chloefrizzle's Reviews (993)

An immortal with recurring amnesia.
A sorcerer chasing him for a scheme to save her brother's life.
A girl working through her trauma.

This book is so strong.

Booktone = Anchor Gray (emotional, plot/atmosphere/character focus)

It's a story about rebellious angels in modern London and witty; comparisons to Good Omens (by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett) are unavoidable. So what makes this stand out from that book? It's lower stakes, in a homey way. It's a story more about sneaked pieces of chocolate than the impending apocalypse. It's also more organized and focused than Good Omens in the plot department.

I was feeling middling about this novel, but the heartwarming ending won me over.

Everyone always says exactly what they mean. No subtlety, no character voice. The plot and themes are similarly delivered.

It's cute. Makes a really nice epilogue to the series as a whole.

I ADORE the premise of this book. We open to foolhardy adventurers accidentally awakening the ancient, all-powerful Dark Lord -- the Witch King, from his tomb where he has been imprisoned. Our narrator is that Witch King. We get to follow his grumpy awakening, and his quest for the world that violently threw him out.

The disappointing thing is that none of that really turns out to be true. He is not the king of the witches, as they have no real hierarchy. He has never been the Dark Lord. He's not some Ancient Evil; he's only been imprisoned a year, and all of his friends are still active in politics. He isn't even, it turns out, Evil at all. The only true part of that premise (disappointingly) is all-powerful. He is very over-powered, to the point where he has a magic spell to solve every problem they come across.

I did enjoy our protagonist. He's bitter and fiercely loyal to his friends, and you bet I was cheering every time he vanquished an enemy. Getting his past in flashback chapters was also a delight.

This book is fine. But it fails to have an interesting plot -- most of the storyline is just traveling and side quests. It also fails to have well-realized side characters (mostly because there are so many that they kind of drown each other out). The book tries to get us to care about the politics of the kingdom, but fails to explain those politics enough.

The audiobook is well-performed. Sometimes, I struggled to understand the thick British accent combined with the new fantasy words, but that's more of a Me problem.

A video review will be on my Youtube channel in the coming weeks, @ChloeFrizzle

Thanks to Netgalley and Tordotcom for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.

The first thing I need to say is that this is a somewhat standalone book taking place after the Imperial Radch trilogy. The second thing that I need to say is that I loved this SO MUCH MORE than the original trilogy.

This is the story of an alien who got lost, and the ramifications of it on people hundreds of years later. We follow a woman tasked with investigating this cold-case disappearance, and a human & an alien that get mixed up in the politics of the investigation. The aliens in question are everyone's favorite Presger Translators!

I loved this more than the first trilogy because it was such a well-contained tale. Every protagonist got a nice arc wrapped up by the end. The plot made sense and had a wonderful high-stakes conclusion. Every step of the story felt very deliberate and fun.

Thanks to Netgalley and Orbit for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.

Wow. And, wow.

I recommend stopping reading the series at book 10, and not bothering with the last 2 books.

Meh. Just felt like Stark pinballing from fight to fight. Wasn't a point to it.

Changing Janet from a manipulative thrill seeker to a complaining timid damsel in distress made them even more annoying. How are we supposed to like them as a love interest if the entire book is Stark missing Candy?

The entire book is a pandemic, with people always concerned about masks and social distancing (it's not a respiratory virus but a magic plague, but whatever it can just join the rest of the plot holes). It's entirely tiring to have Stark complaining about wearing a mask all the time, then preaching to the audience about needing to wear masks. This is not the kind of escapism that I'm looking for.

Antihero version of It's A Wonderful Life, where the world actually might be better off without you. Clever, and funny, and tragic.

The next two book in the series are lame, and I recommend stopping with this one.

I recommend stopping reading the series at book 10, and not bothering with the last 2 books.

At first I was thinking, "I don't understand why everyone hates Janet so much. They're great." Then I got to know Janet better and realized how manipulative and stupid they are. It was one of those rare characters that are so annoying that they drag down the entire book with them.

My full video review with detailed thoughts is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2XeH4F1G9A