Riyan Maulana Maulana itibaren Texas
This book was just AWSOME!! I am totally gonna read it again!!!
I hated this book at first. The entire opening chapter was a chore. He was describing his character and the places with excessive detail and much of that detail involved terms and actions that were not a part of my vocabulary. If I lived in 14th century Germany and/or had much of a religious background, perhaps I'd be better equipped to cope with some of the terms. The book took a long time to warm me up, but when it did I found myself really involved with the characters and caring about what happened to them. Not a whole lot happens, but there is a lot of depth within the characters. I found the 14th century parts more compelling than the modern day parts, but they flow well together in the end. I'd recommend it as one of the best 2007 Hugo nominees.
This is by far my favorite book of all time. Incredible combination of fantasy, comedy and biting political satire.
In her essay "The Collapsible Woman", Vanessa Veselka talks about how society expects all victims of rape to break and collapse. She argues that we don't know how to deal with survivors rather than victims. But clearly Marr knows how. Like the previous book in this series, the human characters are so real, full of all the strengths and weakness that make up real teenage women. This book is particularly compelling because it deals with darker issues like rape and addiction in a real way. Marr makes it clear that things are rarely black and white and that recovery from addiction and abuse is a process. The ending might not be as satisfying for a reader looking for a happily ever after with things tied up nice and neat, but I appreciated the realism (even though it's all about faeries) of this book's ending.
Favorite was an interpretation of a dream that one army officer had, where he dreamed horses were eating snakes. Snakes were native to the officer's homeland while horses were foreign -- the dream was foretelling a battle's loss.