4.5 stars. In general, I’m not someone who rereads books. There are just SO many good books out there waiting to be read that I have a hard time going back. Even if it was a book I liked, there’s always the fear that I might not like it as much the second time. I want to keep my memory of that book pristine. The problem is, instead of remembering plots and characters, I tend to remember how I felt about a book and that […]
At least there’s no GD ghost bear.
I sit down to read A Breath of Snow and Ashes over a year after finishing the last Outlander book, A Fiery Cross, which for the uninitiated is literally just a tolerance test for how long a reader can stand the unabridged minutiae of unremarkable 18th century backwoods living, plus a sprinkling of UTTERLY BONKERS NONSENSE to trick them into believing much more is happening than is actually happening. That last sentence should hopefully provide some understanding as to why it took me so long […]
“Football is a wargame of land acquisition.”
In previous reviews of Ilona Andrews books, I’ve commented on the general superiority of both their world- and character-building. I am more impressed with their skill in this than ever upon finishing Sweep in Peace, which cleverly crosses over the Innkeeper universe with that of their Edge series. With one neat trick and a handful of universe-hopping characters, Andrews teases the insinuation that all of their series might plausibly be connected. It’s not enough for them to have those three other established series, each with […]
“We all change, when you think about it, we’re all different people, all through our lives, and that’s okay, that’s good, you’ve gotta keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be.”
I feel like a bit of a cheat starting with a review of this book, because I actually finished it on December 31st. I always struggle with whether to start with the first book I actually READ in the new year, or if it’s OK to use my first review on a book I read the previous year. It feels a bit wrong, even though I only finished it about half an hour before 2018, but I’m doing it anyway. There. Now that you’ve witnessed […]
There’s more to that Studio Ghibli film…
My introduction to Nausicaä was the 1984 Studio Ghibli film of the same name. I didn’t see the film until about ten years ago when I began collecting all the films of Hayao Miyazaki. My daughter and I enjoy watching Miyazaki stories, and I have an appreciation for his strong female characters. I had no idea that the movie was only a fraction (about two chapters) fo the story and world of the Valley of the Wind. I purchased this two-volume case-bound collection on a whim – our local […]
Of course, even the dragons are orderly in Prussia
After the previous novel’s odd pacing, Black Powder War was a refreshing change. While this one also involves a long journey since Temeraire, Laurence and his crew must return from China, it is a much more interesting (and dragon filled) journey. After a fire leaves the dragon transport needing repairs, the ship pulls into port at Macau where Laurence receives a message telling him to go to Istanbul to pick up three eggs with no moment to spare. Based on this, Temeraire’s crew decides to […]