odds's reviews
3 reviews

My only previous encounter with Burton's books was reading The Confession which, although enjoyable enough, was more an "I saw a signed book on whim" kind of buy for me and wasn't the sort of book I usually seek out. Perhaps it wasn't the right one to start with. However, I had heard good things about The Miniaturist. My copy of this is pre-owned and a little shabby, but in a way that I think gives it character. I like it when books look well-read.

This is an incredibly well-crafted story about secrets, with a perfect historical setting to clash with the ideas of personal freedom and choice - in Amsterdam - "Where the pendulum swings from God to a guilder". People must live as they're supposed to - observed, like clockwork, all playing a well-oiled part in society. Absences are noted, money powers everything. Entirely deliberate then, I imagine, (small spoiler) that "The Miniaturist" whose presence seems to throw so many lives into turmoil was apprenticed to a clockmaker. It's about appearance warring with desire and reality, the lies and secrets that even the most pious seeming people tell and keep. Mostly a cast of women, it also involves a great deal of frustration at their various places and overall powerlessness in society. You form an opinion of each person, then have it altered by their actions before the end.

It has a sense of mystery which propels a reader through the story. I guessed a couple of the twists, but there are always more to come. You think you've worked something out, but it's a distraction. It's fantastic to read a story that features the figure of a "prophet", when the characters and reader both are often unable to see the warnings until events have already passed. 

In short, I thought it was exceptional!

I picked up the pace with this one. I'm not sure why I'm always able to do that at the end of a month, but there we go. I knew it wouldn't take me long even before I realised it contained short stories.

The Daevabad Trilogy was a real highlight of the first year I started doing my book journal (2020) - a top 5 pick in a year of very strong top 5 picks. I've picked up the two other books released by this author in the time since Empire of Gold came out and know that I will continue to do so. Chakraborty is firmly on my "auto buy" list. This is a delightful little book filled with short stories set both before, during and after the events of the Daevabad trilogy and focusing on a range of different characters. I knew I would have an easy time because I know I love this world and all of the world building was already there from reading the main books. 

It's a lovely book that took me no time at all to read as I could just fit in one or two of the stories whenever I was able - mostly bus trips and over breakfast in the frigid kitchen at work. It feels a bit like the DVD extras on something you really loved enough to want more, even if you can see why some of them may have been unnecessary in the main plot. It's an odd one to recommend though as you definitely need the context from reading the 3 main books. However, as an extension of the series, it's excellent.

Also - read the Daevabad Trilogy 😉.

"I had some misgivings starting this book. I think I've heard it compared to NotW so many times that when it began in an inn talking about types of silence, my heart sank a little. This has been on my shelf for a long time, probably because, while I wasn't productive, a longer book felt daunting. I decided to start as I finished my final book in 2023 early, so I could get a headstart.

Not something I do often, but in this case I googled reviews. I found a great one by someone who loves NotW and acknowledged both the similarities and differences, then got me excited for a story in a similar structure and around the idea of biased storytelling. I went in open-minded as I have heard good things.

To begin with, it reads beautifully, but not as fluidly to me - I think the comparisons keep sticking like a stone in my shoe, because they are everywhere - even the blurb sounds similar. However, though I expected to struggle, I hit a point where I wanted to keep picking it back up because it had settled into its own fascinating story and only felt like the parts of other stories that I enjoyed. It's a slow burn to begin with (no pun intended), but builds into something brilliant.

One funny thing was that the cover was announced for book 2 while I was reading and hadn't realised it was called "The Doors of Midnight" which, though probably unintentional, is also fairly close to the unpublished NotW 3rd book title. The moment I can get my hands on that one, I will.

I did feel by the end of it that maybe this is the NotW vibe that I've been searching for in other books and it's great to get more of the same feeling from a story which, though a similar shape at times, developed into itself. I love so much of what's here - the unreliable narrator, watching stories and legends being exaggerated and built around a grain of truth, cocky protagonists you feel like shouting at sometimes, a magic system that feels plausible based on both faith and "science", a story being told within a story - maybe I was drawn to it because those are elements that I love. I did feel more of overall epic fantasy by the end and I will definitely be grabbing the 2nd."

Here's what I posted on Instagram (because character limit), but it would have been good to write more. It certainly made me think and I'm sure it will stay with me for a long time. I haven't made much secret of the fact that The Name of the Wind is one of my favourite books (there's a quote tattooed on my arm) and what I thought might annoy me actually helped me to see the strength of this book and what I enjoy reading. It also, cleverly, had me considering the nature of storytelling in general, particularly in epic fantasy. It's on the same publisher at NotW so a lot of how this book was marketed has to have been intentional. I'm hoping the series establishes itself as a strong contender for the attention of fans of The Name of the Wind with The First Binding and uses that to move away from the similarities and into itself.

There is a story here that I know I want to hear, even if (not a spoiler as we know that this is a biased narrator - a storyteller by trade at the beginning of the story who never claims to be telling the truth or even that such a thing is possible) it's an exaggerated one.