Tresen

2.5*

It was okay.
Honestly, I don't have a lot more to tell you.
The characters were fine and the story was fine. The book isn't bad but - even though I am a sucker for everything dragon themed - it didn't spark me any real joy while reading it. Sure there were some cool parts, especially those of her childhood, but mostly I just didn't care for what was happening.

I have a feeling that the following entries will probably be better.
The series hasn't completely died for me yet but I got a ton of books with a higher priority on my TBR right now.

It's hard to review a book like that. The informations given are quite helpful, especially in imagining the mindset concept artists should have. It gives insight into different daily work schedules from the featured artist which was pretty interesting because they differed surprisingly a lot. I knew a bunch of the tips given already, but that's only because I frequently inform myself about that anyway.
Overall a nice and helpful collection of tips from business professionals

4.5*

If u think that I've read all the spells, then u probably don't know me.

This was nice, very nice ending. Yes yes :)

The. Fuck.

Damn, who would have thought I'd finish it in this lifetime.

Soooo, this was fun? I guess. Maybe?
The thing is, I enjoyed many parts. In theory.
The world building wasn't fully fleshed out but intriguing. Especially in the first chapters when we got to know how Gods in this realm behave and what rules they are bound to.
Truth be told, lore is like my elixir of life.

The cast of characters was diverse and lovingly created.
But the character development, if there was any, was so unbelievably slow and too insignificant throughout. We have a lot of interesting scenes between our protagonists, but it often felt like they weren't used to their full potential.

The stakes of the story were HIGH but they got delivered without any real impact. I didn't care as much about the outcome of their quests as I might have should.

But even though I have a lot of criticism, I have to say that it was a fairly enjoyable read. (And a fast one if you aren't me.)
I'm looking forward to the next instalment and hopefully see improvement in Kaner's writing as this has only been her debut.

Me, rocking back and forth under tears: “That was nice.”

it's now 4:55 a.m. - 10min after I finished this book and I still haven't closed my mouth. My mind just can't comprehend everything that has happened right now.
(review to come)

Okay, wow.
This book was a ride. A ride on the railway to emotions town!
(I don't why I picked this metaphor but ist 1 a.m. so I'm excused.)
So lemme tell you, I had high hopes going into it.
1. Good cover
2.character focused sci-fi
and
3. A good friend of mine really - like: REALLY - likes it.

An I gotta say, it didn't gripped me from the start. I was fairly intrigued by all the characters and their interactions with one another, as well as curious about the interplanetary locations we were going to discover.
And a major selling point were the characters for me. Hence I was a bit taken aback by the lack of individuality in their dialogue. Don't get me wrong, it was a lot of funny banter. Which is always nice to read. But I had my issues with bisecting the lines from one another. If you removed the name - pretty much everybody could have said the sentence. At least it felt like it.
But it definitely improved later on. Probably because I learned A LOT more about the personalities the crew mates are made of.
And oh boi do I love them now.
I do think that there is a lot more character development to be had and a lot more conflicts that could come up. Something that I am not content with.
Because I won't get it. It's pretty much a standalone and I dislike this fact and won't accept it. >:-(

And even though I love me some good conflicts between characters, that's not really the point of this story. (tho I got my fair share of it)
Sure there a high stakes, a plot and all that –
but I believe this story is about something deeper than that.
It's about Forgiveness. Acceptance. Love. Kindness. And Tolerance. Just life itself.

I don't really care that I didn't like the pacing of the first half or that I wish it had a different prose.
It doesn't matter to me as much. Because I saw what Becky tried to achieve with this novel. Values and themes she conveyed in such beautiful analogies.
Idk.
I just don't want to put my finger on the points that I wish were different.
She clearly focused everything about the things that matter most.

So why should I do it differently?

This was so strange. But in a very good way. My first Gaiman read and I completely enjoyed it. Although it was a bit slow in the middle - but the last third was so awsome with all those connections taking place that it made up for the slightly stagnated story in the middle part.
And my favorit character: The Lime - I mean how could I choose anything else?

Overall a very fun read with weird twists and turns and in my opinion a great book to get into Neil's writing.

That's a good book.

I honestly didn't expect Prachett to make me cry. On the other hand, I didn't expect to love Brutha as a protagonist, but then again here we are.

This book is inherently about the relationship that we as humans have with gods and our faith. Why do we believe? And more profound: In what exactly should we put our faith?
And this part is tricky, because I would count myself as an atheist - but this question resonated with me, why's that?
Because faith doesn't start with gods, holy figures, prophets or commandments and most definitely doesn't end there.

For me at least. And hopefully for you too.

The world is ever changing, here or in Discworld, though history keeps repeating itself over and over again.
One would think: “What good can I do? Nothing matters.” And I get it. It's tiresome.
But I believe that this train of thought is only for the truly faithless - and where's the fun in that?

3.5

So let me put this first: I would have liked it more if I wasn't that stupid.

For me it was completely enjoyable based on the vibes alone. At first I thought the writing was tacky, but it grew on me. With each page I understood more and more of what to expect, which made it easier to enjoy the prose as I went along.

But you know what I couldn't comprehend better after each page: the world building. And with it, the plot.

I didn't have the slightest clue of what was going on. If I would have dissected each line piece by piece and thought about each new information given - then maybe, just mayyybe I wouldn't have understood everything. But I am not in school anymore, you will not see me doing this ever. (Except for Brandy Sandy maybe.)

BUT let me tell you: When I watched this 2min TikTok explaining the plot, the penny dropped. And it dropped HARD.
It was so obvious in hindsight. And by god did it enhance my thoughts about this book.

So yeah, read it. Maybe if you're halfway through and don't have a clue: Firstly, welcome to the club. Secondly, just read the tiniest bit of information about the setting and you'll be fine. Or ask me, I'll be glad to help you out.

Or should I say “GLADstone” to help you out? (Yes, I hate myself as well.)

This was quite ambitious and I don't think it succeeded in every point of it.
The twist was not extraordinary - maybe for some even predictable.
This novel is not perfect.

But I still loved it.
And sometimes that's just how it is. Sometimes a story just feels perfect, even when it objectively isn't.

4*5

Hm i don't know how to feel about this. Because tbh it was a BORE to get through. Like the first two thirds? I don't want to experience that ever again. Everything that happened was a constant flow of nothingness - drugs, parties, indifferent dialogue and the protagonist feeling numb in this world.
And it's just not something I would have ever picked up for myself. Like reading it didn't felt good. Not once.
And I get it. That's the point of it, but I just wanted sooome sort of plot line. Which I got in the last third, where it really picked up. It's just wasn't soon enough.

I am for sure happy that I went through with it and kept reading. It's nothing I'd have experienced otherwise.
But would I ever recommend it? Hard to say yes to that, but I somewhat get the appeal and importance of stories like this.
You'll have to decide.

Wow. That woman can write endings. So good that I wished the rest of the book was as great.
I'm still not sure if I like it more than the first one - probably, but definitely more than the second one. I really feel like Sally Green had soooo much lost potential in here. The final chapters showed that she's indeed capable of writing subtle whilst maintaining a certain intricacy.
I loved that.
I do not regret reading this series at all (maybe the 2nd installment - but we don't talk about that) but perhaps I should have spend my time with reading other books first. 🤷

It's astonishing what a world Philip Pullman created - and we've only seen a glimpse of it.

There are books you like.
Some of them you even love.
And then there are books, who hit differently.

Those become your favorites.

Ok. Sooo we all agree to love League of Legends for what a fantastic world it brought us?
Good.

No, for real: With every short story, every cinematic trailer, every artwork - I fall in love with the world of runeterra again and again. Sure the lore is not perfect in every aspect and riot still got a lot of revamping to do. But damn, I haven't seen such a varied and rich world in a while. Every country has something to be curious about.
I'll consume everything that the people of riot delivery with great pleasure, cause I just can't get enough content from them.
I mean, jesus, I'm already thinking on how to implement a D&D campaign into this setting.

So how is this official companion book now?
Even though I am a sucker for everything that riot does, I gotta say this book is not flawless. Some of the shortstories where teeeedious to read, and the way the layout editors worked with varying fonts was... at best fun and interesting to look at, and at worst just dreadful to decipher.

But maybe that's just the design student in me...
(It's not. My brother disliked it as well.)

Still, Kudos to all the artist and authors who worked on this.
Pls give me more.

Soooo, I read this book wrong.

I full heartedly thought it was a short story collection. Expecting tales or folklore out of Elfhame with a few mentions of some beloved characters here and there...

So my monkey brain read the first story and was like “ohhh nice, very cool - off to the next one!” completely and utterly forgetting what happend as I started the next chapter. Meaning I was rather confused to find Cardan appearing in all of them, but I didn't think much about it nor connected the dots to the main trilogy. To my defense I exclusively read it before sleep (hence I was only like 40% awake) and the whole plot of the Cruel Prince is nowhere to be found in my brain anymore.

So no, this wasn't a random short story collection. I take full responsibility. This ones on me.
That my friends, happens when you don't read the blurb.

But nonetheless: It was so enjoyable! I am a sucker for Blacks atmospheric writing and Rovina Cai creates such well drafted and mesmerizing artworks that i was pleased before even opening the book. I am a simple woman what can I say.

This is a definite recommendation for everyone except those who loathe Cardan with all of their soul.
But that begs the question why are you still reading this? Maybe you too thought it was about short stories... then you're welcome to stay, my confused comrade.

So I cried. A lot.
Cried to much my vision became blurry.
Cleared my nose of snot.
Thought about the ending again.
Cried some more.
Revisited the first book.
Cried again.

I gotta say. It's not my favorite of the three.
But nonetheless as a whole: Brandon Sanderson has crafted an unfathomably vast world filled with characters - that undoubtedly (tho personally) are the best ones I have ever experienced. I'm already longing for the feeling when I first dived into this story.
I know it can never be replicated.
It also means that this story will stick with me.
And that's all I can wish for.

I don't what to do. This book struck me. Harder than anything I've ever read.
I am trembling.

It deserves words, but I don't have any.