Unraveling Words

Monday, September 1, 2014

Early Unraveling of City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett

Title: City of Stairs

Series: N/A

Author: Robert Jackson Bennett
Genre: Adult Fantasy

Publication Date: September 9, 2014

A densely atmospheric and intrigue-filled fantasy novel of living spies, dead gods, buried histories, and a mysterious, ever-changing city-from one of America's most acclaimed young SF writers.

Years ago, the city of Bulikov wielded the powers of the Gods to conquer the world. But after its divine protectors were mysteriously killed, the conqueror has become the conquered; the city's proud history has been erased and censored, progress has left it behind, and it is just another colonial outpost of the world's new geopolitical power. Into this musty, backward city steps Shara Divani. Officially, the quiet mousy woman is just another lowly diplomat sent by Bulikov's oppressors. Unofficially, Shara is one of her country's most accomplished spymasters-dispatched to investigate the brutal murder of a seemingly harmless historian. As Shara pursues the mystery through the ever-shifting physical and political geography of the city, she begins to suspect that the beings who once protected Bulikov may not be as dead as they seem-and that her own abilities might be touched by the divine as well.

***

My Thoughts

A copy was provided through Edelweiss and Random House Crown for review consideration

And they said to Her: “You blessed us as Your people, and we rejoiced, and were happy. But we found those who were not Your people, and they would not become Your people, and they were willful and ignorant of You. They would not open their ears to Your songs, or lay Your words upon their tongues. So we dashed them upon the rocks and threw down their houses and shed their blood and scattered them to the winds, and we were right to do so. For we are Your people. We carry Your blessings. We are Yours, and so we are right. Is this not what You said?”
And Olvos was silent.

Pacing (2.5/5): First half of City of stars was more like 2 stars. It was so damn slow, and the writing style was hard to get into. The second half was much better. Once things finally picked up at around the 60% mark it didn't let up till the end.

Writing Style (2.5/5): As I mentioned before the writing style was hard to get into, at least for me. It made it hard to connect to the characters and get immersed in the story. It wasn't impossible or anything but it was unnecessarily hard.

“Who is … Sigrud?” asks Vohannes.
There is a horrific scream from nearby, and a burst of breaking glass. Then silence.
“That is Sigrud,” says Shara.

Characters (3.5/5): I ADORED Sigrud. He was the tall, mysterious, deadly, totally socially-oblivious guy. He basically did all the dirty work Shara. The relationship between Shara and Sigrud was lovely. It was a great solid friendship, not a maybe they'll become a thing later. Just a nice old-fashioned friendship.

“How do you expect me to do that? Am I to don all black and infiltrate this place in the middle of the night? I would have thought you’d have people for this.”
“I expected you’d come up with an easier way than that. Primarily because you own the bank.”
Vohannes blinks. “I … I do?”
“Yes.” Shara hands him a copy of Pangyui’s decoded message.
He examines it. “Are you sure I own it? Its name doesn’t ring a bell. …”
“It must be so nice,” says Shara, “to be so wealthy one is uncertain of which institutions one does and does not own..."

Vohannes was another character I really liked and his story and relationship with Shara broke my heart.

“You … You really think you can? Do you really think you aren’t being, like”—Mulaghesh laughs—“well, wildly fucking naïve about this?”

And then there is Mulaghesh! She was awesome. She didn't beat around the bush. Her personality was refreshing.

Plot (3.5/5): Once things started going, it was hard to put down and the clues just kept piling one on top the other till it was the final showdown and then BAM! It was finished :( While it wasn't anything amazing, it was very well thought out and planned out so you are always just a few pages ahead of most of the revelations.

World-building (3.5/5): The world-building while being excellent was also lacking at some points? Or maybe it was just me wanting to know MORE, because it was so damn interesting. I really would have liked to know where the Divinities came from and WHY the Saypuri didn't have any? While this turned out to be a good thing in the long run it would have been nice to have an explanation of some kind.

All in all a solid fantasy that's worth a read :)

“The Divine may have created many hells,” he says, “but I think they pale beside what men create for themselves.”

So...

Would I Recommend it?

Friday, August 1, 2014

Time Out

I haven't quite decided if I'm going to take a long break or just quit all together. It's been great blogging, but lately I'm just not feeling it. I've been getting more and more frustrated with the commenting. Not just mine here alone in the blog but in other blogs I follow. There are either too many comments and the blogger never gets around to all of them (which is perfectly understandable) or no one bothers to comment at all, and if they do, the comments aren't addressed half the time.

I started blogging to simply get my views on books out there and I felt like Goodreads wasn't doing a good enough job for that. As I went on, I started getting more into the community itself and discussing all manner of things with those few bloggers I did interact with. But recently it just seems like blogging has lost it's way, or that's probably just me. They are more and more geared towards this 'invisible' general audience instead of the cozy book niche they were before. They just seem unapproachable now I guess.

This probably has more to do with me than anything else so I've decided to take an indefinite break. I've got some ARC reviews already scheduled all the way till October I believe, but that''s all that's going to be posted for now. I'll still be around Twitter and checking out other blogs in the meantime.

Thank you lovely readers for sticking with me this whole time! Love ya's! :)

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Building Castles In The Sky: Discussion Posts

Today's Castle: Discussion Posts!

Let me start of by saying I suck at discussion posts. I can come up with some good topics, usually while I'm trying to fall asleep. I'll basically redact the whole thing in my head but by the time I wake up I just don't feel like writing it all down...Hence why I basically never do discussion posts. I tried a while back with one about romance on books and how every single book doesn't need a romance. And I wrote the first post! Which is was awesome. But I was supposed to write a second one, and well....I didn't. OOPS. I kept meaning to and I just never got the motivation to sit down and actually write it.

But enough about how much I suck at these things! What I want to talk about is the whole discussion part of discussion posts. I like bouncing of ideas with people. I like actually thoroughly discussing things with people. I may suck at normal everyday conversation and be horribly awkward about it but give me a nice discussion topic and I can talk for hours.

What I have been noticing about these posts is that there aren't actual discussions going on. There is the main post, then people start commenting, but it's all very individual. It's always just the author of the post responding to one comment at a time. I have yet to see a reader reply to another. And most of the comments are just statements of their point of view, which yeah it's kinda the point, but well we are trying to discuss stuff here people! Give me something to work with!

Sometimes it's the same sentiment written over and over again in different ways, which granted that's fine cause people have similar tastes in things and whatnot, but they don't discuss these tastes. They are stated and left out in the ether to never be seen again.

I guess what I'm saying is I'd like some actual discussions to happen instead of these exclusive author to reader, one on one, responses, that don't even go past the first response anyway. I understand people sometimes don't have the time to be responding to comments. Maybe instead we need to revamp the whole idea?

I was thinking of maybe making either a whole day or whole week of a certain topic to discuss in twitter, for example. Make up a hashtag, write up your post, make the twitter widget, upload it to your post and get the ball rolling. Maybe even get a few bloggers together writing on the same topic to have a wider reader base.

What do you guys think? Would this be feasible? Would you even like it if it was in this format? Do you even agree that it could use a revamp or am I just talking out of my ass? xD

Btw - I'm just assuming that's how the twitter thing works, so anyone who is more twitter savvy feel free to correct me if I'm wrong :)

Friday, July 25, 2014

Upcoming Releases - Week of July 28th

Here are the releases for the upcoming week of July 28 - August 3, 2014

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Books I'm looking forward to:

The Young World by Chris Weitz
Free Agent by J. C. Nelson
Magic Breaks by Ilona Andrews

I hadn't realized another Kate & Curran book was coming out already! So excited! :) Another superhero type book coming out in July and Free Agent sounds like it could be fun.

What books are you looking forward to?

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Unraveling: Malice by John Gwynne

Title: Malice

Series: The Faithful and the Fallen Book One

Author: John Gwynne
Genre: Fantasy

Publication Date: December 6, 2012

A black sun is rising …

Young Corban watches enviously as boys become warriors under King Brenin’s rule, learning the art of war. He yearns to wield his sword and spear to protect his king’s realm. But that day will come all too soon. Only when he loses those he loves will he learn the true price of courage.

The Banished Lands has a violent past where armies of men and giants clashed shields in battle, the earth running dark with their heartsblood. Although the giant-clans were broken in ages past, their ruined fortresses still scar the land. But now giants stir anew, the very stones weep blood and there are sightings of giant wyrms. Those who can still read the signs see a threat far greater than the ancient wars. Sorrow will darken the world, as angels and demons make it their battlefield. Then there will be a war to end all wars.

High King Aquilus summons his fellow kings to council, seeking an alliance in this time of need. Some are skeptical, fighting their own border skirmishes against pirates and giants. But prophesy indicates darkness and light will demand two champions, the Black Sun and the Bright Star. They would be wise to seek out both, for if the Black Sun gains ascendancy, mankind’s hopes and dreams will fall to dust.

***

My Thoughts

I'm gonna be honest and say the start of this book was an uphill battle for me. That probably had more to do with me than the book, but it was still rough going.

See, I've been in a reading slump for ages now. If the book can't grab me instantly I usually end up DNFing it and picking something else, but I knew I liked this one, but fantasies are usually quite slow at the start as was the case here. There were also a lot of PoVs (which I usually like, but again it wasn't helping me at the time).

It took me like 2-3 days to get to the 50% mark, but then things started picking up. STUFF started happening and I was glued to the pages after that. It took me less than a day to finish the book...

So yes, slow start but once it gets going it REALLY gets going. I got used to all the PoVs. Obviously I liked some more than others, but they were all necessary, which of course meant I was attached to way too many characters both secondary and main PoV ones, and the end was just SO HORRIBLE. Not in a bad way, just in a breaking-your-heart kind of way.

There are so many things going on here, so many different players in this war. Even wars within wars. You think you know who your enemies are and what war you are fighting.

You don't.

There is string pulling, back stabbing - sometimes literal back stabbing - and just so much awesome. It's hard to appreciate all this at the start because well, you have no clue what the hell is going on, who is who, and just utterly lost.

But then you start picking up on things.

Actions here, some words over there, some messages over here, secret meetings and all of a sudden you, the reader, know what is going on, but your beloved characters don't have the whole picture obviously, but you know it's going to get bad, and then it does! And you just have to sit and watch it all happen! and...

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If you are a fantasy lover. Malice is a must!

So...

Would I Recommend it?

***

Other books in The Faithful and the Fallen:

Malice
Valor
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Monday, July 21, 2014

Unraveling: Neanderthal Marries Human by Penny Reid

Title: Neanderthal Marries Human

Series: Knitting in the City Book One and a Half

Author: Penny Reid
Genre: Adult Romance Comedy

Publication Date: June 14, 2014

There are three things you should know about Quinn Sullivan: 1) He is madly in love with Janie Morris, 2) He’s not above playing dirty to get what (or who) he wants, and 3) He doesn’t know how to knit.

After just five months of dating Janie, Quinn—former Wendell and unapologetic autocrat—is ready to propose marriage. In fact, he’s more than ready. If it were up to Quinn, he would efficiently propose, marry, and beget Janie with child all in the same day—thereby avoiding the drama and angst that accompanies the four stages of pre-matrimony: engagement, meeting the parents, bachelor/bachelorette party, and overblown, superfluous wedding day traditions. But Janie, much to Quinn’s dismay, tosses a wrench in his efficacious endeavors and challenges him to prove his devotion by going through the matrimonial motions, no matter how minute and mundane.

Will Quinn last until the wedding day? Or will he yield to his tyrant impulses?

Regardless, one thing is for certain, Quinn Sullivan will have to learn to expect the Spanish Inquisition (i.e. the unexpected) if he plans to have and keep Janie Morris as his wife.

***

My Thoughts

I loved this! Specially that last chapter with the missing scene from Vegas *sigh*. So beautiful! And the whole wedding scene and the speeches *sniffs*. Lovely.

There were a few grammatical errors but who cares! I had a goofy grin on my face through out the whole book, with the occasional laugh bursting out. I really liked seeing things from Quinn's point of view.

Even though I'm not a fan of the whole possessive thing, it was great getting in his head and finding out how he process things. It made him much more real and human than in the first book, Neanderthal Seeks Human. It gave him a warmth and depth that had been lacking. We also got to see him interact with Dan and Nico and show a different side of himself. Loved the scene when they first meet Nico. So adorable! xD

Loved getting back to the ladies and that trip to Vegas, so reminiscent of The Hangover was excellent Lol. The love and support these ladies have for each other is heartwarming. I was also very intrigued with Shelly, Quinn's sister, and I'm hoping that Reid will consider writing her story as well.

This book gave me the warm and fuzzies and that's exactly what I've come to expect from Reid's books. So kudos to Reid for another great book!

So...