Scan barcode
A review by slavicreader
A Town Called River by Igor Rendić
4.0
First off, I'd like to thank Shtriga Books for providing me with a copy for review purposes. When I heard what the book was about, I was immediately sold!
Now I might be biased, being Slavic myself, but I'd like to point out that I'm not from Croatia, nor have I ever had the pleasure of visiting the country itself. Thus, although the folklore side, language and culture was somewhat familiar, I imagine it'd be moreso had I been a Croatian reader. However, Paul, the protagonist, finds himself back in his birth country after not living there for a long, long time. He finds himself readjusting to the country, which allowed us - the reader - to familiarise ourselves with things too. It also hit close to home for me personally, as I hadn't been back to my home country in years. I can't help but imagine that I easily could have found myself in Paul's shoes one day.
The writing I found very modern and straightforward. This made it an easy and fast read. It had a fair amount of Croatian sentences and terminology included too, most of which was translated. Paul's Croatian is rusty, which works as a great reason as to why most of the dialogue is in English. Which in turn makes me think this is a novel that anyone could enjoy, as long as you know English I suppose!
Plot-wise, there wasn't anything huge going on. It was more about exploration and learning. There's a lot of focus on loss, grieving and what happens to those we heave behind; expressed both metaphorically and literally. There's fighting and action, which in my opinion got better towards the end of the book.
At first, I described this books as a lovechild of Witcher and Dresden. But thinking about it now, it might just have the vibes of a Slavic Dresden? Similar depth and density to it moreso than Witcher. Having said that, I've definitely not read anything like this before - those are comparisons purely based off of vibes. I can definitely see this being apart of a longer series, where each book sees Paul grow further into his powers, his new life and new-found calling.
Now I might be biased, being Slavic myself, but I'd like to point out that I'm not from Croatia, nor have I ever had the pleasure of visiting the country itself. Thus, although the folklore side, language and culture was somewhat familiar, I imagine it'd be moreso had I been a Croatian reader. However, Paul, the protagonist, finds himself back in his birth country after not living there for a long, long time. He finds himself readjusting to the country, which allowed us - the reader - to familiarise ourselves with things too. It also hit close to home for me personally, as I hadn't been back to my home country in years. I can't help but imagine that I easily could have found myself in Paul's shoes one day.
The writing I found very modern and straightforward. This made it an easy and fast read. It had a fair amount of Croatian sentences and terminology included too, most of which was translated. Paul's Croatian is rusty, which works as a great reason as to why most of the dialogue is in English. Which in turn makes me think this is a novel that anyone could enjoy, as long as you know English I suppose!
Plot-wise, there wasn't anything huge going on. It was more about exploration and learning. There's a lot of focus on loss, grieving and what happens to those we heave behind; expressed both metaphorically and literally. There's fighting and action, which in my opinion got better towards the end of the book.
At first, I described this books as a lovechild of Witcher and Dresden. But thinking about it now, it might just have the vibes of a Slavic Dresden? Similar depth and density to it moreso than Witcher. Having said that, I've definitely not read anything like this before - those are comparisons purely based off of vibes. I can definitely see this being apart of a longer series, where each book sees Paul grow further into his powers, his new life and new-found calling.