Heart says

Okay, I did write a really long and detailed review of how utterly amazing and awesome and brilliant this book is, but it didn't actually save after I clicked save. :( And I cant be bothered to write it all out again... So needless to say, this book is outstanding and one of my favourites already. Read it!

This sequel to 'Under the Never Sky' was brilliant. Rossi has found a great balance between action and character development, and the characters feel a lot more well rounded this time.

We rejoin Perry and Aria as they reunite having spent the winter apart. Perry is now Blood Lord of the Tides and has to struggle to learn to be the best Blood Lord he can whilst making sure his tribe survives. Aria knows she has to find the Still Blue in order to save Perry's nephew Talon and to find a safe place for everyone now that the Aether is becoming worse and increasingly devastating and violent. They have to struggle to be together whilst trying to accomplish their various tasks, which is very difficult.

This book was a lot better than 'Under the Never Sky'. In that first book, a lot of time was spent establishing the world and exploring it, and both Perry and Aria began as quite annoying characters. But in this book, we do not need as much establishment and Perry and Aria have already grown enough already that I felt more compelled by them and wanted to root for them more. They've become much more well rounded, and they continue to develop and grow and learn in this book, as do other major characters such as Marron and Cinder. And we see the nice development and growth of a character from the first book who I didn't really expect to see again: Soren - it'll be nice to see how he develops and grows in the third book now he's surrounded by "savages" and now he's on the outside, how he'll cope with his DLS .

It was nice to see Perry as Blood Lord and how he had to grow into the role. He spent a lot of the previous book complaining about Vale and how he should do things differently. But now he is Blood Lord he finds the task a lot more difficult than he imagined and it was nice that he had to learn how to be a better leader and to motivate his tribe.

It was also nice to see more of Roar this time around as well, as he is definately one of my favourite characters. And it was nice that he and Aria had a nice, close relationship without there being the worry that they might fall for each other. And we finally get to see the much talked and worried about Liv as well which was nice. I would definately recommend reading Rossi's novella entitled 'Roar and Liv' before this book, as it helps to flesh out the characters even more in your mind.

Rossi also found a good balance between action and character development in this book, and a lot of the action and plot also was a lot more relevant to the overall plot or was important, unlike in the last book where there seemed to be longer periods of action or character development, and some of the conflict seemed a little unnecessary.

Overall, this is a really good book. Fans of the first book will definately be pleased by it, and even if you were a little unsure about the first book, then I would recommend picking this one up as it is much better than that first one in my opinion. It certainly seemed to fly by!

I wanted to really like this book, and this sequel trilogy to the Magician's Guild trilogy by Canavan, but I just couldn't. I mean, yes, it was interesting and all but it just couldn't live up to the first trilogy and looking at some of the other reviews for this book it seems like an opinion shared by many fans.

Warning, there may well be spoilers ahead, but some of this is stuff mentioned or referred to in previous books in this trilogy.

Firstly, the plot. It continues that set up in the first two books in the trilogy, with Sonea and Regin heading to Sachaka to meet with the Traitors, whilst Lorkin and Dannyl try to stop the Sachakan King from reading Lorkin's mind now that he's returned to Arvice from the Traitor's home. Meanwhile, Lilia deals with being a black magician and trying to capture the rogue Skellin.

The plot just moves at a really slow pace, and whilst it is nice to see some character development in these chapters, I do feel a lot of it in the first half could have been condensed. Then in the second half of the book the majority of the action takes place really quickly and it kinda feels a bit rushed. Also, there were some parts of the story that I just really didn't care about.

Plus, I did kind of like Lilia and Anyi, and I guess it was important and nice to see how things have changed and are different for the next generation. But the whole Skellin plot seemed really irrelevant in the end. I thought it might somehow tie back in to what was happening in Sachaka but it didn't and it was just there really to give Lilia and the magician's in Kyralia something to do. Also, it ended really quickly and was rather an anti-climax apart from, you know, the face Cery died. Heart = broken. But I did kinda see it coming .

I felt like I was supposed to like Lorkin as a main character, but I just didn't. He was rather boring and flat. And I also felt like I was supposed to like the Traitors and want to root for them, but I didn't either. I mean, I liked that they wanted to abolish slavery and stuff, but other than that they just seemed ruthless and arrogant and no better than the Ashaki they were trying to overthrow really.

I wanted to see more of Sonea being a badass like she was in the first trilogy, but she wasn't. I kind of understood why, since she's spent the last 20 years feeling like an outcast and stuff and missing Akkarin, but I wanted to see her regain her former life and courage and she didn't. She didn't really do anything in the end... and don't even get me started on the whole ReginxSonea thing - it was just stupid. Canavan obviously just wanted to give Sonea a new love interest but didn't want to or couldn't spend time developing a whole new character for her .

What did interest me though was Canavan's hint in the epilogue of another nation in this world that is starting to develop new technologies such as a "ballshooter" which sounds remarkably like a gun to me, and made me think that the minefire mentioned earlier in the book could be gun powder which hadn't occurred to me at the time. This sounds like an interesting idea and I hope it's an avenue that Canavan explores further in another book(s). It would be interesting to see how the magician's dealt with such a technological revolution.

It's been a few years since I read the first book in this trilogy or the first trilogy, so it took me a long time to get back into this book. It took awhile for me to remember who all the characters are, the storylines and the magic system etc. It did eventually come back to me by the time I was halfway through the book, but it did make it harder for me to get into initially which I think may be part of why I didn't really enjoy this book for the first half.

I also felt that it took awhile to get into the main action and drama and that some of the drama seemed fairly pointless. I like Dannyl but the majority of his story in this book was quite irrelevant apart from a few moments particularly towards the end and I wonder if this will be expanded upon in the third book.

There were some new characters introduced as well in this book, the most prominent of which is a young novice at the Magician's Guild called Lilia who I thought was a nice and interesting addition to the 'cast' as it were. She was incredibly naive though it seemed to me and some of the twists related to her and her storyline seemed very obvious, and it was slightly annoying that she couldn't see them and I couldn't quite tell if Canavan expected us to believe them as well or expected us to to be able to see through them too.

Overall though, I quite enjoyed the book but I felt that little really happened for a long time and I found it quite hard to get into, although it's hard to tell if that's due to the book or if it's just because it's been awhile since I read the first book.

I enjoyed this book even more than Fire and much more than Graceling. I feel that Cashore has gotten better with each iteration in this series.

Bitterblue returns to the setting and characters from the first book but eight years on from the events of that book, but allusions are made throughout to the Dells country from the second book. This book specifically follows Queen Bitterblue as she tries to uncover what atrocities her tyrant father commited when he was alive, and to try and move her Kingdom on from that reign. People are being murdered in her city though and Bitterblue comes to suspect that many things are being hidden from her.

This book involved a lot of mystery and intrigue, and kept me guessing throughout about what would actually happen and who was behind it all. I don't think I really guessed any of the major plot twists far in advance either which was nice. The book gripped me quite early on and kept me wanting to read.

There were many themes which were similar to some brought up in previous books, but Cashore also moved on and explored some different ones as well. The major themes were Bitterblue trying to deal with the horrible legacy of her father, similar to Fire but it's explored in a different way. It was also nice to see the effort that Bitterblue and her council are having to go through to try and rebuild, as it's the kind of thing that you don't often see explored in books, films etc. - the idea of rebuilding and moving on after the 'evil tyrant has been defeated and the happy ending has been had' if you know what I mean. It also did not involve the theme that had annoyed me in the past of how marriage as a way of stripping freedom etc. from women which was nice.

The romance in this book was different as well, as it wasn't a major part of the plot like it kind of was in previous books which kind of makes more sense. It was obvious early on that Saf was Bitterblue's main love interest and it was nice to see their different kind of romance and it was kind of nice that it ended in a more bitter sweet and realistic way than in the previous books, although I do wish it could have ended a little happier!. And I also liked the relationship between Bitterblue and Giddon and could kind of see a relationship developing there too.

Overall, it was a good book and it was really interesting and gripping and although it dealt with similar themes to the previous books it also took on a fresh take to them as well.

I enjoyed this book more than I did Graceling. I felt it built nicely on the world of the first book, but at the same time it was set in a different region entirely where there are no 'Gracelings' and has a different kind of 'magic' and power altogether in 'monsters'.

I quite liked Fire, she was friendly and wise and not too full of herself either and braver than you think she might be.

Again like Graceling though, you have Fire as the protagonist, who has a man who is madly in love with her but she vows off marriage and children (although not because of a loss of control though like Katsa did, Fire's motivations are more noble and understandable) and ends up falling in love with someone completely different.

And whilst I said there were no Gracelings in this book, it did still explore and bring up the idea of Gracelings through the small influence of a certain powerful Graceling we saw in book 1, and nicely reminds the reader that this book and book 1 are set in the same universe (if in different time periods).

Also, this book isn't half one for family dramas and revelations! If you've read it I'm sure you'll understand!

Overall, a good book which I thought built nicely on the ideas and world built in Graceling and expanded on it, even if many of the themes were quite similar to the first book.

I thought this book was good. It was as good as if not slightly better than the previous 2 books (definately book 2 at any rate), simply because i think it was more eventful and exciting. I felt more gripped and interested in what was going on, and it was a nice change of pace for this book to be set in Idris rather than New York. There were some more surprise twists, including one or two I'd hoped for since book 1 because I thought it was a silly plot device. Overall though, a good and entertaining book.

I would rate this as 3.5 if I had the option on here.

The book was good, enjoyable, of a similar style to book 1. I liked the addition of Maia as a character and I liked that we got to see more of Luke and that more happened involving Simon. I felt the plot was interesting and obviously helped to progress the characters, but at times I felt that it was stalling a bit unnecessarily to prolong the book, and at times I felt that so much was going on that it was hard to keep track of what was happening or why. The Inquistor storyline seemed rather pointless and irritating to me. Jace still annoys me greatly.

Okay, so I struggled in rating this one. If I could, I would've given it a 3.5 star rating. And my review is gonna be shortie by the way.

City of Bones is about 15 year old Clarissa 'Clary' Fray, daughter of Jocelyn, who goes to a teenagers club one night with best friend Simon, only to witness what appears to be a murder, only to find out that the murderers are actually Shadowhunters who go around fighting and stopping demons and other supernatural creatures. Clary is then drawn into their world, where she finds out she has more connections to it than she first thought.

I thought the story was a little slow initially, it spends a lot of time with Clary going around New York with Jace (the main male lead character) teaching her (and the reader) about this supernatural world and getting Jace and Clary to start to fall in love. I thought the final third of the novel was much better than the first two thirds, when the action kicks up dramatically. While I wasn't sure initially where exactly the story would be going with the first two thirds, it became obvious in this final part where it would be going in future books and I liked some of the twists that occurred here (although not all, at least not initially). I felt that some of the twists that Cassandra Clare introduces are quite unique for this genre and help to set it apart, and it's almost a shame that this couldn't have come earlier in the book to get me hooked earlier, although such a revelation also wouldn't have worked in the beginning of the book earlier.

Clary was quite a nice main character, I felt I ciuld sympathise with her quite easily, even if she was a bit dense at times. Jace was interesting but also incredibly annoying, something I hope he will grow out of eventually.

Overall, I felt quite indifferent about the book for the first half, and it took a while to grip me which only really happened in the last third of the book. I'm interested to see if the next book will build upon this one's foundations into something more enjoyable and gripping, something I wish this book had been.

I hadn't really intended to buy this, but I saw it in Sainsbury's earlier and decided, hey, why not?

The book is beautiful. It contains many pages of colour photographs from the series, set alongside passages of text about the world of the A Song Of Ice And Fire (ASOIAF) series as shown in the books by GRRM, but more specifically the world depicted in the hugely successful HBO TV series.

It begins with a foreword by ASOIAF series creator George R. R. Martin on writing his series and his thoughts on previous considerations of adapting the books for film or TV. Then there's a short interview with the TV series creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss about how they came to adapting it. Then the book launches into a series of chapters and sections, describing all the major locations, characters and important/interesting scenes in the TV series, both in terms of what happens in the story, and then from a creative point of view, describing how they came to find each location, casting actors, costumes etc.

It was a really interesting read that swallowed me up this afternoon quite unintentionally, but I did not regret it at all. It was interesting to see the different ideas and concerns when it came to creating the series, as well as seeing pieces of concept art and just how much thought goes into every location and costume etc. This evening I've been watching a few episodes of the series now and it's kind of opened my eyes up even further.

My only hesitation about the book, is that it only covers the first two seasons of the TV show (obviously, since they are the only two to have currently aired), and it makes me wonder if they'll expand it each time there's a new season or two or if they'll release further volumes or just not do any more books. On the one hand, it'll be interesting to see the same kind of creative thoughts when it comes to future episodes, characters and so on, but I don't really want to be buying another book every year, especially if it just spouts out the same stuff that in this book as well. I know it doesn't really affect this book, but still it was something on my mind as I read it.

Overall, a really interesting companion book for the TV series, and would be appreciated by any fan of the TV series, whether they have read the book series or not.

To be honest, I didn't really go into reading this book with many expectations. I'd read the Twilight series, kinda enjoyed them but was under no illusions that they were great books. I'd heard about this when it was released and thought about reading it but never got around to it. Then last week I saw the trailer for the movie adaptation, thought it looked good and decided to finally sit down and read this. And I have to say, I was really pleasantly surprised.

'The Host' is about a not too distant future version of earth, where parasitic aliens have conquered our planet by inhabiting our bodies. Humanity is almost extinct. The story follows Wanderer (later known as Wanda) as she is put into one of these bodies. But her human host, Melanie, hasn't vanished entirely within her mind, and Wanderer finds herself drawn to the memories of Melanie's brother and lover (Jamie and Jared respectively) and wants to find them for herself and discovers a hidden colony of humans in the desert, beginning a journey that will forever change her.

I thought the concept was really interesting and really well written. It's obviously been given a lot of thought, and while the concept of parasitic aliens isn't exactly new, it felt like Meyer had taken a bit of a fresh twist with it. The aliens are not your typical enemies. Yes, they have wiped out humanity but they're all just so pleasant all the time it's hard to hate them (apart from the main antagonist, The Seeker (which is a kind of alien police force)).

It was nice that the book was told from Wanda's POV, it was really interesting way to go about it. We see everything from her POV, starting with the aliens (the souls) so you get to know this 'enemy' race from the beginning. Typically, when a soul is inserted into a human, the human mind is squashed and vanishes, but in Wanda's case her human host, Melanie, is very much present in her mind which troubles her. Melanie shows her memories of her brother Jamie and lover Jared, and puzzles over a map her uncle gave her to find him if the worst should happen (but she was caught by the souls before she could find them. Eventually, Wanda and Melanie begin to bond and go in search of Jared and Jamie and they discover this hidden, hold-out colony of humans. It gets really interesting then and it was at this point that I really began to get into the book. It was interesting to read Wanda's view of us as she saw them and was treated by them. She says (at several points early on) that humans are cruel and violent monsters, and seeing how she was treated and her justification it's really hard to argue with her. And the thing is, I know that humans would do some of that stuff in reality if this happened. It was really interesting to see humanity as the enemy through Wanda's eyes, and then see how this relationship changes and develops.

Wanda was a good main character, and I felt I could relate even though she was an alien, she was still quite human at heart (or soul). I did feel myself rooting her throughout, and Melanie as well. I felt really sorry for her at times, because I could relate to her, for example: when Wanda stumbles across the humans attempts to separate aliens and human hosts, she's horrified, and the humans don't initially realise what's wrong because they covered the human bodies up, but then someone points out that they hadn't covered up the alien bodies which would obviously be more upsetting to Wanda. At times I did find myself irritated by some of the conclusions she jumps to, or things she does, cos they seemed quite stupid. But then again, it was kind of nice when she would realise the truth for example or whatever, because it kind of reminded me that she was an alien and this is what she thought of what had happened, and obviously I knew the truth cos I was a human and I could see it.

I loved Jamie, he was just this energetic teenager, and it was just impossible not to love him. Jeb was a great, stubborn fatherly character too. Jared... I didn't really get for the most part. Melanie was head over heels for him throughout, and Wanda falls for him as a result, but for most of the book he was a bit of jerk and it was hard to understand that or to root for him. I mean, he did get better and I did like him more as it went on but I still didnt really see it, even though I knew I was supposed to. Then there's Ian, who I totally rooted for. Ian was really nice and friendly throughout and seemed to be one of the only people (if not the only one) who truly understood Wanda and didnt judge her and loved her, and he was just awesome basically. I loved him.

It was quite a gripping book, once I got into it (it was only when I was about 20-30% through that I really got into it). It's not a big action romp, although there is action in it. At the same time though, although there is a lot of melodramatic romance stuff in it that Meyer does so well, it didn't necessarily feel like a romance story. It was a story about an alien and her interactions and relationships with humans, with a bit of romance thrown in.

The ending was very happy, and I was interested in some of the things brought up in the last chapter, such as the introduction of other human cells (which I knew would exist and was wondering if they would be introduced sooner) and another soul who has "gone native". I want to know more about these people and how this will affect our group . I felt that the ending wrapped things up sufficiently for it to be a stand alone book, although I did want to know more about some of the stuff which was nice. It's good when a book leaves wanting more. I have heard that Meyer might write a sequel (or trilogy) which could be interesting and introduce more of this stuff and carry on the story, but at the same I felt it stood well on it's own and I worry that a sequel won't quite live up to it, or will ruin it a bit like I felt later Twilight books.

Overall though, I felt that 'The Host' was a really good book and it pleasantly surpassed my expectations. The characters were good and relatable, no one was perfect, everyone was a bit flawed. I really rooted for Wanda and Mel and Ian and etc. Overall, a great book.

Oh, and for those interested, heres the link to the movie trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRKjf8b4f2E

So, I literally just finished this book, and all I can think is "wow... oh my god".

'Insurgent' is the amazing sequel to 'Divergent' by Veronica Roth. It continues the story of Tris who lives in a dystopian future version of Chicago where everyone lives in one of 5 factions (well, those 5 and there factionless). Tris chose to be Dauntless who value bravery, right before the Dauntless became mind-controlled the Erudite, who value intelligence. But she wasn't affected because she's Divergent, which means she doesn't really fit into just 1 faction like most people. That was the first book. 'Insurgent' picks up where book 1 left off, with Tris, boyfriend Tobias/Four and their companions Caleb, Peter and Marcus heading for the safety of the Amity headquarters now that the city is erupting in war.

What I missed most in 'Divergent' was getting to see more of the other factions. We saw lots about Dauntless and Abnegation, some of Erudite, heard a bit about Candor and little about Amity. Thankfully, Roth thought the same and 'Insurgent' gives us a good glimpse at all of the factions, particularly those we didn't see in 'Divergent'. It was really nice to see all of the other factions, which were obviously so carefully thought out and planned by Roth.

I felt we learnt a lot more about the characters introduced in 'Divergent' as well, and they became even more real and well rounded. It was nice to see a lot more of Tobias, a.k.a. Four, as we didn't really learn much about him in the fist book, and while I did like him him 'Divergent' I liked him a lot more in this book. It was nice to see a truly vulnerable side to Tris as well, as she deals with the pain of what happened at the end of the last book, when she shot one of her best friends who tried to kill her while under the mind control. At times her dragging out this pain was a little annoying, but it was also nice to see in that it was fairly realistic and gave her more depth.

The story was a lot larger than in 'Divergent' and more complex, and there were many times I really wasn't sure what was going to happen next. I was gripped throughout this book and I just wanted to know what happened next. While the story was bigger and a lot more happened and the characters moved around a lot more this time around, I felt that sometimes the characters coming together then separating a bit and coming together several times whilst moving between factions was a little repeatitive, but what happened each time was so different and exciting that I still found it really exciting and I can forgive Roth for it.

And the cliffhanger at the ending... just wow! I cannot wait to see what happens when the third and final book is released next year and I cannot even begin to guess what might happen! All I know is, I just cannot wait. This is one exciting book and even better than 'Divergent'.

I think the fact that I devoured this book in 2 days is proof enough that I really enjoyed it.

The book is set in a dystopian future where everyone lives in one of 5 factions: Abnegation, Dauntless, Erudite, Candor and Amity. When a child turns 16, they can choose to either stay with their faction or move to another. Beatrice Prior is a girl from Abnegation, the faction that values self-lessness above all else who chooses to transfer to Dauntless, the faction that values bravery above all else, and becomes Tris. Tris struggles with Dauntless initiation but feels that this is her home. But Tris has a secret: at the aptitude test to determine which faction best suited her she tested Divergent, a rare trait and dangerous, for if the Dauntless leaders discover this, then she might find her life in danger...

The world of Divergent is intriguing in itself, with the idea that the world is split into these 5 factions each with different roles and jobs and society and with different traits that they believe in. I kinda found it hard to believe that it would work so naturally and efficiently at the beginning of the novel, but that was were Roth really stepped up, addressing these concerns in the latter half of the novel.

Roth also creates some interesting characters. Tris herself feels very real to me and multi-dimensional, if sometimes a little slow on the uptake. But she is fearless. The other initiates she meets are all great characters, with various facets as well, including the girly best friend Christina, tough guy Will, and sadistic bully Peter. And then there are the instructors, quiet but kind Four and cruel Eric. All of Roth's characters are well thought out and well rounded and she's obviously thought about all of them and their histories.

Roth's storytelling is quite compelling too, and I soon became quickly engrossed in it. I got caught up in Tris's story and her initiaton and wondering how Divergence made her so different, and what would happen to her next. I found that the story wasn't overly predictable which was nice too, and some things that I thought I'd predicted Roth managed to make me doubt and hide it well too.

Overall, I thought this was an excellent novel, and certainly a lot more to it than I was initially expecting. It was a great book, and I can't wait to start Insurgent!

This was an enjoyable book, if a short one (compared to what I've been reading lately anyway).

'Under the Never Sky' is about a dystopian future, where humanity has basically been split into two. One half of the human population live inside Pods, where they spend their whole lives inside Realms, basically virtual realities where they can do whatever they want or desire. The other half lives outside, hunting for what food they can find and trying to survive the dangerous Aether storms that threaten to destroy their villages. Aria is from the Pods and has always lived in comfortable ignorance and bliss, where as Perry is an Outsider who has always struggled to survive. Aria suddenly finds herself outside the safety of the Pods and their two worlds are suddenly brought crashing together and they need to depend on each other.

I thought the world this book was set in was really interesting and quite different to other stuff I've read and was rather well thought out. I felt it took a little while to grasp everything that was going on here and to understand everything as some stuff isn't explicitly explained straight away, which makes sense in a way as we are dropped into the action and characters wouldn't just explain everything about their lives for no reason if you know what I mean.

I thought the characters were really well written and thought out as well. Aria starts off as somewhat annoying which makes sense given where she's grown up, and Perry can be harsh as well, but they both grow softer and nicer as the book goes on and they adjust to each other's company and they fall in love. Both main characters grow and develop and change as well which was nice to see. Which I thought was another well written aspect, as it does take it's time to develop and it isn't instantaneous. Roar was a good and amusing character, the perfect joker best friend really. Cinder was an interesting character as well, who I look forward to seeing how he develops and his past is explained in future books. Marron was a good character too.

I thought the overall story was really good and the events were pretty true and realistic for the world. I thought the ending part was a tad rushed though but it'll be interesting to see what happens in future books. I thought the ending, although a bit rushed, was good though and set up the characters in a nice way for the next book... until the very last page though which was just cliched and silly and just obviously so it would have a happier ending.

Overall, I thought this was a good book, well thought out and the characters were good and really interesting, and I'm interested to see what the next book is about.

'Among Others' is the story of a teenage girl from Wales called Morwenna Phelps, or Mori for short. Mori is no ordinary teenager, she and her twin sister Mor are able to see fairies and use magic, like their mother. Except their mother is evil and the twins decide they must stop her at all costs. In their attempt to stop her however, Mor was killed and Mori is left with a crippling injury in her leg that forces her to use a cane. Mori flees Wales to find her father who left when she was a baby, and 'Among Others' tells Moris tale after this, as she's sent to boarding school and attempts to deal with the magic, but also to come to terms with Mor's death.

'Among Others' is an interesting book. It's told from Mori's perspective through diary entries, and I think style really works to tell Mori's story as months pass in the novel and both her daily activities and her thoughts are recorded.

For the most part the book is your average, teenage boarding school story, detailing life at Arlinghurst (the school) and when Mori comes home for the holidays and such, as well as the usual teen dramas that come with it (eg. boys). But woven throughout is magic, and Mori spends a great deal of time wondering about magic and it's effects. Walton uses a different kind of magic system in this book which is really intriguing, whereby there's no magic spells or incantations, and things don't just magically happen, but rather events conspire to make things happen. For example, she might use magic to make a bus come around the corner when she wants it to, but events along the way will make the bus come at that time, if you get what I mean. It's more coincidental magic really. I couldn't decide however if the magic and the fairies that Mori spends so much time talking about would end up being real or not, and if I wanted them to be real or not.

Mori herself is an interesting character, but I just couldn't really get behind her or like her too much. On the one hand she is incredibly independant and strong-willed, and I love her story. But on the other hand, she just seemed really childish to me a lot of the time, but other times would suddenly grow up and be a teenage girl before reverting to her more child-like persona. I mean, she spends a lot of time thinking fairies and the way writes and the things that happen to her made me think of her as being no older than like 12. But then later on she reminds the reader that she's 15 and I just don't quite remember being like that at 15. And there are moments when she is shown to definately be this grown up 15 year old, doing things with boys (or at least thinking about it). Sometimes it was really disconcerting, for example at one point like halfway through the book she was thinking her usual thoughts about magic and stuff, then all of a sudden just off-handedly mentions that she then masturbated while thinking about a boy, and I just read it and was like, "wtf?!". It was just jarring.

But on the other hand, over the course of the book, Mori does grow up. This book is another one of those books which is essentially a 'coming of age' tale. And I feel that the more adult Mori seems to be more present in the latter half of the book, which I suppose reflects her personal journey which sees her growing up and accepting Mor's death.

I found it quite hard to get really into the book however, or feel gripped to know what was going to happen next, and I do think that some threads were kinda left abandoned at the end (although some were really quite unimportant overall), and that the ending part was really rushed. I mean, I can see how we're supposed to think that Mori just carried on living and that some stuff would carry on after the books ended, but it all just seemed a bit rushed and over quickly and in a bit of a cliched manner.

Mori also spends a lot of time reading science fiction books and talking about them, and while that was nice and interesting, I felt Walton made a lot of references to science fiction texts and stuff, and it sometimes felt that the reader might be missing out on something if they hadn't read all or most of the hundreds of books mentioned, although it would make a good list of books for anyone wanting to read more science fiction/fantasy! I did like the irony that Mori hates fantasy books, and yet that's what her story is basically.

Okay, I seem to have rambled a lot!

Overall, I thought the book was interesting, and got more interesting as it went along, but I felt that there was just something missing from it and Mori could be quite jarring personality wise at times. I felt that the main plotline got quite buried, and it was only at the end really that I was able to go "Oh, it was about her growing up and dealing with Mor's death" which I feel should maybe have been more obvious earlier on, but looking back I can see hints of it earlier on. Overall, a good book, but not great.

It's strange reviewing a book that isn't really a book.

This book contains 12 maps of the world in which George R. R. Martin's amazing 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series is set (A Game of Thrones for those unfamiliar with the book series but know the HBO TV series better).

The maps are absolutely beautiful. It's nice to be able to study them and see how certain things link up. For example, the first map is an entire map of the world, showing the precise location of Westeros in relation to Braavos, the Dothraki Sea, Valyria etc. which hasn't been seen before, and the scale as well is mind blowing. Most of the maps after that are then more detailed versions of different areas of the first, and I'll admit while some are interesting and mark locations mentioned in the books but not marked on the far less detailed versions of maps included in the books some do feel unnecessary (such as beyond the wall in my opinion).

Probably of must use and interest is the Journeys map which shows the path each of the main characters takes from the beginning of Game of Thrones up to A Dance With Dragons. This is immensely useful and interesting to look at, but I felt that there needed to be a better key for whose path was whose as it took me a minute to identify a couple people's paths. Also, because they used the totally to scale map of the whole world (the first I mentioned above) I felt some of the paths were too generalised, and maybe a few smaller maps that showed more detail might have been nice.

Speaking of, all the maps were the same size and quite large, and I felt that maybe a mixture of huge maps and smaller maps, where appropriate, might have been nice.

And as noted, the Journeys map will obviously become dated with the release of the last 2 books in the series which is a slight let down and I wonder if an updated version of the whole book will then be released, and I only hope it is possible to buy an updated journeys map on its own for those of us who bought this edition.

Overall though, an excellent set of maps that are really interesting to look at. A must for any true ASOIAF fan.