Review: Tigana

Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

2.5
This book digs itself into a hole and keeps going instead of trying to climb out.
I won't even speak of the abomination that is the epilogue.
This could have been a good book about a flawed man on a stupid mission that might have good consequences. It was instead a passable attempt at serious fantasy.
I can't really recommend it. The prologue was lovely, though. Read that.

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Review: The School for Good and Evil

The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

How... very odd. It just makes no sense. The storytelling is strange. The characters are awful. The author seems completely oblivious to the fact that everything he writes points to Sophie and Agatha being in love (or at least Agatha in love with Sophie). Tedros isn't worth my time to insult. The setting is insanely simplistic and the storyline directly contradicts every attempt at teaching a moral (sure, beauty isn't the same as goodness... so why does doing something good make you literally turn prettier?)
And where are the non-first-year students??? How can so few teachers manage so many kids? Why do alumni want to send their kids back to such a horrible place?
This started out so fun and promising. It's a shame.
A warning to parents: This isn't really middle-grade. It's extremely violent, there is some language, and in general I wouldn't want my kids reading it (among other things, it's a pretty bad book).

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Review: The Martian

The Martian by Andy Weir
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really disliked the way it was written, much of the plot, and the ending.
And yet I couldn't put it down, I laughed several times, and a lot of it was brilliant.
I can't say I understand the hype, or think it's a good book. And yet...

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Review: The Golem and the Jinni

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's not so much that I enjoyed it (although I did), it's that it's a good book. One of those where you just sit back and savor the fact that it was well-researched and planned and written. I read it fairl slowly, and enjoyed every minute of it. There were, of course, faults- the writing wasn't so well suited to a few of the more active scenes, I can't say I ever really liked or understood either main character, the pacing was just a bit odd, the ending didn't feel like it necessarily resolved much (and it also didn't feel like it quite fit in with the pacing and themes of the rest of the book)- but in general it was simply a good book.
I can't speak for the Syrian bits, but the Judaism had clearly been carefully researched and checked. I found it mildly annoying that we can't really gauge frumness or that we never go more in depth with the religious aspects, but obviously that would be interesting only to a tiny percentage of readers, so I can't really label it as a problem with the book. The only mistake- and correct me if I misunderstood something- was that at some point the aleph is referred to as the beginning of all creation. Wouldn't that be a bet? Or is it referring to something I don't recognize?
All in all, a good book. I recommend it highly.

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Review: And I Darken

And I Darken by Kiersten White
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Honestly, for a book I liked I don't remember much. Utterly acceptable.
Mehmed was awful, though. Surely there was someone more worthy of all that love?

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Review: Meternity

Meternity by Meghann Foye
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I'm not sure when I last read a book this bad. I'm not sure why I forced myself to finish it.
I trust others have adequately gone into detail. I'm done wasting time on this book.

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Review: The Thousand Names

The Thousand Names by Django Wexler
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I don't know. In the end, I honestly can't say I liked it very much.
I think part of it was the pacing. Everything happened so fast and yet so very slowly. It never dragged, exactly, but it felt off.
The characters were a bit odd too. I really wanted to love Janus, but I just couldn't. He wasn't consistent enough to be awesome.
I honestly wish it had been historical fiction. The magic felt like an effort to draw the plot out. And I'm thoroughly sick of guns in fantasy novels (Mistborn and Brian McClellan used up my tolerance, so it's not really this book's fault).
The wars went too smoothly. Sure, people die... but no one we really care about. And the more absurdly complex the plan, the more it works perfectly. Winter, for example, is for some reason constantly getting trapped and having to think up a brilliant escape plan. I couldn't help thinking her leadership skills would have been better directed at not getting her entire company trapped in the first place. And if she's just a random soldier, are all the other officers doing the same thing? Because if this is random chance, entire companies should be getting wiped out ever few days.
The lack of real female characters was unfortunate. Understandable, except that the attempt was made and then not carried through (one character who's revealed to be female then proceeds to pretty much turn from a brave soldier into a damsel in distress for the rest of the book).
It had so much potential. It was so clearly a good book. I was eager to read it and finished it fairly quickly. I'll probably regret it, but I'm going to read the next one.

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