Reviews and Comments

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teadragon@books.theunseen.city

Joined 1 year, 4 months ago

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The Last Stand of Mary Good Crow (Paperback, 2022, Aaron Bach LLC) 3 stars

Disappointing read. It was a slow start for me to get into this one. Even though the basic concept attracted me to the book, the characters were mostly not likeable (and rather stupid all around), and this made it hard to get drawn in. So, it took me a really long time to read. I finally started to really get into it three quarters of the way through, mostly out of interest in seeing how the author wrapped things up. However, the author simply did not wrap anything up. There is no ending and no resolution. The book just suddenly abruptly ends. We are just left hanging. I cannot recommend this book, because it feels like it is only three quarters of a book that just stops. Disappointing after such an unusual premise and setting.

The Halcyon Fairy Book (Hardcover, 2017, NESFA Press) 4 stars

A collection of fairy tales annotated by T. Kingfisher (originally posted on her blog and …

A fun read with a few real bright spots.

4 stars

This is a fun read. Ursula Vernon / T. Kingfisher has a most enjoyable sardonic sense of humor, which I recommend! I think this is a great read for fans of fairy-tales, and it is worth reading for the two alt fairy-tale short stories "Toad Words" and "Boar & Apples".

Babel (EBook, 2022, Harper Voyager) 4 stars

From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History …

It was OK. No surprises. Poor Character Development.

2 stars

2 stars means "It was OK".

If you already know a fair bit about Colonial British History, The Abolitionist Movement, The Opium Wars, Etymology, and Linguistics, then move along. You won't learn anything new. This book isn't written for you. I think it would be far more enjoyable if you know nothing of these subjects.

The magic system is interesting. Definitely some dark spots. The character development is not great. It would have been nice, for example, to have more character development of Victoire. We really only get a hint of it as what feels like an afterthought at the end. Ramy almost as bad. The main characters are all walking stereotypes, and each is simply an incarnation of their culture of origin. Even that exists not in a deep way, but mostly just as a function of their difference.

It was very transparent what the author was doing, all …