Yumeko is a half-fox teenager who wields illusion magic. She has fox ears, a fox tail, and is otherwise human. She starts on a long journey to fulfill a long-awaited prophecy about the end of an era. She would need to hide her non-human nature because most of the creatures around her wouldn’t consider her worthy if they saw the ears. Her main magic is her kindness.
The book is written in the POV style, with 3 different characters. Yumeko and Tatsumi are quite pleasant to read, and the third one shall not be named. The book is qualified as Young Adult but I’d say it’s not too juvenile.
I hated this book but it shook me, so it can’t be bad. Can it?
In a future so good that everyone is mostly satisfied, and so bad that it’s post-apocalyptic, a monk goes to the forest in a search for crickets. Finds an intelligent robot with a child-like curiosity. What happens next is a journey with no trouble, where both parties share their beliefs and try to uncover their purpose.
I can’t compare this work of art to anything else from my reading list. It’s more childish than Barbapapa or Paw Patrol. At the same time, it touches deep human needs, like Winnie-the-Pooh. The world is simpler than a cartoon, and the characters are stripped to their essence. Some scenes are romantic so in a sense, it’s not a fairytale and not appropriate for children. What is it then? Comfort Sci-Fi?
Objectively, this book is likely a 5 because the simplified and thought-provoking world is no coincidence. It was built the way Brandon Sanderson builds his magic systems. But I didn’t like how sterile everything is. There’s no jealousy, disease, or consequences for people’s actions.
So, comfort, innovation, philosophy, sci-fi-ness, and stickiness to my brain – 5/5. Print quality – 5+/5. But I gave it 4/5 on Goodreads because it didn’t make me feel good. There were no recognizable humans in there. I felt like each character can be a Paw Patrol puppy.
The jade city is a place where a small group of people can use the local high-grade Jade to obtain superpowers. Most people, including the foreigners, cannot use jade without losing their minds or can’t sense it at all. The power makes them greedy and hungry for more.
Two jade-controlling gangs are about to clash and break the long-lasting peaceful rivalry in the city. We’ll see the development of the conflict from the point of view of various participants – the old generation, the new generation, the power hungry, and the one who succumb to the greed.
Jade City, like many other POV books, introduces lots of context switching and is a slow read. My copy traveled to Blagoevgrad, Kyoto, and Lisbon until I finally completed it. It’s hard to say if all POVs served a purpose. I think most did.
4.5*/5 – I liked it but it took effort to complete.
First time this year, a monthly recap post with only 5 books. 4 were good, and 1 was okay.
Best
Kings of the Wyld by a wild margin. The book felt like a mix between LOTR and Ready Player One but with a much broader variety of creatures, like Centaurs, Kobolds, undead, humans with wings and so on.
Top Secret Twenty-One – a bubblegum. Stephanie Plum catches some scary people.
Bookshops & Bonedust – Travis Baldree scored another win, kind of related to Kings of the Wyld by the type of intelligent creatures who participate
Son of a Liche – the continuation of Orconomics felt much more interesting and balanced than the first part but it still feels too long
Worst
Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edogawa Rampo. The book is not bad but it felt slow.
Clay Cooper is a retired mercenary, part of a group of 5+1 named Saga. His band was once the best group, known for defeating countless monsters, even a dragon. The plus one is the bard, which Saga could not keep alive, so they had to replace him or her so many times that the band members don’t even remember the individuals. Until one day they met an undead bard.
This book shares a world with another 2 series I recently read – it has the similar swarm of different fantasy creatures from Orconomics and Legends & Lattes. It has bands and heroes, harvesting monsters for profit. But it also has the epic-ness of LOTR (and its overall general structure), and the drama of Ready Player One.
Most characters both positive and negative (who aren’t bards) are nearly immune to anything the author can throw at them. This makes the story more like a fairytale than an actual fantasy. But it’s cool and somewhat balanced. A reader should particularly like it if they’ve not read any of the books I mentioned earlier.
5/5, I like it and recommend it but you need to have zero expectations of realism. Realistic it is not.
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