Joint Discussion: Children of Earth and Sky

Happy end of November! This week Carole and I are discussing, "Children of Earth and Sky" by Guy Gavriel Kay. 

We are doing something special for next month! We are letting you guys choose what we read. The choices will be at the bottom after our discussion. The most votes win!

Author: Guy Gavriel Kay

Title: Children of Earth and Sky

Genre: Historical Fiction and Fantasy

Pages: 571

First Published: May 2016

Where I Got It: Borrowed from library

From the small coastal town of Senjan, notorious for its pirates, a young woman sets out to find vengeance for her lost family. That same spring, from the wealthy city-state of Seressa, famous for its canals and lagoon, come two very different people: a young artist traveling to the dangerous east to paint the grand khalif at his request—and possibly to do more—and a fiercely intelligent, angry woman, posing as a doctor’s wife, but sent by Seressa as a spy.

The trading ship that carries them is commanded by the accomplished younger son of a merchant family, ambivalent about the life he’s been born to live. And farther east a boy trains to become a soldier in the elite infantry of the khalif—to win glory in the war everyone knows is coming.

As these lives entwine, their fates—and those of many others—will hang in the balance, when the khalif sends out his massive army to take the great fortress that is the gateway to the western world...  

C: So...this was not what I expected it to be. LOL Where shall we begin? B?

B: Well for me it feels like I picked another crap one. UGH. I just could not follow it, sooo boring. So many things I want to complain about

C: I don’t think it was a “crap one”....I think it was just boring. LOL Like it was a people-story, but the people were meeeehhhh.

B: Yes! So meh. I wish I had cared for someone, but I did not. I can’t even say I read the whole thing cos I skimmed so damn much. It just have to be a dnf for me in that aspect. I just did not care about them or their story.

C: There was one character (can’t remember their name) that I liked, but they seemed to just not matter to the story anymore. Which boo. The rest of the people were meh. Like nothing happened. Things that did happen none of the characters were around. They just happened to escape to the next town. Like the riot. Boring. I did a LOT of skimming to. XI I feel bad, but I just didn’t care about some of those people’s stories. 

B: From the rave reviews I read I expected something great, and then I got this and you know, I just felt so disappointed :/ Another issue I had was that it was so our world. Oh there is the Ottoman empire, oh there is Venice, oh there is blah blah. The Ottomans even took boys to become those, whatever, but it was too our world. I do not want that. Sure, borrow from a culture, but do not put every other country next to it. Make it harder, mix things up. Now I just read a historical novel set here...sort of ;) I wanted fantasy.

C: Was there suppose to be fantasy elements mixed in? 

B: It’s not that I need magic and unicorns, but if I wanted to read about the Ottomans and the rest of that area we could have chosen a book at least set in our world. Instead of this pseudo earth. But yes magic and unicorns are fun

C: It felt like such a Historical Fiction. I didn’t even notice the small fantasy that was suppose to be in there. XI But I agree with you. I love the epic fantasy stuff, but I think there should have been more fantasy to make it feel like it. 

B: More fantasy, less our world, interesting characters, maybe then it would have been a book I would not have skimmed.

C: Same. I was just meh. The world-building was exhausting at the beginning. Once it get past that it was better, but not good. 

B: For me I just want to put a big fat failure sign on it

C: I’m wanting to put a “meh” sign on it. From reviews I read there are other books set in this world. I think this might have been better if we read one of those to understand. 

B: You are supposed to be able to read these without having to read the others. His failure if he did not make that work. Oh and I will SO NOT read more books set in this world.

C: Completely agree! 

B: This is such a meh book, we can’t even complain. The crappy ones we can write pages about here...meh

C: I’m  bummed by this. I was so excited. LOL. So...anything else you want to add? 

B: Nope

C: Nothing here except...if you wanna read anything by this author read something else. A total meh. 

B: HA, I agree.

C: I’m curious to see which book is next! Let us leave it to the people since we stink at picking. Hehehe xD

B: I have picked two, just like that, no reviews, no ohhh must read. Just picked two so not to get disappointed

YA - The statistical probability of love at first sight by Jennifer Smith

FICTION - The secret keeper by Kate Morton

C: I picked two. I ignored the reviews as well.

Fantasy/PNR -  Bound by a Dragon by Linda K. Hopkins

HF - Jasmine Nights by Julia Gregson

B: Ok then readers, please tell us in your comments which book we should read next :)

C: We leave it in your hands! :D Don’t let us down. ;) LOL! Until next time?

B: Until next time