Entry tags:
book reviews: dragons and magicians
Falling behind on book reviews. Two coming-of-age novels:
Seraphina is a YA novel by Rachel Hartman, who did the comic Amy Unbounded back in the day. Seraphina is also set in Goredd and is every bit as awesome. In fact some themes may be familiar from Belondweg Blossoming; if you liked that you'll like this. To try to say something about it to advertise it to you poor people who never read Amy, let's see: it's a coming-of-age medieval political mystery romance adventure about finding your place and your people. And the dragons are Vulcan shapeshifters. Highly highly recommended.
The Name of the Wind is a fantasy novel by Patrick Rothfuss about the precocious early years of a future epic hero, told tediously in an overblown Guy Gavriel Kay-like style. "Mary Sue" is a lazy shorthand in reviewing, but Kvothe is one: overpowered, unrelatable, the only person who matters in a world of stock secondaries who revolve around him. Rothfuss's writing of women characters is particularly awful. There's some interesting world-building - a neat magic system, and a couple of good action sequences featuring it - but so, so much fat around that meat. Not recommended. (Although I might read the rest of the trilogy since Josh is reading them.)
Seraphina is a YA novel by Rachel Hartman, who did the comic Amy Unbounded back in the day. Seraphina is also set in Goredd and is every bit as awesome. In fact some themes may be familiar from Belondweg Blossoming; if you liked that you'll like this. To try to say something about it to advertise it to you poor people who never read Amy, let's see: it's a coming-of-age medieval political mystery romance adventure about finding your place and your people. And the dragons are Vulcan shapeshifters. Highly highly recommended.
The Name of the Wind is a fantasy novel by Patrick Rothfuss about the precocious early years of a future epic hero, told tediously in an overblown Guy Gavriel Kay-like style. "Mary Sue" is a lazy shorthand in reviewing, but Kvothe is one: overpowered, unrelatable, the only person who matters in a world of stock secondaries who revolve around him. Rothfuss's writing of women characters is particularly awful. There's some interesting world-building - a neat magic system, and a couple of good action sequences featuring it - but so, so much fat around that meat. Not recommended. (Although I might read the rest of the trilogy since Josh is reading them.)