BulbasaurusThe7th
This one... oh, this one. You know, this is one of those books that are extremely readable, they are fluid and you just go on and on. But the moment I closed it, I was like “huh, did any of that mean anything at all??”. Sasha is 17, on vacation with her mother. A weird dude approaches her and basically tells her to go skinny dipping every night for a few consecutive days or else bad things will happen. She is scared, but does it, then vomits gold coins. You did not really think that after that, he would leave her alone, right? She gets sent to a depressing magical school and the fun just begins. Not FUN fun, you know, but.... the story, I suppose. If there is one. For the majority of the book, we don't really know how magic works in this book. I mean, even at the end, I wasn't particularly knowledgeable about it. Weird shit just happens, the protagonist does things and has things done to her that just make no sense and one of the main things is that nobody explains anything to her, because naming a thing both changes it and prevents it from changing. They all have to come to certain conclusions by themselves or it all doesn't work. Now, I think it was absolutely worth reading this book, but it doesn't give you the satisfying feeling of a story with a proper arch or structure or anything. Nothing is really explained. The relationships are not resolved. Wo don't know what happens to people who fail out of school or to ones who graduate. It feels like nothing mattered at all. I got that feeling during the story as well. Many times Sasha is told she can't do a thing or she does something that is dangerous or not okay. We are being told that the weird dude who approached her is super dangerous, we are made to believe he can kill your loved ones for defying him. He even does to someone else. But it all just doesn't matter, because Sasha gets away with everything. I liked the writing, though. It has that Russian feel to it, that kind of gloomy and detailed style that makes something so dull like the dorms feel... vivid, I guess. Now this won't work for everyone, but if you know what I mean, you know. So again, the technique was there. It really was, I just don't feel the story was properly utilised as such. It said many words that are supposed to be profound, I think, maybe, but to me it just felt questionable if it is. I will be honest, I read this based on Helena Paris' review and I thank her for bringing this to my attention. According to her, it has something in common with [b:The Magicians 6101718 The Magicians (The Magicians, #1) Lev Grossman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1313772941l/6101718.SY75.jpg 6278977] (I love it) and [b:A Deadly Education 50548197 A Deadly Education (The Scholomance, #1) Naomi Novik https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1596909044l/50548197.SY75.jpg 75543174] (I really dislike it). If you love A Deadly Education, I wouldn't automatically go for this. That book is a simple YA book with some emo makeup in a school. This one... this is weird and conceptually much more out there, so be prepared for a bit more than “UWU, main character is so cool and she doesn't know she is cool, but like... YAAAS”. It's also much weirder than The Magicians, that had its odd moments already. Just dial it waaaay up. All in all, I don't regret it, but it's also not my favourite ever either. It was a good idea to read it while on break from work.
I don't know, man. I'm just not excited about this. 30% in and I don't really care about the protagonist. I thought there was going to be a bit more about the other crew or something, but so far it just feels kind of boring.
Possibly I will try again later, but at this point, I have no feelings about this book.
This series is not good. It's not good in multiple ways, but let's just start from the beginning.
The main characters are about to graduate from the Scholomance and that means they need to find a way to do it without dying to a horde of monsters. Simple, right?
The thing about the Scholomance is that it is fucking awful. The food is shit and poisoned, you can't leave and there aren't even windows or a yard or anything, you have to do basically impossible schoolwork, including just super quick learning about 70000 languages, you can't get any belongings in once you enter, everything from showers to getting stationery from the closet is dangerous.
It's so DUMB. It's so unnecessarily bleak and edgy and “badass”. I just can't stand this whole thing of everything being bad and literally a whole world being invented just to be so emo about it.
And honest, it's not even well thought out. Half the book is spent on El mentally going through things to somehow patch up the gigantic stupid plotholes in this unnecessarily edgetastic nonsensical world. It's bad writing to keep telling and barely showing
Like yeeeeah, totally, it's productive to fucking get the kids murdered for going to grab some fucking pencils. That develops their skills in... what exactly?
Another thing is the super unhealthy relationship between El and Orion.
She keeps shitting on him and acting like a colossal bitch, but then gets territorial and hates others for being dicks to Orion. Or being too nice to him. Or being anything, because the only person who gets Orion is her and her alone and that is why she keeps calling him names.
Just because the magical world is shitty and corrupt doesn't mean her being shitty to him is any less of a bad thing. Such a typical abusive thing.
Before anyone start, NO, I do not care about life being shitty for El. That is no reason to be an ass to Orion. Who is an okay character. But his name is Orion Lake. Literally the stupidest, most fan fiction name EVER.
Things were also repetitive. How many scenes of characters going through an obstacle course do we really need? How many mentions of them going to lunch or to the bathroom together?
How much stream of consciousness BLAH BLAH BLAH?
The last scene had some nice things, that was okay, but this whole idea is just half-baked, kept somewhat afloat by constant expositional inner monologue. Like did the author just realise in book two that the food the kids eat needs to come from somewhere?
Honestly, it's not good. It's focusing on an aesthetic social media fad (dark academia) and the substance is not there.
It took me one whole week to read 20% of this and I can't go on. This book is similar to [b:The Name of the Wind 186074 The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1) Patrick Rothfuss https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1270352123l/186074.SX50.jpg 2502879]. Now many a Rothfuss fanboy will scream at my face about how KKC is liekm the best series EVER and it's absolute genius. No, it isn't. Nor is this one so. You know the feeling when you are like... 14 and everything is dramatic? You are so deep and every annoying piece of comical melodrama is the best thing ever? This is it. Except... it isn't? Because it has a lot of adult content. Which is fine, I am an adult, but because I am, the attempted gravitas is just pathetic to me, but also the content makes it not really suitable for actual kids. It's also very verbose. People of a certain country or region or whatever are obviously the world's version of black people. Yet we have to read repetitive descriptions of them being black and having dreadlocks. Pro tip, after making it obvious they are the black people, just mentioning they are from that place is pretty much enough, you don't have to also say they have dark skin every time. I also can remember a character having feckles. You don't have to tell me every scene. She is freckled, yes. It just never seems to get anywhere. We are going with the story and it's still setting things up without making any progress. I like me some vampires. That's not the issue. But this is such a stiff book. No flow, no playfulness, not wit. Just overwritten angst. It takes itself so seriously, meanwhile the story itself is really not clever or anything. I found some unintentional comedy in it, except I was also really dang bored. It has illustrations, though. They are pretty nice, I have to give that to them. A bit samey, Instagram, webcomic style, but with impressive detail.
DNF at about 60%.
Here is the thing. This story has a bunch of characters, which I like. But then... it just feels like they are never properly utilised. They are quirky and fun, but we never really get to know them properly, enough to really understand why they do what they do. We get told a couple sentences hinting at their past, but it's never fleshed out. Things happen and it still feels like the story is just starting.
I lost my enthusiasm.
I don't think this is all bad. I just feel like something is missing. Something about the creation of this is incomplete and made me feel like a half-formed idea, where the characters and the places were created, but it was never brought together. Somehow the unifying top layer just wasn't in place.
Anya still tries her best, both socially and academically, for a mission she doesn't fully understands, because she is a small child. She is such a sweetheart. Also, to be fair, she isn't the only one who doesn't have the full picture, so that's good.
I especially liked her bonding with Yuri.
Little by little, we are also introduced to more characters. This manga is relatively small in scope when it comes to characters and settings and the characters are added slowly. It's a nice change of pace. I like busy stories, sure, but this isn't one of those. A bunch of action, but also things don't happen all at once.
The new person is another spy, a lady taught by Loid, who is in love with him and wants to become his wife. So look out, Yor.
Talking about Yor, I just love the fact that the time she is actually doing a perfectly innocent thing, cooking, and suddenly Loid is getting suspicious of what the hell is going on with her. The irony.
DNF.
The book introduced about 5 different points of views in the first 50 pages or so. The moment I thought I was kind of understanding things, we got a whole new group. Just too many things happened too fast.
Another issue is, I am just not super interested in the teenage girl protagonist. She is kind of... I don't know? Typical teenage girl protagonist? Not confident, quirky, has a super special life, but also everyone adores her.
At last, there was something that made me uncomfortable. At one point we get introduced to a kind of retirement home for mentally ill people who are also poor. It's a charity of sorts. The way the staff there is portrayed was... odd. They discussed the patients constantly, often right in front of said patients, calling them names and such. It was all light-hearted, but that's just not cool. Plus, one of the people working there is this big, burly gay man. We get told he is super huge and strong, he threatens people who are homophobic with physical violence (nice thing to do among legitimately mentally ill people, I am sure they never do or say weird shit because their brain is literally shutting down...), then he goes and REPEATEDLY sexually harasses an (as far as we know) straight dude half his size by badgering him constantly about having sex with him.
He also discusses the penis of an old male patient who literally can't even communicate and seems only semi-conscious. Not in a medical way either.... He is also super best friends with teenage protagonist girl, so we are supposed to like him.
I knew about this book, hard not to. Never seen the movie before, though, I don't watch many. But I guess, it was time to get on this one.
Johnnie is a normal high school student in the future, where space travel is readily available. Though there is one more thing about said future; only people who have served in their version of (space) army have the right to vote. They are the only full rights citizens.
Now our Johnnie doesn't join because he is just so passionate about the whole thing. He does because a friend also does, just like a cute girl from his class.
Then, while he is training... a war with space bugs starts.
When we read books about the future or a utopia/dystopia, the focus is usually someone special. Someone who changes the world, someone who causes big events to happen. A genius, a hero, someone like that. Johnnie is good at what he does, he puts in effort and is a good person, but he is not unique. He is not some magical special person. He is just one who gets caught up in events and does the best he can. It makes the book much more approachable; you can totally understand Johnnie.
It also helps with a lot of the technical details. I'm not someone who is super knowledgeable about science, but hey. The protagonist isn't either. He explains how the in-universe things work in practice, so you understand what's going on, but at the same time, it doesn't go into such details that make it difficult if you are not into science. Which was a great decision; it doesn't date the book too badly.
For a novel that plays out in space, it is not huge when it comes to scale. There are only a few more important characters and they are used sparingly. The story feels much more intimate this way, with interactions only being used without the full relationships between the characters fully portrayed. A lot of it is not even resolved; without spoilers, there are a couple of times when we are told Johnnie wants to/will meet someone again and we never get to see that.
We also often don't see the reactions to deaths, just get told it happened. You could think it makes things less emotional, but overall, this is a book with very little theatrics.
What it has a lot is people thinking about... society, I suppose. How it works, how we make it work. Those parts can be a bit dense, but they are never drawn out and I don't felt preached at. Possibly because as those things were mentioned, Johnnie was also learning and trying to understand them. I'm not even attempting to explain said things in detail, though, just read it. Mr. Heinlein did a better job than I would.
I think this is a good choice for even people who are not that deep in sci-fi and I understand why it's condsidered a classic.
Denji's mother died when he was a kid. His dad managed to get tens of millions of yens worth in loans from the Yakuza, then just killed himself. Good job. So now Denji has to pay back all of that and he is just a kid. What to do?
Well, “lucky” for him, his world is normal like ours, with the exception of devils. They exist as the embodiments of fears/phobias and they are here to make trouble and kill people. So Denji befriends a little demon, a creature that's half chubby doggy, half chainsaw, called Pochita, so they can kill devils together and slowly pay back.
Yeah, well, Denji is still starving and having no life, until it turns out that he can join the official, governmentally regulated demon killers, under the leadership of this beautiful girl called Makima.
The thing happening here exists in a weird space, psychologically. Denji doesn't have a good life. We can even say he has a pretty fucked up, shit life. You can see it. He also has amazing powers. But somehow the author makes a point of not overdoing his aspirations. Often in stories like this, the hero is lonely and sad and aims to be THE BEST. Powerful and famous and a leader.
Denji is different. He just wants the bare minimum. Regular meals. A comfortable, ordinary quality life. A girlfriend. Dude wants to just touch some boobs.
I absolutely love the way we have insane monsters and such, superpowers and chainsaw heads. But also, the main character is the type who wants to hug a pretty girl and eat jam on toast. He is so relatable on an everyday scale in a setting that is so out there.
It's almost saddening, really. It's jarring how they go from chainsawing a bunch of zombies to... Denji being happy about finally being able to take warm baths every day.
It also tells you how messed up it is from the get go. Makima is not a nice girl. I have a feeling she won't ever actually love Denji or take proper care of him in a way that's not calculated and selfish. Sometimes even Denji realises this and he still does his thing, because he is not aiming high. So what if she is a bitch who uses him as she wishes? It's not like he expected a healthy, loving relationship like... ever.
The art is kind of messy. Sometimes the characters look almost off model, it's fast and lose and I think it really works with the story. In winders view panels sometimes the characters' faces are not drawn in, they are just distant shapes. I think in a way, that works well with the violence and erratic action.
Then there are these moments with amazing, creative panelling.
Yes, it is violent. Do not get into this if you can't handle gore. Then again, the title is Chainsaw Man, not Stuffed Toy Man.
I'm really curious where it will lead, where Denji will end up. If he will ever realise that not aspiring to be too much still doesn't mean you are supposed to let someone use you. I wish the best for him and so far, it doesn't seem like that's where things are going.
Merged review:
Denji's mother died when he was a kid. His dad managed to get tens of millions of yens worth in loans from the Yakuza, then just killed himself. Good job. So now Denji has to pay back all of that and he is just a kid. What to do?
Well, “lucky” for him, his world is normal like ours, with the exception of devils. They exist as the embodiments of fears/phobias and they are here to make trouble and kill people. So Denji befriends a little demon, a creature that's half chubby doggy, half chainsaw, called Pochita, so they can kill devils together and slowly pay back.
Yeah, well, Denji is still starving and having no life, until it turns out that he can join the official, governmentally regulated demon killers, under the leadership of this beautiful girl called Makima.
The thing happening here exists in a weird space, psychologically. Denji doesn't have a good life. We can even say he has a pretty fucked up, shit life. You can see it. He also has amazing powers. But somehow the author makes a point of not overdoing his aspirations. Often in stories like this, the hero is lonely and sad and aims to be THE BEST. Powerful and famous and a leader.
Denji is different. He just wants the bare minimum. Regular meals. A comfortable, ordinary quality life. A girlfriend. Dude wants to just touch some boobs.
I absolutely love the way we have insane monsters and such, superpowers and chainsaw heads. But also, the main character is the type who wants to hug a pretty girl and eat jam on toast. He is so relatable on an everyday scale in a setting that is so out there.
It's almost saddening, really. It's jarring how they go from chainsawing a bunch of zombies to... Denji being happy about finally being able to take warm baths every day.
It also tells you how messed up it is from the get go. Makima is not a nice girl. I have a feeling she won't ever actually love Denji or take proper care of him in a way that's not calculated and selfish. Sometimes even Denji realises this and he still does his thing, because he is not aiming high. So what if she is a bitch who uses him as she wishes? It's not like he expected a healthy, loving relationship like... ever.
The art is kind of messy. Sometimes the characters look almost off model, it's fast and lose and I think it really works with the story. In winders view panels sometimes the characters' faces are not drawn in, they are just distant shapes. I think in a way, that works well with the violence and erratic action.
Then there are these moments with amazing, creative panelling.
Yes, it is violent. Do not get into this if you can't handle gore. Then again, the title is Chainsaw Man, not Stuffed Toy Man.
I'm really curious where it will lead, where Denji will end up. If he will ever realise that not aspiring to be too much still doesn't mean you are supposed to let someone use you. I wish the best for him and so far, it doesn't seem like that's where things are going.
I got my copy from the author for free, in exchange for an honest review.
Tauheen, the Aeriel queen stuck on Earth, terrorising humans, is dead, leaving Safaa as the only ruler of their kind. You would think that solves everything, right? Well, not really, no. Her subordinates joined human gangs of criminals and things are getting confusing.
I will start out with pointing out the only thing that was a problem for me even in this book; so many names. I remembered the main people, but some of the minor ones were a bit confusing.
One of the greatest things about this series is the way the characters interact with each other. There are just so many positive relationships, like Simani and Vikram's marriage, Ashwin and Ruban constantly bickering, anyone else and Hiya. Nowadays many writers seem to think having healthy relationships is just not interesting enough, but this proves that a book can be satisfying and exciting without making everyone angsty and socially troubled.
With all that said, this had a bunch of action. You would think Tauheen was the biggest bad and there wasn't much to do after disposing of her, but the story is obviously far from over. The end game is not just getting rid of certain bad people, but Aeriels and humans somehow living together. At this point we are nowhere near there, so I think this will last a bit longer.
Ashwin/Schwaan is still the best character, not gonna lie. He is ridiculous and by now we can see he still has a huge heart. Superficially he can seem like a bit of a careless moron, but man, he is such a nice one.
Another one I was surprised to like so much was Vikram. Excitable nerd he is, which is kind of funny. Interesting to have the dynamic where he is so into Aeriel history when his own wife is supposed to hunt them. But they are such a great duo.
I would recommend this for people who enjoy mystery/detective stories and obviously, fantasy. The fantasy elements never get overwhelming, so it's great for people who are either new to the genre or not extremely into it at the moment. A solid urban fantasy read.
The thing with Grady Hendrix is that he always tells you the situation in the title. What it says is 100% what is happening. There is no actual doubt about supernatural events really happening or creatures really existing.
But his genius is in the fact that through the characters you still start doubting it. The events play out through a long time and so much of it is entangled with perfectly normal, everyday events that you will doubt yourself like the characters do.
Abby and Gretchen are best friends. Sure, Abby is poor and Gretchen is rich, but they still end up at the same fancy school (Abby through a scholarship) and they bond. For a time they are at the top of the food chain with their other two friends, Margaret and Glee, being cool and pretty and just doing all the things the right way.
Then one night, while they are trying supposed LSD at Margaret's weekend house... something happens to Abby. Something they assume is a horrible and ordinarily non-supernatural thing. But then things just get too weird to be a simple case of trauma.
The thing about Grady Hendrix is that so far, all of the books I have read by him were based around nostalgia and retro, but he approaches those things so great. Many times I feel those books try too hard and they also over-explain; they point out the references and why those things matter. Here we just get told about those things like they are natural. If you know, you know. I think that's the right way to do it, so it's not boring for the people who know, but the rest can still google those things, right? It just flows better.
His friendships are interesting as well. He never seems to pretend that friendships are always going great and they are perfect. In that way, he is much more realistic about human relationships, even if all his books seem to be about supernatural things. People aren't always kind.
Now, I will say, I don't think this is his best book, mostly because I prefer adult characters, but as far as teen ones go, they are pretty solid.
In this, they get a dog. The end. Bye.
On a more serious note, they do get a dog. He can see into the future and Anya names him Bond, because we are talking about Anya and that's how she is. Of course, the whole dog thing is partially just another plan, another way of getting close to the target, but at the same time Bond is a very cute dog and every child wants a pet anyway.
(According to my mother, Bond looks like a seal. Which is not a bad thing, I just found it funny.)
In this one the “parents” have a harder time keeping their secrets that way. Eventually secrets will have to come out and I'm curious to see how they will handle the fact that they have conflicting interests.
This was FUCKED. Really. Especially fucked when the whole setting and everything about it is so damn normal.
Patricia is a normal housewife in the South, right? She does normal things, takes care of her mother-in-law with dementia, has two kids. Her husband is a doctor, so they are a bit of a big-ish deal and life works out fine.
Of course she needs some fun and that comes in the shape of a book club with a bunch of other, very different women, from tough farmer wife to super Christian do-gooder. The five of them are united by their love of true crime books, which is a bit naughty, but hey, let them have fun.
Then a new man movies into the neighbourhood and shit gets weird. Is Patricia going crazy and imagining that James is a vampire or did things go weird completely?
That is the most interesting thing about this; it plays out through a number of years and it's a slow thing to go from a new guy moving in to... dealing with the vampire. I knew for a fact this is about a vampire, it's in the damn title of the thing and I still got this weird feeling that I just want things to go back to normal.
The mystery wan't the fact if the guy is a vampire, it was more like a gradual building of pressure that eventually became just obvious facts.
I also expected the characters' relationships to be rock solid from the get go and it was refreshing to see something else. It took them effort to reach that point and that was good.
Overall, this was a good read. Messed up, but I'm still interested in reading more from this authot. Which is nice?
It's official, I love this series.
The night with Yuri and the Forgers escalates. Loid starts to wonder what's going on with Yor. Anya actually gets some chances to get ahead with becoming an elite student.
There is something so wholesome about this. Everyone constantly lies, but in contrast with that we have Anya earnestly trying her best because she knows what's going on, but doesn't understand it. Her little fantasies about how avoiding war can happen are the most adorably childish things ever.
I have no doubts about Yor and Loid ending up together, but what I appreciate more is that they are becoming a family first and foremost and while the two of them do bond, it's more than just them being into each other. They appreciate each other's effort and try to do their best.
There is action in this. There are punches thrown, explosions and guns, but it's still such a feel-good thing because the characters make it so.
I also love how they are doing all the things a proper, healthy family needs to do, but it's all framed in this “we need to do this” way. But then it still just works.
We already know the gag of the story. We do, but there are just so many layers to it, because the lies vs the truth modify the relationships between all the characters. Even if one or two things eventually get uncovered, there will be enough left to go on.
And also... they are getting a fluffy dog! I'm a sucker for animal characters and I'm so excited about a dog coming, I can't even explain. Again, they are doing things for the mission or for peace or for appearances... and they are so typical wholesome family!
Technically, this was a horror book. I mean of course it was, it had dicey moments and something really dark going on in the background, but also, I felt it was more defined by its... weirdness? It had some supernatural elements, some things that happened never got explained and it's all open-ended.
Also, really fucking good.
I read about 2 pages of it once before and then I stopped, but now it hit differently and I had an absolute blast.
Kris is middle-aged woman working in a cheap hotel as a receptionist. She used to play guitar in the metal band Dürt Würk. They almost made it, until their singer, Terry, got them a fishy contract with a sleazy manager, which Kris refused to accept and it all ended in a disaster and the band falling apart.
Now Terry is back, a metal superstar while Kris is unhappy, lonely and unsuccessful, not even playing anymore. But she needs to find out what went wrong with their original band, because she can't quite remember and it all seems... wrong.
Now obviously this book is full of references of music, which I completely missed. Why? Because I don't know shit about music. I listen to it and I enjoy it and it's all good fun, but I'm also tone deaf and I don't know anything about theory.
You don't need to. The story still makes sense and the emotions are universal; regret and trying to make things right after events that can't be undone.
Extra points for middle-aged protagonists. We all know the books about people doing it for the first time, but what happens after that? This is a book about picking up the pieces and having one last stand against something fucked up going on.
And it is fucked. The first half of the book is about the current miseries of Kris and her old bandmates. At first it doesn't seem worse than people way over their glory days and feeling sad over not being free and wild.
By the end it becomes about some messed up conspiracy stuff. Things that make perfect sense. Feelings you have probably felt at least in some way about pop culture, about the things that are meant to give joy. Sure, I don't think it's all supernatural, but man, would it make sense. I feel for Kris seeing her passion tuning into something disgusting.
The book was just as much about media and the content we consume as about Kris' personal journey. Now I probably sound very I'm-14-and-this-is-deep, but fuck, commercial media can be such a joyless affair it almost feels like there must be someone behind it being that way.
Now I want to read more by this author. BRB, I need to pick up another one.
Recently my friend recommended the Jujutsu Kaisen anime to me. I had a week off of work, so I was like nice, something to see.
This story is amazing. The whole thing is a lot of fun, it has dark elements, the characters are interesting, it has these random ridiculous moments that made me cry-laugh, with animation that was just gorgeous. (The OP song is also a banger.)
This manga volume is basically a prequel, a little story set in the same universe. In this world people's negative feelings can manifest as curses; creatures out there to seriously harm people. Some are small, weak and stupid, they make your back hurt and your sleep restless. Some are huge, though. They outright kill people.
So some, the ones who have access to a sort of magic, have to protect the general public, while acting in secret. They even have special schools to teach people.
Yuta is the new kid, though he is not there because he wants to be a hero; his dead childhood friend, Rika, returned as a curse and while she just wants to protect him, it basically makes everyone around him get hurt. The school is his only chance to be able to live a normal life.
For some reason, I expected the art to be much worse. It's actually pretty nice and Yuta's face is extremely expressive. I have read an interview where the artist claimed he can't draw women and that's what I call bullshit. There is a female character in this who has a pretty prominent role and she is so cute. It has some double spreads that are fascinating and of course it's full of bizarre creature designs. (Even if some monsters look like walking vaginas. That looked funny.)
Another thing specific to this is the fact that characters are not sugary sweet, but also the author doesn't feel the need that he needs to tell a bleak story that has no joy, which is a pretty popular thing in Western comics now. Either UWU ADVENTURE TIME or Batman, but with more death. This one found the perfect balance.
The teenagers are not damn annoying. Normally I like my characters to be adult and yes, the adults in JJK are amazing, but even the kids are likeable. Yuta is a well-meaning, vulnerable person who is struggling to form relationships. It also has a talking panda, called Panda. I like that.
I'm not sure how well the major concepts are explained to people who know nothing about the story. I'm not sure I would recommend this to be read before getting familiar with the world, but it was still a really nice read and a lot of fun.
I'm definitely going to with this eventually, as I need more and the second season of the anime won't come until at least next year.
I got my copy from the author for free, in exchange for an honest review.
On that front, I have to add one more thing I feel is important to mention. The big retailers of ebook were having some issue with me, as I am living in Hungary. Many seem to think my address is fake, etc. When I told the author, she got back to me in a matter of hours and sent the file without having to deal with websites moaning at me. I thank her for it and I really appreciate her help.
So about the book. In a country that is the fantasy version of India, one of the big issues is the regular attacks perpetrated by winged creatures called the Aeriels. Our main character is part of the police force protecting humans from them and solving crimes.
One day they get news about the Aeriels planning on stealing some plans of new, more effective weapons and Ruban, our protagonist, has to team up with a pampered foreign royal, Ashwin, to get to the bottom of it and avoid imminent catastrophe.
Urban fantasy with mystery is always a good pairing in my book, then again, I am a huge Dresden Files fan, so I was pretty much trained like Pavlov's dog to automatically get interested. Another thing I love is creatures. Something is fascinating about humans having to deal with creatures not human, but not quite animal either.
In this case the winged ones are actually far more advanced than humans, stronger, faster, with powers far above what a normal person can do. In that sense, this reminded me of Attack on Titan (albeit much, much less gory and terrifying); there is some sort of an outside power and people have forgotten a lot about their origins, because of our much shorter lifespans.
It's just so striking, imagining these people with giant wings showing up to rain hell on you and you don't even understand why, because hey, these Aeriels were alive before your great grandparents and you are only a tiny speck in their lives.
Ruban isn't a happy person. He is gloomy and grumpy and hates the fact people are interested in him because he does his job well. He is not trying to get attention or glory, he just wants to kick ass and protect the people. I can respect that.
As an opposite, we have Ashwin. Dude is hilarious, manipulative, he loves it when he is the centre of attention. He does what he does and makes himself look like an innocent little cinnamon bun in the process. Their opposite personalities really elevate this story. I always enjoy that kind of dynamic.
One thing kept me from getting into this even faster; there are many characters in such a short-ish book. I'm really bad with remembering names, so sometimes I felt like I couldn't remember who was the TV crew assistant person and who was some random person at a hotel.
If you are a bit smarter than I am, you probably won't have any issues on that front. :D
There were some minor continuity issues with the timeline, but I doubt anyone else noticed that.
All in all, I do recommend it.
We need more single volume fantasy stories. This is just my idea, I mean you are free to disagree, but I honestly believe we would profit from having more single volume stories like this.
The laws of nature in Becar work this way; reincarnation is a fact. It's all based on your deeds. If you are nice, you will be human, if kind of okay, but with flaws, you will be an animal. The breed decided by your exact levels. But if you mess up seriously... you will be reborn as a kehok, a chimera-like monster that just lives to go on with harming people and murdering, living in the deserts, ensuring that you will stay a kehok forever.
Except, not really. Some people decided to just do something wild and capture kehoks to ride them in competitions. Every year there is a champion. The human rider gets money and glory, the kehok a special medal that erases all its previous crimes and it can be reborn better next time, as something other than a monster.
It does help that you can keep an eye on your own current status with the help of the priest class, the augurs. Doesn't help that they are greedy assholes.
Tamra used to be a rider, now she is a trainer that is not doing brilliantly. She is doing so badly, in fact, that his daughter, Shalla, will be taken as a ward of the augurs if she can't pay for her augur education any longer. The poor girl can't even just leave, as all children with skills in augur things are forced to study it. She needs to train a winning rider to fix it.
Raia has a horrible family, so now she needs to buy her freedom by winning the races. She needs a trainer.
You know, it all seems ripe for some “I'm a girl, hear me roar, UWU, fuck men, I am perfect”, 2021-style cringe. And it isn't! It's possible to not fall right into the stupid tendencies that plague stories now, especially stories with female protagonists.
Neither of the characters are spiteful assholes. They don't blame others for their own issues more than what's conductive of them bettering themselves. They have insecurities and flaws and they are never treated as some outside force they have no power over; they can do this. Of course they doubt it, but that's natural.
I feel many female-centric stories nowadays give ridiculous expectations to girls and women. You can argue older things gave those too, but what's the meaning in being critical, when you change things to something else equally unrealistic? What do I mean by that? Now female characters have to be flawless. Nothing bad ever happens because of her, she is a victim of everyone being against her. But she is also amazing. Born with naturally perfect skills and moral superiority. Doubting herself is just her being harmed by social brainwashing, it can never be her self-conscious trying to make her reexamine herself to make sure her decisions and choices are really correct, because they just are naturally.
And this book does better still.
There is something more on top of these two; a huge, societal change and a political conspiracy going on. It doesn't completely take over the story of Tamra and Raia, but it adds an extra layer and puts these two in context.
It also adds male characters. And tell you what, they are treated well in a story primarily about female characters. Look at THAT. Again, it can be done. They are flawed, but they are doing their best and they're not the the idiots who only exist to make the women look better.
Some minor things were there I didn't love. Sometimes it felt like characters were just repeating their motivations and feelings. I understand they had the issues on their minds constantly. Sure, I do. But it got a bit repetitive sometimes.
Also, there is a whole character I felt was wasted. They did great in many ways and then we reached the end, but the thing that happened to them was just so meaningless and I don't feel it added to the overall message or the end result. It was just lame.
The world-building was done well. It had to be sparing enough to fit in one book, so we didn't get over the top, useless add-ons some authors believe are necessary for a fantasy story. Yes, we all love Tolkien. No, you don't necessarily need to invent a whole language and mythology to write a story successfully. Don't force it if you are not already passionate, knowledgeable and obsessed with these things.
I was extremely impressed by this book. After my worst slump ever last month, it was a nice new start. I definitely recommend this and will be looking into reading more by the author.
The moment I saw a gigantic dragon on the cover, I knew I needed to read this one.
The book has 3 main characters doing 3 different things that somehow end up tied to each other. Orka is a woman living with her husband and their son on an isolated farm, though it's obvious she is hiding something. Varg is an escaped slave trying to find a way to take revenge for the murder of his sister. Elvar is a warrior in a mercenary group, trying to find relics of long dead gods.
In a way, I am a bit disappointed this isn't a 5 star read for me; I was super excited and everyone seems to love this one. I have read one book by the author previously, though I don't remember much, so I have to get on that. My expectations weren't based on being a gigantic fan of his. Now, don't get me wrong, I still liked the book and some things about it were just great.
The action scenes are fluid. Sometimes when authors go too technical or too long-winded, I kind of zone out. There, I said it, action scenes can be a bit much. Not here. There were a lot of physical fights, people using axes and shields, mostly. They worked well.
The world is modelled after Nordic cultures and societies. Again, a good call. Even though it's getting pretty warm here, the descriptions were evocative and I could almost feel the cold and snow. Concepts around the gods worked fine and by the time we actually get to see more of them, it all makes sense and works. Now if you are not into other languages being used in the story, not always translated fully, you will not enjoy that, but that's about it.
Two out of the three main characters were cool. It's always refreshing to finally have a protagonist who is not a child or young adult. Orka is an established wife and mother, she knows where she is going and what she is doing. She and her family are loving and there is no typical “the husband is always abusive” type thing. It was cool to see them being self-sustaining as well.
Varg is also fine. He is interesting because he makes mistakes. Of course a former slave is not all great when it comes to social norms between free people, he also lacks knowledge and skills others have. The development of his character make him sympathetic. The way he bonds with his new group makes him endearing. Where Orka is practical and almost cold, Varg has these very human moments.
Then there is Elvar... The one that kinda sorta flopped for me a bit. Her story is the good ol' “I don't want to be a wife or whatever, I want to be a warrior”. It's one of those go-to motivations and tropes for uninspired female characters that are supposed to make me feel all powerful, but are just one note. Her part of the story is saved by the interesting things her group does. So she isn't too special, but the storyline works out.
Now I will talk about the few things I didn't love about this.
Did we need the very repetitive descriptions of every single character that shows up for two seconds? They had braids and beards, having axes. Cool. I don't remember which black-haired woman with a braid and an axe was which and I doubt it matters. The repeating words were sometimes very noticeable.
Why is every second warrior a woman? That was never realistic. No, an average woman still can't keep up with average men when it comes to pure physical strength. There is nothing wrong with admitting that, I am kind of annoyed by the fact we can't say that, because it's supposed to be insulting. It's still not. Some female characters are above average, they have special powers, but you can't claim that when it's literally every second freaking warrior. Don't buy made-up things like how totally every single viking woman was a warrior.
All in all, it was a good read, I will pick up the second book when it's coming out.
Recently I watched an interview with Jim and James J. Butcher, where James says, he thinks urban fantasy is a pretty good idea for not so experienced authors to kind of ease into writing and publishing books. I've never actually done it, so I don't know how accurate that is (though I have no reason to not believe him). All I know is that I like urban fantasy.
Now, not the paranormal romance where the main character has... relations with like werewolves and vampires. I don't like those.
But this is the kind I find fun.
The main character, Alex, runs a magic shop. Which could be a total scam, except he is actually magical and some of the stuff he sells actually works. He can see the future, which isn't brilliant for kicking ass and taking names, though it can be great if you are smart about it.
Right now his skills are needed by the governing body of the magical people to get to some kind of a relic they really really want to find.
Something about urban fantasy works with mystery extremely well. You don't even have to overdo the worldbuilding in your magical setting when 30% is mystery, 30% is... well, urban AND then there is the fantasy.
One of my pet peeves is when an author feels like to micro-manage their magical world, with us taking notes and having a full wall of paper clippings and red yarn with pins. Let magic be magical!
This was. The scope is limited enough for us to get a feel of the few characters we meet. There is talk of the political ways in which the magical people work. There is a lot of room to elaborate on that. But we are never swamped with unnecessary information to act like literary clutter, to make the world feel lived-in.
It's a pretty straight forward book. The way the mistery plays out is kind of fun, I really like the twist around that, but so far it's all a solid book in a genre I genuinely like. I do certainly think series like this have a tendency of becoming cooler the deeper you go, so I am excited for that. There is room for it.
All in all, very competent, fun, fast-paced. An easy read, but not because it's dumb in any way.
This is a separate story from book 1. Some of the characters return from there, like the actual protagonist, Yuu, the emperor who rules the country and some others, but other than that, it's a completely separate story. The things that have happened there are buildings blocks for the events here, but technically, you can just read this. I wouldn't recommend, though.
Yuu, after the death of the Iron Prince, gets recruited by a god. For the role of the ruler of heaven, they have a competition, where the gods all choose a hero and they have to find and collect hidden treasures offered up by the participating deities. She got picked by Natsuko, the goddess of lost things.
I think one of the weaknesses of this book is the fact it is not a proper sequel; both are short and I would have liked a longer time to connect with the characters and start caring about them. This is similar to the first one in the sense that we go from point A to point B, knowing that there will be some artefact with its special way of getting to it. What is different, though, is the fact that we are not building a team; characters come and go and other than Yuu, we only have Natsuko who sticks around the whole way, which gives us even less time to get fond of them.
What's more frustrating is that we don't even get to know what happened to them. They do their thing, they leave and that's about it.
I wouldn't say it was a bad book, it's fun and colourful enough, but the fact it's so short and almost a free-standing story makes it real hard to feel like you are that invested. I would have much preferred to see what's going on with Einrich. Or the others somehow coming back for vengeance. Or something!
That one also had a plot twist at the end that made me want to throw my Kindle at a wall. It was so shocking and just infuriating. Here it's... fine? First of all, I expected things, second, it wasn't all that bad. Nobody really got too emotional over it. Shit happens. You could see it coming.
All in all, this is a worthy read. Not my absolute favourite, but it's fine and it's worth a try if you want something short and easy that's not part of a million book series.
3,5 stars
When this series gets the weird, eery mood right, it does get it REALLY right. You know, like... everything is inexplicable, but at the same time, it's perfectly normal for the characters. Which only makes you more uneasy.
That, I love. Now... sometimes it's just unsatisfying, though. There are many, many seemingly random story elements that often go completely ignored. At least right now. But the thing is, I don't know how they will be tied up at the end and that makes me feel like this isn't as smart as it could be. I know I am not necessarily making a lot of sense, but my point is, sometimes it feels like this series is a bit too random for no reason.
This is coming from a person who, more often than not, prefers the beginning stages of horror; when things are set up. The explanations are usually nowhere near as satisfying. But still, we have a lot going on here and they are all put on a shelf titled “bear with me now, these will come back later”. Now sure how long interest can be kept up with all that.
Some ideas are hilarious and cool. Some are unoriginal in the vein of “rednecks who are racist or some shit are attacking us”. Or “that one way too excited, busybee worker trying to fix us up, but he is also a racist sometimes”. Like... okay, man? Very cool, yet another person we are supposed to dislike because polo shirts or something, but then it's like... oh, racist. Which you didn't know, but whatever.
I don't know, I like this book at its off-the-walls (handplants, anyone?), not at its “every fucking horror movie made in the last few years”.
Does the author have the skills to bring any of these storylines to fruition, though? We still don't know shit about Spencer, the owners, Jack's illness and the doctors, his biggest fan, what the fuck is going on with Jerry (whom I love, he is hilarious), whomever is targeting the town, anything!
Now, I know this is some online writing project and as that, the quality of the writing is pretty freaking great. But at the same time, I don't think it benefits from (as far as I know) not having a definitive ending point. Maybe I am wrong, might be, but at this point it feels like this will end up being an endless project where the heart just goes after a time and I will forget about it.
We will see.
I'm sorry, but this is just dreadful. I read some of it, but... I can't do this. As much as I liked Nikolai in the original trilogy, he couldn't save this. Leigh Bardugo found success among the trendy YA of today, but lost me as a reader. Yes, I know, I am also sure she is crying into her pile of money about that, it must be difficult to hear I won't be reading any more of her books. So let me also tell you why. The thing I loved about the first trilogy was the worldbuilding. I like the pseudo-Russia and the powers and the Little Palace and the monsters and shit. That was what got me into this. I also really hated a lot of the characters and just wished for the author to do better at that. What she did was... go for the exact opposite with the Six of Crows duology. Yes, every person who isn't me absolutely freaking adored that one. I found the setting boring and the characters the perfect example of juvenile “UWU, a bunch of quirky weirdos together”. They were caricatures and totally unbelievable as a band of for realsies badass gansters. Like do fuck off, actual criminals won't fear a bunch of teenie bopper cartoon characters. So... I quit in the middle of the first book, which is supposedly not a great idea, as like one of the POV characters is from there. Whoops, my bad? Now lets just talk about this one. I do not expect every single character to be a nice person, and that's perfectly fine. I love a good asshole (don't quote me on that, I don't want to be known as the person who said that), but I want them to be known and accepted as assholes. Authors, please. STOP making bitchy, rude, horrid female characters seem like they are not only right to be so, but adored and treated like they are perfect little cupcakes for being abusive to everyone around them. First [b:A Deadly Education 50548197 A Deadly Education (The Scholomance, #1) Naomi Novik https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1596909044l/50548197.SY75.jpg 75543174], now this? Now some of you will be like “but ma'am, why are you saying that about female characters???”. Because male characters are regularly called out for this shit and we STILL pretend a cunty female character is yaaaas kweeeeen. Somehow people are stupid. Will I have to read through one more scene of Zoya being absolutely shitty and yet everyone falling over themselves for her? We all know she will end up with Nikolai and not change, so like. Just stop. Nina is annoying. Look. I know. Nina is fat. Which is... representation? Okay, but do we really have to mention it a million times that she does indeed like eating sweets? We all know what fat means and what you generally do to be so. I do eat a lot of stuff, candy included and I'm not skinny. Do you have to go there and do the whole “and Nina would never say no to a second slice of cake”? That sounds almost mean. Another piece of representation that went tits up is Nina being bisexual. Her boyfriend dies in a previous book, which is obviously a sad thing. At the beginning of this one she is absolutely wrecked by it still, perfectly understandable. So much so she drags his dead body through countries and hears his voice in her head. But like look, there is a girl riding a horse in men's clothes. Boom, bitch, a love interest. So what was that big fuss about the dead dude? Liking a woman is so different from liking a man that it's like romantic trauma doesn't matter if you just go play the other team. Again, so woke it's turning kind of horrible and hurtful. Besides, it's totally wasted writing, like what was such a big drama about Dude dying if she can just hop over like it's nothing? Another similarly tonedeaf moment. At one point Nina and her totally uninteresting companions (cheerful black girl and emo white boy with one arm) run into Girl in Dude Clothes and her similarly attired friends. To which Nina, traumatised by death, thinks ‘“oh, these oppressed girls, at least in my country women can be soldiers, that's so good”. Excuse me? They are FORCED. Grisha children are snatched from their families. Sure, supposedly not anymore, but I distinctly remember in the original trilogy extensively talking about this. How Grisha kids could never see their families again. They got abused into using their powers better. They were forced to hunt for special magical animals to have amplified powers. Then they became birds in gilded cages, who were just tools at the disposal of the rulers. One of the big plot points was the protagonist making herself sick with suppressing her powers to be allowed to stay with her friend! Hey, even the normal army had women. Surprise, they were all miserable and then they died. HOW EQUAL. HOW FREE. Why do people pretend that being forced into the exact same kind of slavery, pain and death as men is so much more free for women? What I've read of this was not great. I didn't have fun and I wasn't inspired to go on. It was just so... what sells now. In an uninspired way.
