Customer Reviews

The Floating Islands

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

[...]

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.

I don't keep it a secret how much I love a good well-written high fantasy, one replete with intricate societal customs, political upheavel, and, of course, magic. So I was delighted when THE FLOATING ISLANDS was exactly what I wanted: a captivating and gorgeously written fantasy world.

The moment Trei, a newly orphaned Tolounnese and Islander half-breed, arrives on the Floating Islands to live with his uncle's family, he is immediately drawn to the kajuraihi, men trained to ride the magicked winds that protect the Islands. As Trei trains to become a kajurai, his cousin Araenè has dreams of her own. She wants to become a chef, but Island women are only supposed to want and run their households.

Tragedy forces Araenè down a completely unexpected path: training to become a mage and learning to use magic. When war-happy Tolounne threatens the Floating Islands with new and frightening technology, Trei, Araenè, and their new respective friends find creative ways to use their new skills to help save the Islands.

I don't think I have the words to describe why I loved Rachel Neumeier's writing style so much. It's not "purple prose-y" in that poetic, whimsical, or heartachingly beautiful way that I like in other books; instead, it's like the perfect prose-prose, uncomplicated diction that paints an astonishingly clear picture of the setting. You see what the characters see without needing to read ten pages of minute description per scene. It's hard to explain. It just...does the job of descriptive prose exactly right, and that's why I call it perfect.

Araenè and Trei are wonderful protagonists with curious and unique adventures. I think Araenè will appeal to people who like reading about girls masquerading as boys to do grand things. The type of magic that she learns is fascinating and a feast for the senses, featuring glowing glass spheres, doors that don't always lead to the same places each tiem, and flavors of spieces and herbs.

Trei's experience as a kajurai was cool, too, if slightly less well described than Araenè mage-learning. The kajuraihi also brings us Ceirfei, Trei's friend and fellow kajurai, who is so noble, level-headed, and admirable. Mages and kajuraihi alike contribute to the protection of the Islands in a fascinating set of tense war scenes.

All in all, as a fantasy enthusiast, I loved THE FLOATING ISLANDS. It effortlessly presents to us a different and thoroughly imaged world, yet dumbs nothing down for readers. The ending is satisfying and yet hints at the possibility of a sequel, which I would most happily welcome. Definitely a book I want to reread and that I'll be recommending to lovers of high fantasy!

I discovered Rachel Neumeier's books only a year or so ago, and every book I read is better than the last. "The Floating Islands" is categorized as YA, and though it's appropriate in theme and content for teen readers it shouldn't be dismissed by adults. This is one of the rarest of all books: a book with well-developed characters, fascinating world-building, intricate plot, gorgeous prose, and difficult but ultimately uplifting messages. It's about family and loss and grief and hope, about losing everything you thought made life worth living but learning to live and laugh again all the same. It has magic and dragons and cooking and warfare, and every word is carefully chosen. Even the names are a delight to say.

Neumeier's writing reminds me a little of Patricia McKillip, in her luminous prose and the sense of the wonder magic brings to her world. But she's more grounded, in a way; her characters are real and solid and true-to-life, even when the living wind is tugging them off their feet. I can say without reservation that if you like McKillip, you'll like Neumeier. And if you've ever closed a McKillip book thinking, "That was beautiful, but what the heck happened?" ... well, try Neumeier. She's mastered both beauty and clarity, and "The Floating Islands" is a shining example of both.

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.

The Premise of this story pulled me in. I hoped I would find a good young adult author and I have. I was very impressed with this book. Every once in a while it would be a little vague, but it all came together well in the end. This story's focus is on two young cousin's trying to find their place in their world that is a island that floats! How cool is that! This story was clean and so sweet and had very little romance in it, but I was pulled into their world. I would recommend this to my younger reader friends and the older ones who like a good adventure. 7 and up.

After Trei's family are killed by a volcanic eruption, he journeys to the wondrous Floating Islands, hoping for a welcome from his mother's family, whom he has never met. And when Trei sees the magical kajurai, the men who have mastered flying with specially constructed wings, he knows where his future lies.

But, things are not so easy for his cousin, Araene. As a female, her life and her future is highly constrained, and her options few. She dreams of being a great chef, an art that the Flying Islands prizes, but only men can become chefs. But, she little realizes just what her future has in store for her!

First off let me start out by saying that I am not a "young adult," except perhaps young at heart. But being a fan of fantasy literature, I had high hopes when I picked this book up. Thankfully, my hopes were fully fulfilled. I really enjoyed this book, and found it to be one of the best new fantasy books that I have read in a long time!

I really liked the author's take on magic, and I loved the milieu that she built around it. It's a very interesting story, with interesting characters, and interesting magic. I enjoyed it immensely!

Trei is a 14-year-old boy who was visiting his uncle in a city maybe 50-100 miles from his home city when the mountain behind the city does a Vesuvius-style eruption and everyone who was in the city - including his par-ents and sister - is killed by poisonous gases before being buried in ash. The uncle he was visiting--his father's brother - refuses to give him a home because he's a half-breed, with a Tol-ounne father and an Islander mother, and by Tolounne law half-breeds have to pay a substantial tax to become citizens when they reach their majority. So he goes to his only other relatives, his mother's brother, who lives on one of the Floating Islands - islands that float in the air above the ocean, kept there by dragon magic. And on the way there he sees kajuraihi - men who strap on wings and use dragon magic, again, to fly - and instantly knows that that's what he wants to do with his life. And he's welcomed by his uncle, and does indeed get selected to audition for a place in the kajuraihi training program. His uncle has a daughter about his age, Araenè, who longs to become a chef (she's a marvelous cook already) but by the customs of the Islands can't - females of the middle and upper classes aren't allowed to work outside the home. She's acquired some boys' clothes and has contrived to get something of an education by sneaking into lectures at the local university, but knows that sooner or later she'll have to stop. The book more or less alternates chapters from their two POVs, as Tolounne declares war on the Islands and brings mages on ships to counteract the dragon magic. A plague takes Araenè's parents, but a local school of magery had found her and offers her a place, though she doesn't know that at least some of them have recognized that she's female. It's very well done: the characters are engaging, the action is brisk, and I only noticed one major flaw. The kajuraihi are described as dropping fire onto Tolounnese ships as one of their tactics to defend the Islands - but they fly by strapping wings to their arms and flapping or soaring like birds. But humans don't have grasping feet or beaks like birds, so it's difficult to see how they could carry anything and drop it, and something that's on fire would be a problem even if they did have some kind of equipment that would allow it. I don't say it wouldn't be possible to come up with an apparatus that would make it work - maybe support it on a long line between two fliers with some kind of release that could be handled with the mouth or foot? - but Neumeier simply ignores the problem. Other than that, though, this was a first-rate book, highly recommended.

I throughly enjoyed this book. Though not up there with my favorites by any means, it was a well worth while read. The descriptions were nicely done, as well as the depth of emotions for the characters, as they did not feel cliqued or over done. Many times through out the book I felt as if I was reading myself into a impressionist painting, an odd description I know, but that is the best way I can describe it. I would recommend this book to anyone.

The book got very boring and I would just put it down and not want to read anymore of it.