Chaohua Ou Ou itibaren Rawat, Punjab 141007, Hindistan
This is my number one book.
was good for a text book for history class i learned a lot
I disliked myself for starting this book after the, frankly, toxic Sandman Slim. About halfway through I started to genuinely hate myself for not being able to put it down. It's basically the same as it's predecessor, a cast where everybody is competing to be the worst person ever (I actually thought The Devil was the most likeable bit-parter), the author's bizarre sociopathic outlook is proudly espoused by his paper-thin Stabby-Sue self-insert protagonist (and hurrah! An embarrassing wish-fulfilment sex scene with "the most beautiful woman in the world who was totally in porn bro and when we fucked she came first and she totally loved me but I was too much of a badass so she got scared and had to cut and run but she'll always love me because I'm so awesome". I'm paraphrasing, but that is actually what happens in a book that got published by adults) and a bunch of gore, blood and swearing to pepper it. Honestly I'm usually quite good at figuring out why I read books, and even better at not reading crap, but I imagine this is how people who watch Jeremy Kyle feel when they watch Jeremy Kyle. I have no power to rationally explain why I keep reading this: The writing ranges from shoddy and workmanlike to outright abysmal. I'm not sure what kind of person would root for Stark, but it ain't me! Every exchange comes with some tooth-clenchingly hackneyed "I'm a bad mofo" one-liners, and the whole thing is just so stupid. The world is what some middle-class pampered dickhead thinks the underworld of LA would look like and everything is so unstintingly obnoxious at all times then he'll throw in a scene about how his dad hit him (so therefore we must feel sorry for this colossal wanker) and you know it's really the author talking about his dad and then you feel weird and uncomfortable. And yet. I burned through this thing in top gear, and when the third one comes out I am going to have my nose buried in that turd on day of release. I'd say it's a guilty pleasure, but honestly I don't remember enjoying any bit in particular.
Very good study of the end of the Bronze age, with influence of the Sea Peoples on the civilizations along the rim of the eastern Med.