Tag: Book Review

Posted on in Arc, Fantasy

Foundryside

 

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Format : Ebook
Series : Founders
Pub Date : August 21st, 2018
Read Date : May 2nd, 2018

I loved Robert Jackson Bennett Divine City series so when given the opportunity to read this advanced copy of Foundryside from the publisher, I accepted it without any hesitation. After reading it I’m sure when edited and published in August Foundryside will get the attention it deserves.

Like Divine City this is a new world of magic, something remaining from a long lost magic era. The other similarity is the female protagonist which this time is a thief. This time the main city is called Tevanne and it has two side, Commons and Merchant houses. Merchant houses are wealthy and corrupt and commons are poor and have a slave like life.

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All main characters in the book are very likable and very well developed. If I want to say who my favorite was, it’s probably Clef the key, but still I enjoyed every character in its own role, even Orso.
The world Bennett has created is kind of mixing science and magic. Today’s human have access to part of a magic language of now a dead civilization and can utilize objects and change reality by scriving symbols of that language into objects. There are many lost symbols and critical missed parts that prevent them to fully use this magic science, until a small box with a Key in it is stolen.
This is a story of action, of mystery, of fighting for power and craving justice and highly recommended for fantasy lovers.i

Posted on in Arc, Historical

The History of Bees

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Format : Ebook
Series : N/A
Pub Date : August 22st, 2017
Read Date : November 29th, 2017

This book consists of three connected stories which their connection is not clear until almost the end of the book. When the connection is revealed the three stories become one and it’s actually story of us, humans.

1851/ England: William, an academic which tries to design a new bee hive in order to observe their lives. He’s obsessed with first his research then his son Edmund who seems ignores him all the time.

2007/USA. George. He’s from a generation of bee keepers/ Organic bee keeprs. He takes taking care of bees very seriously and tries to win his to-be-writer son over and has him back to family business.

2098/China. Tao. She is a corn worker in an era that everything looks doomed, there is no education and children become workers at an early age. Tao tries to teach his young son what she knows in rare time off she has but when one day the family goes to picnic and the son collapses everything changes for them.

The main theme of the book is what we do with our environment and how it would affect our lives in long term. Bee’s fate is the symbol of disaster coming to humans due to playing too much with nature and neglecting alarming evidences that we screw too much to recover.
I really liked how three stories were connected at the end. It was done quite beautifully. At some point it might seem slow but for sure it deserves to be read.

ARC from NetGalley.

Posted on in Fantasy

The Well of Ascension

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Format : Audio
Series : Mistborn
Pub Date : August 21st, 2007
Read Date : October 26th, 2017

I’m not sure how to review this book. I can say I liked the first one a lot more but still the lat quarter of this book I enjoyed very much too.

So the Lord Ruler is gone and Elend is the king of Luthadel. City is under siege by two armies, Elend’s father Straff Venture and Ashweather Cett. Cett is not interested in Luthadel but its ATM and of course he doesn’t know that Elend and his crew (Kelsier’s old crew) could not find Lord Ruler’s ATM.
Straff think the city is his and he should be the king or even emperor.

In all the chaos Vin is the sole person that can protect Elend. She is the actual reason why neither of armies attack Luthadel. Her reputation as most powerful Mistborn who was trained by the survivor himself frightens almost everyone off.

During an attack from Seth assassins another Mistborn helps Vin to defeat them. This Mistborn turns out to be Straff’s Mistborn Zane which is Elend’s half brother. Zane is inetersted in Vin and she starts to see him as a friend or more…

There isn’t much action in this book but politics and character development. I really liked how Sazed role was growing through the book and to my surprise I liked the Kandra. I can’t say much about Vin but her character’s reasonable enough for her story, how she is hesitant between Zane and Elend. How she trust her instincts…

I’ll wait to read the third book and then might change some of my opinions.

Posted on in GLBT, Romance, YA

If I was your girl

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Format : Audio
Series : N/A
Pub Date : March3rd, 2016
Read Date : October 9th, 2017

I picked this book as part of my Read Harder Challenge 2017 and liked it. The story is about Amanda a trans teenager leaving her city to start over with her dad in a new school.

She finds new friends which like her and start to like a boy in her new school. she is still afraid to tell them about her past and her experience.

what I liked about this book was that it doesn’t picture only struggles but Amanda’s life as a normal teenage girl. The story is both heart aching and heart warming as she faces difficulties and at the same time receives loves and acceptance from her friends and family.
Posted on in Sci-Fi

Borne

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Format : Print
Series : N/A
Pub Date : April 25th, 2017
Read Date : August 3th, 2017

Since Annihilation I became a fan of Vandermeer. His writing is not easy, to me it really requires effort to read but I think it really worth it. I found myself reading a paragraph two or three times so I can absorb the meaning. It’s for sure an above-average reading experience.

Borne happens in a post-apocalyptic world. The world as we know is ruined, rivers are poisoned, genetically engineered creatures roam the cities, even govern them and people are just trying to survive every day. Same as Southern Reach series characters are limited in this story, they present everything nonetheless. Rachel and Wick are two survivors/scavengers that built a shelter for themselves they like to think as fortress. Rachel scavenge and Wick build, using biotech. On one scavenging trips Rachel find Borne which looks like a plant at first ( I really than whoever did the cover for this book, as it helped a lot with picturing Borne). But he is not a plant, he is a child of somehow, soon starting to know his surrounding and interacting with it. He start to talk and asks lots of questions from Rachel and become Rachel child. He sometimes try to manipulate Rachel, respect her and tease her

To tell me this, Borne had made himself small and “respectable” as he called it, almost human except for too many eyes. But, really, “respectable” meant he looked like a human undergoing some painful and sludgy transformation into a terrestrial octopus with four legs instead of tentacles.

He grows larger in a very short period of time and creatures living in Balcony Cliff start to disappear. Wick believes he is a killer and should be taken apart but Rachel cannot accept that. She likes to think Borne is a person, a good person.

“Even as ghost facing Borne in that desolate place in the city, I’d come away thinking Borne was a decent person beset by a terrible affliction. No matter how I tried to push beyond that to a place where Borne was evil, horrible, a psychopath, I couldn’t do it.”

I easily engaged with the characters in this book and liked them, I cared for Borne probably too much just like Rachel. There is something about his character that you cannot just let go.

Posted on in Sci-Fi

Too Like the Lightning

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Format : Print
Series : Terra Ignota
Pub Date : May 10th, 2016
Read Date : July 6, 2016

Finally finished it… a long read for not a long book.
Did I very much enjoyed parts of it? sure
Did I very much find some parts of it disgusting? again sure
Is this book brilliant?it definitely is

So how I’m going to review this excellent and at same time weird SF book?The story is told by Mycroft Canner the ex mass murderer and convict who now serves society and mostly high powers as a servicer which is now a lighthearted pacifist. This is a new high tech world which countries aren’t powers anymore but there are 7 Hives which control everything and fight an unseen battle for power among themselves.

This is a political science fiction but at the same time is full of philosophical references, weird encounters, strange dialog and a vast different character sets.Sometimes I felt it’s too unlike my taste in books (believe me that rarely happens for me in SF genre) and then I couldn’t put it down for two hours…

This is an odd book but highly recommended. Just fight the temptation to drop it, take a break from reading, continue later.

Posted on in Fantasy

Norse Mythology

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Format : Audio
Series : N/A
Pub Date : February 7th, 2017
Read Date : July 6, 2017
Narrator : Neil Gaiman

I’ve always liked North folklore with their gods and worlds, so it’s not a surprise I liked this book.
North Mythology consists of short stories. We have Loki, Thor and Odin in most of them but also many of other gods, names that I personally didn’t know much about.
Loki has been always one of my favorite gods with all his trickery and slyness and again in this book Gaiman has him at his best. Thor is made fun of many times in the stories and I couldn’t help myself not to laugh and enjoy it when he was pushed to unwanted situations either by his own foolishness or by Loki’s lies.
My favorite stories are
-Freya’s unusual wedding (Thor is being convinced to dress up as a bride to take back his hammer)
– Thor’s Journey to the Land of the Giants (Thor makes a fool of himself by agreeing to compete way over his power)

PS: I listened to the audio book narrated by Gaiman himself and he was exceptional!

Posted on in Fantasy

The Final Empire

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Format : Audio
Series : Mistborn
Pub Date : July 25th, 2006
Read Date : June 6, 2017

This is my first read of Sanderson’s books. Most of my friends are big fans of his work and one in particular recommended the Mistborn to me more than once, so I decided to go for it finally and I can say I loved it.

When there is so much talk about a book you will have high expectations from it and I’m happy it fulfilled all of them.

The world of Final Empire is a dark world, there are two groups of people. Nobles and Skaas and there is a god like figure who governs the world, Lord Ruler a merciless ruler. Skaas are slaves and Nobles treat them with cruelty. Until one day a trouble maker a half Noble half Skaa starts a rebellion. Kelsier is what they called Mistborn, he can burn metals and use them as fuel to his magic. Only Nobels can be Mistborns but once in a while there are some between Skaas. He is charismatic and caring. They say it is rare to see a Mistborn between Skaas, what will you do if you find another?

Vin thinks she is an ordinary thug with a luck, she can influence people with her luck. She just tries to stay alive in cruel underground of Luthadel, until she is discovered by Kelsier. She finds out that she is a Mistborn and becomes part of Kelsier’s crew to end the Lord Ruler’s Era.
I really liked the characters, all of them. They’ve been shaped so each one of them affects the story. They are all visible through the lines. We have Kelsier and Vin in the centre and then all the others but all of them are important and very compelling. Beside Vin and Kelsier I specifically liked Ham and Sazed.Both with their own mysteries and minds, probably Sazed more.

I listened to the audio book version narrated by Michael Kramer and he’s done as perfect as always.Totally recommended.

 

Posted on in Fantasy, Uncategorized

The Great Hunt

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Format : Audio
Series : Wheel of Time
Pub Date : October 15th, 1991
Read Date : May 27th, 2017
Well, it now starts to come together. Boo one was a little bit boring and confusing for my liking but to my surprise I didn’t find it long. It is very rare that I enjoy a book longer than 500 pages but recently it happened more than once, not sure if it’s me or the books. Kidding, for sure it’s the good books.

The story begins right where the first book finished.Rand accompanies his two friend along with a Shienarian army to retrieve the horn from dark friends. Nynaeve and Egwene are going to White Tower to become Aye Sedai. Rand is struggling with his faith but he forces to channel.
I can’t decide yet what I make out of Rand, for sure he is not a strong main character. So much doubt, so much fear, and still confused about too many things, not only him.But then I think maybe that’s how it should be. To see him grow and become he needs to be, should be. I’ll wait to see what’s happening in next books, it’s just the beginning I guess.
My most favorite character of book two is Nynaeve, doing everything she can to help her friends from two river. Looks like she sees herself still as their Wisdom and don’t want to give up on them. She is the voice of wisdom so many times when Egwene is all energy, excitement and worry about Rand.

Soon I’ll start the third book and I’m sure will be more confused by many new characters. Hell, why there are so many already? How many more are going to be added in next 12 books?

P.S : I listened to the audio book, narrated by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading, both are amazing. I’m now listening to Mist Born (Final Empire) again narrated by Michael Kramer, not sure how I’m going to get used to not so good audio books again.
Posted on in Fantasy

The Cathedral of Known Things

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Format : Paper
Series : The Relic Guild
Pub Date : October 15th, 2015
Read Date : April 11th, 2017
What a sequel. I absolutely love this series and just don’t understand why it’s been read only by few people. It deserves much more attention.

The Genii have come back and took control of Nightshade. They have lives on million denizen of Labrys Town in their hand now. Relic Guild few live members hardly escaped police attack and found themselves in horror of Retrospective.
Clara has changed into the wolf, Samuel and Vam Bam don’t know if they should watch Clara or monsters coming from Retrospective. And there is a suspicious shadow carriage that can carry them to an unknown Aelfirian houses. Something that hasn’t happened for forty years. They don’t know what is waiting them on Aelf houses, who is friend and who is foe anymore. But one thing is clear, if they don’t do anything Labrys Town would be destroyed and The Genii will gain control all over the world.

Similar to the first book, The Cathedral of Known Things switches between two timelines, 40 years ago when Genii war happened and now. Lots of secrets are known and with them great dangers are coming to light.

This is a brilliant story, characters, events, everything is just very good planted. The ending was unexpected but I can’t say it disappointed me. We knew it was coming. So highly recommended.