Tag: Polish Author Book Review

“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

“Inkub” by Artur Urbanowicz Review

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Two eras. Two stories. One village. One witch. One curse. Imagine you can do anything. Even cheat death. A young district attendant, who soon commits suicide, has a keen interest in the mysteries of the village. The case of his death is being investigated by Vytautas Česnauskis, a policeman of half Lithuanian origin from the municipal headquarters in Suwałki. He discovers that Jodozior’s dark history has its roots in the seventies

This book has around 730 pages, which may scare off some people. Because you will need at least 2 – 3 weeks to finish it. And this size scared me at the beginning and I needed couple of weeks to actually start reading it. But when I began reading it, I read this book in 2 weeks. 

The whole plot of this book felt to me at least really overrated because there are dozens and dozens of books about witches, curses and haunted houses. But Artur Urbanowicz in this books shows us that you can actually write something original, unique and good in the topics which now on days are overrated.

Ive done some research and I found out that this story is based on a true real life legend of a village in the Suwałki County in Poland. The whole legend is very similar to this book when it comes to the basics here. Which are allegedly a witch living in a small village who had create a curse on a village. But let’s go back to the book. 

In this book Artur Urbanowicz really shows that not only Stephen King can write brilliant, scary and creepy books with eerie moods to them. 

This book is written in a similar way to “It” by Stephen King because it involves two different time periods in it. And every chapter goes from 1971 to 2016 and back to 1971. However I personally felt that this was very annoying in “It” by Stephen King because it was too long and a lots of parts could have been edited out, but this book was different then “It” by Stephen King. Everything which is in this book feels like it needs to be there just to see the whole picture of this book which it presents to its readers.

Because of the reason that this book goes back and forth between 1971 and 2016, the reader feels like we are lost somewhere in time. Because of the reason that we see the two stories from two different points in life happening side by side. 

This book (at the time of writing) has not been translated to English or any other language except of polish. But I do hope it will be soon for all fans of the horror genre. Because this book is something which every horror reader and horror fan should read. Because this book shows that a you can get a different perspective on a topic which now on days with all these games, books and tv shows have been over used so many times.

I need to say that it is sort of hard to get into this book for the first couple of chapters but as the story reveals that there might be something more to the infamous village it sort of drags you in and you cant stop reading it.

The writing style itself can be compared with Stephen King. Because this book holds onto you until you finish it, and it really stays in your mind for a long time. The writing style in this book makes you feel like you are a part of the story and like you are following the main characters from 1971 and 2016.

The atmosphere in this book seems like a cross between Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King. Because you have the witch character which 

sort of gives you the gothic vibe because of the black dress she uses and as well as the demons, ghosts and hallucinations which Stephen King really loves you use in his books.

The ending is a banger. Because it ends with a juicy and big cliffhanger. Which really makes you want that this book would have a sequel to it, but you know after finishing this book that the sequel would ruin the whole fun you had with this book.

For a really long time I personally was waiting to read so good book as this one. Since “outsider” by Stephen King which was in November of 2020, I haven’t read anything that good.

I give this book 5 / 5

“Messi. Mały chłopiec, który stał się wielkim piłkarzem.” By Yvette Żółtowska-Darska Review

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96He was nine years old when he smashed the bathroom glass in order to catch the match. Ten – when it stopped growing. Thirteen – when he left his family home and moved to another continent. Today, admired by millions of people around the world, Messi is a touching story about football, but not only. Also of unprecedented talent and great modesty. About the fact that nothing comes easy. Finally – about the fact that it is always worth dreaming.

This biography is meant for kids, just for the record. It involves a lot of photos and illustrations which really makes it fun to read.

At the time of writing this review, this book is only available in polish. Which is bad because a lot of you who are reading this will be not able to read it at least for now at least.

This book is a quick read because as you may imagine, authors needs to keep it sort for kids to actually read it. You can probably read this book in one sitting, which is pretty cool.

The writing style is not what you are probably used to. Because it is written in a such way that a child would find it interesting. Language itself is also very easy, and words here or on the level with 3 grade or so.

I give this book 1 / 5

"Co Naprawdę Myśli Elon Musk" by Maciej Gablankowski Review

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It’s important to keep in mind that at the time of writing this review this book is only available in polish.

I’m not sure if you can call this a book a book because everything you will find in it is comments and statements made by Elon musk. Which means that this so-called book can’t be reviewed as a “normal” book.

All these comments which you will find in this book are about Elon Musk’s future plans / ideas, Tesla, SpaceX and about Solarcity. So, everything you can read in this book can be found on the internet somewhere and probably much better explained.

I need to be honest here, if you aren’t interested in Tesla, SpaceX or what Elon Musk and you don’t know anything about them than maybe this book isn’t the best idea to read for the moment.

However, don’t get me wrong, this book is amazing to have. Because you have all important comments and statements said by Elon Musk in one place. And if you will need it someday you know where to look.

It’s a short book, with a lot of empty space so as you may think, it’s a very quick read. Which can be read in 2-3 hours if you try.

Before reading this book you need to know something about Tesla, Space x and Elon musk just to fully understand this book.

I give this book 2 / 5

" Jedna na milion" by Katarzyna Pawluś Review

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94“No request is too bold, no need is too great. Hope for a miracle is never absurd. Katarzyna Pawluś, experienced by fate, pampered by God, sets a task for us to measure up to our strength. He writes about miracles, making dreams come true and love in a very difficult time, when he is ill and fights for his life. A little humorous, a bit reflective, but always with unwavering faith in man – in his good and wisdom, with the message “You are a miracle!”.

So another biography. which probably shouldn’t exist. Don’t get me wrong I like to read biographies because you can always learn something but this one was just to bad.

This woman have a rare and unexplored illness which doesn’t make her life to a Disney story. But this book more or less fails to show that.

This book is basically a collection of blog posts made into a book. Which is more or less and bad idea.

It is up to you if you want to pay for this book which is basically bunch of blogs posts put together into a book. And by the way, these blog posts which are in this book are available on her blog for free.

This book overall feels like it has no end, because you know who wants to read blog posts for couple of hours.

I give this book 1 / 5

"Czarna Madonna" by Remigiusz Mróz Review

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98Irish Airlines Boeing 747 was due to land in Tel Aviv at three in the morning. He never made it to the site and contact with the machine was lost somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea. There were 520 people on board, including Philip’s fiancée, who was to make a pilgrimage to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. For the first hours, Filip believes that the plane will find itself. There is no indication of an attack, the coast guard does not find the wreckage, and from time to time the air traffic control receives a signal from a transponder. What happened to the Boeing? How is his disappearance related to similar events?

This book is sort of a religious horror if you can name this book as so. It is definitely a horror book which involves a lots of religious artefacts in it. So take that for what you want. It is important to point out that this book at the time of writing this review is only available in polish.

The whole plot was unique and interesting. But if you are not a religious person or you believe in some other religion than Christianity than you will find this book bad or confusing just like I did. Because it involves a lots of artefacts and details from Christianity which for someone who doesn’t know much about this religion will find confusing.

This book have a lot of positive opinions about it. But in the end this book could have been better.

We have two main characters in this book. These two characters are named Filip and Kinga, yeah I know very polish names. But they relationship is confusing a lot. Because Filip was a priest and Kinga is the sister of his fiancé. And they two have sort of a thing between them and the reason why Filip was dating her sister was because he wanted to be close to her. Yeah confusing. And throughout this book, there are points where Filip begins to have the huge monologs in his head about how much he wants to be together with Kinga not her her sister.

We have couple of characters in this book. But all of them expect of Kinga and Filip are boring and flat. It almost feels like the author didn’t care about all the other characters expect of the two main characters. However there are times when Filip feels so damn flat as a character and he the typical priest which basically goes “sorry, cant do that its against the stuff I believe in”. But there also times when he goes from the typical priest to a person who hires a medium and thinks that it will solve everything.

There are times where Filip acts like a complete teenager and most of the time when this happened you can expect that it involves Kinga. And it is important to say that when his wife come back at the end of this book it feels like they two are enemies and not dating and about to get married.

Writing style is pretty much good. The writing makes it easy to get quickly through this book. And the language is easy almost too easy.

Ending is confusing even more. There is a huge twist at the end which took me almost a day to understand. But the ending really isn’t so good as the rest of the book.

The whole idea behind this book is amazing. The idea of Filip being a retired priest and him sort of being possessed by demons together with that twist at the ending is priceless. But there are a lot of things which could have been better with this book.

The beginning is good, and there are times where this book goes down hill but in the end this book is pretty decent.

There are times while reading this book when you will get the feeling that this author was heavily inspired by Stephen King and Dan Brown while reading this book.

The action is that interesting as it could have been if the author had chosen to add more into the book. Because there are only one thing happening at anytime. It would be more interesting if there were more things happening at once.

I give this book 2 / 5