I did not love this book. The more I think about it, I’m not sure I even liked it. Was some of the writing very pretty? Yes. Was the main character likeable? Sure. But that’s about it for positives for this book, in my opinion. Obviously I’m in the minority on this, so please don’t let my…ambivalence about this book stop you from reading it. A brief summary of the plot. Agnieszka is born in a village protected by the Dragon, who is a 150 […]
Goblins and emperors and airships, oh my!
Maia is the fourth, much despised, half goblin son of the of the emperor of the Elflands. He has lived his whole life in exile, banished for the crime of being borne of a bride that the Emperor did not want. Uneducated, uncouth, and unpolished, Maia is ill-prepared to become Emperor when his father and three older brothers die in an airship crash. But Maia is thrust into the position and must learn how to govern, how to be always surrounded by people but forever […]
Catherine is great, this book is not.
While I enjoyed learning more about Catherine the Great, I did not enjoy this particular book very much. The author was clearly totally in the bag for Catherine which, while understandable (Elizabeth I is my homegirl, yo), does not make for the most well balanced of books. I mean, he seemed to take as gospel everything Catherine had to say about her husband, but it was in Catherine’s best interest that Peter III be seen as an idiot, no? I’m not saying he wasn’t, because […]
If I ever meet her, I will embarrass Ursula K. Le Guin with my fangirl weeping.
The Tombs of Atuan is the story of Tenar. According to the Priestesses of the Tombs, Tenar was the reborn spirit of the First Priestess. Tenar is taken from her family at five years old and sent to the Tombs, where no man, not even the Godking himself, can enter, to train to serve the Nameless Ones, to live the life she has lived hundreds of times previously. After a year her name is taken from her and she is only ever to be Ahra, […]