A Secret Atlas - Finished Reading *Spoiler Thread*

[Kristin B.]

Hello All,

Here is the spoiler thread for A Secret Atlas

What did you think?

[Kristin B.]

I FINALLY finished this today. It was not quite my cup of tea. A lot of the ideas were really interesting, but I think there was just too much going on and nothing was really fleshed out the way it could have been.

Also, I really think there was a failure in plot development. I could see that the author was trying to create plot twists and surprises, but it came off poorly executed and abrupt instead of intriguing. For instance, Nirati's relationship with Junel is going well. She expounds on him being patient and attentive, then all of a sudden he is drugging and hurting her, but she seems fine with it. There was no real transition there and it came off rushed. The same when we found out about Majiata's death. All of a sudden Nirati is talking about a dead girl, and then a couple paragraph's later we learn who it was.

I was also confused because Keles seemed to become aware of something happening to Nirati at the end of chapter 60. However, in chapter 62 he mentions nothing about it.

I did enjoy the two brothers beginning to realize that to be the best cartographers, they had to be able to embrace both the detailed and the adventurous sides of mapping the world. I liked that they were each sent on a mission that seemed to suit their talents, only to end up requiring the opposite. Keles had to become adventurous and Jorim had to become detailed and think things through.

I also loved Nirati, up until things with Junel went south. She was such a strong and intelligent character. She senses things about people easily. As she did with Majiata. But somehow she was ok with being abused by Junel, and didn't sense anything amiss. This was way outside of her character.

Having now finished the book I can definitely say that my favorite character is Shimik.

[Mark]

I actually really enjoy this book, the age of exploration is a one of my favorite parts of history, so that really tickled my fancy. Keles and Jorim's relationship in particular is a high point for me. Nirati's story does take a turn very quickly, I think they needed to be clear about the time scale of the novel, the dates at the beginning of the chapters does not do enough in this regard.

My favorite character in this book is Moraven Tolo, the mixture of eastern inspired mysticism and western practicality really makes him stand out. A few people I know who have read the book do not feel this way, especially with how he tries to avoid killing in the beginning and then absolutely destroys the people going after Keles. The main difference to me between those two scenes is that the first group did not want to hurt anyone, or did not immediately start with violence, by the time Moraven found Keles violence was already underway. Word were not an option here. I do think this book is better for me now because I have read the rest of the series, I probably would not hold it in such high regard with out the rest of the series in my brain.