Athena's Reading List 2014

[pontalba]

I love it when a book goes in a totally unexpected direction!  Excellent review, Gaia.

It has to be difficult to translate a book, getting the proper intonation of not just words, but the feeling of them. 

 

I wish our library was better, and more receptive to change.  I think if one is not a fully formed reader that our library is ok.  But, if one is later in life and has had a lifetime of reading behind them.....our local  library is not sufficient.  Just my take on their situation.  They used to order books if requested, but there are many budget restraints now, so they are seemingly not very receptive.

[Athena]

Thanks, Kate !

 

That's very true, a translator's job can't be easy.

 

Awww, that's a shame to hear that . It makes sense because of the budget, but it's still a shame. The libraries in my area, they aren't doing too well either, money-wise. Several have been closed, I really hope the one in my city will stay and not downsize or anything.

[Kylie]

Thanks Kylie , I'm so glad it was useful to you . Priority Rating does seem to be a better name, I might've translated too literally from Dutch . My database still needs some work too, but I agree, it's fun to do! Good luck with yours !

 

Ah, I thought your 'anticipation rating' was something like a number out of 10 depending on how much you predicted you were going to enjoy the book when you got around to reading it. Does that make sense?

 

 

Anyway.. sorry for rambling on! Thanks for telling me about your library . I'd love to see an American and a British library some time in my life, I've seen one British library and really wish I could've spent more time there!

 

Wouldn't it be cool if there was a job that involved travelling around the world to visit different libraries (ooh, and bookshops)? I wonder if I could convince someone to pay me to do that...hmm...

[Athena]

Ah, I thought your 'anticipation rating' was something like a number out of 10 depending on how much you predicted you were going to enjoy the book when you got around to reading it. Does that make sense?

That makes perfect sense! I can totally see how it made you think that, sorry for creating an ambiguous title ! I shall rename it . 

 

Wouldn't it be cool if there was a job that involved travelling around the world to visit different libraries (ooh, and bookshops)? I wonder if I could convince someone to pay me to do that...hmm...

That'd be great! A 'History of the World's Libraries', complete with photographs and text.

[Athena]

So I'm a member of the library now :exc:!!

 

I also borrowed six books . Hopefully I'll be able to read them all. Four of them are short stories by George R. R. Martin, one of them is a Neil Gaiman book that I had on my wishlist and the last one is a book of short stories by Tais Teng (I read some children's books by him when I was a child).

 

They have a neat system, where you can check out your books yourself (and give them back too). I have no idea if other libraries have that too, but it seemed pretty handy!

 

I also went to the charity shop and bought two books for 1.50 €:

 

Anna Enquist - Het Geheim (I borrowed this book from the library when I was in secondary school, for my Dutch literature class bit and really liked it. I've been wanting to own it ever since but didn't manage to find it until now)

Claire Beeken and Rosanna Greenstreet - Mijn Lichaam, Mijn Vijand - Het Waar Gebeurde Verhaal van een Anorexia-Patiënte (My Body, My Enemy - My 13-Year Battle with Anorexia Nervosa)

 

Since it's still the read-a-thon, I will be writing and posting my reviews of the books I've read, after it, perhaps on Monday.

[pontalba]

Congratulations on your new membership!  Your library sounds a good example to all. 

[Athena]

Congratulations on your new membership!  Your library sounds a good example to all. 

Thanks Kate !

[Kylie]

That makes perfect sense! I can totally see how it made you think that, sorry for creating an ambiguous title ! I shall rename it .

 

Oh, don't rename it on my account! It's my fault for misinterpreting it.

 

 

That'd be great! A 'History of the World's Libraries', complete with photographs and text.

 

Yes! Although I should admit that I pinched the idea from someone else: my partner bought me this book for Christmas last year (it was on my wish list, but I had never told him about it, so it was quite a surprise). I think I would focus more on the unique bookshops around the world, and perhaps I would write it as a travel memoir-type thing.

[Athena]

Yes! Although I should admit that I pinched the idea from someone else: my partner bought me this book for Christmas last year (it was on my wish list, but I had never told him about it, so it was quite a surprise). I think I would focus more on the unique bookshops around the world, and perhaps I would write it as a travel memoir-type thing.

I would totally want to read that !

 

P.S. I will be posting 13 reviews soon.

[Athena]

Catherine Ryan Hyde - Becoming Chloe

 

 

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Age-range: Young-Adult

Format: Paperback

Pages: 215

Date read: 03-12-2014 <-> 05-12-2014

Synopsis (GoodReads):Meet Jordy. He’s on his own in New York City. Nobody to depend on; nobody depending on him. And it’s been working fine.

Until this girl comes along. She’s 18 and blond and pretty–her world should be perfect. But she’s seen things no one should ever see in their whole life–the kind of things that break a person. She doesn’t seem broken, though. She seems . . . innocent. Like she doesn’t know a whole lot. Only sometimes she does.

The one thing she knows for sure is that the world is an ugly place. Now her life may depend on Jordy proving her wrong. So they hit the road to discover the truth – and there’s no going back from what they find out.

 

This deeply felt, redemptive novel reveals both the dark corners and hidden joys of life’s journey–and the remarkable resilience of the human soul.

 

My thoughts: I wanted to read something short before the read-a-thon started, so that I could finish it before it started (I didn't finish it before the read-a-thon, but it was the first book I finished once the read-a-thon had started). I've read a couple of other (adult) books by this author that I really liked, so I thought I'd try this one. The synopsis appealed to me.

 

This was a very good, emotional book. The writing style is slightly different from the adult books I read by this author, perhaps because this book is intended for young-adults. The story is told from Jordy's point of view.

 

I really liked the two main characters. They were very interesting and really nice to read about. A lot of the side characters were interesting too. This book really makes you think about life and the world. I quite liked the story. In particular the second half of the book is very well written and I loved how things were described.

 

All in all, if you liked any other books by this author I would recommend this one. It's a deep, emotional story and while I didn't enjoy it quite as much as Don't Let Me Go or Where We Belong, it was still really good and moving. All in all it was mainly the beginning of the book I had a problem with as I had to get used to the slightly different writing style. There are quite a few plot twists in the book. I mainly enjoyed the beauty of the story, it's really a book that's emotional and moving.

 

Rating: (*****) (9/10)

[Athena]

Emily Barr - Blackout (QuickReads)

 

 

Genre: Thriller, Contemporary Fiction

Age-range: Adult

Format: Paperback

Pages: 97

Date read: 05-12-2014

Synopsis (GoodReads):You wake up in a strange room, with no idea how you got there. You are abroad, in a city you have never visited before. You have no money, no passport, no phone. And there is no sign of your baby. What do you do?

 

My thoughts: It was the read-a-thon on Friday, and as per usual I read a Quickreads book for the read-a-thon. I had three left I hadn't read yet, and since I have some other (full length) novels by this author on my TBR and the synopsis appealed to me, I thought I should read this one this time.

 

This book was very suspenseful, I constantly wanted to keep on reading to find out what would happen. It's a deep, psychological story, within these 97 pages (with big letters). There was more depth than I was expecting. I thought the story gave a really nice insight into the human mind.

 

The story is told in the 'now' (in first person, when she wakes up in a strange room), and in flashbacks to the past (in third person). Sometimes the chapters alternate, sometimes it's two chapters in the 'now' after each other. The two styles have different fronts to distinguish them from each other.

 

I liked the characters in this book. Gradually you find out more about the main character and what's going on. It's a pretty suspenseful story but it's not just about the suspense but also about the characters.

 

Overall then I quite enjoyed this book and I look forward to read more books by this author. It was suspenseful and quite deep, and there were a lot of interesting plot twists in the book.

 

Rating: (*****) (9/10)

[Athena]

Ann M. Martin - The BabySitter's Club 23: Dawn on the Coast (re-read)

 

 

Genre: Chick-lit

Age-range: Children's, Young-Adult

Format: Paperback

Pages: 133

Date read: 05-12-2014

Synopsis (GoodReads):Visiting her father on the west coast, Dawn is tempted to stay with him when she enjoys the beach, Disneyland, and a wealth of healthy restaurants, but the homesick baby-sitter fears leaving her mother and all of her friends.

 

My thoughts: Since it was another read-a-thon, I read another BSC book. This was the next English BSC book to read, that I own.

 

It was really nice to read a BSC book again. The story was interesting, though there's not as much babysitting in it as in some of the other books. There are some interesting issues in the book, Dawn is thinking if she should stay with her father or her mother. One difference with the Dutch version, is that now the two places have their original names, California and Connecticut. This makes more sense than the Dutch version had, though I can't remember exactly what they made of it (I could look it up though in my Dutch copy of this book).

 

Anyway, I enjoyed reading the story in its original language. It was really nice to read more about Dawn's life in California. Overall I really enjoyed re-reading this book.

 

Rating: (*****) (10/10)

[Athena]

Simon de Waal and A. C. Baantjer - De Waal & Baantjer 1: Een Rus in de Jordaan

 

 

Genre: Detective

Age-range: Adult

Format: Paperback

Pages: 176

Date read: 05-12-2014

Synopsis (me):After the death of this wife Peter van Opperdoes is transferred to a different police station, Bureau Raampoort. His superiors think this will be quieter and easier for him, as he's getting older. Young Jacob becomes his work partner there and together they have to solve the murder of a young prostitute.

 

My thoughts: Recently on the book fair I managed to finally find book 1 in this series. I have books 2-10 (apparently an 11th was just released, yay!) and had been looking for book 1 for a while. Rather than continuing on with the series (book 8 was going to be the next one for me to read), I thought I'd go back and read book 1 first. While it doesn't make a huge difference in detective series, book 1 is how it all began and where the characters are introduced so I thought it'd be good to read this book for the December 2014 read-a-thon.

 

First off, this book takes place around Christmas and it's snowy! What a great coincidence, that I'm reading this book just before Christmas, perfect timing .

 

It was really nice to read the beginning of this series. The story is suspenseful like always and I wanted to keep on reading to find out what would happen and who the murderer was.

 

The special thing about this series is that Peter van Opperdoes, the main character, talks to his deceased wife and she talks back (in his head). They talk about the murder-case, too. It's one thing that sets this series apart from other detective series, and I like it.

 

The murder-case was good and tense and I really enjoyed reading this story. There were plenty of plot twists, that I didn't see coming.

 

Overall I'd definitely recommend this series to anyone who likes a good detective (and who can understand Dutch).

 

Rating: (*****) (9/10)

[Athena]

Ema Toyama - I Am Here! 2: Volume 2

 

 

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Age-range: Young-Adult

Format: Paperback

Pages: 425

Date read: 05-12-2014

Synopsis: (no synopsis because it's the conclusion to a series)

 

My thoughts: Both my boyfriend and I really liked volume 1 in this series. It should be noted that the two books I'm talking about, are actually two omnibusses. In Japan there were 5 volumes released, two and a half in the first omnibus in English and two and a half in the second omnibus. Since we really liked volume 1, we both really wanted to read volume 2. I bought it recently and decided to read it for the read-a-thon.

 

This conclusion to the series was pretty good. A few frames I was confused who's who, this happens more often with me and manga. My boyfriend doesn't have the same problem I think, it's probably just me. I had this problem particularly in the little side bar stories, but then they aren't much important to the main story so it didn't matter much in those cases.

 

There were some good plot twists, and a few predictable ones. I thought this volume was a bit less serious than the other ones, in the sense of the issues discussed. I really liked the characters and the illustrations (other than those times where I was confused).

 

Overall then I'm glad I read the conclusion to this series, though for best effect reading the two 'back-to-back' as they say in English (I think?) might be a good idea as it took me a little bit of time in the beginning to remember things. There is however a summary of the first omnibus in the front so this really helps.

 

Rating: (*****) (9/10)

[Athena]

Disney - Donald Duck Pocket 202: De Zwarte Magiër

 

 

Genre: Comic

Age-range: Children's

Format: Paperback

Pages: 254

Date read: 06-12-2014

Synopsis (me): Stories of Donald Duck and other characters.

 

My thoughts: It was another read-a-thon so I decided to read a Donald Duck pocket, the second one I bought a while ago (I read the first one for the November read-a-thon).

 

Below follow some short comments on each story.

 

Oom Dagobert - De Zwarte Magiër

This is a story about Oom Dagobert, Donald and the nephews. It was quite entertaining and really interesting how the magic and magic tricks were involved in the story.

Rating: (*****) (10/10)

 

Willie Wortel - Beet!

This is a one page story that was nonetheless quite funny.

Rating: (*****) (10/10)

 

Mickey Mouse en de Zaak Parallax

This is an interesting story about Mickey Mouse and a bank robbery. I thought it was very good and also funny. Normally I prefer Donald's and other ducks' stories over Mickey Mouse ones, but this one was quite good! It's a bit like a detective book, since Mickey works with the police to try and solve the robbery. A few things were predictable in this story but I really enjoyed it.

Rating: (*****) (10/10)

 

Superdonald - Een Ongevraagd Maatje

This is a story of Superdonald who says no to having a little helper but the helper keeps following him. A few things were a little bit predictable in this story but it was still very enjoyable.

Rating: (*****) (10/10)

 

Donald Duck, Willie Wortel en de Anonieme Boem-Boem

Unfortunately Willie Wortel didn't play a big role in this story. The story was more about Boem-Boem and kind of shown from his perspective. While it wasn't what I was expecting from the title, the story itself was quite enjoyable.

Rating: (*****) (10/10)

 

Oom Dagobert - Opa als Burgemeester

This was very nicely done, about a lottery so anyone who buys tickets gets to be mayor for a week. It was quite funny.

Rating: (*****) (10/10)

 

Oom Dagobert en de Wandelende Reclame

Oom Dagobert is asked to be a 'walking advertisement', he can make money by wearing the clothes they give him. This story was very funny and also very nicely drawn. Various characters try on different clothing and it was really nice to read.

Rating: (*****) (10/10)

 

Gijs Gans en de Eieren van Mayon

This was a nice story and it was nice to read a story with Gijs.

Rating: (****) (8/10)

 

Donald Duck en de Helm der Goden

Donald and his nephews join a professor on a search for an ancient helmet. This story was very nice and there were quite a few plot twists. Mythology and history were nicely weaved into the story.

Rating: (*****) (10/10)

 

Overall I quite enjoyed reading this book. The illustrations were beautiful as always and very colourful. It's partly nostalgia since I know these characters, but the stories are new to me so that makes it interesting as well. It was really nice to read this book.

 

Overall Rating: (*****) (10/10)

[Athena]

Geronimo Stilton - Fantasia 1: Fantasia (Nel Regro Della Fantasia)

 

 

Genre: Fantasy

Age-range: Children's

Format: Paperback

Pages: 384

Date read: 06-12-2014

Synopsis (GoodReads, for the English version so names are different):I knew from the start that it was no ordinary day, but I certainly didn't expect to find a golden staircase in my attic. Up at the top, there was a door. And beyond the door was a world I never could have imagined -- the Kingdom of Fantasy!

 

Along with my guide, a frog named Scribblehopper, I set off on an incredible adventure to save the Queen of the Fairies. But along the way, I had to face giant scorpions, witches, sea serpents, pixies, and dozens of other creatures that I had only ever heard stories about. Holey cheese, what a journey! Could I save the Queen . . . and my own tail?

 

My thoughts: I found books 2 and 6 in this series during a library sale. It looked cute and the illustrations looked nice so I thought I'd buy them and give them a go. I found book 1 at the book fair for a not too high a price so I bought it so I could start at the beginning. I thought I'd read it for this read-a-thon.

 

This was a really nice book. Every page has at least one illustration on it, and they are beautiful. There are a few pages in the book that have a scent, too. The book was really nicely written, I'm sure it would appeal to a lot of children. Also for adults it can be a fun read. The main character, Geronimo Stilton, travels through a magical kingdom on his way to save the queen of the fairies. I thought it was very creative how everything was named and thought of, characters, places, creatures. The original book was Italian but in Dutch they translated the names pretty well I thought (well, I don't know much Italian so I'm not sure what they were in the original language).

 

The book contains also some maps of the areas Geronimo travels through. Throughout the story there are a number of mini-stories and little fun facts about certain mythology things and such. So the book is educational as well. I knew a lot of these facts already but I think for children this is really nice. The mini-stories were quite entertaining too, often they were based on an old story or legend or book.

 

Overall I really enjoyed reading this book. A lot of creativity has gone into its creation, with the text, illustrations, layout, names, etc. While I think children will really enjoy this, I found it as an adult also quite enjoyable, so I certainly think it can be read by adults also.

 

Rating: (*****) (10/10)

[Athena]

Neil Gaiman - Fortunately, the Milk...

 

Note: My copy is actually very shiny, so the red and yellow spiral in this image is actually more dark red and golden.

 

Genre: Fantasy

Age-range: Children's

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 159

Date read: 06-12-2014

Synopsis (GoodReads):You know what it’s like when your mum goes away on a business trip and Dad’s in charge. She leaves a really, really long list of what he’s got to do. And the most important thing is DON’T FORGET TO GET THE MILK. Unfortunately, Dad forgets. So the next morning, before breakfast, he has to go to the corner shop, and this is the story of why it takes him a very, very long time to get back.

 

Featuring: Professor Steg (a time-travelling dinosaur), some green globby things, the Queen of the Pirates, the famed jewel that is the Eye of Splod, some wumpires, and a perfectly normal but very important carton of milk.

 

My thoughts: This book had been on my wishlist for a while. When I found it at the book fair I bought it. I quite liked The Ocean at the End of the Lane and Coraline, by the same author, so I thought I'd read this short, illustrated children's book for the read-a-thon.

 

This was a very enjoyable story. The illustrations are beautiful (done by Chris Ridell), they make the story come more alive. The story itself is really good, there were a lot of different fantastical elements in it that were interwoven in a great way. Just like Fantasia by Geronimo Stilton that I read before this, a lot of creativity went into this book. Sometimes I wish adult stories were more like these two books. I guess it is a bit of a mish mash crazy that only a children's book can be. But anyway, I really enjoyed it. There were several good plot twists and the story overall was really enjoyable to read.

 

Rating: (*****) (10/10)

[Athena]

Stephen King - Achtbaan (Riding the Bullet)

 

 

Genre: Horror

Age-range: Adult

Format: Hardback

Pages: 95

Date read: 06-12-2014

Synopsis (me):Alan Parker hears his mum has had a stroke, so he plans to hitchhike to the hospital where she's held. But something goes wrong...

(some of the GoodReads' synopsis contain a few spoilers which I thought it better not to post here)

 

My thoughts: I saw this book in the charity shop Terre des Hommes and having really liked several other Stephen King books, I bought it.

 

This book was suspenseful and also scary. Within these 95 pages there was quite a lot of detail and I really enjoyed reading this story. The characters were very interesting and there were several quite good plot twists that I didn't see coming. The story is really well written and I enjoyed reading it. I wanted to keep on reading to find out what would happen.

 

Overall I definitely recommend this book if you like horror and / or have enjoyed other books by Stephen King.

 

Rating: (*****) (9/10)

[Athena]

Annie M. G. Schmidt - Minoes (re-read)

 

 

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Age-range: Children's

Format: Paperback

Pages: 144

Date read: 06-12-2014 <-> 07-12-2014

Synopsis (me):Tibbe is a reporter who works for the newspaper. One day he finds Minoes, a lady who claims she used to be a cat. She still has some cat-like manners and she can talk with cats.

 

My thoughts: I've read this book lots of times when I was a child. I never had my own copy so when I found one I was very pleased. I hadn't read this book since I was a young teenager, but I thought I'd read it for the December 2014 read-a-thon.

 

It was really good to re-read this book. It's a really nice story with great illustrations (not on every page, just now and then). The characters are really interesting, both Tibbe and Minoes are really nice characters. The side characters were all also interesting. The story is well written and reads nicely. There are quite a few good plot twists in the story. I didn't remember exactly what happened in the story, but it came back to me as I read it. It made it really nice for me to re-read this story. I realise part of that is nostalgia sure, but it's just a good book.

 

Apparently it was written in 1970 (I'm not sure about its genre, to be honest, but..) and it won an award in 1971. I don't know how many languages it's been translated in, but I'd recommend it to anyone who likes cats. There were a lot of cats and cattish things in this story and I really enjoyed this. While I'm a dogperson and I'm allergic to cats, as a child cats were my favourite animal and we had two. But when I got a bit older I became allergic to cats (our cats were gone by then), and so I spend more time with dogs instead.

 

Overall I really enjoyed re-reading this book. It's a very enjoyable story and while it's a children's book I think adults can enjoy it a lot too.

 

Rating: (*****) (10/10)

[Athena]

Norma Fox Mazer - Babyface

 

 

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Age-range: Young-Adult

Format: Paperback

Pages: 170

Date read: 07-12-2014

Synopsis (me):Toni and Julie are best friends and Toni gets along really well with her parents. But that summer, Julie moves away and Toni finds out some important things about her family...

(GoodReads' synopses and also the back of the book contain spoilers)

 

My thoughts: I read Missing Pieces by the same author for the November 2014 read-a-thon, so for this read-a-thon I thought I'd read this one (they're both young-adult shorter books).

 

The back of the book appealed to me, but I was a bit disappointed that the back contained some spoilers for one particular thing. This thing doesn't happen until 2/3rds into the book, so it seemed a bit strange to me to put this on the back of the book and spoil it like that.

 

The book is nicely written and has several good plot twists. I thought the characters were really interesting and detailed. I quite enjoyed reading most of this book (except for the spoiler thing I mentioned above), deep issues were discussed and it was really nice to find out more about the characters and what would happen.

 

I wasn't too keen on the last part of the book. The ending felt rushed, everything seemed to suddenly be quickly solved in way too few pages. It was as it the author was keen to be finished. I had a similar problem with Missing Pieces by the same author, that was too open-ended for my liking and ended too abruptly.

 

Overall though I did enjoy reading this book and at least this one did have a good ending, it was just too rushed. But the rest of the book was very interesting and I liked the plot twists, characters, and depth of the book.

 

Rating: (****) (8/10)

[Athena]

George R. R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire: De Ijsdraak (The Ice Dragon)

 

 

Genre: Fantasy

Age-range: Children's (though it was in the adult section of the library but I might not've found it otherwise)

Format: Hardback

Pages: 99 (excluding excerpt of Game of Thrones book one in the A Song of Ice and Fire series)

Date read: 07-12-2014

Synopsis (GoodReads):Adara is a winterchild, born during the winter she loves the season. Her mother died when she was born, and her father and siblings don't understand what she likes so much about the winter.

 

My thoughts: I saw this book in the library and I didn't know of it before. I really like the ASoIaF main books that have been published so far (books 1-5 as of this writing), so I thought I should give this a go.

 

The story talks a lot about winter, so it's great to read especially in wintertime, which is again great timing since it's December now .

 

In this book the seasons are more like here on Earth, with one birthday each year and one winter and one summer each year. I'm not sure how this works in the ASoIaF world.

 

The story contains dragons, which is always a bonus. The story takes place many years before the main series, but a specific time is not mentioned. No recognisable place names or people are mentioned either.

 

I thought the main character in this book was really nice. Adara loves the winter and it was really nice to read about things from her point of view. I also liked the side characters. I think this is a really nice children's story. Elements of ASoIaF main series aren't much there, the dragons, the mention of a king (no name), north and south, gods, those things are mentioned, but otherwise I felt you couldn't quite tell that it's meant to take place in this world. But that doesn't matter, I mean it's a good story in its own right.

 

I really enjoyed reading this book and while it's not at all necessary or much related to the ASoIaF series, it's a good story that I enjoyed reading.

 

Rating: (*****) (9/10)

[Athena]

George R. R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire: The Tales of Dunk and Egg 1: De Hagenridder (The Hedge Knight)

 

 

Genre: Fantasy

Age-range: Adult

Format: Hardback

Pages: 127 (excluding excerpt of Game of Thrones)

Date read: 07-12-2014 <-> 08-12-2014

Synopsis (me):After his master dies, a Hedge Knight, Dunk takes his sword and title and tries to enter a tournament.

(the synopsis on the back of the book spoils something)

 

My thoughts: When I saw this book (and the other two in this series) at the library, I wanted to read them. I hadn't heard of them before but I thought they might be good to read. I started to read this one for the read-a-thon and unfortunately couldn't quite finish it on Sunday, but I finished it on Monday morning instead.

 

This book takes place about 100 years before Game of Thrones, book 1 in the ASoIaF series. There are plenty of familiar names in this book. I had some trouble getting used to the Dutch fantasy language. There are quite a few words I didn't know in this book, whereas I feel I would've known the English words (is that odd ). I don't know if it's solely the translation but the book doesn't read easily, to me, the main books in the ASoIaF series which I read in English, read more easily. Also, some names of characters and places are translated into something more Dutch, others are not. Since I've read the main series in English, I was constantly trying to think who they'd be in English (and often I managed, but still).

 

Anyway, the book contains a lot that I liked, too. The characters were quite interesting and there are some plot twists I wasn't expecting. I enjoyed reading about the fights and the life of Dunk.

 

One problem I had with the book was that there were too many characters and character names. I get that they're trying to maybe flesh it out or such, and in the main series it wasn't a problem because there are a lot of pages to get to know all the characters, but here many names were rattled off within a few sentences and it was too much for me to remember. I got a bit confused who was who and who was related to who in what way. I feel family trees or such might've helped. Another thing was that there were very few female characters, which was a bit of a shame. All these character names that I couldn't remember much about.. they were almost all male.

 

Anyway, the read was enjoyable, but far from perfect. It's certainly nice to read about the knights and the tourney, and such, but the book was a bit hard to get through, there were too many characters and names, and I felt the Dutch didn't really flow well. I hope I won't have this problem with a lot of translated into Dutch books at the library, because in that case I'd rather stick to English books and original Dutch works. Of course I borrowed books two and three in this series from the library and I'll read them soon, I did enjoy the book when I got past the language. It's an enjoyable story with several good plot twists. It's just not as good as the main ASoIaF books.

 

Rating: (***) (6/10)

[Athena]

I have now read over 60000 pages and 237 books ! It'll be interesting to see what my totals will be for this year. I doubt I will have as high statistics next year though, but who knows.

[pontalba]

'Wow.  Just Wow!  Interesting, yes.  Amazing.....Yes! 

[Anna Begins]

I love "The story contained dragons, which is always a bonus"  Great reviews, I am glad you had SO MANY good reads.