Friday 18 April 2014

Re-Read Review: THE RITHMATIST

The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson
Book 1 of the Rithmatist series
Read by Michael Kramer
Genre: urban fantasy | steampunk | YA
Format: paperback & audiobook

About The Rithmatist:
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson: his debut novel for the young adult audience.

More than anything, Joel wants to be a Rithmatist. Chosen by the Master in a mysterious inception ceremony, Rithmatists have the power to infuse life into two-dimensional figures known as Chalklings. Rithmatists are humanity’s only defense against the Wild Chalklings — merciless creatures that leave mangled corpses in their wake. Having nearly overrun the territory of Nebrask, the Wild Chalklings now threaten all of the American Isles.

As the son of a lowly chalkmaker at Armedius Academy, Joel can only watch as Rithmatist students study the magical art that he would do anything to practice. Then students start disappearing — kidnapped from their rooms at night, leaving trails of blood. Assigned to help the professor who is investigating the crimes, Joel and his friend Melody find themselves on the trail of an unexpected discovery — one that will change Rithmatics — and their world — forever.

Bestselling author Brandon Sanderson brings his unique brand of epic storytelling to the teen audience with an engrossing tale of danger and suspense — the first of a series. With his trademark skills in world-building, Sanderson has created a magic system that is so inventive and detailed that that readers who appreciate games of strategy and tactics just may want to bring Rithmatics to life in our world.
Source: Info in the About The Rithmatist was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17454731-the-rithmatist on 15/07/2013.

Re-Read Review:
I had trouble with the audiobook version of this book but was pressed into listening to it quickly because it was a free review copy and the publicist was emailing me about my review so I rushed through it the first time around. And here is my review. I still enjoyed it at the end thus the 3 cherries rating, but I was very conscious that I skipped on a lot of the finer details of the story. So I borrowed the print copy from the library. I still stand by my claim that this is not the kind of book which translates well into an audiobook because of the very technical and too detailed magical system of this world. Brandon Sanderson obviously poured a lot of brain power into creating the world building and thus it is intricate. However I think Brandon Sanderson got too carried away and went at it too much. I like intricate world buildings. But I am not fond of a physics lecture, for example, the Rithmatics diagram inserted after every chapter. It disrupts the flow of the story which induces me to stop reading. I needed a break from the info dump after every single chapter! This contributes to making the pace of the book quite long. Therefore can't call this book a page turner. So I think that the world building should be intricate enough to substantiate the story, but not too much that it overwhelmed the entire book, overshadowing the characters and the plot. And that is the main reason why this book would never be a 5 out of 5 for me. However if you take the info dump away, it is quite a fascinating read! And that is also the reason that this book would never get a less than 3 rating.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 2
Character development = 4
Story itself = 3.5
Ending = 3
World building = 3.5
Cover art = 4
Pace = (10hrs & 26mins listening time)
Plot = 3.5
Narrator = 3.5

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Rithmatist Series:


macmillan audio
RCT LibraryThank you!Thank you to macmillan audio and audible for the audiobook review copy received and to RCT Library for lending me the paperback copy of this book.

FTC Disclosure:
No money received for this review.

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