stretch in the middle there where I was just like, "This is fine." So it doesn't quite hit 4 stars. Hoping the next book picks it up.
A Wizard of Earthsea is a fantasy novel written by American author Ursula K. Le Guin and first published by …
In Adrian Tchaikovsky's Elder Race, a junior anthropologist on a distant planet must help the locals he has sworn to …
2.5 stars
Extremely surface-level and pop-psychology. I guess if you know nothing about cults, this could be on okay 101 introduction.
(Rounded down at least partially because at one point it refers to “William Churchill” leading the UK during WWII. Once again I lament the depths to which the publishing industry has fallen.)
I have a few quibbles (and a general vague feeling of discomfort with some of the things Emba alludes to but doesn't explore) but overall this seemed reasonable to me? Is it really THAT provocative? (Genuine question—this ace girl really doesn’t know.)