Hello guys!
I'm starting this week with a new Mark This Book Monday review for an eARC I was very lucky to snag during a Read It Now offer on Netgalley, and this week all reviews will be for ARCs, I need to catch up on my reviews, and I've been reading mostly only ARCs to do so.
This is first review towards my ARCs/books for review category in my 105 Challenge, so I hope I can manage to complete it all!
The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I was extremely lucky to be able to download The Ghosts of Heaven via Netgalley's read now, so thank you Macmillan!
This is my first Sedgwick book I've read, even if I've had Midwinterblood in my Kindle library for a while (I'll be pushing it up on the line to read now), and I have really loved not only the writing but the way he builds up the stories, and weaves small threads all along the four of them.
The first story might very well be my favourite of them all, but it'll be most likely a tie between first and fourth. Probably because both appealed to some of my faves: prehistoric times and science fiction. On the first story a girl wants to learn the knowledge and magic of the cave inscriptions and the cave paintings, and I simply found fascinating how the social status and organization was described here. Language, symbols, fights for survival, I really didn't want this story to end!
The second story was also equally fascinating but I had issues continuing with it because of a personal pet peeve. Witch hunting stories make me angry, plain and simple. I cannot help but feel a white hot rage against those "men of god" that killed innocent women because they were healers, or simply because someone pointed a finger at them. Once I resigned myself to the injustice, I also found quite fascinating how spirals are present in many things, unknowingly and with a meaning long forgotten or never known consciously.
The third story is set in more recent times and I found it both intriguing and disqueting. Set up in an asylum for the lunatics/mentally ill and with a look at what dealing with the insane was back then, and what was considered insane too. The spiral is debated as a delusion or a sympton of one, and from all fours stories is the one that I connected with the least, even the poetry was fascinating.
Story number four, science fiction, happens in a ship travelling through space and this I feel it's the story richer in explanations about the spirals, but also rich in making us wonder, making us ask questions, and linking all four stories together. And the story is not only about the spirals, but also has a bit of a murder mystery touch and talks about diverging paths and choices.
Fibonacci numbers, paleolitic/neolitic symbols and art, the Golden ratio both in architecture and nature, light waves, the more we understand about the world, the more we see the spiral, the helix. A truly fascinating book full of food for thought and that I feel like I will be re-reading and doing a bit more research on images and traditions and theories in the future! Very well deserved 4 to 4.5 stars!!
View all my reviews
I'm starting this week with a new Mark This Book Monday review for an eARC I was very lucky to snag during a Read It Now offer on Netgalley, and this week all reviews will be for ARCs, I need to catch up on my reviews, and I've been reading mostly only ARCs to do so.
This is first review towards my ARCs/books for review category in my 105 Challenge, so I hope I can manage to complete it all!
The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus SedgwickMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I was extremely lucky to be able to download The Ghosts of Heaven via Netgalley's read now, so thank you Macmillan!
This is my first Sedgwick book I've read, even if I've had Midwinterblood in my Kindle library for a while (I'll be pushing it up on the line to read now), and I have really loved not only the writing but the way he builds up the stories, and weaves small threads all along the four of them.
The first story might very well be my favourite of them all, but it'll be most likely a tie between first and fourth. Probably because both appealed to some of my faves: prehistoric times and science fiction. On the first story a girl wants to learn the knowledge and magic of the cave inscriptions and the cave paintings, and I simply found fascinating how the social status and organization was described here. Language, symbols, fights for survival, I really didn't want this story to end!
The second story was also equally fascinating but I had issues continuing with it because of a personal pet peeve. Witch hunting stories make me angry, plain and simple. I cannot help but feel a white hot rage against those "men of god" that killed innocent women because they were healers, or simply because someone pointed a finger at them. Once I resigned myself to the injustice, I also found quite fascinating how spirals are present in many things, unknowingly and with a meaning long forgotten or never known consciously.
The third story is set in more recent times and I found it both intriguing and disqueting. Set up in an asylum for the lunatics/mentally ill and with a look at what dealing with the insane was back then, and what was considered insane too. The spiral is debated as a delusion or a sympton of one, and from all fours stories is the one that I connected with the least, even the poetry was fascinating.
Story number four, science fiction, happens in a ship travelling through space and this I feel it's the story richer in explanations about the spirals, but also rich in making us wonder, making us ask questions, and linking all four stories together. And the story is not only about the spirals, but also has a bit of a murder mystery touch and talks about diverging paths and choices.
Fibonacci numbers, paleolitic/neolitic symbols and art, the Golden ratio both in architecture and nature, light waves, the more we understand about the world, the more we see the spiral, the helix. A truly fascinating book full of food for thought and that I feel like I will be re-reading and doing a bit more research on images and traditions and theories in the future! Very well deserved 4 to 4.5 stars!!
View all my reviews
When I found out that you were reading this, I decided to hold off until you posted your review because I was unsure about the religious aspects of this story. You don't even really mention that particular angle which leads me to believe that that element was mild. For some reason I thought it was only 1 story instead of 4; the more the merrier I suppose!
ReplyDeleteCarmel @ Rabid Reads
The only religious element is in the second story, with the witch hunt, but nothing else in any of the other stories at all! The title might suggest otherwise, but there's not a religious overtone to the book AT ALL!
DeleteI didn't realize before you started reading this Pili that it was a series of stories rather than just one. I remember you stalled out at the second one because of the "men of God" hunting down and killing women in the name of the Lord, and I know that story would definitely make me all stabby and ragey as well ;-) Glad the other stories worked well for you though so this came out a solid read overall!!!
ReplyDeleteYep, I'm glad the first and last story were quite worthy of five stars each, because the second story although done well simply was hard to read for me, and the third one didn't feel as interesing.
DeleteThank you Jenny!!
Great review Pili. <3 I'm glad you enjoyed this book :D I had a few more issues with it :( but I still enjoyed it as well. <3 The first story was pretty great, I thought, though a little bit less. Wishing there had been more of it. Hmph. The second one was just SAD :( How mean. The third one was kind of fucked up, but I enjoyed it ;p I disliked the fourth one a whole lot. Sigh. It was just too long and boring and not exciting space things at all :p How mean, hah. Anyway. Thank you for sharing your awesome thoughts sweetie. <3 So glad you were able to get this via Netgalley :)
ReplyDeleteI loved the fourth story and I'm sorry to hear you didn't like it all sweetie!
DeleteAnd yes, it was so lucky to get this one as a read it now! Thank you Carina!
Hmmm, so it's a collection of stories? Interesting. I like the math/sciency parts you mentioned :D
ReplyDeleteAlyssa @ The Eater of Books!
I think you'd enjoy this one with all the science references, Alyssa!
DeleteI didn't love this novel as much as you did but it was still pretty enjoyable! Ooh yes I really liked the setting for the 3rd one. I mean an asylum? HECK YEAH. I still cannot decide which cover i like more--the UK or the US one.
ReplyDeleteGreat review, Pili! <33
Agreed! I know I want to get me the hardcover, but I cannot decided what cover I like best!
DeleteI love the spiral cover!
DeleteLike I told you on Facebook, I really wanted this as a audiobook. Oh well, I will read my five chapter sampler and then get it from the library next time I go. Your two favorite chapters were in the first five anyway, so we can talk about those. Good luck with this challenge, it looks like a whopper! :)
ReplyDeleteI think the sampler will be the whole first story, so I hope you'll like it! Cannot wait to hear what you think, La!
DeleteWooohooo! Congrats on reading a book for your 105 Challenge. :D
ReplyDeleteI didn't even realize that this was a collection of stories. Hmm, you learn something new everyday!
YAY thank you Nori!
DeleteAnd yeah, I didn't realize this one was 4 stories intertwined until I checked right before reading!
That was a great review!! Thank you for the recommendation and yes, that book is truly amazing!
ReplyDeleteThank you Alexandra!
DeleteI absolutely love the cover to this book! And the way the stories all interweave with each other leaves me curious as to how it is done! Can't wait to read this and find out for myself :3
ReplyDeleteThis cover is gorgeous but I think I love the one with the golden spiral even more!
DeleteLet me know what you think about this one if you read it!