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I'm kind of sad that I didn't like this enough to finish it, because it had all these clever little flourishes that I dug. Like the way it seemed to be setting up the eagle reaves as a Pern-y wish fulfillment companion animal thing, and then described the eagles as "smart as pigs... but no smarter." Or the way the author killed off the putative main character at the end of chapter 2. Or how the most impressive force for maintaining order in the Hundred is actually totally weak-ass and only has p...
I don't know. I found that it was a little bit hard to get in to at first because it's slow and the story line tends to drag on for a bit then suddenly jump through time without letting the reader get a feel for the story properly. I also really hoped that I would get to know more about some characters like Marit who you barely hear about, so I was a bit disappointed in that respect.But, I found that reading the next books made the first book make more sense. So when I went back to the first boo...
My god, Kate Elliott loves the sound of her own writing. Too bad I didn't—and too bad I didn't like the unlikeable characters, the glacial, wandering plot or the confusing geography. Give this one a pass.
Fantasy Review BarnI love this book. Or perhaps I should say - I did love this book, for a whole two chapters. It featured a wonderful, independent, self-assured female protagonist, who was completely comfortable in her own skin. Hurrah! A character I could really root for!And then she’s never seen again. She existed for a whole two chapters purely to motivate a male character, who then mopes and whines and drinks and whinges (while also enjoying himself with other women) for (get this) nineteen...
The idea of my reading Kate Elliot’s work was to expand the number of female fantasy authors in my library. I wasn’t quite sure where start where to start since I had heard mixed reviews about each of her three main series. In the end I decided on Crossroads because this appealed most to my taste in fantasy.I was not disappointed. The author, in my opinion, produced a marvellous piece of work. We are introduced to a land called the Hundred. It’s inhabited by a peace keeping force called Reeves.
I admit that when I started Spirit Gate I was a bit thrown off because I had expected this book to be somewhat similar to the others that I had read by Kate Elliott, which it is not. The style in which Spirit Gate is written is very different from that of the Crown of Stars books and it just took me a little bit of time to adjust, though once I did the story quickly immersed me.Some readers may have trouble with the fact that the story doesn’t really focus on any one of the characters. I know th...
Elliott sure knows how to weave a masterful yarn. Very creative and suspenseful. Also with a more limited scope than her first series, so there aren't as many plotlines and characters to follow which makes it less confusing and more readable. I enjoyed the book so much that I went to 2 bookstores and a library to find the sequel. Which I really don't have time to read, but I'm making time by foregoing other important activities (like sleep)
Want deep world building that doesn't seem pretentious? Want differing cultures without the cliche of monolithic fantasy "races." And would you like a pretty good story to go with it? I must say, Kate Elliott my a have a book to hook you on a series. The setting is fairly unique. The main story takes place in a land called the Hundred, which is home of the Reeves, giant eagle riders. They follow the laws set by mysterious Guardians, enforced by the Reeves for generations, but things are of cours...
I struggled to pay attention while reading this, I think mostly because of all the descriptions of scenery. The book also bounces around a lot between characters. The cast becomes more stable about a third of the way into the book or so, but even so I didn't feel that invested in any of the characters by the end. I'm having trouble figuring out what I liked less here than other slow-moving fantasy books with lots of characters. I guess it just didn't connect with me.
I have a Kate Elliott problem, and it is this: every book she's ever written has a summary that makes it sound exactly like the sort of thing I want to read. Complex characters, deep anthropological worldbuilding, shades of moral gray . . . yes, please!And then I read the book, and I am reminded, yet again, that my brain and Elliott's writing mix like stiletto heels and a muddy field. I try to trudge through, because what I can see on the horizon is awesome, but it's a painful battle, staggering...
One thing I have to bear in mind as I review this book: this is the first volume in a trilogy. This is not the complete story. I have to consider these characters and their situations have much further to go, and room to grow. Yet sadly, this book and I got off on the wrong foot very early.My edition has a beautiful drawing on the cover, of a woman with a giant eagle -- a female reeve. Like many who picked up the book, I'd imagine, I believed this drawing represented the book's central heroine,
Ahh, Spirit Gate. What a disaster. Maybe people will say that I’m not used to reading adult fantasy, which sure, go ahead, but it is not that I have not read adult fantasy before that I did not enjoy this book. There is clearly a quite mixed reaction for this book from fellow readers, with some loving it, and with others hating it. I for one, did not like it at all.To begin with, the premise was actually pretty cool, there are flying eagles and riders and maybe some sort of magic and these mythi...
I wanted to like this book more than I actually did. Elliott has created numerous societies, each with their own distinct gender roles, politics, religion, food, etc. The societies and people are clearly all non-Western--they wear silk, eat yogurt, have brown hair and skin. There are POV characters from each of the big three (the Qin, the Hundred, and the Sirnakian Empire), and no one country or society is painted as morally better than the others. BUT. Elliott spends so much time building her w...
Rather than throwing in the usual bells and whistles of the fantasy genre, the underappreciated Kate Elliott prefers to work with, well, a full band, intricate but not obvious, including some smaller instruments that don't sound like much but that contribute to the overall sound. Elliott's quite excellent previous series, the seven-volume Crown of Stars, was keep-your-distance daunting to those not that into 5,000-plus page epics and ripples-within-ripples plotting. It went off in too many direc...
Decent, but I wasn't blown away. The best part of the book was some strong characterization. Not every character got this, but most of them did. When the book was focused on this and not the bigger picture, I quite enjoyed it.Despite the good stuff, I had some major reservations with some aspects of the world-building. First, I couldn't figure out exactly why the reeves were supposed to be so important, and so when things start to go wrong for them right off the bat, it didn't make any sense why...
The one where strangers from various lands come together to fight something that's only beginning to come clear at the end of the book. (Because this is one of those books where 'trilogy' means 'a single novel that happens to be published in three volumes.') Joss the reeve rides a giant eagle and fights crime and is incorruptible and grieving like the hero of a Western; pretty Mai takes a foreign husband and thus gets to leave her repressive culture, bringing along her kinsman, Shai, who can see...
I don't know. I love the concept of Kate Elliot books, but always feel a little let down with the delivery. I'm never sure exactly why. In theory this sounds like a great book and maybe the second book will explain a lot more and make me feel more satisfied. I had read almost two hundred pages before anything other than the introduction of characters was over. In fact the first two hundred pages didn't even introduce the people who were the main characters. I don't know. I did finish it, but I'm...
This is the first book of a 3 book series and Kate Elliot again proves her ability to write fantastic female characters. The world building is interesting, believable and real. The characters are complete multiple faceted and like able, I cared about what happened to them. Throughout this series Kate Elliott explores the path and consequences of power-lust and the corruptibility of people. The start is a bit weird in that it introduces characters that seem irrelevant for the remainder of the boo...
Kate Elliot reminds me of a slightly less noir George R.R. Martin, but full disclosure: Martin's too dark and slow-moving for my taste, so this is not quite the endorsement it might be from someone who loves Martin unreservedly. I have always wondered why Elliot seems to have missed the acclaim given Martin. A lot of the action is political, but some of it seems to be spiritual, which is not to say that people can't suddenly die from sepsis. (See, this is why it reminds me of GRRM!)Once again
One of the best books I've read this year. Ends at a satisfying point, with the way open for more. Incredible writing. Incredible everything.