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BOOK REVIEW - DAYS OF SHATTERED FAITH
👥 Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
📚 Series: Tyrant Philosophers [3]
📅 Started: 2026-07-20
📅 Finished: 2026-07-22
💎 Rating: 9/10

Blurb: Loret is fresh off the boat, and just in time. As Cohort-Invigilator of Correct Appreciation, Outreach department, she's here as aide to the Palleseen Resident, Sage-Invigilator Angilly. And Sage-Invigilator Angilly – Gil to her friends – needs a second in the spectacularly illegal, culturally offensive and diplomatically inadvisable duel she must fight at midnight. Outreach, that part of the Pal machine that has to work within the imperfection of the rest of the world, has a lot of room for the illegal, the unconventional, the unorthodox. But just how much unorthodoxy can Gil and Loret get away with? As a succession crisis looms, as a long-forgotten feat of necromantic engineering nears fruition, as pirate kings, lizard armies and demons gather, as old gods wane and new gods wax, sooner or later Gil and Loret will have to settle their ledger. Just as well they are both very, very good with a blade...

Review: Not as good as the first two books, I'll say that right now. I can't exactly explain why, because pretty much everything to love about the last two books is in this - the empire is large but definitely not in charge, and there are various factions and threads that Tchaikovsky effortlessly weaves through the story until they start coming together in an extremely satisfying way. Loret's backstory, Gil's love life, the necromancers, the House of Hard Angles, the pirates, the monks. Every single member of the royal family feels so distinct and has a clear role to play in this book right up to the end. Same with figures within the Pallaseen, including Gil and Loret but also Flint and Drathel. I just really love how he writes these books...

I'm so interested to see how this series shapes up, because the way it has currently gone has been fascinating with how each book has affected the Empire, and may cause it's downfall? Maybe? I can't tell if that is the direction this goes in, but I'm locked in for the next three books! Also I definitely think the vibe has shifted between each book, and this one is the most "fun" of the three, given that the first was heavy on revolution and the second heavy on death and injury and war and pain... This one is more adventurous, maybe.

Also really loved to see Jack and the hospital having a role in this book, and Helgrim! Very surprised to see Helgrim here, but I really love him and his centipede wife so it's okay. I really wonder if Helgrim is actually from Warhammer or something since the way they're written makes it feel that way. I dunno. But it's really cool to see these threads from the last two books continue into this one, especially with the Viper who has a big role in this book. I love all those characters :)

Anyway I genuinely can't think of single bad thing about this book, the first two were just a little better. So it gets a 9. But I highly recommend this series, it's so good!! Sorry this was more of a ramble than a review

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I don't get to read much non-dissertation texts, lately. Finally finished Kimmerer's 'Gathering Moss', which is just such a poetic read. I love her storytelling, intimateness, and insights. Right away picked up her book 'The Serviceberry' in a cute edition from 'Éditions Act Sud', a fantastic french publisher. Meanwhile got myself into 'Caliban and the Witch' and suprisingly were hooked instantly. I was the impression that I don't have the capacity or concentration for feminist/marxist theory lingo these days, but her way of writing about the middle ages and her perspective on movements like the heretics is suuuper compelling. I'm adding new research topics to my sidequests lists by the page!

#Mosstodon #Bookstodon #Heretics #BirdsOfMastodon

Just finished The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri (first book in the trilogy), which was a sprawling fantasy in the best way, while somehow mostly taking place in a tiny corner of one city (in the "present day"). Fantasy with its roots in South Asia, so very different from the usual. And the women are all complex and interesting characters (I kind of love Malini, she would totally vibe with the LotR movie scene with Galadriel and the ring*)

I think @ansate might have been the one to recommend it to me? If so, thank you!

*"In place of a Dark Lord, you would have a queen! Not dark, but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Treacherous as the sea! Stronger than the foundations of the earth! All shall love me, and despair!"

#AmReading #Bookstodon

Quasit's Daily Book Recommendations: "Three Men in a Boat (Not To Mention The Dog)" (1889) by Jerome K. Jerome

Age Range: 16 and up
Genre: Humor

Three young Englishmen in the late 1800s decide to spend a fortnight boating on the Thames for their health. And yet the book feels remarkably modern and is •astonishingly• funny.

A classic of English humor; I'm quite dismayed that I hadn't discovered it before now! It's one of the funniest books I've read in a long time (and I've read many funny books). I found myself laughing out loud quite often, and couldn't resist reading sections of it aloud.

It's astonishing that a book written 137 years ago should feel so modern. I hadn't realized that such dark humor had been •invented• back in 1889!

The occasional turns into more somber and lyrical prose are a bit jarring at first; they're quite reminiscent of "The Wind In the Willows" (1908) by Kenneth Grahame​, which was published 19 years later. But you soon get used to them. And the serious passages are quite brief, just sufficient to cleanse the palate (so to speak) before the next comic gem.

The illustrated EPUB editions at Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks are excellent and, of course, free. The illustrations are well-formatted, clear, and enhance the text. If you appreciate humor, you have no excuse for missing this book!

standardebooks.org/ebooks/jerome-k-jerome/three-men-in-a-boat

Incidentally, I "found" Three Men In a Boat via Robert A. Heinlein's "Have Space Suit - Will Travel". The protagonist's father is a fan. I'd read the book (Heinlein's that is) a dozen times before, easily - but I always assumed that "Three Men in a Boat" was fictional. For some reason while reading "Have Space Suit - Will Travel" out loud to my son, I found myself wondering if "Three Men in a Boat" was real; and Wikipedia soon set me right. I'm glad it did.

Oh, I almost neglected to mention: there's an audio book of "Three Men in a Boat" read by Hugh Laurie. A perfect choice, of course. It can be found in sections on YouTube, or, I presume, it can be purchased. But I must say that I laughed more when •reading• the book then while listening to it. I'm not quite sure why!

Happy reading! 🤓📖

#Books #Bookstodon #Humor #Humour #Classic #BookRecs #BookRecommendations #DailyBookRecs #QuasitBookRecs #English

Here is a new review of my #solarpunk novella, The Blossoming of the Big Tree, and hope it can nudge you to make a purchase.
“I enjoyed this novella. It has a delightful and satisfying ending, a main character that I wholly enjoyed meeting, and a lot of different points for discussion if read as a group.”

From Holly's Reading Escapades
https://hollysreadingescapades.blogspot.com/2026/06/book-review-blossoming-of-big-tree-by.html

To read a sample chapter and for links to buy the book, go here
https://www.ododopress.com/novellas/the-blossoming-of-the-big-tree/

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