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The Cruel Prince
The Cruel Prince
Holly Black | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry, Romance, Young Adult (YA)
8
8.4 (36 Ratings)
Book Rating
A great start to the series
THE CRUEL PRINCE was a great start to this series and it holds so much promise in terms of future book potential. The strengths of this series lie in the meeting of mortal and faerie worlds and the mixing of mortal and faerie beings, with hierarchy and prejudice being prominent. The book is full of strong characters to like, love, dislike and hate. Each character was developed so well, even some of the lesser characters. However, there are many lead characters and this exemplifies Holly Black’s talent.

Jude, the female main character was a strong young women who had had a life of hardship, trauma, bullying and adversity. She went through a coming of age that was forced on her during this read and she was just fantastic to focus on. The family relationships were complex and fascinating; the potential romantic relationships were unexpected and intriguing.

I listened to this on audio and I have to admit to feeling a lack of focus mid-way, where it either lost pace or the audio wasn’t working for me. The narration was good however. I can see myself flipping to the book a re-read before book two and continuing in this format.

I am truly excited at the continuation of the series and the final 15% was thrilling. Most YA fantasy fans will roll around in the muddy hype on this one, feeling satisfied.
  
The War of the Flowers
The War of the Flowers
Tad Williams | 2003 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Descriptions (3 more)
world building
index of people places and things
800+ pages
long winded (2 more)
whiney dense lead
800+pages
A stand alone book. As a fan of Tad Williams I have put this book off from reading (it had been on my TBR list for over a decade) because of a previous stand alone book, I was afraid I won't like this one. Luckily, because of a TBR reading challenge I finally picked it up, and was pleasantly surprised at the intricate worlds that have been built.
The book is set up in five parts and has a couple of POVs most being that of Theo (the main character) who goes from California to the world of Faerie. A very different Faerie then expected. A very unique take on it.
Theo is thrown into a world he doesn't understand and has an extremely difficult time with well... don't want to give any spoilers. Although I will say the author isn't afraid to put Theo through hell, from the get.
While I did figure out quite a lot of the book along the way I was more pleased then annoyed when I was right in my assumptions.
The descriptions are very realistic and graphic in places (the author's note at the beginning is warranted) making this book quite long as are most of his books. A good long read that may not be for everyone.
  
40x40

David McK (3728 KP) rated Cold Days (The Dresden Files, #14) in Books

Jan 30, 2019 (Updated Jan 16, 2022)  
Cold Days (The Dresden Files, #14)
Cold Days (The Dresden Files, #14)
Jim Butcher | 2012 | Fiction & Poetry
10
9.3 (8 Ratings)
Book Rating
[2022 update]


Setting the bar pretty high already for the title of best-book-I've-read-this-year


[original 2013 review]



I heard (or read) somewhere a while back that the Dresden Files series was meant to run for about 20 books, with Jim Butcher having the general gist of the series as a whole already in mind. If that's true, then we must be on - or approaching - the home stretch, with this as book number 14 in the series.

And what a book it is, too.

By far one of the best books I've read this year, this starts with the previously-thought-to-be-dead Harry Dresden returned to health (of a sort) and life by Mab, the faerie Winter Queen, who is holding him to his promise to be her Winter Knight (which is also the reason why he was 'killed' (note the inverted commas) at the end of <i>Changes</i>, 2 books ago).

The Faerie play a larger role in this than in any book since, perhaps, <i>Summer Knight</i>, with characters from that earlier entry returning. Indeed, there's so much back-story here I wouldn't recommend picking this one up without reading any of the previous: normally, I'd count that against a novel, but not in this case. This one also leaves a couple of plot threads left hanging for the next entry, which I'm already looking forward to.

Let's hope it's not another year before I get reading it!