zoeelizabethk's Reviews (642)

I might have a new favorite here! His Majesty’s Dragon is a delightful concoction of 19th century formality and civility, the Napoleonic wars, and dragons. The relationship between Lawrence and Temeraire is so heart-warming and adorable. This book has so many things I love, strong friendship and camaraderie, training/school setting, older writing style, and is a historical fantasy. I am head over heels in love with Temeraire (he is tied with Syl right now for most precious non-human character for me) and I appreciate Lawrence so much as an older protagonist and as an officer with such a strong sense of duty and courtesy.

I’ve read some of Naomi Novik’s later books and loved them, but I was a little hesitant about this because it seemed like a younger series and like it would have a much different style from her retellings, but 15 minutes into the audiobook I was totally hooked. There’s a couple scenes that might not quite be appropriate for younger readers (but are certainly not graphic or explicit), but otherwise I think this would be as charming for younger readers as for older readers.

I really really liked New Spring. Definitely don’t read at the beginning of WoT, but if you’re already invested in the characters it’s super interesting. I loved getting to see more about the White Tower, seeing more of Moiraine and Siuan, and Lan of course. At least the first half of the book, it’s not very clear what the goal is going to be really, and the ending felt a little rushed maybe, but by the point, I’m here for Jordan’s descriptions, learning about another 1-2 of WoT cultures, and learning more about characters and I REALLY enjoyed this one.

The Once and Future Witches follows the three Eastward sisters as they raise hell, fight for women, and work to restore and preserve women's power through witching. This novel is set in an alternative historical setting (this threw me for a loop a couple times) and begins in 1893 in New Salem amid the suffrage movement and witch hysteria. Bella, Agnes, and Juniper have experienced all the challenges and horrors of being women in a world where they don't have a voice. But they find strength in each other and fight to win a place and acceptance in their world. This book is very much an story of women finding their way through pain, abuse, and hurt to power and the importance of memory, writing, and storytelling.

So many things gave me high expectations for this book. I loved Alix Harrow's debut, The Ten Thousand Doors of January. I love atmospheric, lush prose, magical realism, stories with folklore and fairy tale backgrounds, and stories that explore the power of storytelling. I had minor reservations for witching (I'm not really into occult stories), but I was super excited to read Harrow's newest book.

Maybe my expectations were too high, because I just really struggled with The Once and Future Witches. I don't mind slow pacing, but it can be tricky to capture both a magical feeling while not lagging in pace. I was a third to halfway through the book before I really felt invested in the story. In the beginning I struggled with some continuity things and the pacing felt at turns slow and rushed. You switch between the three sisters as POV characters, but there were cases where I got confused about which character I was with and their voices didn't always come through clearly. I thought the character work was fine, but I also just didn't find the characters particularly compelling. Maybe I'm just not enough of an angry feminist.

By the middle of the book, the story was ramping up, there was a more action and fire, and we seemed to get past most of the writing foibles. Unfortuantely they reappear during the climax of the book. I found myself confused and frustrated, and then I'd have to flip back a couple pages to try to figure out what happened. And we have two writing/storytelling pet peeves [MINIMAL SPOILERS]:

Spoiler

1. the villian explaining his motivations (because it wasn't really explained well enough inside the story) and 2. people stopping in the middle of a battle to have important character moments.

This makes me sound so negative about the book, but I did like a lot of things. There was some beautiful prose (and some wonderful parrallelism that is just stunning), the setting was dark but compelling, it was a bit mysterious and creepy but not overdone, and the folklore and storytelling elements were very well done. There are some important issues raised, although at times it felt like the feminism and anger was a little too much for me personally. There are going to be people for whom the importance of the ideas make up for anything other reservations they might have, and that's totally fine.

I think this could have been an amazing book, but it felt a little rushed and inconsistent. I think if there had been another beta read or some more time, I think a lot of the writing things that bugged me could have been smoothed over. If I'm being honest, I might have DNF'd this one if it hadn't been an ARC just because of pacing (and I do not DNF lightly). I'm going to read more of Harrow's work, because I know that she can write stunning stories, but The Once and Future Witches was a disappointment.

Thanks to Orbit and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really just love Howl's Moving Castle! It's just delightful, whimsical, and such a wonderful adventure. I think the characters are all well done, you find yourself really appreciating all the quirks of the characters with all the giggles and eyerolls that accompany that. This book is such a unique, fun read or listen. I'm not sure if it's really in my top books of all time, but I just love this book so goshdarnmuch and I recommend it to everyone. This is also one of the few situations where I love both the book and the movie equally even though they are pretty different!

I've now read WoR three times, and I think I've become more fond of it over that time. I've never hated Shallan, but I've become more fond of her and her journey over time. There were so many special comraderie moments, moments that made me laugh, emotional moments, and just those jaw-dropping epic action scenes that you expect from Sanderson. Really enjoyed it, and honestly I feel like I like it as much as Way of Kings, just in different ways perhaps. I don't think I got as many quotes about life more broadly in this one, but that's ok. Stormlight is one of my favorite series.

Burning Roses is set in a world not unlike ours, where all the fairy tales take place. The primary stories are of Red Riding Hood and Hou Yi, which I was not familiar with prior to this, but many many other fairy tales and symbols are woven in to the story. Rosa and Hou Yi are older now and end up on a quest, and the quest reveals much about both women; their scars, their demons, and their hopes. While Huang has a number of themes she uses this tale to discuss, ultimately Burning Roses is about the relationships with family and friend, how we are hurt and hurt other, and the importance of forgiveness.

Huang’s prose is beautiful as always and it was interesting to see the folklore and fairy tales woven together. I think I’m not super fond of the “older main characters reminiscing about their life” storyline. I would have preferred a more linear storyline, more like a standard retelling; but I think that Huang wrote this novella this way for a reason and was right to do so. I was not into many of the themes earlier on in the book - they were sometimes wielded with a little bit of heavy hand - but part 5 focused on family, reckonings, and forgiveness, and that saved the book for me. For me, Burning Roses was solid but not stunning.

Thanks to TOR and Netgallery for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow...The Ten Thousand Doors of January leaves me with so many thoughts. At turns poetic, historical, fantastical, and even a touch horrific, this book is a beautiful story of the power of Words to change the world(s) and the importance of returning Home. I will admit that I stalled about a third of the way through due to my habit of reading too many books at one time, but once I got back into it I read it all in one evening. I expected this book to be good and I’m so glad it did not disappoint. I generally have a skepticism for genre bending books, but Alix Harrow does such a beautiful job weaving history, fantasy, old-fashioned storytelling, and myth all together into a greater pattern. It reminded me a lot of both House of Leaves, which I did not like, but is incredibly interesting, and The Starless Sea, which was published the same year and on a somewhat similar topic. The Ten Thousand Doors of January may be a little starry-eyed, a touch too romantic and poetic for some, but we all need beautiful stories that reawaken us to the power and magic of Story, and this book certainly does that.

I have mixed feelings about this book. First of all it’s mostly a military fantasy, so be warned of that, since I don’t think the front blurb prepared me for that. I ended up being pretty into it but it was a bit jarring when I didn’t expect it.

When I started it, the writing felt a little simplistic and you’re immersed in a cool new culture/world but it takes WAY too long for the system to start being explained, which made me feel like I was drowning in unfamiliar terms for the first section of the book.

Once I started to understand the world more, the writing also got more fluid it seemed and it’s very action based so I really enjoyed the pacing after that.

I agree with some reviewers that the love story felt a bit too idealistic maybe but it was sweet enough I guess. I also felt that I had a hard time empathizing with Tau’s driving force. To be fair, I have this happen with most revenge narratives.

I also felt like the story arc was a little confusing. He’s hell bent on revenge and that seems to be driving plot line but then other things get woven in. I thought that these were really good additions and gave depth, but I just felt the overall plot development was a little confusing and then when we got to the twist, it was a little confusing because it didn’t feel well set up.

So I feel conflicted. From the “technical” side, I feel like I have some major gripes. But it was fairly entertaining as long as you don't hate Tau. I actually really enjoyed the many fight sequences, and I liked discovering a different culture and world. The longer I get from this one the less interested I am in reading the sequel. If you like revenge plots and don't care about necessarily having a likable main character you'll probably enjoy it more than me.

So I guess 3 stars?

"I will remember those who have been forgotten.

I will listen to those who have been ignored."

I totally get why people don't like Lift. She can grate on you and be ridiculous. Lift can definitely be immature, but she really grows a lot despite being somewhat stuck in an attitude of "Well I asked to be young so I'm young no matter what." Maybe it's only because I got edgedancer on the radiant quiz, but I just identify so much with the ideas that Lift is grappling with and the Ideals that she coming to swear. She really struggles as she pretends not to care about anything but actually really does. I just think the ideas and conclusion of Lift's arc in this book is really powerful. Lift doesn't seem like the average Radiant, but she's going to be the one we look up to the most, even if we don't really realize it.