BOOKS I READ IN MAY
May was one of my best reading months of the year so far. I read six books and out of those six books, the lowest-rated was 3 stars. That's incredible. The quantity may be my average but the quality was certainly high in May. I'm very excited to talk about these books. I do want to do dedicated reviews for some of these books in the very near future so keep your eyes peeled for those.
This year has seen me embrace a 'TBR.' Usually, whenever I finished a book, I would stand in front of my bookshelves and see what would tickle my fancy next or if there was anything speaking to me immediately.
In May, I set myself a 'to be read' list of;
In May, I set myself a 'to be read' list of;
✶ Aurora Rising - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
✶ Aurora Burning - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
✶ The House of Earth and Blood - Sarah J. Maas
✶ The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon
✶ The Way of All Flesh - Ambrose Parry
✶ The Mortal Instruments 2.0 - Cassandra Clare
For the most part, I stuck to that list. I didn't get to the second half of The Mortal Instruments series and I also did not finish 'The Way of All Flesh'. As a result, those books will carry over into June (possibly July).
(AURORA CYCLE BOOK 1)
AMIE KAUFMAN & JAY KRISTOFF
GENRE: SCIENCE-FICTION
RATING: ✦✦✦✦✧ (4.5)
I read this for the second time in May in anticipation of the release of Aurora Burning. I wanted to remember all of the little nuances of the first book.
Reading this again, I remembered why I loved it when I read it last year. I loved all of the little nuances of the different characters. Aurora Rising is the first book where I have seen that the chapters are all from the first-person perspectives of the characters. For example, Scarlett's chapters are from her perspective and not a third-person perspective. Her chapters say, 'I' and the Kal chapters do the same thing. At first, it would seem as if that would be off-putting and confusing but each character has a clear and distinct voice that you can comfortably follow the narrative from each character.
This unlikely crew of misfits reminds me of the crew of the Serenity from 'Firefly.' You even have the weirdo girl that can strangely kick ass.
This unlikely crew of misfits reminds me of the crew of the Serenity from 'Firefly.' You even have the weirdo girl that can strangely kick ass.
It was a very enjoyable re-read for me and I immediately went head-first into the sequel.
(AURORA CYCLE BOOK 2)
AMI E KAUFMAN & JAY KRISTOFF
GENRE: SCIENCE-FICTION
RATING: ✦✦✦✦✧ (3.75)
'Aurora Burning' was the weaker of the two books. So much so that I feel that it suffers from middle book syndrome. I felt as if this book did a lot more telling than showing. The middle third of the book seemed to be a lot more stagnant than the rest of the book and when compared to 'Aurora Rising' which was action from beginning to end.
Aurora and Kal were increasingly annoying in Aurora Burning. Personally speaking, I found their chapters to be insufferable. Since 'Rising', Kal has been increasingly obsessed with Aurora, to the point where he is constantly calling her 'besh'mai' at the most inappropriate times. That has always been a pet peeve of mine; characters using pet names or expressions of affection in front of commanding officers or in inappropriate settings. These characters are in the military (or a pseudo-military) and for him to call Aurora 'besh'mai' or touch her in front of his Alpha was wholly inappropriate and annoyed me to no end. What's more! He tells Aurora that he has this draw towards her (reminiscent of the Vulcan Pon Farr) and tells her that there is no pressure, yet he is continually calling her his people's name that is stronger than 'beloved'. 😖 I could easily make a drinking game out of the number of times that Kal uses that word. I would easily end up paralytic. His character did nothing for me in either book. For such a stoic character, he is far too sensitive for my liking.
Additionally, I felt that a lot of the word count of this book consisted of reiterating what was already known. I lost count of the number of times that Tyler said 'I know that voice' or 'I've known that voice since I was five.' That nugget of information has been known since 'Rising' and it was repeated roughly 5 times in the last third of the book. I get it! I know!
On a positive note, what I loved the most about The Aurora Cycle is that the authors find subtle and not-so-subtle ways to get in some nods to popular science-fiction. In the first book, there was a ship called the 'Bellerophon.' I may be over-reaching with this one but 'I fangirl, therefore I am.; In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine there was an Intrepid-class starship called the Bellerophon. Voyager (Star Trek: Voyager) was an Intrepid-class starship. Ergo,, Voyager was in this book. I did say that I was over-reaching. Another Star Trek over-reaching nod is that the foe in the book, the Gestalt, reminds me of the Borg but with flowers... While reading Aurora Rising, the Gestalt reminded me of the Borg backstory from David Mack's Star Trek: Destiny trilogy.
'Aurora Burning' had more overt references. They outright named a planet, 'Picard VI' and named a ship 'Janeway'. Two of the most iconic captains in the Star Trek canon (Janeway is my favourite).
Overall, I enjoyed the book but there was a lot that I did not enjoy about the book. The ending was probably what I enjoyed most because it set the third book up nicely Although the ending was not all that unique to science-fiction books. That's partly why I think that it suffers from Middle Book Syndrome; it served to set up the third book.
(ILLUMINAE FILES BOOK. 1)
AMIE KAUFMAN & JAY KRISTOFF
GENRE: SCIENCE-FICTION
RATING: ✦✦✦✦✦
Illuminae is a book that I have wanted to read for a while. I've heard a lot of good things about this book series and the format that it is told in. I finally bit the bullet and ordered it.
Illuminae is told in a mixed-media format. The characters interact through instant messaging scripts, transcripts of communications through official channels, security reports and AI internal monologues. It sounds like an odd concoction but it works. Kaufman and Kristoff make it work. You would think that you might miss out on some of the world-building and the characterisations and that it wouldn't be that rounded reading experience. Everything is there for you. The world is immediately accessible. You don't need the rooms or the ships described for you because the schematics are there for your perusal. I loved it and it made for quite the page-turner. Also, hats off to the graphic designers. Each page was perfectly in tune with the action to really bring it to life and make it such an immersive reading experience.
What struck me about the story is how much it reminded me of Battlestar Galactica and Avengers: Age of Ultron. The beginning reminded me of the Cylon attacks on the colonies in the prequel miniseries of Battlestar Galactica and the subsequent constant jumping in '33,' the premiere episode of the series. It reminded me of the frantic, high-pressure situation that Galactica found itself in with the closing in of the Cylons on their tail. Then the AI internal monologues reminded me of Ultron from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I could hear Jason Spader's voice in my head as I read those pages.
I'm very much looking forward to seeing how Gemina and Obsidio continue on with this series.
T H E P R I O R Y O F T H E O R A N G E T R E E
SAMANTHA SHANNON
GENRE: FANTASY
RATING: ✦✦✦✦✦ (4.75)
Priory was one of the most intimidating books on my bookshelf. It's a beast. It's a big book. It's saving grace is that it is not printed on Bible-thin pages. I originally was too intimidated to read it physically and so dedicated to pick up the audiobook.
I didn't like the audiobook. I had to start the audiobook twice because I wasn't engaging with the narrator. I didn't feel that the narrator's voice was the right fit for the setting and the characters. I couldn't get into it. One of the voices reminded me of Ruby from 'Death In Paradise.' Ruby is the comic-relief character in that show and since the narrator used a similar voice for one of the main characters in this book, I couldn't take her seriously. It just didn't work for me and so I had to veto the audiobook and physically read it instead. That was the best decision.
I loved this book. I loved the world that Samantha Shannon created within this book. Usually, I'm not one for books with politics and religion at the centre of the word but this book had the perfect balance of that and intrigue attached. From the very first page to the very last page, I was hooked on every one of the 848 pages.
Priory was the first book that I read by Samantha Shannon. I do have an eBook copy of The Bone Season (book One) but I haven't read it yet. With Priory, I fell in love with her writing style and how she wrote such strong and capable women characters. With writing strong female characters, it would be easy to fall into the trap of writing weak male characters. Samantha Shannon successfully writes extremely strong characters across the sexes. The women are strong and societal heads and the males are strong to stand beside them and hold them up. They don't exclusively serve the women but help them to achieve their goals. My favourite character was Queen Sabran. I loved how strong she was as a Queen but was able to show a vulnerable side in the woman behind the crown. However, I didn't buy into the romance that developed for Sabran. It's not that it was a female/female relationship. That didn't bother me at all. The romance, to me, felt as if it came out of left field. I understood how it began but I hated how quickly it progressed to an obsession and a need. That is a pet peeve of mine. The characters sleep together once and then suddenly they're obsessed with each other?
The romance grew on me but at one point it did put my 5-star rating at risk. Once I finished the book, I looked back on it and realised that the romance wasn't that big of a hindrance and so kept with my rating.
As I read the book, I got some serious 'A Song of Ice and Fire' vibes from it. I don't want to say that it could be called a girl's 'Game of Thrones' but that' would be a disservice to Priory. I've read 'A Song of Ice and Fire' and I love it. I love how dark and gruesome ASOIAF is and I love how dark and gruesome Priory was able to be. I love that Samantha Shannon took risks with her characters and the world that she created. I love it when authors do that. I have heard some people mistakenly brand this a 'Young Adult' book but it is not that in that age category. This is most certainly Adult. Maybe not as adult as 'A Song of Ice and Fire' but certainly with the potential.
Loved it from beginning to end. Amazing and diverse characters. Strong female characters that aren't just baby makers - you see Queen Sabran deal with being a Queen and having to conceive an heir under a lot of pressure to prevent an ancient evil returning. Yep, no pressure there.
I'm not entirely sure if this book is remaining as a stand-alone book. Samantha Shannon has been tweeting about writing Priory 2. The door was certainly left open for more from this world. I will happily see what else it has to offer.
Priory was one of the most intimidating books on my bookshelf. It's a beast. It's a big book. It's saving grace is that it is not printed on Bible-thin pages. I originally was too intimidated to read it physically and so dedicated to pick up the audiobook.
I didn't like the audiobook. I had to start the audiobook twice because I wasn't engaging with the narrator. I didn't feel that the narrator's voice was the right fit for the setting and the characters. I couldn't get into it. One of the voices reminded me of Ruby from 'Death In Paradise.' Ruby is the comic-relief character in that show and since the narrator used a similar voice for one of the main characters in this book, I couldn't take her seriously. It just didn't work for me and so I had to veto the audiobook and physically read it instead. That was the best decision.
I loved this book. I loved the world that Samantha Shannon created within this book. Usually, I'm not one for books with politics and religion at the centre of the word but this book had the perfect balance of that and intrigue attached. From the very first page to the very last page, I was hooked on every one of the 848 pages.
Priory was the first book that I read by Samantha Shannon. I do have an eBook copy of The Bone Season (book One) but I haven't read it yet. With Priory, I fell in love with her writing style and how she wrote such strong and capable women characters. With writing strong female characters, it would be easy to fall into the trap of writing weak male characters. Samantha Shannon successfully writes extremely strong characters across the sexes. The women are strong and societal heads and the males are strong to stand beside them and hold them up. They don't exclusively serve the women but help them to achieve their goals. My favourite character was Queen Sabran. I loved how strong she was as a Queen but was able to show a vulnerable side in the woman behind the crown. However, I didn't buy into the romance that developed for Sabran. It's not that it was a female/female relationship. That didn't bother me at all. The romance, to me, felt as if it came out of left field. I understood how it began but I hated how quickly it progressed to an obsession and a need. That is a pet peeve of mine. The characters sleep together once and then suddenly they're obsessed with each other?
The romance grew on me but at one point it did put my 5-star rating at risk. Once I finished the book, I looked back on it and realised that the romance wasn't that big of a hindrance and so kept with my rating.As I read the book, I got some serious 'A Song of Ice and Fire' vibes from it. I don't want to say that it could be called a girl's 'Game of Thrones' but that' would be a disservice to Priory. I've read 'A Song of Ice and Fire' and I love it. I love how dark and gruesome ASOIAF is and I love how dark and gruesome Priory was able to be. I love that Samantha Shannon took risks with her characters and the world that she created. I love it when authors do that. I have heard some people mistakenly brand this a 'Young Adult' book but it is not that in that age category. This is most certainly Adult. Maybe not as adult as 'A Song of Ice and Fire' but certainly with the potential.
Loved it from beginning to end. Amazing and diverse characters. Strong female characters that aren't just baby makers - you see Queen Sabran deal with being a Queen and having to conceive an heir under a lot of pressure to prevent an ancient evil returning. Yep, no pressure there.
I'm not entirely sure if this book is remaining as a stand-alone book. Samantha Shannon has been tweeting about writing Priory 2. The door was certainly left open for more from this world. I will happily see what else it has to offer.
(THE HUNGER GAMES PREQUEL)
SUZANNE COLLINS
GENRE: FANTASY
RATING: ✦✦✦✧✧
I was very excited about reading this book. When I originally read 'The Hunger Games' trilogy, I loved President Snow. I loved how deliciously evil and maniacal he was. I love a good bad guy. The villains are sometimes my favourite characters. President Snow was easily Top 5. (Hello, blog post idea.)
It took a moment to get into the book. The beginning of the book wasn't exactly what I was expecting and so took me a minute to get back into that world. After the first chapter, I settled in easily to this world of Panem, set 64 years before the events of the 74th Hunger Games which saw Katniss Everdeen volunteering for her sister at the Reaping. The Hunger Games of Katniss's time is vastly different from the Games in their infancy. At the beginning of the book, the Capitol is trying to bring the Games to the masses and get more people watching. Who would want to watch their children kill other children? That's where you can easily see how the Games evolved to the glamorous and colourful world of the 74th Games. In Snow's day, the Games were more brutal with the Tributes staying in their Reaping outfits and being put into a pen altogether without access to food, clean water or decent sanitary facilities. A far cry from the lavish apartment that Katniss and Peeta called home before the Games began.
The action of the book was captivating until the last 150 (or so) pages. Basically, up until after the Games ended, I was liking it. There is a romance blossoming between Snow and the Tribute that he mentors. When I first heard about the romance, I wasn't entirely on board because I didn't think Snow would be the romantic type.
The last 100 pages unravelled everything that the book had spent so much time and effort piecing together. It seemed as if the book followed a straight trajectory that made sense and then suddenly decided to create a massive scribble with a full-stop instead of continuing. It didn't seem to make sense. Snow was prepared to do this and to do that for love and then the reality made him do a complete 180º turn in the blink of an eye and commit murder. Huh? It felt like a rushed decision. It was heading for a 4-star rating up until that point.
The last 100 pages unravelled everything that the book had spent so much time and effort piecing together. It seemed as if the book followed a straight trajectory that made sense and then suddenly decided to create a massive scribble with a full-stop instead of continuing. It didn't seem to make sense. Snow was prepared to do this and to do that for love and then the reality made him do a complete 180º turn in the blink of an eye and commit murder. Huh? It felt like a rushed decision. It was heading for a 4-star rating up until that point.
The book also cemented how much I do not like song lyrics in books. I don't like it because I cannot hear how they are meant to be. 'The Hanging Tree' is a different story because I had heard that song in the Mockingjay movie. I could hear that and feel the impact of it when it was included in the book.
I do wish I had annotated it though.
(CRESCENT CITY: BOOK ONE)
SARAH J. MAAS
GENRE: FANTASY
RATING: ✦✦✦✦✦
AUDIOBOOK NARRATOR: ELIZABETH EVANS
AUDIOBOOK RATING: ✦✦✦✦✦
Okay, Sarah J. Maas. Okay. I see you. I see you. I'm here. I see you. This book just shot it's way to my favourite SJM book. Granted, I have only read 'A Court of Thorns and Roses' and 'Throne of Glass', (first books in the series only). I thoroughly loved ACOTAR and liked Throne of Glass but I hated her writing style in TOG. If SJM wrote 'the assassin' one more time in that book, I was going to throw it. I KNOW THAT CELAENA IS AN ASSASSIN! I DON'T NEED IT REPEATED 5 TIMES PER CHAPTER!
Needless to say, the writing in 'The House of Earth and Blood' was so much better than Throne of Glass. I could easily see how much SJM has evolved and progressed as a writer. I was living for this book. I listened to the audiobook. Originally I wasn't feeling it but once I started to really listen, I fell in love with it. This whole world that SJM created was so dark and gritty. To me, it felt as if it was like Sin City meets Dresden Files. I could hear the hustle and bustle of the streets in this book. This whole book sucked me in like a black hole. Every single second of the audiobook had me at its feet. When I had to stop listening, I was in mourning and acting like I was going cold turkey until the moment I could listen to it. Yes, I could've lifted the physical copy but I was so invested in the audiobook that I didn't want to destroy that bond. I felt as if I was on a holodeck from Star Trek when I was listening to this audiobook. I felt as if I was on those streets. SJM's writing was so vivid that it created such a visceral world that I could feel the winds, I would hear the ambience of the city and I could feel the heat from the fires and feel the rain on my face. I can see myself reading this book again in an instant. The last 4 hours of the audiobook had me gasping and stopping the tears because OH MY GOD was that epic. If anyone dared to talk to me during that time, they may have found themselves on the receiving end of a throat punch. I was happily cursing SJM for putting me through that.
The characters were the strongest characters that I have encountered in books recently. I loved how morally grey the characters were. They did what they wanted, they had casual sex, they did hard drugs recreationally and loved that they did and Bryce was less than a stellar employee. All such imperfect people. Hunt reminded me a lot of Paul Bettany's Michael from 'Legion', or at least Gabriel played by Kevin Durand. Also, at times he reminded me of Amenadiel from Lucifer. So many angel types played by gorgeous men. I loved all of the characters that SJM created. I felt invested in all of their lives and was intrigued by others. I would've loved to have learnt more about the Viper Queen. The voice that the audiobook narrator did for her was probably what made me love the character all the more. I hope she appears in the rest of the series.
Like with Priory, SJM took risks with her characters and the world. She went as dark and gritty with the characters as she wished. She took some of her characters to the brink of death and brought them back only to brutally have another character ripped to shreds. She did a full-on JK. Rowling; killing Sirius because she saved Mr. Weasley. SJM went there too. She officially made herself known in the world of adult books. What I missed from the other books was that they felt shackled by the age category. Crescent City is going to be a series that I am going to love.
There you have it. Those are all of the books that I read in May. They were some hefty books with the quality to match. Some of them have cemented their place in my favourite books of the year list already. At the moment, I have read 33 books towards my 52 book goal.
Comments
Post a Comment