Book Review: The Forgetting Moon (The Five Warrior Angels #1) by Brian Lee Durfee

 

Publishing Date: 2016

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 3.2/5

Review: 

What I liked most about this novel was that the world building is expansive and immersive due to the high level of detail that was spent on each scene. This author excels at bringing to life the environment in which his characters reside. For ‘We’ that think in images, this feels like you are right there, shivering the night away in endless mountainous cold. The character development was good for some and so-so to bad for others. The dwarf, Culpa, Saint Only and Jovan develop and mature in character while others get mired in myopic self-discernment for really no reason at all.

What wore a thorn in my side was the blundering and oftentimes convoluted plot that rested solely on a characters bad choices.  These choices are obvious to the reader thereby reducing a once complex character into component emotive parts.  I often thought while reading, “How dumb was that?”. What I once thought as smart and clever characters, would repeatedly place themselves back into bad situations. Another downer was the love addled people that could barely form a thought when around their desires. Even when treated like shjt they go moon-eyed when in their presence. Jondralyn was a great character written in bold intelligent strokes that would suddenly fall to stubbornness, ego and stupidity.  Even in real life it is hard to get behind stupid characters.

Every chapter has a passage from some religious tome that may or may not have any bearing on content. More a distraction than something that should have been revealing.

I bought the next bookie so let’s see where this goes.

Book Review: The Slow Regard of Silent Things by P. Rothfuss

 

Publishing Date: 2014

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 3.0/5

Review: This may have been formerly titled, “The Slow Regard of Really Boring Scenes”. If possible, that would make for an excruciating read that falls down your pants like a red hot poker. While dragging my bleeding eyes across the span of incomprehensibility, I was overcome with something akin to anathema towards my misplaced critique.   This was a burgeoning reveal of elegance that scrabbles in a timeless shift of reasoning. In short, Auri discerns her reality through a set of fractured lenses yet boldly moves through space with her hitched gate.

While this novel is not relevant to the King Killer series, it is a brief inter-lude that explores the life of a girl that affected Kvothe at a visceral level.  An interesting and alarming read that captures your imaginative attention. As this was novella in length, the rating bar only ceilings at 3 stars. If this went to a full novel length you would be screaming from the rafters.

Book Review: The Wise Man’s Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle #2) by Patrick Rothfuss

 

Publishing Date: 2011

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 3.7/5

Review: Not as good as the first but still an engrossing epic fantasy.

So what brought this down from loftier heights? The Fae Felurian segment was long and bereft of content. It goes nowhere but in her. The interactions are one-dimensional and lack depth except when in her. The time spent with the Adema was structured around understanding their culture, which was boring as fuk. He fights, he learns, he humps, he leaves.

At any rate the feminists should be mollified that there is a whole society devoted to the equal treatment of everyone, with an emphasis on female leadership and societal structure.

Book Review: The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle #1) by P. Rothfuss

Publishing Date: 2007

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 4.9/5

Review: A fair amount of reviews out there already, so fast-forward….

This was really good in the character development and world building departments. Every supporting caste member is like a finely crafted watch that lends itself to the story line with impeccable timing. The story moves through time with ease and generates a sense of wonder with the various adventures that young Kvothe finds himself.

There were some reviewers that lamented the POV (first person) and the idea that women were not treated as equal throughout. It is a fantasy, set in a timeline crafted from ones sense of perspective in made-up-landia. There were a plethora of instances where women are not only strong in hand but strong leaders within their societies. Societal Adema and the mercenaries strewn throughout are proof enough that women were more than equal in presentation and deference. Just as there were women under duress and treated poorly, more can be said about men being treated as less than equal (monarchical system). The narrative is not something I usually like due to the present affecting the outcome of the story, yet this was constructed to provide a slow reveal with belayed assumptions.

This is a long read yet well worth it.