I had a really hard time with this, and didn't finish.
It's the kind of ponderous, impenetrable high fantasy that sometimes gives the genre a bad name with mainstream readers.

Let me start out by saying that I wanted to love this book. The magic system is one with major drawbacks, where the mages age rapidly when they use their gift. It's refreshing to see something like this, because I'm used to magic systems where there are but aren't downsides to having magic. Then there's this deity known as the Deathless Goddess who consumes this magic. The most powerful mage in Tananen decides to destroy this deity. And that's about it.

I didn't have a decent grasp of what was going on until about 10% into the book, and even then I really struggled to follow it. To put it simply, the author used a lot of words to only say a little. The sections within chapters switched between a lot of different perspectives and the characters blurred together. I also think I chose a bad time to read this book, because I am not currently looking for a challenge when I read.

I think people who like unique magic systems and descriptive writing will enjoy The Gossamer Mage.

Although this book disappointed me, I would still be willing to try something by this author again in the future.

Thank you to DAW for sending me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had to DNF this book. I was so confused. And it wasn’t getting any better. The erring style was just not fit me I guess. I couldn’t get a grasp on the world or characters because of it. I’m sorry.

This was a middle-of-the-road read for me. While I liked a lot of aspects, there were some things I disliked, and overall, I just didn't feel strongly enough about the book to really warrant adding an in-depth review to the blog.

It saddens me to say that I wasn’t able to finish this book despite restarting it twice.

It had all the elements that make a great fantasy read. There was an interesting magic system, magical creatures, a Goddess and the greatest mage vowing to destroy her. What could go wrong?

Unfortunately, it seems, a lot. I’ve seen many other reviewers mention it but the writing style is quite confusing and, at times, almost nonsensical. It somehow managed to be both descriptive and vague at the same time. I often found myself rereading paragraph to try and figure out what was going on. When I finally felt like I was getting a grasp on what was happening, the POV would change and this happened quite frequently. Perhaps because of the writing style, I’m unable to mention much of anything regarding the plot, or lack thereof.

This book has the potential to be amazing. For some, this unique writing style might be what makes it great but sadly it was the reason I just couldn’t get into it.

http://www.nerds-feather.com/2019/12/microreview-book-gossamer-mage-by-julie.html

The Gossamer Mage is an enthralling fantasy whose depth of character, worldbuilding and plotting kept me turning page after page. The novel as an epic tells a crisp and complete story in one volume, a rich and comprehensive look at a fascinating realm, it’s unique characters and situation, and strong story building.

I feel that this book was beautifully written although a bit difficult to wrap my mind around at times. The magic system was amazing and unique. It was a bit slow at times but once I understood it better, I really enjoyed it.

This was a book I could not finish, unfortunately. The cover is beautiful and the magic was really unique. However, it is incredibly complicated, confusing and slow-moving. I could not connect with the characters, which is essential to me staying with a book. For someone who loves an intricate plot, it would be a great read, but it was not the book for me.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book for an honest review.

I loved the idea of this book! The magic system and the whole idea of Gossamers was really fun, and the world building was really fantastic. I just could not connect with this writing style, and at times it became very confusing! If the writing style had been more fluid and easy to understand, I would have liked this a lot more.

I found this fantasy book slow to develop. Although novel the world and magic system was not interesting and couldn't sustain my interest. I could not finish the book.

This is such a sad update for me to write. This was one of my more anticipated releases of the year, and I went into it with such high hopes, I honestly couldn't have fathomed hating it. The premise is incredible — especially considering I'm a massive sucker for any story in which Death is a character, rather than simply a state of being — but it was absolutely ruined for me by the stylistic choices in writing.

On one hand, Czerneda's writing is so immensely detailed that I kept finding myself bogged down by minutiae, which is a strange complaint to have considering my other biggest complaint: everything is so incredibly vague, I felt lost from the first page and it never improved. I typically would keep going to the end in a case like this, because usually, I think it's not the author's fault if I'm confused, but looking at other reviews is telling me that this is a massive issue for nearly every Goodreads user who's written a review for this book so far, regardless of whether or not they completed the book.

Among these larger issues, a few other minor complaints I had: the names are nearly impossible to keep up with, the narrative frequently breaks into paragraphs full of sentence fragments for no reason, and despite there being so many different perspectives, each POV character's "voice" feels identical to the last.

Again, this makes me so sad, because I had such high hopes, but I don't have anything positive to say about this book beyond its most base premises, and I won't be reaching for anything else by this author any time soon.

Thank you so much to DAW Books for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The cover is amazing but this book has one of the most confusing writing I've ever read. I'm sorry but I had to DNF it at 10%. I didn't understand a thing. I just couldn't do it to myself. I can't spend several hours trying to understand a story with difficulty when I could easily spend these hours reading a five stars book.

(Thank you for giving me an ARC via Netgalley)

I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review. When I see the name Julie Czerneda I think sci-fi, but that is not the case with Gossamer Mage. It is a well told story of very interest and unique magic system that takes the lives of the mages that practice it. They are followers of the Deathless Goddess. Magic can't be used to heal directly but it can be used to make a plant that can be turned into a healing potion. The description is wonderful and worldbuilding is beyond amazing. I want to read more of her works.

I really thought I would love this one because the plot sounded so unique and interesting but it just fell completely flat for me because it was SO hard to read. The sentences were short and choppy and I found it difficult to not reread entire paragraphs because of which, this greatly took away from the story.

The novel is set in a region where magic is controlled by the Deathless Goddess, in which the price of writing magic is years off one’s life. If a mistake is made, a gossamer is made, a magical creature with a will of its own. Maleonarial is considered one of the most powerful of the Deathless Goddess’s Mage Scribes. He long ago sought isolation and had fallen out of favor. When she seeks him out through her accolades, however, he is drawn back into the life he tried to put behind him. Only, this time, he is determined to find a way to destroy the Deathless Goddess and break the hold she has on her people. But first, he must find out who or what is threatening Tananen. He finds an unusual ally in one of the Deathless Goddess’s accolades, Kaitealyon, a Daughter called to serve the Goddess. Kaitealyon and the other Daughters sense something is gravely wrong. The voice of the Goddess seems to have been silenced and something sinister is afoot. She is tasked with finding out what it could be and saving the Deathless Goddess. Maleonarial may be the only one who can actually stop it.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I found the first portion of the book difficult to follow. Perhaps it was the writing style or the mythical feel to it (although that isn’t something that always bothers me, depending on the book). It got better when the author focused more on the individual characters. And while Mal’s character is one I quickly became fascinated by, it was not until Kait was introduced that I truly was able to get into the story and began to enjoy the book more. Once that happened, it was harder to put the book down. She has a son she loves dearly, but had to leave behind because of her calling to be a Daughter. Her devotion to him is one I think most mothers would be able to relate to. I know I could.

The world Julie E. Czerneda created in The Gossamer Mage was interesting, and I liked that we get an opportunity to see if from the two different viewpoints, one of the Mage and the other of the Daughter, especially given their differing feelings about the Deathless Goddess. I really liked Kait's and Mal’s characters. They both have sacrificed so much and have good intentions. The author delves deep into their psyches and motivations as they journey together in search of answers. It was hard not to feel the connection with both of them.

I am glad I stuck with The Gossamer Mage despite my struggle with the first part of the book. While not a page turner, I did enjoy it once I finally got into it. I have one of the author’s Science Fiction novels on my TBR shelf, and I am curious what I will think of that when I get to it.

One of the most interesting and unique magic systems I've had the luxury of reading. Magic can't be used directly to do something but can create something to do the thing you wish to do (can't kill but can create a plant for a poison). The rules and regulations in the magic system were really well thought out and interesting, except it wasn't clear how much life was used per spell.

Characters were pretty good, but the book was more mystery and plot driven than character driven, which was a little disappointing. When you care more about the magic than the characters there's bound to a bit of frustration.

Overall, a pretty good book.

This story is one of loss and sadness which in my case means I had to take time and read through it. I did not speed read it like other books, otherwise I would have missed crucial pieces of information. I think the writing style may not be for everyone but I quite enjoyed having it be very detailed.

However, if you are looking for an action packed, adventure type of story, you will not find it here. This books focus heavily on character development and world building. Towards the beginning, I have to admit I was a little bit confused because of all the POV’s but towards the end it all comes together beautifully.

As a former student of calligraphy, I loved the system of magic in Julie E. Czerneda's latest, THE GOSSAMER MAGE. This complex and ambitious tale, full of vivid characters and great world-building, comes alive in the hands of a master storyteller.

There’s a corner of the world where magic works, and it’s based on the Goddess’s language. Only certain women (her Daughters) can speak it; only certain men can write it (and thus perform magical transformations on the world like making made-horses that work tirelessly, or accidental gossamers that interfere or float off smelling like bread or something else weird). Writing magic takes a portion of a mage’s life, so they age and die quickly, but the pleasure is still so great that they do it (and also it makes them rich). When a killer who doesn’t seem to pay the price for using magic appears, and also a dark force that opposes the Goddess starts invading, various Daughters and mages have to figure out what’s going on. I wanted to like the book, but I got bogged down. With a longer work, it turns out that I really need a lot of full sentences, subject verb object and articles and all that, and Czernada used so many sentence fragments that I just got exhausted.

3.5 stars.

I liked that this is a standalone and not a series, that's rare in fantasy. The village people's accent was difficult to understand a lot of the time and I didn't love the constantly changing POV. The system of magic was very interesting though and I loved Kait.