I found out that too high expectations mostly lead to a big disappointment, encountered an real unlikeable antihero, read the last book of a great series and learned how small decisions can have big effects.
Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
Looking for a unlikeable antihero? Well no need to look any further, you have found one in Prince Honorous Jorg Ancrath, the protagonist in the Broken Empire series by Mark Lawrence. A cruel and murderous prince who left his home and goes on some kind of a killing spree through his land. The beginning was quite difficult - especially the writing style -, but I started to enjoy this book, even though it was a slow process. I only gave "Prince of Thorns" three stars, but I think I just was not in the mood for such a different story. I'm definitely going to continue this series and am sure that I will like them much much more.
The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco
There is not much to say about it. I just didn't like this book at all. It's nothing like The Name of the Rose or Foucault's Pendulum. Just one historical event after the other which leaves little room for the actual story. And it's really lacking a story in my opinion. The only interesting part was the written discussion between the main protagonist Simonini and the priest Dalla Piccola and that's what kept me going even though it was quite exhausting to the point where I just wanted to start skipping sentence after sentence. So, I'm really sorry but I can't give this book more than two stars - even though it hurts me to do so.
The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
I'm so going to miss Vin, Elend, Sazed and of course TenSoon... I can't believe that my time with those characters is over already - how time flies by. 5 stars because it was a great ending for this series! I can highly recommend the Mistborn series to every fantasy fan out there! The first part of the Stormlight Archive series is definitely going to be the next Sanderson book for me - especially since the second book has been published recently!
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Life After Life is a very interesting story about the life of Ursula and how big effects little decisions can have. Going the long way and not taking a shortcut through the garden doesn't sound like it would make a big difference, does it? But in Ursulas life it does and throughout the book Ursula repeatedly gets the chance to do something different - to change her and her friends and family's future. At first I was a little bit confused because of the constant time hopping, but after some chapters I got used to it and it didn't distract me anymore. I liked Atkinson's writing style and enjoyed reading about Ursulas life. I gave this book 3,5 stars, but when I think about it now maybe I should have given it directly four stars :)
The goal for march was to read books with an antihero, a villain protagonist and not a charismatic, likeable and flawless hero. I was really looking forward to this topic - well I have to because I recommended it ;) Unfortunately I had way to little time and too many other books to read, so I only read two books that matched this topic:
- Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
- The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco (I didn't even know that this book has an antihero until I started reading it and it was so clear to me that it was a perfect match)
50/50 Challenge
Since I'm reading a lot of bigger books this year, I decided to use the option to count books with more than 500 pages as two. So I have read 16/50 books and saw 14/50 movies. btw the Veronica Mars movie was just aaawesome :) and I just found out that there is a book that continues where the movie stopped!
Statistics
books read: 4
genres: 2x fantasy, 2x historical novel,
pages March: 2,201
pages 2014: 6,484
best book: The Hero of Ages (Mistborn #3) by Brandon Sanderson
worst book: The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco :(
currently reading: haven't decided yet :) maybe Noah by Sebastian Fitzek or Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe
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