sarah2438's reviews
1046 reviews

I much preferred Migrations over this one. The pacing was not good for such a short novel, and overall I have some pretty mixed opinions on the content. I think I slightly liked it more than disliked it, hence the rating, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it. There are so many books out there... I don't know that this one needs to be on your list.

Yup, this one was mid too. I'm almost glad I didn't love it because then I would've been kicking myself for missing a Martha Wells author talk last month. Overall this series has served as palate cleansers, but this was the last one I had on my shelves and I don't think I'll continue.

I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend this, but it wasn't perfect. I think the main thing holding me back from a 4+ star rating is the disconnect from the characters and the timelines. Haynes tries to incorporate so many different myths to show how they intertwine, that you end up losing the heart of the story. It's hard to really feel emotionally connected to Medusa when we spend so little time with her, and the same goes for all of the other characters. There are also many time jumps, which at one point the writing even addresses as being how the gods view and lose track of time, but I just felt like it further disconnected me from the events and the lives of the characters. Still absolutely worth a read, but the execution could have been better.

I liked the writing and it's a cool concept but the world/characters were severely underdeveloped. I could see some of that being done intentionally, but it bothered me that Ren alluded to her past so often but we never got any of those questions answered. There were some major pacing issues as well, particularlyin part 3. I think the writer can clearly write but there were just so many technical issues that I couldn't get past.

Unsettling at times but ultimately boring and unremarkable.

By FAR the worst book in the series so far. I wonder if Kawaguchi just ran out of ideas because they're all basically the same at this point. Everyone has a sudden, unexplained illness, to the point that I started to wonder if the time traveling cafe is a carcinogen. Additionally, we are introduced to new characters that I thought were a bit cringey (especially Sachi and the obnoxious book she carries around.) Random things like "anxiety" were explained as if the book were a textbook. Sigh. Of course this would happen when I just asked for the next one for Christmas.

I think this one is my favorite so far, as Murderbot struggles to maintain its "I don't give a shit" attitude more than ever. Pretty cute. The next book will determine if I buy more from this series. Before I thought it would be just the first 4, but I may be more open to it now.

This may not be the Xander you want right now (@ Fourth Wing) but it's the Xander you need. This was the romantasy that I was looking for with Fourth Wing and it's so much better. This is not a deep thought-provoking read. It's just vibes, and the vibes are good <3 idk if I'll read further in the series because I'm bad at series and the romantasy mood may have passed, but it does have potential. Give it a shot.

This was fine. Not bad, not particularly good. I liked it for what it was, which was a nice and easy palette Cleanser after binge-reading Amina al-Sirafi. Nothing profound here, just vibes. Courtney Peppernell is like a guilty pleasure lol

I really liked this but the piece making it into a series felt unnecessary, almost like it was shoehorned in later in the editing process.
Beyond that, I loved Amina. It is so refreshing to have an older MC who experiences the struggles of motherhood and aging without actually letting those hinder her. I enjoyed that perspective and I hope we see more of this in fantasy with how successful this book has been. Additionally, the side characters were all very well fleshed out. You go into the action with very little context about the relationships between these reuniting characters and you just have to figure it out as things go, and I thought that was a good way to catch us up without feeling info-dumpy. It could just be because I was focusing on this book for some plane rides today, but I thought this was just such a fun fantasy. Time to look into more pirate books!