4.5 StarsRange of Ghosts is a great read that blends a fantasy with a fairytale. This is my first Elizabeth Bear read, even though she has been on my reading list for a very long time. After reading this one, I will surely be looking up her other works.This book is magical. The writing is sublime. The prose is lyrical. The vocabulary is extraordinary. Bear’s writing style adds to the wonderful world that she pens on paper. This is a novel that is incredible because of the amazing writing itself....

Really good except for the parts where I have no idea what is going on. She might as well just write "Blah blah blah politics."Still planning on going on to book two, because magical ponies and giant cat people.

I can easily say this is my favorite book by Elizabeth Bear. I liked the two main characters very much, the writing was smooth as silk, and probably most importantly, I loved the depth of the mythology.I have a soft spot in my heart for stories within stories, and I have nothing but good things to say about Eternal Night and the Carrion King. The mythology works both as a gorgeous backdrop to the action as well as an excellent world-building tool.Several images, like fields of butterflies along

Almost the only thing I don't like about this book is the title. It's just too nondescript, and I kept forgetting what it was. I kept telling my husband about this great Elizabeth Bear book I was reading....uh...what's-it's-title. I can remember the titles for the next two in the series much more easily, for some reason. But this one kept escaping my brain.Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this deci...

Ahoy there me mateys! This here be book one of the Eternal Sky fantasy series. I am slowly making me way through this author’s backlog while waiting for the red-stained wings to come out in May 2019. And this was such a fantastic read.This story be inspired by 12th and 13th century Asia. Ye follow the tales of Temur, the grandson of the Great Khan and the former Princess Samarkar who gave up her title to become a wizard. Temur was mistaken for dead after a losing battle and struggles to find new...

Here's a extract from my review, full link: http://afantasyreader.blogspot.ca/2012/07/range-of-ghosts-review.htmlElizabeth Bear is a renowned author but Range of Ghosts is her first work that I picked up. After a few chapters, I realized one of the reasons for her success; a smooth and imaginative writing style, not poetic but still, with a rhythm that make the prose feels personal, even passionate. Even with High Fantasy involved, the prose is taken up-close and feels a bit confining. However,

I really wanted to enjoy this book more than I actually did but, ultimately, it left me unfulfilled.Bear’s world-building is, as always, superb. She has created a unique vision here, where the sky changes according to whose empire you’re in, and where moons wink out of existence as the human life they’re tied to is cut short. And Temur, Samarkar, Hrahina and their Nameless adversary are all intriguing characters who are worth getting to know. The story itself, though, is where this one falters.

So the draw here is entirely the worldbuilding, to my eye. And it is good worldbuilding; Bear didn’t just say ‘hey, I want to write heroic fantasy about them easterners instead of another damn western European retread,’ she actually thought it through. This is not worldbuilding that relies on exoticized stereotypes. This stuff makes sense, right down to the nutritional advice given to a woman who has just lost her fertility (eat soybeans, which is exactly the advice that would come out of a doct...

It should be a crime for a fantasy to be this good. Somehow, Elizabeth Bear has created a world so richly detailed, so gripping, that I couldn’t put this book down for three hours, not until I finally got to that last page. And even after that, I was still thinking about this book an hour later (and not just to write this review).I’m not usually a fan of elaborate settings and descriptions, but Bear really makes it work here. Maybe it’s because reading the same kinds of descriptions in that twen...

I got up early so that I could finish reading this book while the house was quiet and I could be alone with it, and I'm glad I did. After reading the last page, I sat with my coffee and just sat and explored how deeply satisfying I found this story, and thinking about why. There is a lot for me to love in this book - the worldbuilding is excellent, and the storyline is smoothly paced. What I love most about it, though, is that this is a well-written story in which I can picture myself as an ordi...

After I finished reading this book, I spent several weeks trying to figure out how best to review it. I kept coming back to the word “thoughtful.” Everything from the worldbuilding and mythology to character to sentence and word choice.The book opens to Temur, heir to the Khaganate, stumbling through a battlefield. His hand has gone numb from clasping the bloody gash along the side of his neck– You know what? Let me just give you a few paragraphs from the first page.Beyond the horizon, a city la...

Dear Elizabeth Bear and Tor,I’m suffering from an epic bout of nerd rage, at the moment, and I feel as though the responsible parties should know what a torment I am going through. You see, Range of Ghosts was an absolutely stunning read in ever aspect. It’s easily my favorite book of 2012 so far and now it’s over.It’s OVER and I have NOTHING to turn to because it’s the FIRST BOOK in a TRILOGY and the next books haven’t been released yet! Oh, the tragedy!That’s the cause of my nerd rage. I need

Way too repetitive with too many gory details right from the beginning. And too many details about horses (and I love horses). From other reviews seems to be a good one but I wasn't curious enough to pass beyond 8% to see, at least, what happens to the main character.

“This-this was how empires ended. With the flitting of wild dogs in the dark and a caravan of moons going dark one by one.”I am afraid I cannot say many good things about the Range of Ghosts. It is a generic fantasy as bland as an unsalted porridge.It is not surprising that with the saturation of the sword and sorcery fantasy set in Western quasi-mediaeval setting, the authors migrated Eastward to look for new pastures. The Eternal Sky series is also drawing upon the rich cultural and civilisati...

I've been reading this one in fits and starts. It's an early Bear, but still very well-written. My problem is, heroic fantasy is pretty low on my scale 0f interests. So I read a couple of chapters, put it down .... And there it sits for a week or two. Recommended by a GR friend as one of her favorite Bear books. I like Bear's SF a *lot*. And some of her fantasy, too. But this one is WAY overdue, so likely headed for a DNF. Sigh.Maybe come back to it sometime? Probably not. Read over half, 2.5 st...

I thought this was a beautifully written beginning to the series; Bear deftly weaves together Central Asian history and mythos and adds her own imaginings to it. I love the two main characters, and the wonderful details that Bear adds - she has an ethnographer's eye when describing the peoples of her world. Really, 4.5 stars.

I seriously could not get enough of this book! The story was instantly engaging. That's always a worry for me. It can be the most amazi-crazy book in the world, but if the first 15 pages don't grab me, I may not be finishing it. I know that's kind of harsh, but I have an intimidatingly huge To-Read shelf, and if'n you wanna be in mah brainz, y'all needta come correct.So often, fantasy novels come down to world-building. This is a new and foreign place to the reader, and the details of the way th...

Reviewed at Adventures in SciFi Publishing - Podcast and Giveaway of Eternal Sky TrilogyI have heard for years that Elizabeth Bear is a rare talent, and I wish I hadn’t waited this long to read her. Her ability to mesmerize me with her prose reminds me of Mercedes Yardley, but with her own flair. I highlighted many passages from Range of Ghosts, but I’ll start with the first paragraph:Ragged vultures spiraled up a cherry sky. Their sooty wings so thick against the sunset could have been the col...

Executive Summary: I enjoyed the last 25% or so, but that's just not enough for me to continue on in the series. 2.5 stars rounded up for a strong finish.Audio book: I wasn't terribly impressed by Celeste Ciulla. I have a hard time deciding if some of the dialogue was bad, or if it was simply the inflections with with Ms. Ciulla read it. Overall she wasn't bad, but there were parts that made me cringe a bit/pulled me out of the story. Full Review I had been wanting to try Ms. Bear for about a

I'm a little tired, so not especially eloquent. I'll just give the bullet points.Are you interested in:- epic fantasy with a unique setting, rather than medieval-Europe-with-magic- lots of really cool female characters- one of whom is a wizard- another of whom is A TIGER- Extremely Good Horses (one of which may be more than she appears...)- beautiful beautiful covers, like really, just go to the series page and look at themAnd, last but not least, speaking of series:- an actually completed trilo...