Members with This Book
Most Helpful Reviews
see all reviews
Liked It1 of 1 members found this review helpful “Take a pinch of the wild west, a dollop of whimsy, just a dash of romance, and a heaping helping of magic and you apparently get a heck of a good time! |
Didn’t Like It “I am actually surprised at just how much I didn't enjoy this book. It sounded like my kind of thing, but it missed the boat for me on a number of levels and was a big disappointment. |
Newest Reviews
see all reviews-
“I am actually surprised at just how much I didn't enjoy this book. It sounded like my kind of thing, but it missed the boat for me on a number of levels and was a big disappointment.
Kristen R wrote this review Tuesday, March 26, 2013. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Emily Edwards is a town witch in small town settlement Lost Pine in 1876. Worried by the loss of witching business by a mail-order company selling patent magic products, and her ability to care for her aging and sick adopted father, Emily casts a love spell on the local and wealthy lumberman, hoping marrying him will solve her problems.
But when Emily becomes involved, through a bizarre set of circumstances, with big city Warlock - and to Emily's mind thoroughly unpleasant person overall - Dreadnought Stanton, and a powerful but uncontrollable and possibly dangerous magical artifact, she must go on the run with Stanton to try to find help.
There are a number of things I didn't care for about this book. First off I found the character of Emily singularly unlikeable. She is small-minded, bigoted about other traditions and wisdom because they are unfamiliar to her, and she behaves largely like a spoiled child through much of the book. She gets better towards the end, but I was never able to connect with Emily, so I didn't really care what happened to her.
SPOILER ALERT! SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH
Secondly, I found that the part of the story in which Emily and Stanton develop a relationship totally and completely implausible and unbelieveable. There was no sense at ALL of any connection or romantic tension between these two characters until out of the blue he kisses her. Even after that point, the words in the book talked about their attraction but it felt completely forced and awkward.
SPOILER OVER
The story itself had just too many things going on for me, and felt jumpy and disjointed, going from one magical tradition to another willy-nilly, and without a cohesive thread to pull everything together. I also found the violence in the story to be very gory and extreme, and normally violence doesn't bother me as long as it feels like it would be a part of the plot. The violence in this book felt gratuitous to me and I found it distasteful.
Overall, while normally I enjoy all kinds of paranormal fiction, and I had hoped that this book, set as it was in the U.S. old West would be a unique twist on the genre, this was just a miss for me.”
“Interesting, but it took me a while to finished it. Country girl cast a love spell that she regrets deeply, but before she can removes it, she got stuck with a magical and dangerous stone that leaves her powerless, unwillingly tagged along with a snotty warlock, chased by a maniac patriot that do magic by torturing people to get their blood, mixed in witch-burning folks, soul-transferring evil creep, possessed little girl, mind-controlling, politics, liars and finally romance with a unconventional proposal. Overall, as I said, interesting but not engrossing.”
Michelle-ly wrote this review Thursday, December 27, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No1 of 1 members found this review helpful“Take a pinch of the wild west, a dollop of whimsy, just a dash of romance, and a heaping helping of magic and you apparently get a heck of a good time!
Amanda B wrote this review Thursday, March 29, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
On the surface, The Native Star is fairly formulaic. There's the Austen-esque dynamic of the stubborn and headstrong (but always proper beneath it all) woman who finds herself at odds with a pompous and equally headstrong jerk (who remains, fundamentally, a gentleman beneath it all). I have to admit that I'm a sucker for this dynamic because nothing triggers my gag reflex quicker than a simpering and whiny heroine, unless it's the "here I come to save the day" uber-perfect hero. Circumstances arise that force these two into unwelcome proximity to one another for the duration of the novel and witty banter between crises ensues. This is pretty standard stuff and even the less sophisticated readers among us can probably make accurate predictions as to where this plot is headed, but . . .
. . . holy crap, was this fun! While the basic narrative is standard, the world building was delightful. Set in the west during the Reconstruction, the United States has always relied on magic to grease the wheels of commerce. There are three primary types of magic practitioners: sangrimancers (who rely on gruesome blood rituals to tap into their power), animancers ("earth" magicians who draw upon nature to heal), and credomancers (faith magicians who draw upon the beliefs of others to make the impossible, well, possible). There's much in-fighting amongst these magical traditions, as well as opposition to magic in the form of religious zealots and the increasing threat of science as a replacement for magic. Several reviews have labeled this as "steampunk," which is misleading as there are no gimmicky, steam-powered gizmos and gadgets. Everything is fueled by magic (as one reviewer said, this is "witchpunk"--a term that seems much more accurate). There are zombies, Native American holy women, murderous spirits, fantastic magical devices, as well as witches and warlocks of every stripe and color imaginable. There are quirky little details (my favorite being the idea of a "squink," a word created by the combination of the words "squid ink" and meaning to lessen the power of a credomancer by clouding his ability to believe in himself).
The Native Star is clever, witty, and intelligently written light reading when you just want to reconnect with the joy of a rollicking journey whose only destination is to enchantment. There are no deeper meanings, no pompous literary preening, no need to bust out the theory books to figure out what is up with the symbolism. It's just fun. And sometimes that's more than enough.”
“Really enjoyed the version of America that is created. Also really enjoyed the different type of magics and beleivalbe characters. Great book and story!”
John B wrote this review Tuesday, January 24, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“This was another novel that I read because it was up for an award (The Locus, if I recall correctly). Comparisons to Susannah Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell seem to turn up in the description, but other than being set in the 19th century and meticulously researched, they don't have all that much in common. Clarke wrote an honest to goodness Victorian novel, despite not having been born to the time. Hobson did a good job setting her novel in the 1800s, but did not recreate the era stylistically.
Liz S wrote this review Sunday, September 11, 2011. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
In terms of setting and world building, Hobson's novel is quite good. She has a great handle on what the world her characters were living in would have been like and, while there are the inevitable moments of 21st century feminist sensibilities that creep in, they fit fairly well in context of the novel and can be explained by its alternate universe aspect.
What annoyed me the most was when I realized I was reading a trashy romance novel. This critique independent of whether or not there is any romance in the story. While there was all this great, creative stuff going on with magic and the magical aspects of this America, there was this incredibly predictable and banal love story blocking my view. I use the term trashy romance novel because those novels almost always follow a certain pattern and the rate at which the heroine meets the hero, hates the hero, comes to respect the hero, loves him, finds out something horrible and decides to give him up only to be united happily with him in the end is pretty consistent from one book to the next. There are exceptions, and I love when a good (especially a good trashy) romance novel subverts my expectations, but this book, at least for the romance plot, trod neatly along the well-worn path and it bothered me. I felt a bit cheated - here was this new book that had these great ideas and research and the author couldn't even borrow a little of that creativity for the love story? Just a little? There were so many excellent sf&f books up for an award this year that had, or even focused on the development of a romantic relationship between the main characters, and they felt new and fresh and brilliant.
Native Star was definitely a good offering and, if I'd known what I was getting into, I might have enjoyed it more because I would not have had all these expectations that were disappointed.
This was not a bad book, not by any stretch of the imagination. It just wasn't as good as I was expecting.”
“Started out strong, but gradually added more and more characters (while ignoring ones previously introduced, never to be mentioned again) until it was hard to find the plot anymore.”
Kristin wrote this review Wednesday, September 7, 2011. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“This is the second of the 2010 Nebula Nominees for best novel that I've read and I found it to be a romping fun ride. Think Will Smith in The Wild, Wild West and you'll get a taste of what this novel is about. Add spaceships to it and you might even find yourself thinking of Joss Whedon's Firefly. There's just something about the wild west, corsets and magic to get this fantasy lovers imagination going.
The Lost Entwife wrote this review Monday, February 28, 2011. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Before I talk about the story I have to gush a little over the cover. I ended up having to order this book on my Kindle because our library didn't have it and I wanted to read it quickly - so I'm missing out on displaying that gorgeous cover and that is a bit disappointing. That said, isn't it beautiful? And it does a great job of portraying the spirit of this novel.
Emily Edwards is a spunky, back-town witch involved in charms and various remedies and she was doing just fine until a warlock named Dreadnought Stanton arrived on the scene. This isn't the wild west that is portrayed in John Wayne movies - no, this wild west has magic and several factions of magic users along with an incredibly unique way of looking at the system of belief and magic as being connected to one another.
While I thought the book was fun, I also have to say there were parts of it that were a little too slow and bogged down to fully enjoy. But those parts were few and far between and I thought the pace of the book was, overall, well done. Fantastic addition to the list for Nebula nominees!”
“Really 3.5. The ending was just really weak for me.”
Kim W wrote this review Sunday, January 30, 2011. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Holy craperoni! This book was GOOD! Okay, so let me tell you why this book blew me away. First of all although this was an adult book it was done in a way that made it feel similar to a YA. It's really hard to explain that, but basically it took the best of YA mixed with the best of an adult fantasy romance. Let me be clear though, this is NOT YA! The characters are adult. But the romance was all full of sexual tension, there wasn't any sex but there was plenty of tension! And there wasn't the irritating behavior that you get in YA because these characters were mature adults. Not that they didn't make any stupid decisions, but there weren't many and they did as well as could be imagined in the situations they were thrown into.
candace_redinger wrote this review Monday, December 20, 2010. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
I just felt a different vibe from this book. It took so many elements I love and it completely skipped the things I hate, or that annoy me at least. I think that's what made this one so good for me.
The second half was better then the first half, but the first half was good too. It's just the being introduced to the world and the characters that drew it out a bit longer.
The world created in this book is amazing! It's very focused on magic. Witches, Warlocks and all the different kinds of magic. Those that draw their power from blood, from the earth, and from the emotions of others (that ones hard to explain). Although we see a bit of zombies in the beginning it was a very brief thing and turned out to not really be something that was revisited. So don't read this book for just zombies. There were Steampunk elements but it is definitely not heavily Steampunk oriented.
The characters were amazing! I found maybe one point that I was annoyed with Emily but it turned out that that thing that annoyed me is what made it all the more amazing when she opened her mind to new things and accepted the world a little differently. And Dreadnought, well, the author did an amazing job making him immensely appealing. I don't recall any description of him, though I know she described him in the beginning, all I remember is that he dressed very well. And we got bits here and there. But really, I have a picture in my head and I'm sure it's probably nothing like she's described him. But I wouldn't want him any other way. Oh yes, he is a fabulous character!
I found this book impossible to put down and I'm SO glad I had the opportunity to meet the author and found her brilliant book! ”
