Short Book Review // The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden is categorised as historical fantasy. It's the first book of the Winternight trilogy, but you can read it as a standalone. For more information, visit the author's homepage, as I am still writing reviews, not summaries and fact dumps. 

So, let's get started with the review. The book is meant for adult readers, at least it says so on the author's website, but it is a coming-of-age story and young adult-friendly. Fortunately, the main character, Vasya, feels older than her years, making The Bear and the Nightingale work well for mature readers. The book is beautifully written–the language is as bright as the coldest winter day. It's also packed with Russian folklore and displays a plethora of the most fascinating mythical creatures.

The Bear and the Nightingale tells Vasya's–the youngest daughter of a regional lord in the northern Rus'–story from birth to the threshold of adulthood. Vasya is born with magical abilities in a time when the Orthodox Christian church does all in its power to root out the old ways and heathen beliefs from every corner of the empire. Vasya grows up listening to her old nurse's stories and fears more of the disappearance of the ancient guardians of the forest and household than the fiery pits of Hell. When a new priest from Moscow arrives to bring her home village to the church's order, she does all in her power to keep the mythical creatures dwelling in her house and the wilderness around from fading away.

I love the way Arden weaves folklore into the story. It feels symbolic and real at the same time, leaving me uncertain of what actually happened to Vasya. Which parts were real, which sheer imagination or dream–I couldn't say, and I don't mind that at all. The Bear and the Nightingale feels like a dark fairy tale, and it's an enjoyable book which I devoured in two chunks–one in November and the other during the past weekend.

If you're intrigued by folklore, slow-building suspension, and multilayered stories, The Bear and the Nightingale should be on your to be read-list. It would also be a wonderful story to listen to as an audiobook, on a cold winter night, curled up by the fire. I slightly regret that I didn't come to think of that before starting to read it as an E-Book, but perhaps I'll purchase the second book in the trilogy, The Girl in the Tower, as an audio version.

A Slow Return to Books

I've taken up reading and writing again, although the engine coughs a bit. I intend to read more books this year than I did in 2025, including those that have been lying on my shelf for ages, unfinished. 

Finishing pending projects is my goal for 2026, so Rues of the Heroes is definitely going to be released, and The Heirs of Duty will return to market. While waiting for the books to come out, you may entertain yourself by checking out the Braenduir Chronicles' homepage, where you'll find free samples of both books and a blog providing additional material. If you're a fan of fantasy folklore, worldbuilding, character insights, and so on, you'll find Tales from Braenduir worth visiting. Both the books and the contents of the Tales from Braenduir blog are meant for adult fantasy readers, meaning they can contain explicit scenes that might upset underage or sensitive people.

Here's a snippet of the blog, so you get a hang of what kind of content to expect when you open Tales from Braenduir:

The fire crackled. Its warmth flooded over me, lulling me into a state of drowsiness where memories began to rise uninvited. Jan's face appeared in front of me, a rare expression of joy and relaxation upon it. His lips were moving, his hands drawing images in the air between us as he rehearsed a story about the famous Toren Eddesen, who seemed to be a fathomless source of anecdotes, some more plausible than others.

  "I've never heard this tale from Toren himself, though," Jan said, pausing. "So, I'm not sure whether I should spread it as its accuracy hasn't been confirmed."

  "I'm sorry," I said, realising that I'd been focusing on watching him rather than listening. "The story was about what–a princess and a three-legged hog. Did I get that right?"

When it comes to reading, I'm in the middle of The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden which I started months ago. Even though it seems to be yet one supposed-to-be-adult-fantasy-book while actually being young adult, I've enjoyed it so far. It reminds me of the Russian classics I binge-read as a teenager, only it's adorned with tons of folklore.

Short Book Reviews // A Time of Dread by John Gwynne

The older I get, the more selective a reader I become. As a teenager, I read almost everything I could get my hands on, waded through every shelf in the local library, except the horror and mystery sections. I also had a principle to finish every book I've started. I forbade myself from picking up a new read before I'd finished the previous one. Although even that rule had an exception: I am yet to finish The Brothers Karamazov by Fjodor Dostojevski, which my friends gave me for my eighteenth birthday. Nowadays, I don't think twice about giving up on a book partway through if it doesn't seem right up my alley, though I try to read more than one or two chapters before doing so. 

I started A Time of Dread (Of Blood and Bone #1) by John Gwynne (for background information, check the author's website, as I still don't write summaries or copy+paste information that anyone can google themselves in three seconds) in the late summer and was about to give up on it before I finished the first chapter. Because I had done that to several books during the summer, I forced myself to keep reading, thinking that at this rate, I'll never finish another book in my life. The first ten or so chapters felt like trying to consume a cooled-down cup of coffee, merely because throwing it away is against my principles. I felt utterly detached from the world and characters, even though Gwynne puts up just the kind of fantasy setting I like best, and there is more than one main character to find your favourite among. 

At the beginning of September, I actually put A Time of Dread aside to read The Alchemist. Then my dog died, and reading anything at all was the last thing on my mind for a while. I returned to books about two weeks ago, finished The Alchemist and decided to give A Time of Dread another go. I gobbled down the remaining forty-plus chapters in three days and can't even begin to comprehend anymore what felt so off-putting about the book when I started it.

Quite a long way to say you shouldn't give up on a book only a few pages in, not even only a few chapters in, but read at least twenty percent of it before you do. It's not always worth the time, but sometimes patience is rewarded.

A Time of Dread certainly turned out worth the second chance I gave it. Though the level of gore is a tad too high for my liking in general, I enjoyed the story immensely. Gwynne's writing style is something that I needed some time to get used to, but it works very well for this type of fantasy that's heavy in action and battle scenes. The characters that I couldn't relate to at all on my first attempt to read this book became so dear to me that towards the end, I struggled to continue reading because I didn't want to see them get hurt. That's something that hasn't happened to me in a long time, not after I listened to The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, which I very nearly didn't finish simply because I felt I couldn't bear the inevitable unhappy ending. 

To keep this short as the title promises, I am captivated by Gwynne's world and will definitely read the whole series, Of Blood and Bone, and probably give The Faithful and the Fallen a go as well. I am a person who picks up books at random, without doing much research beforehand, and it occurred to me only after I'd finished A Time of Dread that I might've been wise to start from The Faithful and the Fallen, as Of Blood and Bone is technically a sequel to it, although designed so that it can be read as a standalone series. 

If you enjoy multi-POV epic fantasy jampacked with suspense and bloodshed, A Time of Dread is for you. The pool of blood is deep, the island of mauled bodies in the middle is high, so if you're sensitive to gore (as I was back in the day before watching The Game of Thrones, after which any amount of violence in fiction hasn't affected me), you might want to keep a bucket within arm's reach while reading it. Sounds like I'm joking, but I'm actually (all but) serious, because the scenes that include violence are so well written that I could smell the stench of death and fouler things. It's not all blood and spilt guts, though. There are quiet moments, too, and deep bonds between the characters, interesting and adorable creatures (I love the talking crows of Dun Seren, though usually I find talking animals in what I deem as adult fantasy off-putting), and a world that unfurls as the story progresses. Also, even as it's an epic fantasy, A Time of Dread isn't overly political, nor does it contain info dumps. Definitely a book worth adding to your to-be-read list.

What is it with these middle-aged, bearded men that they're so damn good at writing fantasy? And why, oh, why can't I be a middle-aged, bearded man, because if I were, perhaps my book would have a few readers, too. 

Short Book Reviews // The Broken Tower by Kelly Braffet

It's been a week (? Or more-time runs so fast, I seem unable to keep up with it.) since I finished reading The Broken Tower (The Barrier Lands 2) by Kelly Braffet. I read it as an eBook and was annoyed many times because I had to put the tablet down and do something else. If it were possible, I'd have devoured the book in one go as I did with books I loved when I was a kid/teenager. But I'm an adult (What does that even mean?) and have responsibilities that I must prioritise over pleasures.  

The Broken Tower continues the story started in The Unwilling (the first book of The Barrier Lands) of three young people, Judah the Foundling, Lord Gavin of Highfall, and Lady Eleanor, who is Gavin's betrothed, bound to each other by the ties of love, friendship, and magic. I'm under the impression that The Broken Tower is supposed to be young adult fantasy, but I wouldn't recommend it for readers under 18. The book contains scenes that are brutally violent and, to be honest, quite disturbing. No sex, though, so if you're okay with gore but not with erotic scenes, go for it. 

You'll find a short description of the book here. I googled for the author's website or something else a tad more extensive, but this Risingshadow page was the only non-commercial site I could find. (The reason why I try to avoid sharing commercial links is that I don't want to direct you to purchase the books on a specific platform. Most books are available on various platforms in multiple formats, and I believe in giving people the full freedom of choice instead of nudging them in one direction or another.)

But to the review now. It's no surprise to anyone at this point that I loved the book at least as much as the first book in the series. If things went bad for the characters in The Unwilling, in The Broken Tower, they go even worse. That's not why I enjoyed The Broken Tower so much -I'm not a sadist, after all- but there is a beauty to a story that keeps taking a turn after another towards more misery. We are used to stories developing towards the better, aren't we? Most books have a happy ending, or at least things don't go to the dogs for all the main characters. So far, The Barrier Lands seems to be an exception on that account. There are moments that cheat the reader into imagining, the sun is finally starting to shine upon the MCs, yet, in the next chapter, they find themselves even more screwed than they were before. 

I've been complaining that I can no longer relate to the book characters. However, I can still emphatise with Judah's defiance and dedication to her loved ones. She ends up doing some pretty gruesome things to protect her friends and dodge the fate that other people are trying to force upon her. Some might think she's going too far, even mark her as one of the least likable characters in the story, but I understand her choices because I'd act the same if I were in her place. Afterwards, I'd be horrified for what I've done, just like Judah is, but the outcome would be the same.

I don't want to spoil it for you by revealing too much of the plot, so let's stick to more general notions. The story is written in the third person from the points of view of various characters, some of whom had only a minor role in The Unwilling. I like this type of structure a lot (and use it in my own books, as well). I think it gives the story more depth and keeps it more interesting. 

When it comes to language, The Broken Tower isn't the easiest book to read. In many places, the phrase structure is confusing and complicated. I had to read several sentences twice or thrice to figure out their meaning, but largely, the language is eloquent without getting overly embellished. 

To wrap it up, The Broken Tower isn't a light read, but it's definitely worth the time and concentration it requires. The plot is rather straightforward, save for a couple of twists, but because of the number of characters and events, the reader needs to focus fully on the story to keep up with it.

A Writer's Birthday Present

This year, I was a tad selfish and bought a birthday present for myself instead of spending the money on daily necessities. And what else would a writer want for their birthday except words? 

If I want to read in English, eBooks are practically my only option. I'd rather buy physical books, but with the shipping costs, they just are too expensive for me atm. So, thank gods for eBooks and the devices for reading them!

An actual eBook reader would've been a dream, but as a practical person, I decided on a tablet. I can use it to keep in touch with my family in case my (ancient) phone stops working. 

Now that I have a proper device, I've been able to read chapters instead of paragraphs at a time and am close to finishing Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson. I started the book last year, but as I've been reading it on my phone, the progress has been painfully slow. 

I can scarcely wait to read more books, only I am a bit overwhelmed by the number of stories I haven't read, making it difficult for me to pick up my next read. If I assumed, someone was reading this blog, I'd ask for recommendations, but as I still suppose I'm lecturing an empty auditorium, I'll settle for wishing a wonderful week (or what's left of it) to everyone and no one.