Tag: Artline Studios

The Nebula Collection by Artline

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

Publishing books with covers that are all part of the same image is still a relatively uncommon practice in Bulgaria. There have been some nicely designed series over the years, but not many that build a consistent visual identity across multiple titles.

This is the Nebula sci-fi series, featuring titles like Murderbot, Silo, and others. I’m curious to see how long this publisher plans to keep the style going. Something with the perspective feels limiting, as if it should end within 2-3 books.

And here is my success with the books, green are those I already read, red are those I did not start or did not finish. Overall, very solid books so far, mostly 5/5 with a rare 4/5 here and there.

Book Fair Part Two

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

I visited the boor fair for a second time but the odds were not in my favour. Started raining after the first minutes and didn’t manage to find anything substantial. Got home with a tiny new book, about 50 pages of absurd comedy that took me half an hour to complete. Details about it in a few days.

What impressed me the most was the new edition of the Stormlight Archive. Pretty and shiny. Artline Studios go above and beyond lately.

White Sand Omnibus by Brandon Sanderson

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

I blogged about this book because it’s heavy and impressive due to its size. I read it today. It was quite an adventure.

I only had rough memories from White Sand part 1, and the Omnibus contains parts 1, 2, and 3, so it’s technically 3 books. Reading the first part didn’t mess up with my experience, and I wouldn’t even count it as a re-read. It had additions to part one, and the visuals were significantly changed so it felt like a different book.

The second and the third parts had different artists. Part three was the simplest and I liked the most.

Story-wise, I’m surprised by the low 3.5 rating on Goodreads. The story is good. A typical Sanderson with a clever magical system, an attempt to explain it but not too much so that there’s room for 2-3 follow-ups. There’s a hint of a romance but nothing more. It’s good vs evil, however the evil is biting from the shadows.

Worth the time and money. 5/5.

PS. not sure how I was supposed to read it, I left prints on the book. I’ve never noticed leaving prints on books. This one was prone to prints. Go figure.

White Sand vs White Sand Omnibus

~ Veselin ~ 1 Comment

These two books have the same name. Goodreads says the big one contains the small one and the small one is supposed to be volume 1. The beginning of Omnibus looked familiar (I just started reading it). However, the illustrations are not the same as before. The style is different, the table of contents is different, and it just doesn’t look like the same book at all. Looks like a rewrite rather than a combined edition. I’ll post an update once I read the new edition and get a better sense of what’s going on.

I liked the style of the previous one, it was very Dune-like. Hope the new one is also good. My first impression of the Omnibus is that it is heavy, I wish it was an e-book.

Skyward

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

A world, surrounded by flying broken machinery. Humans, hiding underground, and under constant attack by alien spaceships. The future is grim but for the youngsters, it all looks like a game and plays like a game. And they, Spensa in particular, will try to game the system. The brand new book 4, published over the last couple of days, might be the conclusion where they’ll defeat at least some of the evil.

The Bulgarian edition is on a very hard cover. Like hardwood cover. I’m not very sure what material they’re made of but it is wood-like, very thick. It’s rough and painful to hold. Perhaps gypsum plasterboard? It is pretty if you don’t look from the side. Paperback was also available but I paid respect to the weird choice by the publisher and bought the strange one. I should remind myself to ask them about the material at the next book fair.

It’s one of the better series by Brandon Sanderson, I recommend it, although I’ve not started “Defiant” yet and don’t know the end. I hope it’s not a tragedy.