Weekly Recap #2

So I'm a day late on this one, so my apologizes. Also, I forgot my post-it with daily stats on my kindle, so I'll have to add that in later. For now we're just looking at physical books results.

Last Week's Posts:

Review: A Borrowed Man by Gene Wolfe - 2 stars

Pages Read:
Guys! I lost my paper for this. I will update if I can find it later this week.

Wow, pretty lame week. But I did play all the video games on the weekend, so I'm happy.

Review: A Borrowed Man

Info: 
Title: A Borrowed Man
Author: Gene Wolfe
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication Date: October 20, 2015
Source: I received a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
In the twenty-second century, our civilization has retained many familiar characteristics, but the population is smaller. Technology has made significant advances, and there are more robots--and clones.

One such is E.A. Smithe, a borrowed person, a clone who lives on a third-tier shelf in a public library. His personality is an uploaded recording of a deceased mystery writer. Smithe is library property, not a legal human. 

The father of Colette Coldbrook, a wealthy library patron, has disappeared and been proclaimed dead. She decides to check Smithe out of the library because he is the surviving personality of the author of Murder on Mars. A physical copy of that book was the sole item in her father's safe, and it contains an important secret, the key to immense family wealth. Her brother, Conrad, turned up dead in the family home shortly after giving the book to her. 

Colette has reached the end of her options. She's afraid of the police, and there are others who might want the book's secret. Smithe is her last hope. Borrowing him might help her find the connection between the deaths and Murder on Mars. 

Together they find something far beyond their expectations--something almost anyone would kill for.

Review:
The premise of this book really intrigued me. Can you imagine being able to actually check out clones of your favourite authors from the library and take them home with you for a few days?! I haven't decided if that is really cool or completely terrifying or both. Anyway, this idea was the reason I wanted to read this book and I did end up enjoying that aspect of the book. The rest, however, didn't work out for me.

Let's start with the good things. The premise. As I mentioned before, the premise drew me to this book and that aspect did not disappoint. I really enjoyed the moral aspect it brings to the story. You see, our main character is Ern Smithe and he is not considered fully human by law. That's because he is a clone of a famous author and has been imprinted with the memories of his original self. Because he is a reclone, he is not considered fully human (although biologically he is) and is the property of the library. Because he is property, he can be bought and sold and even destroyed if not enough people check him out from the library (a constant fear among reclones like Ern). Obviously most readers would have a huge moral issue with this form of slavery (although, as Ern points out, slaves can be freed and he cannot), but the author just state this as fact and mores on without dwelling on it, which I enjoyed because it lets the reader get worked up about the injustice on their own, without the author dwelling on the issue.

Unfortunately, the rest of the book was a bit of a mess for me. I just didn't enjoy the storyline. I felt like the author kept having things happen and introducing characters, then taking them away, without any actually bearing on the plot. I felt like the plot was set up well initially, then most of the middle was Ern just wandering around doing stuff, then at the end the author rushed to tie the plot back together again.

Another thing that bothered me was inconsistent explanations of things. The initial world building was not bad, but then Ern makes a huge discovery, but there is absolutely no description about how that came about. It's just this fantasical thing plunked down in the middle of a vaguely sci-fi novel with no explanation whatsoever, which I found really annoying. Even if it's not super technical, I want a why!

My third major complaint was the characters. I didn't like them. They all felt flat to me. Ern seemed very bland to me. Colette was kind of interesting because of what had happened to her family, but I certainly found her situation much more interesting than her character. Georges and Mahala were the most interesting character based on the bit of backstory we get, but they pretty much just show up, do whatever Ern tells them, then disappear. Arabella had potential I think, but her character was pretty much non-exiestent and I actually didn't think she contributed anything to the story at all. The bad guys had basically two or three chapters of page time and weren't fleshed out much at all.

This book, despite it's amazing premise and moral issues, turned out to be a disappointment. The characters and plotline were both lacking, which dragged the book way down for me.

Find the Book: Goodreads | Amazon | The Book Depository | Chapters Find the Author:   Goodreads | Wikipedia

Reading Resolution + First Week Recap

So I know I'm a little late posting this, but here's my New Year's reading resolution: Read 50 pages per day!

To some of you, this might sound minuscule, but most of last year I was reading no where near that amount, which makes maintaining a book blog a bit difficult. I think 50 pages is a realistic goal.

In order to keep myself on track, I'm going to start posting a weekly recap on Sundays. This will include: pages read, the previous weeks posts and any new additions, along with anything else I feel like adding. So here's my first recap! I've included the 1st and 2nd as well because the year started on a Friday.

Last Week's Posts

Review: An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes by Randy Ribay
2016 Reading Challenges

New Arrivals

Family Magic by Patti Larsen - free on Amazon

Pages Read

1/1 - 50
1/2 - 9
1/3 - 20
1/4 - 4
1/5 - 18
1/6 - 51
1/7 - 122
1/8 - 113
1/9 - 0

Weekly (+2) Total = 387 pages
Weekly (+2) Average = 43

As you can see, this week was wildly inconsistent, with pages ranging from 0 - 122. Next week I will try to read more steadily. But I wasn't too far from my goal (only 7 pages on average)

2016 Reading Challenges

The start of the new year is always exciting for me, because it's the time I get to sign up for all the book blog challenges! To be completely honest, I often don't finish them, but I love to try! Here's what I'm going to sign up for this year!

2016 Reading Bingo - hosted by Novel Heartbeat

Prequel & Sequel Challenge - hosted by Novel Heartbeat and Writer Grrl Reads

Goal = 50 points (last year I got 67!)

TBR Pile Challenge - hosted by Bookish Lifestyle

I have a few (ok, like honestly over a hundred) books of on my book shelf that I haven't read yet. I'll be realistic and go with A First Kiss as a goal, but more would be better.

1-10 A Firm Handshake

11-20 A Friendly Hug

21-30 First Kiss

31-40 Sweet Summer Fling

41-50 Could This Be Love?

50+ Married with Children

So, that's my list of challenges for now. I may be adding a few more in the next few days as I stumble across them.

Review: An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes

Info: 
Title: An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes
Author: Randy Ribay
Publisher: Merit Press
Publication Date: October 16, 2015
Source: I received a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
As their senior year approaches, four diverse friends joined by their weekly Dungeons & Dragons game struggle to figure out real life. Archie's trying to cope with the lingering effects of his parents' divorce, Mari's considering an opportunity to contact her biological mother, Dante's working up the courage to come out to his friends, and Sam's clinging to a failing relationship. The four eventually embark on a cross-country road trip in an attempt to solve--or to avoid--their problems.

Told in the narrative style of Akira Kurosawa's RASHOMAN, AN INFINITE NUMBER OF PARALLEL UNIVERSES is at turns geeky, funny, and lyrical as it tells a story about that time in life when friends need each other to become more than just people that hang out. 

Review:

I was excited to read this one, as I'm an occasional D&D player and the synopsis mentions that the characters are in a playing group together. However, I found it to be disappointing. The D&D aspect was probably the thing I was most excited for. However, this turned out to be a bit misleading. They don't play any games at all until the final chapter. Instead, this book just got on my nerves. More specifically, the characters got on my nerves. They were so whiny! Seriously, these characters were the epitome of teenage angst, which is not really my thing. And I only liked one of the 4 main characters. Archie was acting like a spoiled little brat and I felt super bad for his dad. Mari was just an unlikable character for me because it felt like she had no interest in anything. She's a storyteller, but she had no enthusiasm for anything. Dante was the only character I was close to liking and even then I found his characterization weak. And don't even get me started on Sam. I just wanted to shake an enormous amount of sense into him. I have no idea why any of the other characters even bothered with him. Which brings me to my other major complaint. The whole premise of the road trip together was really weak in my opinion. Sam was obviously the instigator, but why Mari and Archie would ever agree to go is beyond me. I think it was perhaps a bit too much to have 4 major characters in a book that is under 250 pages. However, I'm not sure if more characterization would have helped my opinion of the book, since I disliked most of the characters based on what was written. My dislike of three quarters of the main characters made it impossible to rate this book above 2 stars.

Find the Book: Goodreads | Amazon | The Book Depository | Chapters Find the Author:   Goodreads | Web | Facebook | Twitter

Review: Winter

Info: 
Title: Winter
Author: Marissa Meyer
Series: The Lunar Chronicles #4
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Publication Date: November 10, 2015
Source: Purchased

Synopsis:
Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.

Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won’t approve of her feelings for her childhood friend—the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn’t as weak as Levana believes her to be and she’s been undermining her stepmother’s wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters?

Review:

This was one of those bittersweet books, because a series you loved is coming to close. While this wasn't my favourite book in the series, I still enjoyed it and thought it ended the series well. My favourite characters (Thorne and Iko) were back in action, although neither of them played as major of roles as some of the others. But they didn't do anything to diminish my love of them, so that's always good. This book focused on Winter, Levana's stepdaughter and Meyer's version of Snow White. I really enjoyed Winter's character. It was interesting to see a glimpse of her madness and see her struggle to differentiate reality and hallucination. Despite her difficulties, Winter is a kind and likable character. We also got a see a softer side of Jacin in this book and he *almost* became likable at times. The finale was filled with excitement and was not a disappointment, although I think it was always going to be a happy ending, even when it felt a touch unrealistic. I can't say too much without things getting a little spoiler-y. Overall, I enjoyed the conclusion to the series and can't wait to read whatever Meyer puts out next! Find the Book: Goodreads | Amazon | The Book Depository | Chapters Find the Author:   Goodreads | Web | Facebook | Twitter

Review: Just Like Magic

Info: 
Title: Just Like Magic
Author: Elizabeth Townsend
Publisher: Self-published
Publication Date: October 21, 2012
Source: Amazon Freebie

Synopsis:
Miss Ella Merton had her life completely planned out: attend the finest finishing school, be presented at the palace, and marry well - in fact, why not a prince? But now her beloved father has died, her family is bankrupt, and she's being forced to work in the kitchen. Still, she's not willing to give up - if only her two stepsisters weren't so selfish, and that chore boy so familiar, and her godmother so unfashionable - not to mention that ridiculous dog. With no magic wand to wave, can she still make her dreams come true? 

Review:

I'm a big fan of fairy-tale retellings, but this one left something to be desired. It ws a pretty straightforward retelling, without much to make it unique. That, and Ella was a very unlikable character for the first half of the book. As mentioned, this retelling was pretty straightforward, other than the lack of magic. So instead of a fairy godmother, Ella's godmother is a dressmaker, which give a plausible way for the story to move forward without the use of magic wands. However, I wish there had been a bit more added in to the story to give a more unique spin to it. My major issue with this book was that I hated Ella for most of it. She is snooty and spoiled and proud and lacked backbone. When her stepfamily started treating her poorly she should have pushed back or at least allowed her friends to assist her. But no, she just complained about it and did a poor job and was rude to poor Henry. Eventually she came around, but it was too little too late for me. The other issues I had with the story are the issues I have with the fairy tale in general. By it's very nature, there was a unhealthy dose of instalove. Because talking to someone for a couple hours in the dark is enough to know they are marriage (and throne) material. Right?! Also, this book is pretty short, with didn't help my reception of it. Anyway, not a winner for me. But give it a try if you are a big fan of retellings and don't mind unlikable characters. Find the Book: Goodreads | Amazon | The Book Depository Find the Author: Goodreads | Web | Twitter | Facebook