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sian_h's review
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
whimsicalmeerkat's review against another edition
4.0
Who knew a book with so little sleep and so much potential for tragedy could be so cheerful?
katdid's review
Recently I was in a Walgreen's in Albuquerque and while I was paying the cashier a guy came up to ask if they had any face masks, and then started telling me how there was something wrong with the carburettor in his truck and the fumes were making him nauseous as if it was part of a conversation we'd already been having. Reading this book was kind of like that - I felt like I'd started in the middle of a story and was expected to be invested in the character/s without really having any fore-knowledge. It's charming in an antiquated steampunky way but also irritating; I think Mug is meant to be an endearing scallywag of a familiar but he's mainly just there as a device to explain various aspects of the worldbuilding. Put this down around a third of the way through.
waclements7's review against another edition
5.0
It took me two starts to get into this book, but I'm really glad I did. The characters are well developed and interesting, and I liked Meralda a lot as a female protagonist. She is strong, independent, intelligent, who manages to take care of a whole lot more than "simply" moving the shadow of the 700 year old wizard's tower no monarch has been able to topple so it won't cover the king when he gives his speech at the very important Accords.
This book covers a lot of ground--politics, what lengths countries will go to in order to disrupt the Accords, which occur every five years, posturing, grand-standing, thievery... The appearance of the Hang, who live half-way across the world and are the only ones with the ships large enough to cross the ocean, at the current year's Accords is a subject for mystery and speculation.
I loved the use of magic and how it was used with the tower, and how the tower becomes the Tower, a character in its own right. I also liked Nameless and Faceless, and how they choose to work with Meralda of their own free will. Tower was a little Gothic in that it is a structure with a huge part in the story, including how it was haunted and had the lights on the flat. Meralda's laboratory is a bit of a character in itself as well, what with all the interesting devices stored there, and the idea that a little bit of all the mages who have gone before her lingers. The different magics from the different realms is well done, and the Tower could recognize some of them but not all. The whole concept of latching spells was interesting.
I found it interesting that the Captain didn't have a name until approximately 52% of the way through the book (I checked when he was finally named) because I had been thinking of him as a potential love interest, even though he and Meranda were mostly respectfully friendly to one another, I can't help it, the romance part of my brain still does things like that. He doesn't have a ghost of a chance, though. That's actually a pun. You'll get it if you read the book. :-)
I absolutely loved Mug. I had no idea a magically animated plant could be so entertaining. And all of his eyes! I laughed out loud when he lost all traces of his sarcastic self and chirpily proclaimed that he had twenty nine eyes to the Hang.
Tervis and Kervis grew on me as well. I thought it was an accomplishment to have twins whose personalities were so clearly different, and I enjoyed their exchanges.
What I really liked, however, is the fact with everything that kept piling up around her and becoming more and more complicated, that the woman dealing with everything, quite capably, was just eighteen years old, and she didn't give up. She is a little like the Tower--she took everything thrown at her, dispelled it like a badly placed latching spell and dealt with it quite competently. Thanks in part to her cohorts, who I think she was wise to keep a blind eye to, keeping the main foes distracted, and Donchen, who cooks for her while she works (and whom, in a nice turn of events, Meranda rescues at one point) and proves to be a respectful equal. I enjoyed this book quite a bit, and am looking forward to reading the sequel.
This book covers a lot of ground--politics, what lengths countries will go to in order to disrupt the Accords, which occur every five years, posturing, grand-standing, thievery... The appearance of the Hang, who live half-way across the world and are the only ones with the ships large enough to cross the ocean, at the current year's Accords is a subject for mystery and speculation.
I loved the use of magic and how it was used with the tower, and how the tower becomes the Tower, a character in its own right. I also liked Nameless and Faceless, and how they choose to work with Meralda of their own free will. Tower was a little Gothic in that it is a structure with a huge part in the story, including how it was haunted and had the lights on the flat. Meralda's laboratory is a bit of a character in itself as well, what with all the interesting devices stored there, and the idea that a little bit of all the mages who have gone before her lingers. The different magics from the different realms is well done, and the Tower could recognize some of them but not all. The whole concept of latching spells was interesting.
I found it interesting that the Captain didn't have a name until approximately 52% of the way through the book (I checked when he was finally named) because I had been thinking of him as a potential love interest, even though he and Meranda were mostly respectfully friendly to one another, I can't help it, the romance part of my brain still does things like that. He doesn't have a ghost of a chance, though. That's actually a pun. You'll get it if you read the book. :-)
I absolutely loved Mug. I had no idea a magically animated plant could be so entertaining. And all of his eyes! I laughed out loud when he lost all traces of his sarcastic self and chirpily proclaimed that he had twenty nine eyes to the Hang.
Tervis and Kervis grew on me as well. I thought it was an accomplishment to have twins whose personalities were so clearly different, and I enjoyed their exchanges.
What I really liked, however, is the fact with everything that kept piling up around her and becoming more and more complicated, that the woman dealing with everything, quite capably, was just eighteen years old, and she didn't give up. She is a little like the Tower--she took everything thrown at her, dispelled it like a badly placed latching spell and dealt with it quite competently. Thanks in part to her cohorts, who I think she was wise to keep a blind eye to, keeping the main foes distracted, and Donchen, who cooks for her while she works (and whom, in a nice turn of events, Meranda rescues at one point) and proves to be a respectful equal. I enjoyed this book quite a bit, and am looking forward to reading the sequel.
velvetsreader's review against another edition
This book was so much fun. I look forward to reading more from this series.
morepagesplease's review
3.0
It has taken me an embarrassing amount of time to finish the book. It was slow going at times, but the main character for extremely likable, and so I persevered. I'm glad I stuck it out as the ending was satisfying.
orchidity's review
3.0
I genuinely enjoyed this book. It has all the elements of the type of book I love—strong female protagonist not solely motivated by romance, alternate world, magic, steampunk (in theory). The talking plant, Mug, was absolutely delightful, and was easily one of the best parts of the storyline.
Although the world building was solid in the beginning, it would have been wonderful to explore it more in depth throughout the book. The different nationalities and relationships between them could have been explored more as a foundation, as I found myself wondering what separates the Alons from the Eryans from the Phendelits (and why I should care), aside from the developments rooted in the dialogue.
Meralda, the main character, is strong and obviously intelligent. She spends the majority of the book in her lab, with a few breaks here and there to visit the Tower and go home to sleep. However, I didn't feel invested or connected to her character at all—we definitely know how often she ate and visited the water closet, but I would have loved to see some more character development. She felt a little two dimensional.
The inanimate objects with personalities were absolutely a highlight—the Tower and Mug added so much to the storyline. The staves were interesting, but seemed to be a means to an end with easy conflict resolution, which brings me to another point—the conflict resolution felt slightly abrupt, as another reviewer previously mentioned. I was reading the end, saying, wait, that was it? That's all it took?
Overall, my nitpicks are fairly small. It was an enjoyable, engaging read. I'll definitely pick up the sequel, as well as explore some of Mr. Tuttle's additional titles.
Although the world building was solid in the beginning, it would have been wonderful to explore it more in depth throughout the book. The different nationalities and relationships between them could have been explored more as a foundation, as I found myself wondering what separates the Alons from the Eryans from the Phendelits (and why I should care), aside from the developments rooted in the dialogue.
Meralda, the main character, is strong and obviously intelligent. She spends the majority of the book in her lab, with a few breaks here and there to visit the Tower and go home to sleep. However, I didn't feel invested or connected to her character at all—we definitely know how often she ate and visited the water closet, but I would have loved to see some more character development. She felt a little two dimensional.
The inanimate objects with personalities were absolutely a highlight—the Tower and Mug added so much to the storyline. The staves were interesting, but seemed to be a means to an end with easy conflict resolution, which brings me to another point—the conflict resolution felt slightly abrupt, as another reviewer previously mentioned. I was reading the end, saying, wait, that was it? That's all it took?
Overall, my nitpicks are fairly small. It was an enjoyable, engaging read. I'll definitely pick up the sequel, as well as explore some of Mr. Tuttle's additional titles.
eugthinks's review against another edition
3.0
Fun--but fluffy--fantasy story. Also it was amusing for about ten seconds that the mysterious, exotic race from across the sea is straight up stereotypical Chinese. We're talking short, tawny skin, slanted eyes, chopsticks, magical tea, egg rolls, almond chicken, sweet and sour pork, and a strange little grain called rice.