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bookslucyking's review
5.0
I loved this one. So many things happened. I enjoyed the travelling to the Northern Kingdoms. It was great.
rorareads55's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
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? Yes
5.0
desertlurker's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
a_wren_that_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
makaylarosie225's review
adventurous
dark
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
blue_eyes_white_privilege's review
adventurous
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? No
3.5
cptrexct's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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? No
3.0
jakes_booktakes's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
owlette's review against another edition
2.0
[edited for clarity 2023-04-27]
Since the sixth book is the last book where Soren is the main protagonist, I want to summarize some of my thoughts I've been having since my first review of the series. There are three.
One: The Pure Ones' ideology of white supremacy is not convincing. This is clear from how other owls talk as a fringe belief, like a New Age cult that sprung out of the blue. Even though they're scared of the Pure Ones' cruelty, they're confused at how the Pure Ones ever got the idea that barn owls are superior to other owls.
What ultimately breaks the game is that the owl family taxonomy is manmade: it doesn't exist in nature. Human taxonomists decided that the Strigiformes family should have two genera, Tyto, to which barn owls belong, and Strigidae, to which all other kinds of owls belong. It doesn't seem like these fictional owls learned this taxonomy from the humans before the latter went extinct, nor is there a shared mythological story about the first owls separating into these two genera.
My point is, I wish Lasky had done more work to build her fictional world' culture and history so that the cruelty of the Pure Ones isn't just a homogenous group of owls who have this crazy fringe belief but instead a group of owls whose beliefs have historical roots ... just like the white supremacy in our world.
Two: Starting in Book Three, the narration gets expositional because the narrator explains an event or a character from the previous installment of the series. In *Harry Potter* J.K. Rowling gets much of the recap exposition out of the way in the first chapter, explaining that Harry Potter is not an ordinary boy, that he goes to a special school, that he is not even an ordinary boy in the magical world, etc. Perhaps the alternative is what Lasky does: intersperse the exposition throughout the narrative as the references to the past comes up. But these books are less than 200 pages, and nearly a third of the narrative prose could be taken up by expositions!
Three: The characters start to blend together. Since Soren is easily impressed, there are about four "smart" owls. Gylfie, Diggert, Otulissa, and Martin have all been noted as intelligent in one way or another by Soren. Although they are intelligent in different ways, there could have been more variety in personalities. I keep bringing up Harry Potter, but one of the things J.K. Rowling did well despite the large number of characters was making them distinguishable. (... at least within a certain range. I admit that even in Hogwarts, the farther away you get from Harry, the students start to blend together.)
Since the sixth book is the last book where Soren is the main protagonist, I want to summarize some of my thoughts I've been having since my first review of the series. There are three.
One: The Pure Ones' ideology of white supremacy is not convincing. This is clear from how other owls talk as a fringe belief, like a New Age cult that sprung out of the blue. Even though they're scared of the Pure Ones' cruelty, they're confused at how the Pure Ones ever got the idea that barn owls are superior to other owls.
What ultimately breaks the game is that the owl family taxonomy is manmade: it doesn't exist in nature. Human taxonomists decided that the Strigiformes family should have two genera, Tyto, to which barn owls belong, and Strigidae, to which all other kinds of owls belong. It doesn't seem like these fictional owls learned this taxonomy from the humans before the latter went extinct, nor is there a shared mythological story about the first owls separating into these two genera.
My point is, I wish Lasky had done more work to build her fictional world' culture and history so that the cruelty of the Pure Ones isn't just a homogenous group of owls who have this crazy fringe belief but instead a group of owls whose beliefs have historical roots ... just like the white supremacy in our world.
Two: Starting in Book Three, the narration gets expositional because the narrator explains an event or a character from the previous installment of the series. In *Harry Potter* J.K. Rowling gets much of the recap exposition out of the way in the first chapter, explaining that Harry Potter is not an ordinary boy, that he goes to a special school, that he is not even an ordinary boy in the magical world, etc. Perhaps the alternative is what Lasky does: intersperse the exposition throughout the narrative as the references to the past comes up. But these books are less than 200 pages, and nearly a third of the narrative prose could be taken up by expositions!
Three: The characters start to blend together. Since Soren is easily impressed, there are about four "smart" owls. Gylfie, Diggert, Otulissa, and Martin have all been noted as intelligent in one way or another by Soren. Although they are intelligent in different ways, there could have been more variety in personalities. I keep bringing up Harry Potter, but one of the things J.K. Rowling did well despite the large number of characters was making them distinguishable. (... at least within a certain range. I admit that even in Hogwarts, the farther away you get from Harry, the students start to blend together.)
freshlimetime_'s review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0