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May 23, 2011

Wealhtheow rated it:

As a peasant girl, Green is sold by her father to become a courtesan in a far-off land. The opening is fantastic--lots of sensory details and thoughful world-building--and Green's courtesan training is earthy and believable. But once she leaves the walls of her training courtyard behind, the story breaks down. The plot meanders and circles, and Green's motivations are confused and often contradictory. (Mere pages after declaring that her mission in life is to prevent child-slavery, she angri More...

2 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jun 18, 2011

Raiveran rated it:

This story has an interesting flavour to it. This story isn’t happy, and its beauty is more the stark breathlessness of a plain ravaged by weather than the spiralling grace of a field of cherry blossom trees. There is beauty there, but the protagonist’s life is hard, and that description is unrelenting. Green is stolen of choice, and that theme of trying to make one’s own destiny is the pervasive one. The character is interesting if psychotic. The story is strange, but not boring. Be warned that More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 12, 2011

Madison rated it:

well....that was a terrible book. I was thoroughly deceived, by both the cover art, the inside cover (which only applies to the first third of the story) and the first few pages I read in the bookstore. It starts out strong, full of detailed description and an interesting viewpoint and then....just don't read it. just don't.

This is not one of those stories where the book was awesome and the plot line depressing, but moving. This is one of those books where you read the last twenty pages and More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 08, 2012

drey rated it:

This one’s been floating in and out of the house for a while – ever since the sequel, Endurance, showed up on my doorstep…

drey’s thoughts:

Green is the story of a girl who’s bought, brought to a land across the seas from her home, and trained to be the best courtesan in Copper Downs. She can read and write, cook for kings, sew for queens, dance like an angel. She can also hold a grudge.

When Green decides enough is enough, she does the only thing she knows will get he More...

0 comments like

Dec 24, 2011

Courtney rated it:

I couldn't actually finish this book. I couldn't get past the fact that the big conflict was started off by a plot hole you could drive a truck through.

The book starts out with a solid foothold into the admittedly interesting world, and sets the tone (dreary and unforgiving) quite well. The MC is a small girl, living in abject poverty in a small village, when a tall, pale man comes round one day. And really, when has that ever ended well for the natives? He buys her, and drags her fro More...

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Dec 23, 2011

William rated it:

Green by Jay Lake

I made a promise I would read Green after I read Endurance. Well as I said about Endurance, 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. The book Green explains how the character Green ended up in Copper Downs defying and defiling gods.

This book also stands alone quite well. However I strongly urge you to read Endurance which is an excellent follow More...

0 comments like

Dec 09, 2011

Adam rated it:

For a story idea that could have had so much promise, man was this a mess. The story really meandered and bordered on incoherent at times. The setting was intriguing, with its clear parallels to real places and races of people, but there was never really a payoff. Plot elements that should have been glossed over in a couple of paragraphs were stretched out to dozens of pages, while climaxes that should have been built up more were dealt with in a few sentences. Even the plot "twists" e More...

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Oct 05, 2011

Ryandake rated it:

ever finish a book, put it down, and think, whew, i'm so glad i'm done with that?

you know it's bad when you've read to the last 30 pages and you're feeling like a plowhorse heading to the barn.

it's not a terrible book--not the kind that makes you throw it against a wall--but it has some really nasty sentences. like:

"They went both one way and the other."

sentences like this drive me nuts. why not "They went both ways" or less succinctly More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 11, 2011

Jessica rated it:

Pros: vividly real world, mostly sympathetic protagonist

Cons: entirely character driven, unevenly paced

Green was bought from her father at a very young age and raised in another country to be a nobleman's wife. Trained to numerous arts: cooking, sewing, music and more, it's her dance lessons and the illicit classes of stealth, falling and climbing, and the mistress who teaches them, that offer her a taste of the freedom and choice she longs for. When the time comes for her to More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 10, 2011

Mary added it

First and foremost, the main problem with this book is that it has two major conflicts. On the one hand there is the conflict concerning the Duke and his slave-trade tyranny, and then there is the conflict with the gods, and men who are avatars of the gods. I felt like the two conflicts were not very well linked at all. The first 1/3 of the book was dedicated to one, and the other 2/3 to the other. Another huge problem is that the conflicts take such a long time to set up and then end up taking More...

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Apr 08, 2011

Desiree rated it:

I was drawn to this book by the dramatic cover, and info on the jacket - the story sounded original, touching, dramatic, and adventurous. While it was an excellent IDEA, the book itself fell short - very short.

Jay West uses literary tools like a boy swinging a 2x4 board at the reader's head. Characters the reader is not supposed to like are described with multitudes of adjectives that imply "bad" i.e. hair like maggots... lips like a duck... and a great many more. When used s More...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Feb 20, 2011

Vicky rated it:

I really thought I was in for a simple YA fix. I was deceived and I accuse the cover artist. Honestly I was searching for a light read (usually YA is the best of fluff and stuff after a binge on Dickens and Proust). All I can say is "WTF"!! Really all the sexual action and the S&M was just "WTF", then I realized it's a male writer..."duhh"....
I really wanted to enjoy this book, great premise; girl sold into slavery but really being secretly made into a wea More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jan 22, 2011

Anthony rated it:

I described Green, when I was about halfway through the book, to a friend by saying it was "languid, but not slow." One of the things that amazes me about the book is that it covers, in 368 pages, three distinct phases of Green's life (in fact, several times I found myself thinking that in the hands of another high fantasy author, each section of this book would have been a 400-500 page book of its own). So the pace of the book cannot be said to be "slow." And yet, Green's vo More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 28, 2010

Jan rated it:

I read this book in an afternoon, put it aside, thought "meh" and completely forgot about it. I only remembered it existed when the library's overdue-book notice arrived.

The premise is promising: a young girl sold by her father, transplanted to a foreign country, shaped to be a noble woman/courtesan and, secretly, a weapon. The story had several elements I usually love -- a strong-willed female main character, several interesting settings, (no bog-standard fantasyland here More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 18, 2009

Ben rated it:

Green is a girl with problems. Big problems. And it shows. After being sold off by her father at the age of four, she's taken to a distant land with unfamiliar customs and language, Copper Downs. I'd complain too. Seen as a “blank slate,” she’s raised to be an educated and elegant plaything of The Duke, a demigod who has ruled Copper Downs for 400 years. Green isn't exactly thrilled by those plans, and she vows to adjust them.

And as could be expected of any strong protagonist, Green More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 04, 2009

Samantha rated it:

This is the vibrant, beautifully told story of a young girl sold into slavery and how she reacts to the oppression as she grows. It's got a touch of Jacqueline Carey's 'Kushiel' series to it (minus 90% of the sex) - besides the initial story with young Green being raised to be a noblelady, there's a certain sense of elegant sensuality paired with a strong and strong-minded female protagonist.

Green is very well drawn - conflicted, confused in some ways, and despite years and distance More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 24, 2009

Clare rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 07, 2010

Michelle rated it:

whoever said to not judge a book by its cover could have been speaking of this one. within the gorgeous cover illustration lies a handful of potentially interesting ideas that never *quite* gel enough to really engage you.

a girl is purchased by a procurer, whisked to a far off land, and raised over the years to be a witty, educated concubine of the local omnipotent undying ruler. some of her teachers have more subversive plans for her than mere cookery and jewels, so she's also cle More...

1 comment like

Mar 02, 2011

Cecelia rated it:

I have morphed into an internet shopper. It’s a symptom of the age of technology. Well, that and the fact that I don’t own a car. I do my commuting by bus and metro, on my own two feet, or by hitching a ride with friends. Ergo, I don’t usually shop in brick-and-mortar bookstores. When I actually do go to a bookstore, I can easily get caught up in the wonder of ‘so many new books in one place!’

Let’s recap: physical bookstores are dangerous. I am liable to pick up any pretty book that ca More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 20, 2010

Clare rated it:

I read most of this book within a few days, but I couldn't bring myself to finish it. The story is about a girl sold by her poor father to a pale merchant who takes her across the sea. Since the story is told from her perspective and she's about three years old, one would assume she'd think like a three year old, not one who's closer to twenty.

She grows up in the Pomegranate Court, raised by her instructors. I kept waiting for her to jump forward in the years and summarize the long b More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 01, 2010

Katie rated it:

This book was weird, just...really weird. The first part was really interesting - the part where Green was being trained up in the Pomegranate Court to be a courtesan. I was really surprised when I noticed that the author of the book was a man, since he did an excellent job of understanding and portraying the trials of a young girl coming of age. However, after Green left the Pomegranate Court (which happens about a third of the way through the book) and began wandering the world things get re More...

6 comments like (5 people liked it)

Apr 22, 2011

Lea rated it:

This is a very complex book, and my feelings toward it are complex as well.

On one hand, it's beautifully written and reads like poetry for much of it. Jay Lake has conceived an intricate world, and painted a vivid picture of it in this book. It's not a world I would choose to live in, but reading about it was like travelling to a new and distant land.

On the other hand, the story has a lot of sadness to it, and is confusing in many places. That might very well be my fai More...

0 comments like

Jun 03, 2010

Eliyanna rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Mar 23, 2010

Mayakda rated it:

For some reason the cover + title had me convinced this was SF, and I had to read several chapters before I conceded that it was fantasy.
This was well-written, on the literary side. The world-building was excellent. The first part reads rather like a version of Memoirs of a Geisha, but then sort of turns into Assassin's Apprentice. And it has a protagonist lifted from a dusty Asian-like paddy. It's got some feminist sensibilities. It sounds like a book I ought to love. But for some reason More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 27, 2010

Dianna rated it:

This books is essentially in three parts, though it's not delineated so nicely for the reader. The first part covers Green's youth in which she's sold to a foreigner by her farmer single father, brought across the ocean, and trained to be an exotic wife for sale to noble rich white guys. She's also secretly being trained by one of her teachers for some unknown purpose. This is a cool enjoyable part of the book. She's fun to get to know and read about. The program she's in is fascinating. Then, t More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 15, 2011

Sandi rated it:

The only reason this book gets two stars instead of one is that I didn't throw my iPod against the wall and I did finish it. Frankly, Green is a complete mess of a novel. It starts off okay, then it makes a jarring turn into lesbian BDSM when the protagonist is about thirteen. She has sex with not only girls her age, but older women who are mother figures as well. I was not expecting the book to go there. I wasn't surprised that Green had sex with other women. After all, she'd been complet More...

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 21, 2011

Brad rated it:

This is the second book by Lake that I have read, and it will probably be my last. I thought the same thing after reading Mainspring (the first of his that I read), but I saw this one on a library display and it sounded pretty interesting, so I took it home. And it was kind of a waste of time.

From what I have seen of Lake's bio, he has written a lot of short stories. This shines through in his writing: tons of very cool ideas that would have made for excellent short stories, but More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2012

Anna rated it:

I have to admit, I didn't give plot summary more than a cursory look. I love the cover art that much. When it's that pretty, who cares what's inside, right? Just pick it up and hold it close!

Green is one of those stories that's more about the journey than the destination. In some ways, it reminded me of Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Dart, particularly in the way the story twists and turns until there isn't necessarily one plotline that carries from A to B, but things keep happening More...

0 comments like

Oct 20, 2009

Kristen rated it:

I enjoyed this book very much, despite some initial trepidation about its origins. I picked it up from the library after seeing it reviewed at John Scalzi's blog, Whatever, as well as at The Hathor Legacy, where it was reviewed most favorably. Books that pass the Bechdel Test can be pretty rare, even in genre fiction, but this book passed with flying colors. I had to try it.

The book was written by Jay Lake as a gift for his daughter. That gave me pause. I was worried it would be More...

0 comments like

Jul 31, 2010

Alyssa added it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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