Juraj

It's exactly the same book as the first one.

Issues with world development got even worse. For example at the end of the first book Quirell got rid of Dumbledore who left for ministry of magic and it took him hours to get back. Now, suddenly, wizards can teleport instantly! And they even have two ways to do it!
And that's not all. Since when do wizards use megaphones? They don't even know how to use telephone but they can use megaphones? (McGonagall at quiditch) In the later books they use simple spell!

God dammit, Rowling didn't think through anything. She just writes whatever comes to her mind. So what if it doesn't make sense? Who the fuck cares. The first one was a hit, quickly gotta write sequels!

I admit the style of writing is good and the book was easy to read but that doesn't redeem the plot or mistakes she's done.

Pretty big disapointment for a second King's short stories collection. Third of it felt like writer's exercises, third of it was boring and the rest couldn't make up for more than three stars.

The first really good short story is The Jaunt about a crazy scientist and his invention.
I don't like the Mist and rest of stories before Jaunt felt like lazy and/or too long writing.

Best story is definitely Survivor Type about an insane castaway.

Other stories that stood out were The Wedding Gig and The Raft. And that's it. Gramma and The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet had great writing but some aspects of the story and their endings just didn't make them appeasing enough.

If you want early King's short stories you're better off with Night Shift.

Žiadny “hustý nářez” to nie je, ale trocha to odhaľuje Gerhardovu históriu. Novela je však krátka. Buď to malo byť vydané v nejakej zbierke alebo ako dvojkniha spoločne ešte s nejakým príbehom z Bratrstva krve. Príde mi to ako cash grab, hoci Kotletu zbožňujem a uvedomujem si, že vydavateľstvá sú na tom dnes zle a chcú zarobiť ako sa dá. Veď predsa ako inak by si mohli dovoliť ten koks spomínaný v doslove. ;)
Kotleta nevyužil potenciál a chýbala mi nejaká kvalitnejšia akcia, nevraviac o tom, že príbeh je predvídateľný už od začiatku. Rád by som si niečo prečítal buď z ešte dávnejšej minulosti - napríklad povstanie proti Sangot alebo niečo s Herr Bezzemkom z 19., počiatku 20. storočia. Ak chcete zistiť čo je Kotleta za fenomén, toto určite nie je kniha s ktorou by ste mali začať. Skôr asi len končiť pre kompletnosť zbierky.
A poznámka pre autora/editorov ak si to nebodaj niekedy prečítate: nabudúce prosím vás píšte myšlienky postavy kurzívou a nie ako priamu reč. Je to zbytočne mätúce a strašne ma to iritovalo.

Povinné čítanie pre všetkých, ktorí si myslia, že za komunizmu bolo lepšie. Dnes tu možno máme obrovskú korupciu, no tá tu bola aj pred 50 rokmi, len lepšie ututlaná. Avšak v rovnakej miere na vysokých postoch. Nevraviac o tom, že dnes sa “prekážajúcemu” človeku môže v najhoršom prípade stať, že ho vyhodia. Vtedy si vykonštruovali proti takýmto smoliarom procesy a šli sedieť. Je to všeobecne známe, no mám pocit, že niektoré ovčie stáda sú tak zaslepené nenávisťou voči nefungujúcej demokracii, že totálne ignorujú zverstvá čo sa tu diali pred jej nástupom.

3.5* - I re-read the book to find out whether it still holds up now that I'm an adult. It doesn't, not entirely. While I admit it's a magical book (pun intended) I have big problems with the world building because it's sloppy and without a thought.

I've read crazy fantasy books with many paralel universes, crazy creatures and stunning original magic systems but they all made sense within their worlds. Harry Potter and the wizards don't, though. It doesn't make sense muggles don't know about them. It doesn't make sense wizards laugh at muggles' inventions while at the same time use many of them.

In addition this is indeed purely kids' book. While it's kind of refreshing that this series grew up with its readers, it's also very annoying for somebody like me, who enjoys adult books, to plough through first three/four books in the series ‘til I get to the better stuff.

Writing style is very good, though. Especially the sarcasm in the first few chapters is exactly as if written by me. Characters sometimes speak very weirdly and definitely not as 11 yo kids. It might be a translation problem but I doubt it.

All in all there are better series out there, imho. But HP was very important for my generation when we were kids. I have to admit I may not be such a bookworm if I hadn't read it 14 years ago and for that it has my thanks.

Sadly, I have to give it 3 stars. First half of the book is awesome but when Cujo, the dog after whom the whole book is titled, shows up, the quality goes down. More than 100 pages of the drama in the car was “a bit” of a stretch.
King excels in creating relatable characters and that's why I was so excited when I started reading this book. Marital conflict was handled brilliantly.
But in the second half he focuses more on the dog and drama of survival. Rabid dog just isn't enough for me, though. Few pages could be considered a prequel to legendary It, but it's only in the beginning.
I think this book should be shorter and released as part of his novella collections. Maybe even part of Skeleton Crew because many of short stories there felt like writing exercises and nothing more.
Iconic terror... I agree with the latter but this book definitely isn't iconic.

This book started really promising but then it turned into a copy-paste of The Stolen Throne just with different but similar characters. The dumbest twist you can imagine at the end took away one more star. The sort of cliffhanger on the last page with Fellasan pissed me off the most, though. So poorly handled, oh my god!

Weekes either never saw how wood is chopped or he forgot to mention that knights in this universe use light sabers because the easiness they defeated the demonic trees is ridiculous.

Dammit, when Gaider finally improved to the point of his work being readable they decided to change the author. And it's almost as bad as Gaider's first book.

Just one book to go. Then I'm done with this series. Selling them asap. Why was I so dumb to buy them all in the first place. Wiki articles would do just fine...

3.75 - can't give more even though it's a huge improvement compared to previous two books. All characters were too two dimensional, though. And the Seeker was one dimensional, demon of rage incarnate without actually being a demon. TERRIBLE CHARACTER “DEVELOPMENT”!!! I guess beta readers told David he was too simple so he wrote some “backstory” into one of the last chapters. It doesn't help, though.

This was... Surprisingly good! Could've been the best book in the series if there was more compelling plot but up until the end there was no suspense.

If it weren't for the lovely griffons this would have been bad. But at least something spoke to me.

Shame it took three authors and five novels to finally come up with an interesting setup. The handling of it was average at best but at least it was more original then previous novels in the series. And that's very sad considering the huge fantastic lore this world has.

the only way I'll read another DA novel, though, is if it'll be happening during the first blight and it'll be written by somebody like Brandon Sanderson. A renowned author from whom I expect only quality work.

This book is composed of some truly interesting essays but at the same time there's a bunch of totally skippable ones. And, sadly, the skippable ones are way longer and make for majority of the book.

Essays desserving 5 stars:
A Hanging
Benefit of Clergy (Some Notes on Salvador Dali)
How the Poor Die
Notes on Nationalism
Why I Write

Essays you can totally skip or die of boredom:
Decline of the English Murder
Rudyard Kipling
Raffles and Miss Blandish
Charles Dickens
The Art of Donald McGill

As such I can't give more than three stars. It's still worth a read, though. Especially Notes on Nationalism. That subject is once again in public's eye.

Omnoho lepšie ako prvý diel. Jediné, čo by som vytkol je, že sa udalosti diali príliš rýchlo. Celý prípad vyriešený za dva a pol dňa? Ale no tak...
Praha a multikulti prostredie tomu jednoznačne pomohlo, v Štiavnici bola len hŕstka postáv a mnohé z nich boli viac-menej nevýrazné. O Pražskej šľachte to určite neplatí.

Weakest collection I've read from Ellison. First third of the book is a long neverending boring story about abortion. The rest of the book consists of short stories on various love themes - from love of God through love of country, life itself to various forms of love of people. The best stories were towards the end but there were only three or four that stood above mediocrity.

Tento rok začal tak dobre, aj vďaka Underground Revoluci. A potom som sa rozhodol vrátiť sa trocha späť a dočítať resty, čo mám u Kotlety začínajúc Kosekom.

Prvá kniha bola priemerná, ale stále pobavila. V tejto bola najvtipnejšia asi poznámka vydavateľa pod čiarou, že poplatky Kopřivovi boli uhradené. Uf...

Najprvoplánovejší humor o aký sa kedy Kotleta snažil. Neviem či túto knihu napísal ako “povinnosť” vydavateľovi, hoci nemal inšpiráciu, či experimentoval s tým ako napísať čo najväčší brak, alebo či mal proste tak zlé obdobie. Nemalo to nič než akciu a prvoplánové sex scény, len na to, aby tam boli.
Už dočítam aj tretí diel, ako inak pri Kotletovi, ale nedávne oznámenie štvrtého ma fakt vydesilo. Momentálne Kotleta píše fantastické romány, dúfam, že sa to kvôli štýlu tejto série nepokašle. Radšej keby sa pustil do niečoho nového. Pôvodne som myslel, že toto je trilógia a zo všetkých jeho sérií si pokračovanie zaslúži asi nejmenej. (Alebo najviac, aby ju aspoň trocha vykúpil? Lebo očividne nie som jediný, komu sa táto séria nepozdáva.)

Červenák má dnes už pomerne dobrú reputáciu a tak som si povedal, že sa konečne skúsim ponoriť aj do jeho diela. K mytológii mám kladný vzťah už od detstva a tešil som sa, že toto je čistokrvná slovanská fantasy.

Po cca 50 stranách však boj s touto knihou vzdávam. Príbeh vyzerá byť fajn, dokonca tu bolo aj niekoľko zaujímavých momentov, no ten archaický štýl, ktorým je to písané je neznesiteľný. Slová ako “sliepňať, huňa, žrec” atď. si mohol odpustiť. Opisy tiež pôsobia neprirodzene a je tam priveľa prirovnaní. Navyše ide o druhé vydanie a sám autor tvrdí, že ho dosť upravil. Nechcem si ani predstaviť ako to vyzeralo pôvodne.

Príbeh je inšpirovaný Sapkowskeho Zaklínačom a podobnými osamelými vlkmi, takže skutočne pochybujem, že prídem o veľa. Uvedomujem si, že je to jeho prvotina, no jednoducho mi chýba motivácia pokračovať, pretože podobné veci som prečítal už niekoľko krát a v oveľa lepšej forme. Myslím, že zostanem u tvrďákov od českého KKK týmu - Kotletu, Kopřivu a Kulhánka. V rámci česko-slovenských stredovekých fantasy u mňa ostáva Holomráz neporazený.

Najslabšia Kotletova séria, hoci by som si musel znova prečítať Perunovu krev, aby som si bol istý. No táto kniha bola oveľa lepšia ako predchádzajúca, hoci stále mi príde, že autor sa takmer vôbec nesnažil. Sex strieda akciu a akcia strieda sex. Nuda. Až na poviedku z Ústí, ktorá je prekvapivo najlepšia v celej sérii.
Dúfam, že do pokračovania autor vloží trocha viac snahy a originalitu si nenechá len pre mágiu a démonov, o ktorých píše, ale niečo z nej sa ujde aj postavám. Na poslednej strane si prichystal veľmi sľubné a hlavne vtipné situácie do budúcna. Som síce Kotletova děvka, čo prečíta všetko od neho, ale ďalšiu knihu na úrovni Malého Vietnamu nerozdýcham ani s Bakulgovou pomocou. ;)

Sadly, I have all Hill's previous books, half of which I haven't read. So I probably will sometime. What I won't is buy anything new from him. I loved Horns but Ghosts were mediocre and this is really bad. Besides I'm from Eastern Europe and really don't give a flying fuck about Hill's Trump Derangement Syndrome. It made bad stories even worse.

Zistil som, že Harlanove knihy sa konečne začali prekladať aj do češtiny, hoci zatiaľ len dve. No preklad nič moc. Ak aj odhliadnem od zle preloženého slangu, tak vykanie si na rande ma neskutočne sralo. A už duplom pri poviedke, kde Harlan píše sám o sebe. On by v živote nevykal. A už vôbec nie nejakej babe, čo pozval na rande. No poďme k obsahu, ktorý je lepší než prevedenie. (Ešte chcem ale pochváliť pevnú väzbu, palec hore!)

Nemám ústa a... - 5/5
Absolútna klasika a jedna z dvoch poviedok, ktoré ma k Harlanovi priviedli.

Vzpomínka: Nemám ústa a... - 4/5
Esej, making of Nemám ústa a... Na pasáži s “kritikom”, čo Harlanovi vysvetľoval čo mal Harlan na mysli počas písania poviedky som sa z chuti nasmial.

Velký Sam byl můj kamarád - 3/5
Nič moc. Problém s niektorými poviedkami v tejto zbierke je, že sú málo rozvinuté a idú maximálnym tempom do vyvrcholenia. Chýbala mi tu hĺbka príbehu.

Oči prachu - 4/5
Mám pocit, že toto je ešte veľavravnejšie dnes v dobe Instagramu, než to bolo v 60. rokoch. A keby len Instagramu. V USA sa ľavica teraz bije aj za Roe v. Wade a potraty. Harlan bol za ne, hoci paradoxne ľavica viac tiahne k svetu vykreslenému v tejto poviedke než zvyšok ľudstva, ktorý má viac súcitu.

Jak nás vidí jiný - 5/5
Toto je najpodceňovanejšia poviedka v tejto zbierke, absolútny masterpiece. Opäť škoda, že postavy neboli rozvinuté. Väčšinou hájim, že čo nie je treba, to tam nemusí byť, ale Harlan škrtá až moc.

Samobol - 5/5
Na pozadí je rovnaká téma ako v predchádzajúcej poviedke - to čo nechceme o sebe vedieť, čo nechceme vidieť. Zatiaľ čo Jak nás vidí jiný bolo sci-fi, toto je viac prízemnejšia poviedka, o Harlanovi, ktorú by sa nehanbil analyzovať ani Jordan Peterson. Popri čítaní som si spomenul aj na dokument Crumb.

Drakobijcův sebeklam - 2/5
Sám autor vraví, že toto je jeho najdivnejšia poviedka a sám som si nevybral dobrý čas na čítanie, keď som bol unavený, nevedel sa sústrediť a zaspával. Skrátka to je “bad trip” medzi životom a smrťou.

Pěkná Maggie Mincička - 3/5
Toto bola asi najrozvitejšia poviedka zo všetkých, čo by dobre zapadla medzi zbierku Stephena Kinga, no mňa osobne nijak nenadchla. Posadnutý herný automat nie je ani sexy ani strašidelný.

I feel like I read my book of the year within the first two days of 2022. It's exactly the type of sci-fi that I love. S-tier masterpiece.
Villeneuve said he wants to make it into a movie after he's done with Dune and while Dune is one of the best books within the genre I feel like Rama would translate onto screen much better. Another hit like Interstellar, Martian, Arrival.

Read half of it. They really aren't interesting for adult. One thing I learned from this book is that Hollywood really can't read past first 30 pages in a book. The Grimm fairy tales that were filmed by Disney and others are all right at the beginning. None of the rest I read were ever filmed or even animated in any way which is quite surprising and disappointing. (Some are really dumb though, I guess warnings for kids to not be fools.)