Books I Read and Other Assorted Oddities

 As an active World of Warcraft player before the Battle for Azeroth expansion, this was almost required reading. BFA is over and the next expansion came out like a year ago and I'm just now finishing this book. That should tell you all you need to know about how I feel about it. Before the Storm  by Christie Golden tells the untold story of what happens in the aftermath of the Legion's invasion of Azeroth. Faced with the death of his father, Anduin Wrynn must regroup the Alliance. Sylvannas has become ruler of the Horde, and with the discovery of Azerite in Silithus, she begins her plans. Neither faction can afford a war, and yet it is brewing on the horizon. Can Anduin bridge that gap and establish peace between the Horde and the Alliance? I... didn't like this book. Pretty much at all. I wanted it to answer more questions about why Sylvannas did what she did, but we STILL don't have all the answers to that, even an expansion later. It didn't answer my pressing qu

 This book is one of the more popular YA fantasy reads out there, and after reading it, I can see why. I would definitely recommend this to older and more mature readers based on the content. An Ember in the Ashes  by Sabaa Tahir follows two characters: Laia and Elias. Laia has lost everything; her family and her home. Her brother has been taken to prison, and Laia's only option to save him is to work for the Scholar Resistance. She is sent as a slave to the most dangerous woman in the Empire, the Commandant, the leader of Blackcliff School. Elias is a Mask. He is of the ruling class in the Empire, a student at Blackcliff, training to become the Empire's most feared weapons. But he feels trapped. Disgusted by the things he must do, Elias finds himself abandoning his plan to flee the Empire and fighting to be its emperor instead. Will Laia be able to save her brother? Will Elias ever be free? Overall, I loved this book. Tahir has woven a stunning tale full of twists and turns, t

 This is my second time through Artemis . I read it before resurrecting this blog, so here I am, reading it again to review it. Artemis by Andy Weir imagines a society on the moon. Jazz Bashara has lived in Artemis since she was six. She has a successful smuggling side hustle alongside a legitimate porter job. Artemis is full of all kinds of people, from the very wealthy to the very poor. As Jazz says, "I'm one of the little guys." That's all about to change when Trond Landvik, one of the very wealthy, offers her a million slugs to pull a job. All she has to do is sabotage the mining operations of the city's oxygen supplier, Sanchez Aluminum. After a botched job, and a double murder, Jazz finds herself far over her head and the next target of a powerful crime syndicate. Can Jazz outwit O Palacio and mend broken relationships to save Artemis? This is a fun story. Jazz's narrative voice is hilarious. I love her personality and her depth. I love the amount of sci

 I really enjoyed The Paper Magician and was excited to read on in the series. If you'd like to see my post for the first book, you can click here . The Glass Magician  continues the story of Ceony Twill, picking up almost immediately after the conclusion of The Paper Magician. Ceony and a group of apprentices go on a tour of a paper mill. The tour quickly turns deadly as they're suddenly evacuated and witness the mill explode. Events only darken as after a lunch date with Delilah, a glass apprentice, Ceony finds herself face to face with Grath Cobalt. Grath is the most feared excisioner, a long-time enemy of Emery Thane's. Will Ceony be able to outwit Grath? This book was amazing. I loved it far more than I liked The Paper Magician.  While the first novel got a little repetitive, this one did not. This novel had very few "down times" and I enjoyed the pacing far more in this one. I loved seeing Ceony's character grow and change, and I love her narrative voice