This is not a book based post, sorry, its more of an apology. We're being a bit slow with the posts and it might get a bit worse for a couple of months because, unfortunately, the only reading we're going to be doing... is revision. Urrrrrgghhh. Though doubtless we shall heartily procrastinate upon our personal blogs, we will be denied too much time to read. But be not afeared. Cruelly 3 of Beth's favourite authors are releasing series enders 8 days before the end of exams. Her housemate will probably be locking the amazon parcels in her wardrobe to prevent Beth from failing forensic linguistics.
Both of us have substantial to be read piles and shall spend our free month at the end of uni when we're not partying, BBQing, or chewing our nails in terror of results day reading and reviewing! So hold tight. This is the last set of exams for us ever and thusly we shouldn't be too interrupted hereafter!
Chin- Chin!
Beth & Brown xx
Tuesday, 18 March 2014
Monday, 10 March 2014
Oh bother.... Throne of Glass, Crown Of Midnight... A Review.
Kindles, my friends are devious little blighters. Them and their tricksy ways.
"Oooo" says Kindle "I'm sleek and thin, I save space, you can buy books and not have to worry about shelf space." What Kindle doesn't say is what it says behind your back, rubbing its hands with malicious glee. "Muhahahaha, gullible human. They shall now buy ALL the books because I, master schemer, plotter, and genius extraordinaire that I am,will bamboozle them, ensare them and entice them. 99p books a plenty, hmm a series you say... Lets make the first one free... AND CHARGE FOR THE REST, ALL 7 OF THEM! We'll let them try samples, and not just short snippets, 3 long chapters, so much to entice them in so that they unthinkingly hit my gorgeous orange 'Buy Now with One Click" Button, as they will be by this point emotionally invested in the characters! Oh! How I shall line the pockets of Amazon! How I shall suck them into worlds they would otherwise never have encountered! And the hopeless sod will still find themselves in Waterstones, at the till with 3 books they didn't mean to buy...Ooooo I'm gloriously devious and yet, the human still loves my shiny brightness, even as their bank account cries "No! No More! You must eat! Pay your rent, wash your clothes!" But No! I am crafty! I shall dangle the book deal of the century in front of them and they shall scamper after it. FOOLS!"
See how malevolent the Kindle is? How Amazon have pulled off a Coup de Grâce like this I shall never know, but I salute you. You and your fiendishly addictive books.
It was by just such a manipulation, wrought by my ever mischievous Kindle, that I discovered Sarah J. Maas' Throne of Glass series.
Oh dear. Blog Fans this series has a serious problem.
Heir of Fire isn't out 'til September and now I have to waaait! Waaaaaah!
On the Upside the collection of prequel Novellas will be landing on my Kindle on Thursday :) Woooo more sabre sharp wit.
I tell you my Kindle is truly a conniving so and so.
I have however read the first 2 books. Which I could not put down. I killed my Kindle's battery supply, I started reading it on the app on my iPhone that too ran out of power (I should probably point out that they neither had much left in them to start with), I ignored The Brown to read this book, I was almost late to church because I was trying to read it and do my make up at the same time. (I wouldn't recommend it, its not worth stabbing your eye with mascara, NOTHING IS!), I came back from church and devoured the second in one afternoon. With a total reading time of maybe 6 hours for both books I emerged from my room emotionally beaten and ready to battle. The world of Celaena Sardothien is totally absorbing, mysterious, dangerous, filled with beautiful clothes, sharp pointy objects and banter so witty it hurts.
This is fantasy so good it poses actual danger to your health.
Celaena Sardothien is the deadliest assassin in the world. She's also in Prison, forced to labour in a salt mine after having been caught after falling into a trap.
However her life is about to change, forced to compete in a contest to become the king's champion , to officially hold the title of Adarlan's Assassin. Faced with the choice of compete and have the chance to win your freedom or stay here and die, Celaena unsurprisingly, goes to the capital Rifthold to compete. Full of intrigue mind bendingly complex relationships, conspiracy, double dealing, and a good dose of not so dead as everyone thought, mythology and magic.
The Friendship between Celaena and her friend Nehemia (Mia as in the short form of Amelia, not the biblical prophet Nehemiah) the first one she can remember having for a long time, is beautiful and strong and spends more time discussing things like saving 1000s of slave workers in prisons just like the one Celaena was in because unlike Calaena most of them are the innocent victims of a war waged across the continent by the tyrannical king of Adarlan, a man Celaena hates, the man she is competing to serve.
A man, that to save herself, the other oppressed kingdoms and her friends she must defy. It makes amazing reading. One review I read said it was Cinderella crossed with The Hunger Games, No. This is so much more than that. The second book is even better than the first, if not tenser, pacier, steamier - yes there's a love interest in both books,but as with everything with Celaena nothing is straightforward, now where was I? Ah Steamier, more mysterious and twistier. And leaves you gagging for the next book. Trust no-one and whatever you do, do not upset Celaena!
So Please Ms. Maas
HUUUURRY!!!
So far a 4 star effort keep up the standard to the end and it might become a five.
Now I have to go read the other book my sneaky Kindle conned me into downloading.
Beth x
Can Wiping the Mind, Change Who You Are? The Slated Trilogy.
One afternoon in June, I once again found myself in the far corner of King St. Waterstones, crounched on the floor investigating books. Fractured had been popping up on my Kindle for months and here in front of me was its predecessor. Interest piqued I flipped it open. Then it ended up in a carrier bag and on its way back to Sibsey Street. Less than 24 hours later I was back, picking up the sequel, then came the waiting until Friday (OK, I started this blog a long time ago its now like 3 Fridays ago..., when I returned to find the final instalment awaiting me. Giddy with glee I plunged back into a Britain very unlike the one we know.
The year is 2054 and Britain is under a totalitarian Law and Order (Lorder) regime, in the wake of riots that brought the country to its knees. A Britain cut off from the rest of the world, a 1984-esque deceptive idyll.
In the Britain's answer to The Hunger Games, Matched or Divergent, Teri Terry (I only hope she married into the double name - otherwise those are some evil parents) has crafted a thrilling dystopian mystery, with a plot that thickens at every turn every answer posing more riddles than it solves and for the most part a breakneck pace that deservedly places it in league with the aforementioned giants. I can only theorise that it's British setting is the reason for its relative anonymity.
Kyla, is a slated. A juvenile offender whose punishment is to have her memory wiped, thus resetting her personality, and making it almost impossible for her to re-offend. Placed in an adoptive family she adjusts to life, knowing only what she has been told, the past a door completely closed to her. Only it isn't. Kyla is remembering things she shouldn't be and the Levo on her wrist (the device used to monitor and control Slateds) isn't working as it should. Over the course of 3 books we follow Kyla's search for her true identity, breaking lots of laws in the process, and the downfall of a regime that is not what it seems.
This is not just a coming of age tale, this is an examination of a nation and its relationship with its young people. A questioning look at law and order, punishment and human rights and the role a government should play in it. It is a beautiful exercise in highlighting the importance of free speech and democracy. But most of all this book is about memory. What makes us who we are, what shapes us, defines us. Are we what we remember, or are we, a predefined person, are we inherently good, or inherently bad? By the end of shattered each character has a different view, a different notion of what makes a person who they are, and more importantly who they want to be.
For those fans of all the trendy isms, This Trilogy more than passes the Bechdel test. Women occupy a lot the major roles, the movers and shakers of Kyla's immediate world are women, be they protagonist or antagonist. There are no one dimensional characters here, yes there are tropes, the ones who will do anything for power the ones who want anything but power, etc but fiction just as in life only has an very exhausted supply of ideas; and yes literary buffs some people are just that evil and self interested; but no of those tropes feels like that each character is well crafted and expertly woven into the narrative fabric the complex fabric of which keeps twisting and turning and slapping you in the face with yet another wet kipper of astonishment until the very end. Unless you're talking about the love element - because it's blatantly obvious how that will end from book one, though I suppose that one is all down to how you react to the character.
Anyway that aside: Rather Excellent
4 stars!
Bethxx
P.S I rarely give out 5 stars The Book Thief however MADE ME CRY and that takes astounding writing. Or being very over tired, but I can tell the difference between the two.
Kyla, is a slated. A juvenile offender whose punishment is to have her memory wiped, thus resetting her personality, and making it almost impossible for her to re-offend. Placed in an adoptive family she adjusts to life, knowing only what she has been told, the past a door completely closed to her. Only it isn't. Kyla is remembering things she shouldn't be and the Levo on her wrist (the device used to monitor and control Slateds) isn't working as it should. Over the course of 3 books we follow Kyla's search for her true identity, breaking lots of laws in the process, and the downfall of a regime that is not what it seems.
This is not just a coming of age tale, this is an examination of a nation and its relationship with its young people. A questioning look at law and order, punishment and human rights and the role a government should play in it. It is a beautiful exercise in highlighting the importance of free speech and democracy. But most of all this book is about memory. What makes us who we are, what shapes us, defines us. Are we what we remember, or are we, a predefined person, are we inherently good, or inherently bad? By the end of shattered each character has a different view, a different notion of what makes a person who they are, and more importantly who they want to be.
For those fans of all the trendy isms, This Trilogy more than passes the Bechdel test. Women occupy a lot the major roles, the movers and shakers of Kyla's immediate world are women, be they protagonist or antagonist. There are no one dimensional characters here, yes there are tropes, the ones who will do anything for power the ones who want anything but power, etc but fiction just as in life only has an very exhausted supply of ideas; and yes literary buffs some people are just that evil and self interested; but no of those tropes feels like that each character is well crafted and expertly woven into the narrative fabric the complex fabric of which keeps twisting and turning and slapping you in the face with yet another wet kipper of astonishment until the very end. Unless you're talking about the love element - because it's blatantly obvious how that will end from book one, though I suppose that one is all down to how you react to the character.
Anyway that aside: Rather Excellent
4 stars!
Bethxx
P.S I rarely give out 5 stars The Book Thief however MADE ME CRY and that takes astounding writing. Or being very over tired, but I can tell the difference between the two.
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