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This book was recommended to me by the fine folks here on GoodReads when I requested some. I was excited to start into a new series and I hoped that it would live up to all of the expectations of previous series I had known and loved.
The Weavers of...moreThis book was recommended to me by the fine folks here on GoodReads when I requested some. I was excited to start into a new series and I hoped that it would live up to all of the expectations of previous series I had known and loved.
The Weavers of Saramyr opens instantly into a very political world where people are skilled at playing at the politics of court. It then goes on to have a healthy dose of action to counter subtle political intrigues, and wraps it all up inside an ancient oriental {I would almost call it Japanese, but it is vague enough to not be pinned down} feel. The oriental feel reminded me of Across the Nightingale Floor, which was recommended to me at the same time as The Weavers of Saramyr, but as you can see that I am reviewing this book and not that one, you can rightly deduce that I preferred this book and put the other one down, unfinished.
The magic system {the weave} in this book reminds me of the void of The Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan in that it is something that is innate to a person or a person+object system and not something that is mechanical in nature and can be learned simply through practice.
The characters are well created with their own personalities and their own growths to experience. While I did not love each character, I did feel that each and every one was a full person, rather than an empty shell or a single dimension. As with real people, these characters experienced all the flaws of human nature, at times walking away from beliefs that are claimed to be deeply held because a relationship was more important, or walking away from a relationship because a deeply held belief was more important.
My main critique of this book is that the point of view is third person omniscient, meaning that there is no one clear narrator. The person you are following, and even the physical location you are in, changes from paragraph to paragraph without the warning of a chapter break or those little section break graphics that occur within a chapter. Also, names are very rarely used and you have to use context clues to figure out who you are now. While this should be annoying, after I figured out that it was gong to happen throughout the entirety of the novel, it instead provided problem-solving stimuli that gave my brain a bit of an activity massage, rather than putting it solely in passive receiving mode {where the most activity it would do would simply be to predict the plot}. As you can see, I docked no stars because I found that I quite enjoyed this mental workout!
I am very much excited to start on the second book in the series.(less)
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This is the story of Eli Sands who has a physicist father in the reader's future. While it is part of current physics - thanks Einstein - that space and time are connected to one another, future physics is messing around with altering both under the ...moreThis is the story of Eli Sands who has a physicist father in the reader's future. While it is part of current physics - thanks Einstein - that space and time are connected to one another, future physics is messing around with altering both under the auspices of DARPA.
Long story short, Eli interrupts his father's experiment and is sent back in time to Alexandria during the time of the burning of the great library thereof. Along the way he meets an Egyptian girl and a member from an alternate Earth timeline, one in which the asteroid that ended the dinosaurs did not actually hit Earth.
The story is told from the three perspectives: Eli the youngin', the Egyptian girl, and the saurian {what we can call a humanoid dinosaur}. All three are upper elementary to middle school in age. Due to being told from this perspective, there is a lot of exposition that is not available. None of these children are privy to the complex machinations of the Egyptian nor Eli's time's US's politics and so cannot explain how the disjointed events they witness are connected with a broader picture. It is a bit like asking a mouse inside a maze to explain how its corridor connects to a larger design. The clever reader, however, can read between the lines and put the fragments together to see a very complete picture that tells of a fantastically complex universe. I hope to read more in the future.
I recommended this book to a 3rd grader who I happen to babysit for on occasion. Given the types of books that she reads, I think she'll get a real kick out of this one.(less)
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Vespera
by
Anselm Audley (Goodreads Author)
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From http://theinfamousj.livejournal.com/4399...
I shall begin this review with a disclaimer that I was given a free eBook copy of this book to review. Had I not been given a copy, I am not sure that I would have otherwise stumbled upon this novel, h...moreFrom http://theinfamousj.livejournal.com/4399...
I shall begin this review with a disclaimer that I was given a free eBook copy of this book to review. Had I not been given a copy, I am not sure that I would have otherwise stumbled upon this novel, however that was the only influence that the gift had upon my review.
Vespera is a novel that is set in the world of Aquasilva. It is about a city by the same name that holds the distinction of being the central city for what is considered to be the known world, though if you ask the members of some outlying tribes if they even know where Vespera is or consider it important, no doubt they will look at you as if you are daft. Nonetheless, the city seems to be the heart of the civilized world {Thetia}.
In this world, the landmasses are organized as an archipelago. I am not sure if such a genre of literature exists, but I would like to propose that Vespera belongs to the archipelagan genre along with such books as The Lies of Locke Lamora. I had originally thought to name this genre the venetian genre, however Vespera feels more like the Aegean Islands and less like the Venetian Archipelago.
The book opens with a scene of an Empress being deposed to turn Thetia from an empire into a republic. Having not read any of the three previous books of the Aquasilva world, it was only implied {though I'm sure the previous books cover it in great detail} that Thetia was previously both republic and empire, so this is nothing new. A lot of the book focuses around the governing style of Thetia and the politics thereof.
The first chapter is set two generations in the future. Thetia is still a republic, though there is a declared emperor who is hoping to reunite back into an empire. As you can imagine, the clans of Thetia aren't having any of it. Clans are the ruling houses/bloodlines of Thetia and come from wealthy merchant ventures. The requirement necessary for maintaining clanhood, and thus a seat in the republic's council, is that you own two functioning sea vessels called mantas {a type of very large submarine that is more biological than mechanical}. There are the really wealthy clans and the barely-qualifying clans much as there are major and minor houses in "daes dae'mar" {to steal a term from The Great Hunt}, and the positioning and alliances for power are just as subtle and subversive. If you like this sort of political maneuvering, you will find this book to be exactly what you desire, especially if you enjoy a perfect blend of that with military tactics.
This story focuses around an intelligencer named Raphael Quiridion who is tasked with investigating the assassination of the man declared as Emperor {Cataline} when the main plot of the book opens. In so doing, Raphael learns the history of what has transpired since Thetia was declared to be a republic and that certain grudges are still born and desire to be given life as civil war.
In so doing this, Raphael learns that the religious magic is more powerful than can be imagined, the Empress/Empress Mother Aesonia is an excellent daes dae'mar player who spins complicated, lengthy, patient, and subtle webs of intrigue, and that no one's loyal, purpose, or identity is as publicly stated; not even his own.(less)
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She has
read 7 books toward her goal of 48 books.
Create your own 2012 Reading Challenge »
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date:
December 21, 2011 08:20PM
location:
www.readinista.com, The United States
description:
I'm hosting an ebook giveaway of Anomaly by K.C. King. Details are on the blog.
http://www.readinista.com/2011/12/interv...
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from http://theinfamousj.livejournal.com/4388...
Dance of the Gods is the sequel to Morrigan's Cross, which sets up the premise that the goddess Morrigan has asked six different people to unite and stand together as a circle to fight against the grow...morefrom http://theinfamousj.livejournal.com/4388...
Dance of the Gods is the sequel to Morrigan's Cross, which sets up the premise that the goddess Morrigan has asked six different people to unite and stand together as a circle to fight against the growing power of Lilith and her coven of vampires. In Morrigan's Cross, the setting is that of Ireland where two of the six {conveniently three females and three males, since Nora Roberts writes het romance fiction} pair off and get all-but-legally married. Those were the male and female magicians.
In this book, the setting shifts to Geall of antiquity. There are still battles to be waged though the war is still some months off. In this book you see the development of a relationship and betrothal {c'mon, you saw this coming due to the formula. this is so not a spoiler} of the male and female warrior.
While in Morrigan's Cross I lamented that I had come to read a romance {weak} and a paranormal adventure broke out, in this book I was actually drawn in to the characters of the two warriors and in to their passionate romance. This is good, because despite a few skirmishes, very little happens by way of the paranormal adventure.
This book also sets the stage for the rather abruptly put romance between the male and female reagents. Sure, some would call Moira a scholar and Cian a ... well ... I'm not sure what, but the fact of the matter is that what these two have in common is that they are both comfortable in positions of power and authority, so long as that power and authority is tinged with office politics. Another thing they have in common is being able to go from passing acquaintances to passionately horny for one another in the blink of an eye with no provocation. That, in itself, felt rather undeveloped and while I know that the third book in this series {which I will very much read} will deal with their further relationship, it is not something I look forward to with anything that could be even poorly mistaken as eager anticipation.(less)
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