Black Wolves | 
This book:
Solid:
A slow luxurious soak in the conceived world and history
Grand scheme planning with intimate fallout
Diverse and believably intricate (food, garb, hair, class, ethnicity, sexuality, religion)
The characters feel gorgeously real and insufferably human
Wobbly:
Fed info in dialogue, found it mostly unobtrusive
Maintaining perfect pacing in a book this large is difficult
High no. of characters, lot of bit parts. Tho I found that +
pickA brick of a book of solidly epic proportions, that nonetheless lead me steadily through its pages and has sank its talons into my heart.
Now the agonising wait for the sequel begins.
Another great month of reading—somehow squeezed in 28 books. Of course that number includes some comics but still, not bad. Once again I really mixed it up moving from genre to genre (thereby avoiding the dreaded reading slump). As always, heavy on the fantasy & science fiction but I also read autobiography (read Agassi‘s book if you haven‘t—fascinating), history (not pictured), historical fiction and more. Going with Black Wolves as my favorite.
pickWow! What a great book—epic fantasy at its best & one in which women wield much of the power. Kellas was once the captain of the Black Wolves & then they were disbanded & he left in disgrace after the king was killed. That‘s the beginning & things just take off from there. Come for the worldbuilding, deft plotting, dynamic characters & 780 pages of 😳 but stay for the strong, powerful women who leave you eager to know what happens next. Loved it.
Had my first 😳 moment reading this book yesterday afternoon & knew it was better than good. Had another 😳 moment last night & all I could think was, why did I let this book linger in my TBR pile so long? I mean it happens, right? Every book in it is one that caught my attention, one I decided I wanted to read. Sometimes the one you pick to read turns out to be amazing & that‘s the case with this one. It‘s really great epic fantasy.
I‘m really enjoying this one so far. It started strong and just keeps getting better. Great worldbuilding, characters to love & hate, and a plot full of twists and turns. ❤️it. There might be a man on the cover but this book is populated with a multitude of strong women. Epic fantasy with independent and interesting female characters is a thing, a marvelous thing, and I‘m eager to see where Elliott takes the story. Back to reading now!
Love a good snow day & we had one yesterday. Unfortunately, I spent almost the WHOLE day working (editing is a slog) & definitely did not do enough reading. Better balance today—did some work & also managed to finish ‘The Forgotten Beasts of Eld‘ (so good). Now, I‘m done with work for the weekend so I‘m going to treat myself to a big book. I‘m continuing with fantasy—this one comes in at 780 pages. I❤️Kate Elliott‘s writing so here goes!
pickFull review here: http://wp.me/p21txV-Dc
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ of 5 ⭐️s
Non-Western European setting? Check. Amazing, strong, yet deeply, beautifully human female characters? Check. Plot that focuses on court intrigue (YESSSSS~!)? CHECK! All the hallmarks of a fantastic epic fantasy XD. Some caveats: there's a rape scene further in, and a cognitive speed bump early on, but if you can get past those it's a rewarding, immersive read :D.
so-soThis book is long. I listened to it on audio and I can't tell you half of what I heard. I enjoyed the characters and I understood the storyline it just took forever to get through. I will say there was one incident of sexual violence I was not prepared for or okay with. If you like epic fantasy with a lot of parts you'll probably enjoy this. There are a lot of characters but I followed who was who easily. The narrator did a good job.
bailedim sad that i bailed. 😞 was so wanting to like this. but just couldn't understand the narrative choices, esp. related to timeline. i made it through 120+ pages, hoping things would make sense, but it just didn't coalesce for me.
bailedim sad that i bailed. 😞 was so wanting to like this. but just couldn't understand the narrative choices, esp. related to timeline. i made it through 120+ pages, hoping things would make sense, but it just didn't coalesce for me.
