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Raisa is heir to her mother's queendom, but worries that all is not as it should be at court or in the capital city. She disguises herself and ventures incognito into the city, only to find far more corruption and poverty than she ever expected. Meanwhile, Han "Cuffs" Alister has tried to leave his life of crime behind, but a chance encounter with some unruly wizards leaves him in possession of a powerful magical artifact. When the wizards begin to hunt for it, life in his neighborhood goes from
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It’s just not happening. I’ve tried twice and reading this is like pulling teeth. Incredibly slow and a bit “higher” than I really like my high fantasy to be. It’s possible I have a block about this book but I doubt it. Just not meant to be. I might try her other series still since I have a copy but expectations are low.
One of the best fantasy books I've read in a long time. Not just because of the plot, but it had good, tight writing, an intriguing atmosphere and strong characters. The Demon King is the first book in a trilogy, and it's very obviously not supposed to stand on its own as nothing is really resolved in this book, but it's so well written that I for once will excuse its cliff-hanger'ness.
The book is told in part by ex-thief Han and in part by princess Raisa. Though I must admit to being a lot more ...more
The book is told in part by ex-thief Han and in part by princess Raisa. Though I must admit to being a lot more ...more
I can't. For a while I thought I could, in the spirit of mockery and cheesiness. I like a good cheese. But no. This hit all the fantasy cliche notes without doing anything fun with them, and life's too short.
If this book were a wine and I knew anything about wines, I would have taken a sip from the beginning and said "hmm...inferior Sherwood Smith, maybe. Perhaps it was an early draft." Then a few sips later, "Maybe I'm wrong...early Kristin Cashore? Wait, I'm getting just a hint of...yes, I thi ...more
If this book were a wine and I knew anything about wines, I would have taken a sip from the beginning and said "hmm...inferior Sherwood Smith, maybe. Perhaps it was an early draft." Then a few sips later, "Maybe I'm wrong...early Kristin Cashore? Wait, I'm getting just a hint of...yes, I thi ...more
Well, there were a lot of boring parts when I kind of (ok definitely) fell asleep, and for a good part of the book I felt no great love for the characters, and to make matters worse the plot reveals were not very surprising, but fantasy books are still pretty much my favorite genre and better than almost anything else out there in YA land, so I'm still into this book enough to proceed with the next one in the series.
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Thoroughly engaging, well developed, fast paced fantasy with strong female and male characters. Should appeal to fantasy fans of both genres, and the content is clean enough for most ages, though the princess does engage in quite a bit of kissing here and there. Will definitely read the sequel.
It look me a loooong time to really get into this book, and I never did end up liking Raisa much. I stuck with it because my 14-year-old loved it enough to ask for the book for her birthday. I enjoyed it enough to go on and read part two, but it's not one of my favorites.
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I read another series by Chima and really liked it so I thought I would pick this one up. I also really liked it. This is just really solid straight ahead fantasy. You have the supernatural, magic, people who are probably not who they appear to be, all kinds of romantic triangles hinted at and some great selfless heroism. Chima is currently one of my favorite contemporary fantasy authors and I am looking forward to the next book in this series.
Apr 29, 2009
Krista the Krazy Kataloguer
marked it as to-read
Dec 08, 2009
Jess
marked it as to-read
Jun 19, 2010
Liz
marked it as to-read
Oct 12, 2010
Colleen
marked it as to-read
Oct 24, 2011
Nicole
marked it as to-read
Nov 17, 2012
Sharon
marked it as b-list
Feb 18, 2013
Tara
marked it as to-read
Feb 27, 2013
Destiny
marked it as to-read
Sep 27, 2014
Jennifer
marked it as dnf
May 17, 2016
Debbie Barr
marked it as to-read
Mar 09, 2024
Lori
marked it as to-read
