Tag: Owls

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The Bookish Owl – The Tower of the Swallow by Andrzej Sapkowski

The Tower of the Swallow Andrzej Sapkowski

My 30th book of the year will be The Tower of the Swallow by Andrzej Sapkowski (or ‘The Tower of Swallows’, depending on the translation).

I really hope this 6th book in the Witcher series will be better than the last two. I loved the first books, but the last couple have been dragging their metaphorical feet to the point where nothing actually happened in the last one. Anyone who’s been following this blog knows how much I love the Witcher-verse, so obviously I’m not going to bail on the book series, but I really need some monster hunting or crazy mage fights in this one.

If I get another book of characters just wandering around aimlessly while the author pretends brooding counts as character development, I’m gonna have to go replay The Witcher 3 again, just to rekindle my interest in these characters.

I’m getting a bit ranty, I know, but the first books in this series had so much potential, so I’d just hate for the series to continue the pace set by ‘Baptism of Fire’.

Monsters, Sapkowski. Give me some monsters, please.

The Tower of the Swallow
by Andrzej Sapkowski

The world has fallen into war. Ciri, the child of prophecy, has vanished. Hunted by friends and foes alike, she has taken on the guise of a petty bandit and lives free for the first time in her life.
But the net around her is closing. Geralt, the Witcher, has assembled a group of allies determined to rescue her. Both sides of the war have sent brutal mercenaries to hunt her down. Her crimes have made her famous.

There is only one place left to run. The tower of the swallow is waiting…

The Tower of the Swallow Andrzej Sapkowski

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The Bookish Owl – Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

Unseen Academicals Terry Pratchett

It’s time for reading Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett!

It’s been a long time since we got a book about the wizards of Unseen University, so let’s see how much mayhem they’ve been holding back on. Seeing as this book seemingly introduces football to the city of Ankh-Morpork, I can only assume that we’ll have at least one explosion, three murders, and one or two angry and/or confused mobs by page 20.

I haven’t been that fond of the books that tried to introduce overly modern concepts (like movies and rock music) to the Discworld, but I have noticed Pratchett’s style maturing a lot over the last 10 books or so, so I’m willing to believe he’ll manage to make football seem less out of place. Hopefully it will also contain fewer pop references, because I know nothing about football.

I’m aware it’s about a lot of men with weird hairstyles chasing a ball around, but I never really bothered to figure out why…

Unseen Academicals
by Terry Pratchett

Football has come to the ancient city of Ankh-Morpork. And now, the wizards of Unseen University must win a football match, without using magic, so they’re in the mood for trying everything else. This is not going to be a gentleman’s game.

The prospect of the Big Match draws in a street urchin with a wonderful talent for kicking a tin can, a maker of jolly good pies, a dim but beautiful young woman, who might just turn out to be the greatest fashion model there has ever been, and the mysterious Mr Nutt (and no one knows anything much about Mr Nutt, not even Mr Nutt). As the match approaches, four lives are entangled and changed for ever. 

Because the thing about football – the important thing about football – is that it is not just about football.

Here we go! Here we go! Here we go!

Unseen Academicals Terry Pratchett

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The Bookish Owl – The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The Graveyard Book Neil Gaiman

New book, and it’s The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.

I have been told I should read this book, so… now I’m reading it.

You realize you have been reading too many series when you don’t know what to say as soon as you’re about to read a book where you don’t know what to expect.

I’m just going to talk about the owl photo, okay…?

I’m rather proud, since I finally succeeded in taking a decent photo of a book with a gold embossed cover (why do I own this many books with gold embossing, anyway?). And Artemis is at the top of his game, looking incredibly fierce for someone who’s the size of an underfed guinea pig.

The Graveyard Book
by Neil Gaiman

IT TAKES A GRAVEYARD TO RAISE A CHILD.

Nobody Owens, known as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn’t live in a graveyard, being raised by ghosts, with a guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the dead. There are adventures in the graveyard for a boy—an ancient Indigo Man, a gateway to the abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible Sleer. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, he will be in danger from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod’s family.

The Graveyard Book Neil Gaiman

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The Bookish Owl – Making Money by Terry Pratchett

Making Money Terry Pratchett Collector's Edition

Next on the reading list is Making Money by Terry Pratchett.

I’m rapidly nearing the end of Discworld, but at least I know I’ll have to slow down soon, as the last couple of books won’t be released in the Collector’s Edition until November. Guess that’ll give me an excuse to reread some of my favorites!

‘Making Money’ is the 36th (did Pratchett ever stop writing…?) Discworld book overall and the second with Moist von Lipwig as the protagonist. I really enjoyed ‘Going Postal‘ and, after reading the first 50 pages, this one seems to follow the same scenario: Vetinari making not-so-subtle threats, Moist getting a new job, and then everything going haywire.

Making Money
by Terry Pratchett

Amazingly, former arch-swindler-turned-Postmaster General Moist von Lipwig has somehow managed to get the woefully inefficient Ankh-Morpork Post Office running like . . . well, not like a government office at all. Now the supreme despot Lord Vetinari is asking Moist if he’d like to make some real money. Vetinari wants Moist to resuscitate the venerable Royal Mint—so that perhaps it will no longer cost considerably more than a penny to make a penny.

Moist doesn’t want the job. However, a request from Ankh-Morpork’s current ruling tyrant isn’t a “request” per se, more like a “once-in-a-lifetime-offer-you-can-certainly-refuse-if-you-feel-you’ve-lived-quite-long-enough.” So Moist will just have to learn to deal with elderly Royal Bank chairman Topsy (née Turvy) Lavish and her two loaded crossbows, a face-lapping Mint manager, and a chief clerk who’s probably a vampire. But he’ll soon be making lethal enemies as well as money, especially if he can’t figure out where all the gold has gone.

Making Money Terry Pratchett Collector's Edition

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The Bookish Owl – House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones

House of Many Ways Diana Wynne Jones

Yep, new book. It’s House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones.

I loved the first book in this series, “Howl’s Moving Castle“, and since a friend gave me all the books for my birthday, I saw no reason not to get started on the sequel. Hopefully it holds up!

I’m trying to get a lot of reading done this summer, but I prefer to read outside if possible and the Danish weather is (as usual) rather bipolar. Right now it seems to have two settings: So windy that I have to bring a blanket or so hot and sunny that I last all of 10 minutes before being roasted.

Often both of these happen within a few hours of each other.

House of Many Ways
by Diana Wynne Jones

When Charmain Baker agreed to look after her great-uncle’s house, she thought she was getting blissful, parent-free time to read. She didn’t realize that the house bent space and time, and she did not expect to become responsible for an extremely magical stray dog and a muddled young apprentice wizard. Now, somehow, she’s been targeted by a terrifying creature called a lubbock, too, and become central to the king’s urgent search for the fabled Elfgift that will save the country. The king is so desperate to find the Elfgift, he’s called in an intimidating sorceress named Sophie to help. And where Sophie is, the great Wizard Howl and fire demon Calcifer won’t be far behind. How did respectable Charmain end up in such a mess, and how will she get herself out of it?

House of Many Ways Diana Wynne Jones