ThatBookIsOnFiyah

4.5/5 stars. Pressfield writes crisp, smooth prose that keeps the reader engaged and excited to continue the story. This historical fiction/fantasy is set in Spain in the 16 th century and focuses around a Portuguese invasion that draws our main protagonists into the siege of a castle. We learn interesting backstories for our characters, and we witness the battle from several perspectives. This is my first experience with Pressfield, but his battle writing reminds me of Cornwell, Abercrombie, and Gwynne. I greatly enjoyed the setting in Spain and the historicity of the Portuguese invasion as the background of this tale. Pressfield has created a believable series of events for our protagonists. One, a former soldier who is a traveling ‘iron man’ who moves from town to town sharpening tools and swords for the local communities. The second main character is a young farm girl who has strong feelings for a wild horse that she tries to protect, and which turns out to be the iron man’s for...

4/5 stars. Palaces of the Crow is a fascinating historical fiction with supernatural elements surrounding the titular crows. This story centers around four young people caught in Lithuania during World War II, trying to hide from both the Russians and the Nazis. In their hiding, they are aided repeatedly by a murder of crows who have advanced intelligence, even beyond what we typically know of the average crow. These crows guide the children to safety and keep them aware of others who might be looking for them. We follow two timelines – one during the war, between 1941 and 1944, the other in 1971 after the children have grown and lived much of their lives. Through both narratives, we have events from the past revealed to us by the children and we discover that, even as adults, the children continue to carry their war scars with them – their loss of family and friends, the fear that carried them through four years of the war, and even the actions they took during, and even since, the ...

5/5 stars. RJ Barker is one of my favorite writers and I am always excited when he has a new book releasing. In this case, I was extra surprised to receive the ARC of the audiobook, narrated by Joe Eyre, from NetGalley. This novel focuses on Irody Hasp, a lowly Mortedant in the city of Elbay, who stumbles upon a deeper mystery than he ever imagined as a result of reading the last thoughts of a dead man in the slums of the city. As always, Barker weaves a, literal and figurative, magical tale with wonderful characters – particularly Irody, his apprentice Mirial, and his bodyguard Whisper, and builds an intriguing city and world for the reader to explore. This story reminds me, in some ways, of Richard Swan’s Empire of the Wolf and Sir Konrad Vonvalt, though not as horrific in tone. Joe Eyre does a wonderful job with the narration, and his voice work was particularly good. I could feel the tension and the desperation of our characters through Eyre’s reading of the story, and I particul...

4.5/5 stars. I read some books for their literary quality, while some books I read are all about the enjoyment and entertainment value that I get from the experience. Other books I read have emotional moments and fantastic characters that drive the narrative. Yet other book pleasures are tied to the story and the ambitious ideas that come from it.   DCC books are a combination of these last three aspects. None of these stories are going to be considered outstanding from a purely literary point of view; however, the entertainment value, the quality characters, and the emotional ties to them, along with the overarching storyline across all eight books drive my desire to continue this series. I cannot wait to see where the author takes us at the end of this (expected) ten book series. Dinniman is a master at combining deeply emotional and sad moments with bits of humor that brings together the absolute best aspects of humanity with the absolute worst aspects of humanity, hidden in ...

5/5 stars. Another fun Joe Pickett mystery from CJ Box. Animals are suddenly being mutilated in Joe Pickett’s district, then the same mutilations happen to two human murder victims. What is going on? How quickly can Joe figure it out to stop more murders or mutilations from happening? Box always includes wonderfully descriptive details about Joe Pickett’s Wyoming, and his character work is first rate, as we follow the growth and maturity of Joe’s family, in addition to watching him solve unusual crimes. These stories are enjoyable, mostly quick, reads that are perfect as palate cleansers between big fantasy chonkers. Furthermore, I particularly enjoy the Joe Pickett stories on audiobook. David Chandler does outstanding narration for this series, and I look forward to more quality listening experiences. Highly recommended series, especially if you enjoy good mystery writing and/or modern western stories.

5/5 stars. I am really enjoying this series about a monk and a nun who are tasked with a variety of very special operations that are appropriate to their skill sets. He is a master forger who is an atheist. She is a talented assassin who was saved from a terrible past by the religious order. Certainly, these two are not the typical monk and nun and it fascinating to be a witness to what happens to them on their missions. In this entry to the trilogy, they are assigned the task of infiltrating a heavily guarded library to steal an important book for the holy mother of their monastery, Tysapherna. In the middle of the job, they encounter an entity that claims to be a demon, also while dealing with both the Loyal Opposition and the Order of Intercession, all while Brother Desiderius, refuses to believe that any of it is real! This series is filled with wonderful banter, excellent characters, a detailed world, and the wonderful prose of KJ Parker. Parker is quickly moving up my list of ...

5/5 stars. Joe Berne has authored another excellent book about the life and times of Rohan, Wei Li, Wistful, the Drs. Stone, Void’s Shadow, and all the supporting cast. This story introduces us to a new alien species, the Il’Zkin, and we learn even more about the il’Sein and what they were trying to accomplish in the distant past. Rohan must face multiple situations, with the new race on their home planet Pilli 5; with the Ohnians, whose planet was destroyed because of the actions of the new Hyperion; and a rogue hybrid, WildEye, who has left the service of the Empire and is looking for her missing sister – someone Rohan remembers all too well. Berne excels at putting Rohan into difficult situations and giving him multiple options to work through to solve the problems. Eyes of Empire is such a great story, and the Hybrid Helix is such a great series overall. I am also looking forward to continuing with the audiobooks as they come out this year. Wayne Farrell is the perfect narrator f...

4.5/5 stars. I have read three debut novels so far this year, and Republic of Memory is far away the best of the three. Sayed’s writing is crisp and flows very nicely. There are multiple points of view, and I enjoyed reading all of them. There was never a moment where I was bored with one of the POVs and anxious to get back to another. I was invested in every part of this story about a revolution on a generation ship that has left a dying Earth, headed to a new planet 400 years from Earth. I like the way Sayed set up the story with a large group of individuals asleep in cryostasis and an even larger group of their family’s descendants making up the crew. It was interesting to see the interactions of the various groups, all defined by the language that they speak. The author also presents a realistic view of the jealousy among the crew members regarding the people in stasis. The belief among some of the crew that the ‘ancestors’ have gotten free travel while the crew has slaved and di...

3.5/5 stars. This novella length story is my first experience with the work of Mr. Saunders. This story centers around a dying man, the people who visit his bedside, and the ‘Angel of death’ who comes to watch over his passing into the afterlife. We get the perspective of the Watcher, Jill (Doll) Blaine, and her backstory, as we also learn that the dying man might not have been a good person in life. Slowly, we get more information about these two lives and the potential future to come. The prose in this story is superb. The characters, and the way we learn about them, are well done. However, the pace of the story felt off at times, and I lost my train of thought periodically while reading. The narrative was the weaker link for me and causes the points deduction in my rating. There is much to like in this tale of a death, but I was a little disappointed overall.