I like the super human part of this, but I didn’t care for the concept of the one ‘real’ city. It made things really confusing in some ways, as the concept of shadows was confusing. The story was good, and the crazy painter character was fantastic. The ‘trumps’ he made seemed like an odd concept, especially if he is the only one to make them. The descriptions of the battles were dry by being too over the top in many ways, and not descriptive enough of the inglorious parts of the battles.
This was an amazingly well done book. I liked much of the writing in that it shows his understanding and at the same time it shows how much he doesn’t understand. I especially like the parts where he is too smart to understand that everyone else isn’t on that level. The ending has some really sad parts, but I liked that he eventually became a really nice guy again.
I didn’t particularly care for this book, especially the resolution. I think the characters in it were very well developed and had interesting stories, I just didn’t like them. That seemed to be part of the point. I’m liking that I can go through some of these classics and read them, but I’m not always liking what I find in them.
I have really enjoyed this series so far, especially the interesting play of humanity, freedom, and civilization, and how many gradations of those concepts there are in the book. I liked this one in particular because of the later reveal to the others that the captain used to be a ship.
After a few minutes I didn’t notice the she pronoun being always used, and imagined amorphous people until they did some action that I considered particularly masculine or feminine. These actions were typically were they being pursued or pursuing when it came to sex.
I really liked the story in this book, it had a typical setup of magic that was long lost coming back, but it was especially well done in that. The magic of the world is very interesting, with it pulling from the life force of the user, or those around the special users.
The lore was decently developed, but it ended at a huge cliffhanger. I’ll have to wait for a while for the next one to come out.
I really enjoyed this book, even if the premise was absurd. I like the world building that was done, and how immersive it makes the experience of being in the oasis. It doesn’t feel like a story about a boy who is living in a trailer park, it feels like the story of a hero on a quest. I think that really does justice to the way the people who live their lives for the oasis would feel. I also think that the corporations in the book are scary, and the only think holding back real world corporations form being like that is some vague person ethics. It is a book I could read several times.
I really enjoy Sanderson’s world building, and even if this is my fourth favorite world of his, it is still in my top 10 fantasy/sci fi worlds. The way weaknesses come out in the epics and how firefight/megan turns out at the end of the book is amazing. I feel bad about how prof ends up, but it does make for a great setup to the next book.
This was a particularly good story, although there were many parts where I wanted to throttle the main character because she was being so stupid. She was able to come and go at will, then watch to see what would happen, and go back to change the outcome. At some points she stubbornly refuses to do this and tries to have everything go right on the first try. I really can’t understand her logic of never leaving to try again or watching more to see what happens.
I liked the magic system in this book, and the way that the glass magician can use mirrors to teleport. The end of the book with the ability to change medium, and how she decides not really to share it is a strange spot. The bad guys were a little too evil for my liking, but I understand the series is meant as a bit lighter fair than the books I’m used to.
It's an Exciting World 