Kings of the Wyld | Review

 We are each what the past has made of us.

Well this was, in a word, badass.

Kings of the Wyld pretty much gave me exactly what I was expecting and more.

Kings of the Wyld is the Epic of a band a mercenaries. The most epic of mercenaries, they are in their glory battling demons, rescuing princess' slaying dragons. Oh wait? No this is many....MANY years after that?

Yup, this is a story about a bunch of crusted, busted old mercs. They've gone their own ways, maybe started a family, maybe lost that family. But one of their members, Gabriel comes back into the picture asking for Clay Cooper (our "main character") to help get the band back together and save his daughter.

And so reluctantly Clay sets out with Gabriel to reform Saga. 

Getting to each member has its own host of issues, their own years of baggage must be dealt with and they even pick up a fair few new ones.

Its not easy to pull off , and maybe some wont like this but personally I love when a story is told to you like you already know the world. There isnt long slogs of exposition or anything, but through dialogue or events we slowly learn more about this world and Saga in a very natural way.

There is some blunt badassness, the Band shows their age, their humor, it just has everything. On top of all of that there is some very emotional moments, some intense back stories and broken histories. I didn't expect to love this as much as I did and its definitely a new favorite.

I cant wait to explore more of this world and meet some new characters in the sequel!

Warbreaker | Review

 

This was incredible! However, this book alone can't explain why I'm so mind blown by it. But I'll get to that later toward the end.

This novel follows a daughter of the kingdom Idris as she is sent to their neighboring kingdom as a deterrent to a threatening war.

This daughter, Siri, however, was not the one that was originally supposed to go. Siri is the youngest of her family and for all intents and purposes was not important.

Her older sister Vivenna was supposed to go in Siri's place, Vivenna trained her whole life to perform this task. To go to Hallandren and marry their God-King and bare them a child to prevent a war.

However, before it is time to send Vivenna, her father decides that even if he sends his eldest daughter, war still might come, for this reason he decides to send Siri.

Vivenna, feeling lost having been stripped of her purpose that she spent her life preparing for decides to also go to Hallandren to save her sister.

And so begins the incredible journey of fascinating characters, betrayal, and a unique and colorful magic system if I ever saw one.

The first thing I want to point out that I was NOT aware of is that this book is not a "traveling adventure" story. I don't know why but every time someone described it I thought it was Siri travelling to Hallandren and getting into shenanigans on the way. So I was surprised that by chapter 3 she was already there!

This story, lore and revelations was so striking that I want to immediately reread it. It's a story and world that I just want to make sure I know EVERYTHING about it!

I unfortunately was not very invested in the beginning. It went pretty slow. We follow Siri as she slowly starts to learn about her new husband, the mysterious God-King Susebron. Vivenna arriving and finding herself wrapped up in a conspiracy and follow her as she sheds her initial prejudices about Hallandren. And finally Lightsong, a Returned, who are Gods in Hallandren as he slowly unravels his own found conspiracy.

The set up for these characters is slow as we learn about the world and magic. But colors is it worth it by the end.

We see Siri's intelligence and compassion as her and Susebron learn  more about each other blossoming into something beautiful. Lightsong playing at being dumb and struggling with his Godliness only to have one of the most epic endings. Vivenna, who struggles the hardest, enduring the worst this book can throw at her. She meets up with a character from the Prologue, Vasher, and it is just non stop intrigue from there out.

There is so much to this world and it's incredible. Besides the pacing, (which in its defense is needed to set up the ending) this books holds up so well. The twists, revelations and betrayals accompanied by an intriguing magic system, I can't love this enough.

Except there is MORE! If you're a fan of this book or any books by Sanderson you may or may not have read his Stormlight Archives. I won't get into spoilers but MAN did I wish I read this before I read Stormlight. I want to reread this and those books so bad right now. When you realize the connections these stories have, you'll be frothing at the mouth. I hate I have no body I could immediately start discussing this with. I truly hope that with Rhythm of War coming out we will get even more Warbreaker tie in. I also heard that he's making a sequel to Warbreaker that will help fill in gaps between this and the Stormlight archives. I love the kind of joy and excitement this book brought into my life! I am READY for the future of this and Stormlight!

The Red Scrolls of Magic | Review

"Oh dear. You'll excuse me. Our sirens have taken up residence next to the champagne fountain and trying to drown guests in it."

In the spin off from the Mortal Instruments we follow Magnus and Alec as they explore their new relationship through a series of awkward character interactions, and unnecessary interruptions to their sex life.

Though I am not the truest of true Shadow Hunter fan, I still feel like this book has issues. So if by chance anyone loved the portrayal of Magnus and Alec from the Shadow Hunter tv show, I have some bad news. 

But most of my critique has "I dont like this, but you may if you like..." kind of format.

For instance, I have a huge pet peeve with duel perspective when they have one characters chapter and then the chapter after that is what the other character does at the SAME time. I just dont like this because it feels, even if we are learning or seeing something new, it isn't progressing the story. I dont like the feel of time stopped, it aggravates the flow of the story. Its even worse when the perspective isnt needed at all! One chapter just has Magnus at a place, the next chapter is Alec getting to that place. Just WRITE Alec already being there, I literally could skip that chapter and have missed nothing.

This actually leads me to one of my more "objective" opinions about the book. (as objective as you can be in reviews) This book just has padding. I feel like it was obvious they didn't have enough to create a book that was more than 150 pages so they put a bunch of stuff in here that I think really ruined the flow, and just inserted unnecessary writing. This is where most of my issues come from:

For example, the unnecessary back pacing of the duel perspective mentioned above.

Next the story is supposed to be them enjoying their vacation and time together. So we get moments of them trying to do date like stuff, only to be interrupted by demons or whatever. I can see I guess where people would like this, especially if this was how the Mortal Instruments was written. But to me its annoying. For most of the time the plot isnt strong enough to warrant interrupting the building of this relationship.

(Especially for me who, coming from the show, assumed they worked through most of the initial relationship stuff so not only do I have to suffer through this again but I keep getting interrupted for some asinine pointless fighting.)

Though I do have to commend them actually being competent fighters. But then I just kept asking myself, "what the hell, what is this magic system that just seems limitless?" (I didnt count it against the books just because there were bigger issues and I didnt bother to read the first 6 books)

The second issue I had of padding and general bad writing is character interaction and cameos. I dont know how many and which characters are from the spin off series, but there seemed to be a ton.

Some of them I actually enjoyed like Tessa from Infernal devices. Others I absolutely hated like Raphael. Why was he here, and why is he so annoying.

I feel like cameos just weren't done well in this book. But I also come from the Percy Jackson Riordan series where I feel like he does cameos well, people show up and have a point and are well integrated.

There was someone who Im pretty sure is in the Spin off from the LA series. And conveniently at the end they make a pact to never speak of what happened in this book....so hooray now theres a canonical reason that they wont mention theyve met each other in the future. Thats....good writing?

There are some more very convenient people that show up out of nowhere. Isabelle tells Alec someone they are looking for is busy and cant help, that person just so happens to show up where Alec ends up going...how convenient? (Sorry I mean bad writing)They shoe-horn in some more gay representation which seemed unnecessary. But one REALLY aggressive and egregious bisexual who just immediately tells Alec to dump Magnus and to go hook up. It was cringey. But theres a bit of that going around. Like when the Shadow Hunters go up to a Mundane who just then spills EVERYTHING they did regarding the plot...like ok cool.

Ok was that all the bad? There's more nitpicking, but that's the worst of it.

All in all Alec and Magnus still had some good scenes together. But some of it came off a little too "extra" with them going out of their way to over praise each other. But now that most of that is out of the way I think the next book should be more evened out hopefully.

Finally, when we got to the plot in the end. It wasn't so bad. I'm genuinely disappointed how much the beginning of this book dragged down this decent plot and reveal. (Makes the padding seem more obvious, they clearly had this part down and figured out and just fumbled making it longer)

It's about immortals, coping with their long life and family ties. Some sweetness about not being alone and how some people handle it. So kudos for that stronger finish. 

I know this is also co-written so I wonder if its obvious where Clare is influenced and when its Chu. Maybe the Mortal Instruments is better since its all from Clare? I dunno.

(Spoiler for the future:

Can't wait to see the fallout of Alec letting the Villain escape only for them to clearly still be the Villain in the next books...good move.)

Red Skies Falling Review

 [Insert one of the many good Bird/Sky related quotes here!]

This was an incredible sequel!

We pick up pretty shortly after book one ended. Kylee is at the Sky Castle training her Hallow Tongue in preparation of the Kartami invasion. Brysen is getting by in the village with his new friend/ they wanna be more buddy Jowyn.

The first 50% of the book is non-stop tension and intrigue. We don't know who to trust, what to believe, and London doesn't hold back with deaths and shocking revelations! If you like you're books to have consequences, this book has it in droves.

I will continue to praise London and his development of this little fantasy land. I never felt any cheesyness from the first book when it comes to the bird/ sky phrases and comparisons. And I continue to feel that way in this book. The language and thought process of these characters continues to immerse me in his world. It makes these people feel real and with a culture.

Speaking of Culture, sometimes the fanaticism is sick in this book, but again in a good way? This book just makes you feel things. The way the Altari people act is...just ridiculous sometimes.

Back to the flow of the book. Unlike Book 1 where it felt like ALOT of it dragged and was slow, this book has break neck pacing in the beginning. With only the 3rd quarter slowing down and back tracking a bit, but the last quarter of the book really holds up and ends incredibly.

Kylee's asexuality is a pretty refreshing point of view to read from. You will see alot of build up of the Uztari people and the political intrigue will have you on the edge of your seat in her parts.

Brysen's point of view I continue to love. Following this poor broken boy is still a compelling treat. His trauma is so real and you still see him trying to find himself and his path. I LOVE what London crafted for him. But beware, heartbreak is still rampant in this book!

I really cant say too much non-spoilery stuff about this sequel, it was an incredible step up from book 1. Especially considering the middle books are usually the worst in the series. I feel like if you were hesitant in book one, this should secure you into continuing.

And lets just say, the title of this book is VERY apparent in the last chapter....damn what an ending. I have no idea where they're going from here.

The last thing I have to say is spoilery though, so don't continue if you haven't read it.

Shara: I was honestly VERY disappointed how this played out. I LOVED when she came back the first time. I was getting big Phoenix vibes from Brysen at this point. And then again at the end with all the smoke, I was very curious wtf was happening. Again I find it interesting that the Ghost Eagles basically trained the humans to do what they wanted them to. Clearly Brysen was built up to be this healer to save the Ghost Eagle? Maybe? I dont know, but Im excited!

What I WASNT excited for was why bring in Shara AGAIN. Just to fly next to Brysen, take a hit and for Anon to fckn rip her head off? Like come on London. You made it clear you will write consequences but this just felt unnecessary and I just felt wrong by it. We didn't really get any satisfying moment from Shara after Brysen revived him. I became really invested in this, and I almost want to knock it down a star grade just because I feel like London might have done it on purpose just to get an emotional pull from the audience. Very disappointing...(and at this point it would just be cheap to bring her back again in book 3?) 

The Extraordinaries

I know its cliche to say "OMG I wanted to like this book so much! I'm so sad that this book disappointed me!"?

Well....OMG I wanted to like this book so much! I'm so sad that this book disappointed me!

Let's just get the good out of the way. The characters personalities are pretty great. There is a pretty big element to family, which most stories leave out so that was nice. There is a good amount of diversity, obviously with Queer characters. And the motivations for these characters...can be argued is logical.

But this story was so incredibly frustrating. I think the story of Nick and his Father is probably what really matters but I don't 100% know because I was too busy skimming the last half of the book so I could get this over with.

Let's go ahead and just address the biggest issue of this book. If you HATE the "miscommunication" or "lack of communication" trope. Stay SO far away from this book!

I now understand why no one wrote Mary-Janes point of view. That's what this book basically is. Everyone keeping secrets from you. Except the book doesn't keep secrets FROM THE READER. We know what's going on because it's obvious! And the character we follow takes 300 something pages to figure it out (jk its actually revealed to him he doesn't figure it out)

They also have ALOT of "almost" reveals. Where someone is about to say something but just doesnt...

There is also alot of moments where the Main character and his love interest/ best friend say REALLY deep romantic things to each other but still don't talk about how they should get together? Had me eye rolling.

This will definitely be my most disappointing book of the year. I can't imagine anything will match how frustrating it was to suffer through this character stumbling through his life.

Some more complaints but with spoilers so I can be specific:

All the parts where Nick wants to become a super hero are painfully stupid. "Sometimes I dont know if you're really smart or completely insane." 

No, thinking you can get exposed to radiation and live and get super powers is fucking stupid. I can't believe his friends humored him with this, and then Nick even threw a fit like "No one believes in me I can do anything I set my mind to."

Good thing he was just an Extraordinary all along >_< Thanks Mom genes.

I think he's also supposed to be described as creative? Yet his fan fiction is painfully (and obviously) repetitive and unimaginative. (Referring to the part where he decided that his character would randomly HAVE powers all along instead of having them develop in a life or death situation or something) I dont really care, i thought it was a fun way to start the book, but it doesn't make me believe he's a good writer, or idea person or anything.

Seth goes off on a tangent about how it sucks to be a super hero because you cant tell your family or friends.

Yet he LITERALLY has his Uncle Aunt and Friend helping him. But sure, still dont tell your best friend/lover.

Maybe DONT write how Jazz points out how obvious everything was in the end and have the main character go "wow how did I not see this" because that's literally how the readers feel!

Why would Seth just let him make fanfiction of the villain? I just dont understand.

And then Gibby was there when Owen/ Shadow Star saved them and Nick made an idiot of himself.

There's so many more annoying illogical or annoying things that happened. I'm just tired but glad this book is over.

Calamity | Review

We're not moments, Megan, you and me. We're events. You say you might not be the same person you were a year ago? Well, who is? I'm sure not. We change, like swirling clouds, and a rising sun. The cells in me have died, and new ones were born. My mind has changed, and I don't feel the thrill of killing Epics I once did. I'm not the same David. Yet I am.

This book delivered some conflicting feelings in me. I feel like most of the non spoiler discussion will be negatives, but the great stuff in the book, (often typical for Sanderson) comes at the end which is full spoilers. So let's begin and I'll let you know when I start the spoilers.

Like most of this series, the beginning of book 3 throws you right into the action. On the cusp of losing their leader and gaining the strongest enemy they've come across, David and the gang, including Cody and Abraham, are attempting to gain any advantage possible. First of which is raiding the Knighthawk base, who has created their Epic weapons and technology but now refuse to do so.

Let's just immediately dissect why and how we have come to this moment, because honestly, I feel like it's rare we get moments like this that show how great a SERIES can be. We see how useful and important Prof is in the first book, and then how powerful he is. Then in the second we start the emotional path of trying to save Prof, a glimpse into the hope of a future where Epics can be saved. Now we begin the 3rd book with the crippling realization of what we have lost. This mentor figure, dangerously powerful, is now the enemy. The set up to this, as a physical, mental and emotional threat to our main character is WHY books should be a series. I can't praise this series enough for that.

Before we move on, let's get a very superficial gripe out of the way. I love the UK Sanderson books. I have all of them. The first two for this series were cool, you get an epic, standing over their city. I actually loved how I didnt even realize the second one had the city drowned in water until I got to that in the book and then checked the cover again. So what happened with this one...? I actually used the cover as a guess into what the new location would be like. So I was thinking, "Are they fighting in an old manor of Prof's or something? Who is the guy on the cover, b/c Prof doesnt use a gun and he looks too big and bald to be David." As much as i can tell, that IS supposed to be David entering the Knighthawk facility? Which seems dumb because that's not the location of the rest of the book and doesn't fit David. Im super disappointed this couldn't have had a cooler cover, especially considering the location.

Which brings me to my next positive: Ildithia/ Atlanta. Just like the first two I was really impressed that Sanderson created a whole unique city when it wasn't even really necessary. Ildithia is a city transformed into crystallized salt. Every moment of the day part of the city dissolves and crumples while a new part forms in the front. So its a moving city. Its pretty cool, and Sanderson writes it really well, it's no place I would want to live in, but the descriptions of how its dry, and brittle toward the end of the time table and dusty really puts me there. 

Which is why I think its so dumb they went with the cover they did. When they could have done something really cool with Prof floating over the city with his green powers, showing part of the city falling apart while another part rising. Too bad. 

Sanderson even details and logically reveals that during the time table that has the loss of the skyscrapers (which Epics normally claim as their home) the city is normally worse off because these angry super powered people are throwing their tantrums until their homes are back. Really interesting and well realized city. Now let's look at the events that happen in this city...

It's time to move on to my last positive for the non-spoiler. As you read at the beginning, I quoted something David was saying to Megan. It was one of my favorite parts. Megan, who with power immortality powers, fears she is not the same when she comes back. David's compares this to the sunset. Each morning it rises it's a little different, the colors, the clouds, the weather. But its still the same and still beautiful. My point in bringing this up is we are starting to see a truly deep and maturing David. He still has some dumb puns which I've never been a fan off. But in this novel we see him truly struggling with alot of issues he hasn't dealt with yet. He spent time after his father's death devoted to revenge. It steered and distracted him from dealing with this. After book one, revenge complete, we start to see that breaking down. But we still have the father figure of Prof keeping him steady. Now with Prof gone, and David the new leader of the Reckoners. We get a lot of great moments of David reflecting on his loss, his pain, and his failure. It was excellently done and again I praise David's journey.

The main negative I have is this book just feels like....nothing happens? Recounting actual events of this book would make it seem like it's probably 200 pages instead of 400. There is some really interesting set up with Megan's dimensional powers. But most of the more interesting moments don't happen until the end. As I was approaching the last 50ish pages I was starting to be like "HOW is this only a trilogy, WE NEED MORE! TOO MANY QUESTIONS!"

The ending however, as I always praise Sanderson for, really saves the journey. I can't really continue without spoilers, but the ending is intriguing and really heartfelt. I'd say this trilogy was really great, as a whole 5 stars even if I just give this entry 4. This a very fitting ending to the story of the Reckoners.

Spoilers Ahead:

The ending fight did seem a bit drawn out. To be honest I was little frustrated that David NEVER used his powers. But I still can't fault Sanderson. Because I liked how for the most part he kept our protagonist a normal human fighting against and for Epics.

I think the reasons behind the darkness was really interesting! I can't fault the logic in Calamity. I liked how the dimensions show what would have happened if he just left. I liked the logic in him being afraid and projecting that onto humans fears. I like how when they face their fears they claim it and their powers. I almost thought Calamity unable to take Megans power early in the story wasn't going to get brought up again. So all in all it was all just...really cool, I dont know what else to say about it. 

It again, brings me up wanting more. Like I wonder if Sanderson ever considered it part of his cosmere? It seems like it could be part of the same universe as Skyward or something? And then it made this other dimension seem interesting. I liked how it seemed like they were having their fight and things happening.

Lastly we have to talk about the Epilogue. I can't believe that Sanderson not once, but TWICE used the Resurrection trope in this series, and did it VERY well. I don't feel like the loss of his father was a fake out to us, we see David struggle with it. Nothing in the story would have been the same if the Father was around. And the fact we get this moment, a world where they blame themselves for each others deaths, but now get a small part of that back. The fact that we end with his father teaching him how to fly...it was pretty beautiful. 

I do feel like some things needed to be addressed. Like I feel like the Prof thing got no satisfying ending...but I feel like it was either Prof or the father, couldnt be both. It just seems sad how Prof was supposed to be his father figure, but now in a way David has his father back, and Prof has almost nothing(RIP Tia).

Also they randomly said Mizzy was an epic now? I dont see how? I guess it implied that with Calamity gone he released the rest of the powers and Mizzy just happened to get one. Or more ridiculously, it implied everyone got a power? Those were the only things, small as they were, that bugged me at the end.

Besides that, very satisfying, very compelling.

Crown of Feathers | Review

May their eternal flames burn bright. 

This book had one of the most prominent plot elements that guaranteed I would like it: Phoenixes. At least that's what I thought when it first fell on my doorstep in a lootbox over a year ago. I didnt immediately get to it, but in the months it sat on my shelf I realized something, the more I love something the more critical I am when it's in a story. 

Thankfully, this book still did not disappoint me!

Let's get the negative out of the way first.

Some of the set up wasn't well done. It made me lose interest so that when the good stuff started happening I had wished I would have paid better attention. In general toward the end with all the twists/ reveals I found myself regretting I wasn't more perceptive and took care to read the interlude notes and letters. 

Lastly I didn't quite understand the point of the male/ female disparity. I almost wonder if the author put it just because she wanted a parallel to how women have been unfairly treated in real life. Because besides women not being able to be riders in this new era, in the history women are strong and the greatest leaders. It actually seems like they are the most powerful, even saying that female phoenixes are the fiercer fighters and the only shadow mages we are aware of have been females. I just feel like this didn't have to exist in the story and rubbed me the wrong way. I'm just glad the author balanced it with really good male characters as well. Instead of choosing to create a world where every guy is bad and only women can do things, yet somehow are still disenfranchised. Like some really bad feminist novels/ movies have attempted. I thought it would take a different route and I wouldn't even include it when explaining and recommending it to other readers like it was to me.

What I liked:

Characters:

Most of the characters I liked. I don't think there was any I disliked. Veronyka had a brief stint of the cliched, "New person who is actually really talented and strong." Which leads to a disagreement and tension with another character. I was VERY thankful they got over this quickly and actually opened up to a very honest conversation about why this affected the characters. It sadly rare how well and often this characterization is done.

I was most interested in Zev and what he was doing. I think his point of view was unique and Im very intrigued to see what happens to him in the sequel. I hope he can find Kade again! I greatly appreciated the authors subtle representation of a queer character. Its not the point of him at all, he just happens to be queer.

Val was also incredibly compelling in her blunt, fierce attitude. I was always concerned yet curious what was going on with her.

Lore:

There was definitely a couple of info dumps, but it usually came up in relevance to what was happening. I'm intrigued with the world and as I said before wish I would have paid a little more attention to the interlude letters and such. But I think it makes a reread of this book all the more interesting! 

Plot:

I think the reveals of this book were insanely compelling and had me regretting I wasn't paying attention more in the earlier parts of the book. But I loved who these characters turned out to be and how they were all connected to each other by the end!

Conclusion:

I am very excited to see where our characters go from here. I look forward to more Phoenixes as this book had a lot of introduction to characters and the world but not alot of real communication with the phoenixes. I think we should be getting alot more from Val, and Zaphyra and Veronyka in the sequel. I know the second book is huge, and am fascinated to know what the author plans on revealing to us!