Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Endurance (Green Universe #2)

by Jay Lake (Goodreads Author)

3.7 of 5 stars 3.70 · rating details · 175 ratings · 27 reviews

Green is back in Copper Downs. Purchased from her father in sunny Selistan when she was four years old, she was harshly raised to be a courtesan, companion, and bedmate of the Immortal Duke of Copper Downs. But Green rebelled. Green killed the Duke, and many others, and won her freedom. Yet she is still claimed by the gods and goddesses of her world, and they still require...more

Hardcover, First Edition , 320 pages

Published November 8th 2011 by Tor Books

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Best Fantasy Book Covers

232nd out of 725 books — 758 voters

Science Fiction and Fantasy Books We Can’t Wait For This Fall (2011)

29th out of 35 books — 139 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 624)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Nov 18, 2011 John rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sf-fantasy

Sequel to GREEN sends her back to Copper Downs to become embroiled in multiple related schemes to kill off some gods. She finds her work hampered by being pregnant--and because she has no sense of humor whatsoever the morning sickness, vomiting and strange cravings make her really, really annoyed and so add a humorous level to the tale. The author fancies himself a Stylist, but looking past (skipping, whenever possible) the pointless and pace-slowing literary flourishes, there's a lively and rea...more

like · see review

Feb 08, 2012 drey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reads, fantasy, unsolicited

After reading Green, I couldn’t wait to find out what happens to her next…

drey’s thoughts:

Oh Green. Trying to stay quiet in the High Hills outside Copper Downs doesn’t work when people come looking for you. And when even the ghosts tell you to go back to the city, well, what other choice is there? So off she goes, back to Copper Downs.

And what does she find there but Selistani? Lots and lots of people from her homeland, including the Prince of the City, Surali of the Bittern Court – the same Sur...more

like · see review

Nov 26, 2011 William Bentrim rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Endurance by Jay Lake

This is one of those butt kicking female protagonist stories I enjoy so much. Green is a god ridden sell sword seemingly bent on self destruction.

This book stood alone quite well. I do want to read Green now though, the precursor to this book. This was an excellent action adventure fantasy with a terrific understory. Green is hell bent on stopping child slavery and the abuse of women.

She finds her self immersed in god activities and her complete distain for any kind of hum...more

1 like · like · see review

Oct 04, 2012 Tim Martin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, reviewed

A decent book, I generally liked it though I also think that _Endurance_ suffers in comparison with the first volume in this series, _Green_. Why? The best answer (though there are others) to me is the lack of the strong narrative tool that so dominated the first part of _Green_, namely that of the girl with no name, taken from her homeland, her entire world becoming that of a single courtyard and the attached building (for the most part) and a succession of teachers that come to see her, most c...more A decent book, I generally liked it though I also think that _Endurance_ suffers in comparison with the first volume in this series, _Green_. Why? The best answer (though there are others) to me is the lack of the strong narrative tool that so dominated the first part of _Green_, namely that of the girl with no name, taken from her homeland, her entire world becoming that of a single courtyard and the attached building (for the most part) and a succession of teachers that come to see her, most cruel or at least petty. Even those I noticed that went on to dislike the book admit that the opening narrative structure of _Green_ was excellent. Perhaps done before – Harry Potter, Ender’s Game – to one degree or another, but let’s face it, when done well, it is powerful stuff. Nothing like that exists in this sequel.

Perhaps relating to my point above this book is messier, filled with conspiracies, plans within plans, a rogue’s gallery of enemies that Green (the character) collected in _Green_ (the book), some perhaps working together, all while making all new enemies. Even people she thinks are allies become, eh, either less than reliable or worse, really enemies also and powerful ones at that. To an extent the book felt like cleanup (of sorts, not that everything got tidied up) from the first book in the series. Though I liked how choices in this setting have consequences (if not blowback) the messy, conspiratorial world got to be a bit much for me at times, hard to follow at times.

That brings my next point. Once again the author has a single point of view the entire book. Though the problems I had with the ending of _Green_ are to me answered, the single point of view model showed serious limitations; namely, for most of the book Green is puzzling out who hates her and why and what the motivations of the various actors around her are. It is clear much of the book she doesn’t have all the information and that is fine – to a point – but again and again she puzzles out why someone is in Copper Downs or which of her old enemies is the most deadly. It got a little repetitive and I think the author would have had a better pace if other points of view were brought in.

Related to that idea, one thing that bothered me was that if Green wasn’t there to see the action of a particular character or characters, the reader didn’t know what happened. Sure, one could see results, but scenes that might have been very interesting never get explored because Green wasn’t there. Not a huge problem for me but again is a lesson for me in the limitation of a single point of view format.

A final complaint is that Green is pregnant the entire book. Fine, to a point it is interesting how she explores how this affects her body (and more to the point, her fighting and moving styles) but it started to stretch credulity for me how she could get involved in that many falls and that many fights and not have a miscarriage. I am no doctor but…well, it bothered me a little. Perhaps the gods favored her, which if so, fine, the character certainly had the attention of many deities in the book.

Ok, enough complaints. The strengths; the way gods and the various levels of divinity are handled in this setting is good. The gods are original and the various types of divine beings, from avatars all the way up to titanics is interesting. I do like how they are both an integral part of the setting and of the story. Too often in fantasy stories the gods and their roles, at least at first, can seem somewhat shoehorned in, but in this volume they are a vital part of the plot, some using humans, some being used by humans (and with the deities in question perhaps being aware, perhaps not).

The author refrains from really using any non-human race except for the cat-like pardines and they get better explored in this book, showing refreshingly that not every member of their race thinks alike and also how they may have multiple motives with some fairly three-dimensional characters. I also like how their relationship with souls and the world of the gods is quite different from the humans in the book.

The character Green herself continues to grow and show some real signs of maturity, of not always leaping before she looks, of how to be more tactful, of how to be better at politics, and how to know when to use force and when not to. Far from perfect as a tactician and strategist (and deliberately written as so), I do buy the concept of her growing up and into her role.

I do want to read the third volume in the series and plan to buy a copy when it comes out. I think if you liked _Green_ you will in general be pleased but will also probably have the same problems that I did. I don’t think the problems are enough by any means to ruin the book but I do wish they had been better addressed.
(less)

like · see review

Feb 06, 2013 Rich rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bab-s, fantasy-general

I liked Green and I really liked Endurance as well. While in Green, Green was struggling to make her way thru her enslavement as a courtesan in tranining before exploding into the world outside, in Endurance she was busy picking up the pieces of her actions in the first novel while actively trying to evade responsibility for those actions. In doing this she could be petulant, egotistical and narrow-minded in pursuing her goals.

Green is far from a perfect person. She was sold into slavery as a...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jan 21, 2012 Guillaume Jay rated it 3 of 5 stars

Après avoir remplacé un Dieu par un autre, Green espère couler des jours tranquille loin de l'agitation de la ville, surtout dans son.. état...

Mais le pouvoir des dieux fait des jaloux, et les ennemis ne sont pas toujours ce qu'elles croient.

La série continue, et c'est vraiment très orienté sur des intrigues théistes (plutôt que religieuse : il ne s'agit pas de guerre de religion, mais de guerre théologique et mythes, voir de genre). J'ai même failli au milieu du livre l'abandonner, écoeuré par...more

like · see review

Jan 05, 2013 Jessica Willard rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book immensely, although the first book, Green, was by far my favorite of the two. Endurance has just as much detail, action, and unique characters as Green, yet it is somewhat lacking in the passion, strength and overall decadent display of various emotions that makes up Green herself. Green spends so much time throughout the book doubting herself, questioning her motives, and basically being in-decisive about everything going on around her, while in the first book she conquered...more

like · see review

Oct 28, 2011 Anthony rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: lgbt, sf-fantasy

Three stars might be the lowest rating I've ever given a Jay Lake book. But I have a good relationship with Jay, and I think he expects me to be honest in my reviews and not just give extra stars or say nice things just because we've chatted on Livejournal and I've interviewed him for my website. And if I'm being honest ... ENDURANCE didn't work for me as well as its predecessor GREEN. I think I've delayed writing this review for as long as I have (Goodreads tells me I finished reading the ARC I...more Three stars might be the lowest rating I've ever given a Jay Lake book. But I have a good relationship with Jay, and I think he expects me to be honest in my reviews and not just give extra stars or say nice things just because we've chatted on Livejournal and I've interviewed him for my website. And if I'm being honest ... ENDURANCE didn't work for me as well as its predecessor GREEN. I think I've delayed writing this review for as long as I have (Goodreads tells me I finished reading the ARC I was graced with back on September 29) because I've struggled with putting into words exactly why the book didn't work for me.

It's not Jay's prose, which is as strong as ever. Jay is fantastic at creating a sense of place in everything he writes. Without the dense descriptive verbiage other fantasy writers employ, Jay makes the locations of ENDURANCE as important as the characters. Whether Green is lingering in the hills above Copper Downs encountering ghosts and wild-women, stalking the streets of the city, wreaking havoc in the Textile Bourse or resting in the nascent Temple of Endurance, her surroundings play as much a role in what happens as the people around her do. Striking the balance of enough description without overdoing it is, I think, a bit harder in a first person narrative and Jay pulls it off. Likewise, the characters themselves stay in character; returning characters feel familiar, new characters fit in appropriately. Any change in personality is a logical progression from what the characters experience.

No, I think my slight disappointment with the book boils down to two problems:

1. It just feels like a "middle book." Like most first books, GREEN wrapped up very well even while leaving questions about Green's future open to sequels. ENDURANCE starts strong from that point, re-establishing who Green is, where she is, and what has passed since the first book ended. Jay parcels out pertinent information from the previous book when it's necessary (easy to do with a narrator who is clearly telling the story from a removed-in-time vantage point) without resorting to the dreaded "info-dump" (the potential problem of a first-person narrator). But plot strands intended to be resolved in the concluding volume of the trilogy are introduced part-way through the book and as a reader I was almost immediately aware that not all of these plot strands could, or would, be resolved in the immediate volume. While I was satisfied with most of the action of the book (as I'll discuss in a moment), I still couldn't shake that feeling that the book doesn't stand completely on its own. It nagged just enough to bring my enjoyment of the book down a touch.

2. I realized that while I feel for Green and the situation she finds herself in, I didn't really like her in this book. Being privy to her internal monologues made me want to slap her upside the head and tell her to wake up and pay attention and stop being so obstinate. Now, on one level this is a good reaction to have -- I'm a fan of those moments in a book where the reader recognizes some danger the main character doesn't, I think it heightens tension and there were moments in this book where the tension was palpable for this very reason. But there were a large number of moments where I felt that Green was just choosing to ignore lessons I thought she'd already learned (for instance, about giving unconditional trust to strangers just because they seem nice, or about assuming you know what someone else's motivations are just because it's what you'd do). The danger of her situation, the hard decisions she has to make -- I understood all of that, none of it was lost on me, and yes I do get that sometimes, in tense situations, we forget lessons we've obviously learned. But this feeling lingered throughout the book for me, and that's not a great thing when the entire book is from that character's POV.

Now, from those two comments one might walk away from this review thinking I hated the book, so let me be clear: 3 stars means I liked the book, I just didn't love it. In addition to the aforementioned strong prose and sense of place and characters, the main action of Endurance propels along at a great pace. The plot of the Godslayers coming to Copper Downs, and Green once again being co-opted by godly powers to save the day, is a compelling one and Jay sweeps us along with it. We the readers realize what is going on long before Green does, and that ratchets the tension up even further: will SHE figure it out in time. And of course, as with the end of book one, the final series of confrontations are BIG, dramatic, explosive, borderline insane.

So there's a lot to recommend ENDURANCE. And your reaction may be different in terms of the book feeling like a middle book and in terms of how you feel about Green by the end of it. I will say this, in closing: even though I found myself not liking Green very much by the end of the book, I still want to see how her story resolves when Jay releases KALIMPURA. She may not be likable, but she is compelling. And Jay Lake has earned my trust as an author.(less)

3 likes · like · see review

Dec 16, 2011 Kevin rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Patient readers who won't give up on the series after a chapter or two of boring details

I have a love/hate relationship with the "Green" series.

On one hand, the author does a great job of developing an interesting story line (albeit starting off very slowly at times) and having plenty of great characters. I enjoy where the story has gone and look forward to where it will lead in the next book.

On the other hand, I've never been a big fan of the author's attempt at depicting Green's sexuality in the book. Most of these scenes would have been better suited to have had less detail. No...more

1 like · like · see review

Nov 03, 2012 Mike rated it 3 of 5 stars

I am on the fence about this book. The first half was dry and boring setup. The second half was alot better, but the first half took away from my enjoyment of the story as a whole. Also, the author kept throwing in phrases like "I learned later in life" and "As I would one day find out" that felt awkward and misplaced. The book was not written as a retrospective story, and the retrospective phrases were annoying. Take those out and improve the pacing in the first half and I would have loved it.

like · see review

Feb 25, 2013 A.d. Roland rated it 2 of 5 stars

Green is so friggin' ANGRY at everybody and everything. It's incredibly monotonous. There's absolutely nothing likable about her, this time around. Like in Green, she's incapable of looking at another woman without lusting after her and wishing they were knocking boots. I just couldn't enjoy the story because of how bitter Green is about everything.

like · see review

Oct 05, 2012 Madison Ross rated it 5 of 5 stars

Loved the first book, "Green," and how it carried you through the main character's life so vividly and seamlessly. "Endurance" picks up where the last book left off. This series is one of those rare kind of stories that you can disappear into another world and feel immersed in the picturesque detail of the writing.

like · see review

Nov 22, 2011 Mitchell rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: endeavour, fantasy, public-library

A Book 2 of 2 Endeavour read. And what a doozy. Kind of an original mythological gritty fantasy. And exhausting. Stylistically weird and oddly paced. Definitely the kind that will have a mixed reaction. I'm still not sure what I thought of it. But it ended well-ish.

like · see review

Jul 30, 2012 Amanda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

I enjoyed this, though maybe not so much as the first book. It seemed as though Green just sort of wandered from one thing to the next for about three quarters of the book, and then everything sort of fell into place. Still enjoy the world and Green's resistance/reaction to it, but the story was a bit weaker for me here.

like · see review

Apr 21, 2012 David Marshall rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a dramatic improvement over the first volume Green and produces a powerful fantasy exploring the need of any society to achieve some degree of equality between he sexes.

http://opionator.wordpress.com/2012/0...

like · see review

Mar 13, 2012 Joy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Interesting and well written, though not as personally gripping to me as the first installment, for entirely personal reasons. Recommended.

like · see review

Oct 05, 2012 Renee rated it 5 of 5 stars

A really great book. The only thing that bothered me was the times not quite lining up. How the author described her as being pregnant seemed to go by much faster then the action was.

like · see review

Mar 10, 2012 Tarrant Figlio rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

Feminist fantasy/sci fi follow up to Green. Excellent

like · see review

Mar 17, 2012 Darryl Branning rated it 4 of 5 stars

Encumbered by foreshadow, but enjoyable.

like · see review

Jan 17, 2013 cowgirl sushi rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction-thumbs-up

Great sequel. Very fun.

like · see review

Dec 14, 2011 Cate rated it 4 of 5 stars

There are a few things I really love about Jay Lake's work--his prose, worldbuilding, and character arcs--all of which are present in Endurance. Once again Green gets herself entangled in the affairs of the gods, and despite her best efforts to hack and slash and theorize her way free, she only ends up even more enmeshed. I'm not quite sure how he does it, but his writing voice is half-wry, half-lyrical, and all Green.

like · see review

Dec 30, 2012 Karolina Chmiel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

I liked Green (book 1) better. It was cool to find out more about the main character.

like · see review

Feb 08, 2013 Therese Zubarik rated it 5 of 5 stars

Jay is one of my favorite authors. His books really reflect a woman's perspective.
Jay has cancer. His blog is http://www.jlake.com/blog/.

like · see review

Jan 07, 2013 Amanda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: strong-females-kick-ass

Was a little irritating as far as her inner dialogue and unnecessary length of the book, but I appreciated the theology discussions.

like · see review

Feb 09, 2012 Amy! marked it as didn-t-finish

I couldn't remember how the first book ended, so the beginning of this one was a little confusing, plus just not interesting enough for me to want to finish it while dealing with all my school stuff.

like · see review

Jun 07, 2013 Mia rated it 3 of 5 stars

I really can't get into this book. It's been so long since I read the previous book that I don't remember everything. I've lost my interest.

like · see review

Jul 11, 2012 Yanni Cooper rated it 5 of 5 stars

As always Lake's books are quite entertaining. Hopefully there'll be a third (or more) book in this world.

like · see review

Jun 17, 2013 Richard Svensson rated it 3 of 5 stars

Jun 16, 2013 Kelly marked it as to-read

Jun 16, 2013 Chris Hunter rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: library

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 20 21 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (3)

Genres

Fantasy

27 users

Science Fiction

3 users

Science Fiction Fantasy

2 users

Young Adult

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

Spellbound
by Blake Charlton
The Book of Transformations
by Mark Charan Newton
Honeyed Words
by J.A. Pitts
Petrodor
by Joel Shepherd
The Outcast Blade
by Jon Courtenay Grimwood

About Jay Lake

Jay Lake lives in Portland, Oregon, where he works on multiple writing and editing projects. His 2007 book Mainspring received a starred review in Booklist. His short fiction appears regularly in literary and genre markets worldwide. Jay is a winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and a multiple nominee for the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards. Jay can be reached through his Web si...more

More about Jay Lake...

Books by Jay Lake

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Endurance

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

title link	preview: Endurance
avg rating	preview: Endurance Goodreads rating: 3.70 (175 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10844308-endurance?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1343054696l/10844308.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10844308-endurance?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Endurance by Jay Lake[/url]

Endurance (Green Universe #2)

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website