Sara

3.75 stars.

In this novella more room is given to teen romance, but Sam and Celaena are both idiot and cute at the same time. So, there were just a few roll-eyes moments.
Actually, what has lowered my rating is the predictability of the plot. I was sure of how it would end from chapter 1. But overall, I still enjoyed the story.

I love it when Sanderson creates a world with its own ecology and species. It's impressive how he could draft a new one compressed only in 50 pages!
On the other hand, this novella is too short for a decent characterization and I could not connect to the characters and the story as much as I wanted. I hope we can get more of it in a fully structured novel.

3.5 stars.

It was nice to go back to Scandrial as it was at the beginning of the mistrborn trilogy, with ash falling down from the sky and strange-behaving fog. It made me recall the good memories I had when I was reading the mistborn trilogy six years ago. I loved Kelsier back then as much as Ioved him in this novella. Now I don't recall if his story with Mare and the Pits was explained in the first book [I just looked up in the summary provided by Coppermind and found very little information given. However, on the page dedicated to Mare, the references lead to the first book]. Anyways, I would have loved to have more information about what happened in the Pits and why. On the other hand, I understand that the scope for which this novella was written did not allow in-depth information.
My rating is kind of low, because plotwise there's little happening (understandable since the low number of pages), but you know, with Kelsier there's always another secret and I wanted to have more of pre-Mistborn Kelsier. :D

3.75 stars.

I didn't enjoy the last two instalments as much as the previous ones, but they are still good books and needed to be read if you want to know what happens next.

My biggest issue is the plot. I found it a bit messy, it flows too quickly and events aren't connected very well, in my opinion.

I also found the meeting with Roland a bit too rushed. We have been heard of the big bad guy since the beginning and I excepted something more.

Plus, there was too little Curran. More Curran, please! :D
The last part, though, contained Curran much enough that I forgive his absence during the first half of the book.

Actual vote: 4.5 stars

Martin è senza dubbio un bravissimo scrittore.
Delinea i personaggi in modo cosi dettagliato che sembrano veri, umani, con i loro pregi e difetti, doppiogiochisti, onorevoli, orgogliosi o umili. Ti ci fa affezionare o te li fa odiare, ma come se fossero persone, quindi quello che sta simpatico a me può non stare simpatico ad un altro e via discorrendo. Di questo libro mi è piaciuto quasi tutto, in primis la scrittura o lo stile, per intenderci. Ciò che non mi è piaciuto non sono le morti che già sapevo perché ho visto la serie TV (anche se fino all'ultimo speravo che non accadessero), bensì i POV di alcuni personaggi prettamente noiosi o paranoici. Tutto cio, però, lo considero relativo. Mi spiego: anche in quei capitoli dove mi sono rotta le scatole succedeva qualcosa o veniva spiegato qualcosa di importante, infatti per questo li ho apprezzati. Ciò che mi ha fatto tentare il suicidio più volte è il modo in cui alcuni personaggi metabolizzano gli eventi (avete visto che sono veri? Vi prego, ditemi che non sono l'unica a pensarlo). Ad esempio, Sansa! Spero che si dia una bella svegliata prima o poi perché è tutta un “Joffrey mi ama e anche la regina mi ama” oppure “ripeti a memori tutto quello che ti hanno insegnato a dire in queste situazioni”. Oppure Catelyn! Miiiii! “Devo essere una Stark”. I personaggi che dicono questo tipo di frasi (“devo comportarmi da...devo dimostrare di essere qui, là e insà”) mi stanno sulle balle. Cara Catelyn non sarai mai una Stark, ma un l'insopportabile e rompipalle Tully! Oppure Bran... Martin, ma ti pare?! Non era meglio fare morire lui e tenere in vita Khal Drogo?! Perché devi storpiare un ragazzino che da paralizzato è inutile come una nutria e mi fai morire Khal Drogo per una morte stupida?! vabbe tralasciamo, tanto è inutile parlare con Martin... Insomma il tutto per dire che i personaggi sono vivi e sono legati da intrighi politici di tanto di cappello.
Consigliato? Assolutamente si! Anche a chi non è amante del fantasy dato che di Fantasy ha relativamente poco. Passatemi il concetto. Gli elementi fantasy in questo libro non sono portanti. I personaggi sono umani e la trama si snoda tra intrighi di corte, non attraverso un sistema magico.

Cito l'opinione di questa ragazza (Sarah J) poiché verbalizza i miei pensieri riguardo a questo libro.

“The characters fell flat for me and the plot didn't really do much to spice it up. It definitely wasn't bad, it was just a bland read.


I thought Tricks/Niniane didn't have as much agency as I would have liked, especially for someone who was supposed to become the queen of the Dark Fay. Tiago seemed to make most of the decisions for her, or one of the other characters would pull her into a situation she needed Tiago to get her out of. She spent well above the first hundred pages wounded, whining, or hiding from her responsibilities as the next queen (or at least that's how it seemed to me). I also just couldn't buy her role as a future queen. She was pretty passive, and self-admittedly had few interests that would qualify her as the face of Dagos' company, let alone a ruler.

Tiago seemed sort of the stock paranormal hero, so he didn't especially offset my disappointment with Niniane.

At least until the point I read, the world of the fairies and the power structures there hadn't been developed enough to keep me reading. Then there were inconsistencies like how Tricks could trust nobody, various elements were out to assassinate her, and she needed to stay sharp to take over her position as queen...so she went out with a single bodyguard to an unfamiliar bar with the stated intention of getting wasted and hooking up with a stranger? What?

There were a bunch of nitpicky details that bugged me, like the comparing a character to an actor thing, unfortunately detailed descriptions of clothing (Tricks seems to have the fashion sense of a Spice Girl), etc.

In sum, I guess Storm's Heart just didn't click. It wasn't bad, I can totally see why people like it, but it just seemed to push all of my “I don't care for this” buttons. You should definitely give it a shot, it's just that this book didn't work for me personally.”

A questionable review: 2,5 stars.

I don't like short stories, but I love the world of Kate Daniels so much that I wanted to read more side-stories. In this one Kate meets Saiman for the first time, but unfortunately it didn't work to me.
I was detached from both the events and the characters and Saiman is quite.. disturbing. I can stand him for just a short appearance, but not as a primary character. I still love Kate and her wittiness and I'm willing to read more novellas about her and other secondary characters thinking of Andrea or Derek - cough cough