A Clockwork Orange

by Anthony Burgess

Summary from GoodReads

A vicious fifteen-year-old "droog" is the central character of this 1963 classic, whose stark terror was captured in Stanley Kubrick's magnificent film of the same title.

In Anthony Burgess's nightmare vision of the future, where criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, who talks in a brutal invented slang that brilliantly renders his and his friends' social pathology. A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil, and the meaning of human freedom. When the state undertakes to reform Alex—to "redeem" him—the novel asks, "At what cost?"

This edition includes the controversial last chapter not published in the first edition and Burgess's introduction "A Clockwork Orange Resucked".

Thoughts on the Book

I've been wanting to read this one for a while.  I've heard nothing but good/crazy things about the movie, and I have a firm policy of book before movie, since 99.99999998% of the time the book is far better.  My friend recently read it, which rekindled my desire to read it, so he lent it to me and I immediately dove in not knowing what to expect from it at all other than amazingness.  Well, and a warning that the beginning is rough to get through due to the slang.

My Review

This book is about a teenager, Alex, who lives in a dismal future world where he is a victim of society.

The beginning was difficult to get through, both the slang and the subject matter.  Alex is painted right away as a character that you cannot like.  He thrills in beating up old men and gang raping women, not to mention mugging everyone in between.  That is all the first third of the book.  Once you finally get through that he's in prison and then being brainwashed, then the final third of the book is him struggling against his instincts and the effects of being brainwashed as well as getting his comeuppance, which does not teach him a single thing.  The last chapter, which was removed from the original US printing redeemed the entire story for me.  This last part was also left out of the movie.

There were no characters that I enjoyed reading about, Alex was awful, as were his droogs.  The only one that was even remotely okay was Pete, only because he mostly hung back in the first third of the book and when he made his reappearance in the last chapter he was extremely likeable.  Of the other two Georgie was awful, and got what he deserved, and Dim was the absolute worst and unfortunately the last we see of him he's happy as can be fully abusing his power.  As for other characters, when F. Alexander returned I thought he would be the one character I could like, but sadly he was quickly revealed to be an awful person, but he at least had cause for it.  His friends however were even worse.

The story is very bleak, especially without the last chapter which offers a glimmer of hope for the future.  This book isn't the greatest of stories, it's more of a anecdote of the time in which it was written.  For me A Clockwork Orange is another one of those books that people love and clamor about that I just don't get, like A Catcher in the Rye.  Granted, I did like this one far better than the latter.

Overall I give this a 7/10.  It was a good story, and as I've said the last chapter is why, I can't fathom why the New York publishers didn't want to print it, the rest of the world did!  Now I have to watch the movie, maybe then I'll understand some of the hype around it...

Streams of Mercy

by Lauraine Snelling

Summary from GoodReads

Anji Baard Moen, a recent widow, returns from Norway with her children. She quickly settles back into life in Blessing, teaching Norwegian history in the high school and writing articles for the Blessing Gazette. When tragedy strikes, Anji steps in to run the newspaper and soon finds a kindred spirit in the widower who owns the printing press. As they spend time together, Anji wonders if there's something more than friendship growing between them.

But Anji has also caught the eye of a recent arrival to Blessing. He has put his carpentry skills to good use on the town's building projects, including Anji's house. But Anji is torn between her feelings of loyalty to someone who needs her and the chance to build a new life with this intriguing newcomer.

Where will her choice take her?

Thoughts on the Book

I love the world of Blessing, North Dakota and the Bjorklunds.  I grew up reading them and I will continue to read them for as long as Snelling continues to publish them.  The description made me really nervous though, Thorliff, one of my favorite characters ever written, owns the newspaper.

My Review

This book is about a train that comes into Blessing seeking medical attention.  It also continues everyone's story, focusing on Ingeborg (of course), Anji, and Devlin.

This is probably my least favorite of the entire series, bumping up Blessing in Disguise's ranking.  It didn't have the same rhythm and feeling as all the others.  It seemed kind of forced.  The characters were pretty flat and there was a lot, and I mean a lot of reminiscing.  Weird uncalled for reminiscing.  Like Kaaren out of nowhere stating that she was randomly crying one day and realized that it was because she missed Carl, Gunny, and Lizzie.  The books have progressively getting much more religious focused too.  It used to be religion was just a part of who they were, now it's like any chance Snelling gets she randomly adds a quote from the scripture.  It's part of the problem with the flow of the book, it doesn't occur naturally it's so forced.

Another issue I had with the book was Anji.  I didn't care about her at all.  I used to really like her, then she screwed over Thorliff, and now?  I still find her totally unlikable.  Maybe I would have cared more if the love interest wasn't Devlin.  If she were still in love with Thorliff and after her husband died she came back and suffered while Thorliff was living a happy life with Elizabeth and their children.

I don't understand why Ingeborg was such a focus in this story.  Lately it's seemed like she's the main focus of everything, but in the original series half of the books she was a side character.  As well as a few of the sub-sequential series.  There was absolutely nothing going on with her in this book, but there were a lot of scenes, for no reason, at the farm.  Since Anji was supposed to be the main focus of the story I was expecting to see a lot more of Penny (and Hjemler) but then were both mentioned once.  And Penny's daughter was mentioned out of the blue in one section.

Overall I'm giving this a 5.5/10.  It felt too forced and there were so many things that just didn't feel right.  Characters that should have been crucial to the story (Astrid, Elizabeth, Deborah, Miriam, Penny) barely showed up or were missing completely and characters that served no purpose were in it a lot (Ingeborg, Emily, Manny).  I'm hoping the next in the series brings back the original feel to the world of Blessing.

Leopard Lord

by Alanna Morland

Summary from GoodReads

Romantic fantasy at its best--from an exciting new voice in the genre! The successor to the barony of Leopard's Gard has made a wicked deal with the dark god, and now he must choose between the lives of his countrymen--and the woman he loves.

Thoughts on the Book

This book is a re-read for me.  It's been sitting on my bookshelf begging for me to pick it up again.  It's one of my favorite books, and Varian was featured in one of my Top Ten Tuesdays not that long ago.

My Review

This book is about Varian, who is a baron, a were-leopard (snow leopard to be exact), and bound to the dark god.  He makes a deal with the god to give him his wife - as a virgin - so he can free his people from the god's cruelty.

I think Varian is the reason why I love this book so much.  He's such a great person.  His father is completely awful, but Varian inherited his mother's kindness.  He really cares about his people and does all he can to make them better.  He despises slavery and keeps his word to his best friend, his body slave Corven, about freeing him within an hour of becoming baron.  Varian does the best he can for his people to make the barony prosperous, to fairly judge crimes, to make his people as safe as possible.  After an incident caused by the dark lord which killed his friend's new husband Varian snaps and makes the deal to give his future wife to the dark lord to free his people.  But true to form, Varian begins to care too deeply for his wife, Cathlin, and struggles to come to terms with sacrificing her for the good of his people.  The book ends when Varian finally comes to terms with everything he's done and decides to make the ultimate sacrifice to save his people and Cathlin both.

The one part of the book that didn't sit quite right with me was the missing girls from the village.  When they came back into the story the seemed totally unaffected by what had happened to them.  Which was completely traumatizing, there should have been PTSD like whoa.  Either the women of Leopard Gard are made of some serious stuff, or what happened to them is pretty common in the barony.  Which we were led to believe Varian has zero tolerance for...Although I suppose they all grew up with Varian's father as baron, so it was pretty standard for him.  Sorry about the vague I'm trying to not give spoilers and their fate was pretty shocking.

I give this a 9/10.  It really stands up to rereading years later.  

The Hero and the Crown

by Robin McKinley

Summary from GoodReads

Aerin could not remember a time when she had not known the story; she had grown up knowing it.
It was the story of her mother, the witchwoman who enspelled the king into marrying her, to get an heir that would rule Damar; and it was told that she turned her face to the wall and died of despair when she found she had borne a daughter instead of a son.
Aerin was that daughter.
But there was more of the story yet to be told; Aerin's destiny was greater than even she had dreamed--for she was to be the true hero who would wield the power of the Blue Sword...

Thoughts on the Book

I keep thinking of this book doing the Top Ten Tuesdays, it's one of my favorite books ever.  It might actually beat out Watership Down as my all time favorite book, it's that good.  I was sitting at my end of summer party staring at the bonfire and all I could think about was what it would be like to put the kenet on my finger and stick it into the flame.  Weird thought, right?  At that point I said alright, I'm re-reading The Hero and the Crown,  it's been too long since I last read it.

My Review

This book is about Aerin finding herself.  Aerin is the king's daughter but she is not your typical princess (or Sola as they're called in Damar), she wants nothing to do with court life and typical woman's activities.  Naturally this leads to dragons and epic battles.

The first time I read this book I was probably around 10, then I read it when I was 11, then 12, then 13, then 15, then 18, and then college and life happened so I hadn't picked it up since then.  But I'm happy to say it really really stands up.  It was my favorite book as a kid, and it's still definitely right up there.  

Aerin is probably my all time favorite female protagonist.  She's so realistic, she's this sad lonely girl who's picked on and disliked by 90% of the population.  In response she hides herself away.  She then becomes obsessed with mixing a potion which leads to her doing stupid reckless things which in the end help save the kingdom.  She's not quite the reluctant hero, but she's the hapless naive one that ends up kicking so much ass.  It isn't until the end that she really becomes comfortable in her own skin and finds her place in the world.

Tor is another great character, he's one of the few people that likes Aerin.  He is the first Sol, meaning the heir to the throne, and also Aerin's first cousin who is about 10 years older than her.  Whenever anything happens to Aerin Tor is right there to help her or comfort her.  Even if all that means is he's there to talk to her.  He cares for Aerin deeply, first as a cousin, then a friend, then more than a friend.  Everyone in the kingdom notices this and some, like the King, are happy about it, others, like practically everyone else, isn't.  The only one that doesn't have an opinion on the matter, or even notices it is Aerin.  Even so Tor remains devoted to her and always there for her.

Talat is also one of my favorite characters.  Yes, Talat, her horse.  He's so loyal and he really has a great personality.  Aerin had to earn his trust and encourage him when she was a young girl and in return Talat saved her life many times.  He's also pretty funny, in his horsey way.

Luthe was an interesting character.  He kind of comes out of nowhere and in his half-assed way saves Aerin's life.  He trains her and sends her off to fulfill a prophecy, which only he and his peers knew about, then rescues her again at the end.  I wish we could see more of her time in Luthe's hall, really see how they began to fall for one another.

As for the story itself, it spans Aerin's life from her early teens through to her mid/late twenties.  It's set up into 3 basic parts, growing up, fighting dragons, and fulfilling the prophecy.  I loved the first two parts, but I wish there was more to the last part.  More of Luthe, more of the God Who Climbs then Falls.  I felt like they spent more time with Maur's head than with the tower.  But that could have just been the speed in which I read, and how much I got interrupted while reading.

Overall I give this book a 11/10.  I love this book so much, especially since it really stands up to time and rereads.

World War Z

by Max Brooks
Narrated by: Max Brooks, Alan Alda, Mark Hamill, Henry Rollins, Eamonn Walker, Ajay Naidu, Jay o. Sanders, Dennis Boutsikaris, Becky Ann Baker, Steve Park, Frank Kamai, John McElroy, John Turturro, Rob Reiner, Carl Reiner, Jürgen Prochnow, Waleed Zuiater, Dean Edwards, Michelle Kholos, Maz Jobrani

Summary from GoodReads

“The end was near.” —Voices from the Zombie War

The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.

Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War. 

Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brookssays in his introduction, “By excluding the human factor, aren’t we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn’t the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as ‘the living dead’?”

Note: Some of the numerical and factual material contained in this edition was previously published under the auspices of the United Nations Postwar Commission.
Eyewitness reports from the first truly global war

“I found ‘Patient Zero’ behind the locked door of an abandoned apartment across town. . . . His wrists and feet were bound with plastic packing twine. Although he’d rubbed off the skin around his bonds, there was no blood. There was also no blood on his other wounds. . . . He was writhing like an animal; a gag muffled his growls. At first the villagers tried to hold me back. They warned me not to touch him, that he was ‘cursed.’ I shrugged them off and reached for my mask and gloves. The boy’s skin was . . . cold and gray . . . I could find neither his heartbeat nor his pulse.” —Dr. Kwang Jingshu, Greater Chongqing, United Federation of China


“‘Shock and Awe’? Perfect name. . . . But what if the enemy can’t be shocked and awed? Not just won’t, but biologically can’t! That’s what happened that day outside New York City, that’s the failure that almost lost us the whole damn war. The fact that we couldn’t shock and awe Zack boomeranged right back in our faces and actually allowed Zack to shock and awe us! They’re not afraid! No matter what we do, no matter how many we kill, they will never, ever be afraid!” —Todd Wainio, former U.S. Army infantryman and veteran of the Battle of Yonkers


“Two hundred million zombies. Who can even visualize that type of number, let alone combat it? . . . For the first time in history, we faced an enemy that was actively waging total war. They had no limits of endurance. They would never negotiate, never surrender. They would fight until the very end because, unlike us, every single one of them, every second of every day, was devoted to consuming all life on Earth.” —General Travis

Thoughts on the Book

I read this book years ago and I loved it.  For my road trip I grabbed it, I figured of all books to listen to, this one would be the best.  It is, after all, an oral history on the zombie war.

My Review

This book is about World War Z, or the Zombie War.  It is a compilation of different stories about the war told by representatives of each aspect of the war.  

The audio book is sadly abridged, it cut out some of my favorite parts, like the K9 unit and how important dogs were to the war.  I also loved the astronauts section of the book.  But it was still amazing to listen to.  I loved hearing all the different voices telling the tales.  It made it so much more real.  And that's saying a lot because the way Max Brooks wrote this it sounds 100% plausible.  Well, plausible if zombies were actually scientifically possible.

I thought it was so cool that the narrator, the main narrator not the people giving the accounts, was actually Max Brooks.  It gave it that authentic feel.  Max really did interview these people for the United Nations Postwar Commission, the Zombie War was a real thing.

There's so much I love about this book that the audio did an amazing job capturing.  I feel like I'd just be sitting here listing each part of the book saying "this was awesome, I love how they did this"  So main points of the story I absolutely loved - Battle of Yonkers, Israeli Refugee camp (which they cut short- boo), Japanese atom bomb survivor, and the sweep of the United States - especially the battle they needed to be bulldozed out of.  And check out some of the narrators, they're fantastic! Mark Hamill, Rob Reiner, Alan Alda, Becky Ann Baker. So damn good!

I give this a 10/10.  Fantastic book, fantastic narration.  Max Brooks is as much of a genius as his father.  

The Dinosaur Lords

by Victor Milán

Summary from GoodReads

A world made by the Eight Creators on which to play out their games of passion and power, Paradise is a sprawling, diverse, often brutal place. Men and women live on Paradise as do dogs, cats, ferrets, goats, and horses. But dinosaurs predominate: wildlife, monsters, beasts of burden – and of war. Colossal planteaters like Brachiosaurus; terrifying meateaters like Allosaurus and the most feared of all, Tyrannosaurus rex. Giant lizards swim warm seas. Birds (some with teeth) share the sky with flying reptiles that range in size from batsized insectivores to majestic and deadly Dragons.

Thus we are plunged into Victor Milán's splendidly weird world of The Dinosaur Lords, a place that for all purposes mirrors 14th century Europe with its dynastic rivalries, religious wars, and byzantine politics…and the weapons of choice are dinosaurs. Where we have vast armies of dinosaur-mounted knights engaged in battle. And during the course of one of these epic battles, the enigmatic mercenary Dinosaur Lord Karyl Bogomirsky is defeated through betrayal and left for dead. He wakes, naked, wounded, partially amnesiac – and hunted. And embarks upon a journey that will shake his world.

Thoughts on the Book

I've been looking forward to this book from the second I found out about it.  Medieval knights riding dinosaurs, what could be better?  Plus the blurb from George R.R. Martin - "It's like a cross between Jurassic Park and Game of Thrones" seriously, what could be better?  I love both of those series (yes the books, no not the movies/tv show).  I had pre-ordered this book and got it the day it came out.

My Review

This book follows three characters, Karyl, Jaume, and Melodía.  Karyl, right at the beginning, dies during a battle due to a head wound.  He wakes and is chased, his left (dominate) hand is cut off and he flings himself to death off of a cliff.  We finally see him later suffering from headaches, night terrors, and crippled, when he finally starts his journey with Rob, a dinosaur trainer.  Jaume and Melodía are "betrothed", it's not official, but everyone knows that they will marry.  Melodía's father just needs to stop sending Jaume away to battle.  

I really enjoyed this book.  The world was awesome, I'm intrigued as to how people got to Paradise - can I just comment on the world's name, Paradise?  How awesome is that?  You're living with dinosaurs and magic, so of course it's paradise.  But it's also so ironic with the wars and everything going on.  I digress, I also loved how he gave us tidbits about the history of Paradise in the blurbs in the chapter titles.  He also did lessons on dinosaurs (which I, of course, looked up and every single one of them had existed on Earth at some point) as well as deities.  It was such a cool way to world build that didn't bog the story down with information.  Speaking of the chapter titles and the blurbs, those drawings are so cool.  The artist that designed the cover and those doodles, amazing.

As for the characters, Karyl is awesome, I love him.  He's such a cool character, so stoic.  I especially love the change of character for him that happened between when we first saw him on the battlefield and the Karyl that we meet juggling on the street.  Through Karyl's own admission we learn that the man he was before wasn't as good as the man he is now. 

I also loved Jaume, he has great philosophies that we learn about later in the novel, and he's an all around good person.  He feels bound by duty and will never betray those he serves, which isn't such a great trait since it puts him in a bad place to keep warring when he doesn't want to.

Melodía I'm not so fond of, at least until the end of the story.  She so entitled and thinks she's so much better and smarter than everyone else because she's the princess.  What happens to her in the end is absolutely horrible, but the resolution of that made her realize how stuck up she'd been, and the book ends with her starting to turn a new leaf.

For the two main secondary characters, Falk and Rob, I like them both - as characters.  Falk is intriguing, I can't wait to find out more about him in the next book.  Then there's Rob, I have mixed feelings about him, I partially like him a lot, but then I get annoyed by him too, some of the prose about him seems forced, like Milán had an idea for the character and as Rob grew he kept trying to force him into this other character.  The parts where the real Rob shone through I liked a lot, but the other parts not so much.

One more thing that I absolutely loved about the book was the dinosaurs.  Milán did his research on them, he even kept up with the current theories.  These aren't the dinosaurs a la Jurassic Park, they're closer to the dinosaurs that did exist.  They are more like birds, they have feathers. I also loved that the dinosaur knights did not ride the raptor dinosaurs except for very few, they mostly rode duckbills.  Those that did ride raptors found them as they hatched and were impressed on by the dinosaur.  I love the two sections from Shiraa's point of view that she thinks of Karyl as mother.

I did have a couple problems with the book.  The main one being what the hell is that map in the beginning?  Seriously, I don't give a damn about what the capitol looks like, they're only ever in the Firefly Palace, and it's only Melodía who is there, though Jaume shows up briefly.  Everything else takes place well away from there, and there's absolutely no context where they are in relation to each other.  

My other issue was the pacing.  It was difficult to get engrossed in the story, it kept flipping between 3 stories that didn't really relate to each other (I'm assuming that's a 'yet', I'm sure they'll all tie in together in future books).  The most annoying part of this was that it didn't switch per chapter like most other stories, but within the same chapter it would flip flop between characters in completely different areas.  It was so difficult to follow, especially Jaume's storyline since there were so many supporting characters for him I had such a hard time figuring out who was who, and when the perspective switched to Jaume's story and it didn't mention him right away I had no idea what story was being told, I thought it was a new one.

Overall I give this book an 8.5/10.  The story itself was great, I loved the characters and I loved the world.  The map really bothered me and the pacing made it extremely difficult to get fully engrossed in the story.  If the pacing/perspectives had been done better this definitely would've gotten a 10/10.

Doctor Who: Bloodtide

by Jonathan Morris

Summary from GoodReads

The prehistoric Earth is dying. Thunderclouds roll across the skies, cloaking the land in darkness. The seas crash and boil as the rain turns to acid. The remnants of the Silurian race place themselves in suspended animation, deep below the surface.

One day they will awaken and reclaim their world…

The TARDIS has landed on the Galapagos Islands, a desolate outcrop of rocks shrouded in mist and fear. In the settlement of Baquerizo Moreno, there are rumours that prisoners have been mysteriously disappearing from the gaolhouse. A fisherman has been driven insane by something he saw in the caves. And the Doctor and Evelyn are not the only new arrivals; there is also a young natural philosopher by the name of Charles Darwin…

Chronological Placement
This story takes place between the television adventures, The Trial of a Time Lord and Time and the Rani. 

Thoughts on the Book

I'm a huge Doctor Who fan, I grew up with my dad loving Tom Baker, and I really got into the 2005 reboot.  I've since gone back and hunted through the interwebs to find classic who episodes, I'm currently almost done with the first Doctor.  So when I saw an audio book (for lack of a better term, it's more of a radio serial type story) staring Colin Baker I jumped all over it, a Doctor Who story read by the 6th Doctor? Hells yes.

My Review

The Doctor brings his companion, Evelyn, to the Galapagos when the HMS Beagle is in port as a surprise for her.  They meet Darwin right away but the Doctor quickly discovers something is amiss with the prison on the island.  

I really really enjoyed listening to this.  Each leg of my commute I was able to listen to one installment of it.  I must have looked like an idiot to anyone driving past me, I had a goofy grin the whole time because it was so funny.  The Doctor's horrible puns were just amazing.  I also enjoy when the Doctor has smart companions and Evelyn was definitely one of those, not once did she scream "DOCTOR!!!!!!!!!!!" like so many of the others do when they get into trouble.  She was independent and the Doctor trusted her to do what needed to be done while he was busy with something else.  Even when she ran off with Darwin the Doctor wasn't overly concerned, it was more like "well, I suppose I should go fetch her now".  It was refreshing to have a companion like that, they're few and far between.

The story was fun too, although I need to watch more Classic Who because the Silurians weren't anything like those from the new series.  Anatomically I mean, these had a third eye and had telepathic powers.  The derogatory terms and hostility towards humans definitely remained in the new series, except for that one annoying one Moffet seems to love to include for no reason.

But I digress.  The story was great and it was a really fun listen.  I give this a 9/10.  

Waiting on Wednesday [18]

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking The Spine allows bloggers to share which books we are most anticipating.

This week I am waiting on Our Lady of Ice by Cassandra Rose Clarke (October 27, 2015)

Summary from GoodReads

Hope City, Antarctica. The southernmost city in the world, with only a glass dome and a faltering infrastructure to protect its citizens from the freezing, ceaseless winds of the Antarctic wilderness. Within this bell jar four people–some human, some not–will shape the future of the city forever:

Eliana Gomez, a female PI looking for a way to the mainland.

Diego Amitrano, the right-hand man to the gangster who controls the city’s food come winter.

Marianella Luna, an aristocrat with a dangerous secret.

Sofia, an android who has begun to evolve.

But the city is evolving too, and in the heart of the perilous Antarctic winter, factions will clash, dreams will shatter, and that frozen metropolis just might boil over…

Why I'm Waiting

This just sounds so cool.  How many books are set in Antartica?  How about ones that involve androids?  I'm really excited for this one.  I have high hopes that it will be utterly amazing.

Valkyrie's Song

by M.D. Lachlan

Summary From GoodReads

The Harrowing has come to the North. And the wolf of Viking legend, a wolf that will kill a god, is on the hunt...

M.D. Lachlan's brooding and powerful tales of Vikings, Norse gods and werewolves have already won praise from, amongst others, Joe Abercrombie, Adam Roberts, Mike Carey and Chris Wooding.

With an original and terrifying take on magic, an ability to bring the Norse gods to vivid life on the page, a keen historical eye and a knack for fast-moving and brutally effective plots, M.D. Lachlan's series has won over critics, fellow authors and readers alike.

VALKYRIE'S SONG moves the action to Norman England and the Harrowing of the North. An immortal wolf and an immortal woman are on the run, fighting for their lives. They carry a magic within them, runes which flare with power when brought together. But others hold runes of their own, and the runes desire to be united.

And when they are, Ragnarok will come. 

My Thoughts

I'm a big fan of these books.  Lachlan does his due diligence with the mythology and the setting.  Historical Fantasy Fiction done right.  I had pre-ordered this one so I didn't run into the same trouble I had with acquiring a copy of Lord of Slaughter, they're published in the UK, with not many copies sold state-side.

Review

This book continues with Loys and Styliane surviving over a hundred years until the cycle begins again.  This time the wolf does not change, it is Loys, and Beatrice reincarnates as Tola.  It's set in 1066 in the north, right after the English won the battle against the Vikings and were defeated by the Normans (the French led by William the Conqueror) during the Battle of Hastings.  Loys has been waiting for Beatrice's reincarnation to kill him, thus ending the cycle, while Styliane tries her hardest to thwart him so she can remain immortal while the Gods' story is broken.

I was so excited to find out that this book took place in England in 1066.  Finally entering the time period that I know a lot about!  It was really cool to read about the Normans, the Englishmen, and the Vikings all in the same area, how everyone killed the Englishmen, and the Normans and Vikings killed each other, all vying for control over England.  At times it got a little confusing, just trying to remember Normans were Frenchmen from Normandy, not the Northerners.  But other than that the historical setting was fantastic.

The characters in this one I didn't care for as much as those in Wolfsangel and Fenrir.  Tola was okay, Gylfa was annoying, as was Freydis.  I really disliked Styliane, but I think you're supposed to.  The only one I was actually interested in was Loys.  His struggles against the wolf inside, his constant search for a permanent death so the story wouldn't replay and inflict the pains and horrors on future incarnations of himself and Beatrice.

This book, like all the others, added a little more Norse mythology to the mix.  There were the Valkyries, as well as Hel.  Even Jörmungandr (the serpent around Yggdrasil, the tree of life) was alluded to, though not by name, yet.  So two of Loki and Angrbodas' three spawn accounted for as important characters in the story, Fenrir and Hel.  I hope Jörmungandr plays a role in future installments.

The one odd thing about this book that bothered me a lot was the random mistakes.  I don't know how they made it past the editor's desk.  Someone wasn't doing their job.  In one paragraph at the very end of the book Gylfa's name is spelled Gylpha at the beginning and Gylfa at the end.  The only occurrence of "Gylpha" in the entire book.  Then there were some pronoun mistakes scattered throughout the book that made me stop and reread the last bit to figure out who it was.  It was very strange for a published book.  I'm used to small things like that in ARCs, but an actual published book?  Sloppy.

Overall I give this book a 9/10.  Not my favorite of the series, but things are getting very interesting in the story.

Lord of Slaughter

by M.D. Lachlan

Summary from GoodReads

The terrified citizens of Constantinople are plagued by mysterious sorcery. A boy had traded the lives of his family for power. A Christian scholar must track down the magic threatening his world. All paths lead to the squalid prison deep below the city, where a man who believes he is a wolf lies chained.

Thoughts on the Book

I forget now how I heard about Wolfsangel, but I gave it a chance.  I'm super picky about what I read or watch that is derived from Norse mythology because they typically get it wrong, and most people don't know about that mythology, so they start to act like they know all about it.  Don't believe me?  Thor.  Enough said.  Thor's essentially a nobody, he's a big strong idiot with a beautiful wife.  There's a reason why Loki is constantly picking on him, it's too darn easy!  Just because Thor is associated with thunder does not make him Zeus's equivalent.  Thor is to Hercules as Odin is to Zeus...except Odin is so much more badass than Zeus.  Go read the Poetic Edda, you'll see what I mean.  

Lachlan stayed true to the mythology, as well as to the history.  Wolfsangel is set in Scandinavian during the height of the Vikings.  Fenrir is set in France while it is being invaded by the Vikings.  Both books focus on the same story - Fenrir breaking from his chains to cause Ragnarok (seriously, read the Poetic Edda, it's straight from there).  I can only assume Lord of Slaughter will do the same, and I can't wait.  I'm really really curious to see how far around the world Lachlan will take us, how many attempts Fenrir makes to break free.  What will happen to the world when he does?

My Review

Yet another awesome installment of this series.  In each incarnation you learn a little bit more about the fight between Fenrir and the Gods.  More characters come into play and get intertwined with the god's death, and it looks like once they get involved they remain involved.

This story, like the two before it, is beautifully told.  I love the descriptions of Constantinople and the Greek mythology.  I especially love how Lachlan didn't associate Odin with Zeus, but instead associated him with Hectate.  While she is not the Greek equivalent of Odin she is one aspect of Odin, which is the aspect that this series seems to focus on.  

I wasn't really a fan of Loys, he was a monk that ran away from that life to marry Beatrice.  He was a scholar who enjoyed learning about pretty much everything.  Once he started having to deal with the Norse mythology he began getting exceptionally annoying.  He was dismissing what he learned because it wasn't Christian, he would be, at times, obstinate about everything until finally at the end when he was essentially clobbered over the head with proof of the Norse gods.  I know it's historically (and even presently) accurate for a lot of people of faith that refuse to believe anything other than their own teachings, but that doesn't mean I have to like those individuals or enjoy one of them as the main character.

I give this book a 9/10.  I found the main character hard to get behind, but everything else about the book I loved.  I highly recommend it (and the first two) to anyone who has the slightest interest in Norse mythology or epic battles that span space and time.  However, I have to warn anyone about to read this that's a super devout Christian, there are some things that could be seen as blasphemous or heresy or offensive.  But it is a story about Vikings set in early-Christian Europe, so it should be expected...

Owner's Share

by Nathan Lowell

Summary from PodioBooks

When Diurnia Salvage and Transport undergoes a change in management, Captain Ishmael Horatio Wang finds himself adrift in a sea of red ink, and intrigue. He dives in only to find that he is over his head in a universe where cut-throat competition takes on an all new meaning.

What price will he pay for his Owner’s Share?

Thoughts on the Book

This is the last book in the Trader Tales series.  I've loved the previous 5 books, Ishmael Wang is awesome, I'll never get tired of hearing stories about it.  I waited a long time to finally give this one a listen, mostly because I knew it was the last one and I didn't want it to end.  I also would listen to these stories with my dad when we commuted to work together.  Since we both left that company I didn't feel right listening to it without him.  He did not have those qualms.  So I finally sucked it up and listened.

My Review

Ishmael has finally worked his way up through the ranks from quarter share in the first book to the owner in Owner's Share.  As with most of his advancements this one was thrust upon him in a whirlwind of politics and business.

Lowell did a fantastic job with series continuity in this book.  Characters from earlier installments come back, some in a very large role, others in smaller roles.  Some long running mysteries are solved, one of which was the biggest unknown in Ishmael's life, which drove him at the start of Quarter Share.  Even minor events in Ishmael's travels came back, which concluded the series.  I really hope he shows up in Shaman Tales...

I love the way Lowell writes in a slow meandering fashion.  It really brings out what is important to Ishmael.  Most of his meals are described beautifully, whether he's cooking or not, while other more mundane aspects are not so detailed, like the cleaning.  Although, it is still mentioned quite frequently.

Near the end of the series I was jaw-dropped and close to tears.  The way Lowell wrote out the climax was amazing.  Everything is told through Ishmael's perspective, and the state he was in while everything was happening was just too much.  My heart broke for him.  I wanted to jump into the orbital and help him, try to save him from what was happening.

I've listened to the audio books for the entire series, the ebooks didn't come out until after Captain's Share, I think.  Nathan Lowell is the narrator as well as the author and he does such a fantastic job.  I briefly considered reading Owner's Share but promptly decided against it because Lowell's voice is Ishmael's voice.  Ishmael wouldn't be Ishmael without Lowell narrating.

I absolutely loved this installment, a great end to a wonderful series.  I give it a 10/10.

Lowell writes under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 license.  Which means I can happily say read Owner's Share or start from the beginning of Ishmael's travels with Quarter Share.  Or even take a look at all of Lowell's work here.  Some of his stuff (like Trader's Tales) is available as an ebook, but I highly recommend listening to the audio book, even if you don't usually like listening, try it with this one, Lowell does such a fantastic job reading you may surprise yourself and start to love listening to Ishmael!

Charming

by Elliott James

Summary From GoodReads

John Charming isn't your average Prince...

He comes from a line of Charmings — an illustrious family of dragon slayers, witch-finders and killers dating back to before the fall of Rome. Trained by a modern day version of the Knights Templar, monster hunters who have updated their methods from chainmail and crossbows to kevlar and shotguns, he was one of the best. That is — until he became the abomination the Knights were sworn to hunt.

That was a lifetime ago. Now, he tends bar under an assumed name in rural Virginia and leads a peaceful, quiet life. One that shouldn't change just because a vampire and a blonde walked into his bar... Right? 

Thoughts on the Book

I got this book as an ARC from BEA a few years back and finally got around to reading it.  It wasn't at all what I thought it would be, I was expecting some sort of fairy tale retelling, it wasn't that at all.

My Review

This story is about a half-werewolf knight who meets a Valkyrie and they end up working together with a small group of other humans, psychics, and a Naga to eliminate a dangerous vampire hive.   

This book was a lot of fun. It was told from John's point of view, which was interesting.  He's not your typical protagonist.  I love how he would be relating events, dialog especially, then all of a sudden you're like no way he/she said that! Then John immediately follows it up with something like "well, that's what I wanted to say" or "well, that's what she meant, but she really just glared at me".

There were twists and turns, some unexpected, some completely expected but you couldn't believe the character was actually that dumb to go through with it.  There was a lot of lore mixed into the story, and some interesting other supernatural creatures.  It was just enough of a taste of the world to get you sucked in and wanting to know more about other creatures, not so typical creatures like vampires.

I also loved some of the pop culture references too.  They weren't obvious at all, but if you were in the know they were pretty great.  At one point John referenced Vampire Diaries and their use of vervain against vampires.  He said that they called it that instead of its proper name of verbena, but that's not entirely correct, the French for verbena is vervain, it wasn't a name change for the show.  There were a couple other things here and there that I knew to be incorrect (like how the Vietnamese war tunnels actually look - they did not describe them correctly at all, and the verbena/vervain thing) but it didn't take away from the story.  And to be fair, normal people wouldn't pick up on those.  I mean seriously, how many western tourists have ventured to Vietnam to crawl through one of the Viet Kong's tunnels?  Not many (if you are in any way shape or form claustrophobic I don't recommend it! The tunnels that they enlarged for the Russians barely fit a normal sized westerner, and they're twice the size of the normal untouched tunnels).  And how many Vampire Diary fans actually looked up what vervain was?  I'm guessing I'm one of the few complete nerds who even cared what it was to go through the trouble.

All in all I give this book an 8/10.  Great story, great characters, some non-believable parts, and it took a little bit to really get into it.

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that allows bloggers to share which books we are most anticipating.







This week I am waiting on The Dinosaur Lords by Victor Milán (July 28, 2015)

Summary from GoodReads

A world made by the Eight Creators on which to play out their games of passion and power, Paradise is a sprawling, diverse, often brutal place. Men and women live on Paradise as do dogs, cats, ferrets, goats, and horses. But dinosaurs predominate: wildlife, monsters, beasts of burden – and of war. Colossal planteaters like Brachiosaurus; terrifying meateaters like Allosaurus and the most feared of all, Tyrannosaurus rex. Giant lizards swim warm seas. Birds (some with teeth) share the sky with flying reptiles that range in size from batsized insectivores to majestic and deadly Dragons.

Thus we are plunged into Victor Milán's splendidly weird world of The Dinosaur Lords, a place that for all purposes mirrors 14th century Europe with its dynastic rivalries, religious wars, and byzantine politics…and the weapons of choice are dinosaurs. Where we have vast armies of dinosaur-mounted knights engaged in battle. And during the course of one of these epic battles, the enigmatic mercenary Dinosaur Lord Karyl Bogomirsky is defeated through betrayal and left for dead. He wakes, naked, wounded, partially amnesiac – and hunted. And embarks upon a journey that will shake his world.

Why I’m Waiting

As I said in my Top Ten Tuesday "They're riding dinosaurs.  Who doesn't want to read this?"  Aside from the obvious amazingness of riding dinosaurs into war the world sounds really cool.  George R.R. Martin even got a blurb on the cover: "It's like a cross between Jurassic Park and Game of Thrones"  Two of my favorite books/series (I hope Martin meant the book and not the movie for Jurassic Park, the movie was quite awful in comparison).  Medieval times with dinosaurs?  I hope this includes jousting on triceratops, sooooo much cooler than on horseback.  Plus a built in sheild!  The plot sounds interesting too, full of political intrigue, betrayals, and all around medieval awesomeness.  And Dinosaurs!!