Listen, I hate to be dragging down this author’s Goodreads rating any further than it already is. It seems like the majority of 1 star reviews on hereListen, I hate to be dragging down this author’s Goodreads rating any further than it already is. It seems like the majority of 1 star reviews on here are review bombs without having read the book. I, on the other hand, have read the book, and there was so much wrong with it I don’t really know where to start.
1) Suspension of disbelief. There were so many instances where I was required, as a reader, to simply accept that something ridiculous had happened. Protagonist Leto makes a series of increasingly nonsensical decisions and then is never questioned or suspected by anyone around her. How did 2 women with no sailing experience crew a Grecian boat to Ithaca without raising eyebrows? How can a small city manage to sacrifice 12 girls every year for centuries without having significant impact on that town’s population?
2) Poorly researched. Apparently this book is set in Ancient Greece, but only the occasional name of an item of clothing or references to the Greek Gods and Odysseus tells you this.
3) Poorly executed. Why does one of the characters fall in love with the person who killed them? Why does everyone fall in love so quickly? All these things needed far more nuance and greater explanation.
4) Pacing. All over the place. The opening and ending are the best parts of this book. Everything else is a meandering, boring mess.
5) Cheating bisexual trope. This book is marketed as a sapphic book, but one of the characters is bi and in a love triangle with a man who she doesn’t tell her girlfriend about. I hate it here. I gave her the benefit of the doubt when it was all just still flirting, but nope, things didn’t stop there. This trope needs to die or at the very least directly addressed if you’re going to keep it in.
The beginning of the book was brutal and I really liked how things were resolved at the end of the book. I will at least give the book credit there where it’s due.
Overall, not the book for me. I read it as part of the Illumicrate March readalong and finished it only because I was enjoying the lively discussion so much. If you like juvenilely-written stories loosely inspired by Greek myths and packed full of YA tropes like love triangles, angry girls and rash choices, this is the book for you....more
I've heard so many great things about 'The Plated Prisoner' series. Everyone seems to say that it's a bit like 'A Court of Thorns and Roses' in that tI've heard so many great things about 'The Plated Prisoner' series. Everyone seems to say that it's a bit like 'A Court of Thorns and Roses' in that the first book is merely 'OK' and then things get really good a couple of books in. This has certainly has tracked so far from my reading experience of 'Gild', in that it was a solid 3/5 star read, meaning that I liked it, but it wasn't brilliant. Certainly it is not a new favourite... yet.
'Gild' tells the story of Auren, a woman who has been touched with gold by Midas, the King of Sixth Kingdom, and kept within a luxuriously gilded cage inside his gold-touched palace. I'm not quite sure why I didn't twig this before going in, but Auren is essentially kept as King Midas's sex slave, and if there's one kind of storyline I really struggle to read, it's when the main character is sold into slavery. The fact that Auren appears to have some serious Stockholm Syndrome going on as far as Midas is concerned did not make me feel any less uncomfortable. Combined with the constant sexual threat Auren and her fellow 'saddles' (a horrible word for the King's official courtesans) are under, and I'd be lying if I said at times, it didn't all get a bit too much for me. The only thing that kept me going was knowing that Auren, most likely, was gonna break free at some point, and the knowledge that people say the series improves from book 2 onwards.
Discomfort aside (which is very much a me thing, because the book makes no bones about the fact it's a dark romantasy), I still found this a fun read. The writing—although certainly nothing to write home about—has an informal, addictive quality to it that makes it easy to devour the book over a very short span of time (it took me 3 days, but I reckon, honestly, I could've managed it in 1 or 2 if I'd really tried). It's also very easy to root for Auren, the Plated Prisoner herself, because although she is naïve in a lot of ways, she's also pretty sassy and feisty and always looking out for other women even though the vast majority of them hate her guts. The vast majority of men in this book are truly repulsive and treat all saddles as objects, but we see the impact of that on the saddles, and how they deal with unwanted attention, and also, how some of them gradually come to terms with their own internalised misogyny and prejudices. They are humanised to the reader, despite being objectified by the other characters constantly, and I really like that.
I really enjoyed the ending with the whole snow pirates segment and I look forward to learning more about the world of Orea outside of Sixth Kingdom and Auren's cage; about the mysterious Fourth Kingdom, King Ravinger and Commander Rip.
Overall a bit of a mixed bag, but I knew it would be when I started so I don't mind. I look forward to reading the next one (we buddy read this one on the Fantasy Fellowship and are continuing on with the series) and am excited to see where things go!...more
This is a lovely first volume which compiles the first few episodes of the excellent Webtoon comic, Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe. Lore Olympus retellThis is a lovely first volume which compiles the first few episodes of the excellent Webtoon comic, Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe. Lore Olympus retells the myth of Hades and Persephone in a sleek contemporary setting where all the gods and goddesses are different colours.
It was so nice to revisit the story of Lore Olympus in this new format. Whilst I think the web comic is slightly more impactful in the way it looks on a scrolling screen, the designers did a really great job of transitioning that from screen to page. Rachel Smythe’ artwork is absolutely beautiful; simple, yet incredibly expressive, and often very witty and funny.
Her character work is also excellent. Her quiet, reclusive, fastidious Hades sparks nicely off the sweetly naive Persephone, and everyone around them is equally as memorable for good (my favourite character, Eros) or for ill (the loathsome Apollo). The story borrows from but is not dictated by the original mythology, and it’s just a really fresh, clever take on a familiar tale.
Absolutely loved this. Will certainly be buying and reading the next volumes (gosh, there’s going to be loads though, isn’t there?). Even though I’ve read and am up to date with the Webtoon comic, this was still very much worth my time....more
A short but very bitter story about Galatea—the wife of the sculptor Pygmalion, who started out life as a statue before being brought to life by the GA short but very bitter story about Galatea—the wife of the sculptor Pygmalion, who started out life as a statue before being brought to life by the Goddess Aphrodite. Miller goes in on the darker, misogynistic aspects of this tale, giving Galatea humanity and a desire for independence whilst all Pygmalion wants a beautiful, supplicant wife.
For such a short story, this was a surprisingly uncomfortable read. Pygmalion is utterly repulsive and cruel, a shallow rapist, abuser and control freak. I really felt for Galatea and was desperate for her to escape his clutches and that of her doctors. Whilst the writing is very beautiful (as I’ve come to expect from Madeline Miller) I’m not very happy with the ending, which was a mixture of very satisfying and not at all satisfying, with one outcome coming at the expense of the other.
Still, Madeline Miller packs a lot into such a short little book. I absolutely raced through it, and do think it’s worth a read whether you’re familiar with Madeline Miller or not....more
This was a nice, easy to read historical fiction novel inspired by the Greek myth of Pandora’s Box. Both the story and the prose are nothing spectaculThis was a nice, easy to read historical fiction novel inspired by the Greek myth of Pandora’s Box. Both the story and the prose are nothing spectacular but I still had a fun time. It also has one of the most truly hateable out and out villains I’ve read in a while.
For a book so focused around the black market trade of antiquities, I was a bit disappointed that the role of the British Empire in plundering Greece artifacts was never really raised. There was very little nuance in relation to this subject which threw me out of the book a bit. I think it would have been a more interesting read to have that kind of topic included.
I really enjoyed the side characters (Lady Latimer being a particular favourite).
Overall glad I read this. Recommended to those looking for a nicely paced, ambiguously supernatural historical mystery....more
Confession time: I would never have picked up this book had it not been recommended to me—repeatedly—by my very good friends, Harli and Paris. I know Confession time: I would never have picked up this book had it not been recommended to me—repeatedly—by my very good friends, Harli and Paris. I know Marlon James primarily as a literary fiction writer, and literary fiction really isn't my cup of tea. My interest was piqued when marketeers began touting this book as a West African Game of Thrones, so I downloaded a sample to read from Amazon. All that did was confirm my suspicions the book and I wouldn't get on. This was doubly confirmed when the initial reviews started pouring in, and they were almost wholly negative. And so my interest waned again. Life is too short, I figured, to be reading things you know you're not going to enjoy.
But still, Harli and Paris insisted I would love it. They told me the reviews were misleading; that some people were straight-up wrong with their critiques of excessive misogyny, rape and senseless violence—that the readers were so blind to their own Western prejudices that they were not reading comprehensively. When one of my favourite Goodreaders, Ashley (whom I trust almost implicitly, I would add) posted this extremely well thought-out and nuanced review, I realised I probably needed to tackle this beast for myself.
I'm so, so glad I did. Marlon James' Black Leopard, Red Wolf is a masterpiece; a dense, visceral and challenging read that does not allow for passive reading (not quite House of Leaves-level, but close!). I consider myself a pretty speedy reader, but I could not fly through this monster no matter how hard I tried. It took me over two whole months to devour, and I had to take breaks in-between.
Ultimately though, this book was something to savour. Reading it was an incredibly fulfilling experience and unlike anything I've ever read before. The unfamiliar, looping writing style (echoing the oral tradition of West-African mythology and folktales) did take a little while for me to get used to, but as with my experience of reading Taiye Selasi's Ghana Must Go (which I think is written in a similar, if slightly more poetic style), I settled into it surprisingly quickly—especially given my initial reluctance. The more I read, the more vividly the images came. Marlon James is a beautiful writer; incredibly skilled and unflinchingly 'masculine' in his descriptions—bold, frank and terrifying all at once. I can only dream of writing like this but I can't help but think I lack the cultural capacity to do so, let alone the skill. His world-building is bloody and visceral, conveyed mostly through animalistic, primordial smells like piss, sweat, sex and feces (main character Tracker has an uncanny sense of smell, and how do animals track? Through scent-marking involving all of the above bodily fluids, so it makes perfect sense). Despite these initially confrontational and, for lack of a better word, 'ugly' descriptions, the world they portray is undeniably gorgeous. Vast, epic, vibrant and lush, I could picture everything so perfectly: from the river villages of the Ku and Gangatom, to the suffocatingly oppressive thickets of Darklands; from the dingy labyrinths of the Kongor archives, to the enormous, towering treehouses of Dolingon.
On top of this sprawling, epic world, Black Leopard, Red Wolf contains an enormous cast of characters that include a delightful array of endearing misfits, sneaky slavers, benevolent giants and power-hungry kings (I made heavy use of the several maps provided throughout the book, along with the hefty cast list; I never felt lost or like I didn't know where I was). There are also a veritable ton of gods and monsters that frequently sent me scampering to Google to enhance my knowledge whilst reading. My absolute favourite Marlon James-interpretation of a West-African myth was (view spoiler)[that of a vampiric creature called the Adze. In Togolese and Ghanaian myth the Adze takes the form of a firefly and is used to explain deaths by malaria, but in Black Leopard, Red Wolf, the Adze manifests as a swarm of flies capable of forming the shape of a human—especially when it swarms its victim and feasts; it covers their body entirely. (hide spoiler)] I loved this interpretation! It's such an original and horrifying twist. This book is full of stuff like that. As a white European, West-African mythology is so little-known to me. I felt like a little kid again, learning all about the Greeks and Romans for the very first time. It was just so wonderful.
On the subject of the aforementioned violence and misogyny other reviewers seem to take so much issue with... yes, Black Leopard, Red Wolf contains an awful lot of it. In my opinion though, these things were never portrayed in a way that was unnecessary and deliberately offensive, and certainly they are not reflective of the views of the author; it genuinely baffles me that people can say that. Sexual violence, if depicted, impacts both men and woman and has ramifications that reverberate throughout the entire story; it's never just dropped and forgotten. On top of that, the accusations that the book is actively misogynist and/or homophobic are straight-up wrong. The world James draws inspiration from (historical West Africa and West-African mythology) is deeply violent and sexually frank with huge power imbalances and a history of slavery before the Europeans showed up, so it makes sense for him to build his world and tell his story this way. He himself is an openly gay black man, drawing on his own experiences to tell Tracker's story, who is also a gay black man. In order to challenge a particular worldview held within that world, the author must first portray it. And he does this with Tracker, who—in the tradition of African folktales being spun by a trickster —is a fallible narrator.
Within the first few pages, the reader is informed all is not as it seems. The story you're reading is not straight-forward first person, but in fact a trial record written by an Inquisitor—therefore Tracker's captor, interrogator and torturer. So you've got Tracker filtering his recounting of events through dialogue, which in turn is filtered through the Inquisitor's account. You are encouraged to question everything Tracker says, or what the Inquisitor writes, and determine whether or not it's the truth. Ergo, if you're not into reading between the lines and navigating subtext, this isn't the book for you.
With that said, Tracker, both as a character and narrator, is deeply fallible. He carries a lot of baggage and a lot of hate—especially when it comes to women—largely due to his relationship with his mother, but also because he is gay in a homophobic, patriarchal society which associates gayness with femininity—and therefore wickedness and weakness. This skewed worldview influences his perception of other characters, and because the story is told by Tracker—a self-loathing misogynist—you're going to end up reading a lot of hateful language, and a lot about how Tracker doesn't care a lot about anything. Who wants to read a book about a hateful character who doesn't give a toss about other people, or finding the boy he's been tasked with?
The truth is, Tracker does care. A lot. It was clear to me throughout my reading that nothing matters more to Tracker than finding this boy—for reasons that vary and change as the story goes along—and that the fate of the entire kingdom also depends on it. Why else would so many factions wish to find him? Why is Tracker in prison and being tortured for his death? In addition to this, other characters—usually women, but sometimes men—frequently call Tracker out on his problematic, apathetic, misogynistic behaviour. Sometimes he listens, sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes he will even refute their arguments, and then go away and think about it for a little while (although he won't explicitly tell you that's what he's doing). Gradually, over the course of the tale, Tracker changes. And it saddens me that so many readers seem to be missing this nuance.
Ultimately, I think Black Leopard Red Wolf is a completely unique, ground-breaking fantasy written by a decorated literary fiction author who clearly loves the fantasy genre. By approaching it with fresh eyes he utterly defies all Western convention for the better, and I can't wait to read the second book in this trilogy, Moon Witch, Night Devil. I'm so pleased I listened to my friends' advice... my gut instinct can't always be right!...more
I’d say this is definitely my least favourite Brom book so far. Don’t get me wrong, a bad book by Brom is still a good book in comparison to everythinI’d say this is definitely my least favourite Brom book so far. Don’t get me wrong, a bad book by Brom is still a good book in comparison to everything else, but Lost Gods had one fatal fatal flaw: a glacially slow pace.
Despite some truly stellar world-building (fans of Dante’s Inferno will find lots to appreciate here), beautiful artwork (as always) and some deliciously dark twists and turns (that ending! wow), the middle of this book was a slog. I nearly put it down several times, particularly during the segment entitled ‘The Games’. I’m not really a fan of “journey” books — you know the ones; stories where the plot centres around characters travelling vast distances across weird and wonderful landscapes. I also feel a bit like the Demons — who didn’t really show up until the end — were very underused, and for a damned soul, Chet was never in any danger of being dragged off to Hell (plus we never actually got to see Hell... some missed opportunities here!)
Overall, not my cup of tea. But if you love dark, twisted “journey” tales filled with excellent world-building that riffs off old mythologies... you’ll find lots to love here. Enjoy!...more
I am not entirely unfamiliar with Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. I seem to remember watching some kind of film on a plane once. It was terriblI am not entirely unfamiliar with Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. I seem to remember watching some kind of film on a plane once. It was terrible.
Consequently, I had absolutely no desire to read the book series, not to mention that by the time I had actually heard of it, I was in my early 20s and no longer a child. Nevertheless, Percy Jackson was repeatedly recommended to me by more than one person assuring me it was nothing like the film and a really good children's book. Watching Christina Riccio's BookTube videos praising the series eventually convinced me to give it a go. And what do you know? They were right.
I really enjoyed this book. The narrative is fast-paced, full of action and little knowing quips and in-jokes about the Greek mythology it uses to fuel its characterisation and plot. The plot itself I thought was really tight and rollicking good fun, and the explanations as to why young kids are allowed to go out and travel the world alone battling monsters was actually pretty believable and worked very well (they're demigods and Heroes, of course). Unfortunately some characterisation for the protagonists fell on the wayside in favour of this at times (with the exception of sassy, acid-tongued Annabeth), but the modernised Gods, especially Ares, were awesome.
The main thing that let this book down for me was the sheer lack of believability that a God, a multiple-millennia-year-old centaur, a satyr and several Camp Half-Blood year-rounders, all of whom are supposed experts in Greek mythology with many, many years of experience, could not figure out the father of a demigod boy who can control water for God's sake. Also we later learned that Percy's sword was given to Chiron to give to Percy by Poseidon, so colour me confused as to why Chiron didn't know who Percy's father was either. There were a couple of other instances as well where I found myself thinking, "Remember the myth... THE MYTH, YOU FOOLS!" but alas, off everyone went headlong into danger, completely oblivious. Clearly these kids never read Greek Myths for Young Children by Marcia Williams.
Will I continue to read the Percy Jackson series? Absolutely. It's a kid's book after all, and all kids' books demand some suspension of belief. How else would I be able to put up with America constantly being described as the 'jewel of the west' in the present day and age and George Washington apparently being a Son of Athena i.e. a good strategist? Just kidding. Mostly I want to carry on reading the series because I really, really enjoyed this book. It was fast, fun and despite a couple of inaccuracies and inconsistencies, really quite clever. I'm just sad this series wasn't around when I was younger; I would have been obsessed....more
