April to me mostly means the end of the 2018 r/Fantasy Bingo challenge (my wrap-up) and the start of the new one. I’m less impressed with this year’s card than I was with the previous ones, but I’m still participating – and my First Impressions post turned out so long I had to split it into two (part 1, part 2). Aside from that, April has been unusually slow, with only three new books read.
- City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett: Very fresh and original, genre-defying, great characters, great worldbuilding if a bit heavy on the infodump, good prose…an excellent read. The review, however, is proving to be elusive.
- Seven Summer Nights by Harper Fox: As soon as I heard of this book, I knew that I had to read it and read it now. And as always, intuition has proven correct – it’s now one of my favourites. I love broken characters who try to do their best and I love how character-focused romance is.
- Transformation by Carol Berg (reread): I needed more of the same character trope as Seven Summer Nights had, so I opted for a reread. Ignore the godawful cover, there’s very good classic epic fantasy underneath. Highly recommended.
- Children of the Nameless by Brandon Sanderson (link): I didn’t expect much going in. I needed a media tie-in and this seemed like the easiest option. Well, it ended up being shitloads of fun. A lazy dark lord, snarky demons…
- Vampir z Gorjancev by Mate Dolenc (DNF 10%): My first attempt to find something for the Local Author Bingo square. And it…did not go well. While it passed when it came to prose, I couldn’t stand the main character, his constant bragging how many women he slept with, and rather stereotypical pining for a girl I suspect would later turn out to be a vampire. Plus, this gem of a passage (translation mine):
On the familiar stool sat a shriveled little old man with a confused, sleepy face, tiny, half-lidded eyes and a large bulbous nose. His outstretched legs were spread out and between them, as if a substitute for a dick, sat a bottle, its bottom barely covered by red wine.
…I’m sorry but what in the actual fuck?
- City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty (DNF 20%): Was too irritated by the characters to continue. Despite this being a supposedly adult fantasy book, it did the exact same thing that I find so annoying in some YA books, where in the middle of a dangerous situation the less experienced MC thinks they know better than a more experienced person and acts all stubborn and demanding. Maybe some other time when I have more patience…
- Currently reading Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson. Decided to go for something long so I’ll be able to catch up on reviews in the meanwhile. It’s very good, but very slow going. I have no stamina for epics anymore.
Books read this year: 18 (+ 6 rereads)
r/Fantasy Bingo Challenge progress: 3/25 (12%)
To Other Worlds 
Definitely echoing the ‘what the actual fuck?!’ here, lol. 😅
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The quote was so weird and out of place. Just…why. Why was this necessary. Why the dick metaphor. 🤨
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Whoa, a Bandon Sanderson book I haven’t heard of! I will be trying to find that one in stores now.
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It’s probably not available in stores, but the ebook is available for free on the MtG site if you click the link and scroll down a bit.
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Awesome, thanks!
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Good luck with Words of Radiance! I’m planning on reading that this summer. I know what you mean about it being slow but good, that’s how I felt about Way of Kings. Definitely needed to space these epics out!
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Awesome! Epics can be good, but they’re so, so draining for me. I can’t really do more than one at a time.
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I love reading the monthly wrap ups to see what people have done during the month. These sound like some interesting choices!!
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Great post and Wrap-up!
Bummed to hear about City of Brass, I was really looking forward to reading it, now not so sure!
Hope you have a wonderful May!!
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Thank you!
Honestly, I’d still say give it a try, a lot of people love it, and I’ve been extremely cranky lately. I also heard it improves by the end, but I…really didn’t feel like pushing through, lol.
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that quote is, um … really something 😶 can definitely understand why you DNF’d. but hey, it looks like you had some pretty great reads as well, so I hope May brings more good ones! 🍀
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Yeah, April seems to have been very love-it-or-hate-it. Either “omg I love it” or “wtf is this *DNFs book*” with nothing in between.
May seems okay so far. Hopefully I can finally crank that City of Stairs review out 😂
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Wow, I didn’t even know that Vampir z Gorjancev was a book. Thanks for including a snippet—it’s quite laughable😂
I’m intrigued by City of Stairs, as well as Seven Summer Nights.
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It’s never been translated from my native language (and hopefully never will), so it’s understandable.
Both City of Stairs and Seven Summer Nights were excellent, though.
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Oooh, now I’m even more excited.
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City of Stairs looks like an ominous version of um… The Mortal Instruments? I don’t know why I thought of that when I saw the cover, LOL. Sorry you didn’t like City of Brass, though! I’ve heard a lot of people liked that one, but ugh, that sucks the book didn’t turn out great. I tolerate stubbornness in YA more since teens are still learning, so there are definitely mistakes to be made. Adult novels… not so much, though I suppose adulting is a constant learning process. Hopefully if you come back to it you’ll enjoy it more!
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