Daughter of Smoke and Bone Series Review

Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

After book 1 - 4 stars
After book 2 - 3.5 stars
Halfway through book 3 (and unlikely to finish) - 1 star


What started out as a promising start to a trilogy quickly fizzled out by the middle of Book 2. The logical inconsistencies and the plot conveniences relegate this series to just another YA crowd pleaser overflowing with flowery descriptions and lacking in substance.

Key questions about the magics introduced in Book 1 were left unanswered in Book 2 and 3. Glaring plot holes are prevalent throughout the book, indicative of how little effort Laini Taylor spent in world building.

All we know about magic in that world so far is that it takes pain to activate, and can only be done by someone with talent or pedigree.

If Akiva was able to do magic because he was descended from the Stelians, as the author had led us to believe in Book 1, how could Liraz, Hazael, Zuzanne and Karou able to learn and practice the magic if they do not share the same pedigree?

How were Zuzanne and Mik able to pick up magical glamour in just a few hours?

By Karou’s own admission, Madrigal spent years of observations and learning under Brimstone before she was able to start with the most basic of resurrection work – the teeth sorting. Even so, she was able to learn from Brimstone because she had a ‘natural affinity’ for magic. In comparison, Zuzanne was able to pick up teeth stringing by just observing Karou working over a few days. This is a glaring plot convenience.

What is the magical mechanism behind conjuring bodies? How does residual pain teeth relics actually translate to flesh and bones?

What if somebody died peacefully of old age, are the teeth still useable for resurrection purposes?

Why were teeth not harvested from Chimaera dead, angel dead and revenant dead? Why do teeth have to be gathered from the human world? There is a sizeable chimaera population in Eretz and plenty of dead bodies generated from the ongoing war, sufficient for a steady supply of teeth. Teeth harvested from Chimaera dead are likely already in the desired configuration, saving Brimstone tonnes of work. Angel teeth are also going to be extremely useful for giving flight abilities to the resurrected bodies. Idea huh?

The use of magical healing in book 2 is the mother of all dues ex machinas

If the final bodies of resurrected bodies closely follow the original creature from which teeth originated, what kind of teeth did Karou use to create winged chimaeras since birds do not have teeth? Do they only use bat teeth? Do the newly resurrected soldiers only have bat wings?

Why had Brimstone and Warlord mellowed after their initial penchant for brutality destroying the angels a millennia ago? With their portals into the human world, they could easily have brought in human weapons and eliminated angel threats when they were still weak and magic-less.

How did Brimstone create wishes from pain, and why were these magics never mentioned again in Book 2 and 3?

Longevity and age are glaringly inconsistent among different characters. Brimstone lived to a thousand years in his own natural body. This is apparent because there is no other resurrectionist in the Chimaera society and because his body was still showing the scars from the time when he was still a thrall to the angel mages. On the other hand, we have a Misbegotten soldier who was "already turning grey", a Seraphim emperor who was already looking aged, and very young individuals like Madrigal and Scarab who were only in their teens when they were first introduced. So how exactly does it work? Laini Taylor just keeps us guessing.

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Captain America: The Winter Bore

I think I am getting too jaded for Marvel’s superhero films.

After 3 Iron Mans, 2 Thors, 1 Captain America and The Avengers in between, I would have thought that I would be used to Marvel’s MacGuffins, dues ex machinas, one-vs-many action scenes, villains with shite aim, and of course, the rampant plot holes.

Instead, I am bored beyond measure by the latest installment of Captain America, which can largely be summed up as ‘formulaic’.

Captain America falls far short of the lofty standards set by recent science fiction and fantasy films. Inception easily comes to mind as the best of the lot. Captain America seems to take great pleasure at being predictable and frolicking from one logical fallacy to another, without bothering to explain anything in detail, as if daring the viewer to believe the rubbish it sprouts at face value.

In Inception, Christopher Nolan made genuine attempts to explain the science fiction constructs behind the story, so that even when some matters seemed to lack continuity, they were accepted as open-ended conclusions.

The Marvel Universe, however, delights in leaving things unexplained or giving silly explanations. While Captain America was relatively free from any MacGuffins like the Tessaract/Aether/magical artefacts, its various plot holes still managed to make me feel stupid, or let me wonder if the filmmaker is so stupid as to believe the audience would be that stupid. (I am generally very capable of avoiding stupid films) 

Case in point: Captain America’s main combat weapon - a shield. A fucking shield that is not only made of vibratium (an apparently indestructible metal from the Marvel Universe, full stop), but apparently also magicked to draw enemy fire as if it was a target at a firing range!

Captain America’s enemies NEVER seem to realize that no matter how much Chris Evan tries to crouch, turn, jump, duck, it is anatomically impossible to fit his entire muscular torso behind the shield. Continuous fire AT his shield accomplishes nothing but sparks and sound effects. Unfortunately, this combat style was employed throughout the film, right from the first action scene, 15 minutes into the film, up to and including the Marvel-Cinematic-Universe-obligatory-final battle, an hour and 45 minutes later.

Our Captain America is also one invincible dude. He leaps off a plane in midair to dive into the ocean sans-parachute, survives a 10-men ambush in a packed elevator, leapfrogs a hovercraft, disables it by just tossing his shield at it, and even honorably puts away his shield to fight a shield-less villian. How noble.

On the other end of this Marvel human specimen spectrum, we have faceless soldiers who throw themselves bravely at Captain America, only to collapse a second later from a single stunning blow. Having just watched Lone Survivor two days ago, I would be forgiven for viewing this whole portrayal with abject skepticism.

The Marvel superhero franchise has been lauded for its ingenious attempt at cinematic continuity. Stringing together all the Thors, Iron Mans and Captain Americas is no simple task, but Nicky Fury’s Eye-Patch plays its part to perfection. Eye Patch’s presence reminds us that though the major characters have been holding their own private parties after The Avengers, they are still parties held within the same house.

Marvel knows it, Samuel L Jackson knows it, and I know of the 9 picture deal they signed around the time of Iron Man.

You see, my reaction to the first act was, “Surely not? Wow, would they really defy my expectations?”

I should have known better than to hope.

When the third act rolled around, whatever tiny, tiny emotional response the film has managed to elicit in the first act was completed negated with a, “Yup, that went totally as expected.”

The most ridiculous setup easily goes to be the final act, where Captain America was required to access the mainframes of a helio-carriers to stop the helio-carriers’ main programming from activating by swapping some hardware.

If there was any such engineer who designed the keystone mainframe of a carrier to be

1)      Obviously located within a huge glass bubble at the belly of the ship

2)      Accessible as just pressing a few control buttons

3)      Easily structurally compromised by swapping out a few pieces of hardware

He deserves to be shot.

Cobie Smulders.... completely wasted in this film

This one too. Emily VanCamp

Scarlett Johansson's makeup in this film is horrible.