Thraxas by Martin Scott

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

Imagine a fantasy world with taverns, elves, orks, bands, guilds, priests, and corruption. A mixture of Tolkien, Pratchett, the dark part of the Middle Ages, and an exploitation version of Conan. In that world, there’s an overweight battle mage who works as a detective but not too hard. He’s drunk half of the time and dedicated the other half when he’s short on cash to support his drinking habits. Feels like he’s intoxicated in the way Jack Reacher would have a toothache – more of a nuisance than an actual weakness. His action style and vision are more of a Bud Spencer or The Mountain rather than a guy with poor health and addictions. If I could imagine one present-day celebrity as Thraxas, that would be Eddie Hall.

Thraxas has a superhuman sidekick. Makri is a former undefeated gladiator who works as a waitress and wears revealing clothing. She has impossible sword and axe skills and studies hard to get admitted to the university. Thraxas has no purpose in life or goals. Makri has a purpose and several very ambitious goals. In a sense, despite being described as a sidekick and only having a small part of the page time, she’s the true main character of book one and is far more appealing. You can’t like Thraxas but can love Makri.

5/5, Goodreads

PS. I already completed book 2 and have ordered books 3 and 4 but I feel book 2 deserves a separate review.

My first computer came out of this shop

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

Looks like an abandoned shop in an old commie block. However, in 1997, this was the service center of RTS computers. They would assemble computers in the left part and hand them over in the right part of what’s in the photo. I also remember how their technician built a custom LPT1-LPT1 cable for me, I even remember this technician’s name. We used it to connect with my neighbor and play games over it. We had no Internet at that time, it was pricy. The LPT cable did the job (or a job, as it was limited).

Alabin

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

At the heart of Sofia. To the left is a place called Koloni (columns), and ahead is Garibaldi. The clock tower of the long gone KTB bank would still ding enthusiastically. You have a choice of fast food, confectioneries and book shops. It’s ordinary.

Do you believe in fate

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment
Daily writing prompt
Do you believe in fate/destiny?

I think life is a game that favors people with ambitious goals. Some people may have better cards or natural advantages or disadvantages. No matter what cards are dealt, a person with a goal is more likely to reach that goal than a person without it. A person who works relentlessly to climb Mount Everest is more likely to get there than a person who plays Fortnite in all of their spare time. The Fortnite player may one day win a Fortnite tournament while the mountaineer probably won’t do it.

Here’s what I wrote about The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle on Goodreads (btw, that book was 5/5):

…excellence comes with the right kind of practice. You need to challenge yourself and keep doing whatever you are doing over and over until the brain wires properly.

Work hard. Be nice. Baby steps. Praise for effort. Self-discipline. Make it fun. Did I say be nice? Repeat.

myself