Jukka
Only slightly off the magnificent standards set by the first book. This time the main action takes place at sea and is great entertainment even so. There are pirates, love, cunning and rivaling power hungry peeps. Definately word a recommendation in case you have been living under a rock and dont already know.
The Norsemen are now heading towards the land of the franks and their fellowship has grown by some Englishmen. The battle successes seem to get even more fantastic from the previous book and of course Raven heroically comes trough all of then. Then there is this difficult love thingy with Cynetryth.. It is a bit “been-there-done-that”. Still enjoyable to read and I am going to finish the trilogy although I feel this is YA stuff, for nothing seems to even scratch the main character and my guess is that he won't die any time soon.
A young lad, Osric from the English coast befriends with a murdering gang of heathens led by Sigurd. Reminds of “grimdark” fantasy where nothing ever goes in a satisfactory way at the end. The plot is Ok, with a some predictable outcomes, a lot of fighting and what seems to be a case for impossible love. Nothing larger than life, but I enjoyed it with all its stereotypes and will probably finish the trilogy.
Mushashi tells the story of a legendary Japanese swordsman from his youth to perhaps the greatest battle he ever fought
The hero is very japanese. Just look at all ‘them Cartoon/Manga etc. Asian super heroes out there and you kow what i mean. The characterization resembles to my mind Myazaki and studio Ghibli movies.
Definately something to read for those who like Japanese culture or who have read the “Shogun” series by Clavell and now would like to leave the Western point-of-view aside.
3.5/5
A solid 3.5 stars. Finally picked up the sequel for the [b:The Twentieth Wife 27298 The Twentieth Wife (Taj Mahal Trilogy, #1) Indu Sundaresan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1441836224s/27298.jpg 27945] and i was not disappointed! Although I am certainly not the target audience as I usually loathe love stories, I kind of made an exception here. This one ends the story for mehrunnisa in a thrilling story, surprisingly accurate historically.
I am a junkie of Asian history and stories. I loved this. I don't know how realistic this is but it definitely was an interesting description of a world and society that no longer exists. And yes, there was love larger than life as well as assholes and a mentor. All elements that you get in sooooooooooo many coming of age stories or “bildungsroman”..But I warmed to this one despite all it's cliches. The ending was emotional and really crowned the book. 5/5
I had very high expectations about this one and maybe because of them i give this “only” 3 stars. The magic system is great and reading the [b:The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince 16244663 The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince (Realms of the Elderlings, #0.5) Robin Hobb https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1357838601s/16244663.jpg 21858020] before starting the actual story seemed to make a lot of sense at least for me. Nothing too wild but the “wit” and the “skill” and “forging” add a great element into the world. I somehow felt that there is not enough interaction between the main character FitzChivalry and some of the more interesting characters such as Galen, Regal and Verity or the king. A nice start for things, but i hope things really take off in the next one!
Jim Dixon is a fantastic character. He is a history teacher at some outback university, yet he studied in a grammar school. He tries to step up the ladders of class in society so he takes part in high society gatherings, yet he would much rather escape to a bar and get wasted. He somehow gets into trouble but is a master of somehow getting out of it.
I should think this book captures something very real about the 1950s and it makes you smile why doing it.
Finally got to the end with this brick of a novel. A typical Dostoevsky. Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong for Dimitry Karamazov who does not get along with his father in the first place when they even start to chase the same woman. Lots of Unlucky love and philosophizing about religion, human behavior, Russia and so on and so forth.
Maybe an over interpretation but I immediately thought Father Zosima to be Dostoyevsky himself who sends Alyosha to the world to spread love and forgiveness. I found the last chapter of the epilogue to be a very powerful farewell.
3 Historical Novels of ancient Egypt. Pleasent reads with historical characters, but not for the purists. Many historical inaccuracies. Chariots appear thousands of years before they were actually used and national flags too, even the concept of nation. But although historical setting, Mahfouz' novels seem to very much reflect on the historical context in the time of writing.
Really quite tormenting to read this, as Andrea the main character is a rich shallow a-hole who is really treating women more like a precious peace of art that are out there to get than a human being. really like Downtown Abbey or what is the series called..
But then again, it really is beautifully written and captures something essential from a world long gone, what comes to rich bachelors who invest in Money in Art, Time in Poetry and all else on women and ridiculous pride.
But there might come a time in a 100+ years when people read some such “difficult love” story from our time and think ‘Goddammit, those people knew nothing but how to care about nonsensical issues and making life difficult for themselves.'
Great series. The character development here is fantastic. It appears that those who in first book were complete assholes appear to be the better ones in the end but agonizingly constrained by reality and vise versa.
Here there is an ugly sense of realism instead of a hero who makes everything great.
I enjoyed this. In some ways this is a continuation of the [b:The Khan Series 5-Book Bundle: Genghis: Birth of an Empire, Genghis: Bones of the Hills, Genghis: Lords of the Bow, Khan: Empire of Silver, Conqueror 13573316 The Khan Series 5-Book Bundle Genghis Birth of an Empire, Genghis Bones of the Hills, Genghis Lords of the Bow, Khan Empire of Silver, Conqueror Conn Iggulden https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1355078822s/13573316.jpg 19154285] which i finished some time ago. The wars a maybe slightly less bloody and Sundaresan is concentrating on other things, such as politics and relationships, but I like the fact that there was and is a link to Ghengis. The Mughal Empire was the last great empire of that lineage. It is an Empire that you do not come across with in history lessons and the Taj Mahal trilogy will be an awesome way to dig deeper on that topic. And those who want a great love story (Not usually my cup of tea), well here is something for you.
Strange storytelling in this finnish translation. My reading did not really translate into understanding what was going on in the book. Maybe the book assumes that the reader already knows the centre pieces of this story from the history lessons. It does not really explain peoples motives and the characters are somehow loose.
