Blood and Oil


As the conflict between Israel and Palestine continues, my interest in the Middle East has been growing. After finishing David Fromkin's A Peace to End All Peace, I bought a number of related works focusing on various countries and events. With Robert Lacey's Inside the Kingdom being such a great read, I knew that Bradley Hope and Justin Scheck's Blood and Oil had to be next.

Their concise history of the rise of one of the most powerful and enigmatic power players in the Middle East is an amazing read!

Here's the blurb:

From award-winning Wall Street Journal reporters comes a revelatory look at the inner workings of the world's most powerful royal family, and how the struggle for succession produced Saudi Arabia's charismatic but ruthless Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, aka MBS.

35-year-old Mohammed bin Salman's sudden rise stunned the world. Political and business leaders such as former UK prime minister Tony Blair and WME chairman Ari Emanuel flew out to meet with the crown prince and came away convinced that his desire to reform the kingdom was sincere. He spoke passionately about bringing women into the workforce and toning down Saudi Arabia's restrictive Islamic law. He lifted the ban on women driving and explored investments in Silicon Valley.

But MBS began to betray an erratic interior beneath the polish laid on by scores of consultants and public relations experts like McKinsey and Company. The allegations of his extreme brutality and excess began to slip out, including that he ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. While stamping out dissent by holding 300 people, including prominent members of the Saudi royal family, in the Ritz-Carlton hotel and elsewhere for months, he continued to exhibit his extreme wealth, including buying a $70 million chateau in Europe and one of the world's most expensive yachts. It seemed that he did not understand nor care about how the outside world would react to his displays of autocratic muscle—what mattered was the flex.

Blood and Oil is a gripping work of investigative journalism about one of the world's most decisive and dangerous new leaders. Hope and Scheck show how MBS' precipitous rise coincided with the fraying of the simple bargain that had been at the head of US-Saudi relations for more than 80 years: oil, for military protection. Caught in his net are well-known US bankers, Hollywood figures, and politicians, all eager to help the charming and crafty crown prince.

The Middle East is already a volatile region. Add to the mix an ambitious prince with extraordinary powers, hunger for lucre, a tight relationship with the White House through President Trump's son in law Jared Kushner, and an apparent willingness to break anything—and anyone—that gets in the way of his vision, and the stakes of his rise are bracing. If his bid fails, Saudi Arabia has the potential to become an unstable failed state and a magnet for Islamic extremists. And if his bid to transform his country succeeds, even in part, it will have reverberations around the world.

For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!


You can now get your hands on the digital edition of AI 2041 by Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan for only 1.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. This OneLink will take you to the nearest Amazon site serving your country and you'll see if you can take advantage of this sale.

Here's the blurb:

In a groundbreaking blend of science and imagination, the former president of Google China and a leading writer of speculative fiction join forces to answer an urgent question: How will artificial intelligence change our world over the next twenty years?

AI will be the defining issue of the twenty-first century, but many people know little about it apart from visions of dystopian robots or flying cars. Though the term has been around for half a century, it is only now, Kai-Fu Lee argues, that AI is poised to upend our society, just as the arrival of technologies like electricity and smart phones did before it. In the past five years, AI has shown it can learn games like chess in mere hours--and beat humans every time. AI has surpassed humans in speech and object recognition, even outperforming radiologists in diagnosing lung cancer. AI is at a tipping point. What comes next?

Within two decades, aspects of daily life may be unrecognizable. Humankind needs to wake up to AI, both its pathways and perils. In this provocative work that juxtaposes speculative storytelling and science, Lee, one of the world's leading AI experts, has teamed up with celebrated novelist Chen Qiufan to reveal how AI will trickle down into every aspect of our world by 2041. In ten gripping narratives that crisscross the globe, coupled with incisive analysis, Lee and Chen explore AI's challenges and its potential:

- Ubiquitous AI that knows you better than you know yourself
- Genetic fortune-telling that predicts risk of disease or even IQ
- AI sensors that creates a fully contactless society in a future pandemic
- Immersive personalized entertainment to challenge our notion of celebrity
- Quantum computing and other leaps that both eliminate and increase risk

By gazing toward a not-so-distant horizon, AI 2041 offers powerful insights and compelling storytelling for everyone interested in our collective future.


This week's New York Times Bestsellers (March 3rd)

In hardcover:

Rebecca Yarros' Fourth Wing is up one position, ending the week at number 2. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Rebecca Yarros' Iron Flame is up one position, ending the week at number 3. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Sarah J. Maas' House of Flame and Shadow is down two spots, finishing the week at number 4. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

T. Kingfisher's What Feasts at Night debuts at number 10. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

In paperback:

Ali Hazelwood's Bride maintains its position number 2. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Sarah J. Maas' A Court of Silver Flames is up two spots, finishing the week at number 5. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Sarah J. Maas' House of Earth and Blood is down one position, ending the week at number 7. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!


You can now download Myke Cole's Gemini Cell for only 3.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. This OneLink will take you to the nearest Amazon site serving your country and you'll see if you can take advantage of this sale.

You can read my review of the book here.

Here's the blurb:

Myke Cole continues to blow the military fantasy genre wide open with GEMINI CELL, an all-new epic adventure in the highly acclaimed Shadow Ops universe.

US Navy SEAL Jim Schweitzer is a consummate professional, a fierce warrior, and a hard man to kill. But when he sees something he was never meant to see on a covert mission gone bad, he finds himself – and his family – in the crosshairs. Nothing means more to Jim than protecting his loved ones, but when the enemy brings the battle to his front door, he is overwhelmed and taken down.

It should be the end of the story. But Jim is raised from the dead by a sorcerer and recruited by a top secret unit dabbling in the occult, known only as the Gemini Cell. With powers he doesn’t understand, Jim is called back to duty – as the ultimate warrior. As he wrestles with a literal inner demon, Jim realises his new superiors are determined to use him for their own ends and keep him in the dark – especially about the fates of his wife and son…



You can also get your hands on the digital edition of Myke Cole's excellent Shadow Ops: Control Point for only 3.99$ here.

You can read my review of the novel here.

Here's the blurb:

Army Officer. Fugitive. Sorcerer.

Across the country and in every nation, people are waking up with magical talents. Untrained and panicked, they summon storms, raise the dead, and set everything they touch ablaze.

Army officer Oscar Britton sees the worst of it. A lieutenant attached to the military's Supernatural Operations Corps, his mission is to bring order to a world gone mad. Then he abruptly manifests a rare and prohibited magical power, transforming him overnight from government agent to public enemy number one.

The SOC knows how to handle this kind of situation: hunt him down--and take him out. Driven into an underground shadow world, Britton is about to learn that magic has changed all the rules he's ever known, and that his life isn't the only thing he's fighting for.

Imajica


As crazy as it sounds, Imajica was the first Clive Barker novel I ever read. Along with one of my best friends back in the day, I was a big fan of the Hellraiser movies. I did pick up a few of the author's books along the way and I guess I still have them in storage somewhere. So when the digital edition of Imajica went on sale a few months back, I knew it was high time to finally give Barker a shot.

Not sure if it was the right decision or not. Perhaps I should have begun with Weaveworld, The Great and Secret Show, or Abarat? Started the novel in early January, then brought it with me to Asia, and yet I only finished it last week. True, it's a long, sprawling, and complex novel. And yet, no matter how brilliant it can be, I found it quite difficult to maintain interest for prolonged periods of time. Which explains why it took me so long to read Imajica.

Here's the blurb:

From master storyteller Clive Barker comes an epic tale of myth, magic, and forbidden passion.

Imajica is an epic beyond compare: vast in conception, obsessively detailed in execution, and apocalyptic in its resolution. At its heart lies the sensualist and master art forger, Gentle, whose life unravels when he encounters Judith Odell, whose power to influence the destinies of men is vaster than she knows, and Pie 'oh' pah, an alien assassin who comes from a hidden dimension.

That dimension is one of five in the great system called Imajica. They are worlds that are utterly unlike our own, but are ruled, peopled, and haunted by species whose lives are intricately connected with ours. As Gentle, Judith, and Pie 'oh' pah travel the Imajica, they uncover a trail of crimes and intimate betrayals, leading them to a revelation so startling that it changes reality forever.


I must admit that it's the concept of the Imajica and its five Dominions which piqued my curiosity and made me want to read this book. The blurb promised a journey across those disparate dimensions and I couldn't wait to see what Barker had in store for his readers. And while a lot of work went into creating the various species that are encountered throughout the tale, what with most of them sharing that Clive Barker visual signature from his movies, the same cannot be said of the Dominions themselves. Considering the size of this novel and the amount of extraneous or overdone sequences, I would have thought that more work would have gone into the other dimensions and how they relate to our world and the rest of the Imajica. And while some locales like the Erasure or the Cradle of Chzercemit are amazing in the way they are depicted, most of the worldbuilding elements, even the city of Yzordderrex itself, are often lackluster or would have benefited from more exposition. In the end, no matter how multilayered Imajica truly is, there's always that feeling that something is missing, or that something should have been elaborated on a bit more. The Appendix at the end of the book helps a little in that regard, but it's not enough to really make that much of a difference. In addition, I feel that too little was explored regarding the sacred feminine divinity aspect, especially given its importance in the greater scheme of things. The God vs Goddesses dichotomy needed more exposition, methinks.

There was a good balance between the perspectives of Gentle and Judith, but I would have liked more POV scenes featuring Pie 'oh' pah. The assassin was by far the most fascinating protagonist of this novel. Not surprisingly, there is a whole slew of secondary characters, but few of them left their mark on the story. Personally, I feel that Clem is the one who stands out the most among the supporting cast and it's probably because he has a history with both Gentle and Judith.

The pace is an issue throughout the novel, no question about it. While at times the rhythm moves the tale at a good clip, there are long chunks in which the pacing is simply atrocious. And I guess that's why I had such a hard time getting into Imajica. It starts with a bang and the plot moves well for the first 150 pages or so. Alas, when the action leaves Earth and the journey through the Dominions begins, Barker completely lose himself in those outer dimensions. Basically every scene is overwritten, every conversation is longer than it needs to be, and the storylines meander in unpredictable yet inflated fashion. For that reason, though some scenes are awesome, it can be exhausting to read this book. For every remarkable sequence, you must wade through page after page of superfluous material that bogs you down in virtually every chapter. It's never dull, mind you. But for every moment that captures your imagination, there are also interminable streaks that make you want to put the book down. You're invested enough in the story and the characters to always come back at some point. Which is good. And yet, ultimately, the fact that it's so easy to stop reading Imajica in favor or something else doesn't speak well of it. Perusing reviews, it's evident that this is a very divisive work. Some people were hooked and couldn't let go. Others simply lost interest and couldn't get through it. Finally, some readers chose to persevere through this slog of slogs, hoping that it would be worth it before the end.

And that's another thing. Sometimes, as the saying goes, the journey is more important than the destination. And Imajica is a LONG journey. One would think that following hundreds of pages of build-up, once the roller-coaster goes down you'd get a thrilling endgame and a captivating finale. And although the endgame was exciting, I felt that everything was a bit rushed. It took the longest time for Barker to finally reveal the truth about the three protagonists and how they are linked. Yet the final stage of this tale could have used a little more exposition. Is the ending worth going through the entire novel? I would say so. I'm glad I didn't give up on it, that's for sure. Some images will remain with me for a long time. Clive Barker's prose is evocative and his words create a vivid imagery. I just wish he wasn't so long-winded. More like Guy Gavriel Kay and less like Brandon Sanderson.

Imajica is a journey unlike any you've experienced before. A tale of a supreme god and goddesses in hiding. A tale of our world and how it is sundered from the Reconciled Dominions. A tale of those who want the Imajica to be whole and those who oppose them. So if you're patient and can handle the slog, if you can deal with a bit of erotica because Barker cannot help himself when he writes sex scenes, this novel can be a rewarding read. But it is a slog.

The final verdict: 7/10

For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!


You can now get your hands on the digital edition of Jim Butcher's The Aeronaut's Windlass for only 2.99$ by following this Amnazon Associate link. This OneLink will take you to the nearest Amazon site serving your country and you'll see if you can take advantage of this sale.

Here's the blurb:

Jim Butcher, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Dresden Files and the Codex Alera novels, conjures up a new series set in a fantastic world of noble families, steam-powered technology, and magic-wielding warriors…

Since time immemorial, the Spires have sheltered humanity, towering for miles over the mist-shrouded surface of the world. Within their halls, aristocratic houses have ruled for generations, developing scientific marvels, fostering trade alliances, and building fleets of airships to keep the peace.

Captain Grimm commands the merchant ship, Predator. Fiercely loyal to Spire Albion, he has taken their side in the cold war with Spire Aurora, disrupting the enemy’s shipping lines by attacking their cargo vessels. But when the Predator is severely damaged in combat, leaving captain and crew grounded, Grimm is offered a proposition from the Spirearch of Albion—to join a team of agents on a vital mission in exchange for fully restoring Predator to its fighting glory.

And even as Grimm undertakes this dangerous task, he will learn that the conflict between the Spires is merely a premonition of things to come. Humanity’s ancient enemy, silent for more than ten thousand years, has begun to stir once more. And death will follow in its wake…


This week's New York Times Bestsellers (February 25th)

In hardcover:

Sarah J. Maas' House of Flame and Shadow is down one spot, finishing the week at number 2.

Rebecca Yarros' Fourth Wing is down one position, ending the week at number 3.

Rebecca Yarros' Iron Flame is down one position, ending the week at number 4.

In paperback:

Ali Hazelwood's Bride debuts at number 2.

Sarah J. Maas' House of Earth and Blood is down five positions, ending the week at number 6.

Sarah J. Maas' A Court of Silver Flames is down one spot, finishing the week at number 7.

Sarah J. Maas' House of Sky and Breath is down seven spots, finishing the week at number 11.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!


You can now download Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian for only 2.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. This OneLink will take you to the nearest Amazon site serving your country and you'll see if you can take advantage of this sale.

Here's the blurb:

To you, perceptive reader, I bequeath my history....Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor," and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of-a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history.

The letters provide links to one of the darkest powers that humanity has ever known-and to a centuries-long quest to find the source of that darkness and wipe it out. It is a quest for the truth about Vlad the Impaler, the medieval ruler whose barbarous reign formed the basis of the legend of Dracula. Generations of historians have risked their reputations, their sanity, and even their lives to learn the truth about Vlad the Impaler and Dracula. Now one young woman must decide whether to take up this quest herself-to follow her father in a hunt that nearly brought him to ruin years ago, when he was a vibrant young scholar and her mother was still alive. What does the legend of Vlad the Impaler have to do with the modern world? Is it possible that the Dracula of myth truly existed-and that he has lived on, century after century, pursuing his own unknowable ends?

The answers to these questions cross time and borders, as first the father and then the daughter search for clues, from dusty Ivy League libraries to Istanbul, Budapest, and the depths of Eastern Europe. In city after city, in monasteries and archives, in letters and in secret conversations, the horrible truth emerges about Vlad the Impaler's dark reign-and about a time-defying pact that may have kept his awful work alive down through the ages.Parsing obscure signs and hidden texts, reading codes worked into the fabric of medieval monastic traditions-and evading the unknown adversaries who will go to any lengths to conceal and protect Vlad's ancient powers-one woman comes ever closer to the secret of her own past and a confrontation with the very definition of evil.

Elizabeth Kostova's debut novel is an adventure of monumental proportions, a relentless tale that blends fact and fantasy, history and the present, with an assurance that is almost unbearably suspenseful-and utterly unforgettable.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!


You can now get your hands on the digital edition of Janny Wurts' The Cycle of Fire: The Complete Series, an omnibus comprised of Stormwarden, Keeper of the Keys, and Shadowfane, for only 3.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. This OneLink will take you to the nearest Amazon site serving your country and you'll see if you can take advantage of this sale.

Here's the blurb:

Now in one volume: three novels in the “epic tale mixing fantasy and SF . . . full of action, splendid scenes of magic and engaging secondary characters” (Publishers Weekly).

Stormwarden

A young girl, her brother, and a Firelord’s descendant are caught up in the rescue of the Stormwarden Anskiere—and the unbinding of the demons that could destroy all of humanity.

Keeper of the Keys

As Jaric struggles to accept his father’s heritage, Taen’s brother is possessed by the demons who use him as a pawn to hunt down and slay the Firelord’s heir.

Shadowfane

Jaric faces the Cycle of Fire that drove his father to madness, while Taen Dreamweaver is targeted by her brother and his demon overlords, psionically endowed aliens who have been revealed as mankind’s ancient conquerors.


More inexpensive ebook goodies!


You can now get your hands on the digital edition of Carlos Ruiz Zafón's The Labyrinth of the Spirits for only 1.66$ by following this Amazon Associate link. This OneLink will take you to the nearest Amazon site serving your country and you'll see if you can take advantage of this sale.

Here's the blurb:

The internationally acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author returns to the magnificent universe he constructed in his bestselling novels The Shadow of the Wind, The Angel’s Game, and The Prisoner of Heaven in this riveting series finale—a heart-pounding thriller and nail-biting work of suspense which introduces a sexy, seductive new heroine whose investigation shines a light on the dark history of Franco’s Spain.

In this unforgettable final volume of Ruiz Zafón’s cycle of novels set in the universe of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, beautiful and enigmatic Alicia Gris, with the help of the Sempere family, uncovers one of the most shocking conspiracies in all Spanish history.

Nine-year-old Alicia lost her parents during the Spanish Civil War when the Nacionales (the fascists) savagely bombed Barcelona in 1938. Twenty years later, she still carries the emotional and physical scars of that violent and terrifying time. Weary of her work as an investigator for Spain’s secret police in Madrid, a job she has held for more than a decade, the twenty-nine-year old plans to move on. At the insistence of her boss, Leandro Montalvo, she remains to solve one last case: the mysterious disappearance of Spain’s Minister of Culture, Mauricio Valls.

With her partner, the intimidating policeman Juan Manuel Vargas, Alicia discovers a possible clue—a rare book by the author Victor Mataix hidden in Valls’ office in his Madrid mansion. Valls was the director of the notorious Montjuic Prison in Barcelona during World War II where several writers were imprisoned, including David Martín and Victor Mataix. Traveling to Barcelona on the trail of these writers, Alicia and Vargas meet with several booksellers, including Juan Sempere, who knew her parents.

As Alicia and Vargas come closer to finding Valls, they uncover a tangled web of kidnappings and murders tied to the Franco regime, whose corruption is more widespread and horrifying than anyone imagined. Alicia’s courageous and uncompromising search for the truth puts her life in peril. Only with the help of a circle of devoted friends will she emerge from the dark labyrinths of Barcelona and its history into the light of the future.

In this haunting new novel, Carlos Ruiz Zafón proves yet again that he is a masterful storyteller and pays homage to the world of books, to his ingenious creation of the Cemetery of Forgotten, and to that magical bridge between literature and our lives.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!


You can now get your hands on the digital edition of Mark Lawrence's One Word Kill for only 2.49$ through the following Amazon Associate link. This OneLink will take you to the nearest Amazon site serving your country and you'll see if you can take advantage of this sale. The Impossible Times trilogy is the series that ties everything else Lawrence has written together, so you don't want to miss out on it!

Even better, the second volume, Limited Wish, is 2.49$, and the final volume, Dispel Illusion, is 1.99$. So you can download the entire series for about 7$!

Here's the blurb:

In January 1986, fifteen-year-old boy-genius Nick Hayes discovers he’s dying. And it isn’t even the strangest thing to happen to him that week.

Nick and his Dungeons and Dragons-playing friends are used to living in their imaginations. But when a new girl, Mia, joins the group and reality becomes weirder than the fantasy world they visit in their weekly games, none of them are prepared for what comes next. A strange—yet curiously familiar—man is following Nick, with abilities that just shouldn’t exist. And this man bears a cryptic message: Mia’s in grave danger, though she doesn’t know it yet. She needs Nick’s help—now.

He finds himself in a race against time to unravel an impossible mystery and save the girl. And all that stands in his way is a probably terminal disease, a knife-wielding maniac and the laws of physics.

Challenge accepted.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!


You can now download Alan Smale's Clash of Eagles for only 3.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. This is a great series that deserve more attention. This OneLink will take you to the nearest Amazon site serving your country and you'll see if you can take advantage of this sale. At this low price, it's the best time to give it a shot!

Here's the blurb:

Perfect for fans of action-adventure and historical fiction—including novels by such authors as Bernard Cornwell, Steve Berry, Naomi Novik, and Harry Turtledove—this stunning work of alternate history imagines a world in which the Roman Empire has not fallen and the North American continent has just been discovered. In the year 1218 AD, transported by Norse longboats, a Roman legion crosses the great ocean, enters an endless wilderness, and faces a cataclysmic clash of worlds, cultures, and warriors.

Ever hungry for land and gold, the Emperor has sent Praetor Gaius Marcellinus and the 33rd Roman Legion into the newly discovered lands of North America. Marcellinus and his men expect easy victory over the native inhabitants, but on the shores of a vast river the Legion clashes with a unique civilization armed with weapons and strategies no Roman has ever imagined.

Forced to watch his vaunted force massacred by a surprisingly tenacious enemy, Marcellinus is spared by his captors and kept alive for his military knowledge. As he recovers and learns more about these proud people, he can’t help but be drawn into their society, forming an uneasy friendship with the denizens of the city-state of Cahokia. But threats—both Roman and Native—promise to assail his newfound kin, and Marcellinus will struggle to keep the peace while the rest of the continent surges toward certain conflict.


You can also get your hands on the digital edition of Hal Duncan's Sodom/New Sodom for only 2.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link.

Here's the blurb:

Collecting twelve new works from the author of Vellum, Ink, Testament, and Songs for the Devil and Death, this chapbook takes the razing of Sodom as origin myth for all queers, gathers its toolkits from all corners of verse and song, old and new, to forge a passionate call to arms, a manifesto for art in the face of loss and surl.


You can also download Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Forging the Darksword, first volume in the Darksword trilogy, for only 3.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link.

Here's the blurb:

From the bestselling authors of The Rose of the Prophet and The Death Gate Cycle, the first in a majestic saga of magic, fantasy, and adventure.

In the enchanted realm of Merilon, magic is life.

Born without magical abilities and denied his birthright, Joram is left for dead. Yet he grows to manhood in a remote country village, hiding his lack of powers only through constant vigilance and ever more skillful sleight-of-hand.

Forced to kill a man in self-defense, Joram can keep his secret from the townspeople no longer: he has no magic, no life. Fleeing to the Outlands, Joram joins the outlawed Technologists, who practice the long forbidden arts of science. Here he meets the scholarly catalyst Saryon, who has been sent on a special mission to hunt down a mysterious “dead man” and instead finds himself in a battle of wits and power with a renegade warlock of the dark Duuk-tsarith caste.

Together, Joram and Saryon begin their quest toward a greater destiny—a destiny that begins with the discovery of the secret books that will enable them to overthrow the evil usurper Blachloch . . . and forge the powerful magic-absorbing Darksword.

This week's New York Times Bestsellers (February 18th)

In hardcover:

Sarah J. Maas' House of Flame and Shadow debuts at number 1.

Rebecca Yarros' Fourth Wing is down one position, ending the week at number 2.

Rebecca Yarros' Iron Flame is down one position, ending the week at number 3.

In paperback:

Sarah J. Maas' House of Earth and Blood is up seven positions, ending the week at number 1.

Sarah J. Maas' House of Sky and Breath is up seven spots, finishing the week at number 4.

Sarah J. Maas' A Court of Silver Flames is up three spots, finishing the week at number 6.

The Book That Broke the World


I was looking forward to reading The Book That Broke the World.

The first volume, The Book That Wouldn't Burn, was Mark Lawrence's longest work to date and it wasn't exactly a good thing. Up until that point, I had always felt that the author was concise and none of his scenes were overwritten. Sadly, many sequences, especially those featuring Livira, felt a bit superfluous or longer than they needed to be. For the better part of the first half of the novel, everything moved rather slowly and not much happened for a long while. Not surprisingly, Lawrence more than made up for it in the second half, bringing the first installment to a satisfying ending. Trouble is, as is usually his wont, Lawrence closed the show with another frustrating cliffhanger. Thankfully, the author's quite reliable and we only had to wait a year for the sequel.

The Book That Broke the World is another solid effort, and I've come to expect nothing less of Mark Lawrence. Still, it does suffer from the same shortcomings shown by its predecessor and the storylines occasionally appear to be meandering a little aimlessly in certain portions of the tale. As far as I know, at least in my experience, it's the first time that anything written by Lawrence seems to suffer from the infamous middle book syndrome. Having said that, I could also be the problem here. Perhaps the fault lies in my not being able to follow everything that goes on across time and space the way I was meant to. Hence, your mileage may vary in that regard.

Here's the blurb:

Two people living in a world connected by an immense and mysterious library must fight for those they love in the second book in a new trilogy from the international bestselling author of The Book That Wouldn’t Burn.

The Library spans worlds and times. It touches and joins distant places. It is memory and future. And amid its vastness Evar Eventari both found, and lost, Livira Page.

Evar has been forced to flee the library, driven before an implacable foe. Livira, trapped in a ghost world, has to recover the book she wrote—one which is the only true threat to the library’s existence—if she’s to return to her life.

While Evar’s journey leads him outside into a world he’s never seen, Livira’s path will taker her deep inside her own writing, where she must wrestle with her stories in order to reclaim the volume in which they were written.

The secret war that defines the library has chosen its champions and set them on the board. The time has come when they must fight for what they believe, or lose everything.


At the heart of this latest series lies an infinite library containing all the knowledge ever written down. We now know that this library is connected to other such repositories across the entire known universe and across time itself. The implication behind such a need is that all species, no matter where and when a certain technological level is reached, will always elevate warfare to a point where they end up on the brink of extinction. And given their inevitable quest toward self-destruction, can this cycle ever be reversed? We learned that the very first library by was built by Irad, the grandson of Cain and thus the great-grandson of Adam and Eve. Jaspeth, his brother, believes that the library glorifies the original sin of knowledge and seeks its destruction. In a clash that echoes down through the ages, the library has become the symbol of the war waged by the two brothers, a conflict opposing knowledge and ignorance. Mark Lawrence came up with some intriguing concepts like the Mechanism, the Exchange, and the Assistants, and I was really looking forward to discovering more about the library and its secrets. And though there are some revelations, I was a bit disappointed by the fact that a good chunk of the action from The Book That Broke the World occurs outside of the library. And even if we do learn more about the library and the universe at large, Lawrence once again keeps his cards close to his chest as far as the worldbuilding is concerned.

In The Book That Wouldn't Burn, the story unfolded through the eyes of two protagonists: Livira Page, a precocious girl from the Dust, and Evar Eventari, a young man who has spent his entire life trapped inside a part of the library with no exits and who was raised by the Assistant. Mark Lawrence excels at first person narratives and in my opinion that's one of the things that made his previous works so compelling. As mentioned, many of Livira's scenes felt a bit overlong and not always essential, which hurt the balance I expected from the two perspectives. This second volume also includes new POVs, which in the end exacerbated this problem. The tale is growing and the group got separated at the end of the first installment, so the author needed new perspectives that would allow the reader to follow what's taking place. Arpix, the serious young librarian, and Celcha, a ganar slave (a new species introduced in this novel) excavating dig sites for ancient treasures with her brother Hellet, are worthy additions. Indeed, Celcha and Hellet's plotline turned out to be the most fascinating of the book. It's just that again, the absence of a certain kind of balance between the POVs impacts the overall reading experience negatively. Celcha and her brother's storyline, so well-established at the beginning, gets a fast-forward treatment towards the end that completely robs it of the emotional impact it was meant to convey. All the while, you have scenes in the middle of the book that felt a bit overdone or extraneous, which is why I felt that the plot meanders a bit aimlessly at times. Furthermore, did we really need another interracial romance?

That being said, in The Book That Broke the World the author nevertheless takes us on a journey across time and dimensions, in a tale that keeps expanding across time and space. And if the novel does suffer from pacing issues, especially in the middle, you should know by now that Lawrence always delivers a rousing endgame and an exciting finale. Indeed, there seems to be more action in this one than what the author has accustomed us to. Regardless of all this, I still have mixed feelings overall about this sequel. While there are aspects that I quite enjoyed, other things put me off more than I thought they would. In the end, I believe that Mark Lawrence just shines more when he writes first person narratives and that he might not be as comfortable with multiple POVs.

Of course, I still want to read the final installment as soon as I can get my hands on it! That goes without saying!

The final verdict: 7.5/10

For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!


You can now download Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragons of Deceit for only 1.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. This OneLink will take you to the nearest Amazon site serving your country and you'll see if you can take advantage of this sale.

Here's the blurb:

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman return to the unforgettable world of the New York Times bestselling Dragonlance series as a new heroine—desperate to restore her beloved father to life—sets off on a quest to change time.

Destina Rosethorn—as her name implies—believes herself to be a favored child of destiny. But when her father dies in the War of the Lance, she watches her carefully constructed world come crashing down. She loses not only her beloved father but also the legacy he has left her: the family lands and castle. To save her father, she hatches a bold plan—to go back in time and prevent his death.

First, she has to secure the Device of Time Journeying, last known to be in the possession of the spirited kender Tasslehoff Burrfoot. But to change time, she’ll need another magical artifact—the most powerful and dangerous artifact ever created. Destina’s quest takes her from the dwarven kingdom of Thorbardin to the town of Solace and beyond, setting in motion a chain of disastrous events that threaten to divert the course of the River of Time, alter the past, and forever change the future.


More inexpensive ebook goodies!


You can now get your hands on the digital edition of Tad Williams' The War of the Flowers for only 4.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link This OneLink will take you to the nearest Amazon site serving your country and you'll see if you can take advantage of this sale..

Here's the blurb:

Returning to the fantasy genre that made him a coast-to-coast best-selling phenomenon, Tad Williams writes this stand-alone contemporary fantasy novel, set in Northern California—and also in the strange parallel world that coexists in the farthest reaches of the imagination.Theo Vilmos is a thirty-year-old lead singer in a not terribly successful rock band. Once, he had enormous, almost magical charisma, both onstage and off—but now, life has taken its toll on Theo.

Hitting an all-time low, he seeks refuge in a isolated cabin in the woods. While there, he reads an odd memoir written by a dead relative who believed he had visited the magical world of Faerie. And before Theo can disregard the account as the writings of a madman, he, too, is drawn to a place beyond his wildest dreams...a place that will be, and has always been, his destiny.



You can also download Margaret Weis' The Lost King for 6.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. There is a price match in Canada. These space opera books were a big hit when they were published inthe 90s and I've always had a soft spot for them. They've been described as Battlestar Galactica meets Game of Thrones, and I guess that's a good description.

Here's the blurb:

A galactic revolution has toppled the Starfire dynasty, and swept into power the harsh Democratic Republic. To support the murdered king is now punishable by death. But on distant worlds, the few surviving Guardians carry a dangerous secret: Somewhere in the galaxy, they shield the rightful heir to the throne.

Stalking the hidden king is the warlord, a ruthless Republican general who wields the bloodsword. Only a few brave rebels dare to oppose him: young Dion who fights to find his destiny: the mercenary Tusk, the outlaw commander Dixter, and the beautiful Lady Maigrey, the only person alive who can match the the Warlord's cunning. Theirs is the ultimate battle against a star-spanning corruption – the ultimate sacrifice for the glory of the lost king's throne.

Finally, you can also download Hal Duncan's Errata for only 2.99$ here.

Here's the blurb:

Collecting for the first time, and revising for this edition, all four stories in the Errata sequence-"The City of Rotted Names," "The Prince of End Times," "The Whenever at the City's Heart," & "The Tower of Morning's Bones"-this chapbook is a cubist collage of wordplay and worldblazing, a mosaic narrative of the battle for the city of the soul. Here, fans of Vellum & Ink can delve deeper into the mythos of The Book of All Hours, while new readers will find a stand-alone story, a wild ride into the world of a work described as "the Guernica of genre fiction."

This week's New York Times Bestsellers (February 11th)

In hardcover:

Rebecca Yarros' Fourth Wing maintains its position at number 1.

Rebecca Yarros' Iron Flame maintains its position at number 2.

In paperback:

Sarah J. Maas' House of Earth and Blood is up two positions, ending the week at number 8.

Sarah J. Maas' A Court of Silver Flames is up two spots, finishing the week at number 9.

Sarah J. Maas' House of Sky and Breath is up four spots, finishing the week at number 11.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!


You can now download Joe Abercrombie's Half a King for only 3.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. This OneLink will take you to the nearest Amazon site serving your country and you'll see if you can take advantage of this sale.

Here's the blurb:

“I swore an oath to avenge the death of my father. I may be half a man, but I swore a whole oath.”

Prince Yarvi has vowed to regain a throne he never wanted. But first he must survive cruelty, chains, and the bitter waters of the Shattered Sea. And he must do it all with only one good hand.

The deceived will become the deceiver.

Born a weakling in the eyes of his father, Yarvi is alone in a world where a strong arm and a cold heart rule. He cannot grip a shield or swing an axe, so he must sharpen his mind to a deadly edge.

The betrayed will become the betrayer.

Gathering a strange fellowship of the outcast and the lost, he finds they can do more to help him become the man he needs to be than any court of nobles could.

Will the usurped become the usurper?

But even with loyal friends at his side, Yarvi finds his path may end as it began—in twists, and traps, and tragedy.

This week's New York Times Bestsellers (February 4th)

In hardcover:

Rebecca Yarros' Fourth Wing maintains its position at number 1.

Rebecca Yarros' Iron Flame maintains its position at number 2.

Heather Fawcett's Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands debuts at number 9.

Aurora Ascher's Sanctuary of the Shadow is down seven positions, ending the week at number 10.

In paperback:

Sarah J. Maas' A Court of Silver Flames is up two spots, finishing the week at number 7.

Sarah J. Maas' House of Earth and Blood maintains its position at number 10.

Sarah J. Maas' House of Sky and Breath is down two spots, finishing the week at number 15.