April book picks

 “Lord of Eternal Night” by Ben Alderson

Well, that was horrible! Everyone knows that it’s extremely difficult to pull off the 1st POV and not to sound like a complete idiot. My first impression of Jak was that he was extremely arrogant. My second impression was that he was extremely stupid. It didn’t make for a good combination nor did it provide me with much hope for the rest of the book. I hate reading books with unintelligent main characters (or where the main character’s stupidity is used as a plot device) and the 1st POV the author chose to use made these unflattering qualities even more pronounced. I instantly felt much more sympathetic towards the creature Jak was supposed to kill and I hoped that he would fail. It would certainly knock him down a peg or two. And, in any case, that mysterious creature sounded much more intriguing than a stupid boy, because following a blundering Jak around was no fun at all. “The man… creature, infuriated me. Disgusted me.” I felt the same way but about Jak. I found him a deeply unpleasant character that didn’t inspire my sympathy and made me root for Marius instead. I expected that they would eventually end up together and I hated the thought. I believed that Marius deserved someone more intelligent. I don’t want to say more about this book – this pretentious and horny but ultimately boring retelling of “Beauty and the Beast”. It was a complete waste of my time. 

“The Vampire Lestat” by Anne Rice

I am convinced that this book wasn’t written – it was composed. Its language is a symphony. It was music to my ears – literally – each word a perfect note. This is how books are supposed to be written! This is how they should sound! It’s perfect. It was heaven after my previous selection and I took pleasure in every sentence that I read and absorbed not only with my eyes but with my very soul. Here is a book with a substance! I haven’t finished it this month, because my April reading plans have been completely derailed, but, to tell you the truth, I’m not in a hurry to finish it. I’m taking so much pleasure from reading it that I’m trying to prolong the experience for as long as possible. Lestat has always been my favourite vampire. In fact, he has been the only vampire I allowed to exist, because generally I don’t like vampires (to put it mildly). I could never understand this global fascination with them and I never fell victim to their dubious charms and even more dubious books written about them that garnered so much obsessive and adoring fans. That being said, last year I encountered another vampire that I actually liked a lot: Mick St John – a vampire detective – from an oldish obscure TV show “Moonlight” played by Alex O’Loughlin (who also played Steve McGarrett in “Hawaii 5-0”).  The show was cancelled after an aborted first season, which is a pity, because it was a really good show and one that would have probably had a longer screen life if only it appeared a few years later during “Twilight” frenzy. Anyway, Lestat has been my favourite vampire ever since I watched the film “Interview with the Vampire” and fell in love with his bitchy catty self. A whole book about his becoming a vampire is pure heaven (if anything about vampires can be pure).

“The Sunshine Court” by Nora Sakavic

I have already written about my complete obsession with the “All For The Game” series a few posts before. I don’t know why I waited so many years to read the first three books in the series, but once I started, there was no going back. I have been listening to it on repeat as an audiobook ever since. I love my Foxes, their coach, and their nurse. I love their problematic and complicated characters and relationships and their gradually becoming a real team and family. While reading about Neil’s story as a Fox, I was also intrigued by the character of Jean Moreau, who appeared as Riko Moriyama’s sidekick. At least, I thought that he was his sidekick and that he was as vile a person as Riko. But surely no one can be as vile as that piece of shit? Little did I know what Jean’s life was really like in the Nest under Riko’s violent reign and Coach Moriyama’s questionable rule! Naturally, I couldn’t and wouldn’t resist reading a book about Jean at its centre. I absolutely loved it and read it in a little over  a day. Nora creates such a beautifully painful story, where every sentence is a punch to the gut. It was another brutal story – in many ways even more brutal than Neil’s – that showed us the life of the Nest from within – and it wasn’t a pretty picture. Jean’s tortured character and his transition from the Ravens and their single-minded approach to Exy to the Trojans who know how to live like normal human beings and who love to have fun and eat questionable food was as fascinating as it was excruciating to read. Poor Jean! The Trojans will never replace my beloved Foxes but I can’t wait to see what happens next. If there are going to be more books. Well, everyone seems to imply that there will be…

“Mosaic” and “Pathways” by Jeri Taylor

In order to commemorate the completion of my rewatch of “Star Trek: Voyager”, I’ve decided to listen to two audiobooks based on the show and created by one of its many showrunners, because I was curious to see how she envisioned their characters beyond the show and because I consider her point of view as canon. So I’ve listened  to “Mosaic” and “Pathways” by Jeri Taylor. Both reads were enjoyable and eye-opening in many ways and made my farewell with “Star Trek: Voyager” less painful. I also liked that the audiobooks were voiced by the actress who played Captain Kathryn Janeway and the actor who played the EMH (Emergency Medical Hologram).