Erabiltzailearen profila

I liked the first Teixcalaan book but did not love it. I went into the sequel expecting another book I'd really like, and ended up with a book that is rather stunning. A Memory Called Empire was all about politics, intrigue, machinations without much sci-fi in it. A Desolation Called Peace is still all that, and yet it is much broader as we venture out into the war between the Teixcalaan Empire and an unknown, almost invisible, entirely alien enemy. Mahit Dzmare has returned home to her space station, but is dragged into the middle of the war by Three Seagrass, her Teixcalaan liaison, who is now an envoy to be a diplomat between Teixcalaan and the aliens.

It's fascinating how so many things from the first book are still ever present in this book. The role of individuals, collective mind and memory, ever-present. The view of Empire. The unsung hero of the book is Twenty Cicada. Also, there's this crazy chemistry between Mahit and Three Seagrass, so the book has that added benefit for queer me.

It's ridiculously well-written and thoughtful, and I praise it for giving us aliens who are entirely alien, in this first contact scenario. Together, those two books will likely be considered classics.

I am an Abercrombie fangirl, really, I am. Once again, we return to this gritty, grimy brutal world, full of terrible people. It's really not a fantasy novel at all this time, it's 100% western, which is really not my style, but it was excellent.

Our main protagonist is Shy South, a farmer in the Near Country, a frontier region west of the Union. She lives on a farm with her two younger siblings and an old guy from the North called Lamb who is a father figure to her. One day the two of them come home from trading in town to find their farm has been burned down, and the children have been kidnapped. This begins a long ordeal of the two of them chasing the bandits who are stealing children, taking them ever more west to the Far Country, the gold rush frontier.

Anyone who has read the First Law trilogy will not really have any issues identifying who Lamb really is. There are more familiar characters from the series. The mercenary Nicomo Cosca and his helper Friendly re-appear, the Mayor in the really disgustingly described frontier town Crease is also a familiar female character, there's Caul Shivers, etc.

But you don't really need to know the characters or the world to get this story. It's full of blood, murder, tragedies, characters dying, and even the sort of happy end leaves your mouth tasting like ash. Abercrombie's character work and his witty writing remain the star of his books.

My favorite character was probably Temple, Cosca's lawyer who turns out to be craven, and useless at most things in life, but useful when it's needed. His romance with Shy (if you can call it that) is one of the few things that warmed my heart here.

The sequel to the high-pace Snare is a direct continuation of the first book, and gives us pretty much more of the same. It's also unfortunately pointing out more weaknesses here, that didn't bother me much in the first book, but annoy me now.

In any case, this is pretty much an Icelandic variation on Breaking Bad. We have regular folks here who have to break bad in order to survive. Mostly, our protagonist Sonja, who was forced to serve as drug mule so she can continue to see her son Tomas, but also Bragi, the customs inspector who wants to make sure his Alzheimer wife can spend her remaining days at home. And it gets wackier for Sonja who needs to deal with crazy Mexican narcos. Mr. José reminded me a lot of Tuco Salamanca in the Breaking Bad universe.

The novel is as fast-paced as the first one. Unfortunately, a massive amount of the story is wasted on the b-plot, which is about Agla and her financial transactions. I am pretty sure they'll fall on her feet in the final book, but for now they simply annoyed me because I found them boring. Agla is a very unlikeable character, I just don't know.

Ends with a note of happy end, so I am sure it'll all go to shit again in the first few pages of the final book, Cage.

It is really hard for me to understand why I goddamn love Abercrombie's writing so much. I recommended the First Law trilogy to my wife, and she kinda despised the hyper-masculine world of the First Law setting.

This book is no different. And yet. Abercrombie's not great with plot, but he's amazing with characters. This book alone brings a plethora of fresh characters we never met, or only in passing, and then the return of many previous characters, including the most tragic character in fantasy, Caul Shivers. All in all we get 6 point of view characters. 3 for the union: Bremer dan Gorst, disgraced King's Guard after the events of Best Served Cold, Finree dan Brock, Lord Marshal Kroy's daughter, pined for by Bremer, but monstrously ambitious for her young husband, and Tunny, a corrupt Corporal of the First. The 3 characters for the North are Curnden Craw, probably the most lawful good character of the series, always doing what's right, Named Man for Black Dow; Beck, a young man who wants to earn his name and comes to regret every moment of it, and Prince Calder, son of the fallen King Bethod, manipulative, cowardly and scheming as they come.

As a feminist, does it bother me that there's room for exactly one woman in the cast? Yep, sure does. Did this book fuel me through the worst of my COVID-19 infection? Sure did. What a page turner!

Set after Best Served Cold, Caul Shivers is now back in the North, working for the Black Dow. The Heroes covers a time span of 3 days, as the Union tries to take down Black Dow by a hill of statues called The Heroes. It's Abercrombie, so we are quick to learn there are no heroes in war. Also, war is awful. There's one long chapter on the first day of the fighting where we jump from one character to the next, each dying by the end of their paragraph, a seemingly endless stream of senseless death.

The end was a bit drawn out, but all in all, I was quite satisfied. I wonder what that says about me, as by reviews it's a bit obvious this is a testosterone-fest?

I wasn't initially sure about this novel but it quickly won me over, in this semi-autobiographical story of 13-year old Jason Taylor describing a year of his life in 1982, in 13 stories, one for each month of the year, plus an extra January. Each story is very different, and is teeming with the vibrant life of the 80s, picking up contemporary stuff like the Falkland war, Margaret Thatcher, and much much music.

Jason is a stammerer, which causes him much grief, so it's inevitably a story about school bullies for many chapters. Each story could stand alone and not lose much from it, but of course it's perfect that it weaves together. As usual with Mitchell, it alludes to previous books he wrotes, so there's Madame Crommelynck from Cloud Atlas, one of the more lyrical chapters of the book. It's really like listening to all of David Mitchell's doubts he must have had as a young writer.

I really enjoyed this book quite a lot.

I read this at breakneck speed, just like the novel somehow felt super-fast paced. It has very short chapters that just keep the ball rolling. Our protagonist is Sonja, a divorcee who does not have custody over her beloved son Tomas, and dreams of the day that she has enough money to file for custody. Money is a problem for her because she is in a 'snare'. Her divorce lawyer offered her a way to make money, by smuggling cocaine from Europe back to Iceland.

The novel has three main PoV characters: Sonja herself; her lover Agla, who is involved in a huge financial scandal. She also won't commit to Sonja as she is a closeted lesbian. And then there's Bragi, a customs officer who has spotted Sonja as a mule and is planning to catch her.

Sonja's snare gets tighter throughout the book, stakes are higher, and there are some twists. I didn't give it 5 stars only because the ending is rather abrupt, not even a good cliffhanger.

If you enjoy hardboiled crime, this is really really good.

This book was such a slow burn for me. Coming highly praised, I came in here expecting a traditional school of wizardry tale. But your HP it is not. It's good though, very good.

Told from first person perspective, our narrator is Galadriel, a sophomore at the Scholomance, a deadly place of education indeed. The students learn magic simply by surviving the many horrors the school throws at them. There are no houses or anything the like, but alliances to make sure you survive your senior year. Students have to fight their way out, through masses of monsters.

Galadriel is a loner though. Secretly, she's one of the most powerful magic-users of the school, but she can only use spells of destruction. As the story progresses, Galadriel has to make alliances herself, and figure out if she and the most prolific monster killer of Scholomance, Orion Lake, are dating or not?

You get zero exposition in the beginning, you're just thrown in, as Galadriel, called El, is saved by Orion. The magic system is a bit mind-boggling at first, and El is a bit of an unreliable narrator, as she's not super-likeable. She's an antisocial introvert. Takes time for her to thaw, took time for me to warm up to her.

It is a creative story, and it successfully breaks the mold of every other wizard academy story out there.