bennysbooks's Reviews (668)

Slow and lovely; sometimes dark and sometimes sweet. Almost a sci-fi fairytale. 

How does Hobb so deftly take what is essentially a dragon survival/adventure book and weave in an exploration of feminism, pregnancy loss, queer relationships, abusive relationships (including sexual dominance practiced in healthy/unhealthy ways)? I'm just in love, okay? Still some weirdness in pacing, but I heard that this series was meant to be two books and the publishers asked her to turn it into 4. Haven't verified that but if true it explains the strangeness - imagining these past two books as one longer book makes much more sense to me structurally.

The first time I read the Silmarillion was for a Tolkien class at University, and so I was reading it for study rather than for pleasure. This time was just for pleasure, and it was a different experience. Reading through at my pace, with no need to remember every detail (I'm never going to be that Tolkien fan, I do not have the recall for it), was so much more fun. I was able to just surrender to the text, engrossed much of the time, trucking along when I wasn't. I don't think this is an essential read by any means, but if you love mythological/religious texts and want to be awestruck by how one person could create an entire world/mythology on his own, it's a classic for a reason. 

This was my favourite Pratchett yet, but I think it would have benefited from a tighter focus on Bill Door (my heart 🥰), and less time spent with the wizards. The beginning with Windle Poons and the Fresh Start Club made me laugh a lot (and gave me a lot of inspiration for a silly necromancer gnome I'm playing in a campaign), as did Mrs. Cake, but the plot in Ankh-Morpork got old quickly. 

In many ways this was a smart and fun middle-grade, and my kid and I mostly enjoyed reading through it together. But the back and forth between Finlay and Honey Bee was overdone and slowed the pace of the book too much for both of us, and E said it was boring when they went back and forth too much (except for the "and then something really big happened", when Honey Bee kept getting it wrong - he was talking about how funny that was days later). I also felt like the way the book plays with plot in the foreground and background of the book was interesting, but he wasn't quite old enough to pick up on the interplay there and just wanted to finally get to the rescuing bits. I think when he gets older and reads this on his own, he'll enjoy it better. While I didn't love this, I loved first one, and can't wait to read the next book. 

Hypnotizing. I think it will be better on a re-read. 

I think I would have enjoyed this more as a text to study. Things came together a bit more for me after reading the afterword. It is very fast-paced with little breathing room. I didn't feel like I had a firm grasp on the characters.