I’m a writer and as a writer, my standards tend to be higher than the average person. I can understand and analyze what works and doesn’t work and what is done well. However, writing is a form of art, and certain aspects of art are considered objective while others are subjective.
I’ve been a reader for as long as I could read. However, the books that I tend to read the most are within Young Adult and Fantasy or Sci-Fi. I’m not the biggest fan of most New Adult, and the only true distinction I’ve seen between YA and NA are the ages of the protagonists and/or more explicitly violent or raunchy scenes. Usually, the latter is done in a way I find to be cringe.
Moving on, I would like to start off with books that I believe are objectively and subjectively done well and that is exactly why I’m recommending them.
Six of Crows
Six of Crows is a fantasy novel that is followed by Crooked Kingdom. If you’ve read Leigh Bardugo’s previous works, aka the Shadow and Bone, then you may be familiar with this duology. Both take place in the same universe, aka the Grishaverse and the Netflix adaptation with storylines from both series exist. I haven’t read all of Shadow and Bone, as I wasn’t the biggest fan of Bardugo’s first novels. However, Six of Crows is a massive step above in terms of improvement and that goes to show just how much better authors can get with their writing abilities over time.
This book centers around a heist, influenced by Ocean’s Eleven and otherwise falls under the fantasy genre. It follows a crew of thieves, being primarily set in the city of Ketterdam which is loosely inspired by the Dutch Republic-era of Amsterdam. There are mentions of other cities and nations, some of which that are influenced by China and Russia.
Six young criminals are hired to break into the most secure prison in the world. We start off with Kaz Brekker, the 17-year-old criminal prodigy, nicknamed “Dirtyhands”. He’s the second-in-command of the Dregs, a gang. He is my favorite character of this novel and perhaps one of my favorites of all time. The man is kind of edgelordy, cold, an asshole, but has a softer side to him, especially towards Inej Ghafa, one of the other crows.
The first half of the book is a bit slow at first. There’s a lot of set-up to come into play, especially with the unique world Bardugo has created, along with fleshing out the characters. It’s all built up to the heist, which is the most driven plot point. There’s a scientist who has the formula to a powerful drug that can change the world and he’s locked away in the prison. Kaz Brekker is hired to break him out and he knows he can’t do it alone, as smart and competent as he is.
Kaz’s motivations and backstory were very well fleshed out, as with the rest of the six. This book is written with multiple perspectives and I enjoyed a lot of the character interaction, betrayals, courtships, tensions, motivations, etc. All of it was exceptionally done.
Bardugo creates an epic world, a grimy fantasy with excellent fight scenes, a magic system that is well thought out, technology, knives, guns, you name it. World-building is done right, save for the prologue. The author also has a beautiful writing style with excellent prose. There are twists, turns, and a degree of suspenseful moments. Ultimately, there’s a little bit of something for everyone.
Needless to say, Six of Crows is my favorite book at the moment. I rarely give books a perfect 5-star rating, but that is exactly what I gave this one.
Mistborn: The Final Empire
My first Sanderson novel. I’ve heard plenty of great things on Youtube about Sanderson’s work, particularly in his magic systems. Now, since I’ve mentioned before that I love Fantasy, I’m a sucker for magic systems and fight scenes and make a huge effort to incorporate them well in my own work.
Mistborn: The Final Empire takes place in a dystopian world. The world is called Scadrial and one thousand years prior, the Hero of Ages became a godlike figure after saving mankind from Deepness. However, this god figure became a tyrant over time, dividing two different types of people between nobility and oppressed peasantry, otherwise known as the skaa. Nobles are those descended from his friends and allies, while the skaa were descended from those who opposed him.
The most prominent type of magic is Allomancy (magic conducted by swallowing and burning metals). Those who use it gain supernatural abilities that vary depending on the type of metal. Allomancy runs primarily within the nobility, but some skaa may possess it due to cross-breeding. Almost all Allomancers can only burn one type of metal, but the rare ones who can burn multiple are referred to as “Mistborn”.
Pretty cool, eh? That’s what drew me the most to this book.
Anyway, so the story follows this guy named Kelsier and this abused street urchin, Vin. Kelsier is a rebel leader who wants to overthrow the tyrant. We get to learn more about Vin’s story along with Kelsier’s as they rise up with their rebellion and recruit rebels and get cool training and fight scenes in the process as the intricacies of the magic system unravel.
Now, Mistborn: The Final Empire was Sanderson’s first written novel, but not his first published. Therefore, there were some shaky things going on writing-wise. The pacing is slow and there have been people who DNF’ed this book because of it or just couldn’t get through Sanderson’s writing style. I could understand where they were coming from, but personally, it didn’t bother me much, though I do think the slow-pacing can drag and get a bit dull sometimes. Another issue I noticed is the tendency to info-dump. Don’t get me wrong, info-dumps aren’t necessarily bad ALL the time, as they can be done well when there are just a few, but there sure are more than enough in this book.
Another thing that was noticeable was that the characters felt more two-dimensional and not as fleshed out as they could’ve been. I felt the characterization was there, but a bit lacking in some areas, particularly in Vin. Though, I’ve heard that it gets better in the second book and so forth, so I’m looking forward to getting to it eventually (my TBR is ridiculous, just like most readers lol).
However, since I knew this was Sanderson’s debut, I decided to be more lenient with my critique. Sanderson did a lot of things right, and I applaud him for it. Overall, I gave this a 4-star on Goodreads, but I think it would be closer to a 4.4 or 4.5.
Song of Achilles
I love Greek Mythology. Some of my favorite stories are loosely based on it and I incorporate a lot of those influences into my own books and stories as well. When I first heard of Song of Achilles on Booktok (Please don’t judge me, lol. TikTok has become a huge platform for book-related things, as well as for writing and author things too. Otherwise, I might make a blog post about elitism smhhhh.), I was intrigued. Everyone was saying it was a “feelsy” book and as someone who knows about Achilles in the Greek Myths, I figured it wasn’t exactly going to have a happy ending based on the title.
Song of Achilles is a retelling of Homer’s Illiad and told from the perspective of Patroclus. Patroclus had a smaller role in the original story, but it was expanded here and it focuses a great deal on his relationship with Achilles in both a platonic and romantic sense. This man might’ve had a minor role, but a huge impact on the Trojan War in the Illiad and this fact helped inspire Madeline Miller in writing this story.
Some speculated that Achilles and Patroclus were more than just childhood friends and were lovers instead. And this retelling does more than just hinting at “a few kisses here and there”.
Miller’s writing style is beautiful and so is her prose. This book had me starting and finishing it in one night, nearly non-stop. It covers the beginning of Patroclus’s life, how he met Achilles, the relationship between the two forming over years and years, and goes all the way to adulthood. It’s easy to get through and definitely is “feelsy”, though I didn’t get too emotional over it (I’m very desensitized to this sort of thing thanks to some games and stories like Fruits Basket).
There wasn’t really anything I could think of that I disliked about this book or something that bothered me or caught my attention in a less than positive manner. It had a lot of things that I liked about stories put into one, which is exactly why I gave this book a 5/5 stars.
So there ya have it, folks. That’s my first blog post covering a review of something I like! Feel free to check these books out along with my other blogs! There will be other types of content that I’ll cover soon! :)
This is E.L.Li, and I’m still writing what I want to read!