"Amberlough" by Lara Elena Donnelly (BR)

[Ariana]

Who is in for this one? Do we have a lot of overlap with folks planning on Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr? If so, should we scoot Amberlough back a few days? I am flexible. (By this I mean I'm so far behind on everything, the start date doesn't matter too much.)
I am really looking forward to this one!

[Kaa]

I am super far behind on everything too, but I'm planning to get to this one at some point soon(ish)!

[Wen]

I am but I’m behind too:)

[Anthony]

I’m happy for this to start whenever it works for folks, as I’m also playing catch up.

[Jemppu]

Yup. Looking for the next read. Might as well be this.

[Oleksandr]

I plan to start it tomorrow, after finishing Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

So, this sort of snuck up on me and I only recently put the hold on at my library.

[Jemppu]

Finished this yesterday - oops - and will now remain in anticipatory limbo, awaiting first impressions.

[Ariana]

I started this a few days ago. I am liking the vibe, the feel of Amberlough City.
I am about 20% done, (in Ch. 7 I think).
(view spoiler)[I am having a hard time keeping track of all the place names and their relationship with each other, but sometimes that's something that you just have to soak up, and hopefully it'll make more sense later on. I also have the audio book; is there a map at the front of the eye-book?
I have to say I was really annoyed with Cyril's apparent incompetence as an intelligence operative. In what world is it common practice to take classified dossiers home from the office? This one I guess? And then get super drunk? Maybe it's just that I read/watch a lot of spy books/movies/shows, but this really rubbed me the wrong way, and it's made it harder to get lost in the world-building. (hide spoiler)]

[Wen]

Just finished and I guess this is not for me. (view spoiler)[There are only few things that I like...the food that Cyril ordered, two stuffed lobster tails. And asparagus tip, with white truffle butter. And Ari’s beautiful letter, come and find me...aww. (hide spoiler)]

[Oleksandr]

I've finished it yesterday and what can I say?
(view spoiler)[1. it is not what I expected from a book tagged fantasy.
2. the beginning is done poorly, only reading half of the novel (and planning to drop it) I finally get into it.
3. sex scenes are opposite to romantic, both homo- and heterosexual
4. the final part was done quite good, emotionally and gripping. So well done that even despite #2 above I thought about getting the next volume.
5. usage of slang was a bit disorienting - for starters I though e.g. that hounds are hired security and not police and that razors are hooligans (with straight razors, cf peaky blinders)... maybe for native speakers it isn't a problem
6. world-building felt incomplete - why Gedda is divided? How 'Old religion' survived (unlike pagans under Christianity)? How higher gender equality (do we even now have female army commanders in actual wars?) affects this world? Why radio isn't the king? What was the original purpose of Foxhole?
(hide spoiler)]

[Ariana]

Oleksandr wrote: "I've finished it yesterday and what can I say?
(view spoiler)[2. the beginning is done poorly, only reading half of the novel (and planning to drop it) I finally get into it. (hide spoiler)]..."

Thanks for this, Oleksandr! I was toying with dropping this one but feeling torn, and now I think I'll power through.

I'm at around 40%:
(view spoiler)[So, like I mentioned, I really like spy novels, and have read quite a few, and to have this book lumped in with this genre (as the GR blurb seems to) really does it a disservice. The "spy" stuff at the beginning really feels perfunctory and poorly sketched, like the author is just going through the motions to put Cyril in this impossible position and then to explore his emotional relationship with Ari. But when I can ignore my annoyance with the spy stuff, I'm actually quite enjoying the rest, including the characters.
(hide spoiler)]

[Ariana]

I finally finished. It was a slog for me. I really wanted to like it, and I just didn't. I liked the characters, but I don't know that their actions were particularly well motivated, and
(view spoiler)[Cyril's continued ineptitude as an agent, even though we kept being told that he was a great agent was a big turn-off. Show, don't tell!

And then the ending was super unsatisfying. I get that it's a series and there's more story to come, but is a little resolution too much to ask for? It doesn't even really end with a cliffhanger, it just sort of stops in the middle. Grrr. (hide spoiler)]

[Wen]

Ariana wrote: "I finally finished. It was a slog for me. I really wanted to like it, and I just didn't. I liked the characters, but I don't know that their actions were particularly well motivated,..."

I know...(view spoiler)[I want to know what happens later, aw. (hide spoiler)]

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Finally starting this this morning.

My first impression is that it's way too info-dumpy right off the bat, and my mind is fuzzing over at the nation-state politics I'm being bombarded with.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Around 50% through, give or take. I agree with the earlier comments about Cyril. I mean, are we meant to be routing for the guy that's (view spoiler)[helping the non-Nazis, albeit "unwillingly", because he was outed and just decides to roll over and cave, especially when he knows his actions are going to hurt people he cares about?

Like, I guess it's meant to be tied into the whole PTSD, really scared of death thing... but it's not like he even really tried? (hide spoiler)]

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Finished this this morning. Gave it 2.5 stars. Was thinking of rounding up for a bit - mostly because I like Cordelia and Aristide - but then I realized I sort of didn't really care about what happened to anyone, especially Cyril, and once he (view spoiler)[killed Finn (hide spoiler)], I sort of checked out.

I even lost interest in Cordelia by the end. The only one I continued to care about was Aristide. The only reason I care at all about whether (view spoiler)[Cyril lived (hide spoiler)] is because of how it would affect Aristide.

That's definitely not enough interest for me to want to continue the series, though, and I imagine this will be one of those books I forget about entirely in a few months or even weeks.

[Ariana]

colleen the convivial curmudgeon wrote: "Finished this this morning. Gave it 2.5 stars. Was thinking of rounding up for a bit - mostly because I like Cordelia and Aristide - but then I realized I sort of didn't really care about what happ..."

Glad it wasn't just me.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Ariana wrote: "Glad it wasn't just me. "


I agree with you about your comment about this being a "spy novel". All of the spy stuff felt really glossed over and to happen very quickly, to more focus on the relationships and stuff... which is fine, for what it is, but I felt like we needed more of a payout for staying with these characters than what we got with the spy stuff.