Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson| Review

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Stormlight #2.5

Pages: 270

Genre: Epic Fantasy

Synopsis

Lift has appeared a few times in the first two Stormlight books, but here you get an entire story around her. From how she saved the prince, to seeing more of how she is able to use her awesomeness, Lift being hunted and hunting the Darkness and trying to find out if she wants to take on responsibilities.

 

My thoughts

Rating out of five:

fire

I read this fairly quickly and thoroughly enjoyed it. I just picked this book up because I wanted to start Oathbringer and saw many recommendations to read this first. Lift’s story was a really positive surprise, as there wasn’t much focus on her in the first two Stormlight books I didn’t realize her childish personality had such a context and background. She’s smart, in ways I recognize from Mistborn’s Vin and that helps to take her seriously. I really liked her as a character and am looking forward to finding out her place in Oatbringer and why Sanderson seemed it necessary to tell this story. Not that I’m complaining as it’s a good one!

The story itself managed to surprise me a couple times. Like I suspected certain people to be more than appeared, which Sanderson always does in these books, but not in the ways that mattered in the end. I especially like how the whole self-discovery of Lift is well-done, without being very obvious about it as she’s running away (again), handling a new city and plotting her way through every crisis. There’s no better way to get to know characters personalities than through their interactions with others and a few moral dilemmas.

It had started to consume her. If she’d stayed, how long would it have been before she wasn’t Lift anymore? How long until she’d have been gobbled up, another girl left in her place? Similar face, but at the same time all new?

Also Wyndle is absoloutly adorable, even if he seems pretty annoying to have to deal with all the time. I love the dynamic talking with Voidbringers or other daemons/magical animals brings. In every book, but this one in particular, Sanderson writes with such a playfullness that I sometimes think he’s mocking us all and it’s wonderful.

I would recommend reading this book if you’ve started the Stormlight Archive and is interested! I read it between the second and third book, as seems to be right. A tips is to get the “Arcanum Unbounded” by Sanderson as it contains Edgedancer and other Cosmere short stories by Sanderson, for about the same price.

The feelings this book gave me: pure glee and grinding my teeth in fear of Lift getting caught at every corner, warm feelings for this world and all the personalities in it.

 

favourite quotes *spoilers*

“I want control,” she said, opening her eyes. “Not like a king or anything. I just want to be able to control it, a little. My life. I don’t want to get shoved around, by people or by fate or whatever. I just . . . I want it to be me who chooses.”

“I will listen,” Lift shouted, “to those who have been ignored!”

 

 

Quote of the Week #1

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Hey! In my book reviews I’ve gotten feedback that people like it when I include my favourite quotes for the book. I adore quotes. Over the years I’ve collected a lot of them, mostly from books or by author and I thought I would try to post one each week. Some times it might be a poem. Let me know if you want me to continue! And if you’re doing something similiar please link it in the comments because I love these things.

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When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi | Review

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Pages: 210

Genre: memoir

 

Synopsis

The author, Paul Kalanithi, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer after just compling his education to become a neurosurgeon. In this memoir he talks about how difficult it was to go from the surgeon to a patient, how he needed to face his own mortality and death and not would be able to have the long career and life he planned for with his wife. He died in March 2015, while finishing this book and it’s an unforgettable story with wisdom, life perspectives, struggles, love and uncertianties.

My thoughts

Rating out of five:

fem

While reading this book I was on the verge of crying all the time. I started reading it in an airport bus, which was not a good idea as I nearly cried there, on the plane and going into a new city. It was and awesome experience though, to take part and learn of Paul’s last time and his perspectives and reflections not only on his terminal illness, but on his education and choices until then. It was so many details and experiences from the many years he was a medicine student, one of the best to become a neurosurgeon at that.

I’ve spent some time in hospitals unfortunately, and it was very interesting to get one doctor’s viewpoint. He said himself how his thoughts changed on patient and the whole process as he became the patient himself, the uncertainties for the future and how a human often has to make the most difficult choices of their lives in those doctor offices. Paul gives his story, but he also is a people-watcher and gives detailed decriptions of how he had to be considerate of different personalities when he had to tell them of a brain-tumor or needing surgery, which I found really interesting.

Paul considered being an author as he was an avid reader and writer when he was younger, and his talent becomes obvious in this book. It’s so well-written, a thing I never expected, along with the interesting thoughts he has. Well worth the read just for the writing, when his story is the most amazing part. In many ways this book was about life choices, which all obviously become more serious when having a terminal diagnosis.

The feeling this book gave me: I was sad at how unpredictable and horrible life can be, especially as I can sympatize too much with watching your body fall apart as you become sick. But mostly I was actually just interested and curious. It’s a book about life as much as it’s about death. I’m so happy for this book’s succeess, it deserves it all and would really recommend it.

 

Books With My Favorite Color On the Cover | Top Ten Tueday

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Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl to bring bookish friends together. A new topic is posted each week.

Now, I’m horrible at choosing one favourite anything. So one colour? Ended up with three, kind of. It makes this list a nice gradient though. 

Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas

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Aahh, anyone else feeling nostalgic to the beginning of throne of glass? When our main character was eighteen years old and an assassin trying to make it? A simpler time, haha.

The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson

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This book has been on my TBR forever and I would love to hear your thoughts if you’ve read it!

Of Triton by Anna Banks

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An entertaining summer read, with mermaids! It’s the second book in the series, which is great and full of all the magical water adventure you’d expect.

 

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

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A fantastic book that I’ve just written a whole review about.

La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman

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I’ve heard mixed opinions on this book, but I would still very much like to read it. The cover is lovely though.

 

 

 

We Are Okay by Nina LaCour

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I need more books with f/f relationships in my life, and this one was lovely. Here’s a complete review, but I was crying reading this and it’s thoughts on loneliness were spot-on like I’ve never read before.

The F- It List by Julie Halpern

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Another book that’s been on my TBR forever and I think I’ll have to get to soon. Would love to hear your opinions if you have some!

 

The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett

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On my TBR list, it’s a boarding school with magic so I’m sold.

The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld by Nina LaCour

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This series is great! In short, they’re a group of people who get one hour extra each day, so 25 hours. For one hour everything in the world stops, and from there the plot unfolds. Made me think of how I would spend the extra hour.

Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde

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Look at that cover! It’s soo pink! And the title is great. I heard it had lesbian and bisexual characters, so it was quickly added to my tbr.

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi | Review

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Pages: 540

Genre: fantasy

Synopsis

Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic, when her mother was alive and powerful enough to summon souls. It was all taken away from her when the king one night suceeded in making magic disappear. That began the horrible mistreatment of maji people, where magic-users like Zélie’s mother were murdered. Zélie is determined to bring hope and magic to her people again. She gets some unexpected company of a princess running away from the castle and needs to go against a prince under the king’s orders, trying to get rid of magic for good.  

 

 

My thoughts

Rating out of five:

fire

Children of blood and bone, what a fitting and heartbreaking title. The story is clearly connected to current events and murders of black youth in USA. As I read I was making the connections to current events around refugees and murders of black youth in the US, and in the afterword the author clearly states that as her intention. Full applause for making it clear, there’s no hinting or possibility for misinterpertation here. The way magic is intertwined with ethnicity and racism in this book is also something I’ve rarely seen before and makes this work as an excellent fantasy book as well.

the few things i didn’t like

It was a bit typical that there’s one moon left before magic disappears forever, so all the events need to happen quickly which leaves little time to develop abilities. Very convenient for the storytelling, but a choice that doesn’t match the excellence of the rest of the book. Another thing I did not like was how the plot is furthered so much by group settling down with new friends, being attacked, a lot of people killed, which leads to guilt and some drama, before it all starts over. It’s not unormal in fantasy journey books and it’s done well, but it made the book more predictable.

the characters

I never started trusting prince Inan and after finishing the book I still don’t. Every time the brother Tzain makes his distrust of him and frustration of Zélie clear I’m cheering, even though he gets annoying at times. Zélie is a character I can fall in love with. I didn’t quite get there in this book, but so excited for her development in sequels. Amari, Inan’s sister and the princess, grew on me and the author really played with and twisted the stereotype of naive princess’ first time in the big world. I especially liked her story and the tension between her and her brother, where they struggled to separate what was their awful actions and what was them being controlled by a very abusive father (the king).

A thing that for a while seemed like could bridge the differences in views, experiences and politics between Zélie and prince Inan was seeing into each others feelings. I liked how it didn’t fix everything, it didn’t create instantly understanding or world-peace, but it’s laid out as the first step that everyone need to take. Magic simply made it easier for these two (I still am curious to know why).

“In that moment I realize how wrong I’ve truly been. It doesn’t matter if I’m in her head. I’ll never understand all her pain.”

Also can you blame me for not trusting Inan’s slick talk –

“With that desire, everything becomes clear. It all begins to make sense. We don’t need to fear magic. We only need each other.”

The feeling this book gave me: I couldn’t put it down and ended up reading long into the night. It’s definitely entertaining, but more importantly is how it talks about conflicts between different ethnicities, how both sides have done wrong, but only one is very visibly enslaved. This book contains a lot of good thoughts and ideas, my concern is that the young adult label won’t make it reach audiences that needs it the most. The title is so fitting in the point it makes that children from all the groups are the same, but at the same time one group has had much more of their blood spilled and that has detrimental results. If you want to give a, not so political as maybe humanitarian message, through fantasy this is the way to do it.

favourite quotes

“You know how to win,” she says. “Just make sure you know when to fight.”

Now chaos surrounds me, pulsing through every breath and heartbeat. It sings as blood splatters through the air, screams as boats explode into oblivion.

Book Series I Want to Finish | Book Things

aquapages // eline1 Comment

So I’ve gone through a lot of my unfinished series and sorted them into those I want to finish and those I’ve finally given up on, if you want that second list please let me know.

Splintered by A.G. Howard

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It’s a great series so far and I have yet to read book three Ensnared and the shorter story Untamed. I need to know how all these characters ends up, even though I didn’t feel as excited for book two as book one. It helps that it has fantastic goodreads ratings (4.2!!)

 

Demonata by Darren Shan

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Listen, I started this series back when I was a kid. It was absoloutely horrifying and I LOVED IT. Darren Shan was the author behind a lot of my nightmares, but I weirdly related to the main character that as far as I remember was nothing like me. I’ve read book one through eight out of ten and I really want to read the whole thing again. I distinctly remember a boy absoloutly hating his sister and putting rat guts in her hair towel. And then everyone partners up with demons, or something. There’s some twisted characters. Darren Shan’s other series Cirque du Freak is a great vampire series as well. I’m convincing myself here, I need to pick these up again soon.

All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness
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I really liked book one, I don’t really remember book two. I think I’ll need to reread it along with reading book three, which is the reason I haven’t done it yet. I hate rereading books I kind of remember, if they’re not really good. I love witch books though, and the time travelling in this series was actually good.

 

 

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

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Shatter me was a nice trilogy, I didn’t agree with every choice and the first book was the best, but especially with the novellas I was satisfied. Then a new book comes out, which I’m all excited about and I’ve seen one good review in a sea of bad ones among the book blogs I follow. They’re all saying how excited they were, then the characters changed too much and all went to shit. I’m slightly horrified, but still thinking about reading it. It has a good goodreads rating, but I’m suspicious.

 

Of Neptune by Anna Banks

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This is a cute and entertainting mermaid series and I’ll be delighted to continue it with the third book and novellas during next summer. I really like gathering up summer reads, anyone else?

 

 

 

The Others by Anne Bishop

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Vision in Silver, the third book in the excellent The Other, an urban fantasy series. It’s one of the better urban fantasy I’ve read, maybe beaten by Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thomson series. If you have any urban fantasy recommendations, send them my way! I really like how the community of supernatural beings are built up in this one, along with the main characters place among them as an diplomat of sorts.

Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin | Review

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Genre: historical fiction, magical realism

Pages: 390

“She’d already lost her face. She could not let the rest of herself (however dark, however broken) slip away. So she traced and she named. She hurt and she raged. She remembered.”

Synopsis

It’s 1956, Hitler has taken over Japan. Yael was put in a death camp as a five year old girl, experimented on and instead of dying like so many others, her looks went from dark to fair. And then she got more magical abilities, which helped her escape. Years later she’s on her own when she runs into the resistance. She competes in a motor cycle race through Asia in honour of Hitler, trying to get close enough to assassinate him. She gets the spot pretending to be another girl, which gets tricky as both her brother and ex-boyfriend shows up.

My thoughts

Rating out of five:

fire

I might’ve bought and started reading this book by mistaking it for another. Never regretted it, I wouldn’t normally pick up a book like this, but it was an amazing read. It’s a weird plot, but it was done so well. I loved the moto race, I loved the characters and how magic is braided into a “historical” event and war crimes.

The girl Yael is pretending to be really was fierce and would do anything to win, something she needs to learn to be if she’s going to complete her goals. It makes an interesting conflict to see her struggling to deal with how far she’s willing to change, what limit she has to cross to no longer feel like herself. How she interacts with the brother and ex-boyfriend (maybe?) puts another level of difficulty on both the plot and writing and it was done really well. The times in the death camp is just heartbreaking, as she watches everyone she loves dying and leaving her all alone. Seeing Yael have small moments of fun even on her journey for revenge means something.

I completely recommend this book to anyone that’s interested, it was entertaining, sad as well as thought-provoking read at times.

favourite quotes

“Live? In a world of fangs and lonely? Or die. In a cage of smoke and needles.”

“Her self-reflection was no reflection at all. It was a shattered mirror. Something she had to piece together, over and over again. Memory by memory. Loss by loss. Wolf by wolf. It was easy—too easy—to pretend. To fill that empty space inside her with other lives. Bernice Vogt. Mina Jager. Adele Wolfe. Girls who never had to face the smoke or watch the syringes slide under their skin. Girls who never had to stare into the eyes of the Angel of Death. Again and again and again. It was too easy to get lost. This was why, every night before she fell asleep, she peeled back her sleeve, traced the wolves, and said their names. Because somewhere in there—in those fragments of gone souls and memories—was Yael. Not chemicals, but essence. The real Yael.” 

“Toasts 7:00 – Dinner 8:00 – Dancing 8:15 – Murder 8:16 – Escape Of course, the final two hadn’t been on the list, but that was where they fit in the timetable.”

WWW Wednesday, 2. May 2018

aquapages // eline3 Comments

Time for the wednesday update! If you would like to know more about www wednesday, where you answer three questions every wednesday, it’s hosted by Taking on a World of Words.

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What are you currently reading?

Masked Desire by Alana Delacroix: I’ve only just started, but it’s urban fantasy. Something with a supernatural council and changing faces. The multiple pov’s right at the beginning has made it a bit confusing.

What did you recently finish reading?

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi: absoloutly fantastic fantasy book! review will be out soon, but i would wholeheartedly recommend it.

Head On John Scalzi: a sci-fi book with a really interesting concept, people with a virus that make them locked in their bodies, so robot bodies are made for them, which leads to a new kind of people. Too much fbi investigation over discovering this world and society, too little character focus. Full review linked.

Sadie by Courtney Summers: Podcast format book that follows a girl Sadie trying to revenge her sister’s death. It has its issues, most of all the format and how boring it makes the writing. Review out soon!

What do you think you’ll read next?

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Fawkes by Nadine Brandes: “Thomas Fawkes is turning to stone, and the only cure to the Stone Plague is to join his father’s plot to assassinate the king of England.” This seems very intriguing and I’m excited.

Books I’d Slay a Lion to Get Early | Top Ten Tueday

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Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl to bring bookish friends together. A new topic is posted each week. 

Disclaimer: I wouldn’t slay a real lion for any books, but here’s the list of the books I would love to get early.

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A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas

Release date: 1. May

Why I want to read it: It’s a court of thorns and roses novella, the one series by Maas I haven’t given up on yet.

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Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Release date: 10. July

Why I want to read it: Miryem’s family of moneylenders are in financial trouble, so she decides to fix it by collecting the villagers’ debt to them. That sounds badass, as well as the mention of turning silver to gold. Don’t know which direction this plot will take, but I’m here for it.  Uprooted by Naomi Novik was incredible, before that I loved the Temeraire series, so I would’ve given it a chance just based on that.

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An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

Release date: 25. September

Why I want to read it: It’s a Hank Green book! I’M SO EXCITED

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Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente

Release date: 4. October

Why I want to read it: I’ve read Deathless by the author and liked it, as the sequel isn’t due any time soon, I’ll definitely pick up this book. And the name!

The Truth About Keeping Secrets by Savannah Brown

Release date: February 7th 2019

Savannah’s debut novel! I’m so excited! I’ve liked her writing and poems a long time, and hopeful that her longer writing will be interesting as well.

There Will Be Other Summers by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

The second book of “aristotle and dante discovers the secrets of the universe”. I need this so much, but Sáenz’s other book “the inexplicable logic of my life” was great as well and made the wait a bit easier.

The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson

The first book Truly Devious was great young adult mystery and I need more.

The sequel to Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

No title, expected date in november. I really want it.

Nightblood by Brandon Sanderson

This will probably exist some day, but who knows when. The first book Warbreaker was great. In the meantime I’ll continue reading the Stormlight archive.

 

And finally …

Doors of Stone by Patrick Rothfuss

I would very much like the third book of the kingkiller chronicles. That said – STOP ASKING FOR IT. You can’t look at the replies of a Rothfuss tweet without seeing people whining about where the book is. Authors doesn’t owe you anything, consider that horrifying thought carefully. Even George R. R. Martin doesn’t owe you an end to Game of Thrones. This book still very much belongs on this list, even if I also don’t want the series to be over.

Head On by John Scalzi

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Genre: Sci-fi

Pages: 335

Look at this great, minimalistic cover! It’s so perfect. Well, maybe the person should’ve been a threep (robot). 

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Synopsis

Hilketa is a frenetic and violent pastime where players attack each other with swords and hammers. The main goal of the game: obtain your opponent’s head and carry it through the goalposts. With flesh and bone bodies, a sport like this would be impossible. But all the players are “threeps,” robot-like bodies controlled by people with Haden’s Syndrome, so anything goes. No one gets hurt, but the brutality is real and the crowds love it.

Until a star athlete drops dead on the playing field.

Is it an accident or murder? FBI Agents and Haden-related crime investigators, Chris Shane and Leslie Vann, are called in to uncover the truth―and in doing so travel to the darker side of the fast-growing sport of Hilketa, where fortunes are made or lost, and where players and owners do whatever it takes to win, on and off the field.

My thoughts

Rating out of five:

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I was drawn in by the interesting plot, especially as it’s techonological development to combat illness. What I got was an fbi agent Shane discovering bodies, getting into accidents, Shane and his partner Vann trying to connect it all together and find the motives. In the middle it seems very messy, and not in a good way.

Everything is happening around the two fbi agents, mostly not caused by their actions. They are two pieces in a game where I have barely been introduced to the world, let alone who or what could be behind the murders. I can’t bring myself to care when someone dies that early on, even if it’s to kickstart the need for Shane’s investigation in this story. For the Hilketa player I was almost half into the book before I felt bad for him, with some details on how much pain he must’ve been in.

I think this would work very well as a tv series, where you get to see the threeps and Hilketa game from the start. For the most part I think so because you can watch and judge the other people in the story, try to find the murderer yourself, where here you don’t really get details on characters. The book included things like how Shane’s treated differently because he’s a Haden, both at work and in private, what being an Haden means and some of how the sport Hilketa works. But it’s a lot of information that needs to go out just for the reader to understand what the fbi agents are doing. For example that statistics in Hilketa is displayed in this one public way, and changing that can be illegal because here is the information it gives on players, so it’s a lead. Trying to do that without information dumps (which I think was well done!), along with introducing characters connected to it, and that there’s more than one murder. It’s a lot and while I found it surprisingly easy to follow, it made the investigation, and such the story, slower and less focused on characters.

This is the standalone follow-up to a book called Lock In, which I haven’t read. I would’ve like to know more about how the locked in syndrome and Haden people started out, with the development of the threeps. I looked it up and it seems like the short book Unlocked contains all the backstory, so I would like to read that too. It’s free here, and while the writing or plot doesn’t give you insight in Head On, if you’re interested it seems to be a smart 60-pages read before the other books.

I would recommend this book to people who are excited about the concept, but be aware that it’s a mix of sci-fi and fbi murder investigation. The feeling this book gave me: excitement about the sci-fi aspects with the robots and medical technology, but strange annoyance at the murder investigation.

 

Thank you to Tor Books for receiving a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.