Title: Render (A Story of Aligare)Author: Heidi C. Vlach
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: Heidi C. Vlach (December 31, 2013)
Published: December 31, 2013
Page count: 476
Format: Kindle
Source: From author in exchange of an honest review
Book Summary:
They built new homes under mountain maples, hoping for luck. But for the aemets — the insect-like folk of Aloftway village — there has been much work and meagre reward. After poor harvests and a brush with forest fire, now wolves are striking down folk who venture into the forest. Without a precedent in their legends to guide them, all aemetkind knows to do is hope and pray.
Rue is a young aemet coming of age in this troubled community. Named after a lucky plant, she has never cared much for luck. She believed from the start that it was folly to move here, and when fellow aemets start turning up dead, Rue is through waiting. With her chemistry skills, her keen mind and a guard dog at her side, Rue promises herself that she’ll solve Aloftway’s problems. But she’ll need help from Felixi, a game hunter of the dragon-like korvi race — who knows more about the wolf attacks than he’s willing to share.
*The Chef’s Review*
My rating: 3/5 stars
When I first started reading Render, I was a little lost. It was difficult for me to follow the story because I couldn’t imagine the characters. Clumsy of me suddenly realized that I was reading the 3rd book of the stories of Aligare. It was obvious that I had missed the explanation of this new world.
As I went on with my reading, I slowly got the hang of it. I started to appreciate the place, the characters, the plot and the author’s way of writing. One of my favorite things was the scenario, it kept me in a magical, mystical world (the kind I enjoy to read).
In this book, it talks about a girl named Rue, that moves into a new town along with her mother that’s called Aloftway. The people here are generous, have a talent for growing plants (magically), they are good to each other, they are vegetarian and respect all living things. I find that beautiful. It’s amazing how a society can be built that way. But, of course there has to be a problem. There is danger all around Aloftway and it’s starting to kill the residents. Rue is the one to come up with a way to solve this since everyone believes she was born lucky. She couldn’t do this alone, so she requires the help of friends, one in particular is the one who helps solve the problem although he hides behind a truth…
All in all, I think this was a nice read because there’s always something exciting about meeting a new world. However, I do feel that I needed to read the first two books to get to enjoy the book more.
*Render Salad*
When I was reading this book, I started visualizing the ingredients the people of Aloftway ate. The story mentioned mushrooms, nuts, salt, honey, oats and greens. The dish that popped into my mind was a salad so I put all those ingredients together plus some others that I thought convenient with a honey vinaigrette and it turned out like this.
It was fresh, crunchy, sweet/salty and vegetarian, just like I imagine Aloftway’s folk would meal 😉
It was fresh, crunchy, sweet/salty and vegetarian, just like I imagine Aloftway’s folk would meal 😉
What do you guys think? You like…?
I have to say the food you made seems more interesting than the book. Just doesn't seem like my kind of read.
It was an OK read. The salad was fun to prepare, though XD
Thank you for reviewing Render, Flor! All of the Aligare books are stand-alone stories, and none of them explain the world directly to the reader. Personally, I prefer fantasy and sci-fi stories that let the reader figure out the world by watching the characters, instead of having everything explained like a school lesson. That's definitely not everyone's cup of tea, though — so I appreciate you sticking with my unusual work!
And oh my gosh, what a beautiful salad! I'd love to taste it, and I bet Rue and her people would like it, too.
Thank you for giving us a copy! It was an interesting read and I had fun with it.
I actually googled the characters to find sketches of them XD and. I tried to interpret the world with this salad.
I'm so glad you liked it!