Blog

  • Blood Brothers Beyond – Japanese Road Movie on a Donkey Cart

    Blood Brothers Beyond – Japanese Road Movie on a Donkey Cart

    That’s my first ARC sent by Rob J Hayes and, actually, his first work I’ve ever read. And I will definitely check his other books. What I’ve read is wonderfully and interestingly written. So here it is, my review.

    Blood Brothers Beyond is an amazing and exciting road movie about three brothers who accomplish their quest to reach their final destination.
    I liked how the characters were introduced, they are very likable though flawed, how they interacted with the world and how the world responded to their actions.
    Talking about action. The fighting scenes were really good thought out and directed. I wish descriptions were more colourful and vivid. The pace was kept perfectly. Fighting changing flashbacks changing usual talks were never boring. And those talks, they were diamonds.
    What I liked the most in the novella is which topics it raised. The family grief, the wish you could spend more time with your gone relative, good and bad memories, funny and pityful stories, different experiences from different perspectives. Everyone who lost someone close will relive those feelings. That was beautiful.
    I liked how mysticism and Japanese myths were weaved into the story canvas. And humor was there, and it was brilliant.

    I don’t really like retelling the story and the plot and I won’t be doing that this time as well. I liked the story a lot. Actually, I loved it. Very human, very grounded, very sentimental.

    The conclusion is simple: that’s, I think, one of my top-5 reads this year. Unexpected yet very fulfilling story. And yeah, there’s a donkey in it, for real.

  • November is over, now let’s talk about December and winter

    November is over, now let’s talk about December and winter

    I planned to read six books in November, but managed to read only four. I didn’t write even one article/review in November, but made one important shift: I moved from Twitter to BlueSky. And I like it there. Much less bullshit and politics and ads, much more interaction and engagement and fun.

    So, November.
    1. One Hudred years of Solitude
    There is a whole story of my wife’s relationship with this book. She doesn’t understand it, she hates it, she despices it. And just before this book gets adaptation on Netflix, she asked me to read this novel and give her my opinion. Because so far she’s in minority, everyone seems to love this book. So, on the 1st of November I opened my ebook and started to read. And page after page my eyes got wider and wider. Holy fuck! I wasn’t expecting THAT! It took me one third of the month to complete this book. I suffered through it, the pain was almost physical. I haven’t read so many incest scenes in one book ever. I think Game of Thrones has less incest than that. And, actually, I didn’t get why this book had been written. Where is the sense of it? I think I missed some context. Luckily. This book got 3 out of 10. Just for the magical realism. That was fun and interesting. But not much.
    2. Ancient as the Stars
    This novel I read during my vacation in Norway. Every evening I sat with my Kindle, poured Green Earl Grey, and started to read. I finished this book relatively quickly, because it was interesting, exciting, and well-written. I plan to write a full review on that, so just wait.
    3. The Sound of Starfall
    A small novella I read while flying home from vacation. A short introduction to the world of the Remembered Lands. I’ve got “A Memory of Song” and will definitely read it till the sequel arrives.
    4. Digital Extremities
    Oh, that was an absolute pleasure. A collection of short stories appearing all around the world in a short span of time. Very light cyberpunk with strong vibes of Black Mirror. Some of them were good, a couple were really great, none was mediocre. That’s a must-read for every cyberpunk fan.
    Book of the Month.
    My Book of the Month is of course “DIGITAL EXTREMITIES”. I love such stories and the writing style is very likable. “36 Broadway Avenue” is just a masterpiece. Great debut, 9 out of 10.

    And now let’s talk about winter in general and December in parrticular.
    I’ll slightly change the structure of my TBR list from now on. There will be two missions: primary and secondary. Each mission contains three items. Primary is a must, secondary is good to accomplish. Primary is a part of a bigger strategic goal, secondary is indie, fantasy, novellas, ARCs and books on other languages and/or formats. So the format is 3+3 and then, if I have some time left I’ll improvise, my TBR list is huge.
    Now the winter-spring 2024-25 goal: Foundation + Dune + New Crobuzon trilogy + The Book of the New Sun.That’s all 20 books, so in winter Foundation + the first Dune trilogy, and in spring the rest. Secondary goals will be defined on per-month basis and the list is never final.
    So, let’s focus on December now. The Foundation trilogy is my Primary Goal. The Secondary goal consists of:
    – secret ARC
    – Dust & Lightning by Rebecca Crunden
    – The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowsky on German (just to get the feeling)

    That’s all for now! See ya all in the bluesky.app

  • Review #4 – Lelith Hesperax, Queen of Knives by Mike Brooks

    Review #4 – Lelith Hesperax, Queen of Knives by Mike Brooks

    “She had a dead god to raise, and a living god to kill, and she could do neither of those things, if she was dead herself…”

    It’s very difficult to understand non-human culture.
    It’s even more difficult to explore alien goals and motivations. Mike Brooks is a well-known master of such things. He writes about orks and these books are very interesting to read. His novel “Lion, Son of Forest” is praised by every Warhammer 40000 fan, because it’s so good.

    So, I decided to read his book about Drukhari, these sadistic, violent creatures, that torture and kill other living beings to tame their thirst. Lelith Hesperax is not an ordinary Drukhari, she is he Queen of Knives (quite obvious, it’s written in the title), the most dangerous Drukhari in the Universe.
    The novel takes not a very big period of time and explores one episode in Lelith’s life. The eternal ruler of Commorragh, Drikhari city of terror, wants Lelith back. She left Commorragh to travel with Yvraine as her bodyguard, and that’s something inacceptable for Asdrubael Vect, so he sends a troupe of Harlequins to Lelith to force her to return to the Dark City. She fights the Harlequin leader, wins and returns to Commorragh, because rumors say that her clan isn’t as strong as it was before.

    That’s the introduction, the rest of the book takes place in Commorragh. And if you want to know more about the plot, you need to read a book, because I won’t tell you not even a word about events.

    What I liked
    The combat and action scenes are just mesmerizing. Every move, every punch, kick or dash are described in cinematographic details. I liked how we were introduced into Commorragh, how unthinkable and twisted the city is. The show scene in the Crow’s Palace is a perfect representation of Drukhari “culture” and lifestyle. The attack on the craftworld was described very colorfully and vividly. The last battle scene was bloody and tense.
    I liked the presence and mentioning in the book of other Warhammer 40000 races. That helped me keeping in mind that I’m reading not a separated piece of fiction, but just a glimpse of a huge universe. I was really happy to see Votann in the book.

    What could be better
    The intriguing and politicing in Commorragh should be more sophisticating (I think so) and I’d like to see more of this in the book. Also I’d also like to see more Harlequins, as these fraction is one of my favourites.

    What I didn’t like
    The constant reminders how perfect Lelith is and how dangerous and skillful and independent she is. For me that was over the top. And the overall pacing was a bit off. Some moments (craftworld) were just fantastic, some (Yvraine scenes) felt like placeholders.

    Conclusion
    In general, I liked Lelith. That was exactly what I was expecting from the book with a couple of “buts”. If you are a fan of the Warhammer 40000 universe in general and Drukhari and/or Mike Brooks in particular, then it’s a definite must-read. Otherwise, it’s on you to decide. If you want a numerical evaluation, then it’s about 7/10. Not bad, but has a potential to be better.

    You can buy yourself a book by following the link: https://amzn.to/3UJfY3R

  • October Reading Success and My November Reading List

    October Reading Success and My November Reading List

    Hello folks! October has come to the end and I’m pretty proud with the results. I read six books in October, for me it’s an outstanding result. And half of them are reviewed, but my plan is to review them all. And the books were excellent. I really enjoyed reading them. Here is the full list:

    1. T.R. Napper – The Escher Man
    2. Aaron M. Payne – Falling into Oblivion
    3. Molly Macabre – Dark Bloom
    4. Dan Abbnett – Horus Rising
    5. Mike Brooks – Lelith Hesperax: Queen of Blades
    6. Keanu Reeves, China Miéville – the book of elsewhere

    I’ll link the books with reviews, so you can check whether they are of interest to you. And here is my list for November:

    1. Gabriel García Márquez – One Hundred Years of Solitude – my wife asked me to read this book, because she needs my opinion on it, she actually thinks this book is far away from being a masterpiece, so I need to be a judge whether she is right or wrong
    2. Adam Bassett – Digital Extremities – I contacted Adam via Twitter and he sent me his book. I got it and it will be actually my monthly dose of cyberpunk. Yes, I’m addicted, so what?
    3. Maya Darjani – Ancient as the Stars – Some very promising indie space opera. I bought the first book and pre-ordered the second. I need some more science fiction in my life.
    4. William Gibson – Burning Chrome – More cyberpunk… is anyone surprised?
    5. Peter F. Hamilton – Exodus – I’ve got this book in gorgeous TBB edition. I’m looking forward to playing a game when it comes out. Before that I’ll dive into the lore of this universe.
    6. Anthony Ryan – A Tide of Black Steel – I’m a fan of the Nordic culture, and sometimes I need to read some fantasy. I heard really good reviews about Anthony Ryan’s style and prose, so let’s try it out!

    I’m pretty sure there will be some changes during the month, but that’s the initial plan. And yeah, I plan to review them all for you.

  • Review #3 – The book that has never been on my TBR list

    Review #3 – The book that has never been on my TBR list

    Not so long I’ve joined Twitter’s (yes, its name is Twitter) Book Bubble. I liked to read about new releases from the authors themselves. I adore the fact that I can communicate with authors, buy their book, read it, and then tell them about what I liked, didn’t like and, most importantly, I like to be helpful. I like to share with people my almost 40-year bookworm experience and tell them about my favorite books. The time I joined the community perfectly aligned with the start of the so-called Spooky Season, the whole month of October has been dedicated to the cruel, gory and scary world of horror fiction. I’m not really a fan of horrors myself, but you know, you need to play the game according to the rules. So I picked a couple of safe options, Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Warhammer 40k’s Lelith Hesperax, just to be in the flow, and jumped into the season.

    What else is important is that the indie community is very inventive and creative, especially when it is about their main genre. So all the indie authors started to promote their horror novel, but honestly, I’d been indifferent till some nice book trailer hit my thread. Here it is:

    And I was hooked at once. Bought the book, finished the current read and here we are looking at each other, me and this creepy skull on the cover.

    At first I was a bit bored, kind of long and fundamental setup, some very strange relationship, no, wait, not strange… abusive… cruel… wait, what? What the fuck? What did he do to HER? Shit!!! And it took me three days to finish this novel…

    I liked how the backstory of both main characters was divided in small chunks and we were spoon-fed with it along the whole book. The characters are as broken as possible, with their own flaws and fears, traumas and strengths. Their inner conflicts were written nicely and believably. Although I always felt both sympathetic and empathetic to them, I wanted them to survive. Kate, the first main character, broken by her abusive, cruel, and psychopathic husband Connor, (“I love you, Kate. Do you love me?” – fucking goosebumps…) tries to find her place in this new world after one year of their “marriage”. She has no survivalist skills except for her inhuman power of will. And Nick, an ex-marine, broken by his military service in Afghanistan, has a lot of bodies in his mind closet and is very close to killing himself. He has all the skills needed except the will to live. A perfect match, you would say…

    The world around them wasn’t nice and helpful. Usual post-apocalyptic shithole, as it is shown in every second Hollywood movie. A typical American suburb I have never been to. When imagining what it could look like, I saw scenes from “The Last of Us”, “Resident Evil”, and “Leave the World Behind”. Quite believable, but nothing special. What I liked about the world was how organically all the characters lived in this world, how they were a part of it. All the scenes were detailed enough and used a lot. And the non-main characters were really good. Every person Nick and Kate were interacting with were well-written, with their own goals, motivations, desires (that’s important), and fears (that’s even more important). Some characters were just disgusting (hey Connor), but again, very believable. Some were traditional zombie-apocalypse buddies (hello Jeff), but with a couple of differences that help them to stand out of the crowd.

    The Infected. I don’t want to spoil it at all. They were creepy, they were scary. Every encounter with them was possibly lethal for the character. There were a lot of them, different types of them and they had some kind of lore. 

    The plot is a traditional road movie. Characters are in the Point A, need to get to the Point B, occasionally making a couple of detours with a couple of pot twists and surprises. At the same time it’s amazing how well it’s written. It’s the first Molly Macabre’s novel and the writing is top tier. Action scenes are very realistic, but without much gore. Some moments are really fucking scary (laughing girl). What I found especially outstanding and touching are scenes in the basement. Oh boy, it was tough for me to crawl through them, the emotional burden was so real and overwhelming, I had to make pauses during the reading.

    The ending is fucked up. Didn’t like it at all. I don’t want to go into the spoiler area, but after all the adventures I’d prefer something more inventive. Now I’m waiting for the second book and its ending to be “the right one”.

    Some scenes were nice fan service, I liked them a lot. The whole mansion plotline, Kate reading a book, etc. Magnificent! Big and scary hospital, some dumb decisions – this book is a modern horror classics! Definitely!

    Conclusion: even if you are not into horror, like me, you will like the novel. It is a well-written, well-paced zombie horror adventure with believable broken characters and some really scary scenes. You can find some psychological thriller elements with moments that are beyond disturbing. Try it out! 

  • Review #2 – Falling into Oblivion by Aaron M. Payne

    Review #2 – Falling into Oblivion by Aaron M. Payne

    So, another book is read.
    That was quite a quick and easy read for me, thrilling detective story in bright and shiny cyberpunk setting.
    I won’t talk about the plot. I don’t want to make a review reciting the story, kinda makes no sense for me. What makes sense is to highlight strong sides of the novel and explain why it is a not five-star read.
    Let’s start from the world-building. That’s the strong part of the book. Nox City is written out in detail, some key locations were explicitly described and in general, the world is living and breathing being in the book. Night club, Swamplands the rich ass’ apartments… sometimes you even understand how it smells there just based on the descriptions.
    Setting. Cyberpunk in its best. Modifications, neon, new unknown drugs, cyberpets, all-inclusive. High tech low life as it should be. Big corporations, a couple of big criminal groups (very distinctive from each other), non-existence of social warranties and a couple of highly ethical questions raised. I liked it much.
    Let’s move to the pace. Wow! That’s actually 6 out of 5. I haven’t expected that the whole book is about less than 24 hours. It’s amazing how much of action you can stuck into such a small period of time. Action-packed, high-adrenaline detective story that will keep you tense all the time.
    Now, the prose. ehmm, that’s difficult. The language and words used look like a right tool for this case. Not really sophisticated, rough, even simple sometimes. But that’s an action novel, it should be that way. I’d prefer more exquisite expressions, especially for different characters. They kind of sound the same. Sometimes you need to return a couple of lines backwards to check who says what.
    Characters. Not protagonist, everyone else. They are well-written, with clear motivations and goals. I liked most of them. Mirk is very believable and annoying, Coleson is challenge-motivated and not really about material compensation. They are organically part of the world and feel real. Of course, you cannot open and connect a lot of them. There isn’t much time for that.
    Aaaand the weakest part in the book for me. It’s Sol. His thoughts, his actions, his demeanor. Some moments were utterly “facepalmy” for me. Like the most of night club interactions, for example. Those flashbacks were supposed to build the backbone of motivation for the main character, but for me he looked like emotionally very unstable person. Let’s say it so, I wouldn’t give a gun to this grown-up child. I tried to connect somehow with him, but I failed.
    Overall conclusion: Did I like the novel? Hell yeah! Great world-building, amazing well-paced story, immersive cyberpunk setting, all is here. I hope in the next books author will put more effort in the main character development. And yes, I’m waiting for the next book and I’ll definitely buy it.

  • Review #1 – The Escher Man by T.R. Napper

    Review #1 – The Escher Man by T.R. Napper

    Oh boy! I just love this novel!
    In the best traditions of cyberpunk this novel drags us through the high tech low life in Macau and bordered regions. How one of the reviewers said, it’s a complete mindfuck. The book starts as a usual criminal thriller, but then… I’ll provide you no spoilers. Because this book is a treasure for an engaged reader.
    Characters are well-fleshed, with understandable motivation, goals and flaws. Endgame is a beast.
    World-building is exquisite. The novel doesn’t give you any exposition, just throws you into the action and doesn’t care if you get it or not. The world is vivid, alive and believable.
    And the prose, prose is magnificent! Harsh, cruel, but limited vocabulary of thugs intervenes with sophisticated word combinations of scientists and educated people. Moments with memory flashes are written thoroughly and very realistically. T.R. Napper has just bulldozed his place in my Top-5 of favourite authors.
    But, there are some flaws as well. Nothing is perfect, you know. But here they are minor. In some chapters, the pace was sluggishly slow, I crawled through the book, waiting for some development. Especially in the Golden Dragon casino chapters… I understand that they are important for plot, but those chapters were painfully slow.
    So, the conclusion. If you love cyberpunk, just read it and you’ll like it. If you love criminal thrillers with memory manipulation, just read it and you’ll love it. If you like well-written characters and great world-building… you got it. So, I’ve got nothing more to say, just read the fucking book!

  • Hey everyone!

    My name’s Oleksa and I’m a huge SFF nerd! And therefore I decided to start my own blog. Not only to chronicle my journey into this fascinating ever-changing world, but also share my thoughts and impressions and passion with everyone who wants to listen and discuss. And, hopefully, create a small community of likely-minded. Geographically I’m situated in Berlin, Germany, so if you live nearby, jump in, let’s chat and have a couple (or more) of refreshing beverages.