Tag: fantasy

The Well of Ascension Review

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Vin, the street urchin who has grown into the most powerful Mistborn in the land, and Elend Venture, the idealistic young nobleman who loves her, must build a healthy new society in the ashes of an empire. Three separate armies attack. As the siege tightens, an ancient legend seems to offer a glimmer of hope. But even if it really exists, no one knows where to find the Well of Ascension or what manner of power it bestows.

Finale Review

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It’s been two months since the last Caraval concluded, two months since the Fates have been freed from an enchanted deck of cards, two months since Tella has seen Legend, and two months since Legend claimed the empire’s throne as his own. Now, Legend is preparing for his official coronation and Tella is determined to stop it. She believes her own mother, who still remains in an enchanted sleep, is the rightful heir to the throne.
Meanwhile, Scarlett has started a game of her own. She’s challenged Julian and her former fiancé, Count Nicolas d’Arcy, to a competition where the winner will receive her hand in marriage. Finally, Scarlett feels as if she is in complete control over her life and future. She is unaware that her mother’s past has put her in the greatest danger of all. Caraval is over, but perhaps the greatest game of all has begun―with lives, empires, and hearts all at stake. There are no spectators this time: only those who will win…and those who will lose everything.

April Wrap Up 2020

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A month of ups and downs this time round! I read some all-time favourites and I also DNFed a bit. Let’s get into it!

  • I read 6 books this month.
  • I DNFed 2 books this month.
  • I continued with my challenges and read 1 book for my ONTD challenge, 1 book for my sequel challenge and 5 books were from my Physical TBR from the beginning of the year.
  • In terms of genre I read; 2 classics, 2 fantasy, 1 urban fantasy which was also a murder mystery and 1 contemporary drama/thriller. We had a lot of cross over this month!
  • I read 1 ARC, 4 paperbacks and 1 hardback.
  • 2 books that I read this month were a gift.

The Great Gatsby – F Scott. Fitzgerald (DNF)

I wanted to pick this book up after watching the movie and falling in love with the story. That being said the love stopped at the movie and did not pass over to the book! I found the writing really boring and slow paced and I lost interest very quickly!

The Paris Mysteries – Edgar Allan Poe (DNF)

I normally don’t do reviews of DNFs but this book was an ARC so I must give a review for this book. My main struggle was the writing style. The writing was quite flowery and I couldn’t really grasp what the characters were saying.

The Hod King – Josiah Bancroft (5 stars)

Great worldbuilding, great character development. Bancroft really champions his female characters. I can’t actually believe there is only one book left of this amazing series!!

If We Were Villains – M.L. Rio (5 stars)

A book which is a love letter to Shakespeare! This book is all about relationships and the different dynamics between characters. It was seriously a book I could not put down!

Storm Front – Jim Butcher (2 stars)

Yeah… this was not it. Normally I tend to give 2 stars to books I don’t finish as I tend to not give low ratings but this was it. Had some good elements but the overall sexist vibe just ruined the story for me.

House of Salt and Sorrows – Erin A. Craig (5 stars)

A book which restored my faith in YA fantasy! A dark re-telling of one of my favourite fairy tales, this book had me on the edge of my seat and theorizing the entire way through!

House of Salt and Sorrows Review

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Annaleigh lives a sheltered life at Highmoor, a manor by the sea, with her sisters, their father, and stepmother. Once they were twelve, but loneliness fills the grand halls now that four of the girls’ lives have been cut short. Each death was more tragic than the last—the plague, a plummeting fall, a drowning, a slippery plunge—and there are whispers throughout the surrounding villages that the family is cursed by the gods. Disturbed by a series of ghostly visions, Annaleigh becomes increasingly suspicious that the deaths were no accidents. Her sisters have been sneaking out every night to attend glittering balls, dancing until dawn in silk gowns and shimmering slippers, and Annaleigh isn’t sure whether to try to stop them or to join their forbidden trysts. Because who—or what—are they really dancing with? When Annaleigh’s involvement with a mysterious stranger who has secrets of his own intensifies, it’s a race to unravel the darkness that has fallen over her family—before it claims her next.

Storm Front Review

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Harry is the best at what he does – and not just because he’s the only one who does it. So whenever the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal capabilities, they look to him for answers. But business isn’t just slow, it stinks. So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry’s seeing dollar signs. But where there’s black magic, there’s a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry’s name. And that’s when things start to get . . . interesting.

Have I Read? NPR’s Top 100 Fantasy and Sci-fi

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So this post was completely inspired by MeltingPage’s post of the same name. I just really loved the idea, I thought it would be fun!

So there is a bit of a key to this task.

  • Bold titles means I have read the book.
  • Titles in italics denotes book/series I am currently reading.
  • Underlined titles denotes books I would like to read eventually but don’t own.
  • A single asterix (*) denotes books I own and plan to read.

So, let’s get into it. I will give a bit of info along the way.

  1. The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R Tolkien
    Got to be honest here. I read The Hobbit and absoutley loved it. I also read The Fellowship of the Ring and wasn’t as fussed about it, I struggled with the pacing a lot. Finally, I read The Two Towers but I couldn’t finish it. The pacing was so slow and even the action sequences couldn’t get me into the story.
  2. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
  3. Ender’s Games – Orson Scott Card
  4. The Dune Chronicles – Frank Herbert
  5. A Song of Ice and Fire series – George R.R. Martin
  6. 1984 – George Orwell
  7. Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
  8. The Foundation Trilogy – Isaac Asimov
  9. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
  10. American Gods – Neil Gaiman*
  11. The Princess Bride – William Goldman
    I read this book due to the movie. I plan on re-reading this book next year as I unintentionally DNFed it. I didn’t consciously decide to DNF it but I was reading multiple books at that time and I left it for too long. So I want to re-read it and a bunch of other DNF’s.
  12. The Wheel of Time Series – Robert Jordan
    I am currently reading The Eye of the World and I am loving it. It is taking more time than I anticipated, due to my Netgalley reads, but I am still loving it. I am also listening to the Wheel Weaves podcast which is a great spoiler-free companion podcast.
  13. Animal Farm – George Orwell
    I read this for school and enjoyed it. Wasn’t my favourite story but still enjoyable.
  14. Neuromancer – William Gibson
  15. Watchmen – Alan Moore
  16. I, Robot – Isaac Asimov
  17. Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert A. Heinlein
  18. The Kingkiller Chronicles – Patrick Rothfuss
  19. Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut
  20. Frankenstein – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
  21. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Phillip K. Dick
  22. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
  23. The Dark Tower series – Stephen King
  24. 2001: An Space Odyssey – Arthur C. Clarke
  25. The Stand – Stephen King
  26. Snow Crash – Neal Stephenson
  27. The Martian Chronicles – Ray Bradbury
  28. Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut
  29. The Sandman Series – Neil Gaiman
  30. A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
  31. Starship Troopers – Robert A. Heinlein
  32. Watership Down – Richard Adams
  33. Dragonflight – Anne McCaffery
  34. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress – Robert A. Heinlein
  35. A Canticle for Leibowitz – Walter M. Miller Jr.
  36. The Time Machine – H.G. Wells
  37. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – Jules Verne
  38. Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes
  39. The War of the Worlds – H.G Wells
  40. The Amber Chronicles – Roger Zelazny
  41. The Belgariad – David Eddings
  42. The Mists of Avalon – Marion Zimmer Bradley
  43. The Mistborn Trilogy – Brandon Sanderson
    So I put this title in italics and underlined. It’s in italics as I am currently reading the series. I read The Final Empire earlier this year and loved it. But it’s underlined as I don’t own the next two books.
  44. Ringworld – Larry Niven
  45. The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. Le Guin
  46. The Silmarillion – J.K.K Tolkien
  47. The Once and Future King – T.H White
  48. Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman
  49. Childhood’s End – Arthur C. Clarke
  50. Contact – Carl Sagan
  51. The Hyperion Cantos – Dan Simmons
  52. Stardust – Neil Gaiman
    Very similar situation to The Princess Bride, an unintentional DNF. I also read this book after watching the movie. I read this at the beginning of the year and I did not enjoy it.
  53. Cryptonomicon – Neal Stehenson
  54. World War Z – Max Brooks
  55. The Last Unicorn – Peter S. Beagle
  56. The Forever War – Joe Haldeman
  57. Small Gods – Terry Pratchett
    Very similar to the Mistborn series. I am currently reading the series only on book 5. But I don’t own any of the unread books.
  58. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever – Stephen R. Donaldson
  59. The Vorkosigan Saga – Lois McMaster Bujold
  60. Going Postal – Terry Pratchett
  61. The Mote in the God’s Eye – Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
  62. The Sword of Truth series – Terry Goodkind
  63. The Road – Cormac McCarthy
  64. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell – Susanna Clarke
  65. I Am Legend – Richard Matheson
  66. The Riftwar Saga – Raymond E. Feist
  67. The Sword of Shannara Trilogy – Terry Brooks
  68. The Conan the Barbarian series – Robert E. Howard and Mark Schultz
  69. The Farseer Trilogy – Robin Hobb
  70. The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
  71. The Way of Kings – Brandon Sanderson
  72. Journey to the Centre of the Earth – Jules Verne
  73. The Legend of Drizzt series – R.A. Salvatore
  74. Old Man’s War – John Scalzi
  75. The Diamond Age – Neal Stephenson
  76. Rendevous with Rama – Arthur C. Clarke
  77. The Kushiel’s Legacy Series – Jacqueline Grey
  78. The Dispossessed – Ursula K. LeGuin
  79. Something Wicked This Way Comes – Ray Bradbury
  80. Wicked – Gregory Maguire
    I DNFed this one. I wasn’t a fan of the writing style and the pacing was very slow.
  81. Malazan Book of the Fallen Series – Steven Erikson
  82. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
  83. The Culture series by Ian Banks
  84. The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart
  85. Anathem by Neal Stephenson
  86. The Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher
  87. The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
  88. The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn
  89. The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon
  90. The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock
  91. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
  92. Sunshine by Robin McKinley
  93. A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
  94. The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
  95. The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson
  96. Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
  97. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
  98. Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
  99. The Xanth Series by Piers Anthony
  100. The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis

Just a small post for the weekend 🙂

The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep Review

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For his entire life, Charley Sutherland has concealed a magical ability he can’t quite control: he can bring characters from books into the real world. His older brother, Rob – a young lawyer with an utterly normal life – hopes that this strange family secret will disappear with disuse, and he will be discharged from his duty of protecting Charley and the real world from each other. But then, literary characters start causing trouble in their city, making threats about destroying the world, and for once, it isn’t Charley’s doing. There’s someone else out there who shares his powers and it’s up to Charley and a reluctant Rob to stop them – before anyone gets to The End.

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A Monster Calls Review

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  • Author: Patrick Ness
  • Series: Standalone
  • Genre: Fantasy
  • No. of pages: 237
  • Dates read: 16.07.19
  • Rating: 4 stars

I don’t have many things to say about this book.

I devoured it. I read it in about 2 hours and sobbed all the way through the end.

I had been putting this book off for some time as I knew what it was about and having experienced similar situations in my life like Connor is experiencing I didn’t want to be reminded. I felt, in the end, the best thing to do was just read it and get it over and done with.

Plot: Conor has the same dream every night, ever since his mother first fell ill, ever since she started the treatments that don’t quite seem to be working. But tonight is different. Tonight, when he wakes, there’s a visitor at his window. It’s ancient, elemental, a force of nature. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor. It wants the truth.

I loved the Monster. He was my favourite character, I loved his stories, his attitude his wisdom. He was such an interesting character and honestly I would love another book where we learn more about him and the other people he has met through his life.

The ending was beautiful. The atmosphere was written so well, the messages were detailed so perfectly but without it being shoved in your face. But I can’t deny the ending tore me in two. I sobbed so much. It was the first time I had ever had such a strong reaction to a book.

As the book goes I didn’t think it was extraordinary. The writing was pretty basic and I didn’t really feel things until the ending but I could not deny the ending was so perfectly done and I can understand why people rate it so highly.

Like I mentioned already, I was apprehensive going into this book as I had a rough idea of what was going to happen at the end. Over the past couple of years I have dealt with some personal situations that slightly reflect what is going on with this book so reading this brought back a lot of emotions and memories for me. I felt that, since I read this book so quickly I would go back and re-read it. Now, after some time, I personally don’t want to experience how I felt after reading the book. My heart physically ached and I felt very low. Because this was my physical reaction to the book and especially the themes in this book I have decided to not re-read this novel. I have never reacted like this too a book and while it was an interesting experience it’s not one I want to experience again any time soon.

The next book I will be reviewing is a book I have wanted to read for ages. The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. I can’t wait to jump in and see what all the hype is about.