Book Title: Dreams of Gods and Monsters
Author: Laini Tayor
Series: Daughter of Smoke and Bone #3
Date Started: April 17th 2014
Date Completed: April 20th 2014
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Thriller, Adventure, Action
Rating: Five stars
Review:
I've loved the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series since I read the first sentence of the first book, and this was a good end to the trilogy. I can't say it was absolutely perfect, because the atmosphere wasn't there for me in the later parts of the book, however for the most part, Dreams of Gods and Monsters was awesome and I'm a little sad it's all over now.
The angels have moved their army to the Earth, and in a last struggle to save both their worlds, Karou is forced to push the Chimaera and Akiva's banished angel siblings into an unsteady alliance. But Jael's hunger for power is not the only thing that poses a threat to Karou: the impostor leading the Chimaera rebellion is starting to be suspected; a mysterious queen is hunting Akiva; and there is something staining the skies of Eretz and threatening to topple their home world.
I'd forgotten how absolutely, breathtaking Laini Taylor's writing is. Having been reading average-quality books recently, this just knocked everything out of the water and made me appreciate how long I've waited for this book. I can't even describe Taylor's writing in justice; it's vivid and poetic, and modern with humour laced in, but tenderness when needed. It makes you stop and read sections over and over just because it sounds so perfect.
Not only is the general narrative extremely well crafted, but the actual portrayal of human emotions - specifically the love in this novel - is amazing. I'm not a huge romantic, but the way Taylor shows the afflictions of that sort of thing as so natural is subtly different from the usual way it's shown. In most books these days, love is shown as a desperate wanting for someone to just be in contact with right that second. But Taylor writes it in a way that it's not about having the person standing next to you, it's about having them talk to you, and understand you and trusting you, despite the feeling that maybe you shouldn't be letting yourself feel like that. I think this is so well done because of the things these characters have been through, and therefore the understanding built up in a thought-through plot.
The plot was the only thing slightly lacking for me, and only because it wasn't what I was expecting. The previous two books are what I would call epic: fast-paced, action-packed with intelligence and humour mixed in. For me, Dreams of Gods and Monsters felt like two plots, one with the action and wit in the beginning, and then another more complex plot later on. As the later part was more thoughtful and required quite a bit of understanding of the context of the last few books, it fell in tension for me. This wasn't bad at all - it was just not as epic as I had expected the last book in this amazing trilogy to be.
There were also a lot of little parts mentioned here and there that were never finished. This was just quite unsatisfying for me, because I always love the little details Taylor uses in her plot that get drawn together at the end. It just surprised me that, for example (spoilers) the Gabriel and Morgan conflict was never mentioned again after a few chapters. And what happened to the spies Esther sent after Zuzanna and Mik? Either I missed where these were explained, or they just weren't. Either way I'm a little sad.
But, to be fair, the end was just as satisfying as I had hoped. Unfortunately, I'm still a little confused at what happened, and why, and the atmosphere wasn't as perfect as I would have liked, but it did end nicely. I'm glad it isn't one of those stories that leaves a million important ends untied; there's still plenty for the imagination to guess at, but enough to finish the series properly.
The characters have come so very, very far since the first book that it's hard to even compare them. Whether it's made them better or worse people I can't say, but it's definitely made them some of the most interesting characters to follow in any story.
Karou is an amazing protagonist: so strong and intelligent, yet unsure and completely realistic at the same time. She's constantly at war with herself to do what's right, or what benefits her most, or what could save the people she cares about over others. She's such a complicated character, it makes the story more interesting because you never know what she'll decide is the right thing.
I've always loved Akiva for his quiet but fierce personality. I particularly love the honesty he has with himself, about how he feels about people, but also with how he has to live with himself and what he's done. I think he's just a really interesting character and I'm glad where he ended up.
Zuzana and Mik are always a nice breath of fresh air as the comedy relief from the story. I felt their story wasn't as unique as it had been in the previous books, as they were with Karou for a lot of the time, and involved in the battles and madness. Yet this had a new effect on them we haven't really seen before, which was amazing to watch unfold.
Ziri and Liraz were also two characters that stuck out a lot more in this story that I really loved. Up to now, the main characters in the books had been Karou, Akiva, and Mik and Zuzana on the side - but in the final book I was really happy to see that some of the minor characters were having a bigger part in the story. I really fell in love with these two since they developed a lot throughout the story and were completely different people at the end.
I was grabbed straight away in this novel. It starts pretty much exactly where the previous book left off, so there's already a lot set up for the story and characters, but even so it's amazing right from the start.
I found it hard to put down throughout the whole story, even though I did feel it lost a lot of the tense or exciting atmosphere towards the end for some reason. It was still great enough to keep me reading into the small hours.
Taylor's stories have a way of being complicated and confusing until a specific moment where everything comes together in the most beautifully orchestrated way. Don't give up on her if the stunning writing isn't enough - her wild imagination does pay off in the most brilliant way. The Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy is for fantasy lovers, adventure lovers, romance, action, mystery, thriller lovers. I've loved every single part of it and I'm sad it's over, but I can't wait for Taylor's next mad creation.
Image Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18244506-dreams-of-gods-and-monsters
I've loved the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series since I read the first sentence of the first book, and this was a good end to the trilogy. I can't say it was absolutely perfect, because the atmosphere wasn't there for me in the later parts of the book, however for the most part, Dreams of Gods and Monsters was awesome and I'm a little sad it's all over now.
The angels have moved their army to the Earth, and in a last struggle to save both their worlds, Karou is forced to push the Chimaera and Akiva's banished angel siblings into an unsteady alliance. But Jael's hunger for power is not the only thing that poses a threat to Karou: the impostor leading the Chimaera rebellion is starting to be suspected; a mysterious queen is hunting Akiva; and there is something staining the skies of Eretz and threatening to topple their home world.
I'd forgotten how absolutely, breathtaking Laini Taylor's writing is. Having been reading average-quality books recently, this just knocked everything out of the water and made me appreciate how long I've waited for this book. I can't even describe Taylor's writing in justice; it's vivid and poetic, and modern with humour laced in, but tenderness when needed. It makes you stop and read sections over and over just because it sounds so perfect.
Not only is the general narrative extremely well crafted, but the actual portrayal of human emotions - specifically the love in this novel - is amazing. I'm not a huge romantic, but the way Taylor shows the afflictions of that sort of thing as so natural is subtly different from the usual way it's shown. In most books these days, love is shown as a desperate wanting for someone to just be in contact with right that second. But Taylor writes it in a way that it's not about having the person standing next to you, it's about having them talk to you, and understand you and trusting you, despite the feeling that maybe you shouldn't be letting yourself feel like that. I think this is so well done because of the things these characters have been through, and therefore the understanding built up in a thought-through plot.
The plot was the only thing slightly lacking for me, and only because it wasn't what I was expecting. The previous two books are what I would call epic: fast-paced, action-packed with intelligence and humour mixed in. For me, Dreams of Gods and Monsters felt like two plots, one with the action and wit in the beginning, and then another more complex plot later on. As the later part was more thoughtful and required quite a bit of understanding of the context of the last few books, it fell in tension for me. This wasn't bad at all - it was just not as epic as I had expected the last book in this amazing trilogy to be.
There were also a lot of little parts mentioned here and there that were never finished. This was just quite unsatisfying for me, because I always love the little details Taylor uses in her plot that get drawn together at the end. It just surprised me that, for example (spoilers) the Gabriel and Morgan conflict was never mentioned again after a few chapters. And what happened to the spies Esther sent after Zuzanna and Mik? Either I missed where these were explained, or they just weren't. Either way I'm a little sad.
But, to be fair, the end was just as satisfying as I had hoped. Unfortunately, I'm still a little confused at what happened, and why, and the atmosphere wasn't as perfect as I would have liked, but it did end nicely. I'm glad it isn't one of those stories that leaves a million important ends untied; there's still plenty for the imagination to guess at, but enough to finish the series properly.
The characters have come so very, very far since the first book that it's hard to even compare them. Whether it's made them better or worse people I can't say, but it's definitely made them some of the most interesting characters to follow in any story.
Karou is an amazing protagonist: so strong and intelligent, yet unsure and completely realistic at the same time. She's constantly at war with herself to do what's right, or what benefits her most, or what could save the people she cares about over others. She's such a complicated character, it makes the story more interesting because you never know what she'll decide is the right thing.
I've always loved Akiva for his quiet but fierce personality. I particularly love the honesty he has with himself, about how he feels about people, but also with how he has to live with himself and what he's done. I think he's just a really interesting character and I'm glad where he ended up.
Zuzana and Mik are always a nice breath of fresh air as the comedy relief from the story. I felt their story wasn't as unique as it had been in the previous books, as they were with Karou for a lot of the time, and involved in the battles and madness. Yet this had a new effect on them we haven't really seen before, which was amazing to watch unfold.
Ziri and Liraz were also two characters that stuck out a lot more in this story that I really loved. Up to now, the main characters in the books had been Karou, Akiva, and Mik and Zuzana on the side - but in the final book I was really happy to see that some of the minor characters were having a bigger part in the story. I really fell in love with these two since they developed a lot throughout the story and were completely different people at the end.
I was grabbed straight away in this novel. It starts pretty much exactly where the previous book left off, so there's already a lot set up for the story and characters, but even so it's amazing right from the start.
I found it hard to put down throughout the whole story, even though I did feel it lost a lot of the tense or exciting atmosphere towards the end for some reason. It was still great enough to keep me reading into the small hours.
Taylor's stories have a way of being complicated and confusing until a specific moment where everything comes together in the most beautifully orchestrated way. Don't give up on her if the stunning writing isn't enough - her wild imagination does pay off in the most brilliant way. The Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy is for fantasy lovers, adventure lovers, romance, action, mystery, thriller lovers. I've loved every single part of it and I'm sad it's over, but I can't wait for Taylor's next mad creation.
Image Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18244506-dreams-of-gods-and-monsters
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