War by Laura Thalassa

Fiction

The first book in The Four Horsemen series ended with Pestilence, now going by Victor, telling Sara that he felt his brother War waking up, exactly five years after Pestilence made his appearance. Book two opens up three years after War has come to earth where he is currently conquering near Jerusalem. 

We see a lot of differences when it comes to War and his brother Pestilence. War is more aware of human nature than his brother Pestilence was, as we first see him three years into his campaign whereas Pestilence was just starting out. War, besides having been on earth for a longer period of time when we are introduced to him, has the experience of living alongside humans whereas Pestilence was a lone rider. He seems to understand human ways more because of this compared to the way Pestilence seemed to struggle to understand certain things. Understanding humans does not give War any mercy or remorse, however. War truly enjoys his purpose, murder, slaughter, battle, raiding and pillaging, this all brings him joy, which differs from Pestilence, who stated several times that he did not enjoy doing what he did. This makes War feel all the more evil.

Almost immediately into the story the female lead, Miriam, comes face to face with War. Upon seeing her up close he claims that she is his wife so instead of killing her he takes her into his camp to live with him. War states later on that he spared Miriam’s life because she had a scar on her neck spelling the word ‘surrender’ in the angelic language. Pestilence didn’t kill Sara by either infecting her with his plague or with his bow and arrow because he saw the angelic word for ‘mercy’ spread on her tent in the light coming through the trees. I am predicting that the remaining two horsemen will see a sign in their language that in some way convinces them to spare the life of a woman, and this woman is the one that will convince them to spare humanity, as Sara and Miriam did. Speaking of which, I loved how the reason War decided to stop killing was because he asked Miriam if she thought he could be forgiven. When she said yes, he reasoned that if he, a terrible being whose sole purpose was to kill as much of humanity as possible, could be forgiven, then humans as a whole could as well. 

Overall, I loved this book. I was barely able to restrain myself from starting Famine before writing this. I was tempted because I loved the end of this book, which if you don’t want to know, don’t read past this, just know that I recommend War.

We actually get a very brief glimpse of the birth of Famine! War, like Pestilence, feels his brother coming to life at the very end of the book. We are then taken to the man himself as he is being born. We get a description of his eyes, his armor, and his smirk, he is happy to finally be awake and begin his mission. This is the first time we have seen the actual birth of one of the horsemen, and it really intrigued me to see that he was born excited to fulfill his purpose. I wonder if he will be worse than his previous two brothers. War indicated that the remaining two horsemen were the worst of them and I can’t wait to see in what way this is true.

Pestilence by Laura Thalassa

Fiction

This book is a far cry from the types of books I have been reading lately, which have consisted of a great deal of science fiction and fantasy novels that are heavy on romance. I was worried that after consuming so many of these books, that in having found my true love in reading in this genre and the very reason why I believe I exist on earth at this point in time, any other type of romance novel would be wasted on me. But I was pleasantly surprised, this was a nice change of pace. It was actually refreshing to read a book that didn’t have odd names that I could never be sure I was pronouncing correctly paired with a backstory that spanned millenia, of which you had to know for the overall story to make sense. 

I was surprised by how much this book not only made me think in a philosophical way about the deep questions of life and what is beyond it, but by how much it made me laugh. The character Pestilence, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, doesn’t mean to be humorous but I find him to be so at times. He speaks differently from modern man, elegantly. When he converses in his very serious and purposeful manner, it reads in such a way that it made me laugh literally out loud several times. Being that he is an entity from another plane of existence, he doesn’t always understand modern day phrases. It is very amusing reading about a handsome, muscular, powerful man that doesn’t understand slang terms for bathroom. And I love that the female main character, Sara, teases him by throwing his own archaic words and phrases back at him sometimes. And while there is a good deal of humor in the banter, this is also a pretty dark novel. It is about Pestilence, the bringer of plague, and his victims do not fare well. There are mild depictions of what the plague does to the body which some people might find gross or disturbing. Besides that, there is a a fair amount of torture performed, especially in the beginning, and many assassination attempts. This is a gore heavy book. But if that doesn’t bother you, if you indeed enjoy reading about those sorts of things, I think you will have a great time. 

Being that this book is about one of the four horsemen, you could probably guess that there are additional books for the remaining three horsemen. And you can probably also guess that I will be reading all of them, in order, over the next few weeks. The next one in the series is War, and I am pretty interested to see what this horseman is going to do with his power to attempt to destroy humanity. I think when I finish the series I will give an overall opinion, something I don’t think I have done before. I think this might be useful in letting people know if the series I read are worthy of their time.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

Nonfiction

This is not a one time read, this is a book you keep on your shelf in plain sight because until you grasp all the concepts, and are practicing them regularly, you both will and should continue to go back to it. It is not the most engaging read, I had to tell myself I wasn’t done for the day unless I finished a chapter. But, it is full of advice and lessons that you can use daily. You won’t become an expert after one read, that is made plain and clear, these habits take time and effort to master. 

I did take a lot of notes while I was reading and I used a lot of post its to mark sections that intrigued me or spoke to me. I do not see myself practicing all of the habits in this book, I do not aspire to become a master of the seven habits, but I do see myself using bits and pieces as a means of self help. I loved that there were a lot of charts, diagrams, and visual examples throughout, they definitely made understanding the concepts much easier. I also loved the many stories the author referred to. It was very fitting, using his real life experiences as a way to teach us about the seven habits. I feel like without these true stories the book would not have been as effective or made as much of an impact as it would have without them. I greatly appreciated the author telling his personal stories. 

I’m not going to explain any of the habits to you, you can only truly learn them and how they can help you if you take the time to read about them for yourself. It would be impossible for me to summarize the contents of this book to anyone, it is vastly informative. But, I can say that I can see this book being good for a lot of people. If you are having problems at work, with family or friends, with your life partner or children, or if you are feeling lost, unmotivated, unsure of what to do, there are solutions for how to deal with all of these issues.

A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas

Fiction

So I was kind of correct when I made my guesses as to what this book would be like. The atmosphere was similar to that of the first three books, which was great because I was ready for action again. There wasn’t a war, but everyone was preparing mentally and physically for what they believed was coming soon. And, there was a lot of groundwork laid in terms of spying on the enemies as well as  trying to make alliances and allies. 

I really liked that this book was mostly from the point of view of Nesta, with some Cassian point of view thrown in. Nesta is really complicated. She has always been unapproachable, unpleasant, fierce, fearless, and proud. She has gone through a lot of trauma in the short period of time since Feyre was taken to Prythian, not to mention the upset and embarrassment of the loss of her family’s fortune in the past. After what happened towards the end in A Court of Wings and Ruin, you would expect Nesta to have had a change for the better, but the exact opposite occurs. Nesta gets even nastier, destroying the very few friendships she had, isolating herself, and destroying her mind and body daily with drink, gambling, and men, and this is how the book opens up. We do find out why Nesta was acting this way very deep into the story and it is an incredible tale as we learn why she is the way she is as we see her begin to heal.

If I didn’t already know that a sixth book was being drafted, I would have either guessed that there was one in the making or I would have been disappointed at the idea of being left with so much unanswered. There is definitely going to be another war, either between Prythian and the continent or between some of the High Lords, that is very obvious. We are left wondering if anything is ever going to happen between Elain and Lucien, as they still do not talk much and Elain still seems incredibly reluctant to give Lucien a chance. There is a new female character introduced that I see forming a romantic relationship with someone in the inner circle. There was a pretty big hint in the book. And I suspect in the next installment that there will finally be some romance for Azriel, either with Elain, as a lot of people have been predicting, but I also kind of have a good feeling about Gwyn, and I honestly would prefer that pairing. Hopefully I won’t have to wait too long to find out. But in the meantime, I now have a chance to start reading Maas’ third series, Crescent City, with just enough time to get through it before her third book in that series comes out in January. 

If you haven’t been interested in my fantasy review ramblings, I do have a nonfiction book that I will be reviewing next week. As much as I love fantasy and sci fi, I do realize that I need to read something that is educational or enlightening once in a while to keep me grounded in reality.

A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas

Fiction

I cannot understand why people seem to dislike this book. I thought it was really nice. The story was nice and it was nice to see the characters get a break for once. I liked getting a glimpse of them living their normal day to day lives as they healed mentally while rebuilding their court. Depending on how the next book begins, I do see this as maybe being a book that you could skip over and not miss out on any of the plot as the story continues.

I found it to be a welcome break for my mind, one that I am grateful to have had when I looked at the size of book five. In fact, compared to the rest of the books in this series, this book is almost like a short story when you look at its length in comparison. This took me only a few hours to read rather than a few days. I can see how Maas used her love of fairy tales in the writing of this story, it was pretty tame when compared to the rest of them and had the most overall happy feeling out of all of them too. 

Having said that, I predict that A Court of Silver Flames will mirror the atmosphere of the first three books. I don’t think there will be a war, unless those mortal queens do decide to start something, I think it will be a lot of spying, planning, and prevention. I am looking forward to seeing where this part of the story goes, and maybe getting a glimpse of the continent that everyone keeps talking about.