Project BOTS May Edition!

Okay.  I had three books this month, and I just finished the required two.

The books I read this month were "An Ember in the Ashes" and "Clockwork Angels."  I loved them both so much.  I also have "Soulless," and since I still have about seven days left, I think I'll finish it up on time.  Hooray! I've actually started it already, and I love what I've read of it.  Very British in every way.

So.  Review time!

"An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir was a new book, a debut novel, and I'd heard great things about it.  It totally lives up to expectations!  The characters were pretty flat, but the book was still pretty good.  It is a Young Adult book, which I tend to avoid on principle.  It still followed that plot that exists in all YA books, but that doesn't mean it wasn't good.  You should read it.  If I wasn't doing this project, I wouldn't have picked it up, but I'm glad that I did.

"Clockwork Angels" by, er, Kevin J. Anderson and Neil Peart was literally a book that I bought because it was pretty.  Ooooooohhhhhhhhhh It was sooooooooooooo good.  I still like The Name of the Wind books better, but this was a whole new flavor, and it was so sweeet.  Like, if the Rothfuss books were a flavor, they'd be a rich bitterness, and this one was store-bought sweet, addictive, like oreos.

It was written because of Rush's twentieth album of the same name.  Listen to it before you read the book, and then after you finish it.  The ART was so beautiful.  It reads like a steampunk version of The Alchemist.  A very lesson-driven plot, where Our Hero makes very realistic and human mistakes, and he learns from them.  There isn't much magic besides the expected alchemy, and even that isn't really explored very much.  Nonetheless, I would push people to read this book for sure.

On a different note, school is almost over, and I intend to extend my required book count per month to three instead of two.  I have one of my books picked out for June already- it's by a Danish author, so get excited!