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Hello Hive!
Starting on the right foot, Lobook is an episodic initiative that I decided to launch by creating a very simple logo. As usual, and I stress it, it will only deal with my experience, nothing more.
What does it consist of? I'll summarize it like this, with the key steps of the process.
I get a book, usually buying or borrowing it. I read it. I take some illustrative photos to add as attachments. I provide a brief introduction and my personal opinion. In short, basically a blog like many of those that provide reviews. My vision, however, is more focused on providing a general and very concise idea of the book I have read, focusing little or nothing on anticipations of the plot and focusing more on my personal buying and reading experience.
And now let's get started!
This episode takes inspiration from the Annalisa Canestrelli's novel with the original title Il Codice dell'Imperatore (the first publication during 2014). In the photo below you can see a cover image from which I have removed some parts to try to avoid possible direct advertisements.
Like the previous time, I purchased the book in paperback format, a format that allows access to the book for a sum suitable for almost any budget.
Excluding various discounts applied and instead considering only the official cover price, the price range with which it's possible to find this physical book in Italy varies approximately between € 7,90 and € 12,90. The cheaper editions are the pocket-sized softcover ones, while the hardcover editions raise the price to the maximum I have reported. At the moment, it seems all the formats are anyway in a pocket-size version. There is an e-book format for the digital readers, with 4,99€ as official prize.
A Thriller located in Italy, that starts with a murder. A girl who finds herself absorbed into an intrigue by chance... or maybe not, not so by chance. The novel is a good novel, but I felt the plot a little weak. There is, but compared to other novels I read that mix mystery and fantasy, I consider it a little less rich: less dense. To give an example, it is as if the basic concepts intertwined were 2 or 3, while in other novels of the thriller genre that I usually read I could find almost twice.
With that, nothing to take away from the novel. We can categorize the element of fantasy as historical/religious; for example, there is no scientific reference inserted to season everything with a pinch of addicting more.
The writing style is good, although perhaps the fact of having perceived the plot as not so dense made me evaluate the book as more filled with words than with concepts. I still find it anyway pleasant. If I had to give a precise vote, I would give it a 6.5.
Below, you can see the photos with the back of the Italian cover, from which I took the descriptive text you can find in the various online libraries. I add an English translation immediately below: to get it faster, I use an online Optical Character Recognitor (OCR) and an online translator.
"Milan, 1982. Marta is just over twenty years old when she arrives in the city determined to leave behind a past she does not intend to tell anyone about. Within a few weeks, the wild-looking girl off the train gives way to a new, self-confident woman who moves around the city well, dividing herself between worldliness, love for Luca and volunteering."
"Palermo, 1941. In a continent devastated by war, the famous archaeologist Antonio Pardi steals from Hitler's men a precious millenary artifact that hides arcane secrets and is the key to gaining world domination."
"Milan, 2006. Costanza Pardi is murdered in her apartment. Her body torn apart by her stab wounds is found the next day in a completely ransacked house. The crime appears incomprehensible. The woman had no enemies and, although of noble origins, she was now living in financial straits. Only following this tragic event, Marta realizes that Constance has left her a series of clues to get to the truth and throws herself headlong into a search that puts her life at risk and forces her to deal with her painful past."
Personal Rating
The personal rating system is still in its infancy. Since I rely primarily on my involvement and not on the quality of the texts, this is the fundamental parameter that guides my first vote. The second is a vote - once again personal - which takes into account how I received the quality of the novel. I will call the first vote with the title INVOLVEMENT Vote, the second as GENERAL Vote. The grading scale for both will be a number between 1 (worst rating) and 5 (best rating), represented as stars (1 to 5).
To Il Codice dell'Imperatore, I give 3 stars as General Vote and 3 stars as Involvement Vote.
If this article has intrigued you, you can find info by online searching for news of the author, or contacting retailers in the sector. I greet you, and I hope I have left a useful opinion. I will periodically publish other articles of this kind. If you are interested in discovering new books - mainly novels - on the market, you can continue to follow me on the #lobook tag. CLICK HERE if you want to access the collection of posts I publish on this tag. For the moment the number of published posts is very small, but I hope to expand the index over time.