Tag: fiction

We Are Legion By Dennis E. Taylor, Book Review

~ Veselin ~ 2 Comments

“We Are Legion” is an Expanse style space opera by Dennis E. Taylor. This was the first book by Dennis Taylor I read. Pleasantly surprised by how good it was.

Bob is turned into a space ship who can replicate and travel with speeds close to the speed of light. Humans cannot withstand this type of acceleration but Bob is a spaceship, not a human. This innovation is so radical and fundamentally different for Earth that hell breaks loose. Bob tries hard to recreate Star Trek for the good of humanity but the humanity isn’t necessarily ready.

I’ve not had such a wow moment with a science fiction novel since Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary. “We Are Legion” is without a doubt one of the best books I read in 2024.

5*/5

Here’s also a song that features “We Are Legion”. I find it appropriate to describe the book.

Why Doesn’t Offler Forbid Chocolate?

~ Veselin ~ 3 Comments

Offler is the Crocodile God from Discworld. He is known for his crocodilian features, mumbling speech, and pragmatic rules. He knows how to keeps his followers. One of the pillars of his faith is that he wouldn’t impose a ban on chocolate because people wouldn’t listen anyway.

Nuggan, the God of paperclips and unnecessary paperwork, forbids Chocolate. Chocolate, among other 100s of things, is an abomination, perhaps because it stains the unnecessary paper. Funnily, as a result of that, his country is a main exporter of chocolate.

The book, although I don’t quite remember which one, implies that a God who forbids chocolate will eventually be forgotten and replaced by another God who doesn’t forbid chocolate. Nuggan, as of the last Discworld novel, is still around. He outlived his creator, Sir Terry Pratchett, and the spiritual disconnect between him and Offler remained unresolved.

Why I’m writing all of that? Spent last 24 hours wtf-ing with Bulgarian election news. There’s no Offlers in our political scene.

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames, Book Review

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

Clay Cooper is a retired mercenary, part of a group of 5+1 named Saga. His band was once the best group, known for defeating countless monsters, even a dragon. The plus one is the bard, which Saga could not keep alive, so they had to replace him or her so many times that the band members don’t even remember the individuals. Until one day they met an undead bard.

This book shares a world with another 2 series I recently read – it has the similar swarm of different fantasy creatures from Orconomics and Legends & Lattes. It has bands and heroes, harvesting monsters for profit. But it also has the epic-ness of LOTR (and its overall general structure), and the drama of Ready Player One.

Most characters both positive and negative (who aren’t bards) are nearly immune to anything the author can throw at them. This makes the story more like a fairytale than an actual fantasy. But it’s cool and somewhat balanced. A reader should particularly like it if they’ve not read any of the books I mentioned earlier.

5/5, I like it and recommend it but you need to have zero expectations of realism. Realistic it is not.

The Books I Read in September

~ Veselin ~ 3 Comments

Last month I made an off-by-one error and posted the list on August 30th, leaving a day not covered. The Troll Mountain was read on August 31st. So technically, I read 9 books last month but this post will cover 10.

Best books from last month:

  1. Dodger – there are books you can imagine when you close your eyes. The imagination takes you to a warm place. Dodger has that feeling. I gave it 5*, and it sits like that.
  2. Bion 1&2 – looking forward to book 3, which is supposed to be 70% complete, according to the publisher
  3. The Sunlit Man – Brandon Sanderson got a boost by the nice cover and illustrations

Worst book:

  1. The Sum of All Men – I gave it 4/5 but all that I remember in the weeks following the completion of that book is the horror of the main magical skill. The forceful extraction of people’s skills. I wouldn’t touch the continuation with a flagpole.

The Goblins Return

~ Veselin ~ 1 Comment

Found this gem on Facebook. Fresh humor on yellow pages that barely hold. I enjoyed it very much. Not sure if it can endure another read without starting to fall apart. But the book was cool, well written, short, and brought me good memories.

I finished the monumental Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo yesterday and my original plan was to blog about it today but then I read the above book to fix the my tastebuds. The Goblins deserve a post, and the Six of Crows can be left to less critical book bloggers.