Walter > Recent Status Updates

Just a quick update. Because of a family situation, I haven’t had the chance to read comments or reviews. Hopefully, Sunday will be the day I’m back on track. Take care!

Halfway through Two Necromancers, a Bureaucrat and an Army of Golems and I’m having a blast. It reads like Pratchett meeting John Cleese, with a slice of Red Dwarf and a pinch of Monty Python. Necromancers, bureaucracy, explosions, and terrible ideas. Naturally, this makes it a very serious book indeed.

This book is about a necromancer. Naturally. He is thin, frequently chased by villagers with torches, and sensibly armed with an unbreakable shuffle rather than a longsword, which usually indicates personal issues. Add a bureaucrat, an army of golems, and zombies including ninja rats, and you get a gloriously absurd and very funny read.

After about 50% of the book, The Day of the Triffids surprised me. I expected monsters, but found something more personal and unsettling. Humanity’s blindness makes fear immediate and practical. I’m less interested in the technical backstory, but the human reactions, choices, and shifting power feel very real. Calmly written, yet genuinely scary.

Halfway through The Kraken Wakes and I’m impressed by how quietly unsettling it is.
The story unfolds like a newspaper archive: reports, speculation, denial. Explanations come and fail. Even humanity’s loudest answers meet only silence.
The real horror isn’t spectacle, but realizing how limited our understanding and control really is. Alright back to reading!

To all my Goodreads friends: wishing you a healthy New Year, many good books, and plenty of time to read them. Let’s make it a good one together.

Just started this one:
a Union regiment from Maine boards a transport ship and is suddenly hurled through space and time, shipwrecked on an alien world. Armed with Civil War weapons and ideas of freedom, equality, and democracy, they enter a society shaped by brutal hierarchies. Curious to see where this goes.

At 75% in, this one still isn’t clicking for me. I loved the first two books and I’m a big fan of Adrian Tchaikovsky, but this story just doesn’t work for me. It feels more like reading a dataset or thought experiment than a flowing narrative. I respect what it’s doing, it’s just not for me.

I struggled with the first part of this book and almost put it down.
It would have been my first DNF this year. I’m glad I kept going, though. Things are starting to fall into place, the story makes more sense now, and I’m genuinely curious to see where it leads.

Halfway through Passage to Dawn and I’m loving it.
The shift from drow tunnels to open-sea adventures is exactly what I needed. Pirates, chaos, Harkle and Robillard making me laugh .
And beneath the humor, the shadow of Drizzt’s past grows. A beautiful balance of heart, danger, and light.

A quarter into Passage to Dawn and I’m loving it. Salvatore mixes tension with pure, unexpected humor .
Harkle and Robillard nearly made me cry with laughter. Perfect escape during my own time of troubles. Drizzt, Cattie-brie, and the chaos on Caerwich keep pulling me in. A nice blend of adventure, magic, and heart.

Halfway through A Siege of Darkness, I’m reminded why I always return to the Drizzt books.
They’re my comfort zone reading: familiar, fast, and perfect after a long day.
I love how Salvatore writes dwarves and Mithril Hall, and the presence of Lloth… wow, she is terrifying. Salvatore knows how to make darkness feel alive.

A Dance with Dragons (75%)
This book wraps you in a blizzard of politics, prophecy, and pain. Jon tries to hold the Wall together as it slowly turns against him; Dany’s dream burns and reshapes itself in dragonfire; Theon rises from the ashes of his own mind; and Tyrion survives by wit alone. It’s bleak, brilliant, and grippin.
Westeros tightens its grip with every chapter. ❄️🐉🍷

Halfway through A Dance with Dragons and it feels like surviving a blizzard of politics, dragons, and despair. Jon drowns in duty, Dany in doubt, and Tyrion in sarcasm (and wine). Bran’s roots deepen, Theon’s ghosts whisper, and Davos keeps the last candle of honor burning. Grim, brilliant, and freezing, not a story to read, but one to endure and admire. ❄️🐉🍷

20% into A Dance with Dragons and wow, everyone’s miserable, frozen, or on fire. Tyrion drinks, Dany doubts, Jon broods like it’s an Olympic sport, and poor Reek needs therapy and soap.
Yet Martin’s world pulls me in deeper: bleak, brilliant, and oddly funny in its despair. It’s less a book, more a slow-burn prophecy with dragons and existential dread. 🐉❄️

Been reading all week, working like a champ, but haven’t touched Goodreads. Why? Just a humble cold, my souvenir from visiting coworkers with babies. Five days later I sound like a grumpy old dragon guarding tissues instead of treasure. Still reading though.

I promise to drop by your reviews later this week! 🐉🤧

75% through A Feast for Crows and though it’s so different from the last book, it’s somehow even better. The battles are over, but the aftermath cuts deeper.

Faith turns fanatical, queens unravel, and knights wander through ashes seeking meaning.
Slower, sadder, wiser.

Martin shows that silence after war can be louder than war itself.

Halfway through A Feast for Crows and loving how the pace slows but the depth deepens.
The great battles are over, yet the real war within hearts, faith, and memory, has begun.
Brienne’s quiet honor, Cersei’s spiraling paranoia, and Arya’s eerie rebirth make this book feel intimate, tragic, and oddly beautiful. A different kind of storm, but just as fierce.

I’ve just finished the first two chapters of Tintenherz in the original German. The story already feels magical, with rain, night, and the arrival of the mysterious Staubfinger. Reading in German is slow but rewarding — every new word is a small victory. It’s a wonderful way to enjoy a great story while learning the language step by step.

At a quarter in, A Feast for Crows feels slower yet richer. The North rests, while new arenas rise: Dorne, the Vale, and the Iron Islands burn with intrigue. Cersei spirals into paranoia, Brienne wanders in loyalty, Arya trains in shadows. It’s a book of aftermath and shifting power, less war, more masks. Subtle, but the storm is brewing.

Mein erstes Buch auf Deutsch 📚

Ich habe gerade mit Tintenherz von Cornelia Funke angefangen. Mein allererstes Buch auf Deutsch!
Das wird sicher eine Weile dauern, aber ich hab richtig Lust, die Geschichte in der Originalsprache zu erleben.

Ich lese langsam, Kapitel für Kapitel, und schreibe mir ein paar Wörter und Eindrücke dazu auf. Mal sehen, wie das klappt. 😅

A strange, unsettling read that really hooked me. Muriel, an 80-year-old widow, is one of the most unique horror protagonists I’ve ever come across. The mist, the creature, and the moral choices gave the story real weight. Creepy without leaning on gore. That said… sex with a sea creature? Definitely one of the weirdest turns I’ve read in a while! Still, it kept me turning the pages. 4 stars.

At 75% Storm of Swords feels like a relentless storm. The pace is brutal: weddings turn into horrors, walls into battlefields, and loyalties shatter. What makes it great is the constant question......who will survive? It’s harsh, yet impossible to stop reading. Martin’s world is cruel, but gripping beyond measure.

At 60% of Storm of Swords I’m amazed by how much Martin packs into this whopper of a book. Arya’s path with the Brotherhood blurs justice and vengeance, Jon struggles between love and loyalty, Jaime’s journey after his maiming grows compelling, and Sansa remains trapped in politics. Dany’s rise with the Unsullied feels unstoppable. Dark, complex, and addictive.

At halfway through Storm of Swords, Martin’s storytelling is at its sharpest. Jon’s climb with the wildlings balances love and betrayal, Jaime’s maiming reshapes him entirely, Tyrion and Sansa’s forced marriage shows politics at its cruelest, Arya witnesses miracles and violence, and Dany becomes a true player with the Unsullied. Dark, layered, and impossible to stop reading.

At 35% of Storm of Swords I’m struck by how layered the story has become. Tyrion navigates politics in Tywin’s shadow, Sansa’s forced marriage shifts her from dreamer to survivor, Arya hardens with the Brotherhood, Jaime reveals unexpected depth, Jon walks the razor’s edge among the wildlings, and Dany emerges as Breaker of Chains. Dark, tense, and utterly gripping.

25% in and Westeros feels like a medieval soap opera directed by Quentin Tarantino. Arya’s kill list grows longer than my grocery list, Tyrion plays chess while Tywin smashes the board, and poor Catelyn keeps drowning in “mom-mode.” I laugh, I worry, I brace, because Martin surely sharpens his axe backstage.

At 75%, A Clash of Kings is a storm of war, whispers, and strange visions. Arya becomes the Rambo/Bronson of Westeros with her deadly list, Tyrion plays master strategist in King’s Landing, and Bran and Jon sink deeper into magic and mystery. Dany’s dragons grow, Theon’s blunders multiply. Brutal, sprawling, brilliant—Martin never lets the tension ease.

Haven’t been on Goodreads for a few days—got caught up wrestling with that rare beast called “real life” (and its sidekick, “work”). Hoping to get back to reading tomorrow, though. Some days are just like that, right? So if I didn’t reply, don’t worry—it’s not you, it’s me doing a bad impression of an adult. Wishing you a great weekend!