Currently Reading and Previously Read, Reviews: The Dream Thieves and Heaven's Net is Wide

 *This post may contain spoilers about these books or previous books in there respective series*

Previously Read: The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater.

This book is the second in The Raven Boys cycle and to be honest I was not expecting this series to be how they were. The Wolves of Mercy Falls books became part of my favourite books the moment I turned those first pages, I will review those too! But Steifvater set a certain tone that I thought would The Raven Boys would be similar too and I suppose in my head, I didn't want to ruin Shiver etc, by replacing it with a similar story. I follow Stiefvater on Tumblr and kept seeing posts about The Raven Boys and the research trips she took, the reviews, the feels etc for the book and decided to buy it. Expecting more or less of them same, as the tag line for The Raven Boys suggests, I was more the pleasantly surprised by what I read. This book was so much more than I could have anticipated. Once again giving us the different viewpoints (which I will forever love) about Blue, a non-psychic and the four Raven boys, Gansey, Adam, Noah and Ronan. This book centres on these characters but rather than a star crossed romance, we have adventure. Gansey, a wealthy boy, has spent his entire young adult life trying to find a lost welsh king and as such we are given an adventure which crosses the normal and psychic world. It was brilliant. I read it in about a day I think. 

                

I brought The Dream Thieves a day later and read it just as quickly. What I liked about the second instalment was the character developments that took place, in particular Ronan's character. What is fascinating about these books is that there is so much room for development and backstory for each character. The Dream Thieves focuses more on Ronan and his relationship with the leylines themselves and all that entails, whereas he is not so much in The Raven Boys. Instead of the romantic plot line being fufilled, Steifvater creates the element where it would 100% end badly if it did and as such, the reader is unsure of what will happen with Blue's future. The next book is to come out in October and I seriously cannot wait. 

Currently Reading: Heaven's Net is Wide by Lian Hearn

Like I said I am an absolute sucker for book series. I don't know what it is about them, even books with just one sequel. Anyways. Heaven's Net is Wide is a prequel set before the three Tales of the Otori books. Again, will try and review. 

Heaven's Net is set in fictional historical Japan during the period of the Three Countries, and we follow Shigeru Otori from his youth to becoming the man that we see in Across the Nightingale Floor. I'm only about 20 chapters in at the moment as I keep getting pre-occupied by other things. But so far I'm really enjoying it. The thing about prequels is that you get to read the story of more minor characters in the main series and I found Shigerus' character was something I always wanted to know more of. Hearn also introduces completely new aspects which were not touched on in the previous books. Hearns' style of writing, I find, is simply beautiful. His descriptions of places, characters, thoughts, everything, literally transport me in to another world, to the point where I feel disorientated when I finish reading. His attention to detail makes his world completely believable despite the fantasy elements that encompass his novels. I'm not sure if this book will link to the beginnings of Across the Nightingale Floor but regardless I'm sure Hearn will deliver an equalling compelling book.

Lb.

Hyrule Warriors; Initial Thoughts

Hello all. I know it's been a very long time. Excuses excuses. Anyways, I figured that I would do a very brief review on Hyrule Warriors for the WiiU as my pre-order came early. *Yay!*. I do plan on doing a more in depth review once I've fully completed the game but just wanted to let the world know.

The actual really small summary.

For those of you who are probably now aware, this is a mash up of the Dynasty Warriors and Zelda game. For those of you who haven't played Dynasty Warriors before, (you poor souls), it's a simple hack and slash game, (Dynasty Warriors is set in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms era, based on historical events etc.) but set out in levels, you have generals, bases and of course a mass army to fight. There is some tactics involved, i.e. Kill certain leaders, but mostly you just want to destroy them all. Combinations are easy and are levelled up through skill sets, very similar to DW and Hyrule Warriors makes it easy to understand this system for those who don't know what to do.

Within gameplay I quickly wanted to encompass the story and how it intertwines with the previous Legend of Zelda games. As an enormous fan, I was uncertain how they would fit it into the timelime etc. I don't want to ruin anything but I feel they nailed it, whilst also paving the way for future Zelda games, *cough* Zelda U *cough*

I really like the graphics for Hyrule Warriors, everything is so crisp and moves away from the slightly too colourful Skyward Sword feel. Cut-scene graphics are also on point. So far I've had no lags when doing massive combo hits or anything like that.

So far my favourite characters are Link and Shiek. I really liked what they have done with Shieks' move-set and her musou is an absolute killer. Unlocked characters so far are, Link, Impa, Shiek, Zelda, Ruto, Midna, Lana and Darunia. (Not in that order (: )

So that's really all for now. I plan on spending probably too many more hours on this despite my early rise in the morning. *Sigh*.

Toodles

Lb.