Fw-200 Condor Vs Atlantic Convoys: 1941-43
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After the fall of France in 1940, Germany attempted to strangle Britain into submission by attacking...
How to Plan a Crusade: Reason and Religious War in the High Middle Ages
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'Wonderfully written and characteristically brilliant' Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads...
ClareR (5885 KP) rated The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in Books
Jun 24, 2019
So yes, I really rather liked it!
Fractal Combat
Games and Entertainment
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Fast-paced futuristic arcade flight combat. - Spectacular 3D graphics! - 7 unique gorgeous fractal...
Abaddon's Gate (The Expanse, #3)
10.0
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For generations, the solar system -- Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt -- was humanity's great...
Endgame (Sirantha Jax, #6)
9.0
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Regret nothing. Sirantha Jax has the J-gene, which permits her to “jump” faster-than-light...
A Feast for Odin
8.8
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Tabletop Game
Using the central board in A Feast for Odin, players have to hunt, gather basic materials, refine...
Boardgames UweGames
The story is narrated by one of the 50 mytholgical mermaids, Sirena. She lives with ten of her sisters on an island where they are protected and guided by three guardian birds. The sole purpose of Sirenas and her sisters existence is to somehow make human males fall in love them so that the mermaids can become immortal like their ancestors. They live simple lives, dressing up in starfish and pearls and singing to lure ships towards their island where their ship will wreck on the reef just offshore. What makes Sirena different than her sisters, however, is her conscience. Whereas her sisters are only concerned with becoming immortal, Sirena actually cares about the welfare of the men whose lives they put in danger.
When the story begins, Sirena is preening herself before singing to lure not one, but three ships to her sisters island. The men on the ships fall under their spell and two of the three ships crash upon the reef. Most of the men die because they do not know how to swim. While the ones who know how to swim make it safely to shore, the mermaids try to save as many of the others as they can. Only eleven men initially survive. They eventually die because of lack of resources on the island, but not before they beat one of Sirenas sisters, Cecilia, to death for trying to save a drowning sailor.
Shortly after, Sirena runs away to the island of Lemnos to escape the life she has been subjected to. There, she tries to help heal Philoctetes who has been bitten by a serpent sent by Hera. From there, their relationship blossoms and they come to love each other despite their differences, including Sirenas newly acquired immortality. Eventually however, Odysseus comes to obtain Hercules bow and arrows from Philoctetes so that the Greeks can win the Trojan War. The book ends with Philoctetes leaving with Odysseus, leaving Sirena on the deserted island of Lemnos.
This book completely crushed my heart. All in all, the book was actually pretty graphic for what I thought was an independent reader novel. Whenever Cecilia is killed by the sailors, Napoli gruesomely describes the mermaids smashed in face. Sirena makes multiple references to their beautiful breasts. While Napoli had enough decently to leave out any sex scenes, it is blatantly alluded to.
The majority of the novel is Sirena and Philoctetes bonding and building their relationship. Napoli takes us through the two learning about each other, bantering playfully, and falling in love. Only to rip them apart. It was so anticlimactic and soul-crushing, I almost started crashing.
All in all, it was a great novel. Despite being written in first person, it was expertly written. I love the simplicity of Sirenas thinking. It is clear that she lacks any education beyond her island world. Reading about Sirena and Philoctetes developing relationship was enchanting.
Definitely worth the heart break at the end.
The Adventures of Form and Content: Essays
Book
An astounding work of doubles by Albert Goldbarth, "a dazzling virtuoso who can break your heart"...