Tag: book-blog

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

~ Veselin ~ 2 Comments

Naomi Novik is one of my favorite authors, and The Scholomance Series is hands down the best thing I’ve read from her so far.

El is a murderous evil witch by birth who can destroy cities with minimal effort but has trouble doing basic spells. She’s trying to help and not be wicked despite her rare talent. Orion is her male counterpart, an evil of historical proportions who does good but has his monstrous nature slips. There’s something between them but the book is not a love story. It is an epic urban fantasy. The joy comes from discovering the world, the magical systems, and of course, from El getting stronger. The Golden Enclaves also highlights Liesel, whose talent is to organize people. It’s cool to have a superhuman witch but I find it even cooler to see a regular human channel the change with her brain.

5*/5

May in Books

~ Veselin ~ 7 Comments

I read 11 books last month, 9 recognized by Goodreads and 2 – not. Goodreads has clear issues with the Librarians not catching up with new books.

The tied first for the last month was between Thraxas at War by Martin Scott and All Systems Red by Martha Wells. Thraxas was a mature story with a good balance. The Murderbot was fresh and new.

Honorable mention for Rebecca Yarros and Fourth Wing – it’s engaging and has dragons.

The worst book from last month was Rocannon’s World by Ursula Le Guin. She inspired me greatly in building my own system of values, for example about active listening. However, Rocannon focuses on describing a fantasy world with multiple coexisting aliens and spaceships. It wasn’t as cool as Stephanie Plum, page-turning like the Fourth Wing, or just great all-around like Thraxas and Murderbot.

I also completed 2 game books, one so absurd that it deserves a separate post.

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.

International Spring Book Fair Sofia – 2024

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

I love the International Book Fair in Sofia. I have a system where I visit the fair multiple times before buying books to get the full experience.

This time I violated the system. Here’s my harvest from Day 1.

Rebecca Yaros, 2x Brandon Sanderson, and 3x game books. 5 out of these 6 books are likely to be 5/5s.

And here’s a photo from the book fair with no books:

The book fair will be open for 10 days until June 2nd.

All Systems Red

~ Veselin ~ 3 Comments

A wonderful novella by Martha Wells, beautifully published by Artline Studios. The book is tiny and is a quick read. It’s about a very human murder bot whose job is to protect a group of planetary explorers. I’ll probably wait for the translations because the hardcover is so pretty.

The suggestion for this book came from a fellow blogger and friend @dni.

5/5, and the best book I read this month so far.