Fire & Ash – Book Review

Rot & Ruin book four.

5 out of 5 stars

“Benny Imura sat in the dark and spoke with monsters.

It was like that every day.

It had become the pattern of his life.

Shadows and blood.

And monsters.

Everywhere.

Monsters.”

The epic conclusion to my favorite zombie series of all time. That’s correct, my favorite zombie series of all time is YA Sci-Fi/horror. It shocks me as much as you but if you sat down and took the time to read it, you would understand why.

If you’ve followed Benny and his friends from the beginning then you know, they’ve seen some shit. It all begin in a small fenced-in mountain town at the edges of the Ruin (what they call the decimated lands of the United States where only the dead wander), friends trading Zombie Cards of their favorite legendary mercenaries on the steps of the general store, innocent in their knowledge of life beyond fences. Their world was turned upside when they moved out from their safety net and began exploring a lost world. Blood, death and destruction followed in their wake. It all culminates to this, the last epic showdown for the sake of humanity.

Saint John of the Night Church brings not only his flock of reapers (his holy flock tasked with sending all living people into the darkness) but a massive horde of zombies, in his quest to please the god of death, Thanatos. The one true god. He and his flock will send the blasphemers of the Nine Towns to the darkness or they will kneel and kiss the blade to take up Thanatos’ work.

How would several teenagers defeat a mad man and his horde of religious zealots and the hungering dead? Well kids, there’s three other books leading up until this point for that tale. Unfortunately, it was a time before I did reviews and I couldn’t possibly review it all for you now. SO much happens. It all leads up to this, stop this mad man now or stop him never. They may have to die to save the last chance humanity has to reclaim their world from the dead. Will they succeed?

I’m not telling. READ THIS FUCKING SERIES.

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It’s Wet Here

Come off it perverts! I’m talking about the weather here. It’s raining and grey, and normally I would say perfect reading weather but I have to get some shit done this weekend. Our house warming party is two weeks away as of today and we still have a lot of unpacking to do. On top of that, I’m in a bit of a funk. My husband wants to throw on another bill that we can’t afford right now but I hate being THAT wife that says no to something that he’s passionate about. So I’m a bit ornery right now and have been thinking about things to try to put myself in a better mood and what is better than books?!

I’m slowly crawling my way through this one:

It’s not any fault of the book’s, in fact it just hit optimal interesting, but between work and stuff to do around the new house, reading has been put on the back burner. Saying that just feels icky. I’m hoping to hit the library this week and pick up a comic book or two to pad my reading for a summer reading program at the library that results in getting free stuff for reading. I’m running behind because I forgot about it altogether. The program started in the beginning of June and I didn’t remember until half way through July.

I’ve been storing up a lot of reading for this autumn. I’m trying to save all paranormal/horror stuff for October and stocking up on books for Science Fiction month in November. I had a lot of fun reading and reviewing all that stuff last year and then promptly burned myself out on those genres for the majority of the year. I’m feeling the itch again finally and now just have to hold out a couple more months.

Hopefully this year Michigan cooperates and I’ll have a more successful Winter of Epic Fantasy.

In conclusion; once I get past this summer, there should only be awesome reading for the rest of 2017.

There. That helped my funk a little bit. What do you do to get out of a funk??

Red Sister – Book Review

3.5 out of 5 stars

“I hope he comes back full of devils and they eat his heart.”

Where to begin? I hate trash talking an author I consider an auto buy but this one just didn’t quite do it for me. It was enjoyable but I felt sure that there would be a plot twist to surprise me at any moment, that there were red herrings galore and I would be dumbfounded when the truth was unveiled. These are things that I’ve come to expect from a Lawrence book. Turns out, things were pretty much exactly as they seemed.

I had a hard time believing that the older nuns were very deadly. They pretty easily overlooked an obvious villain in their midst. I had a hard time keeping their double names straight as well. I still don’t entirely understand why it’s necessary for them to have two names to begin with.

Can I complain that is wasn’t dark enough? Because it wasn’t, at least not for me. The ending didn’t quite quench my thirst either.

Okay enough bitching. There ARE reasons to read this. Despite my list of complaints, it’s still better than 90% of the garbage out there about girls in special assassin schools. The characters were great, their relationships interesting. They had good personal growth. I’m definitely interested in learning more about the world building in future books. I’m undecided if this is a distant Earth or another planet altogether. Just what kind of lives will our tiny assassins lead in the future? It was a good first installment but I’m hoping for a more fleshed out and coherent sequel.

“All that is given to you is choice: meet it with open eyes and peace in your heart, go gentle to your reward. Or burn bright, take up arms, and fight the bitch.”

Top 5 Books of 2017 So Far

All the cool kids are mentioning their favorite books of the first half of the year, so I might as well jump on that dandy little train because who doesn’t like good book recommendations?!

In no particular order:

1. Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames
2. Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb
3. Queen of Darkness by Anne Bishop
4. The Shotgun Arcana by R.S. Belcher
5. Morning Star by Pierce Brown

 

I’ve been going hard at epic fantasy this year and I hope to continue. Usually this time of the year and into fall I start hitting Urban Fantasy hard. Not there is anything wrong with that but I have a lot of series I need to catch up on before I begin new ones. (This is what I tell myself but it never works out that way.)

The Goodreads Book Tag

The Shameful Narcissist shared this lovely little book tag and I just couldn’t resist. One more reason to talk about books! I’ll also take this opportunity to openly invite, if you so choose, to add me as a friend on Goodreads here.

What was the last book you marked as read?

Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch

What are you currently reading?

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor. Almost finished though.

What was the last book you marked as ‘to-read’?

The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington. (Who can resist a FAT epic fantasy novel? Not this girl!)

Are you doing the 2017 reading challenge?

Yes. My goal is 67. I usually surpass my goals but with buying a house this year, I’m glad that I didn’t set the goal too high.

Do you have a wish list?

Yes. I mostly just use it to watch for good Kindle sales on authors I haven’t tried yet.

Who are your favorite authors?

Oi vay. George RR Martin, Robin Hobb, Pierce Brown, Patricia Briggs, Anne Bishop, Chuck Palahniuk, Kevin Hearne, Patrick Rothfuss, R.S. Belcher, and Mark Lawrence.

Have you joined any groups?

Dragons & Jetpacks. A spectacular sci-fi, fantasy group. I’ve been in it a couple of years now and it’s definitely responsible for the growth of my TBR pile. (We’re currently a featured group on Goodreads as well.)

How many Goodreads shelves do you have?

29 and always growing.

I Tag…

Everyone who dwells in books! (Yeah, I took the cheap way out.)

A Closed and Common Orbit – Book Review

4 out of 5 stars

This was a masterful study of artificial intelligence and for that reason alone it was beguiling.

If you noticed that it took me a little longer than usual to finish, it is not the book’s fault. Life has been hectic and that is the only reason I didn’t sit down and devour it in one go.

Here we follow Lovey after she has made the transition into a body kit and scrubbed her previous memories clean. Now Sidra, she finds discovering her new purpose difficult. Adapting to other cultures, lacking the ability to lie about ones origins, and trying to find a way to connect with her new body has been a bit of chaos for someone used to being in total control.

At the same time, we explore Pepper’s peppered past. (Yeah, I went there.) Raised by an AI on an unfair planet, she struggled to rebuild a broken ship and get herself far away from a dying planet who had been nothing but unkind to her.

The two stories intertwine and dance apart across the novel and blend back together in a wholly satisfying ending.

I look forward to many more space operas to come from Becky Chambers. (Secretly, or not so secretly, hoping to see into the past and present of other characters from the Wayfarer in future editions to the story.)

T-Rex Can’t Jack Off

An astute observation from my husband’s sleep brain. He talks in his sleep on a nightly basis and some of his exclamations are just down right fabulous, so I’ve decided to use them as blog post titles. This one was hot off the press this morning and it must still be fresh in his mind because upon awakening, he tried to imitate what it would look like if a T-Rex attempted to jack off. I really wish I had been prepared for it and got it on video but alas, you’ll just have to use your own imagination.

House hunting has been seriously cutting into reading time. (I almost bought a house with built in bookshelves around a fireplace but there was a massive foundation issue.) If I have a book review once a week, that’s why. On the bright side, I’ve been imagining all things I’ll get to do once the hunt and move are over. Like, buying any damn book I please no matter the cost. Most importantly, I will be able to pre-order books from my favorite authors and support them at my full capacity. I find this rather exciting. I know buying their books at all is important but pre-ordering their new books helps them even more. Makes them more appealing to publishers so they can continue writing.

The books I want to pre-order the most:

What books are you dying to pre-order?

Hitchhiker’s Guide – Book Review

2 out of 5 stars

Um…..what?

People have been recommending this book to me since I was a teenager, so I finally listened, read it with an open mind and ultimately, I just don’t get it.
Sure there were clever observations about humanity; “If human beings don’t keep exercising their lips, he thought, their mouths probably seize up.”
However, I never once laughed out loud. Maybe it all just went right over my head but I just don’t understand the cult following. (To be perfectly fair, I pretty much always have problems with classics and cult classics.)

Two stars is perfectly respectable rating, it was indeed, okay. (Sorry to my friend’s who I am probably highly disappointing right now.)

SAGA – Comic Review

 

 

Cupcakes’ first attempt at an actual comic review:

5 out of 5 stars

Two star-crossed lovers abandon the war between their worlds to raise their newborn daughter while being dogged by bounty hunters left and right.

I mean, that one sentence literally explains the first two volumes in the series and I CANNOT GET ENOUGH.

Each time I finish a volume, I fight the demanding urge to run to the local comic book store and pick up the next one. Why do I resist? Trying to save money is stupid. ._.

BUT, it also means one day I’ll get to go on an epic book/comic buying spree and THAT will be an epic adventure.

Not quite as epic as out-running bounty hunters across the galaxy though. For that, you have to pick up SAGA.

 

Behind the Throne – Book Review

4.5 out of 5 stars

At first, I wasn’t sure that I was going to enjoy this. The writing was fairly simplistic and the protagonist I was neutral to. The world building could be more in-depth but wasn’t poor by any means. Essentially I spent the first several chapters wondering where this was going and if it was going to be any good. It was a skittish rabbit, it could bolt in either direction.

Fast-forward several more chapters and I was obsessed. Putting it down made me grumpy. The pages flew by with great ease and before I knew, it was over and I was left craving more.

I accredit this to great characters and a compelling storyline.

Hail is a legendary gunrunner. At least she has been for the past twenty years. But she’s also always secretly been an heir to a grand empire. A secret she guarded closely while building her outlaw reputation. She had sisters that could take her place in the line of succession so she put that world behind her and built herself something new while hunting for her father’s murderer. Even twenty years later the past can come rushing up to claim you and Hail is dragged kicking and fighting back to the empire she left behind. Her sisters have been murdered, her queen mother is dying and the empire needs her for stability. Captured by two Trackers, she is forced back to the throne and must navigate oceans of politics and contain her temper while trying to keep a kingdom from falling apart.

War is brewing and sometimes you need an outlaw with a smart mouth to fight the good fight for you.