#bob lennon

La Forteresse du Chaudron Noir (Les Aventures du Pyro-barbare et de Billy #1) by Bob Lennon

Billy is a young farmer in a village decimated by disease. After his mother dies he sets out to the city unaware that an ancient evil was on the rise. Now accompanied by a goliath, Billy will have to use his wits and strength to defeat the terrible power hidden within the fortress. YOU are Billy!

When I was a kid I LOVED Choose Your Own Adventure books! They were fun, novelty, and always had a ton of different characters and places to interact with. I liked the "game" aspect of them as much as the "book" aspect. But after some time you explored every available path and getting the "good" ending was more muscle memory than puzzle solving, the replay value of kid CYOA was generally low.

Now enter Bob Lennon! Most of you won't know him but he is one of the biggest french video game youtuber. He's been on the platform since 2011 and has still the same workaholic energy. He created his own character inspired by Skyrim who is a Fire Barbarian named Le Pyrobarbare and his sidekick Billy. He is also a TTRPG fan.

That was a very long introduction to say that he created his own CYOA book series that are inspired by those characters and have a big TTRPG dynamic to them and THEY. ARE. INCREDIBLE.

It all start with a character creation system: you will always play Billy the farmer but you can choose between a collection of objects and whichever you chose decide which type of Billy you are: warlike, rustic, resourceful or cautious. And all of this influences which decisions you can or can't make. And there are A LOT of decision, we're talking about a 400 pages book. That might not be that many but I have never seen a CYOA above 150 pages.

The combat system is fairly easy to use, while being more interesting than "roll two dice the lowest roll loose". It pairs well with different stats of your Billy, which change depending on the class, the equipment, the event that happened in your adventure.

There is an achievement system on the last two pages of the book that also includes the ending so I counted them: there is a DOZEN ending. I discovered there was a dragon I could have fought to get the Warlike Gold Ending and I missed it! I was so mad!

I could keep of gushing about this book (I didn't talk about the characters, about the city and the castle the story takes place in, ir even the Pyrobarbare who is the funniest) but it was really a lot of fun and I hesitate between starting a new run with a different class of Billy or buy the SECOND book if the series (the 3rd one is being crowdfunded and I can't wait!)

Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? by Crystal Smith Paul

Hollywood icon Kitty Karr died, leaving her fortune to the three St John sister, young wealthy Black women. While dealing with Kitty's affairs (and keeping away from journalists) they find a dairy which uncovers secrets in the background of the South and Hollywood during the Segregation.

I would probably never have picked up this book if it wasn't a draw from the book club pile. I like historical fiction but Hollywood and the stars is not something I have any interest in. I went a bit blindly into it, scared that if I research it I'd create bad expectations.

I was surprise: it isn't the drama filled story I was dreading! This is a dive into the segregated USA and in a community I had never really read about: white passing POC. Even when Kitty starts to work in the film industry (as a phone operator at first then climbing the ladder to become a famous actress) the focus is always on social issues, racism, the careful balance of being a black woman in white spaces, the fight for civil rights and the work these woman did for this cause. Atop of all this there is the thread of family legacy and secrets and what ties Kitty and the St Johns together.

It is a very interesting book, nuanced and deep. I don't know how much of it is was researched but it felt fairly accurate from perspective.

The Oleander Sword (The Burning Kingdom #2) by Tasha Suri

Malini and Priya parted ways: the Princess is marching to the capital city, gathering allies to otherthrow her brother; the Priestess is working with her siblings to rebuilt the Temple and restore her city. But when Malini's fight encounter divine resistance she will once again draw from Priya's magic to get her end, with their fragile relationship, and Priya's own goals in the way.

I adored book 1, The Jasmine Throne and I was so excited to read the rest of the story! I loved having my favorite characters back, I loved the politic developing after the events of the previous tome and as usual I loved the angst, the complicated relationship between Malini and Priya, the mysterious happening in Ahiranya,Malini's change as her goal draws closer...

The writing is still gold, perfectly highlighting the feelings and doubts of the characters. I love having so much insight in the characters mind. The switch between multiples point of view is really well handles.

Unfortunately it suffers from Middle Book Syndrome: very little new element introduced and very little resolution of previous elements. That's to be expected, but when the third and final book is not yet available it is really frustrating.

I am still hyped for the last book, The Lotus Empire, it should be releases in November but the TBR is so high, I'm afraid I'll have to keep it for next year

Path of Destruction (Darth Bane Trilogy #1) by Drew Karpyshyn

A thousand year before the events of the first Trilogy, Des is a disillusioned miner in the Outer Rim. He joins the Sith to escape his misery and discover his connection to the Force. Through the training of the Sith Masters he develops his talent and as his power grows so does his ambition. He is now Darth Bane and he will be more powerful than them all!

I had been disappointed by novelisation of series before so I approached this one with caution, even though I heard everywhere that it was one of the best Star Wars novel (if you disagree don't blame me, blame Reddit)

That's a recurring event: I was dead wrong, this book floored me. The writing is good, the plot is even better, characters are incredible and I never thought I would be cheering so hard for a Sith!

I was a bit scared having no previous knowledge of this period of the Star Wars universe would make it impossible to understand the book. Maybe I misses some references but it never was obscur. The Star Wars lingo is also always explicited with context clues. That's really agreable because that's not always a given when you dive into work on the further edge of canon.

The characters are almost exclusively Sith (and some usual brand of assholes) but they are still relatable, even though they are cunning, vicious, calculating. Bane especially has some redeeming circonstances that made him endearing even though he joined the dark side and dives deep into its ways.