Bogormen

Title: Slaget om Kejserstaden (Skyggefjenden 3)
Author: Claus Holm
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 455
Date read: Maj 2023

Alain og hans venner er spredt ud over hele Kejserriget.

Desperat prøver de at finde allierede til kampen mod Skyggefjenden, som nu strammer grebet om riget. Men at samle en hær tll at gå mod Kejseren selv... det er lettere sagt end gjort.

Mens de mørke kræfter trækker sammen om Kejserstaden, må Alain, Rowena, Duncan og Aruthan bruge alle deres evner for at holde sig et skridt foran. Da en magisk kuppel lukker sig over Kejserstaden, må mennesker, elvere, feer og Irari stå sammen for at udkæmpe det sidste og afgørende slag.

Men det er ikke alle, man kan stole på...


Sidste bind i trilogien starter umiddelbart hvor bog 2 slutter. Det er godt at have den tidligere historie i frisk erindring, for vi springer direkte ind i handlingen, og det er bare om at følge med når Alain, Rowena, Joanna og alle de andre skal redde kejserriget fra Skyggefjenden og hans håndlangere.

"Slaget om Kejserstaden" er absolut den længste bog i trilogien, men der er også mange tråde, der skal samles, så historien bliver fortalt fra mange forskellige synspunkter - dog uden at det på noget tidspunkt føles som om man hopper i handlingen, og der var stadig plads til nogle uventede drejninger hist og her.

"Skyggefjende"-trilogien er "high fantasy" af den traditionelle slags som vi kender den fra f.eks. "Ringenes Herre". Det er ikke mit førstevalg når det kommer til fantasy-genren, men den er godt og medrivende skrevet, så jeg er glad for, at jeg fik muligheden for at læse serien.

Jeg har modtaget bogen som anmeldereksemplar fra BoD.

Title: The Nothing Man
Author: Catherine Ryan Howard
Genre: Suspense
Rating: 3.5/5
# pages: 270
Date read: January, 2022

I was the girl who survived the Nothing Man.
Now I am the woman who is going to catch him...

You've just read the opening pages of The Nothing Man, the true crime memoir Eve Black has written about her obsessive search for the man who killed her family nearly two decades ago.

Supermarket security guard Jim Doyle is reading it too, and with each turn of the page his rage grows. Because Jim was - is - the Nothing Man.

The more Jim reads, the more he realizes how dangerously close Eve is getting to the truth. He knows she won't give up until she finds him. He has no choice but to stop her first...


Really interesting concept. It's rare to read a "true crime" book from both the victim's and the unsub's POV. I found it a fascinating way to give the audience both sides of the story.

Unfortunately, the "book within the book" wasn't all that well written (and really? Thanking the author in the acknowledgements of the fictional book? That made me roll my eyes super hard), and especially in the beginning there was far too much exposition. I get why, but it did mean that I found "Jim's" sections a lot more interesting than "Eve's". Fortunately that changed as we went along, and I ended up not being able to put the book down. I didn't find the ending entirely believable, but it worked alright within its own universe.

Title: Månen over Østerbro (Lover's Moon)
Author: Claus Holm
Genre: Short-stories, Romance
Rating: 3.5/5
# pages: 178
Date read: December, 2020

12 moments during a single night. 12 different glimpses of the many sides of love. 12 pieces of a mosaic.

During a completely ordinary Friday evening on Østerbro, we meet a group of very different people, who all have one thing in common; They love. Old, young, women, men - they all love somebody in their own way.


12 short-stories or vignettes all happening in a single night on Østerbro. I liked how they were all intertwined somehow, so even though each focused on a different aspect, you never knew when (or how!) characters from an earlier chapter would show up again.

Very different genre than what I've come to expect from Claus Holm, but every bit as well written as usual.

Title: Duncton Wood
Author: William Horwood
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 3.5/5
# pages: Audiobook ~24hrs
Date read: March, 2019

Enter the magical, colourful, poignant world of Bracken and Rebecca, Mandrake the tyrant, Boswell the scribe, Hulver, Comfrey... and all the other moles of Duncton Wood. Set deep in the English countryside, this enchanting story tells of an ancient community losing its soul - but saved by courage and love.


I first read this in the late 90s sometime and really enjoyed it, but hadn't reread it since then, so figured it was about time. Unfortunately I found myself having to downgrade the rating. It's in no ways a bad book, and I still think it was very well written, but it's just so SLOW!!! Page after page after page where nothing of significance happens. It's well-written, so it never gets boring - it just doesn't seem to serve much purpose either. I understand why I liked it as much as I did back in my late teens - it would have been right up my aisle back then - but I would have liked it even better if it had been condensed somehow.

Granted, part of it might be that it isn't all that appropriate for an audiobook and the slow pace might have been less blatant if I'd read it in a different format.

I didn't dislike it, but it's nicely contained, so I have no desire at all to continue on with the rest of the series.

Title: Unf*ck Your Habitat
Author: Rachel Hoffman
Genre: Non-fiction
Rating: 2.5/5
# pages: 222 pages
Date read: December, 2018

Finally, a housekeeping and organizational system developed for those of us who'd describe our current living situation as a “f*cking mess” that we're desperate to fix. Unf*ck Your Habitat is for anyone who has been left behind by traditional aspirational systems. The ones that ignore single people with full-time jobs; people without kids but living with roommates; and people with mental illnesses or physical limitations. Most organizational books are aimed at traditional homemakers, DIYers, and people who seem to have unimaginable amounts of free time. They assume we all iron our sheets, have linen napkins to match our table runners, and can keep plants alive for longer than a week. Basically, they ignore most of us living here in the real world.


Yet another book on decluttering/cleaning much like "Sink Reflections" and "The Magic Art of Tidying Up"... however, if you've read those two (or others of their ilk) it really didn't bring anything new to the table. I feel kinda bad rating this so low, because it is NOT a bad book! It just didn't teach me anything new, and I ended up skimming large parts of it, as I already knew those things. But if you're approaching this line of books for the first time, it might be a lot easier to stomach than those two, as it doesn't make any assumptions about where you are in your life, your living situation, your finances or anything like that. So with that in mind I'd recommend "Unf*ck Your Habitat" over the others any day, as it's likely to be a lot less eyeroll-inducing than the other two.

Title: The Tuscon Time-Traveler and Other Stories
Author: Claus Holm
Genre: short stories, sci-fi
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 186
Date read: April, 2018

"I'd be shooting someone who hasn't done anything yet." Professor Wells put his hand on my shoulder. "Such is the dilemma of time travel, Ted. A world where reaction comes before action. Where you as the chrononaut knows what the future will be like because you've lived it, even if it hasn't happened yet."

If you could go back in time and change the course of history, would you do it? Even if you could never be sure what the change would lead to? Can any of us really foresee the impact our actions have on history and the future?

Through ten independent stories, Claus Holm explores the world of time travel, dimensional changes, and new technology. He shows us a world where Germany won World War II, introduces us to people who can cast minds from the future to the past, and takes us to a future where an earthquake has destroyed our civilization beyond repair. Each story treats the question of how people deal with challenges that change their view of life.


It's funny - I'm usually not a big fan of short stories. Unless I'm already familiar with the universe, it seems like too much investment for too small an output. Which means that as a rule, I tend to stay away from short story collections.

Claus Holm is one of the few exceptions, and with this short story collection he has published his best works yet. "The Tuscon Time-Traveler" is a collection of 10 short stories, all involving time-travel in some way or the other. I'll state my bias up front - as a rule I love stories involving time-travel (as long as it's done well), so I knew ahead of time that this would probably be right up my wheelhouse, and I was right.

Of course with short story collections there will always be some that you love and some you care less for, and that was also the case here. My two absolute favourites were "The Hitler Dilemma" (could you save Hitler's life if the alternative was worse?) and "I Love Her From the Mirror" (a man "accidentally" spies on his neighbour through a one-way mirror), with "Tamagotchi" and "The Tuscon Time-Traveler" as close seconds, but they all tickled my fancy in some way or the other. Some of them seemed to end a bit abruptly (which is so often the case with short stories), but I appreciated that others were given enough page-time to really explore the premise of the story.

I almost wish I'd saved reading this for the readathon... Being short, approachable and engaging it would have made for the perfect readathon material.

Title: De, der vogter
Author: Claus Holm
Genre: Short-stories
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 384
Date read: March, 2017

En gruppe turister spærres inde i en underjordisk bunker uden kontakt til omverden. De ved ikke, hvor længe de kan overleve dernede - eller hvad der er sket på jorden over dem.

Dreng møder pige i en historie om at forfølge sin egen drøm, frem for andres. Måske kan man også lære af de ting, man ikke ved.

En ung mor mister på én gang sin mand og sit arbejde - men måske kan en rød cykel bane vejen frem mod et nyt liv.

En nyfødt dreng får tildelt en agent fra Oven - og en fra Neden - men hvorfor er han så vigtig?

De, der vogter er fire forbundne historier om almindelige mennesker i ualmindelige situationer; om mennesker, som beskytter hinanden, og som indimellem selv har behov for at blive beskyttet. Frygt og sorg, afmagt og tragedie, alle har de en vigtig plads i fortællingerne - men i sidste ende indtager kærlighed, venskab og medmenneskelighed de altoverskyggende hovedroller.

Fra 1950'erne til nu; fra den faderløse femårige til den fortvivlede cirkusprinsesse. Når luften er ved at løbe ud - i metaforisk eller bogstavelig forstand - er spørgsmålet det samme for os alle: Skal jeg blive hvor jeg er, eller skal jeg bryde ud?


"De, der vogter" er en samling af 4 noveller, der ved første øjekast ser ud til at være uafhængige af hinanden... og så alligevel ikke. De er meget forskellige, og derfor nærmest umulige at anmelde under ét, så jeg har valgt at anmelde dem hver for sig i stedet.

Den første novelle, "Bunkeren", var også klart min yndlings. Jeg har altid haft en svaghed for dystopiske/post-apokalyptiske romaner, og fløj lige igennem den. Der var enkelte af personerne, jeg gerne ville have hørt mere om (f.eks. overlevelsesnødden som købte al vandet i starten af bogen), men det er ulempen ved (gode) noveller... man vil altid gerne vide mere! Og egentlig syntes jeg, det var et okay sted at stoppe - alt taget i betragtning. Jeg var helt vild med Sarah :-) 5 stjerner.

Starten på den anden novelle, "Kvinden og løverne", mindede mig utrolig meget om starten på "The Night Circus" (selv her ved anden gennemlæsning, hvor jeg ved at inspirationen er en helt anden), men det er dog kun starten, og historien fik hurtigt sit eget liv. Det ville være en skam at røbe for meget af handlingen, så jeg vil nøjes med at sige at jeg absolut ikke havde forventet den drejning historien ville tage, men efter det første chock begyndte jeg at gennemskue de hints Claus havde lagt ud, og endte med at synes, at det var en fin slutning. I sidste ende er det nok den af novellerne jeg er midst tilbøjelig til at genlæse, men jeg vil alligevel give den 3 stjerner.

"Gaven" fik mig til at græde. "Big ugly tears". Mærkeligt nok ikke der hvor man måske ville have forventet det, men ved Jessicas reaktion senere. Meget vagt, det ved jeg godt, men jeg prøver at undgå spoilers. Heldigvis endte historien på en mere positiv note (ellers er jeg heller ikke sikker på, jeg ville have kunnet klare det), men jeg ville have ønsket den havde været bare lidt længere, så de øvrige siders tragedie var blevet opvejet mere. 4 stjerner.

Den sidste novelle, "Vogterne", var jeg meget splittet overfor. Som kristen havde jeg afgjort nogle problemer med den*, men handlingsmæssigt fandt jeg den meget fascinerende. Den er baseret på et interessant koncept, og jeg kunne godt lide den meget bogstavelige tilgang til skytsengle og dæmoner. 4 stjerner.

Generelt en meget velskreven bog, som jeg er glad for at have fået chancen for at læse. Og specielt "Bunkeren" bliver nok en novelle jeg kommer til at genlæse ofte. Ikke dårligt klaret af Claus Holm, når man tænker på, at jeg typisk ikke er så meget til noveller. De fleste af disse er dog også lange nok til at gå under den engelske term "novella" snarere end "short story".... hvilket jeg værdsatte!

*Ikke så meget engle og dæmoner generelt - det er der præcedens for blandt kristne forfattere også... bl.a. hos Frank E. Peretti og C.S. Lewis, bare for at nævne to af de mest kendte... men ind i mellem var der nogle fraser som skurede i ørerne. Det er dog på ingen måde sikkert, at det er ting der ville genere andre end mig.

Title: Tempus Investigations
Author: Claus Holm
Genre: Crime
Rating: 3.5/5
# pages: 228
Date read: August, 2016

Jim Corrigan died in 1933... but he returned to life. Now, he can't die.

Through the first season, Jim and his friends matches wits with the supernatural side of San Francisco, making both new friends - and a few enemies.

Tempus Investigations mixes the world of TV and books, making a unique kind of story - a fan fiction so elaborate it needed to create the show itself. In this book, you'll find the first four episodes, which form Season 1.


It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of TV crime shows (Criminal Minds, Law & Order, CSI, Bones... they're all my jam), so a fictional version sounded very intriguing! Also, I liked the idea of reading fanfiction for a show that doesn't even exist :)

Fortunately, it worked well. I really liked Jim and his friends, and though there were definitely some "episodes" I was fonder of than others, I would absolutely tune in for the second season.