essjay's Reviews (635)

Based on nothing but the title, this was exactly what I expected it to be. 

This was like the Greek myth equivalent of Ready Player One. "Hey, remember this guy? Remember that guy?" And the one thing Atalanta should NOT be is a romance. No thank you. 

I really wanted to like this, but just couldn't get into it. 

I am so grateful I am too old to have been a part of these lj communities when they were a thing. Very difficult to read, but not unhappy to have read it. 

I wanted to like this a lot more than I actually did. It managed to feel both too long and too short at the same time. The story was decent, but lacked any real tension (everything basically works out for Anequs without her having to do all that much about it), and I ended up skimming the parts on skiltakraft after reading them the first time. Also, surprisingly little about dragons for a book about a dragon training school. 

Will probably read the next book if I haven't forgotten everything about this by the time it comes out. 

I have read this book more times than I can count over the last 30+ years, but this was my first time reading it aloud (to my youngest [12] and my oldest [23]). It was honestly even better this way, and I hope I'll get a chance to read it to someone else again in the future. 

There were a few instances where I had to add my own asides to explain things to the 12y/o, and also a few instances where I had to replace some slurs with kinder words (though with Miracle Max and Valerie, I failed to make my replacement rhyme and from then on just had him say "Slur! A Slur!"), but really there were fewer than you'd expect for a 50 year old book. 

Anyway, I will never not be delighted by this story, and can't recommend it enough. I do wish I could go back in time and tell young me that there was never any S Morgenstern, tho, bc she spent far too long looking for the unabridged copy of this book. 

Not me thinking this was JUST going to be about First Nations generational trauma and grief. Whew. So wrong, but happy to be. 

The word "string" has lost all meaning.  

I really knew nothing about this going into it, and I think it was better this way. No description could have prepared me for it. Will definitely need to re-read, and was tempted to start it again immediately after finishing. 

I didn't expect for this to make me cry, but here we are.