Kafka: The Early Years
Book
How did Kafka become Kafka? This eagerly anticipated third and final volume of Reiner Stach's...
Fully Connected: Surviving and Thriving in an Age of Overload
Book
Twenty-five years after the arrival of the Internet, we are drowning in data and deadlines. Humans...
Hitler: Volume I: Ascent 1889-1939
Volker Ullrich and Jefferson S. Chase
Book
Selected as a Book of the Year by the New York Times, Times Literary Supplement and The Times...
The Acadian Diaspora: An Eighteenth-Century History
Book
Late in 1755, an army of British regulars and Massachusetts volunteers completed one of the...
Trade-Based Money Laundering: The Next Frontier in International Money Laundering Enforcement
John A. Cassara and Chip Poncy
Book
Uncover the financial fraud that funds terrorist organizations Trade-Based Money Laundering is an...
On the Wilder Shores of Love: A Bohemian Life
Lesley Blanch and Georgia de Chamberet
Book
Most famous for The Wilder Shores of Love, her book about four women travellers, Lesley Blanch was a...
Boom's Blues: Music, Journalism, and Friendship in Wartime
Book
Boom's Blues stands as both a remarkable biography of J. Frank G.Boom (1920-1953) and a recovery of...
The Joy of Insight
Book
In the 1930s, Victor Weisskopf worked with leading European physicists such as Niels Bohr, Werner...
Acanthea Grimscythe (300 KP) rated The Waking Land (The Waking Land, #1) in Books
May 16, 2018
I can honestly say this is one of the few books where the main character begins as the weakest. When we meet Lady Elanna Valtai, she appears weak and, quite honestly, brainwashed by her Ereni up-bringing. Throughout the first two-thirds of the novel, El proves to be unreliable. She is clueless as to where her loyalties truly lie, even as the truth rams itself down her throat. Fortunately, those she counts among her friends know what they’re doing and don’t have to rely on her for quite a while.
Loyce, the new Queen of Eren, on the other hand is an awful brat. Unfaithful to her husband (who readers never meet), she colludes with an equally disgusting noble boy, Denis Falconier. Their command over the Butcher of Novarre strikes fear into the hearts of those that dare to rebel. And the Butcher? He’s an altogether interesting figure on his own. Trust me on that one.
Eren and Caeris, the lands where this tale takes place, on beautifully rendered, proving Bates’s strength with the written word. Her command of language coupled with her love of nature come together seamlessly, visualizing a truly fantastic world. The story Bates weaves into this battle-worn land offers readers a faint taste of epic fantasy, in a style pleasing for fans of young adult literature. For some, The Waking Land may be the gateway to delving into high fantasy – Bates’s concept of magic is that wonderful.
The Waking Land is a fantastic ride through a world that fears magic. It is the timeless tale of how war erodes nations. Because of El’s wishy-washy portrayal and the sheer fact that we don’t see a lot of action until the last fifteen percent of the book, I cannot give this one five stars. A four though, certainly.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing me with a free copy of this book for the purpose of unbiased review.
Musical Maryland: A History of Song and Performance from the Colonial Period to the Age of Radio
David K. Hildebrand and Elizabeth M. Schaaf
Book
In Musical Maryland, the first comprehensive survey of the music emanating from the Old Line State,...