Cats, good books, AI, and religious walking in the city of Sofia
I had the opportunity to get a signed copy of Julie Kagawa’s The Immortal Rules. It’s very rare to see a popular writer here in Sofia and I’m thankful for the opportunity to see her for a few moments in person.
She’ll also be giving autographs tomorrow afternoon at the Pro Book booth. It is the first tent looking from the pylons of the National Palace of Culture.
Even the best thriller authors have bad days. There must’ve been a day when Harlan Coben decided to use the trope of the incredibly smart serial killer who chases our main protagonist by doing weird circles. This choice wasn’t great.
The killer manages to be very successful with a variety of strangers and then turns silly in the presence of Myron Bolitar. Meanwhile our superheroes talk and talk. And talk.
Think Twice was a miss for me. It’s readable but I had a very good idea what will happen and it mostly happened. I hope the next book is better. Harlan Coben doesn’t have many bad books, he’s usually consistently good.
2*/5
The weather was much nicer today, although I somehow messed up the photos and they all look like there was a fog. I visited most of the tents I couldn’t last time. There’s room for one final visit, hopefully for Julie Kagawa’s book signing during the weekend.
Got myself a fourth book. I showed much restraint, I was close to impulse buying books I didn’t plan to read.
Today was my first visit to the spring fair. The weather was cold and rainy, most tents were semi-closed or not open at all. I walked by a small fraction of the fair, visited two of the four publishers I wanted to find.
I plan to come back around the end of the week, when I have more time, and hopefully the books aren’t wet. There’s also a book signing with Julie Kagawa scheduled at the Pro Book tent on Saturday and Sunday. I hope to have a chance to meet her.
And my first round of harvest
Silo part 2 – Shift, Murderbot 4, and the latest translated book by Harlan Coben – Think Twice. I like his naming convention. Books are named like blog posts.
Books have a way of aging in your mind. I gave the first two Orconomics books 4 stars and enjoyed them moderately at the time. But the story and its characters lingered long after I finished reading, quietly growing on me. Eventually, I realized I was ready for book three.
I went in knowing it would be slow and long—and it was. Think of a late Terry Pratchett novel, stretched out, with a touch of romance. It was dark, funny, and packed with content. It was 800+ pages and took me more than a week to complete.
This time, our heroes must deal with the evil King Johan, all while tying up a wide web of loose ends. Gorm leads the charge – a dwarf with a berserker-like power (though it’s never called that). His band include an elf ranger, a fire mage, a necromancer/fire-mage who happens to be the son of a Liche, and some other, more mystical beings. Each of them gets a moment to shine.
I think it deserves 5*/5
PS. I misspelled the book name as Dragonfried, which I think would be at least as appropriate as Dragonfired. I read the Bulgarian edition.
Veselin.blog 