Anna Smith Spark

This book was a 2.5 star for me. I loved the writing and was enamored with the world. I am also a giant fam of Grimdark but this book ultimately didn't do it for me. While I don't need my books to have a hero I do need them to have someone I am interested in. This book simply didn't have any in the end. I could care less who lived and who died. The plot was thin and I often wondered why I was still reading it. I knew I was in trouble when I looked ahead to see what the second book was about and realized I wasn't going to be reading past the first one. Great writing but just didn't do it for me.… (more)

There might be (or not) a story there, but no matter how hard I tried, i could not get past the writing in order to find it. It is the most un-musical, un-artistic, impossible to enjoy writing.
What do I understand by good writing, to make myself clear? Either art in words, like Gene Wolfe or Patrick Rothfuss, or ”straight to bussiness” (but still not just words), like Stephen King or PK Dick.
This is neither, and the opposite of both.
Did not like it? No, actually hated it.
Before buying it, please read the first pages...… (more)

"Why are you fighting? For your king? For glory? You are not fighting for anything. You are fighting because you are fighting."
Lidae is an ex-soldier, married now with two young sons. When the reader first meets her, she is tending to her husband's funeral pyre. She struggles with caring for two toddlers alone, longing for the freedom of her soldier days. She is forced to confront her divided loyalties when the village is attacked and burned.
I loved Ms. Spark's Empires of Dust trilogy, and this book is also a great dark, militaristic fantasy. I've never really settled on a good definition of grimdark, though the trilogy definitely fits that label, and this book is dark with grimdark overtones. It's written from Lidae's POV in a stream-of-consciousness style which fits the visceral events of the book (though it took me a while to get used to).
It's the story of ordinary soldiers - no heroes, generals, or kings. Lidae fights for glory and booty and because she's good at it, but she never forgets the deaths, the muck, or the wretchedness that makes up a foot soldier's life. There's the dull acceptance that war will never end, but for Lidae, it's a better life than the women who become slaves or camp followers. And the reader never forgets that Lidae is also a mother.
The writing is sometimes raw but often lyrical: "All that lives on the face of the earth stops a moment, grieves a moment, when a dragon dies, they say." The reader feels every one of Lidae's emotions and complaints. It's a different type of fantasy with a different type of heroine, but I think this book will win a lot of accolades.… (more)

I'm going to borrow karlstar 's STTM rating for this one. Slogging Thru The Mud was about 70 percent of this book, and made for a very slow read for me.

I did appreciate the depth of characterizatio
n done during the STTM, but still, it seemed to really slow my reading down.

Very interesting book regardless of the STTM, though. Written a bit differently, style wise, and the characterization was great. The plot was twisty and surprising quite often.
I imagine this book is pretty controversial, with regard to whether someone liked it or not, but I'm firmly in the liked it camp.… (more)