Tag: Julie Kagawa

Zombie Vampires

~ Veselin ~ 8 Comments

Of course, there has to be a book about zombie vampires.

I’ve been reading books about zombies, necromancers, and undead creatures the whole year. I picked the Blood of Eden series by Julie Kagawa because I was at a book signing and this series looked pretty. I had no idea it’s about zombie vampires but here we are. My undead books year continues.

The world ended because a virus turned most people into immortal zombie vampires. Durable but not very smart. Allison will try to survive in this hostile environment and preserve a friend here or there. She’ll get herself into a conspiracy of some kind that we will probably uncover in book 3.

The zombie dynamic is about as realistic as the zombie fungus in “The Girl with All the Gifts”. Zombies roam outside of the walled cities, hunting for people. People almost never go out to be eaten. I believe the zombies in a world like that could not last for a hundred years with no humans to renew their ranks and would just die out from hunger. The same applies to the non-zombie vampires, the math doesn’t add up. The vampire lords are very carnivorous and kill so many people that the human race should’ve ended long before the zombies.

Overall, the book is not plausible – if a zombie apocalypse happens, it won’t happen this way. Maybe some other way. Despite that, I liked it and read it quickly. Looking forward to reading the next part. I’d say it was a solid 4*/5.

Julie Kagawa in Sofia

~ Veselin ~ 1 Comment

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.

Night of the Dragon by Julie Kagawa, Book Review

~ Veselin ~ 10 Comments

Yumeko is a half-human half-fox teenage girl, gifted with the magic of illusion and trickery. She has the mission to bring a powerful scroll to safety. The scroll grants its owner a single wish, granted by the almighty dragon god, who can only be summoned once every 1,000 years. It was used to build or ruin empires, to give immortality, and to trap immortal creatures. However, over the last 2 books, the scroll was taken by an evil and long undead blood mage who wants to open the gates of hell. Yumeko and her friends will try to get it back.

This book is a LOTR-style romantasy where the entire magical system is inspired by Japanese folklore. No elves, or even kobolds. I didn’t tag the previous two books as romantasy because the love story was relatively insignificant and not out of the ordinary for fantasy books. However, this last part is all about characters doing things for each-other out of love and care. Yumeko is so nice that she can melt the hearts of demons.

5/5. Night of the Dragon is slightly less appealing to readers who aren’t into romantasy because some moments are cringe. I think the romance is tolerable.

The print quality is great and the series got its own shelf for now.

The real question for me is if I should keep reading Julie Kagawa. I’m not sure yet. It was a nice detour from the epic fantasy I usually read but another detour might be too much.

Soul of the Sword by Julie Kagawa

~ Veselin ~ 3 Comments

In a magical world that feels like ancient Japan, a girl with fox tail will challenge the demons. She’ll have help by lots of random creatures, some of them interesting and others – less so.

The hero path has issues – the superpowers need super enemies. Thankfully, Yumeko’s superpower in book 2 is deception and she can’t just win by levelling up. She’ll need to figure out some clever ways out of the tough situations that keep happening.

The book is great. Gets 5*/5 and I’ll look for the final tomorrow. I liked book one more because the superpower was kindness.

Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa, Book Review

~ Veselin ~ 1 Comment

Yumeko is a half-fox teenager who wields illusion magic. She has fox ears, a fox tail, and is otherwise human. She starts on a long journey to fulfill a long-awaited prophecy about the end of an era. She would need to hide her non-human nature because most of the creatures around her wouldn’t consider her worthy if they saw the ears. Her main magic is her kindness.

The book is written in the POV style, with 3 different characters. Yumeko and Tatsumi are quite pleasant to read, and the third one shall not be named. The book is qualified as Young Adult but I’d say it’s not too juvenile.

I want more of it.

5/5