Nathalie

Video game tie-ins are usually hit-or-miss, especially when featuring the same characters. Stakes can't be too high, and we can't develop any of the characters too much as you don't want any big changes to happen here instead of in the main game.

I was a big fan of the video game! Their interpretation of the characters is my favorite interpretation of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Especially Peter Quill. This book serves as a direct prequel to the game so we get more of the interactions that made the game so great, and more Ko-Rel! Weirdly I was more invested in the flashbacks involving Ko-Rel and Peter.

I would never say no to more of these characters (especially as a sequel to the game is highly unlikely at this point) so I really enjoyed this.

I never really properly got into this one for some reason compared to the previous books in this series. There were a few highlights that were really good, but everything else was either very meandering or just happened so damn fast that you had barely time to process it. The Solemn Muffasz thing for example was just like... why as immediately after they realize how dumb this shit is they change their mind but then it's too late when it seems like barely any time has passed? I just felt really weird about a lot of scenes that were meant to invoke an emotional reaction. It seemed a bit forced some of the time, which I didn't feel that much previously. Otherwise I really loved the parts with Meas and her mom, and a lot in those few chapters around it, and The Ghosts In The Fog.

An ARC of this book was given to me through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What if society was reset every four years? That is the question Reset asks itself. Every fourth year, humans undergo “Tabula Rasa” in which their memories are wiped and they start a new cycle with a new name, job, home, friends. This helps in keeping the peace.

But what happens when people become interested in recovering their memories?

Story
I think the story is pretty interesting! I never really need a lot of detail on technicalities or specifics when it comes to sci-fi stuff, so I can't really judge on that, but I found it pretty complete! We get the origins of it, the consequences of it, and possibly the future of it.
The story flows very well. Not a lot of dull moments or chapters you really have to push through to get to “the good stuff”. There are no wasted scenes here.

Writing style
The first thing I noticed when I started is that it's in present tense! People sometimes feel iffy about that, but I felt it was a very deliberate choice, as the entire story is about making the most out of the present.
It reads very easy overall. It's very dialogue heavy, but not in a way that you get confused over who's talking. Exposition and info are given to you in a subtle manner.

Characters
There's quite a few characters, but they all feel very distinct from one another. Aris, Metis, Benja, Thane... They have their own quirks and personalities and their own voice. I can't say I got really attached to anyone in particular. That is something that is very hard to achieve though when it comes to action-packed stories.

Romance
So.... I'm not a very big fan of romance generally, and unfortunately this was no exception. I kept thinking about how I would feel about Aris and I would honestly just check out if there was ever so much pressure put on me by a man I'd only met about a week prior. The book deals with that a bit, but it's also quickly forgotten because there are more urgent things going on. I just felt it was a bit too fast. It felt more like infatuation instead of loving eachother for the person they were.

Other
I haven't mentioned it yet but THAT COVER. It's incredible.

This was a fun read! It's a bit out of my comfort zone. Would definitely recommend it if you like a light dystopian sci-fi with a bit of romance on the side.

I'm honestly getting a bit tired of reading about Thrawn. There's only so many times you can read about how smart and tactical he is before it becomes not so impressive anymore. At this point I'm just way more interested in what Thrawn is up to right now, and I honestly think he'd work much better as a side character.

Granted, this book does do a few new things with him (how he was more compassionate compared to now), but as with the previous trilogy - the standouts for me were the side characters. In the previous books that was Eli Vanto, this time it was Ar'alani.

I liked the Memories, and I liked certain parts of it, but I'm not sure this is interesting or juicy enough for an entire new series? It was enjoyable, sure, but it doesn't really justify its existence. Unless you are really interested in the Chiss and politics, though I found even the latter to be a bit shallow here.

So... I got this as an ARC via Netgalley quite a long time ago, but I was in a bit of a reading slump and never got around to it until now. I hadn't even realized it was a novella, otherwise I would have maybe pushed through anyway to finish it in time, but alas.

It's a dark story about witches and witchhunters, and I haven't read many books like that so that was nice. I was already into it from page one, and it was very easy to just keep on reading as the end of every chapter made you want to read the next one.

It's not perfect. The characters themselves are a bit shallow and not that developed, and the situations they fall into repeat themselves sometimes (even by characters making the same mistakes over and over). As it's a novella it's not as notable, but I've read other novellas where I already felt much more with fewer pages. But it is a genuinely scary story, even just as a social commentary and not necessarily just the gruesome acts in it.

I really enjoyed it, and would definitely read more from this author!

Hadn't expected this to be young adult, but it doesn't really hinder this too much. Really enjoyable, not too long, pretty fun!

Man, this was disappointing. It honestly made me question my earlier review of the similar A New Hope novel, as I distinctly remember enjoying that a whole lot.

This movie doesn't really lend itself to “40 random short stories from other characters” as well as A New Hope does. It only really goes to Hoth (which I never found the most exciting part) and Cloud City, and neither setting's side characters are really fascinating enough to write about, and the book struggles to make them interesting.

I liked most of the Empire stories here, but all in all there were maybe 7-8 stories out of 40 that were worth it, which isn't much.

Very enjoyable and entertaining as always. Pleasantly written and performed. It is part of a series of other Stephen Fry books on mythology, all of which I would recommend as well.

Overall very entertaining! It's a bit juicy and it's got drama and it's got a few twists, as you would expect. It doesn't get overly unpredictable though, as the “bigger” twist isn't that hard to figure out, but it wasn't too on the nose either.

Part of the mystery here is not only who did it, but it also takes up until the last quarter of the book to figure out who actually got killed. And then after finding out who, the book very suddenly ends and there are a few plot points you don't really get closure on.

A fun read though, especially the audiobook.

I love every single Star Wars movie. Do I recognize the flaws? Yes. Do I still enjoy them with all my heart? Absolutely.

In the same way I also really enjoyed Rise Of Skywalker, though it left a lot of gaps in the why's and the how's of things. This novelization seeks to answer some of those. It also respects the other canon books a bit more than the movie did (cough Snap) and it's a bit easier to slip other canon stuff in there. This movie in particular suffered from things moving too fast and conveying what characters were thinking. This definitely helps in that regard.

A fun read! Not necessarily a must, per se. I don't think it would make you like the movie more if you didn't beforehand, but it provides fun little extras and explanations.

This book single-handedly put me into a bit of a reading slump. (I say slump but it just took me about 5 days longer than I usually would, so this is a bit overdramatic but still).

There's one POV character that is legitimately interesting, which is Miko. Her opening lines were great and immediately brought you into her story. I think if you had to name a main character, it would definitely be her.

But then there's Rah, whose chapters (and whose character) I found very boring and was only really interesting for the connections to the other POV characters.

There's also Cassandra - who on paper should be a very fascinating character, but it doesn't really work. The situations she got herself in were just so ridiculous at times that I couldn't take her seriously, and the way her thoughts were written she felt way younger than she was supposed to be.

There's a few side characters that cross over between each character's chapters, and I felt that Rah's and Cassandra's chapters mostly served as a purpose to let us know what they were up to or what happened consequences wise after certain events in Miko's chapters. Them as characters didn't get as much development or attention as Miko did, and were mostly our viewpoint for the other characters that just happened to be at their location.

Miko's story is genuinely exciting though, and does have some surprises along the way. I just wish the other characters were as engaging.

The High Republic was what the Star Wars canon needed. A time in the world of which we didn't know anything yet. Nothing is tied to the Skywalkers or the Death Star and we have no idea what's going to happen to any of these characters.

For a really great and surprising story in the Skywalker time, you pretty much had to get people invested in more smaller scale stakes, such as for characters or dynamics that weren't as fleshed out in the movies, while a lot of authors work better with larger stakes and getting more freedom with the world itself. Claudia Gray really excelled at a lot of the character stuff, but she was one of few.

In Light of the Jedi, the author(s) could go crazy with worldbuilding! Coruscant isn't the same Coruscant we've come to know. The state of the galaxy is different, and we have different enemies to deal with.

Gotta say, it was really enjoyable getting to see these Jedi in their prime. There was a lot of uses for the Force that were new, as well as how some of the Jedi saw the Force and how they interacted with it.

As this is an introduction novel, it serves very much as the starting point of the entire era, and is very plot focused. I've seen the event that happens here referenced in other High Republic novel summaries, so it's safe to assume that this should be your very first read if you wanted to get into this era.

It also had to introduce a lot of new characters and set things in motion, so there was not a lot of time for said characters to really shine individually. There are some cool moments, but I do really want separate novels for some of them. Especially Avar Kriss and Elzarr Mann. Ooooh, that dynamic! I absolutely love it.

I did not really care for the antagonist though. Or at least not the organization or the way they worked and operated. That got way more interesting at the end so I'm not actively hoping against them showing up again!

This is a really promising start and I'm looking forward to more!

Very much a novel geared towards children or young teens (the character of Avon especially just screams “junior novel character”), but it was alright. There's a few characters and references that refer to Light of the Jedi, but I wouldn't say this is a necessary read if you're interested in consuming the new canon. It's a nice little adventure but can pretty much be skipped.

Unfortunately I'm gonna have to agree with what a lot of people are saying about this book. This is very mediocre and at times incredibly boring.

Claudia Gray is by far my favorite Star Wars author for the new novels, with Lost Stars and Bloodline being my absolute favorites. She excels at character work and deepening existing characters.

Unfortunately with Into The Dark, I think it might have wanted to do too much. We have 4 to 5 different POV's, many different characters to keep track of, and also a bunch of semi-related flashbacks. It spread itself too thin.

Reath Silas, our main character, is a type of Jedi we haven't had all too often, but he doesn't get as much time as he should have gotten in this book. The other Jedi are the ones who are flashing back, and we also spent a lot of time on the pilots of The Vessel which I frankly didn't care too much about.
The Nihil also remain an enemy that I just do not care for at all.

The theme and ideas of the book are really cool. It's about attachment and mourning and what that means for a Jedi. That's super interesting! I just wish everything else would have been interesting as well.

This sequel is kind of the same as the first one, but flows better. Less info-dumpy, less flashbacks. Still as enjoyable.
Again, the world building stands out.
Otherwise, I still feel the same as I did with the first one. I wouldn't count it among my favorites but the potential to be more is there.

Very fun and enjoyable read! Easy to pick up, easy to get invested. I really liked both Lin and Jovis (the rest was good but also iffy at times). The idea with the constructs and the shards I thought was very cool. Was unfortunately also pretty invested in poor Bayan but alas. It made me want to read the sequel but apparently that one isn't as great so we'll see.

Call of the Bone Ships has one of my favorite openings - from the opening quote to the first few chapters, this was super exciting. A stark contrast from the first book in the series, which was difficult to get into at first.

Weirdly the opening is my personal highlight from this book, though it never lets up.

We get a lot more of what made the first book great, but better. Everything flows, the characters and how they get along work, and I found myself being more invested in this one's story compared to The Bone Ships. Joron improves, and Meas remains great. I kind of miss a bit more focus on the other characters, though they also get their moments to shine.

If you liked the first one, I most definitely recommend this!

Started off as a potential 5 star book but then the initial intrigue wore off a bit, and while still solid, not yet a favorite.

A standout positive: the worldbuilding. I barely care about worldbuilding half the time, but this one did it wonderfully and I could perfectly imagine the world while barely a few pages in.

I also really liked the characters, and especially the side characters. Fetch himself is also great, though can be a bit infuriating (so much self-hate!) but in a way it's understandable and just a part of him. I do hope there's some progress in the next ones to learn to move on.

As this was the first book of the series, there's a lot of back and forth between present time and flashbacks, as well as suddenly a bunch of paragraphs about the world's history. Some of those prevented the flow of the story a bit.

Even though I wasn't super gripped by it, I'm still curious enough about the sequel and intend on checking that out. There is a lot of potential here and I hope the next ones takes advantage of that.

This follow-up to Silver In The Wood has a less “magical” atmosphere compared to its predecessor and therefore feels slightly more grounded. This makes sense for the story and POV we're following in this one, but I missed a bit of the magic that I loved. Still really good though.

Final Fantasy XV was a game and franchise I was never really interested in, but I got the game gifted to me, after which I played it and fell in love with it anyway.

The game itself went through development hell, and changed stories and concepts multiple times so much that the initial trailers have nothing to do with how the actual game turned out. The story therefore, lacks a bit in some places. I do however really love the character work which makes me more easily forgive those.

The game had two rounds of DLC, each consisting of four episodes. Unfortunately, the second round was cut short, and only Episode Ardyn made it. This book contains what they had planned for what they never got to make. (Though it also includes the Ardyn Episode).

As a fan of the game, this was super interesting to read, and it was a joy to see that it really got the character's voices right. As this novel was originally Japanese, it could have been easy to just do a straight translation instead of making it fit the English version and characters of the game.
And I gotta say, getting to read Noctis' thoughts during the final battle is very much a punch in the gut.

As with Episode Ignis, the story here includes an alternative ending.

Another cool thing: concept art! I had to load up the file on a computer to get to really look at it all in color and to read the little notes that the development team wrote. At the end of the book, there's an entire chapter filled with cool art of things they had planned to do or were ideas that they might have done. And then for some reason there's a bunch of designs for placemats and coasters :D

Very recommended if you like the game!

I just didn't care for any of it or any of its characters. I liked hearing about Hera Syndulla post-Endor, but that's about it. Unfortunate because I really liked Alexander Freed's other Star Wars novel.

I was very neutral towards most of this book. Liked some parts, disliked some parts. I wasn't a fan of the main character. She's just so very incompetent for being known as “The Bitch Queen”. None of her guards or allies respects her whatsoever, and to be honest she does nothing to command any respect. Khine is a good character but waaaaay too forgiving for the shit she put him through. Rayyel had no redeeming qualities whatsoever in the flashbacks and it makes no sense that she was so head over heels for him (and to be fair, yes, love is blind, but nothing in the characterization for both convinced me on why she felt that strongly about him).

It's technically touted as being character-driven but ehhhhh. There's a lot of focus on character stuff but the events set in motion don't always make sense from their character's point of view, which makes it more plot driven than anything. (The Yuebek plan, I mean.. what?) I really thought I would like this because I found the first chapter very promising. It felt introspective and a bit Hobb-inspired to me, but it went downhill after that.

Slow start, but did get really interesting at times. The moments where the author would think about a certain movie he thought was bad or better than the other took me out a bit though.

To be quite honest with you, I didn't even think I was going to like this. This is marketed as such a cozy story, and usually I find that those types of stories try too hard and it tends to be overly cheesy and fake and it just makes me roll my eyes.

HOWEVER. Even if The House in the Cerulean Sea has its fair share of cheesy moments, I loved the hell out of it. I loved these characters and I loved the growth between them all very much. The way it was written was also extremely enjoyable to read, and I never wanted to gloss over longer descriptions. I really wanted to take it all in.

Favorite of this year so far? Yes, yes. Very much so.

It's an alright story, not super thrilling and I'm glad it wasn't longer than it was. Though unfortunately this story is only available as an audio drama and I sometimes had trouble knowing which character was speaking.
Apparently this has quite a few tie-ins with Master & Apprentice so I can't wait to get on that!