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?
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!
Will The Witcher Netflix Series be good?
Now that the trailer for the Witcher Netflix series has been released, I believe I have more of a feel about how the show is going to be. Lots of people seem pretty hyped about it and the quality seems quite good.
Do I think the Witcher series will be good? That’s the real question. I wouldn’t say I am the biggest fan of the Witcher or anything like that. Especially since I only heard about the Witcher when the third game came out. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. And if you’ve read my other blog about the Witcher (which I will leave a link here) you may have a pretty good guess as to where I stand. But honestly, I am on the fence about it.
My knowledge of The Witcher comes from the third game and the first three books. Both essentially have the same story, Just in different timelines. The books are the start of Geralts relationship with Ciri when she is a little girl. In the game she is an adult and in both Geralt is trying to find her.
There is obviously twists and turns to get to her and in my opinion the game did a much better job of doing that. The books just didn’t pull it off. In the books it just seems like Geralt meets people walks and meet people and walks more for three books straight. For a story based on someone who kills monsters for a living, it was very uninteresting. From what I recall there wasn’t even that much information about Witcher’s.
If the show completely follows the books which I doubt it will, the show would just be boring and will not interest me in the slightest. The reason I think the story in the show may be better is I believe the author of the books will have nothing to do with the show. So, hopefully Netflix can make it interesting with their creative freedom.
In the trailer a lot of the clips seem as though they could fit into the books. Stuff about elves and the war that is going on, the stuff about Ciri. But there are also clips of just Geralt doing Witcher things and those were the only parts that really intrigued me. The story seems like it could be much of the same as the other ones, but its hard to tell with just a two-minute trailer.
So, will the Witcher Netflix series be good? I am very doubtful. But I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little intrigued. As long as the twists and turns are there and lots about monsters and Witchers it could do well. Hopefully they can pry the story away from the books and make something great. But that’s just my opinion. Time will tell if I like it and if the masses like it. Maybe if I re read the books I might like them, but I would have to be convinced. So, let me know your opinion Witcher fans!
