Review: The Wise Man's Fear

The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved reading this book, so much so that I think that I had convinced myself that it was one of those stories that would just go on forever so was bitterly disappointed when it came to the inevitable end. There is something so satisfying about becoming completely lost in another world. Obviously I have developed my own theories about the Chandrian, Denna and our main man Kvothe himself but there is still so much I am curious about and so much to still be explained that I am busting at the seams for the sequel to come out. At worst, this was a good reminder as to why I should always wait to read a series until it is finished as I am sure that the wait is now going to be the death of me!

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Review: A Darker Shade of Magic

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I found this to be an engaging and fun read with some interesting ideas and fun characters. Basically there are 4 versions of London which exist in different dimensions (for the lack of a better word) on the same location - Red London where magic is strong, Grey London where magic has more or less died out and London is more industrialised, White London which is controlled by evil twins who have taken the throne by force and Black London which became too unstable and greedy with its magic and fell, which resulted in the other 3 Londons sealing themselves off from the Black to protect themselves. Within these very different cities however there are certain key structures that remain constant, which is an idea that I loved. Character-wise we have the spunky street urchin and wannabe pirate Lila who I adored, Rhy the prince to the Throne of Red London and Kell, who lives in Red London but is one of the rare few who can use blood magic to travel between the different Londons and so is used by the various royal families as a messenger. Kell was also an intriguing character and I am sure that there is more than meets the eye with him too.

Whilst this was a good stand alone story, the second in the series has just come out but I have heard rumours that this ends on a cliffhanger so I might just have to wait until the third comes out so I can binge read!

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Review: Lord of the Silver Bow

Lord of the Silver Bow by David Gemmell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've had this sat on my kindle for quite some time, waiting for that perfect moment to be able to settle down and enjoy a good slice of ancient historical fiction and finally that perfect time came! But disappointingly the book didn't quite deliver. To me this was very much a book of two halves - the first half, whilst I appreciate was setting the story and introducing the characters, felt plodding and drawn out. However, the second half where we finally reach Troy seemed to pick up the pace and was a lot more enjoyable and I felt more on familiar ground with characters being introduced that I was already aware of from other stories of the Trojan Wars. Because of my love of ancient history, I will be continuing with this series as I have heard a lot of good things over the years about David Gemmell's writing and won't let this first foray put me off.

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Uprooted by Naomi Novik

For me, this would fall somewhere between 3 and 4 stars - it was an excellent story with good plot twists and great relationships, particularly between our heroine Agnieszka and her best friend Kasia, but some points were a little *too* convenient. For example, Agnieszka discovers that she has a latent magical ability that develops, but the rate of which this happens is a little too unbelievable, one minute she is fluffing spells left right and centre, next she is summoning great illusions and casting spells that haven't been cast for hundreds of years!  The other part of the novel that felt a little odd for me, and i never thought that I would find myself writing this, was the sex scene...yes yes, that's right, I thought the sex scene was not in keeping with the rest of the story and was unnecessary! It kinda came from out of the blue (so to speak) and didn't really have much bearing on anything else in the story to be honest.  The rest of the book read like a grown up fairytale which would have worked perfectly well without the scene in question.  Still, it was a great read however I read it in fits and starts (as I have been having staying awake for more than 10 minutes at a time whilst reading recently) and I really would have benefited from reading it in bigger chunks to appreciate it more fully.  Plus the main baddy is great and would happily read a stand alone about them alone!

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

Aaaaaaand done!  An okay story about Maia, an half elf/half goblin who is the (unwanted) fourth son of the Emperor living on a secluded estate in more or less exile, when an unfortunate 'accident' occurs which kills the Emperor plus other three sons, meaning that Maia is the heir to the throne.  From here on in his life becomes a whirlwind of protocols, servants and adjusting to court life, which was interesting, I liked this part of the story.

But, oh my, the names! So many of them and so complicated they were!  Each person seemed to have a number of names, ranging from titles, to formal, to informal, males and females would share the first part of their names but have a different suffix according to their sex and marriage status.  Plus the place names.....unfortunately I am the kind of reader who likes to be able to pronounce everything in the story so this issue caused a number of stumbling blocks for me.  My only other 'issue' was the inclusion of goblins.  Not that I am at all fantasy racist, just that I had a hard job imaging the goblins as they were represented in this novel, let alone an elf/goblin mixture...I still picture goblins as the things from the Hobbit films, or from the Goblin Banks in Harry Potter... (or David Bowie!) and also elves apparently have very animated ears...read it, you'll see!