A Likeable World With An Unlikeable Heroine
348793
This was an entertaining story.  Moriarty's world-building is fabulous.  Page after page adds layer upon layer of complexity and depth to a world that, by book's end, is every bit as textured and "real" as the best I've read by any author.

Unfortunately, this book and its world are done a great disservice by a plot that relies far too heavily on its main character's incompetence.  This would be tolerable--if not terribly engaging given my antipathy for incompetent characters--if the main character had at least been presented as such.  Instead she's presented as an elite solider, a highly decorated combat veteran who also operates as something of a floating troubleshooter for her government's intelligence agency.  Despite this background--a background which I imagine would lead any reader to expect a certain amount of self-sufficiency--the main character, Catherine Li, drives the plot inexorably to its conclusion simply by making bad decision after bad decision.

Now, it's usually a good thing when the plot flows against the protagonists at least part of the time.  Too much luck and it smacks of deus ex machina.  Too much physical/mental superiority and the plot fails to achieve any form of tension.  This, however, was ridiculous.  If an engagement is in the offing, you can count on Catherine to lose it.  If there's a course to be laid, you can count on Catherine to choose the wrong path.  If there's a physical flaw that puts her at a disadvantage, you can count on her not to address it before it fails her again, and again, and again, right up to and including the book's climax.  If there is a character who obviously cannot be relied upon for clear and valid reasons of which Catherine is completely aware, you can count on her to be depending on them to back her up.

I started the book with an interest bolstered by the anticipation of a strong and engaging and *competent* female lead.  I finished it torn between pleasure and disgust: pleasure at the rich and engrossing world it had created, and disgust at the useless and thoroughly unsympathetic woman who had somehow bumbled her way to a sour and incomplete victory.
1285666
This book had four and a half stars and even a promising start from the sample. But I did not like the heroine at all. She is 21 years old, but acting and thinking and with decisions of a 14 years old unbalanced teenager. And surprisingly, she has incredibly strong magic, strongest on the world. And she is the best assassin of all. And she is not as stupide as people think she is.
2427835
The heroine was supposed to be likable but it was hard for me to see. She was ungrateful and shallow.
950934
The first book in the series lacked depth and I found the heroine somewhat flat, however there was some interesting world building and it was competently enough written. I bought the second books in the hopes that, with more experience, the author would bring to it what was missing in the first.

I found quite the opposite. As another reviwer noted, the heroine talks tough but is constantly getting her butt kicked. Further, she is bullied and manipulated by everyone to the extent that I found myself gritting my teeth and wanting to give her a good slapping before I was even a third into the book.

The author has created an interesting world and some interesting secondary characters, but the heroine that she puts into that world has moved from being flat to being downright annoying (and still flat). I regret wasting money on the book. How some other reviewers gave it an honest 5 stars is beyond me. It isn't even close to meritiing them.
208941
Besides several inconsistencies with the historical background, I found the heroine to be annoying at times. She kept wanting to be in Mountjoy's company, yet pulled away because she can't love anyone else but her dead fiance. Frankly, that was repeated too often in the novel. We got it the first time, after that it just turned out to be a lame excuse.

I felt that there was some chemistry between the hero and the heroine, however, I always felt compelled to side with the hero. Lilly's independent spirit at times was just too much. She was a bad guest trying to take over Mountjoy's home. I thought that guests, especially in those times, were always mindful of their place in someone's home. Yes, she often irritated me.

The story was defeated by an irritating heroine and not much character development. Yet, I enjoyed the banter between the main characters and wish that the writer had spent more time fleshing them out and creating something more heartfelt between them.
4424644
I enjoyed this book, the author did a good job of world building and had an interesting construct for why people had powers. My only complaint was that the main character was not likable and didn't become more likable during the book.  Perhaps the author has a longer view, over the series, for character growth, but it is hard to empathize with an unlikable character, so I'm not interested in continuing on. I could have been the reader though, making the main character sound more cynical than she really was written. If so, that would be too bad. But, I think many young people would enjoy this book as it is a very interesting world and, given that there are several more books, my opinion must be in the minority.
271545
Got and then returned via audible around halfway through after I'd had enough.

My main issue with this book revolves around the main character, who apparently can do no wrong. When danger approaches, he is always okay - to the point where any intended threats become trite. Spooky demon people? Invisible angel things keep him safe. Dying of hypothermia? Totally random caring strangers show up in the nick of time. Needing shoes? Shoemaker gives away a used pair out of the kindness of his heart. Eventually it becomes hard to suspend disbelief.

On top of that the characters feel very one-dimensional. The main character is inhumanly smart, and good at everything, and might as well be the main character out of a high schooler's fanfiction. He simply has no real flaws. Add the red hair and sword and I'm painfully reminded of red haired protagonists so common in anime. So far there's no reason to like the character or think him great, beyond all the other characters believing him fantastic (apart from the school's own version of Severus Snape, who, naturally, hates him).

Around halfway through the book the protagonist gets into the Arcanist University, which he was obviously going to get into anyways because he was so absurdly smart at everything he touches. Normally people like that are also idiot savants, and have some major flaws to make up for it. There the head teacher dude naturally is enamored with the redhead's spunk and disregard for the rules and respect - along with all the other teachers who have emotions. That is, other than definitely-not-Severus-Snape and his lackey. Naturally Kvothe manages to make a fool of not-severus on his second day of school, win over the entire student body with his shenanigans, and advance into an effective upper classman in a hearing where he was supposed to be punished. Ah yes, the professor/masters take quite the liking to him, and poor not-Severus just goes into an embarrassed silence. In fact, all not-Severus does is be hated by the entire school, apparently.

The University segment of the book was where I'd had enough. It read like your typical socially-awkward-high-schooler's fantasy of an alternate world where they were smart, and handsome, and everyone who was decent naturally loved them. The main character gets what he wants when he actually wants it, and everybody bends to his will. Because he's the main character.

Also, for the female characters, it's even worse. Other than those in motherly roles, the only women introduced have all been very pretty. And that is their only important quality. Because all that matters is how pretty the female character is. Substance is optional. They might as well all be wearing flowing white gowns and flower wreathes while waiting for their knight in shining armor to appear on his white horse and whisk them away.

Not to sound like a complete jerk, I WAS impressed with how well the religious lore in the book was written to sound similar to the religions of early civilizations and neolithic cultures. That part was actually done really well, and was far more interesting than the story itself. They read like stories in the Old Testament, Rig Veda, and similar religious documents.
2356327
I hate the main character. Beth Jasper is supposed to be a badass. She's the sole female warrior of a species who polices 13 sectors- 13 versions of earth.
You'd think as the only female warrior amongst hundreds of men that she would be a sort of commodity but they dislike her, some even view her as a mongrel that should be ended. I was fine with this at first- as the society is of course fiction, but given the other similarities between this world and the real world, it just doesn't make sense.
She also is supposed to be one of the best warriors, but she is constantly getting her ass kicked and needs to be rescued. Her "brave, strong" personality comes off as bratty and stubborn.
I also didn't like how the author dramatizes certain event without a sufficient building of the plot. I feel like the reader needs to feel the enormity of a situation so that the actions can make sense, but there isn't enough of that.
I'm hoping the plot wraps up in the next book, I feel as if I'm being dragged very slowly up a rocky hill.
787015
Genevieve Lenard is not a likeable character. Even excusing her quirks related to autistic conditions, she is self-centered and unpleasant and does not grow and learn. Despite that, she seems to inspire protectiveness in many of her acquaintances. I had a really hard time buying that. Tightening up the narrative by removing most of the descriptions of facial muscles and coping mechanisms would improve the flow of the story, but giving Genevieve an actual personality would be the best help. I purchased the second book in the series hoping that she would improve, but I may not finish it since she is, if anything, more unpleasant than ever in the first couple of chapters.
2929628
The heroine is swallow, self-centered and witless. I disliked her immediately and she never redeemed herself. The hero could have been great he had depth and a good backstory, but he waited around like a puppy for the heroines love. I had trouble finishing it, but i made myself push through.
4720407
Not bad.

Unlike some of the complaints I've heard, I actually very much appreciated the personalities and dynamics of each character and feel like they didn't do too bad of a job reflecting the different elements each personality was supposed to represent.

Clementine was a decent heroine with a confusing past (if you can even call it a past) and an unsure future. Her mother is gone, her home is gone, nearly ten years of her life are gone and now she's come back to a brand new world and a brand new body to discover that, other than her two childhood friends, no one seems to remember that she ever existed. Her world is unsure, strange, and a bit on the creepy side. A crazy man lives across the street, there's a "too magical for its own good" hollow just a few pastures away, and people seem to be pleased with themselves for hating her.

Some great inclusion (without being over the top) of "witchy" elements such as the 5 pointed star, what each point represents, and then the tarot deck. A bit of a grittier and less fantastical depiction of magic, or the "craft" as its called, without getting too outrageous.

A great depiction of how blind and ignorant hate can get people carried away to doing awful things.

Was hoping for something a bit more robust, and was interested in learning more about each of the "humors", how they effected their people, and what each individual was actually capable of all around, but it didn't expound on that. The author didn't go into much detail about the connection between Clementine and Fisher, either, though they dreamed about each other from a young age and for years.

The romance between Clementine and Fisher actually seemed rather realistic considering their circumstances, individual personalities, and their connection to separate "humors". Their "spiritual" connection was never fully explained, though, and Fisher's behavior towards Clementine in the presence of others was quite teenagery in the beginning, though he seems to make up for it later. Again, would have liked a little more explanation about what in the world was going on with these two in particular.

Basically I would be expecting a second book, but I'm pretty sure this is a Stand-Alone, so I'm a bit disappointed not to get to learn more.

However, the book wasn't anywhere near horrible and I do quite enjoy Brenna Yovanoff's style. If there ever was a second book in this series, I would read it. I do also plan on reading her other works.

Certainly worth the read.
2630391
Okorafor does an excellent job world-building. The book is well-written, the setting is unusual for fantasy novels and is certainly intriguing, and the structure of magical abilities is fascinating. Unfortunately, the characters all fall flat. Most of the supporting cast are so flawed that you wonder why we're supposed to care about them. Worst of all is the heroine, Onyesonwu. She's a flat-out bad person who kills or maims thousands of innocent people. She's also a real pill. And by the end of the book, I didn't see her as a hero.

Moreover, many of the key scenes are vague and confusing, in a way that's supposed to be mystical but is just jarring. Overall I did enjoy reading the novel, but the ending is depressing, implausible, and unsatisfactory. If you're going to read this for the sake of its good story-telling, be prepared for some disappointment.
3043044
Our heroine Maggie lives in a relatively standard "split world" (standard if you read much contemporary fantasy!) where the Earth we know has no magic and the other dimension does. All the cool creepy crawlies and hot elves come from the magic side. Maggie's job, as a child of both sides, is to drag people who are magic, or monsters who are magic, back to the magic side so they can't cause trouble and eat humans. She can do this because she has the ability to cross when she wants or needs to while other people have to go through an approved transfer point. This is a focal point in the story as it progresses and it is explained well.

The heroine is fun to "listen" to as she narrates her dimensional-hopping adventure. That makes it sound SF, but it's pure urban fantasy, on the light side. The hero is an elf who is assigned to hire her to do a job for the elf queen, and at first she doesn't want to work with him. But of course she grows to depend on his presence as he does hers. I expected him to be stronger or more alpha than he turned out to be, since that's what one generally encounters in this genre, but he remained in the back seat to the heroine's plot. Romance-wise, if that is a trope you like in a book, the hero and heroine's interactions have the blossomings of a future romance but not yet an "HEA".

I could not give this book more stars because one of its primary flaws was in the editing. The dialogue in particular was incorrectly punctuated, and it jerked me out of the story. The author's style was relatively facile otherwise, without an abundance of typos.
974877
The concept of many different versions of the world, each of which has the same characters, is interesting, but the many different worlds our hero gets to, and their overlap, get so entangled that it's hard to keep track of which version of the character goes with which world. I don't really like any of them much.
2642456
I found Chaos Rises by accident while searching for reviewers and thought that the premise sounded good enough to download the whole story.
At thirteen, Hala discovers that she has the ability to summon animals - a power which is "not as good as beauty or wealth, but something"! But she soon finds that the animals are not the cute, cuddly kind, but are often dangerous or vicious, or at the very least, disgruntled at having to be there in the first place. Poor Hala pays for her magic by bee stings (more than the bee keeper), bites and scratches and a not very helpful flock of wayward sheep which keeps getting lost.
But at least, with her power she can try to impress Kreg!
I must say, I was drawn in to this world from the start and Hala's voice was true to her character. The story is well written, and the pacing, especially, is excellent. This story introduces a mysterious dark mage and is a sort of prequel to a larger epic fantasy adventure. I read this short story in one sitting and the whole episode was very reminiscent of the Ursula Le Guin epic - A Wizard of Earthsea and I will certainly look out for the other books in the series
2532367
Well written but half the book is wishy washy inner dialogue. Heroine comes off as whiny and resentful. I gave up on it, but gave it 3 stars because the reasons I didn't like it were personal preferences. I don't like heroines who are constantly looking to pick fights. And since most of the book was spent listening to her complain, there wasn't much to keep me interested in the story. I didn't connect with her, didn't feel bad for her. There was just something very unlikeable about her.
4829922
I agree with the other reviewers take on Taylor. She was BEYOND annoying, over the top mean-spirited to Hunter, a very unlikeable heroine. Her behavior is NOT warranted, even when you find out the reason (traumatic childhood event)for her absurd reaction to the EVER-Patient, Hunter. I kept reading for him. He was sweet and understanding to a fault for putting up with her. Thankfully, Taylor calms down so I could get through the book. But honestly, the author wrote a harshly, unlikeable heroine who I really couldn't sympathize with.