John
I'm a sucker for demonic horror like The Omen and The Exorcist so this fits right up my alley. Unfortunately I feel like the most interesting part is Part 1 but it was too short. I feel like with the Omen was super interesting because it had a big buildup of suspense while the spawn was a child so that's what I was expecting here. The book just felt a bit rushed during my favorite parts but the ending was good and the narrator was REALLY good. This is the author's least favorite of his works so it should be uphill from here.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this surprisingly really good book. I'm usually dissatisfied with most Indie books but this one was very well written with a simple but unique magic system and great character development! I'm also a sucker for gladiator stuff so I may be biased to this more than most people!
Even better than the first one. The story gives you more details on the characters of which I love more and more and there is a significant amount of violence.
My absolute favorite about Abercrombie is his ability to make you feel for the characters. You truly feel Glokta's pain and what it must be like to be in agony every day of your life.
You feel like you're right there in battle with people getting split in half, appendages being chopped off, blood everywhere, the sheer chaos of warfare. It's outstanding
3.5 ⭐️
I'm not a big fan of Fantasy Historical Fiction. I think you should pick one or the other, however this story was pretty good but not great. The action was very well done and the characters were enjoyable. The fantasy part of this I really liked but the historical fiction part of this was goofy to me. Jesus Christ was literally in this book but he just had a small couple parts in this and the things he did in the book wasn't even what he did in real life. Not only do I not like a blend of F/HF but I definitely don't like it when the Historical parts are inaccurate. If you want to write HF then it's your duty to make sure that the major parts of it are true. All in all a decent read but isn't for my taste.
I knew this was going to be bad but dear god I hated this. I completely zoned out over and over again. The beginning was okay because at least SOMETHING happened but I got about halfway and just decided to look at chapter summaries the rest of the way. Seems like there was a good ending but there was still a long road to get there so I'm out. I'm giving it 2 stars instead of 1 for the beginning and apparently the ending was good. The rest is garbage
There's no book quite like this one and I'm honestly fine with that. Over 200 pages of no worldbuilding, very little character development and absolutely no knowledge of wtf is going on. Really unfortunate for me because I loved the cover of this edition and was really wanting it on my shelf but I can't stand to look at it. I gave it 2 stars instead of 1 because there was battle scene with a
Were-Panther that I thought was pretty cool.
2.5 ✨
I'm pretty disappointed in this book because it was so slow. I'm okay with a slow book as long as the prose is great or the world building is great but this was about average to below average in both standards and had very little action.
The story follows Jovan who is the caretaker of Leaf who has unimaginable powers that people are trying to harness. They travel across country trying to escape which would have been a perfect time for worldbuilding but I didn't really get much.
However I did enjoy the uniqueness of this tale because it has a lot of Slavic lore that I've never read about. I did enjoy the character development of Jovan but I just wish I had more of Leaf.
I'll still be reading the sequel because the ending left me on a huge cliffhanger and I want to know more about Leaf. This is a debut so I'm certain it's only uphill from here.
3.5 ⭐️
This turned out to be a pretty good gothic tale with writing that reminding me of A Dowry of Blood, not that it's written as a conglomeration of letters but the way the author puts words together was almost poetic and I enjoyed it.
An extremely short summary to this story is that it follows a girl who has a ghost friend who protects her or gets her to do bad things. Most chapters are formed with her talking about her past and then ending with her talking to her therapist who is trying to decide if she's psychotic or just evil for her court trial. As the story goes on you start to wonder if there actually was a supernatural creature making her do things or is she just deranged herself.
I almost gave this 4 stars but for some reason it kind of dropped off for me towards the end and I don't really know why, however I think it's worth reading regardless.
I absolutely adored this book and I don't know why people hate on it so much. Yes it is very tropey and has several scenes from Lord of the Rings but it's not as bad as I expected. In several way I think it's better than Lord of the Rings.
Before you throw your phone, I'm not saying this book is better but there are 2 categories that Brooks absolutely does better than Tolkien.
1) Prose. The prime issue with people who don't like Tolkien is that his prose is too outdated mixed with slow storytelling. Brooks' prose is actually very simple and easy to follow. His story can be slow but he throws in a good action sequence every once in awhile to keep you engaged, which brings me to my next one...
2) Action. My personal biggest issue with Tolkien is that he's not very good at writing action scenes. When I read the book I just imagined the movie scenes most of the time which in some ways robs me of my experience with Tolkien but in some ways makes it way better. Brooks is significantly better at action scenes but he is by no means better than what we have today. Which is a great thing that we can have improvement from a book written almost 50 years ago.
What makes Tolkien better is his character development and world building. Although Brooks does a wonderful job with character development as well as world building, I just don't love it as much as Middle Earth.
I also really enjoyed the creativity of the monsters as well but once again, not better than Tolkien.
Brooks also used the word “awesome” about 30 times which I've noticed a lot of old books use this word. I think it's a little childish in adult books to be used to this extreme. He desperately should have consulted a thesaurus.
All in all I very much recommend this book to people who like Tolkien tropes but don't like his prose or to people who just want more of the same.
This book was pretty good especially the last chapter when it's talking about Tomas' dog. I feel like this book would've been better for me but I guess I'm too simple minded to fully understand all his metaphors. I really enjoyed the metaphors I understood and the fact that he throws in some Czech history and it's Russian Communistic control was interesting
Definitely my least favorite so far but still really good and it's only part 1 of a planned trilogy so it should be expected to be the weakest link.
All the characters have been split up and are having their own adventures. Although is it considered an adventure if you're trying to save mankind?
The Autarch of Xis has made his move and his prepared to take control of the Gods (don't see that going well)
The Qar are split. Some want to kill all humans and some are trying to pass down knowledge to help everyone in the upcoming war.
Barrick has finally made it to his destination in the Shadowline to receive the answers he's been needing.
Briony is trying to survive in a foreign court but something isn't right.
Qinnitan is trying to escape Vo, who may the most badass evil character I've ever read.
All in all I enjoyed this installment but I could use a break after reading two in a row. Tad is a great writer but can be mentally draining after a while.
Oooo mama this was a good one. I loved the battle sequences and the world building. Learning about the Aiel was cool and learning about Rand's true heritage was cool but I wish it was more climactic like a Jon Snow bombshell. My only complaint with Jordan's books is Loial is my favorite character yet he barely is ever in these dang books!
This is how history books should be written! Super interesting and engaging war story and shows the horrors of being a WW2 POW with the Japanese.
Extremely overrated fantasy in my opinion although there are some good qualities. First off I loved the unique world map and the way she does world building. The first story I'm giving 3 stars because it was decent and kept me engaged but their wasn't much action. It was just Ged running away or chasing an evil phantom, that he accidentally conjured, trying to possess him. The second story I'm giving a 4. I was really confused because it starts off with another character for like half the story and then finally brings in Ged. I ended up really liking it but because there was finally conversations instead of constant narration. The third story I'm giving 1 star because it was just so bad I couldn't even finish it.
I guess my biggest complaints as a whole would be that Ged is supposed to be the best wizard to ever live but he does nothing that really supports that narrative. Ursula also brings in characters in some books and then never brings them up again, like Jasper and Arha. There is no political plotting or crazy “WTF” moments. Lastly there is very little conversations, which is my favorite part of books, and it is just incessant narration. Maybe if I read this in the 70s and never read great fantasies I'd appreciate this more but with a 50+ year hindsight it's just okay to me.
This book was a rollercoaster. At first I was thinking that this was going to be the best book ever and then it got so boring I almost put it down and then it got pretty good again. I can definitely understand why some people hate this book but I thought it turned out pretty good especially since it was made in the 80's. I think the hardest part for me with fantasy books is that I'm trying to find the next Game of Thrones and nothing I've read matches up that masterpiece. Although I can see where Martin got a lot of inspiration from Williams in this book. Of course like most fantasies there's similarities with Tolkien. There's the evil force that seemingly wants to rule the world, there's different bands of humans, there's Giants, large wolves, large dog like creatures, Siths(elves), and Trolls(Dwarves). Binabik the Troll and Morgenes are my favorite characters.
One of the best page turners I've ever read and I'm not even a huge fan of legal thrillers
At this point I'm a huge fan of John Marco. Everything I've read has at least been 4 stars. Even his YA book. I thoroughly enjoyed this book but it did have some issues that bothered me that brought it down 1 star.
Cons:
1. The actions scenes are very average and little to be seen.
2. The worldbuilding was a below average and he missed perfect times to tell about his world he created. At one point Richius travels across half the country in a matter of a page or two, going from city to city but literally nothing was said about some of the cities. Lack of worldbuilding is surprising from a 700+ page book.
3. The characters made some idiotic, stupid, downright frustrating decisions that I just can't imagine happening in the first half of the book.
Pros:
The characters, although irritating, are to die for. Character work is by far the most important thing in literature for me and John always does a great job with it. I'd say 90% of this book is just character building with tons of dialogue which I loved. I also realized that Marco loves to write about “forbidden love” in his books.
The story follows Prince Richius who is a part of a country stuck in the middle between 2 large countries. His country is technically an “Unincorporated Territory” to the country Nar (Basically what Puerto Rico is to USA). The Emperor of Nar, Arkus wants to take over Lucel-Lor to gain access to powerful magic that will make him immortal since his potions are just delaying death vs dismissing it altogether. He wants to Arkus to handle the fight only Arkus falls in love with a woman of that country, who's betrothed to the king.
Long story short he hates Lucel-Lor for their perceived barbarianism and the fact that the king won't let him marry his woman, even though she doesn't want to marry the king. Once he gets to know the Lucel-Lorians he finally understands who the real enemy and must choose who's side he's on.
There are tons of romance, betrayal, and death in this book and I'm excited for book 2!
After despising Lord of Chaos, I was extremely worried about the next book. I was truly hoping the “slog” didn't start early for me. I can safely say that this book fixed all the wrongs from the previous book and I'm safely still a huge fan of this series. The ending battle wasn't as epic as Lords of Chaos but it was still a good one with more action spread out through the book. The prologue piggy-backed off the last battle of Lord of Chaos but it showed the battle from the perspective of the enemy which I loved. The world building of Ebou Dhar was awesome and the character progression of Mat, Rand, Nynaeve, and Egweyne were very enjoyable as well.
My main complaint with Robert Jordan with all his works is that he'll postpone writing a character for so long that I don't even remember what happened last with him/her.
Perrin and Loial are the example for this book.
On to the slog boys and girls
Let's be honest. If people didn't know this was a King book you'd more than likely hate it. This book is so boring. First off why make 300+ pages of just walking? Hell you could've made them jog or run and made this a short story and it would actually be good. The ending was also garbage. I've come to realize that King's novellas and short stories mostly aren't good.
“The Long Walk”... a long freaking walk indeed.
Wow what a thriller. I for one love mythology but I'm not familiar with Native mythology (if you would call it that) so this was definitely interesting to me. If I wasn't so busy I could've finished this in a couple days. One thing I've noticed is that Louis likes to implement his opinions with social issues and historical facts into his books, which I usually agree with and enjoy the facts. One thing that is 100% not true in this book is that he says that Komodo Dragons can grow as large as 500 lbs and can outrun a horse in short distance. Idk about the horse part but I do know that the largest Komodo dragon was reported to be a little over 300 lbs...still very big but not THAT big.
Wow I'm very very surprised on how good this book was. 100% the only reason I bought it was because the cover is awesome. I don't know why people don't pony up a few extra bucks to have someone create a cover you can be proud of people will actually read your book.
The story 2 Povs of the same person, Nolan.
One POV is the present, which talks about his actions as a Talion which is just a highly skilled police officer who is bound to nobody but the king himself and will open a can of whoop real fast. One thing I liked is that he can summon his sword into his hand...I've never read a book where he can do that so that was dope.
The other POV is him in past as an orphan going through training to be a Talion but also follows his adventures and love interest.
I sometimes have a hard time remembering what happened with a character in between POVs but this was written so wonderfully that I ate up every word. He weaved them both together to make it more interesting. For example, when he is a Talion the end of the chapter talks about his shoulder hurting. The next chapter it switches to the past and shows how he injured his shoulder in the past from fighting in battle.
Speaking of battle...holy moly this guy writes some great action scenes and this book is FULL of it. I will absolutely be reading more of his work.
Idk why but this series has just tanked for me. I can't keep my attention on it longer than a paragraph.
Took me a little bit to get into this until around halfway then I LOVED it. It's basically a Michael J Sullivan book but a whole lot better. Idk of any way I can describe this book without spoiling it but I'm probably the only person who hasn't read this anyway. I liked how this could kind be read as a standalone if you want with the only cliffhangers being very minor. The way it ended it at least made it to where there's not a huge rush to read the next one before you forget anything.
I enjoy fantasy that includes cool creatures or at least creatures that aren't overdone like humanoid beasts or dragons. This one included giant spiders which is terrifying for me and sharks! This is a book worth bypassing your TBR for sure