aliceylain (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
aliceylain) wrote2013-08-27 07:05 pm
aliceylain) wrote2013-08-27 07:05 pm
we've been livin' in hovels, spending all our money on brand new novels
While I may not have much to talk about myself, I did get four books for my birthday and I'm nearly done with all of them. Review time? Review time! I tried to be vague and non-spoilery as I could, while giving a brief sense of what the book is about.
Shades of Grey by Jasper FForde - I love this author's Thursday Next and Nursery Crime series, so I thought I'd give the first book in his new series a go. I...can somewhat see what he was going for with it, although I think he flubbed the execution. This book is set in a dystopian future, where people's status in society is determined by how much color they can see. People who can see high levels of hue have the power while people who can't see anything beyond grey are in the dregs. With such a premise, it makes for a very, very bizarre world, where artificial color is piped into towns so that people can see all the colors artificially since they can't naturally, life is strictly regulated by some sort of rulebook that was written awhile ago, and periodic Leapbacks happen where the society will just suddenly stop using certain technology.
It's a neat premise but so many stretches of the book were boring. Except for the high plot points, I can't really remember why it took so long for the protagonist to get from point A to point B. There's just something about either the dialogue or description that just didn't gel for me. And yet, the premier was so intriguing that I am considering reading the second book when it comes out. So take from that what you will!
Fire by Kristin Cashore - I read Graceling by this author awhile ago and then did a reread of that book a couple months back. I was surprised to find that I loved it much more the second time around than the first and so I wanted to read the other two books that the author had written. Fire takes place...somewhat in the same world as Graceling. Only one character is present in both books, but the setting is high fantasy so it's familiar. The book revolves about a half-human, half-monster woman who can read and influence other people's minds. She's also saddled with the fact that people are unnaturally attracted to her unless they close their minds and other monsters want to eat her. The plot of the book follows the woman, named Fire, as she comes to grips with her father and finds a place of her own in the world.
Fire was an okay book. I enjoyed it alright but I just didn't have much to relate to the protagonist. The plot was okay, the characters were okay...all in all, the book was pretty mediocre. I could see the main love match from 500 yards away. I guess if I got down to it, there just was nothing about the book to excite me or get me invested in what was happening. But it was nicely written and is one of the few books that I've read that actually references a woman's period so...uh...yeah...moving on.
Legend by Marie Lu - Yet another dystopian future book that I asked for simply from the reviews. The United States has become the Republic, which seems to be a small collection of the current United States. There is a war going on between the Republic and the Colonies, which isn't the focus of the book. The Republic holds Trials for kids once the turn a certain age and those Trials determine their place in society. The book is split between the POV of someone who flunked the Trials and is a criminal who lives on the outskirts of society and someone who got the only perfect score and is going to the best military school there is. Naturally, their worlds collide and they uncover how corrupted the Republic is and fall in the love and blah blah blah.
Uh, I didn't care for this book at all. Not that it was bad; it was nicely written with fleshed out characters. But the plot was very, very tired and telegraphed and I predicted nearly every twist. Again, like with Fire, I just wasn't invested in any of the characters or plot to be excited about this book. I won't be reading the sequels, unless I get them from the library. But if you haven't read a lot of dystopian futures like I have, you might like it a lot more than I did.
Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore - And this book, right here, is putting all the other three books in the shade. It's a more direct sequel to Graceling than Fire is, with a lot of recurring characters. It follows the aftermath of what has happened to the kingdom of Monsea after...you know what? I can't even talk about this book without spoiling Graceling up and down. So if you want to read Graceling PLEASE STOP READING THIS REVIEW OF BITTERBLUE.
I MEAN IT.
STOP READING.
...
Bitterblue follows the aftermath of Leck's death and how the kingdom of Monsea is recovering. Or not recovering, as it seems. Bitterblue is stuck trying to uncover the secrets of Leck's unfortunate reign while also trying to deal with the severe mental trauma that everyone is still suffering under. I haven't finished this book yet (75% of the way through) and I have to say that this book is even better than Graceling was. It's really is amazing simply from the fact that it depicts the ongoing mental trauma of an entire kingdom who were lied to and forced to do terrible things instead of having everyone magically be okay. Bitterblue is an amazingly strong heroine, exasperated and desperate to help her people while also suffering from the mental trauma herself. She makes mistakes and tries to own up to them and she tries to be honest while knowing that she sometimes has to lie. While there is romance, it's delightfully understated and I so far don't know how it's even going to end up. The book also very cunningly demonstrates the idea of privilege and how people with privilege often don't realize what they even have. And lastly, we are learning more about Leck and possibly his motivations for the terrible things that he did.
Seriously, this book is amazing and wonderful and I think everyone should read it. If you skipped reading it after Graceling, you missed out and you need to get your hands on it as soon as you can.
Shades of Grey by Jasper FForde - I love this author's Thursday Next and Nursery Crime series, so I thought I'd give the first book in his new series a go. I...can somewhat see what he was going for with it, although I think he flubbed the execution. This book is set in a dystopian future, where people's status in society is determined by how much color they can see. People who can see high levels of hue have the power while people who can't see anything beyond grey are in the dregs. With such a premise, it makes for a very, very bizarre world, where artificial color is piped into towns so that people can see all the colors artificially since they can't naturally, life is strictly regulated by some sort of rulebook that was written awhile ago, and periodic Leapbacks happen where the society will just suddenly stop using certain technology.
It's a neat premise but so many stretches of the book were boring. Except for the high plot points, I can't really remember why it took so long for the protagonist to get from point A to point B. There's just something about either the dialogue or description that just didn't gel for me. And yet, the premier was so intriguing that I am considering reading the second book when it comes out. So take from that what you will!
Fire by Kristin Cashore - I read Graceling by this author awhile ago and then did a reread of that book a couple months back. I was surprised to find that I loved it much more the second time around than the first and so I wanted to read the other two books that the author had written. Fire takes place...somewhat in the same world as Graceling. Only one character is present in both books, but the setting is high fantasy so it's familiar. The book revolves about a half-human, half-monster woman who can read and influence other people's minds. She's also saddled with the fact that people are unnaturally attracted to her unless they close their minds and other monsters want to eat her. The plot of the book follows the woman, named Fire, as she comes to grips with her father and finds a place of her own in the world.
Fire was an okay book. I enjoyed it alright but I just didn't have much to relate to the protagonist. The plot was okay, the characters were okay...all in all, the book was pretty mediocre. I could see the main love match from 500 yards away. I guess if I got down to it, there just was nothing about the book to excite me or get me invested in what was happening. But it was nicely written and is one of the few books that I've read that actually references a woman's period so...uh...yeah...moving on.
Legend by Marie Lu - Yet another dystopian future book that I asked for simply from the reviews. The United States has become the Republic, which seems to be a small collection of the current United States. There is a war going on between the Republic and the Colonies, which isn't the focus of the book. The Republic holds Trials for kids once the turn a certain age and those Trials determine their place in society. The book is split between the POV of someone who flunked the Trials and is a criminal who lives on the outskirts of society and someone who got the only perfect score and is going to the best military school there is. Naturally, their worlds collide and they uncover how corrupted the Republic is and fall in the love and blah blah blah.
Uh, I didn't care for this book at all. Not that it was bad; it was nicely written with fleshed out characters. But the plot was very, very tired and telegraphed and I predicted nearly every twist. Again, like with Fire, I just wasn't invested in any of the characters or plot to be excited about this book. I won't be reading the sequels, unless I get them from the library. But if you haven't read a lot of dystopian futures like I have, you might like it a lot more than I did.
Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore - And this book, right here, is putting all the other three books in the shade. It's a more direct sequel to Graceling than Fire is, with a lot of recurring characters. It follows the aftermath of what has happened to the kingdom of Monsea after...you know what? I can't even talk about this book without spoiling Graceling up and down. So if you want to read Graceling PLEASE STOP READING THIS REVIEW OF BITTERBLUE.
I MEAN IT.
STOP READING.
...
Bitterblue follows the aftermath of Leck's death and how the kingdom of Monsea is recovering. Or not recovering, as it seems. Bitterblue is stuck trying to uncover the secrets of Leck's unfortunate reign while also trying to deal with the severe mental trauma that everyone is still suffering under. I haven't finished this book yet (75% of the way through) and I have to say that this book is even better than Graceling was. It's really is amazing simply from the fact that it depicts the ongoing mental trauma of an entire kingdom who were lied to and forced to do terrible things instead of having everyone magically be okay. Bitterblue is an amazingly strong heroine, exasperated and desperate to help her people while also suffering from the mental trauma herself. She makes mistakes and tries to own up to them and she tries to be honest while knowing that she sometimes has to lie. While there is romance, it's delightfully understated and I so far don't know how it's even going to end up. The book also very cunningly demonstrates the idea of privilege and how people with privilege often don't realize what they even have. And lastly, we are learning more about Leck and possibly his motivations for the terrible things that he did.
Seriously, this book is amazing and wonderful and I think everyone should read it. If you skipped reading it after Graceling, you missed out and you need to get your hands on it as soon as you can.
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Graceling takes place in a typical fantasy world and revolves around Katsa. Katsa is a Graceling, someone who has two eyes of different colors and is gifted with a talent. Sometimes the talents are commonplace (can climb any tree, can cook a perfect egg) and sometimes they are extraordinary (can read someone's mind, can heal any wound). Katsa's talent is that she can kill anyone she tries to kill. Since Katsa's the niece of a King, he takes advantage of her talent to terrorize his country and neighbors. One day while on a mission to undermine what the King forces her to do, she meets another Graceling who's is graced with immense fighting skills and her life is forever changed.
Graceling is very, very, very good. Katsa is a great protagonist, the plot is unpredictable, and it doesn't read like your typical rote fantasy novel. I definitely recommend it, if only so then you can read Bitterblue, which is an even BETTER book!
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You should read again! If you ever want any recs, let me know.
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I want to! And I may hit you up later for some. For now, I have about 15 books I purchased that I've only partially read or haven't opened yet. :\