Book #38 of 2023: Oboroten, DNF: Darkness of Dragons

[thistlechaser]

Oboroten by Catherine Keegan/loupnoir. This became my replacement vacation book once my Kindle decided to empty itself and re-download all the books I had read pre-2020. I was scrolling sadly through all the stuff I had already read, looking for something I would enjoy, and perked right up when I spotted Oboroten. I had loved it the first time I read it, and was happy to have a reason to reread it.

Set in a world where a few people have magic, the governments of the world strictly control all use of it. Yuri Gregorov and his magic had been a tool of the KGB, but since then he and his partner traveled through various countries working through the black markets to sell his memory-altering skills. As the story opens, they're in America.

Deals go wrong, and Yuri comes to the attention of an Evil. The story follows how he tries to escape and how powerful addiction can be.

Loup Noir's HP fanfic series is one of my most favorite ones, and all the characters from it appear in this book. It was so wonderful to spend time with them again!

While the book had a good ending, I'd really love a second one to see where he goes from there.

DNF #91: Darkness Of Dragons by S.A. Patrick. There are going to be a lot of books like this, one I read a while ago but ended up back on my Kindle during the Great Mess of 2023. Turns out I had read this one in 2020, but since I forgot to add tags to the post, I hadn't found it while searching books to see if I had read them already before re-adding them to my Kindle.

Set in a world where magic is real, but that magic is created only by people who play pipes (like the Pied Piper of Hamelin). It could have been an interesting story, but the characters were just so young, and based on my previous review, the adults are just paper cutouts that the kid characters can play off of. Plus I had real issues with the worldbuilding logic (why would people trust 13 year olds with the most powerful magic in the world?).

Kids might really like this story, but I wasn't the right audience for it.

Comments

[loup_noir]

I think you read Informatzia and didn't like it as much. I have the entire plot for the last part of the series, but I don't have the beginning. I suspect running concerts and birding have filled that niche in my head for now.

Thanks for posting about Oboroten.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I figured between birding and concerts your life was pretty busy right now. And !!!! I forgot there was a second book already! Looks like I read it back in 2014. At the time I had said:

38) Informatzia: Liked

"The main character of Informatzia is a werewolf, but neither that nor magic were the focus of this story. It was more a tale of spies and the Russian culture."

Funny it hadn't worked for me as much then, but it sounds just like what I want now. How exciting is that, to wish for another book and get it the same day? :D I'm going to read it next! I'm so excited!

Once I'm done with Informatzia, I'm going to wish for the third one, haha.

[jeane nevarez (from livejournal.com)]

Are there older books on your kindle that you read before you blogged? (I have plenty of books on my physical shelves that fit this criteria). Just wondered if this might be an opportunity for you to deliberately re-read those, and post about them if they hadn't been covered . . .

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think I lost 75 or so older unread books, from before I started blogging. My unread book count had been low 200s, now my Kindle has 225 but that includes so many books I read over the five or so years before I started blogging. I'm going to be rereading a lot of older books.

I'm not sure if I feel like I came out ahead or behind from this technical issue. I suppose I won't remember the 10+ year old books? But I wish I hadn't lost all the ones I never read. (After I started using that download site, sometimes I wouldn't save a copy of the book locally, just move it to my Kindle and delete it. I just hadn't realized I did that 75 or so times...)

At least I found the book I had been in the middle of when the loss happened. It had a title that really hadn't fit the story well (Lioness of The Dust), I remember I kept having to check the title while reading to remember what it was called. I couldn't for the life of me remember what it was after it vanished. Once I'm done with Informatzia, I'm going to finish it.