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A review by mackle13
Poison by Chris Wooding
3.0
Chris Wooding is becoming one of those authors that I consistently enjoy, but never quite love.
This story has a pretty basic concept - Poison's sister is kidnapped by phaeries and replaced by a changeling, and Poison, being head-strong and independent minded, goes on a quest to get her back. Many trials and travails happen, she meets friends and makes enemies, so on and so forth. One reason why I enjoyed it is because I enjoy faerie tale type things - so if that's not your thing, you might want to turn back now.
That said, there's more to it than just that. There's a meta aspect to it which might either make or break this book for some, and there's some interesting ruminations about the nature of choice and free will and destiny/fate and whatnot. My only complaint about these ruminations is that they don't really break any new ground on that particular front - meaning if you've read one book which has a character pondering the aspects of free will versus destiny, the thoughts run generally along the same lines - and the way of the telling in this book doesn't get you thinking about it as much as it tells you what Poison thinks about it, if that makes any sense.
Overall, I generally liked it. I enjoyed the characters and the sort of meta narrative of it - and, despite what I just said in the last paragraph, there are some really cool lines, some poignant and strong moments, and a few eminently quotable bits...
But there's something that I can't quite put my finger on that never elevated this book out of a sort of enjoyable but forgettable trip. Maybe it's because it does have some telling over showing problems... *shrugs*
But, anyway, I liked it well enough, and I did like the meta aspect of it - (i.e.) - and the sort of twist about the ending (i.e. )
This story has a pretty basic concept - Poison's sister is kidnapped by phaeries and replaced by a changeling, and Poison, being head-strong and independent minded, goes on a quest to get her back. Many trials and travails happen, she meets friends and makes enemies, so on and so forth. One reason why I enjoyed it is because I enjoy faerie tale type things - so if that's not your thing, you might want to turn back now.
That said, there's more to it than just that. There's a meta aspect to it which might either make or break this book for some, and there's some interesting ruminations about the nature of choice and free will and destiny/fate and whatnot. My only complaint about these ruminations is that they don't really break any new ground on that particular front - meaning if you've read one book which has a character pondering the aspects of free will versus destiny, the thoughts run generally along the same lines - and the way of the telling in this book doesn't get you thinking about it as much as it tells you what Poison thinks about it, if that makes any sense.
Overall, I generally liked it. I enjoyed the characters and the sort of meta narrative of it - and, despite what I just said in the last paragraph, there are some really cool lines, some poignant and strong moments, and a few eminently quotable bits...
But there's something that I can't quite put my finger on that never elevated this book out of a sort of enjoyable but forgettable trip. Maybe it's because it does have some telling over showing problems... *shrugs*
But, anyway, I liked it well enough, and I did like the meta aspect of it - (i.e.