Tag: Fantasy Book Reviews

“The Time of Contempt” By Andrzej Sapkowski Book Review

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Geralt is a witcher: guardian of the innocent; protector of those in need; a defender, in dark times, against some of the most frightening creatures of myth and legend. His task, now, is to protect Ciri. A child of prophecy, she will have the power to change the world for good or for ill — but only if she lives to use it.

So far it is the weakest book in The Witcher series. 

In this book for some reason Geralt stopped slaughtering monsters and began being generally your kind uncle who is arrogant but gives you cash whenever you ask for it. Which doesn’t suit Geralt because he supposed to be the bad ass witcher who is all about justice. 

The writing style again felt like a cross between Harry Potter and A Song of Ice and Fire Series. And again there were times where the writing style goes down hill for awhile. 

The thing which may annoy a lots of people is the vicious and deadly relationship drama attacks between Geralt and Yennefer which happens way too many times to even count it. Because of this, this book felt more like a romance / toxic relationship book than a fantasy book which a lots of people love.

And still women are treated as nothing more than sex toys which of course happened in the previous books as well. The author for the most part offers us a sharp,  splendid, expert, flawless depiction of the gentler females. This book is putting women in such a bad light that it is surprised that the left didn’t make it to the official feminist bible.

The plot was bad in this one. But I need to give the author points for actually trying on this one to take this book somewhere but of course with that plot you won’t get far.

The whole focus of this story was on the drama between Geralt and Yennefer and the action which should be in this book almost didn’t exist on this one. The spotlight in this book was on Geralt, Yennefer and sometimes of Ciri.

The storytelling is terrible and the potential was not even looked at by the author in this book.

The narration itself was extremely boring. Which doesn’t make the book better. 

There are parts where this book gives a huge YA fantasy vibe which again isn’t that great for someone who isn’t a fan of YA.

The characters are pretty okay. There are some good characters and there are some annoying characters. However these annoying characters really takes away this one. 

I give this book 2 / 5

“Blood of Elves” By Andrzej Sapkowski Book Review

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For over a century, humans, dwarves, gnomes, and elves have lived together in relative peace. But times have changed, the uneasy peace is over, and now the races are fighting once again. The only good elf, it seems, is a dead elf. As the threat of war hangs over the land and the child is hunted for her extraordinary powers, it will become Geralt’s responsibility to protect them all – and the Witcher never accepts defeat.

This book is very slow and very closed-off. Which really takes this book in a bad direction.

The main problem with this book (and the whole series) is that women are sexualised at almost every possible point throughout the series.

There were times when you got the vibe that the author mostly had no idea what he is talking about, especially when it came to women being involved.

The world which we get in this book is incredible and I would love to know more about it and get some different stories out of it. But this book really doesn’t use the potential of the characters nor the world. 

This book is more or less full of political intrigue. And this one doesn’t really deviate from the generic fantasy trope of races warring with races, crossing borders and sacking cities. 

There are parts where this book gives a huge YA fantasy vibe which again isn’t that great for someone who isn’t a fan of YA.

The writing style again felt like a cross between Harry Potter and A Song of Ice and Fire Series. And again there were times where the writing style goes down hill for awhile. 

The characters are pretty okay. There are some good characters and there are some annoying characters. However these annoying characters really takes away this one. 

The plot as a whole sounds very interesting but the author did not use or care about the potential which this book could have.

The dialogue were pretty uneven kindly said. There were times where the dialogues had probably way too much exposition and varied very wildly in tone to each other.

This one is my third book in The Witcher series and oh boy, this series isn’t going well with me. Which is strange because I’m a huge fan of “A Song of Ice and Fire Series”.

I give this book 3 / 5

“Sword Of Destiny” By Andrzej Sapkowski Book Review

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Geralt is a witcher, a man whose magic powers, enhanced by long training and a mysterious elixir, have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin. Yet he is no ordinary murderer: his targets are the multifarious monsters and vile fiends that ravage the land and attack the innocent. He roams the country seeking assignments, but gradually comes to realise that while some of his quarry are unremittingly vile, vicious grotesques, others are the victims of sin, evil or simple naivety.

Just as “The Last Wish” this book was also a collection of short stories which follows Geralt. However these short stories are longer than the stories from “The Last Wish”.

It’s important to mention that this book was written 1 year or so before “The Last Wish” but chronologically this book comes after “The Last Wish” so keep that mind. 

There is much action in this one than in the “The Last Wish”, and there is less drama between Geralt and Yennefer which I personally am very thankful for.

The writing style is good but still there are times were it goes downhill just as in “The Last Wish”. As well as there are times when the writing style feels like a cross between Harry Potter and A Song of Ice and Fire Series.

The characters are pretty okay. There are some good characters and there are some annoying characters. Which you can pretty much expect from a book series. Just as in “The Last Wish”.  However this one had more of these good characters and less of these annoying character as the “The Last Wish”.

This one also had more creatures in it which played bigger role than just couple of dialogues which happened in “The Last Wish”. 

 The dialogue were pretty uneven kindly said. There were times where the dialogues had probably way too much exposition and varied very wildly in tone to each other.

There were still parts which felt really boring just as in “The Last Wish”, but there were less of these parts than in the “The Last Wish”.

This book however provides you with large amount of details when it comes to Geralt’s work as the Witcher and details about many of the creatures and beats which you can find in the universe. 

This one also provides you with more details about Geralt’s and Yennefer’s relationship. Which for some people might be a big point. 

I give this book 4 / 5

"Assassin’s Creed: The Official Movie Novelization" by Christie Golden Review

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97We work in the dark to serve the light. We are assassins. Through a revolutionary technology that unlocks his genetic memories, Callum Lynch experiences the adventures of his ancestor, Aguilar, in 15th Century Spain. Callum discovers he is descended from a mysterious secret society, the Assassins, and amasses incredible knowledge and skills to take on the oppressive and powerful Templar organization in the present day

So this book is the official movie novelization of the “Assassin’s Creed” and oh boy I thought that the movie was bad. The book wasn’t better. I understand the idea of making a movie based of a book but I don’t understand the idea of writing a book based of a movie. But the movie had at Michael Fassbender.

The writing style was bad, bland and pretty much stripped of emotion even during tragic or emotionally charged moments.  The writing being so bad may have something to do with the fact that the author is not the same person who wrote the first books in this series.

I need to also point out that this book changes perspective a lot which may be very confusing for some people. There are also a lot of jumping back and forth between real world and the world which machines create.

The most of the characters in this book are so poorly written that it is hard to care about them. Like every fucking characters come out of nowhere and disappears without any reason just like a ghost would do in a horror movie. There are also plenty of characters who are boring because the author didn’t bother to tell us more about them and why we should care about them or like them

For the most part this book is full of cliffhangers because most of the chapter ends with them. And when something important happens the perspective changes to another character and you need to wait like couple of chapters for the important situation to continue. There are couple of plot holes it this book. And some of the are left unexplained at the end.

Watching the movie before you read the book will make the whole experience with this book a little bit better.

I give this book 1 / 5

«Assassin’s Creed: Renaissance» by Oliver Bowden Review

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97Betrayed by the ruling families of Italy, a young man embarks upon an epic quest for vengeance. To eradicate corruption and restore his family’s honour, he will learn the art of the assassins. To his allies, Ezio will become a force for change, fighting for freedom and justice. To his enemies, he will become a threat.

Sometimes writing a book of a video game is a bad idea. However, this book wasn’t that bad as I thought it would be. As long as you have played the games and you are a fan of them, this book will work for you.

This is the first book in the Assassin’s Creed series. If you want to compare this book to the video games than this book is basically Assassin’s Creed II (game) and not the first one as you would think.

This book are a good book, when you want to just turn off your brain and read something which is both fantasy and involves some couple historical figures and events in it.However the most historical events are given to us as memories of the characters which have some bigger part of this book.

In the end this book isn’t a great literature piece. But it is rather a extra content to the video games.

Action in this book are basically the same as it is in Assassin’s Creed II (game), and if you will rather read it than play it than you won’t miss out on anything for the most part.

Characters here are actually better described than in the games. And I liked them much more in this book than in the video games.

The writing style is very poor. But it is sort of how it ends when you write a book based of video games. The best way to describe the writing style is, that it sorts of reminds me of a game narration.

Silly and cringe parts in this book are also on point. I’m not talking about anything else than the dialogs between Ezio and the girl he has a crush on.

The ending is even more silly than the dialogs between Ezio and the girl. It is so silly and cringe that it becomes laughable.

Everyone who is a fan of the video games will more or less appreciate this book, even though it isn’t the best.

Beginning of this book was interesting, the middle was okay, and after this it went completely downhill. However I will say that this book will help you to understand more the games, if you didn’t pay much attention while you were playing or if you don’t remember much from them.

If you like fantasy books with some historical events or figures you will more or less enjoy this book. And you will have a fun time reading this book.

I give this book 2 / 5

“A Scream of Angels” by Joseph Nassise Review

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100Necromancers, revenants, even a summoned demon or two – they’re all in a day’s work for the men of the Echo Team and their enigmatic leader, Cade Williams. But nothing could prepare them for the fury they are about to face…When a Jesuit priest wanders out of the New Mexico desert, telling wild stories about a secret research installation and bloodthirsty demons hunting through its halls, the Echo Team is called in to deal with the situation. Their orders – investigate the facility, determine exactly what happened there, and deal with any infernal presence that might exist.But the being they encounter there beneath the desert sands has found a way to break the bonds of Hell itself and doesn’t plan on going back easily. This time, their foe might prove to be too much for even the best the Templars have to offer.

A Scream of Angels is the second book in the “The Templar Chronicles”. And the whole series is kind of a Paranormal Fantasy type of series. There are demons, ghouls, swords swat team which can fight against the paranormal, etc in this series.

This book isn’t an advanced read, its rather a relaxing and fun read. Which you may want to get after you read something very heavy.  Generally this book isn’t a good book but it isn’t either a bad book, mostly it is an okay book.

This book is interesting but it’s not even close to what I’ve expected from it. This book is fun to read but it also have a lot of boring or even cringe parts every now and then. It isn’t a big deal after all.

The writing style is for the most part decent, it isn’t bad but it isn’t good either. There are some moments which made me feel like it could have been written better. There are also stuff which have would better instead of the stuff which was actually written in the book. In the end these are small things but together they are actually not so small. However this book or the book series isn’t for the most part meant for someone PH.D degree, but rather for teens who likes to read.

There are couple of plot holes in this book. an example can be the mirror-traveling-ish. There are a lot of magic in this book which I found confusing and hard to follow with. One of the main plot holes which blow my mind was at the beginning of the book when one of the main characters magically healed out of nowhere after being injured and almost dying

The characters are okay. Most of them were like pretty okay, they weren’t interesting enough but there weren’t neither completely trashy.  The main characters was some kind of better than the side characters. Because you could feel the relationship which they had with each other.

This whole book feels like something which kids in grade school would read. But it also works fine for adults who are starting their adventure with fantasy books or books in general. Because it is an easy to understand book and you don’t need to have PH.D degree in fantasy knowledge to like and understand this book. It is a good book when you want to shut down your brain and just relax for a moment.

This book works fine as long as you don’t question anything which is happening in this book. Stupid decisions taken by the characters is also something to keep in mind if you considering to read this book.

The story itself feels like it was used somewhere, but in the end it is good and pretty interesting overall.

This book gets 2 / 5