I need to remember when it comes time to read #3 in this series that I will need at least a week to get through it. Arden’s writing is lovely and her story fascinating and absorbing, but I find it stressful as hell, and I kept having to put it down before I could keep going again. Basically every bad thing that can happen, does. (But by the end, you get a nice sense of resolution, which is necessary because of all the previously mentioned […]
Winter in Russia, and a monster in the dark.
This was not quite what I was expecting. I think I was expecting something more along the lines of Naomi Novik’s Uprooted, because people have compared them endlessly, but aside from taking inspiration from Russian folklore, the two books don’t have very much in common. Uprooted is a fairytale, albeit one that is lengthened and deepened. The Bear and the Nightingale is a historical fantasy that is historical fiction first, fantasy second. This book takes place in medieval Russia, then called Rus’. The daughter of […]
I was astonish’d at how greatly I admired the writing of this book
The title of this post will be my one attempt at a pseudo-19th century style–I won’t inflict such an atrocity upon you any more, dear readers. I’m rather late to the game when it comes to reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell–after all, there’s already a miniseries adaptation (which I have not yet seen)! But so deeply was I affected by… ahem! I’ll just say that the writing style blew me away. I’m certainly not the first to describe this book as ‘If Charles Dickens […]
The value of a memory
It took me 20 years to finally read Tigana. Israel in the 90’s (and especially) Jerusalem did not have a wealth of geeky things for a nerdy teen to enjoy. There was some book, mostly SciFi classics, Tolkien and Dragonlance. There was Dungeons & Dragons, but good luck finding dices. There was also the early internet, and I was lucky enough to have some family friends who lived in America and could help my needs by occasionally sending me reading materials (mostly books) that I […]