Blood For Love

Title: Blood For Love
Author: Chris M. Finklestein


Ratings

Score: 9/10
How likely I am to read the next in the Series: I would love to read a sequel, and I hope Finklestein writes one.

Review

I have to say this book was not at all what I was expecting. It's about a planet where love is forbidden - and so I expected it to be a romance. It's not about that. It's about a resistance movement trying to survive in what seems to be a destructive government. It's called the Nation of Vengeance. Now I don't like the name, I can't imagine a government calling themselves that, but it is pretty apt.

So there's an enemy, which all good novels tend to have, and there's good guys: Jan, Martha, Rebecca... etc. These are good characters, altohugh I wouldn't say they are outstanding, they changed too fast after they went to a certain school, and there was one character, Rachael, who I felt was underdeveloped. But the character that reallys stood out to me was Grisvolt...

The Gift (Chiveis Trilogy Book 2)

Title: The Gift
Author: Bryan M. Litfin

Series: The Chiveis Trilogy
Preceeded By: The Sword
Succeeded By: ???

Ratings

Score: 7/10
How likely I am to read the next in the Series: I look forwards to it.

Review

Normally I start with a review with a short introduction to what I thought about the book. This time I'm going to do it differently, and start with a review of the introduction of the book itself. Firstly there's the prologue. Now it's the second in a trilogy - and normally I don't like prologues in the second of a trilogy. But this was short, and in essence was the same as the prologue of the first novel - extended a bit to briefly (barely) cover what happened to the main characters in book one. I felt it didn't really didn't need to be there, but it doesn't harm the story. But what I really want to talk about of the introduction is the first chapter. The start of the novel finds the main characters (Ana and Teo) with a small group of scouts. The author uses this as a way to help remind the reader of what happened in the first book (The Sword). It's not a unique way to recap the readers, but the way Litfin utilises this tool is possibly the thing I admire most about the beginning of the book. It's easy to read - not just a long monologue about the previous book - it even misses out the majority of the story. But it shows the character of the characters, and from the first chapter we are once more identifying with and sympathetic to the characters, Ana in particular.

The American Book of the Dead

Title: Henry Baum
Author: The American Book of the Dead

Ratings

Score: 10/10

Review

I have no idea how the author of this book could have remained sane. Perhaps he didn't. This is one of the most complex books I've read - yet is remarkably easy to understand. I don't know how it does it. Somehow it tricks your brain into thinking without you realising or something. It's a book about a writer who writes a book that he's already written which is the book that you'd be reading if you read this book. Try not to think about that too much. It's basically a summary of the introduction - which I found confusing until I'd read the rest of the book. This review doesn't quite do it justice, but IT IS definitely worth a read.