Book Review: The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oh, hello, Kaijus.

This book can easily fall under the pandemic literature we talked about in class, because yes, this book takes place during the pandemic. Yes, this book has kaijus-wish it had more so that it could be a more awesome book-but it does deal with one particular kaiju named Bella, but let’s put Bella to the side so we can talk about the characters.

Jamie Gray had just gotten fired by a start up called füdmüd, who then made him go and deliver food (oof). One day, he starts to deliver to a man named Tom, who works somewhere else, and tells Jamie that he’s invited to get another job…which he does. He lifts things-and also help take care of some huge dinosaurs called kaijus. With his friends who are very sciency, they help take care of the kaiju and make sure everything is okay.

Unfortunately, one of the kaijus, Bella, started laying some eggs, and they are watching her closely, since she’s sitting near one of the nuclear radiators I believe it was?? And then one day, she just…disappeared. Through a hole. No one knows where she went, and they came up with a whole bunch of hypothesis…until they decided to go out to where Bella was, to see if she’s alright.

When they go there, they saw that all of their equipment was destroyed, and the only thing that had evidence was Tom’s phone, which was dropped on the ground. Jamie picked it up, and they unlocked it to find a video of someone taking Bella somewhere else-to the other side. Earlier, Jamie had to take around his old boss and a Colonel, and he tricked his old boss into going outside and scaring him a bit with the white bug crabs. Even though he was scared and he learned the truth, Jamie thought that Rob had learned his lesson with trying to get something on a kaiju and bringing it home (he actually tried to bribe a pilot to bring him closer to Bella…didn’t work).

Turns out the whole time it was Rob who kidnapped her and my god, he sucks as a baddie. He really does. But at least he died quite pathetically, and Bella was returned to the forest in the New Earth. After that, everything was good. I was expecting more about Kaijus, but I kinda understood why, and that in my mind, there’s a bunch of kaiju scattered around that they’re looking at, and more and more people are coming to appreciate these beautiful kaijus. I really enjoyed this one, had a tiny bit of memes in it as well, but it was really good, really enjoyed myself.

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Book Review: Pathfinder Tales: The Crusader Road by Michael A. Stackpole

The Crusader Road by Michael A. Stackpole
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was my first time reading a Pathfinder Tales novel, and I have DNFed this book before, mostly because I didn’t have to read it. But this book was kinda homey and good, nothing to run home about.

It’s about a family who’s been kicked out of court, and they are moving someplace in the woods to start over. It has a boy named Jerrad who is called “mouse” all the time, and he’s basically training to be a wizard, even though he didn’t think there were magic users in his family. In this book, we see Jerrad grow from the so-called “mouse” he was called multiple times by his sister, to someone who’s learning magic and would defend his family from the usual goblins and ogres. Even in the book, he kept putting himself down each time someone called him a hero, saying that he’s not like his father, who turns out, is a Broken Man (he doesn’t know it yet). He does fall in love with a girl named Nelsa Murdoon, and he saved a sprite from a cage. Honestly, I liked Jerrad’s growth, but throughout the book, he started to get on my nerve about “not being a hero” when he’s learning and doing these incredible things, but at least he stood up for the village to Lord Blackstone, and everyone got the whip (ow).

His sister, Serrana, got on my nerves as well. She complained the first part of the book, wanting to go home, believing that she doesn’t belong here. But after the goblins attacked, everything just…changed for her. She stopped complaining, picked up a bow and arrow, and became an archer. She fell in love with Creelisk’s son, and the two are becoming leaders in their own right.

Lady Tyressa, the star of the book in my eyes, is more of a leader than the two people that tried to over throw her. She took everything seriously, thinking of her people as they settled in Silverlake. She thought about everything carefully, and fought hard. She thought about her husband in this book as well, even though he came at the end of the book, but the way she took out the ogrekin was beautiful.

Now that bad guys were sneaky, typical bad guys that only wanted to take the Vishov family down. One kept lying, but he died in the goblin attack, and another was a lord that got the Vishov family lands who got poisoned by another lord (Lord Blackstone). All in all, this was a okay book, and I enjoyed it. I wish that Jerrad did more magic in the book, and I wish there was a book two, to see how the family is doing, but other than that it was good and I enjoyed it.

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Book Review: A Deal with the Elf King by Elise Kova

A Deal with the Elf King by Elise Kova
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was really good and I loved the relationship with Luella and Eldas. I actually fell in love with Eldas because the way the author described him, I thought I was reading a Thranduli fanfiction. Because, um, I fell for Eldas. He’s my little meow meow and I love him so much.

For about 20% of the book, I really hated Luella because all she does is complain and swears up and down and she wants to go home, but then she’s working in Willow’s shop and finding out how to break the cycle, which I’m like..why??? And then the question of her loving him…after she keeps fighting him step by step and swearing up and down that ‘oh, Eldas doesn’t love me, he’s using me.” and finding out, after shouting at the coronation that she loved him…and him saying it back…it kinda sweeten it a bit, but…I felt like it took a long time for her to say it. But then, it wouldn’t be Luella without her battling her feelings for someone that just came to her village and said that she’s his wife.

And King Eldas, my little meow meow…he was kinda worse like her. He honestly was like ‘well I like you, but you need to do your duty’ and was kinda controlling her, like ‘you must do this’ and ‘you must do that’ and those two butted heads all the damn time. But I do like that throughout the book they got together and started to work together, even when she figured out how to break the cycle, which…to be honest, pissed me off. I really didn’t want her to break the cycle, I wanted her to figure out how to control herself when it comes to the redwood throne, but once she figured it out and went home, she realized that for once in her damn life, she actually loves him. Close to the end. Like, what the fuck, my guy???

Hook is best character throughout the book, change my mind.

Willow is also best character throughout the book as well.

Harrow, I wanna punch in the face. As hard as I can. Then yell at him for believing Aria’s bullshit and taking drugs. Because by then, he’ll get punched again. But I’m glad he’s alright.

I know it looks like I’m bashing the book (I’m not, I promise) but I really enjoyed it. I love the relationship between Eldas and Luella, and how headstrong Luella is. Luella just got on my left nerve for a bit, and also I wanted to punch Harrow in the fuckin’ mouf. Not mouth-mouf.

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Book Review: The Winner's Kiss by Marie Rutkoski

The Winner's Kiss by Marie Rutkoski
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Well. I wasn’t expecting this to be a five star, honestly. I had to put it on pause because I was dealing with schoolwork and doing a project. But since I’m out for Spring Break, I read every bit of this story, and lemme tell ya…this book got me through Mass Effect while I was playing it (got the legendary edition and I’m done with the first game). So I’m gonna break it down by character like I would do Game of Thrones, because this book was a lot:

Kestrel: So let's start with Kestrel. Kestrel is thrown into prison by the Emperor for what she did in the second book, which is be a spy for the Herrani (called herself the Moth) and tried to play by the Emperor’s rules, but thanks to her father, she was secretly thrown into a very terrible prison. Everyday she wakes up, goes to the mine and works till she eats dinner and goes to bed. She is also drugged, and for those horrible months she is just waking up, eating while resisting the way her body craves the drugs they give her. Arin comes to rescues her, only to find out she has amnesia. She, with Arin, escapes the prison and since Herrani/Dacra are currently in a war with the Empire…she joins, swearing an oath to kill her father. During her time as a soldier, she pretended to be a scout, led the charge for the Herrani gunmen that was under her control, and she came up with a plan to kill the Emperor. There was some hiccups, like the Emperor’s son being there, Risha showing up, and the thought of seeing her father (which she did) but at the end, she killed the Emperor by playing a game of Bite and Sting, and letting him touch the poisoned shiny tiles (smart). At the end, Kestrel married (though it is implied) Arin and they lived happily ever after.

Arin: This boy…this boy right here…I love him. He’s currently at war with the Empire, and he’s working with Roshar, his friend who is the prince of Dacra. He has been trying to forget Kestrel, only to find that he can’t. He comes back home to Herrani, only for Sarsrine to tell him that there was someone to see him. Arin puts it off, but then finally he goes and sees the person who tells him about the woman who spoke Herrani perfectly without no accent, and who gave him a moth, but it died when a Empire solider stepped on it. Not believing it for a moment, he had to think about it before he realized that it was Kestrel, and he snuck in to kill the guards to save Kestrel. Seeing her without any memory of who she was, it hurt him a bit until she started to slowly get her memories back, and the two fell right back in love, and she became a fine soldier. He did as well, trying to keep Kestrel away from the deep parts of the war, letting her do whatever she want as long as she doesn’t see her father. He did almost kill her father, but he decided not to, and he thought he did the wrong thing. Kestrel tells him that he didn’t, and at the end, her father was left alive and not going to die (ha ha).

All in all, this was a really good book and I really enjoyed this one.

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