Review: The Abominable

The Abominable by Dan Simmons
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was certainly not at all what I had expected. I admit to hoping, perhaps naively, for more of the on-the-edge-of-your-seat reading that was present in The Terror but was a bit underwhelmed by the suspense of this story. Almost half the book was spent in preparation for the group's trip to Everest, and they didn't get there until about 47% of the way in. By that point I was somewhere around 300 pages in, and felt the story hadn't even started yet. I was exhausted! He's usually much better at moving the plot forward, but this story lagged.

If you're going into The Abominable expecting a monster book or a horror book or even something science-fiction-y, you're going to be disappointed. It was none of those, really. And that's not a bad thing, but it certainly cut back a bit on my enjoyment.

Overall, this is a great novel. It's not my favorite, nor is it his best, but I'm not going to knock it for what it is. The only reason it's getting three instead of four stars is because I personally didn't find it as thrilling as other books of his that I've read.

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Book Haul

Via Instagram

Yesterday I went gift-carding, a.k.a. shopping with gift cards.  I knew I only had $20 to Barnes & Noble, but I also knew I wanted three specific books, so I figured what the heck and got all three.

Last night I started Allegiant, but I wish I'd re-read Insurgent first.  Oh well, already on my way!

This is probably my first "major" book haul in a while, even if it's only three books.  I've been swapping at BooksFreeSwap and getting single books here and there when something comes up, but otherwise I haven't been really shopping for any books since probably my birthday (the last time I had major gift-cardage and could buy a lot).  It feels goooooooood to have brand new books in my hands.

Once I had all three in my hands I decided I needed to check out or I'd spend a lot more than intended.  I did look around the media section but not for long.  I didn't even let myself get a peek at the F/SF section.  The Abominable was still up as new, even though it came out in October.  I guess that's still new.  I was just happy to see it getting some serious shelf space.  I'm about 40% of the way through at the moment, and they still haven't even gotten to Everest yet.  I'm kind of tapping my foot, waiting waiting waiting.  It's a long set-up.

When was the last time you had a somewhat major haul?  What did you buy?

Follow...Tuesday?

Are you a blogger?  Do you update frequently (as in more than once a month)?  Leave a comment here with your blog URL and I would be happy to feature it in my "Recommended Blogs" section on the sidebar.  See it?  It's just over there to your right, and down a bit.  It doesn't even have to be about books, it can be whatever you blog about.  Kids, movies, food, the neighbor you're stalking...

I just culled a bunch of blogs that haven't been updated in over a year.  If you're active and would like some linkage, just let me know.  I would appreciate it if you would follow me in return.

I'm also thinking about doing a bi-weekly (as in every two weeks, not twice a week) or once a month blog feature, of a blog I especially enjoy.  So this is your shot at getting me interested!  I know I don't have a huge readership, but every little bit helps, right?

Review: City of Bones

Before I get started, I'll just put this out there: I'm sure that this review will be none too popular, as evidenced by the number of people who absolutely loved the series and the other negative reviews on Goodreads that have received a multitude of trolls and nasty comments.  Please keep in mind, this is MY opinion of MY reading of this book, and while that doesn't automatically make me wrong, you have every right to dismiss it and move along.

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Oh dear.

The cover should have been a warning. Stephanie Meyer wants to live in this world. Yep, it's going to be bad.

Just a few examples of how bad the writing was (maybe a little spoilery after this point):

(Referring to Magnus the warlock) "Clary guessed from the curve of his sleepy eyes and the gold tone of his evenly tanned skin that he was part Asian." (p. 219)

"Under the skirt of her short green dress her feet were webbed like a frog's." (p.221) - How would her feet be under the skirt of a short dress? Did she have no calves?

"I think she just didn't want me to get too far away from her. My mom, I mean. After my dad died she changed a lot." (p. 311) - BUT HER DAD DIED BEFORE SHE WAS BORN!!!!! How would she know what her mom was like before then?!

Also, Magnus, the gold-colored part-Asian named his cat Chairman Meow.

Valentine is a play on Voldemort (seriously, and any other villain who isn't actually dead or destroyed and comes back to wreak havoc). And Clary is stubborn and stupid and always takes things at face value instead of actually THINKING about them. She immediately believes whatever anyone tells her. Then when someone tells her that what she was told was a lie, she immediately believes THAT person instead. By the end of the book, I was so confused as to who was telling the truth and who was lying that it was a wonder she believed anything at all (which she did) and that she was even still alive considering how many people died to keep her safe. She's also completely useless, can't do much of anything defense-wise (just stands there and screams most of the time, except the time she threw a dagger at a werewolf, but that was mostly a gut reaction - here's a knife, there's a werewolf coming after me, I'm going to throw it and hope it hits something). She's torn between two guys and can't make a decision as to how she feels about them, OH NO!

Poorly written, the story was not great, and the character development was pretty non-existent. This book gets a D-. One extra star for Luke, and Simon, the only two worthwhile characters in the book.

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Review: The Almond Tree

The Almond Tree by Michelle Cohen Corasanti
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book through the Goodreads First Reads program.]

This novel really moved me, but having read books (mostly fiction) on both sides of the conflict I don't feel I am qualified to determine whether the political facts are correct. I appreciated the idea that to make peace we must work for peace with others.

The story itself was very compelling, moving forward in spurts and moving years in seconds. That was the only problem I had with it - years would pass without a mention and suddenly our main character is in college, and then in his 60s, and you have to wonder where the time went. I liked having the years in front of the sections, but even within those sections years would go by in a handful of pages without any real acknowledgment.

I was on the fence about reading this and I'm really glad I won a copy because I never would have bought it on my own. Recommended to those who are interested in reading about the conflicts in the Middle East.

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Review: Three Souls

Three Souls: A Novel by Janie Chang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book through the Goodreads First Reads program.]

I don't even know where to start with my review. This book was downright fantastic, hands-down the single best First Reads win I've ever received. There are 496 pages in the book and I read almost 400 of them in one day. I never do that!

I adored the main character, through all her faults and inability to understand she was dealing with things that were much too adult for her. Her character in death was beautifully contemplative and I loved how she was able to see, along with the reader, the impulse of youth contrasted with the reflection of consequences. We all forget, as teenagers, that our actions have repercussions. Even in our adult life it's hard to picture what will happen if we make this decision or that one. In death we are able to see exactly how everything Leiyin did in her youth contributed to the events around her, even without her knowledge or comprehension.

I did not imagine Hanchin to be the character he ended up as. It was an interesting turn to experience the realization of his true character alongside the woman who loved him.

The only thing I didn't fully connect with was the idea of three souls. It certainly was a great thing to have the commentary of each different personality throughout the book, encouraging Leiyin, reproaching her, understanding and commiserating with her, and telling her flat-out she was wrong. I loved having them around, but it was difficult (for me personally) to tell the souls apart, and I often found myself reading them as pretty much a single character. I also did not quite follow with the tastes and smells that they projected onto her, as I don't know what most of them meant. Maybe this is something that would be better understood by someone with Chinese heritage.

The writing style was exceptional, the language was poetic and flowed so easily that it was difficult to stop reading once I'd started. You might think that a book that's almost 500 pages long might be wordy, and it was, but in a way completely necessary to tell the story. Chinese culture and traditions were explained so well they felt familiar to me. I could picture the landscapes and gardens and houses (I'm sure I got them wrong but the point is I could see them in my head), the parties and offices and even the most downright heartbreaking things. I felt along with Leiyin, and experienced her emotions and mourned with her when things went badly. I never felt like a word was out of place. (Also, thumbs up to whoever edited this proof copy - I only caught ONE typo!)

If you liked Snow Flower and the Secret Fan or any other Lisa See novel, this one is a must-read and something you will not regret picking up. What a beautifully told story. This is going to stay with me, I can tell.

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Review: Despair: Servant of the Fates

Despair: Servant of the Fates by Val Panesar
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I was provided a free Kindle copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.]

Firstly, I must apologize to the author for taking so long to read this. My review should have been done in October, early November at the latest, but some other things came up, and reading on my phone is difficult. But I'm done, finally, and now to the review.

Despair is the first in a series of books and short stories (I have not read the short stories), and it's a good start. The book itself felt like it needed a professional editor as the sentence structure and punctuation was off in a lot of places. I had a bit of a problem with information not being offered in the beginning and then the reader is expected to know it automatically (e.g. when Aysir points out he can't use magic halfway through as if it's an obvious thing). I also didn't really understand how (view spoiler).  //Note: The author does have extensive end notes (footnotes were intended, according to the author, but didn't work with the Kindle); my personal preference is to have all this explained in-line.  I also had trouble reading them on my phone app because they kept going to the end notes, but then not back to where I was in the text, so I didn't use them that much, hence I missed a lot of the history.  I feel if end notes are needed they should be minimal at most.//

The battle scenes were hard to visualize, I ended up just picturing people Final-Fantasy-style hacking at each other. Speaking of Final Fantasy, it felt like the characters took a completely unnatural amount of damage and still didn't die, and those who did die had relatively minor wounds in the grand scheme of things.

What I DID like was the storyline. I appreciated that it was part mystery, part fantasy. Who was killing all the people? What was going on in the mist? Why were the royals so against finding out what it was? Some of this was answered, some of it wasn't. The ending was interesting, albeit a little confusing, because there was something "revealed" about Arabella that didn't seem to fit with her actions, and didn't explain much either.

Overall it's an interesting concept, and I appreciate the opportunity to read and provide a review. My thanks to the author, and my apologies as well for taking so long.

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Review: Facing the Music and Living to Talk About It

Facing the Music and Living to Talk About It by Nick Carter
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

[DISCLAIMER: I won a copy of this book on the Goodreads Giveaways]

I turned 30 this year. It was hard to admit, harder to deal with, and I still don't feel like I'm in my 30's. But one thing I promised myself was, I am not going to spend any more time reading books I don't like, just because I have this masochistic tendency to finish every freaking book I start.

Unfortunately, Facing the Music and Living to Talk About It is one of those books that's going to have to be put down and never picked up again. I wanted to get at least 25% of the way through before I let go, just to give it a fair shot. But that 25% was brutal. This is a disorganized, rambling piece of self-help, and it did not do a darn thing for me. What bothered me even more than the "If I can do it, so can you!" reiteration was that he kept saying things like, "I wish I'd written this book sooner so I could have given it to my sister and maybe she wouldn't have died." I know that he didn't mean it to come across as arrogant, but my goodness did this scream "Her death was all my fault even though it wasn't!" I feel for you Nick, I really do, and I wish your sister had gotten better too, but this book was not going to save her life.

I have always had a huge soft spot for Nick Carter. BSB were my boys. Okay not really. But I always loved them, especially Nick. Nick, you are not a writer. You should keep singing, because as you said in your "strengths" chapter, that's what you do best. I love you! Really! I promise!

As a sidenote: When I entered to win this book in the giveaway, there was next to nothing about it being a self-help book. This book, as I remember it, was marketed as an autobiography with bits of advice for people on how to get through the tough times. As you can clearly see, I'm not the only one who had this impression from the description provided back in September. Now, I don't know if the publisher or Goodreads have changed the description several times since then, but I can tell you that what's up there now ("This book is Nick Carter’s autobiography and self-help hybrid in which he chronicles his struggles with a dysfunctional family and the unimaginable rigors of becoming an internationally successful pop-star at the age of 12.") was not up there when I entered the giveaway. If it had actually been autobiography instead of self-help with a few anecdotes about his childhood and time with BSB, I might have liked this. A suggestion to Goodreads, then: Add a time/date-stamp for edits because it's misleading to put up one description and then change it later with no proof of the old description.

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Book Trailers

Book trailers are starting to show up for even the most indie of books, authors creating them as promotion for something they've self-published, and even the big names are getting into it.  I think the first one I ever saw was on TV, for a James Patterson novel, probably one of the Maximum Ride series.  Then I saw one for either Janet Evanovitch or Nora Roberts (I can't remember because, honestly, I don't really care about them as authors).  Now I'm seeing them online for almost every book that's coming out.

My first thoughts when I saw the one for a Maximum Ride book were, first, what on earth is this, and second, if they wanted to advertise it on video why not just make a movie out of it?  I know, thirty seconds is a lot easier to do than two and a half hours, but I never thought of books as a "visual" media.  By giving a character a face, I felt that it took away all the excitement of trying to picture him/her for yourself.  And yes, I know a lot of books give characters a face with their covers and possibly inside art, but I never found that to be inhibiting, while for some reason the visual on the screen stays with me more.

Some trailers are simply scenery shots, with shadowy figures and other such nonsense, usually the mystery ones.  I can kind of get that, since they don't really show anyone, but again, if I know it's a mystery why do I need to see a trailer to know whether I'm going to like it?

Movie trailers are certainly an interesting and biased media, considering how much I loved the trailers for John Carter and hated the movie (this is not an uncommon occurrence).  I've heard a lot of people even saying that Frozen was marketed completely wrong with the trailers, and it's actually a great movie even though the trailers make it look pretty, well, dumb.  I haven't seen it yet, so I'll reserve judgment.

But if that's the case for movies, how could a book trailer possibly help someone who wants to pick out a book to read?  All it's going to do is tell you the plot, right?  And maybe make it look exciting.  I don't really get it.  To me, there's nothing more a book trailer can do for me that the synopsis can't (unless the synopsis is two sentences long telling me only "You'll love this book because it's a great story about love and blah blah.  And it's a mystery."  I've seen those before and thought it was dumb).  And if I wanted to watch the book, I'd wait for the movie, right?

At this point in my book searching, I don't watch the trailers or pay attention to the photos people post in their reviews of stars they say "are" the characters.  This happens a lot on Goodreads.  I rarely read past the first few lines of a review either, unless I'm specifically looking for a reason (not) to read a book.  The synopsis does it for me (and sometimes - okay, a lot of the time - the cover).  Book trailer?  No thanks.

Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Neil Gaiman is an author whose works I buy without question. One time I was given a $250 gift card to Barnes & Noble (best day ever) and I used it to beef up my collections of Gaiman, Bradbury and Pratchett. I bought this book as a signed first edition, pre-ordering it months ahead of publication just knowing it was going to be beautiful. And it was.

A lot of the hyped books don't really meet my expectations, and I'm often left disappointed. In this case, The Ocean at the End of the Lane was perfectly marketed, and deserves every award and accolade it has won this year, including the Goodreads Choice Award for Fantasy (and the book which received the most votes overall).

The synopsis on Goodreads pretty much says what the book is about, but it doesn't give you the story. And it's a story only Neil Gaiman could have written. It's mystical and child-like, but through the eyes of an adult who doesn't really know what he's remembering. It's simple and lyrical and wonderfully rich in imagery. The storytelling is masterful. Suffice to say, I loved every moment of it.

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Review: The Forbidden Book

The Forbidden Book by Joscelyn Godwin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the Goodreads Giveaway]

Overall, this book was just "okay" for me, but since it wasn't bad I didn't want to just give it two stars, so that's why it gets three.

Minor spoilers after this point.

I enjoyed the mystery aspect of the book, but felt that it was trying to go in three different directions, none of which matched up quite as well as it seems the authors had wanted. It's one part mystery - who killed Angela and kidnapped Orsina? - one part mysticism - the Baron's magical powers and those he is trying to pass to Orsina - and one part, well, just plain weird - the Baron's influence over his "students" in getting them to blow up monuments to make it look like the Muslims are behind it. I understand where the authors were trying to go with that last bit, but I really don't think they arrived.

Inspector Ghedina is a fool of a character, Orsina's weak, as is Angela, and Leo is the only one worth much of anything in the grand scheme of things.

The sexual aspect was... well, gross. Again, I get where the authors were going, and I see its relevance to the story, but it kind of grossed me out. Plus the fact that Orsina just (view spoiler)[glosses over her attempted rape and says she'll have to figure out how to live with it, then moves on to something else (hide spoiler)] kind of makes me feel like she's vapid and shallow, with no real emotions to speak of other than her love for Leo.

I guess if you were a fan of The DaVinci Code and other such nonsense, this book might appeal to you. I didn't mind it, it wasn't offensive, I just didn't really find it compelling. And there was so much Italian in it that even with translations it was distracting.

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Review: Sorcerer's Luck

Sorcerer's Luck by Katharine Kerr
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Simply put, I love this book. It is so imaginative and original, and full of history and magic and all sorts of fun!

Maya Cantescu meets a sorcerer while she's drawing portraits at a local fair. He draws her into his world with the offer of a job, and since she's barely scraping by she talks herself into it. Maya isn't just any ordinary girl herself, though - she's a vampire. No, not the blood-sucking kind, but the kind that feeds on other people's energies. She could easily kill someone if she took too much, but she has trained herself to only take smidgins here and there. This has barely worked for her, but by the time she meets the sorcerer, Tor, she isn't at the peak of health.

It seems like love at first sight, but as we get further into the story we find out that they have known each other a lot longer than Maya first thought!

There's also the hitch that Tor is a were-bear. Can Maya keep him locked in his room every full moon so that he doesn't go off gallivanting around the countryside eating small children? And what really goes on behind that locked door every cycle?

Most of the action focuses on Tor's uncle Nils, who has a huge vendetta against him for some perceived slight. It takes probably half of the book to figure this out, but that's hardly where the excitement ends!

The masterful writing coupled with a great story has really turned out a great book. At the end we're left with the set-up for another book, which is awesome, because I seriously can't get enough of Maya and Tor, her brother Roman, and her kooky friend Brittany.

5/5 stars, highly recommended to anyone who loves fantasy, adventure, romance, magic, mythology, and just enjoying a darn good read.

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Review: The Knife's Edge

The Knife's Edge by Matthew Wolf
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I found The Knife's Edge on Kickstarter and figured it sounded good, and I wanted to support a budding author, so I backed it. I can't say I regret backing it, but it doesn't end up anywhere near the top of my list of great fantasy. Unfortunately, there were too many problems with the book for me to ignore.

Kail, Karil, and Kirin - these are three different people. I couldn't keep them straight for the life of me (I'm good now that the book's over, but seriously, all three of these characters' names showing up within a few pages of each other and I was screwed). Add to that the fact that Kirin is also Gray, and one character keeps calling him Kirin, well, I got all sorts of mixed up. Plus, there's a voice in his head that talks to him when he's confused...is that supposed to be Kirin talking to Gray? Does he have schizophrenia? It's never explained, but he listens to it without any real questioning.

Kirin/Gray (from now on just Gray) goes off on an epic adventure to save the world after he's attacked by a bunch of monsters. There's a lot more to it than that, but that's how I'm going to summarize it. The monsters are sent after him by Vera, his dead girlfriend, who is apparently working for someone else and herself at the same time (apparently with no repercussions, but whatevs, girl don't care!), and everyone wants Kirin dead. I still have no idea what these monsters look like, by the way - I imagine the Verg with triangle heads. And the Saerok look kind of like this:

I have no idea why, but that's just where my mind went. Anyone else remember that Angel? Yep.

Anyway, Gray has a sword that killed Vera, his now-dead girlfriend(or something, that becomes questionable later on and kind of creepy in a way...) and he's terrified of it but he doesn't know why because he doesn't remember who he was. And he goes on this epic quest, meets a couple of folks who become his sidekicks no matter how hard he tries to ditch them, and learns how to harness this magic power that's within him, which is actually kind of cool. Eventually he comes to terms with being a "savior" and, with the help of Ronin who are supposed to be evil but aren't really (their backstory isn't completely explained), goes off to save the world.

The Ronin didn't make a ton of sense in the whole scheme of things. Their story is only given in bits and pieces, and while by the end we kind of understand why they are seen as evil but are really good, it's a little too late for me.

Going beyond plot and into printing, I understand that this was a Kickstarter and therefore not a "professionally" published book. However, the author had made numerous mentions in the campaign of proofreading, polishing and perfecting the book over several years and it's finally ready for publication. I beg to differ. The first hundred or so pages weren't so bad. There was the odd extra comma, a few spelling errors, and maybe some weird out-of-place sentences. But by the time I got halfway through the book they were literally everywhere. It was like whoever had proofread this thing had gotten that far in and said "Screw it, I'm done, no one will notice anyway." Well, I noticed. There were spelling problems, horrible grammar, weird punctuation, floating half-sentences, wrong words, wrong characters, and "he's" and "she's" everywhere without identifying who that he or she was.

I was ready for it to be over about 150 pages before it was, even though we hadn't even gotten all the story yet. This wasn't a bad book, obviously I'm in the minority when it comes to those who didn't like it, but I didn't enjoy it very much and would not pass this on to my friends (unless they *really* wanted to read it, in which case, just let me know and it's yours).

Sorry Matthew, it was a dud for me :\

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Freebie Alert: Diary of the Gone

I know I just reviewed this, but since I gave it 4/5 stars I think this deserves its own post.  Diary of the Gone is up for free on Amazon for Kindle!  If you own a Kindle or have a Kindle app (I caved and have an app on my phone now) you can read it for free.

Remember to leave a review if you download!

Review: Diary of the Gone

Diary of the Gone by Ivan Amberlake
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a copy of this ebook from the author in exchange for an honest review.]

I really appreciated that this was a one-off novella and not a new series. The story had just enough creepiness to make it scary, and at the end was wrapped up neatly.

I don't normally read horror or scary books because, well, I get freaked out pretty easily. But this was just this side of fantasy so that I wasn't really scared so much as wanting to know what was *really* going on with that diary and the dead people that Callum sees.

The writing was done well, and it seems like the author has gotten a pretty good grasp on dialogue since the last book of his that I read. I enjoyed the flow and got through it in a couple of hours (hence the novella part). I was left with a few questions, like why did all the animals leave the forest? There could have been a bit more done with that in the beginning, when Callum and Nathan find the dead deer in the swamp. Some of the story felt rushed, but overall it was a good read.

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