"Native Star" First Impressions *no spoilers*

[Brad]

Here we have the choice of our esteemed friend, Colleen of the Crawling Chaos. She'll be leading y'all on the path of discussion, so make her welcome.

And start her off with your first thoughts of the book.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

*waves*

I haven't read this yet, but it's been on my TBR for awhile and I'm gonna pick it up as soon as I'm done my current book - so this weekend, I think, at the latest.

Be glad to hear from anyone's who's read it or is reading it.

(And just 'Colleen' is fine.) :>

[[deleted user]]

Collcollycoocoooooooooo

I'll probably pick this up in the next day or two. Now that I've realized it's May(WTF?).

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I know... kinda snuck up on me, too.

[mussolet]

I've accidentally read this a few days ago. So I'm going to follow the discussions, and try to participate spoiler-free. :)

[Joon]

Yeah, I got a head start as well. I'm only half way through it, but I'm enjoying it quite a bit.

[Coralie]

I had almost finished it when it was announced that it was this month's book.

[Melissa]

Just got a copy from the library. One of the blurbs calls it "witchpunk"!! That got me all excited.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I started this last night. My first impression is that, based on the comparison to Strange & Norrell, I was expecting the prose to be a bit more lyrical. Once I got past that, though, I decided it works for the setting it's in - I can almost hear a sort of twanginess to it.

Not very far in, yet, so don't have much opinion in the way of plot.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I'm a little less than halfway through.

I know I said I'd gotten past my expectations of the language being a bit more lush, but I'm not sure I entirely have.

That said, the plot is picking up (was a bit slow to start) and things are getting exciting, so that's good.

[Joon]

I'm enjoying this book quite a bit, but I know I'm going to have a lot of complaints when I'm done. Right now the best thing I can say about it is that I actually really like the characters. The rest....I'm hoping it's just that I don't yet understand what it all means or why it's all important. Because as of around 75% through, it's hard to feel like it's going anywhere.

I know most of that is because of the whole narrative device wherein the reader knows nothing more than the main character does. The problem is, she doesn't know ANYTHING, and she's surrounded by people who aren't keen on educating her. There's a whole lot of "don't ask questions, just trust me" going on.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Yeah. I'm actually sort of interested in the different kinds of magics and the explanations that Stanton gives - but it is annoying that she almost has to twist him arm to tell her things.

Of course, then, when I'm interested in his explanations, she gets bored and rushes everything along - which is kind of annoying, too.

[♥Meagan♥]

I thought this was great! I really enjoyed the worldbuilding, the hints of feminism (the dumb girl doesn't need to know anything-we'll just manipulate her), and the witchcraft definitely.

This was a new genre for me "witchpunk" and I wish there were more books like it.

[Porter]

The magic in this world reminded me of the American frontier with magic portrayed in the Alvin Maker series (Seventh Son, Red Prophet, Prentice Alvin, etc.).

[Ami]

Just starting, I am enjoying it so far.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

*kicks thread*

Anyone else planning on trying to get to this before month's end? Or anyone who's read it and hasn't come forward yet?

Just a few more days in the month. Now's the time, people! ;)

[Melanti]

I suppose I'll admit to reading this last week.

A friend on another forum called this book 'juvenile.' I have to agree. There's a lot of great ideas introduced but few of them are ever fully used.