Sections
The first book of The Wheel of Time, The Eye of the World, is an epic fantasy novel that wears its inspirations on its sleeve – even to a fault: its story is clearly based on Arthurian legends and The Lord of the Rings, but it’s Tolkien who most shackles Robert Jordan’s novel. The Eye of the World shines when it occasionally breaks free from its influences and does its own thing, developing a fascinating protagonist and a couple of great themes.
It all begins on “an awkward morning, made for unpleasant thoughts.” Rand al’Thor is a young farmer accompanying his father to the local town, in the isolated rural region of the Two Rivers. The weather – always quick to react to [...]
“At that moment sounded the howl of the fell beann’shie, the harbinger of imminent and violent death, and across the black sky galloped the Wild Hunt – a procession of fiery-eyed phantoms on skeleton horses, their tattered cloaks and standards fluttering behind them.”
The sixth book of The Witcher series, written by Andrzej Sapkowski and translated to English by David A. French, illustrates how the series has changed with each passing book: if at first, we had a collection of short stories that sarcastically played with fairy tales to discuss the importance of taking a stand in political matters, now we have a novel about violence and death that treats these subjects with [...]
The Black Company is a military fantasy novel filled with unlikable characters and strange worldbuilding. The book manages to make these things part of its identity, but unfortunately fails to develop most of its characters and to make some parts of the story engaging.
The Black Company is a private military group. When the story starts, it’s hired to contain riots in the city of Beryl, but soon the situation in the city starts to escalate rapidly and get out of control, leading them to make a complicated decision: if they want to stay alive, they must toss honor into the fire and betray their employer. The betrayal, however, doesn’t improve their situation by much since they [...]
The Bear and the Nightingale is a fairy tale about a Russian girl that gets lost in the woods and meets an ancient, cruel bear. It’s also a story about religion, depicting a battle over the imagination of the people, changing their beliefs and behavior. The novel, written by Katherine Arden, offers a touching tale packed with layered characters and discussions.
The book opens with a story being told at night. The people in Pyotr’s house – a Russian boyar – gather to hear old Dunya tell the tale of a maiden who is sent to the forest to marry the king of winter, Frost, because her jealous stepmother wants her to die. The forest is cold and silent, and yet the maiden doesn’t [...]
The Name of the Wind is a brilliant fantasy novel that is as deeply concerned with social inequality as it is in love with song and music. It’s mostly narrated by an unreliable man with an ego the size of an overgrown draccus, and whose melancholy imbues the story with an important dose of pathos: the tone makes it clear that, despite all his wondrous adventures and wonderful achievements, he’s not spinning a happy tale.
The prologue’s main purpose is not to introduce a character or setting but to build a somber mood: it goes on to describe the silence that permeates a certain inn, analyzing its layers to expose the sadness at its core. It guides the reader to focus on things [...]
– The following review contains spoilers for the entire trilogy.
Written by Brandon Sanderson, The Hero of Ages marks the conclusion of the first Mistborn trilogy by repeating the same achievements and failures of the previous volumes. The novel is uneven when it comes to developing its characters and presenting its many twists and turns, showing consistency only in its ability to contradict itself all the time.
The story begins a few years after the events of The Well of Ascension, with the deity Vin freed, called Ruin, loose in the world to wreak – as his name suggests – destruction. With the help of her husband, Emperor Elend, Vin’s plan is to seek out the [...]