Month: March 2025

Review of The Bright Sword: Camelot’s New Heroes

by Stefani

The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman

Published: July 16, 2024 by Viking

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

A gifted young knight named Collum arrives at Camelot to compete for a spot on the Round Table, only to find he’s too late. The king died two weeks ago at the Battle of Camlann, leaving no heir, and only a handful of the knights of the Round Table survive.

They aren’t the heroes of legend, like Lancelot or Gawain. They’re the oddballs of the Round Tables, from the edges of the stories, like Sir Palomides, the Saracen Knight and Sir Dagonet, Arthur’s fool, who was knighted as a joke. They’re joined by Nimue, who was Merlin’s apprentice until she turned on him and buried him under a hill. Together this ragtag fellowship will set out to rebuild Camelot in a world that has lost its balance.

But Arthur’s death has revealed Britain’s fault lines. God has abandoned it, and the fairies and monsters and old gods are returning, led by Arthur’s half-sister Morgan le Fay. Kingdoms are turning on each other, warlords are laying siege to Camelot, and rival factions are forming around the disgraced Lancelot and the fallen Queen Guinevere. It is up to Collum and his companions to reclaim Excalibur, solve the mysteries of this ruined world and make it whole again. But before they can restore Camelot they’ll have to learn the truth of why the lonely, brilliant King Arthur fell and lay to rest the ghosts of his troubled family and of Britain’s dark past.

Rating:

Review:

I listened to this one on audiobook and I was highly anticipating it. I love Camelot and King Arthur, so I was really excited to see this kind of a book. One that had a Camelot in distress and in need of a new hero. It’s a very long book too, the audiobook is about 24 hours or so, the hardcover is 673 pages. I wanted a good adventure! And I didn’t get it.

The first three hours of this audiobook were great! We follow Callum’s journey to Camelot, his discovery that Arthur is gone and so are most of his knights. The only knights left are the ones who weren’t very good anyway. That was all great, I loved it. And we get a little bit of the history of Arthur in there too. I was completely invested.

Then it started to get a little dull. We were going on a quest to find out if any of the other knights are still alive and find Excalibur. But, most of what actually happens is drinking, joking around and moping about how badly everything sucks. It was the longest journey to nowhere ever. It reminded me of Tolkien, and if you know my opinion on Tolkien….well….it’s not a compliment. By the time we introduced Morgan le Fay I was so bored that nothing could bring me back. I listened to roughly 10 hours of this book and then called it a day. I just couldn’t stand the thought of spending another 14 hours on it. I have many better ways to use my time.

Why Fourth Wing’s Dragons Steal the Show

by Stefani

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Published: May 3, 2023 by Entangled: Red Tower Books

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away…because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

Rating:

Review:

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or out in the vast wilderness you’ll know that the 3rd book of this series came out recently. You can’t get away from it. Onyx Storm is everywhere. And everyone seems to love it. Maybe if I was still a doe-eyed 20 something then I would have liked it more too. I decided to give this series a shot and while it is entertaining, it has problems.

I listened to this on audiobook and thought the narrators did a fabulous job. They told this story and the characters to the best of their ability.

**Spoiler alert** Read no further if you wish to remain unspoiled

I love dragons. Adding dragons to a fantasy is a really big winner for me, especially intelligent dragons. The dragon that pairs with Violet is very witty and intelligent, and frankly he was my favorite character. But, it also made me wonder, what does it say about a book when the most logical character is a dragon? The dragon politics in this book was interesting but it also made me ask a lot of questions. Mainly, what do dragons need humans for? They have power, intellect and magic all on their own. They have their own laws, their own politics and their own functioning world. Why do they want to bond with humans? Share their magic with humans? Weaken themselves to empower the humans? Most importantly, why do they want to assist the humans in their wars? Even if the dragons had the same enemy, they seem perfectly capable of fighting on their own. And unfortunately we never get the answers to those questions.

Xaden was a great character, very complex and morally grey. But as soon as I heard his name I knew we were getting a cheesy romance starring Xaden Riorson. And it’s the stuff of every YA book’s dreams. Unreasonably jealousy, trying to make jealousy sexy. On a side note, can we please stop trying to make jealous outbursts sexy? They aren’t. But most importantly, we get Violet and Xaden angsting at each other until they finally find their way into each other’s pants. I probably would have enjoyed this more if I was still a naive 20-something. Instead, fully adult me, rolled my eyes and moved along.

I also found the timeline really confusing. So, there’s a war that seems to have been going on for centuries. The enemy wants to break into their kingdom, but they don’t know why. Everyone seems to just suggest that they obviously want something really badly but…it’s been 600 years? You haven’t had a single peace negotiation to find out? And there was also an internal rebellion that seemed to have happened a lot more recently. A lot of the characters talk about it like it was a long time ago, but since Xaden is involved with the ending of that rebellion it can’t have been any more than maybe 5 years earlier? Xaden is only around 23, so it can’t have been too long ago. But as it turns out the people they’re fighting against (the people in the war or the rebellion, can’t really tell) want magic from the kingdom, because they’re being attacked by magical creatures that no one thinks actually exist. So…instead of just explaining the situation you’re in, you start a war and sacrifice more fighters trying to steal the thing you need? Someone was missing battle sense.

This book was full of tropes. Violet is “so frail”, so tiny, so boring, so unremarkable. Who then ends up doing so many amazing things that no one has ever done before! Eye roll. Sexy jealousy. Eye roll. Childhood friend who has all the feelings. Eye roll. Heroine having an “addiction” to the bad boy. Eye roll. So many tropes.

The things that pulled me into this were the dragons, who were pretty badass. The magic system was very well done and interesting. And the enemies we finally get introduced to right at the very end. Those things have kept me invested enough to probably read the 2nd book. But if the worldbuilding doesn’t get a lot tighter than I’m bowing out of the series for good.

Progress Update Fridays – March 14, 2025

by Stefani

Pride’s Children: Netherworld by Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt

Progress: 52 of 540 pages

Check this book out at: Goodreads

How it’s going: I am thoroughly enjoying my journey back into this world so far. I will have to put this one down briefly as I have another one on my Nook that is about to expire, so have to jump other there for a minute and will be right back on this one.

The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman

Progress: 8 hours, 37 minutes of of 23 hours, 10 minutes

Check this book out at: Goodreads

How it’s going: This one started off really well. I liked Callum a lot and I was really interested in his journey. A young man who desperately wants to be a knight of the Round Table and arrives to find King Arthur dead and the Round Table in shambles. The first 3 hours were great. The last 8 have been utterly boring. I am contemplating giving up.

Sociopath: A Memoir by Patric Gagne

Progress: 32 of 368 pages

Check this book out at: Goodreads

How it’s going: The opening chapter of this book was so intensely chilling. On one hand I felt so sorry for this little girl, but on the other hand she can’t feel sorry for anyone so it’s little bit of an odd experience. I only have a few more days with this one so needed to jump in this week.

Babylonia: Exploring the Legacy of a Warrior Queen

by Stefani

Babylonia by Costanza Casati

Published: January 14, 2025 by Sourcebooks Landmark

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

When kings fall, queens rise.

Nothing about Semiramis’s upbringing could have foretold her legacy or the power she would come to wield. A female ruler, once an orphan raised on the outskirts of an empire – certainly no one in Ancient Assyria would bend to her command willingly. Semiramis was a woman who knew if she wanted power, she would have to claim it.

There are whispers of her fame in Mesopotamian myth- Semiramis was a queen, an ambitious warrior, a commander whose reputation reaches the majestic proportions of Alexander the Great. Historical record, on the other hand, falls eerily quiet.

In her second novel, Costanza Casati brilliantly weaves myth and ancient history together to give Semiramis a voice, charting her captivating ascent to a throne no one promised her. The world Casati expertly builds is rich with dazzling detail and will transport her readers to the heat of the Assyrian Empire and a world long gone.

Rating:

Review:

I picked this book up as an audiobook from the library on a whim. The cover was interesting and I like historical fiction in general. I have had good luck recently with retellings of ancient myths and legends, so jumped right into this Assyrian myth. Before I listened to it, I looked up the myth just so I had a good footing for the basis of the story. The source material is just as interesting as this book was.

This book was beautiful. The writing, the atmosphere, the settings, the characters, all of it. They are pieced together with such care and eloquence that it is really exquisite. I was instantly pulled into this story with the story of Semiramis’ birth and the death of her mother. It was such a tragic start to life for this little girl. And meanwhile you know that she is on a journey to becoming the Queen of Assyria, but how does she get there? From an adopted orphan to Queen and ruler of one of the biggest empires in world history.

I loved the love story of Semiramis and Onnes. He didn’t want to get married, but knew that he needed to get married. She wanted to be given a chance to escape the life she knew in her village and make a future for herself. It is mostly a marriage of convenience though they are attracted to one another and attracted to each other’s intelligence. Along the way they become desperately devoted to each other and love each other fiercely. They bond together after a war and the horrific things they both saw and experienced. Unfortunately this is also the moment that led to Onnes’ downfall. That made me very sad. I knew it was going to happen but I didn’t want it to. This was also one of the bigger pitfalls of the story. I think Costanza really wanted Ninus to be a good guy here, he can’t help it that he fell in love with his brother’s wife! But in reality, Ninus is the bad guy here. He starts an affair with his brother’s wife and then tries to convinve him to give her up in exchange for being allowed to marry Ninus’ daughter. Gross. I was actually quite pleased that the marriage of Ninus and Semiramis wasn’t sunshine and puppy dogs, they didn’t deserve it after what they did to Onnes.

The only other pitfall of this book is that it started to drag after Ninus and Semiramis got married. She’s the queen now, we know that she will become the ruler at some point. But it dragged a bit to get there. Overall though this book was incredibly enjoyable. I have heard that her first book is even better so I will have to check it out.

The Haunting World of Kree: Themes of Death and Rebirth

by Stefani

Kree: A Post-Exotic Novel by Manuela Draeger

Published: October 22, 2024 by University of Minnesota Press

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

A warrior struggles through an apocalyptic landscape and the world after death

Kree Toronto has been raised as a warrior in a ravaged postapocalyptic, posthuman world, the population decimated by wars and civilization long since collapsed. After her attempt to avenge the death of her dog, Loka, goes horribly wrong, Kree finds herself lost in a world after death and wanders into the city of the terrible mendicants.

Under the Brothers’ totalitarian rule, Kree can lead a quiet life and forget her violent past, even if needles grow in her skull and hallucinatory blood rains pour down now and then to remind her. She can make friends: a shamanic healer with a shaking tent, a mysterious stranger hatched from an egg, and a gruff Tibetan electrician in a world without electricity. And she can have her Loka, as long as she toes the Party line and does as she’s told. When she can’t—when her friends start to disappear and the Brothers turn against her—Kree sets out on a quest, searching for a new way forward.

Rating:

Review:

**Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review. All thoughts and opinions are mine. Thank you Edelweiss and University of Minnesota Press!**

This book has to be one of the most confusing books I’ve ever read. So let’s start with the fact that the author’s name is a pseudonym. Manuela Draeger is a character in this author’s larger “post-exotic” world. So a character of this world is telling us a story within that world. I really loved that idea. And based on the synopsis I expected a story of a woman looking for revenge for what happened to her dog. Sort of like a combination of John Wick and Omega Man. I got what I expected but also an awful lot of stuff I didn’t expect. Also, the story uses the word “what” in a strange way. It is used interchangeably or “that”, “what”, “when” and several other words. I am not sure if this is an artifact of the language translation or is just part of the writing style. Regardless it was easy to overlook once you realize the pattern.

This book introduces us to Kree. She lives in a post-apocalyptic world where humanity exists only in little groupings of survivors. Someone steals her dog to eat and Kree goes to kill them for it. The revenge goes badly and so we follow Kree on a journey between being alive and unalive. We follow her as she is reincarnated into various locations and existences that may be a layer of the underworld or another reality altogether, and every time she dies she is reborn into another scenario in this eternal quest to find her dog.

This book was beautifully written. It is atmospheric and gritty. The writing style was quite unique and carried me along for the ride wonderfully. Even though the timeline can be very jarring the writing style made it easier to follow along. After awhile I got used to turning the page and all of a sudden we were in a completely different place and time with completely different characters. Turning the page and all of sudden we have people hatching out of eggs in the middle of a mass grave. Honestly, this book made me feel like it was a hallucination. Ultimately maybe that was the point. Kree’s afterlife is spent desperately searching for something she will never find, but she can’t stop searching. And so we, as the reader, search with her.

I was so torn with how to review this book. On one hand I wanted to give this book 2 stars and a mediocre review and never read anything from this world again. Because it was confusing. And I felt like a moron while reading. But on the other hand, it intrigued me so much that I want to give the book 5 stars and read everything else this world has to offer. So, I settled with 4 stars. Because this book is weird and confusing, but it’s also pretty amazing.

Intermezzo Review: A Disappointing Narrative by Sally Rooney

by Stefani

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

Published: September 20, 2024 by Farrar, Straus and Glroux

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.

Rating:

Review:

This book caught my eye before it even published and Sally Rooney has a great reputation for writing compelling literary fiction, so I was excited to pick this one up. At first it piqued my interest because I was interested in Ivan. But that initial interest peaking and then faded really fast. Soon I found myself wondering exactly when the story of these brothers dealing with their grief was going to happen.

Like a lot of literary fiction this book is long. 454 pages. I made it halfway through and I gave up. In more than 200 pages, nothing happened! We talk a lot about chess. We complain a lot about how unfair life is. And both brothers sleep with a LOT of inappropriate women. That’s it. That’s all that happened in 50% of the book. The brothers didn’t even see each other! They spoke over the phone….once…for a few paragraphs. I have never been more bored in my life. I decided to stop waiting to see when something would happen and just accept that it wasn’t going to happen at all.