“The king of Attolia was passing through his city, on his way to the port to great ambassadors newly arrived from distant parts of the world.”
First line in A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner
August is over so here is my reading wrap up for the month. I finished 5 books which is pretty much my average. Besides these 5 books, I also started The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson, and I’m about 300 pages into that. I probably won’t be able to finish it before I have to return it to the library, so it will be a while before it shows up in a wrap up as finished. I’m really enjoying it though! But enough of that, let’s get onto the books I managed to complete. The first one is another Sanderson novel because why not.
The Alloy of Law (Book 1 in Mistborn: The Alloy Era)
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Fantasy
My rating: 3.5/5 stars
Synopsis: Three
hundred years after the events of the Mistborn trilogy, Scadrial is now on the
verge of modernity, with railroads to supplement the canals, electric lighting
in the streets and the homes of the wealthy, and the first steel-framed
skyscrapers racing for the clouds.
Kelsier, Vin, Elend, Sazed, Spook, and the rest are now part of history—or
religion. Yet even as science and technology are reaching new heights, the old
magics of Allomancy and Feruchemy continue to play a role in this reborn world.
Out in the frontier lands known as the Roughs, they are crucial tools for the
brave men and women attempting to establish order and justice.
One such is Waxillium Ladrian, a rare Twinborn who can Push on metals with his
Allomancy and use Feruchemy to become lighter or heavier at will.
After twenty years in the Roughs, Wax has been forced by family tragedy to
return to the metropolis of Elendel. Now he must reluctantly put away his guns
and assume the duties and dignity incumbent upon the head of a noble house. Or
so he thinks, until he learns the hard way that the mansions and elegant
tree-lined streets of the city can be even more dangerous than the dusty plains
of the Roughs.
My thoughts
I don’t think I like westerns. At first, I found this book super interesting because of how the world had evolved since we left it in Hero of Ages. It’s a fantasy world where they actually managed to invent stuff like electricity and guns. It showed how the world is progressing instead of just showing a finished product. I found the plot somewhat underwhelming for a Sanderson novel which is why my rating is a little low. If you want more of my thoughts on The Alloy of Law, I have a full review right here.
A Conspiracy of Kings (Book 4 in The Queen’s Thief)
Author: Megan Whalen Turner
Genre: YA fantasy
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Synopsis: After an attempted assassination and kidnapping, Sophos, heir to the throne of Sounis, disappears. Those who care for him—including the thief Eugenides and the Queen of Eddis—are left to wonder if he is alive and if they will ever see him again.
My thoughts
It felt so good to be back in this world. And we get to see Sophos again after he’s been gone since book 1. I really enjoyed reading from his perspective, so I didn’t mind an absent Eugenides for most of the book. The first half the book was definitely my favorite because that’s really where we got to know Sophos a bit better. The more political plotline took over in the latter half and I wasn’t as impressed with it as I’ve been in the previous books.
I’ll Give You the Sun
Author: Jandy Nelson
Genre: YA contemporary
My rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
Synopsis: Jude and her twin Noah are close until a tragedy drives them apart. Now they are barely speaking – and both are falling for boys they can’t have. Love’s complicated.
My thoughts
A very sweet story that I imagine many people can somewhat relate to if they have a sibling. Jude and Noah are so different and yet so similar that it was really heartwarming to see them grow. It’s very much a story about grief and different ways of dealing with it. And not dealing with it. I don’t have any experiences of my own that could relate to what Jude and Noah went through and I think that made my experience of this book a little different that others. I felt detached from the story when I think I was supposed to cry. Odd feeling really but that is why this is not a 5-star book. I think it will be just that to others.
The Eye of the World (Book 1 in The Wheel of Time)
Author: Robert Jordan
Genre: Fantasy
My rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Synopsis: Yeah, that’s not really possible without spoiling stuff. Even the Goodreads page doesn’t tell you much.
My thoughts
I’m a bit conflicted. I loved the beginning of this book and the potential it presented. I imagined so many possible plot lines that just didn’t end up happening. That meant that the first 200-300 pages had me hooked and I couldn’t put the book down. Then it became very, very dull. I might go insane if I read another page-long description of an insignificant inn. That leads me to my main problem with the book: the writing style. It’s so not me. I don’t mind when books are slow paced as long as the time is spent depicting character emotions and thought processes. Jordan spends more time on buildings, clothes and general surroundings which I just don’t care about.
I still gave the book a bit of a high rating because I’m really intrigued about the world and I want to learn more about the magic. The characters are also very good and realistic with much room for development in the next 13 books (!).
Station Eleven
Author: Emily St. John Mandel
Genre: Dystopian/Science Fiction/Fiction (I don’t know what to call this!)
My rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Synopsis: Set in the days of civilization’s collapse, Station Eleven tells the story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.
One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve. Moving back and forth in time—from the actor’s early days as a film star to fifteen years in the future, when a theater troupe known as the Traveling Symphony roams the wasteland of what remains—this suspenseful, elegiac, spellbinding novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people: the actor, the man who tried to save him, the actor’s first wife, his oldest friend, and a young actress with the Traveling Symphony, caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet.
My thoughts
This a case of a hyped book not living up the hype for me. It’s a fine book and I enjoyed reading it, but it didn’t make me feel anything spectacular. I liked the way the collapse of civilization was described. It was done in a way that was connected to characters and I thought that was very inspiring. We follow a lot of characters and I liked pretty much everyone but I didn’t love them, so that kept me a bit detached. I plan to have a review up for this very soon and I hope my thoughts will be a little more clear and constructed by then.
That’s it for my reading in August. It was very much a 4 star month for me. Pretty much all the books were around that rating. It’s been a while since I’ve read a 5 star and I’m feeling the desperation creeping up. Next month, I’m participating in Sequel September which was created by Kathy from Books and Munches and hopefully that will give me a 5 star book. If you’re interested in knowing what I’m reading, my TBR is right here.
First Line Reader 