galacticvampire's Reviews (366)

Brotherhood had two jobs: tell the audience what exactly happened in Cato Neimoidia and explore the Anakin - Obi-Wan relationship. Both tasks were executed, but none really felt fulfilling enough.

I don't really have complaints about the Cato Neimoidia plot outside of personal taste. The shining point really was the discussion about grief and war and anger, how they affect perspective and what to do in front of evil. But the plot itself happened, the story is there, I didn't care as much as I could have about it.

But the relationship between those two...felt stilted. I'd say Chen was a bit too heavy-handed on the insecurities on both sides, making it very dissonant from all the others characterizations we have from the characters. Yes, they banter and disagree, but they are still very found of each other! This book is called brotherhood, it should have leaned into that.

A lot of it is caused by the incessant mention of Qui-Gon. Why. It makes sense, specially for Obi-Wan, to remember his teachings and wonder what would have happened if he had survived, but the name-drop was so frequent it felt out of nowhere. Anakin relying so much on a vague memory of him for guidance over Obi-Wan full decade of training was very strange.

It also takes on aspects of the jedi order portrayal that I am not comfortable with, and have to wonder if these authors are getting cues from the storygroup or it's just an effect of them being a Legends generation. Mace Windu being framed as "very mean" and Yoda almost aloof is something I'm personally pretend is a narrator bias from the characters.

Now. I'm still rating ot 3.75. Because the other half of the book is spent with Anakin and the youngling Mill and it was so well executed! Anakin is a great master to Ahsoka later on, and seeing glimpses of it here was spectacular. It shows how much Anakin was good, that he was indeed a great Jedi. It makes his fall more heartbreaking. It contrasts a lot with his insecurities regarding Obi-Wan, and by the end I wish this more lighthearted portrayal of his had settled with the former Master as well.

I think what upsets me the most about this trilogy is that it really had potential! You see it shining here and there in some of the scattered scenes and I don't know if those little bursts of interest save the book a bit or just make me mad.

There is, at the same time, too much and too little going on. Hoping around povs is justifiable if they are adding important information or perspectives but here just happens because...I guess the author wanted to?

And "I guess the author wanted to" perfectly sums up every aspect of all three books. She just goes through the motions and it seems like it didn't get trimmed around the edges at all.

There's a one page random scene with Anakin on the front solely to present a trans clone. Who has one line. That is "hi, I'm different, I'm a girl". Like there isn't a clone character who actuality is integrated on the story? Who could've provided the representation without the blatant grab for cookie points? How did this pass the editoral process??

And that's exactly why this book is so... Meh. It doesn't bother me enough to be bad, but I don't think I enjoyed a single moment of the experience. Sure there's some interesting representation. Some small points that could've become good plots. But she never picked one so there isn't really a story? At all? If you skip this book there isn't a single thing you miss for the overall story of the galaxy or the characters portrayed. It's 100% irrelevant. Isn't this the biggest fail a story could ever achieve?

PS: and again we have a reference to the tuskan massacre as just like "oh well a bad thing happened. Never really got around talking about it tho" ???? Padmé???

I hate to give this a low rating because it is very clear E.K. tried to do something the dudebros hate: portray women like regular people. And it's obvious that half of the low reviews are hating on exactly that.

But the weak point in Queen's Peril, obviously, isn't the dresses and periods and make-ups. It is that it's a book that is trying very hard without deciding where it's going. Of course, it's great to see periods incorporated  in a story about teenage girls, and crushes, and LGBT representation. But all of this felt like the author was crossing itens out of a "look how aware I am" list without much tought to the actual story.

The plot has no substance, and I could excuse that if the book had a more introspective approach, i.e. Padmé and the handmaidens, what a great opportunity to explore female relationships! But that's not what happens.

The story tries to bring too much to the table at once, and falls flat on every single one of them in one of the biggest examples of telling instead of showing I've seen:
Giving personalities to the handmaidens? They are the same cardboard cutout with their name + #uniqueability sticked to the forehead.
Exploring Padmé learning to be Queen? Literally we aren't show a single thing she does. Is this a simbolic title? She gets a vote on the planet council? Has the last word? What's the difference between Queen and Governor? Who knows!
Giving background to TPM? Literally the most confusing 100 pages I've seen, jumping around narrators and brushing over the overall events of the movie without depth on anything.

The author obviously wrote this with extreme love for Padmé, an immaculate girl who is just trying her best and for no apparent reason has automatic devotion (to an extremely creepy extent) of everyone she meets. And then the actual scenes do nothing to convince she is fitting to rule a planet.
If you're saying Nubians become adults at 14, you can't have them ignoring security measures, lying to staff and being petty over anything at the same time. Some immaturity is to be expected (comparing to what would be 18-19 year-olds) but this dissonance makes the plot absolute nonsensical. Is like the story is from a perspective of a 12-year-old who actually thinks "the adults are just boring" without any of the fun that a middle-grade books provide.

P.S: really this book is so mediocre that it didn't even inspire distaste. I can't give a lower rating and join this with the books that actually made me feel something, even in a bad way.
(Really can't believe this just skipped ALL of the training the handmaidens had. Like. Why do we only have the transitional scenes between all the actually interesting stuff?)

Funny thing about this novelization: it's either breaking my heart or boring me to death. To be fair, it did mostly the former, but the second was enough for me to drop a star.

Anakin's pov here is made of everything that makes Revenge of the Sith my favorite Star Wars movie, and the way we can see how deeply he was groomed and precisely manipulated is gut wrenching. It also acknowledges that despite all the machinations, it was all still his choice, and I really appreciate not making him a simple victim. It has all of the aspects of the inevitability of a tragedy I love so much.

Now, this is definitely for the big fans of the movie. Differently from most of the more modern SW novels, this one doesn't deal so well with the action sequences, specially considering they are all ones we know the exact outcome of from the movie. It's were I got really bored and had to skim whole pages. Some things just don't translate exactly to another format like that.

I feel obligated to point out that this drinks a lot from Legends, and giving it was written before even Clone Wars was a thing I can understand it, but there were enough hints about "the jedi not evolving enough", leaning close to bashing Mace and Yoda in favor to Anakin and Obi-wan, to make me uncomfortable. At the same time, the exterior povs, that narrated events like an onisciente being, gave a lot of nuanced insight on the intricate plot Sidious had and the sad situation the Jedi were.

Overall a good read, extremely well written, and that made me bleed for Anakin Skywalker's tragedy even more.

I'm only giving this 2.75 because the previous one is definitely worse.

I feel that I'm repeating myself everytime, but this series has no excuse at all to be 4 books long. Not enough happens on this finale to make the (very plotless) 3rd book necessary and they could've been easily merged.

My opinion of the characters didn't change through the whole thing and it's not changing now: Elias is the most likeable character, Helene is the one which with the plot actually happens, and Laia is there being stupid.

I can count at least 4 times through the book where she went exactly like:
Someone tells her it's not a good idea, she goes "This is a good idea! I know best and you can't control me!". Two paragraphs later "I am so stupid boohoo". And the problem is that this keeps repeating, she never learns! It's annoying!

About halfway through until around 75% in I thought the story was going to redeem itself with a good closure but there were so many plot points that were either dropped out or plucked from the void that there's no payoff. I'm convinced Sabaa Tahir doesn't understand the concept of foreshadowing because there's logical progression of events, it's like the first two books are from a completely different series from the other half.
The ending result is extremely underwhelming (Helene's powers? The Scholar Revolution? No sight of them. Keris "story" that was teased from the start is just bland. There's a total Deux Ex Machina move out of nowhere), even if I have to praise the guts to actually kill a bunch of characters, and I close this book knowing I won't ever think of any of these characters again.

Is this book straight-out bad? No. Is it pretty much useless? Definitely.
It is, in my opinion, very alarming if the only purpose of a WHOLE 60-CHAPTER-500-PAGE-LONG book is build up to the big finale fight. Sure, there's some interesting things happening on the last 150 pages or so, but everything else seems repetitive and stalling and just shows me that the series could've easily been a trilogy with some good editing and trimming.

Laia is still extremely bland. We're supposed to think that ooooh she's got some Darkness waiting on her soul but she literally doesn't do a single thing in this book. Not even her failures are despairing because we don't get time to wallow on them. She walks around and talk to some people, whines and then her effort are unmade and then she has to walk around again and repeat. Zero impact on the actual storyline.

Elias was my favorite character the first two books, and his arc itself is actually very good. But it felt like the author ran out of ideas of what to do with him and streched what she had to fill his third of the book. We end up with a good chunk of filler chapters that, if cut off by 60%, would've made a very interesting and deep storyline.

Now, Helene (or The Blood Shrike) is easily the most entertaining part. She grew immensely on me as the books went on and very clearly is the center point of the actual plot of the book. Multiple povs don't have to be equally split, we could've had more of her without all those "and then 2 weeks passed" if we had cut a bit from Elias and Laia. My only grip with her is that, theoretically, she's one of the greatest students and a well trained soldier but! She keeps making stupid decisions! I lost count on how many times it went like
Hel: "oh I know the Commandment is plotting something, I'll not play onto her hand".
Avitas: "I don't think this is a good idea, something is wrong"
Hel: *proceeds to do exactly what the Commandment wanted her to* Like??? 

I love Avitas and Dex and Faris and Livia and, can you see all those are from the Blood Shrike povs?

Ultimately, this book had potential and some very interesting plot decisions and twists, but it's watered down by a whole lot of pointless stalling.

It is very hard to rate a sequel without comparing it to it's predecessor at every step, to measure how much of it stands on it's own.
A Torch Against the Night is a solid sequel: it stays true to what was established, both on the good and on the bad, even if I felt it could've expanded more it's themes and execution. There was a point where things started to feel dragged and repetitive and that's always a problem.
But on the good side of things:
- I still enjoy the dark tone, even if sometimes they tiptoe a bit on what I think would elevate the overall message instead of key moments. (Scholars are killed scene after the other, just call it genocide. The impact should be moral too, not only shock-value gore).
- We explore more of the magic, and there's obviously more to come!
- Elias still is my favorite character, and seeing the story through his perspective and his struggles is incredible. Helene's pov is a colder but great addition.
- The communication? Unmatched. At least the trope of stupid secrets is not one to be worried about here.
- The last couple action sequences were genuinely incredible, I was taken by surprise by a couple things and the execution was impressive given the switching povs.
And onto the bad ones:
- I have a difficult time ignoring the YA cliches and stupidity. This is obviously a more mature story within the genre and the silly love triangle was very unappealing. It doesn't match with the story at all and there where certainly better ways to creat romance obstacles.
- Laia still is the most boring pov, and she's supposed to be the main character. Her growth is clear and she's less annoying than before, I'll give her that, but jesus it was a drag to read. Fortunately it seems she'll keep a steady pace on improving.
Overall, it wasn't bad. Had I devoured this faster as I usually do I probably wouldn't have catched myself dragging as much through the story and focused on the final frenesi, but as it is: it was good, but it didn't impress me like I know it could.

A very solid YA fantasy that discerns itself from the multitude of others with a darker and more violent approach, as well as with a distancing from the usual european-style world (I'm not sure why so many people call it roman inspired? Because it's an empire? The real world influences are way more middle eastern).
It was interesting enough, with some moments that diverge from the usual plot formula, and I really enjoyed that it never shied away from the violence that the genre usually doesn't tackle on. The brutality of some scenes really took me by surprise, enough for me to say that this would make a incredible adult novel if it shed away some (very unnecessary) YA cliches.
And those YA cliches are a good part of why An Ember In The Ashes didn't manage to be a 5★ read for me: the romance has barely to no chemistry, there's a hint of a love triangle that makes me want to die, and the protagonist is absolutely bland. Laia has almost no active power through the narrative and I sincerely hope it's on purpose to give her space to grow in the next books, she's got a good soul and says pretty words but her side of the story contributes close to nothing to the plot compared to the other narrator, Elias. He's the one who really builds the bulk of what the story is about: systematic oppression, violence and desensitization.
I'm interested on where the series is going, with the hint of magic and subtle politics we got so far, specially because the downsides are not very prominent compared to the very rich narrative I hope to see more of.

You know, I get it. Mlm books are bestselling as romances. This is a debut. I see where the choice to market and focus everything on that part of the story comes from. But it's just... Not a romance, not really; and that cover and blurb are sure to mislead readers. There is, certainly, a good chunk of page time dedicated to Mickey and Cauler's interactions, but the plot is not at all about that.
The story itself focuses on Mickey's mental struggle, his untreated depression and the pressure of family legacy; and the romance with Cauler takes a supporting role in helping him deal with it. I have no qualms about this decision, the portrayal of Mickey's mental health felt real, his anxiety was palpable and even when his intrusive thoughts were louder than what the narrative showed to be true I deeply sympathized with him.
Another great point is how complex the representation was. More often than not authors add the queerness and ethnicity/color to characters like it's a box to be ticket out and it barely impacts them or the narrative outside of eventual discussions about the toils of X minority. In Icebreaker every identity shapes the characters, their personal histories, how they interact with the world. It never felt like it was added half a minute ago, but that it was something they were living with all their lives. Even if no character besides MC was really developed, it was nice to see.
Now, my main issue with this book is that I can really feel the potential, it shone in some passages, but mostly it falls flat because the plot doesn't seem to be that solid, it's almost a slice of life but without enough time for us to like it for the characters. This is felt more towards the last 20% or so, when the narrative unravels into a very soft climax that doesn't have many stakes and makes the resolution little satisfying. The epilogue (both the transition from the last chapter to it and the ending itself) was very abrupt and didn't develop much of a pay-off to the whole thing, but I believe this is more of a style preference.
Maybe Icebreaker would've benefited of a hundred or so extra pages, but most likely it is something Graziadei will work on on future projects. It is a debut after all.

As a big science fiction fan, seeing it finally showing more variety on sub-genres and perspectives is extremely refreshing! While Winter's Orbit's narrative moves around the romance, the world building and sci-fi elements are way more fleshed out than I expected and made me highly interested on the universe.
Not only that, but the main plot and cause of conflict is the unrevealing of the mysterious death of one of our main characters' previous husband that is surrounded by political intrigue. I was utterly invested on the investigations and even when I could sense some part of a plot twist there were unexpected layers and outcomes. Certainly my favorite aspect of the novel!
And yes, this is theoretically a romance and my main source of enjoyment was the political machinations. Which brings me to the reason on why this was not a 5★: Winter's Orbit exists in a such specific intersection between romance and sci-fi that kinda fails at both. On the romance aspect, even if it's driving the narrative there isn't enough there to make it great. They're cute, sure, and there are some nice scenes, but we don't really see them falling in love with each other because the unusual setting takes the space that would normally be there for developing the relationship. And the same happens with the sci-fi, although on a lesser degree. There's more romance than usual and sometimes I caught myself wishing they went back to the plot because I wanted to know more about the consequences for the world, not just the main couple. I had fun, but I believe that that's a result of that in-between state hitting the perfect spot on my venn diagram of interests. That's more of a lucky strike than good execution.
Even if their relationship could've been more developed, I found the depth of both Jainan and Kiem as characters extremely compelling. They both had very distinct voices, and their psychological turmoils were as complex as they were realistic. I could simpathyse with both of them even when they were in completely different lengtht waves. I am not a fan of the miscommunication trope, but it was so well executed here that I couldn't really complain.
Overall (contrary to my usual annoyance about series being able to just be standalones), I think that a well executed duology, with more room to expand and explore both the world and the romance, could have easily been the answer to most of my issues. And can I even call a story bad if my problem with it is that I want more?