#it's kinda a short form for anna in my native languages

[liltaireissocute]

happy new year happy new anna ripley

[elriedreamer]

Read in 2020: May

That month was almost all about fantasy reading marathon, and obviously I coudn’t just read 4 books of 7, so I’ve read a lot. Only one comic here, because I couldn’t find another long enough series that I really wanted to read. Also, for the Native Language at first I took Andrey Rubanov’s Finest, the brave Falcon, but was grossed out by POV character that dropped it after 65 e-book pages and started reading Chimeras instead.

Theodora Goss – The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter. Last year I’ve read this author’s short stories and as you know my problem with short forms I didn’t like them. But as I was participating in the fantasy reading marathon I decided to try another of her works. And! This book was actually fun to read! Imagine taking Sherlock Holmes, Frankenstein, The Island of Doctor Moreau, Jack the Reaper and probably some other stories I couldn’t identify (I think I’ve read something about poisonous girl when I was in school, but can’t remember), shaking them well and adding a dash of wit on top – and you’ll get the idea. The only downside is that there’s not very much characterization, since there are a lot of heroines, but I hope it’ll be fixed in the second book.

Nicholas Eames – Bloody Rose. The first book of these series was one of the best of the last year, so I had really high hopes about this one. But it was not what I was expecting. Very different tone comparing to the 1st book, not funny at all. I’d still give it 5 stars (because I liked the writing and some scenes were really emotional) if not for characters. The POV character, Tam, is so meh. She’s like a blank page — which is for purpose I believe, I just didn’t like it. The others are also not as charismatic as in the 1st book. Overall it was still not a bad read, and I definitely will read the final part.

Jean-Philippe Jaworski – Même pas mort. This is a fantasy about ancient Celts, and I like Celtic mythology. But since it’s a dark fantasy, I was kinda torn about whether I should read it. And yep, not my thing. I can appreciate the authors obvious knowledge of history and his writing style is good, but the way story is told didn’t make me to care about MC since at the very beginning we know that MC lived very very long life and succeeded in his goals, and the whole story is basically about him, so... Thus, it was really boring for me.

Becky Chambers – The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. I’m gonna tell you what. This is so wholesome and nice and relaxing read, that I couldn’t expect from the space opera genre (not that I read much of that, just a feeling). And maybe there isn’t any global conflict, but I don’t care. The characters are normal people (and aliens) that act normally. The world-building is so interesting and detailed, the way communication between different species is described is phenomenal. I’m gonna read the next books in these series (though I’ve heard they are not about the same characters).

Rachel Ignotofsky – Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World. Should I even comment this? Though now I wanna read something like this book, but more long and detailed. And maybe I liked Brazen more.

J.R.R. Tolkien – The Children of Hurin. Just so you know, I had read The Lord of the Rings when I was 12 yo and through school years reread it like 20 times. Silmarillion — around the same time, but only a couple of rereads. The Hobbit was earlier, probably the last year of elementary school. I haven’t read anything from Middle-Earth world for ten years or even longer. And even this story is incredibly tragic, I was happy to return into this world, and probably should plan to reread the trilogy again.

Yaroslava Kuznetsova, Anna Stein – Chimeras. Vol 1.

Yaroslava Kuznetsova, Anna Stein – Chimeras. Vol 2.  This gem wasn’t officially published, which is sad. The world here is a fantasy world with a mix of Tuatha de Danann/Fomori and original mythology, but what unusual is that the story takes place when there are computers and planes. The world-building is brilliant, very detailed, very complex, you’ll know not only legends but historical events, and that was my favorite part. The plot itself was good too, a little slow at the beginning, but interesting to follow, and the ending’s tying up almost everything, only leaving a few side-plots open. The characters are well written, flawed but likable,  there is a character growth arcs, there is a really good written redemption arc, the only thing that was kinda disappointing (for me) is Amarela’s storyline, but other than that — no complains.

Fables: Book 6.