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retrogirl20's review
adventurous
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I love reading first novels after reading a majority of an author’s works! You can see where a lot of the building blocks for future stories come from. Was this the best? Obviously not, but it’s a very solid story.
tasharobinson's review against another edition
4.0
I read these out of order because I finally gave up on waiting for book 1 to come back into print, so I broke down and read book 2… and only then thought to re-check whether book 1 was finally available again. And it was. So I had a weird narrative experience, first reading how all these characters end their stories, then reading how they're first introduced and defined. That said, if I'd read them in order, I'm not sure it would have stood out to me how different book 1 is from book 2 — how much the first book is focused on filtering everything through the protagonist's viewpoint, while book 2 departs from it more, and how much bigger and wilder and scarier the world gets in book 2. I ended up liking them both pretty much equally, but for very different reasons — the first book for its efficiency in world building and character setup, the second more for its wild elaborations on the world, and its epic scale.
archergal's review against another edition
4.0
I also got this book for being a backer of Summer in Orcus.
I'm an Ursula Vernon fangirl. And yes, this is a first novel. And no, it's not perfect. But Ursula writes smoothly and interestingly.
Animals that are really humans in animal garb aren't always my thing. I understand the impulse to build a character that's DIFFERENT, that takes good (or bad) human traits and recasts them in a different form to explore them in different ways. I just don't know how it would all work IRL. For instance, when the travelers are riding on horseback, every now there's a reference to Sadrao (the dog soldier -- DOG soldier, heh) wagging his tail, and it brings me up short every time.
I'm on record as disliking most fantasy elves that aren't written by Tolkien, but that's me. Ursula's elves are not too bad.
I closed volume one and immediately opened volume two. So I like it reasonably well. :)
I'm an Ursula Vernon fangirl. And yes, this is a first novel. And no, it's not perfect. But Ursula writes smoothly and interestingly.
Animals that are really humans in animal garb aren't always my thing. I understand the impulse to build a character that's DIFFERENT, that takes good (or bad) human traits and recasts them in a different form to explore them in different ways. I just don't know how it would all work IRL. For instance, when the travelers are riding on horseback, every now there's a reference to Sadrao (the dog soldier -- DOG soldier, heh) wagging his tail, and it brings me up short every time.
I'm on record as disliking most fantasy elves that aren't written by Tolkien, but that's me. Ursula's elves are not too bad.
I closed volume one and immediately opened volume two. So I like it reasonably well. :)
annanymity's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
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? It's complicated
4.0
valhecka's review
4.0
This is FUN. A bit conventional in terms of plot but not in characters or worldbuilding or culture. The writing is a little shaky but still solid for action scenes, which is most of the book. Good, original quest fantasy. With giant dogs, sloths, and mustelids running around. And lesbian elves.
echotechne's review
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
archergal's review
4.0
I also got this book for being a backer of Summer in Orcus.
I'm an Ursula Vernon fangirl. And yes, this is a first novel. And no, it's not perfect. But Ursula writes smoothly and interestingly.
Animals that are really humans in animal garb aren't always my thing. I understand the impulse to build a character that's DIFFERENT, that takes good (or bad) human traits and recasts them in a different form to explore them in different ways. I just don't know how it would all work IRL. For instance, when the travelers are riding on horseback, every now there's a reference to Sadrao (the dog soldier -- DOG soldier, heh) wagging his tail, and it brings me up short every time.
I'm on record as disliking most fantasy elves that aren't written by Tolkien, but that's me. Ursula's elves are not too bad.
I closed volume one and immediately opened volume two. So I like it reasonably well. :)
I'm an Ursula Vernon fangirl. And yes, this is a first novel. And no, it's not perfect. But Ursula writes smoothly and interestingly.
Animals that are really humans in animal garb aren't always my thing. I understand the impulse to build a character that's DIFFERENT, that takes good (or bad) human traits and recasts them in a different form to explore them in different ways. I just don't know how it would all work IRL. For instance, when the travelers are riding on horseback, every now there's a reference to Sadrao (the dog soldier -- DOG soldier, heh) wagging his tail, and it brings me up short every time.
I'm on record as disliking most fantasy elves that aren't written by Tolkien, but that's me. Ursula's elves are not too bad.
I closed volume one and immediately opened volume two. So I like it reasonably well. :)
foomple's review
3.0
This was started when Vernon was still in her teens, and it reads like a raw (read: unhoned) talent. But while the writing can be awkward and she falls back on some clichéd turns of phrase and ideas, the bones of how her work would evolve are visible here, and I often like seeing how artists grow and change. The hook for me in so many stories is characters I can care about --I actually largely stopped noticing the unpolished writing because I care what happens to these characters, and I'm going to read Part 2.
teancom's review
2.0
It's definitely a bit rough around the edges. Wouldn't have finished if it wasn't by Ursula Vernon, one of my favorite authors ever. Worth getting through, as the second book gets better.