eiion's reviews
84 reviews

This book was exactly what it tried to be - a fun, easy to read spy novel with elements of Lovecraftian horror that meshed perfectly with the world. Somehow. 

I had a good time reading it, and really appreciated Stross' portrayal of the overworked corporate population. Sure, it's not always sunshine and rainbows, but there was something endearing about needing to file paperwork for EVERY. LITTLE. THING. Tedious? Sure. Hilarious? Absolutely.
The characters were good, but we didn't care about too many of them save for Bob and a few others on his team. We didn't NEED to care about them, but it could get confusing with 30 names being tossed around and no way to know who was and wasn't important. Regardless, it was just as fun all the same, and where serious commentary on the world met the ridiculousness of horrors beyond our comprehension, it managed to mesh just right into a nice blend that made you go, "Sure, that makes sense," about a bunch of concrete cows and murderous camera systems.

It was split into two sections - one detailing one of Bob's first missions, and one set a while later, showing what his every day life and new missions might look like. It was a good mix, giving us that development to really care about Bob, and giving us enough action and adventure to keep us hooked.

I noticed a few grammatical mistakes, though, missing dialogue markers here and there mostly, which was only an annoyance, but was something I was aware of. And apart from this, the only real negative comment that I have is the fact that the storyline could get a bit confusing at times. So many organisations being mentioned, so many people lending a hand to different operations, it was impossible to keep track of it. It wasn't necessary to do so, but it was definitely difficult nonetheless.

I really liked this, and look forward to more corporate horrors in the future.

This was a good third book, a nice way to wrap up the main series and to bring the storyline together. But it was just good. It wasn't great, it didn't grip me like the other two did.

I loved the chapters from before - the ones with Daniel and Armand, with Khayman, with Pandora, with Jesse and Maharet. All of the new characters and old characters, all getting their own time to shine, their own moments to sort of unfold their story. I loved learning more about them and being introduced to vampires outside of the little bubble that we'd been in for the last two books. It helped to expand on Rice's world and show that vampires are widespread, with wildly different power levels and different approaches to their 'condition'.

The main conflict felt... bland. Akasha wasn't a particularly interesting villain, and Lestat didn't seem to have many thoughts about what was going on. There was much more emphasis on the love he felt for her rather than his fear, or his hatred, or literally any other negative emotion. He didn't seem to care about what Akasha might do to Louis, or what Akasha might do to the world. He didn't even seem that fussed with the power she was giving him (at least not until the very end). It took away from the stakes of the world and from Lestat's character, because it felt so boring, and kind of like you were left wanting more. We completely lost that reckless, passionate man we learned about in the second book, replaced with a shell of himself. It was still interesting, but I didn't feel like he lent anything to the story that he was supposed to be a main character in. And I was definitely disappointed with how little Louis mattered to the story, and how little we saw him.
Additionally, there was something quite cheap to me about the way they deal with Maharet, the twins, that whole storyline. To think that the main action in this book happened within a story, told to a bunch of vampires around a table really detracted from the stakes. Not to mention that at least twice people would tell Maharet that Akasha would be there soon, to hurry up, and she would just keep talking for pages upon pages of detail. And then, finally, to end the conflict with Akasha by... talking to her? Until Maharet's evil vampire twin shows up and kills her. It takes 200 or so pages just for us to catch up with the end of Vapire Lestat, and another 100 or so pages before Akasha even starts doing anything. Where is the gripping sense of time?

The concept was super interesting, and I loved the story of Maharet and her twin, but there was a time and place, and it felt like that just wasn't the spot. It didn't fit in to the stakes and to the panic we were supposed to be feeling. 

All that being said, I did really enjoy the book. I think that Anne Rice is a fantastic author, and I zipped through this one just as fast as the other two. But I also won't lie and say that this was the best book of the series - it just wasn't. Still worth some time, and definitely worth a read if you liked the other two, but I was unfortunately not as happy as I wished I would have been. I still plan to keep reading and exploring her other books and series, and I'm super glad that I read this, if only to just learn a little bit more about the other characters and what they got up to.

Coming into this book from Interview with the Vampire, I had high hopes, but didn‘t know what to expect. Lestat, in my mind, was cruel, a captor, a madman, someone who did not hold or could receive love. This book changed that.

Louis‘ story made sense. He was scared, he held hatred and fear, and I don‘t believe he intentionally mislead the audience or fabricated things about Lestat with the intent to harm. But reading Lestat‘s story, it‘s like you begin to understand. This was no villain, no antagonist. He was just as scared as Louis was, just as conflicted, the hero of a story he didn’t want to tell. He has such a different voice to Louis, and while it‘s the same author, you can tell she understands her characters. The style, the tone, and the emotion is completely different. Lestat has had so long to understand himself and his powers that he doesn‘t ramble about the emotion - why would he? He states his love, because that is what it is, and moves on. He tells a story, and it flows beautifully, it keeps you up and keeps you hooked. Rice has a way with words that flows with gorgeous, river-like ease. It‘s impossible to put down, and easy to get lost in the world, and in the emotions.

Love is such a big topic in these books, followed so closely by physical affection (kisses especially). Reading the first book, I found an element of discomfort in this. Claudia and Louis felt weird to me, she was too young, it was almost creepy. Lestat and Louis felt stockholm syndrome-y. It took this book, and a lot of effort to push past that. To understand that love, intimacy, desire, everything under the umbrella of sensuality and lust is not just sexual, nor is it objectifying, and that in many cases, they are not in love, they just feel love for themselves, for others, and for those that they are close to.
It is, in some cases, off-putting.

I absolutely hated reading about him and Gabrielle, knowing that that was his mother.

But it is also an emotion so complex and in depth that, when you push past your initial shock or confusion, you begin to understand, even just a little bit, what their love means to them. They express it differently, much more physically, but I think that‘s the point.
Don‘t get me wrong, the themes of incest were a bit too prevalent in this book, and the last book dealt a bit too much with children for my liking, but I don‘t think that Anne Rice ever intended for these themes to be the case, nor did she intend to romanticise it. She wanted us to feel pushed out of our comfort zones, but never repulsed or disgusted. It took time and effort (and a few shocked voice memos to a friend), but I got there, and I am so glad that I feel like I understand, even just a little bit.

This is, without a doubt, a true, handcrafted vampire story. Not just some erotic fantasy about a blood sucking monster. There is lore here, genuine background as to why their skin burns in the sun and to why they must drink blood. Are the

magical ancient Egyptian statue people with super strength and healing blood

kind of weird? Yes. But, you know what, it works, and I had a blast reading about it. There is more to be built on, but there was also so much detail put into this. I can‘t wait for the next one. 

Interview with the Vampire follows the story of Louis de Pointe du Lac, and his journey from mortal to vampire, and everything that came after that.

Anne Rice portrays vampirism as something seductive, intimate, and downright horrifying. For someone to murder, and to find so much pleasure in it, there is no doubt that Louis finds it something despicable and ridiculous, and that the audience struggles to understand the pleasure that only a vampire could draw from it. We talk about love, sex, about overwhelming ecstasy and the beauty of sensuality, but that doesn‘t depart the act of murder from what it is: murder.
It was a fascinating way to paint the entire endeavour, and I loved the concept of it.
That being said, it didn‘t always work. 

Claudia, the child vampire, stuck in the body of a 5/6 year old while her mind ages, is too often described with the same nature as an adult. While there is some nuance to be argued in the fact  that she is mentally well over 70, likely older, no 5 year old should ever be described as „sensual“, especially not when her childlike appearance is so often remarked on by everyone, multiple times. It left me with a weird, almost repulsed feeling, as if I was reading something I really oughtn‘t too. This was common too, not just with Claudia, but with any children that the vampires drank from. I should not be reading how someone is „moaning“ over the near unconscious body of a child before drinking their blood. It‘s a bit weird. And while this was undoubtedly the point, it was still tough to sit through.

 

The concept of „love“ is explored with varying meanings and explorations. It‘s used quite casually, quite often, but never without meaning. Louis loves Claudia, he loves Armand, he loves Lestat. Lestat loves Louis, he loves the thrill of the kill, he loves drinking from young victims. But we never truly understand what love is. Is it desire, is it emotion, is it care, is it fear? Love became such a complex, deep emotion in this book, and it was amazing, it shone a whole new light on the world, on how the vampires viewed their own kind and what they were doing.

The theme of an unreliable narrator was also explored in this book to a really high level. Reading something, never knowing how true it was, knowing that Louis was leaving something out - it takes time and effort to effectively do that, and Anne Rice takes the cake for it. 
Louis is perfectly vulnerable, scared, and completely misunderstanding of the whole situation. He is young and naive, in a way, and paints the story with a brush that was not meant for him, with paints he doesn‘t know how to use. The finished portrait is… almost there. But you can tell there is something wrong, hidden behind what we don‘t see and don‘t know yet.
Reading the second book, you really begin to understand just how much Louis didn‘t.

This was a great book, and while odd at times, I‘d read it again in a heartbeat.

Ramans do everything in threes.

Rendevous with Rama is a fascinating sci-fi book that deals with the concept of the unknown. A comet enters the solar system, unsuspecting at first, but quickly catches the eyes of scientists for its key difference: it‘s not a comet at all, but a quickly rotating cylinder, hollow, and host to alien construction and fragments of life.

This story focuses more on what we don‘t know than what we do. There is so much that is never explained to us, and there is no reason it ever needs to be. Theories are tossed around, science is explored, but we are never given a definitive answer because we do not need it, and because there is not enough time to pick Rama apart and understand it. Clarke challenges the idea of human understanding, focusing Rendezvous with Rama on an almost spiritual journey about the curiosity of the human race and the answers that they do not have time to get.

Following Norton and his crew, we get glimpses into their lives, into how the world and the solar system has changed, but they are not the main characters of this story. The humans serve as plot devices, to communicate to the audience rather than to serve an integral part of the plot. Instead, Rama is the main character, filled with secrets and lore that no one, not even the best scientists, could ever begin to understand. We, the audience, are just as much in the dark about the mysteries of Rama as anyone else.

This wasn‘t a fulfilling book. We did not learn secrets of an alien race, or even get to understand Rama‘s purpose at the end of the story. It simply flew off into space, to continue its journey elsewhere, and we will never know its origin or destination. We are not meant to know. But that‘s the entire fun of it - I loved the fact that Clarke so unapologetically just… didn‘t tell us what was going on.
Everything that they brought back was (and would continue to be) analysed, the Ramans will, of course, be „understood“ as much as is possible by humans, but that isn‘t the point of the book. The point of it was to highlight a moment, and the adventures within Rama, the existence of life forms that we do not understand and that the characters didn‘t have time to understand.

We are left with more questions than answers, but that‘s the entire purpose, and I loved it. Clarke‘s writing draws you in, and he is amazing at describing structures, worlds, and connecting pieces. His world building and science is unparalleled, and I don‘t even mind that my questions will never have answers - I just loved reading it, and being taken along with the Endeavour on the journey of a lifetime.

There are not words to describe this book. It was everything, everything that I needed, wanted, and feared. It was relentlessly happy, it was terrifying, devastating, eager, hilarious, and perfect. Wrapped up between a story there was a boy, who grew into a man. There was adventure, there was peace, there were times I laughed, times I cried, times I stayed up just to read a book that I knew would hurt me. 

Wrapped up within the story within the story, there are threads to follow, to pick at, and to weave together. There are things that happen that you curse yourself for not seeing earlier, and things that you begin to feel far before it is said. It is the perfect balance, and never once do you feel dumb for not having recognised it, you realise that you are not part of the story, and your expertise does not always apply. Kvothe is a loveable, unfortunate character. He has made choices, none of them bad and none of them good, and they will catch up with him eventually, and it scares me to think about it. But I loved reading it, I loved watching him grow, reminisce, and watching pieces click into place.

It's finished, and I do genuinely feel like I am missing a piece of me that it took with it when I closed it on its last page. I loved it, and I can not wait for the third book.

A Land of Lessons, written by Phillip Maeker, is a book about hope and love, about finding friends where you never expected it, and about saving the world from being erased. We follow the story of Diana and Felix, who have been tasked with sprouting the Tree of Life and fending off the darkness that threatens to take over the land. A fairytale wrapped up in a novel, A Land of Lessons is a fun, sweet book about living life and learning lessons, packed full with action, adventure, and friendship.

This book was genuinely super fun to read. The book and its plot dabbled a lot in the fluidity of time, and the ever changing ocean of the self, and it showed. There were multiple timelines that crossed over, past actions that changed future ones, and future actions which lent themselves to the past. Characters learned to embody their future, and plot points were never left unexplained. I felt almost as though I could see the author's thoughts, the moodboard he'd set up, linking x to y, and linking a to b. It was creative, and genuinely took me by surprise a few times, with at least one of the links making me tear up a little bit.
It had this wide, sort of vague worldbuilding to it, but you could tell that so much thought and care went into it. Things that were mentioned once were brought up again, seemingly small tidbits ending up meaning a lot, and you could find nuance and twists everywhere you looked. I'm not usually one for loose worldbuilding, so going into a book where the main characters are fairies, and the book takes place entirely within a land and a world that is free from time and the rules of reality, I was a little bit nervous. But the rules of this world and what we could expect were consistent. They were consistently confusing and broke reality, but always in the same way. I never felt like I was scrambling to catch up, or feeling blindsided by what a character had done. It all seemed to work, and I really enjoyed that.

The author has this knack for writing thoughts, and for turning words into poetry and vice versa. Every sentence felt fresh, and beautiful, and was enjoyable to read. It was easy to digest but didn't read like a YA novel, it took some time and effort. This book was the first and only book that I have used Storygraph's journal feature on - keeping track of my thoughts as we pushed through the story. The action scenes were a treat, and described the world like a film, I always found those segments really enjoyable. It had a powerful storytelling and fairytale aspect to it that I've never seen properly replicated in another book.
That being said, I did struggle a little bit with the author's depiction of emotion. There's just not a lot of it. When thoughts are presented, they are presented as statements, or observations. We don't get the intimacy of a character feeling something. I would have loved to see a character's legs tremble in fear, or for them to feel their heart in their throat as they tried to choke back tears. Instead, all of the emotion was portrayed quite literally, through what they were thinking, or not portrayed at all, instead described in between a character's somewhat clunky movements, and left up to the reader to decipher. It felt that the story, for how heartwarming and uplifting it was, lacked the emotion that would have really elevated it for me. 

Motive III and IV, the last two sections of this book were packed chock full with lessons. It's befitting of the title, but sometimes, the explanation of these lessons/motivations, or how the characters portrayed them felt a bit too on the nose. This book would likely be great for a younger reader, but for me (20), I definitely found some of the lessons and morals to be presented in a very literal way. That didn't stop me from enjoying what the book stood for though, and I really loved reading through and getting to meet all of the characters and their motivations. 

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what this author has in store next, and hope that the group in their Land of Lessons is living a happy, fulfilling life.

Throne of Glass is a dark, intriguing story about a former assassin forced to compete in the King's competition in a desperate attempt to win back her freedom. Fighting other competitors and investigating a dark evil that's stirred beneath the kingdom, Celaena is caught up in a story and a plan even bigger than she knows, forced to step forward to protect herself and the people she loves most.

This is the second SJM book I've read (the first being ACOTAR), and I have to admit that I really enjoyed it!
SJM's writing style is easy to understand, effortlessly descriptive, and gives you a great sense of the world, what everything looks like, and how it makes you feel. She is a fantastic author when it comes to action scenes, and we see so much more of her writing potential in this book, because Celaena is a fighter through and through. 
I really appreciate how this book centered around the main character, and not her love arc. It was refreshing to see her develop as a character, and while there was a romance sub-plot, it didn't feel as closely interwoven with the main story as ACOTAR was (obviously). In some parts, it felt a little bit underdeveloped, or at least her main love interest did (

Dorian

). While he was still interesting, it came from who he was to the politics and to the story, and not his character's personality. I didn't find myself caring much about him, but I suspect that was the intention, as

Celaena broke it off with him rather abruptly near the end.

I am holding out hope that

Chaol

and her will develop something, but I won't hold my breath, just in case I'm wrong.
I genuinely think that the only part of her writing that I don't enjoy is her descriptions of clothing, particularly fancy dress. Sorry, but some of those dresses Celaena wears sound atrocious, and even Dorian wasn't spared the wrath of bad descriptive elements on his clothes. Oh well, I trust she had a vision that I just didn't see.

Celaena was a quite typical FMC but not in a bad way. She was shaped by the world, a strong fighter who had been wittled down by a year of slavery, clawing her way back up. She was cunning, and fast, and I really enjoyed reading her story, seeing her work things out, and following her through the book. She seems like a character that will face a LOT more changes over the next few books, and I can't wait to see where it takes her. 
The side characters were honestly amazing. Nehemia, Chaol, Dorian, Kaltain, and everyone else was relentlessly interesting. Everyone had so many layers to them. It was very often that I would read one person's POV, and then the POV would switch, and a whole new perspective dawned on me and shaped the character in a completely different way. It was a really interesting way to approach the book, and I hope that the multi-POV story continues on in the series. 

As always, SJM's worldbuilding is stunning, fully developed with intricate layers that leave you always finding more and more tidbits that you didn't even think to ask about. This is a very slight spoiler about her other books and series, but

I believe that all the worlds of her books are all sort of intertwined, or written within the same vague universe/with the ability to travel to her other universes, which gives her a lot to build on.

It's only been mentioned very briefly in this book, so I don't assume this will be 100% accurate, but it does support her worldbuilding a lot, and really speaks to her credibility as an author when creating these worlds.

Definitely looking forward to the next in the series!

I really wanted to like this book. I'd heard good things, it was supposed to be a fairytale wrapped up in a deeper story, with fun, loveable characters and an intriguing plotline. But when I actually set out to read it, I was disappointed.

We are dropped into the middle of a story with no background, no information, nothing. So as much as I wanted to understand what was happening, I didn't. There was some intrigue sprinkled in, some vague explanation, but it was never enough.
The writing was in no way bad, and I think that T. Kingfisher does have a way with words. But the entire first 100 pages or so of this book is written like a flashback. The author writes in this detached voice that makes it sound like everything that is happening has already happened, and that the narrator is recounting it so far in the future that the details are fuzzy, and this only gets mildly better once you hit the 150 page mark. I found myself not caring about any of the characters or the plot at hand, because the tone was so far removed that it didn't draw me in. The main character, Marra, felt like a side character, and everyone she met from there on out she met so quickly, and with no real build up or reason, I didn't care about any of them. They were funny, sure, but they fit into an archetype so well (grumpy/mysterious old lady, funny old lady, handsome knight), that they were just so surface level. The characters and their relationships didn't feel real or natural, and it just really took away from the entire story. When the conflict is supposed to be surrounding Marra and her deep desire to save her sister, it would have really helped me if I actually cared about the sister, or felt like she was important to anything.

The worldbuilding was weak at best, and left me with more questions than answers. It felt like every time they ran into an issue there was always some kind of convenient magic there to fix it, that had never been mentioned before. It was too convenient, too perfect, and took away from any suspense that the author tried to add in.
Additionally, the pacing in this book was so... wrong. It was so fast that we never saw the intricacies of the character's decision making, nor did we ever see their relationships really developing, and we certainly never saw the plot deeping. There were so many times I thought 'This would be such a good twist!' but there was never a twist, just charging forwards with almost haphazard action scenes and decisions that were meant to feel smart but ended up feeling random and misplaced.

Even during scenes that Marra was meant to be doing these 'impossible' tasks, I never felt like she was struggling to get them done, or in any danger if she didn't. The dust-witch had so much potential to give her a consequence, or to raise the stakes, but then she just... handed Marra the final task, like it was nothing? Marra never struggled, and never once gave an indication that she couldn't do something. It didn't feel powerful, just boring.

So many little things just detracted from the story and the stakes of the world, and while I read the book quickly, I never felt like I was on the edge of my seat, just had to read the next chapter.

The ending. I was okay with this book, hovering around 3.5-4 stars, until we hit the ending.

"and then Fenris pulled the sword out and blood came from the king's mouth and he died." That was it. That the was entire sentence/scene where they killed Vorling - the thing they had been working towards this entire book, just to say 'and he died.' It felt like such a waste, like throwing away the entire reason they have been travelling this whole time. They barely even touched on his death, on the panic and chaos that unfolded afterwards, and, of course, everything worked out and never once did I feel like any one of the main gang was ever going to die.

 

I wanted to like this, and I didn't have a bad time reading it, but if you're someone who values worldbuilding, who values deep character connections, understandings, and who wants an in depth, fulfilling story, this is not for you.

Following Opal's story and the story of Starling House, it was easy to get lost in it. Harrow's style of writing is easy to digest, but packed full of beautiful descriptions and easily flowing sentences. I found that, after a point, the words and the emotion were synonomous, it felt like reading a movie that I could see in my head and feel in my chest.
Throughout the book, we're introduced to a wide variety of characters, each with their own lives and motivations in Eden. The only people that ever felt out of place were out of place, and it was fascinating to see just how perfectly entertwined the whole community was, and how Harrow so effectively presented it, to the point that the reader could just tell. 

The story itself is packed full of tidbits, interesting information, everything you need to uncover a story. It has clues to the mysteries that Opal is trying to work out, that as a reader, I was able to pick up on some stuff before it was revealed to us, and that felt good. It was nice to have a book really play into that. The first tidbit I noticed and the thing I loved most about the book itself were the footnotes. It was such an interesting concept - reading through Opal's story and watching as someone else commented on it, giving us the facts. It gave the first half of the book this sort of "found footage" type feeling. It introduced the concept of unsettling, of questioning the reality of the story and the fear that the reader feels, because the footnotes picked apart what Opal told us, then she put it back together. The footnotes gave us the facts, but the commenter wasn't there when this happened. Opal gives us the truth, but she doesn't know the facts. 
Unfortunately, after the first 75 or so pages, the footnotes slowed down massively. This is sort of when the story in the present picked up, so there weren't as many facts to comment on, but I missed those little tidbits. 

Starling House had the potential to be massively more unsettling and creepy than it actually was. I loved the story, loved the people and the book, and loved the way it made me feel.  This book felt like going home, it felt like seeing that place you went to as a child that you nearly forgot as you aged, it felt like confronting yourself and being okay with what you find. It felt comfortable, and cozy, and I loved it. And while I would have loved for it to be more of a mystery, to play into that creepy feeling that I got in the first 20 pages, that doesn't change the fact that I tore through this book in a day and half, annotated it and have read and re-read parts of it time and time again. It was gorgeous, and I loved it.