Review - Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

Title: Days of Blood and Starlight (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #2)

Author: Laini Taylor

Rating: 4/5 stars

Synopsis: Art student and monster's apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.

In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.

While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.

But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?

My Thoughts:

I know that everyone says the second book was as good as the first one but not for me. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the second one quite a lot as well but it didn’t deliver the magical atmosphere of Daughter of Smoke and Bone somehow. That’s okay though because second books rarely outshine the first ones in a series and it was still a kick-ass fantasy sequel.

The setting was different and even though I missed Prague I saw why this change was necessary. We see a lot more of Eretz in this book, the world building intensifies – I even have a little map on the first pages of my copy… I love maps in books!

Along with the new scenery quite a few new characters were introduced too, some of whom will most likely play an important part in the endgame.

I wouldn’t say the majority of the sequel was overly action packed rather there was a lot of talk of strategy and politics that served to prepare us for what’s coming in the third book.

I liked the last 30 pages the most, since the story became extremely fast paced there and the ending was full of twists and turns. Even though I’m pretty bad at reading series – in finishing them to be exact – I will definitely pick up the final book, because I have to know what happens. 

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Review – The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Title: The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books #1)

Author: Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Rating: 5/5 stars
 

Synopsis: Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.

 

My Thoughts:

A boy, a book and a writer – this is the Holy Trinity of The Shadow of the Wind. The boy longs to untangle the yarns of a life that seems to be gone and past. He doesn’t expect to wake Laín Coubert with his meddling. He is none other than the Devil in the beloved book.

I don’t remember ever reading a novel before that was set in Spain, but despite the writer’s clear efforts to enchant me with the enigmatic representation of Barcelona I loved the Shadow of the Wind for something else: the characterization. Now, many would argue that the city itself was a character in this case, but somehow it wasn’t the component that animated the whole book for me. There were people on these pages that could have easily stepped off them. You know those books that you only come across once in a while, in which you find protagonists and secondary characters you feel you have known your entire life? Well, this is one of those pieces of writing. (God, I wish I had a friend like Fermín Romero de Torres).

I admired Zafón’s choice to hide so many parallels between Daniel and Julián in the book. They made me confused, but in a good way, because thanks to them I was dying to get to know the nature of the connection between the youth and the writer.

I was also pleased with the deliciously gothic locations (especially one) Zafón created; although not very original, it gave just the right milieu to parts of the tale. I’m usually easily creeped out by ghost stories and there was one certain part where I got the goosebumps and it was so so good.

What I wasn’t quite happy with, was the ending, because I expected something else, something more mysterious, something more on the magical realism side of things perhaps – and that kind of closure I didn’t get. The only other thing that bugged me about the Shadow of the Wind was that sometimes the narrative just didn’t seem right: you can read recollections of characters of certain events that they couldn’t have possibly witnessed. But well, it’s just a ’technical’ issue I happened to notice, it didn’t really kept me from enjoying the story.

All in all, The Shadow of the Wind is a wonderful novel and is totally worth the time it takes to read it.

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Review - Doctor Who: A Matter of Life and Death

Title: Doctor Who: A Matter of Life and Death (The Eight Doctor Volume 1)

Author/Illustrator: George Mann, Emma Vieceli, Hi-Fi

Rating: 5/5 stars

Synopsis:

Eerie Victorian magic shows, living paintings, mysterious lost books, crystalline life-forms, space-barges crammed with the undead... Embrace all the Gothic Romance and interstellar terror of the Eighth Doctor in this new series starring the most-requested past incarnation!

 

My Thoughts:

I’m totally hooked! The art is amazing, the colouring is beautiful and the new companion is absolutely lovely!

A Matter of Life and Death features the Eighth Doctor who sweeps through time and space in a giddy fashion – as usual – craving a cup of tea all the while – as usual – leaving the work of saving worlds to others – as… wait, what??

Yes, quite surprisingly, the Doctor mostly leans back in this one and watches as Josie, a blue-haired Welsh painter girl, takes on his role and thus proves she is worthy to become a regular companion.

We follow them through six loosely connected stories that involve singing crystals, murderous plants, evil reflections and many more fascinating wrong-doers. I believe the writers found a perfect way to introduce a new companion and I didn’t mind at all that the Doctor was only present as a helper/mentor figure.

I liked that there were a lot of emotions floating around, especially towards the end and it was good to see how the Doctor’s philosophy – ‘everyone counts’– got addressed in the final chapter.

If the next installments will be as good as this one was, in the end I might end up owning a complete comic book series…
 
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