Holy. Cow.

It is no wonder this series is so popular and has had such a good reception.

First: I loved the narrator. Soneela’s voice was smooth, her inflections and the different voices perfect. 0 complaints.

The story itself was masterfully woven, frighteningly complex, and impossibly bold and creative. The world, the history, the incredible cast. I had a few small qualms but nothing that came close to ruining the story.

I don’t know if I will read the other books. There are some answers I want but at the same time, the writing is exhaustingly intense.

Updated review, four years later:

I have decided that I'm not overly stupid; this story simply doesn't make sense. It's dressed up so prettily, in such a complex world and with a relatively large cast dancing about, that one might just assume the story itself does in fact make sense if you pay attention. But it doesn't. I'm fairly confident we're just being dazzled by the stage lights--at at least I was, on my first read through.

I love the world Chakraborty created. That's my favorite part. The writing style remains vivid and largely immersive (though sometimes the language register shifts and I'm yanked out of the story), but it's so dense. Where's the plot? What's the goal? What on earth are the stakes?? And why is it taking so long for anything at all to happen?

I didn't find myself connecting to any of the characters except, oddly, Muntadhir and Zaynab. Nahri kind of just let the plot happen to her. Ali was equal parts compelling and confusing. Dara is...Dara.

And then there's whatever is going on with the politics.

I still have no idea what's going on with the politics.

Honestly, it feels like too much. I wanted to like it, but by about the 2/3 mark I was so bored, and kind of irritated, and just ready for it to be over. I think I can see why people like this story and it looks like it gets better in the second book, but I don’t have the patience for it.

Good pacing and art style. Had to ruin it with “humans destroy everything”.

Yeah, I definitely cried. Not an easy story to read, but I am glad I read it.

Guess what?

I once again forgot how the prequel to an Orson Scott Card book ended.

It’s ok though. Most of the gaps got filled in through the narrative, and by the end I didn’t care too much. (My only true complaint is that Card seems to get his timeline a little mixed up. I tried searching how old the characters are and it’s vague here, and apparently gets worse through the series until Card adds about five years to one character’s age. Genetic mutations and experiments aside...sir no.)

Another hit of an Orson Scott Card book, even though most of it went over my head. Love that we got to see through Petra’s eyes here. Still laughing over having a Peter and a Petra as POV characters in the same book.

The cast in this installment was excellent. I appreciate that DWJ can write children characters who act like children, down to the dangerous pettiness and antics. And the ending was splendid. I do wish Chrestomanci had shown up sooner, though.

"There are three kinds of people," [Pujol] wrote later, "those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened."

Ahhhhhhhhh this one was fantastic. Like many, I was first introduced to Agent Garbo via tumblr, and I was

really hoping this book would do his story justice; it absolutely does. It is expertly compiled and written. An adventure from start to finish. Easily one of my favorite reads of the year.

This is both the biography of a man who escaped the North Korean prison camp where he was born, and also a biography of North Korea itself over the past 50-odd years. Sparse and somewhat stilted, full of facts and figures, it reads more like an article than a story. I'll say it's an important story, despite the surrounding controversy, but the writing style didn't do it any favors.

Setting aside the flat characters, the abuse disguised as romance, the historical inaccuracies, and an entire POV that served no purpose at all and could easily be cut, this book was simply poorly written. It didn’t need to be half the length it is.

DNF at 7%. Jumps right into the story but the narrative feels rushed and clunky. Sure, we might already know the plot, but there could be a little mystery and drama about it.

For the first third of the book, I was so-so. There was some minor content that I personally dislike that kind of put me off. On the other hand, Cazaril was instantly compelling, and I especially appreciated how Bujold handles his trauma. I was also loving how the pieces were starting to get laid out. (That’s one of the joys of becoming a more seasoned reader: you notice certain pieces of the plot and setting that stand out like important objects in old animation, and your brain starts spinning trying to guess where they’ll end up.)

In the second third, I was getting invested and starting to think it was a good story, minor compunctions aside. I figured it would get a soft three or four stars from me, for keeping my interest if nothing else. I didn’t think I’d continue with the series based on what I’d seen so far.

The third half kept me up late, made me laugh, made me cry, won all the awards, tied up things I didn’t even know were loose, and stole my breath away. It went from “highly anticipated read” to “not disappointed but not overawed” to “alright I see why people love this”. Gonna be processing it for a while, which means it gets five stars.

It already earned those for making me cry, so they’re redundant but well-earned all the same. And I first picked up this one because several people have said how excellent one of the sequels is, so now of course I must proceed to those. Once I did through a little more of my list....