Ink of Blood

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

I’ve always been interested in well-written romances. And while I haven’t read too many alien romances, I was quite eager to read this book when I was given the opportunity to.

While I don’t really like dual first person perspectives, I did think it worked quite well in this book, though I was quite confused by the meeting/melding of the two different cultures. I didn’t really understand how Neyehuu’s people viewed human females. On the one hand, it felt a lot like they only saw them as slaves; on the other, it seemed completely contradicted by what was said and done through the book.

I found the different aspects to Neyehuu’s abilities really intriguing, especially when it came to the fact that his manerak and naxem both seemed to have their own opinions and personalities. I didn’t really know enough about those aspects to know if it was normal for the manerak to be like a split personality.

I liked seeing Mian’s interactions with the other characters, along with Neyehuu. It was really good to see how she found a place for herself in Neyehuu’s people, but there quite a few secondary characters and I did get a bit confused over who was who at times. Out of the secondary characters, though, I found Chimara to be the most engaging. I enjoyed seeing her interactions with Mian and I would have liked to see more of her history and relationships with the other characters.

I also really liked that Tekevanki, although really awful to Mian at first, had a lot more depth to her than just being a rivial and part of a love triangle plot. She’s a character I would have been interested in seeing more of.

I liked the glimpses of the different aspects of the cultures, such as the use of the wreaths. I really liked the visuals of the wreaths and the fact that the female was who made the decision, even after the males fought for her.

I did enjoy reading the book. It was easy and engaging and the world was one I’d like to see more of in the future.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

Okay, so…I’d ideally give this book 2.5 out of 5 stars. The blurb was really intriguing and I actually really love the cover.

The biggest problem I think I had with this book was that I was given far too much information on the one hand…and on the other hand, I didn’t have nearly enough. For instance, there was way too much information given about the personal life of an assassin who only appeared a handful of times (that he liked young(er) American girls, but that had nothing to do with his actions in the book), but on the other hand, Alexander supposedly had problems with being too blunt with her supervisors. This was told to me in the text, not shown through her interactions with said supervisors.

There were various asides that were quite interesting, such as Mike dealing with Aisha and the group of people who later became known as the Cabal. However, lots of information was held back: unnecessarily so, in my opinion. Even by the end of the book, I had no clear idea of just how many people were involved in the Cabal, or who they were and what their end goals were.

While, at first, I found it hard to engage with the secondary characters, I did eventually get to know them. I liked Nancy and Mike the best, although I wasn’t really given the chance to get to know them as much as I would have liked.

I did get confused as to why so much information was being hidden from people by, well, everyone. For instance, Alexander didn’t want her Russian heritage to be known-why? And Mike’s hiding of Aisha made no sense and, in many ways, just seemed to make things so much harder for the team, as he was giving information in such a roundabout way.

I did appreciate the fact that all of the cases were connected in some way, as that did add another layer to everything that was going on. However, certain events seemed to just be ignored. Such as when the suspects in custody were killed. It really didn’t feel belieable that there was no fallout from what had happened.

Ultimately, there was a lot of potential in this book and most of Alexander’s team were well developed characters. However, there was too much going on. Way too much unnecessary information given and characters making choices that made no real sense. I would read a sequel to this book, as I’m honestly curious to see the fallout from what was revealed at the end of this book. However, there was no foreshadowing for the end, which made the whole ‘reveal’ senseless.

After having watched the first season, I was quite eager to read the book and get to know the characters better through the original medium.

Reading the introduction by the author, I had a clear idea in my head of who Kovacs was. An idea that was immediately contradicted with the first chapter of the book. That was interesting, though. It made me think about how people view themselves differently to how those around view them.

Even by the end of the book, I couldn’t say whether I liked or hated Kovacs. He was certainly a character with a lot of depth to him. However, he was the only one I really got to know. Seeing the others through his eyes coloured my perceptions of them a lot.

I wasn’t very clear on exactly what an Envoy did. The book, despite the wide range offered by the stack technology, was very focused on Earth. I did find it interesting to see the disconnect between Kovacs and the sleeve he wore, though. Like when he felt like a passenger being controlled by the original occupant.

It was also good to see the relation between the sleeve and its occupant. Like how Kovacs wasn’t resistant to pain, due to the young female sleeve. Or needing a cigarette because his new sleeve was addicted.

I really liked seeing how the society on Earth had evolved due to the technology, even if I did only get hints of it. The waste of bodies, for instance. I couldn’t understand where all of the sleeves were coming from.

I also would have liked more background to Kovacs. I had so many questions about his history. His relationships. Family. He was an interesting character, but something about him felt unfinished.

This book was an intriguing read, with interesting technology and a main character I would like to see and learn more of. At the same time, it would be good to get a much wider view of the world and society.

After reading Warbreaker, Brandon Sanderson became one of my favourite authors. Even so, it did take me a little while to finish this book. Not because it was hard to read, but I think part of me wanted to draw the book out for as long as possible.

The idea of Elantris was a really intriguing one. Raoden was a character I could relate to right from the start. He had a lot of good qualities that clearly aided him after he was turned.

I did also particularly like Sarene. And I liked her not because of what she did well, but because of what failed. What went wrong. She was clearly an imperfect character and that’s what made her so interesting.

The heroes of this book weren’t the only characters I liked. Hrathen was one I enjoyed learning about. In my opinion, he was a good example of a three-dimensional villain.

I liked being able to see some of the politics and intrigue; the way some of the characters didn’t agree with the King’s actions, but had to work behind the scenes to affect any change.

While, at first, Sarene’s act of an air headed princess did irritate me, it was good to see that it worked against her quite often. And that she had to make adjustments due to not being able to hold onto the act. Compared to her father, she was a much stronger person.

I did find it sad to read about the fate of the people of Elantris. I could definitely get behind Raoden’s actions to change things. I thought I was rooting for them to return to their former glory for a while, but the strength the people ultimately demonstrated made me feel I would have been happy if they’d just made do.

Like Warbreaker, this book is one I would very much enjoy reading again. And I would love to read more books set in the same world.

I saw this book a while ago and was immediately intrigued by the cover, especially as it combined two of my favourite things: horror and manga.

The first story was really quite creepy. While it really wasn’t a realistic story, it was rooted enough in reality that it made my skin crawl while I was reading it. After all, vampire bats really do exist. And there was something truly disturbing about the scene with the bats filling the sky.

I found the second story much harder to suspend my disbelief for. Even with seeing what Tsuguo had seen at the comedy show, it didn’t really make a lot of sense. There just wasn’t a clear explanation as to where the ghosts had come from.

I especially liked the story with the flood. I enjoyed the fact it held a bit of a mystery and that there was still something to wonder about towards the end.

The Earthbound story was very intriguing, even though it wasn’t clear how and why it had started. There was a sense of dread that just grew the more the story went on.

The three interconnected stories were a bit harder to follow. By the end of the third one, I was completely and utterly lost.

The guardian spirits story was quite a sad one, but it also showed a sense of obsession, I felt. After all, going back to her every time, despite what she was doing, just seemed like an incredibly bad choice.

I did find the book entertaining and the artwork and stories were easy to follow. I’m very interested in reading more books by this author in the near future.