Tag: Books

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

I finished this monumental work by Rebecca Yarros and have mixed feelings. I considered not writing a review but at the same time the book is is divisive and engaging. So here are my thoughts. Let’s start with the good. It’s readable and I read it!

The magic system is not good and it doesn’t get better in this part of the series. The nagging feeling that the system was borrowed by Naomi Novik remained, even though it’s likely unfair.

Naomi Novik develops a Mana/Malia magic system in the Scholomance series, which I recently reviewed and appreciated highly. The Mana is a magical energy that’s earned by work and owned by life. The Malia is mana stolen from others, often by draining their life. Rebecca Yaros uses the same system but doesn’t use the names Mana and Malia. Good energy comes through Dragons and bad energy – from Earth directly, no Dragons. This becomes a critical problem in book 2 as the main conflict in the book is between the magicians who use dragons and those who don’t. But why are the dragon-users good? They don’t strike to be particularly kind or merciful. What generates the Dragon mana? Is it dead sheep?

Naomi Novik develops a dragon rider university in the series Temreire and chases the history of dragons, how they fly, how they fight, how they eat, what they eat, numbers, shepherds, fields, cows, and so on. Rebecca Yarros drops “I’ll eat a flock of sheep” in book 1, and “he moved a flock of sheep to the valley” in book 2. What we get instead is the description of how baby dragons sleep for months and grow while sleeping. I wish those baby dragons at least ate some food like baby birds.

I still found it interesting despite these serious flaws. The book is engaging in the way Matthew Reilly writes. Yeah, there are dragons, which make no sense. They are connected to humans for no reason, generate unlimited energy with no source, and the love story exists despite the constant lies and intolerable deception by the main male protagonist. But it is still a page-turner. I might even consider reading the third part, although it won’t be high on the list.

4*/5

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

Fennel Broccola and the Secret of the Cleaver

~ Veselin ~ 10 Comments

I catch myself valuing literature that’s not serious over serious but shallow. I’d rather read Matthew Reilly than Mark Manson. However, what do we say about literature that’s purposefully not serious, shallow, and cringe to extreme levels? The book in the photo above is a form of absurd comedy. It’s unlikely that it ever gets translated, or even published in enough copies so that anyone other than gamebook collectors reads it. But it exists and I think it’s nice that such things can happen. I enjoyed it for what it is.

So, the book is about an illegal vegan in a world where eating meat is required by law. He’s born with the mission to make the evil tyrant of the world eat veggies. He’ll meet cartoonish characters along the way and be tempted to eat ingredients that may contain animal products. It didn’t become clear to me if the author was mocking vegans or if he was vegan himself and wrote this piece as an act of defiance. Perhaps both? Who knows.

The book is unavailable in any online store, has no ISBN, and doesn’t exist on Goodreads.

Do you remember your favorite book from childhood?

~ Veselin ~ 9 Comments
Daily writing prompt
Do you remember your favorite book from childhood?
View all responses

Looking back, it has to be one of these 3:

  • Pippi Longstocking
  • The Three Musketeers
  • Winnetow

Pippi was one of the books that hooked me to reading, Winnetow introduced me to adventure books – pirates, Wild West, and such. The top choice, however, must be The Three Musketeers.

Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D’Artagnan are unlikely friends, united by their shortage of money and willingness to duel. They are all extreme in some way and represent a few distilled qualities that complement one another. Their paths briefly cross, create beautiful moments of courage and bravery, and drift apart because of tragedies and traumas. It’s written in small chunks, chapters that have their own merit as short stories. This made it a good book for a 7 or 8-year-old with a limited attention span.

I’m not sure if I read The Three Musketeers more times than Pippi, Winnetow, or the other 4-5 books I would read each summer break but it aged well. The last time I got it in my hands and read a few chapters, they were captivating and great. It was less than a decade ago.

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 #1 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.