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kitvaria_sarene's review against another edition
5.0
This is the second book in the Forbidden List series.
I enjoyed the first a lot, but this one is really another step up!
For me it was very easy to find back into the story, and I enjoyed getting to read more background, and having a bigger cast of characters. That was mainly what I missed in the first one - I just needed a bit more.
Two things I especially have to point out:
- The dialogues are really great! For me speech often reads quite artificial and rough. But not so here - it was fluent, realistic and fit perfectly into the environment.
- The descriptions are perfect! GR Matthews manages to let me see, touch, breath and feel the things he describes. And he manages that without to many words, and without even one single info dump. It is what I like most about his books - I can delve right into them and spend my time being IN the story, not just reading it.
I especially liked Zhous part of the story in this one - more fantasy, more magic and more really interesting new things there, that still occupy my thoughts now.
The writing is fluent, and the pacing was just right for me - there were quite a few missing words and such, but they should be fixed soon.
The Blue Mountain is a full five star book for me, that I will gladly recommend for anyone who loves Asian fantasy.
Or is looking for something that doesn't come with a thousand pages. I found the lenght an ideal breather between two tomes. I should make a habbit of seeking out more fantasy books that won't take over a week to read. A really nice change for me! ;)
I enjoyed the first a lot, but this one is really another step up!
For me it was very easy to find back into the story, and I enjoyed getting to read more background, and having a bigger cast of characters. That was mainly what I missed in the first one - I just needed a bit more.
Two things I especially have to point out:
- The dialogues are really great! For me speech often reads quite artificial and rough. But not so here - it was fluent, realistic and fit perfectly into the environment.
- The descriptions are perfect! GR Matthews manages to let me see, touch, breath and feel the things he describes. And he manages that without to many words, and without even one single info dump. It is what I like most about his books - I can delve right into them and spend my time being IN the story, not just reading it.
I especially liked Zhous part of the story in this one - more fantasy, more magic and more really interesting new things there, that still occupy my thoughts now.
The writing is fluent, and the pacing was just right for me - there were quite a few missing words and such, but they should be fixed soon.
The Blue Mountain is a full five star book for me, that I will gladly recommend for anyone who loves Asian fantasy.
Or is looking for something that doesn't come with a thousand pages. I found the lenght an ideal breather between two tomes. I should make a habbit of seeking out more fantasy books that won't take over a week to read. A really nice change for me! ;)
lanko's review
3.0
The writing of the author improved visibly in this sequel, as did the formatting of the book.
I liked the concept of the Wu, their unique perk of longevity and the fact they are mostly living their lives isolated from each other that sometimes are called to reunite to greet someone new instead of yet another magical school.
It started well with the mystery in the Blue Mountain with Zhou and Haung's move to the Imperial City, but then instead of character focus it focused on the plot and on too much details of things in the the world, which was a bit of a big contrast in relation to the first book.
I loved the tension, fast pace and focus on characters in the first book. Here, except in the beginning, the main characters have nothing at stake, face no hard or moral choices, nothing is gained or lost, no new insight or change in views, like Haung in the first book. Except maybe one moment with Zhou.
They are also not really active. Haung openly disobeyed orders and had his own agenda in book one. Zhou was out for revenge. Here they are held back either by lack of raw power in comparison to other characters or simply because of hierarchical positions.
Liu, Gang and Xiónmao were great additions, though.
The plot lines that could offer great moments of tension and challenge for the main characters were introduced then simply dropped out of nowhere in favor of the invasion plot.
1. Haung/Jiao relationship. There were some hints of envy from Haung and cheating from Jiao.
In the first book we discover she was actually mind controlled when she married him and nobody actually addressed that. She liked Haung, but finding yourself married like this makes one wonder if she is just putting up with it because she suddenly has a son now. How would Haung react if he found out she was actually unhappy?
2. Jing Ke. An assassin that is actually multiple people. Awesome. Haung says he's going after him but nothing happens, he doesn't appear and no attacks are made by him or Jing on his family. Unless that guy he is following is actually him passing as a servant.
3. The five houses. Another thing that could have bring more enemies (or friends) and tension and threats to Haung, but aside the description of the situation, nothing happens either. Just like them, I'm trying to to know why Haung is the Emperor's special snowflake.
4. Was expecting more of Boqin and his rivalry with the Emperor, but nobody tells what happened between them. Zhou is just left in the dark, not only from this but other trivial things as well.
Well, I believe (and really hope) all these plot lines will be addressed in book 3 for some cataclysmic conclusion, but it did make this feel like what people call "book two syndrome", when most of what happens is just really a major set up.
I liked the concept of the Wu, their unique perk of longevity and the fact they are mostly living their lives isolated from each other that sometimes are called to reunite to greet someone new instead of yet another magical school.
It started well with the mystery in the Blue Mountain with Zhou and Haung's move to the Imperial City, but then instead of character focus it focused on the plot and on too much details of things in the the world, which was a bit of a big contrast in relation to the first book.
I loved the tension, fast pace and focus on characters in the first book. Here, except in the beginning, the main characters have nothing at stake, face no hard or moral choices, nothing is gained or lost, no new insight or change in views, like Haung in the first book. Except maybe one moment with Zhou.
They are also not really active. Haung openly disobeyed orders and had his own agenda in book one. Zhou was out for revenge. Here they are held back either by lack of raw power in comparison to other characters or simply because of hierarchical positions.
Liu, Gang and Xiónmao were great additions, though.
The plot lines that could offer great moments of tension and challenge for the main characters were introduced then simply dropped out of nowhere in favor of the invasion plot.
Spoiler
1. Haung/Jiao relationship. There were some hints of envy from Haung and cheating from Jiao.
In the first book we discover she was actually mind controlled when she married him and nobody actually addressed that. She liked Haung, but finding yourself married like this makes one wonder if she is just putting up with it because she suddenly has a son now. How would Haung react if he found out she was actually unhappy?
2. Jing Ke. An assassin that is actually multiple people. Awesome. Haung says he's going after him but nothing happens, he doesn't appear and no attacks are made by him or Jing on his family. Unless that guy he is following is actually him passing as a servant.
3. The five houses. Another thing that could have bring more enemies (or friends) and tension and threats to Haung, but aside the description of the situation, nothing happens either. Just like them, I'm trying to to know why Haung is the Emperor's special snowflake.
4. Was expecting more of Boqin and his rivalry with the Emperor, but nobody tells what happened between them. Zhou is just left in the dark, not only from this but other trivial things as well.
Well, I believe (and really hope) all these plot lines will be addressed in book 3 for some cataclysmic conclusion, but it did make this feel like what people call "book two syndrome", when most of what happens is just really a major set up.
eclipse777's review
3.0
Fast Paced and enjoyable but I actually preferred the first one I just felt there wasn't enough intrigue until the end of the novel and Gang and Liu didn't really work for me as there wasn't much background on them, I thought at one point we would when Liu asked to have a separate room to the others in the barracks but it was never explained why .Haung Promotions seemed predictable to me as I've already seen it before (maybe read too much fantasy novels) I do like the magic of the wu and reading about Taiji
tomunro's review
5.0
This is book two in the forbidden list trilogy and is another story that has shuffled off the chains and constraints of pseudo-medieval Europe and planted itself four square in the context of an oriental empire defended by, among other things, a great wall built to keep marauding nomadic horse riders called mongols at bay.
Pitched into this context we again follow the paths of Zhou and Huang, two men who were once polar adversaries. Now with their very different talents and potential recognised by the highest authority in the land, we see them separated and embarked on training to make them worthy of the honour of being on the forbidden list. If I have understood it right, the forbidden list comprises those individuals so favoured for their talents that no one is allowed to offer them any let or hinderance in their appointed tasks. Though both are careful not to flaunt their preferment.
The story follows the same simple but effective structure of alternate chapters seen from the point of view of each of the two lead characters. However, their paths are not so closely interleaved as in the first book, for duty calls them at least at first in quite different directions.
Given the sense that this a re-imagining of China's ancient history at work, I did wonder how far the author had drawn on real Chinese mythology and culture as well as architecture in the foundation of the novel. In particular names and titles used had an authentic eastern ring. However, it is the magic system of the book which seemed, in its detail, to have drawn deeply on some original source material. Which is not to say that is anyway a bad thing, simply that it gave the "magic system" a delightful detail and coherence which can be lacking in some fantasy work. Indeed magic system is all too paltry a term for the concepts of layers of spirit worlds from which the trained or the attuned could draw power and in which they could do battle in various forms. Yet the magic systems and way people used them were more than mere plot devices, they were the plot, they were its glowing blue spine on which the tale hung.
And it is a good tale, briskly told, so much so that I started and finished the book in a little over 24 hours. The action peaks early with an initial crisis and then gradually re-gathers itself for a final cliff-hanging denoument which reminded me of another desperate defence of another eternal barrier in some other (eternal) world - Westeros I think they called it. The pace rattles along in what I found was a plot driven story, mysteries to be uncovered, suspicions to be confirmed and villains to be unmasked.
Along the well-written way, the author pays due recognition to the geographic realities of a volcanic eruption, but not in a gratuitous flaunting of the author's knowledge. The tribulations of making a journey under a rain of volcanic ash, like the magic system itself, are plot engines not digressions.
It is the second book so how does it compare to the first?
I have to say I think this one is better, sharper in its execution, and more balanced in its presentation. The back stories feel more fully developed, the political and economic context more credible and in short the whole thing has a more polished feel. Which is not to denigrate The Stone Road, merely to say that The Blue Mountain is better still and I am looking forward to book 3.
Pitched into this context we again follow the paths of Zhou and Huang, two men who were once polar adversaries. Now with their very different talents and potential recognised by the highest authority in the land, we see them separated and embarked on training to make them worthy of the honour of being on the forbidden list. If I have understood it right, the forbidden list comprises those individuals so favoured for their talents that no one is allowed to offer them any let or hinderance in their appointed tasks. Though both are careful not to flaunt their preferment.
The story follows the same simple but effective structure of alternate chapters seen from the point of view of each of the two lead characters. However, their paths are not so closely interleaved as in the first book, for duty calls them at least at first in quite different directions.
Given the sense that this a re-imagining of China's ancient history at work, I did wonder how far the author had drawn on real Chinese mythology and culture as well as architecture in the foundation of the novel. In particular names and titles used had an authentic eastern ring. However, it is the magic system of the book which seemed, in its detail, to have drawn deeply on some original source material. Which is not to say that is anyway a bad thing, simply that it gave the "magic system" a delightful detail and coherence which can be lacking in some fantasy work. Indeed magic system is all too paltry a term for the concepts of layers of spirit worlds from which the trained or the attuned could draw power and in which they could do battle in various forms. Yet the magic systems and way people used them were more than mere plot devices, they were the plot, they were its glowing blue spine on which the tale hung.
And it is a good tale, briskly told, so much so that I started and finished the book in a little over 24 hours. The action peaks early with an initial crisis and then gradually re-gathers itself for a final cliff-hanging denoument which reminded me of another desperate defence of another eternal barrier in some other (eternal) world - Westeros I think they called it. The pace rattles along in what I found was a plot driven story, mysteries to be uncovered, suspicions to be confirmed and villains to be unmasked.
Along the well-written way, the author pays due recognition to the geographic realities of a volcanic eruption, but not in a gratuitous flaunting of the author's knowledge. The tribulations of making a journey under a rain of volcanic ash, like the magic system itself, are plot engines not digressions.
It is the second book so how does it compare to the first?
I have to say I think this one is better, sharper in its execution, and more balanced in its presentation. The back stories feel more fully developed, the political and economic context more credible and in short the whole thing has a more polished feel. Which is not to denigrate The Stone Road, merely to say that The Blue Mountain is better still and I am looking forward to book 3.
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