Johanna

The apocalypse has never been funnier!

Revisado: 12-18-18

Absolutely hilarious!

This book is outlandishly bizarre and completely fun. I really love the deadpan delivery and absurd details that really make the story and characters excellent.

The narrator was absolutely perfect in his delivery and attitude!

I loved the interconnectedness of all the plotlines, although we didn't realize how they connected until the end. It was really interesting to see the divine origins of so many of the characters in the context of how they've been spending their time waiting for the End Times. Pratchett and Gaiman did a wonderful job developing ways for these being to spend their time that was hilarious and logical, such as War, or Anathema, descendant of a witch and only person possessing an accurate prophecy of the future, being into the absurdist conspiracy theorist and occultism. The mixing of true divinity and true absurdity is perfectly balanced.

The long-standing friendship between Crowley and Aziraphale is so wonderful. I love how they justify their friendship, as well as them acting out of their own interests almost all of the time, in order to continue really acting from a place of neutrality, as opposed to being the agents of hell and heaven respectively. Their love and friendship has transformed them into more neutral creatures, and I think that really shows the themes of choice and the effects of choosing things for oneself that are really central to the book. The fact that they both justify all their actions (prompted usually by the selfish motives of wanting to maintain their lives that they enjoy) as part of God's ineffable plan really shows the importance of making a choice for oneself. With the central theme being the importance of choosing, Pratchett and Gaiman show characters whose lives are not all about their own choices: Anathema is bound to Agnes' prophecies, Shadwell is bound to the Witch Hunter Army, as well as his own hatred of ..... well, everything. Then by the end of the book, they too realize that they can control their lives more and chose to.
Obviously Adam choosing to react in a certain way and to ignore some of his instincts are critical in the development of armageddon.

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Interesting and fun

Revisado: 12-18-18

Some of the voices are a bit much, but overall very good narration.

These books have been really fun reads in general.
However, Jaron makes what are quite possibly the worst possible decisions for any given situations-it always works out even if in a different way than he planned but it's torturous watching him choosing to do the dumbest possible thing every time he can throughout this entire novel.

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Exciting and rich

Revisado: 12-18-18

I loved how well all the voices were done. I'm glad that Victor didn't have an English accent for no reason in this one, as in the first.

I really love all the other characters introduced! Obviously I love the original characters (or I wouldn't have read the sequel) but I'm really happy we got to expand the universe a lot more. We learned a lot more about all the existing characters, as well as getting a good understanding of the new ones as well.
I really appreciate how masterfully done the moral grey-area all the characters can be placed in, especially because of how different all the characters' views are, so it wasn't just one type of morally grey juxtaposed with very evil and very righteous characters, which I feel like happens quite often.

I love the contrast of Victor's arcs; the first book was all about Victor utilizing his control and strength for his revenge against Eli, whereas in this one he is losing control and desperately trying to cling to it as a result of his revenge against Eli. Victor also has to face the fact that he cares for Mitch and Sydney, which makes him more vulnerable. In the first book, he can still deny that he keeps Mitch around because he likes him; here he is forced to admit that even though Mitch is extremely talented and useful, Victor also likes having him around. Similarly with Sydney, Victor can no longer say he just wants her near in case something happens; he acknowledges they slow him down and make him more vulnerable. Despite their usefulness, Victor grapples with the fact that he cares for them, which takes more control out of his hands.
I really loved how Victor had to face the consequences of his actions, and specifically to face the fact that all this was happening because he orchestrated so many things around him to play out to the way he willed them.

I love that we got to see more of Dominic. Between the way he was acting when Victor took his pain and when Victor died in the first book, Sydney says he's a lot worse when he's self-medicating, which made me hopeful we'd get to see him being who he was before the accident and get to know him better. I really love that he got his life together! I was hoping he could be more involved in the little family of victor, Mitch, and Syd, but I like that he's still there and important to them, even if he's not physically there. Seeing him and hearing his thoughts on himself, working, Victor, etc really helped the reader understand him better, so I really appreciated that. I loved his trust in his friends near the end.

I love Mitch; in another world, he would be like a normal Intel dad or something. I love how his Bad Luck is a constant but subtle thread in his life and that we see more of it. The way his Bad Luck was described was really interesting and I hope we can learn more in the next book, if there is one. Seeing how much Mitch cares for Sydney was so sweet; he even really cares for Victor, which was also very sweet. I'm glad we got to see more of his hacker skills, especially all of his friends (comrades? family?) appreciating him for this since he said in the first books that he hates how no one ever believes in his skill.

Sydney has grown up so much in the five years. The flashbacks were really helpful in filling in the past and understanding how and why Sydney is the way she is now. The frustration at never being taken seriously was so heartbreaking because she could never have a relationship with people her own age the way she longs for. When she first started trying to get stronger with her ability, I thought she was going to try to fix Victor. Once she started talking quite a lot about Serena, I realized I was wrong.

Marcella was such a dazzling star in the book. She was so interesting. It was easy to understand her point of view when she reminisced about how her husband kept her a trophy and nothing more. Her ideas on power and the new age of EO power reigning supreme were so interesting. I wish she and Victor could have met before he died the second time because it would have been absolutely fascinating. If Victor wasn't so focused on finding a way to fix himself, I wonder if he and Marcella would have gotten along. She's such a strong character- I want more!

June is so heartbreaking; I want to know her backstory. From the little bit at the end, the reader can tell she wants to be herself (at least sometimes) but she wants to protect herself more. The resulting power from her death can hint only at a very tragic event. I would have loved to hear how June died and her life before, although it makes sense that she wouldn't want us to know since the only true information were told about her is that everything we're being told is a lie.

I wish we knew more about Jonathan.

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Intense and intricate

Revisado: 12-18-18

I really like YA dystopian settings, and this one was really interesting. I'm so curious about why children were/are developing their abilities. At the beginning, I was surprised that they weren't being militarized, but it made sense that at least some of them were, especially given that it takes place in America. Obviously Ruby wouldn't know why the specific colors were chosen to correspond with certain abilities, and neither would most-if any- of her friends; it doesn't actually affect the story or my enjoyment of it, but I'm just curious because I'm interested in art and color theory.

I'm a little confused about why Bracken chose to connect this piece to "Watership Down" since the author of that has stated it wasn't any sort of allegory. Obviously in this, Bracken has created a parallel and an allegory but the source material isn't an allegory, so to me that's just a little bit of a weird hiccup stuck in my brain. The parallel works though, so it's moot.

I love Chubs; he is my favorite. I wish we could have gotten a bit less of a know-it-all trope with him, since his high intelligence wasn't like that important to other people (even though they occasionally relied on him for his vast knowledge, such as medically). I feel like his understandable caution was always sort of downplayed and the other characters sort of continually joked about his very solid reasoning. It's very surprising that Liam didn't rely on Chubs' judgement more than he does. Chubs doesn't try to push Liam into allowing him to be a bigger part of the decision-making processes, which is more understandable, given how charismatic and what a natural leader Liam is along with the fact that Chubs admires these traits and loves Liam, but I still would have expected that he would have worked to have Liam listen to his opinion more.

It's obvious that Ruby was really scared and traumatized by her past and it was reflected well in the way she was written. She was very defensive, yet completely desperate for companionship and trust. Her intensely traumatic reaction towards what happened with her parents when she turned ten, as well as the repeated incident with Sam, explains her wanting to be always be completely on-guard while being so willing to allow people into her life and heart, as she really craves. So much of Ruby's motivations come from a place of fear.
Ruby only wanted to protect her friends, which is why she did what she did at the every end of the novel, though I absolutely hate when characters decide to do something drastic for the good of a loved one without talking to that person at all.

I didn't need a "love triangle" between Liam and Clancy vying for Ruby's attention. I'm really bored of love triangles.
Ruby seemed like she would be paranoid enough to have at least suspected Clancy of messing with her mind when she was getting strong emotional responses and mental images (that she hadn't had any inclination towards beforehand) only when she was with him?

I wish we got to see more of Liam's character flaws; he was too perfect because we perceived him through Ruby's narration. I wish we could have gotten a more realistic view of him, probably though Chubs, since, even though he loves Liam like family, Chubs would be more honest about Liam and his weaknesses without being blinded by his love for Liam. Liam's charisma was his strongest attribute and I feel like that was almost overlooked. Ruby said that Liam makes friends easily, but it's more than that since he just sort of becomes an integral part of any group he's placed in and his peers look at him as a leader, which is really impressive and powerful.
Liam was similar to Ruby in the way that they would both suffer immensely to save a loved one from even slight suffering.

I feel like Zu was the stereotypical Sweet Perfect Little Sister Figure that we see constantly in media, specifically in YA and very specifically in dystopian YA, such as "Hunger Games." I was surprised when she went with her other friends and cousin, but it was obviously Clancy's scheme to try to make Ruby feel isolated so that she would have to turn to him only and the fact that Ruby suspected nothing is mildly shocking, but I can understand given her past trauma. Zu's honest and straightforward love and connection really helped Ruby feel more able in the most basic sense to have any sort of connection.

I was a bit disappointed in how Clancy's characterization ended up. The "sick and twist" evil guy is just so boring to me right now as well as the fact that I'm really unsure about his goals and motivations? If he wants to take over the world, he doesn't seem to be in the best position to do so? He clearly doesn't have pure or altruistic intentions. He wanted Ruby to help him in his ...... scheme, whatever it is, and to keep himself from feeling completely alone, which I think is a big motivator from the little I can glean at this point. I'm really curious as to where it will go in the next books!

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Funny and Heart-warming

Revisado: 12-18-18

I absolutely loved the narrator! He was able to keep a very stead volume, which was really appreciated! Good voices, very fun!

As with every Riordan book, "The Hammer of Thor" is outrageously fun and completely hilarious- I would expect nothing less.

It annoyed me that Magnus kept thinking of Loki as the god of evil, since that interpretation is going to lead to the wrong conclusions because evilness is not and never was Loki's motivation. I'm nervous that's going to come back to him.

I really admire Riordan's absolute commitment to representing people who he knows and does not see represented in other books, starting of course with his son having ADHD and dyslexia and making Percy as someone he can look to and see himself. I love that he understands the necessity and is continually working to make a positive change for children, starting with often overlooked mental illnesses to very marginalized groups.

Riordan makes a point to have Alex mention (twice I believe) that she doesn't- and cannot- speak on behalf of every genderfluid person, which I think is really important in both humanizing Alex as a character, as well as representing a genderfluid person with respect, integrity, and compassion. I love how he dealt with Alex as a character! From the beginning, her hallmates understood that she was genderfluid because of the clothes in the closet and didn't judge her for that- just being the child of Loki, but she proved herself so they didn't care about that one either. When she said she was a girl, everyone respected that; when he said he was a boy, everyone respected that as well.
Riordan made sure to have her rebuke ignorance and prejudice quickly, with self-respect and self-love, which is so important for younger readers (since this is a middle grade book). When she corrects Thor, he clearly doesn't really get it but Magnus says that at least he was trying and had learned a little bit more. Riordan also makes a point to show the struggles particular to non cisgender individuals, such as Alex, when Magnus recognized her from a shelter. Alex has such a huge personality, while still being completely different from the other characters, such as Sam who shares Loki as a parent, and I think she's a very important character for young readers who may see themselves in him or her.

I absolutely love how Riordan worked with Sam. Having a strictly Muslim character is bold, and we can tell that he really put a lot of integrity into representing her correctly. All the characters absolutely respect her faith, e.g. how she needs a chaperone when she's out with Amir, her daily prayers, her hijab, etc. He tackles the question of religion in ways he hasn't before this series about how someone who truly believes in their faith would understand the world after being pulled into the world of Old Gods and modern demigods, as well as when Amir's eyes are opened. I love how passionate she is and how human, especially in a time very much in want of compassionate and loving views of a Muslim character for children. Samira is strong, smart, loyal, driven, and extremely honorable- Riordan was very careful in making her and it's exquisite.
I also liked how Riordan portrayed Sam's relationship to Loki. She really pushes back against his power, and by allowing her a way to grow to accept those parts of herself from him as herself, through Alex, seems like it will be really healing for her.

Obviously I love Magnus. I love how, while both very sassy, he's different from Percy because Magnus is so gentle. I love that Riordan wrote a main character as a boy who is gentle and kind and compassionate, who loves his friends and they love him because of those qualities that are rarely given to boys in any media, especially main characters. At the end of the book, Alex even says to Magnus that he isn't a fighter. Again- I think that this is incredibly important for young readers, for the boys who don't want to fight and never can see boys like them in anything. Riordan really cares about his readers and making a place for them to be represented.
I also really like how Riordan continually reminds the reader that Magnus was homeless and living on the streets specifically by having him remember his experiences- usually in an almost throwaway style- and followed either by Magnus showing empathy and compassion because that was actually his life or by having some comic relief because frankly homelessness is a really big issue, especially if you're a young reader. I love how Riordan portrays homelessness; this isn't a story about the terrifying, titillating details of homelessness. Riordan isn't trying to claim someone else's story and write that. It's a part of Magnus without being the entire story. And Riordan uses this part of Magnus' history to show young readers that homeless people are still people who deserve respect, compassion, and maybe a delicious pastry like Magnus gave the guys he saw. By making not only the main character, but also Blitz and Hearth (who are arguably Magnus' family), Riordan shows a version of the complexity of homelessness in a way that young readers can understand. His inclusion of Alex and Magnus' immediate acknowledgement of how hard life is on genderqueer kids and teens, as well as gently showing the challenges that they face, really forces the reader into a place of empathy or complete isolation from the main character since Magnus is so strongly empathetic towards homeless people and especially understands how difficult life can be for people like Alex; allowing young readers to feel this empathy, as well as showing them that there are significant obstacles for marginalized people in a way that is respectful and not too harsh for children is completely masterful.

Blitz's repeated ability to save the day (or at least help to) by creating fashion and therefore being true to himself is so important, especially since he's a male role model for Magnus. Riordan shows that value comes from being oneself and that men (and the young boys reading this!) should follow their passions because those endeavours are going to be much more productive than if one tries to do what they think society thinks they should do, e.g. Blitz making functional fashion vs Blitz trying to make weapons in a more traditional dwarven sense. Also showing Blitz (and Hearth) having handicaps that have to be worked with but in no way at all diminish either their extreme value or Magnus' love is so important for young readers. Magnus saves Blitz by turning him to stone, which normally would be very bad but this time his weakness was the thing that saved him.

Hearth goes through so much in this book. We learned in the last book that Hearth had to leave his house because his father was abusive because he was deaf, which disgusted Magnus, therefore showing young readers that being deaf or having other disabilities that good people will treat other with respect and love you no differently just because you have a disability. We saw how traumatic it was for Hearth to go back and how important it is to get out of abusive situations. I really liked how Sif told Hearth that he needed to reclaim his brother's rune, eventually because that would signify his healing, which he obviously really needs.

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Absolutely shocking- pun intended!

Revisado: 08-07-18

Sometimes when there are a lot of narrators, it gets annoying when they pronounce things different, but it felt really harmonious to me.

The day after it came out, I saw a tweet from Aveyard commenting that while apparently some readers were unsatisfied with the ending, she felt it was the most true to the story and I agree. There aren't many other ways this could have played out while still feeling authentic I think.

I absolutely LOVED having so many POV's. I think if there had been so many in the earlier books, it would have been too overwhelming, hard to digest and just very hard to get into. Having all them in this book was amazing. I wish we could have maybe had added one or two POV's per book throughout the series, just so we could have gotten an even more complete understanding of the story, world, characters, etc. Watching the story unfold through different eyes was insanely interesting, as was seeing the characters the way a different narrator sees them.
I'm glad the final chapter/ epilogue was narrated by Mare; that aspect really helped give the feeling of closure.

Having such a personal look into some of the other cultures in this world was great, though I wish we could have gotten that sooner because they seemed really interesting to me.

I really loved the repetition of how Mavin was "ruined," even by himself, as opposed to just a monster or something that doesn't connote the fact that he was made to be the way he is. His narration was so fascinating to me because he was so aware of everything, everything that had been done to him and everything he lacked, yet he literally could not care about any of it. I actually would really love to read the entire series through Mavin's POV. If Aveyard rewrote all the books from Mavin's POV, I'd definitely buy the whole series again.

I really liked having Cal narrate and getting a look into this thoughts and feelings. Mare's narration is marred with her attraction and affection for him; Mavin's dialogue to Mare about Cal is filtered through what Elara did to him. It's really refreshing to see Cal truly, not through what the other characters think of him.

I wish we could have gotten to know Iris better. She's so complex, compounded with the fact that she's only introduced somewhat late in "King's Cage;" I feel like I still don't know her very well. But I loved having her POV; it contrasted so well with all the other characters.

I'm glad Mare is less whiny in this book, and she sort of accepted that she can't do anything about John. I didn't expect him to actually show up, just be mentioned, as before, but forcing Mare to face and reconcile her emotions about Shade's death and about John was a very effective piece of Mare's arc in this book, which I think was to mature. The Mare Barrow at the end of "War Storm" was not the Mare Barrow at the beginning of "Glass Sword." Which is great! Her personal development and identity has been so turbulent that I was amazed and very satisfied with her decision to focus on herself and who she truly is.

I wasn't expecting Premier Davidson to gamble on the power of love, on the seduction of freedom, on Evangeline, but it was an amazing shock when I realized that could actually be his plan! I'm glad was got more of Evangeline in this book. Seeing her family through her own loving, but honest, eyes was really great because Mare looked at them as a Red, making it very hard for the reader to understand why Evangeline and other Silvers are so unwaveringly loyal. I wish we got to see more of Elain, since she was a very important motivating factor for Evangeline.

I really thought that both Cal and Mavin would be dead by the end of the series because of how often the "Shadow and the Flame" analogy is used and how often it's repeated in the first book that "one cannot exist without the other." I thought maybe they both would make it in the end, but I was actually genuinely surprised only one survived.

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Gripping and compelling

Revisado: 08-07-18

I loved how much richer the world got- I really love folklore and seeing how Tahir introduced and wove the specific folklore for this world was so interesting and well done.
The subtle way it's presented and the amount of foreshadowing was so amazing.

I absolutely loved having Helene's POV. Since she's so loyal to the Empire, seeing her trying to figure out what is best and right as well as continuing to uphold her promises and honor was really interesting! Helene, Elias, and Laia all have such different perspectives, so it was great to have that contrast as well as an additional position to fill areas of the story the other narrator(s) can't see or know.

I really appreciated seeing Helene outside of Elias. At the beginning, she's so consumed with hunting, and the order to kill, her best friend and the boy she loves that we see mostly introspection, which was a good way to get to know her as a character. When we see Helene with her family, she becomes so much more complex. I loved seeing how she interacts with other characters, such as Dex, her subordinates, Faris, the family dynamics, etc. We became so much more rounded and I really appreciated that.
I liked how Helene and Faris are on their way to truly becoming comrades. I want her to have more people she can trust since she wants desperately to be a good person and help do what's best for the Empire. I'm so incredibly curious about Helene's magic and how her connections to people work and are going to play out.

I spent most of the book trying to understand how Elias' magic with ghosts worked- I really thought it was some special gift that was going to be explored, although it could still happen in the next book I guess. I liked how we got to see more of Elias' compassion and empathy towards other people in real life instead of just seeing those thoughts being present but repressed. It was really interesting to see how that manifests and the application with the spirits.

Laia's been processing a lot of guilt since the beginning of the first book- and I'm sick of it. She spent the first book berating herself for running and then trying to be as brave as she can. But this book, she spent so long thinking about if she likes Keenan or Elias better, and then feeling guilty, and then feeling guilty about something else, and then feeling guilty about another thing, etc. I'm bored with listening to Laia feeling guilty about things.
I feel like it took her a really long time to realize that she could only practice her magic, and feel confident, when Keenan wasn't around. She was apparently too busy feeling guilty about everything that's ever happened to notice.

I didn't notice the foreshadowing with the presence of the Night Bringer, how he keeps showing up and knows everyone. But the plot-twist reveal really made sense once it happened.

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Exciting and intriguing

Revisado: 08-07-18

It was really well-written: not too purple and not overly direct. The action felt tense and the descriptions were beautifully done.

All the characters were very different and therefore interesting.
Laia's struggle with the effects from her oppressed upbringing to find her courage was vey interesting to watch unfold. I liked how she went from not really wanting to fight against the Marshalls and only agreeing to do so because she loved her brother more than she feared them to truly understanding the plight of slaves and looking for hope and a way to keep that hope of a better world alive.

Elias' childhood and empathy really drove his character in such an interesting way, especially because his best friend, the person he loved most, was so completely loyal to the Empire. Seeing him struggle between his desperate desire to be free from the Empire and staying alive, wondering how he can live if he wins or someone else wins, or what kind of life that he could have since he knows the Aurors wouldn't let him not be the warrior king, loyal only to the Empire, they want.

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Thrilling and heartbreaking

Revisado: 08-07-18

I typically hate sci-fi space adventures, but the first was so well-written and just plain interesting, I could barely wait for the sequel!

I absolutely loved having more perspectives; it really enriched the story and helped the reader understand what was happening elsewhere.
I wish Eijeh (/Ryzek) could have narrated more because it was so intriguing and chaotic and totally different from any other perspective that I always wanted more!
The inclusion of Cisi's narration was very useful to know what was happening and why things were happening that Cyra and Akos wouldn't have known.

The deeper understanding of the Current that both Cyra and Akos separately come to was very satisfying, especially because I didn't feel as though I was missing anything about it after reading the first book, so to have this better handle on the Current as well as a nicer, more loving feeling of the characters towards the Current is just very nice and very satisfying as a reader.
Seeing Cyra accept her Current Gift as a gift was amazingly satisfying because it felt organic. It was something I somewhat hoped for in the first book, but it would have been awkward and forced had it happened any sooner than it did. I really liked her development in this book.

The switching of the infants blew my gd mind. I gasped out loud and had to pause my audiobook for a second to adjust. The fact that their Fates were now so different and didn't weigh on them as they did before was amazing. Seeing the change in the characters after learning this life altering truth about themselves was fascinating.
It was really intense and sweet and heartbreaking watching Cyra and Akos contemplate their families that raised them versus their blood family. That was very well-done; the reflections and adjustments felt very authentic.

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Phonomenal and complex

Revisado: 08-07-18

I loved seeing everything come together only to be destroyed, like so many plans of the past and then miraculously the plans that work. I loved how the characters developed even more as the relationships between all of them became more interesting and complex.

I want to reread it immediately!

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