"Witchmark" First Impressions *No Spoilers*

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Welcome to our Pride In Fantasy group pick! This book is a Nebula nominee, what are your thoughts, broadly?

Please leave all specifics about characters, their growth, the plot etc. for discussion on the 7th, when the spoiler threads will be posted!

[Silvana]

Allison wrote: "Welcome to our Pride In Fantasy group pick! This book is a Hugo nominee, what are your thoughts, broadly?

Please leave all specifics about characters, their growth, the plot etc. for discussion on..."

It's actually Nebula Award.

I finished it a few days ago and look forward to know the others think!

[Oleksandr]

I've read it earlier this year while choosing Hugo nominees and while it didn't make it to the final list, I liked it. Will be glad to discuss it!

[Gabi]

I'm about a quarter in and it is so far a nice reading.

[Kari]

I'm about 40% in--it's a much quicker read than I thought it would be. I like it quite a bit so far, but it almost reads like an urban fantasy if that makes sense? Like the Magic series by Ilona Andrews, which I like as well! Just wasn't expecting that!

[Jordan]

My library book just came in today. Good timing! Hopefully I'll get a start on it today.

[Gabi]

Kari wrote: "I'm about 40% in--it's a much quicker read than I thought it would be. I like it quite a bit so far, but it almost reads like an urban fantasy if that makes sense? Like the Magic series by Ilona An..."

Yup, exactly my feelings so far.

[Beige]

Kari wrote: "I'm about 40% in--it's a much quicker read than I thought it would be. I like it quite a bit so far, but it almost reads like an urban fantasy if that makes sense? Like the Magic series by Ilona An..."

Ilona Andrews? I was on the fence with this one, but now I'm curious ;)

[Kari]

Beige wrote: "Kari wrote: "I'm about 40% in--it's a much quicker read than I thought it would be. I like it quite a bit so far, but it almost reads like an urban fantasy if that makes sense? Like the Magic serie..."

Kind of? It reads like an urban fantasy in the pacing--more dialogue and action than description and explanation. And there are other elements to the world-building than remind me of the Magic series, as well. I don't want to steer you wrong, but I'd say give it a go, it doesn't seem like it will take any longer to read than one of the Magic books either so it's not a huge time investment. :)

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Silvana wrote: "Allison wrote: "Welcome to our Pride In Fantasy group pick! This book is a Hugo nominee, what are your thoughts, broadly?

Please leave all specifics about characters, their growth, the plot etc. f..."

My bad! Updating!

[Ariana]

I really enjoyed this. It pulled me in and kept things moving along. I'll wait for the second thread to discuss things from the second half.

[Bruce]

I'm 71% according to my Kindle. I agree that it feels like an urban fantasy. Does anyone think the dialog's quirky? Not saying it's bad but just that it has a unique feel to it. One character will say something and then the other character will respond out of left field, or comments will come from completely out of the blue. Maybe charming is a better word.

[Andy]

Finished and very much enjoyed it. Good characters and great world building.

Bruce wrote: "Does anyone think the dialog's quirky?"

I didn't notice that—the dialog and prose all felt very smooth to me. This comment almost makes me want to go back and see...

[Chris]

I finished it just a couple of days ago. I'm surprised that several think the early pacing was good. I thought it creeped along until close to the end.

[Sarah, The Unsettled]

I thought the pacing was decent. I was pretty intrigued right from the start. I liked that there wasn’t a lot of explanation and it jumped right to the story. I think I read most of this all in one or two days.

But I can also see how if the intrigue didn’t grab you right away it would feel slow.

[MadProfessah]

I wanted to be impressed and entranced but the book didn’t really work for me. I mainly thought just too MANY genres compressed together for no apparent reason and the plotting was unsurprising.

My full review is here: http://buckmire.blogspot.com/2019/05/...

[Anna]

Let’s remember that this is the first impressions thread, please!

[Dan]

I am also liking this so far. I like the mass nouns -- a competence of nurses, a draft of bicyclists.

[Paul]

This took awhile to get going but there's a lot to like in this story.

[Meredith]

I'm about 15% of the way in. I liked how it started and swept me right into some action and drama, but there's also a lot of going on for the MC and it's a bit much to juggle trying to get up to speed on all the things simultaneously.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I read the first chapter, and I liked it a lot! The writing seems solid so far, and there are mysteries I'm waiting to hear more about.

[Kaa]

This was a slow start for me too, but once it got going I found it very fun and readable.

[Hank, Hankenstein's Modster]

I was sucked in pretty quickly trying to figure out what the world was like.

[Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!*]

Very charming, and lovely worldbuilding, great first-time author effort so far. I am about 100 pages in. Does anyone know if the author is Canadian, or is just living in Canada? Love the first line of her bio: "wrote her first book in grade school and never learned any better", gave me a chuckle.

[Jordan]

I'm on chapter three and not really feeling it yet. It's the kind of book I keep putting down and then not wanting to pick back up even though there's nothing wrong with it.

[Jay]

I particularly enjoyed how it seemed the writer employed "show don't tell" very well.

[Anat]

I've read halfway through, but I still don't feel particularly into this story... also I read a lot of historical fiction, and I don't really "see" this period or world building. Anyway, it's not boring, just... not as exciting as I was looking for. (tho murder mystery was never my thing.)

[Anthony]

Four chapters in, I’m enjoying it very much. The writing feels self-assured and alive. I appreciate the lack of info dumps, allowing me to put the pieces together. Miles is a compelling central character and the world is tantalizingly like our own and yet also different in intriguing ways. I hope I continue to enjoy it this much.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

It's such a neat world with so many tantalizing mysteries in the early chapters.

[Mareike]

I read the first three chapters tonight and would push on if I didn't have work tomorrow.
I like Miles so far and can't wait to learn more about this world and what is really going on.

[Kim]

Just arrived. Going 2 play catch-up.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Can't wait to hear your thoughts Kim!

[Kaia]

I needed a shorter audiobook to bridge the gap between the one I just finished and one I am waiting for from the library. This book has been on my TBR list for awhile and it's only around 9 hours, so I decided to give it a try. I'm a few chapters in and intrigued so far. I read The Midnight Bargain by the author a while back and enjoyed it much more than I expected, so I'm interested to see where this one goes.