It is an artful yet rather depressing novella about a family dealing with the pending death of their father. The grief brings out both love and a difficult past. The tension ratchets up the conflicts and relationships.
Tag - Fantasy Fiction
Starts a little slow but picks up by the end. It is middle grade so has a simplicity necessary for younger readers. I listened to it on audio so not sure if that impacted the way I engaged with it. I liked it but didn't love it.
It is a fascinating blend of history, magic and drama with religion, politics and family dynamics thrown in. Arden balances the old world's magic and the new world's religion well, and treats each seriously or at least with a sense of history. The characters have depth and personality even when they are not central focus.
Mind-bending and awesome are the words that come to mind after reading this book. Mind-bending in the different turns that the book takes (it goes to very unexpected places) and awesome in finding out the fate of different characters and the events that led to their destination.
It is great blend of urban fantasy, police procedural, and mystery. Peter Grant is a strong lead character but there is a nice mix of secondary characters, including London itself, and with enough action to keep the plot moving. Highly entertaining.
An entertaining and well done novella. Scalzi/Quinto drop you into the story and keep you interested from the start. It has an interesting hook and some well done twists. For such a short story, the characters were developed and seemed quite believable in their actions and motivations. Part urban fantasy, part police procedural, part mystery.
This is the kind of book where you want to lose yourself in the story and are compelled to read it whenever you have free time. But instead I had to force myself to finish it after I had invested time in starting. If you like big, messy, sprawling stories about a secret history with lots of violence and sex then this may be for you. Just didn't work for me.
The mythical elements are mixed well with a sort of coming of age story about friendships, family and loss. While it isn't exactly a thriller there is a nice mix of mystery, suspense and reflection. The characters are filled out enough to make the story work but there isn't a constant attempt to fill in the details and give everyone a complete backstory.
Some creative parts but overall it just seemed a little flat. There were lots of classical elements (changeling, sibling quest, underground world, test of character, etc.) but there was not enough magic to really make it grab you.
