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Lodestar (Keepers #5) - Shannon Messenger (Book Review)

5/27/2021

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Date Read: April 7, 2021
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Final Score: 6 / 10 !

Yep, it's another installment in the Young Reader Epic Series Keeper of the Lost Cities and it's yet another example of why this series is AWESOME!

The best part about this one is that you can feel the characters growing up in it. Their eagerness to dive into a slipshod plan isn't haste and petulance anymore so much as it is a legitimate evaluation of desperate times calling for desperate measures. They still make young and inexperienced choices, but they're not just leaping to conclusions any more. And beyond that you can see how the grown ups are just people, too, scared and worried and not always perfect in how they make decisions.

It's very well done.

Also, the plot is getting more and more gripping without becoming too overly convoluted. There is definitely getting to be a few too many conspiracies to keep track of, but that fact is commented on and it's laid out that everyone has their own agenda, even within supposedly cohesive organizations, so I'm finding the added layers of complication fully excusable.
(Whether or not that stays true depends on how this latest twist plays out in the next couple of books, and whether or not an overload of yet more complications gets added).

This installment is a solid addition to the series, but on its own, there was nothing particularly notable about it. I didn't like or dislike anything outside of how we can feel the kids beginning to truly mature. Even watching Keefe playing darkside was neat, but not particularly gripping as the plot unfolded. It really did feel a little bit more like filler than not.

Still it was interesting filler and a very pleasant read. 
I'm definitely looking forward to picking up Book 6! ^_~
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the Secret Lives of Color - Kassia St Clair

5/21/2021

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Date Read: April 2nd, 2021
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Final Score: 8 / 10 !
         ​I picked this book up as a tangentially related piece for one of my Museum Studies classes and I have come to be extremely glad that I did so!
         This is half reference book and half historical survey that looks at the history of color, the discovery and creation of pigments, and the ties between science, art, and economics that relates something as seemingly simple as color to the forces that govern society as a contiguous whole.
         Containing short vignettes (2-4 pages each) on the histories of 75 particular pigments from 10 distinctly defined color families. Some chapters go more into the symbolism on the pigments in question, some more into the recipes used to create them, and some into the practical uses of given pigments by artists or craftsworkers.
         It's a very odd, but wholly accessible, survey of history through the lens of art and economics, with a large swath of the human condition finagled into bite-sized pieces bridging the gap between the prehistoric caves at Altamira to the modern art tables of American daycares. It is extremely well researched and deeply informative, but only in a topical manner of introducing the audience to names and places and concepts that might of of interest for further research. 
         ​I highly recommend it for the simple cause of gaining casual insight on one of the most fundamental aspects of human history (one that goes largely unstudied within the modern education system)!
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Winner's Curse - Marie Rutkoski (Book Review)

5/20/2021

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​Date Read: 
November 9, 2015
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Final Score:  9 / 10!

Heart-breakingly wonderful!

           This is easily the best book I've read in YEARS, and it took me completely by surprise. It took me a bit to get caught up in it, but I'd reached the end of the book well before I'd realized I was addicted. I went out and bought the sequel right away and read that one in a single sitting. It's absolutely enthralling.
            The setting is a wonderful rendering of the traditional High-Fantasy vaguely medieval world with a fresh twist mixed in that's reminiscent of the Roman Empire (one of the best depictions of Ancient Rome I've ever read, honestly). There's not much in it that's truly Magical or Fantastical, so I wouldn't classify it as 'Fantasy' per-se, but the world is developed with every bit of the detail expected of a fantasy creation. The political atmosphere of the reality the characters in habit is intricate and believable, utterly gut-wrenching for its impact on the main characters. Both sides of the story are well developed and relatable and you find yourself torn between sides.
           What really got me is the relationship between the two main characters. It's a romance novel in many ways, and it has the best relationship development I've ever seen, especially in YA Fiction. The narrative is in 3rd person and switches POVs between Kestrel and Arin to give a delightfully nuanced understanding of the situation; both of the developing relationship and of the obstacles keeping the lovers apart.

             It's an absolutely FANTASTIC read.
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An Ember in the Ashes - Sabaa Tahir (Book Review)

5/20/2021

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Date Read: December 30, 2015
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 Final Score:  2  /  10

Welp... Not my favorite...

           When I started this book I was really excited about it. As a fantasy world purportedly based on ancient Rome, it sounded like my bread and butter. But I was quickly disappointed with the world building. It IS Rome-based. But it's just the bland brutality and bloodlust of it, there's no culture. There's nothing of the high society elegance that Rome prided itself on, there's nothing on the intellectual innovation of the Empire, on their technology or philosophy or eccentricity, there's nothing but blood and ruin. Not only is it an excessively brutal universe, but the separation of Martial and Scholar is one I find rather insulting to the Roman Empire and to the Imperial concept as a whole. And none of the love-ish story lines were very convincing. There were moments of spark and heat and that giddy little flutter of fluff, but only moments, nothing sustained. None of the characters grew or changed very much and what DID evolve within them only happened within the last hundred pages.
           Literally everything in this book that people have said is great about it was done a thousand times better in Winner's Curse than it was here...
               It was alright, over all. It picked up significantly 2/3 through, and by the end I actually enjoyed the read. The first half at least was a slog of this was done better elsewhere and jeez these kids are annoying... None of the characters believes in the Empire, none of them believe in the Stories of the Tribes until well after they're proven true... There's no clash of culture because none of them actually HAVE a culture that they cling to... The most interesting character is a chick from the Tribes who shows up for one dance and one off-stage conversation and then disappears again, presumably to reappear with a more prominent role in the sequel... Honestly, I was very disappointed in this book, but it is nonetheless a decent read. I wouldn't recommend it, but I wouldn't caution firmly against it either.
               The main redeeming quality comes from realizing that it's not a story set in ancient Rome. It's a story set in an odd parallel world where the Taliban has Rome-like dominance of an ancient world facsimile... 
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