liseyp's reviews
1375 reviews

The Puppet Master by Sam Holland

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sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 15%.
Not for me. I have no issue with swearing where it helps with characterisation, but this just felt like a 12-year-old showing off by swearing every second word. I didn’t care about the main character and had no sense of world building. There are vampires and semi-vampires so what. Life is too short to keep reading this.
The Collapsing Wave by Doug Johnstone

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

After helping an alien octopus (Sandy) flee across Scotland Ava, Heather and Lennox are trapped. The US Army has taken charge of investigating the aquatic alien lifeforms and are using Heather and Lennox’s connection to the creatures to perform inhumane testing.
 
The found family bond between the four main characters from The Space Between Us continues to be the warm beating heart of the second book in this series. We get to find out more about Sandy and their fellow Encaladons, and unfortunately explore more of the harsh reality of how an encounter with a peaceful alien race would likely play out with military superpowers. 
 
High tension, great characters and big concepts all delivered in fewer than 300 pages without a word wasted. 
The Curator by M.W. Craven

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mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

A criminal mastermind who manipulates other people to commit crimes. Is he simply a myth or a real threat. Sergeant Washington Poe and analyst Tilly Bradshaw are hot on the trail to uncover the truth.
 
A fun read. I found some of the drama of the final resolution was undermined by how many obstacles were put in the way of the dash to rescue. It was pushing the boundaries of how much I could suspend my disbelief.  And the ‘I know but you don’t’ gradual reveal of all of the facts got tired very quickly. But, Poe and Tilly’s relationship provided a strong highlight which kept me interested.
Goodbye Birdie Greenwing by Ericka Waller

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emotional funny sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Medical student Will Raven and housemaid Sarah Parish are both keen to rise above their  station. The debt and threats of violence for non-payment which hangs over Will and the societal barriers placed on Sarah by both her sex and class may however be insurmountable. But, Will and Sarah team up to uncover the truth behind a series of deaths.
 
Great characters, excellent plotting, and plenty of historical facts/context without it seeming like a lecture. I love Chris Brookmyre’s solo books, although I’ll admit to a certain amount of trepidation about how that would translate to historical crime fiction. 
 
But, the balance between his plot and character development experience and his co-author Marisa Haetzman’s subject matter knowledge combine to make this debut novel by Ambrose Parry (their joint pen name) truly excellent.
Babel by R.F. Kuang

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reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Oxford is the centre of the British Empire’s dominance. London may be where Parliament and industry is, but Oxford manages the silver and the magic of language that powers the silver industrial age. Students come from around the world using their knowledge of their native languages to fuel research at Babel.
 
I’ve commented on a recent review that I can have a hit or miss relationship with fantasy fiction. And, while I’ve heard many good reviews of Babel I was concerned that it would stray into the complex world building that overlooks the plotting that is common amongst fantasy novels I don’t get on with.
 
Actually the world building here is simple. So simple in fact that the fantastical element of silver imbued with magical features by translated word pairs is almost irrelevant. The story feels like it could have been told quite easily without this aspect at all and just worked as a straightforward reimagined historical novel to make a point about colonialism and privilege.
 
The language focus on where words come from and common ancestry was interesting initially, but overdone. I found my brain skipping large sections of this, and likewise I skipped over most of the footnotes because it felt they were just distracting from the story.
 
While it’s a very slow burner I did eventually feel engaged in the outcomes for the characters, although it took over halfway through the book before I felt like there was enough depth to care about them enough to be worth keeping reading. Until that point I was constantly fighting the temptation to just give up.
 
More worthy than enjoyable, and actually I think I’d have preferred to read non-fiction about the reality of colonialism, because I’d at least have gone into that expecting the experience to be more educational than entertaining.
The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Freeing the land of a dictator is not enough. The mists are staying longer and they’re killing people, and the Lord Ruler might have been in the right all along.
 
Character development, increased jeopardy, a treasure hunt. Great elements to round off this stage of the Mistborn story. I know there are another four books set in this world, but from what I can see there’s a big time jump until book four, and I don’t think I’m quite ready to open myself up to new characters, because Vin, El, TenSoon and Sazed will stay with me for some time to come.
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The Lord Ruler’s time has ended, but in the words of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hit musical ‘Hamilton’ “Fighting is easy, young man, governing is harder”.
 
You know when you’ve landed on a great new series when you finish one 670 page novel and immediately pick up the 800 page sequel. Despite one of my favourite characters not surviving book one, I needed to known what happened next with the survivors and the world of Luthadel.
 
I was not disappointed. The characters are developing well, I love the depth to all of the crew members, their journey from revolution to governing. The widening of the understanding of this world. It’s well-paced, there are no info dumps, just perfect compelling reading.
The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

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adventurous emotional funny tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Vin is the lowest member of her thieving crew. The voice in her head reminds her of the warnings from the brother who abandoned her to trust no one. But, to survive on the streets she can’t be alone so she hopes that her ‘luck’ will keep her safe by keeping her useful. Then she meets Kelsier and is drawn into his plan to overturn the Final Empire.
 
I can be hit or miss with fantasy. I’m here for the world-building, but hate it when the reader is expected to understand complex rules and magics with little context. I like relationships (platonic or romantic) that build and draw you in, but struggle with the kind of fantasy where the fantasy elements are secondary to an enemies to lovers or similar trope.
 
So starting a new fantasy novel is a bit of a moment for me. But, having re-read Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings back to back I wanted something with a similar character focus and immersive storytelling vibe. All of the BookTok recommendations were shouting Brandon Sanderson, but I was still apprehensive.
 
It took all of three pages for me to be convinced.
 
This is exactly the kind of fantasy fiction I love. It doesn’t try too hard to be fantasy, it’s a fantastic story first and the fantastical elements are just part of that story. And, it remains immensely readable. Great characters, doesn’t feel exploitative. This is a series I’m excited to continue.