nadia's Reviews (587)

So, I enjoyed this more than The Poppy War, but it was still a lil' struggle to keep on top of all of the different characters' histories, loyalties, motives, motivations, etc. But it felt like this one had a better pace on the whole and if I sat and thought through most of things I was presented with I could piece them together enough.

Much more intrigued to continue on to the next book!

A super quick, solid read, filled with great anecdotes and tidbits of business wisdom. A super easy-to-read informal, conversational tone!

A really great collection! I was intrigued by all of the stories and I think this collection wins for the most unique series of concepts that I've encountered out of all of the collections I've read.

I loved the undercurrent of creepiness/eeriness and foreboding throughout. There was just something unsettling — in a good way — about it all. The writing was fab too.

Still, far too often a story ended rather too abruptly for me, especially after such slow, delicious build-up. I was left wanting more. My age-old problem with short stories, frankly!

A super solid collection. Not a single story bored me though...I did hope for more from some!

I loved the focus on women and also themes of family, motherhood, culture, grief, and politics that were weaved throughout.

A couple of the stories I think didn't have as much emotional impact as I would have thought, or left me a little confused as to what I was meant to leave the story thinking, but I think it's because I read them distractedly/while tired, so I don't want to penalise the book for that! After all, reading reviews of others, it looks like nobody else was confused. 😅

Very very good account of the Enron scandal. The definitive book on it, I'd say (having not read any others). (I watched the eponymous documentary almost a decade ago but didn't remember anything about it.)

At times, it got a little too slow or confusing (so many people!!), but I'm not sure if I can really blame the authors for this, as it was a complex thing! Given that, they did do so well to break it all down and overall I loved the detail.

Also, just wild what went on! Absolutely wild!

PRK is such a good writer. Even though some stories in this collection didn't hit as well, I was never bored! Even the Preface was gripping!

The variety and level of detail — all while remaining accessible and engaging — is so impressive. This was the nonfiction version of short stories and I loved it.

Looking forward to PRK's next book! The topic won't matter!

I loved this book, but it looks like I didn't mark it as 'read'/leave a rating on GR when I read it and I don't remember now to know what to put, but it'd be a 4-5 star read for sure!

Overall, a decent end to the trilogy, but I was a teeny bit let down, given just how much I loved Ship of Magic. 

I finished The Mad Ship almost a year ago, so maybe I was a little out of touch with it all, so I struggled to piece together the politics and the motivations of all of the characters. 

I also felt like some character decisions did not make sense to me or were frustrating, and some character arcs were ended unsatisfactorily, especially those that I feel didn't get their just deserts...

Still, Hobb is an incredible storyteller, creating rich, complex, morally grey leading characters, and the way she weaves everything together is so masterful! 

This book wins points because, despite the clunky, amateur-seeming, writing, and cringe dialogue and asides (which sometimes felt a little sexist), I was curious to see how pretty much all of the different storylines played out. There were a couple of good surprises packed into this. Some things were rather too convenient, but that can be hard to avoid with books of this style!

I wasn't sure how much I was going to get into a book about a monster dog, or how scared I'd feel while reading it, but I got into it and I did feel scared, tense, and on edge at various points! Again, also fun to see the small advantages to my King chronological read with this one! A solid book, with an unsurprising emotional tug, that goes a lot deeper than the obvious scary parts!