Pendragons 🐉

Monday 26 December 2016

2017 New Year Bookish Resolutions

Luna & Saturn December 26, 2016 19 Comments

Today’s post is going to be our New Year’s Bookish resolutions (aka 2017 To-be-read list). Some of these books will be for Uma K’s 👥Fantastically Diverse👥 read-a-thon. It’s - to put it in a nutshell - a read-a-thon that embraces diverse books, and we’ll try our best to finish it. For more details on the read-a-thon, click the picture or copy the URL below.

https://booksbagsburgers.blogspot.com.au/2016/12/fantastically-diverse-master-post-and.html

This is just a small list of our personal choices for 2017, and they’re mostly finishing off series. We’ll give a little of our thoughts on each one (following pictures are all from Goodreads):

🐉 A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin: Game of Thrones is amazing. That’s all there is to it. Waiting for our 18th birthday to roll around to catch up on the TV series as well.

🔥 Burn by Julianna Baggott: It’s the final book in the Pure trilogy and some reviewers have been saying it’s bittersweet, so we’re bracing ourselves for some serious emotions here.

✨ Their Fractured Light by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner: Final book in the Starbound triology, and we can’t wait to read it!

🏪 The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter: It’s a short story collection (some fairy tale re-tellings) and our teacher recommended this to us, plus many authors say it is amazing, so we’re looking out for this book.

http://bookreviewsbydi.blogspot.com.au/2016/12/review-edge-of-everything-jeff-giles.html

🌄 The Edge of Everything by Jeff Giles: Sarah J. Maas (we quite like her books) describes Giles as “awesome and hilarious” in her latest newsletter so we hope his book is like his personality as well! Di gave a nice rating to it as well, so we shouldn't go wrong here.

https://amagicalworldofwords.blogspot.com.au/2016/12/sisters-red-by-jackson-pearce.html

🐺 Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce: We absolutely love fairy tale retellings and AmyNikita gave a really strong rating for this book so it seems to be really good.

https://booksbagsburgers.blogspot.com.au/2016/12/review-empties-glitches-2-by-ramona-finn.html

💻 The Glitch by Ramona Finn: Uma K (creator of Fantastically Diverse) absolutely loved The Empties (book #2) so we figure we have to start out with book one first. We getting the Pure-triology-vibe from this book so we’re looking forward to it.

As you may be able to tell, we’re so glad we picked up blogging because the blogger community really is helpful in shaping TBR lists!

*****

And this is the list of books we’ll be trying to read for Uma’s Fantastically Diverse read-a-thon. Here are the seven books we’ll try to read for the seven categories:

⚔ PoC: Othello by William Shakespeare: We might be taking this a little literally, but we’ll try for a bit more diverse genre of books including a play.

🗾 Myth and Retelling: I Am Anjuhimeko by Hiromi Ito: This is a short story translating a Japanese myth and it seems really cool.

💖 LGBTQ Protagonist: The Flywheel by Erin Gough: This is a YA contemporary which was shortlisted for the 2016 Inky Awards.

🏯 PoC Cast: Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff: It’s Jay Kristoff, how could we not?

⛅️ Diverse Middle-grade fantasy: The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan: We’ve already read this, but re-reading it would be really nice. We think there’s absolutely nothing wrong with re-reading books, and it’s enjoyable because you usually pick up things you missed before!

🐦 Disabled characters: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo: The title cover looks absolutely stunning, so it’s what we pick for this genre. Thanks to Uma for giving a list to help people out for TBR ideas!

⭐️ From our own TBR: The Midnight Star by Marie Lu: Marie is a diverse author, which we hope still fulfills the read-a-thon requirements.

And finally, out last bookish resolution is to be more active on Goodreads - we’re always forgetting to post reading updates etc on it.

Sorry for the long post, thanks for reading, and a Happy New Year everyone!!!!! 🎆🎆

Wednesday 21 December 2016

6 reasons to drop everything and read Gemina NOW

Luna & Saturn December 21, 2016 10 Comments

We've had this book a while now, but didn't manage to read it because of school work, but today we're going to list why we think Gemina is worth dropping everything to read right now.

1. The plot is legit OUT OF THIS WORLD! Never is there a dull moment where you can feel your hand flick the pages. Problems and conflicts just stack and stack and stack until you are blown away by the sheer complexity of it. We love it. 😍😍😍

2. Alternative format: There are way more awesome formats in here than compared to Illuminae. We mean, “guest [and amazing] illustrations by bestselling author Marie Lu”= EPIC. We really can’t tell you what our favourite format is because that would ruin the surprise but it is infinitely better than Illuminae.

Also, Gemina is better than Illuminae because it is much more coherent. Illuminae is a bit hard to follow sometimes because it was the first time we encountered this original formatting, and because it is the first book in the series, Illuminae had plot holes that were confusing, but aren’t answered until Gemina.

3. The humour: Even when you are getting attacked by vicious aliens or on the brink of death, Kaufman and Kristoff don’t fail to deliver a punch line. The humour has matured since there are many suggestive innuendos which weren't obvious in the first book.

Favourite Quote:

4. An emotional rollercoaster 🎢: Again, there a lot of deaths in the book which is absolutely heartbreaking, especially when you’re very attached to the characters.

5. Characters: Hanna is an awesome protagonist. She is sassy, brave and has black belts and trophies 🏆 in krav maga, jeet kune do and muay thai… you get the picture. Nik is also amazing as well, and it’s really interesting that he isn’t the typical nice kid.

Returning characters like Kady don't play as much of a major role, but their presence is refreshing nonetheless. Also, it's interesting to note that other authors can be found in the Gemina casualty list, such as Victoria Aveyard and Scott Westerfeld.

6. The aliens: Known as lanima, these are some pretty terrifying creatures. We personally think these aliens are nowhere near as scary as the Phobos virus in Illuminae, and they don’t play as much as a prominent role in the book, but the aliens are still a highlight of the book.

So you really should pick up Gemina - IT’S AMAZING.

Tell us what you think of Gemina below, or if you haven't read it, if you're excited for it too. Merry Christmas everyone! 🎅🎄🎁

Monday 12 December 2016

The Rose Society

Luna & Saturn December 12, 2016 6 Comments

“Dear Father, did you receive my gift? Please let me come home. I no longer recognise this place, and my friends have become my enemies.” ~ Letter…

Although we won’t tell you the context of the quote, all we can say is that we think it captures some key ideas in the novel very well. If you haven’t already guessed from the blog post title, today we’ll be reviewing the sophomore novel in The Young Elites series: The Rose Society. 🌹🌹🌹

Series: The Young Elites #2

Author: Marie Lu

Genre: YA Fantasy

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers

Pages: 344 (Paperback)

Swift Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Once upon a time, a girl had a father, a prince, a society of friends. Then they betrayed her, and she destroyed them all.

Adelina Amouteru’s heart has suffered at the hands of both family and friends, turning her down the bitter path of revenge. Now known and feared as the White Wolf, she flees Kenettra with her sister to find other Young Elites in the hopes of building her own army of allies. Her goal: to strike down the Inquisition Axis, the white-cloaked soldiers who nearly killed her.

But Adelina is no heroine. Her powers, fed only by fear and hate, have started to grow beyond her control. She does not trust her newfound Elite friends. Teren Santoro, leader of the Inquisition, wants her dead. And her former friends, Raffaele and the Dagger Society, want to stop her thirst for vengeance. Adelina struggles to cling to the good within her. But how can someone be good when her very existence depends on darkness?

Review:

Firstly, let’s start with the characterisation - it was very inconsistent. Marie Lu says that The Rose Society is the darkest book she’s ever written, but honestly, it wasn’t even dark. OK, maybe you’re thinking we’re biased because we’ve read Red as Blood by Tanith Lee, for instance, but honestly, it’s not that dark for the YA genre either. Ilsa J. Bick’s Shadows was much more sinister. In terms of the characters, they shift from rainbow-goody-two-shoes to blood-thirsty-murderers too quickly and unexpectedly to be realistic. The protagonist - Adelina Amouteru - fluctuates so wildly in her moods that it’s hard to relate to her. Magiano is more likeable character, but again, his emotions seem a tad too forced.

Favourite Quote:

In terms of writing, The Rose Society has nothing exceptionally spectacular. It’s not Marie Lu’s best, that’s for sure. Marie’s Legend series is much better, in our opinion; The Young Elites was also enjoyable, but The Rose Society seems to have missed its mark.

The only memorable thing about this novel is the ending. It has a major cliffhanger that’ll likely leave your screaming as well 😱😱. To us, it’s almost as if all the suspense, and heartstrings pulled was to accentuate the climax of the ending. If you have read The Young Elites, we do recommend reading its sequel - if for nothing, then at the very least for the ending. The ending is the definite highlight of the book. If by any chance you are ever reading the book and don't like it, stick around to the end.

To sum up very simply:

Characterisation: ⅖

Writing: ⅖

Ending: 5/5

Rating:

Sunday 4 December 2016

Red as Blood

Luna & Saturn December 04, 2016 6 Comments

Red as Blood by Tanith Lee

Series: None

Author: Tanith Lee

Genre: Fantasy (with a bit of sci-fi), short story

Publisher: Wildside Press

Pages: 224 (paperback)

Swift Synopsis:

Ten twisted fairytales retold by Tanith Lee, dark and beautiful as ever! You’ll meet Snow White again, Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel, but many of these characters have a much more sinister and macabre nature…

Review:

What can we say? This book is no let down. We were first introduced to Tanith Lee through a teacher and ever since then, Lee has never disappointed us. We’ll begin by reviewing the book overall then go into the specific stories.

Tanith Lee’s writing is breathtaking. You know how you read and you get that fairytale vibe? How the author’s writing is so beautiful it’s ethereal? That’s Lee’s writing. And she has nailed that fairytale/fantastical vibe. The only problem is that sometimes her stories are hard to understand. The writing can be really confusing because she goes into detail, but not the right detail. A few times, we were left thinking, what just happened?

This book never has any action packed fighting or that thrill, but it makes it up for suspense and a sense of dread. In Lee’s world, there are pretty much no rules, so it’s fun (unless it’s a dark ending) to see what will play out. Tanith Lee drags out the usual fairytale and completely turns it upside down (in a good way).

Take for instance the Paid Piper. You know the usual tale, the Piper lures the children away and they all follow him. But this tale, taking the children away has a darker meaning, the Piper has an arrogance and cruelty not highlighted in usual tales, and we really can’t tell you about it without spoiling it!

The title story Red as Blood is amazing as well. It’s a Snow White adaptation, but in this tale, the stepmother is perfectly good while Snow White just drips with malice. We found this tale so vivid and creepy, and again, we can’t tell you anymore or we’ll spoil it!!!!

We basically loved all the stories except Thorn, because the ending was so confusing- didn’t really understand where Lee is getting at. Wolfland and Black as Ink are nice tales but the plot isn’t captivating.

Sorry, for the long post. Hope you all liked it. Well, we recommend trying this book because Tanith Lee is an awesome writer and please comment below if you know any other fairytale anthologies!

Rating:

Monday 28 November 2016

Mini Book Gift Haul

Luna & Saturn November 28, 2016 6 Comments

Hello fellow Pendragons! Today’s blog post is going to be us sharing some bookish gifts we received from friends and family last week! Thanks to everyone who gave us these wonderful presents! 🎁🎁🎁

We’ll give a quick run through of our thoughts on the books:

✏️ Throne of Glass Colouring Book: An absolutely stunning book. We’d like to properly review this in the future, but for now, we highly recommend buying it. If you love the Throne of Glass series, this is such a good accompaniment to it. It provides a vivid insight into the characters and their world, and the excerpts of different books on each page is excellent. Warning: Do not purchase this book unless you’re up-to-date with the series.

😇 Angelfall by Susan Ee: The first book in Penryn and the End of Days, we love this book for its humour and original characterisation. The protagonist - Penryn - is named after Penryn Road, a road sign from Interstate 80, and like the distinct naming of the character, this book will always stay as a distinct memory!

😈 Demon Road by Derek Landy: To be honest, we’ve never read this book. We’ve seen it at the bookstores a couple of times, but we’ve never picked it up. The shiny cover is enough to intrigue readers, and we must say, the promise of killer cars and undead serial killers is very captivating. Derek Landy is the author of Skulduggery Pleasant, which is has received very positive reviews from our friends, so hopefully, this book is amazing. (Did you see that, the angelic and demonic books are next to each other! OK, got it, we're nerds)

🗽American Gods by Neil Gaiman: If you’ve read our other blog posts, you’ll know that we absolutely love Neil Gaiman! American Gods is considered one of his finest works - if not the best - so we’re quite certain that this book will be immensely enjoyable.

🚣 Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien: Released this year, this novel tells the story of a young girl and her mother who invite a Chinese refugee home. This novel was nominated for the Man Booker Prize, so again, we have high hopes for this novel.

😉 The Good People by Hannah Kent: Aussie author Hannah Kent is well known for her 2013 novel Burial Rites, which exploded with favourable reviews in the same year. We have yet to try Hannah Kent, but our school librarian assured us that she is a talented writer, so it’s likely a nice read.

🌒 Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare: To be brutally honest, we’re not very fond of Cassandra Clare’s works. We loved The Infernal Devices, until Book 3, which marred our enjoyment of the series. The same applies to The Mortal Instruments; we enjoyed it, until after City of Glass, because we felt the series was being prolonged. Hopefully, Lady Midnight crushes those sour memories we have of Clare’s works. Clare is one of our love-or-hate authors, so perhaps Lady Midnight will be a loveable novel.

🚀 Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff: Again, if you have read our previous blog posts, you will will understand that we LOVE Amie and Jay!!!!! This book took forever to come out - we might even be on the casualty list! (OK, that doesn’t seem super exciting, but still!)

And last but not least, thanks to Saturn for buying me (Luna) this wonderful word art for These Broken Stars. Here is a link to other Evie Seo works, which she sells on Society6. (Note to all international audiences outside USA: Society6 sells everything using the US dollar, so be careful if you’re not in the US!)

https://society6.com/evieseo

Have you read any of these books? Please pop a comment below and share your thoughts!

Saturday 19 November 2016

This Shattered World

Luna & Saturn November 19, 2016 2 Comments

Good morning everyone!!! Today's book review is This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. We hope you enjoy this mini review!

Review:

This book’s writing seems to float since it is slow and languid. When reading, you’ll get a sense that it’s so dream-like, despite there being a lot of action (as the story is set against a backdrop of war). We love how the writing is so beautiful that you can just dive right into it.

The brand new world is so amazing. It's more lively than These Broken Stars, as you'll know if you've read our review on it; there's so much to explore because it's a new planet, new world, new characters and new awesomeness. 🌠🌠🌠

The writing is great, but the plot is really, really slow - to the point it’s a fault. Nothing much happens, except that romance blossoms between Flynn and Lee. There are bloody deaths, excessive fighting and an underlying feeling of doom, but it all feels muted. There’s no fear clinging to the heart of readers that the beloved characters are in mortal peril.

None at all.

Also, despite knowing This Shattered World is the sequel to These Broken Stars, it’s more like a companion novel. There are a different set of characters and the link between the two books is only stated at the very end of the novel- which is pretty annoying. We went through the book saying “Huh?” a lot because many subplots seem so irrelevant. But don't worry, it all makes sense in the end. It was a nice touch to the book.

However, something I (Saturn) found a bit jarring - sweet, but jarring - is Lee’s past. A page about her life always appears at the beginning of each new chapter, or a change in point of view. This page is so at odds with the book’s main plot as it is often a dream and ruins the book’s climatic battles and fights. And even more irksome is the reason as to why these pages are included doesn’t appear until the very, very END of the book. We understand these pages are scattered in the book so THAT the when the big reveal happens at the end, readers don’t feel cheated, but maybe there is a more subtle and discreet way of dropping hints? And maybe trying to link these pages with the entire novel, not just the very end? (This is just Saturn's opinion, Luna absolutely LOVED IT)

Favourite Quote:

We feel this review is a negative review but it’s not. We really like the book but it, but not as much as These Broken Stars. We picked it up thinking it’s going to be an action-packed sci-fi with undertones of romance. Instead, it’s the other way round. A romance with undertones of action packed sci-fi. If you like romance, by all means READ THIS BOOK. Or if you’re bored, try out this book. The writing is real nice and pretty, and the plot is actually stunning.

Rating:

So pop a comment below on what you think of the book:):):):)

Friday 4 November 2016

Trigger Warning

Luna & Saturn November 04, 2016 0 Comments

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Hello everyone! Today we’re going to do something a little differently by reviewing a novel that is not from the YA genre. It’ll also be different in the sense that’s it’s a collection of short stories, rather than one story. We’ll be reviewing Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman and we hope you enjoy it.

Series: None

Author: Neil Gaiman

Genre: Fiction, Short Stories

Publisher: Headline

Pages: 303 pages (Paperback)

So first off, we’ll provide a list of the short stories in Trigger Warning so you know what the short story titles are.

Now to the actual review: we must admit, we were quite underwhelmed by the book. We’ve read Smoke and Mirrors as well as Fragile Things, so we were expecting Trigger Warning to pack a punch, only it didn’t. On the title cover of Trigger Warning, it says there are ‘disturbances’, but honestly, it isn't even that disturbing. An example of a disturbing short story by Neil Gaiman would be Snow, Glass, Apples - that was disturbing, but also very well written. Nothing in Trigger Warning even comes close to it.

Our favourite short story in this collection would be ‘The Truth is a Black Cave in the Mountains...’ It is such a straightforward manner of narration, but the simplicity is what makes this short story so enjoyable. A quote from Sun that we agree applies to this story is that it ‘drags the fantastical out of the mundane’. A quick overview of the tale: a dwarf (Luna got Tyrion-vibes from the protagonist) visits a man who will take him to a mountain with enough gold to last him a lifetime, and thus, their quest begins. We don’t want to spoil anything, other than the characterisation and writing is stunning. We loved it.

However, on a sour note, there were quite a few stories we simply didn’t enjoy. A Calendar of Tales was quite confusing, and literally, like the short story title, it’s a collection of short tales within a short story. Another one we weren’t too fond of is A Lunar Labyrinth. It was a good story, no doubt, but it is a bit too predictable, so there isn't any suspense that made us want to read more.

We suppose that the main setback is that this book isn't very rich, if you can understand what we mean. Gaiman’s ideas are exceptionally creative as always, but there was something lacking in his writing. He didn’t capture our imaginations and pull at our heartstrings as well as his other stories.

But in spite of that, there were moments when Trigger Warning is exceptionally gripping. The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury has a very touching message, and this is our favourite quote: ‘God who knows all things, I have no prayer books and I do not know any prayers by heart. But you know all the prayers. You are God. So this is what I am going to do. I am going to say the alphabet, and I will let you put the words together’.

To sum up, Neil Gaiman has delivered another short story collection titled Trigger Warning. It’s not his best work, but it’s quite nice. Our ratings are below. Please drop a comment below and tell us what you think of Trigger Warning and Neil Gaiman!