Smashbomb

I was a relative latecomer to The Witcher series of books, but gosh am I glad I found out about them.
I had only played the video games before then (and absolutely loved them, by the way). This kind of worked in my favour though, as once I started reading Blood Of Elves I already had a broad knowledge of the countries involved, the wars and battles that had occurred, and of course the lovely (and not so lovely) cast of characters within.
Andrzej Sapkowski's writing style was fluid throughout and kept the story moving at an enjoyable pace. Not once did I find myself thinking it was going too slow or too fast.
His descriptions of the different locales were top notch fantasy fayre, as were those of main characters Geralt, Yennefer, Ciri, Triss, Dandelion and it's bit players also.
To say I was enthralled by Sapkowksi's first Witcher story is putting it lightly. I could barely put it down and every little bit of spare time I had was devoted to reading Blood Of Elves. I am now working my way through Time Of Contempt (The second installment) and am finding it equally as enjoyable, if not more so.

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Cori June (3033 KP) rated Into the Fire (Book Two of the Hel's Crucible Duology) in Books

May 9, 2019

Warrows (1 more)

creative world

hurry up and wait (2 more)

repeated information

Names can be confusing

Tipperton and Beau finally get some answers as the War of the Ban continues. This book does reference some of the previous books however you do not have to read those books first (unless it's part one of the Hel's Crucible duology). This duology is a great intro into the world of Mithgar. At times a little sad and graphic the descriptions are topnotch. The Elven names can be confusing at times Vandor and Vandar are two different Elves, usually Vandar is referenced as Silverleaf or Vandar Silverleaf which helps cut down on the confusion.

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ElfYourself by OfficeDepot Inc

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Rachel King (13 KP) rated The Elvenbane (Halfblood Chronicles, #1) in Books

Feb 11, 2019

The world that the writing team of Norton and Lackey crafts is quite fascinating in its detail and description. The timeline and history of this world seems to place it sort of after the end of our present world, as a kind of post-apocalypse in which first the dragons found and then the elves, with the latter taking over and enslaving the remaining humans. I found the passage of time to be bothersome at times, since the authors seem to almost skip over the climaxes in favor of just relaying the information through the memories of the characters after the fact. More than once, I wished the writers could have written out this passage of time so that I can actually experience it as it happens.
The characters were all well-developed and unique, as the size of the book allowed the writers to spend lots of time focusing on a single character, even if his or her purpose seemed to end rather abruptly with death, such as Shana's mother, Serina Daeth. Normally, I have no trouble picking characters that I favored over the others, but with this book, no character seemed to jump out at me as so much better than the others, even the main character Shana, who seemed to lack in maturity as much as a pre-teen, with how she behaves around some of the other characters.
There were several over-arching themes in the book, such as the need for change, the call for justice, and how every rule has exceptions. Shana especially seemed to find the latter annoying as she continually found that what she was taught about elves, humans, or dragons was not always true. Even though the legend of the Elvenbane is merely a tall tale crafted by the dragons to stir up trouble with the elves and humans, Shana falls into the role by accident simply because of a dragon's kindness. Ironically, her up-bringing gives her the perfect personality for playing that role, as the main goal of this book was to put her in the perfect position to fill this role for the next book in the series, Elvenblood (Halfblood Chronicles).