Jan
1.5 / 5
Flache Charaktere, flache Story, extrem nervige Blinde Psychotherapeutin mit hellseherischen Fähigkeiten, erstaunlich langweiliger Thriller und überraschend wenig Augensammler im Augensammler. Außerdem waren diese gekünstelten Plot Twists am Ende von fast jedem Kapitel so nervig. Ich hab auch nicht ganz verstanden warum das Buch beim Epilog anfängt und beim Prolog aufhört, hört sich ja erstmal nach einem interessanten Schreibstil an, aber leider wurde damit NICHTS gemacht. Es hätte auch genauso gut beim Prolog anfangen können.
Das einzig Positive ist, dass das Buch immerhin schnell zu lesen ist.
Was good but a bit repetitive, some facts like that high pressure will form you into a meatball without air inside get mentioned throughout the chapters as if you've read it for the first time.
I learned some interesting facts though. There was a guy who was stung 2200 times by honeybees while fleeing from them and another guy stung himself every day for 3 months 5 times by honeybees at different places on his body to test where it would hurt the most. Apparently it's the inside from your nose and a close second the upper lip followed by the penis.
Also, when you scream at your cold coffee and it's in perfect thermal isolation, you can enjoy your hot coffee after 1.5 years.
3.5/5. Interesting book but I feel that it did not age well.
The first chapters were dry and thus a bit hard to read. Sagan focuses a lot on alien abduction and UFO sightings which I am not really interested in. And I feel like today nobody believes in crop circles and alien abductions anymore anyway so it was kind of redundant. Later on there is also a random Maxwell chapter where Sagan discusses the physics of electromagnetism which I am not sure really did fit into this book as I thought this book is about pseudoscience and skepticism, but maybe I just didn't get it.
As dry as the first chapters were, I felt that towards the end the chapters became more interesting though and apart from the focus on aliens Sagan did make some excellent points when he discusses science as means of progress of humanity, hallucinations, influence of politics on science, science and freedom, etc.
So I guess I would recommend the book. It was not bad by any means but I think that it didn't age too well.
Rating 4/5This book tells the story about John, a young violinist, studying at Oxford college around the 1840s. One day during his practice sessions he notices that every time when he plays this one piece “the Gagliarda” the wicker chair in his apartment seems to creak. Later, he could swear that somebody whom he perceives to possess a “sleek smile” of malevolent nature sits on this chair listening intently to him. Some months later, John finally finds an old Stradivarius violin in his dorm room. This special violin is thereupon his object of obsession and we learn in the course of this novel how obsessions can lead to fatal consequences. It is no secret that The lost Stradivarius is a ghost story which definitely has some scary moments. There was one scene that really stood out to me as really scary in a psychological way: SpoilerIt was in the later parts of the story where at midnight John's wife Constance hears the faint tune of a violin and when she goes out to see where it came from, it turns out that it is her husband playing the Gagliarda over and over in front of the picture of Adrian Temple. This scene gave me the creeps and reminded me immensely of Stephen Kings the Shining where Jack Torrence typed over and over (All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy), which was a great scene. This book does, however, have its weak points. The worst part is the ending. It is not very good as it seems to be a bit too far fetched. If I wrote the book I would have left out the last chapter (the epilog) and rather left the ending open. This would have further motivated the reader to think for himself and to ask if we could trust Johns statements. Something I also found a bit frustrating, which could however be a sign of the time this novel was published, is the instant forgiveness of the actions of John. For real, he treats his wife, his sister and everybody around him like literal shit, yet everybody is so keen to forgive him in an instant. I do not like this at all. Overall I really enjoyed this book and would definitively recommend it. I think the theme of obsession and how it changes the character of a person is excellently described. How the object in question is taking over all of a persons character, thoughts and plans and how resulting from this relationships with people can change. This psychological horror is something I miss in many modern Horror stories. Some books that this one reminds me of:Regarding obsession: [b:The Shining 11588 The Shining Stephen King https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353277730l/11588.SY75.jpg 849585], [b:Needful Things 107291 Needful Things Stephen King https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1315767817l/107291.SY75.jpg 1812101], [b:Frankenstein: The 1818 Text 35031085 Frankenstein The 1818 Text Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1631088473l/35031085.SY75.jpg 4836639], [b:Moby-Dick or, the Whale 153747 Moby-Dick or, the Whale Herman Melville https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327940656l/153747.SY75.jpg 2409320]Regarding the corruption through art: [b:The Picture of Dorian Gray 5297 The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1546103428l/5297.SY75.jpg 1858012]
3.5 stars. This book was an interesting one for me since I don't read much in the Young Adult Genre. I overall liked the book and will continue with the series.
WRITING STYLE
This is my first Brandon Sanderson so I don't know how this compares with his other works. However, I found this book was easy to read with no special prose. I thought that nothing really stood out for me. Scud, I forgot, this book has a very distinct feature in that swear words have been replaced with “Scud” or “Stars”. This didn't annoy me but it was a tiny bit jarring to read all the time.
PLOT
The story begins with our main character “Spensa”, a teenage girl who lives on a planet (Detritus) where humans have crash-landed before her time, attacked by aliens termed the “Krell”. Spensa is aspiring to become a pilot which is a very honorable profession in the society she lives in. She is very talented as far as flying is concerned but she has one big problem that constantly sets her back in her life: Her father who was a pilot deserted his group, fled, and was thus marked a coward. (If I had 1$ for every time Sanderson mentioned coward in this novel I would be a billionaire. No, seriously, please somebody count the appearances of this word.) A coward in this world has a seriously bad reputation. As bad as it can get probably. Everybody apart from her (best friend?) “Rig” hates her and wants to see her fail. This of course makes her life hard, and unfair. But she gets to go to a pilot school anyway where she meets other people sharing her dream of becoming a full fletched pilot. The story then mostly takes place during her studies as a cadet to be a full pilot.
The plot was quite enjoyable for me. This might be because this is my first novel in the science fiction genre so I have no idea if the story is original or not. There were, however, several moments I particularly disliked. This book was full of rather strange coincidences that happened throughout the story. For example, Spensa, the aspiring pilot, discovers one day before her exam coincidentally an unused spaceship while wandering a cave. Later on, she wants to use said spaceship and asks her friend Rig to repair it. Rig, the same age as her, coincidentally knows how to repair the ship (a highly advanced ship btw...). He also, coincidentally, has the time and (most of) the parts for repair at the moment, due to him applying to some engineering internship (I forgot what exactly). At this point, Rig just became a plot device to continue the story which I did not like. Much later on, the ship flies with her but does not want to be used for fights. Thus, it turned itself off forever. However(!!!), in the end, the ship turns into a Deus Ex Machina and saves the day because it has rewritten some of its code allowing Spensa to be his master and because she wants it to be a war device, he now fights. I don't know about that...
The ending was definitely thrilling and interesting. We find out that the Krell are prison guards for human so that they do not conquer the galaxy. However, here I don't really understand why the Krell don't just kill off humans. I mean, why give them the slightest chance to flee when you could just kill them off? We know that it would be possible, they have enough spaceships for this. But maybe I just didn't get this part.
CHARACTERS
I found the characters rather one-dimensional (the religious one, the one that wanted to learn about weapons, the one that does not speak English, the nerd who can repair stuff etc.). Apart from our protagonist Spensa, and one other character not much development or growth happens. This, sadly, did not let me feel much for the characters and some deaths. I know that this is mostly based on the lack of interactions between Spensa and the other cadets due to the admiral prohibiting it. This is leading to the reader missing out on the experienced character growth of the other cadets.
I also had other problems, especially with the main character: First, she constantly makes stupid decisions, constantly does not listen to her flight leader or commander, or just behaves like an asshole to them. She hires her “best friend” Rig to repair the advanced spaceship for her but then just leaves him for days and does not care about him at all. Not once does she give him something as a thank you or whatever. I am glad that I don't have friends like her.
SOME THEMES DISCUSSED
Some themes that have been discussed or at least brought up are the concepts of freedom and cowardice.
It makes sense that freedom has a high value in a society that is highly shaped by its military force and the constant fight against the Krell. This fight is a fight against repression as the Krell do not allow the humans to leave the planet and force them to live in caves on Detritus.
However, freedom is not only discussed as the physical movement to another place when you want. Also, the freedom of choosing whoever you want to be is discussed throughout the book. For example, Jorgen complains about being rich and his life constantly planned out for him by his parents. Spensa even argues once that she might be more “free” than he is.
Cowardice is another topic that is very much discussed in this book. Almost on every other page, the characters name someone a coward. Of course, a coward is the worst thing (apart from a traitor), that can happen in a military society. I mean look at our history where they commonly executed deserters to force the remaining soldiers to fight. From an early age kids on Detritus are indoctrinated that cowards are the worst people out there. This leads also to some deaths in the story as pilots much rather die as heroes (martyrs) than eject when their ship is in danger.
CONCLUSION
I liked this book with all its strong and weak points and I will continue with the series as I am quite intrigued and want to know how it continues. But before I buy the sequel, I need to reduce my TBR pile further...
For this spooky season I try to read some horror books and Manga that I still have on my tbr pile at home. This year I start with this manga edition of the Call of Cthulhu. And while the images were beautiful, gorgeous and detailed (this manga has probably of the best illustrations of the manga I've read so far, which aren't that many mind you), I am honest and say that I don't think I really understood the story.
It felt a bit like an introduction or a prologue to a bigger story and then again maybe it is.
I think it would have been better for me if i had read the novel first to really grasp the meaning of this story. As for now I just think I'm missing something but as this is my first entry into the world of H.P. Lovecraft maybe that's just his style. I'll definitely get to the original Call of Cthulhu version and see if I just didn't like the story overall or if it's a Limitation of the manga genre.
3/5 till now (could change when I've read the original story or more of the Cthulhu myths in general)
5/5 for the illustrations
Not my favorite. Actually, the concept of the long walk is really interesting. The idea that these teenage boys have to walk each year in this competition. Every day that passes the tension and terror intensifies. But... this concept was a bit too underdeveloped for my taste. So many questions left unanswered.
Also, while all in all liking the writing style, I found the book very tedious and boring especially in the middle. I have to be honest, usually I like the characters most in King novels but these kids were so uninteresting I wasn't sure about who he is talking half the time. Also, what about these weird sexual conversation topics all the time. LOL
And as usual for king novels the ending was a bit unsatisfying for me.
DNFed because of the rape scene at the beginning. I don't read rape romances. I also found it tiring that the protagonist is a weirdo who cannot stand up against his mother and lets her be responsible for everything. And how can she tell so early that the woman is pregnant? Also, why does he now have to marry the selkie after seeing them dance naked. I don't know. I just don't vibe with stories like this.
All in all a nice but mediocre book. It was a bit repetitive and superficial. I also don't like it that no sources are given to scientific claims. ‘Science confirms that XY and science proofs XY' but without sources I would not trust it. Nevertheless sometimes the author at least mentions the study or the scientists conducting a study.
Ich kann nicht wirklich sagen warum aber dieser Manga gefällt mir bisher unheimlich. (Es ist 100% Haru)
Eigentlich passiert bisher nicht viel und der Protagonist Subaru ist jetzt auch nicht besonders sympathisch und stellt sich auch etwas dämlich an (Überfüttern von Haru und jaa es gibt Routine Untersuchungen beim Tierarzt, etc.). 5 min Recherche im Internet: „auf was muss man achten wenn man eine Katze hat“ würde wahrscheinlich schon viele Herausforderungen lösen, denen der Protagonist nicht so richtig gewachsen ist. Aber andererseits würde sich da ja nicht der Kontakt zur Verkäuferin im Tierhandel (dessen Namen mir entfallen ist) und einige humorvolle Begebenheiten ereignen.
Trotzdem ein echter „cozy“ Manga, dem ich gerne weiter folge. Ich finde besonders die Zweiteilung der Perspektiven gibt dem Manga das gewisse etwas.
Rating: 4/5 (vielleicht etwas hoch, da es nicht gerade Weltliteratur ist, aber der Manga schafft es bis jetzt immer meine Laune zu verbessern und das rechne ich ihm hoch an)
Dnf.
Lots of grammar errors, uninteresting characters and uninteresting plot. The name of the main character „Angel Salvatore“ sounds cringey as fuck. His character trait is being the best and furthermore being better than everyone else which makes for an immensely interesting character.
In my opinion, the book feels so childish. I mean does a 400 year old Vampire have nothing better to do than tease the main character playfully all the time? Not to forget all the smirking. I don't know but for being a master vampire, I expect someone who can be respected and acts accordingly. This Vampire feels like a Teenie.
This was a horrible reading experience.
2 stars.
The story was sadly not my cup of tea. I found it very predictable early on and it didn't really catch me but I'm glad other people like this short story more than me. Shirley Jackson's “the Lottery” was obviously influential on a lot of writers and without it we wouldn't have some iconic stories that we know now, so I am grateful for that.
I will definitely give Haunting of Hill House a try though.
Book is so tedious and boring. I cannot connect with the characters and the plot is nonexistent.
