Author: Kristin Cashore

After leaving the fantasy genre for almost 20 years, it feels as though my love for it is flooding back.

Currently, I’m out of my depths with high fantasy, and its complexities with names and systems, which require complete concentration to work through it.

It’s nice to get a book where you can slowly dip your feet into the water… something you rarely got twenty to thirty years ago.

I would classify Graceling as a fun adventure book. The one thing you have to look past when reading is the main character, Katsa, is a complete Mary Sue.

She has special powers. As the book goes on, those special powers continue to multiply: she can kill a person instantly, she’s super fast, she can deal with extreme temperatures, she also has superhuman strength when needed, and she can also go for days without food.

The list just keeps growing.

At some point I think the author just said, oh maybe I should give her a weakness and let that be the actual conflict of the book.

Anyway, if you’re willing to look past that, then you do have a very neat adventure story to read through. This is a fantasy world that’s fun to get into and easy to envision. It allows you to enjoy the adventure without having to spend too much time figuring things out along the way.

It’ll take some time to get into, but you are rewarded for it.