Book Review :: Deadhouse Gates (Malazan #2)

Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Anything less than five stars for a book with such immense scope would be a travesty.

That said, it's not a book for everyone. It's a difficult book to read, and even more difficult to understand in the greater scheme of things. And anyway, the first three books in this particular series are not as well written as the seven others. I have one more so-so book to go through.

Maybe it will get better after that. I hope so.

Reading such a book is a tiring experience. Your brain gets so tired that you're unable to think anything else. When you think about the events in the book and their timelines, your whole sense of time gets warped, and even if it's fiction, you can't help but think in those massive timeframes.

It can get painful. There is absolutely zero hand-holding in Malazan books and you're mostly thrown in the middle of things to figure them out on your own.

So, if you like your fiction easy, pain-free, and light, give Malazan a skip, but if you like to torture yourself a bit, dig in.


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Book Review :: Nemesis Games (Expanse #5)

Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Holden and gang are amazing as always, and personally, i feel this is the strongest Expanse series book so far. The last one was okay, readable, but this one opens up a lot of further avenues for storytelling and awesomness in the Expanse universe. I really loved that we got to see the viewpoint chapters of the whole team and for that alone it was a much tighter book than Cibola Burn.

When you read a book like this, you can't help falling a little bit in love with the characters, who are not perfect, they all have their flaws and they're all very very HUMAN. This is what sets this book series apart from a wide range of space opera, the human element is strong here, it makes the books fun, it makes the characters super-relatable and it sparks hope in your heart that no matter how bad things get, you can always count on friends and family, and it'll all work out when we work together.

Right now, really looking forward to the next book and I hope they explore the threads they've unwounded in this book. Specially, a view point of Filip, because there is much more to that character than the book explored.

Over all, five star book. If you've read the previous Expanse series books, don't miss this one.


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Book Review: Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Red Rising by Pierce Brown
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I've not read the hunger games or any of its sequels or any of the derivative works that have spun from the concept of the everyman taking on the high and mighty. The books got better somewhere in the middle, but on the whole it was the same tired concept of fighting the powers that be by becoming one of them.

I hated that the author was holding back on the violence and there was so much telling in the book. "X stabbed Y in the stomach" why not, "the sword made a sick, squelchy sound as it entered X's stomach and the tip of the blade exited from his back like an angry demon's talon." (Yeah, now you know why I can't be a writer.)

All said and done, books like this one give me hope that I can do better.

I feel like I wasted my time in reading this book. Should have read half a war instead. Why are there so many books with teenagers fighting adults and higher powers. Why? Why can't YA be anything different? Why do oppressed teenagers have to fight everything in sight. Same ol' song and dance.

Fuck it.


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Book Review: Liar's Key by Mark Lawrence

The Liar's Key by Mark  Lawrence
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Can we give six stars to a book?

Or ten?

I wish goodreads added that feature for certain books. Like, once a year, a book so amazing comes along that you want to spend your once a year ten stars on that book. We're only half way through the year, but i don't think I'll read any rollercoaster ride better than Liar's Key.

The book is long. And delicious to read. The wit, the violence, the fun, the quips, the poetry of words, the backstabbing, the bravery, the friendship, the hatred, it's all there. And then there is some more.

I won't go into the plot and story of the book, but Jalan and Snorri are out on an adventure again, looking to open gate to death's domain! And they have the key to do it! It's a ride, this book and i am definitely looking forward to the next one.

There is nothing that I didn't love about this book. Everything was in the right place, in the right amount, it was scary, it was beautiful, it was funny, and it was just perfect.

Also, quotes like this one
>>

The best time to kick a man is when he is down

-- Prince Jalan of the Red March


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Book Review :: Gardens of the Moon (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, #1) by Steven Erikson

Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Now what do I say about this? It's difficult to talk about such a large piece of work when you've only peeked in through the door of what it's all about. The Malazan books of the Fallen is a ten book series with many other short stories, novels and novellas based in the same universe.

The character count goes into thousands probably and it's a completely different universe. Completely different rules, a unique magic system, characters that will haunt your dreams, politics that has more twists and turns than a hill road, it's just mind-boggling and tiring to even think of writing about the Malazan series.

Many people do not like the first book, which is this, Gardens of The Moon. They find it confusing and lengthy because of the lack of world building and hand holding, but why should there be something like that? We're all mature readers, and the Malazan books push you to stretch your imagination and figure things out.

There are no answers in this one. It's just a big awesome thing that has been put in your hands, maybe like a 2000 piece jigsaw with no image given to you and you solve it as you go.

In one word, I'd call this book beautiful. And be warned, it's not for everyone.

If you like your stories simple and easy, give this a pass, but if you like strange and wonderful and badass things, pick this one up today with the rest of the nine books and forget reading about anything else for the rest of the year.

because i am not reading anything else for sure.


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Book Review:: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There were many reasons why I liked this book. The story take some time in getting no start3d but once it does,  it rolls along pretty nicely.

All in all,  it's a pretty believable book because I felt it's a satire on times of today and the way we live our life,  always looking at one screen or the other. Our world has become our OASIS. The dystopian tinges in the book reminded me of 1984 and even though I missed on the video game nostalgia, I still get the sense of where the author was coming from.

The points that I didn't like in the book were: the lack of an evil figure and how easy it was for the main character to go through loss and problems presented to him.  He had a solution for every problem. Like,  God's hand on his back.

I'm basically looking for another blade of tyshalle.  Where the bad dude was super bad and the good dude was ample evil too. That book spoiled every future book for me. It set the bar too high in my head.

Anyway,  if you live video games,  read ready player one.


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Book Review :: The Painted Man :: Peter V. Brett

The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It was an entertaining book, on the whole. The whole idea of wards to keep demons (corelings in the book) out and the hints at a larger world than what was depicted in the book were all interesting in a very nice way.

The book moved at a solid pace, nice storyline, and it really sets up the stage for the further books to come.

The fight scenes were really well written, but tried as I could, i could not picture the corelings or the so called demons in my mind's eye. When it comes to imaginary monsters, Jim Butcher does a really great job, but a harry dresden book, this is not. So anyway, as with many other books, there was on directly evil monster or character in the book, just men vs an evil that had no solid origin, just a core.

Too many questions in my mind after reading this.

The things that irked me about the book were that it took too long a time to build up properly. The titular painted man doesn't even show up till half of the book. And when he does, he is the alpha male kind of dude whose personality just doesn't shine through enough in the 200 pages given to him.

BUT, even with all these tiny niggles, the book was not boring. The minor characters were amazingly developed and if this book didn't have all the demons, but it was just a book about the minor characters going about their life and dealing with daily shit, it'd still be a very readable book.

I'd definitely be reading the next book in the series, The Desert Spear.


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