5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing Descriptions Wanted More Magic, February 9, 2011
This review is from: The Floating Islands (Hardcover)
The Floating Islands starts with a heavy beginning that may turn initial readers away. But readers shouldn't fret over this, instead they should know that grief and loss isn't the central theme of the book, instead it is one of finding ones place in the world. Neumeier does this by creating two cousin protagonists that are lost in the world they're each in. Trei has just lost his family in a horrific accident and been throw out of the only other family and land he's ever known. Araene, Trei's cousin, is also hopelessly lost. In her world of the floating islands women are not granted the same rights as men, are not afforded schooling, the ability to wander about, nor even the selection of their future careers. The two cousins meet and recognize each other as the trapped and lost beings they each are. From here the story takes each cousin down a different and unexpected road, full of surprises, mysteries, sadness, and magic.
I found a number of things that were well done about The Floating Islands, but first and foremost has to be the imagery and setting. Neumeier does a fantastic job creating a vivid and unique setting that really stands out in the book. Besides the pure descriptive aspect of setting the island is laid out in a way that allows readers to feel as if they are navigating the streets and rooftops themselves, instead of just reading about them.
Besides this the character interactions, especially between the two cousins, seemed especially well written. As I mentioned before this is a book not of just pure magic and action, but one of character building and more specifically finding ones self in the world, and I have to say Neumeier does a fantastic job making this book so.
Of course while the character interaction and setting is well done in The Floating Islands, I did find a few things I had a problem with in the book. The first problem I had was with the system of magic Neumeier creates. I think there's nothing wrong with having a system of magic in the way Neumeier creates it in The Floating Islands, but my problem is with the fact that Araene was instructed that magic would be a certain way and then Neumeier made it completely different when describing Araene use it. Also the very fact that Araene could master the magic of door making and others so easily when it seems everyone else was having such a hard time with it seems unrealistic and ridiculous.
Another problem with the magic (and this is really something I just felt, everyone might not feel this way), was that I wanted to hear more about it. I wanted it to be more than just a tool that is used to steer the cousins in their directions, but instead to be described more fully and given an intricate nature with the story.
That said this was a great book that was very well written. My complaints really are miniscule compared to the success of the overall story, and I feel I would have no problem recommending this book to a friend looking for a good book. All in all a very good book.
[...]
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Greater Than I Expected, March 22, 2011
This review is from: The Floating Islands (Hardcover)
This is the complete, balanced, detailed and graceful kind of story that Robin McKinley's "Pegasus" (which I recently returned, in a fury) SHOULD have been. While suitable for younger readers (and I did NOT find the beginning too "heavy"), this mature reader found it gripping as well. In fact, I couldn't put it down. Several premises in this book were so original that they were a delight to the mind. I recommend this book, and will now go in search of Neumeier's earlier novel, "The City in the Lake." I wish "The Floating Islands" were a SERIES I could escape into.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Very nice!, January 22, 2012
This review is from: The Floating Islands (Hardcover)
The Floating Islands tells the story of two cousins in a fantasy setting that takes place in (well, obviously) a set of islands that float in the sky! I'm not going to do a summary of the plot because others have done so already. I'll just go ahead and say that i LOVED the book and that it was pretty different and extremely well written.
Neumeyer has a way with words for sure! I could immediately imagine the fantastical things and places she was describing and yet she managed to not gurgle on and on about the setting at all, unlike some other authors (which is sad, because the more they go "the blah blah blah room was blah blah blah and it had blah blah blah in it and it was very blah blah blah" the more my brain just stops engaging and i just skim through the paragraph because i'm getting bored.
I guess the one teeeny-tiny nit i would pick would be the 'oh god not another book where a girl has to dress up as a boy because the society she lives in is backwards and misogynistic' thing. i mean the great part of being an author is that YOU CAN JUST WRITE IT SO THAT THE SOCIETY IS NOT LIKE THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE instead of rehashing this old trope over and over again but of course, then half the plot of the book wouldn't exist so can I really complain that much? nope. and at least she wrote it really well so i wasn't rolling my eyes too hard and getting eye-strain!
I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who likes reading fantasy where it's not about romance at all but about discovering new settings and magic and adventure.
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