March 30, 2015

『book review』Schattentraum - Hinter der Finsternis von Mona Kasten

Inhalt„Als ich zum ersten Mal in deine Augen sah, wusste ich es“, murmelte er und zog mich dichter an sich heran, sodass sein Mund oberhalb meines Ohrs verharrte. „Du warst meine Hoffnung.“
Nach dem Tod ihrer Mutter wünscht sich Emma nichts sehnlicher, als der Finsternis zu entfliehen, die sie seitdem heimsucht. Womit sie dabei nicht rechnet, ist Gabriel, der plötzlich in ihr Leben tritt. Mit seinem arroganten Charme nimmt er ihre Gedanken völlig für sich ein. Doch die Dunkelheit lässt Emma nicht los. Alpträume, in denen ihr Schattenwesen erscheinen, machen ihr das Leben schwer. Und auch Gabriel ist nicht der, der er vorgibt zu sein – jede seiner Berührungen könnte sie in den Abgrund ziehen. 

Meine Meinung: Schattentraum ist Monas Debutroman und ein gelungenes Werk aus einer Mischung von Contemporary und Fantasy. Wir durchwandern gemeinsam mit Emma die Geschichte ihres Lebens und treffen dabei auf das ein oder andere Hindernis.

Der Schreibstil zählt allerdings nicht zu diesen. Mona hat einen sehr flüssigen, dennoch beschreibenden Stil wodurch sich das Buch schnell und leicht lesen lässt. Vor allem sehr gut geeignet für jüngere Leser.  Hier und da hat sich, trotz aller Mühen, ein kleiner Fehler eingeschlichen, aber das stört den Lesefluss nicht weiter. Die Geschichte selbst tritt anfangs ein wenig auf der Stelle und bewegt sich für meinen Geschmack etwas zu langsam voran. Schon auf den ersten paar Seiten lernen wir Gabriel kennen und welch Wunder, entwickelt sich aus seinem Auftritt der schon sehr bekannt Fall eines Jugendbuches. Nichts desto Trotz tu dies der Geschichte keinen Abbruch. Allerdings treten dadurch ein paar unnötige Wiederholungen auf, welche die Charaktere durchleben. Das ständige Hin und Her von Emma und Gabriel ist schon leicht nervenaufreibend und brachte mich ab und an dazu mit den Augen zu rollen. Was ich sehr schade fand. Ein weiterer Punkt, der mich etwas störte, war die Vorhersehbarkeit, die sich schon ziemlich früh bei mir einstellte. Leider führte dies dazu, dass ich die wichtigsten Dinge richtig vorausahnen konnte (Vielleicht lese ich einfach zu viel. XD"). Im Verlaufe der Geschichte hatte ich mal meine Probleme mit dem Buch und dann mal wieder nicht. Auf der einen Seite eine sehr leichte und schnelle Lektüre, auf der anderen noch etwas unausgereift. Die Charaktere wirken noch etwas platt und die ein oder andere Stelle im Buch etwas durcheinander.

Der Fantasyanteil dieses Buches ist doch etwas geringer als mir lieb wäre, aber dennoch zu verkraften. Ein weiteres Detail, welches ich sehr schade fand, war dass zum Ende hin die eigentlich Action ausgeblendet wurde (Dazu sage ich jetzt nichts weiter => Spoiler Alert!!!). Der Roman kam dann, für mich nicht so überraschend, etwas wackelig zu Ende. Natürlich mit einem leichten Cliff-Hanger, um  den nächsten Band schmackhaft zu machen.

Zum Abschluss lässt sich sagen, dass "Schattentraum - Hinter der Finsternis" ein gelungenes Erstwerk ist, das eher die jüngeren Leser unter uns anspricht oder all diejenigen, die gerne eine luftig-leichte Lektüre für zwischendurch brauchen.

Werde ich mich weiter durch die "Schattentraum"-Welt lese? Ja, definitiv!

Was ich mir für die kommenden Bände wünschen würde wäre etwas mehr aktive Action, ein wenig mehr Charakterentwicklung und ein gelungenes Ende zum Abschluss der Geschichte.


Rating: 


Kaufen?: e-Book | Paperback




Die Review ist auch auf goodreads zu finden.

March 20, 2015

『book review』Blood of Eden trilogy & Dawn of Eden novella by Julie Kagawa




  


Plot: To survive in a ruined world, she must embrace the darkness…
Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a walled-in city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten. Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them—the vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself dies and becomes one of the monsters.
Forced to flee her city, Allie must pass for human as she joins a ragged group of pilgrims seeking a legend—a place that might have a cure for the disease that killed off most of civilization and created the rabids, the bloodthirsty creatures who threaten human and vampire alike. And soon Allie will have to decide what and who is worth dying for again.


My Opinion: While I heard a lot about these books I wasn't sure if I would like them and pushed it somewhere back in my mind that I might want to read them. One day at Amazon I discovered them for just a few € and decided to buy the ebook copies. I never expected to be this entertained and that these books would get me at all. But the storytelling is awesome and exciting, fast paced and the characters well build. You get to know a bunch of characters and you either love them or hate them.

I never expected these books to be so brutal and full of blood. I don't know what I expected but I think it's just the way Julie Kagawa describes every situation and fight. She goes into detail describing every bit, which made it sometimes really hard for me to get forward.

Now this sounds like I doesn't know anything about vampires, but I have to add that I never really read anything vampire related, except Vampire Academy and House of Night (don't judge me XD"). Nowadays vampire stories get all the way romanticized and you only get glimpses of the original portrayal of vampires, which is why the Blood of Eden series is so different. You get to see the real monsters vampires are and you get to see the fear and hate of humans for them. You also get to see the struggles between humans, vampires and turning ones. There are still some of the typical clichés, but all in all it's way different than most young adult vampire stories. At least that's what I see here. Not much of a romanticized version, even when there is the typical young adult love in this trilogy. But put it aside and you get a good load of a dystopian world full of action, cruelty, humanity and the urge to survive and fight the end of the world no matter what it costs. 

Rating: 






Plot: Before The Immortal Rules, there was Red Lung a relentless virus determined to take out all in its path.
For Kylie, the miracle of her survival is also her burden-as a doctor at one of the clinics for the infected she is forced to witness endless suffering. What's worse strange things are happening to the remains of the dead and by the time she befriends Ben Archer she's beginning to wonder if a global pandemic is the least of her problems....

My Opinion: We get to see the beginning of the Red Lung outbreak. People were still fighting to survive or even to succeed the virus. I liked the turn to a more adult allyway in this novella. We follow two fledged adults through their adventure of getting away from the Red Lung Virus. But after a while  both of them have to admit that there is more.
We meet K(anin) when he rescues both protagonists. While K's name is never mentioned, everyone who first read the trilogy knows who it is. He's already fighting with himself about what he'd done and is determined to find a cure for Rabidism.
With the mention of Ben Archer we also get introduced to the Archer-family, which we know from the first book. All in all this was a bit too fast, because it is too short. It would have been even better with a couple more pages and not so much insta-love. But in the end we still get a bloody and scary journey full of action. While on their way to the farmhouse Kylie and Ben meet more and more of the rabids. Since these are the first times they meet them, they are so scared. And Because Julie Kagawa is brilliant in portraying situations you also get super scared.
Dawn of Eden is a short story full of action, blood and the fighting for life. Ab bit short, but still satisfying. Even when the title is a bit misleading, since you could expect to actually get to read about Eden and how it was created.  

Rating: 


March 18, 2015

『travel』2014/07/25 - 2014/07/27 TOKYO ~ Japan part I

2014/07/25

Everything was quite normal on the flight to London. I did nothing special except sleeping, because as always I slept like zero hours before leaving home. I had to get up at 04:30am to throw the last things into my luggage and to drive to the airport. Boarding started at 06.30am and we finally took of at 06:55am.

I arrived an hour later in London and had a nerve wrecking journey through the security check to get to the waiting area, where I spend the next four hours. Which is quite boring when you're alone, hungry and tired. I decided to get some food and to find a place to sit down. Which I luckily found. While I ate and discovered the free wi-fi (which lasted only 45mins) I got even more tired and decided to check out the rest of the terminal and to find my gate for the check in.

Found it and still had to wait a small eternity. I fought to not fall asleep, which was really hard. But in the end I managed to stay awake. Couldn't leave my carry on luggage unwatched. Who knows what would have happened to Mrs. Paperwhite and Booky. XD"

At 12:00pm my gate was finally announced and I traveled there. Took me around 20mins to get there. The airport is just too huge. Another 35mins later boarding started and we finally took off around 02:10pm.

Goodbye London
first food on board

I tell you to always go with the vegan option if your a super picky person when it comes to food.
I'm only a vegetarian but on flights I always go with the vegan option. It the best, I swear! ^^

second food on board

dessert XD



2014/07/26






preparing for landing

That's how far Narita Airport is from Tokyo

Welcome to Narita Airport



Arriving at the airport wasn't that exciting, except it got super humid immediately. I was wrapt in a lot of clothes and my super comfy and warm DIR EN GREY sweater. I nearly died when I left the plane. XD Carrying all my belongings with me I had to go to the immigration first. Luckily Lulu told me everything beforehand and I had everything prepared. It took nearly an hour to immigrate.

While waiting I unsuccessfully tried to get my phone connected. I was so annoyed and nearly panicking. Because Lulu planed to pick me up in Kichijōji and not from the airport I needed to message her when I take the bus.
Immigration went well and I immediately found my luggage. Packed with everything I had to pass one last stop to finally leave the airport.

Luckily I was able to find the right bus stop immediately and the next bus left around 10mins later. I got my ticket and had to wait a bit more. Still trying to connect my phone. The nice guy at the bus station tried to tell me I had to wait a bit more for the bus and even told me when it finally was there. He put my luggage in the storage room and I could board the bus.

Still trying to get any phone service...
I even tried to connect with the free wifi from the airport. Nothing worked.
Suddenly I got a mini connection and send the already prepared message with my scheduled arrival time. I also got a message to my mum, so she wont worry.
After that mini connection for nearly a minute I never got any service again. That was really annoying.

One and a half hour later I was in Kichijōji. No Lulu. I was kind of confused and nearly panicking again, because my phone wasn't working. But a minute later she arrived an told me happily that she was shopping, because the bus wasn't on time.

Finally in her room at the dormitory I took a shower and changed into some lighter clothes. Lulu organized a second bike and we went grocery shopping. That bike nearly killed me and I just couldn't adapt to the driving on the left side. That was so confusing (Reminded my of Australia and how we nearly ran into the taxi, because we look in the wrong direction and were thinking it was right.).

Grocery shopping was fun. Soy milk everywhere and a lot of different things to see. But we had to hurry, because we planed to go the fireworks with a few other students.

Back again we ate dinner and waited for the rest to get dressed. Most of them wanted to wear their new yukatas.
















After two hours of fireworks it ended and we made our way back to the station. Which wasn't easy at all, because it was so crowded. In the end we had to discover, that the nearest station got closed, because it was too crowded. We had to walk the most of the way back home.
They even closed all the streets, so everyone could walk without getting overrun by a car. We mostly walked on the street. I was nearly dying. Everything hurt and I was endlessly tired.
We made it to another station where we were able to get on a train.

When we arrived at our station, we had to take a last picture for the day.


While Lulu tried to make plans with me for our trip to Akita I fell asleep. z__z



2014/07/27

Next day wasn't anything special, except that we discovered we had to leave for Akita in the evening. XD We thought we had one whole day in Tokyo to spend before leaving. ^^"""

We just went a bit shopping in Shibuya and Lulu showed me around.


 In Shibuya 109 we met the Sailor Scouts. ^^






Had to take pictures of them and with Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars. ^^ 

March 15, 2015

『books』gelesene Bücher im Januar & Februar/ January & February wrap up


Janaur/ January

01. Shadows (LUX 0.5) - Jennifer L. Armentrout


02. Phoenix Overture (Newsoul 2.5) - Jodi Meadows


03. Half Lies (Half Bad 0.5) - Sally Green



Februar/ February

01. Origin (LUX 4) - Jennifer L. Armentrout





02. Kamikaze Girls (Manga) - Novala Takemoto, Yukio Kanesada




03. Opposition (LUX 5) - Jennifer L. Armentrout



04. Welcome to Shadowhunter Academy (Tales from Shadowhunter Academy 1) - Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan



 05. Schattentraum - Hinter der Finsternis - Mona Kasten



 06. Red Rising - Pierce Brown


 07. Wonderisland (Toriyama Short Stories 3) - Akira Toriyama


08. Arinas Love Story Collection - Arina Tanemura