gmvader's review against another edition
1.0
Mercedes Lackey has written over fifty books in the last twenty years. Having written only one, very mediocre book in ten years I can appreciate that this is a significant amount of work that she has accomplished. She has co-authored a large number of those books and has a large fan base of people who find her books charming and wonderful.
I had a slightly less grand experience. The story, in itself was good enough. What I think bothered me most was the lack of editing that went into the book. There were multiple typos on every page – sometimes entire words were missing. This could be the fault of the publisher for sloppy typesetting or any number of things and I could have overlooked them if there weren’t so many other things that could have also been fixed by a few attentive edits.
The word ‘indeed’ was used so often that it started to sound funny and there were a lot of over-written sentences that could have used a generous helping of editorial chopping. In particular was the exhaustive use of narrative exposition. Usually out of nowhere the history of a street or person who had never been mentioned before would have a three or four page background given in the middle of a conversation. Detail and exposition are tricky things. They have to be woven into stories so that the reader either doesn’t know that it’s there or doesn’t mind. Miss Lackey just pulls it out like the worst of movie narrators and throws down a boring background story. Characters thoughts are described painstakingly so that when they finally act it will make sense to the reader. Unfortunately by the time they do something the brain is so numb it’s hard to tell if anything even happened. The narrative voice is sometimes colloquial and speaking to the reader as if being spoken by a storyteller and sometimes it’s got a tight omniscient point of view in somebody’s head and other times it jumps around to characters mid paragraph.
The magic is the kind that I hate in fantasy, magic that does magical things that make the plot go where it’s supposed to and doesn’t do magical things in order to keep the plot where it’s going. There doesn’t seem to be any discernable reasoning behind why magic can and can’t do certain things – though the author tries to cover it up by supplying tidbits that hint that there is some logic behind it all. (I know, it’s magic. But even magic in a fantasy world has to have logic behind it.)
This book felt to me a lot like Terry Brooks does. It fills me with an intense apathy. I didn’t care what happened. The bad guy did horrible things that didn’t really even sound all that horrible. The good guys get attacked and fight bad guys and it never feels like there is any danger.
The characters are well imagined. I never got any of them confused. Miss Lackey seems to be well read on history and literature of the time period in which the book is set.
In all I would suggest you only read this book if you are a Lackey lackey or a Terry Brooks fan. If you are not a fan of her books, certainly don’t start with this one.
I had a slightly less grand experience. The story, in itself was good enough. What I think bothered me most was the lack of editing that went into the book. There were multiple typos on every page – sometimes entire words were missing. This could be the fault of the publisher for sloppy typesetting or any number of things and I could have overlooked them if there weren’t so many other things that could have also been fixed by a few attentive edits.
The word ‘indeed’ was used so often that it started to sound funny and there were a lot of over-written sentences that could have used a generous helping of editorial chopping. In particular was the exhaustive use of narrative exposition. Usually out of nowhere the history of a street or person who had never been mentioned before would have a three or four page background given in the middle of a conversation. Detail and exposition are tricky things. They have to be woven into stories so that the reader either doesn’t know that it’s there or doesn’t mind. Miss Lackey just pulls it out like the worst of movie narrators and throws down a boring background story. Characters thoughts are described painstakingly so that when they finally act it will make sense to the reader. Unfortunately by the time they do something the brain is so numb it’s hard to tell if anything even happened. The narrative voice is sometimes colloquial and speaking to the reader as if being spoken by a storyteller and sometimes it’s got a tight omniscient point of view in somebody’s head and other times it jumps around to characters mid paragraph.
The magic is the kind that I hate in fantasy, magic that does magical things that make the plot go where it’s supposed to and doesn’t do magical things in order to keep the plot where it’s going. There doesn’t seem to be any discernable reasoning behind why magic can and can’t do certain things – though the author tries to cover it up by supplying tidbits that hint that there is some logic behind it all. (I know, it’s magic. But even magic in a fantasy world has to have logic behind it.)
This book felt to me a lot like Terry Brooks does. It fills me with an intense apathy. I didn’t care what happened. The bad guy did horrible things that didn’t really even sound all that horrible. The good guys get attacked and fight bad guys and it never feels like there is any danger.
The characters are well imagined. I never got any of them confused. Miss Lackey seems to be well read on history and literature of the time period in which the book is set.
In all I would suggest you only read this book if you are a Lackey lackey or a Terry Brooks fan. If you are not a fan of her books, certainly don’t start with this one.
raemelle's review against another edition
4.0
I liked this one more than I liked the last few books in this series. This had much less reverse-snobbery than the others. Some towards the beginning when the character manages to both internally insult and praise the simple food she’s served, but it’s over pretty quickly. I liked that she starts out with the less-than-honorable intention of landing herself a sugar daddy. It made her a bit less of a sickly-sweet goodie-two-shoes. A bit.
It did run a little long at points. But overall kept my interest.
It did run a little long at points. But overall kept my interest.
sbbarnes's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this one much much more than I thought I would. Puss in Boots is definitely not one of my favorite fairy tales, especially because it's a story about a liar scamming people, and that just stresses me out. So I was really pleasantly surprised. The story follows Ninette Dupond, a ballet dancer in the Paris opera. After being kicked out of the company for being too attractive to the star's gentleman friend, she almost starves and then her cat starts talking and brings her to Blackpool to impersonate a Russian ballerina no one has heard of.
This goes off without a hitch because the people running the theater in Blackpool are Elemental masters and can hear the cat, a point which is mentioned at least three times as a reason for choosing Blackpool. They bring in a fire master, Jonathon, who works as an illusionist. But the real Russian ballerina was eaten by a troll a long time ago and the troll is mad about identity theft, so starts doing a lot of evil stuff.
There are many shenanigans, including Ninette learning to shoot from her Scottish maid Ailse, Jonathon and a random Water master they got from somewhere sleuthing around, a fake shipwreck that occupies everyone even though they know it's fake, etc. It's fun. There are a few too many minor characters to keep track of - I feel like it would have been easier to just make Nigel a water master rather than bring in a romantic false lead that immediately gets forgotten with Alan.
I did enjoy the somewhat combative love story with Ninette and Jonathon, especially how at the end she chooses to encourage him in her way. Ninette did have a touch of the Mary-Sues in that she was well-loved by everyone for very little reason. But it does seem likely that she was tired of being looked down on by the Etoiles and would therefor treat others better, and it also matches her magic gift thingy. All in all a cute book. I liked the ballet stuff.
This goes off without a hitch because the people running the theater in Blackpool are Elemental masters and can hear the cat, a point which is mentioned at least three times as a reason for choosing Blackpool. They bring in a fire master, Jonathon, who works as an illusionist. But the real Russian ballerina was eaten by a troll a long time ago and the troll is mad about identity theft, so starts doing a lot of evil stuff.
There are many shenanigans, including Ninette learning to shoot from her Scottish maid Ailse, Jonathon and a random Water master they got from somewhere sleuthing around, a fake shipwreck that occupies everyone even though they know it's fake, etc. It's fun. There are a few too many minor characters to keep track of - I feel like it would have been easier to just make Nigel a water master rather than bring in a romantic false lead that immediately gets forgotten with Alan.
I did enjoy the somewhat combative love story with Ninette and Jonathon, especially how at the end she chooses to encourage him in her way. Ninette did have a touch of the Mary-Sues in that she was well-loved by everyone for very little reason. But it does seem likely that she was tired of being looked down on by the Etoiles and would therefor treat others better, and it also matches her magic gift thingy. All in all a cute book. I liked the ballet stuff.
smatthew459's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
alannabarras's review against another edition
3.0
I gave this book 3 stars the first time I read it and I'm leaving it there after the second run through. The book is enjoyable while reading, but its very obvious that at this point in the series Mercedes Lackey has found her 'winning formula' and is sticking to it. Usually I'm fine with that, but with each book the characters have been less complex, to the point where I'm less and less excited to read each new one. (Don't get confused. I'm still absolutely going to, I love the overall world and magic system). I don't know if she's gotten complacent, bored but knows they'll sell well, or is just contractually obligated to keep producing, but the spark from the original books in the series is now lacking. I am not going to keep this book on the shelf any more, but I will absolutely read it again in a couple years if I see it in the library.
jennderqueer's review against another edition
5.0
Actually much better than Phoenix and Ashes. It's not a retelling of any fairy tale that I know of - it's an entirely original story. A magic cat takes a dancer's life in his... paws... with the aim of turning her into a star. They both get a little more than they bargained for.
I think my favorite part of this story is that it's not a romance. In fact, there's almost no romance in the story at all. It's entirely plot-driven, and the plot's interesting. Overall, this is definitely re-read material.
I think my favorite part of this story is that it's not a romance. In fact, there's almost no romance in the story at all. It's entirely plot-driven, and the plot's interesting. Overall, this is definitely re-read material.
eak1013's review against another edition
2.0
These books. They're. They're just not good. And yet I keep reading. Sigh.
stitchsds's review against another edition
4.0
Though this book didn't start out as one of my favorites, the book did improve. Overall, not Mercedes Lackey's best effort, but still a good read, worth keeping, and worth re-reading.
aspennotpoplar's review
1.0
I slogged through about 50 pages before giving up entirely. There is just nothing special about this book. It is plain and boring and not well written. I give books a fair shot, but 50 pages in and I just don't care about Ninette or the cat. Ninette's most desperate desire is to be a kept whore, which we learn in the first few pages. Other than this single desire, she has NO substance - she is a cardboard cut-out of a girl. I can't even remember what she's supposed to look like. This was for a book club... Not even for discussion purposes will I read further. Blegh!