cynicaltrilobite's reviews
93 reviews

This is another favorite of mine. It's a pretty contained story as far as Lovecraft mythos goes. Two grave robbers steal from the wrong damned grave and pay a grisly cost. What more can you want.

Add this to my "I'd really like to see this be adapted to a visual medium" list.

An exquisite gothic tale seeped in imagery and atmosphere. If there hasn't been one in a hot minute someone needs to make a short film about this story.

"Ah yes, I shall allow the strange man who we let hang about our epicurian club and who also regularly consumes literal fire take us on a trip to Egypt in search of a 'Sunbird' to eat." ~ The characters in this story

Really fun. Saw the twist coming but it was still rather disturbing in a fun sort of way.

What a nostalgia trip. I absolutely OBSESSED over the Deltora Quest books as a kid and very recently I was able to acquire all the original books in the series.

Every book in this series gets a full half star bump solely due to the absolutely phenomenal cover art by Marc McBride. I adore his style and how he makes any image he creates pop to life.

The story itself is your pretty standard kid fantasy. There's a big bad and a series of missing magic items needed to get rid of him. What really elevates Deltora Quest for me is the monsters and the world building. In the first book we have The Wenn, bipedal human-sized insects who can make loud chittering noises and whose stings completely paralyze their prey, The Wennbar, a four legged carnivorous dinosaur creature that can extend it's neck to reach prey and who the Wenn treat as a god, and Gorl, a former knight in golden armor who lost his honor when he killed his brothers in an attempt to greedily keep an immortal flower nectar all to himself.

I was also surprised at how much I enjoyed the main characters Lief, Barda, and Jasmine. Usually in kids adventure books they tend to make them very simplistic and one note, but Rodda does a fantastic job at making them feel well rounded and likeable.

If I remember correctly, this was the first book in the Deltora Quest series that I read. So of course the nostalgia factor is VERY strong here.

I think this one shines above the first entry in a few ways. There's less establishing of the characters, fun (if easy) puzzles, and great villains for our heroes to face.

I also feel like the imagery in this one is phenomenal, specifically with the horrid Lake of Tears and all the wretched slimy creatures that inhabit the waters.

I'm a big fan of how the big fish monster was just a victim of the evil enchantress as much as all the other people in the Ruby territory. It made for a pretty fun twist of expectations.

Emily Rodda, if you ever read this, I ask that you consider writing a series set in Deltora but geared more towards an adult audience. I'd buy that on release day.

Emily Rodda, please write an adult fantasy book set in this work, I beg of you.

I think I've enjoyed this one the most out of the books. It has really good story beats and a number of delightful tropes that I adore, namely the shop full of weird magic stuff. I wanna be a weird little guy selling weird stuff to bemused travelers who cross my threshold.

The bit with the three main characters spending the night fighting off wave after wave of rats was honestly brutal as hell for a children's fantasy book. I really quite enjoyed it.

My biggest issue with these books so far is that the big bad of each book is introduced and then defeated so quickly . Gorl gets a branch dropped on him, Thaegan gets pecked by a bird, and Reeah gets its throat slit all within the span of about a chapter. I think the best done one so far has been Thaegan as you felt her influence all throughout the second book, but I'd love for the villains to be more present.

Absolutely loved the entire subplot in the city of Noradz though, excellent world building. I'm honestly surprised I'm enjoying this series so much.

My biggest complaint with these books so far has been that the Guardians of the gems haven't been very present. They just show up and then get killed/disposed of pretty easily. The Shifting Sands though, boy howdy. The Hive are some cosmic horror nonsense to the highest order and I'm 100% here for it. Once more, I'm asking Emily Rodda to make a teen/adult fantasy series in this universe.

I also really liked the bits not in the Sands themselves, though I did feel that this one suffered a bit from lack of identity. Like, there's the desert of course, but the rest of the surrounding countryside and Rithmere don't have as much personality as the plains of Opal territory, the hills of Ruby territory, or the fields and forests of Topaz territory. This is a minor gripe though.

I ADORE the sand beasts in this. Absolutely stellar creature design.

Final bit of something to add, my copy that I bought second hand apparently once belonged to a juvenile detention center.

It was ok, not amazing and not terrible. I do think my favorite part was the actual dark ritual itself. It fluctuated between being really genuinely disturbing (the flogging while dancing bit) to almost comically evil (killing babies).

The strange bat/toad "God" is in equal parts underwhelming but also creepily realistic. It's hard to imagine protoplasmic shifting entities, but I can imagine a voracious bat/toad monster.

Camping trip to the black stone, who's coming?

What an odd story. I'm not sure what compelled Lovecraft to write a pretty dull morality tale about old man who wasted his life drinking and then dies in a bar fight, but here we are.

Skip this one.

This is a pretty standard "Oh no! We fucked with an eldritch thing we shouldn't have and now my buddy is dead!" story. I don't feel like it adds anything to the genre, but it isn't wickedly offensive or derivative either. 2.5/5