Time Travel discussion

Blurb says:

Stop the Magician. Steal the book. Save the future.

In modern-day New York, magic is all but extinct. The remaining few who have an affinity for magic—the Mageus—live in the shadows, hiding who they are. Any Mageus who enters Manhattan becomes trapped by the Brink, a dark energy barrier that confines them to the island. Crossing it means losing their power—and often their lives.

Esta is a talented thief, and she’s been raised to steal magical artifacts from the sinister Order that created the Brink. With her innate ability to manipulate time, Esta can pilfer from the past, collecting these artifacts before the Order even realizes she’s there. And all of Esta’s training has been for one final job: traveling back to 1902 to steal an ancient book containing the secrets of the Order—and the Brink—before the Magician can destroy it and doom the Mageus to a hopeless future.

But Old New York is a dangerous world ruled by ruthless gangs and secret societies, a world where the very air crackles with magic. Nothing is as it seems, including the Magician himself. And for Esta to save her future, she may have to betray everyone in the past.

Tags and many reviews say YA. But, generally, YA are not this complex or rich or long. And some adults state coherent reasons they love or admire the book. So I look forward to having fun with it!

Also, yes, it's Book One of a series (?trilogy?) but word is that it ends satisfyingly so ok.

Glynn, you nominated it, so it'd be great if you can come up with some pre-reading questions within the next couple of weeks.

And I have my copy. I should be ready to read it within a week or so.

Well Glynn that is a fine series you have me hooked into. Due to the size of the book I started in July. I just finished the first book this morning and it really had some twists and turns I enjoyed. I am moving on to the second book in the series. Looking forward to the discussion and what everyone thinks of the book.

Oh dear, I didn't realize it's first in a series. Oh well. If it's good, it'll be worth making time for.

I started last night.

Starting. Not sure. Seems kinda YA, kinda film-ready, not juicy enough for me. But, I'm not even 10% in, so I'm not giving up yet.

Cheryl wrote: "Starting. Not sure. Seems kinda YA, kinda film-ready, not juicy enough for me. But, I'm not even 10% in, so I'm not giving up yet."

It does feel YA. I am pretty sure it is YA. I’m at about 1/3 in and so far I am enjoying it. I usually avoid books with magic in them but time travel won. LOL

Simon Pulse, as it turns out. So, yes, YA. But not awful like some is; it doesn't talk down to the audience as much in many ways.

I'm at p. 182, almost putting it down, but the comments here: https://thebookwyrmsden.com/2018/08/3... tell me to be more patient.

So I have a question, but maybe nobody can answer it unless they've finished. That blog entry and lots of reviews say that it's so complex, almost chaotic and confusing, and so far I've not found it to be....

I'm not waiting for anything to happen, and I'm not waiting for questions to get answered, and I'm not waiting for reveals... it seems pretty upfront & clear to me.... So, my question is, what am I waiting for? Is it going to get more interesting on some other level or in some other way?

It is a YA series which is probably why I am enjoying it so much. I did not find the storylines to be confusing or chaotic. I thought they had enough push and pull to make the story interesting.

I agree it has a slow start and there are a couple of other things I felt were maybe unnecessary but for the most part I enjoyed it enough to continue with the series. About mid way through the book it really picks up. I do think I liked the second book in the series better than the first.

Wondering if the author just took too much time with explaining how different gifts worked and that was what bogged it down a bit.

Yah, there's lots that didn't need to be in there; it was repetitive and redundant and not concise, and we learned many things many times....
;)

But I did finish. Good plot, interesting setting and characters, bad writing. I noticed the cover art had much the same problem the book did - did anyone else notice the extra bits of snake that aren't actually part of the two that are swallowing each other's tails?

And like when they finally found the Book, the author said it didn't look "special" despite the fact that it was leather, obviously both old and well-used, and had geometric designs on the cover. What did they want for more special?

So much was spelled out for us, in uninteresting language. I won't bother to quote the bits that I marked, too disheartening.

I did laugh at the beginning, when we learned that Dakari's "hands could kill a man 532 different ways." And later, "Try not to kill him too badly." What, too clumsily? Not entertainingly enough?

Sorry. Don't read my rant above if you liked the book. But if you're on the fence about finishing it, don't bother.

Oh, and it does not end with anything satisfying at all; it's much more like a cliffhanger.

It isn't the first book I have enjoyed that my friends didn't. That is what makes the conversations about the books interesting. I am sorry you didn't enjoy it.

It's certainly true that most books don't suit most readers... we all do have such diversity of tastes. I appreciate your understanding.

I looked up the book on Simon Pulse’s website because YA can mean a lot of things, this book is geared to 14 yrs old and up (probably for some content not reading level ).

It’s Lexile level is 840 which is late fourth and early fifth grade reading level (like the beginning or end of of the school years for each grade). So when you are reading a YA book the writing is geared toward the audience it’s intended for. A book intended for a 14 year that’s written at the level of a 12th grader or higher would be frustrating to read if your reading and comprehension are at grade level and worse if it’s lower. So it’s written at a lower level (9-10 yrs old) to capture those 14 year olds that are behind grade level.

We definitely have a diversity of tastes in this group. So many TT books the group loves, I didn’t like (like Replay, sorry TT peeps).

So far I am enjoying the story and seeing where it goes. I’m at 75%.

I finished. I enjoyed the story. I feel like it doesn’t fit the usual YA mold of so many other books (except the magic part). Thankfully there wasn’t a love triangle (maybe that is for the age 16 female target).

I don’t feel like there was a cliff hanger. She accomplished what she was sent to do. After that was just the setup for the next book. These YA books need to be in multiples of three for some reason.

I finished the 3rd book and there is a lot of jumping around and it was a bit bloated. I liked the first one and thought the second one had a better editor. I like the series overall but I think VE Schwab does a better job culling down the complexities. I will read the conclusion at some point but it is really long and I have a summer reading challenge to complete.

Lizz wrote: "I finished the 3rd book and there is a lot of jumping around and it was a bit bloated. I liked the first one and thought the second one had a better editor. I like the series overall but I think VE..."

How many books are there?

There are four. The Last Magician, The Devil's Thief, The Serpent's Curse, and The Shattered City (which clocks in at 768 pages!) They did an omnibus of the first three as a trilogy which is odd since the 3rd book ends without any resolution of the bigger plotline.

Lizz wrote: "There are four. The Last Magician, The Devil's Thief, The Serpent's Curse, and The Shattered City (which clocks in at 768 pages!) They did an omnibus of the first three as a trilogy which is odd si..."

That is odd they would have an omnibus of three books when there are four. Four is a lot of books for a series.

From what I have read of the three books, they could have been culled down into a duology but we will see what the 4th one is like when I get around to it.

Cheryl wrote: "Glynn, you nominated it, so it'd be great if you can come up with some pre-reading questions within the next couple of weeks."

Hi Cheryl. Sorry I haven't been around much. Had lots of stressful things going on. I don't remember nominating this book. In fact I deliberately didn't commit to anything for August because of my big move to another state. Anyway, I will try to participate more in the upcoming months once things settle down! :)

Correction: I DID nomitnate this one, then totally forgot about it! Ugh!!

I hope your move and other stressors ease smoothly and soon.