Winter By Marissa Meyer (Spoiler Free Review)

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author, book, book reviews, books, characters, cinder, Cinder by Marissa Meyer, cress, Epic Fantasy, Fairytale retelling, fantasy, fiction, Ice Like Fire, Ice Like Fire by Sara Raasch, literature, Lunar Chronicles, magic, magic system, Marissa Meyer, novel, plot, read, reader, review, Sara Raasch, Scarlett, sci-fi, science fiction, snow like ashes, Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch, stories, story, who dies in cinder winter, who dies in lunar chronicles winter, who dies in winter, winter by Marissa Meyer, winter cinder spoilers, winter spoilers, world building, write, writer, writing, young adult

Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult, Fairytale Retelling

Pages: 827

Point of View: Third Person (Winter, Jacin, Cinder, Kai, Cress, Thorn, Scarlet, Wolf, Lavana, Iko, and one more)

Released: November 10th 2015

Series: Cinder 4

Predictability: 5 out of 5 (Where 1 is totally unpredictable and 5 is I knew what was going to happen way ahead of time.)

Source: Library

My Rating: 7/10 Stars

My Summary:

Winter is the beautiful princess of Luna. Since she refuses to use her Lunar powers of deception, she’s slowly losing her mind.

Cinder and her friends are on their way to Luna to stop the evil Queen Levana once and for all.

Spoiler free review! (Even if you haven’t read Cinder) You will be warned before the tiniest of spoilers! 

Click here to find out who dies in Winter! (This obviously has spoilers!)

My Review:

I am the oddball. Again. Everyone loved this book. Except me. I LOVED this series! It’s one of my favorites! I had such high expectations for this book! I was disappointed.

The Good:

It was nice to finally see Luna. The moon and the domed cites were cool! And the crazy Lunar fashions which incorporated their Illusion abilities.

I wasn’t sure if I’d like Winter based on her part in Cress. I was worried about the crazy thing, but I found myself wanting to get back to her parts! I especially enjoyed her banter with Jacin!

Iko got to narrate!!! It was great!! I need more! How about a whole Iko book, okay?

The Bad:

I know Snow White is the Fairest of them all, but it got annoying how often we were told. Winter is so so pretty. Her scars only make her prettier.

I read this 800 page book quickly, but it did feel a touch long. Some sections could’ve been tightened up a bit. (Like Kai’s parts. They were just boring.)

This series has been predictable, but it’s just been the major plot points. In this one almost everything was predictable! It felt like the author was just going through the motions to me.

The writing just wasn’t as good and the plot got repetitive.

If you want to go into this book blind, skip to the conclusion! (Small Spoilers!)

Which couple is going to be separated next, so they can be reunited and have a moment?

There were quite a few romantic moments. Maybe it’s because I just read a Rowell book, but none of them were that amazing. Big romantic scene and I’m all ‘meh, okay.’

Some previously smart characters acted idiotically! Example:

Your friend is fighting someone with mind control powers, you’re easily controlled, so what do you do? Go to ‘help’ of course! *facepalm*

It wasn’t only stupid good guys:

Levana left her top secret research center unlocked and virtually unguarded. Seriously?!

I am mostly mad about what she did to one of the characters! I was so angry with the book I set it aside for the day. I couldn’t believe she would do that! I could rant all day about how that ruined this book, but I won’t. (Click here to find out what I mean. Spoilers!)

Conclusion:
I’m glad I read Winter and it was a quick enough read, but it wasn’t great or amazing like I hoped. Iko’s first POV chapter was terrific! And there were a few good moments, (especially between Winter and Jacin) But it wasn’t half as good as the other books! They were just so fantastic! With some really great lines! This one? Not so much. It just fell flat for me.

What books are you wishing for for Christmas?

I asked for Winter, Magnus Chase, and the Copper Gauntlet. I obviously couldn’t wait to read Winter. (Oops!)

Indie Book Review: Elemental Rancor by Charles Lominec

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author, book, book reviews, books, characters, Charles Lominec, Elemental Rancor, Epic Fantasy, fantasy, fiction, Indie book, literature, novel, plot, read, reader, review, stories, story, write, writer, writing

Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Magic, High, Epic Fantasy

Pages: 417

Point of View: Third Distant (Major: Sarnen, Lorgen, Grenot, Disa, Magmanoid, Lanon, Timorn, Yonele. Minor: Sheila, Marasina, Jorsana, Sukaro, Byron, Kerome.)

Released: April 18, 2014

Predictability: 2 out of 5 (Where 1 is George RR Martin (If the characters make a plan or think about the future I know it isn’t going to go that way.) And 5 is Cinder (where I guessed what was going to happen long before it did, but it was still a great book.)

Source: The author contacted me and asked if I would review this book.

My Rating: 6/10 Stars

Warning: Adult rating for violence and gore.

I’m glad the author contacted about this book, because I never would’ve chosen it for myself. I know I’m terrible, but I judge a book by it’s cover and I don’t like this cover. It also doesn’t depict the book very well, because that really doesn’t look like a man riding a pteradon (pterodactyl). (And now everyone is squinting at it, because I made it so small. I just didn’t want to keep looking at it. Sorry!)

My Summary: 

In a world where the elements have a consciousness, the mighty Empire has learned to communicate with them. These people are called Tutors, but the Tutors have a problem. After a star disappears from the sky the elements start acting strangely. Air is more demanding, and fire has disappeared. What does it all mean?

Two children find out when they develop strange new abilities, abilities that no one has had before.

Lanon, a pteradon squad leader, winds up being forced into helping a disgraced Tutor discover what’s wrong with the element Earth.

The Empire has declared war on Marapor, but Grenot knows if the Empire goes to war they will lose, so he decides to take matters into his own hands.

My Review:

These are only the main three story lines, but there are quite a few more. The author certainly has a vivid imagination, but I think he tried to put too many ideas into one book. (At least too many characters. Molly was confused. Though it probably didn’t help that I kept referring to them as S person and L person. And then there were two L persons!)

The Good:

Elemental Rancor has a very interesting world with all kinds of cool creatures; bird people, fish people, dinosaurs, not to mention monkey vultures. (The monkey vultures aren’t important, they just creeped me out!)

I liked that the elements had a consciousness and the magic is really just people communicating with them. (I wish we’d gotten to see someone arguing with their magic, that would’ve been funny.) The ways magic was changing was well done too and it made sense. I liked the kids’ abilities the most! (That was the story line I kept reading for.)

Except for the beginning it was all fast paced. It was a good thing the chapters changed points of view or I never could’ve put it down. (Even though they all ended to be continued, not knowing when that character would come back helped me to stop.)

It took me a while to figure out who was who, but I liked most of the characters, and even the ones I didn’t care for were well developed. (A bit too much development if you as me. I didn’t really need flashbacks about a character’s mom who was barely in the book.)

The Bad:

I’ve read plenty of books with multiple points of view. Usually the books where people are complaining about too many characters, I’m fine with, but this one had too many in the beginning even for me. (It didn’t help that all of the grunts had names too, so I didn’t know who was important.)

A couple of things that happened I thought were a bit silly. There were also some very violent and gross parts. (Only one gross thing actually bothered me. I also considered this one of the silly things. I was tempted to google if it was actually possible, but I decided I didn’t want to know.)

The story was well told, but there were some tell tale signs that this was the author’s first book; unnecessary words, things repeated when they didn’t need to be, everyday conversations that could’ve been cut, that sort of thing. It was a bit distracting but the story was good enough that I kept reading. (I told myself going in that I’d give up if it wasn’t for me, but I couldn’t, he had me hooked.)

Verdict: 

It’s not a perfect story, but I was entertained, which in the end is all that matters to me. Even when I was confused I couldn’t put it down. I found myself staying up too late, because I was just going to read one more chapter.

Will I read the next one? Yes.

How many points of view do you like? I like multiple points of view, but I tend to prefer 5-7 at the most. (For the first book at least)

Top 10 most read authors!

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Blogging has really been good for me to branch out my reading. (for years the only thing I read was the Harry Potter series on repeat) Then I found an author I liked and stuck with them until I’d read everything they ever wrote. (I chose prolific authors)

Since I procrastinate too much to do the official top ten lists I thought I’d come up with one of my own. My top ten most read authors.

Goodreads made this easy, (I didn’t even know about this feature until recently, so I’m sharing in case someone else hasn’t found it yet either.) Under the shelves there’s recommendations, widgets, ect. One of those is most read authors!

 

1. Terry Pratchett…… 48 Books! (My Favorite: The Color of Magic)

He’s obviously my favorite author, and for good reason. His books are hilarious, each one I crack up multiple times. They also have great characters and a cool world. As with most authors his first few aren’t as well written, but they’re still some of my favorites. There are also all sorts of magical craetures, warewolves, vampires, undeaad, igors, dwarves. All with their own Pratchett flair of course. My favorite was when he spoofed Twilight before Twilight even existed! (He’s that good) In Carpe Jugulum.

His main series is Discworld and there are multiple storylines, so you can pick up any number of books to start. My favorite story line is about the inept wizard Rincewind, who is a huge coward. His storyline starts the first book in the whole series The Color of Magic. (It starts kind of weird, but stick with it, it’s worth it!) My second favorite is the guards (which must be popular because they have the most books, and originally it was only going to be one book!) which feature the city guards as they solve mysteries. (Guards, Guards! Is the first book) The main character Vimes leads the guards, and he’s great. He says he’s not very smart, but he sticks with it. My third favorite is DEATH, yes that death. He has a granddaughter too. It starts with the story of Mort. The other storylines are the wizards at the college (which starts with Rincewind’s story Sorcery), the witches (which starts with Equal Rights), a young adult series staring a witch named Tiffany Aching, (The Wee Free Men) the new storyline of Moist Von Lipwig as his tries to improve the main city, Ankh Morpork. (Going Postal) There are also plenty of stand alones. (This was all done from memory, so if anything is wrong I’ve failed as a Pratchett fangirl!)

2. L.E. Modesitt Jr…… 34 Books! (My Favorite: Alector’s Choice (Book 4)

(I won’t even go into how inaccurate that cover is…)

Modesitte writes epic fantasy and I love his worlds and magic systems.

His main series is the Recluse saga (though he’s got like a ten series, in both fantasy and scifi). He writes Recluse strangely, the first 5 is like the main story line (and oddly not my favorite) but after that they jump back and forth in time with usually two books in each time line. My favorites are Cerryl (The White Order, Colors of Chaos) and Lorn (Magi’i of Cyador, Scion of Cyador). My favorite series is the Corean Chronicles, which is about aliens and magic. It’s hard to explain! (And I wouldn’t want spoilers.) It’s good, let’s go with that. He also writes the Spellsong Cycle where singing is magic and a woman from Earth winds up there. (I think that’s his only series to connect with earth), and his latest series the Imager Portfolio which has magic that can create items. And I’m sure there are more I’m forgetting.

3. Isaac Asimov…… 27 Books! (My Favorite: Prelude to Foundation)

(Most of these are short story collections, which have overlapping stories, so it really isn’t all that many) Asimov is my favorite short story writer! All of the plots of his short stories could’ve easily been novels. He had so many ideas! My favorite is the the robot books, (like I, Robot, which the movie was VERY loosely based on). He also wrote the Foundation trilogy, which he is best known for. He was working on merging the two when he died. (Aids from a blood transfusion in the 80s) Other authors have attempted to write the books he didn’t, but I can’t bring myself to read them.

4. Terry Goodkind…… 13 Books (My Favorite: Faith of the Fallen (Book 6)

Goodkind writes the epic fantasy series The Sword of Truth, which I read because my sister liked it. (The tv show is rubbish) It’s a really good series even though the main character is like perfect and he sometimes gets a little preachy towards the end. (Not religious preachy, just righteous) But I can ignore all that, because they’re so good! I love the characters and how the main character Richard is always so tough, but that doesn’t make the plot predictable or dull in the least. The female main character kicks butt too, no one needs to save Kahlan. (Goodkind tried to end the series, but his next book flopped, so he went back to Richard and Kahlan, but my sister’s told me about the second series and I don’t think I want to read it.)

5. J.K. Rowling…… 10 Books (My Favorite: Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3)

Yes, I’m counting her short stories. I don’t think I’ve read any series more. (I’m joking about the think part. I have no clue how many times I’ve read and listened to these books!) If anyone hasn’t read Harry Potter yet, they should! Everyone should read it, at least to know what all of the hype is about. For once the hype is so worth it! I’m not a fan of the last book *don’t throw fruit* so I’ve only read that once. Did anyone else go to the bookstore at midnight to get one of the books? I did! Number 7!!

6. Rick Riordan…… 10 Books (My Favorite: Mark of Athena (Book 3)

How could this list not include Riordan? I just wrote a gush post about Percy Jackson, so I won’t say anything more except he has the best sense of humor! Riordan’s one author I’d like to know in real life!

7. Cassandra Clare…… 10 Books (My Favorite: Clockwork Princess (Book 3)

I didn’t read the Mortal Instruments until this year, because they didn’t sound like my kind of book. I was wrong. (It happens.) I’ve already wrote a post about these books, so I’ll just say I would love to be a warlock. How awesome are those powers?

8. Derek Landy…… 10 Books (My Favorite: Skulduggery Pleasant)

 

Again, I’ve already talked about them. I’m working on a post for the last books right now. I just have to get my hands on book Nine! It came out in August, I’m so behind.

9. Jim Butcher…… 9 Books (My Favorite: Summer Knight (Book 4)

My first foray in to urban fantasy. Harry Dresden is a wizard for hire, he’s in the phone book and everything. These books have a fantastic world, great characters, a sense of humor, and kick buttery. In other words, they rock! The Dresden Files are fantasy and mystery with tons of action! Dresden is a bit like Bruce Willis in the Die Hard movies, he always kicks butt, but he gets abused while doing it. The first 3 books of the series were great, but then they got even better! I haven’t liked the last few as much, they’re longer and they don’t seem to hold my attention as well. I still highly recommend this series! (Note: there is adult content in these books, mostly in the first one though. Harry doesn’t get lucky much after that.) Butcher also writes an epic fantasy series, which has been gathering dust on my shelf.

10. George R.R. Martin…… 9 Books (My Favorite: A Clash of Kings (Book 2)

Technically only 6 books, because goodreads counts short stories, but since his books are so long, (I’ve read 5774 pages by Martin) he still deserves to be on the list. The description of these books totally doesn’t sound like me, so it’s a good thing I started them years ago, with only the back cover to go on. I know there’s now a tv show everybody watches and raves about, but I can easily skip the adult content in the books (because wow, yeah lots of adult-ness) but it’s not so easy in a tv show. (which is on HBO, so I know it’s going to be very adult) Surprisingly there is little fantasy in these books. (I know you’ve probably heard about the dragons and the ‘dead like’ people) But most of the story is about various families trying to get the throne. (The Iron throne) There’s political intrigue, plotting, backstabbing, epic battles. (inbreeding) These books have it all! Why do I love them though? The characters! There are TONS of view points and oodles of characters and they are all so unique (I could never start a chapter and mistake one character for another) and there’s really no good and bad, but lots of gray. Martin writes for the ‘villains’ as much as the ‘heroes’ and I find myself rooting for both! My favorite characters are Tyrion, Jamie (surprisingly, once he gets a POV), Jon Snow, and Arya Stark. I know I didn’t list Dany, but I hate her storylines! Can anything else bad happen to the poor girl? (Note: Martin needs to write faster! The first book came out in 1996 and we’re only on book 5 now.)

This post got longer than I planned… Sorry for all of the book babble.

What are your top authors and how many books by each have you read?