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A review by autumn_plum
The Braided Path by Chris Wooding
4.0
I really thought about this one and came to the same conclusion. Why did this get a four-star rating even though it had all the fancy ingredients to be a five-star? I dunno, but Something bugged me enough to bring it down a peg, so I'll site it down by listing pros and cons for clarity's sake
Pros
Good story- I’ve read better, but I still found it held its own, and besides, I think what makes a good story is usually a matter of taste and/or expectations. For example I was listening to my uncle laughing the other day at a guy who complained that the story of a movie he went see was “kinda thin”. Totally reasonable complaint until you realize that the movie was the newest Godzilla. Seriously, I went there looking for a bad story, Godzilla’s thunder thighs, and to see things explode the same way some people go looking for trashy romance novels. My point here? In this case, I had reasonably good expectations, and this book met them.
Nice Writing- A lot of people can complain that it’s a bit too wordy, but being one like to become rapturous when confronted by a rich vocabulary, I guess I can work with that.
Great world building -I thought if anything it deserves that, the magic system was interesting, the geography, environments and cultures were interesting. Period.
Cons
Characterization- I feel like even though there were a lot of different characters that could’ve been loads of fun but I’ll be blunt. I didn’t give a rat’s ass for almost anyone in this whole book. Really, a lot of them felt like cardboard cutouts and the descriptions of their looks and personality were really, really repetitive.
Names- Really minor. the Japanese and Renaissance thing work respectively and can be salvaged if combined. But throw in some X’s and some names that don’t flow very easily on the tongue make everything hard to remember. And this is coming from someone who knows who’s who whenever I read Game Of Thrones without ever looking at the Appendix with all the Houses
The bottom line here is that yes, the book has almost everything a fantasy reader could ever want. However, there are still problems that even the slightly nit-picky will notice, though I don't think these problems cast much of a stain on the overall reading experience, and although I eventually got tired of it, I didn't finish the last page feeling like I had wasted my time. Now I'm stupidly persistent, but even if I was willing to read over 900 pages, that there is pretty self-explanatory.
Pros
Good story- I’ve read better, but I still found it held its own, and besides, I think what makes a good story is usually a matter of taste and/or expectations. For example I was listening to my uncle laughing the other day at a guy who complained that the story of a movie he went see was “kinda thin”. Totally reasonable complaint until you realize that the movie was the newest Godzilla. Seriously, I went there looking for a bad story, Godzilla’s thunder thighs, and to see things explode the same way some people go looking for trashy romance novels. My point here? In this case, I had reasonably good expectations, and this book met them.
Nice Writing- A lot of people can complain that it’s a bit too wordy, but being one like to become rapturous when confronted by a rich vocabulary, I guess I can work with that.
Great world building -I thought if anything it deserves that, the magic system was interesting, the geography, environments and cultures were interesting. Period.
Cons
Characterization- I feel like even though there were a lot of different characters that could’ve been loads of fun but I’ll be blunt. I didn’t give a rat’s ass for almost anyone in this whole book. Really, a lot of them felt like cardboard cutouts and the descriptions of their looks and personality were really, really repetitive.
Spoiler
If you’re someone saddled with a really good memory who winces every time Kaiku is referred to as “ever a stubborn one” or “a tomboy”, Mishani “Never changed her expression” Anais is described as “appearing deceptively naive” or my favorite, when Kaiku “builds up a wall around her heart which had been hurt so many times” or something like that, it can be annoying. Really, I hardly wanna dignify Mishani, Anais, or Asara with the term “bitch” because they just didn’t feel like people to me. As if to grind salt into this wound the only characters I liked were Lucia and Nomoru. Of course my characters can't just be the ones who die, one has to kill the otherNames- Really minor. the Japanese and Renaissance thing work respectively and can be salvaged if combined. But throw in some X’s and some names that don’t flow very easily on the tongue make everything hard to remember. And this is coming from someone who knows who’s who whenever I read Game Of Thrones without ever looking at the Appendix with all the Houses
The bottom line here is that yes, the book has almost everything a fantasy reader could ever want. However, there are still problems that even the slightly nit-picky will notice, though I don't think these problems cast much of a stain on the overall reading experience, and although I eventually got tired of it, I didn't finish the last page feeling like I had wasted my time. Now I'm stupidly persistent, but even if I was willing to read over 900 pages, that there is pretty self-explanatory.