Tag Archives: Reading

Unspoken

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The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood

I dig this art


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Unspoken Name is a hesitant 4 stars for me.

The story of Csorwe, the bride of the Unspoken god and sentenced to die is a fantastic journey. I found it refreshing to hear the story of a character with tusks. I know this seems like a small detail, but the smallest diversity struck me as important. I enjoyed the journey from priestess to sacrifice to warrior, assassin, spy and so much more. There was real character growth through the course of the book.

I could have stopped at a couple of points in the story. It felt like there might have been more than one “book” in here… or maybe it could have been broken out into novellas or serialized somehow. It was a minor distraction, but it was there.

I was put off by the list of names up front, but I am always put off by those so this was not unique to this book. I made up my own names for characters as the fantasy names just didn’t hang together for me. Csorwe became Crow – visually close and an easy to keep the flow of the story – is just one example. Some people will struggle with that, some won’t – but I think the ability to actually say the name of the main characters matters.

I enjoyed the world building. Having various worlds connected by the maze was an interesting concept. There wasn’t a ton of detail about the ships, the gates or how the various parts worked but it was enough to spark the imagination and make the story / journey flow.

It was a good story and worth picking up.



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Charred

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The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I don’t think 3 stars is quite right. It might be closer to 3.5. The book gives me a very “Umbrella Academy” feel. The story of an adopted family of children who all gain some kind of special abilities. A minor difference / quibble there being that the children don’t naturally have any of their abilities, they study to gain them.

The world building here was interesting. I say interesting because normally the “real world” as a basis for your story allows for a great many short cuts, but the author managed to give the feeling of things being ever so slightly ‘off’ with the descriptions of time. I had a thorn stuck in my head by this story via the use of a military character. The total time in service for the stated rank and exit from service for Erwin just did NOT ring true. It was really my biggest complaint about the world building – if you’re using the real world army, talk to somebody about it and pick up the details.

The characters were interesting. Some grew to be irritating more than anything by the later stages of the book, but the main ones kept things fresh as the story progressed. I knew the person behind the plot fairly early on, but did not see nor expect what the author did with the ending.

In all it kept me reading to the end. I look forward to our book group’s discussion on this one.



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Good Read

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Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I will restate that I really like this author’s work. I have a bias, know this going in.

At first glance more than 600 pages looked daunting. Then I remembered who wrote it. I’ve plunged through some of his other works at very rapid pace. Then I hit right about the 40% mark of this one and it really slowed down. It was all politics and wrangling of people and just slow. It was all part of building to an ending that made sense and it all fit, but I struggled. I know I generally like what he writes, so I pushed through. I’m glad I pushed ahead. Once I got past the slow bit I dashed across the finish line.

I enjoyed the characters in this story. The world building and magic system was a very big deal in this and it came through. I am still chewing on implications in my head for various aspects of the world.

Was there negative stuff? Yeah, actually there was. This was his first book and there were aspects of the flow and the narrative that felt that way. Perhaps it’s unfair to say that, but I’ve read a number of his other works first so coming back to this made the small things stand out more. One thing that I always find a bit… I don’t know if ‘cringy’ is the right word, but it seems to fit, is when authors give numbers to troops. There’s a non zero number of authors I’ve read where it just doesn’t feel like they’ve got a good handle on how big the army of an entire nation should be. This is one of those books. It’s generally vague, but there are a few mentions in there about troop numbers and they feel like they were just made up. I chalk that one up to my own pet peeve.

This book does a lot of good things too. It avoids certain tropes, and gives real thought to what variations in magic and politics do to the people in the world. The hero isn’t “the chosen one” or “destined to be” or anything like that. He’s a guy that gets handed crap circumstances. The other characters are a priest who questions his faith and a woman that doesn’t like being told what role she’s allowed to have in society. In general I would recommend reading this book if you’re into fantasy. Very enjoyable!



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Fart Quest

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I’m combining both of my reviews for the series on this page for any folks that don’t happen to have (or maybe don’t want) access to Goodreads. I have been using that site to track my books for quite some time now, but sharing here also means I get to keep some small part of what I write down here.

BOOK 1

Yes, an extended fart joke. I love it.

Fart Quest by Aaron Reynolds

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I read this today ~ all of it. I’m delighted that I picked it up. I am planning to write out a longer, more detailed review when I finish reading the second book.

FUN!

Barf quest. Right in a kids wheelhouse (and mine)!

BOOK 2

The Barf of the Bedazzler by Aaron Reynolds

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The second book in the series Fart Quest was just as amusing as the first one. I had fun reading this one. Yes, it’s aimed at kids. Yes, it’s still essentially an extended fart joke HOWEVER – there’s a good story in there too.

The companions that are travelling and having adventures together learn valuable lessons along the way. While these things are being done, the book itself is actually introducing kids to some of the concepts of role playing games – including experience points and levelling up.

I don’t have an elementary schooler anymore, but these are exactly the sort of books I’d be reading with a kid in that age group. I’m really glad I picked this series up.



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Classic Images

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Ansel Adams: Classic Image Essays by Ansel Adams

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’m so happy to have gotten this book as a gift. While the text is not lengthy, it does give an excellent primer on the life of the photographer. I suspect many people see the name and think something like, “Oh, yes. Tree pictures…” and then move on. Well, the essay in here gave me a lot more things to dig up and sink my teeth into.

If you’re looking for a quick hit of biography, just enough to get you interested, and you can get a copy of this book, I recommend that you do.



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Magic Ink

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Ink & Sigil by Kevin Hearne

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I actually finished reading this a couple of weeks ago but haven’t gotten to the review part until just now. I’m glad I picked this book up and read it. Adding stories to the world built by the author in the Iron Druid series could have been really good or really bad.

This story, describing the world of magic as inhabited by those who can use alchemical ink combinations to create magic follows one of the members of this secret society. Al is a gifted worker of inks but struggles to pass on his lore as his apprentices keep dying in odd ways. Al sets out to discover what happened to his most recent apprentice and uncovers an entirely different mystery to solve along the way.

There were some nit-picks that some people might not have trouble with. I really didn’t want or need the primer on Scottish slang. The explanation of it felt like it got in the way. There’s a little bit of a feeling like you’re missing out if you haven’t read the Iron Druid stories. Al even has a section of the story that describes meeting the character from the other series. I suppose it’s difficult to get away from such a dominant character in the world building, but this was just a blip in the story to me. It may have had deeper meaning to those who have read more, but it was lost on me. I really liked the magical ink mixes, the curse(s) and the modern lives of fairies in our world. It was fun.

All in all, I really enjoyed the story. I’m glad I picked it up. I’ll be interested to see if there are more on the way.



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Deathless Divide

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Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I was quite taken with the first book. I wanted to jump right into the continuation of the story. The first book wrapped up enough that I didn’t feel like I was forced to go and get the next book. That is refreshing and I appreciated it.

This story follows Jane and Kate on their continuing journey.

There was a lot to enjoy about their travels and the things that happen to them along the way. The path of the characters is easily believable and they are real, whole people. I often have a hard time when the protagonist is a young woman/girl. There are a lot of things that just don’t relate for me. This story had none of that. Very well written.

It was also nice to see the variety of life that is not often shown in American westerns. The world building was consistent and didn’t break its own rules.

I’m glad I went on and read the second book.



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Zombies!

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Rise Up!

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I picked this one up early on, but for some reason I didn’t dig into it right away. I can’t place a finger on the reason for that, but I will say I’m glad I picked it up. This book is a great ride. Spoilers ahead~

I’m not normally a big fan of zombie horror. It doesn’t bother me the way it does some, but I also have never found zombies to be particularly scary as a monster type. As with any zombie story I’ve seen, the real monsters and the true horrors are the humans.

As I started reading Jane’s story I thought this could be a fine action story set around the time of the Civil War. As it turns out there is a lot of action, but not in the sense I was thinking. This was certainly NOT the Harry Potter-esque life at a boarding school adventure type. The model of the school Jane attended was the Carlisle school, albeit slightly time shifted. This was racism and the blatant attempts of one group of people trying to keep another group of people down. The school, the treatment of the people and way they were expected to behave was just the starting point for the monsters.

The teachers at the school practiced the sort of abuse that wasn’t just physical. True to abusers everywhere there was psychological abuse riding hand in hand. Early in the story I wanted to see Jane make some move to solve the mystery of the missing family and give the school some sort of “comeuppance” that would allow for some kind of happy ending. I failed to see the problem with that line of thinking right away, but the author deftly moved to remedy the situation by wiping out not just the school, but the entire state of Maryland.

Taking Jane and her friends west into the plains removed any sense of East Coast familiarity from me and placed them all squarely in the path of the most monstrous people in the whole book – the self righteous. Using religion as a bludgeon to maintain the oppression of a people stoked the ugly feelings toward those opposed to Jane. I was sincerely glad when that town was wiped out and Jane’s little band made their escape. The writing here was really wonderful. It’s good writing when you loathe a fictional man that much.

I’m glad the main aspects of the story wrapped up in the first book. The history of each character and development of the world was excellent. The “cliffhanger” for the continuation of the story is there as Jane is in the middle of the prairie, but I do consider the story of the first book wrapped up. I could leave it at that if I wanted, but I suspect I’ll be going out and grabbing up the next book.

I hadn’t realized that I had subconsciously bought into the “that’s how things are” feeling of the way the schools were set up at first. I had to step back at the end and realize just how messed up that was. I’m glad the author put the reading recommendations at the end of the novel and I’d like to add one of my own (since I’m being so bold). For anyone sports minded it’s worth picking up Carlisle Vs. Army, a story about some of the athletes from the school in question and how they helped to shape the modern sports world.

Definitely recommend picking this book up.



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Haunting

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The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I grabbed this from Tor’s free download book club and I’m glad that I did.

This was a quick hit of alternate history. The story is set in the early 1900s where an opening to a realm of magic has allowed the Djinn to become part of everyday society in Egypt. The arrival of these powerful magical beings has changed and shaped the way society flows and moves. In this story Hamed is an experience ministry investigator dealing with supernatural and magic related cases. He is called in with his new partner to deal with a haunted tram car. Simple, right?

I loved the setting and the world building on this. It’s a good story that balances the action, the character and the explanation of things well. There were one or two little things I didn’t expect along the way. It was a fun, quick read. If you can get your hands on a copy I would recommend it. Marketing success – I’ll be looking for more from this author!



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Thieves’ World

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Thieves World by Robert Lynn Asprin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I grabbed this one off the shelf as part of my YouTube chat about fantasy works that inspire folks playing Dungeons & Dragons. I had every intention of just glancing through the pages to get a quick refresh on things.

I ended up rereading the entire thing. There are a few things in this series that have become “tropy” at this point, but the book itself came out back in 1979 or 80. Given the way things have changed in our current political environment I’m certain there are a number of my female friends that would not enjoy many aspects of these stories… but that’s one of the very best things about this book. There are multiple stories. The thieves’ world series is shared world. It’s the same setting with shared characters over a series of short stories. Don’t like the one your on? Skip to the next one, just don’t be shocked if you’re missing something that happened in another story.

This book also brings up the question of taking art as something separate from the artist. One of the first people on board and one of the stories in this book is by somebody lately accused of abuse. I don’t know all the details, but there is enough out there to make even the most staunch fans cast aside all this author’s works. It’s a tough question that has no clear answer.

IF you’re a fan of old school fantasy you should grab this book and take a look at what a city of villains, killers and schemers can be.



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This part did not go up into the Goodreads review, but for those who question the abuser I reference was the author Marion Zimmer Bradley. I will reiterate that I don’t know all the details. Her time in the science fiction convention scene was well before my time. Her husband died in prison where he was after being convicted of molesting a child. I struggle to feel good about recommending something that includes the work of an accused child rapist and enabler of a pedophile. I don’t think we’ll ever know all the details since the author died back in 1999, but I felt it was important to point out.

Take it for what you will – I still recommend the work as a whole. It’s worth doing some reading to get deeper into the subject if you’re a fan of the work that Bradley did over the years to push women’s rights and the feminist movement. It’s simply more important to go into things knowing and understanding rather than blindly.