T5W – Books Featuring Paranormal Creatures

Holaa, all right time for the weekly Top 5 Wednesday! Today we were supposed to pick a paranormal creature and list five books in which they appear, but I couldn’t decide on one, so instead, I just listed some of my favorite paranormal creatures from books.  Hope you’ll enjoy!

5. The Asirim from The Song Of The Shattered Sands by Bradley P. Beaulieu

If there’s one creature you do not wanna meet in the street in the middle of the night, is this creature. They’re grotesque humanoid monsters that are unleashed by the kings in order to claim human sacrifices to the gods. They can also be controlled by the kings and Blad Maidens to be unleashed on the enemy, so that’s good… for them, not the enemy.

4. Lachrima from The Mapmakers Trilogy by S.E. Grove

Featured on my previous list, but I couldn’t ignore them for this one… I just find the Lachrimas as so haunting and they seriously gave me insomnia issues. If you wonder what a Lachrima is, they’re ghost-like, but corporeal beings without faces who weep, and weep, and weep…

3. Mistwraiths from Mistborn- series by Brandon Sanderson

(art)

Well, the image alone makes no one doubt that they’d run the other way if encountering one. Though, in fact, they’re not dangerous really, not to living creatures. They are composed of, quote “only sof soft tissue, who consume the bones of several other creatures, which they then use as their own skeleton.” *shudders*

2. Fae from The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

In contrast to the previously mentioned entries, these I’d actually like to meet. Though I do not doubt it would cause trouble, but we’ve all got a price to pay, ey? In Cogman’s fantastic world(s), Faes are creatures of chaos that thrive on living life by-the-book. They are, so to say, living tropes from fantasy and fiction and want the world to turn fictional as well. Doesn’t sound so bad, to be honest… though the closer you get to them, the more you’ll be turning into a trope as well.

1. Daemons from Runemarks-series and The Gospel of Loki by Joanne Harris

Daemons/demons are fascinating creatures born from chaos itself, the dreaming, a world parallel to the material world. Loki, a wildfire daemon, is one of the protagonists in the series and was given physical form when Odin named him and took him under his wing as his blood-brother. But his chaotic nature soon proves that a named thing is not necessarily a tamed thing… The whole concept of ‘the dreaming’ and its daemons are so fascinating, I wish I could have more of it…

Book Tag #Avatar The Last Airbender

Time for a book tag! Like before, I wasn’t tagged to do this but had wanted to do it for awhile and decided to finally give it a shot 😀 This tag was originally created by A Clockword Reader (an awesome booktuber) and you can check out her video here.

WATER, EARTH, FIRE, AIR…..

“If you were a bender, what would be your element?”

My element would definitely be water. The element for my zodiac sign is water, I have “water hands” (the element for reading your fortune through your hand or something), I live in the north like water bender would live and I live on an island, surrounded by water. Only problem: I can’t swim.

Water:

1. Katara and Sokka – best sibling relationship

 The brothers from Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren. Always. The older and beautiful brother, Jonathan, who everyone loves, and the younger “weak” brother, Skorpan, who lives in his brother’s shadow but is determined to prove himself. I both read the book and watched the TV-series as a kid and they have stayed and will stay with me forever.

 

2. Yue – Favorite star-crossed lovers

 The ones in The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman. You know which I’m talking about if you’ve read the book. God I cried.

 

 

3. Blood Bending – A book with a disturbing setting/concept

 The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly definitely had a much more disturbing concept than I expected (I expected Narnia/A monster calls, but got Grimm/Coraline/IsThisEvenMeantForKids?)

 

 

Earth

1. Toph – A character’s whose strength surprised you/or surprised the other characters

 I got to say, Malta Vestrit in Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb took me by great surprise. In the first book I couldn’t even stand her, but she made an amazing character development and stayed headstrong despite the situation she found herself in.

 

2. The Tales Of Ba Sing Se – Best short story or poetry collection

 I haven’t read any poetry collections, so I’ll go with the novella Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn. The first part was a bit confusing (not to say that the complicated and old language was a nightmare for a non-native speaker like me), but by the end I just broke down laughing.

 

 

3. Kyoshi Warriors – Best warrior character

Oh this is a tricky one! Since I read mostly Fantasy I know tons who’d qualify. But since it’s the Kyoshi Warriors I’ll choose the warrior group the Blade Maidens from The Song of The Shattered Sands by Bradley Beaulieu – you do NOT want to cross them. An awesome all-female special forces in a pre-Islamic fantasy world. You don’t even need to be on their side to respect them.

Fire

1. Zuko – Best redemption arc/a redemption arc that should have happened &
2. Iroh – Wisest character

Best redemption arc… I gotta give that to Loki from Runemarks duology by Joanne Harris. He’s a little shit, definitely NOT just misunderstood, but by the end of the day, all he ever wanted was to belong.

For wisest character I Pick Sazed from Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson!

 

3. Azula – Best downfall

William from The Pillars Of The Earth by Ken Follett, oh my god was his fate satisfying. You’ll absolutely loath him as a villain – he is simply a terrible person, but I guess that makes him a great villain. But that ending was worth every single page with him in the book. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever been so satisfied.

Air

1. Appa – Favorite fictional animal/pet

Uhm I pick Dinosaur and for that is Raptor Red AND her sister (you can’t make me choose) from Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker. They’re like Blue from Jurassic World :’)

 

 

 

2. Aang – Purest cinnamon roll

 Sophia from Mapmaker’s Trilogy by S.E. Grove will always pop up in my mind when you say ‘cinnamon roll’. She’s just so sweet and pure, plucky girl who wants to discover the world. Which leads to some tearjerkers later on when it flew away from her reach *Paradise by Coldplay starts playing*

 

 

 

3. Avatar State – A stubborn character/A character that struggles with letting go

 Annabeth Chase from Percy Jackson and The Olympians by Rick Riordan is both stubborn and struggles with letting go of a certain JERK who BETRAYED her. This leads to being constantly betrayed and trust issues, but she’s still stubborn to both trying to reach them but also letting them go.

 

 

So those were my answers! Agree with any? What would some of your choices be? Comment below!

Since I wasn’t specifically tagged to do this book tag, I’ll tag YOU!

Monthly Wrap-Up: March 2017

So, Time to do a monthly wrap up. This is my first wrap-up, so let’s see how it goes!

Books I’ve Read This Month;

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Nothern Lights by Philip Pullman

The Subtle Knife Philip Pullman

Blood Upon The Sand by Bradley Beaulieu

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Magikerns Hus – Den Hemliga Trappan (Original Title; The Magician’s House – The Steps Up The Chimney) by William Corlett

MH – Dörren i trädet (Original Title; The Door in The Tree) by William Corlett

Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb

The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

***

All right! Been quite a successful read this month. You might notice that like 8 of these books are middle-grade (+) fiction, and there’s actually a very good reason for that. This month I had my exams for two courses so I was very very anxious about them (and my future), plus the fact that I turned 19 this month as well, made me hide behind those books in an attempt to hide from responsibility.

But due to exams and so I did not have much time on writing reviews, which I hope to improve next month. I actually wrote a literary analysis on The Picture Of Dorian Gray which I might post here soon 🙂

The Best Book Of The Month were no doubt Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb (read the review here.), and I’m gonna buy the sequel tomorrow (I hope) so am really looking forward to that!

But I really loved the Narnia books (haven’t read them before!), I listened to the audio books which I highly recommend. I love the movie Coraline so really enjoyed the book, but this was actually one of those few cases where the movie is better than the book (though the book was not bad). The other Gaiman book I read, The Graveyard Book, was just as weird and unique as you could expect from him. A really great read!

I also started reading His Dark Materials – series by Philip Pullman which I’ve enjoyed, and am currently on the last book. Sadly I got a bit stuck due to the exams was then, but hope to finish it by the beginning of April! I will do a full review of the series as a whole then I plan 🙂

Right, if you have any questions about any of the books or so, don’t hesitate to ask in the comments! Or if you just want to hype about one of the books 😀 ❤

Book Review – Blood Upon The Sand

Title: Blood Upon The Sand Author: Bradley Beaulieu Genre: High/Epic Fantasy Publisher: Gollancz

Bradley Beaulieu’s second instalment in the series is as dramatic as the first, if not more. As the conflict in Sharakai rises, with new enemies and allies, Çeda and others have to face a great deal more difficulties. The plot was none the less eventful, and I found Hamzakiir a very promising villain as he shakes up the whole foundation of who is friend or foe in the story, affecting every character in some way. Çeda is as awesome as ever, but I really loved how she matured more. Instead of having pure hatred to a spoiled brat, who really deserve nothing less than a slap in the face with a hammer, Çeda comes to feel only pity for her. THIS kind of character development I live for. Çeda is just such an awesome protagonist, I also loved how she doesn’t let people use or unless it’s with her consent (but if you let her down, run).
Though, Beaulieu still seems to lack the ability to make shocking reveals. An author once said ‘If you can see it coming – the reader can see it coming miles away’ and that is what I think he might not understand. There’s a lot of classic tropes one expects almost unconsciously, and he fills most of them in. I really hope he will learn in time for the third instalment, or I might just put down the series for a while. It’s not bad, mind you, it’s just that I love plot twists and reveals, and so it bugs me when I can predict almost all of the reveals.

Another thing that kind of bugged me was the romance between Çeda and Emre. I’ve never felt any chemistry, and it just feels forced. But I don’t know, we’re all different when it comes to which we ship.

But, even though you can predict some, doesn’t mean the book isn’t any less exciting and that events were all predictable. This is a book I can see in my head as a movie (for it would make an awesome one for sure), an action packed fantasy movie set in a magical dessert world. Sign me up.

Also, there’s a new love interest I really did not see coming. You know when we suddenly feel the obvious romantic/sexual tension between two same-sex people, and you just know that the author is going to ignore that? Well, Beaulieu did not.

In summary, the sequel is really a must-read if you enjoyed the first. It is not perfect and I recognize the flaws, but those are flaws that only affects a bit of the book’s quality of story-telling, none that affects the quality of action or characters (except the Çeda/Emre, but thank God this isn’t a YA fantasy. No offence, I read YA fantasy as well, but you take my meaning). Also it has no sexism/racism/homophobic flaws so that makes it completely worth keep reading.

Epic fights and battles, interesting magic system, kick-ass and mature characters, pre-Islamic Middle-Eastern setting… It is totally worth reading.