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schneefink) wrote2023-01-26 10:41 pm
schneefink) wrote2023-01-26 10:41 pm
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A Chorus of Dragons
When I posted my review of "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell" I noticed that I hadn't posted about books at all in 2022. At first I was surprised but on second thought it makes sense: I read very little last year compared to other years, mostly because I've been playing computer games a lot more. And none of the books I did read I especially loved.
There was only one series I had many feelings about: A Chorus of Dragons by Jenn Lyons. I read the first three books, and I just found two half-finished posts about the first two in my drafts. I read these books in March and April so I don't remember all the details anymore, but I'll post what I wrote anyway because while I found several things frustrating (some worldbuilding things, some very hypocritical characters, a lot of plot that seemed to hinge on people not fucking talking to each other about their plans) there were a lot of things I did enjoy a lot (other worldbuilding things, cool magic and mythology, some good plot twists, other very interesting characters and relationships, some very nice angst and h/c.) The first book has one of my favorite examples of framing devices I have ever seen; sadly the second one tries something similar and fails badly.
Notes include many spoilers.
The Ruin of Kings:
I heard there were different timelines and worried that would be confusing, but that was not at all the case. If anything I had to concentrate to keep up with which body was which person, considering the Stone of Shackles, Talon, and powerful illusion magic were all in play. Made it very interesting too.
The thing that annoyed me most was the two year timeskip. You just spent so much time building up e.g. the Kihrin and Teraeth relationship, and then you have a two year timeskip and suddenly they're best friends and this is never expanded on? Booo. That annoyed me so much. (Also, in two years they didn't come up with a better plan? Maybe thought about contacting Emperor Sandus in advance or something?)
I kind of want the AU where Sharanakal accidentally kills Kihrin while he wears the Stone of Shackles and suddenly Kihrin is in the body of a dragon xD
Kihrin did make a few choices I thought were stupid but he's a teenager and heat of the moment etc, I mostly managed not to hold it against him. He's also not that well informed – seriously, in two years nobody explained to him exactly how the Stone of Shackles works and what it's for? If he'd known he could have, idk, used Urthaenriel to destroy Thurvishar's gaesh to get his help to fight Gadrith, something like that.
I wonder if Thaena knew where Tyentso was when she Returned her and what it would mean xD
The Name of All Things:
Joratese society: I hate it. "The terms stallion and mare only designate rank and have nothing to do with sex, except all the times when they do, but it's totally not sexist we swear." *eyeroll* They also seem to have no concept of a partnership between equals, which I hate. And Janel said that the strongest idorrá is not necessarily the strongest fighter and that the herd chooses the leader, but almost everything we see shows that either being or having the strongest fighter is indeed crucial. And there's no slavery, nope, people who refuse to submit to authority just have to be "rehabilitated" for their own good. Ugh.
Janel is especially hypocritical. "Honor requires to submit to those stronger/above you, but I don't like those above me so I owe my thudajé only to the goddess herself" what a convenient loophole.
I was willing to give Janel the benefit of the doubt, even then, but then she met Teraeth and asked Thaena to basically give him to her as a boon and uuugh. Disgusting. (And Teraeth was disappointed she didn't recognize him from elsewhere – I wouldn't be surprised if she was his wife from his previous life *eyeroll*) I'm also rolling my eyes that the only two people we ever see Janel find even moderately attractive are Teraeth and Kihrin.
The framing devices in this story also work much less well than in the first one. In the first book Kihrin and Talon were telling each other stories to pass the time. Here Janel and Qown are telling a story because they want to give Kihrin information, except the way they do it is incredibly inefficient. Most of the narration is unnecessary, especially grating considering they have no idea how much time they have, and they start in the middle of Janel's story and later fill in the important backstory when they talk about telling it to other people, which makes no sense. I don't know yet how Senera got a transcript…
I really liked the reveal that Father Zajhera is Relos Var! …which was immediately ruined by the reveal that Qown had not told Janel yet. Wtf. His gaesh was destroyed three days ago.
I was also annoyed by how the Name of All Things and the Worldhearth were used, seems like they could have been utilized better. [I wish I had written more detailed notes on that because I remember I had some specific ideas.]
The Memory of Souls:
I only wrote about this on Goodreads: "This book had so many elements that I enjoyed that I am slightly baffled myself that I did not like it more. Maybe because there were so many characters that I was told are smart and really were shown to be very competent but the whole conflict seemed to be the result of people refusing to talk about their long-term plans, which got very frustrating quickly. My favorite character was Thurvishar, followed closely by Valathea (I enjoyed the increased prominence of the "older generations" and their own complicated relationships), and there was some very delicious angst especially for Teraeth near the end."
I also remember being very disappointed that I didn't warm up to Janel more, I was really hoping for it but I still didn't like her. That stopped me from really enjoying an otherwise very promising threesome relationship.
I probably would have read the fourth book if DD hadn't told me that she strongly disliked it, similarly to book 2, and that was so discouraging that I stopped. In the meantime book five has come out and seems to have been well received, at least according to Goodreads ratings, so maybe I'll continue and finish the series eventually.
There was only one series I had many feelings about: A Chorus of Dragons by Jenn Lyons. I read the first three books, and I just found two half-finished posts about the first two in my drafts. I read these books in March and April so I don't remember all the details anymore, but I'll post what I wrote anyway because while I found several things frustrating (some worldbuilding things, some very hypocritical characters, a lot of plot that seemed to hinge on people not fucking talking to each other about their plans) there were a lot of things I did enjoy a lot (other worldbuilding things, cool magic and mythology, some good plot twists, other very interesting characters and relationships, some very nice angst and h/c.) The first book has one of my favorite examples of framing devices I have ever seen; sadly the second one tries something similar and fails badly.
Notes include many spoilers.
The Ruin of Kings:
I heard there were different timelines and worried that would be confusing, but that was not at all the case. If anything I had to concentrate to keep up with which body was which person, considering the Stone of Shackles, Talon, and powerful illusion magic were all in play. Made it very interesting too.
The thing that annoyed me most was the two year timeskip. You just spent so much time building up e.g. the Kihrin and Teraeth relationship, and then you have a two year timeskip and suddenly they're best friends and this is never expanded on? Booo. That annoyed me so much. (Also, in two years they didn't come up with a better plan? Maybe thought about contacting Emperor Sandus in advance or something?)
I kind of want the AU where Sharanakal accidentally kills Kihrin while he wears the Stone of Shackles and suddenly Kihrin is in the body of a dragon xD
Kihrin did make a few choices I thought were stupid but he's a teenager and heat of the moment etc, I mostly managed not to hold it against him. He's also not that well informed – seriously, in two years nobody explained to him exactly how the Stone of Shackles works and what it's for? If he'd known he could have, idk, used Urthaenriel to destroy Thurvishar's gaesh to get his help to fight Gadrith, something like that.
I wonder if Thaena knew where Tyentso was when she Returned her and what it would mean xD
The Name of All Things:
Joratese society: I hate it. "The terms stallion and mare only designate rank and have nothing to do with sex, except all the times when they do, but it's totally not sexist we swear." *eyeroll* They also seem to have no concept of a partnership between equals, which I hate. And Janel said that the strongest idorrá is not necessarily the strongest fighter and that the herd chooses the leader, but almost everything we see shows that either being or having the strongest fighter is indeed crucial. And there's no slavery, nope, people who refuse to submit to authority just have to be "rehabilitated" for their own good. Ugh.
Janel is especially hypocritical. "Honor requires to submit to those stronger/above you, but I don't like those above me so I owe my thudajé only to the goddess herself" what a convenient loophole.
I was willing to give Janel the benefit of the doubt, even then, but then she met Teraeth and asked Thaena to basically give him to her as a boon and uuugh. Disgusting. (And Teraeth was disappointed she didn't recognize him from elsewhere – I wouldn't be surprised if she was his wife from his previous life *eyeroll*) I'm also rolling my eyes that the only two people we ever see Janel find even moderately attractive are Teraeth and Kihrin.
The framing devices in this story also work much less well than in the first one. In the first book Kihrin and Talon were telling each other stories to pass the time. Here Janel and Qown are telling a story because they want to give Kihrin information, except the way they do it is incredibly inefficient. Most of the narration is unnecessary, especially grating considering they have no idea how much time they have, and they start in the middle of Janel's story and later fill in the important backstory when they talk about telling it to other people, which makes no sense. I don't know yet how Senera got a transcript…
I really liked the reveal that Father Zajhera is Relos Var! …which was immediately ruined by the reveal that Qown had not told Janel yet. Wtf. His gaesh was destroyed three days ago.
I was also annoyed by how the Name of All Things and the Worldhearth were used, seems like they could have been utilized better. [I wish I had written more detailed notes on that because I remember I had some specific ideas.]
The Memory of Souls:
I only wrote about this on Goodreads: "This book had so many elements that I enjoyed that I am slightly baffled myself that I did not like it more. Maybe because there were so many characters that I was told are smart and really were shown to be very competent but the whole conflict seemed to be the result of people refusing to talk about their long-term plans, which got very frustrating quickly. My favorite character was Thurvishar, followed closely by Valathea (I enjoyed the increased prominence of the "older generations" and their own complicated relationships), and there was some very delicious angst especially for Teraeth near the end."
I also remember being very disappointed that I didn't warm up to Janel more, I was really hoping for it but I still didn't like her. That stopped me from really enjoying an otherwise very promising threesome relationship.
I probably would have read the fourth book if DD hadn't told me that she strongly disliked it, similarly to book 2, and that was so discouraging that I stopped. In the meantime book five has come out and seems to have been well received, at least according to Goodreads ratings, so maybe I'll continue and finish the series eventually.