One of Kingfisher's best. The only fault, if I can find one, is that there's not nearly enough of a certain character who literally steals every sceneOne of Kingfisher's best. The only fault, if I can find one, is that there's not nearly enough of a certain character who literally steals every scene she's in....more
A lovely story by K. O'Neill, punctuated as always by gorgeously detailed artwork. 4 stars instead of 5 because of adult nitpicking at things that theA lovely story by K. O'Neill, punctuated as always by gorgeously detailed artwork. 4 stars instead of 5 because of adult nitpicking at things that the intended audience probably won't notice or mind. (view spoiler)[Like, I understand the overarching theme of the story and the lone shepherd analogy, but if the moths and the tree are so fundamental to the life of the night village, it really makes you wonder why there can only be one Moth Keeper at a time. Has no Keeper ever dozed off, or did their lantern never go out, until Anya? Is there no spare is a Keeper is sick? I know that's not the focus of the story, but it kept nagging at the back of my mind. (hide spoiler)]...more
I'm sadly underwhelmed by this one, which seems to suffer a lot from being both the middle of a trilogy and having to escalate the scale of the confliI'm sadly underwhelmed by this one, which seems to suffer a lot from being both the middle of a trilogy and having to escalate the scale of the conflict while, at the same time, assembling together an enormous cast of characters Avengers-style. Where Dead Country was in a way intimate, focused on family and connections despite all the magic and cosmic issues at hand, Wicked Problems feels like the first part of an action movie: the characters run around a whole lot, you spend very little time with any single group, and while it's all very exciting and witty (I mean, this is a Gladstone book, so of course the turns of phrase are fantastic) and a whole lot of pieces are moved at impressively high speed, you get to the end of it with the feeling that very little has changed for the world or the characters themselves, and all the actual fallout is reserved for the second part....more
A pretty run of the mill Penric story, although a newly introduced character has the potential to become an interesting addition to future instalmentsA pretty run of the mill Penric story, although a newly introduced character has the potential to become an interesting addition to future instalments, if LMMB decides to keep him around....more
Pretty much like with books 7 and 8, I find myself thoroughly bored by Naiginn as a villain. The series has always straddled the line between fantasy Pretty much like with books 7 and 8, I find myself thoroughly bored by Naiginn as a villain. The series has always straddled the line between fantasy and historical, with almost all of the supernatural events being traceable to coincidences or altered/heightened states to give it a veneer of plausibility; unfortunately this also means that the threat of Naiginn shedding his human skin and unleashing the demon on the world is very much theoretical, and he just becomes an impossibly skilled and impossibly lucky psycho stalker with a morbid obsession when it comes to his relatives.
It's impossible however not to shed a tear at that ending. We knew it was coming, and still.
A sweet if low-stakes addition to the Penric series. Paving the setting for stories a few more years down the line, perhaps, or to allow someone else A sweet if low-stakes addition to the Penric series. Paving the setting for stories a few more years down the line, perhaps, or to allow someone else to share the stage with Pen and Des when it comes to magical issues? ...more
A solid entry in the Paladin series - nothing too astounding writing-wise, but a good, entertaining read with court politics, supernatural shenanigansA solid entry in the Paladin series - nothing too astounding writing-wise, but a good, entertaining read with court politics, supernatural shenanigans, and of course sexy stubborn broken paladins.
I find the last quarter of the book particularly interesting given the cosmogony of the world this series is set in, especially in comparison to Bujold's World of the Five Gods, with which it shares some very interesting pieces of theologic and demonic philosophy. ...more
It's hard to give this rating because I love Toadling and Halim but I'm really not just feeling the villain. Most of her evil deeds we're just told abIt's hard to give this rating because I love Toadling and Halim but I'm really not just feeling the villain. Most of her evil deeds we're just told about, and the greater evils that she could do are all in potentia and with no clear limit on her actual powers. Did the danger she posed really justify a lonely vigil lasting several centuries? Was Toadling right in keeping everyone away, or could a bunch of knights actually have defeated Fayette without magic? If a single changeling can summon horrors from worse dimensions than faerie, and we know that the fae swap children regularly, how is the world still standing? Does the goddess arrange for a steady stream of fairy godmothers with harm-reduction gifts? I think that some clarification on this would have given more weight to the story, and clarified the tragedy of Toadling's position. It doesn't help that for some reason I thought this was a novel rather than a novella, so the ending snuck up really quickly on me.
I do not understand the reviews complaining about making the 'princess' evil though. The crux of the story is precisely that Toadling hoped for the longest time that Fayette could be turned, that they could teach her not to be evil, that there was a non-magic and non-lethal way to mitigate the harm she posed. But the fact was that Fayette was irredeemable not because she was evil in the traditional sense, but because she couldn't understand that our world is real: all the people and animals she hurt were just toys to her, ephemeral playthings that didn't really matter. If a kid breaks a Barbie doll you may think of them as naughty or mischievous, but I doubt you'd think of them as evil - after all, it was just a thing. And yes, Pratchett says that evil is when you treat people as things, but I think that mostly applies when you know that they're people first.
Furthermore, it's not even like this sort of reverse retelling is anything new. Snow, Glass, Apples was written in 1994, and it was hardly the first in the genre. Chiding Kingfisher for jumping on a bandwagon is ridiculous, especially when the afterword specifies that this story was born while writing an incredibly twee retelling of the same fairy tale where the princess is both good and heroic. (Go read the Hamster Princess books by the way, they're hilarious)...more
**spoiler alert** I liked this book but it very much shows that it's the product of a different era, especially in its casual attitude to killing a wh**spoiler alert** I liked this book but it very much shows that it's the product of a different era, especially in its casual attitude to killing a whole bunch of people whose only fault was to be able to recognize the main characters, and the fact that a learned woman believed that torture was a reliable way to gain information. Fantasy readers with a few books under their belt, especially from around that same period, will easily be able to recognise that the world is a post-apocalypse pseudo-Earth by the "magic" that is little more than applied science and remnants from the older world. It also very much suffers from the "first in a series" syndrome - I don't know if the author already had the sequels in mind, but the ending feels very much like a "let's wrap things up but also hope they renew us" season finale. Still, it kept me curious enough that I'm willing to look at the sequels when I have time.
I liked this one a lot, and it was a good return to form after Ruin of Angels, but it clearly shows that it's the first in a trilogy because it just tI liked this one a lot, and it was a good return to form after Ruin of Angels, but it clearly shows that it's the first in a trilogy because it just takes so long to get to the point. When the big showdown happens at 50% of the book you know there's a big twist or two coming down the way.
Spoilers follow:
(view spoiler)[I was fascinated by the Body and its interaction with the physical world, which reminded me both of Evangelion and Drakengard as filtered through Gladstone's imagination, but it turns out it was more of in the vein of the Empress of Forever, trying to figure out a way to beat an enemy stronger than itself but refusing to listen to the answer even when it's right in front of her, and thinking it can figure out people by ripping them to pieces and putting them under a microscope. And I get that Dawn was supposed to be a human mirror of the Body, young and abused and powerful and afraid of the aliens making their way towards their world, but sometimes her mood swings seemed extreme even for a troubled teen, going from dancing happily with the villagers one moment to "we should just let them all die and save ourselves" the next. Also, I know it was so that the Body could make a lure to attract Tara specifically, but I feel like Denovo has outlived his usefulness as a plot generator at this point. He will always be a fundamental part of Tara's past, of course, but at this point he's the equivalent of David Tennant popping up once again in an hypothetical Jessica Jones season 5.
Lore-wise, I find it interesting that neither the Craft nor the Gods can restore a lost arm, and the best they can do is basically animate the skeleton and give it sterile senses. It makes sense when the whole body is dying or dead, but compared to some of the stuff they can do with their powers, it seems a really peculiar limitation that they can't regrow a bit of meat on a living body. (hide spoiler)]...more
Splendide le illustrazioni come nel precedente volume, ma ho trovato la narrazione un po' troppo altalenante per i pesanti temi trattati: a volte alcuSplendide le illustrazioni come nel precedente volume, ma ho trovato la narrazione un po' troppo altalenante per i pesanti temi trattati: a volte alcune cose importanti sono solo accennate, mentre in altre alcuni personaggi fanno monologhi lunghi pagine intere per ribadire concetti semplici.
Poi (problema mio, lo so) sono un po' a bolla con i mondi fantastici che riflettono i problemi interiori del protagonista e sembrano non avere identità al di fuori di essi, tanto che (come nel mondo di Oz filmico, piuttosto che nel libro) potrebbero addirittura non esistere se non come un sogno o una fantasia. Se voglio andare in un mondo magico voglio che sia reale, non una metafora! E lo volevo da bambino come lo voglio ora. ...more
This seems to be a book written for the Venn diagram of Final Fantasy XIV fans who are also the parents of small children. It's cute, but it's also awThis seems to be a book written for the Venn diagram of Final Fantasy XIV fans who are also the parents of small children. It's cute, but it's also awfully short, and I'm not sure how many random parents care about partying Namazu enough to pay the cover price....more
I wanted to like this more than I did, because it has an excellent premise, but I found the first half extremely slow and hard to get through, mostly I wanted to like this more than I did, because it has an excellent premise, but I found the first half extremely slow and hard to get through, mostly because half of it is told through flashbacks, and the mystery that those flashbacks are supposed to unveil is kind of obvious to anyone who has read more than a couple of fsf books. In fact, and through no particular fault of the author, I felt a lot of genre fatigue while reading this story. And just like in my last review, I'm really tired of stories about other worlds where we're mostly told about all those other wonderful places, but we never really get to see them for ourselves or through the main character's eyes. The pace thankfully picks up in the second half, and the end is satisfying enough, but I think a lot of the same themes were explored better in other books that didn't get the same amounts of accolade....more
A delightful collection of the webcomic by the same name. It's rather cute and sweet, and sometimes twisted as the name implies, going from sappy and A delightful collection of the webcomic by the same name. It's rather cute and sweet, and sometimes twisted as the name implies, going from sappy and kind-hearted to humorous medical horror in the span of a page. Most of the comics are standalone four-panels-single-page with recurring themes and characters, but the volume ends with an original short story that ties it all together and brings a certain character to a satisfying conclusion....more
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