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A Poor Tale of Iris
Ziggy and Iris are elite adventurers, entitled millennials, in love. They haggled with trickster gods and were sent to ancient Rome as a result – for good, unless they can find out who killed some old dude, defeat a trio of angry demigods and work around all those time-paradoxes. They will lie, cheat and fight their way through mythical antiquity. They will also party, as there is no point in time-traveling if you can’t have any fun.
- GenresFantasy
212 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 22, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 11, 2019
"His head got dislocated."
"Barkeep! My cup is dry - remedy this fucking atrocity!" "...your cups of wine, domini. Oh? Yes, fuck the cups, I shall bring you flagons... (Sounds so much like something I would say... Aww...)
"Camelot coughed in agreement. Or tuberculosis."
This book is my kind of funny weird.
I sorta got this book for free because I follow author Lukas Ramonas on Facebook and one day he decided to give away his book for free for the reading folk. And nobody asked me for a honest review. Nobody! But well, I was skeptical - Lithuanian literature is often cruel as a alarm clock on 6 o'clock in the morning on Saturday, dramatic as Kim Kardashian carrying a champagne glass on her ass, and so pompous that you can make Donald Trump out of it. Buuut thissss oneeee...
Every great story starts with great character names. Yes, you can have Anne and make her great, but have Siegfried Kugel ("...was nowhere near being proud of his name. Not even close".) and just Iris and make them great - there is a challenge for you. And yes, character development could have been better since I think author still needs more experience in writing fiction, but boy, I loved it.
The setting of ancient Rome might not by my cup of tea, but overall experience was loads of fun. It's a funny adventure with equal amounts of harmony between death, jokes, Gods, absurd and crazy situations. Never before I heard about Cosmic Clowns and a corner that sells shovels and wine and bread and anti-mimicry amulets and cats (a white cat, please!). The author doesn't try too much to make drama or kill readers with grand statements, but the book has this natural adventurous pull that keeps you glued. In the chaos author still manages to have few layer of drama and keep his style of sentence building witch is great.
One of those rare occasion when I dream of #2.
"Barkeep! My cup is dry - remedy this fucking atrocity!" "...your cups of wine, domini. Oh? Yes, fuck the cups, I shall bring you flagons... (Sounds so much like something I would say... Aww...)
"Camelot coughed in agreement. Or tuberculosis."
This book is my kind of funny weird.
I sorta got this book for free because I follow author Lukas Ramonas on Facebook and one day he decided to give away his book for free for the reading folk. And nobody asked me for a honest review. Nobody! But well, I was skeptical - Lithuanian literature is often cruel as a alarm clock on 6 o'clock in the morning on Saturday, dramatic as Kim Kardashian carrying a champagne glass on her ass, and so pompous that you can make Donald Trump out of it. Buuut thissss oneeee...
Every great story starts with great character names. Yes, you can have Anne and make her great, but have Siegfried Kugel ("...was nowhere near being proud of his name. Not even close".) and just Iris and make them great - there is a challenge for you. And yes, character development could have been better since I think author still needs more experience in writing fiction, but boy, I loved it.
The setting of ancient Rome might not by my cup of tea, but overall experience was loads of fun. It's a funny adventure with equal amounts of harmony between death, jokes, Gods, absurd and crazy situations. Never before I heard about Cosmic Clowns and a corner that sells shovels and wine and bread and anti-mimicry amulets and cats (a white cat, please!). The author doesn't try too much to make drama or kill readers with grand statements, but the book has this natural adventurous pull that keeps you glued. In the chaos author still manages to have few layer of drama and keep his style of sentence building witch is great.
One of those rare occasion when I dream of #2.
December 31, 2020
Okay so there's a lot I thought of this book. And I like it and dislike it the same amount, so 3 stars seemed like a fair rating. Note that I did not say love it and hate it because it's neither good enough to love nor bad enough to hate but let's start from the beginning.
I picked this book up because I like the author, he is a comedian and a social media personality in Lithuania and I enjoy reading his elaborate posts and like his point of view. However, I had no idea what would he be as a writer because this is his first and (so far) only book, so I was super curious.
Now one thing was glaringly clear from the very start and that was that English is not his native language. That was the most consistent problem the book had and therefore the one I had to mention from the getgo. I understand why he wanted to write in English, because the story he chose and the characters he dreamed up would be way harder to execute in Lithuanian, it is an ancient language, so it can be quite unwieldy, writing in Lithuanian is an ordeal. However, in order to write well in English, a certain sense of language is required that the author possessed only in part. The book was peppered with phrases that didn't work in English at all, sometimes they were too crudely translated from Lithuanian and were not formed in a way that flowed well in English, sometimes a phrase would be formed following the rules of a different English phrase that would not work because the words plastered on that structure were all wrong, sometimes even similar words were mixed up in their meaning (disproval vs disapproval etc.). Some of these issues may have been avoided by having an editor, or even a proofreader, but I'm pretty sure there was neither. This was the problem that took me out of it the most and therefore the biggest sin the book comitted in my oppinion.
The style of writing reminded me of Terry Pratchett a lot in the beginning, but it waned further along, however, it was quite clear that the author took a lot of influence of how he would wish to form his story from Pratchett, there were also some influences of George Carlin as well that I could see. Probably many others that I missed as well. The reason I am mentioning this is because this was anoher thing that made it quite clear that you are reading someone in his very early stages of writing - before someone can create their own style they imitate and combine the styles of their heroes. Since this impression of impersonating someone else's style got weaker as the book progressed, I suppose the author got more confident as he went along and tried to do things his own way, it was not very good, but it was nice to see him try and come into his own, a shadow of someone great is a safe place to be and therefore requires certain creative bravery to try and leave so even though this creative soul searching made the book's style quite uneven, I can fogive it.
Now, the story itself... (WARNING, spoiler talk is coming) The beginning was confusing as hell, the character of Diogenes was an absolute exposition machine and the story itself seemed confusing at times. I see what he was trying to do weaving these twists and turns in the plot to come up with an engaging story, but it was not very successful and the main reason was because the worl building was weak. The setting was ancient Rome, which comes with its own set of rules and challenges (which, kudos to the author, he seemed to do a fair bit of research on) but then it was spiced up with some fantasy ideas which changed the whole power structure in this already existing dynamic, which introduced a whole new set of challenges that were not handled too well. Also, the main vilains of the story were ancient Greek gods in a story set in ancient Rome with the addition of some author invented mythologies on top of that, which was never explained and was insanely confusing... Since I don't think I managed to explain this very well let me summarize here: the ideas for the story and its twists and turns were quite good, but the setting the author placed them in and the world he build around them were not well thought thorugh or at leas not well explained and therefore confusing which in turn made the whole story cofusing because I, as a reader, was very often confused about the rules of this world.
Now, the good. Despite of how the story turned out and all the pitfalls of a new writer that the author fell in, it had some good, fun, inventive, imaginative ideas and scenarios. Sometimes when you read a book by a fresh new author, there's a lingering thought/doubt about why this book even happened, because even though it was a great practice for the author it offers nothing to the reader so you get a feeling that it would have been better off being written for the autience of a desk drawrer, but that's not the case for A Poor Tale of Iris, because I can see why it was written, the ideas were worthwhile of a book, and the thought and effort that went into them and that uniqueness of the author's point of view and storytelling style shines through, it is not perfectly executed and one could say that the ideas could have done better to sit inside the authors head and mature, let him experiment his craft and then come out as something more substantial but I say that you have to start with something and this was a good start and if these are ideas he had as an inexperienced writer, I would be really excited to see what he dreams up and what worlds he constructs once he gets better at it.
I picked this book up because I like the author, he is a comedian and a social media personality in Lithuania and I enjoy reading his elaborate posts and like his point of view. However, I had no idea what would he be as a writer because this is his first and (so far) only book, so I was super curious.
Now one thing was glaringly clear from the very start and that was that English is not his native language. That was the most consistent problem the book had and therefore the one I had to mention from the getgo. I understand why he wanted to write in English, because the story he chose and the characters he dreamed up would be way harder to execute in Lithuanian, it is an ancient language, so it can be quite unwieldy, writing in Lithuanian is an ordeal. However, in order to write well in English, a certain sense of language is required that the author possessed only in part. The book was peppered with phrases that didn't work in English at all, sometimes they were too crudely translated from Lithuanian and were not formed in a way that flowed well in English, sometimes a phrase would be formed following the rules of a different English phrase that would not work because the words plastered on that structure were all wrong, sometimes even similar words were mixed up in their meaning (disproval vs disapproval etc.). Some of these issues may have been avoided by having an editor, or even a proofreader, but I'm pretty sure there was neither. This was the problem that took me out of it the most and therefore the biggest sin the book comitted in my oppinion.
The style of writing reminded me of Terry Pratchett a lot in the beginning, but it waned further along, however, it was quite clear that the author took a lot of influence of how he would wish to form his story from Pratchett, there were also some influences of George Carlin as well that I could see. Probably many others that I missed as well. The reason I am mentioning this is because this was anoher thing that made it quite clear that you are reading someone in his very early stages of writing - before someone can create their own style they imitate and combine the styles of their heroes. Since this impression of impersonating someone else's style got weaker as the book progressed, I suppose the author got more confident as he went along and tried to do things his own way, it was not very good, but it was nice to see him try and come into his own, a shadow of someone great is a safe place to be and therefore requires certain creative bravery to try and leave so even though this creative soul searching made the book's style quite uneven, I can fogive it.
Now, the story itself... (WARNING, spoiler talk is coming) The beginning was confusing as hell, the character of Diogenes was an absolute exposition machine and the story itself seemed confusing at times. I see what he was trying to do weaving these twists and turns in the plot to come up with an engaging story, but it was not very successful and the main reason was because the worl building was weak. The setting was ancient Rome, which comes with its own set of rules and challenges (which, kudos to the author, he seemed to do a fair bit of research on) but then it was spiced up with some fantasy ideas which changed the whole power structure in this already existing dynamic, which introduced a whole new set of challenges that were not handled too well. Also, the main vilains of the story were ancient Greek gods in a story set in ancient Rome with the addition of some author invented mythologies on top of that, which was never explained and was insanely confusing... Since I don't think I managed to explain this very well let me summarize here: the ideas for the story and its twists and turns were quite good, but the setting the author placed them in and the world he build around them were not well thought thorugh or at leas not well explained and therefore confusing which in turn made the whole story cofusing because I, as a reader, was very often confused about the rules of this world.
Now, the good. Despite of how the story turned out and all the pitfalls of a new writer that the author fell in, it had some good, fun, inventive, imaginative ideas and scenarios. Sometimes when you read a book by a fresh new author, there's a lingering thought/doubt about why this book even happened, because even though it was a great practice for the author it offers nothing to the reader so you get a feeling that it would have been better off being written for the autience of a desk drawrer, but that's not the case for A Poor Tale of Iris, because I can see why it was written, the ideas were worthwhile of a book, and the thought and effort that went into them and that uniqueness of the author's point of view and storytelling style shines through, it is not perfectly executed and one could say that the ideas could have done better to sit inside the authors head and mature, let him experiment his craft and then come out as something more substantial but I say that you have to start with something and this was a good start and if these are ideas he had as an inexperienced writer, I would be really excited to see what he dreams up and what worlds he constructs once he gets better at it.
March 7, 2021
I liked it. This book was a fun read and I did enjoy the author's sense of humour. I liked the characters (gods being clowns was one of the best thing :D ), world building was also neatly done. All that said I was unsure why it seemed to drag in some places (too much talking, too little action for this kind of book maybe?). I had to start it for the second time before I've finished it.
January 29, 2018
Wow this book was simply wonderful. Simply amazing and was so fun to read. This book is so well-written and thought through. It was really hard to put this book down to go to sleep.
This book was a lot of fun adventurous. This is Iris and Ziggy’s story. Iris grew up in a home for orphans. The place was so horrible and stick they did not even allow the kids to have a name, so she named herself. And when she shows independence she is chosen to serve as a sacrifice. Thank goodness for Ziggy as he saves her and they become inseparable thereafter. When traveling everything starts to go wrong all because of a silly mistake made by duo, they end up time traveling and they find each other in Rome. There they are able to assist the Kosmic Klowns in finding one of their nemeses and disposing of him. Only this soon reveals there an evil among them. Her songs only affect the guys, but it slows Iris down having to defend herself before taking care of Kukuxumushu. I just loved this book, It took me just a few hours to finish the book, I just could not put it down once I started to read it
Now before I ruin this for you I will leave off here. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did. If you do like this book, please consider leaving a review. The Authors really like it when you do; they value your opinions too
This book was a lot of fun adventurous. This is Iris and Ziggy’s story. Iris grew up in a home for orphans. The place was so horrible and stick they did not even allow the kids to have a name, so she named herself. And when she shows independence she is chosen to serve as a sacrifice. Thank goodness for Ziggy as he saves her and they become inseparable thereafter. When traveling everything starts to go wrong all because of a silly mistake made by duo, they end up time traveling and they find each other in Rome. There they are able to assist the Kosmic Klowns in finding one of their nemeses and disposing of him. Only this soon reveals there an evil among them. Her songs only affect the guys, but it slows Iris down having to defend herself before taking care of Kukuxumushu. I just loved this book, It took me just a few hours to finish the book, I just could not put it down once I started to read it
Now before I ruin this for you I will leave off here. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did. If you do like this book, please consider leaving a review. The Authors really like it when you do; they value your opinions too
January 10, 2018
A Poor Tale of Iris is a tale of time travel adventure of two unique, fun loving people who dares to do anything and who are in fact not much popular with anyone. The story is written in a tongue in cheek kind of way where even the immortals and creators are not spared and shown with all the human weaknesses of lust, evilness and a tendency to cheat. The world is painted a special shade of grey where although there is much negativity, yet the fun and party atmosphere seem to overshadow that negativity. The result is that although we feel the evil and the misfortune, it is a subdued and mellowed form of evil that would evoke just laughter and amusement and would leave little space for regret or thoughtful musing. An example could be seen in the opening chapter where Iris and Ziggy brave many challenges to meet the trickster Gods only to have their efforts snuffed and one of the Gods actually flirt with Iris.
The story, is charming, engaging and intriguing and readers are kept guessing on various angles while being amused all the way to the very end.
The story, is charming, engaging and intriguing and readers are kept guessing on various angles while being amused all the way to the very end.
January 12, 2018
The Kosmic Klowns represent gods, Goodie and Baddie. Not the Greek gods, for they killed the ones they could find. The Kosmic Klowns weren’t known for their compassion, wisdom, or assisting humans. They were often bored individuals that consumed too much alcohol and drugs. Though there was a fable that they would grant a wish, they only sent Iris and Ziggy back in time, into a different life.
Iris grew up in a home similar to an orphanage. It was so strict she wasn’t even allowed to have a name, she named herself. When she was about to be offered as a sacrifice, for showing independence, Ziggy saves her and they become inseparable thereafter. As they visit Rome as different individual, they are able to assist the Kosmic Klowns in finding one of their nemeses and disposing of him. This only reveals there is a shape shifting siren among them gathering vital information. Her songs only affect the guys, but it slows Iris down having to defend herself before taking care of Kukuxumushu.
Iris grew up in a home similar to an orphanage. It was so strict she wasn’t even allowed to have a name, she named herself. When she was about to be offered as a sacrifice, for showing independence, Ziggy saves her and they become inseparable thereafter. As they visit Rome as different individual, they are able to assist the Kosmic Klowns in finding one of their nemeses and disposing of him. This only reveals there is a shape shifting siren among them gathering vital information. Her songs only affect the guys, but it slows Iris down having to defend herself before taking care of Kukuxumushu.
January 9, 2018
This was an immersive reading and I already miss it. It’s an interesting book on time travel and it can get a bit confusing at times as the characters don’t know to which time period they are going but the author manages it quite well. As soon as the characters arrive they first start to make inquiries about where and when they are, shedding some light on the mystery and entertaining the reader with those dialogues.
The story itself is quite simple: we have Ziggy and Iris, adventurers who by a twist of fate, end up being punished and sent to the ancient Rome to uncover a murderer. The characters are fun and sometimes we hate them for being so full of themselves and sometimes we want to go and have fun with them. Even with the time travel adventures, the story holds itself quite nicely, with a coherent plot. It’s very entertaining and fun.
The story itself is quite simple: we have Ziggy and Iris, adventurers who by a twist of fate, end up being punished and sent to the ancient Rome to uncover a murderer. The characters are fun and sometimes we hate them for being so full of themselves and sometimes we want to go and have fun with them. Even with the time travel adventures, the story holds itself quite nicely, with a coherent plot. It’s very entertaining and fun.
January 7, 2018
There is some time travel in “A Poor Tale Of Iris” which if not handled properly can lead to confusion. The author skilfully manages this by having the characters – who evidently are confused about their locations – skilfully enquire of their own location and names. In the enquiry we the readers are also brought up to speed.
I liked Iris’ first life (trained orphan killer) as it seems more real to me than her being in Rome. Ziggy and Iris’ time in Rome take a number of twists and turns that really pull on the imagination. Sometimes the action seems separate from the main story but it is fiction and does hold the attention.
I liked Iris’ first life (trained orphan killer) as it seems more real to me than her being in Rome. Ziggy and Iris’ time in Rome take a number of twists and turns that really pull on the imagination. Sometimes the action seems separate from the main story but it is fiction and does hold the attention.
January 12, 2018
An interesting, fun loving story of two daring individuals who are caught in the adventures of time travel. There is fiction, action, mystery, laughter, evil and ganger all elements combined with the plot. At times it is fun and enjoyable with the two character’s behaviors, their dialogues and actions, but at times it gets a little mixed up to follow, but regardless a creative story by the author.
January 3, 2018
As for the debiut I will award 3/5 - the book is written in "fancy - curse" style, so if this is not an issue for you - quite a nice read.... The story plot in my opinion is quite shallow, but let's see how the author develops his writing in the future....
February 21, 2018
I liked the plot and enjoyed the writing style with all those humorous and satyrical remarks. The story is well thought through.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews