Book Review: The Crown's Game by Evelyn Skye

The Crown's Game by Evelyn Skye
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Crown’s Game was okay. I felt like it could be more, since I had some very high expectations for this book. I did like the Russian scenery and how magic was woven into it. But the whole thing with the game and how petty it was…it was a bit of a letdown. I was hoping for something else, I guess, even though the chapters were short. I was hoping for some action, romance, something. But it felt flat throughout the book. I mean, it does have some political intrigue, but then, that also felt flat as well.

The Tsar was eh, he wasn’t someone that wasn’t worth mentioning at all. Pasha and Nikolai being friends was the only thing I cared about, until the whole thing blew up between them at the tavern they were in, and then he had to become Tsar all thanks to Nikolai’s mother, Aizhana.

Speaking of Aizhana, she came out of nowhere. I wasn’t even expecting her, but when I did, it was like “oh…okay….moving on.” I really didn’t care about these characters at all, and they fell so flat for me, that the more I was reading, the more bored I actually got. At the end, somehow Nikolai revived Vika, which was cool and all, but then he just…died. No explanation of how he did it, he just…did. Which was sad in itself.

All in all, I didn’t care for the characters, the plot was okay, and I was hyped for this book, but it fell flat for me. I wanted to read the second one, but eh, decided not to. Glad I read this one, though.

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Book Review: BBC Doctor Who: The Blood Test by James Goss

The Blood Cell by James Goss
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a quick and an okay read. It was action-y like the show, but it was told by the point of view of the Governor who ran the Prison. He tells us how he runs the place with Bentley and how everyone was his friend. But when he meets the Twelfth Doctor, he gets so annoyed with him escaping and has tried to make a deal with him, keeping him in his cell. But when the killings begin, that’s when he has no choice but to deal with the Doctor as he and Clara help him stop the murder.

I thought it was fine to me, to be honest. I haven’t been watching Doctor Who in a while, and reading this brought me back to the world. But seeing it through the Governor’s eyes kinda annoyed me, because he reduced the Doctor to nothing but a number, which I really didn’t like, and think that ‘oh, he did so many crimes, he’s a bad person’ when in reality, the doctor wants to help people and save them.

The only funny parts that came up in the book was Clara coming by and showing up with signs and stuff, and when she finally got in the jail, she was actually pretty helpful. She was her usual, cheery self, which I liked. But the Blood Cell…eh it wasn’t that scary, to be honest. It was just a cell with a weird Custodian in it, looking for “the perfect specimen” which was just…okay. Cool beans. But I’m glad everyone on level 7 was saved, and wasn’t that surprised that the Governor was a hated man in HomeWorld.

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Book Review: Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Dragonlance has been around for a long time, and now reading the first book made me so happy to read it, but I realize that some of the characters kinda tick me the hell off. I’ll get into more later, but for now, let’s talk about my thoughts.

Dragons of Autumn Twilight is a fantasy novel split into two books-one is meeting the characters and them going on an adventure to help a barbarian chieftain named Goldmoon and her lover Riverwind, to return a staff that’s blue and also find the disks of the goddess Mishakal. The second half of the group has them pick up a couple people to go to Pax Thakas so they can stop the Dragon Lord Verminaard and his dragon, Ember, from attacking the eleven city and also in the process save the miners and their families that Verminaard has kept far away from the workers, hiring draconians and gully dwarves. Book one was kinda slow for me and it irritated me, mostly because of Raistlin rushing everyone to get to Xak Tsarsoth, but then when I read book two, that’s when things started to pick up, and I started to like it even more.

The whole relationship thing was good, though the one I just felt like it was forced was Tanis and Laurana, even though they have been friends/lovers since they were children. Laurana annoyed me, mostly because she acts like Tanis still wants her, when I don’t think he does. When he tells her that he fell for Kitiara, Caramon and Raistlin’s half-sister, she got angry enough to get the ring back, then turned around and followed him to Pax Thakas. Like girl, really?? You love him that much?? Calm down.

And Raistlin??? Even though he annoyed me about his rushing people to get someplace, I actually like the mage-to a fault. I’m suspecting him for some reason, like I don’t really trust him that much. But I’m gonna keep a close eye on him. Caramon, he’s cool, honestly. He and Raistlin reminds me SO MUCH of Dante and Vergil from Devil May Cry-Vergil wanting to be alone, Dante chasing after him.

Strum is the least likeable one I liked. He just annoyed me for some reason, and I kind of wanted him to stop, tbh. Yes, he’s a Knight of Solamina, but he takes it too far in some parts of the book that I silently wanted him to shut up and either let Tanis lead or quit suspecting Raistlin because you don’t like him, my guy.

Sheesh.

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Book Review: Public Library and Other Stories by Ali Smith

Public Library and Other Stories by Ali Smith
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

First time reading anything by Ms. Ali Smith, and I have to say…it was alright. Nothing to run home too, tbh. The stories were short, sweet, and had different themes throughout it-death, love, sometimes books and poetry. These shorts, though don’t really talk about libraries, have one character centered into the stories and they are going through things that don’t talk about libraries. But in between the stories, they do have people talking about what the library means to them and what they did for them or how they used to go as a child and how libraries made them.

This was a very interesting book and my first time, like I said, reading a short story collection. Some of the words felt like they were like run-on sentences, but the rest felt like stories I can slip into a little bit so I can read more short stories every once in a while-maybe from an anthology or something like that. Do I want to read more of Ali Smith’s work? Maybe, even though these short stories were cute and short. I think the only ones I liked were Grass and The Poet. The rest were alright, nothing to run home and tell mama about, tbh.

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