Review: Vampire Knight, Vol. 2

Vampire Knight, Vol. 2 by Matsuri Hino
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

It seems that the drawing is even worse than in the first volume. Besides, nothing actually happened in this volume, which is frustrating. Hence, one star.

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Review: Понедельник начинается в субботу

Понедельник начинается в субботу by Arkady Strugatsky
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is one of my all-times favorites that I read and re-read (I can remember at least ten occasions). This particular session was special, because my husband was reading it aloud. And as soon as we reached the end, we started again. And then read again, selected parts.

The mix of surrealism and straightforward realism, irony and self-irony, fondness and disillusionment is amazing and breathtaking. This book shows the atmosphere among Soviet Union -> Russian scientists so accurately, as if it's a mirror. And it makes me feel both nostalgic and apprehensive, because it of course shows both good and bad sides, and also that they are the same. The things we love are pretty horrible, if we think about them long enough, but in most cases they are what they are. It's just the paradigm, the universe we live in. And the mirror to look in.

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Review: Vampire Knight, Vol. 1

Vampire Knight, Vol. 1 by Matsuri Hino
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I'm probably not the target audience for the book, but still I thought it would be so much better. First, I don't much appreciate the author's drawing style. Most characters look exactly (and I mean it, exactly) the same with the exception of hair style, which is not always 100% consistent. The drawings themselves are lacking in details and pretty basic. And the plot... The plot is moving ever so slooowly...

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Review: Hell Cop

Hell Cop by Astrid Amara
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's not a secret that most of the M/M "erotica" (which is just a nice word for "porn" in this context) is written mostly by women and for women. And Hell Cop is no exception. It's also wide known that women tend to get attached to characters they read about. I enjoyed the first part of the book, Next of Kin, about Jay and Brian, but when I turned the page and saw Michael Gold adjusting his pack I closed the book with an intension to never open it again. And that was back in December, in other words 10 months ago. I did eventually find it among my Kindle books and gave it a second chance. That's when I discovered that, though the three chapters are written by three different authors and about three different couples, the universe is the same down to details, the style is same, as well as character types and sexual fantasies. I wouldn't know it's three authors if not told. All in all, it's a solid example of the genre, even if the erotic part is a little mundane and not exciting enough.
Surprisingly, the second book in the series is the same threesome, but I doubt I'll be reading it - books about problems in relationships are very rarely good and never as good as those romantic accounts of falling in love.

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Review: Seven Skeletons: The Evolution of the World's Most Famous Human Fossils

Seven Skeletons: The Evolution of the World's Most Famous Human Fossils by Lydia Pyne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I won a copy of this book through the Goodreads Giveaways and was so looking forward to read it! Since I got it before the publication day, I made sure to clear enough days in reading "schedule" so I could post my review the day the book was officially out. Turned out I didn't set aside enough time, this reading took me more than a month instead of a usual week for 200-300 pages.

I was anticipating eagerly. Science and scientists desperately need that popularization element. We all need books that explain current research, make it a part of the paradigm the society lives in, inspire people to ask questions and seek answers. Unfortunately, lame attempts at all these things hurt the science more than no attempts at all.

My disenchantment started with a feeling that I'm reading a scientific paper - as if I don't read enough of them - and not a good paper at that. The same style, the same jumping thoughts and sloppy writing characteristic of bad papers that nobody wants to read, but everyone in the field has to, because (ten different reasons here). After page 25, where "the stereoscope expanded [research possibilities] in the same way that telescopes and microscopes expanded the visual possibilities for other sciences centuries before", my reading slowed down significantly. Because no, it didn't. The CT scan expanded possibilities for paleoanthropology the same way microscopes did, not stereoscopes. Could the author really not see the difference? How? Why? Should I read it?

By the end of chapter One, I resorted to highlighting, which I never do with books, only with papers. The last three pages of this chapter in my advanced copy was a jumble of several sentences repeated over and over again (at least 4 times) in different order. Very surprised, I decided to wait for the release date and continued reading the hard cover. At least this mess at the end of the Old Man chapter was fixed, which is a huge relief.

The part I liked best was a heroic saga "Australopithecus" by Dr. Walet Rose on the page 104. It is simply the best part of the book. Can you imagine my disappointment, when the reference given at the end turned out to be "Raymond Dart Archive", which basically means that there is no way I can read the whole saga?

I have lots of remarks about the content of this book, thanks to "scientific paper mode" of reading - I kept notes, highlighted, and wrote on margins, but each one of them is small and insignificant, untill you see them all together. The overall conclusion is depressing. What was it? A dissertation published as a book? It's written in worst possible way for the genre. The author gives bits and pieces. The moment writing turns into a story and becomes interesting, she changes the topic and keeps jumping the whole book. She doesn't give any conclusions, just piles up little facts in a way that suggests she waits for the reader to make the "right" conclusion, the one she has in mind. But the piled facts are too small to be interesting and the whole pile is not comprehensive enough to draw any conclusions. They are just hanging there, a messy pile of facts.

I'm very upset after reading this book, but give it three stars nevertheless, for the effort of popularizing paleoanthropology.

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Review: The Hobbit (Graphic Novel): An Illustrated Edition of the Fantasy Classic

The Hobbit (Graphic Novel): An Illustrated Edition of the Fantasy Classic by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As much as I love The Hobbit, this is not a good version of it. I chose to read it aloud to my son, thinking that it would be a great way to introduce the classic to him, but alas. The adapters apparently are as fond of the Tolkien's masterpiece as I am, and it made them cling to every word. As a result, there are far too many words for a graphic novel, and they are far too small and difficult to read, and out of proportion with the pictures. The pictures themselves are reasonably good, though not spectacular. Overall, I expected much more from a graphic novel based on The Hobbit.

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Review: Sarah's Key

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm actually glad it's over. Such an interesting feeling to finish reading a book and, instead of craving for more, be relieved I could get to the back cover.

The subject is important, even if the main character seems a little to obsessed with it to be real. The writing and proofreading are good, which is more than can be said of most books. And the book made me cry, quite literally, a few times.

I take one star off for literary effects I didn't appreciate. The story alternates between Sarah in 1942 and Julia in 2002, each gets a short few-pages chapter in turn. But Sarah is referred to as "the girl" in her chapters, even though her name is on the cover and the story is narrated from her point of view. It got annoying by page 30, but the name is revealed only on page 124. Forty pages later Sarah's chapters disappear and we are left with Julia. The same name-hiding trick is repeated at the end, which is only one of the ways in which the book makes a full circle and gets a little bit too "round".

I'm not sure I'm glad I read the book. It appears the author assumes that things that are not talked about are forgotten. But there are things I never talk about, and my parents never talked about them with me, which didn't prevent the pain going from one generation to the next. Sometimes pain is too deep for words.

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Review: Harmony

Harmony by Carolyn Parkhurst
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The blurb says that it's a book about a desperate family, who turns to the last resort to help their daughter after she is kicked out even from a school for children with special needs. Based on that blurb I was expecting a psychological drama that would explain how the family managed to deal with their situation in the end. Those expectations were completely false. An "unputdownable story" (such a word)? About the strength of love, the bonds of family, and how you survive the unthinkable? Not so much. I had to force myself to read to the end and didn't find there a lot of love or family bonds, just a little pinch here and there. The "unthinkable" is also not all that unthinkable. What is it about? I'm not sure.

Just as promised the book is told from the alternating perspectives of Alexandra and her younger daughter Iris; the first tells a tale placed in 2012 of how they ended up in the camp, the latter is in 2013 and about what happened in the camp. There is also a bit of Tilly-chapters in the mix. The characters are.. strange. I don't know if the author has any first-hand experience with special-needs children, but she totally forgot how to be a normal kid. The chapters told from the perspective of the eleven-years-old girl evoke only one emotion. I don't believe it! A pre-teen girl doesn't think like that. I remember myself, I re-read what my friends and I wrote to each other at that age, and it's completely different, the way of thinking and perceiving the world is different. Iris, on the other hand, sounds like an adult, who pretends to be naive and confused.

My second problem with the book is Alexandra. She's supposed to be desperate and lonely, but sounds... empty, for the lack of a better word. The word clicked into place only on page 185, where "everyone seemed to be terribly in love with their children and not the least bit panicky about the empty hours that stretched ahead after class was over". Yes, right, just the thought a young mother of a yet absolutely normal toddler would have. The character is not exactly flat, it's as if its non-existent. The book doesn't show any sides of Alexandra's character. She doesn't have any hobbies, interests, passions. She sends her daughters to school and spends the time "practicing escapism" (Facebook, video games, you name it). An adult who doesn't like.. anything? There is absolutely nothing in her life except for the escapism. I'm not sure I can imagine a life like that, but ok, probably possible.

The incident that was the last straw before the family moves to the ill-fated camp also seems very far-fetched to me. It starts with Tilly and Alexandra in a park, there is a bunch of random kids there on a school trip. Tilly lies on the ground to take a picture of a statue. Alexandra runs there to "save" her girl from humilation, but too late. Kids start to bully and laugh at her. Really? I did exactly that many times in my life. What's wrong with lying on the ground in search of a better shot? Nobody would even notice. So here again, I don't believe it! Think of Stanislavsky.

I received the book for free through Goodreads Giveaways. All in all, I think it's a solid three. Certainly no more than that. My opinion "may or may not be relevant".

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Review: Glimpses: A Collection of Nightrunner Short Stories

Glimpses: A Collection of Nightrunner Short Stories by Lynn Flewelling
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

I guess it is indeed the last glimpse of Nightrunner for me :( I already read the rest of the books and, as far as I know, there are no plans to continue with the series. There were rumors of a movie, but they died off a while ago. So yes, as much as I mourn the fact, Glimpses is an appropriate title in more than one way.

The book is illustrated by fans, and I can't say I appreciate it. I'm not saying that the art is bad, not at all. But it came from 32 different people, and as a result, is all over the place. The perception of Nysander especially varies from artist to artist, I don't recognize him on any of the pictures.

The book contains five stories, but one (By the River) was published earlier on-line and one (The Summer Players) became a part of a later book, so only three were new to me. Of those three, the first two were only ok. Misfit tells the story of Seregil's early adventures in Skala. I think it was supposed to be erotic and exciting, but really fell short of my expectations. The Wild is about Alec's childhood and parents. Amasa is better fleshed out here, but still not all that alive.

The Bond is more or less what I wanted from a book like that, those glimpses of erotic moments that are left out from the main books. Turned out those moments are not the author's forte. Just a glimpse without a taste. All in all the book just returned me to the miserable state of a withdrawal syndrome right when I finally got over it.

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Review: The Wreath Recipe Book: Year-Round Wreaths, Swags, and Other Decorations to Make with Seasonal Branches

The Wreath Recipe Book: Year-Round Wreaths, Swags, and Other Decorations to Make with Seasonal Branches by Alethea Harampolis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There are quite a few useful tips in this book, on how to tie elements together, how to keep them fresh, plant choosing, and so on. I would give it five stars only for that, if only most of the designs weren't so ugly. I liked only three of them, but it could be worse - I saw books without a single recipe I liked.

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Review: Us

Us by Sarina Bowen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Us is the sequel to the book Him, both of which were born from a collaboration of authors Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy. And now, after reading it, I wish there weren't a sequel.

The highlights are shifted in this book, totally getting outside the genre of the first book. While the first one has some drama and fleshed-out characters, it's a hot m/m... let's call it romance. The second book stresses the drama. Though there are some explicit scenes, the book is hardly hot. But such books are usually read for their hotness, right?

But if the authors wanted to write something dramatic and issue-of-the-day, ok, let's focus on the drama. They did a pretty good job building up the tension, the depression, and the desperation; they were at it for almost all the book. And then resolved it all on several pages. Unfortunately, real life usually doesn't work that way. A few words and gestures cannot take away all frustration and depression and make people whole and happy again. So the book fell short of the expectations set in the beginning, especially considering the fact that those expectations were set unnecessary and out-of-the-genre.

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Review: A Court of Mist and Fury

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

On the one hand, I enjoyed reading the book to some degree and got through those 600+ pages in less than a week. But the only thing it says is that the book is easy to read and has a lot of local cliffhangers. Like you can't put it down at the end of a chapter, because chapters end in the middle of action. This easiness may be worth four stars. On the other hand, there is all this bad writing and plotting, poor world-building and not-thought-through characters, which drags my rating to three stars. The actual rating I settle to doesn't matter at all, with 30,000+ ratings averaging at 4.77 on Goodreads.

Concerning the writing my main complaint is that the author is very prone to repetitiveness, even more so (or maybe not more, just fresher in my my mind) than in the first book. Just about everything is a "sleight of hand". Characters still flick the invisible dust from their clothing pretty often. The first half of the book is filled with people tasting "ash in the mouth". And in the final battle almost all of the participants at some point "had a sence to look" this way or that, mostly unnerved or nauseated. And those are just examples.

Plotting is... well, it isn't. It just isn't there. Several conflicts are started or fleshed out, but nothing, absolutely nothing is resolved at the end. So here we go, a book about a girl with the posttraumatic syndrome trying to piece herself together. And I don't want to spoil anything to anyone, so... sploiler alert! The fact that Feyre and Tamlin will not live happily ever after was pretty obvious at the end of the first book. He was too impassive, sitting on his ass and not intervening with the process of saving him. The fact that the new hero was to be Rhysand was also quite clear. He did too much Under the Mountain for it to be written off for scheming to his own ends. I was wondering only how the author would deal with the love triangle. How do you make a hero love someone so much it's enough to sacrifice everything for this love and then make this hero love someone else? Easy, as it turns out. And yes, I know that people do fall in love, when someone showed them more kindness than others. And yes, I know that people often change their heart. It happens, all the time. My problem is that "sacrifice all" part. People don't do heroic deeds for a love that's a choice between a small fish and an empty dish. But yeah, sure, Rhys is hotter. Though he somehow turns from a smart, cunning, old High Lord we knew, who makes his own sacrifices and plans, into a simple brute, who makes tactical mistakes and gets distracted by lust. As a summary, the book is a long chewing on several romantic relationship that never gets to resolving anything.

The world-building was just a little bit better than in A Court of Thorns and Roses. Not so many data dumps at least. The puzzling piece was the evolution vs. creation problem. The world was created from the Cauldron, and yet there are allusions to some animalistic instincts that are ancient and responsible for the mating bond. Ms. Maas, just make up your mind. Please. The piece of this world that made laugh out loud was the flying over the "forested steppes" in the mountains. Again, make up your mind. They are either forested or steppes.

On top of everything else, of course, the book ends with cliffhanger, so now I will have to read the next one, because it left with a sense of an unfinished tale. A cheap trick.

As a final note, I really could do without chapter 54. I do believe that an author should assume at least a flicker of intellegence in readers and not chew for them the content of the first book in the light of the second. This self-explaining goes on for pages... And was the cover meant to portray the author?

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Review: Shards of Time

Shards of Time by Lynn Flewelling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The first thing you see starting a book is the cover. And for this particular book it's a huge advantage. I didn't check who was the cover artist for all the books in the series, only the first two and the last two, but judging by the style they finally found a suitable artist for the last four installments. And by the last book he (Michael Komarck) reached the perfection. He actually read the book, not just skipped through as the first artist, and did the cover according to the descriptions inside.

The second thing you see, when you open this book, is the map. Or rather maps. There is the usual one, showing us all the lands we know of from this series, but there is also a new one. The whole action in Shards of Time takes place on the Island of Kouros, so we got a map of it. The unusual bit is that this map has a scale, the first scale in the series. So it doesn't take a lot of math skills to measure the island, deduce the scale of the large map, and then remember all those travels by water and by land our heroes did in previous books. I did just that and placed a time estimation to each one according to the distance and the mode of transportation. The amazing thing is IT ALL CHECKS OUT! There are no one-day journies over one-week-worth of distance! I'm in mute admiration.

The book itself is incredebly fast-paced, whirling along from the very first page. I was half-way through the day I finished the previous one, Casket of Souls. Once again, it's more of an adventure, than a political puzzle. The pace doesn't slack for a minute (though I made myself to slow down, trying to savor the book), culminating in a messy battle (only one this time, I guess lesson learnt after The White Road). The battle may be a bit too melodramatic for my taste, and there were a few things that didn't make a lot of sense, logic or event-wise, but on the whole it was an excellent reading.

Now i'm in mourning, because it's the last Nightrunner book.

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Review: Casket of Souls

Casket of Souls by Lynn Flewelling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is book six in the series and the next one is the last. I would probably read the Nightrunner forever, given the chance, but no such luck. So I'm very upset closing this book and starting Shards of Time, but I still can't wait even a minute before starting it.

Seregil and Alec are done with their not-so-perfectly-written adventures in Plenimar and settled in Rhíminee again. Which means the Rhíminee Cat and political plots return in full force. The whole book is a cobweb of machinations of two rival cabal that want different people on the throne, and neither one is acceptable from the Watchers' point of view. All this makes a lot of work for Seregil and Alec, with a lot of burgling, fighting, and trying to piece together what little information they have. Unfortunately, all this doesn't get them anywhere, because a third force wipes out both cabals, so the result looks not entirely satisfactory. Till almost the end I hoped that Seregil would piece together the puzzle and solve it himself, but (and it's the only big disappointment from the book) the author gave him a too-straight-forward a hint, which was a bit more luck than you would expect even with generally lucky Seregil. Only after that prompting bone it all clicked into places and rushed to the end.

And I too rushed to the end, reading without a pause the last third of the book. And now I already started the next one, which is even more exciting, except that it's the last one.

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Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

More and more often, searching for a new book to read, I swallow the bait of the public opinion and choose a highly praised one. I need to stop, because more and more often I have to start a review with "I don't understand how that can be rated so high". At least this one wasn't as bad as some others I read recently (say Red Rising), so it's fine.

I laughed out loud at the first paragraph. The book starts with the heroine "monitoring the parameters of the thicket for an hour". Yes, I know this word can be used in this context, but should it? Am I reading a SciFi? By the second page I couldn't get rid of the feeling that it's a version of the Game of Thrones. Winter, the Wall, deadly tall creatures... And the heroine and her family didn't bother to store enough food and fire wood for the winter. Really? Either the author has a very vague notion of how it works, or tries to picture Feyre as completely and irrevocably stupid. And then comes the data dump, it goes on and on, for several pages... I don't think a data dump is a good way of world building, but this method is repeated several times in the book; there are at least three clusters at least five pages long each with nothing but data dumps on them.

After that initial "world building" the action starts. Sort of. First it's the Cinderella, then it's the Beauty and the Beast, then it's the Beauty and the Beast with elements of the Cinderella. How clever. And all of it full of... I don't know how to call. Discrepancies? Logical holes in the narrative. Like a daughter of well-off people wasn't taught to read by eleven. Women are still "marriable" after twenty. No language barrier whatsoever after 500 years of separation. Faes requiring more than several hundred years to learn when to keep their mouth shut. And so on.

The most annoying part was repetitive descriptions. The same words and phrases were applied to similar objects and situations over and over again. I lost count how many times somebody flicked the dust from their jackets or gowns, in exact same way. And the end is just cheap.

Was it entertaining? I'd say yes. Is it worth reading? Probably yes. Is it a must read? Definitely no. Though, I admit I'll give the next book a try. It's rated even higher. Here I go again...

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Review: The White Road

The White Road by Lynn Flewelling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As much as I cannot be dragged from the books in this series and anticipate each and every one, I'm sorry to give the White Road only four stars. It seems that between the Shadows Return and the White Road the author changed her mind about a lot of things. This one supposedly picks up where the previous one ended, literally at the same moment. But at the end of the Shadows Return a carriage was sent to bring Alec and his friends from the shore and at the beginning of the White Road he rides to the house and faints in the courtyard. And this is just a little example of the million discrepancies that start from the very first page. There is confusion about horses, dates, history, slave brands, and even the Moon. Though thankfully Lynn Flewelling is not one of the authors, who have absolutely no idea why, when, and how phases of the Moon work, there are still some mistakes there.

This installment is also differs from the others by its uneven pace. The beginning is a bit slow building and not very colorful, while the end is kind of rushed: The heroes jump from one decisive battle to another without so much as a pause.

Judging by the reviews though, the next book is a great improved so yet again I'm left to wait impatiently its arrival.

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Review: The Stonekeeper

The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was looking for interesting graphic novels for my 5-year-old and thought that maybe this one, with almost 30,000 raitings averaging higher than 4, would be a good choise. The art is good, the story is dark, just what the kids want at that stage when they want to be frightened, right? And yes, my kid liked it, so I will have to suffer through at least one more volume, because he wants to know what happened next. Suffer, because the book is marginal at best. The plot is lame, with a number of discrepancies and poor character building. It so doesn't deserve a place among the best graphic novels for children or 500 essential graphic novels.

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Review: The Long Way Down

The Long Way Down by Craig Schaefer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

(Review to come. Need some time to think it through. Not even sure about the rating.)

I guess I took enough time to think about the book. It's May now, and I finished it in January. The reason it took me so long to process is I was surprised. I never expected a book of this genre and format to be so good. The most appealing part is the deviation from the usual a-stupid-hero-saves-the-day line. The hero here is not stupid. And he doesn't do one stupid thing after another. He has a goal and with limited information at hand he gives it his best. His opponents are also not stupid, they try hard to succeed. The hero does what he can as good as he can and carries the day, sort of. Only sort of, because nobody can win every battle and, though he achieves the main goal (even if temporarily), he looses several other important things. That's a very refreshing way to write a book and I like it much more than sugary 'happily ever after' without moving a finger. Applause to the author!

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Review: Lost Ocean

Lost Ocean by Johanna Basford
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I received the book for free through Goodreads Giveaways and forgot about it for a long time. Then two things happened. First, I saw the book in a store. Second, I went on Goodreads and discovered that its rating was 4.65, which is well above average. After all that I couldn't resist leaving a negative review. The problem is I didn't expect that the 'advance uncorrected sampler' I asked through giveaways in reality would be a ten-page excerpt. I feel offended. Besides 'magical journey beneath the ways' is a description that fall very far from reality. That promise makes me think of some real creatures to color, while the book is just an assembly of sea-themed patterns.

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Review: Shadows Return

Shadows Return by Lynn Flewelling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There are a lot of reviews here pointing out the lack of intrigues and politics in this volume. This is certainly not an epic, like the second book of Nightrunner, nor even a detective, like the first and the third. The beloved characters, Seregil and Alec, are sent on a questionable errand early in the book and most of the rest happens after its failure. They are caught, enslaved, tortured, and are expected to use all their resourcefulness to get out.

I would say this book is not as brilliant as the others in the series, but. For the first time in two years a book kept me up till morning. It wasn't as gripping at the beginning, just an ordinary book, but after 260-300 pages I came to a point when I couldn't put it down. So I had to sacrifice my night rest. It was amazing that the perfect pair of the heroes is not so perfect together. I would have though that their special talimenios bond would safe them from jealousy and uncertainty, but, oh, how wrong I was. This book gives Seregil and Alec a more real feel, they become for the reader something more than a perfect pair of lovers, who know each other thoughts and feelings. The author gave them insecurity in love we all live with.

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