Tag: reading

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 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.

Mind Storm by Andrew Greene

~ Veselin ~ 1 Comment

The prettiest cover from the first 6 books I purchased during the book fair is already on the “read” bookshelf. It’s the second book I read this year that doesn’t have a Goodreads entry. If any of my readers here is a Goodreads Librarian, please add it – I posted two requests on Goodreads for book additions.

From what I see, the gamebook writers in some countries that aren’t Bulgaria, seem to prefer publishing their works on Google Drive as a PDF and just let them be available to anyone for free. This one is published in English here.

The photo of the cover is from an angle on purpose – to see all the shiny letters. Then each page has decoration, and the illustrations are stunning. I’m not sure why and how that happened but this is a first edition and a translation at the same time.

The story is Gibson-style cyberpunk, with some references to Gibson and other gamebooks. The gameplay felt linear – you must go through most episodes for a successful read. I’d consider it easy. The writing is good, and the story is engaging.

4/5 for the book, 5+/5 for the editing/illustration/publishing. It’s a piece of art.

International Spring Book Fair Sofia – 2024

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

I love the International Book Fair in Sofia. I have a system where I visit the fair multiple times before buying books to get the full experience.

This time I violated the system. Here’s my harvest from Day 1.

Rebecca Yaros, 2x Brandon Sanderson, and 3x game books. 5 out of these 6 books are likely to be 5/5s.

And here’s a photo from the book fair with no books:

The book fair will be open for 10 days until June 2nd.

All Systems Red

~ Veselin ~ 3 Comments

A wonderful novella by Martha Wells, beautifully published by Artline Studios. The book is tiny and is a quick read. It’s about a very human murder bot whose job is to protect a group of planetary explorers. I’ll probably wait for the translations because the hardcover is so pretty.

The suggestion for this book came from a fellow blogger and friend @dni.

5/5, and the best book I read this month so far.

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.