Tag: reading

Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree, Book Review

~ Veselin ~ 5 Comments

Viv is a powerful orc who wants to be a mercenary but somehow ends up in the bookstore business.

Legends & Lattes showed us Viv at the end of her career, tired of killing, and really motivated to run her own business. Bookshops & Bonedust shows us Viv at the beginning of her career, as motivated to run her own business as the other Viv. Why did she ever become a mercenary? That’s unclear. She can do it in book 0.1, there’s no point to pursue a career of head cutting somewhere between book 0.1 and book 1. Her motivation is unclear and her path is circular. We’ve now seen the beginning at the end, and they are the same point.

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree is a bubblegum, the easiest type of books to read. I struggled to reach the end but I appreciate the sweetness of the story, so for the purpose of this blog, it gets the middle score – 4/5.

Son of a Liche by J. Zachary Pike

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

Gorm Ingerson and his crew will fight a Liche, a super-powerful undead wizard who uses Marketing to scare and defeat his living enemies.

I was prepared for a bloodthirsty fantasy because the first part was one. Yet, the second part was not that. You have an actual character and relationship development here, with some of the heroes transforming quite a bit. There are funny moments. Zombies with feelings. Skeletons with goals. The downside is that the POVs change so smoothly that you never know what you’re currently reading. I found that annoying and remove one start because of it.

Overall, this was a better book than part 1. I may read part 3 as well.

Rated it 4/5 on Goodreads

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 Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson

~ Veselin ~ 6 Comments

I read this book out of order. Should’ve read Dawnshard first.

The world of Canticle has a sun so close that it melts the rocks and causes a constant fire storm that travels around the world with the day. A somewhat advanced civilization exists in a constant motion, running away from the dawn. Nobody can see the sun because they’ll immediately burn. The legends tell the story of a Sunlit Man, who can survive the sunlight and bring great change.

Brandon Sanderson experimented with The Sunlit Man. It has too much of everything. Magic, explanations, aliens. It won’t become my favorite Sanderson book but it’s fine and the world is magical.

4.5*/5

Bion by Satanasov

~ Veselin ~ 7 Comments

These books were part of my Alley of Books harvest.

In a post apocalyptic world, one intact city remains habitable. Everything else is a radioactive desert. The survivors are highly dependent on a mythical high-tech building called “The Factory”. The further you go from it, the more destroyed the environment is. However, The Factory is clearly evil, and a resistance movement is forming.

A few very deep observations:

  • Part one is for 15+ audience, part two is for 16+. Part three can be expected to be for 17+ 🙂
  • Part one is a comic book. Part two introduces a robot girl with big eyes and some reviewers say it’s Manga

I enjoyed both, Manga or not. 5*/5