This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Summer Book Thingy, 2019
Jul
17
2019
I finally got to read a book on vacation. And it was a long one so that was all I was able to have time for on vacation this year.
First and only book: “Impyrium” by Henry H. Neff.
It was good.
I could leave it at that, I suppose, but that’s not why you come here.
When I started it, I didn’t know if I would be able to get into it and make it all the way through. There’s a girl whose family has magic powers and they rule the kingdom and there are dragons and it all seemed so typical that I thought I’d lose interest. But I didn’t.
It was a lot of the standard middle-grade sci-fi/fantasy elements, just about all of them I think. But what I liked about it was what it didn’t have: no romance, no gore, no swearing. I’d recommend it for grades 6 and up.
Not that it was squeaky clean. There was one quasi-bad word that appeared two or three times. And of course there is violence – can’t be fighting bad guys without fighting – but like I said it’s not gory. And there is good magic and bad magic, for what that’s worth.
It was an engaging story, good characters, plot twists, and all that. Makes me want to go read book two, but I am not fluent in French. And that leads me to the main detraction to this book: the ending.
It does not have, as Rick Riordan says, a strong ending. That means it left a lot up in the air – the story felt incomplete at the end. It needs a book two, but alas, we English speakers do not get book two.
While I wait for book two, I just might read his Tapestry series.
The other detraction is that there is no pronunciation guide for the protagonist’s name: Faeregine. I had to watch the trailer for the book in order to get the pronunciation, but I didn’t do that until after I had finished the book, so I spent much of my time in the book trying to guess how it should sound. It’s “FAIR-uh-jeen” but with a completely soft J, so more like “FAIR-uh-zheen”. It’s hard to write an English pronunciation, since we don’t have a G sound that starts soft. Think of it as a French word and you’ll get it. Or just listen to the trailer yourself.
And now I will tell you the truth. Behold, three more kings are going to arise in Persia. Then a fourth will gain far more riches than all of them; as soon as he becomes strong through his riches, he will arouse the whole empire against the realm of Greece.
Daniel 11:12
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 6:52 am and has been carefully placed in the Life category.
