samtherat17's Reviews (162)

What can I say about this book/series which hasn't already been said? It's received praise from almost everywhere and it's for a reason.

This book took me a while to get through, mainly due to its slower pace. However, this was for the book's benefit as it allows the author to give us some worldbuilding. And I have to say that this world is really immersive. Abercrombie develops just enough of this world and it's magic for the reader to be interested in knowing more about it, but doesn't reveal everything.

The characters are probably my favourite part of this book, as they're all special in their own way, which makes every PoV feel unique. Glokta is definitely my favourite, because of his sarcastic humour. I have to say though, I don't like Ferro at all. She's really annoying.

This book for the most part feels like a glimpse into the lives of the characters, and an overarching plot really just comes into play near the end. This really feels like a 'first book', in the sense that it's more of a setup, not in a bad way though.

So yeah, this was a great start to the First Law and I'll definitely be continuing with the series. I was hovering between giving this a 4 or a 4.5 but I decided to go with a 4 for now.

This was a pretty good conclusion to the Skyward series. I liked Spensa's character arc, but a few things about it got repetitive in the first half of the book. However, it did come full circle in the end.

The first half of this book was decent (I think it could have been trimmed down a bit), but the second half and the final act of the book was just a nonstop adrenaline ride. I'd probably rate this book higher if I was just rating the second half. 

As for some of my problems with the book, I wanted Spensa to be more involved in the final act. She did have her moment in the end, but I wanted her to participate more. Also, I think the ending was rushed a bit and it felt a bit unfinished.

The Skyward series overall was obviously not on par with any of Sanderson's big adult series, but it was a pretty good YA series and this book was a good ending to it.

I re-read this to have a refresher before watching the show. Obviously this book/series isn't anything with crazy depth or writing as it's primarily for children, but it's still a fun romp with a great concept and characters. This series was one of my childhood favourites and I'm glad to see that it still holds up.

I liked how this book depicted Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, however some things got pretty repetitive, for example, Qui-Gon would remark about how he and Obi-Wan were so different almost incessantly and it just became tiring.

The main concept of this book is to show how Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan went from not working the best together, to what we saw in The Phantom Menace. However I think this could have been shown a bit better, as they really only start gelling well together during the last act.

In the epilogue it's just told to us that they started becoming better partners after this book's events and it's not really shown that much.

I just wish we could have seen more of them working well together.

The plot and the other characters were good, but not anything amazing. I did like Rael's character as he was pretty different from the other Jedi. Also, the plot twist at the end really surprised me. As for the flashbacks, I thought they were pretty good as they added more context to the story and Qui-Gon's arc. The book also had some pretty funny moments, especially the one with Obi-Wan flying at the end. I could not stop laughing the whole time.

I do appreciate this book for being unique as it took place in a time period which hasn't been explored a lot in the Disney canon. Overall though this was a decent novel, but not anything too memorable or special. 

Sunreach: The most "YA" book in the series. The stuff with the taynix was pretty good but the rest was not anything special. The main reason why I liked FM in the first book was that she had a different point of view and was not afraid to criticise the DDF. However, we got very little of that here and the majority of the novel focused on her romance with Rig, which was not anything I was super engaged in.

ReDawn: I liked the exploration and worldbuilding but this could have been way shorter. Alanik wasn't really a great POV character and she came across a little cold emotionally. Also, a couple of things were a bit hard to visualise. Like at one point, someone flies INSIDE a tree which was just confusing as a whole.

Evershore: I liked this one. Jorgen's character arc with his emotional turmoil and exploring his cytonic abilities was great.

However, Jorgen getting promoted to admiral THAT fast was kinda unrealistic.

The human-kitsen dynamics were also pretty fun. 

Overall, an okay set of novellas. I was mainly interested in the important things in the plot instead of the character arcs as they were not anything special. I would recommend reading this if you really want to read about the Skyward Flight characters again, but other than that, I don't think these are necessary to read.

Cytonic was a pretty good penultimate book for this series. 
I did like the adventure aspect of the book, although it could feel a bit unfocused sometimes. I loved the stuff with the pirates and Surehold-it was fun and showed another aspect of the Superiority. I also liked Chet and his journey with Spensa throughout the book.

I've seen this book get flak for not including the Skyward Flight characters and instead setting up a new cast, but that wasn't that much of a problem for me, perhaps because I had read the first 2 Skyward Flight novellas before this and I had already read about what was going on with them, so I wasn't noticing their absence THAT much.

In any of my Sanderson reviews, I have to talk about the final act because he is just so good at writing it. This book had an absolute banger of a  Sanderlanche.

As for criticism, I feel like at some moments Spensa sounded a bit too mature, if that makes any sense?  Also, as I mentioned earlier, some of the adventuring was a bit unfocused and maybe could have been trimmed down. Overall though, this was a solid book. I don't understand why this receives so much criticism-I personally enjoyed it.

Edit/Addition: I've just realised there was not a lot of important stuff that happened in this book, and while most of the book might come across as filler to some, I think I was invested enough in the character arcs for that to not be a problem for me.

The final book in Mistborn Era 2 was a rollercoaster.

The character development was excellent with a special mention for Wayne's arc and his banter with the other characters. Also, it felt like Marasi really shined in this book.

One of the best elements of Era 2 is how Sanderson fuses fantasy with the mystery genre, and it was on full display in this book, with fast-paced detective work and action/chase scenes being one of my favourite things about the book. 

The Cosmere tie-ins were done perfectly, being a part of the story but not overshadowing it, and being really rewarding for those who have read the other Cosmere books.

And of course, the ending. It was heartwrenching but so glorious at the same time.

Wayne😭😭. Such an awesome way for a character to go out.

The only things I can complain about are small nitpicks. The epilogues dragged on a little too long and

the butt-grabbing was a bit cringe.

Overall, This book was an amazing ending to Era 2. It was a fulfilling and emotional conclusion to this arc of Mistborn and leaves me eager to read the future eras, especially after reading a certain epilogue in this book. (Although I don't think Era 3 is coming anytime soon.😅)

Overall for Era 2, it was not as amazing as Era 1, but Era 1 is basically perfect, and Era 2 was still great. 

I think The Bands of Mourning might be a bit better than this book, but this was still fantastic.

Have shelved the last two books to read later. Narnia is fun, and this edition is beautiful, but I have many other books higher up than this in my reading priority list.

Ratings: (so far)
The Magician's Nephew: 3.5⭐️
The Horse and the Boy: 3.0⭐️
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe: 4.0⭐️
Prince Caspian: 3.75⭐️
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: 4.0⭐️

I loved the concept and the plot of the book, along with the amazing character study and prose, however it would have been much better if it was shorter and took less unnecessary detours from the main story. I did like it overall though, and it definitely deserves its classic status.

Starsight was a bit of a mixed bag. While the start and the last couple parts of the book were great, the pace was just too slow during the middle for me. I liked how the Superiority was developed and explored, however I think this book could have been better if some of these parts would have been shorter. Also, the ending felt abrupt. I get what Sanderson was trying to set-up, but it felt like the ending just came out of the blue. This isn't to say that the book was bad - In fact, I liked many elements of it, such as the worldbuilding, the new characters, and the classic, crazy Sanderlanche. However, it could have been better and it did feel like a bit of a disappointment after Skyward.

Edit: After some time letting the book marinate in my mind, I think that I was a bit harsh in this review. While I still stand with my point about the pacing, I've mostly overcome my feelings about the ending. This book wasn't a disappointment, it just wasn't on the same level as Skyward for me.