Reviews and Comments

Suggestion from Penny

Put this down for ages, but I picked it up again a couple weeks ago and really enjoyed it.

This was fantastic, I hope Isaac Blum publishes more soon.

I loved this so much I didn’t want it to end. I wish it went on forever.

This had a slow start, but once it hooked me (I have decided, against all things decent, to allow this pun to remain) I absolutely had to finish it.

I’m actually only reading the Odyssey, as I read the Ennis Rees copy of the Illiad a few years ago, but it’s the Butcher & Lang translation.

I really enjoyed this. It was a weirdly perfect read for a couple days stuck home sick without much to do.

This is quite possibly my favorite work of Rushdie's, who is already one of my favorite writers. It is a stunningly beautiful story of an unlikely, forward-thinking city born of a demigod, and its ebbs and flows of greatness and terror along with her life. It was so emotionally engaging for me, and I found myself legitimately laughing out loud, furious, tearing up, existentially horrified and deeply uplifted throughout the book.

I almost want to start it over again immediately, but my giant reading list (and the other books I'm theoretically on but haven't progressed in) calls me forward.

Talked about Rushdie today so I decided to start another one, and I'm overjoyed to see a new novel from this year! This seems absolutely wild from the start, I'm looking forward to this

Rosh Hashana got me inspired to pick this one back up.

This may be my favorite book I’ve ever read. I have never had more of my youth directly captured and commented on by a stranger, and I really need time to process this. It felt like my life was shattered, and shards were taken and spread into a kaleidoscope what contained everything in a beautiful and warped way. I’ll write a proper review soon.

I enjoyed this more than Son of Shadows, but it still barely holds a candle to Daughter of the Forest. I enjoyed a lot about this book, but the pacing towards the second half was rough for me which made the climax dull, and generally I think Marillier’s magic works best when used sparingly. The first book had magic as a wholly inexplicable and wild thing, with storybook-like pacts and bargains that must be made to make or break it. Here it’s so clear, regular and codified that I was able to identify the spells with names from the D&D spellbook. That really lowered the impact for me.

I didn’t enjoy this nearly as much as Daughter of the Forest. I felt like it was less magical by far, ironically enough because the magic elements were constant features and therefore lost much of their weight, and I feel like I mostly got through on my love of the worldbuilding in the last book. My fiancée ensures me that book 3 is awesome though, so I’m on to that next.

Putting this down for now, I’ll return to it.