BulbasaurusThe7th

Surprise surprise, I will be controversial again. This book is bad. I'm about 2/3 in and it's just not worth this time I wasted on it already.

Here we have our people who get magical powers from a goddess if they complete puzzles in a tower. Corin's brother went in, never came out, so... yeah. Corin wants to go in and find him. He goes in, gets entry level power, goes to magic uni to level up to go back in to find him.

This thing is fucking LONG, man. Not even justified long, because it can be that way without feeling like a bogged down crawl though molasses. Here it just looks like no editor was ever found, which sucks, one could have probably broken out the red pen of doom and carved out huge chunks of unneeded stuff. Now what are these unneded things?
Corin is a magical version of some sort of an engineer, okay? He makes magical items. He also narrates the book, so it means we have to read him thinking about shit. Not interesting stuff. Like how to make basic level items that he doesn't really know how to, so it means endless brainstorms of shit that he will probably not make.
What is worse, every time he finds a goal... it just gets disovered he will need to do 75 other shit before he gets to it. Not kidding. To get to his brother he needs to get to the tower, get little power, get to uni, build items, build items for his buddies, but for that he needs mana, but he has very little, he needs crystals, but those cost cash, so he needs to learn to make crystals to make times, to sell, to get cash, to get more supplies, to make the better items for team, to get to exams, to get points, to get into elite dorm, to get better supplies, to get more points, to get to elite military, to get to tower, to get to brother... (spoiler, he is only been to school in less than aa semester, we are nowhere near)
Why the fuck am I doing this to myself, people? Kill me. Just take me out and kill me.
The nonsensical story structure and world building doesn't end here. The power levels have like aa gaillion rating systems. Like depending on what class he is, where on his body his mark is, then mana levels, then rated in gemstone names, all gemstone levels also rated by letters. Fucking why? Oh, also, classes can kinda do the same things with different technique, so more mumdo-jumbo.

By now you probably get why this is slow. So much useless information you have to exactly learn or you won't get shit. By the way, people can work above their level, as I said classes kinda merge in some ways, so it all means. Thanks.
I sound salty becuse I am.

And now let me talk about Corin, this cardboard idiot. Imagine a character who is probably a shitty robot, masquerading as a person, but is failing. That's right. It's him.
His personality is awkward. I am convinced the author is trying to write a protagonist with autism (engineer type with autism, so original), but this was just uncomfortable. Corin is absolutely oblivious to everything in life. In their society they have nobility and peasants and it took him 17 years to realise it means.... read carefully now, I will go deep... that they are not all treated equal. LE GASP? He also benevolently concedes that it's WRONG. I'm baffled.
Oh, also, Corin, our resident genius is even worse. Beatin C3PO in the robotic department our dude excells. He never cares about dating nobody. Doesn't even really cares. Then a dude asks him out and in the span of 2 seconds he realises he is gay. A dude he didn't even think about or care about at all. He didn't even really properly LOOKED at him. BTW, other dude is also a pseudo-Asian foreigner royalty from an enemy country for maximum angst-possibility points.
Why are you fucking useless, Corin? Why? What comes next?

Other than it being a retarded way of making a character behave, how far can we go from subtlety? Yes, the dad dislikes how Corin is not in the family battlemage business, but he himself likes this. We got the message of being yourself and not worrying about others' expectations. We don't have to literally check all the “different” boxes that exist. I “can't wait” for him confronting his dad about “yes, I am a family disgrace, who is autistic, besties with peasants, gay, literally fucking someone from a country that will inevitably attak us”. No cheese, please. (I am 100% sure his bro is alive btw, wonder what he can be hiding after THIS. He's probably a weed-smoking communist furry, none of which dad would like, prolly. I hope he has nipple piercings and a soul patch.)

Everyone loves this, but to me it was misery. Impractical choices, “how are you even alive?” characters, a worldbuilding that reads like I'm trying to learn the wikia of some RPG by heart, slooooooooow.
I don't recommend it, I won't continue, I probably won't try another series by the author. Just leave me alone now.

Good night and let me leave this tower of terror!

Review to come

I have wanted to read this series for something like 6 years now and now seemed to be a good time to go ahead with it. One thing that pissed me off endlessly, though, was the fact that the UK and US releases not only have a different title for the series, but even the individual books go by different titles. Looking anything up online is confusing, because hey, two series in the same universe? No? Which book is this? Which number?
Thank you, publishers, you played us all. It sucks. I mean the situation, not the book itself, don't get me wrong.

Kids eventually reach the age when Harry Potter is not that scary for them. Some of them even like spooky things and monsters and such, but I would rather not drop them from middle grade right into Stephen King. Not just because of the horror, but Mr. King is a bit fucked up in many ways (we are not going to talk about the orgy in IT, no sir).
So what is a horror-loving child to do? Well, for one there is Darren Shan who is a master of gory and creepy and horrible and I love the fact that this corner of the market is used. Just like Rick Yancey's Monstrumologist books (except the last, that was just WTF). Or this! Though I would say this was lighter than Shan's Demonata, but there was still plenty of creepy stuff in it, with witches and blood and a boy who has to learn how to fight the supernatural creatures plaguing the normal people.

Thomas is the seventh son of a seventh son, thus he is perfect to battle all the evil creatures. When it's time to find out what occupation is right for him it's obvious he will become the apprentice of the Spook of the County; the man who keeps them safe from everything unnatural, though such a job is not only very scary and dangerous, but lonely as well. While him and his new master are there to help, people don't trust them and even fear them.
Thomas thinks his life will be spent alone, until he meets a girl, Alice, who seems to be more knowledgeable about the supernatural than he is and really, more than any child should be. But things are not so easy when everyone wants to get their way and a powerful creature is about to escape.

It was short, fast, a fun read. The series is MUCH longer and I am going to go ahead with it for sure.

RTC

Did not finish at 40%. After reading the Grisha books by the same author, I had high hopes for her keeping the good sense of interesting world building, but stopping with the overdone YA bullcrap of forced romance, special snowflakes and general cheesy shit. Aaaand it did not happen. If anything, she got even worse. In this book we have a gang of teenage super gangsters, led by the super cool and mysterious Kaz, who sometimes cuts out eyeballs, but like... he is so rad. All of our teenage heroes have some token skill when you know they are just put together to all have “cool” banter and to pair them up in lame love stories. The mission is to free a guy developing a superdrug from an impenetrable witchunting stronghold. As I said, I loved the Russian-inspired world of Grisha. It had that extra, that interesting stuff that made it different, even if it was just a nice veneer to cover love triangles and the heroine being so average that she ought to have a world saving superpower. Also, I kind of like the Russian aesthetic, it's lovely. In this one... well, it's not so fun. We have evil fantasy Finland, though. With evil tall blonds in uniform. Otherwise it just didn't interest me all that much. Ketterdam was like fantasy Amsterdam, which, while different from the average, didn't really interest me. It didn't even matter, we should care more about the gang, somehow showing off the culture wasn't a thing. Disappointment. If I have to save the world, I will definitely not send teenagers, though. I mean I disliked The Hunger Games (shoot here), but at least in that one the games themselves were specific to teenagers. Only they qualified. Here the world is being saved by teens because the author couldn't be arsed to actually somehow try to fit adults and teens together. Why is this so common? YES, you can make your teens feel super strong and all without removing all the adults without a reason or with a bogus one. Here it all just felt like appealing to the teenage sense of “moooom, you don't get me, I am actually changing the world! Can I borrow the car?”. Other than some quirks, I didn't really care about the characters and their sob stories. There was nothing about them, nothing that made them different from all the other angsty teen characters in all the teen books. If characters don't grab me, then I am starting things badly. When the story already feels dumb, the setting is unimpressive and the characters are meh, then we are having an issue. So I basically grabbed a book with a super lovely cover and high hopes and got stuck with an annoying mediocre YA book that had all the things I dislike about the whole genre. About that; YA shouldn't be about quality. When I say YA, I shouldn't feel like I need to have lower expectations for the thing. I mean there ARE good ones, like [b:Sabriel 518848 Sabriel (Abhorsen, #1) Garth Nix https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1293655399s/518848.jpg 3312237] or [b:The Monstrumologist 6457229 The Monstrumologist (The Monstrumologist, #1) Rick Yancey https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1307409930s/6457229.jpg 6647553], but this one... wasn't one of them. Somehow it really feels like that nowadays many authors say “okay, YA it is” and that means that they are creating some Fantasy Light stuff, sugar free, but it's okay, because people KNOW it is YA and they will adjust (read : tone down) their expectations. Good night and let the adults do the things!

I stopped reading at 35%, because I don't find it that interesting. I really liked the previous books in the series, but the thing here is that one third is from Senlin's perspective (I like him, I like this, obviously), then we skip to one third for Voleta, who to me is the epitome of annoying quirky hyper girlie (hello Kizzy, my old friend) and then supposedly Edith is the last, whom... I don't really have that much of a problem with, but I also don't love. I would have probably kept reading longeri f Edith came before Voleta, but as things are I'm kind of bored.
I will most likely try reading this later again, so I'm not going to rate this now, but I need something I enjoy more.

Generally speaking, I am not really into short stories. Even with series that I love already based on the novels... I almost always just skip the short story collections and such. Something about the format doesn't work well with me.
Now this book is somewhere between a novel and a short story collection. Still the same universe as Monster Hunter International, though a different city, a different team and a whole new protagonist, namely Oliver Chadwick Gardenier, previously a Marine, now monster hunter.

I would absolutely not recommend to read this before MHI and by that time I think you already know what sort of a thing to expect. It's fun, it's fast, it talks about the different, more important cases during the early career of Chad, what he did before hunting, how he got into it, how he was doing at first.
Let me tell you, he is good at everything. Chad is a.... chad, really. But there is something hilariously fun about the way they just absolutely demolish things that come to mess with the humans in their area. It's perfect to just relax, have a fun time and let it go.

Not everyone will like it. We know that much. But man, if you like this kind of stuff, you will most likely have an absolute blast with it.

4,5 stars. So basically I don't know much about steampunk, but I LOVE the the whole aesthetics of the style. I've read a couple of books of the subgenre, namely [b:The Aeronaut's Windlass 24876258 The Aeronaut's Windlass (The Cinder Spires, #1) Jim Butcher https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1425415066s/24876258.jpg 24239884] and [b:Retribution Falls 6285903 Retribution Falls (Tales of the Ketty Jay, #1) Chris Wooding https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1338104818s/6285903.jpg 6470079] and its sequels, had a ton of fun, so it's obvious I wanted more. Here comes this book, with a cute cover and I was basically sold on it. in the 1700's Russia the Tsar has some of the most brilliant of his scientists repair two ancient robots, both wonderfully complex and fantastic. On the other story line a young scientist today is working on finding all the still existing robots and trying to understand them, but she is in danger when she reveals to a colleague that she actually has an old piece of machinery in her possession. The two stories happen bit by bit in alternating chapters, slowly connecting. Based on the cover I expected something very light. Hey, it was even sure, so it seemed obvious that it was simple and all. Yeah, no. The whole thing is written in a much more poetic language than you would guess, especially with much of the story dealing with one of the characters trying to find his meaning, the goal that his artificial life was created to achieve. I would go as far as to say it could have been kind of tiring to read this style in the book was longer, but the little over 300 pages made it digestible and downright pleasurable. At the same time, I don't think the world and the ideas were used to their full potential. Not sure f the author is working on more, but the world building is rich enough to afford much more, without being an infodump that breaks the flow. I can appreciate that. Nowadays fantasy books seem to get longer and longer and lets be honest, a lot of us are not always up for 800 pages per book. Bite sized adventures do have a legitimate place and a change of pace is pretty good once in a while. As someone not too knowledgeable about steampunk, I would say this one is a good choice for anyone like me. It doesn't assume you know all kinds of technicalities about the genre, about the previous works or really, anything. The dealing with one of the protagonists' duty and meaning in life is a close enough topic, it's something that brings closer the specific characteristics of novels of this kind. The other part of the book is mostly mystery and action. Not bad at all, but I definitely preferred the chapters with the Russian automatons. I would say the writing style fits much more there, it's more colourful and interesting. Another thing I liked quite a lot was how the story was closed down. It works well as an open ended thing, the adventure only getting over the first part, something possibly still going on as the automatons reach a whole new era of their culture. But... I wouldn't be surprised if the other or went ahead and actually wrote it all. The recent months of indie literature picking up like crazy are making me optimistic about this one, maybe it will be the next one picked up by a big publisher and I would wholeheartedly support that. Maybe it would open up some new people to steampunk. One thing was weird, though. The story spans a long time, many different countries from Russia to India, but somehow the automatons all speak all the languages. Sometimes it's mentioned they need to work on their accents and all, but at the same time spontaneous encounters never really detail HOW it happens that they all understand each other and also humans. That little thing was a bit iffy. Aaaaaaand finally a story without romance. Yiss. Okay, this is just me, but I love it when we are actually seeing relationships other than romance, it's so refreshing. Pointing it out feels important, as many people really do love romantic stuff. This is not for them. Have a nice day and gear up for fun!

So I reached the end of this. I have some thoughts of it as a whole and also the last couple of books, because there is a difference between how this started out and how it ended.

When you read a series of books it's inevitable to have some differences in the lengths of the individual volumes, it's not that weird. Some series have quite big ones, actually. I remember getting Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire as a kid and being amazed by how thick it was compared to the previous books in the series.
Here, though... the last one is incredibly short and absolutely unnecessary as a separate volume. Now let me point out the thing; the biggest mistake of this series was always just blabbering about stuff without moving the plot ahead effectively. One of the protagonists (Julius) is all about diplomacy, but I would assume diplomacy means it has to be of use. The characters certainly brainstorm a lot. Needlessly. With some clever editing the last couple of books could have been just one and we would have gotten the same ending.

Overall I loved some things about this and at the same time felt like some others could have been handled a bit better. Certain characters were unnecessary and still hyped up (like Emily) and others were hella fun and could have been around much more instead of just so much blabbering (like Bob).
I have learnt that the author has some sort of a method or tutorial stuff about writing a lot every day. I guess that's good in some way, it lets you get a lot of your story out of your system, but it also shows. Verbose. So verbose. You can't just word vomit like crazy and not cut it down drastically.

All in all, I did like the series. I would even recommend it. But it's far, far from perfect and while monumental things happen later in the series it's not nearly as concise and tight as far as the plot goes as it could have been (and should have been, lets be real).

Nowadays my reading has real ups and downs. I DNF some, I absolutely adore others, which probably means I tried a bunch of things and took the risks. Or I don't know what's going on, but this one was absolutely fantastic in my opinion.
We had everything. Alternate history '30s, people with superpowers, crazy weapons that could destroy the whole world, steampunk, zombies, a secret society of people who try to save the world no matter what. I swear it had everything.
The two protagonists are a teleporting young girl who grew up on a farm and is every bit a country soul and a hardened veteran who can manipulate gravity. Very different, both cool characters that are a pleasure to read, which is not always the case with multiple POV characters. These ones worked.

I still love stories about gangs of misfits when it's done like it was here. You have to consider that when there are a lot of characters working together they have to be sufficiently different and unique to not make the reader just skim. Of course the easiest way for it is just different functions in the group (which also justifies them being on the team), but that is not nearly enough to make things readable. Take that, Sic of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, where everyone was the same kind of YA shit.
Here we got it. It can be done.

Another thing that could have failed spectacularly (like in Samantha Shannon's The Bone Season) was the fact that as the powers were part of this underground, kind of illegal and troublesome system, they all got their little slang name. Shannon managed to make it a jumbled mess, without rhyme or reason, which made her writing a pain in the ass to read.
Mr. Correia, on the other hand... just made them make sense. Travellers teleport, Cracklers use electricity, Menders heal. You know, in a way that is logical to the normal human brain. It should be common sense to write fantasy concepts in a way that would make sense to people if it was real.

Because of all the elements mixed together I found it hard to guess what was coming. I don't personally need plot twists and crazy stuff to enjoy a book, but this was one of the more surprising reads. Some elements of history connected into our one, but others were changed with the involvements of magic. Hell, chapters started with quotes from famous historical figures, like Einstein or Gandhi, all slightly changed to add in the difference of history and it was so lovely.
Important to point out that you don't need in-depth historical knowledge, though. Sometimes history-based literature assumes you know all the minor battles and political figures of the time period, which can mess you up real good, but here that wasn't an issue, with a high school WW1 education you will be fine.

It was very visual as well. You could see it all, the fight scenes, the powers, it could work very well on film or in any other visual medium. It's probably not going to happen, because who am I kidding, but this is one book where they would have no problem in translating it onto a screen.
Why not? Because the book is realistic. It is not compatible with today. I wouldn't say it is particularly offensive, but we know how things work, so using certain words to describe certain people, even if said in a way that the author obviously doesn't think are right are considered sacrilege and unacceptable.

I am definitely reading the rest of the series, probably even right now, which is something I very rarely do. I would definitely recommend it to many people and I will do it.

Good night and if magic is hard, be harder!

3,5 stars As a rule, I will most likely hate any popular YA book. Sure, there are some exceptions, especially ones that became famous and well-loved a long time ago, but things published in the last few years generating mass hysteria usually just piss me off with how crappy they are. So this... well, I guess it's not nearly fitting enough for the teen fangirls, so I kind of enjoyed it. It was fine. An orphaned teenage petty criminal gets caught up in a break-in that ends with someone being stabbed, so of course he needs some punishment, right? Oh, well, he is lucky, as a new government program just got started, involving young offenders being sent to the countryside to somehow learn to behave and get a second chance at leading a healthy life. Sounds fine. Up until our hero, Matt, realises that the old lady having him is probably... part of a crazy black magic cult, trying to do something insane as shit to the world. Also, they have plans for him. Everyone who tries to help him get mislead or even worse, dies. So what now? I can't say I was 100% sold on this just yet. I had a bit of a hard time getting really into it, even though it was not very difficult and not even long. Something about the writing was just... not really brilliant. It was simple, I would even say fitting for a middle grade reader if ready for some murder and scary stuff. No issue with that, I have read about a million Darren Shan books, recently gushed here about Kevin Sands' [b:Mark of the Plague 28954112 Mark of the Plague (The Blackthorn Key, #2) Kevin Sands https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1462176791s/28954112.jpg 49179172], am a huge fan of Kate Milford's [b:Greenglass House 18222716 Greenglass House (Greenglass House, #1) Kate Milford https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1379952488s/18222716.jpg 25656381]... Still, somehow the language and the sentence strutures could have been a bit more challenging. Authors, please, don't be afraid of pushing the kids a bit! It's okay, that is how hey develop their language skills and intellect. They need it! This one... didn't really push that much. It's okay, I can live with that. Another thing was the length. I'm trying to read some shorter books, as it's a bit harder for me. Somehow I think I'm more used to long ones, even when it's fantasy. This one was... well, I think a bit hindered by the fact that you couldn't really develop on the characters too much in a story this short. That is important to me, seeing the characters come to life and developing an emotional connection to care more about them. Here it started to happen at the very end to me. I mean I have multiple books ahead of me, so it should be fine (I actually started to enjoy the Eli Monpress series by Rachel Aaron much more reading the second book, [b:The Spirit Rebellion 8098146 The Spirit Rebellion (The Legend of Eli Monpress, #2) Rachel Aaron https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388474230s/8098146.jpg 12863050] for this very reason). It was fun, though. Because of the length, I didn't feel like there were any boring moments when nothing was happening, so I guess it could totally work as a nice read for younger readers, especially ones who are maybe less patient with reading. The fun comes fast, things happen, there are no real slow parts where someone is just laying on the floor, thinking about super deep (but usually extremely cheesy and preachy, thank you very much) angsty teenage feelsies. So if anyone has kids in the around-13 age range who needs the instant gratification in entertainment, this could be a really good choice. Can't say much about the rest of the series, maybe shit goes insane, but so far so good. Another thing I love is how the villains combine modern technology (nuclear power) with black magic to do their thing. It did not work with Middle Ages chanting and weird animal parts and all? Keep trying, include atoms and all the new stuff and maybe you will be successful this time. This is something I love in urban fantasy; how some authors really understand that if forests and springs can have spirits and you can put salamander eyeballs in a potion to make it work, then maybe we can just get the new “ingredients” and make magic with the emotional charges of malls and smart phones and all the new tech. Magic can be change with the changes of human life and our conditions, it doesn't need o be some static, cobwebby thing. MORE! One minor thing with the whole atomic reactor thing. A scientist working in the field would never ever ever say Chernobyl happened in Russia. The correct place is Ukraine, formerly part of the USSR. NOT Russia. All in all, this was a good read, worth my time and absolutely relaxing. I am hoping for the next ones connecting to me a bit more and if that happens, I will be extremely happy. Would recommend it it people and I am looking forward to continuing with the sequels. Have a nice day and see you at the next murderous cult meeting!

For now I quit at 30%. After so much fantasy with big scope, big themes, just generally adult stuff... this just doesn't really cut it. Maybe I will finish it, it's not offensively bad, but for now I would prefer to return to Abercrombie or Butcher.

Here is the thing about autobiographies; they contain the things the subject wants you to know about them. Not everything about them, not even necessarily the 100% honest truth about them. But the stuff they think you should know about them to get the picture they want to project.
And this is exactly why I have no idea what the actual fuck Prince Harry was thinking while writing this.

Some moments, I could really understand him. Seriously. Nobody likes to have their privacy ruined. Being a public figure from birth sounds like a shit deal. It must be awful.
Hell, he even had moments when he sounded mature, like when he talked about accepting that his father was happy with Camilla. I applauded him for that.
Then he just had these moments when he managed to ruin all my empathy and positive feelings with one astonishingly stupid statement. Don't get me wrong, we are all products of our upbringing and experiences in life, therefore his baseline for what life should be is way different than mine or yours. That's a fact. But there were moments when he genuinely sounded like he had never met a human being before. I'm not even saying average human, as he didn't spend too much time in genuine relationships with average little people, but just... any human, really. What do I mean?
His weirdness culminates when it comes to talking about Meghan, his wife. Sure, he loves her, that's wonderful. But at one point he is amazed by her not being bitchy about having to wait 3 hours at an airport to get to the Botswana vacation he got for the two of them.
Harry. Friend. If anyone paid for my Botswana vacation.... I could accept some minor inconvenience. Hell, a bunch of us get that when we pay for our own vacation with the money we actually had to earn with hard work. And it's still a privilege that we are able to travel at all.

Privilege. That is a bit of a keyword here.
I'm not the type to claim everyone I dislike is privileged and claim that's an evil horrible thing that needs to be taken away.
Yet Harry here has a really weird relationship with his own privilege. He calls himself privileged when he is talking about the video where he calls his friend a Paki. Yet he talks about just popping off to Botswana to hang out with his nature documentary maker friends when he feels stressed. You know what I mean?
He has this attitude of everything bad in his life being this gigantic unjust crime, but at the same time he takes so much of the amazing experiences and possibilities as just normal. Again, I get it, he grew up with this. But he is writing a book kind of thinking about his own life. WHERE IS YOUR PERSPECTIVE? He even mentions that the military pilot education he got costing millions of pounds. But hey. No biggie, it's his and it makes him feel good. So it's normal.
Sometimes he mentions how these things are great, but he never faces the fact that the only reason he can do all this is because of who and what he is. Harry the Prince only gets the awful stuff, none of the perks are because of the same thing.

He's incredibly unrealistic in many other ways as well. The way he talks about his wife is supremely weird. Some people are more mushy when they are in love, but this. THIS. He is just unable to understand that there are people who can dislike Meghan. He claims the British people not liking her is his own country betraying him. He calls her magic.
Every single time she is not automatically adored, he claims she is being abused. Meghan acts in a way that is actually rude (like asking for the lipgloss of Kate, whom she barely even knows, YUCK) and he can't help freaking the fuck out about people not tolerating it.
Talking about freaking out. There is this one moment while they are dating. They have a misunderstanding. He gets pissed and apparently he says some mean things. In this 500 page book filled with details about his frostbitten penis (yes, really), we don't get explained what this argument was. Okay. But the way he reacts to his own anger is pathetic. He totally crumbles, says it's unacceptable for him to be angry with her and suddenly feels the need to go to therapy. Not when he believed Diana was just hiding until his TWENTIES. Not when he obviously had drinking problems. But when he snapped at perfect MEEEEEG.
Not sure how I feel about his conversations with his therapist. He needs help. That's true. But he seems to surround himself with people and things that make him try and get the exact wrong kind of “help”. Like a man who has a so obviously distorted version of reality... should probably not do psychedelics and listen to “spirit mediums” who tell him his dead mother is actually still hanging out with him. Just a thought.

Now about one of the main ideas; Harry wants privacy. Again, understandable.
Then he goes and tells us he used up all the laughing gas when Meeeeeg was in labor with their first child. That he is circumcised. Where and how he lost his virginity. Mate, what are you doing?
What is even worse, he does the same with other people. Often people he tries to make appear in a bad light. Like fuck off with talking about his dad having been severly bullied as a kid and still having this toy rabbit to comfort him. Fuck off with assuming the complicated and long relationship between Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret (and assuming Elizabeth started every conflict).
He shows absolutely ZERO respect for anyone else's right to privacy. What was the goal here? Because it's such a spineless thing to do, acting so petty.

Talking about petty, he is incredibly jealous of his brother. As opposed to him just having so many hardships, the life of Prince William is just enviable in Harry's eyes. His brother has no hardships! Those are reserved for him and him alone.

All in all, I did not develop the fondest feelings for Prince Harry. Yet, I see King Charles as more of a human being now. Which wasn't the goal, but hey. I take what I can get.

I keep wondering how Sebastien De Castell works so freaking fast. Just reading his books makes me tired. He just released this, Spellslinger AND the publication date is already out for the next, which is happening THIS YEAR. I swear to god, the man is a beast, at age 120 his great grandkids will have to remove the half done manuscript of his 21378th book from his hands by force. Not complaining, though, it's impressive.

Falcio and Co. will have to face issues of Tristia and even an outside force in this one, because this place simply can not have enough issues. At this point people don't even really seem to be willing or capable of fighting for it, as the conflicts managed to make everyone miserable. Twists happen, characters come and go. It's hard not to spoil, because so much of it all depends on those twists, they are not just for shock or anything cheap like that. Here everything matters.

I will go there and say it; I found this book the weakest in the series. Ridiculously entertaining, with the signature great humour. Seriously, this guy makes me laugh in a really unattractive, stupid way. Snorting happened. The action was fast and cool, while easy to follow. I love that. I'm the least violent person ever, I have no idea how a fight happens, but I can follow things just fine when this author does it. The protagonist and his buddies are awesome, you want to have a drink with them, because their awkwardness is just so human. They are not characters, they have life of their own. Even the different groups (the Greatcoats, the Bardatti, the Dashini, etc.) are fantastic, I really want to read some more stories about them in some way.

So what is the thing that makes me feel this is the weakest in the series? Trin. I absolutely loved how freaking deranged she was, how ridiculously horrible and evil she managed to be without trying to blunt it in any way. But then... this book happened.
Look, I totally understand characters who are morally grey, I even like that. At the same time you simply can not make a character giggle in joy as she tortures people, then back out and say "well, she is really just the victim of her circumstances". She didn't just do what she needed to do, as much as we were told, because we all remember that time in Knight's Shadow. That was not her doing bad things for the country. That was a profoundly EVIL person. I understand one of the motifs of this book was doubt in one's morality and the thin line between doing the thing that feels right and what is legally right, how you will wonder if you are doing the TRULY right thing, but don't freaking cross the line on me.

(Another minor thing. At one point they claim the dukes have an issue with Aline because she is a female potential ruler and how they can't deal with a strong queen. Paelis was not a woman and they executed him to shit. They don't want a royal of either gender who will take steps against them. Weird to claim it is her being a woman, instead of the fact they see the signs of her being like Paelis.
Then at one point some guy, I think a knight says it's horrible to let women fight, even though one character mentions his grandma's grandma was the village knight. Just like the Greatcoats have a bunch of women. Just like the Dashini. It's really not some new scandal, so... I have no idea why we are supposed to believe this character was surprised.)

All in all, I LOVED this whole series. It manged to make fantasy tropes feel fresh and full of life. It blended known, familiar things with masterful touches of originality and it was all spiced up with the extremely entertaining personality of the author. He made everything right, so far it seems like his instincts are working great when it comes to this. (Did anyone else read his amazingly hilarious bio?) We would lose out on something fantastic if he did not jump ship with the whole archaeology thing.
I definitely recommend this to people. Actually, I bought books for my best friend for his birthday, one of which was Traitor's Blade. He didn't get around reading it yet, but I do everything I can to spread the word and get more on board with this. It deserves it.

Now I am definitely reading Spellslinger, because I need to. This is out of my control. I'm hooked.

Good night and try keeping up with this brilliant, amazing madman. Sleep is for the weak.

I have a soft spot for middle grade fantasy. The good ones seem to have this sense of wonder that we all need sometimes and they can be genuinely fun. It's especially brilliant when they are written so even an adult can see the merit in them.
It's especially important to get kids to understand how fun books can be, it will influence them for the rest of their lives. I remember when I realised that learning to read wasn't just something we did at school to do something, but it actually opened up a lot of new possibilities to me.
(I kept telling EVERYONE about the stuff I was reading, even totally uninterested people. I guess that was the first sign of danger for the developments of my adult life and here we are now.)

The plague arrives to London in the year 1665. People keep dying, panic is rising and as always, prophets and healers show up to either help or prey on the desperate people. Christopher still doesn't have a new master and the apothecary could have a lot of business, but as an apprentice, he is not supposed to sell anything. So when he hears about a mysterious man who heals people perfectly for free, of course he becomes interested. But what can be the magical cure? Things get complicated.

This book was amazing, all the good stuff a middle grade read could be; full of action, lovable characters, friendships, mystery, code breaking, even a bit of historical stuff, so I guess the kids will even learn something, which is nice. I'm not a parent and I'm not going to be one in the foreseeable future, but I'm pretty convinced that this would be a book I would be happy to give to my kids.
It just has so much heart, like you can feel the passion and love of the author for his creation. A labour of love, obviously.

I have to warn you, though, some elements are a bit dark. For kids who can handle that, this is a brilliant book, it can get them interested in many different things, while being really entertaining. It's not aggressively trying to teach you things, you just get intrigued and feel like reading up on something, which is exactly what I like. Still, you get the story without being a history lover or an expert code breaker. The perfect balance.

The author is not nearly famous enough, though. Please, people, buy his stuff. He really deserves it. Push these books, make them popular, I want to see them being turned into movies, okay? They would probably mess them up, but still.
During times like this I really regret not being ultra sociable to have people who ask for recommendations, because I would throw this at them in a heartbeat.

Sure, I am gushing and it's embarrassing, but I am being honest; this was absolutely AMAZING. Not sure how it managed to get everything I was looking for, but I am so happy about it. I should have read it the moment it came out, but hey, I am glad I finally did it.

Good night and take your vitamins!

DNF at 16%.
Something about this is not holding my attention whatsoever. The writing is very flat, it holds no suspense or mystery. Just straight up prose. Honestly, most of the time I look for atmosphere in mystery/horror books and this one lacked that.

The movie of this is coming out, so I felt like it was my duty to read it. We have a tradition with my sister when every December we just have to go to the cinema to watch some fun, fantasy-type movie, so I have to research the contenders. This was one of them and honestly, I am not sure we will be watching it. Not because it was horrible and the movie will be horrible as well, it just has this peculiar feeling when I have no idea what the meaning is.

Cities are unlike you and I know here. They all move, some like gigantic tanks, some float, some fly, it just happens after some sort of a huge catastrophe. Every place living a sedentary life is considered barbaric and just wrong. But how can such places get supplies? New things, mechanical parts, everything like that. Well, they hunt each other down, break the prey to pieces and use it all up.
Tom works in (on?) London as some lowly museum apprentice. Orphan, like so many YA protagonists, idolising the biggest adventurer an scavenger, Thaddeus Valentine, who is basically like super mega Indiana Jones.
Up until he meets the man, but a mysterious girl with a horribly scarred face attacks him and as Valentine protects himself by throwing the girl, Hester, off London he also does the same to Tom for some reason. So our hero will learn many things about the man he used to adore for his exploits.

I like the concepts here. They are weird enough, surprising and out there. With YA now it is kind of hard to find anything that's in any way out there and I freaking hate that. I don't want one more mega super teen girl saving the world while claiming to be soooo average as hot guys fight for her attention and everyone just thinks she shits gold.
The problem I have with it lies elsewhere.

It is so bloody miserable. I have no idea what the point is when everything is just bleak, grey, sad, dramatic, miserable, painful and fucking horrid for everyone. Nothing good ever happens. Nothing fun or cool or funny does. It's just this negativity everywhere and it makes all of the things feel endlessly angsty.
When I say this I don't mean to talk about the author or prose or anything. But this book just felt ugly. Like it was interesting I guess, but it was really an exercise in pure misery. I don't really like that. Not saying books need to be super sunshine happy land, but I'm not the type to read whole novels to somehow spectate and bask in the suffering of the characters. Pity for them doesn't make me feel entertained or good or virtuous, it just makes me freaking sad. After a point it feels embarrassing, like I am looking at it all like some sort of a sick spectacle.
Maybe it all sounds dramatic; this book is dark, but not darker than ASOIAF. You could find many, many darker books than this. Or more like books with darker elements. My issue wasn't the darkness of the worst moments; It was that other than those negative feelings it offered nothing. ASOIAF has many wonderful moments, jokes, people discovering things and doing amazing, heroic things. Here... nah.

I'm not sure if I want to read more of this. Not because it was a bad book, but because it only brings depressing thoughts and feelings, nothing else. That's something I don't necessarily need in my life. Reading to me is a fun hobby, something to love. This didn't give me feelings of wonder, more like dread.

Have a nice day and let me engineer myself some more fun moments!

3,5/5 stars God, this took me so long. I mean it makes sense, life is stressful now for me, but still. I was being lazy with this book, partly because I am actually not really a horror fan. There is nothing wrong with horror, but... it's not particularly my thing, so for me it is kind of hard to judge them in any meaningful way. I guess that is what's happening with the newest installation in my series of nonsensical ramblings. Oh, yeah. Jack Sparks is a total dickhead. He is one of those egoistic journalists who keep trying to be special through writing about these predictably “shocking” topics, like drugs and gangs and shit, patting himself on the back constantly. Now he decides to write about... the supernatural, with his idea being that it's all bullcrap, so he can coke himself through it all. The first stop is in Italy, where an old priest is trying to exorcise a teen girl, how original. Jack laughs his ass off and the supernaturals are damn insulted by it, so our hero is in deep shit, which is not made any better by being a shitty person and addicted to all substances that can and will alter your mind. Now does our man sound like a trustworthy, reliable narrator? Didn't think so, so prepare yourself for “Oh, I lied” and “I kinda left this out to sound less like a horrible shithead”, which is something that gives it a bit of charm. Yeah, Jack is like that. As someone who had not particularly good experiences and opinions on many journalists... I can appreciate that. No, he isn't really our charming lad in pursuit of truth, which... makes him painfully realistic for a media personality, not gonna lie. I kind of liked that. On the other hand, this book is REALLY heavy on references to pop culture of the moment, which can REALLY date the thing. It is already happening, I mean I think he mentions Lemmy from Motöhead doing something and the guy is dead since then. I remember reading [b:War for the Oaks 70582 War for the Oaks Emma Bull https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1312059051s/70582.jpg 144029] by Emma Bull a couple of years back and the detailed descriptions of 80's outfits and gushing about Prince being the hottest dude ever. It wasn't too graceful. (Before you ask, I disliked that book.) To be honest, for a horror book, this didn't really freak me out. It wasn't bad, I didn't hate it, but something about it just didn't scare me. Maybe being a bit too much of a sceptic when it comes to genuinely being scared by something like this screwed with me. Oh, well. It was more entertaining than truly scary to me. Don't get me wrong, I am able to be weirded out by fiction (I'm watching Preacher now, Anatol Yusef makes me feel so uneasy, that bastard is good), but this didn't go that far into the uncanny, subtly disturbing and weird territory. Sorry. You emotionally don't get too close to the characters, so not even the shit hitting the fan had too much of an emotional impact on me. Probably part of Jack's detached dickheadery played a part in it; we don't really get to know the characters as human beings, they are more like tools and background items around the protagonist. The cover with the neon colours worked on me, though. It had a bit of some weird feel about it and find that attracts me. Dunno who designed it, but that person is good. It was worth a read. The change of pace for me was enough to make it a totally worthwhile read, even if life intervened and I couldn't just go through it fast. The thing is, I don't know what to expect from the author after this. I have never heard about him. Apparently he did (does?) Doctor Who stuff, which I am not a fan of, so I guess I am just being hindered by my particular tastes yet again. I would be open to read more from him, just not Doctor Who. The final verdict is that you should give it a shot. Short and pretty damn sweet, not at all a difficult read. Avoid if you are easily scared, even though I don't think it went too far. I like that in horror; just the right amount of gory stuff without becoming some parody with cringe-worthy, over the top, comic shock horror that makes me giggle. Have fun and don't let the Devil convince you he doesn't exist!

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 one was one of the crudest, most fun things ever and in that way it was absolute perfection. Funny enough, as I wasn't 100% sure about it when I succumbed to the trend on Goodreads and put it and also [b:Kings of the Wyld 30841984 Kings of the Wyld (The Band, #1) Nicholas Eames https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1477027207l/30841984.SY75.jpg 51246585] on my list. Somehow that one seemed more of an obvious winner, but this... god, this one matched it. The Lot Lands are harsh. Imagine some dried out, barely populated Wild West of a place, ending in marshes, the insulation between cultured, inhabited lands and... basically orcs. The people populating it are misfits and outlaws, ones who couldn't fit it with polite society, some of said people are more on the not entirely human side, namely half orcs, forming bands to keep the orcs away. Jackal, our protagonist is a member of one of the bands, the Grey Bastards, lead by a kind of insane, ageing boss suffering from a mysterious illness. When him and his friends, Oats and Fetching get attacked at a brothel by human soldiers the delicate balance between the different races seems to become impossible to maintain. Their problems are just beginning, though. Please, please, please, if you are in any way sensitive, avoid this. You will be offended. There is violence, blood, swearing, sex, dick jokes galore. It is not for everyone and that is fine, the book is not some crime against humanity because it is rough. Especially when said rough things and not PC characters fit in with the world. Here comes the soapbox; when we have a world where everything from the weather to your neighbours are inhospitable and dangerous to your life, it is understandable that you will be uncouth. It doesn't mean it is nice to be so, but it is not a surprise. Here it is a fact. Which leads to my next point; characters being imperfect or doing things socially not acceptable and offensive in our reality are okay to exist. They absolutely do not reflect on the author's (or the actor's playing them in different media) character whatsoever. If you can't handle those things, avoid this. Now that only the ones willing to handle “no homo” jokes and descriptions of prostitution and such are left here, lets go into some details about this joy of a book. Orcs and elves are not my personal favourites. It's really just based on personal taste, but give me mages and dragons any day over freaking elves and orcs. With elves it's mostly how damn cheesy they can be so fast, basically super dignified fairies with their sparkly accessories and soppy poetry. With orcs I have no idea. I guess I don't find them particularly interesting. Here somehow the world building was just the right amount of grit and established ideas to work out. Granted, not much about elves yet, but still, it worked. The fact we follow a mixed race was pleasant, as it had some connection to both sides, but they were separate enough to have their own voice and culture. The scope wasn't gigantic, the events mostly played out in a few settlements of the Lot Lands and just a toe dipped into the human controlled areas. We will definitely see more later. The characters are... grey. What felt especially wonderful was how while the half orcs dislike the humans who often use them as slaves, they were not the noble savages as opposed to the horrible cultured society. Often that is the issue; the more “barbaric” races and cultures are turned into these deep, exotic ones that possess some higher knowledge because mumbo jumbo and spiritual stuff. We see them in their own culture, hierarchies, feuds, issues and it all feels realistic. They are not elevated. They possess the same flaws as everyone else, they are not a perfect civilisation. They are not there to just smash all kinds of injustice and social issues. They are very much realistic. It's kind of hard to go into details without giving away too much, because as far as their society goes, there are some interesting plot twists. Talking about plot twists, they did work so well. Don't get me wrong, the story draw me in from the get go and I basically needed no time to be invested, but things got a depth ad we went ahead with the story. If anything, they turned out to be surprisingly interesting, different and smart. (Not everyone will agree with me, I already know that. If I'm an idiot for finding things in this clever, then I can live with that.) When you believe you realised how the power relations work here, you learn something new that changes things fundamentally. Which was something I loved. The plot twists actually affected the whole world. They were substantial enough to not be shock factor or only concerning certain characters, but to actually make a difference. When it comes to banter in books, it can either work so well or fail spectacularly and make you end up with 4th graders acting tough. (coughCassandraClarecough) Mr. French managed to make it feel real. Again, it can be juvenile and rude, it is. A lot of genitals flying all over the place. But... you can see it happening. The characters interact like loudmouth brothers-in-arms who bond over playful insults. Even the one sister-in-arms is one of them and I personally like that they are not easy on Fetching. She needs to keep up with them, so she needs to be up for all. AND SHE IS, hallelujah. The characters are all warriors, they all need to have a certain bite to them. They all do. They fit into the world they inhabit perfectly, they fit together and they still all have their colourful personalities. One of the absolute most outstanding ones to me was Oats, the protagonist's best friend. He is a thrice (mix of an orc and a half orc, 3/4 orc basically), therefore gigantic and brutish in looks, but he is the sweetest. A gentle giant who is fiercely loyal and really dependable. I loved him so much. I was genuinely impressed by this one. It had all the elements to make it a worthy read to me, I'm waiting eagerly for the next book in the series. I'm definitely picking it up once it's accessible. I would go as far as to say it absolutely can stand its own even among works of big names in fantasy. Absolute badassery. Good night and let me ride off to the sunset now!

3,5 stars When I was a young kid my sister was in her late teens, so I remember watching a lot of not particularly child favourite movies and shows with her. I wasn't the type to get nightmares or wet my bed, so I guess the family just never really minded. One of our staples was Sliders and this book reminded me of that one, which was kind of a weird nostalgic feeling, as I don't remember much of the show. I used to LOVE the character played by John Rhys-Davies, though. Here we have a family, Jason, Daniela and their son, Charlie. Jason is a physicist, once meant to be a big name, but when Daniela (meant to be a great artist) got pregnant when they just started dating, they kinda lost their big aspirations. They are happy, until one day Jason gets kidnapped and somehow sent to a different life, where he went with being a world famous and incredibly great scientist, without a family. Now he needs to get home to his family and through that finding out what he actually wants and what he is. I had to think about how many stars to give this. It really isn't my typical thing, I'm more of a fantasy fan and sci-fi is really not something I go with normally. I'm not the target audience. I don't know shit about physics, especially not the dimension travelling crazy type. The only way I passed the vanilla physics classes was through cheating. Don't crucify me, please. So yeah, the plausibility of this whole thing is totally lost on me. Is it all bullshit? Is it in line with some kinda plausible ideas by legit science? Dunno, man. It was entertaining, though. Fast paced, full of action, full of emotion (the second half, especially the very end has some really emotionally charged moments). Sometimes to me it even felt like too many things happened and not enough was fully developed. Again, mostly around the end. It's a single book, not a series, so I guess that makes sense, especially when the very end is the way it is. Perfect pacing? Not at all, but it was making me read more and more and more. The motivations in the book were really clear, you could totally get them, so I think the author's grasp on the behaviour of normal people was on point. I mean I had my phase of neurotically second guessing my own life choices, so I can appreciate this. I'm... also not a middle-aged, geeky suburban dad (surprise?), but I would say some of them would actually act so desperate and ready to do whatever to get home. Again, not bad. Thinking about what makes us us, our choices and their consequences, all the possibilities and the fact that we can't just have it all... Interesting to think about them. Honestly, all that was written in a pretty eventful and approachable way. Mr. Crouch didn't go too deep and turn it into ... too much. I can appreciate that, right now I didn't need anything more deep than this. It was a fun enough little detour into something I usually don't read. Giving it 3,5 stars doesn't mean I disliked the book. Not at all, I just don't feel it is really my thing and so I couldn't just rate it as high as some of the books that truly make me feel at home. It is really not the book, it's me. So even if the rating sounds less than perfect, do not let that scare you away from sitting down and reading the book, it is 100% worth your time. I wasn't wild about the very end, though. It was a bit... sudden. A bit over the top. Sure, it had really interesting ideas and twists, it just really wasn't my kind of a thing. If you are into the kind of sci-fi that is more connected to our reality and maybe more approachable to people new to the genre, then I think this one is a pretty safe bet. It's not even long, it doesn't have long, too technical parts that are only appreciated by the people who are really into sci-fi and know all the typical ideas of it. I would even say that younger people could appreciate this. Sure, some violence and all, but not that much at all. I definitely see the market of this book and I will recommend it to people looking for lighter sci-fi titles. Apparently [b:Pines 15034320 Pines (Wayward Pines, #1) Blake Crouch https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1350740525s/15034320.jpg 20688937] by the same author is pretty popular and it's also on my list. I'm definitely going to give it a try, maybe not right now, but Mr. Crouch convinced me that he has possibilities in him and we could probably get on pretty well. So long and make good choices, kids!

DNF at 26%.

I'm just not feeling it. The protagonist is mysterious and that is supposed to drive the story forward, but I personally didn't feel any connection to him. Too much wandering around aimlessly and killing everyone who comes his way. I feel we are getting nowhere, which upsets me, as Sebastien De Castell loved this and I love him. Why do you fail me now, man? WHY?

I'm not saying this is a bad book at all, it is actually fine, nothing offensively bad or annoying, I just feel it is lacking something that would truly grab my attention now. I'm so sorry about it. Do not be deterred by this, I WANT YOU TO GIVE IT A GO.

So yeah.

So. Daisy Jones and The Why The Fuck Are You Alive? In this review I will compare the book to things that will make so little sense at first, but work with me here, please.

This reminded me of Sex and The City in one specific way. They did have sex. But that's not it, that's just wooohooo rock stars.
The thing I will forever hate about Sex and The City was the fact that we had to follow people who were fundamentally just... absolute assholes. Sure, messed up things happened to them and I know the writers wanted me to feel sorry for them, but at the same time, just no. They all forged their own problems with their own hands and they never seemed to actually learn, just chased meaningless shit and acted awful, expecting some wonderful outcome still, because if you cry a little after heinous things then it's all okay, right?
This book is the absolute same thing. We are told Billy and especially Daisy are these fantastic, once in a lifetime amazing creatures. The number of times Daisy's HUGE BLUE EYES get mentioned made me want to claw my non-blue ones out of my head. She is such a manic pixie dream guuuurl, you can't tell her what to do. She doesn't wear a bra, because fuck you, that's why. She does all the drugs ever, because nobody can tell Daisy what to dooooo. There is literally nothing great about her. People keep saying she has a great heart. People who don't even know her. Based on? Well, I have no idea, because other than being told she baked a birthday cake for the mailman as a child, we never see any sign of it. Daisy never tries, with anything. She just rampages, but she has big blue eyes and she is pretty, so it's all cool.
Billy and his wife Camila are almost as asinine. The stomach-turning ideas about how your spouse can do whatever, because you “trust” them is just... are we being this stupid and this level of martyrs now? “Oh, he only cheated on me when I was pregnant and he was doing drugs, so it's cool.” I'm sorry, but these people are miserable as shit. But Camila is only a bossy bitch when it doesn't matter, but she acts like wet cardboard when it should be important to be straight with Billy. Because she DECIDED to marry a rock star, so it's all okay.
Karen's only character trait is struggling bossbabe. Eddie is pissed off. Warren likes babes. Pete... was there at some point or some shit. Graham was the only one who was kind of nice, really.
The way it ends, though... that's some gigantic bullshit. Camila is considerate enough to die, so Billy and Daisy have a chance of making up. How shitty.

And we have arrived to my other nonsensical comparison.
Tolkien invented a language because linguistics was his passion. He knew a lot about it and to him that was prime fun. Which gave the stupid idea of “every fantasy series needs some half baked bullshit fake language” to generations of fantasy authors who can't do the same. They try, bless them, but they make these clunky ass words and it just never works.
My point? Do not include something just because you feel you have to, when you clearly don't have the skills. The lyrics in this are.... not great. You can't tell me these are genius songs, they aren't. They kind of are just absolutely meh. We are told these characters are absolute forces and we get this?

What baffled me most is that this was played straight. You were meant to buy it, Daisy being some angelic icon. Everyone wanted to be like her. Billy's 5-year-old daughter said she was her favourite. A woman who was constantly on drugs, a petty mess, who couldn't be trusted to take care of herself. And everyone was okay with this.
In 500 Days of Summer, at least the point was that Tom needed to realise that what he was doing was unrealistic and stupid. Here, you are meant to understand why everyone was all about Daisy. She was “right” and everyone else was wrong.

I will be honest, I read this because of the hype and I regret it wholeheartedly. The only thing is, it was super easy and fast. That's it. Bye.

At first I felt this was brilliant, but things only went downhill from there. So here is my verdict. In Brisbane the supernatural underground is as crazy as everywhere else. Which, of course means there is need for someone to untangle all of it, to make things work out a bit better and to solve the crime the normal police is not going to be able to touch. Verity, half Normal and half Weyrd is the perfect candidate. This time things so particularly crazy; someone is making wine from the tears of children while sirens are getting murdered. It all needs to be solved and fast. Verity is having a shit time. While this is actually not as ridiculously verbose as [b:A Madness of Angels 6186355 A Madness of Angels (Matthew Swift, #1) Kate Griffin https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1305861910s/6186355.jpg 6366640], which was a mess of endlessly ridiculous sentences about the subtle condensation shining in the twilight on a piece of city garbage, but.... still. Sometimes the unnecessary adjectives made me wonder if there is some algorithm that throws one at your face that you have to incorporate. Here phones buzz like vaguely annoyed bees. Not properly annoyed, just meh annoyed. Because of reasons. The book being Australian didn't help with it, as I'm an English-as-a-foreign-language pleb, who knows nothing at all about Australia, except for drop bears, Crocodile Dundee and the Australian Masterchef show being awesome. Some of the references and slang words were totally above my knowledge. My other big issue was how everyone was a shit and constantly judged by Verity. Seriously, not perfect characters are fine, but the heroine constantly sneering at everyone being a jerk is just something that gets old really fast. But then she goes home and has this ridiculous, super fast insta love, where she meets a dude, then three days later he is in all of the supernatural, knows everything and isn't phased the slightest bit. RIGHT. Now I have to say, it was easy to read, it flows well, action happens constantly. But I am just not particularly in love with the whole thing. So many things that could have been done better. I love detective urban fantasy, though. I love both, it's just exciting. I think I'm going to read the next, because it could be a lot better if we get attached. That was another thing. They mentioned old events, previous cases and such, but you couldn't really care, as you were not invested. At one point a character's old friend dies, which upsets him, but I couldn't feel all that sorry for him, as I have no emotional connection. All I know is what the protagonist said about him and that is not much. The book ended with one little element that made me roll my eyes, though. Lalala, Verity is pregnant and her BF is moving in. I absolutely HATE investigation TV shows turning into baby and family stuff. Bones fucked this up big time, it just changed the tone of the show completely to have everyone get pregnant and have babies. HATE IT SO MUUUUUCH. Especially because again, I don't really care about the characters yet. It was cheap. All in all, not exactly convincing. I was kind of undecided about this series. Good night and stay vigil-ant! (see what I did there, kill me now)

In this we have an order of people who enforce the Law. Yes, with capital L. They are super trained people who go around keeping the population in line and also killing demons coming from the oceans. Among them the most hardcore one is Ashok, whose whole life is about his work, while he has no other hobbies, interests or connections.
But even when he thinks he knows everything.... can he really? The slaves are rebelling, the important people are scheming and things aren't as easy as he thought.

This book is something else. So many fantasy stories are relatively simple by structure without any that big surprises and twists. I'm not saying those are necessarily bad, I do love some of them a lot, but here the world building, the concepts and the rules are just different enough to make it unpredictable. I had no idea where the things were leading. Honestly, still no idea what is going to happen later on and I'm sure as hell going to read the sequel. (At this point in time only this and the second part of the series is released, which is something to note for many people who only read finished series. Larry Correia is pretty damn trustworthy among authors so I have no doubt about him going on and finishing it, just saying.)
First of all, the story is set in a huge kingdom (not that original) that is mostly similar to India (that kind of is). There are references to elephant-headed gods of a long forgotten culture, the society is built on castes and even the different landscapes are sounding similar to what you find in India in surrounding places. While the big themes of heroics and rebellions and such are pretty universal across cultures this story has some sort of a special flair that I actually really enjoyed. It also doesn't do the annoying thing that happen in many fantasy novels outside the European historic and cultural foundation; it doesn't make it so every other culture is magical and mystical and perfect. So many still can't get over the fact that every continent, culture and group is equally likely to have flaws.
Then we have the characters. Ashok is as black and white as you can get. Wait a minute, what? I don't like that! I don't like those kinds of people. But hey, the whole story is about him having to face that his beliefs and things he thought he knew were far more complicated than he assumed. He is not a nice person, not at all a fluffy kind of guy. Honestly, he is mostly just scary and unfeeling (for a reason, though), but then you see some things coming to the surface and him having to get used to... caring, I suppose. At one point he tries to smile, which horrifies the people with him. That was hilarious.
Lastly, the powers that are at work pull people in so many different directions and they all have their fully realised plans and goals. I sincerely believe things will turn out fine, though not necessarily without tragedies and losses, but at the same time the equations are complicated here. The culture and social structures are well-realised, which is an absolute must in a story that's about things being way too rigid and change coming. Which is appreciated.

It's still so badass. Must be hard to balance badassery and structure like this and I still appreciate when we get some action scenes of Ashok going all sorts of apeshit with his magical sword and superior military training against crazy odds. So there is that as well, gore is not over the top, but there is some nasty things. Closer to the end there is one specific scene where he has a crazy fight against someone monstrous. It made me go “oooooh, shit” audibly. Otherwise it's a fairly okay fantasy book, I wouldn't worry about it too much.
Among standard fare fantasy this isn't even extremely long, which is a nice change of pace with all the doorstoppers around.

I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who likes fantasy. It's fun, action-packed, interesting and just generally a good read.

Have a nice day and don't take a gun to this knife fight! It's not going to be enough.