One Sentence Media Reviews
Time travel in novels works best as poetry (nothing explained, vibes only) or as hard sci-fi (intensely careful plotting, solid internally consistent rules) - whereas this loose handwavy mix of jargon and clutter made no sense, and was totally unsatisfying.
This is a scholarly work concerning the way the ultra wealthy launder their consciences through nature, which is a fascinating idea and discussed in some depth here, but as a scholarly work this book is plodding, repetitive, and very careful, such that it doesn’t get as deep as I would’ve liked.
my old chestnut “Every book an essay” definitely applies to this very helpful but very repetitive parenting manual, although I do think that if one was coming to it with no previous conception of the approach, the repetition might be more useful than it was for me.
Having burned through this entire fantasy epic, my verdict is that it’s enjoyable and light, you could read it on the train or at the beach, it’s written with craft and each book has one or two great moments, but it’s missing something - verve, jazz, poetry… art, I guess.
Abundantly readable and exactly as satisfying an ending of a five book fantasy series as you could ask, but also totally boring - it seems like Abraham took the least-risk option every step of the way here, and so ends up with a conclusion that feels like the solution to a mathematical equation.
4th book in the dagger and coin series is another bridging story like the 2nd; as such, it’s a bit boring from an action perspective, but overall satisfying and clearly setting up a nice finale.
Just as nonsensical and whimsical and dark as many children’s movies of the era, but also (and this coming from someone who hates 80s music) the music kinda slaps.
As I continue to tear thru this series I continue to think the same thing I have all along, that it’s funny to see a fantasy world inherit so many world building elements from the Malazan series while being so utterly different in most other ways; furthermore I can confidently say that this book lives up to the bridging promise of the previous, with some outstanding and deep character-driven moments.
The rare later career album success - just so so cozy and sweet.
Second book in Abraham’s Dagger and Coin series follows precisely in the path of the previous, except that it’s very clearly a bridging book, meant to continue the story and move multiple plot elements along and so it lacks the first book’s dramatic scale, which, come to think of it, is kind of a knock on the book and the series because I’d like to think that the artifice of novelmaking shouldn’t be so obvious - but all that said, it was very fun.