Synopsis Saturday: Son of Ishtar

 

Hello everyone!

 

So as promised in my Thursday brief, I'm now finally finished with the first book in the historical series I'd picked up a while ago but never actually got around to reading right away.

 

Then, around the start of this week, I saw a tweet by the book author about the next installment in the series, and I thought to myself.

 

Did I not actually read those?

 

That sent me on the hunt through my e-library, and lo and behold, the first two books were sitting there, right as rain, and completely untouched.

 

I figured that was a bit of an insult, considering, and so I opened up the first one so that I might actually read through it and then decide whether or not it might be worth continuing on with the rest of the series, which, admittedly, is always a daunting task.

 

But I needn't have worried one bit.

 

Because Gordon Doherty delivers - and Son of Ishtar is one explosive beginning!

 

The Conqueror Series (Booktober)

"Tell them that I am Genghis and I will ride."

Ah, yes. The sound of hooves thundering along a dusty plateau. The scene from Mulan when the snowy ridge is crossed by thousands of horsemen to sweep down on Shang and his little cohort. There are so many more evocative images brought about by Conn Iggulden's Conqueror series that it's impossible to list them all. The story of Genghis and the birth of a nation out of what looked like nothing but sheep herders and shaggy ponies is the story of how one man dared to rise against the world - and the only thing that kept the world standing was his untimely death.

Otherwise, if the Mongols had continued their eternal ride, who knows? It might have been a completely different place ...

Side note: only the first three books tell the story of Genghis - the next two focus on his sons and grandsons, and what became of his empire after his death, but Iggulden's story telling remains masterful throughout!

Hunted and alone, the young boy abandoned with his siblings on the harsh Mongolian plains dreamed of uniting the tribes into one house, one nation. He became a great warrior. 

He would become father to his people. He would be Genghis Khan.

(from book jacket)

xx

*image not mine

The Lost Symbol (Booktober)

The Host (Booktober)

The Bridgertons (Booktober)

The Hound of the Baskervilles (Booktober)

The Infernal Devices (Booktober)

Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter (Booktober)

Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Booktober)
Broken Sky (Booktober)

The Shadow of the Wind (Booktober)

Dracula (Booktober)

Life and Death (Booktober)

ACOTAR series (Booktober)

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (Booktober)

Sepulchre (Booktober)

Pride and Prejudice (Booktober)

Tempting Autumn (Booktober)

Harry Potter (Booktober)

The Hobbit (Booktober)

Tome Thursday: Bloodline

Hello everyone!

Oh.

My.

GOD.

Can you believe it? I FINISHED THIS BOOK!

I'm not exaggerating when I tell you this one had a similar fate as it's predecessor, aka sitting there on my shelf all abandoned and neglected with a bookmark stuck about halfway through. It's testimony to the fact that I really, really hate leaving things unfinished that I went back and chewed through the rest of the book.

Which, technically speaking, did all happen within two or so days in the end.

Once I sit down to something, there's no telling with what kind of vengeance I'll do it!

Of course if you'll recall, I just always seem to have this kind of problem with the series in general. And what series, do you ask?

Why, Wars of the Roses, of course. And the book is called Bloodline.

Tome Thursday: Conqueror

Hello everyone!

I apologise in advance if this particular blog post has some intermissions during which I spontaneously burst out singing 'You've Lost That Loving Feeling'.

Last night they aired Top Gun on television here, and while I can honestly say I'm not as big of a fan of that movie as some people (-cough-dad-cough-) I DO enjoy several scenes from that movie. Among them would have to be the bar scene, where Tom Cruise can't really sing to save his life, but you know; although the top would have to be 'You're gonna do WHAT?!?' because, come on.

I don't think anyone else can squeal as much!

But anyway.

Back to books tonight and I'm finally writing down my review of another Conn Iggulden masterpiece (though not, as yet, Bloodline. It's coming people, I promise). I went and finished Conqueror from his series about Genghis Khan and his legacy, and ordered my notes so that I actually see how they make sense now.

So, without further ado, I give you Conqueror. Or, in other words, Kublai Khan.

Tome Thursday: Empire of Silver

Hello everyone!

Suffice to say, when I'm bored out of my skull (and, by Murphy's law, want to read EXACTLY those books I currently can't), dangerous things will happen.

This does include cutting into every single chocolate in my chocolate box to ensure I only get the good stuff, but that's beside the point, as when I'm THIS bored, I usually pull out books that have been known to kick me out of my reading slump before.

My sister is probably rolling her eyes so she can examine the back of her skull.

She KNOWS what this means.

Usually she'd also be right - as she always is, natch - but I haven't gotten that far yet. What I HAVE done, however, is re-read one of my favourite series of all time. Or, I'm re-reading it now, actually, as I'm still munching through the last, fifth book.

I'm talking about Conn Iggulden's Conqueror series, more specifically Empire of Silver.

Saturday Snippet: Bookshelf Tour, part 3

Hello everyone!

Back to the bookshelves again, and this time it's number three - the links for the previous two will be added at the bottom of this post if you want to look back and see what I've already disclosed of the books I own.

As for today's post, I have no clue why this photo turned out with such weird light. I took it at the exact same time as the first four, same time of day, same angle, everyting, but oh well.

Tome Thursday: Dreaming the Eagle

Hello everyone!

I'm not even sure I believe this myself, BUT. Lo and behold, I managed to finish this one monster of a book that has pretty much sat there, neglected, for the better part of this summer for some unknown reason or other. No, well, okay, there was a good reason for it, but it sounds better if you write that other explanation haha!

I'm talking, of course, about Manda Scott's first novel in her Boudica saga, titled Dreaming the Eagle (I'll explain all about the whole dream thing in the review a little later on, so bear with me please). 

Manda Scott is an author I stumbled upon rather randomly while shopping in the capital and perusing through random books in the shop. I think I ended up taking Conn Iggulden's home instead of these, though I'm definitely rethinking buying them in physical form instead of as an ebook because they ARE quite good, and there isn't all that much out there about the fabled battle queen of Britannia (England, for those of you who aren't as savvy in history terms).

But let's get to the actual review!

Tome Thursday: Trinity

Hello everyone!

So lo and behold! I've finally taken my own advice and I'm now going to be chewing through the books that I've sort of begun reading and/or haven't finished yet, because I want to have a semi-clean slate before I head to the seaside for my vacation. Or, that's the plan at least, who knows if it's going to go the way I want it to haha? Probably not, but one can always hope!

The very first on my VERY long reading list was Trinity, by author Conn Iggulden, because that poor thing has been sitting there for a while about halfway done, and I couldn't bring myself to read it for some reason or other. Maybe it had to do with the fact that, this book in particular, seems to show that Iggulden is pro-Lancastrian and I'm prety much pro-York when it comes to taking sides in the War of the Roses, or the Cousins' War as it was also called. Or maybe that's just my feeling and I didn't quite get the memo right, but I'm fairly sure his commentary in the author's note section of the book point towards the whole Lancaster thing more than York.

Tome Thursday: Under the Eagle

Hello everyone!

Since this week is all about going back to basics, it's back to the usual 'Tome Thursday' blog posts as well, now that all the finales have been accounted for and pretty much nicely shelved under the roof. I've been reading a lot of different books at this time as well, bouncing back and forth between authors and, with the added luxury of an electronic book reader, being able to honestly read more than one book at a time without the need to pick it up in physical form. At the moment, I'm sort of going through a throwback phase, however, reading Rick Riordan and his Greek and Roman gods series, though I definitely am rediscovering just why I don't like the second one as much as the first. This phase is probably subconscious preparation for his new series, coming this summer, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, and I mean, you KNOW it will be good if you have Thor and Odin running around. 

That being said, while I'm surfing through Greek mythology again, I've also gone back and done some other reading, too. Currently in the works is Conn Iggulden's 'Trinity', a continuation to 'Stormbird', but another series I started is from author Simon Scarrow. And if you've been following any kind of historical book updates, you'll know he writes a series about Romans.

Tome Thursday: Stormbird

Hello everyone!

So I almost forgot about this blog tonight, mainly because I've had my head all over the place. I need to get a big board and hang it on the wall beside my desk so I can pin important stuff there or write what needs to be done in really big letters haha! Or maybe I need to find a gadget for my computer desktop so I can make post-it notes on it ... then again, actual post-its might work even better if I put them down in bright colours, right?

Back to the blog, since I digress, before Christmas I went to the capital to meet up with my cousins and take my sister home for the holidays, but I had some time to kill before our meeting and, as is usually the case when I'm in Ljubljana, I ended up at the bookshop (and by this, I mean the biggest bookshop in the city, obviously). I wasn't planning on taking anything home with me, seeing as I didn't want to drag along a ton of books.

BUT.

I saw two books by Conn Iggulden from his new 'Wars of the Roses' series, and I just had to have them.