Tag Archives: 4-stars

Review: Tui T Sutherland – Wings of Fire (books 1-5)

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Wings of Fire
Tui T Sutherland

The fabled Dragonets of Destiny have spent the whole of their years being hidden underground. When one’s life is in danger however, they take it upon themselves to escape and get the Prophecy started already!

The set up of these books is that each one of the five dragonets of the Prophecy get a book to themselves. The first two books really only rely on the main characters (Clay and Tsunami) to carry them. Naturally then, I loved Clay the most – he might not be the brightest, but he is certainly the friendliest (plus he likes eating). After that point, we start seeing a bit more variety in the dragonets involved, particularly in book 4 (Starflight – Dark dragon).

I actually read the first three novels by borrowing them from my daughter, but then had to access books four and five online as she wouldn’t part with them (doing a full reread of the 13 released books in the series). I then was reading book 3 aloud (because it’s Glory’s book, and I like her!) and somehow got suckered into reading it again. This is easy reading for adults and advanced readers. I think this is the perfect precursor to Eragon or House of Dragons for the young dragon fanatics among us.

I confess. I hated the ending. I wasn’t at all invested in the dragon that ended up Queen, and too many plots didn’t have an ending. There’s a big deal made around how only dragons that are royal by blood can rule for the majority of the books, but then the final choice is… different.

Tsunami is deemed the favourite of my daughter, because she’s a Seawing, and seawings are awesome! My thoughts on the matter are that I reckon that it’s because of all the dragonets, Tsunami is the snappiest, with a hint of magic around her due to her family history. She’s also fearless.

It’s not adult reading, but it can certainly be enjoyed by an adult as a bedtime reading book to a young dragon fancier. I was lucky enough to receive a review copy of “The Winglets Quartet”, so expect that review near in the future!

Review: Jessica Cluess – House of Dragons

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House of Dragons
Cluess

Every 50 years or so, a new Emperor must be chosen. The chosen ones are the oldest, strongest and best trained of their family. But this year, something seems to have gone wrong. It’s the younger siblings’ turn to compete for the throne with their dragons – except in some cases, the youngest has been murdered or isn’t the youngest!

I have to say I was stupidly excited to get a novel with dragons. It feels like it’s been too long since my dragon fix! Unfortunately, this one turned out to have more perspectives from the humans, and not enough from the dragons (except for towards the end of the book). Turns out that this novel has the same title as a Game of Thrones something? Anyway, I had to actually put the author in to find it in GoodReads.

I think it’s a bit rich to call one of the contestants a liar. She’s just a bit shady about her abilities! I’m absolutely buying the soldier, thief and servant as accurate character descriptions, but honestly the murderer is more like a psychopath! I didn’t really get attached to any of the characters, except perhaps Emilia. Everyone else was pretty average. I honestly feel like Emilia was my favourite because her perspective was the first one I read. Of course, I’m always going to complain about too many perspectives in a novel as my pet peeve – and here there are five different view points!

I am going to look for the next book when it comes out, because you know, dragons. And with the events in the last couple of chapters, I think it’ll be more exciting, and have more dragons! I was feeling disappointed at the end though, because I think it could have wrapped up and I would have been satisfied by the ending. Instead, the epilogue leaves it open for the next book. On the epilogue… it makes absolutely NO SENSE in the context of the rest of the novel. Read it, and see if you agree with me.

I did finish off this novel, and it’s hopefully shifted me out of my COVID-19/reading slump. I’m also behind on reviews, and feeling pretty guilty about it. 4 stars from me, even if it’s more of a 3 star read now that I’ve reviewed it.

Penguin Random House | 4th August 2020| AU$19.99 | paperback

Review: Fiona Cummins – The Neighbour (K)

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The Neighbour
Fiona Cummins

Four people have been murdered, their faces painted to look like a doll’s, and their eyes replaced with glass replicas. Everyone has secrets and it seems that nobody on the street is safe, so when a new family moves in, they’re not expected to stay long. Instead, as more murders are committed, the hunt for the killer starts to near its close – but at what price?

This book was structured quite differently to other mystery books that I’ve read. Instead of focusing on the police or a victims POV, the entire case was set in the past, and parts of the book are given from the killer’s perspective in the ‘present day’ as they run from the cops. I really enjoyed this style, as it provided more hints to who the killer was from the way they talked/acted, and opened up new questions by the cryptic way they described events.

Near the end of the book, when all the ‘past’ events had been told, the focus was exclusively on the killer after they have been determined by the cops. The ‘spoiler’ at the beginning that they were found didn’t detract much, as I usually expect in a mystery book that the killer will eventually be caught. For this type of horror/mystery genre, the ending of the book worked wonderfully. It left me feeling a little spooked, and with chills down my spine. I really appreciated this, as one of my least favourite parts of a mystery book is the ending where the detectives all congratulate themselves on solving the case, and the excitement has died down. This book didn’t do that at all, and ended in an amazing, terrifying, manner.

My one issue with this book was with the introductions to characters. While the main characters were distinct and 3-dimensional, it took me a while to be able to tell apart some of the side characters, because there wasn’t enough time early on dedicated to them. That said, I can understand why they were included, as each character provided their own flavour and added to the story in some way. I just wish that they had been fleshed out more thoroughly in the beginning of the book, instead of waiting to the middle/end.

In all, this was quite a good book, that I enjoyed reading immensely. I finished it in under a day, which tells me that it was good enough to prevent me being distracted from it too many times. I would definitely recommend this book, with the caveat that anyone who picks it up understands that it’s equal parts horror and mystery, and is much more scary than a typical mystery novel.

 

Review: Phil Stamper – The Gravity of Us

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The Gravity of Us
Phil Stamper

Cal’s going to make his FlashFame feed support his career as a journalist, do an internship at BuzzFeed and get a free ride to college with a full scholarship. When his dad is selected to become an astronaut of the Orpheus Twenty Cal’s plans are derailed – going to Texas isn’t in his ideal future! But with a cute boy in the picture, maybe something about this summer might not be a waste afterall.

The cute cover should give this away as a gay fiction. The recommendation statement on the back from Becky Albertalli says this book is a ‘story I didn’t I know I needed’. And she’s right! I didn’t know that I could be excited about a somewhat futuristic space voyage – but it turns out that there really is a current program to have humans on Mars by 2032. Thus I can confidently say that this is NOT science fiction.

The single paragraph devoted to his final high school year seems a bit perfunctory. I’m not complaining, because there are plenty of teenage fiction novels out there that cover high school and being gay well. At the same time though, I felt like that could have added a bit more depth for the protagonist, who seems to exist in his own little bubble most of the time.

I struggled with the sense of time passing. Perhaps instead of boring chapter numbers, a handy chapter date would have been more useful. This lack of time made their romance feel instant, and their feelings insincere. What I did appreciate was that Leon’s depression wasn’t cured in an instant by falling in love (lust?) and neither was Cal’s mom’s anxiety completely treated by therapy.

There seems to be a growing interest for novels about space and mathematics. I’m loving it! From avoiding meteoroids (Learning to Swear in America), to general astrophysics (The Square Root of Summer and Stargazing for Beginners), I’m excited for what will happen next. 4 stars for this one from me.

Bloomsbury | 17th March 2020 | AU$15.99 | paperback

Review: Lois Duncan – Down a Dark Hall (K)

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Down a Dark Hall
Lois Duncan

When Kit’s mother and stepfather go to honeymoon in Europe, Kit is sent away to a boarding school in the middle of nowhere. She hates the idea from the very beginning, but little does she know, the school is much worse than she could have ever imagined.

This book was focused more on atmosphere and feeling than on having a complicated storyline, with detailed descriptions of the characters and scenery. At first I wasn’t too fond of the descriptive nature as I felt like it was just fluff that didn’t add to the story, but over time I realized that it added to the atmosphere of the book and made it a much scarier read than it otherwise would have been. Considering that I read this book in the middle of the day, it did a great job at getting me spooked.

The mystery throughout the book, on what the school was trying to do, was quite well-written. The blurb on the back, describing it as a ‘psychic prison,’ gave away some of the mystery, which I wish hadn’t been included, but the details of what exactly was going on were still left to be discovered.

The ending of the book took me on quite a roller-coaster. At first, it seemed like the book was going to end in quite an unsatisfying manner, but at the last minute everything got turned around, and it became much more exciting.

This was quite a satisfying short book. I typically prefer reading longer books as I spend a lot of energy getting invested in characters, but for a short, few-hour read, it went through a nice arc and had a satisfying conclusion. The book also feels complete, which is nice as I often feel that shorter books leave loose ends that need to be tied up. The version of the book I read is the one written in 1974, not the 2011 update.

(This book was given to me by my grandmother, so I wanted to say thanks! And I love you <3)

Review: Tamora Pierce – Tempests and Slaughter

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Tempests and Slaughter
Tamora Pierce

Numair comes from a family that is delighted and bewildered by his brilliance at magery and academics. From being a lonely student, he finds himself befriended by Orzone the leftover prince and Varice, an attractive young woman who is a witch in the kitchen. As Orzone gets closer to the throne and Varice becomes more attractive, what will Numair find himself doing?

This has what could be called a ‘slow burn’. There’s no real action, and no real climax to it. There are hints at the Orzone behind the Emperor Mage but that’s about it. It’s like the first Harry Potter books where the focus was on learning, and let’s face it, those books were my favorites for that reason!

Let’s talk about sex. Generally Tamora Pierce talks about safe sex and some canoodling. In this novel she approaches Numair’s body changing as he hits puberty, and what this means for him. I actually found it quite awkward to read, and I wonder whether this was deliberate on the author’s part or just a facet of this novel that didn’t work.

I almost can’t believe that I didn’t purchase this at the beginning of last year, it’s been published for more than a year and I forgot to check! I haven’t been keeping up to date with authors that I used to follow avidly, mainly because I receive a lot of novels from publishers and I don’t really have a budget for buying novels (hello mortgage!).

I’ll eventually be purchasing this, probably once the other novels in the trilogy are published (I wouldn’t want them not to match!). When that happens I’ll be primed to read it again too. So four stars from me.

Review: Patrick Rothfuss – The Name of the Wind (K)

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Kvothe has lived a long and adventure-filled life. Known by many names, and surrounded by rumours, the true story of his life is known only to him. Finally, after many years, he agrees to tell his story to a chronicler, and release the knowledge of what truly happened.

This book begins quite slowly and takes a few chapters to really become immersive. The aspects of the book set in the ‘current time’ never really interested me, and I gave up on the book once before being able to reach the more exciting parts. This was a theme throughout my reading of the book; the events set in the present didn’t seem as engaging as those set in the past. Even when dramatic events appeared to be occurring, I never managed to find myself excited in them. I believe the main reason for this was that most of the book is set in the past. This meant that there were only a few pages of present time every few chapters, which was not enough to get to know the characters or immerse myself in the storyline. I also found myself forgetting the events occurring in the present, which often left me confused.

That said, the ‘past’ storyline was wonderful. It was well-written and immersive, and I fell in love with the characters. Even when nothing important seemed to be happening, the book was written well enough that I was still deeply invested. Young Kvothe’s actions around the university, and his reasons for everything he did were so well thought-through that he seemed as complicated and 3-dimensional as any person I have ever met. The book strikes a perfect balance between making the character stand out by being able to do impressive things, but not be so perfect that it is hard to believe. My only complaint with this part of the book was that there wasn’t enough detail into his education. It felt at times that he had learnt a skill out of nowhere, because it hadn’t been mentioned beforehand.

I wish that this book had been written entirely from the perspective of the young Kvothe, instead of having old Kvothe tell the story. The ‘past’ storyline was stronger and better-written, and the current storyline only seemed to pull me out of my immersion. Some parts were beneficial; it added to a sense of anticipation to hear the cryptic phrases old Kvothe says about young Kvothe’s situation, but the benefits do not outweigh the downsides of breaking immersion and having to sit through the less interesting background to get to the more interesting parts.

I would rate this book a 4/5. It very easily could have made a 5 if it had been the old storyline alone, but as it stands, and because I nearly gave up on the book before managing to even reach the ‘old’ storyline, I can only give it a 4.

 

 

 

Review: Neal Shusterman – Arc of a Scythe

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Arc of a Scythe
Neal Shusterman

Citra and Rowan have been selected as Scythe’s apprentices. They are responsible for controlling the human population now that death, war and disease have been overcome. Their mentor Faraday thinks that he can train them both – but soon they have been pitted against one another by Goddard.

I read this trilogy in very short order – so short that I’m not going to bother reviewing the individual novels. That being said ,the first novel was a standout in my mind, while the other two novels dropped off in quality and consistency.

Scythe Anastasia toes the line most of the time, while Rowan likes to push boundaries. Although surely both got equal page time, I felt like the skew was towards having more Anastasia. I could have lived with a few less perspectives so that there was more tension. Eventually I could see exactly where the plot line was going.

What was the purpose of having the Thunderhead cut off like that? Why was mister mean guy so mean in the end? Why couldn’t the Thunderhead just overcome its own programming like the way it went around its other limitations?

I had a problem with the human population not even really needing containment. I would have kept it down at a constant level, not letting it expand even to just below capacity! What if the humans found a way around it? Scythes aren’t necessarily the most brilliant after all.

This series includes Scythe, Thunderhead, and The Toll. I wouldn’t reread them, but I really enjoyed reading it the first time. I’d give the first novel 4 stars, and the others 3 stars.

Review: Lynette Noni – Weapon

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Weapon
Lynette Noni

Alyssa has escaped from Lengard and into the bowels of the Remnants’ hideout. Hurrying to rescue a new Speaker, Alyssa instead finds herself doubting everything that she’s been told, and wondering what she can do to stop Vanik, because if she can’t, no one can. But is Vanik still her primary enemy? Are there other memories she is missing that could solve the puzzle of why she was left behind?

I was blown away by Whisper and I felt desperate at the end of it to keep reading Alyssa’s next move. I jumped at the chance to receive an ARC of Weapon and read it almost the moment it arrived at my door. Sadly, I was super disappointed in it – particularly the ending.

As a reader, I wanted to be able to predict more of the twists and turns that happened in this novel. That opportunity was snatched from me. Lyss was kept in the dark, and even when it seemed like she might be getting a handle on what was happening the reader didn’t get enough details to fill things in for themselves.

There’s so many actions that happen all at once that I felt like the book didn’t stop moving long enough for me to really think about what was going on. Another source of frustration was that I didn’t understand where Alyssa and Cami’s relationship came from. I know that they were beginning to be close for the first novel, but the level of codependency is squirm inducing. Cami seems like a bundle of pathetic whispers and every time she and Lyss had a scene together it made me want to claw out my eyes.

In my comment from the first novel I said: “I guess now I fear that the second novel will suffer from a gooey protagonist.” And indeed, Weapon is undermined by the love interest shown by Alyssa at any boy who seems to look at her nicely. And if it’s not her romance derailing the action, it’s someone else’s!

Having reviewed this novel, I’ve decided I dislike it more than I like it. I was just so disappointed. Read it so that you finish the duology, but don’t expect the breathtaking wonder that you might have experienced with Whisper. 3 stars from me.

Allen & Unwin | 1st November 2019 | AU$19.99 | paperback

Review: Kim Liggett – The Grace Year

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The Grace Year
Kim Liggett

Tierney James has always bucked the trends. She’s not content to be married off and spend her life producing babies. She wants to just survive her Grace year, lose the ‘magic’ she possesses and be able to go to farming. But as the Grace year begins, she realises that real magic could be afoot, and that it’s going to take more than common sense to get the girls working together.

I received this novel in early September, and it shouldn’t have taken me more than a month to review. I found myself almost equally repulsed and enjoying the novel, and equally believing and disbelieving at the girls’ behaviour. There were plenty of twists, and magic going on, so many that to review the book in full would spoil them. That being said…

Arg! The protagonist at times made me want to hit my head against the wall. I was somewhat disappointed in the ending. Tierney gave up her freedom for that? I can’t believe that she did. To discuss this more would be too much of a spoiler. But still! One of the things she says she’ll never do, she does.

What I would have liked to know was why they didn’t leave one girl behind each time to try to improve things for the next group. Surely not all the girls just want to be married? Or they know they have no man to go back to? I just find it impossible that they would let these things happen time and time again, even if that’s the culture. Not everyone has siblings to be thrown out after all.

I don’t think I would reread this, but I’m going to recommend it to a friend. 4 stars from me. Creepy, and so good and so bad at the same time.

Penguin Random House | 15th October 2019 | AU$32.99 | paperback