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zenandroid's reviews
205 reviews
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
4.0
Will write review soon.
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“I’ve fought in three campaigns,” he began. “In seven pitched battles. In countless raids and skirmishes and desperate defences, and bloody actions of every kind. I’ve fought in the driving snow, the blasting wind, the middle of the night. I’ve been fighting all my life, one enemy or another, one friend or another. I’ve known little else. I’ve seen men killed for a word, for a look, for nothing at all. A woman tried to stab me once for killing her husband, and I threw her down a well. And that’s far from the worst of it. Life used to be cheap as dirt to me. Cheaper.
“I’ve fought ten single combats and I won them all, but I fought on the wrong side and for all the wrong reasons. I’ve been ruthless, and brutal, and a coward. I’ve stabbed men in the back, burned them, drowned them, crushed them with rocks, killed them asleep, unarmed, or running away. I’ve run away myself more than once. I’ve pissed myself with fear. I’ve begged for my life. I’ve been wounded, often, and badly, and screamed and cried like a baby whose mother took her tit away. I’ve no doubt the world would be a better place if I’d been killed years ago, but I haven’t been, and I don’t know why.”
He looked down at his hands, pink and clean on the stone. “There are few men with more blood on their hands than me. None, that I know of. The Bloody-Nine they call me, my enemies, and there’s a lot of ’em. Always more enemies, and fewer friends. Blood gets you nothing but more blood. It follows me now, always, like my shadow, and like my shadow I can never be free of it. I should never be free of it. I’ve earned it. I’ve deserved it. I’ve sought it out. Such is my punishment.”
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I like this quote very much, shows how bad-ass and dangerous Logen is, but also that he doesn't necessarily like that, like he's just a victim of the cog machine his poor decisions led him to.
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This is an interesting story with interesting characters and a morally grey place that is very interesting to explore.
The 'heroes' are interesting.
You got a barbarian whose name is feared as the bringer of destruction and whose name is also so iconic (in mostly all the bad ways) it is used in children's tales to scare them.
You got an arrogant nobleman who looks down on everything and everyone trying to get the recognition he thinks he deserves and the social status he believes will satisfy him.
You've got a character who was like the last one in his youth, but who due to some specific circumstances got captured by the enemy and got tortured to hell and back and is now a cripple torturer himself, working for the King as an Inquisitor.
You've got a Gandalf-like character, except he has no qualms committing the most atrocious and forbidden acts if it means saving the future.
And so many more intriguing characters.
I, for one, am intrigued by them all, Glotka, Jezal, Logen, Bayaz, Quai (although Quai didn't get much character development)
Will continue reading this.
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“I’ve fought in three campaigns,” he began. “In seven pitched battles. In countless raids and skirmishes and desperate defences, and bloody actions of every kind. I’ve fought in the driving snow, the blasting wind, the middle of the night. I’ve been fighting all my life, one enemy or another, one friend or another. I’ve known little else. I’ve seen men killed for a word, for a look, for nothing at all. A woman tried to stab me once for killing her husband, and I threw her down a well. And that’s far from the worst of it. Life used to be cheap as dirt to me. Cheaper.
“I’ve fought ten single combats and I won them all, but I fought on the wrong side and for all the wrong reasons. I’ve been ruthless, and brutal, and a coward. I’ve stabbed men in the back, burned them, drowned them, crushed them with rocks, killed them asleep, unarmed, or running away. I’ve run away myself more than once. I’ve pissed myself with fear. I’ve begged for my life. I’ve been wounded, often, and badly, and screamed and cried like a baby whose mother took her tit away. I’ve no doubt the world would be a better place if I’d been killed years ago, but I haven’t been, and I don’t know why.”
He looked down at his hands, pink and clean on the stone. “There are few men with more blood on their hands than me. None, that I know of. The Bloody-Nine they call me, my enemies, and there’s a lot of ’em. Always more enemies, and fewer friends. Blood gets you nothing but more blood. It follows me now, always, like my shadow, and like my shadow I can never be free of it. I should never be free of it. I’ve earned it. I’ve deserved it. I’ve sought it out. Such is my punishment.”
---------------
I like this quote very much, shows how bad-ass and dangerous Logen is, but also that he doesn't necessarily like that, like he's just a victim of the cog machine his poor decisions led him to.
---------------
This is an interesting story with interesting characters and a morally grey place that is very interesting to explore.
The 'heroes' are interesting.
You got a barbarian whose name is feared as the bringer of destruction and whose name is also so iconic (in mostly all the bad ways) it is used in children's tales to scare them.
You got an arrogant nobleman who looks down on everything and everyone trying to get the recognition he thinks he deserves and the social status he believes will satisfy him.
You've got a character who was like the last one in his youth, but who due to some specific circumstances got captured by the enemy and got tortured to hell and back and is now a cripple torturer himself, working for the King as an Inquisitor.
You've got a Gandalf-like character, except he has no qualms committing the most atrocious and forbidden acts if it means saving the future.
And so many more intriguing characters.
I, for one, am intrigued by them all, Glotka, Jezal, Logen, Bayaz, Quai (although Quai didn't get much character development)
Will continue reading this.
Le Cheval pâle by Agatha Christie
3.0
Okay, kinda dissapointed at the thallium thing, it's perfectly plausible and realistic, just ... didn't feel like a fair play whodunnit.
Still decent though, and the other elements of the mystery are nice, Osborne is an idiot RIP.
Still decent though, and the other elements of the mystery are nice, Osborne is an idiot RIP.
Why Didn't They Ask Evans? by Agatha Christie
4.0
Solid Christie.
Cute couple they'll make I am sure 😆
Cute couple they'll make I am sure 😆
Scythe by Neal Shusterman
2.0
I have quite a few things to say about this book and this story.
First of all, I didn't know what to expect.
Second of all, whatever it is I expected, in the end I wasn't all that impressed honestly.
Also, about the 'world-building', either there are other reasons for the existence of scythes, or either this plot really is as weak as i suspect it is.
And the thunderhead is an infinitely wise infinitely intelligent being that couldn't figure out how to solve overpopulation? Couldn't like, I don't know, study astrophysics and create models and run simulations and build spaceships or something to send people off this planet?
Or do something that i wont be able to predict because i am strictly less intelligent than AN AGI ???!
And why do Scythes have a CHOICE in the method of murdering people? HUMANE? lol ok sure buddy.
Why is it not a standardized protocol to follow for 'gleaning' ?
And why did the otherwise sensible merciful Faraday murder that guy by DROWNING HIM in a river ??? that's not what I'd call merciful.
let's not talk about fire throwers.
let's just not.
I'm not even talking about the big elephant in the room, the 'death good, immortality bad' message that i don't agree with but i still understand that some people hold that view.
There are also the people that talk about how the romance was flat, which is probably true, but i couldn't care less because that's not what i picked this book up for.
The strong point of this was probably the characters i guess, and even then it's not exactly shining through.
I listened to some book-tubers before praising this books plot twists and the ability to 'make ya think'.
That was a mistake.
Will i continue this series? idk, I think my time would be better spent on other things, but i'll think about it, because I didn't exactly hate it, i actually rather enjoyed it on the rare moments I brainwashed myself into forgetting ... the setting ... and the scythes ... and the other things that are there for plot reasons.
First of all, I didn't know what to expect.
Second of all, whatever it is I expected, in the end I wasn't all that impressed honestly.
Also, about the 'world-building', either there are other reasons for the existence of scythes, or either this plot really is as weak as i suspect it is.
And the thunderhead is an infinitely wise infinitely intelligent being that couldn't figure out how to solve overpopulation? Couldn't like, I don't know, study astrophysics and create models and run simulations and build spaceships or something to send people off this planet?
Or do something that i wont be able to predict because i am strictly less intelligent than AN AGI ???!
And why do Scythes have a CHOICE in the method of murdering people? HUMANE? lol ok sure buddy.
Why is it not a standardized protocol to follow for 'gleaning' ?
And why did the otherwise sensible merciful Faraday murder that guy by DROWNING HIM in a river ??? that's not what I'd call merciful.
let's not talk about fire throwers.
let's just not.
I'm not even talking about the big elephant in the room, the 'death good, immortality bad' message that i don't agree with but i still understand that some people hold that view.
There are also the people that talk about how the romance was flat, which is probably true, but i couldn't care less because that's not what i picked this book up for.
The strong point of this was probably the characters i guess, and even then it's not exactly shining through.
I listened to some book-tubers before praising this books plot twists and the ability to 'make ya think'.
That was a mistake.
Will i continue this series? idk, I think my time would be better spent on other things, but i'll think about it, because I didn't exactly hate it, i actually rather enjoyed it on the rare moments I brainwashed myself into forgetting ... the setting ... and the scythes ... and the other things that are there for plot reasons.
La clé de Salomon by José Rodrigues dos Santos
2.0
Well, i was generally disappointed with this book !
The first 60 % of it just sounded like a modified repetition from some parts of La formule de dieu/Einstein's enigma, and i'm pretty pissed with Tomàs and his omniscience, like J.R.DOS SANTOS made everyone in the book brainless and tomàs a damn genius, yes sure it's an indirect way to spout the information for the reader but i feel it's a cheap, lazy way to do it.
That said, this was fun, ... really fun, and not denying the fact that a lot of information kills the 'plot', but i'm a sucker for Quantum physics so this was GOOD , Not half as cool as Enstein's Enigma but yeah it's good!
And the conclusion this book says is ... weird
The first 60 % of it just sounded like a modified repetition from some parts of La formule de dieu/Einstein's enigma, and i'm pretty pissed with Tomàs and his omniscience, like J.R.DOS SANTOS made everyone in the book brainless and tomàs a damn genius, yes sure it's an indirect way to spout the information for the reader but i feel it's a cheap, lazy way to do it.
That said, this was fun, ... really fun, and not denying the fact that a lot of information kills the 'plot', but i'm a sucker for Quantum physics so this was GOOD , Not half as cool as Enstein's Enigma but yeah it's good!
And the conclusion this book says is ... weird