drews

Gardens of the moon by Steven Erickson
I picked up this book as part of the Read along on Mike's book review YouTube channel and likely never would have gotten around to it if not for that.

Many People have found this book at least to be confusing and difficult to follow the story line. I will say that I can understand why that is the case. While I did not find it too difficult to follow there are a lot of characters to follow so keeping track of who is doing what can get confusing at times.

This is a world at war with the malazan Empire and one city (Darikjostam) is left for the Malazan empire to conquer and only one stands in his way Lord of the moon's spawn Anomander Rake

It seems however the Gods are also getting involved in the war as well and have their own plans and agendas

The magic system is pretty basic, sorcerers, allomancers, sorceresses etc.. and I found the world of Malazn to have a very dark shadowy feel which I love! The Shadow hounds particularly peaked my interest and I have no doubt that they will make an appearance in other novels of this series as well

My only real nitpick is the Jaghut Tyrant. The payoff for this characters story arc was not really there in terms of the set up for me, lest I get into spoilers I will leave it at that

I will have a full video review on my YouTube channel in the next few days https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkUMtTLktLQ9BrbI0LRJVdg so check that out if you want

Khraen is a man who has no idea who he is. pulled across the world in search of the pieces of his broken heart literally. He has lost everything and seeks to regain what he has lost and to learn about who he is and where he came from.

This is a story full of demons, dark occult sacrifice, wizards and undead nercormancers in a compelling dark occult world. Khraen's story in the 1st 10 pages had me hooked and it was hard to to put down. This is the 1st in a series and I will for sure get the rest at some point

great read all around

Overall a fun read that I really enjoyed mostly.

That being said this book gives too much of mistborn era 4 world info for my tastes as that series has not been written yet

There is also imho too much of cosmere connections in very not subtle ways which would have been better to be much more subtle vs the "ya these guys are from scadrial and this guy from roshar" kind of thing

However i really did like sixth of the dusk novella flashbacks being part of this book, which was great both for those who have read and not read that novella.

This is the 1st Neal Asher book I have read and am glad its a stand alone, which works better a intro to his works.

Weaponized is a scifi story with big ideas. Those big ideas are however nothing new or orginal which is why I did not rate it higher. memory wipes, genetic engineering, AI controlling society, human augmentation etc... nothing that has not been explored in scifi before.

That being said it does exlpore the question of at what point do we cease to be human. When does Genetic engineer and bio tech augmentation cross the line into something beyond or not human any more. Certainly a good question and one that I beleive philosphers will struggle with for yrs to come.

Ursula is our main character who struggles with that exact question as she leads a colony in a fight for survival against 2 enemies determine to destroy her and end her mission.

I dont have alot to say but I did enjoy the book, the ideas and the characters were ok, I didnt feel much in the way of connection with the characters as it was more the plot that kept me reading and I enjoyed it enough that I will probably check out more of Neal Ashers books in his polity universe or otherwise.

This is my 1st read by this author Ava Reid and as I understand this is her debut novel

Inspired by jewish and germanic folklore and religion even pulling from some old testament biblical stories this is enemies to lovers trope

A Girl with no magic is taken from her village by woodsman thinking she has magic so that their king can harness her power for himself. Through shared trial battling monsters and navigating kingdom politics they must fight for survival and earn each others repsect.

Overall I really enjoyed this read. fusing folklore wtih biblical stories monster haunted forests. Evike our main character was one i really found myself cheering for as she struggles to accept her own feelings for the woodsman who takes her vs her peoples long held mistrust and hate for them.

Her own trauma is a source of strength for her as she fights the monsters both at the kings court and the haunted forest where the trees walk and sacred beasts roam with mystical powers

good read for the those that like fantasy based in folklegen and lore i really enjoyed this one