The Bird King is a historical fantasy set around the time of the Spanish Inquisition, wherein white, Christian Spain was forcibly converting other races and religions. While trying to escape from those who wish her harm, Fatima is on a quest for find the Bird King with her friend Hassan, who can draw maps that can change reality. The Bird King is an elegant fantasy with a lot of mystique and intrigue. The historical timeline grounds this in reality while also offering mythological wonder.
I somewhat regret “winning” this book, because I think it would have been better received by others. This book is lovely, but at the end of the day, it was too “high fantasy” for me. While the writing is graceful, and the structure of the story offers something fresh to the fantastical narrative, i found the overall tale to be fairly typical. I was never really engaged with the plot or the characters. However, I blame at least 75% of my disinterest in this book on the fact that I fully believe this was not for me.
As I mentioned, the plot is a fairly typical journey story. Some of the travelling timeline didn’t make sense to me, and while the ending offers up some explanation, I spent a good bit of the book confused. If you enjoy the travel narrative (i.e. Lord of the Rings, The Wizard of Earthsea), you will most likely enjoy this story. I recommend it on comparison rather than my actual reading experience.
The characters were decently distinct, and very complex. There’s also some excellent diverse representation in here. At times, I found the dialogue to be a bit anachronistic. But, this is fantasy, so that’s not all bad. And as we spend so much time with a select few fellows, this story leans toward a character-development narrative, even with an action-based plot.
The writing style in this book is lovely. It’s elegant and ethereal. I think at times it was inconsistent--dialogue felt super “modern,” while descriptions were more time-period-specific. There was also just, a lot of description. Overall, it was appropriate to its genre, if not my personal favorite.
And here we have the end of the most vague review ever, because, to be honest, I really didn’t enjoy this book. But I think the problems were “between reader and the page.” I don’t enjoy stories like this, and when I first read the blurb, I didn’t know what I was in for. So, rather than stamping this with my own disinterest, I want to recommend this to every fantasy fan out there--I think you will love this in its subtleties and complexities, and I wish you happy, happy reading.
I somewhat regret “winning” this book, because I think it would have been better received by others. This book is lovely, but at the end of the day, it was too “high fantasy” for me. While the writing is graceful, and the structure of the story offers something fresh to the fantastical narrative, i found the overall tale to be fairly typical. I was never really engaged with the plot or the characters. However, I blame at least 75% of my disinterest in this book on the fact that I fully believe this was not for me.
As I mentioned, the plot is a fairly typical journey story. Some of the travelling timeline didn’t make sense to me, and while the ending offers up some explanation, I spent a good bit of the book confused. If you enjoy the travel narrative (i.e. Lord of the Rings, The Wizard of Earthsea), you will most likely enjoy this story. I recommend it on comparison rather than my actual reading experience.
The characters were decently distinct, and very complex. There’s also some excellent diverse representation in here. At times, I found the dialogue to be a bit anachronistic. But, this is fantasy, so that’s not all bad. And as we spend so much time with a select few fellows, this story leans toward a character-development narrative, even with an action-based plot.
The writing style in this book is lovely. It’s elegant and ethereal. I think at times it was inconsistent--dialogue felt super “modern,” while descriptions were more time-period-specific. There was also just, a lot of description. Overall, it was appropriate to its genre, if not my personal favorite.
And here we have the end of the most vague review ever, because, to be honest, I really didn’t enjoy this book. But I think the problems were “between reader and the page.” I don’t enjoy stories like this, and when I first read the blurb, I didn’t know what I was in for. So, rather than stamping this with my own disinterest, I want to recommend this to every fantasy fan out there--I think you will love this in its subtleties and complexities, and I wish you happy, happy reading.