Birdish Book Blog

[Originaly posted on tumblr on 7. February 2013]

‘The Name of the Wind' by Patrick Rothfuss is one of those books that already had me wonder if I would like it or not before I even read it. The thing is you'll stumble over many different reviews about this book online. The majority of people who read it either hates it or loves it. I didn't know what to expect.

The most important thing first: I really liked Denna. I only figured out today that the author actually identifies himself as a feminist and I think it really shows in the novel when it comes to Denna. Though the description the main character gives of her at first puzzled me a little because it does seem a bit shallow if the first thing the protagonist says about the person who is probably the love of his life is “she’s beautiful” without commenting about her personality. Then again, we get to know her better along the way so the author makes up for this not so great introduction.

Kvothe himself is one of those characters on the verge of being too perfect. Even with his great skills he sometimes fails and that’s good and there are times when he has the worst of luck. Still, he makes it out quite well of many situations. His childhood story is very tricky, though he doesn’t dwell on it wherever he goes and that balances it out very well in my opinion.

All in all I really enjoyed reading this book and I will get myself the second book sometime this year. There were some parts where the writing was a bit “too much” for my taste when it comes to descriptions but it’s nothing that would make me stop reading. The worldbuilding is great in this book and considering that the author spent a massive amount of years on making up this world this is not surprising at all. (For example: The main character even gives you an overview of etiquette of different parts of the world when it comes to kissing the hand of a woman as a greeting.) It’s also nice that different folks in this story believe into different things. So yeah, I think this is a great book and I’m glad I finally read it.

(Also, though there are not many female characters in this book they actually don’t act as decoration. But I guess in this book are more female characters than in most books in this corner of the Fantasy genre.)

[Originally posted on tumblr on 3. February 2013]

‘Needful Things' by Stephen King was among my stack of books I bought about two years ago when I didn't know yet what to read. I guess I didn't read it for such a long time because the number of pages and formatting was still unusual to me.

I guess I can’t really say much about the book other that I thought it was very fascinating. It has a long list of characters and at some point I had a little trouble remembering who was who but it was easy to figure it out again. I was happy about how it ended since there are some characters I really like. :’) (In before: “but I like bad endings better”: Boohoo, this is my post, write your own one without reblogging other people’s texts).

So far I don’t have much experience with Horror books and this is only the third book by Stephen King I read. I can only say, if it’s like in the three books by Stephen King I read so far I guess I like the Horror genre so far. :’)

[Originally posted on Tumblr on 21. January 2013]

I finished this omnibus of three Dragonriders books: ‘Dragonflight’, ‘Dragonquest’ and ‘The White Dragon’.

I already saw some reviews about how Lessa is ‘such a Mary Sue’ in the first book. I want to complain about that. Lessa is a female character in a genre that obviously has mostly male heroes. The books were also published in a time in which male heroes were probably standard in Science Fiction. The author herself proclaimed often enough that the Pern books were Science Fiction. I’m no genre guru, so let’s say it’s SciFi with a tiny dash of Fantasy because of the dragons.

Back to Lessa: She doesn’t really know how she wants to do things until everything falls into place. In the book, F’lar tells her that dragon and rider are often alike. Less has amibitions, she’s strong headed. No surprise then that her dragon Ramoth is a huge beast that lays many awesome eggs. Or something like that. Sure, she does a lot of great things but for me she lacks the usual traits of a Mary Sue: Not everyone likes Lessa. As a matter of fact, even her later weyrmate F’lar seems to be sceptical of her at first.

The three books read like one big story but there’s one thing to it: The books have a lot of excess story. Don’t get me wrong, that’s not so bad. It’s actually interesting to get to know Pern better. Then again, it does nothing for the story. I guess you find this much excess only in older books. Nowadays most writing advice has shortening down books to the size of 75k to 100k or alike suggestions.

Then, there’s the threat of Thread. That’s sporse from a planet that comes too close to Pern every 200 years or so. Or does the fall of Thread last 200 years? I’m suddenly not so sure about that anymore. I can’t even grasp the concept of how a solar system can attract a ‘stray planet’, then again, these books are old and we’re talking about fiction here. Especially since you’d expect things like spores to burn when trying to get into Pern’s atmosphere. While I like the idea of people fighting an enemy that doesn’t even think the flaws of the story still get to me.

A thing I love though is the plot about re-discovering how ‘the ancient ones’ did things and their equipment. And so on. Unfortunately ‘The White Dragon’ finishes shortly after the characters discover a space ship. I wonder if there’s a book about that part so I’m still unsure about reading other Pern books.

Well, I liked the idea good enough and I liked the dragons and most of the characters, especially Jaxom and Ruth. I also liked Lessa in the first and second book. In the third book she was a little too … seasoned, if you know what I mean. (I’m not even sure what I mean myself.) She didn’t lose any edge though and that’s great. :)

About the dragons now: They are interesting. In case you didn’t know about how Paolini stole that one for Eragon - the dragons are linked to their riders. With their minds. It’s a very intimate bond. Not the kind you’d have with a pet or something (especially since that’s mostly one-sided). The dragons of Pern are intelligent beasts which love their riders dearly. So dearly that they suicide when their rider dies.

Cheers everyone! The garish purple cover of this book looks great on my bookshelf. :’D

[Originally posted on tumblr on 27. January 2013]

I have no idea about literary fiction. Well, I guess I know what it is, or what it’s supposed to be but I never picked up a book I knew was literary fiction on purpose. Well, I picked up 'Island' by Jane Rogers on purpose because the movie adaption (with Colin Morgan - the original reason I watched this movie) was a bit confusing and I couldn’t understand most of the dialogues because of the accents (cut me some slack at this point - English isn’t my native language). The thing is, people shelved this as literary fiction on Goodreads so I guess that’s probably it.

What can I say? It’s an interesting book that makes it hard to root for the main character. Who is a strong young woman and that’s what I really like about this book.

At first this story seems to take a long time to actually get going. You have your main character there telling you all kind of things about her. Of course from the beginning. Sort of. Then, there’s finally some interaction with other characters. This book is also full of some (but not mainly) other stories. Short fairy tales the main character gets told by her brother and one story she herself tells.

I could probably go on and sum up the story but you wouldn’t want that. Especially since it’s a bit … depressing. Not the kind that makes you cry because like I said, it’s hard to root for the main character in this book.

[Originally posted on tumblr on 18. January 2013]

Another day, another book finished. ‘I Am Legend’ by Richard Matheson.

Robert Neville is a glass cage of raw, violent emotions. He does the things he needs to do to stay alive about living corpses and infected people, among vampires.

Or at least so I thought in the beginning. The horror is probablyin the detail. The things about being alone when it comes to a character who craves companionship while he’s among monsters.

Then there’s the insight about how the vampires came about. The infection, everything. I like this theory of vampires. Science vampires. :)

Well, I liked the book. Not much else to say.

[Originally posted on Tumblr on 16. January 2013]

I finished reading ‘Q and A' by Vikas Swarup today.

I really enjoyed reading this while at the same time wondering about how over the top the bad things are that happen to the characters. I don’t know much about India so it’s not my place to assume if these bad things in the novel could actually all happen to one person. The thing is only that I really doubt it.

The Epilogue leaves a weird after-taste since it’s only a summary of the things that happened after the last regular chapter. /:

I really like happy ends but sometimes they seem a bit too much. This book is about a guy who runs into one problem after the other and every single one of them is truly dreadful. Then all of sudden everythings all right again and awesome. It’s one of those ‘from rags to riches’ stories but the ‘rags’ part is over the top.

Or, whatever. I don’t really know what to think about this book. It seems a bit ill-balanced to me, that’s all.

[originally posted on tumblr on 6. January 2013]

Oh wow. Something random and of not much importance, I guess, but one of the things I love about ‘The Count of Monte Christo' is that it was written in a time in which people said that they would love another person even if it was about friendship and not in the sense of a romantic relationship. Albert says at one point that he loves the count of Monte Christo. He says “I love him”. He also says this about his friend Beauchamp. :)

[Originally posted on tumblr on 24. Octover 2012]

I started reading 'Clouds and Rain' by Zahra Owens.

D’aww. I get the feeling that all the stories published by Dreamspinner Press are this cute. I’m not talking about ‘shounen ai fanfiction’ type of cute, I’m talking about ‘men have feelings too while staying totally cool about it’ kind of cute. Like, ohnoes, guy A can’t tell guy B that he thinks he’s hot because woah, we still got some work to do around here. At the same time, there’s no nonesense about blushing at things like this. This is about men with chest hair. And so on. And sweat and actually, people in these stories have lube and don’t use bullshit like salvia or blood. Derp.

Or something like that.
I sometimes like easy reads like this. :’D

(Trololol this entry is mostly about gay porn. To be honest: this and ‘Seducing C.C.’ are the only books of this type I own and I bought them quite randomly in the spur of the moment.)

[Originally posted on tumblr on 22. October 2012]

… I really tried liking that book by Wladimir Wassiljew which he set in Lukanyenko’s ‘watch’ universe but somehow the characters never manage to get into action. So far the majority of scenes take place with the characters sitting around and talking. There was only one real confrontation and some action but it was described in a really obscure way. I can’t blame the translator on this one because hey, I could see that this one big action scene was obviously a hell of a job to translate.

I’m already on page 316 of 408 but I doubt there will be any more ‘action’ yet. Reading this books feels like waiting for the middle part … for an endless amount of time. The author’s theories are really nice and all, but nothing’s really happening.

Because really now, the ‘Watch’ series is about magic in an urban enviroment and offers countless of opportunities for stuff to happen. I can’t remember Lukanyenko writing most of his stories with the characters sitting around and drinking their brains out.

[Originally posted on tumblr on 13. October 2012]

'Cujo' is the second book by Stephen King I’m reading and woah, really now … I really like how he portrays his characters. Especially his female characters! They’re not ‘just there’. They are people, like any other character and that’s really great.

Also, I like how this is frightening on a more psychological level than all those dumbed-down horror movies that are just about showing you gruesome pictures of dismembered bodies. Urgh.

[Originally posted on tumblr on 8. October 2012]

A random story:

Last year my father wanted to borrow an english book from me. Since he prefers hardcover books and I have a habit of buying mostly paperbacks (they’re cheaper - get over it) he grabbed the only hardcover book on my shelf: 'Forgiveness' by Jim Grimsley.

Several months later when I visited my parents I asked him if he finished reading it because unfortunately my father has a habit of not giving books back that he borrowed.

Turns out he couldn’t get past the first page because he didn’t get that the first scene in the book is the main character’s interpretation of a TV spot about a SUV.

This book is basically about the main character plotting to kill his wife who spent all his money on stuff like cosmetic operations, clothes and the like. He even goes on fantasizing about how he would be famous and get an interview on TV an things like that. Since he’s out of work he doesn’t have much else to do all day long… He finally succeeds and kills his wife - unfortunately he kills his son too (who mocks his father).

I really like Grimsley. I mean, some of the stuff he writes about seems quite weird and whatever. This guy was basically the reason why I started reading books in English - because most of his books were either not available translated into German or they were out of print. Oh what, I think I have to re-read this book.

[Originally posted on tumblr on 4. October 2012]

I remember promising a post about ‘The Eagle of the Ninth' by Rosemary Sutcliff. I'm not so sure when it comes to writing about this since it says on the back cover that millions of copies have been sold of this book. So I'll just assume that a lot of people actually already read this book and don't need my opinion on it.

On the other hand: I’m a young person who likes to read stuff. Especially books. Also, I don’t know how popular historical fiction is right now. Probably not so much with the fantasy and vampire hype still going on right now. (Or was it werewolves? Zombies? This changes all the time!)

Be warned: Lots of Spoilers ahead!

The thing I really love about this book is that the main character isn’t just ‘some guy from the legions’ - he’s a character who at least tries to understand the people around him. It would be too easy to just say ‘oh well, the Celts were brutes’. That would be too easy. Nope. The author actually made an effort of showing some of their culture and created a main character that even went hunting with a tribesman.
When Marcus, the main character, buys the gladiator Esca he never sees him as his slave. He even gives him the better position as ‘body slave’ which as Esca carrying a spear around and sleeping in Marcus’ room in his own kind-of bed. He even lets Esca go hunting for wolves even though he knew that Esca could just run away into the wilds if he really wanted to. The friendship between these two characters is amazing.
These two paragraphs are full of things that were left out in the movie adaption: Marcus’ try to be on equal terms with the tribes people was completely ignored here, so was him treating Esca as his equal. Also the Britons were shown as wild people, like barbarians without a ‘real’ culture. That was lame. Good for the author that she didn’t live to see that.
Another thing is that Marcus isn’t all the times overly obsessed with bringing back his father’s eagle. After all, the main issue about the lost eagle is actually that it could be dangerous for Rome if its enemies across the Hadrian’s Wall had one of those eagle standards. Secondly, the Ninth Legion (or any legion at all) can’t be re-established without the eagle.
Before Marcus actually heads out he gives Esca his freedom since he thinks that it’s wrong to ask someone who isn’t free to follow him. On their journey Marcus disguises as a healer of sore eyes and isn’t found out until they manage to actually get the eagle. This is less spectacular as in the movie but more logical and more interesting in my opinion.
The only thing I didn’t quite like was that the author suddenly threw in some kind of tiny love story between Marcus and his neighbour Cottia. That sounded like the editor or publisher wanted it to be in there. But well, it was subtle enough to put off as ‘well, every character needs an especially happy ending’. As for Esca: since he helped bringing the eagle back he’s granted the citizenship of Rome.
I think Esca truly had the happiest ending of all of them.

I can only recommend this book.

[Originally posted on tumblr on 1. September 2012]

According to the pages in the back of the book S.E. Hinton wrote ‘The Outsiders’ at the age of fifteen/sixteen.

I think that’s extremely amazing.

Compared to all those famed ‘teenage writers’ of the last few years this book is actually genuinley good without considering the age the author was when she wrote it. Then again, to be fair this was first published in 1967. Things surely were different back then, especially the hobbies of most kids.

I’m only 51 pages into this book and it already amazes me how ‘real’ the main character seems to be and every other character. Well, yes, the author was inspired by real life events and so on, but you still have to be pretty good to write something like this.

[Originally posted on tumblr on 27. September 2012]

I finished reading Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey. Sorry, there might be Spoilers.

My expectation from reading the text on the back cover:

Awesome genetically modified heroine deals out vigilance justice in the confined space of a locked down city. Oh, did I mention that she’s a lesbian?

What’s actually in this book:

The daughter of a genetically modified man loses her mother and moves in with the other orphans who get her to do some vigilance justice thing which keeps being small until she flings a gigantic rock at a military jeep. Then her brother dies because of a boxing match and she starts training to defeat the guy who did it.
Oh, and the only person she’s ever able to fall in love with is some girl. (Without any extremely explicit scenes. Everything was kind of vague … oh well, I’m still unsure what to think about this. It’s a nice way of getting away with sex scenes without suddenly writing porn.)

It’s an interesting book nonetheless and even though I was never under the impression that the main character, Loup, really showed much emotion (it’s like the author forgot about that most of the time) it’s really at some points a heart-wrenching story of a kid who tries to survive.

I really enjoyed reading this book but I’m not sure if I want to read the sequel.

Oh btw, there are no werewolves in this book. But at some point the genetically modified humans were called ‘wolf-men’.

[Originally posted on tumblr on 31. August 2012]

'The Last Unicorn' by Peter S. Beagle is for some reason sad and tragic but full of magic.

I thought at first this was considered a book for children. Oh, how wrong I was!

There is so much bitterness in this story, so much grief and then at the same time there is sometimes a laugh to be found.

Comparing it to the movie adaption there is only one thing that irks me that they left it out in the movie: Schmendrick’s immortality. This makes his character in the movie extremely different from the book. In the book he is a man in search for his power but that is not his only goal, because he will remain immortal until his great power is under his control.

If you didn’t read this book yet: Please consider reading it.

[Originally posted on tumblr on 23. August 2012]

I started reading “Gifts” by Ursula K. Le Guin and asldfkajdf why is everything she writes so addictive?

Orrec is so awwwwww.

Poor guy.

D:

I hope he ends up in a better situation. Or something like that.

(Also, what’s up with Emmon? If he actually had a clue about the ‘gifts’ he would sound like he had a death wish or something…)

[Originally posted on tumblr on 31. August 2013]

Oh, why is every book of the ‘Annals of the Western Shore' series this tragic?

I can’t … anymore. D:

But I have to keep on reading and at the same time I fear the end of the book because the third is the last (so far?).

Oh this beautiful pain.

;__;