696 ratings (4.00 avg)
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Alina

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Alina is Currently Reading

Alina is currently reading

Empire of the Vampire (Empire of the Vampire, #1)

by Jay Kristoff (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

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(page 18 of 725)
"Please, please keep being good, my last 2 reads have been a torturous shit pit and a DNF. I need something good before my brain rots." — Feb 16, 2026 10:01PM

Feb 16, 2026 10:00PM

Alina is currently reading

Of War and Ruin (The Bound and the Broken, #3)

by Ryan Cahill (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading, series, owned-books

Reading for the 2nd time

read in September 2024

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Alina said: " Is it possible for a book to be overlong and drag on forever, mired in irrelevant and annoying plot threads for 500 pages... and still be a full 5 star rating? You betcha. Because Ryan Cahill stuck the landing so masterfully that I have forgotten mos Is it possible for a book to be overlong and drag on forever, mired in irrelevant and annoying plot threads for 500 pages... and still be a full 5 star rating? You betcha. Because Ryan Cahill stuck the landing so masterfully that I have forgotten most of what I was griping about as I plowed through this behemoth of a book.

Is it possible for a book to be full of melodramatic, overly-emotional, terribly overreacting characters that I don't have a lot invested in even after 3 books... and still be a 5 star read? You betcha. Because Ryan Cahill has a handful of supporting characters that save the story left, right and center. And he does this wonderful things where he gives PoVs from absolutely every side of this gargantuan conflict. With a few minor exceptions, ALL of them have their pros and cons and reasons and arguments and I'll be damned if my favorite characters in these books do not come from the Empire side. Certainly the most interesting parts of the books revolve around Empire people. Maybe it's because my young adulting days are way behind me, but I find myself absolutely uninspired by the Calens and the Corbans and the other teenage/young adult characters going through their coming of age stories. Give me the fucked up ones with ages of blood and grief in them, give me the Aesons and the Fardas and the Eltoars and the Therins and so on and so forth.

One thing I do have to seriously moan about, even though in the end, it does not make this book less than epic and brilliant (just much too long). After reading The Exile, I was BEYOND interested in Dayne Ateres and everything that was going to happen in Wyvernland. Unfortunately, I feel like this is where the author dropped the ball completely, because all that happened in Valtara was whining, bitching, moaning, crying and wringing of hands, posturing, incompetent girlboss-ness... and these people are not kids. They're all grown and hard bitten adults and yet all the Valtara arc provided was disappointment that the dumbest character in the book and I share a name. So unfortunate and so sad to see Dayne reduced to a boot-licking lackey.

Also, the first part of the book spends so much pointless time with the Belduar / Dwarves story that was tedious even in the previous book. Once that got wrapped up, I swear I felt a huge millstone falling from around my reading neck.

Another small niggle has to do with the constant repetition of crap like 'by blade and by blood' every other second... of the constant hammering of how mega-awesome-tight-important-all consuming the dragon bond is. I hope the next book is a little tighter in this respect and the author learns to tone down the repetitions, it cheapens what he is trying to convey after a time.

And yet....... this is fully a 5 star read and I am absolutely sold for the next book, even if it will be an even bigger, heavier doorstop. Because the scale and the scope and the sheer number of factions involved in this story is mindblowing. I'm hooked, I'm sold, I'm invested, I'm in awe with the way Ryan Cahill has written his battles and the fight sequences in general. I love how every race and every creature and every sort of thing you can come across in any fantasy story is also in this story... but presented in such a way that they're fresh and new and seen from a different perspective. Elves? About what you'd expect, except a large part of them are murderous maniacs. Dwarves? Same. Druids? A whole new thing that I haven't seen before. Orcs? Ents? Wizards / mages? Yes and yes and yes. Dragons? Oh yes. Oh my... The dragon fights in this book? They alone can lift the rating sky high.

Bring on the next book because where this one leaves off is the most uneasy lull in the carnage. I'm pretty sure things are way worse and more dire at the end of this book than before the last 200 pages of unrelenting bloodshed. Mr Author sir, you are doing a tremendous job and putting forth a titanic work of imagination. Tighten the writing a little bit and maybe grow all them kids up at long fucking last and you're going to have a legendary finale to the series. ...more "

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(78%)
"For all she's my namesake, I HAAAATE Alina and that story arc. Everything in it is so irrational and melodramatic and bullshit. And it's the wannabe queen bitch that wrecks the entire arc for me." — Sep 26, 2024 02:14AM

Jan 20, 2026 12:07AM · see review

Alina is currently reading

Borders of Infinity (Vorkosigan Saga [Publication] #5.1-5.3)

by Lois McMaster Bujold (Goodreads Author)

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Jun 03, 2025 08:04PM

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Alina’s Quotes

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

tags: books, dragons, fairy-tales, inspirational, paraphrasing-g-k-chesterton

45224 likes

“An open mind is like to an open wound,' growled Glokta. 'Vulnerable to poison.”
― Joe Abercrombie, Before They Are Hanged

91 likes

“Chose? If you believe that I chose any part of the pitiful shadow of a life you see before you, you are very much mistaken. I chose glory and success. The box did not contain what was written on the lid.”
― Joe Abercrombie, Last Argument of Kings

144 likes

“Every man has his excuses, and the more vile the man becomes, the more touching the story has to be. What is my story now, I wonder?”
― Joe Abercrombie, The Blade Itself

263 likes

“Proof is boring. Proof is tiresome. Proof is an irrelevance. People would far rather be handed an easy lie than search for a difficult truth, especially if it suits their own purposes.”
― Joe Abercrombie, Last Argument of Kings

tags: truth

354 likes

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