Beschreibung

Kaz Brekker und seiner bunt gemischten Truppe ist zwar ein spektakulärer Coup gelungen und es kommt einem Wunder gleich, dass sie alle mit dem Leben davon gekommen sind. Doch der listige Krämer hat sie schlussendlich verraten und sie um ihre hart verdiente Belohnung betrogen. Durch seine List geriet das Phantom Inej in Gefangenschaft und Kaz setzt nun alles daran, seinem Namen »Dirtyhands« alle Ehre zu machen. Denn nicht nur Inej will befreit werden, auch der Krämersohn Wylan möchte Gerechtigkeit für sich und seine Mutter und Jesper muss unbedingt den Hof seines Vaters retten. Außerdem ist da auch noch eine Rechnung zwischen Kaz und seinem Erzfeind Pekka Rollins offen…

Meine Meinung

Leigh Bardugo legt mit “Das Gold der Krähen” den zweiten und somit auch den Abschlussband ihrer Fantasy-Dilogie um den schlauen Bandenchef Kazz Brekker und seine Krähen vor. Bereits mit dem ersten Band “Das Lied der Krähen” konnte die Autorin mein Herz für ihre High Fantasy Welt um die Grischa insbesondere um die authentische Hintergrundkulisse Ketterdams gewinnen.

Ich habe wirklich lange überlegt, wie ich meine Empfindungen für diesen äußerst spannungsgeladenen und lebendigen Abenteuerroman, der eher einem explosiven Actionfilm gleichkommt, in Worte fassen kann und dabei der Geschichte gerecht werde. Nun gut ich werde es mit den folgenden Zeilen probieren.

"Das ist das Problem mit Ketterdam, dachte Jesper, als sie ungeschickt druch die Dunkelheit stolperten. Dem Falschen zu vertrauen, kann tödlich sein." (Das Gold der Krähen, Seite 96)

Bereits die optische Aufmachung des Buches gefällt mir sehr gut – durch die warmen herbstlichen Orangetöne und dem farbigen Buchschnitt ist das Buch ein schöner Blickfang. In der Klappbroschur ist eine detaillierte Karte von Leigh Bardugos Fantasywelt abgedruckt und man kann somit immer genau mitverfolgen, an welchem Schauplatz sich die Ereignisse zutragen.

"Sie dachte an Jesper, wie er mit den Revolvern spielte, an Nina, die das Leben mit nur einer Geste aus einem Mann herausquetschte, an Kaz, der ein Schloss knackte, die Hände in den schwarzen Handschuhen. Verbrecher. Diebe. Mörder. Und alle mehr wert als tausend Van Ecks." (Das Gold der Krähen, Seite 65)

Wie bereits im ersten Teil erzählt die Autorin ihre Geschichten gleich aus mehreren Perspektiven. Als Leser schlüpft man somit in die Rollen aller Hauptprotagonisten und bekommt einen umfassenden Einblick. Es hat mir wahnsinnigen Spaß bereitet mit Kaz Brekker und seinen Krähen durch Ketterdam zu ziehen und gebannt habe ich mitverfolgt welche hinterlistigen Gemeinheiten die gegnerischen Mitspieler in Petto haben. Aber am meisten spannte mich Kaz mit seiner eigenen Strategie auf die Folter, denn diese blieb die meiste Zeit über recht undurchsichtig. Der Spannungsbogen bleibt also bis zum endgültigen Showdown erhalten.

“Das Gold der Krähen” hat mich aufgrund mehrerer Faktoren faszinieren und begeistern können. Zum einen hat Leigh Bardugo lebendige Charaktere gezeichnet die sich im Verlauf der Geschichte weiterentwickelt haben und sich durch die verschiedenen Beziehungsverflechtungen hervorragend ergänzen, zum anderen ist die Hintergrundkulisse der Grischawelt so authentisch skizziert, dass man das Gefühl bekommt, selbst in den Gassen Ketterdams entlang zu spazieren. Leigh Bardugo krönt ihre Fantasywelt dann mit einigen Filmreifen-Szenen, die darauf hoffen lassen, dass sich schleunigst jemand die Filmrechte an der Krähen-Dilogie sichert.

Der Abschluss lässt mich mit einem lachenden und einem weinenden Auge zurück. Die pulsierende Energie der Krähen hätte locker noch für weitere Abenteuer ausgereicht, doch das Ende dieser Dilogie war schlicht und ergreifend passend gewählt.

"Sein Herz schmerzte. Sein Kopf schmerzte. Schuld und Liebe und Verbitterung waren in ihm zu einem Knäul verheddert, und jedes Mal, wenn er versuchte, den Knoten in seinem Magen zu entwirren, wurde es nur noch schlimmer." (Das Gold der Krähen, Seite 374)

Fazit

Mitreißende Fantasy – meisterhaft erzählt!

Klarman's description of the myriad problems facing the Confederation government was incredibly persuasive. I had read somewhere once that, given time, it might have evolved into a workable parliamentary democracy. Klarman makes it clear that the crises it faced meant that its survival was never a realistic proposition.

                                       

 

HOW did Winterblaze by Kristen Callihan NOT make the list for Paranormal Fantasy?

      I have no books to vote for in this category.   Granted, Paranormal Fantasy is not

      my favorite genre and I don't typically read a lot.  BUUUUUUUUT stiiiiiiillllllllll.

 

HOW did Defect by Ryann Kerekes NOT make the list for Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction?

      I have no books to vote for in this category.  Again, granted, this is not my favorite

      genre and I don't typically read a lot.  BUUUUUUUUT stiiiiiiillllllllll.

      *I'm really not that upset about this one, however, I'm on a ranting roll sooooooo.

 

AND FINALLY

 

HOW did The Duchess War by Courtney Milan NOT make the list for Romance?

       I have NO books to vote for in this category. GRANTED, I read a fuckton of 

      Romance books in a year.  I have read 2 that are on the list and rated them (a

      generous 2 and 3 stars), Entwined with You by Syliva Day and Real by Katy Evans.

 

Am I really this far out of connection with the Romance genre world?  I've only read 2 5star books this year and neither were published in 2013.  (I have to go back to 2011 to find a 5star book published in the same year)  I have 17 4star books out of 170 read and published in 2013.   

 

                               Am I too harsh? Am I too old? Am I a weirdo?

 

Would like to hear of any books you all are voting for or any you wish were on the list.  Any suggestions to get with the times?

 

 

 

Essentially: We now live in a time of “forever-war.”

The worry about the government instituting martial-law is sooo 1990’s because we now truly live a martial life. And we’ve accepted it. There is no “over there” anymore when it comes to the militarization of our lives. Over there is here. We live to assist the government in everything. See something, say something. And the bottom-line of everything that the government does in the name of national security is not to serve, protect, or assist you but to preserve itself. It’s all part of the Continuity of Government (COG) and it’s been in place for many years but it spectacularly grew into the multi-headed hydra immediately after 911.

No one and nothing is now immune to the shadow of the umbrella of government entities that “protect us” in the name of national security as fully 10% of the population of the United States (30 million persons) are astoundingly connected in one way or another to the Department of Defense. Arkin describes in specifics (most of it inefficient, bumbling, and embarrassing) the dual system of the government in protecting its continuity: a public system made up of laws and elected officials, and a hidden system made up of plans and appointed experts, unimpeded by Constitutional hampers.

Arkin writes near the end of the book of the expanding effect on all of our lives:

“Suffice it to say that whatever the threats, they are ubiquitous and unrelenting. At home, the enemy is not just Muslim Americans or Arab Americans or Somalis or Palestinians or Middle Easterners or those of the Muslim faith. It is illegal Mexicans. It is drug lords and smugglers and gangs and organized crime and the sex trade. It is foreign visitors and students and overcurious tourists. It is sovereign citizens and white supremacists. It is disgruntled school kids with access to guns. There are the incarcerated, the lone wolves, and the mentally ill. There are libertarians, antiglobalizers, environmentalists, Occupy and Tea Party activists, constitutional oath-keepers and survivalists, hackers and copyright stealers, the antiwar and the antigovernment. There are those who are just evil and those who are macabre attention seekers. Those are those who don’t pay taxes, who want to keep their guns, who insist on living off the grid, who won’t vaccinate their children, who don’t want their library cards scrutinized or their internet activity tracked, or who insist on drinking unpasteurized milk. Precisely because constitutionally no one group can be targeted as such, government attention has to be equally applied to everyone, everyone potentially and equally a threat, a vast universe of potential dots, enemies of the state being not only those who take up arms or perform treasonous acts, but also those who insist on preserving ungoverned space in the ubiquitous martial landscape, where at home is already assumed to be over there, and over there, right here at home.”

Detailed case studies of the steady progression of military expansion into our everyday lives through our governments (local, state, and federal) are provided from the Revolutionary War up to 911, Hurricane Katrina, and Sandy Hook. Any type of civilian or natural disruption is immediately deemed to be the venue for military maneuver as precedents are set and local control is superseded. Citizens are increasingly required to be registered, licensed, and screened to simply volunteer their help or services in an emergency.

The uncorrected advance proof copy I received in a Goodreads giveaway is actually 233 pages long, with an additional 112 pages of notes. It is concretely dense, not in size or weight, but in content. I really wasn’t prepared for that, going into it with the idea that it was just another one of those books I could flip through but the facts presented pulled me in.

There were times however that it was just too too much. The most painful example is the use of extremely long sentences filled with numerous acronym-toting factual examples that were separated into thoughts with the profuse use of semicolons. It left me too often with crossed eyes. I won’t bother with an example because I swear, I marked off a hundred quotations to provide but I think I’ll scrap them as it would be too ironic to make this review as long and packed with details and examples as this book is. Suffice it to say, Arkin leaves nothing uncited or unsourced. His facts are as hard-hitting and surprising as his sources are varied and believable.

There is nothing conspiratorial in “American Coup.” No one is blamed. He doesn’t point at individuals who are setting out to take away your rights. He sees it as all being done with fair intentions. It is a “process” underway, a system that is perpetually growing. The military describes it understatedly as “mission creep.”

The author is a serious and respected expert, especially among the people he reports on; he was one of them. The only thing that is shadowy in this book is the offering of any solution to what is occurring/has occurred. It’s my belief that this is because there is no solution. Arkin vaguely alludes to an effort at understanding Constitutional intents and ideas but at this point, I think he, like most Americans, lives with a cognitive dissonance. It’s apparent he’s well-steeped in history and I’d think he’s smart enough to know there’s no turning back. Power doesn’t relinquish itself so easily. This book is best served as a “record” of what happened.