Graceling - Kristin Cashore
I have actually found time to read some books and stuff.. I have no idea who lent me this book but it can go back if claimed :D..
Graceling is the debut novel of Kristin Cashore. Set in a world where occasionally people develop rare abilities called “Graces”. These people are set apart by their skills and by their eye colour (they develop Heterochromia when their grace manifests). Most “normal” people regard them with a degree of suspicion. The main protagonist is Katsa, niece (and thanks to local laws property) of King Randa of the Midluns. Her Grace is the grace of killing, having accidentally killed one of her distance cousins when he tried to touch her and she didn’t want him too she has grown up being the Kings chief enforcer.
The book is basically a tale of self discovery and also a pretty basic “who dunnit” As she tries to discover why the grandfather of a neighbouring royal family has been kidnapped and who ordered it.
Over all it is a passable debut, it has a definite story, a beginning a middle and an end.. it has good characters and an interesting setting/world. I think it would be nice to see more of this world. Maybe other characters in other kingdoms..
What I didn’t like about it though was the structure and pacing of the story. Strangely I found that the narrative skips a couple of times so one moment you are in one situation and everything is tikkety boo and then suddenly you are not, the whole situation has changed. With no warning no run up..it just does. Also I found that the pace itself seemed to slow down and speed up in fits and starts. A good example being when the protagonists meets the chief antagonist. One minute they are road tripping the next they are in a fight but there is no clue that this fight is about to happen it just happens.
The same thing happens a bit earlier where the chief character suddenly becomes the lover of a secondary character. One minute they are friends and allies, the next they are having a roll in the forest. I have seen this happen a number of times with beginner writers where they have several set pieces in their head which they have been writing for a while, but they can’t effectively transition them together so you go from one state of being to another without passing through the intervening situations/emotions etc... With the lack of these pieces then you lose other things like a sense of time and distance. The Two protagonists cover a large number of miles in their travels over a certain period of time, but you are never quite sure how long that is or how far away that is.. so everything happens sore of “now…now…now”. It’s a problem I would have thought the editor and beta readers would have picked up on for adjustment. I realise that this is a “young Adult” aimed story but I don’t think that is a good excuse for poor pacing.
Over all though it’s an okay book, probably one that I would take out with me when I travel as it’s an easy dip into book. The world Cashore has build seems to be sturdy and robust and I do home she pulls out a few more stories from it, it deserves fleshing out more.
Graceling is the debut novel of Kristin Cashore. Set in a world where occasionally people develop rare abilities called “Graces”. These people are set apart by their skills and by their eye colour (they develop Heterochromia when their grace manifests). Most “normal” people regard them with a degree of suspicion. The main protagonist is Katsa, niece (and thanks to local laws property) of King Randa of the Midluns. Her Grace is the grace of killing, having accidentally killed one of her distance cousins when he tried to touch her and she didn’t want him too she has grown up being the Kings chief enforcer.
The book is basically a tale of self discovery and also a pretty basic “who dunnit” As she tries to discover why the grandfather of a neighbouring royal family has been kidnapped and who ordered it.
Over all it is a passable debut, it has a definite story, a beginning a middle and an end.. it has good characters and an interesting setting/world. I think it would be nice to see more of this world. Maybe other characters in other kingdoms..
What I didn’t like about it though was the structure and pacing of the story. Strangely I found that the narrative skips a couple of times so one moment you are in one situation and everything is tikkety boo and then suddenly you are not, the whole situation has changed. With no warning no run up..it just does. Also I found that the pace itself seemed to slow down and speed up in fits and starts. A good example being when the protagonists meets the chief antagonist. One minute they are road tripping the next they are in a fight but there is no clue that this fight is about to happen it just happens.
The same thing happens a bit earlier where the chief character suddenly becomes the lover of a secondary character. One minute they are friends and allies, the next they are having a roll in the forest. I have seen this happen a number of times with beginner writers where they have several set pieces in their head which they have been writing for a while, but they can’t effectively transition them together so you go from one state of being to another without passing through the intervening situations/emotions etc... With the lack of these pieces then you lose other things like a sense of time and distance. The Two protagonists cover a large number of miles in their travels over a certain period of time, but you are never quite sure how long that is or how far away that is.. so everything happens sore of “now…now…now”. It’s a problem I would have thought the editor and beta readers would have picked up on for adjustment. I realise that this is a “young Adult” aimed story but I don’t think that is a good excuse for poor pacing.
Over all though it’s an okay book, probably one that I would take out with me when I travel as it’s an easy dip into book. The world Cashore has build seems to be sturdy and robust and I do home she pulls out a few more stories from it, it deserves fleshing out more.