Myles Graham
Myles Graham a Wishful Writer sharing his thoughts and his short stories!
Book Review: Abomination by Gary Whitta
Welcome back to another book review. As always I will give you my opinion about the story without giving away to many spoilers. I believe reviews should be short and spoiler free. This one is Abomination by Gary Whitta, so lets get into it!
This story is Historical Fiction or Horror or Fantasy or all of the above. This book is set in England, 888 AD when the vikings were invading. The King, Alfred the Great, finds himself in a spot of inevitable defeat. King Alfred’s Archbishop Aethelred comes upon some ancient scripture that taught him a kind of magic, (like turning animals into monsters.) Magic he believed could win the war.
Aethelred seems to be consumed by the dark magic and making the perfect abomination to defeat the Danes that he seemed to have forgotten his humanity. Alfred sees this and tries to put a stop to it. In comes the main character Wulfric, who is the kings greatest warrior, but secretly hates killing.
Eventually Wulfric is cursed to become an abomination every night and live out the rest of his live slaughtering villages and hating himself more and more. The rest of the book is 15 years later, hes found ways to control or rather contain the monster. But when the order he founded to slaughter the beasts stumbles upon his trail it gets harder and harder to stay hidden and keep innocent people safe.
That is about as much detail as I will go into. The way Whitta writes kept me engaged and wanting more. I have read other reviews that the beginning of the book was too slow, but I found it very interesting and fast. It is a fairly easy read, some books I get lost in what is trying to be said but, it was very enjoyable.
It was gory in parts, sad in parts and happy in other parts. Not many books I have read can make me feel even the slightest emotion but, this one did it. You can’t help but feel for the main character, as all he ever wanted was a family and a farm.
All I have left to say is it’s a solid 8/10. I would definitely read it again and would recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy in historical settings or just fantasy in general. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I hope you do too!
TBR List 2019!
Welcome back everyone! Last year I set a personal record and read the most books I’ve ever read. A whopping 11 books! I know an astronomical number. So, This year I set a goal to up my game to 20 books. I though it would be a cool idea to come up with the reading list and come back to it at the end of the year and see how I did!
So, here it is:
- Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence (read)
- King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence (read)
- Emperor of Thorns by Mark Lawrence (read)
- Coldfall Woods by Steven Savile (reading)
- The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien
- The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R Tolkien
- The Two Towers by J.R.R Tolkien
- The Return of The King by J.R.R Tolkien
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets ( I’ve surprisingly have never read!!! If you wanna read about why click here.)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows
- Halo: Smoke and Shadows by Kelly Gay
- Abomination by Gary Whitta
- Dead or Alive by Blackwood
- World of Warcraft: Wolfheart by Richard A Knaak
- Red Sister by Mark Lawrence
Aaaaand there it is, My list of books to read this year. I won’t say it is concrete because a lot of times I just don’t “feel” like reading particular things. I will try and write reviews on the books I read or do a full series review. Sounds good to you? Then follow along! Any suggestions? Like books I shouldn’t read? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading!
Book Review: Prince of Thorns
Hey, everyone! I have officially read my first book (In January!) of the year. and what better way to celebrate it than by reviewing it!
So, here we go! the book I read in January was Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. This is not the first book I have read by Mark Lawrence but this was his debut novel as an author. I found Mark Lawrence by strolling through the book store and ultimately not wanting to leave until I bought a new book. I had no idea what I wanted to buy or even what I was in the mood to read. So, I strolled through the fantasy section. I picked up Prince of Fools and loved the cover. (yes I always judge books by there covers :p)
After reading the synopsis I immediately thought “I am going to love this book the main character seems like a douche!” Ultimately I did love the book, as well as the other two in the series. at this point in time, I would even say the Red Queens war is my favorite book series and as a by-product Mark Lawrence my favorite author.
After reading the series and expressing my deep love for it, I was gifted the Prince of Thorns. which ended up sitting on my bookshelf for about a year. “why?” you might ask. Well, because I was scared I would love that book as much as I loved the other ones but I didn’t have the sequels for me to immediately drown myself with. So, alas it went unread.
For christmas I was given the sequels! Hallelujah! So, I allowed my self to read away! I will try not to give to much away but, just in case you haven’t read the books or hate spoilers. This is my disclaimer. THERE MAY BE SPOILERS or they may not be……… read on at your own risk.
The story follows a young prince by the name of Honorous Jorg Ancarth. For a boy of fourteen he is very mature.( more so than I am at 28) He’s smart, serious and driven by revenge. He ran away when he was only ten and has been roaming the lands with a group of misfits. they go from town to town pillaging.
Jorg left the castle for one reason. to kill the man that killed his mother and brother. He feels that his father should be more angry and wanting blood but he just sits in his castle. So, Jorg puts matters into his own hands.
I’m not going to lie for about half the book I hated Jorg. He was way more serious than the other prince I had previously read about(prince of fools) I have never been fond of stories about children as I don’t find them particularly believable. Especially when that child is more mature, smarter and all around more put together than I am at double his age.
Throughout the book though you are peppered with his past and the reasons he is the way he is. To get to a black berry you need to get around the thorns. and Jorg has more thorns than your typical black berry bush.
This book is definitely not suitable for younger audiences as there are some very suggestive scenes and at times he can get really dark. I was going to list off all the things I disliked about this book but somehow they all turned into likes. I Don’t care for his so called “Road brothers” they are characters I just don’t care about. well there was once but of course they killed him.
I was going to go more in depth about the book. but I like people to read for themselves. I don’t like giving to much away. If your are a fan of fantasy, especially Dark Fantasy you will love this book. If I were to give this book a rating out of 5 swords I would give it a 4.5. Its not as good of a book as prince of fools in my opinion but its still a damn good book. Jorg is a character you hate in front of your friends but love alone!
Thanks For Reading! If you like this kind of review make sure to give it a like and let me know in the comments!
The Meaning of Life
The meaning of life is a topic many, if not most people have discussed. As time moves forward the meaning always changes. There is no Definitive answer to, “what is the meaning of life?” and that troubles a lot of people.
“The god that we created plans our destiny, Because life without meaning is our sworn, enemy!”-Beast in Black
People make up stories and will continue to make them so that there is meaning to their life. Now, what I am getting at is, what if life had no meaning? How does that make you feel? would your life change drastically? Would it change at all?
The beautiful thing about humans is our quest for answers and the beautiful thing about the universe is its abundance of secrets! its like we were made for each other! We dedicate countless lives unraveling its secrets. Some things have been studied for hundreds of years and still, there is no concrete answer.
Our drive for knowledge and better lives have made us who we are, but why does everything need a meaning? what if you chose the meaning of life? what if you created your destiny and it wasn’t created for you? What if the universe always existed and there was no beginning of time? what if every religions real message was that you were God?
Favorite and Least Favorite Read of 2019
In 2019 I read 16 books. That’s the most amount of books I have ever read in a year and I am pretty proud of that. (That’s why I mention it every blog :P) With books there is always going to be some you don’t finish, some you read over and over again because you love them so much and some you just hate.
So, like I did last year I would like to look back and choose my favorite read of 2019, with the addition of least favorite read. Every book I read this year -other than one- was fantasy or sci-fi. I don’t typically read outside those genres. But this year I did read an autobiography and its not my least favorite read! But lets hop in to what is my least favorite read shall we?
My least favorite read of 2019 without a doubt is Coldfall Woods by Steven Saville. From the very beginning of this book it didn’t really jive with me but I pushed on to at least half way but I just couldn’t finish it. Its’ set in and uses the same characters as another story by Saville but this is not classified as a sequel. I could be wrong but for the most part it read as a stand alone.
When it comes to writing it can be hard to spot your own mistakes. I can guarantee my work is littered with them. But as of now I am not a published author. This book had an abundance of spelling mistakes and incomplete sentences. Sentences would abruptly stop and I would be confused as to what was happening in the scene. There were also other sentences that just made zero sense but were complete and without errors that had the same impact on me.
Along with the spelling errors there was constant repetition. He always used the same big words like he had just learned them or the same phrase constantly and that bothered me. The whole story is about a “Horned God” and every single time -it seemed- the “Horned God” Was mentioned he was called by all 8 names he is known by. I get it, hes a god of many names, I don’t need to read half a paragraph every time you mention him.
The last thing I want to talk about is one particular seen. This scene was the dagger for the novel. It had to be the most fucked up thing I have ever read. I’m just going to leave a little piece of it here. I am sorry in advance.
The first children dragged him down to the ground.
Their appetite was insatiable.
Danny felt their hands all over him, pulling at his jeans, tugging at the buckle of his belt, at his boxers, lowering them even as more kisses smothered his face. The kisses reached his neck, and as they tore at the buttons of his shirt, down the flat planes of his stomach, not stopping as they traced the tight lines of muscle down to his cock. Tiny hands stroked him as their lips closed on his mouth and more hands covered his eyes.
It ends with a needless description of why the god who now straddled Danny was hard….. again sorry.
Now, just burn that from your memory and lets move on. Choosing my favorite read this year was a bit challenging as I read a lot of books that I really enjoyed. But the series in which I chose my favorite read I have wanted to read for quite some time. I saw the movies when I was a kid and never got around to reading them because I didn’t read much as a kid.
My Favorite read of 2019 Is the Lord of The Rings by J.R.R Tolkien. If I had to specify I would choose The Return of The King. It takes the cake for me because of all the action, even when I thought the action was over there was more.
The reason this is my favorite read is because it was a challenging read for me. From the size of the books -even though half of ROTK is an appendix- to the amount of words that I just didn’t know and had to look up. Some parts of the series I did find a little boring with extremely long descriptions. But these descriptions were laced with history of Middle-Earth and did end up being one of my favorite parts. Just how much history there is to Middle-Earth and beyond and how little we actually know is impressive to me.
I won’t go on and on about Lord of The Rings because I think everyone knows how good the stories are by now. But I would like to also put in some honorable mentions to my favorite read of the year. I have 3.
- The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien. Because well duh.
- Abomination by Gary Whitta. I really enjoyed this one. A fantasy set in old England. Click Here for full review.
- What does this button do? Bruce Dickinson an autobiography. I have always thought of Bruce Dickinson as the most interesting man in the world and this book did not disappoint.
That’s it, that’s all. Thanks for reading. Let me know what your favorite read of 2019 was, down in the comments!.
Looking Back On 2019
For me 2019 was supposed to be the year my whole life changed. I set out goals and I was determined to turn everything around. It was the year I was going to get back to having a steady income, the year I learned to control my anxiety and depression and the year I accomplished all the writing projects I have been wanting to finish.
But 2019 looked a lot like 2018 in a sense. I believed I was happy and moving in the right direction. Early in the year my close friends Anxiety and Depression came to have a chat. I could no longer bring myself to go to work. I couldn’t find work. No scratch that, great jobs came knocking on my door but I couldn’t get myself to the opportunity. And I started beating myself up about it and that just made everything worse.
Unlike 2018 though, I managed to bounce back quicker and I believe stronger. I have set myself out new goals that if I work at them everyday I will be able to accomplish. I am feeling determined and ready to take on the year!
Unfortunately I didn’t manage to accomplish any of my goals in 2019 as some were just way over my head and others I didn’t give enough attention to. But the goal I wanted to complete the most was to finish the first draft of a novel. I have had some great Ideas (writers always do, til they go to write them down) But I just wasn’t in the right place to work on them. I have two works in progress right now and I am going to read through them and decide which one to give my attention to. Because I WILL be making some head way this year!
Falling back into old habits has definitely halted my creative progress. I come home from work and either watch tv or play video games until bed. doing that keeps my mind blank and if its blank I don’t think negativity and spiral out of control. But I have already found myself chipping away at the time I spent doing that and managing to work more on my blog or reading more and slowly but surely I will get to where I want to be.
There was one goal that I came really close to achieving and that was my reading goal. In 2018 I read 11 books ( don’t judge I have never been a huge reader) and I made a goal to read 20 in 2019. I managed to read 16 and that’s a huge feat for me! This year I am going to keep the goal the same and I will most likely smash it as I get more engrossed in books now and fly through them!
As much as this year has been a bummer, much like the last couple of years, it has been good. I am at a job that I can see myself at for a long time. The people I work with are all awesome. When I have “dark” days they brighten much quicker and I actually learn more about myself. The dark days are also becoming father and father apart.
So, 2019 has been a mediocre year and that’s better than bad. 2020 already feels like its going to be a great year. When I write a “Looking back on 2020” post it will be much more positive and I will have accomplished way more. So, stick around as I become who I was meant to be! (Start pestering me for that short story I need to edit or it may never come :P)
That’s my 2019 reviewed. How did your year fair? Did you smash all your goals? Have you set goals for this year? Let me know. Thanks for reading and Happy new year!
The Witcher a Netflix Series
Welcome back all! Today, I wanted to discuss my personal opinions of The Witcher series on Netflix and my outlook on it as a whole (Books, Games and TV show.) If you have read my other posts on The Witcher, then you already know I think the story is rather lackluster. But that could very well be my fault so, lets get into it.
I recently binged The Witcher on Netflix and maybe to your surprise, I enjoyed it. At first, I had my reservations about Henry Cavill playing Geralt, but honestly I think he did a fantastic job. A surprise character for me was Jaskier AKA “Dandelion”. I wasn’t sure if, A) he was going to be in the show and, B) if he would be in the first season. He brought a great comedic element to the show and I enjoyed all his scenes.
Now, when it comes to the story itself I thought it was intriguing, it kept me wanting to continue onto the next episode, despite that it was a little tricky to follow at time with the multiple timelines. I am a bit apprehensive still as to where the story might go. All my prior knowledge comes mostly from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. But I did also read through Blood of Elves, The Time of Contempt, and Baptism of Fire from Author Andrej Sapkowski. I find the story to be a bit boring (don’t kill me).
Recently I found out I should have read books of short stories first (but the books I read are labelled 1, 2, and 3 sooo….) Reading these short stories might help with the books but I don’t think it would help with the fact that I found them incredibly boring. I feel like for those 3 books all that happened was walking and talking. I prefer more action.
My memory could be a little hazy though as it was a while back now since I read them or maybe I was just in a mood when I read them but who knows. Because of this I may pick them up and give them another shot. So, if the show follows the books closely I am afraid it might become boring.
When it comes to the story for The Witcher 3, It also seems rather boring to me. Both The Witcher 3 and the books I read have the same type of story. But in the game you have Witcher contracts(the best part!) and interesting side quests to help you keep on going.
All in all I enjoyed the first season of Netflix’s The Witcher. I don’t know how good it will continually be. I will watch the second season when it comes out and I have faith it will be good since most modern TV it really well done. But if they stay too close to that story I know it will get boring and I wont be able to watch it anymore.
What are your thoughts on the show? Books? Games? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading!
The Wishful Writer: We’re strugglin’
Hey There! This month I have been struggling to write. Whether it be for the blog or for my stories. So, I decided I would try and take up another creative outlet, in hopes it would spark some inspiration! I picked up my camera (which I barley know how to use) and started snapping some shots. Here are some highlights! Hopefully I will be back in a groove soon! Until then enjoy!
