Category Archives: Books

Book review: The siege of Abythos

Posted on by

The third book in the series started by The Path of Flames, it picks up pretty much where the second book left off, the morning after the battle for Mythgrafen hold besieged by the demons. The stories of different characters will start getting complicated and more complex as the situation escalates.

As with the second book, the third follows several threads of the main story. Many of them will eventually converge by the end.

By the book’s half, it very visible that it’s all going down and that it’s not so much about who might win but about how big mess it’ll be – which helps the pace for a book that’s slightly longer than the previous two.

Continue reading →

Fantasy thoughts: battle scars

Posted on by

I am back with another jumble of thoughts about something that is part of any violent story, not only limited to fantasy though it’s fantasy I read the most so my prevalent point of view will be for that genre.

Heroes and villains will both go through much and not everyone is lucky to emerge without at least a token of remembrance for the perils endured. And based on several factors, how the character and those around him perceive battle scars can vary.

Continue reading →

Something about TBR and series

Posted on by

A friend once said: “the larger an HDD is, the faster it gets filled”. I realized that I could say the same about my ‘to be read’ list – it can grow faster than I can reduce it by reading the books listed there.

At this point, the excel file with potential TBRs is 70 items long and most of them are in series, ranging in length usually between 3 and 6 books. If I average it at 4 and add to it some classics that I don’t bother to put there, it gets me somewhere to potentially 300+ books. That is without counting books that will continue existing series (as I don’t put those to that file). Even if some might not make it out of the TBR list, the choice is still quite large and I keep discovering new TBR candidates every now and then.

So, I’ll go into some factors I have for choosing a book to read as well as to factors about adding them to the TBR list.

Continue reading →

Book Review: Before the Storm

Posted on by

After two long years, another World of Warcraft book. Considering that I am an active player (okay, not now exactly, I am on a break for May and June) and interested in the game universe and story for the past almost 20 years (a lot of time…), it’s tough to make a review of this one.

It’s even tougher for the current situation and with the hints for where the story is going.

Continue reading →

Book review: The Path of Flames

Posted on by

So, after several weeks, I finally finished another book. This one took longer than expected, for reasons that were mostly irrelevant to the book. The book itself is good, yet I struggled to really get into it, for reasons I still don’t know.

Anyway, let’s get to the review itself. I’ll try to avoid significant spoilers, though the review will reveal something from the start.

Continue reading →

Hiking, reading and writing coming together

Posted on by

It might be quite strange jumble as my blog is partly about reading books, partly about hiking and partly about writing. It might seem that this trio does not come together that much. Yet, for me, it does. In this post, I will share how.

An e-reader can be taken anywhere. Reading in the middle of the mountains? No problem.
Continue reading →

Book review: Recall by M. Van

Posted on by

So, my first self-published sci-fi read, and seems that my luck for choosing books that will take my attention is not running out, yet. This one is harder to review without spoilers, but I’ll try my best.

The book starts in what seems to be PoV of a robot or cyborg, which was new experience for me. It sets up the story well, describing the situation on Earth nearing its last stand. Humanity tried to find new homes with space travel but in the process hastened Sun’s lifecycle and sent it towards the rad dwarf phase faster than it would be naturally. As result, the life is now limited to a few cities in domes that block the deadly radiation from much stronger sun and one underground city, Subterra.

It also shows that cyborg-like ARs are remotely directed (not directly controlled, only being given instructions over radio) law enforcement units, which includes the PoV character. Things starts to get weird as it seems said cyborg is getting memories and gaining some degree of free will, leading to this line:

Could it be that someone had compromised my programming? But then how would that let me internally debate the issue?

Then the story gets to reveal that there’s much more going on and that the ARs are more than just cyborgs (not saying the details to avoid spoilers). It is revealed that the Subterran rebels are trying to reveal what is behind their missing people, the ARs and in a chain of events, they lead to even worse revelations. Which is probably all I can say without spoilers.

Read date: 25.-30.4.2018
Published: 16.10.2017
Goodreads rating: 4,0 / Amazon link (so far rated only by me)
My rating: 90%
Length: 365 pages (kindle edition)

There are some things I feel like I should mention. First is that despite the quite nasty things that are found in labs by the end don’t go into too nasty details yet show well enough the depravities done by leaders that want to stay in high places at any cost.

Second is that I found this book by quite some chance – I rarely looked at Goodreads giveaways as (by that time) they were limited to paperback only outside of USA (for which kindle giveaways were still in beta). I found out this one and after a quick look, I eventually added it to my potential TBR list, where it waited for just 6 months, which is not that much considering the list’s size.

Third is that I wondered if the name is, in any way, inspired by the movie Total Recall (though I only saw the 2012 version). In conclusion, it is well possible, there is the theme of getting memories back slowly while being thrown into action (again, can’t say much more without spoilers).

In conclusion, the story has potential and I’ll be waiting for the sequel(s).

How do I rate books

Posted on by

Significant part of my blog presence is writing reviews of books I read and at the end of the post, rating them as well. As someone who looks at reviews and to some point ratings when choosing my next read (more about that process some next time), I decided to share a bit how I do that.

First, I understand that the process is subjective for every individual reader and different people will look for different things in books, which will affect the rating and that is discounting the fact that one might choose a books that’s outside of one’s preferences or even out of comfort zone – which will most likely impact the reading experience.

I also have to say that I am quite easily pleased reader. Make me interested in the story and the ending, avoid obvious plot holes and “WTF?!” moments and it’s quite likely I’ll give 4+ of 5 when using Amazon/Goodreads scale. Now, on to some details. Long post incoming.

Continue reading →