Queku

Easy 5 stars.
It is true that this book is carried in the shoulders of the way of kings. Since it is a sequel there is not such a big need for world building and introductions from the start, this book could focus on the characters and mysteries of the world and I loved it.
I was instantly hocked from the start to see where my favorite characters would end up and to see if my predictions and conspiracies from the first book would get resolved in this one and they kinda did, but also not. There are still a lot of mysteries to uncover in this world (they better due, because there are 10 books planed in this series xD) and I cant wait to continue reading.

Sadly it wasn't all perfect. i still got some critiques with the final battle and how some of the problems were resolved. I understand every choice made by Sanderson, but I expected it to be resolve differently. Still this represents only 4 to 5 chapters of the 90, therefore not a deal breaker and still a 5 star read.

1. Dragon Ball fighting...
I did not like the fight between Kaladin and Szeth. It felt very Dragon Ball to me, were they just fly around and the fight isn't grounded (no pun intended). I understand that if you have the power to fly you will use it to your advantage in a fight, but if both can fly it just makes it difficult to follow. I found myself skimming through this fight because it was a burden to get through.

2. Oathgate kind random...
I also got pulled out of the story with how the Oathgate worked. We were never introduced during this novel or the previous one to the ability to transport objects long distances, I understand that this is supposed to be an ancient power that was lost. But we still got introduced to “flying” and the Honorblades. Both essential to the resolution of the final conflict. But the fact that the Oathgate transports everybody on it (except for Szeth...) at the last moment possible, felt a little out of the blue. Maybe we could have been introduced to the concept of teletransportation during the interludes, as many other concepts were introduced.

3. Somehow nobody died...
To be honest I was expecting Dalinar to die in the final battle, because it would have been a pretty powerful death and it would have let the door open for Adonlin to step up into a more main role. At the end of the fight I was actually relived that they didn't kill Dalinar, because I love his character. But I still hope that they give Adolin a bigger focus on the next books. Because he is actually a pretty cool character, but his whole development is in the background of the other main stories.
At first when Jasnah was killed I was upset (Jasnah went pretty strong at the start of this book, she went from boring and strict to being really cool) and I was pretty sure she would end up coming back somehow. But at the end when I finally accepted her death she was broad back, and it was a bit unexpected and anticlimactic.
But at the end when they brought Szeth back it was the straw that broke the camels back. I loved the fact that they introduced Nightblood with his return and I understand why was chosen to return back, but man could you not have introduced a new bad guy. The one badass from the interlude that was hunting the heralds would have been a great fit for that role. But I guess if we can't kill the main characters, why would be able to kill the bad guys... haahahahaha
None of the main characters have died during these 2 books, although there have been 2 pretty epic and dangerous fights. Until now we have only lost secondary Bridgemen that I never actually noticed in the first place. I like that all my favorite charters are all still living, but it is starting to feel like the plot Armour is a bit too strong.

All in all I loved this Book and can't wait to continue reading the stromlight archive.

It was ok.

I guess this book just isn't for me (even though I would consider myself a sci-fi fan), because I did not understand the hype around it. To me it was just another generic dystopian story with forgetful characters and boring plot.
It wasn't hard to get through the book, it is an easy read. But I also didn't get invested at all with the story.
If your thinking about reading it, do it. Maybe it clicks with you, but it didn't for me.

Quick question:
Why is this book set on mars? At no point was the fact of it being another planet used to drive the story. It could just have been the same if they were dropped in an Island on earth.

It is great, like I explained in my previous review I just jumped on the Harry Potter train in my 20s because I never read them as a kid.

This is the second installment in the series, and I am enjoying it so far. It is clearly still aimed at kids (since it is a children's book) but I must say I enjoyed It a lot. I even think this one is better than the first one.
At the halfway point of the story I was fully engaged and the final part was an absolute blast. I powered through the last chapters full of suspense and joy at the end.

Great book would recommend it.

Great Children book

When I was a child I missed the harry potter train and now that I am in my 20 I decided to give it a go and once and for all read the harry potter saga. And I enjoyed it, I understand because it was a hit among my friends when we were 10. It is clearly a book targeted at kids, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It is an excellent story for the whole family.
I would recommend this book to parents that want their kids to get started on reading. Read it with them such that you can comment on It and bond with your child.

Fun and wacky adventure for all the family.

The book is pretty funny with its absurdist humor where each page of the novel is crazier than the last one.
The adventure is pretty short which makes you breeze through the book, bit it doesn't feel too short.
I will continue reading this book series to see what crazy things Douglas Adams comes up with in the next installments.

All in all a fun story to read on a weekend.

Amazing story, but not as good as the first one.

In this second entry of the Kingkiller chronicle, we continue the story where we left it in the Name of the wind. The story continues to be an amazing story, nonetheless, the length of this volume is bigger than the first one which is present in the narration. With this one I had a greater feeling of there being a lot of filler content in order to elongate the story, this combined with the very episodic approach where we are told a different tale every 10/20 chapters. This made the reading a lot slower for me since all the cliffhangers were contained in one reading section.

Nonetheless, I still love all the characters and adventures they are involved in on a regular basis. I have the feeling I could be friends with any of the main pals of our main character Kvothe, this lies in an incredible skill in writing real feeling characters.
Once again I found myself cheering and lamenting with all the characters and feeling just like one more of the group.

Can't wait for the third part of this trilogy.

Slow start, but the second half of the book is worth it.

Great story, compelling characters, and an interesting magic system.

My journey into the Cosmere continues.
I am slowly making my way through the entries and the Cosmere and they keep on getting better. I was recommended to read this book before continuing with the Stormlight archives, and so I did.

It may sound repetitive but this story checks again all the boxes that got me invested in the Cosmere in the first place. We have very likable main characters with growth throughout the story, a new hard magic system with some new interesting limitations and mechanics, and finally a plot twist of epic proportions where all of our thoughts and beliefs about the world are turned on their head and somehow everything ends up making more sense at the end.

All in all a great Sanderson book, if you liked other of his books you will enjoy this one.

SCARY AF

I am the type of person that laughs while watching horror movies because they don't tend to scare me, but dam did this book scare me.
I usually read before going to sleep, so there is little light in my room and I swear that while reading this book the shadows in my room were moving. Hence, I've been sleeping with a light on while reading this book.

This is a great book, with incredible settings and descriptions making you be in the Overlook yourself. I must admit sometimes these excessive descriptions, although necessary, feel a little drawn out. This is especially the case in the first part. Once they move into the Overlook and weird things start happening, you will be so drawn in that you won't mind the excessive descriptions.
As said the beginning although a little dull is necessary because it presents us with our characters and how they tick, which is very important for the third act.

I find it fascinating the ability of Stephen King to convey so many emotions through text. As mentioned above I got scared the hell out through this novel and even in the tense scenes, my heart was pounding like crazy.
This may be because King is exploring psychological horror in this book, instead of creating a monster he shows us the journey of a broken family losing their mind.

All in all, a must-read horror book, it has been my entire point on this genre and it won't be the last one. So go and read it, if you have the guts for it...

Harry Potter and the hunt for the 10 Mcguffins.
Once again we get a cool world, with an okay story ruined by an annoying and useless main character.

The story on this book wasn't the best of harry potter, but also not the worst (I'm looking at you order of the Phoenix...). The story beats on them selves where repetitive and boring. All events on this book can be summarized by:
1. We got an idea of where we can get information and or magical Mcguffin
2. Lets plan an over complicated plan to get there which most certainly won't fail...
3. Get the information and or object
4. Something goes wrong and we are under attack
5. Somehow a group of 3 teenagers escape a group of highly competent wizards. Hooray!!!
This exact procedure is repeated at least 5 times, that I can remember from the top of my head. And it got really boring really fast. Somehow these 3 kids that haven't even finished their wizard education are invincible. They can get away from fights where they are clearly outnumbered and out skilled, but with the power of plot convenience they escape with at most a bruise.
Like in the sixth entry of this book I was mostly interested in the subplot concerning Riddle's and Dumbledore's backstory. And I must admit that the flashback with Snape was kinda cool, but that still was greatly overshadowed by the most annoying main character ever (The rant about Harry Potter will continue in the next section).
The part that got me the most confused was the sudden appearance and importance of the Deathly hallows. Was it setup in any way before, which I din't notice or did they really come out of nowhere. Because if it is the latter, it felt really cheap. We already where on the hunt for 7 magical Mcguffins (the horocrux) why do we need 3 extra new artifacts to look for? And how did they help?
I guess that the cloak has helped for the whole book series, but the other 2?
The Stone was basically a fan service moment, let's bring back everybody that Harry has died to protect this incompetent child for a big “you can do it” moment. Guy's Harry is so egocentric he doesn't need your support, from the moment he was proposed to sacrifice himself as a martyr or magical Jesus he didn't even hesitate.
And the elder Wand was basically used as a cheap way to keep harry alive. The final “Duel” (if you can even call it a duel) between Harry and Voldemort is a “well actually” this is how I think wands work and through shear luck that wand can't hurt me, bruh. If you want to survive an unbeatable wand don't tell that bullshit, just don't invent an unbeatable wand... I like how the system where wands chose the wizard and a wand of another wizard will only obey the new master if that wand was “won” by the new one (I put won in quotation marks because I don't know if the Draco Harry wand swap could be considered as winning a duel). But then they get overly complicated, where Snape didn't actually win the wand because it was arranged (If you ask me if you kill somebody you technically beat them even though it was arranged), therefore Draco won it, although he did not throw any spell on Dumbledore, and since Harry stole Draco's wand (the regular one...) the elder wand should be Harry's. Dunno man I think you are stretching the wand mechanics a bit, and with a bit I mean a lot.
Like I said I don't understand the existence of the Deathly Hallows, they generate more problems than solutions. This whole “well actually” moment ruined my enjoyment of the conclusion of the series, it felt cheap ngl.

Now let's talk about Harry role in the whole book series. Did harry actually do something useful at any moment? He can play quidich really good, to bad there where no brooms in the final battle.
He got carried by more skilled and intelligent wizards throughout the series, but he still gets all the praise. He is also the most egocentric and annoying main character I've read to this date. From the 5th book on I really wanted to punch him in the face each time he opened his mouth, it was horrible. He thinks that he is always right and that everybody else is dumb, even though he has been wrong several times in the past. But once in a while he gets it right and rides on that high through the next several errors. For example the whole mind connection with Voldemort has been a problem more times that it has helped.
Concerning Harry's ego, I liked the presence of Hermione as the voice of rationality, because she said to Harry the obvious things that every reader was thinking at that moment. But Harry knows better than to listen to the best student in Hogwarts, she doesn't anything about magic... At the end of the day he is the chosen one, he is the best wizard in the world. EXPECTRO PATRONUM.
The only time he listens to advice is when Dumbledore tells him that hes gotta commit suicide and he, as the egocentric ass he is, doesn't even hesitate. It is his opportunity to live on as the great wizard he never was, and he just has to stand there let himself be killed. But because he can not die he is actually a horocrux and Voldemort only killed the part of his soul that was from Voldemort. Don't get me wrong I like the idea of Harry being a Horocrux it has a lot of symbolism and it explains a lot, but why is harry the only horocrux that isn't destroyed in the process of removing Voldemort soul? They truly did destroy a bunch of valuable historical artifacts of unthinkable worth, but they did spare the boy? Something doesn't fit here. I would have loved for the book to end with the conversation with Dumbledore in heaven and then the same epilogue without harry, maybe Hermiones and Rons son is called Harry and is going to Hogwarts ore some fan service bullshit like that. Maybe even a final chapter where Nevil defeats the very debilitated Voldemort with Griffindors sword. By the way, how did the sword get to Hogwarts, didn't the lose it in the bank robbery?
It would have so much satisfying. You don't have to mess with the mechanics from the elder wand and you don't have to bring harry back from the dead.
Speaking of Nevil he is the Character with the biggest glow up and Luna is the most underrated character.
Now lets talk about Harry ethics, everybody thinks he is the best one and an angel. He even get praised by Dumbledore for not being fooled by his own power like he did. Excuse me... we are talking of the boy that once he knew of the existence of the stone that brings back people from the dead wanted to drop the whole horocrux hunt to get his parents back. We are also talking about the kid that once his expecro patronum stooped being effective started using dark magic spells. This kid should be locked up in azcaban.

I do not understand the hype concerning these books and their characters. At the begging it was nice, but it has such a face plant of an ending, that probably ruined the whole series for me. At least it gave me a bad mouth taste to end with.
I guess that its success rides on nostalgia of people reading it as a child and I've read it as a 20 year old so I won't get it... And I trully don't get it.

This book has made me think about things I haven't thought of in a long time. Before you read this I have to war you that it will deal with death and grief in a very real and emotional way. Therefore if you lost someone close to you very recently it may be to emotional, in that case I would recommend you to wait until you are ready to read it. Because wow does this book make you feel things.
Stephen King has said that this is his most scary book, but if you are looking for a more traditional definition of scary (as in horror movies) then you should read the Shining. This book is scary because it toys with the concept of death and how far a human can go in his state of denial after a close death. The zombies aren't even that scary.

Dam. I am always impressed by King's ability to know the human mind and manipulate it with his writing. Like i said in the introduction this book has made me think a lot, and it got me caring for characters I thought i did not care.
I knew Gage was going to die (it gets spoiled in the introduction) and I never thought I was actually attached to him. But man, the scene with the kite and how it gets revealed he died it got me tearing up. This is the most effective way to reveal someone died, by giving us their last happy memory instead of all the details of the actual death. Which makes sense, when you lose someone you start to value the insignificant moments you didn't before.

I must say I actually liked better the introduction than the ending. I was fully invested until the point of no return, where Louis decides to bury Gage in the Pet Sematary. From that point on it felt like watching a car crash in slow motion, where you know it is going to end badly but the agony is dragged out unnecessarily. (In retrospective it was necessary)
If you think about it this part is only 100 pages in a 500 pages long book, but somehow those 100 pages felt longer than the whole introduction. I understand the role of those pages, where Louis is rationalizing something irrational due to grief. We are shown through several examples that people nor pets come back the same way as they went after being buried in the pet sematary. But somehow he manages to convince himself that this case is an exception, which is so relatable. At the end of the day, the fist stage of grief is Denial.
This is the only time in a horror media where I understood why the main character went into the dark basement.

I truly don't know how to feel about the ending of this book. Either it is absolutely genius or just cheap and lazy.
Because after everything that has happened with Gage, Louis decides in a heartbeat to also bury Rachel in the Pet Sematary. Which somehow feels stupid. I understood why Louis did it with Gage, but did the result of his experiment not open his eyes to reality? Why does he think that this time it won't be the same? he didn't even have time to grief over his wife. But then it does also feel like it will be different this time, but I don't know if that is just me being optimistic and buying into Louise's denial or what.
It also feels like the ending is rushed and inconclusive. There is no closure and I don't know if it deliberate, because you could read it as the lac of closure is directly related to Geage's premature death, he did not get any closure in his life. He may have been an Olympic swimmer, but we will never know, as we will never know the ending of this book. Is this deliberate or am I just trying to search for answers where there aren't any? I don't know and i don't know if this confusion was also deliberate or not.
This book has made think a lot of how we can convince yourself of the things we want to know, and the interpretation of this ending may be the prove of this or not, who knows.

P.S I know that the Micmac burying ground and the Pet Sematary are two different places, but I believe that the name Pet Sematary is more iconic that Micmac burying ground, that why I've used pet Sematary throughout the review.

Came for Kennedy stayed for Sadie.
I started reading this book on the premise of: we are travelling back in time to save the president. Which in paper sounds awesome. But at the end I kept reading because I was more invested in the romantic subplot than actually saving the president.
I had a few problems with how the time travel works and I really struggled to get through the scenes where we stalked Oswald.
Firstly my problems with the time travel. In this novel we have a very soft time travel mechanic. Our main character enters a closet and appears in 1958. When he enters again he returns to 2011 exactly 2 minutes later. This is neat my problem come with the harmony and how fast it escalates.
The concept of harmony in this book is that the past harmonices with itself, or basically that history repeats itself. At the beginning this harmony is just characters with similar names and lifestyles across different towns. Then it becomes repeated actions across towns and it even becomes like a premonition tool. But at the end, all of a sudden it somehow provokes earthquakes. I found this harmony thing a neat part, with references to other towns and as a plot device to make the final chase to stop Oswald more tens and interesting. And then all of a sudden the whole us is constantly being hit by earthquakes because the president lived... there you lost me buddy. I could follow all other events that lead to the world in 2011 being like that, but the earthquakes killed me. I know it is a petty critique and it was not so bad and it didn't take away from the enjoyment of the novel it just bothered me at the end because I had the feeling it came out of nowhere.
Speaking of the past not wanting to be changed, I didn't like the whole amnesia part towards the end. It felt as a cheap way to make the end longer, because in no moment I felt like he was going to miss the assassination because he forgot who killed the president. It was nice because it shows there are no infinite money glitches in time travel. But with the beating it would have been enough, you don't need the whole amnesia part.
Secondly the Oswald plot. I did not like it, the whole stalking sequences I understand their purpose, but felt they were excessive. I understand the whole point of those scenes is to humanise Oswald and to generate a dilemma for the protagonist concerning the window of uncertainty. But they felt boring and excessive. I also got at a point overwhelmed by the amount of names introduced. If these parts where a little bit shorter it would have been a 4 stars for me.
Finally to the good part of the story. At the middle of the book we get introduced to the romantic interest of the main character and surprisingly I loved it. I never thought I could be more invested in the romantic subplot than the actual plot, but it happens with this novel. I loved every single interaction between them and the epilogue got tearing up.
All in all it is a great novel and would recommend it, but not as your first king novel. It is a little bit too long and some parts I had to push through but it was worth it for the epilogue.

Stephen King is always a win.
This is a very simple book exploring a very simple concept, but it still got me captivated and on the edge of my seat until the very last page.
This book is about a bestselling author being kidnapped by his number one fan in order for him to write her a novel. A very simple premise and the hole story takes place in a single bedroom. But somehow it works. At the beginning I was skeptical on the premise, it sounded cool but I could not imagine how to maintain suspense and avoid it becoming repetitive and boring. And it did get more interesting as the book went on. On the one hand we have the main story line, then we get a peak at Paul's writing and finally we slowly discover about Annie's backstory.
I must admit at the end of the book the whole novel subplot became a little distracting, it felt like reading the first chapters of a book and then the last ones without any additional context (because this is precisely what happens) . In retrospective totally necessary, because Paul projects into the story and then the story projects back into Paul, and there is a parallel between one story and the other, but it felt confusing.
This book explores the impotence and sense of defeat when you are trapped and there is no viable option out. You are clinging to a very thin edge of hope, but as time goes on you slowly give up. This is masterfully represented with the character of Paul.
I loved the metaphors presented through the book in order to materialize Paul's feeling, the stone pilings(as pain), the hole in the page (as coping mechanism) and the African bird (as this feeling of being trapped until the end).
I must admit it is very visual, but that is King's specialty. I wouldn't it is specially scary but there were some scene which were unsettling. But more in the disgust direction than actual fear.
All in all a great starting point for King's novel, you get a taste of what he is good at without the nightmares and it is a short novel you will power through without even realizing it.

Una lectura muy interesante sobre la historia de la luz. La lectura es ajena y ligera, haciéndolo una lectura perfecta para la introducción a narrativa física.
No obstante trata todos los temas de forma demasiado superficial para mi gusto.