IRC is a technology that gives us a decentralized networks of chat servers, allowing people to meet like-minded strangers. It used to be (maybe) the most popular way to chat online before ICQ and Skype changed everything. I spent years of my life there as a teenager and young adult.
Unlike email, IRC didn’t age well. The whole thing started falling apart due to limitations of how big channels could be while remaining usable. Also, spam, hacks, profanity, botnets, and ToS violations invaded. IRC is still alive but with a low number of daily active users.
We now have Discord and Slack but they suffer one little flaw. They’re for-profit companies.
Zombies have wiped out humans, leaving scattered enclaves of survivors and rotting food supplies. A little girl is locked in a basement, protected from all the evils. It’s obvious that she’s extremely dangerous, and also maybe relatively ordinary. Like Pandora.
There’s a rule in nature—you can’t have your cake and eat it too. This rule is fundamentally broken in the book. What are the zombies doing to cause an apocalypse? Eating people or turning them into zombies? Pick one. Once a person is eaten, they cannot turn into a zombie because nothing is left. M.R. Carey doesn’t pick one and goes all-in, and then adds even more absurdity to the zombie mechanics. The final result looks like a movie script with scenes written to impress rather than to make sense.
The book is undeniably very engaging and interesting. Melanie is a highly likable main character. Easy 5*/5, and something you can read in one sitting. I’ve already bought the second part and plan to read it after a short break. The zombie mechanics, however, are so unconvincing that I took one star from the Goodreads review and ended with a fair 4*/5.
I visited a few iconic places today to celebrate the national holiday.
The Nevski Cathedral, St. Sofia with the eternal flame, and King Samuil’s statue.
This is King Samuil, watching if you click like.
The other cathedral, St. Nedelya (we have two), the Largo with the St. Sofia statue in the distance, and the president’s office with the guards.
Vitosha Boulevard, The Palace of Justice (The Court House), and The Parliament, with the Horse, an ancient TV truck, and the Cathedral in the background.
There will be fireworks in the evening. I hope we have a chance to go and watch them in person.
A fantasy world with multiple types of sorcerers, various races, demons, necromancers, and a living sword similar to Kamigoroshi and Nightblood. On top of all that, we have pirates, airships, and fighter planes. Almost like One Piece with aircraft. How cool is that?
Ketty Jay is a plane-aircraft carrier, though it’s more of a dirigible by description. The crew consists of fugitives, people with guilty consciences, or both. Over the course of 530 pages, we get to learn about their sins and weaknesses. Even though they are murderers, thieves, and generally unpleasant people, they somehow manage to stick together. Chris Wooding gives us one or two explanations for why that is, but overall, the crew’s loyalty probably needs more exploration in the sequel.
The captain of the Ketty Jay is Darian Frey. He’s a selfish smuggler and pirate who has the habit of making terrible mistakes. He makes a big one and the book is about his attempts to fix it. We will learn that this was not his first blunder, not even the biggest one. The blunder is that he trusted the wrong person who set him up for a trap. Frey is in a need of retribution. However, Retribution Falls in the book is some Tortuga-like pirate city that makes no sense in a world with fast-moving aircraft, and the Dorian Frey’s retribution is just a coincidence.
The book is long and feels a bit sluggish at times. I could only manage a few chapters at a time before it somewhat hooked me. After that, it was okay—still close to the kind of stories I tend to DNF.
I think a 4*/5 rating is fair for a unique world (5/5), a relatively original story, and a solid group of misfits weighed down by a bit too much detail and some plot holes (2/5).
I plan to read the sequel, but not right away. Currently reading another book by M. Carey and it sets the bar too high.
I purchased lots of books in February but only read eight. The two best were the two that had been stuck on my unread shelves for months, if not years. I read them to clear space for other books and was pleasantly surprised.
Best
The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin – I have to admit I purchased that because the book cover was pretty. The book itself was written in a strange way but it stuck and I think it was the best for the month, although the competition is close. The volcanic Earth where humans can cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions is quite memorable.
The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie – Abercrombie delivers a lot more of the same in both good and bad sense. The Wisdom of Crowds is mind-blowing but also 750-ish pages, 250 longer than the necessary to be my top pick for the month. Savine dan Glokta doesn’t disappoint.
Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher – an excellent short fantasy with a simple idea and a complex magical system about domestic violence, curses, and fairy godmothers. Although a fantastic book and a clear 5*/5, the other two were more impressive. I’ll happily read other works by the same author.
Worst
Extremis by Barry Eisler – I gave it 4/5, 2 weeks later I’m ready to adjust it to a solid 3. It was clear what will happen from the first page, and it happened in a slow motion.
Operation Star Guest by Lubomir Nikolov – I read the flying saucer book from this post but unlike the other books by the same author, which I frequently award with 5*, this came as sloppy and rushed. We are on a mission to find a flying saucer and contact an alien civilization. What do we do? Worry about food because we didn’t pack any and how to start fire. Yeah, no.
Overall, a good month for reading with a total of 8, five of which got five stars.
Veselin.blog 