bookishlovegroup – Cosmic Lattes and Books

Book Review: Assassin’s Quest

Author: Robin Hobb
Genre: Fantasy
Page Count: 838
Date Started: 5/20
Date Finished: 5/29
Spoilers: Yes, for books 1 and 2

A Brief Description

King Shrewd is dead at the hands of his son Regal. As is Fitz—or so his enemies and friends believe. But with the help of his allies and his beast magic, he emerges from the grave, deeply scarred in body and soul. The kingdom also teeters toward ruin: Regal has plundered and abandoned the capital, while the rightful heir, Prince Verity, is lost to his mad quest—perhaps to death. Only Verity’s return—or the heir his princess carries—can save the Six Duchies.

But Fitz will not wait. Driven by loss and bitter memories, he undertakes a quest: to kill Regal. The journey casts him into deep waters, as he discovers wild currents of magic within him—currents that will either drown him or make him something more than he was.

Goodreads || Amazon || Book Depository

“But a living is not a life.”

This was a pre-scheduled post, but before it goes up, I wanted to add something.

Before my review I want to have a short chat:

As crazy as the world has been, I hope that everyone knows how much their lives matter. With that being said, all lives will not matter until black lives matter. I was incredibly saddened by the murder of George Floyd, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor that occurred over the last month or so. If you haven’t please sign the petitions here:

Petition for George Floyd
Petition for Breonna Taylor
Petition for Tony McDade
Petition for Ahmuad Arbery
Petition to Stop the use of rubber bullets (Graphic Content Warning for the image associated with this petition.)
Defund the Police Petition
Life Sentence for Police Brutality
Hands Up Act
More Petitions

Another note: Don’t donate to change.org petitions as that money does not go to the victims and instead goes to the website. There are some places to donate below!

Find ways to speak up about senseless violence, racism and police brutality in your communities, and in your social networks. Don’t let this pass us by with nothing changing. This has gone on for long enough. I hope for the safety of all the protesters and activists who are on the front lines. Use your voices to make a change. If you can, there are ways that you can help monetarily, but obviously this is not something that everyone can do, but if you are able, I have included links to many different organizations and the GoFundMe for the families of three of the victims below. (I couldn’t find one for Tony McDade).

GoFundMe for George’s Family || GoFundMe for Breonna (and Legal Representation) || GoFundMe for Ahmaud || Minnesota Freedom Fund (Helps pay for bail for those who cannot afford it) || ACLU || The Bail Project || To The Protestors || Black Owned Businesses || Organizations || To the Victims || Other Ways to Help

Want to donate, but can’t afford to? Watch the video linked here. Watch the ads, as the ad revenue will be donated to Black Lives Matter.

Like I said, not everyone can donate, and not everyone is in a position to protest, especially given the fact we are in the middle of a pandemic, but please know that there are many things you can do to help. I am using my platform here to talk about it. If you can do nothing else, talk about it, and vote for politicians who abhor police brutality and violence. Stand up against racism when you see it. Don’t let this be something that continues past your generation. Enough is enough!

MY REVIEW

Okay, so this is the third book in the Farseer series, and because of that, there will be spoilers for the first two. Fitz has gone through it. His life, to put it bluntly, sucks. He was almost killed at the end of the first book, was ACTUALLY, but only technically, killed at the end of the second book, only to be resurrected by Burrich and Nighteyes at the very beginning of this book. Fitz has decided that he is going to enact his revenge on Regal and wants to kill him. His quest takes him to many distant places, including past the Mountain Kingdom and into territories that have not been seen by humans for generations, all in his search for Verity.

Here’s the thing, I loved the first two books. I really did. One thing that I will say they are slow at times. They are not all action-packed all the time. In fact, they take their time and are very character-based for the most part, but I love that about these books. When it’s action-packed though, it is ACTION-PACKED. Robin Hobb has developed characters and a world that feel real, and that are both fully fleshed out. Everyone has a very unique voice, and she writes her villains well. Regal was a petulant child and I loved to hate him. The world of the Six Duchies is flesh and bone, real to the touch and unlike anything I’ve read before. I loved all the characters, Kettricken, Nighteyes, Burrich, Molly etc.

Robin Hobb has a very simplistic writing style. It’s not overly flowery or adorned. It gets it’s point across well, and typically I’m a fan of flowery writing and prefer it, but in this story, it doesn’t need it. The simplistic, straight to the point language and style really does the story well. As I said, the plot can be a little slow at times, but in this one, you can see why it needed to be that way.

The ending of this one was satisfying although I have some unanswered questions left. I guess I will have to continue with the next series in her Realm of the Elderlings world. Have you read this? What did you think?

Have a wonderful day, stay safe and healthy,

~Cam

Tropes I Dislike

I’ve posted on my blog previous about tropes I love so I figured it was time to talk about some of the ones I dislike. I should add a disclaimer here and say that just because I dislike these does not mean that you can’t love them. I just want to be clear that these are tropes that *I* don’t like to read. If you have any recommendations for books that might change my mind, please recommend them! ❤

The Love Triangle

I realize that this is a very popular, I just don’t enjoy the drama of it. I want to read a story that has romance as a part of it, not necessarily follow the dramas of a “him/her, but no him/her too?” romance? Does that make any sense?

The “Abusive” Romanticized Boyfriend/Girlfriend

Do I need to explain why I don’t like this one? This is the trope where the romantic partner, usually a boyfriend, is very controlling, rude, yells, and is generally and abusive ass-hat, but it is seen as romantic. He is seen instead as caring and protective, and passionate. I particularly don’t appreciate the fact that there is a large portion of young-adult and new-adult romances that feature this trope.

Soft Magic Systems

This is magic systems that doesn’t have hard rules. The magic is just willy nilly. Someone uses some magic that you never knew they had, that they just used for the first time, right in the nick of time, and they succeed? Soft magic system. Someone has unlimited power, with no checks, and no practice? Soft magic system. I like magic systems that have rules and that sticks by those rules, even if it makes life hard for the characters. I feel like this also makes it so that the character has to really think outside of the box on how to overcome their obstacle.

“I’m Not Like Other Girls”

This trope is one I dislike because it feels like a “pick-me.” It feels like a girl saying “Oh, I don’t like dresses” or “I don’t like pink” or “I don’t wear makeup” or whatever other things the author thinks are, first of all, only something women can enjoy, second of all, are something that makes someone less-than due to that enjoyment. You like pink? Cool, you can still be an interesting character. You like makeup? Cool, you can still be an interesting character. You like fashion? Cool! You can still be an interesting character. Same goes for you as a person by the way.

These are just some of the tropes that I dislike. What are some tropes that you dislike, and why? Do we share any of those?

I want to reiterate: Just because I don’t like these does not mean that you can’t. We can love and dislike different things.

Have a wonderful day and as always keep reading ❤

~Cam

Book Review: The Final Empire

Author: Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Fantasy
Page Count:
Date Started: September 14th
Date Finished: September 28th

A Brief Description

In a world where ash falls from the sky, and mist dominates the night, an evil cloaks the land and stifles all life. The future of the empire rests on the shoulders of a troublemaker and his young apprentice. Together, can they fill the world with color once more?
In Brandon Sanderson’s intriguing tale of love, loss, despair and hope, a new kind of magic enters the stage— Allomancy, a magic of the metals.

Goodreads || Amazon(US)

Our belief is often strongest when it should be weakest. That is the nature of hope.
Brandon Sanderson
pg 495

A Review

The Writing

Long story short? I loved it. I loved every minute of this. I truly love Brandon Sanderson’s writing due to how simple, yet atmospheric it is. You really feel like you are in the city of Luthadel. Almost like you can smell the streets and feel the ash falling on your skin. The action sequences make you feel like you are there watching them happen, like you can hear the crunch and slap of punches on skin. I love how Sanderson’s writing is also simplistic. It’s easy to devour and it’s easy to follow. Most fantasy novels tend to be dense and take me a long time to finish due the density, but Sanderson’s writing is nothing like this. It’s easy to follow, but it still enraptures me.

Characters

The characters in this are all very distinct and have their own motives. Vin, one of the main protagonists and a Mistborn, while naive and unlikeable at times was overall a very well written character. You could feel her pain and how much she had struggled in life. Her motives were clear and she really grew into her and her powers. Kelsier, another of the main protagonists and a Mistborn, was arrogant. He was arrogant and put himself and others at risk for the sake of his plans, but all that being said, I love him. He was well written and had very clear motives for overthrowing The Lord Ruler and destroying the Final Empire.

This book had A LOT of characters. There were many more that I won’t go into here, but I loved them all. They each had very distinct and clear motivations and very clear voices. You could tell when one character was speaking due to the voice and candor that they had. Some stories struggle with the characters all sounding a like and this book was definitely not one of them.

Plot

This book probably had the best fight scenes I have ever read. The plot is easy to follow and was predictable until it wasn’t. Sometimes there was a wrench thrown in there that changed everything. Those are spoilers which I’m not going into in this review. That being said, I loved the plot of this. It was interesting to see the way that the events that occurred in the 600 or so pages of this book changed each of the characters. The twists and turns were unexpected but were not outside the realm of reason. I’m not going to go farther into this because I think it’s best to go into this particular book without knowing much else.

Final Thoughts

Have you read The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson? What did you think of it? Did you enjoy it? Have you read anything by Brandon Sanderson that you would recommend? I hope you have a wonderful day, and as always, keep reading! 🙂

~Cam