Giu
Precise rating: 3.5 ⭐
There were many lengths that bored me sometimes. But looked at as a whole, this story is very good – the first book ever that made me cry at the end!
Stephen King often saves the day for me with his endings, so I can't be too mad at him for the lengths in the middle of his books.
At about 25% I started to lose track of the characters – which wasn't surprising considering their high amount and shallowness. Also, the story is too political for my taste.
So far, I couldn't really wrap my head around the message of this book, but in the end I don't really care anyway. More important is that I get entertained—and that wasn't the case with Sleeping Beauties for 95% of the time.
Disappointing for me. I stopped reading after 70% or so and continued with a detailed summary instead.
While I really like the theme of this story, I guess I'm just not a sucker for old books. I have a hard time describing what usually ruins them for me, but it has something to do with how the characters behave. It is somehow unauthentic, as if books back then were written with a different intention than making the characters seem as real as possible. They feel more like those exaggerated characters from theatre plays or old movies. Just not my cup of tea.
Precise rating: 3.5 ⭐
The Book of Blood
3.5 ⭐
The Midnight Meat Train
3.5 ⭐
The Yattering and Jack
4 ⭐
Pig Blood Blues
2.5 ⭐
Sex, Death and Starshine
2.5 ⭐
In the Hills, the Cities
4 ⭐
Precise rating: 2.5 ⭐
I liked it until the protagonist left the house. The rest was a slog to get through with a few moments where I thought it gets interesting again – only to end with an absolutely underwhelming final.
After a third I gave up. I simply lacked the motivation to listen to this and not remembering the majority of the names mentioned. Thanks A Wiki of Ice and Fire, I guess, for providing all those chapter summaries. This way I could still find out how the story continues. Maybe I'll be more motivated for the sixth book should it ever be published.
Gave up at 10%.
Everything I read was alright. I expect a book of that size to have a lot of build-up, so I'm not complaining about it being too slow. And I liked the characters and the premises and the world building. But—call me narrow-minded all you want—I had a hard time taking anything Sanderson's written seriously after I found out he's a Mormon.
A little bit chaotically narrated with stereotypical characters here and there, but I liked it and look forward to the second book!
Gave up at 33%.
This topic is simply not the part of languages I'm mostly interested in, so it felt too dry to continue. And I'm sure it's not the author, because I read another one of his language books which was great!
Precise rating: 4.5 ⭐️
I am so happy!
Reading the first book was fun! But after the second book I was a bit disappointed, since I wasn't really invested in the story at any point and it felt kinda all over the place. Suddenly, the knowledge that there are so many more books in this series felt like too big of a commitment. So I decided I'd give the series one more chance and read the third book—also since basically everyone on the internet says that book 3 is where the series really takes off.
Then, during the first 40% of the book, I was permanently on the brink of giving up on Dresden. Not because it was bad—I actually liked it a lot more than book 2—but it was not good enough to see the amount of books ahead of me as something to look forward to. Well, until I reached 40% and basically rushed through the rest of the book in the course of a bit more than a day! Hell's bells, as Harry would say!
It was absolutely brilliant! There wasn't a single moment where the book lost steam. I suddenly really cared for the characters. The supernatural creatures are so exciting, I am aching for more lore. But what I love the most about not just this book, but the whole series so far is Jim Butcher's seemingly most important writing rule: Murphy's Law!
This was a brilliant read! This book has really changed my view on so many aspects of language. I'm pretty sure from now on there will be many more situations of analysing random words of the languages I speak and learn.
Well, I can't say this was a fun read, but it included a few good short stories that I could enjoy. Most of the stories were pretty lame, though. Sorry, Stephen!