Reseña: Asesinato en el Orient Express (Hercule Poirot #10)

Asesinato en el Orient Express (Hercule Poirot #10)

by 

Agatha Christie

 208 pages

Published by Molino (first published 1934)

Original Title: Murder on the Orient Express

Series; Hercule Poirot #10

  

Sinopsis:En un lugar aislado de la antigua Yugoslavia, en plena madrugada, una fuerte tormenta de nieve obstaculiza la línea férrea por donde circula el Orient Express. Procedente de la exótica Estambul, en él viaja el detective Hércules Poirot, que repentinamente se topa con uno de los casos más desconcertantes de su carrera: en el compartimiento vecino ha sido asesinado alguien mientras dormía, pese a que ningún indicio trasluce un móvil concreto. Poirot aprovechará la situación para indagar entre los ocupantes del vagón, que a todas luces deberían ser los únicos posibles autores del crimen. Una víctima, doce sospechosos y una mente privilegiada en busca de la verdad: Agatha Christie construye con esta novela una intrigante historia de suspense que desencadena en una resolución magistral.

My rating: 3,3 estrellas atrapadas

El expreso del Oriente sale con Poirot a bordo desde Alepo (Siria) y va rumbo a Calais en Francia. La nieve les deja varados en lo que era Yugoslavia. Hay un asesinato, y los sospechosos estan a bordo del tren. El porqué es pronto revelado, pero no el quién donde todos son sospechosos.

Me temo que el ver las peliculas (he visto varias versiones) me arruinó el libro. Las actuaciones de los personajes a quien se les deja espacio para moverse se ve muy bien en escena, pues parece más como una obra de teatro (como llega hasta comentar Poirot), aunque tiene también espacio para lucirse en el cine.

Reseña: Plum Fantastic (Sugar Plum Ballerinas #1)

Plum Fantastic (Sugar Plum Ballerinas #1)

by 

Whoopi Goldberg

Deborah Underwood 

Maryn Roos (Illustrator)

160 pages

Published October 21st 2008 by Jump At The Sun

ISBN: 0786852607 (ISBN13: 9780786852604)

Edition Language: English

Series: Sugar Plum Ballerinas #1 

 

BLURB: Alexandrea Petrakova Johnson does not want to be a beautiful ballerina, and she does not want to leave her friends in Apple Creek. Unfortunately, that doesn't stop her ballet-crazy mother from moving them to Harlem, or from enrolling Al at the Nutcracker School of Ballet.
Life is hard when you're the new ballerina on the block, and it's even harder when you're chosen to be the Sugar Plum Fairy in the school recital! Not only is Al a terrible dancer, but she's also got a rotten case of stage fright! Al's ballet classmates are going to have to use all the plum power they've got to coach this scary fairy!

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“Sugar Plum Power!”

This was really cute. When Alexandrea Petrakova Johnson's mom moves them to Harlem, she is not happy to leave home and friends. She dreams with skate racing and not ballet, but her mom is so insistent. Worse than starting in a new place, with new girls, new teacher when you are 9 years old? ... to cause a sensation with the extravagant clothes that her mother makes!

A story about friendship, family, perseverance. Brave girls. And plus - diversity.

Reseña: Monstress #19 (individual issue)

Monstress #19 

by 

Marjorie M. Liu

Sana Takeda (Artista) 

29 pages

Published January 23rd 2019 by Image Comics

Edition LanguageEnglish

SeriesMonstress (Issues)

Premios: Five-time Eisner Award winner for 2018

Synopsis: As Maika and Corvin search for Kippa through a warped and lethal land, Kippa herself will face her own terrible monsters...

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

bookshelves: graphic-novel, series-favoritas, dark-fantasy, bloody-and-gory, here-be-monsters, cover-love, comics-single-issues

Little Kippa is so brave!

This is a new arc for the saga. While the breach is spreading raving murderous madness, Kippa is led by her kidnappers to another mysterious character. In between flashbacks about what they want from the little fox, and mentions that Maika has lived something similar before.

-Precious art

-New characters

-More questions!

View all my reviews

Reseña: Watersnakes (novela gráfica)

 +Digital arc gently provided by Netgalley and editors in exchange for an honest review+

Watersnakes 

by 

Tony Sandoval

Lucas Marangon (traductor)

144 pages

Published November 20th 2018 by Magnetic Press (first published January 1st 2008)

Original Title: Le Serpent d'eau

ISBN: 1942367759 (ISBN13: 9781942367758)

Edition Language: English 

BLURB. Mila is a solitary teenager ready to put another boring summer vacation behind her until she meets Agnes, an adventurous girl who turns out to be a ghost. And not just a regular ghost, but one carrying the essence of an ancient fallen king and a mouth full of teeth that used to be his guardian warriors.

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Pedi este libro en Netgalley solamente por la portada. Para que vean .

Trata de una chica adolescente que conoce a otra en sus vacaciones. Una chica extraña que usa máscaras , roba y asegura que es un fantasma y solamente ella puede verla. Desde el principio Mila esta obsesionada con los dientes de la chica-fantasma. Es bastante fetichista y perturbador. Luego la cosa se complica con una fantasia de seres en el mar y blah, mucho enredo y cualidad de pesadilla, a saltos.

No la recomiendo.

Reseña: Shadow's Bane (Dorina Basarab #4)

Shadow's Bane (Dorina Basarab #4)

by 

Karen Chance

616 pages

Published July 31st 2018 by Berkeley

ISBN: 0451419065 (ISBN13: 9780451419064)

Edition Language: English

Series: Dorina Basarab #4

BLURB: Dorina Basarab is a dhampir—half-human, half-vampire. As one of the Vampire Senate’s newest members, Dory already has a lot on her plate. But then a relative of one of Dory’s fey friends goes missing. They fear he’s been sold to a slaver who arranges fights—sometimes to the death—between different types of fey.
As Dory investigates, she and her friends learn the slavers are into something much bigger than a fight club. With the Vampire Senate gearing up for war with Faerie, it’ll take everything she has to defeat the slavers—and deal with the entirely too attractive master vampire Louis-Cesare....

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

That was GREAT!!

In real life, Prince Charming took a knife in the eye, because he fought fair when nobody else did, and the bad guys won.
That was my reality. Hell, that was everyone’s reality, because that was actual fucking reality, and yet here he was, acting like none of that was true, none of that could touch him. But it was, and it could; I could. Not only wasn’t I a Disney hero, part of me wouldn’t even have been cast as the villain because she’d scare the crap out of the kiddies.

But I feel that I like Dorina a lot more than Dory after reading it.

A rollercoaster of story, with plenty of non-stop action. And emotions.

The plot? The vampiric senate continues in disarray. Dory must face more than one headache because of it. Meanwhile, Olga looks for a nephew kidnapped by slavers who shows us a sordid world where they perform clandestine fights like gladiators and children have the worst part. This forms part of a network of smugglers with a very dark secret.

Reseña: Masks (Cassandra Palmer #6.5)

Masks (Cassandra Palmer #6.5)

by 

Karen Chance

406 pages

Published March 18th 2014 by Penguin

ISBN: 0698182936 (ISBN13: 9780698182936)

Edition Language: English

Series: Cassandra Palmer

 BLURB: Fifteenth century Venice is a safe haven for the masterless dregs of the vampire world, a city where they can live without the fear of retribution for violating another’s territory.
Still, there are plenty of ways for a young vampire to die in the glittering city, a lesson that prince turned pauper Mircea Basarab must learn quickly. But there are opportunities, too—in the service of a secretive courtesan, in the bed of a beautiful senator, and in the hunt for an ancient assassin.
As a vendetta older than Venice itself comes to a climax, Mircea struggles to evade the dangers of his current life, to come to terms with his past, and to uncover the truth hidden behind a city of masks…

My rating: 4.5

bookshelves: vampiros, historical-fiction, historical-paranormal-fiction, adult-mature, w_courtesan, siglo-15, 2019-readings, political-games

“You think you’re so different from us, because you lost a palace? A kingdom?” Dark eyes blazed down into his. “Son, I lost a kingdom, too. So did every man here. Maybe our kingdoms were smaller, just a house we built with our own two hands, a wife we loved, a child. But do you think they meant any less? Do you think we mourn their loss one bit less than you?

Allá por el año 1448 o algo asi, Mircea Basarab es apenas un 'baby-vampiro' , tras 2 años de no-muerto, y las cosas no van nada de bien. Sin un Master ni familia vampírica que lo proteja y enseñe, ni dinero, ni poderes especiales, la vida es muy difícil. La situación se le complica cuando termina en un calabozo y llega a lo más bajo cuando es comprado como esclavo.

Reseña: A Flight of Broken Wings (The Aeriel Chronicles #1)

+Complementary e-book copy gently provided by the author in exchange for an honest review+

A Flight of Broken Wings (The Aeriel Chronicles #1)

by

Nupur Chowdhury

 270 pages

Published (first published August 17th 2018)

Edition Language: English

Series: The Aeriel Chronicles #1

BLURB: Six hundred years ago, humanity rose up in revolt against the Aeriels, who were driven from earth and back into their homeland of Vaan after a bloody and glorious war.
Eight years ago, Ruban’s home was destroyed and his family murdered by an Aeriel. When a new Aeriel threat looms over Ragah, the capital city of Vandram, Ruban Kinoh must do everything in his power to avenge his family's past and protect the future of his country.
Which is hard enough without being saddled with a pretty and pompous aristocrat, who seems as useless as he is vain. Faced with a conspiracy that might cost humanity its hard-won freedom, and accompanied by the bejeweled and glitter-clad Ashwin Kwan, Ruban begins his journey into a land where the past and the future intertwine.

My rating: 3.5 winged stars

In Vandran, Ruban Kinoh is the best Hunter of Aeriels, the murderous winged monsters that murderered his family and terrorize the country. Now, there are talks about a new formula that perfected the best weapon against them -Sif- and is his duty to protect it. Nevermind he has to endure Ashwing, some annoying young lordling that is babbling to much to the press and apparently knows too much .

.....................

“Sif, as you know, is the world’s greatest and fastest conductor of energy. It’s the only substance on earth that can sap an Aeriel’s energy faster than its body can replenish it. Sifblades kill Aeriels not by means of any physical wounds, but simply by drawing the energy – their life-source – out of their bodies faster than they can recharge their batteries.

.........

This is a bit of confusing literary gender to put in, because there are jeeps, taxis, facebook, Jack Sparrow, and cellphones, but not planes so far in 2017. And the Aeriels -winged beings made of energy- are from another dimension . So, kind of alternate reality/urban fantasy with aliens?

Reseña: Fandom for Robots

Fandom for Robots
by
Vina Jie-Min Prasad

 7 pages

Published September 2017 by Uncanny

Edition Language: English

Literary Awards:

Hugo Award Nominee for Best Short Story (2018)

 

URL

https://uncannymagazine.com/article/fandom-for-robots/

 

TEASER: Computron feels no emotion towards the animated television show titled Hyperdimension Warp Record (超次元 ワープ レコード). After all, Computron does not have any emotion circuits installed, and is thus constitutionally incapable of experiencing “excitement,” “hatred,” or “frustration.” It is completely impossible for Computron to experience emotions such as “excitement about the seventh episode of HyperWarp,” “hatred of the anime’s short episode length” or “frustration that Friday is so far away.”

My rating: 2.5 robotics stars

A sentient robot is the protagonist of this short-short story about a solitary existence as an obsolete object in a museum whose non-existence sees a change for an iniquitous question of a girl about an anime series. From there, the fandom consumes it.

During the wait for episode eight, Computron discovers a concept called “fanfiction.”

I think that many fanfiction fans will be very recognized in some lines and will start more than some smile. However, the idea, despite being charming and ingenous, does not manage to catch me in a revealing way, maybe because the metafandom is something very seen in my case.

Mi año en libros 2018