Science-Fiction || "Darth Bane: Path of Destruction" by Drew Karpyshyn.

Date Published: June 6th 2007.
Publishers: Del Rey Books.

Book #1 in the "Star Wars: Darth Bane" trilogy. 

"Path of Destruction" is the first novel in the Darth Bane trilogy, from the perspective of the Dark Side. It follows a man named Dessel ('Del') who brings trouble in the small mining planet he is stuck on, paying off the debt his father left him. One day, that trouble causes him to flee...and he joins the Sith. Although warned that the Dark Side will influence him, and he mustn't get caught up in it, the warning is somewhere lost in battle.

Please keep in mind that this is my very first introduction to Star Wars, I have not seen any of the Star Wars movies, so my review on this book will not have any background information and will just be based purely on how I enjoyed this book.

It was written, same as most trilogies, like the introduction to the upcoming two books. It was basically about Darth Bane's rise to power and an opening to the world of the Sith, their rules and their ways of life. Which, by the way, was pretty useful for someone like me who knows next to nothing about the Star Wars world. The most important about this was how it left me dying to read the next book. Seriously, I've been pestering my boyfriend to lend me the next two books for a while now!

The characters were amazing. Even the characters I didn't like, like Sex-Object-Githany, ended up being likeable (as she managed to manipulate and trick multiple Lord's minds), If you want a good example of what I mean when I say good character development, this book is right up there. It ended on a cliffhanger, which is so annoying if you know how much I don't like cliffhangers. But, I think this is a good thing, as I rarely leave the first book of a series on the cusp of my seat waiting until I can get my next fix. That cliffhanger introduced a new character, a female in a high-power position (for once!). I'm dying to read it.

It was really slow in parts, but the fast-paced parts and their brutality really made up for that. One of the reasons I love science-fiction so much is their ability to make brutal scenes really brutal. 

There isn't much I can say about it without giving too much away, so if you enjoyed these, I will see you next time!

- Loz x

Page 195 of "Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix || Rough Translation.

This is just a rough translation of page 195 of "Horrorstor" by Grady Hendrix in the paperback US edition published by "Quirk". If I have got anything wrong here, feel free to comment and I will fix the mistakes.
(it's not a different language, it's just written in very hard to read handwriting, pictured below)

Penitents of the Cuyahoga Panopticon.
Under the care and treatment of: Warden Josiah Worth.
September
1831.

Number: 00314.
Name: Harold Ashes.
Offense: Vagabonding and barratry.
Sentence: 3 years  4 years.
Treatment: His degenerate aspect and sallow features caused me to assign to him seven hours on the Tread Wheel each day. His sickly aspect increases but I suspect him of malingering. Nothing is so certain as that the evils of illness can be shaken off by hard work.

Number: 00315.
Name: Leon Bultg (?).
Offense: Consorting with low women and public inebriation.
Sentence: 2 years  3 years 4 years.
Treatment: A daily dose of Mercury has calmed him greatly. Those who sow no seeds reap (possibly seek) no reward.

Number: 00316
Name: Osborne Goldberg.
Offense: Threatening behaviour.
Sentence: 3 years.
Treatment: This sallow fellow seems to be quite ill, suffering from the lunacy and bearing all the physical signs of degeneracy. We have prescribed to him the Iron Cap to be worn at all times, and when he becomes agitated, a few hours on the rotational board  encourages him to swoon and purge himself of vile fluids. Amid an eternal heritage of sorrow and suffering and work begins (?).

Number: 00317.
Name: Matthew Sweagen (?).
Offense: Petty larceny with partial verdict.
Sentence: 4 years  5 years.
Treatment: Sentenced to workhouse where his abusive temperament required (?) him to be remanded into my case. Prescribed ten thousand turns of the crank each day. Notice that flesh of his hands has begun to slough off and become full of pus. For his health, we have removed his thumbs. He has now returned to the crank.

I hope you find this helpful. The original copy of this page is pictured below: 

Top Five Wednesday: Top Five Worlds!

Welcome to my second Top Five Wednesday post! Today, I thought an interesting topic would be to talk about what my top five favourite worlds to visit so far are. I think one of them is going to be yoghurt-thrown-in-your-face obvious, but the others might not be (I haven't even thought of them yet, it's as much a surprise to me as it will be to you!). Must stop rambling and actually get on with the post, shall we? Yes, we shall, let's get started: 

One.

World one is, you guessed it, the world in the Harry Potter series written by the Queen. The whole school in a castle thing is what really interests me, as I live in Wales and we have a lot of castle hot spots and even before Harry Potter, I would always wonder what it would be like to go to school in one of those castles. Especially an abandoned one. The fact that it includes so many more amazing things, like magic and dragons, is a huge added bonus to one of my childhood dreams. I don't understand why anyone would not want to be in the world of Harry Potter. 

Two. 

I wouldn't want to live in these worlds, but I want access to them as a vacation spot, and that is the worlds in the Dr. Seuss books. I really loved "Cat in the Hat", I thought it was colourful and wacky and unique and what they did with that in the Universal Studios from what I have seen online is what I want the worlds to look like if they came to live. Just a lot more lively and not looking like buildings, you know what I mean? 

Three. 

It has escaped my memory what this place is actually called, but I don't like the world in Lord of the Rings as a whole, I just like the place where the Hobbits lived. And the fact they smoke weed and eat all day is a pleasurable thought, they don't have to do anything, it seems a fun life. I would probably have miniature adventures in the surrounding area, but really small ones - I don't want to get caught up in any crap, especially far away from the Hobbit holes! I (shamefully) haven't yet read the books, so I'm just going from the movies. Sorry, okay, I will get to them! 

Four. 

I have only read one book from this world, but that one book was enough to get me interested, and that is the realm of Star Wars. This might change in the future, as one book doesn't even make a dent in all the information you can learn about it and especially now that Disney owns them, but from what I know about it so far, it can't not make my top five list - even if it is a super predictable option!

Five. 

This one not so much now, as I don't really like the last few books in the series - and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in that - but to make fifteen year old me happy, the House of Night series by P.C and Kristen Cast because I loved the idea of being a beautiful vampire with artwork on my face and wearing beautiful clothes and having a loyal cat. The whole world just appealed to me, and it still does in my memory. 

So, what are your favourite worlds, can you pick one that's not Harry Potter?!
See you tomorrow!

- Loz x

Monday Missions #11

I'm on eleven already? Doesn't feel like it's been more then eleven weeks since I first found out about this , but there you go. Time does fly!

(I was meant to publish this yesterday and then publish my Alfie review today but typical me completely got the days of the week mixed up...)

Because I have more freetime during this week then I have been having in a while, I plan to get through a lot - which, knowing me, won't happen. 

I'm writing this at 11pm on Sunday evening, as I usually do, but right now I'm about a hundred and fifty pages away from the end of "Hens Reunited" by Lucy Diamond which I'm kind of enjoying, but not so much as I hoped I would. I already have a few notes planned for the review I'm going to be doing on this book (named Romantic-Comedy) if you're interested in a full play-by-play of what I thought about it, which is...kind of complicated right now. 

Next, my old (not literally, we just used to be friends and then we stopped and now we're friends again...it's not as high school drama as that sounds...) friend Sydnie Beaupre sent me and a few other people her book, "Dark One", in return of an honest review. Don't quote me on this, but I think it's about fallen angels, and it's kind of a YA fantasy novel? I hope she doesn't kill me if I have gotten that wrong. 

I also want to get "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" read for this week, too, because I have really fallen behind in blog posts for my Harry Potter re-read a thon and reading it in general. The next two books, this one and "Azkaban", are also my favourites in the entire series!

If I manage to get all that done, then I have "Fangirl" by Rainbow Rowell that I want to read next because I kind of liked but kind of didn't like "Eleanor and Park" but it also gave me a really, really good feeling that I would not mind re-visiting and I hope "Fangirl" can give me that. 

Don't be shy to tell me what you're planning on reading this week!

See you tomorrow, Loz x 

Review || "Alfie: The Doorstep Cat" by Rachel Wells.

(this one is kind of an old review, I'm currently in the process of writing and editing a Star Wars novel review but it's kind of hard to write about as it could offend a lot of people if I write it wrong and it also seems dumb that I, a person with no knowledge of Star Wars before that book or even science-fiction novels, would be writing a review/book talk on something like that...anyway, irrelevant, sorry if you hate the late upload posts but at least it's getting uploaded at all, right?!)

This book is basically about a little cat named Alfie who's owner dies from old age. Her daughter comes around and says that she wants to put Alfie in a shelter because they can't stay with her, and Alfie decides to take his life into his own hands and runs away. He lives in a harsh homeless cat world for a short while, before he comes across a street that needs him as much as he needs them. Alfie doesn't want to dedicate his time to one owner because that's going to be hard if he has to go through it all again, so he decides to have multiple owners. 

Lets just cut right to the chase. I DNF'd this book. It wasn't even bad, I actually found it very interesting from the start but Wells gives away so much information that the curiosity that kept me captivated throughout it was lost and I had no drive to finish it. I barely even passed halfway, and I wasn't going to write this review because I was still sure I was going to finish it...but I just can't. Sorry, Rachel, I think you can do better.

The writing was dull. It was dull from the very first page. Usually, this isn't a make-or-break for me. Sometimes, the plot line or the characters or something can be strong enough to keep me reading. After taking English Literature for three years, at this point, I'm just used to reading boring books that I ended up being pretty happy about reading. This book had an interesting premise, and that was enough for me to think this book would be worth it.

So, you get some interesting characters here. A girl who is heartbroken because of a divorce, a man who is lonely after moving away from his life in Singapore, a woman with a husband and a newborn with depression, and a small, sweet little family from Poland. Problem? Their stories were told practically instantly. This book should have been half the size it was. I'm kind of curious about the ending, but I can just look it up. The story had seemed to be told by halfway through the book. The characters also had no personality. I'm aware that this was written from the perspective of a cat, but it was written by a human - the development could have been better. They were also the kind of people I had seen before, I was expecting more of an in-depth explanation to them, but it just didn't happen. Characters really are a make or break for me.

There was also no plot line whatsoever! 
The plotline really was as simple as Alfie becoming homeless, finding a street, and they all warm up to him and that's that.

The premise of this book could have been something a lot better then what it was. Instead, you have something mediocre that I guess would be okay to read if you were into these types of things, but I'm not. I expected more.

Sorry this wasn't up to my usual standards, in the topic of cats I received a two month old kitten for my birthday as my aunts' cat, Sybil, has some kittens and they couldn't keep them. She needs a lot of attention, I barely had time to sleep and write this (is this like a taster of how parents' feel?!). But, thank you for reading, I'll see you all next time.

- Loz x

Books I Brought With Me To England!

Hey!

If you didn't know, I'm currently in England to visit my grandparents' and my father (hopefully not his girlfriend, too) and I packed very last minute so I'm sort of regretting the books I brought with me. Not too much, though, because they are books I really want to get read. I might only be here for a week, or a week and a half, I just wanted a wide variety of choice rather then being like "You're going to get all these read!". I'm rambling, let me just show you what books I got: 

"Horrorstor" by Grady Hendrix. 

A parody on the famous furniture store, Ikea, that is basically about strange happenings at night when the store has been shut down. Employees have been sent to stay overnight to investigate what has been going on, and they're met with a nasty surprise. 

One of my birthday presents from Austin that I once saw on a YouTube video and thought it looked kind of interesting, so I thought "hey, why not give it a shot!". I can't say I'm really that exited to read it, purely because I've heard a lot of things behind said on it that the writing just isn't that great, but still. I did bring it with me just because I wanted to get through it more then actual want to read it. It seems more like a decoration book then anything,  but it might pleasantly surprise me, who knows. 

"The Alchemyst" by Michael Scott. 

I think everyone and their dog knows what this is about, but I don't. I think it's about twins in a fantasy realm? I don't really know...I got this as a birthday present from my mother and sister, which is weird because they never get me books! Especially books that have been on my Amazon wishlist for quite some time. 

"Alice in Zombieland" by Gene Showalter. 

I've heard so many negatives thinks about this, so this on top of it being a YA dystopia romance makes me hesitant to read it, but the trilogy is based from one of my favourite books and even if it has little resemblance, I can at least try to like it because of that. This book is also a useful contribution towards something I am working on for later this year, stick around for that!

"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" by J.K.Rowling. 

"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" by J.K.Rowling. 

I should hope I don't need to say what these are, but these are for my Harry Potter Read-A-Thon books, that's more of a re-read at this point seeing as I finished the first one like a week ago and haven't even made a move yet on starting the second one. Oops?

"Fangirl" by Rainbow Rowell. 

A twin called Cathy (have to say, not a fan of Rowell's choice of names) decides she doesn't want to be tied up to her sister anymore when she joins university and wants to be a free bird, and meets someone called Levi. Everyone else loves him, but they're also the same people who love Will Herondale, so we'll see if I like him too. 

"Hens Reunited" by Lucy Diamond. 

A book I am currently reading about three women whos lives have fallen apart, and they reunite in their unique 'failures' as they try to rebuild what they have left. It's quite different from Lucy's (AKA, Sue's) usually writing structure, as are all her books I'm noticing so far - I love this book more then the others, but at the same time I'm disappointed in it. Probably for a lot of reasons - it might not have been the right time to read a book like this, or it was something I have been anticipating for so long that I made it into something more then it would ever live up to, I don't know. I may have to re-read in the future to really make my mind up about it. 

So, I might be buying some more books in the future while I am here as I realize I did not bring the most varied of choices as I would like, but it'll do, thank you ever so much for reading and I'll see you all next time! 

- Loz x

Birthday Haul Part Two || Shopping Trip (LUSH and Tsum's!)

I think I mentioned this a couple times before, but on Tuesday 18th August, I went on a shopping trip to Carmarthen by train. We left kind of late, around 11pm, and it was boiling hot, it felt like the waiting room to Hell and I imagine we were also the laughing stock of everyone in America...yeah, yeah, I get it, you'd be wearing jackets in our summer times!

Anyway, I thought I would show you the things I bought while I was there - which really wasn't that much, but I tried okay, I tried. I'm not good at spending money because I'm such an indecisive person!

The first place I went to was kind of a weird place to go, but it's Clintons, a card store. Reason why? Because of these beauties: 

Yes, this is the ass of the Queen of Hearts with her fancy underpants. 

Disney's Tsum Tsum's! I already have a couple, Winnie the Pooh and Stitch, that Austin my boyfriend got me a little while ago because Winnie the Pooh was my favourite TV program has a kid (and one of the movies I am obsessed with, still), Stitch is just adorable. I think everyone loves Stitch, you're crazy if you don't! 

It was really hard to pick the ones I wanted, I eventually settled for a Mini Queen of Hearts (from Alice in Wonderland/Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) and Mini Alien (from the Toy Story series). I wanted all of them! They had Minnie Mouse, a badger, Bambi, Dumbo, Jessie, Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Peas in a Pod...I'm going to have to go back there! They were £3.50 each. 

I was running out of pens and I also have a fountain pen at home, so the next things I got were these from Ryman's: 

The ink cartridges were their own brand, I think, and cost £1.99. I already have blue cartridges, but...this may sound weird, I just hate writing in blue ink and much prefer blue. Where I live, black ones seem to be non-existent so I just had to get some. It's a nice big bag for cheap, too. The pens are one of my favourites because of how smooth and easy to write with, the Bic Biro Original Crystal pens in black.Hopefully, I don't lose these, why do pens love to go missing?

These gems were from Waterstones, a fairly expensive but popular bookstore in the UK (and if it's in anywhere else in the world, I don't know about it). I think it was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland's anniversary, as it has a whole two bookshelves dedicated to it. Different editions of the books and merchandise, mostly. I'm a huge Alice fan, and if I had the money, I would have bought it all. Instead, I got some small things that I knew I would use often and would mean more to me then adding yet another Alice book edition to my shelves for £25. I couldn't find any of these online, so sorry I cannot provide any links! The small Cheshire Cat badge was 99p, the bookmarks were £1.50 each. I think it's good that it has a little information of the artist on the back, it's pretty interesting if you ask me. They're also really hard, but still plastic/paper bookmarks, so I think that means they'll have a stronger durability (RIP past bookmarks, you're missed).

You can get your own VooDoo doll from the website, WatchoverVooDoo but I got her from TheCardFactory!

Anyway, these are cute little VooDoo dolls found at a card shop (which was also shared with a chocolate store, pretty cute?) and there was so many but this witch stood out to be the most. They're £3.99, she claims to give me confidence and etc, but I don't believe in magic like that even though I obviously really like Harry Potter. I just thought she would look cute hanging from my bag.

I then went to a charity store for a bit because my mother had wandered off somewhere and I couldn't find her. I had bought the movie editions of New Moon and Breaking Dawn (which I actually really like) and have been looking around for the other two for a while. The Twilight series is commonly found in charity stores, so it shouldn't be hard, it's just finding the first book that I'm having difficulty with. I can't remember if I liked the series or not, seeing as the first time I read it I was pretty young and under a stronger influence from a friend of mine who really loved Twilight. Actually, a couple of friends of mine. We'll see...when I find the first book! I don't think I ever finished Eclipse!

I also got some earphones with strawberries decorated on the earbud but they broke and I therefore don't have a photo of them - they were pretty cheap, I was expecting them to break, from a shop called Tiger in Carmarthen, Pembrokeshire. 

And (my personal favourite from this haul), my first experience with buying from LUSH (even if you have money, visit that website...the animation of different bath bombs being thrown into water is amazing). I've tried their Blackberry Bath Bomb before, and I liked it but I didn't love it. It smells more like blueberries, which is good, because I actually hate blackberries and till I looked it up just now I thought it was blueberries. It was slimy, and doesn't do anything to the bath, it's a pretty simple and boring bath bomb. But, the bath stuff I bought for myself for my first time buying experience was *drum roll please*:

If you can read the labels, you can see I got the Sex Bomb Bath Bomb (oh, the pun) and if you click on the link, it'll show you what happens to it when you put it into a bath - if you can't be bothered to click it, it basically just turns pink. And, for my vegan readers, it's 100% vegan! I had a bath with it tonight, it was so relaxing and I still smell so good. Usually, the scent wears out after I have a shower because well I guess shower gels weren't meant to be strong scented! The second one, I haven't used yet, but it's called a bubble bar, I think? It's Rose Jam I think, but it doesn't look like that, it's more like a rose shape...I think? Anyway, I'm heading to England tomorrow and I'm bringing it with me so I'll let you know how I like it! Probably a lot more because it creates bubbles!!

That's not all I got, though, worry not:

My mother bought me the shower jelly by them quite often when I was younger, I forgot to mention, it reminds me of the ocean even though it's lime-scented (and the label makes me chuckle!). It's called Woosh, another reason why it reminds of the ocean, and it smells so good even if it is a bit hard to use in the shower. It's just fun to use, I suppose!

The second is something new, not just for me but for LUSH itself. It's a Yuzu and Cocoa Shower Cream that smells just like chocolate oranges! (also, the women in the image is just WAY TOO MUCH...such a pet peeve of mine!). It's a small 100ml bottle, to test it out, but also it's because it's kind of expensive. The prices of which are listed below: 

Sex Bomb Bath Bomb - £3.35
Woosh Shower Jelly - 3.50
Rose Jam Bubbleroon - £3.75
Yuzu and Cocoa Shower Cream - £4.75

I really hoped you enjoyed reading, I'll see you in my next post - goodbye for now!