Raechel’s Comments (group member since Sep 24, 2020)

Raechel’s comments from the Project Realms Reads group.

Thingolo wrote: "Does it make sense to start reading 'Dragonwall' if I haven't read 'Horselords'? :)"

I think you could! It's by a different author and looks to be narrated by different characters. I'm going to start it in a few days, I have a couple library books I wanted to read first before they're TOO overdue.

For May we are reading book 2 in The Empires Trilogy: Dragonwall. I'm interested in reading this one, as I enjoyed the low-magic setting of the first book, though I noticed each book in this trilogy has a different author which I don't think we've seen in a Forgotten Realms series yet.

The reading schedule is:
May 1-9 Chapters 1 - 6
May 10-18 Chapters 7 - 13
May 19- 27 Chapters 14-End

Next month we'll see the return of Drizzt Do'Urden in Homeland!

Also, I have not put the next batch of books in past June, would anyone be interested in doing a group read of a modern fantasy novel in July? If so, please leave your suggestions and happy reading!

I finished this book a week or so ago... still just as disappointed, if not more so, as with the first in the series. It just feels lazy and a lot of this book felt like we were waiting for Erix's vision to happen. There are also so many POV shifts that happen within the same chapter that I had a hard time understanding the timeline. I much prefer one POV per chapter.

I also thought there was a LOT more sexual assault mentioned in this book than the previous one, which I am never a fan of. I know that's a problem with a lot of these older fantasy novels but it's still disappointing to see.

Next up we have Dragonwall, though I think I accidentally switched the months to read it with this one.

This post is a little late, I kept forgetting to grab my copy to plan out the chapter reading. We're in the second book of the Maztica trilogy this month. To be honest I wasn't a big fan of the first book, I felt like it was a copy/paste/replace some words of actual historical events and it just felt lazy. I'm curious to see if Niles branches out further in this one.

April 1-9 Chapters 1 - 6
April 10-18 Chapters 7 - 13
April 19- 27 Chapters 14-End

We're starting another new series this month with Horselords! This is set in a new Forgotten Realms location. The synopsis makes it sound like another fantasy-flavored history re-telling, but we'll see. The author also worked on developing AD&D so I'm hoping for some great world-building.

Here's our reading schedule:
March 1-9 Chapters 1 - 5
March 10-18 Chapters 6 - 10
March 19- 27 Chapters 11-End

So I finished this last week and honestly thought it was pretty lazy writing. My impression was that it was a lazy re-telling of the Spanish in central/south America, with the names of things swapped out to similar words. Like changing maize to mayz.

Unfortunately, I think our next read is also a fantasy-flavored re-telling of actual historical events, but I guess we'll see!

This month we're starting a new series with Ironhelm. It looks like this book has a Central or South American influence, I'm interested to see how it goes. Here's our reading schedule:

Feb 1-8 Chapters 1 - 7
Feb 9-16 Chapters 8 - 15
Feb 17-24 Chapters 16-End

Happy reading!

All spoilers for the book are now allowed. I still feel how I did as I was reading it, I was pleasantly surprised by Giogi and found Olive super annoying. I think all the Alias clones running around are a bit confusing and I don't see much of a point?

Also I just realized this is called the Finder's Stone Trilogy but other than being used as a flashlight, why is the finder's stone even important?

I'm curious to see how this trilogy ends, hopefully we get more info about the clones and Nameless and the stone being actually important. Also, Dragonbait from the first book was one of my favorite characters and I hope he's back next book!

In the meantime, in February we'll start the Maztica trilogy with Ironhelm!

Spoilers up to ch 8 allowed!

I just wanted to quickly say I was hesitant to start reading this because I thought I wouldn't enjoy a story with Giogi as the main character, but he's kind of endearing.

I still hate Olive, though.

Thingolo wrote: "To my amazement, I found out that this book had been translated into Russian, which is my native tongue."

Wow! That's pretty cool!

Happy 2022 everyone! We're starting off the year with the second book in The Finder's Stone trilogy. Here's our reading schedule:

Spoiler schedule and suggested reading dates:
January 1st to the 9th: chapters 1 - 8
January 10th to the 18th: chapters 9 - 15
January 19th to the 27th: chapters 16 - end.

I finished this book earlier in the month and I have to say it feels like the weakest in the Icewind Dale trilogy. Like the book before it, it doesn't even take place in Icewind Dale--but it's also a 300-page chase scene that jumps to different characters each chapter.

I felt like the story really fizzled out at the end and I hated all the hypocrisy we see in a lot of characters. For example, Bruenor thinks about how in his old kingdom they would cut off the hands of thieves... but then suggests/is happy with the idea of Regis becoming the new head of the thieves guild?

The romance between Catti-Brie and Drizzt felt shoehorned in and a really weird choice when she was already clearly with Wulfgar. And the unconscious kiss Drizzt took while CB was literally knocked out? And he SAW Wulfgar like 20 minutes before and told him to hang back to keep the portal open? Really grossed me out.

I know the next time we visit Drizzt it should be his origin story, and I sincerely hope the writing and plot have improved.

Liam wrote: "I haven’t participated in any of these reads 😬 but I will say I read this one a few years ago and it’s still one of my favorites of the Drizzt books I’ve read."

I'm honestly surprised by how much I've enjoyed the Drizzt novels so far. The series has a bit of a reputation for being something made for teenage boys so I was fully prepared to not like it at all, but it's my favorite series out of all the Forgotten Realms books so far.

We're wrapping up 2021 with the third book in the Icewind Dale trilogy. Here's our reading schedule:

Spoiler schedule and suggested reading dates:
December 1st to the 9th: chapters 1 - 6 + Epilogue.
December 10th to the 18th: chapters 7 - 15 + Epilogue.
December 19th to the 27th: chapters 16- end.

So I'm a couple days behind, but I did finish this novel! I rated it 3 stars. I thought it was alright, but there was some glaring plot holes, a deus ex machina at the end, and a really weird focus on a specific body type.

I liked how the trio in this book each got their own little backstories and motives and how we got to see that throughout the book. The mini-missions at different locations with Phlan as the hub was nice. And I liked how each character got multiple opportunities to shine. I liked how at the end, our villain is still out there which gives incentive to continue the series (I think the Moonshae books did a poor job of this).

What I didn't like was the author's weird focus on buff-ness. Seriously, everyone is big and buff and tall and giving bedroom eyes to all the other big and buff and tall characters. This was not a smutty book, but it was smutty-adjacent.

I've noticed a lot of these Forgotten Realms books have a problem where side characters often get introduced just when the plot needs them, and half they time they're there to be a mini-boss and get smashed by our heroes by the end of the chapter. I'd love to see some more thought put into the introduction of side characters so it happens less as the books progress.

Honestly I've read worse Forgotten Realms books so I'm not dreading the next one in the series.

Released December, 1989

Spoiler schedule and suggested reading dates:
November 1st to the 8th: chapters 1 - 5.
November 9th to the 15th: chapters 6 - 9.
November 16th to the 24th: chapters 10 - end.

Happy reading, everyone!

I know I'm way behind everyone else and firmly in the minority, but I did not enjoy this book and blame it for putting me in a months-long reading slump.

Rothfuss' writing style is wonderful, and I have nothing bad to say about the technicality of his writing. He's clearly quite skilled with that. What I did not like was, as mentioned before, the framing style (95% of this book is told in flashback so we know nothing truly bad happens to Kvothe), and many of the characters themselves.

Kvothe is perfect at everything, and nearly every single time he does get in trouble for one thing, he manages to still get something turned in his favor and he ends up in a better state than when he started (yes he gets whipped, but he also rises in rank at the University). He's only really stupid when the plot calls for it.

Denna is Kvothe's Manic Pixie Dream Girl who's got some menacing abusive patron that Kvothe must save her from. Also, Denna is what, 14? 15?, in this book? And Deoch the 30+ year old dated her a couple years ago? But it's okay because Denna's Not Like Other Girls, she's mature for her age. Gross.

Every girl we meet harbors a crush on Kvothe. I heard this is worse in the second book.

I thought the Tarbean chapters dragged because it was just a lot of suffering. Kvothe doesn't really learn anything during this time and once he's at the University that part of his life is rarely mentioned again. So what was the point?

The demons and spider-demons are happening in present day in the book... so why isn't the story about them? They're this huge threat but barely mentioned because the book is really about The Kvothe Show, so why not make the series only about Kvothe's life and get rid of the framing device?

I honestly don't get the appeal of this book/series. I'm glad other people find entertainment in it, and if Rothfuss has a different book with different characters perhaps I'd pick it up, but I can't see myself continuing with the series unless I'm feeling particularly masochistic.

Hey just wanted to post a quick comment here. I've been basically MIA this last month, I had a pretty stressful August and my reading took a nosedive. I'm trying to get back into it and catch up with Name of the Wind and Shadowdale as well as September's book. So sorry, everyone!

So I'm about 25% through this so far, I don't want to post any spoilers but I will say I'm not enjoying this book as much as I thought I would. It has over 750k reviews with a 4.5 star rating. That is phenomenal! So I feel weird that I don't like it.

My two biggest issues are: I don't like the framing device in how we're told this story, it takes all the tension out. Also, perfect protagonists are boring (and when Kvothe is amazing at everything, it makes him boring).

I'm planning to start this book this weekend, looking forward to it! It's pretty big so I bought it on Kindle so I don't have to carry around a physical copy. Has anyone started it yet?