Audiobook Review + Alexandra Bracken
This is the sequel to Passenger. It's an interesting read, and the main character appears a bit stronger than before, willing to fight. Her counterpart and love interest ends up with the most important power in these two books, purely by (bad) luck.
Lately I’m encountering a lot of detective / film noir inspired stuff. There’s Sugar on Apple TV, Spider-Noir on… euh… Prime Video? (More about Spider Noir later.) And here’s Dan Willis, who wrote a 10+ series of books, set in an alternative 30’s in the US, where (some) magic works, and dames are still dames.
Audiobook Review + Xiran Jay Zhao
Iron Widow is the first part of a duology / trilogy / series (?) with the same name. It describes Wu Zetian's rise through the ranks, in a Chinese inspired scifi / fantasy setting featuring a mystical 'spirit power' (a kind of paranormal energy source) and very large mecha-like creatures called 'Chrysalis'.
But nope. It's a trilogy. (And there's nothing wrong with that.) Perhaps I'm over-conditioned by those endless multi-volume series. I think Hackwith could have gotten away with it, but she chose not to.
Take some dark, gothic fantasy elements, combine it with a family drama and a self-apreciating voice, and tell a tale that moves towards and touches upon horror territory.
RPG Book Review + Books + Dutch
Na al het uitzoeken en voorbereiden is het tijd om het resultaat te laten zien: The Lazy Anthology. Oftewel... drie de boeken tesamen in een enkele, full color hardcover.
(I have some mixed feelings on 5e5 AKA 5e24, the 2024 incarnation of the ruleset. Note that these Basic Rules are based on the 2014 set of rules.)
Once you have a Rakuten Kobo Plus subscription you're going to try to maximize its usage. Let's read / listen to tons of free books - as long as the subscription lasts - right? On top of that, I was investigating the typical romantasy concepts. Free and with a purpose, right?
Well... yeah. Right. Unfortunately, lots of the better stuff isn't free, and lots of the stuff included in Kobo Plus isn't very good... Will Viola Grace change my opinion?
This is a well known series, in which the last of the Antari (dimension hopping mages) discovers his ancestry, and fights an all consuming magic evil.
It's pretty good, but I didn't find it as exceptional as it is often made out to be. Still good though.
Dabbling in romantasy lately, are we?
Well. It's only for scientific purposes. And if the story is half-decent, then why not? I can always skip the random porn inserts that seem to haunt modern day fantasy novels...
I've only read this one a few weeks ago, and I'm already forgetting about this one. I guess that means it did not leave that much of an impression behind.
Alright... this post is going to be a weird one.
I was pointed toward this video by another nettizen (does anyone still use that word?) / Discord user / writer, and the video is quite interesting.
So let's split this post up in two parts: writing related, and a short review of the book itself.
TSR, the (in)famous creators of the AD&D role playing game (then boutght by WOTC, Hasbro, and becoming perhaps even more (in)famous for their poor handling of the OGL) also publish books based on their games. One of those is Elfshadow by Elaine Cunningham. It's set in the Forgotten Realms, but no prior knowledge is required.
The Verdict: It's not bad. Expect regular 'sword and sorcery'.
Dapper / TellTales! #6
Short story that got expanded into three short novels, about a girl who lost her memory and starts living on a cemetery.
It's an easy read - nothing too exceptional - with perhaps a somewhat unexpected plot twist near the end, where the whole story adopts a supernatural element.
The verdict: a decent, entertaining read.
You may have noticed that a large part of this blog consists of nothing but SciFi and Fantasy book reviews. I'm 58 now, and I've done nothing but reading SF and Fantasy over the last 40 odd years. There has been the occaisional side trip into other genres, but in the end I always return to my roots 😇 So, what are the best books I've ever read?
I never heard of either the author, nor the Joseph Bridgeman series, but apparently the latter is popular enough to have made it into 4 books by know, published in 2021 and 2022 (according to Goodreads).
And Then She Vanished is time travel, but a bit different, with some genetically defined time travel superpower thrown in. Kinda.
Last year I was (trying to) do a review per week, and haven't kept to my schedule when 2024 started... So, let's use a week or two to catch up. First target: Casey White.
Casey White is an independent self publishing author, with a number of novels to her name. I can't figure out how many, as there are multiple authors with the same name / alias 😎
So, here's another one to add to the list 😏
Or, perhaps, not. Few action scenes, some romantic stuff, cock sucking, more access scenes, repeat ad nauseum. If you like sex scenes in your books, sprinkled with some Vampire hormones then go and read this. I gave up after a couple of chapters. Explicit sex scenes every other chapter just ain’t rocking my boat. If it’s yours then there are at least 5 sequels to work your way through.
This series is literally using ‘imagination’ as the primary magical means and method. It has some interesting aspects and intrigue, but the main character is a little too powerful, and the whole writing style smells of LitRPG and Cultivation (which I don’t like) but… he doesn’t belong to that wave of writers.
I’m a little puzzled though. L.E. Modesitt has been around for quite a while, but I have no recollection of reading anything by his hand before. Hmmm…
