Eddie's Monthly

I honestly did pretty good in May, three books and a few dozens manga chapters, not bad. I am still in the middle of finishing my backlog, which takes a lot of time away from reading. I am enjoying myself doing it so I have no desire to take time away from it to read for now. Peak incoming as well as some hate.

Dune – Messiah

Peak

I remember reading Dune messiah back when I was around 14-15 and not getting it. I didn't dislike it, I actually don't mind reading something and only being transported by the vibes, but I didn't get a good understanding of it. As a whatever-year old, I could not understand just being stuck in the past as well, as resigning yourself to the future, and being absolutely done with the present. A chill depressive episode and growing tired with adult life later, I get it. This book has a totally different meaning to me now, and I like it a tad more than Dune. Paul and his ruminations are my favorite part, but I also like that everybody is playing 16D chess, but also knows that everybody is playing 16D chess, so they're also playing checkers on the side. The tone and atmosphere are just so different from Dune but also make a lot of sense as a follow up. For some reason it reminded me of the part of Beowulf (the 2007 movie, not the poem) after the time skip.

The Pillars of the Earth – Ken Follet

Tom builder and his family have been out of work for a while, and a succession war rages on in England. Not many people need a mason in these trying times, and Tom's savings are running low. We follow them throughout the decades and see how war affect them. We also follow the life of Father Phillip, how was just called to improve the situation in a decrepit priory. Will he be able to set it straight? Aliena, the daughter of a nobleman, is living carefree while being pursued by many suitors including William. Will the war get the better of her attitude? Finally, Ellen and Jack are also not that affected by the war for now, as they live in the forest, but can they keep going with this lifestyle as more and more bandits roam the woods?

I needed a big book to read while everyone was finishing up Dune Messiah, and I had this one in my library for a while after thrifting it in first year of uni for 2$ (4563.93$ today due to inflation). I had seen the mini tv show about it went to came out in 2010, but my memory was really foggy (it was 14 years ago after all). This is a long book, as long as Dune, but the pace is good and I therefore was kept interested throughout. There is only one arc in the middle of the book that slowed things down and was a bit out of place. There are however many arc in this book as it takes place over 50 years or so, and seeing all the characters grow up, but also the towns and villages evolve was really cool. It was really entertaining all the way through and was a really convincing peek into day to day english medieval life (I know nothing about it and am therefore easily convinced). I love how ruthless the author is with the characters, and whenever you think their situation couldn't be worse, they are just kicked while they are down. On the contrary sometimes they will devise bold plans, and execute them, manipulating a bunch of people, which are entertaining to see unfold even if they are not successful. The only issue I had with the book is how one character weaponised r*pe — it is described twice in more or less detail — but every time it was mentioned, it made me wildly uncomfortable. The relationship of the men in the story with “carnal pleasure” is a bit weird, and is also focused on which I found odd; I can only read “stirring in the loin” so many times before getting weirded out. My favorite character was Phillip, who was a refreshing chaste and good character in the cesspool that was the average medieval person. Unless you have an issue with reading about intimate stuff, especially r*pe (it is not romanticised at all), I would recommend it.

Children of Dune – Frank Herbert

PEAK

I would say the beginning of the book is maybe a bit more accessible than Dune Messiah, but around the latter half, it gets pretty weird. It takes place 9 years after Dune Messiah, and it reminds me of it a lot. We start by having a diverse cast of POV through the chapters, and then we focus more on Leto II. Stilgar's character is very interesting in this one, and so is Alia, who steps a bit more into the light. Another character makes a reappearance, and I was jubilating when they were introduced. I won't say too much about the book as I know some people want to read it, but it is my favorite out of the series so far. I saw a lot of similarities between this book and book III of Dune, which was my favorite part (about equal with book I). I just started God Emperor of Dune so we'll see how it compares.

One Piece – Oda-san

Water 7

Oda, my brother in christ, do we need a giant close-up of someone's face crying/yelling every chapter? Also, the constant yelling of attacks, which is unnecessary and takes half of each panel is annoying as hell. It makes some of the action really hard to follow. The trope of “I can only survive one more attack, I'm on the brink of death”, and then surviving sixteen finisher moves from an adversary is so overplayed, and not interesting. The story is sorta cool sometimes but, it's not enough to keep me reading. All of the criticism, I pointed out here is valid for most of the manga. The way they build up the villains — have murk the heroes, no diff — and then without the heroes having time to recover, yet improve, having the villains be defeated because the plot demands it is very lazy. The Gear stuff was cool, but the downsides to using it are some small that Luffy might as well be overpowered all the time. After reading 430 chapters, I feel like I have earned the right to this critique, but most importantly to drop it. As the friend that asked me to read it said: “If you still aren't liking it at this point, you'll never like it. Also, as moncrief pointed out, maybe I just don't like shonen. After joining the bookclub in reading dungeon meshi, I'll try to read HxH which is apparently peak shonen. We will have a definite answer then.

This marks the one year anniversary of when I started publishing my monthly readings! ~37 books and 430 manga chapters in a year, not too shabby. Tetyana and I have been planning on getting our library cards forever now, but we'll get to it eventually. With this — and being done with my backlog in December — I should be able to enjoy more books per month.

It feels nice to be liberated from the shackles of One Piece, that I started in September last year.

Thank you for reading my logorrhea Eddie

Yeah, I was very lazy this month in terms of reading, and put more energy into purging my backlog, with the project reaching it's halfway point.

Dune: Book II & III- Frank Herbert

What can I say, you all read it, it's goated. Although I loved book I, book II was a bit less to my liking, but book III is my favorite. The ending of the book isn't satisfying though, and I find myself wanting to go through Dune messiah right away. I am planning a presentation, which might take a bit of time to prepare, but it requires everyone to have read Dune Messiah (or be fine with me spoiling the ending).

One Piece

Skypiea Arc

I wasn't completely done reading through the arc last time around, but reading it completely just comforts me in my opinions. Oda-san should have introduce the characters before all the shit went down, because to me there was no stakes as I did not know who anyone was, or why I should care about their demise. Having the flash back (which is btw my least favorite form of exposition, especially if overused) right at the end was a real waste imo.

Long Ring Island Arc

It's fine. I liked that it was self contained, and introduced some characters for later arcs, while having them not being super relevant there.

Water 7

What a palate cleanser. After the drag that was Skypiea, it is refreshing to have something that is setup properly. Can you imagine if they had the big reveals and all the action first, and then introduced people and why they matter? It would have been ass, and that's why I dislike Skypiea. No, here stuff is setup properly, but it doesn't mean that Oda-san reveals his whole deck right away. There are a couple of things he keeps hidden until the last minute for dramatic reveal. But the stakes are already there and the reveals are here to reinforce them. Franky is cool, but I hated the manufactured drama within the crew (looking at you Usopp).

I should be done with my mandatory One Piece reading next month, which means more room for books, which I am looking forward to. I have a backlog of books I already possess but haven't read as long as my arm, so I have enough to keep me busy.

Thank you for reading my logorrhea Eddie

A bit more reading this month, as I've put going through my backlog on the back burner a bit (I am still making great progress though). I've finished all the huge books in my collection, and re-started going through One Piece after a little break.

Mystery book – Secret boy/girl

Keeping the title of the book secret as I am planning a presentation on it. I had seen the movie from this book, but had no idea the movie was not faithful at all to the book. It was disconcerting at first, and really caught me off guard, but the book is still great. The movie adds a lot of depth to the story though, and it's one of those rare cases where the movie being different from the book is a plus. As I am planing to have a presentation about this book and its movie, I shall be brief here. My presentation will involve watching the movie, then me reading the book to everyone — estimated length for the presentation: 5h.

The Rhythm of War – Brandon Sanderson

Although I wanted to take a longer break from this series, especially after the third book, I couldn't resist going back. If you have failed to read my last Reading report, my main gripes with the third book was that the pacing was really frustrating. I therefore worried about this one, but my fears were unfounded; the pacing is good here. The author went back to the style from the two first books, and it works wonders. It was a pleasure to read, and I often found myself favouring this book, rather than playing video games or watching youtube.

The book is set a whole year after the events of the third book. Every one is figuring out what's going on, and — god damn — everyone is suddenly severely mentally ill. Our main boy Kaladin suffers from crippling depression, his lack of will to live, and the mask he puts on not to have other people worry are written about very well. They even pull a switcheroo on us, and as soon as we thought he was going to be able to crawl out of his own depths, the author pulled the carpet from under him. Kaladin's then resignation to his fate was heartbreaking. Our main girl Shallan, is also suffering from depression, but she had to one up Kaladin, and is also wrestling with some dissociative identity disorder (aka multiple personalities) and repressed traumatic memories. Even our usual ray of sunshine, Adolin, is forced to repress some very negative feeling about his father. However grim this sounds, the author's whole spiel is usually contrasting the darkness with the light, and even if things get tough, it is there at the end of the tunnel. It looks like Brandon (we're on a first name basis) really wanted to add some depth to the characters here, and he's very successful imo. World building is still top-tier, and there are some cold as lines. This is my favourite book out of the four, and I can't wait for the fifth one that releases later this year.

Dune: Book I – Frank Herbert

Ok, everyone has read that, I won't be adding anything by talking about it. It's good, I love the seamless transition in POV, where some book would just have chapters at a time in the same POV. It really gives a sense of seeing behind the curtain, but at the same time, since this world is so strange to us, it's not as if we are getting the full show right away. I only wish Spencer people would haul ass on reading it, because I would love to read more at a time, and at an increased rate.

One Piece

Jaya Arc

Honestly meh and forgettable. There are way too many characters introduced at once, am I supposed to remember every single one of them when they're in the light for less than 20 panels. The monkey crew was fun.

Skypiea Arc

HONK-SHOOOO Honestly – worst arc so far. I just don't really care for anyone. They rushed setting up anything, therefore in my mind there are no stakes for the big fight. There are too many things going on at the same time, and the drawings are confusing me on what's going on. There are however some nice double pages, and the snake is cool. I can't give up though, Marco made me vow me to read until chapter 430 before considering abandoning the manga.

BOTTOM TEXT

Thank you for reading my logorrhea Eddie

Not too many books this last month, I am busy with life and stuff. I still want to keep reading as a fun and stress-free activity, so I'm not putting too much pressure on myself to read more. Enough chatter, let's get started:

Oathbringer – Brandon Sanderson

Third book in the Stormlight Archive Series, and I must admit, where I devoured the first two, this one was a bit more of a slow read. Don't get me wrong, the content is great, each individual arc, the overall storyline, the twists and turns; everything is good. However, I found the pacing atrocious with this one. My little theory is that the author heard the criticism of the previous books, namely they were too slow, and set himself to “fix” it. Unfortunately, the pace is only artificially quickened; halfway through the book we change POVs every two chapters, then every chapter and by the later part of the book every fucking paragraph. Being ping-ponged around this frequently make the reading experience extremely frustrating. Especially since the writing style is not designed to accommodate that frequent POV switches. On the content side, the story is truly good. All the little things setup in the previous books come up again in a satisfying manner. The only thing I was afraid of got resolved immediately; there was a budding of a love triangle that was thankfully crushed in the bud before it becomes a main plot point.

The Mission of Friar William of Rubruck: His journey to the court of the Great Khan Möngke – William of Rubruck, Perter Jackson, David Morgan

After those 3800 pages from the Stormlight Archives, and especially after that third book, I needed a little break. Completely randomly, I stumbled on the excellent video “Advice for time traveling to Medieval Europe” from the youtube channel Premodernist. In it, he mentions one quirky factoid from the medieval times: people from the west were confused about Buddhism and thought it was akin to Christianity. He cites a book and gives some other fun fact about the book, and this book is the one I picked up.

I have presented this book at the Turkish Coffee, but I wouldn't rob those of you who couldn't attend of the opportunity to hear about it. The book is divided into a couple of parts: the intro by Peter Jackson (no, not this one), which serves as a historical “get into the swing of things”. Even if it spoils a bit what is going to happen in the book, I would recommend starting with it not to get lost. Then comes the actual report from friar William; it is filled with footnotes either about the translation (it was written in Latin), about historical/geographical context, fact checking of some of William's claims and other appropriate tidbits. The last part is appendices going into more detail than a footnote ever could, or just more off-topic.

The book is unintentionally really funny; everyone dunks on anyone at all times. The 13th century, for all it faults, kinda sounds like a grand old time. William, a french franciscan monk, dunks on the Mongols and their cultures, outfit, outlook, physiology... all throughout the report, and many other people catch stray bullets. William's interpreter (from latin or old-french to old-mongolian) constantly dunks on him by mistranslating stuff to his advantage, blackmailing William, getting way too wasted to be useful or straight up refusing to translate stuff. The Mongols dunk on William, trying to get money and gifts from him, not giving him food, openly mocking him, lying about him to the Great Khan... Even the authors dunk on William in the footnotes, usually rebuking claims he made and providing sources of the contrary, roasting his latin or correcting William when he misquotes the scriptures. Finally, we have a rare case of self dunk, and it's also the only piece of info we get about William in the whole book: he complains that the horses his companions were given for a part of the journey were too small and frail, but he thanks the lord that due to his portliness, they had to give him a strong one. The book also outlines a couple of funny things about the middle ages, namely that you could just pretend to be someone else and fraud your way through life and nobody would know. In the story, our friar meets with the Great Khan's “catholic priest from Bulgaria”, which had served him for quite a number of years. Turns out he was neither catholic, nor a priest as he hadn't been ordained, but also wasn't bulgarian at all! Also, the reason William goes to the Great Khan in the first place is because some mongolian emissaries had told the king of France, Louis IX aka Saint Louis, that Sartach — a great mongolian general — had been baptised and accepted the pope. William was sent to deliver a letter from the french king, which was not well received: Sartach was not christian at all and the “emissaries” had just lied to get gifts. Sartach sends William to his boss Batuu, which sends him directly to the Great Khan. A couple weeks after arriving at the Great Khan's court, the Khan asks William why he was sent here, as he had forgotten. When William tells him about the letter from the french king, the Great Khan admits that he lost it, and that he doesn't remember what it says. William is then free to make up a better worded letter.

I think this book will content academic and history noobs alike, and it's honestly a great read. I hate history books in general, but took a chance on this one and I'm glad I did. I would offer to lend the book to anyone, but it is currently with my sister, and I will only get it back in late August.

Although, fantasy books are fun to read, they're not as fun to present, and I enjoyed talking about The Mission of Friar William of Rubruck much more. I guess I'll have to incorporate more fun books to present; fortunately, my next book before going back to the Stormlight Archives should be a fun one. Until next time

Thank you for reading my logorrhea Eddie

As stated in my previous reading summary, I hit a major reading slump in December. On top of that, I had to play a ton of video games to clear my backlog. I therefore decided, instead of reading one of the 20ish books in my backlog, to get something new. I went to indigo and moseyed on over to the fantasy section, looking at all the authors. I had heard good things about Brandon Sanderson, and decided to grab one of his books, which also had the merit of being cheap. Overwhelmed with choices, I resorted to looking at the stickers noting the staff's recommendations. “Marina”'s pick was The Rhythm of War, which is the fourth book in the Stormlight Archive series. Against her better judgment, I decided to start with the first book in the series.

The Way of Kings – Brandon Sanderson

I was gonna write a synopsis, but it was shit, and the one that comes with the book is better, so here you go:

Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter. It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them. One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe. Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity. Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar's niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan's motives are less than pure...

VVoah, it's pretty good! It was kind of a gamble to try to get out of a reading slump with a 1200ish pages book, but the gamble paid off, and it only took me a week and a half to finish this guy. Although online detractors of this first book take jabs at its pace, I think its slowness is deliberate and works. It takes time to set up a world, and I hate being rushed by books; I will not remember anything if it goes too fast. Detractors also point out “bad writing”, but I disagree. Brandon's (yes, we are on a first name basis) writing is serviceable here, it is unassuming and gets the job done. It is easy to read and doesn't get in the way of the story. Sure there might be the odd choice of word or repetition here and there, but they are few and far between, and in this first book, it never took me out of the story. Taking about the story, well it's just good. The world building is great and very coherent, and the magic system also works very well and is explained comprehensively. I'm not a big fan of high magic, where there are no rules, or the rules can be broken my certain characters, and magic can do anything and everything... So this is a big plus. The book is divided in parts, and in between them interludes. It is during those interludes that we get a lot of world building that wouldn't really make sense in the main story. The parts usually wrap up nicely, so the interludes don't really break the flow of the narrative. Finally, detractors also have a gripe with the way Brandon handles character, I can understand certain aspects, but I disagree with others. We are very, very far from the horrendous characters from Michael Crichton. As one can expect from a book, the characters are introduced, their character reinforced, and then they slowly evolve. A lot of the development and explanation of the character's motivation is more tell than show, and I agree it might have been done better. Yet the characters are still interesting, multidimensional, and while being at the service of the story, don't feel contrived at all.

Words of Radiance – Brandon Sanderson

I was in such a haste to read the second book that I can't remember what events belong to either books. My synopsis is the following: the situations evolved and so did the characters. There are some new things, but also some old things. Plot points unfold and are resolved, although some aren't. You are welcome.

This is book 2 of the Stormlight archives. Everything I've said for the first one applies here mostly. Apart for the pacing, which like the previous book is slow but only at first. The multiple narratives pick up pace and gather momentum, and it is done well. There isn't one particular story line that is so much better than the other, that we can't just wait to get back to when the story shift pov. However, the interludes are still mostly the same, and some of them present a jarring contrast to the momentum of the main story lines. There is one of them that was particularly long that I sorta had to push through. The events of this one become relevant in book 3, but when I was reading the second one I couldn't have known, and it was kind of a drag. Those dull moments were, however, scarce. The main story gets great, and the 1300ish pages really allow the author to make some long as plot points and some twist which ramifications really have the time to be fleshed out. Although it's a tad longer than its predecessor, thanks to the solid foundations built in the first book, this second one can really accelerate its pace and build some momentum, and it only took about 8 days to finish.

That's it for this month, to books, although I would like to add that I'm 900pages into that third one, so it should kinda count. I have more things to say about that third one. You'll just have to wait until next month to hear about it.

Thank you for reading my logorrhea Eddie

Major reading slump this month, only read one book and got carried away by my next big project for the new year (subject to an upcoming article on the printhouse)

La peste – Albert Camus

Everything seems calm in Oran, a city in french occupied Algeria. The flower fields are blooming outside the city, the ocean breathing on its edge, the trams running throughout it and an old man is spitting on its cats. Deep in its bowels though, something is amiss. The rats start surfacing by thousand and start to die in the open, leaving many inhabitants perplexed. This includes Dr.Rieux, which discovers a strange disease during his rounds, one that is fatal. Upon deliberation with a colleague, there are no doubts; it is the plague.

Camus is just the GOAT. The way he writes characters is simply human, they feel like people, not characters. The way they act, either as individuals or when part of a group, just feel authentic and real. I will spare you a comparison with covid19 but I will say that what transpired reinforces the book's realism. As the characters in the books, I got tired of the plague about ¾ of the way through it, but pushed nonetheless, and I'm glad I did. You are made to care about the main characters and they are all very coherent. Camus writing style is good as always and reading is almost effortless, at least in the french version.

That's it for this month, I will most likely not have many books next month either, but my upcoming article will make it clear why.

Two books this month and about 60 manga chapters, not bad.

Dodici Racconti – Dino Buzzati

This book is a bilingual book; the left page is written in italian, and the right is translated into french. There are also annotations at the bottom of the page, explaining vocabulary and specific grammar used. The text however is just some regular italian novels written in the mid-1900s. I started this book last month, right before going to italy, to refresh a bit of my italian as I was gonna be the only traveller of my group speaking the language. Mr.Buzzati did not pull any punches and those novels took me so long to read through, I must admit I gave up on reading the italian part 80% of the way through and just read the french one. Even the french part would be complicated if you weren't familiar with less accessible vocabulary and grammatical constructions. The novels did a decent job of being an italian crash course, and I generally had no issue being the translator for my wife and brother-in-law. The stories vary from clever, to a bit nonsensical and not necessarily in the good way. Some of them are obviously set up as jokes, but the punchline just doesn't make sense (maybe I just don't get it — it's italian humour after all). They are however all pretty original, and entertaining. My favourite would probably be “Delicatezza” and “La farfaletta”. The first one is about a prisoner sentenced to death that is given the best treatment right after sentencing, and isn't even sent to prison. He then meets the prison warden, who talks to him about the philosophy of killing him. I can't talk about the second without spoiling it as it is very short. Another one I also liked was “Denuncia del redito” where a rich CEO has to do his taxes, but his usual CRA-equivalent agent, who he is friends with, is ill and one of his colleagues takes his spot. The CEO's friend never looked too closely at his revenues, so it always went great and he didn't have to declare a lot, basically evading taxes. We follow their conversation as they talk about the CEO's affairs.

Les maîtres du jeu vidéo (Masters of Doom) – David Kushner

I am not one to enjoy, let alone read biographies, but this one is an exception. It was approved and given to me by my father. My father reads dozens upon dozens of books a year, and usually only recommends his top 10%. To hype up the book even more, it has been credited as the reason why Oculus and Reddit were created — yes, it is partially responsible for the horrors brought by the metaverse and well reddit as a whole. We follow the adventures of John Romero and John Carmack. If you're a real nerd, you will know who those people are, if you don't it, must probably have felt nice to be popular in high school. Anyways, they are the creators of ID Software, the company that made Wolfenstein and then Doom which completely revolutionised the PC game market, but also PC game technology and design in general. Crediting them as the main reason why PC gaming is popular today would not be an overstatement. We follow them from all the way when they learned how to code, until a bit after the release of Quake 3 and Daikatana. The pacing was decent, the prose was good, and most importantly, the subject was interesting. Reading along I kept thinking “Hey I know that thing, no way they had their hands in that too” or “wow this is how [now big company] started, cool”. Seeing the evolution of the relationship between the two Johns, and the people caught in the middle was also engaging. In a word, I really enjoyed reading this book. The french translation is not as clumsy as it could have been, even if some things sound really cheesy in french. My only other complaint is that the french title is fucking stupid Les maîtres du jeu vidéo or “The Master of Video Games”, the original title Masters of Doom is much better imo. There's also a typo in the first word (name) of the front cover, it's supposed to be Carmack not Cormack lmao.

One Piece

Arabasta Arc

This long ass arc concludes the Arabasta Saga. I did appreciate the length of this, there was more time to establish characters, have plot setups and payoffs. I still didn't care a ton about the evil organisation, but the main antagonist was badass. It was also nice to see the crew be in a lot of trouble against opponents, I was getting tired of them kinda steamrolling through adversaries. Luffy getting murked so easily by the main antagonist, at first, made their victory more satisfying. The Usopp stick is bullshit though.

The holiday season is almost upon us, and with it comes the time where there is literally nothing for me to do at work, i.e. I will be paid to read. I am also planning on getting a library card, which will allow me to increase my book procurement rate. Expect more books for next month's December Readings.

I have been slacking very hard this month, and the conjuncture of multiple factors made it so I did not have time to read. The main one, apart from being away for a week, is that they had the audacity to give me stuff to do at work, preventing me from being paid to read books. Unacceptable. However the slow season is almost upon us, and I will have ample time to make up for this time loss.

Chronicles of Ancient Darkness: Skin Taker – Michelle Paver

This book was significantly bigger than the rest of this trilogy, and a ton of shit happens in it. I loved the premise of it, but I think the author could have done a better job of conveying the catastrophic nature of a particular event. The characters talk about it a lot, but we don't really feel it in the story. It also was a case of “huge cataclysm happens — none of the heroes of reoccurring characters are seriously hurt” which I was not a fan of. Apart from the very beginning and the very end, it feels like a lowkey rehash of volume 5: Torak acts irrationally, the deep forest gets brainwashed again even though they said they would be very careful about that going forward, the antagonist is leading the clans of the deep forest while pretending to be someone else. Also, the antagonist is the same as in the previous book, so when he “died” at the end of that book, well he didn't. The antagonist is the same for the whole trilogy, to my regret, I liked that each book in the original hexalogy had its own antagonist. It kept things fresh, especially since each of them was so different from the previous, and we also had a buildup of power, starting with the weak ones, and then going all the way to the top. To come back to the catastrophe, the protagonists need to gather a couple of ingredients for a ritual to reverse the effects of it, and those ingredients are found way too easily, apart from one. I would have loved it if it was similar to the gathering of the pieces of the Nanuak in the first book. To end on a positive note, the writing is still good and engaging, and it wasn't a hassle at all to read through. I also loved the ending chapters, as well as the whole magic world-building throughout the whole book.

I must reiterate that I find the covers of the english edition absolutely stunning

Chronicles of Ancient Darkness: Wolfbane – Michelle Paver

It's over, again. Not much to say about this last book, everything positive I said for Skin Taker is valid here too. For the negative, Torak is still frustrating in that he never learns anything, and that leads him to the same issue over and over again throughout the series. But I guess it's more of a character trait; it doesn't change the fact that it annoyed me. Worldbuilding is still done very well, and the things introduced here are very coherent with the rest of the world, but also believable on their own. The story is very fast-paced as usual, but I was less entranced than with the last book. The ending of this one was also great, and befitting of this entire series.

Le Droit à la Paresse (The Right to Laziness) – Paul Lafargue

I have been rereading this in preparation for an article/bookclub presentation. This will most likely be my next presentation after the monster one I still have to prepare. I had read it previously in July.

One Piece

Drum Island

That was one long ass arc, but I'm not complaining, it was pretty good. Chopper is a likable character with a compelling backstory, and I feel like an interesting addition to the crew.

That's it for this month, as stated above, there should be more books coming in the near-ish future. The will to read is there, but I just need a bit more free time. I have two books that I started in October, but haven't finished yet, so they will join the ranks of next month's books.

Thank you for reading my logorrhea,
Eddie

This month I continued my dive into Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, a series I read and loved as a kid:

Chroniques des Temps Obscurs: Les Mangeurs d'âmes – Michelle Paver

This one was pretty weak but it sets up a lot of background info and foundation for the rest of the series.

Chroniques des Temps Obscurs: Le Banni – Michelle Paver

This one was better than the previous one, there were more twists and turns in the story; the past three books had been unsatisfying straight forward

Chroniques des Temps Obscurs: Le Serment – Michelle Paver

This one goes even further in the twist and turns department and introduces us to another side of the forest as well as reveals a couple of things about our main character's past.

Chroniques des Temps Obscurs: Chasseur de fantômes – Michelle Paver

This last book is honestly great, it is a good ending to the saga, and a better book than its predecessors. Although not everything is explained in the end, it concludes in a satisfying manner. The whole universe is used well and we get more glimpses at the magic/mythic side of it.

Overall this series is really good for early to mid-teens (12-16yr olds), I like that it's “honest” in the way things are written; it doesn't take the reader for an idiot, which is sometimes the case for books aimed at younger readers. It also has a pretty expansive vocabulary; I knew the most words in my classroom in grade 6 thanks to it. Characters are coherent, the story is too, and so are the rules within the universe. The universe is also super rich and original, and I wish there was more time to be spent in it, perhaps with a more mature story. But I cannot fault the author for ending her series where she did; I respect that much more than someone who drags it on forever, way past the point where they still have something to say.

One Piece

Romance Dawn

Light work no reaction

Orange Town

Light work no reaction

Nami meh

**Syrup Village **

Light work no reaction

I hate Usopp

Baratie

Light work no reaction

Shit makes no sense

Arlong park

Oooouuu it's got a little kick [slowed and reverbed]

Up until this point, I was fully planning on abandoning the manga, as I didn't care for the characters or the story that much. It felt like more episodic stuff with random characters added in that you would never see again, and I hate when media just throws a ton of characters at you. This arc was a welcomed change, and in it I saw the potential for One Piece.

Loguetown

There were some cool characters introduced here, and it was nice seeing Buggy again. This is where I realised that you are supposed to read the one-page story at the beginning of each volume, which I did not do. Oops

Reverse Mountain

Honestly didn't really care for this arc, I wasn't intrigued by the bad guys™ introduced there

Whisky Peak

Same as previous one

Little Garden

I really liked the beginning of this arc, but I still find the enemies to be lacklustre. I think Luffy and his crew are just too OP for most of the antagonists thrown at them and it only makes for an interesting fight when one or more of them are incapacitated in a way or another.

Drum Island

[Not done with it yet — Chopper's alright]

One of my friends — Marco aka the best man at my wedding — had been hounding me forever to read One Piece (OP). It is in his opinion the best piece of media ever. I knew nothing about it. The only manga I had read semi-seriously was Berserk. He went on to read Berserk and then told me One Piece was still way ahead of Berserk. I could not stand such slander, I had had wind of how bad the OP anime was — filled with filler and overdrawn — and could not believe that OP could potentially rival Berserk, let alone “clear it”. During a drunken interaction I had told him I would read OP if I got a raise before he got his job; he was then in his third round of interviews, was recommended by his master's thesis supervisor who was buddy with the director of the department he was applying for, whereas I had been wounding my boss for a raise for since the beginning of the year and hadn't gotten anything but empty promises. Against all odds, I did get a raise before he got his job. So, a man of my word, I started reading One Piece, around June but never got into it. Both June and July were kept busy due to wedding/honeymoon activities. August was busy at work and I had just started re-reading Chronicles of Ancient Darkness. But I finished the original hexalogy and had to wait 3 weeks to receive the new trilogy. Then I got a second raise through the mysteries and blessings of poor municipal administration. So I had to push on, which led me here. I plan to update my “[Month] Readings” with the arcs of OP I read as it is literature too, I am told.

Chronicles of Ancient Darkness: Viper's Daughter – Michelle Paver

This is part of the newer books in the series and the first new material I'm reading in a bit. Unfortunately, there is currently no french translation of the new trilogy and I had to read it in english. Readers will know that I can in fact read english, however, reading a series in one language and switching more than halfway through to another is weird, even for me. Localisation didn't change too much, but some terms of magic — or names of this and that fictitious river and such — I had trouble with. Also just from an english reading comprehension point, I had some issues with some names of specific plants and animals and very specific movement verbs (eg. to hobble, clamber, lurch...). Overall I was able to understand everything, even if I had to re-read some sentences here and there. The end of book 6 made it seem like something happened, but it doesn't and it is also never really addressed. It was literally an “I'll be back” moment. Story-wise, the rest makes sense, it doesn't need to retcon anything. The author is also using stuff introduced in the previous books, while adding some new material. It is done well and the universe stays coherent. Not sure if it's because of the tone of the english version, or because the author changed her style in the 11-year hiatus from the first six books, but the books seem to be more aimed at young adults as opposed to early-mid teens. It is a welcomed change — as you might know, I am a young adult — and I think it suits the universe better.

Also the covers for the english version are far better in my opinion

And that's it for this month, a couple more books than usual, but they were all pretty much from the same vein. I will try to diversify it in October, but I make no promise.

Thanks for reading my logorrhea, Eddie

This article is a month late; I only realised I hadn't published it as I was publishing my September Readings. Eddie's Monthy Readings Inc. takes full responsibility for the damages — physical and mental — incurred.

L'étranger – Albert Camus

“Today, mom died. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know.”

I won't provide a summary of this book, which you have to read. The style is very striking and it is something that stuck to me. It is fairly short and an easy read, but still “rich” in content — it is wild that this was Camus' first book. I won't say too much about the book but I will say this: you are doing yourself a disservice by not reading it.

Microméga – Voltaire

Microméga is a giant from a planet of Sirius. He was banished from his court by the clergy for asking too many questions and decides to set on travels to study the world. On one of his travels, he meets a giant from Saturne and after talking together, they set off for Jupiter, then Earth. Here they find a boat and question the humans on it.

This is a philosophical fable, touching on relativism and of course theology. It's a neat little story and more a critique of the humans than a tale about philosophy. Here Voltaire mocks a couple of personalities of the time, but also institutions like the clergy. He takes a couple of jabs at other philosophers and also displays his passion for science with a healthy dose of Newton's theories. This tale is very much inscribed in the “Lumières” and thus advocates for tolerance, openness of mind and chastises religious fanaticism and preconceptions.

Dracula – Bram Stoker

Not sure if this will come out after Nick's presentation (or even if he's presenting it) so I won't say too much.

I wasn't sure how the epistolary style would work out, but it's actually well done. The prose is decent if a bit obnoxious at some points, especially in the very not-to-the-point way the characters talked. There was a bit where I had to push through because the intensity in the story just severely crashed, but I'm glad I hung on. Due to the time period, there are a couple of things that one could find interesting, such as the emphasis on gender roles and differences, but I will leave it at that.

Chroniques des Temps Obscurs: Frère de loup – Michelle Paver

Chroniques des Temps Obscurs (Chronicles of Ancient Darkness) is a book series I read again and again and again as a kid. I was reminded of its existence when I went back to my parent's place this summer — and after googling if it would be worth re-reading it as an adult, or if it would shatter my perception of it — I discovered that there were three new books that had been written. This convinced me to go back and re-read the entire series.

The books take place during prehistoric times, think Unga Bunga and Mammoth. Torak lives with his father in the forest, isolated from the other tribes that share this forest. That was until a bear killed his father and forced Torak to run for his life, but before dying, his father made Torak promise to seek the Spirit of the World, a mysterious mountain nobody had ever found. During his journey he is captured by the tribe of the Crow, will they prove to be friends or foes?

The “magic system” is very original here and very esoteric, and the deity system (mostly nature being personified) is also interesting and every clan/tribe has different aspects they respect most; it is nice to not have a homogeneous belief system. The story is not super intricate but what can you expect from books destined for early teens. There is a bit of overreliance on deus ex machina, and the usual “people not simply talking to each other creating some drama”, but it's not egregious. The dialogue between the two main characters can be a bit frustrating for the reasons mentioned previously, but they are also both 11 in the story so what can you expect with respect to emotional intelligence. The story moves very fast and sometimes too fast; the tension rises and falls within a couple of pages. World-building is surprisingly thorough and coherent throughout the series and the descriptions are also engaging. Overall I'm enjoying reading through it, and I hope it's one of those series that grows with their audience as the books go on.

Chroniques des Temps Obscurs: Fils de l'eau – Michelle Paver

Nothing new here, refer to the previous review

Thanks for reading my logorrhea, Eddie