finozbleck's Reviews (69)

When I was at the bookstore to pick up a new book, I was torn between Trial of the Sun Queen and The Serpent and the Wings of Night, but upon polling some friends, we decided to pick up Trial of the Sun Queen instead.

Upon reading, it was a really good read that had me hooked from the opening sequence of "she took my soap" to the good plot twist at the end. It was super easy for me to get sucked into this book and the world. It's pacing was solid all throughout keeping me enthralled between each twist and turn while spacing out the danger and character development in between.

The plot twist at the end had me questioning my thoughts and feelings towards characters. It's super nice that it was done and done pretty well, too. The book left me with so many questions that I'm super excited to read the book while simultaneously kind of putting me in a little bit of a "what did I just read? how should I process my emotions?" kind of slump (in a good way as it's the good kind of reading slump where I can bounce back quickly). I'm so excited to pick up and read Rule of the Aurora King and continue following Lor's story and adventure!

It's still as good as I remembered it! It was a good book when I read it as a child and it still holds up for me today. Still love this book.

Initially, I listened to this book when I was returning from a trip to an anime convention and was intrigued enough to invest in it because it's a book that falls into one of my preferred genres of fantasy. It's a solid book.

However, my biggest problems with it came about when I fully devoted my attention to listening to the audiobook.

Firstly, the characters, even Kvothe as the main character, felt a little one-dimensional focusing on some sort of single trope or idea and felt a bit disappointing. All minor female characters were described and defined by their beauty, such as Denna and Fela, even if they have at least some interesting ideas to back them up. The supporting cast feels a little bit lackluster compared to Kvothe. Even then, Kvothe feels very much like a Gary Stu/Marty Stu/etc. simply because he feels very one-dimensional and excels at everything without virtually any flaws.

Secondly, the prose feels a bit repetitive towards the end of the book with some sections feeling like it stretches on a little bit too long or tediously. While the world-building and the descriptions were pretty good, it felt a little bit too forced into one perspective, the perspective of Kvothe and his retelling of his life. It probably would've been immensely better if it wasn't a retelling as it would've helped resolve some of the mysteries that weren't explained.

It was very entertaining to listen to this as an audiobook. It was engaging and descriptive. I really enjoyed learning a bit more about dinosaurs.

Originally, I read this book when I was in high school and enjoyed it then. Back then, I regretted not reading the second book immediately as it would've saved me from the slight reading slump this book put me in.

Now, after listening to the audiobook (I don't have my physical copy at the moment), it feels very nostalgic of the time and emotions of when I'd initially read the book. It's a solid book, but as an adult re-reading it, it's not as impactful as it once was. It's still a pretty good book that I would like to have a physical copy again, but not good enough for me to buy the rest of the series.

Another wholesome installment in Dinosaur Sanctuary! This series continues to be a very good read! Continues to make my inner child and adult self very happy!

This book was a decent read/listen. It could have been a stronger first book in the series. It wasn't an amazing enough book for me to want to continue reading the rest of the series, but the general plot and pacing of the story was enjoyable. It felt a little bit too predictable at times. The enemies to lovers trope didn't feel as believable as it could've been, especially as the enemies to lovers trope can sometimes be hard to write well. Tamlin felt very two dimensional and could've used some extra attention in the character development area. With all the hype about the *spiciness*, I was hoping it would be spicy, but it really wasn't all that spicy. As much as I would like to continue, the second half of the book and the ending didn't convince me enough to continue reading the rest of the series.

The science fiction adventure idea was interesting on premise, but it flopped a little on the execution. It was way too slow and drawn out. The characters were a bit too shallow for what goes on within the story. There was a lot going on at the same time, both story wise and lore wise. For the most part, the lore felt very inconsistent with notable exceptions being the interstellar travel and the inner workings of the ships or stations. Even as a big science fiction and fantasy reader, I struggled a little bit with understanding it because of the random, but long cut-scenes interspersed combined with the somewhat inconsistent lore and the shallow character development. If the story had been slightly shortened a bit, better character development, been sped up to a faster pace than super slow, and had consistent lore all throughout, then I probably would've enjoyed it a bit more, but it was just too much of a slog for me to get through.

It was a cute story that kept me entertained. It felt a bit childish, but only because most of the characters were high school aged students, minus the main character. It reminds me of high school, for obvious reasons, but kind of feels weird in a sense that my curious mind is wanting to find out more at some point in the future while simultaneously staying entertained. I probably won't continue reading the series, but I will keep the first volume on hand in case I do want to keep going with the series.

It's a very cute and adorable manga! Definitely was an unexpectedly good manga that my roommate had just pulled off the shelf randomly and handed it to me on a whim and was surprised that I wanted it, especially considering I had put back (almost) every other one that they had handed me. Plot and characters was/were cute and the main character is relatable. It was a very satisfying read!