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wyrmdog's review
4.0
When Sci Fi Weekly said that this was for people that enjoy the journey perhaps more than the destination, they weren't kidding. This book meanders a lot, and it doesn't seem to have a real villain or a truly interesting set of antagonists. They are too vague, too nebulous. Instead, this book relies almost entirely on the strength of its protagonists and the cultures that are slowly revealed and explored to drive its interest. If you love world-building, this book is for you.
While some may lament the lack of Marit (and I get that, truly), it was Cornflower that spoke to me. Her arc is tragic and awful and neglected even by the author, her tragedy written in large part by the protagonists themselves. When it comes around, her story is a bit unsatisfying, but it also feels real or as real as something full of supernatural elements can. Elliott keeps opening the window to show us a glimpse of her, then shuts it and ignores that she's out there. Over and over.
But this story shines brightest when it is exploring a set of cultures that cannot be pinned down in the way that others using splats or the proverbial 'planet of hats' ideas can. There are cultures that are superficially similar to the feudal Chinese, the Mongols, Islamic North Africans...but each and every one of them is drawn with a care that transcends these easy classifications. In the end, none of them are what you might think at first. Every one of them has nuance that a lesser author would be unable to convincingly illustrate, and it is quickly apparent that the world is neither a mirror of our own, nor an homage to it. It is very much its own thing with its own people and its own histories.
The characters are distilled from their home cultures and could not exist as they are without that direct line. Earlier I mentioned that Cornflower's tragedy stems directly from the protagonists, and this is probably where the allusions to other authors like Martin come from. The book is unrepentant about the social constructs that would make the people monsters in our own time and our own cultures, and manages to humanize them anyway. Slavery, rape, murder, conquest, genocide, sexism, and racism run rampant but never ever push the story into moralizing or apologetics. The horrible elements are not dwelt on, but presented matter-of-fact, neatly avoiding any possibility of gratuitous inclusion. This makes the horrors of Cornflower's life both digestable and at the same time, worse than if we experienced them more immediately. The very act of noting the horrors inflicted on her without diving into the details quite possibly makes the casual cruelty more horrifying because of how it is all seen as normal and...well...acceptable.
The world is better drawn than that of any author I have ever read, but the pacing and the plotting are a bit frustrating for a reader like me who loves the adventures too. It's VERY slow and VERY focused on what amounts to a slice-of-life portrait of the characters as they get drawn into what is likely to be an epic stage. But it's off to a very slow start and I find myself wondering if it will ever pick up speed.
I'll be finishing the series, for sure, but I needed a break so...off to Cibola Burn.
While some may lament the lack of Marit (and I get that, truly), it was Cornflower that spoke to me. Her arc is tragic and awful and neglected even by the author, her tragedy written in large part by the protagonists themselves. When it comes around, her story is a bit unsatisfying, but it also feels real or as real as something full of supernatural elements can. Elliott keeps opening the window to show us a glimpse of her, then shuts it and ignores that she's out there. Over and over.
But this story shines brightest when it is exploring a set of cultures that cannot be pinned down in the way that others using splats or the proverbial 'planet of hats' ideas can. There are cultures that are superficially similar to the feudal Chinese, the Mongols, Islamic North Africans...but each and every one of them is drawn with a care that transcends these easy classifications. In the end, none of them are what you might think at first. Every one of them has nuance that a lesser author would be unable to convincingly illustrate, and it is quickly apparent that the world is neither a mirror of our own, nor an homage to it. It is very much its own thing with its own people and its own histories.
The characters are distilled from their home cultures and could not exist as they are without that direct line. Earlier I mentioned that Cornflower's tragedy stems directly from the protagonists, and this is probably where the allusions to other authors like Martin come from. The book is unrepentant about the social constructs that would make the people monsters in our own time and our own cultures, and manages to humanize them anyway. Slavery, rape, murder, conquest, genocide, sexism, and racism run rampant but never ever push the story into moralizing or apologetics. The horrible elements are not dwelt on, but presented matter-of-fact, neatly avoiding any possibility of gratuitous inclusion. This makes the horrors of Cornflower's life both digestable and at the same time, worse than if we experienced them more immediately. The very act of noting the horrors inflicted on her without diving into the details quite possibly makes the casual cruelty more horrifying because of how it is all seen as normal and...well...acceptable.
The world is better drawn than that of any author I have ever read, but the pacing and the plotting are a bit frustrating for a reader like me who loves the adventures too. It's VERY slow and VERY focused on what amounts to a slice-of-life portrait of the characters as they get drawn into what is likely to be an epic stage. But it's off to a very slow start and I find myself wondering if it will ever pick up speed.
I'll be finishing the series, for sure, but I needed a break so...off to Cibola Burn.
zoff's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
literatehedgehog's review against another edition
2.0
A rich and complex world, an assembly of disparate characters, and a whole lot of description make this an interesting idea of a book but an arduous reading experience.
I really enjoyed Elliott's short stories for how wholly realized her worlds were and how nuanced her characters seemed to be - but this novel gets bogged down in all the minutiae of multiple cultures. It's too bad, the premise and overall vibe felt up my alley. I won't be continuing this particular series (already feel as if I've spent too much time in this world), but I'd give another series a chance.
I really enjoyed Elliott's short stories for how wholly realized her worlds were and how nuanced her characters seemed to be - but this novel gets bogged down in all the minutiae of multiple cultures. It's too bad, the premise and overall vibe felt up my alley. I won't be continuing this particular series (already feel as if I've spent too much time in this world), but I'd give another series a chance.
poetkoala's review against another edition
It’s dense, I don’t feel any sympathy for anyone, and I’m just not as excited about it as I was when I got it.
gmvader's review against another edition
3.0
It is books like this one that make me question my desire to review every book I read. Some books I feel rather passionate about, whether that is in a negative or positive way is sort or arbitrary – though the negative reviews are the most fun to write. Some books at least get me thinking about a subject to the extent that I have something to say about it.
Kate Elliot wrote the absolutely brilliant Crown of Stars series which wove a fascinating tapestry of magic, history, politics, religion and characters in a story that encompassed nations and wars and cultures and felt so real that at times I forgot it was fantasy and not historical fiction. The characters felt alive and I traveled with them and followed their thoughts and discoveries and felt their pain.
I was sad to see it end.
All this, however, doesn’t touch upon Spirit Gate.
If the Crown of Stars series had a flaw it was that Kate Elliot loves to describe things – details, details, details. These all serve to make the setting feel more real but, as has been proven with Robert Jordan, once you’ve described the camp and the tent and the fire and the dog sitting next to it and the sounds of soldiers telling jokes outside you don’t need to do it again when you come back to the character in fifty pages. So when Kate Elliot mentioned in an interview that she recognized wordiness as a flaw in her books and that she would focus on making the next ones more streamlined I could not contain my joy. (For those of you who can’t see my face right now – i.e. everybody – I’m using my Ben Stein look, I can always contain my joy.)
Anyway. Spirit Gate both lives up to its potential and falls short at the same time. It is definitely shorter than any of the Crown of Stars books by a significant amount – though it is still nearly five hundred pages. The problem is that the writing actually suffers from the slimming down. This is not usually the case. Most often if you can say it in five words instead of twenty then five is better. It appears that Kate Elliot trimmed in the wrong places. The descriptions are all still there in their finite and photographic detail. I have no doubt that I would recognize every building and city if I saw it in real life. The characters and dialogue, however, become spotty and sometimes silly. The beginning of the story jumps around at first and feels really confusing. Most of it is setup for later books, I think. Once it settles down and the characters actually meet each other – about two thirds of the way through the book – things start to make more sense.
I think my biggest complaint, though is in the form of the characters themselves. It feels like the author is trying too hard to make characters that are not black and white but perhaps are more gray scale. It kind of makes it so that very few of the main characters are likable at all. Most of them are whiny or cowards or woman chasers – almost all of them own slaves and do not question the morality of it – and it makes the book feel like it’s filled with nothing but depravity even though there is little of it there.
In the end I neither liked nor hated this book. I read it. Now I’m done.
Kate Elliot wrote the absolutely brilliant Crown of Stars series which wove a fascinating tapestry of magic, history, politics, religion and characters in a story that encompassed nations and wars and cultures and felt so real that at times I forgot it was fantasy and not historical fiction. The characters felt alive and I traveled with them and followed their thoughts and discoveries and felt their pain.
I was sad to see it end.
All this, however, doesn’t touch upon Spirit Gate.
If the Crown of Stars series had a flaw it was that Kate Elliot loves to describe things – details, details, details. These all serve to make the setting feel more real but, as has been proven with Robert Jordan, once you’ve described the camp and the tent and the fire and the dog sitting next to it and the sounds of soldiers telling jokes outside you don’t need to do it again when you come back to the character in fifty pages. So when Kate Elliot mentioned in an interview that she recognized wordiness as a flaw in her books and that she would focus on making the next ones more streamlined I could not contain my joy. (For those of you who can’t see my face right now – i.e. everybody – I’m using my Ben Stein look, I can always contain my joy.)
Anyway. Spirit Gate both lives up to its potential and falls short at the same time. It is definitely shorter than any of the Crown of Stars books by a significant amount – though it is still nearly five hundred pages. The problem is that the writing actually suffers from the slimming down. This is not usually the case. Most often if you can say it in five words instead of twenty then five is better. It appears that Kate Elliot trimmed in the wrong places. The descriptions are all still there in their finite and photographic detail. I have no doubt that I would recognize every building and city if I saw it in real life. The characters and dialogue, however, become spotty and sometimes silly. The beginning of the story jumps around at first and feels really confusing. Most of it is setup for later books, I think. Once it settles down and the characters actually meet each other – about two thirds of the way through the book – things start to make more sense.
I think my biggest complaint, though is in the form of the characters themselves. It feels like the author is trying too hard to make characters that are not black and white but perhaps are more gray scale. It kind of makes it so that very few of the main characters are likable at all. Most of them are whiny or cowards or woman chasers – almost all of them own slaves and do not question the morality of it – and it makes the book feel like it’s filled with nothing but depravity even though there is little of it there.
In the end I neither liked nor hated this book. I read it. Now I’m done.
silkymoonshine's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
dreamreader's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This is a book that rewards patience, especially if you've never read Kate Elliott before. If you are a brand new reader to the fantasy genre, I would not recommend that you start here, as this is a long, somewhat slow opening to a series, one that is mostly character driven and does not fully show the workings of the plot until close to the end of the novel. But if you can stick it out to the end, you'll get some pretty great reveals and excellent payoff, as I have found to often be the case with this author.
There were some areas that I struggled with in this book. Not all of the characters are lovable, or even likable. I hated spending time in some of their heads. But I also love the way Elliott does most of her world-building through her characters, and so you really do need the convergence of their diverse ideologies and beliefs to understand how this world works. The characters are nuanced and often deeply flawed, and felt more realistic because of this. Elliott's female characters continue to stand out as some of the best in fantasy. They are dedicated and compassionate, but also willing to take risks and stand up for themselves and others. Some of them are loud in their strength, while others are quiet. I loved them all.
I had some small issues with the timeline in this book. Around midway through, there is a character who seems to be in several places at once. It took me a bit of calculating to realize that Elliott was giving us a series of events from one perspective, and then skipping back in time to show those same events (or that same period of time) from another perspective. Once I worked that out, I was okay moving forward.
It's baffling to me that Elliott's books have generally such low average ratings. I think she's an amazing fantasy author, and I'm excited to continue on in this series, especially since the ending set up the stakes of the conflict beautifully.
There were some areas that I struggled with in this book. Not all of the characters are lovable, or even likable. I hated spending time in some of their heads. But I also love the way Elliott does most of her world-building through her characters, and so you really do need the convergence of their diverse ideologies and beliefs to understand how this world works. The characters are nuanced and often deeply flawed, and felt more realistic because of this. Elliott's female characters continue to stand out as some of the best in fantasy. They are dedicated and compassionate, but also willing to take risks and stand up for themselves and others. Some of them are loud in their strength, while others are quiet. I loved them all.
I had some small issues with the timeline in this book. Around midway through, there is a character who seems to be in several places at once. It took me a bit of calculating to realize that Elliott was giving us a series of events from one perspective, and then skipping back in time to show those same events (or that same period of time) from another perspective. Once I worked that out, I was okay moving forward.
It's baffling to me that Elliott's books have generally such low average ratings. I think she's an amazing fantasy author, and I'm excited to continue on in this series, especially since the ending set up the stakes of the conflict beautifully.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape and Slavery
wunder's review against another edition
1.0
Ponderous "worldbuilding" unrelated to the story just killed this for me. Let's describe all the shops on the street while we walk towards something that matters. Let's make the reader do math in their head to figure out the various "ages" when people have ceremonies to move on to the next phase of life, then have that not matter to the story. Tell me that the group is annoyed with the cleric rather than showing me, then have the cleric leave the group so none of it matters.
I found the whole thing an insult to the reader's attention. Get an editor. And for God's sake, tell a story that I can care about.
I found the whole thing an insult to the reader's attention. Get an editor. And for God's sake, tell a story that I can care about.
bunnerz's review against another edition
DNF at 33% and 2.5 hours of reading. The book moved at way too much of a glacial pace, and I was too bored and not invested in any of the characters to continue any further.