The Stars, Like Dust by Isaac Asimov
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I liked that the antagonist was more than just some evil person – that he had reasons and felt like he was doing what was best.
Archive for the ‘Path’ Category
Pebble in the Sky by Isaac Asimov
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Interesting start with the whole time travel thing. I never expected that.
The Currents of Space by Isaac Asimov
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I loved the suspense and the twists and turns that this novel took.
The ending seemed a bit contrived to me, but it didn’t ruin the book at all.
Robots and Empire by Isaac Asimov
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I am enjoying this series. It was awesome to get to know Daneel and Giskard even better, and even take part in their conversations.
This is a rather long book (compared with the earlier ones), but it is not necessarily more action. There is a lot of introspection and dialogue here. But it was still fun to see the characters working against each other and planning against each other.
And Gladia is even more awesome now that she seems more independent!
Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I loved getting to know Princess Poppy better.
This was a fun and unique take on Cinderella.
For this second book in the series, Poppy is part of a royal exchange program and gets sent to a neighboring kingdom where she has to go toe-to-toe with a wanna-be princess who has her eye on the same prince as Poppy. The problem is that this wanna-be has a fairy godmother on her side.
Poppy is awesomely snarky and her character became much more real in this book.
I’d love to see 10 or 11 more books for each of the other princesses where they take on other fairy tales 😉 (it is 10 because while the first one is all 12, it has a lot to do with Rose. But, it might be nice to have Rose have her own too).
Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Oh my awesomeness! I so loved this book. I thought it might be a little too “girlie” for me, but I love Jessica’s writing and decided to read it anyway. It had all I could have wanted – romance, fighting, chivalry, war, family issues, magic, lovable characters, and intrigue.
I am looking forward to getting into the next book in the series (Princess of Glass).
Setting: This is set in a land similar to western Europe and Germany, using some German names and German-sounding names. It mostly takes place at and around the castle (this is a re-imagining of the fairy tale of the 12 dancing princesses) and at the realm of the enemy (keeping it vague to avoid spoilers).
Plot: The princesses must dance every night but cannot tell anyone why. They are cursed and are in trouble, especially when all the princes who are courting them mysteriously die. A young gardener, recently returned from the war decides to help them and get to the bottom of the mystery, even if it means his own death.
Conflict: There is the conflict between the king and the princesses, the princesses and the dancing, the princes and trying to figure out the mystery, the gardener and his uncle, the king and the archbishop, and the big baddie and everyone!
Character: Even though the princesses tended to blend together a lot at first, I liked the little cues and differences that came out throughout the story to help differentiate them and make them all more real. The gardener was especially adorable in his crush on the oldest princess (and the princess on him).
Text: This is a YA novel (I assume because of the age of the protagonist) but it has some good adult themes. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.
The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed the first 2/3 of this book. Then the last 1/3 was all about adultery. It just didn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the story. And the conclusion totally destroyed the message I got from the first part of the book.
However, I did find it to be written well and the characters felt real (through the first 2/3 of the book). I would probably read another book by this author because of that.
Setting: The story is set in New York for much of the first act of the book. They end up in Wyoming for the rest of the book. The author did not spend a lot of time on descriptions except to say something was beautiful or snowy or whatever, but that let me imagine on my own.
Plot: A girl and a horse learn to trust each other again with the help of a persistent mother and a patient cowboy who has a special way with horses. There were other subplots too – job difficulties, marriage difficulties, the adultery, overcoming pride.
Conflict: There was the girl and horse conflict, the inner conflicts of both of them, the conflict between the parents and girl, the mom and girl, the girl and the cowboy, the mom and the cowboy, the mom and the dad, the cowboy’s relatives and the outsiders, the horse and just about anyone who interacted with him, the law suits, the mom’s job situation . . .
This is what really kept the book moving along – there were so many conflicts at many different levels.
Characters: They all felt very real, and I loved how I was able to get into the head of the horse through the cowboy. I totally got teared up at that point.
Text: The writing was fluid and easy to follow.
The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Classic Asimov.
I liked how he referred to previous events and tied things together that happened in other books. In fact, I decided to reread the series from the beginning because I’ve forgotten how it started (at I, Robot) and what happened. Then, I’ll move on to the next books in the series that I haven’t read yet.
I love how he just kind of stumbles into things blindly but still is able to see connections and make great inferences.
Seeds of Rebellion by Brandon Mull
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Holy Hippo!
I sped through this book so quickly because I wanted to know what would happen so bad.
I was a little disappointed that the big baddy didn’t make an appearance – but I liked seeing the characters struggle against foes that were still challenging.
I also loved the zombies! Totally cool idea.
I’m anxiously looking forward to the next installment.
The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’m so mad! I need to read the rest of the “book” soon because I really want to know what is going to happen. 😉
This book reads like it was originally one long story that was broken up because YA don’t want long books (a publisher-type decision). However, this does not work as well for this book because there are lots of open plot threads at the end of the book (hence my frustration).
I enjoyed the characters and plots that wound through this book, although I thought the main character was a little dense to not think that the magicians would come looking for the magic item.
I recommend reading this book when you have all (or at least most) of the series ready to read back-to-back.
NaNoWriMo
