Holy crap, this was epic! What a book to start the new reading year. This book pulls no punches and is full of bad-ass, very flawed, very complicated Holy crap, this was epic! What a book to start the new reading year. This book pulls no punches and is full of bad-ass, very flawed, very complicated characters. I loved the historical China setting. It was a bit confusing figuring which faction was against which, but that's probably the point. A very satisfying ending even though some things didn't go the way I wanted it to, it went the best way it could have for the book.
Maybe it was just me, but reading this book was a strange experience. It's full of action and things happening, but it wasn't really page-turney. More of a slow burn....more
What a tome! This is my first taste of Arthurian lore and some may suggest that I should have started on a more standard telling of the tale of the CoWhat a tome! This is my first taste of Arthurian lore and some may suggest that I should have started on a more standard telling of the tale of the Companions of the Round Table, but I wasn't in the mood for reading an epic bromance just yet. The fact that this was told from the perspectives of key women in the story was what drew me to read this.
First off, I love the way the story jumps emphasis from character to character. For a while, I thought Igraine would be the main character, then I thought it would be Viviane, then Gwen, but thankfully, it stuck to Morgaine for the majority of the book because she's the most fleshed out character and probably one of the best female characters in a book I've read in a long time.
Gwen, on the other hand...her characterization was so good that I ended up hating such a whiny, self-righteous, uptight character. I valued Arthur and Lancelet even less because I just couldn't see what they saw in her. You take a pretty face and throw on some blonde hair and it's like men don't realize what a drag the lady is!
I also liked the portrayal of the early Christians and their troubles against the pagans. I thought it leaned toward the side of pagans being the good guys, but I suppose it could also be subjective to the reader.
What prevented this from being a 5-star book was the length. Yes, this book is long, but I don't usually mind really long books if they're paced well. The Mists of Avalon was paced some-what unevenly and there were parts that were just very repetitive. We would have one incident happening, and then four different people retelling this incident for whole pages even though the accounts were mostly the same. I know it's probably to serve emphasis on the way character obsess about philosophies or plans, but I also got tired of people always thinking about the same thing over and over again.
I was going to tag this as Young Adult, since some of the characters are YA but when I thought about all the rape, incest, sex, and death, maybe not. Those things were part of what made the book interesting and definitely opened my eyes on just how randy some of these supposedly courtly people were, but when it comes to the rape and death...man, I guess happy endings were short in supply in Britain....more
I've come to the conclusion that Sanderson is a great story teller, but not a great writer. There were parts of the book that could have been more eloI've come to the conclusion that Sanderson is a great story teller, but not a great writer. There were parts of the book that could have been more eloquent and therefore more powerful, but just wasn't. Particularly, the ending.
But wait, let's start at the beginning.
The Well of Ascension picks up 2 years after the previous book, but it feels like it was immediately after the events of the first book. Nothing really happened. And nothing will really happen for the first 3/4 of the book. There's a siege in Luthadel and it feels lik ea siege because not only does nothing get in or out of the city, but all progress in the story stops. Imagine this for hundreds of pages.
Then there's a twist. Then the story really gets going. Then it gets going really fast, and the it ends.
The abrupt turn of events at the end had me scratching my head. I guess my mind should have been blown more, but it was all so rushed that I kind of just took it in stride. Like an episode of Lost, a lot of things went unanswered, so I'll probably read the next book to really get some answers....more
Even though I'm a fan of the fantasy genre, every time I see a dragon on a book cover, I cringe and want to run away. But since I already read the firEven though I'm a fan of the fantasy genre, every time I see a dragon on a book cover, I cringe and want to run away. But since I already read the first two books in this series, I felt I should read the concluding third book, despite the dragon on the cover.
There was so much build up from the cliffhanger ending of the second book in this series and then the long trek to the ultimate showdown at the end of this book that I can't think of a way that the showdown doesn't end up being disappointing, but disappointing it was. There was just too much hype.
In cases like this, I think, "Well, the fun part was the journey to the end" but that doesn't work here either because the journey was agonizingly slow. The first half of the book had me cringing at the stupid decisions Fitz kept making. I wished that he would just man-up like I knew he would eventually would.
I was also disappointed at the lack of Burrich and Chade in this book. They were some of the best characters in the last, but they seemed to have been delegated to the background here. Fitz's use of the skill as a plot device to show what was going on elsewhere also got on my nerves because he was just an observer and couldn't really act, so I didn't really care about those scenes.
The best thing about this book, however, is Nighteyes. The snarky wolf really became a likable character and I was dreading anything bad happening to him.
I think the main problem I have with Assassin's Quest is the pacing. The beginning is slow. The long trek toward the ending is slow. And then when you get to the end, everything just comes crashing at you and everything about the Red Ships get resolved in just a few paragraphs. Despite those problems, I still couldn't put this book down till I was done with it....more
Is it possible to feel nostalgia for a place in the future? The crowded, multi-factioned, multi-leveled city of Shanghai and nearby Pudong made me misIs it possible to feel nostalgia for a place in the future? The crowded, multi-factioned, multi-leveled city of Shanghai and nearby Pudong made me miss my hometown terribly. Stephenson's descriptions of brightly lit Nanjing Road and small, dim, alleys of hawkers was so spot on. The mix of high technology, the sophisticated neo-Victorians, and the Confuscians made a confusing but ultimately satisfying story.
I came to The Diamond Age with a vague idea of what the book was about. Like previous steampunk books I read, there was a combination of neo-Victorian sensibilities, technologies different than what we're used to, and a huge disparity between classes. While that may be what gets the book labeled as 'steampunk' by some people ,it surpasses that label and has so much more.
It has cyber-punk technologies. It has dystopian characteristics. It's part adventure story, part riddle, part allegory, part detective story, and best of all, it feels epic without losing its main characters in too wide of a scope.
Reading Stephenson is always hard for me but I always enjoy it. Part of the difficulty lies in the fact that his books are not easy to skim through. Go too quickly in The Diamond Age and you end up in an underwater rave wondering what the heck just happened.
The book was definitely worth reading for any fan of the author. It certainly is my favorite book of his so far. My only complaint was that Nell was too perfect. While it could be said that it the Primer had something to do with that, if I take a step back and look at the character, her lack of faults is unbelievable.
Other than that one little complaint, I loved every part of the book from the heart-wrenching stories in the Primer to the action-packed lead up to the Mouse Army. I also liked all the mentions of tea.
Protip: Fountain pens were mentioned at least nine times in this book!...more
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