Tag: book-blogger

Peledgathol – The Last Fortress

~ Veselin ~ 2 Comments

I read a gamebook that’s not on Goodreads. It is, however, available to download in English for free here, most likely submitted by the author. From what I understand, the only paper edition is in Bulgarian.

It’s beautifully made in Bulgarian, with original illustrations by famous illustrators. Dimo and Ivanchev are credited.

The story is about Middle-Earth-type dwarves who are running away from an invading army. You’ll have to navigate through a brief maze of episodes and find a few keywords, one of which is particularly difficult. There’s no way to read that from the first time. It’s only 100 episodes but the way it’s made, the success sequence is specific and hard to find. I didn’t attempt to fight the battles and only tried to find the codes, which was difficult enough.

Overall, a good book, about 4/5. The artwork, translation, and editing of the Bulgarian edition is 5/5.

Thraxas and the Dance of Death

~ Veselin ~ 1 Comment

It’s not common to read a book that’s not on Goodreads but this particular edition is unknown to it. It’s tiny and hard to hold. You have the feeling it will break if you press it too hard. It’s a fragile jewel, worth the read. The first page-turner for me in over a month.

Thraxas and a bunch of powerful wizards are after a green jewel that makes people kill each other and slip away. The story is good and has no villains, which is quite impressive given the large number of dead people.

Makri is accused of theft and wants to resolve the accusations her way by rolling heads. She’s surprisingly civil for a gladiator champion with ork blood this time.

Both cases somehow manage to connect. I couldn’t predict most of the stuff that happened. The only guarantee is that it’s a good read.

5/5

April in Books

~ Veselin ~ 4 Comments

I read 6 books in March. This is a significant decrease from the previous months. I wake up before 7am and go to bed earlier, perhaps because of the daylight savings time. Falling asleep earlier means less time reading and fewer books in the monthly report. It may also be related to my choice of books, these 6 above are not page-turners.

The best book this month was Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich. Stephanie Plum is blue like Smurfiette there and solves crime. The other 5 were also fine. Nothing stands out as particularly good or bad. The two Sand Wars omnibuses (6 novels inside) were classic sci-fi with aliens and had some good moments but can’t compete with a bounty hunter Smurfiette.

The Horseman of the Apocalypse by Lubomir Nikolov

~ Veselin ~ 3 Comments

I got a surprise new book. This one was sent to me by the publisher. I was pleasantly surprised and will write a review once I reread it. I’m very thankful for the nice surprise!

I find it very nice that people are republishing these old books. The old ones are collectibles and published with cheap paper so thin that you feel they’ll fall apart if you touch them. The new ones have a great quality and feel.

The previous edition (on the left) features me with this crossword puzzle:

I was about 16 when I did this creation. Can’t imagine solving it, it’s full of untraceable terminology from gamebooks. It says that there are only 2 squares that can’t be filled by using gamebook terms. Perhaps that’d be the 2 squares I’ll fill with my present-day knowledge.

Sand Wars parts 4 to 6 by Charles Ingrid and the nine fingers

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

Parts 4 and 5 of the Sand Wars series were back to the roots of what was enjoyable in the first part – battles, new worlds, spaceships, and mild mystery. Part 6 went into the torture territory and was off-putting to me. I would rate the books 4/5/2 for an average of about 3.

The nine fingers

Back in 1993 or 1994, I wrote fiction. One of my main characters was a warrior and I wanted to highlight that you can’t be that without losing a limb or two, so he was missing a finger. Of course, it was the pinky finger so the sword-yielding was unaffected.

In 2006 I read “The Blade Itself” by Joe Abercrombie. It introduced the incredible warrior Logen Ninefingers or The Bloody Nine. He lost a middle finger due to his vicious lifestyle, having the bad habit of battling gigantic northerners. He was very similar to my nine-fingered creation. Jack Storm from the Sand Wars is also a pinky-misser due to a cryogenic accident. Charles Ingrid was more modest than Joe Abercrombie or perhaps had a worse editor.

My father is an engineer whose hobby was making furniture. I had a first-hand experience with finger-related injuries. If a blade encounters fingers, it starts with the index finger, soon to be followed by the middle one. Soon equals milliseconds. Science confirms that observation. The most likely reason for losing fingers is not sword fights but using mundane objects like doors, windows, and power tools. It would be very realistic and ironic if Logen Ninefingers lost his index finger to a folding chair rather than a sword fight. Jack Storm’s accident could’ve been a door.

Both authors left their fingers in the early character building and bounced back to create some good books.