Customer Reviews

The Court of the Air

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Unlike the other reviewer, I found this book to be a great read! Yes, I agree, it starts out extremely slow with what seems like way too much description without giving any detail of the main characters, however; the last half of the book completely rewards you for your patience.

I was looking for some steam punk reading when a friend recommended the Court of the Air to me.
Don't let the 600+ pages fool you - it goes quickly with Stephen Hunt's writing style. To create this new world, he brings in all kinds of new words and concepts but they are so well used that its only a couple pages before you accept them as normal.
Its hard to find really good steam punk novels, and I would say this is the best one I've read so far. I'm looking forward to reading more of Stephen Hunt's works.

It has been a while since I sat down and read a book, and while I wouldn't put this one on my prized book shelf, it was worth the read.

Reccommmendations for: A large cast of characters, the steamen race, intriguing ideas, great imagination, good ending.

Against: The most interesting characters are often the minor ones, many of the intriguing plot-points aren't developed fully, some of the side-character-views seemed rather uneccessary to the plot as a whole.

There is a lot of potential for further development in this universe, and I will no doubt read Hunt's other books. This book may not be the best introduction to his world, but the bright side: this book does get better as you get into it, and it is one of those you need to read to the end to appreciate. So for other reviewers -- please don't review what you haven't read.

I didn't finish it either. Too many characters, too much changing direction, too many superweapons that turn out to be useless ten pages later and invincible fighters who are defeated effortlessly in the next scene. The usual slaughter of hundreds of characters. Just way too much going on. There are plenty of ideas; John W. Campbell could have edited this in to a great book.

Hunt creates a vividly imagined fantasy world, but the characters are unidimensional and flat. Like too many works of the kind, children speak with the voices of adults, and they simply aren't credible as characters. (See Terry Brooks' Genesis of Shannara series, Something Wicked this Way Comes, or Ender's game as a way of creating more fully drawn, and more believable children). Other characters are lifeless and it's also hard to keep track of the various characters, in part because they are so sketchily drawn. Another problem with the book is that the politics are hard to follow and just how many different countries are involved and what each stands for (not to mention what each political faction believes) is at times unfathomable. (A simple map would have helped). It takes a lot to get me to abandon a book and unlike another reader I made it through 400 pages before giving up. Given his wonderful imagination, I suspect that Hunt's future books will improve but I won't be along for the ride.

I bought this book expecting to get a good steam-punk read. I slogged through this book for 200 hundred pages before I finally gave up on it. Honestly, it was terrible. The descriptions were bloodless and the characters were cardboard cutouts. In some parts, it was just nasty for the sake of being nasty (such as what they do to the king in the Jackal republic) and it didn't bring SFA to the story. Save both your money and time and don't even pick up this books. I'm really sorry that I ever bought it.