Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Reading Challenge: Reviews on Station Eleven, The Witch's Boy, The Inheritance Trilogy and Stranger


Time to play catch up on the book reviews!

And to start with, we'll go with Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. I'm not sure how I ended up hearing about this book but I thought it sounded interesting and the cover art definitely drew my eye. The story jumps timelines and follows an almost set course of characters from Arthur Leander, who died on stage performing King Lear; Jeevan Chaudhary, who rushed on stage to save him; and Kirsten Raymonde, a child actress who stood in the curtains and watched Leander die during his performance. The story continues for the rest of that night at first, following Jeevan as makes his way home after the performance all while he is hearing reports about a flu that is spreading through the city. Working with the information he has, Jeevan stocks up on food and water and barricades himself and his brother inside an apartment to wait out the disease. After those events, the plot jumps around, occasionally going back to Arthur, exploring the ins and outs of his life before he died on stage and the various people who were important to him. The story also zeroes in its focus on Kirsten fifteen years later when she's working with the Traveling Symphony and they return to a place called St. Deborah by the Water, where they find a man who calls himself a prophet and realize it would be safer for them to get away while they still can.

Back to the Challenge: Reviews on The Shadowed Sun, I Was Here, The Just City and The Shadow Society

At least I managed to come back before the end of the year. I think I get credit for that, at least a little bit. On the other hand, I've read 91 books so far and have only managed to review 16 books on my blog, including the ones on this post.

Lot of work to do; just a lot of work.


Next up for review, The Shadowed Sun by N. K. Jemisin. This is the companion to The Killing Moon and it takes place ten years after the events of that story. This time around, we follow three certain characters: Hanani, the first and currently only female allowed into the Hetawa, working as a Sharer-Apprentice who has the ability to heal; Wanahomen, a prince and the son of Eninket, who'd been seen previously in The Killing Moon; and Tiaanet, a young woman with a horrible past and terrible secret. The plot of the story focuses mainly on the effects of a nightmare that has swept through the dreamers of the city, leaving death in its wake.