It’s quiet and thoughtful without being heavy, the magic is subtle and understated, and the two protagonists are thoroughly rendered and deeply explored. There are plenty of djinni stories, and plenty of golem stories, but this one manages to do something unique and interesting with both those commonplace fantasy beings.
Mazirian the Magician Review
With its variety of the vignettes, Mazirian the Magician still tells a cohesive story for the reader, just not in the way we normally understand the idea. It's a bit like how a collection of fables can give an overall consistent sense of a culture.
DragonForged Review
There is no traditional plot arc or character arc to follow. It is a kind of light fantasy interpretation and rendering of a creation story.
The Valkyrie Review
The story seems set up as a quest/mystery, but the narrative voice is more concerned with the rather forced romance between the two viewpoint characters.
Guards! Guards! Review
I really want you to think of this less as a review for a specific Pratchett novel - Guards! Guards! - and more as a reminder to come back to Discworld every now and then.
Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice Review
It is the combination of an unsympathetic narrator, no meaningful plot progression, unremarkable rhetoric, and unserious approach which led me to abandon the text. I’m not certain why it’s received so much praise and attention, other than the controversies it stirs.
The Narrow Road Between Desires Review
What’s missing from The Narrow Road Between Desires is not conflict, or higher stakes, but a point. It never gives the reader an answer to the question “why am I reading this story?”
Wind and Truth Review
Entire subplots of the book read like anachronistic polemics on mental health, and the result is a robbing of depth from most of the characters who powered the series’ earlier installments.
Wheel of Time Series Review
A literature professor claimed the difference between “plot” novels and “real literature” is that plot novels cease to be enjoyable once the reader knows how the story goes, while real literature retains and even deepens in its significance and impact upon successive readings, after the reader knows “how it ends.”
A Memory of Light Review
After so many books spent preparing for the Last Battle and Rand’s climactic struggle against the Dark One, we finally witness it. We witness it for almost a thousand pages, since A Memory of Light is basically a very, very long final battle scene.
