elijahs_bookshelf's reviews
90 reviews

I read this as part of a school book club, which was the perfect setting for enjoying the story. Anyone who wants to discuss a book with their friends as a buddy read or book club will find that this book gives a lot to think about when it comes to questions of humanity, spirituality, and the future.

This was a very nice conclusion to the series! Dan Wells continues to be one of my favorite authors as he demonstrates a strong control over story structure and character arcs.

This was one of my favorite reads of the year. The faux podcast style was super compelling, and I fell more in love with the characters every minute. The story was gripping, the narration was fantastic, and I'm excited for future stories in this world.

This book is so much fun! I can definitely recommend it to fans of fairytale retellings (although it's not exactly that, just shares the vibes), "The Princess Bride," and anyone looking for a lighthearted adventure story with wacky worldbuilding.

This book is so much fun, and so heartfelt. This really feels like Patrick Rothfuss at his best and most beautiful.

This book was fun, but it felt like it couldn't decide if it was a younger YA or adult book. The characters were well-sketched, but didn't have much depth and despite being adults often felt like teens; also, many of the sci-fi worldbuilding details felt like they were going for realism/plausibility, but most of those details actually made very little sense if you know too much about the scientific principles that supposedly backed them up. But if you are okay to not think too carefully about some of the worldbuilding premises of the story, you'll probably enjoy the story for what it is.

I read this one for school (it was a perfect pick for a class on long form fiction and storytelling structure!), and I have to admit that I was surprised at how much I liked it.

This book is phenomenal. I waffle between rating this 4 and 5 stars due to some unfortunate plotting around the female characters that reads a bit misogynistic to me, so if you're looking for fiction that empowers women and portrays them fully, perhaps look to a different book for now. But if you're willing to be patient with that one glaring weakness, the rest of the book is incredibly strong; the worldbuilding premise is rich with thematic quandries, the characters are charming and easy to root for while maintaining complexity, and I'm very happy to have finally read this book.

The main character, Queen Beza, is the strongest point of this novel to me. Kaci Morgan does a great job of writing her as deeply flawed yet still easy to root for; her journey from cold and and disconnected to friendly and more open is really natural and well done. It doesn't happen too quickly, and its believable how and why she begins to change over the course of this first book. In service of this point, Beza's romance subplot is doing important work for her character arc and is also well written.

I also really like how the Book of Queens, an in-world object, ties together worldbuilding, character, and plot. As a device to drive the narrative forward, it is very effective. I'm always really compelled when stories are able to blend together worldbuilding, character, and plot so that you can barely untangle them from each other. So while these 3 pillars aren't so tied that they're un-tangle-able, its the Book of Queens that I see that merges them together the most, which I like.

My one criticism of the book would have to be its pacing. The story starts out slow and simple, without a whole lot happening, and it takes a while for the plot to get rolling. Once it does, however, things happen incredibly fast. I think it works, but it's still a little uneven; if you're interested in the world or characters, then a little bit of patience is in order while the plot builds itself up as well.

Overall, the story isn't anything perspective altering, but it's a solid story for someone looking to read a simple story about immortality and the struggles of balancing a monarch's duty with their personal lives of family and romance. I'll be looking forward to book 2!