June 2026 Readings
Yet again, I forget about writing my report. Anyways, I was on vacation for the first half of June, and then when I came back to work I was dealing with FIFA (I work for the grounds where the BMO field is). Thankfully, FIFA didn't want anything to do with us or our internet, so they paid us to fuck off and hired a third party — I literally had nothing to do at work for the last weeks of June. So I had time to read. Did I make significant headway into my reading project. Euhhh, well, let's see below:
Onyx Storm – Rebecca Yarros
You've read it, you've loved it*; the third book in the Empyrean series. I got so tired about the writing in this series and all the things that made no sense that I didn't even bother writing notes for this one. I got one entry in and gave up. While it is better than its predecessor, I was trolling when I said it was better than the first. Some spoilers below, beware: There's more things that are useless to the plot, and the island trial things feels uninspired and nonsensical. But in the end, nothing has importance. There is so much repetition. At least it was shorter than the second book. It is also very forgettable — case in point, I'm having trouble coming up with this review because I genuinely do not remember anything. After reading a summary; omg this ending is so fucking messy, nothing of consequence happens the whole book and then you cram everything at the end, why?
*you're probably not done reading it and are certainly not loving it
Les Fiancés de l'Hiver – Christelle Dabos & Vanyda
This is the Bande Dessinée (or BD [a comic]) adaptation of the book bearing the same name, that came out earlier this year. My mom got it for me as a birthday present. I love Les Fiancés de l'Hiver and have read it multiple times. I wouldn't pass a chance to see it come to life, especially since I am 'picturing things in my mind'-challenged. The drawings look good, the lettering's good too, even the use of nordic letters to denote accents gets a bit obnoxious. I think the artist did the best she could to transcribe the story into this new medium. I do think it falls very short though because if you haven't read the books, there's no way you understand the plot here. It was also a bit jarring how everything looked clean and pretty here, where it's presented as ugly, humid and dirty in the book. My (underperforming) mind's eye's vision of the settings and characters were very different. Apart from the tone issue I have with this adaptation, all of my other grievances are that the artist's vision of the books didn't match my vision of the books. How dare she?
It was a very hard story to put into pictures, so all in all, other than doubling the number of pages, there is not much more that could have been done to simplify comprehension of the story. With the second, third and especially fourth book getting way more convoluted, I am a bit apprehensive at what those adaptation will be. It's a good companion piece to the books, and there's nothing I can do but wait for the next BDs to come out...
Les Fiancés de l'Hiver & Les Disparus du Clairedelune – Christelle Dabos
Livre 1 & 2 de La Passe Mirroir
...or I can also re-read the series for the nth time. Of the times I have chronicled my readings, I've read those books in April 2023 (when I started my reading reports), then in June 2025 (in english this time), and I'm just reading them again. Unfortunately, I gave book 3 and 4 to my sister, who's had them for more than a year, and she probably still hasn't finished them. I shall have to wait to finish the series.
Children of Memory – Adrian Tchaikovsky
Book 3 of the Children of Time Series
Five books this month, and it's the only one that was on my booklog readings list. Oops.
I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed with this book. The first entry in the series was simply an instant sci-fi classic, and I really liked the second one despite some critics. This one goes in a completely different direction. I think it's like the most annoying part of the second book, which lasts about two chapters, but dragged to a full length novel. Before the big twist, it's also so confusing to read, and a pretty terrible reading experience. I was really excited for the original mystery to unfold, only for there to be no payoff because something else was introduced which makes it irrelevant. I think the themes explored here are very interesting to explore, but they are barely even touched on properly, and only in the last 5-8% of the book. It takes soooo long to take off, and once we do, it's over before we got anywhere. This book is not bad, it's just not nearly as good as the previous entries. Despite the novelty and the original story, I found the twist a bit lacklustre and eye-rolling, but specifically because it's something that I find especially stupid and worthless to explore (i'm a hater about this particular thing so don't listen to me).
Existential crisis is over, we're reading at a decent pace again, just not the books I'm supposed to read. I'm currently at 28/61 books read in the booklog, and at 9041/20157 pages — or 46% and 45% done respectively. We're still not on track but it's ok.
Thank you for reading my logorrhea Eddie – Award winning author