Holy cow. Took me two weeks to complete this somewhat little book. The Bulgarian edition is a bit short of 600 pages.

Why? I’ll try to explain it to myself first before I can blog about it.

The book is dense. A lot is going on. Tam, the main character, is a teenager who grew up, surrounded by heroes, and wanted to become one. What better opportunity than joining Bloody Rose’s band Fable? And of course, one of the most legendary bands wants to hire a teenager because she can sing, when they plan to participate in a million dangerous battles.

Bands in this world are like our rock bands by but rather than perform on stage, they fight monsters in Roman-style arenas. The monsters are sometimes evil, and sometimes human, branded as evil. Not necessarily good or bad, mostly just alien. Also big and scary. Each band has a bard, who will witness the heroic acts and write songs about them, then eventually die. Bards are in high demand, which could explain why Fable took the young Tam.

So, this setup is complex, and Tam, being a minor, has to develop and grow as a character. Also, the environment at the start is not particularly scary. It takes forever for the despair to level up and reach another Kings of the Wyld type of shit storm that can’t possibly be resolved without Rose and Tam shining like stars.

I opted out of using the new half-ratings on Goodreads. It is a very good book and I gave it 5*/5. The final 0.25 came from the autograph Nicholas Eames put in my book. It is dense, different, has some very awkward moments, and all you can read at times is 10-20 pages before you need a break. But it’s also well-made and courageous. I can’t promise you’ll like it but surely, it will be difficult to forget.

My blog is at least partially about books but last month the books category remained silent. I attended the Alley of Books, met Nicholas Eames and bought many books but didn’t read much. Everything I started reading was either sub-par or slow. I finished 4 books, one of my worst months over the last years.

Best books

• Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh – an unusual mix between Ender’s Game and Infinity Gate. A young, genetically modified super soldier, tries to save humanity while battling with prejudices. I enjoyed it and rated the book 5/5.
• Inside Man by John McMahon – a crime story with several intertwined cases and a main mystery I couldn’t guess. I’d love to keep reading his Head Cases series. However, I never wrote a post about it and the reason why is probably also the reason for giving it 4/5 rather than 5/5. I can’t quite put it into words.

Worst books

• Walk me Home by Sebastian Fitzek – DNF. I tried reading this thing for 3 days, going through 20-25 pages/day. It made me feel miserable. It’s an awfully unpleasant book, focused on describing torture and suffering. I only read maybe 70 pages in total before throwing it away. It might be better after the shocking intro but I doubt it. I didn’t give a 1* it on Goodreads because I didn’t finish it but this book is so unpleasant that I’m done with Sebastian Fitsek for good.
• The Jury Master by Robert Dugoni – 2/5, an action/thriller that’s constantly switching between characters, successfully confusing you who is doing what. A few weeks after I finished it, I remember none of it.
• Damage Control by Robert Dugoni – 3/5. The author clearly improved a lot after The Jury Master. The book has some good writing but the plot and the characters are cartoonish, painted in black and white. Unlike the previous two books, this one is readable and a solid 3/5. Robert Dugoni is a good writer and I’m glad my journey through his earlier works is over. I read all of his translated books.