Spencer's Bookcase

The War of the Worlds

Title: The War of the Worlds

Author: H.G. Wells

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 200 pages

Synopsis:

They came from outer space — Mars, to be exact.

With deadly heat-rays and giant fighting machine they want to conquer Earth and keep humans as their slaves.

Nothing seems to stop them as they spread terror and death across the planet. It is the start of the most important war in Earth’s history.

And Earth will never be the same.

(from Goodreads)

My Thoughts:

The War of the Worlds is one of the most iconic Science Fiction books ever made. This book practically created the Alien Invasion genre! So it’s about an unknown person (we never actually know the name of our main protagonist) who is going about his day when the Martians invade.

There are somethings I did like. I felt like some of the scenes in this novel did capture what kind of panic would happen if Aliens were to invade our planet. And I can understand how our main protagonist would be scared of the giant machines from Mars.

I also like the themes this book explored as well. Colonialism, colonial wars, arrogance of humanity, evolution are all explored in this novel.

I guess my main criticism is that some of the writing lost me at times while I was reading this. For one thing the main character is never named and so was his brother, and we spend a few chapters with the brother and what he was up to. I also found this book a little dated, but I am sure for it’s time it was groundbreaking.

Overall, The War of the Worlds is a book I think every person who’s into Science Fiction should read at least once in your lifetime as again this book practically started the Alien Invasion Genre. I recommend it if you want a classic Alien Invasion story.

Rating:

My TBR List for 2024

Today I want to share with you my TBR List for 2024, these are the books that I look forward to reading this year. Here is my list:

Books that are priority:

New Year and with The Wheel of Time series are over, it’s time to dive into a new Fantasy series! The following are my Fantasy series that I am prioritizing for this year:

The Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson

The First Law Trilogy by Joe Ambercrombie

The Liveship Traders by Robin Hobb

Other books that are priority:

The War of the Worlds by H.G Wells

20,000 Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne

The Mountains of Madness by H.P Lovecraft

The Terror by Dan Simmons

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

The Kissing of Kissing Poems by Hannah Emerson

And of course any graphic novels that I find interesting.

New Releases that I am excited for in 2024:

Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson

Keddie by Elle McNicoll

Some Like It Cold by Elle McNicoll

Conclusion:

Well, that’s the list of books that I hope to read for the year 2024! I hope I can read all of them!

2023 Year In Review

Year Book Stats:

Books Read: 57

Pages Read: 22, 348

Average Pages Read: 392 Pages

Average Rating: 3.5

Annual Blog Stats:

Posts: 83

Visitors: 248

Likes: 263

Comments: 2

This was a great year overall for me in terms of reading. I managed to read about 56 books this year! Which is 6 more books than last year. My pages read even increased from 16, 753 pages to 21, 804.

As for the blog, my views, visitors, posts, likes and comments all dropped. But I am not letting that discourage me from bringing you all my content. I still want to sincerely thank you all for your support this past year. I appreciate each and every one of you. Thank you.

2023, I think was a bit better than 2022. While work was a bit of a mixed bag this year , I still managed to achieve and learned a few things this year. I got back into playing Magic the Gathering in person again. I completed The Wheel of Time series! I had a great one week vacation and it was one of the best highlights of this year. I’m happy I was able to do more things this past year than the previous years.

I’ve had a great year with Dungeons & Dragons. I created some great characters throughout this year and I’ve even got to experiment with higher power leveled characters!

I want to once again thank you all for the support you’ve given me this past year. I really appreciate it. Thank you!

I look forward to reading even more in the new year! Happy New Year Everyone!

Monthly Wrap-Up: December 2023

Hello everyone! Welcome to the Monthly Wrap-Up where I give updates on my reading and other things I’m up to in the past month. So let’s get to it!

Books Read: 5

Now that’s more like it! We are back to where I kind of want to be in terms of books read. Despite the month of December being very busy I was able to still read quite a bit.

A Memory of Light by Brandon Sanderson & Robert Jordan

Definitely the best book I’ve read this month. It left me with a sense of loss when I was finished reading it. A perfect ending for an epic series.

Rick and Morty vs Dungeons & Dragons by Patrick Rothfuss

This was a fun and quick read after reading the big tome that was A Memory of Light. It’s well worth the read if you love Dungeons & Dragons!

The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories by Tara Moore

The biggest disappointment this month. As I found a lot of the stories were boring and dry to read. And a lot of these stories had nothing to do with Christmas.

The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin

I enjoyed this book a lot more than the Christmas Ghost Stories. It has two strong female characters and you can learn more about Portugal and their neutrality during the Second World War and life in Occupied Europe.

Thor Epic Collection, Vol. 1: The God of Thunder by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

This is a great collection of the early issues of Thor, as it does introduce Thor, Jane Foster, Loki, Enchantress etc. However the issues are formulaic and there’s quite a bit in here that has not aged well.

Currently Reading:

The War of the Worlds by H.G Wells

Yeah, I didn’t get to read this for 2023, so I’m going to be reading this as my first book of 2024! I’ll read this along with one other book before I get back to reading Fantasy (I haven’t decided what to read, I’m torn between starting The Stormlight Archives, The First Law Trilogy or The Liveship Traders, let me know in the comments which one I should read!).

What I’ve been doing and watching:

December is a busy month. I had a lot to do at work, had to get myself ready for the holidays, been busy with my volunteer group and playing games whenever I have time for it. I was able to be off for a week and a half, which has been helpful.

I’m still watching more Doctor Who trying to watch more David Tennant’s tenure as the Tenth Doctor.

I have been learning more about poetry. I’ve been focusing on learning about Sonnets.

I experienced a little less D&D this month, but I did do a fun Christmas-themed one-shot with an Eladrin Elf Celestial Warlock with Santa Claus as his patron.

Plans for Next Month:

I am getting a new boss at work in January, so that will be interesting. As I previously mentioned I plan to read The War of the Worlds and another book before my return to reading Fantasy. Happy New Year everyone!

Thor Epic Collection, Vol. 1: The God of Thunder

Title: Thor Epic Collection, Vol. 1. The God of Thunder

Author: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

Genre: Superheroes

Pages: 480 pages

Synopsis:

Pull up a seat to the beginning of one of the greatest tales of modern myth – the epic saga of the Mighty Thor! While vacationing in Norway, Dr. Donald Blake discovered a strange, gnarled cane. Upon striking it, a shower of lightning rained down and the hobbled doctor found himself transformed into Thor, God of Thunder! In these pages you’ll journey across the Rainbow Bridge to Eternal Asgard, and meet Lord Odin, Heimdall, Balder, and Thor’s evil half-brother, Loki, for the first ti me. And to top it off , the mythological origins of Asgard are revealed in fan-favorite backup features!

COLLECTING: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY (1952) 83-109 (THOR EPIC COLLECTION VOL. 1)

(from Goodreads)

My Thoughts:

Last book review of the year! And we are closing off the year with a review of another Superheroes Graphic Novel, this time a collection of the earliest issues of Thor from Marvel.

This collection includes the first appearance of Thor, Loki, Jane Foster, Enchantress and the Executioner along with a few other Marvel Villains including: Magneto. All of these are pretty iconic characters within the Marvel Universe. It’s cool taking a time capsule through time and see how these characters were introduced.

Another good thing about this is that includes Tales of Asgard which does provide some nice worldbuilding of the world of Asgard and origins for some of the iconic characters such as Heimdall.

The artwork is also pretty good overall.

However there’s a lot of things that I saw while reading this that really did not age well. For example: the portrayal of the Chinese in one of the stories made me go: Yikes! It was clearly a racist portrayal. Jane Foster is a one-dimensional and very bland character.

The stories also felt very formulaic. As it felt like a monster of the week formula, where Thor faces off against a villain of the week, Thor somehow loses his hammer and transforms to Donald Blake. He gets his hammer back and conveniently uses one of his hammer’s magic powers (a lot of which just comes out of nowhere!) and defeats the villain.

Overall, the Thor Epic Collection is a great collection containing the early issues of Thor and it is worth reading if you want to take a look at comic book history to help understand just how far comic book stories have gone. Be warned though of the racism and sexism in this as some of these stories really didn’t age well.

Rating:

The Five Best Books that I read this Year (2023) 200th post!

So yesterday I did my least favourite books that I read this year, now let’s be more positive and talk about my favourite reads of 2023!

Honourable Mention #1: Mistborn: Secret History by Brandon Sanderson

This was one of the best novellas I’ve read this entire year. And it helped make a lot of events in the original Mistborn series a lot more sense and helped the entire story in general. This book made the ending of The Hero of Ages even better!

5. Misery by Stephen King

This was Stephen King at his best right here with his horror and a perfect read during the dead of winter.

4. Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

This was my first Octavia Butler novel, and I loved this book! It had a great main protagonist in Lauren Olamina. It explored some interesting themes such as the acceptance of change, community and trusting one another. This book is also very prescient. While I didn’t like the sequel as much, I still really love this book!

3. Like A Curse by Elle McNicoll

Elle McNicoll once again appears on my favourite books I read all this year. Elle McNicoll made another great book in Like A Curse, her follow up to Like A Charm. I really liked this book and I like how she did do a few things differently such as giving other character point of views. And this book helped make Like A Charm even better especially if you read both of these books one after the other.

2. Mistborn Era 2 by Brandon Sanderson

Mistborn Series 2 was a fun series. I love the characters, I love the worldbuilding and how this era connects with the greater Cosmere and the first era. Wax and Wayne are now my favourite Fantasy Duo of all time.

1. The Wheel of Time Series (Books 8-9, 11-14) by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

The Wheel of Time books are some of the best Fantasy I have ever read. And I have to include it as number one because completing this series was a true journey and I loved books 8-9, 11-14. They were some of the best The Wheel of Time books.

Conclusion:

Well, those are my picks for the best books I’ve read this year. This post will be my 200th post on this blog! Here’s to 200 more!

My Favourite The Wheel of Time Characters

Alright I did the book review, I did the series review and I even did the ranking of The Wheel of Time. Now it’s time to list all of my favourite characters!

10. Siuan Sanche

I always liked Siuan. The Prologue definitely helps make her character make a lot more sense. She’s a strong and independent leader. She proves to be a great advisor to Egwene. And I found myself enjoying almost every scene that she’s in.

9. Min Farshaw

Out of Rand’s lovers, Min was always my favourite of the three. She has a very cool ability of having insights in the future with her vision power. And out of Rand’s lovers, the relationship between Min and Rand actually felt like a real relationship.

8. Thom Merrilin

Thom is a badass but I like that it’s a lot more subtle. He is one of my favourite Rogues in this series. He even inspired my Rogue Intellectual Bard character in D&D! He fought a Fade single handedly and he caused a Civil War in a country!

7. Lan Mandragoran

While I always did like Lan for being a cool, badass character. He even taught Rand how to fight with a sword! It wasn’t until the Prologue and the later novels where he actually began being one of my favourite characters. This character is awesome.

6. Elayne Trakand

Elayne is my second favourite of “The Supergirls”. I always had a soft side for this character. As she does care about her friends. And I like how despite being raised in luxury, she is not afraid to get her hands dirty and go on adventures. She even grows to become a competent leader.

5. Nynaeve al’Meara

Nynaeve was always my favourite of “The Supergirls”. I liked that she carries authority wherever she goes and she does end up being quite right most of the time. And she is probably the character that cares the most about her friends. She is a character that works to change herself for the better. She’s also a real badass.

4. Matrim Cauthon

Matrim Cauthon is a great and fun character. I love how he works so hard to avoid work. To me Mat is a perfect example on how to write a Rogue/Scoundrel character without having a tragic backstory, as Mat doesn’t have a tragic backstory. He is on my list of favourite Fantasy Rogues.

3. Loial

Loial is a fun character, every time he appears I smile. Because he makes every scene a good one. I love his devotion to reading and he keeps proving his worth throughout the series.

2. Moiraine Damodred

Moiraine is awesome. She is a true leader and her loyalty to Rand despite some hostility from Rand is admirable. She is also a badass, as she even killed a Forsaken in one hit! She is the perfect mentor to Rand and a great guide to how Saidar works in this world.

1. Rand Al’Thor

What haven’t I already said about this character? Rand is awesome and he is my personal favourite Fantasy Main Protagonist.

Conclusion:

Well, that’s my list of my favourite The Wheel of Time characters. I hope you enjoyed this post!

The Five Most Disappointing books I’ve read this year (2023)

As the year of 2023 comes to a close, I was able to read about 56 books this year. Which is an increase from last year. With that many books read, there is bound to be a few books that I just won’t like. So here is my list of the most disappointing reads this year:

Dishonourable Mention: Sinister War by Nick Spencer

This was a brainless action graphic novel. It’s all these villains fighting Spider-Man, and Spider-Man just feeling bad about this whole situation. And that’s pretty much just the story.

5. Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan

This was the only The Wheel of Time book that I was disappointed with. Especially following up one of the best climaxes in this book series in Winter’s Heart. The pacing is terrible, no real plot progression, no resolution and no action scenes to make things interesting. This book is the book equivalent of an anime filler arc.

4. Ring by Koji Suzuki

Ring started off being very good and then it started going down hill. This book wants you to care about a rapist. Then they don’t treat rape very seriously in this book. And finally I have to condemn the transphobia and intersexphobia that happened in this book. Why? Just why?

3. Far-Seer by Robert J. Sawyer

I was disappointed with this Science Fiction / Fantasy novel. It takes a long time for the book’s main story to begin, no characters that stood out to me. And I think this has one of the worst uses of the “Chosen One” tropes I have ever seen in a novel.

2. The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy

This book was the most boring “Thriller” novel that I have ever read. And if I am bored by a “thriller” than something really went wrong. This was a “Thriller” novel with no stakes and characters that you couldn’t care less about.

1. Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb

This book was the biggest disappointment for me this entire year. I was really looking forward to this novel. I was expecting it to be a fun, interesting book about a guy who learns to become an Assassin. I love Rogues in Fantasy and they are probably one of my favourite Fantasy Archetypes. However Fitz never really acts like a Rogue and he’s not very charming and he’s bland. Besides this there were no interesting characters, no tension and this book was just depressing for me. This book was a painful reminder that not every Fantasy series is going to be for me.

Conclusion:

Well, those are the most disappointing books I’ve read this year. Tune in tomorrow for the five best books that I read for this year!

The Librarian Spy

Title: The Librarian Spy

Author: Madeline Martin

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 356 pages

Synopsis:

Ava thought her job as a librarian at the Library of Congress would mean a quiet, routine existence. But an unexpected offer from the US military has brought her to Lisbon with a new posing as a librarian while working undercover as a spy gathering intelligence.

Meanwhile, in occupied France, Elaine has begun an apprenticeship at a printing press run by members of the Resistance. It’s a job usually reserved for men, but in the war, those rules have been forgotten. Yet she knows that the Nazis are searching for the press and its printer in order to silence them.

As the battle in Europe rages, Ava and Elaine find themselves connecting through coded messages and discovering hope in the face of war.

(from Goodreads)

My Thoughts:

For what maybe the final novel before the year is over. So let’s get to it! The Librarian Spy is about the stories of Ava and Elaine. Ava is a Librarian who goes to Lisbon, Portugal during the Second World War to try and get intelligence on what the Germans are up to. While Elaine is a person who joins the French Resistance and works on the Clandestine Press.

This books biggest strength is it’s two main characters: Ava and Elaine. I personally liked Ava better as I found her love for reading made her a more relatable person. However Elaine is also a very kind and caring character as well.

Even though I do like Ava as a character better, Elaine’s story was more interesting. As she had to live day-to-day in occupied France under the Nazis. And she was putting herself at risk daily. I also feel like her storyline had the better supporting characters as: Denise, Nicole, Marcel did a good job at standing out.

I also liked how the two storylines connected, the two main characters do not meet until the very end of the book. However I do like how these two storylines do connect through the power of coding. And coding was a very big thing during the Second World War, so it made a lot of sense that coding was how these two storylines did connect.

I also really liked how the book handled the emotional moments, as there were times when I was reading this and I actually almost wanted to cry.

However, this book is flawed. Quite a bit of how the villains in each of Ava and Elaine’s storylines kind of get defeated off-screen, and we are only told about it by one of the supporting characters. Again: Show don’t tell! Showing us how they were defeated would have definitely made the endings of these books better.

Besides James, Otto and Peggy in Ava’s storyline, the rest of the supporting characters didn’t really make much of an impact on me in her storyline. Most of the characters were kind of just there and didn’t stood out to me.

I also felt like the Romance in Ava’s storyline was not really necessary. I would have been happy if Ava and James became friends rather than lovers.

Overall, The Librarian Spy is a decent but flawed Historical Fiction Novel with two very strong female characters. I definitely recommend this book if you want to learn more about Portugal and their neutrality during the Second World War and life in Occupied Europe.

Rating:

The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories

Title: The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories

Author: Tara Moore

Genre: Horror, Christmas, Short Stories

Series: The Valancourt Books of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories #1

Pages: 292 pages

Synopsis:

The first-ever collection of Victorian Christmas ghost stories, culled from rare 19th-century periodicals

During the Victorian era, it became traditional for publishers of newspapers and magazines to print ghost stories during the Christmas season for chilling winter reading by the fireside or candlelight. Now for the first time thirteen of these tales are collected here, including a wide range of stories from a diverse group of authors, some well-known, others anonymous or forgotten. Readers whose only previous experience with Victorian Christmas ghost stories has been Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol will be surprised and delighted at the astonishing variety of ghostly tales in this volume.

(from Goodreads)

My Thoughts:

This book caught my eye as it was a collection of 13 short stories during the Victorian age about… well about Christmas ghost stories. I’ve always felt that Winter is the perfect time for Horror and since it’s close to Christmas I thought why not?

The book is a collection of short stories that appeared in magazines during the Victorian Age at December or early January. There’s even a story from Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes! Some of the stories were good, there was this one story in particular where I really liked it because of the backstory of the haunted house, it’s backstory was what made that story so interesting as it actually is historically relevant. My favourite stories were The Tapestried Chamber, Bring Me a Light!, Old Hooker’s Ghost, The Haunted Rock and The Captain of the Pole-Star.

I also like the blurbs at the beginning that give us a little information about the author and the story’s history and in a sentence or two what this story is about.

However, many of the stories contained in this book wasn’t for me. I found many of the stories dry and boring even. I also felt like there was way too much describing for a short story! Reading many of the stories contained in this book almost felt like a chore to me. I was disappointed that many of these stories have almost nothing to do with Christmas or winter.

Overall, The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories was a disappointment. I was not having a good time reading these stories and was pretty bored by most of them. I personally do not recommend this book. If you want to read Horror during the Christmas season, I think it’s best for you to look elsewhere.

Rating: