10000bees's reviews
339 reviews

I really didn't get along with this writing unfortunately

Maybe it's unfair for me to rate this since I only read it to complete a prompt for a reading challenge, but whatever. Cozy fantasy has missed for me once again. This one wasn't bad, it was just boring. Penny was one of the most nothing characters I've ever read. The world was conceptually interesting, but it didn't have enough substance to make me care. Every question could be waved away with mystical dream logic. There really wasn't much of a plot, and the conclusions the story drew drew were fine.

When it comes to these slow, character-driven political fantasies, my enjoyment hinges so much on the writing and the characters. Thankfully, I loved both so much that I can almost guarantee this is going to be one of my top books of the year.

It's all about Maia. I love him and I loved to see him grow. I love that he was a good man who tried hard to be a good emperor, despite not wanting or expecting the role ever.  The slow pace really let me take every day at a time with him to see him learn in real time to face his struggles. His arc in its entirety was so wonderful to witness. Learning to trust the people around him and learning to stand up for himself and others while never losing the fact that he's a little shy. It was just so sweet.

And the audiobook narrator was absolutely fantastic. He did such a good job reading all those similar names and sounding like he spoke a whole different language. And, in a similar vein, you can tell just how much thought the author put into the whole world. It feels complete and introduced in such a way that it wasn't getting shoved down my throat. It was getting shoved down Maia's instead, and he took the burden of being overwhelmed from me. And I really appreciated that he threw in the towel at certain points and just let others around him do their job.

My only complaint was the names, which ran together in my head as soon as they were introduced. They sounded so similar that I really had to focus and sometimes rewind to put context clues together for who was who. But I've already ordered the physical book so one day I can reread it and have a better understanding. I look forward to when I can do that.

Thank you to NetGalley/Pantheon for the e-ARC!

Reading this at the start of 2025... yikes, man. I got to the chapters with the fire on the same day the LA fire started spreading and it felt a little too real. It's one of the bleakest books I've read recently because it isn't a far future dystopian. This feels real, like it could happen within my lifetime. And that really freaked me out. Part of me dreaded having to pick it up each time I went to read, which is just a huge compliment to the author for really nailing that atmosphere.

It's a story about Sara's unjust detainment after the algorithm considers her a risk for a future crime after analyzing her dreams. But, like most dystopian novels, it's more than that. Lalami is showing us a future where privacy doesn't exist and society accepts that as fact. It is a future where the government relies on tech companies to the point of using algorithm as rule of law. We do not know the details of the algorithm, but we do not question it.

Sara questions it. She's a good protagonist to follow because she is complex and fallible, and she struggles to choose between her desire for freedom and her individuality within the system. She's not the most likable person, but she's very sympathetic.

For as depressing but thoughtful this book was, it was a little slow to get going. There was also a section in the middle that felt almost out of place, though that might be because the rest of the story takes place almost exclusively in one building. The idea posed in that section fits into the theme of the novel, but I'm not sure it was a seamless addition to the narrative, if that makes sense. And there wasn't much of a conclusion with that arc. Other than what the reader should extrapolate, I guess.

Overall, I think this would be a really good book club read because there are a ton of themes to pull out of it that would make for great discussions. It's certainly given me a lot to think about.

I didn't know this man before reading this book and I think that was to my benefit, because it is only now, after the fact, that I get to wonder why the first part was spent acting like he was just Some Guy rather than someone who literally led the charge to make eugenics a national policy in the US.

At some point I heard it was a good audiobook, saw my library had it, and tagged it for a future date when I needed something in a pinch. And what do you know, it was a great choice for that exact purpose. The author's narration was fantastic and kept me engaged the entire read, though the back half was the stronger portion. This is in no small part due to the interview towards the end, which was a powerful reminder how recent this history was.

Thank you to NetGalley/Del Rey for the e-ARC!

This book lost its charm for me real fast. I was a little intrigued at the very beginning but got annoyed the longer it went on, and if I wasn't reading this an an ARC, I would have DNF'd it before or at the halfway point. Which is disappointing, because look at that cover! And it sounds so whimsical and fun! By the end, it was just a chore for me to get through.

I'll start with the things I like. Some of the scenes were very vivid in my mind's eye. A lot of reviews are comparing it to Studio Ghibli, but I think it's more like a series of generic anime gifs cut together. Just a bunch of pretty, whimsical scenes with some nice, generic music in the background.

On a whole, I would describe this book as superficial. There is no depth to these fantastical scenes. We hardly spend more than a chapter anywhere before we go to a new place, almost always with the same predictable string of dialogue that tries to end in a cliffhanger. Every single time. It drove me nuts.

The characters were also very flat and the instant romance really didn't do any services to anything. I don't even want to talk about the love triangle. I would have much rather had a book without any romance but as a real exploration about what this secondary world implied. There were ingredients for deeper discussions, but every time it was attempted, it came off so surface level and basic and without nuance. You might expect, since the whole premise is that the main character owns a pawn shop that trades in regret, it might have something to say about how important it is that we carry the decisions we regret with us and it's the choices we make that make us who we are. And hey, that is brought up! At the very end and in about as many words as I used.

It could have been good. There was even the potential to be great. But hey, at least it was pretty, right?

The writing is not to my taste to say the least, the plot is predictable, and my favorite part was being able to make fun of the MMC for looking like, sounding like, and smelling like rocks. Truly the ideal male form. Anyways, it's not for me <3

I wanted to get one last book in before the new year and what better choice than a freak nasty scifi horror? Truly an engrossing read. I had to make myself put it down so I could stretch it out a little more into the night. The psychological horror mixed with the uncanny atmosphere left me unsettled and immersed until the very end. And the end? Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss.

I'm a sucker for cool dragons and lady knights and that's this whole duology. It's a really sick world with a fantastic method of lore delivery that says so much in just enough words. Genuinely, I love the way these novellas are written and I could easily read like 6 more. The story for this one was great, very much Orpheus and Eurydice but less tragic and with 100% more sapphic yearning. And a dragon cat!! I'd like some more please.

It was really interesting reading this book after binge reading the first three in the series back in 2021 and loving them. They definitely helped propel me back into being a Reader and I'm glad for that. But now I have a lot more books under my belt and am a *little* more critical. Maybe one day before book six comes out I'll reread the whole series and find out how I really feel about it. But for now, I barely had the strength to just get through this one.

It's too long. That's the main complaint, if I had to narrow it down to one. But the length is one of the Things about this series. They have to be long and be getting longer because they're the Stormlight Archive. But in reality, there is no reason it had to be over 1200 pages. It even felt like some of the repetition wasn't cleaned up just to pad out the word count. It really didn't help that the first part was so slow to get going and only made it feel that much longer. I wasn't really *excited* to pick the book up until after the halfway point. That's like two whole other books I could have read in that number of pages.

It was also the first time reading this series that I could feel the Cosmere easter eggs flying over my head. I know I'm missing out by not reading the rest of the connected universe, but I'm going to die on the hill that I shouldn't *have* to. It's only my enjoyment being hindered blah blah but there's only so much time!! I can only read so many books!! And for as much as I enjoyed the first three in this series, there are so many other authors I want to give a try instead. So, yes, I get to enjoy the feeling of missing out of inside references instead. Whatever.

For as much as I'm complaining, I'm still giving it four stars. Maybe a little generously when I really think about it, but I do love these characters. Adolin's growth this book was definitely a highlight. Kaladin... my man. I think it's really important for his depression to be such an important part of the plot, but at times it only felt like a plot point rather than a part of his character. Maybe it's because of other books I've read recently that had excellent portrayals of depression/trauma, but there was something about this one that felt... dare I say convenient? Preachy? Oversimplified? Something like that. Same with Shallan. I appreciate her story and the way she faces her trauma, but the climax of her arc felt very abrupt. That whole plot line felt a little forgotten at the end, tbh. Still love them though. And while Sanderson's prose isn't great, I do get a certain sense of comfort from it. Like I get to turn my brain off and just watch a marvel movie or something, you know? A really long one, anyways.