Found it in local charity shop. Used it for kindling. Didn't burn very long. Hence the one star review.Found it in local charity shop. Used it for kindling. Didn't burn very long. Hence the one star review....more
Lord have mercy, it has been years ago since i wrote a review on Goodreads. I have no doubt that the rules have changed, i mean the place looks differLord have mercy, it has been years ago since i wrote a review on Goodreads. I have no doubt that the rules have changed, i mean the place looks different enough. Still, good to be back.
The Fifth Season - the book was good enough. I haven't disconnected at any part reading it. I finished it. And.... I will not be buying the rest of the series.
The biggest issue with this novel was that not much has actually happened. There was a monster amount of time given to building the big secret, giving up snippets about the lore, I mean stone-eaters are a breath of fresh air, so is a civilization that has accepted their inevitable annihilation at some point in their history. I am not sure about what we did to the planet to make it like that, but it must have been epic.
I finished the book feeling underwhelmed. In a world of absolute chaos we have one major incident at the beginning of the book and a volcano eruption two thirds in. The rest, the actual ogorenic ability, the guardians, the different dangers people live with on an everyday basis was under explained to that extent that it didn't fill me with suspense and excitement to find out what happened. The book was filled with slow conversation and very slow development. I simply got bored. There was so much opportunity for this novel to be a gripping story, however it was just something to pass some time with....more
I am a fan of this woman's writing. I really am. I didn't know precisely how I will take to a completely different character than Jos. Jos Musey was aI am a fan of this woman's writing. I really am. I didn't know precisely how I will take to a completely different character than Jos. Jos Musey was a brilliant protagonist. He had everything that usually takes me in. True grit and true suffering without the slobbery romance. The short period in which he left his innocence of childhood and gotten stuck in forced adulthood with nobody to trust got my soul twisted for him. I was there when he found himself, I was gutted when Warboy sent him away. It felt so wrong but yet so right. Karin Lowachee is an amazing author.
I didn't know what to think of Ryan. How the hell do you switch from so much essence to a spoilt little rich boy, with his spoilt little problems? I wanted to shove him out of the airlock at the soonest available moment so we could focus on Jos again. Ryan seemed so much less, while Jos was so much more. It took me a while to get into it because of the difference in characters. I was amazed in a way that Karin chose to take focus away from Jos and give it to someone so undeserving. That was until I read some more. That was until I have seen just how an abandoned boy struggles to cope in the presence of his father the legend. A man that the whole universe knows and respects, a man that is responsible for making him famous – simply by being his father. A man that he saw tree times in his life and knows nothing about.
I hated Ryan, I hate the moan of the rich and lazy, telling everyone that will listen just how sad and hard their life is.
I found myself understanding Ryan, and understanding his frustration. Every single word that came out of his mouth was already tailored to fit someone else's purpose. Every freedom he had he enjoyed within a gilded cage. Once the world started burning all around him he was taken from it and thrust in a coldly regimented world of his coldly regimented father that loves him passionately..... This was a damned good book....more
This is one of my fave books from my childhood. I must have read it over fifty times in two different languages.
I stumbled on an edition that doesn't This is one of my fave books from my childhood. I must have read it over fifty times in two different languages.
I stumbled on an edition that doesn't have the stupid ass film poster as it's cover and got it for my collection.
The book is so damned good, the film was so damned bad. Where the Native culture was a prominent factor in one, the whitewash Hollywood made it all about cheesy romance crap.
The thing is - i still very much remember being excited about the movie getting released. With all honesty this may as well count for my very first full on Hollywood disappointment. Shame they only multiplied throughout the years......more
If you are the overly sensitive, blushing, color within the lines, you know - thFirst of all.... BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Let me warn you upfront...
If you are the overly sensitive, blushing, color within the lines, you know - that very special type of delicate flower, then by all means move the fuck away and make sure to take your smelling salts with you. This book is definitely not for you.
I volunteer a day a week in a charity oriented used book store. The place is massive, the place is brilliant and most of all it has a lush, constant circulation of novels that come from people's loved sometimes even life long collections. You get to find those nuggets, long forgotten. The difference between the used book stores and the polished – brand spanking new – ones is simple. The books in the used book store are affordable, were talking .99 here. They are pre-loved and it shows, and they usually come with an honest recommendation, not the stupid marketing ploy bullshit. So needless to say, for one day a week, I am in heaven.
When I stumbled on the Berrybender Narratives, they came from a guy with a sharp mind and a wicked sense of humour. He said → “The series is inappropriate in the true sense of the word, being laden with innuendos, gender stereotypes and surprising amount of gore.... and it was funny as hell.”
No way I was going to pass on that. So, naturally I got it.
He was absolutely right. The narrative presents us with a rich snob of an English Lord, his daughters that have characters worthy of their fathers upbringing all stranded in the New Country with their aristocratic mentality in a very raw and unforgiving land. The clash of cultures is astounding as well as sometimes incredibly shocking, but what takes the cake here was the fact that Larry made you try and think, try and envision the actual turn of events back in the day. The book is brutal, written in an unflinchingly bold way that would undoubtedly make many squeamish. That's why I have enjoyed it so much. Civilization as we know it is in fact very young, and we as a people still rush to forget the brutal ways we used to deal with each other throughout history. It shakes us to the core, the real fact that we used to be cruel and cutthroat and we tend to dismiss anything or anyone that dares to remind us of that.
So I say, good on you Larry! I say good on you, because when I have checked and seen that this book was published only ten years ago, I was amazed by the guy's cajones. This takes guts to be open about the past in unforgiving times such as this. Needles to say it reflects in the ratings. The book is patronizing, brutal, sexist and insulting at times, everything that we as a society openly were until just a few decades ago- and still I've managed to bust a gut while reading it.
And no, my sensitive ones, this doesn't mean that I condone these types of behavior in my everyday existence. ...more
I love immersive fantasies in which the author has enough confidence in story building not to put the romance always in the first and foremost row. IfI love immersive fantasies in which the author has enough confidence in story building not to put the romance always in the first and foremost row. If you already have a licence to thrill, like becoming a fantasy author – you truly take a blank canvas and everything goes. Don't limit yourself by things you've read before or set your novel's parameters in a pre-cut mould.
This as a series wasn't bad at all, although I have to say that this novel didn't carry as much strength as the first. I am very sorry – but once you have the creators of the universe waging a war in front your eyes, the follow up act can't be weak. You know the procedure of big concerts, right? The warm up guys start FIRST. Not second, not last.
This novel wasn't bad, just didn't seem to pack enough umph to carry it trough. Oree – (love that name BTW) was a good character, a blind girl with a demigod lover – fantastic. A character that I could truly feel because I love the inner strength type of stories where the true belief of the character takes them trough whatever trial they face, and makes them find the enough courage to face the unthinkable.
Only it was overdone. She was blind, but not with her magic. Although I could see it as an ability in a disability her movements weren't described in a way that I would always have the feeling that she was blind. The constant influx of magic in her life has made her in what I could only describe as the female version of Daredevil. Where we had Itempas and Nahadoth in the first novel, now the demigod population swarms by the dozens, and after the tone the first novel carried, it landed kind of out of tune. I guess I was expecting a similar setting in the second novel. The worldbuilding shifted so dramatically so fast that it left me kind of underwhelmed trough it all.
I have enjoyed it, although not as much as the first novel....more
This is a product of social media fueled feminism. -> Anything a man can do a woman can do better.
Sadly, only the one trick ponies seem to be attractThis is a product of social media fueled feminism. -> Anything a man can do a woman can do better.
Sadly, only the one trick ponies seem to be attracted to this disaster of a trend. They have given everything they have had in that one lonely fluke of stupid good luck and now are looking to milk that cash cow for the last drop the poor old gal has got.
The rabid defenders of the trend will waste countless hours advocating the need of empowered women as heroes of today's urban tales. While i might agree to a point, the thing here is to create a powerful woman, not recycle some glittering dude's old underwear and call it fashion. just because we support women's rights doesn't mean we have to turn back time and remake every film and rewrite every book that has ever featured a popular male protagonist.
As they say a picture's worth a thousand words here is a damned good example of what I am talking about.
Behold the Women's National Football League [image]
While they are giving interviews and waxing poetic about how they are conquering the male dominated sport, and it is indeed their athletic capability that is the key focus of their every day practice and competition, sadly their stripper outfits tell a more realistic tale. Just because you say you are doing us a favor, doesn't make it true.
Meyer really, and I mean really wants to use feminism as an excuse to filter her weak shit and re-sell it to the public. She is hoping that her 'empowerment' campaign is going to be enough of a deterrent to her haters and that they are going to run away in fear of being called out as unsupportive of women if they call her out on her bullshit.
Dear Ms. Meyer - if you are out of inspiration for things to write, by all means - get a job. I am all for recycling and all that jazz, but honestly this is bullshit. ...more
I kinda should have known that if I read a book with 'Penetration' in the title, the chances were high that I would get screwed.
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Yup, that buggI kinda should have known that if I read a book with 'Penetration' in the title, the chances were high that I would get screwed.
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Yup, that bugger there is totally how it happened – and I only have myself to blame.
This work was a work balls deep in BDSM, and not in a good way. Now, I don't mind some slap and tickle but the whole grovelling is not my thing. There are different layers of dominant men but once you have women who are completely into naughty punishment, things have the tendency to get just a little nasty...
I keep saying it, and I will say it again. ->Writing good erotica is damned hard. There are only a few authors in the field that are even worth mentioI keep saying it, and I will say it again. ->Writing good erotica is damned hard. There are only a few authors in the field that are even worth mentioning. Kaitlyn O'Connor is one of them.
I have been reading her work for years, and although some of it wasn't the best she never failed to thrill.
She has a way of bringing some steamy scenes to life but still holding on to integrity and individuality of the characters, with not many moments ruined by over-justification. Over-justification is a trap in which many erotica authors fall into – trying to either bring enough side information to somehow explain in a less shameful way why their characters are lusty. If you want a pain Mary Jane then erotica isn't the genre you want to write. If you want to justify your character in the eyes of the people reading it and therefore make it universally liked – you will produce a pushover that is really good for nothing. On the other hand, we have the other tip of the scale, the authors that go overboard and simply destroy any other purpose to their characters by either making their thoughts only focused on either vaginas or penises. Sometimes both, sometimes neither (ask our Japanese friends to clarify on that one – as they have developed by far the best spectrum of non-genital genitals to be used in such writing), but still one track minds that make you wonder why the hell are you reading the thing in the first place??
If I wanted to see a porn, I would have simply watched one - not try and force feed the thing into my brain one word at a time. I think that so far this is the very worst kind of novel. I never liked them. Heroes with perpetual erections and heroine with hardly any clothes on - ever – stumbling about and 'accidentally' getting laid by a football team, and somehow overcoming all their life's problems by simply having a penis lodged in their ass....hmmmm. Not much to go for there – that's why they never seem to get any high ratings.
Then you have the truly unique kind of erotica writers – those that are chill as fuck, understand lust, understand love and see nothing wrong in enjoyment of sex, by one or multiple partners. Those are the ones that will highlight imperfections in their characters in a warm and loving light, make them accept themselves in all their glory be that socially accepted standard of beauty or not. They let the sex be what it was meant to be – a form of hunger, communication, an extension of self. Not a tool or a godamn fashion statement. Those kind of erotic novels make you check around when you are reading in that guilty way, especially if you are somewhere in public and you have the feeling like it's all written on your face.
Dark Solstice is a very good erotica, and like most of her work I have really enjoyed reading it. :)...more
LIAR LIAR – PEN ON FIRE!!! I can't say that I can hold any respect for Victoria Aveyard. That wasn't my call, it was completely hers. To take someone LIAR LIAR – PEN ON FIRE!!! I can't say that I can hold any respect for Victoria Aveyard. That wasn't my call, it was completely hers. To take someone else's intellectual property, someone else's successful project, then steal it's construction frame, fill it with recycled second grade product and call it your own is just simply bullshit.
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Red Queen crawled out to surface one year after Pierce Brown's Red Rising, and from page one it's obvious it's a blatant copy. People seem to jump around this subject afraid to rock any boats. Well I'm not. A thieving asshole is a thieving asshole, no matter how hard you try to be polite about it.
Pierce Brown introduces us to a world where the people are sorted into colors that would dictate their lives, Reds being the slaves, Golds being godlike.
Aveyard introduces us to a world where the people are sorted into colors that would dictate their lives, Reds being the lowest born and Silvers being godlike.
On Mars the Reds celebrate and fight for the Laurel, where they are required to attend and be reminded of their servitude.
Aveyard makes her Reds attend First Friday or some such shit,where they are required to attend and be reminded of their servitude.
Pierce Brown's under castes have a dedicated role capped and expressed by their physical appearance.
Aveyard isn't as talented, or as smart so she limited herself to a few supernatural attributes like telekinesis, strength, speed and so on.
Brown created Augustus as the embodiment of evil, and chose him as the point of torment for our hero.
Aveyard has King Tiberias as the leader of the 'Silvers'.
Brown introduced the rebels in all their glory as a known terrorist organisation known as Sons of Ares.
Aveyard created 'her' rebels as – The Scarlet Guard – who, you guessed it, are presented to the public by the Silvers as a terrorist organisation.
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People are tiptoeing around this, but imma call it as I see it. I am not sure if her name is Victoria Aveyard, or she stole that off someone too. Most probably the latter, although I guess we can't know for certain.
I have no idea just how much Cool Aid you gotta drown to wake up in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror, then proceed to PUBLICLY congratulate yourself for ripping off someone else's work and basically making it into a template in witch you kinda shuffle some names a bit and say – Golly fucking gee, aren't I grand? Jesus, people. This is not alright!
I have seen some coincidences in my lifetime, but coincidences in the book world seem to kind of always line up after some author comes with a winning original idea. After Twilight, glowing vampires wherever the eye can see. After 50 SOG, kinky billionaires at every corner. Mimi Jean Pampiloff ripped off Fever, Armentrout stole off Richelle Mead. These are all well known cases – with well known documented points to prove the story. A small mountain of identical plot twists, and of course the timeline – as all of their 'original' work always gets published at least a good year after the other bestsellers.
Armentrout weakly defended herself by calling it the Twilight Phenomenon, saying that all of the similarities that the reader saw with her work and Vampire Academy was in their head. So, basically, she's not a thief, people that read her books are just stupid...Gee, thanks.
You see, people like Victoria Aveyard have already had their fill of reviews just like mine. They read them – they upset them greatly (because they are true, and you can lie your ass of to anybody just not yourself -truth hurts like a sonofabitch), then they call their mum, their lover, their best friend and confidante and complain about just how hard it is. Hard to be unappreciated, hard to succeed in this harsh and cruel world, and how people just simply don't have the INTELECT to comprehend just how hard they worked on their book. It's everybody else's fault. Just not theirs. Oh and, the family all gathers, whisper those platitudes – you are a success my dear, not them, you have climbed a mountain which has felled many. It's envy and jealousy and all that other generic empowerment crap we hear from our closest circle when life kicks us in the nuts.
This is one of my pet peeves, turning a blind eye to obvious theft of someone else's powerful imagination. People who plagiarise only want to take your money at the end, witch I don't mind but the product isn't exactly Apple, it's more down the line of those Nike's, but with two k's in it. Nikke... hmmm, close but no cigar. Reading Red Queen leaves you with the insight into the whole creative writing process. You can actually visualise the author wanting to score. Looked kinda like this....
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There is no gratification to be felt once you read a novel like this one. None. Well perhaps one. PLAGIARIZM FOLLOWS YOU LIKE A BAD STENCH. Now, ten years from now, no matter what these people do – someone is always going to bring it up. My hat goes down to all that true indie crowd, that write crap that grates on the brain and boils the eyeballs in their sockets, but hey at least it's honest and theirs. Keep up the good work! And people like this? Eventually live up to their boring mediocrity. Since nobody got time for that, here's some magic crack cake that will help you enjoy this novel in all it's originality...
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PS: Oh and since PB was so damn successful that he sold the movie rights to his amazing stuff even before this POS hit the streets means that there can't be any legal dispute regarding the script as they make the film basically means a gag order, i bet a big part of people on his team be like... [image]
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I mean, seriously - on one side you have a linguist, a military strategist and a historian with a brilliant knack for writing. On the other side you have an idiot that let her three brothers face death and was only galvanized into motion when her own ass was on the line of fire - supported by a random guy from next door. Wow what a fucking heroine, right?...more
I've read the first volume and it read like a script, not a book. It really wanted to jump out of the pages and become an anime - or a manga so very bI've read the first volume and it read like a script, not a book. It really wanted to jump out of the pages and become an anime - or a manga so very bad, i could taste it. The thing is - it would work, I would LOVE to see it in either form.
As it stands it's just toooooo loooooooong to fully enjoy. :/...more
Seriously!!! What the hell is wrong with me? Why do I keep picking up books written by this woman when I already know I will hate it? Oh Lord!! [image]
Seriously!!! What the hell is wrong with me? Why do I keep picking up books written by this woman when I already know I will hate it? Lilith Saintcrow and me – we don't mix. I've tried Kismet (lol, Kismet), that other series with an original name too, ah yes Dante Valentine. I've gotten nowhere with them so fast that I was embarrassed about even thinking on rating them. I mean, I've waded in that pond ankle deep (few chapters) and the all the fish were floating tits up. Got killed off by cheese someone threw in there. Cheese, so much godamn cheese, everywhere.
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Somehow, I have wound up with yet another fabulously unique (see what I did there?) piece of work on my e-reader. It was just kind of there – as in just popped up on my reader. Tell you what, late night book acquisitions? Not a good idea.... Wait till the morning, it will save you time and money.
This particular book is about a woman that has been running away from killers....on her high heels,.... for three days straight with no sleep or food... uphill, in the snow... Joking, wasn't uphill, but I couldn't resist. Couldn't help it, had to grandpafy it a bit. The situation called for it.
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So freezing and terrified out of her mind she calls a guy she left three years ago because he was a murderer (hitman), to come and save her from the killers and her high heels. The man shows up all hot an bothered (because she is so frigging amazingly special that she is so frigging amazingly unforgeable)– and immediately notices her posture, nice clothes and what lovely heels she's wearing. He scoops her up and places her in his car where she kinda goes down memory lane remembering shit like this: “...saw the tiny change in his face as his jaw tightened. That was often only mark of frustration or anger e would allow himself. The subtle shifts in eye colour didn't count...” Whaaaa??? Subtle shifts in eye colour. He's a special kinda guy if he can manage that. Hmmm... Shifty eyes...
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What else??? Ah yes. His name is Josiah, and she insists on using it all the time. The full name, not a pet name or a nickname. It just didn't sit well, you know? I kept expecting him to introduce us to his best friend, Methuselah. Especially when she sighed it a couple times. It became obvious that she is the type of chick that... drum roll.... screams his name as she comes.
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I mean,why????? What the hell are you yelling his name for? Did you forget who you were with? Are you checking is he still there? In what universe is considered hot when someone trumpets your own name in your ear as you are having sex? By my book – if she is still coherent enough to yell out your name – you're doing it wrong. But hey, that's just me.
Turns out that he was pining for her for three years and that no woman could satisfy him after her. Hahahahahah. Oh and he goes trough all these protective caveman urges while she mewls helplessly in his arms like a useless sack of meat and asks to retain his services. Funny how her morals went out of the window when it's her own ass on the line. She sure as shit didn't seem bothered about him being a hitman now, right? He goes trough some bullshit machismo written in the form of mom porn. He will kill anything that threatens her, blah blah blah. He solidifies his stance by sexually assaulting her in his bathroom while she's in shock and we are left to try and convince ourselves that the author had some-kind of purpose writing this. One thing – antiheroes are really hard to write. The essence of it being - you don't have to be good all the times, just when it matters. Saintcrow doesn't know how to do it. Like a lot of things it seems.......more
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