Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter: The Long War

 Hi everyone

This was my second time reading Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxters The Long War; the second book in The Long Earth series. You can find my first review here. 

“A generation after the events of The Long Earth, mankind has spread across the new worlds opened up by Stepping. Where Joshua and Lobsang once pioneered, now fleets of airships link the stepwise Americas with trade and culture. Mankind is shaping the Long Earth - but in turn the Long Earth is shaping mankind... A new 'America', called Valhalla, is emerging more than a million steps from Datum Earth, with core American values restated in the plentiful environment of the Long Earth - and Valhalla is growing restless under the control of the Datum government...
Meanwhile the Long Earth is suffused by the song of the trolls, graceful hive-mind humanoids. But the trolls are beginning to react to humanity's thoughtless exploitation... Joshua, now a married man, is summoned by Lobsang to deal with a gathering multiple crisis that threatens to plunge the Long Earth into a war unlike any mankind has waged before.”

I still stand by my previous review. 

The storyline of the Chinese expedition should have been cut. It was uninteresting with boring characters and it didn't add much to the overal plot of the book.

I really dislike Sally, maybe more so now I have children of my own and I realize more she just forces Joshua away from his son and wife. There's no nuance to her character. She's always very harsh, hard and uncaring for others. 

But I still love the setting, the ideal of Long Earths, I love Joshua and his family, I love Lobsang.

Happy reading!
Helena

Shelley Parker-Chan: She Who Became the Sun

Hi everyone

I finished She Who Became the Sun, the first book in The Radiant Emperor duology by Shelley Parker-Chan.

"In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness…
In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.
When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.
After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu uses the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother's abandoned greatness."

This was a great book. Even though I didn't really like the characters and they were very one-sided the story and world were interesting enough to overcome that. Ouyang especially was very dramatic and kept thinking the same things over and over.

But the story was really good. It's a reimagining of the rise of the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, something I know nothing about so I can't say how much is based on facts. It is easy to read, the story engages you, I really wanted to keep reading because I wanted to find out what would happen next. So, even though I didn't connect with the characters, hated most of their acts, I still enjoyed the book because of the writing, the world and the plot.

Happy reading
Helena

Bookhaul

 Hi everyone

I got two new books!

Last July I read the first book in Joe Abercrombie's The Age of Madness series; A Little Hatred. I really enjoyed it so I decided to get the second and third book in the series as well. I ordered them from Bol.com the day before yesterday and I received them today.

- Joe Abercrombie: The Trouble with Peace

- Joe Abercrombie: The Wisdom of Crowds

What books would you recommend buying or loaning?

Happy reading
Helena

Wrap Up: October 2024

 Hi everyone

Last month, October 2024 I read and finished 6 books.

Here's a list in chronological order with a link to the review I wrote about each book:

- Shelby Van Pelt: Remarkably Bright Creatures

- Gretchen Rubin: Better Than Before

- Alice Hoffman: The Museum of Extraordinary Things

- Travis Baldree: Bookshops & Bonedust

- Devin Madson: We Ride the Storm

- Christian White: The Wife and the Widow

 

And sadly there's one book I could not finish:

- R. F. Kuang: Babel

 

What did you read this month? Anything you want to recommend?

Happy reading!
Helena

Christian White: The Wife and the Widow

 Hi everyone

This is my review of The Wife and the Widow by Christian White. It's his second book but the first one I read. I read it on my e-reader.

"Set against the backdrop of an eerie island town in the dead of winter, The Wife and The Widow is an unsettling thriller told from two perspectives: Kate, a widow whose grief is compounded by what she learns about her dead husband’s secret life; and Abby, an island local whose world is turned upside when she’s forced to confront the evidence of her husband’s guilt. But nothing on this island is quite as it seems, and only when these women come together can they discover the whole story about the men in their lives."

I really enjoyed this.  

The writing is easy and it has a nice flow. The story is not too slow nor too fast to follow. I really wanted to find out how it all happened. Once you realize the whole story there's quite a bit of the book left and that was a bummer. But the twist was great and I didn't see it coming. A few plotholes and questions about the efficinecy of the police.

All in all a quick, enjoyable murder mystery that sucked me in but don't think too hard about the plot.

Happy reading.
Helena

Devin Madson: We Ride the Storm

 Hi everyone

This is my review for Devin Madson's We Ride the Storm, this is book one in The Reborn Empire series.
I got my book from Bol.com, it has a nice cover and an interesting blurb on the back.

" War built the Kisian Empire and war will tear it down.
Fifteen years after rebels stormed the streets, Kisia is still divided. Only the firm hand of the god-emperor holds the kingdom together. But when a shocking betrayal destroys a tense alliance with neighbouring Chiltae, all that has been won comes crashing down.
In Kisia, Princess Miko T'sai is a prisoner in her own castle. She dreams of claiming her empire, but the path to power could rip it, and her family, asunder.
In Chiltae, assassin Cassandra Marius is plagued by the voices of the dead. Desperate, she accepts a contract that promises to reward her with a cure if she helps an empire fall.
And on the border between nations, Captain Rah e'Torin and his warriors are exiles forced to fight in a foreign war or die."

I didn't really enjoy this one. The characters were very one-dimensional, some were there only to further the story. Characterization is really important to me and the lack thereof made me not care for them and thus I lost interest only halfway through.
The story was predictable and very cliché and the worldbuilding was quite non-existent.  

The story had me sighing and rolling my eyes over the stupidity of the characters, the things they say and do.
Also, completely unnecessary rape never sits well with me and he lost a star then and there for that.

At least the writing was good.

Happy reading.
Helena

Travis Baldree: Bookshops & Bonedust

 Hi everyone

I finished Travis Baldrees Bookshops & Bonedust. This is the prequel to Legends & Lattes (the first book in the Legends & Lattes series). 

"First loves. Second-hand books. Epic adventures.
Viv’s career with the renowned mercenary company Rackam’s Ravens isn’t going as planned. Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she’s packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk – so far from the action that she worries she’ll never be able to return to it. What’s a thwarted soldier of fortune to do?
Spending her hours at a struggling bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted. Even though it may be exactly what she needs. Still, adventure isn’t far away. A suspicious traveller in grey, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a summer fling and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk to be more eventful than Viv could have ever expected.
Sometimes, right things happen at the wrong time. Sometimes, what we need isn’t what we seek. And sometimes, we find ourselves in the stories we experience together.
Set twenty years before the events of Legends & Lattes , Bookshops & Bonedust is a standalone cosy fantasy by BookTok sensation Travis Baldree about the power of good bookshops, great friends and the unexpected choices along the way."

I honestly really enjoyed this. Because I've read Legends & Lattes; I knew what to expect and it is indeed the exact same thing. 
A cozy, wholesome, cute story about people bonding, working together, friendship, baked goods and books. Light and slow story, not much worldbuilding or great depth to the characters. But it is a nice, easy, warming and comforting escape.

Happy reading!
Helena