The Good
I. Discussions
This has one of the best if not the best discussions on privilege, religion, purity, caste system, and inequality that I have seen in a fantasy. Immediately, it stood out to me how privilege is not done in a way many other stories do aka put lower castes on some sort of moral high ground. Since they are not on the moral high ground, they are allowed to be a part of the critique.
The themes and fantasy mesh well.
II. World
World is well thought out and fits with themes it is talking about.
magic system – connecting magic system to morality, purity, and the critique that comes with that.
Creatures – I like all of them.
There is so much world to explore.
III. Miscellaneous
Good conflict at center of the story.
Map – there is an inscription that is clever, reader gets to see an interpretation how different creature look.
Glossary – things were explained well but did enjoy having glossary at end of book.
There is so much to explore, and questions left that I could see this being a meaty series.
The Meh
Is this book too long? On other hand I feel that to deal with all discussions it does it makes sense the length.
It spent a minute on the world building and messages (both I enjoyed) but that slowed down the action of the story.
Thoughts
I. Book length of young adult novels:
– Is this story too long?
-Meant for older ya? My cousin wanted to listen to this book after hearing me talk about it which got me thinking about how it probably would be too long and not actiony enough for him.
-What if there was longer series but shorter stories?
-Stories are written in a way that is in a way more issue driven than story driven (or at least the issues are what is interesting to me).
-Reading tie-ins and specifically novelizations really show you the difference between the pacing of regular novels and movies.
I. Discussions
This has one of the best if not the best discussions on privilege, religion, purity, caste system, and inequality that I have seen in a fantasy. Immediately, it stood out to me how privilege is not done in a way many other stories do aka put lower castes on some sort of moral high ground. Since they are not on the moral high ground, they are allowed to be a part of the critique.
The themes and fantasy mesh well.
II. World
World is well thought out and fits with themes it is talking about.
magic system – connecting magic system to morality, purity, and the critique that comes with that.
Creatures – I like all of them.
There is so much world to explore.
III. Miscellaneous
Good conflict at center of the story.
Map – there is an inscription that is clever, reader gets to see an interpretation how different creature look.
Glossary – things were explained well but did enjoy having glossary at end of book.
There is so much to explore, and questions left that I could see this being a meaty series.
The Meh
Is this book too long? On other hand I feel that to deal with all discussions it does it makes sense the length.
It spent a minute on the world building and messages (both I enjoyed) but that slowed down the action of the story.
Thoughts
I. Book length of young adult novels:
– Is this story too long?
-Meant for older ya? My cousin wanted to listen to this book after hearing me talk about it which got me thinking about how it probably would be too long and not actiony enough for him.
-What if there was longer series but shorter stories?
-Stories are written in a way that is in a way more issue driven than story driven (or at least the issues are what is interesting to me).
-Reading tie-ins and specifically novelizations really show you the difference between the pacing of regular novels and movies.