Author: Nicky

Review – Immortal Red Sonja, vol 2

Posted August 24, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Immortal Red Sonja, vol 2

Immortal Red Sonja

by Dan Abnett, Alessandro Miracolo

Genres: Arthuriana, Fantasy, Graphic Novels
Pages: 136
Series: Immortal Red Sonja #2
Rating: one-star
Synopsis:

The journey has been long, and the dangers grave - but now, armed with a fuller understanding of the burden she carries, Sonja the Red and her cursed chainmail set off on the final leg of their magical journey through the Dead Lands. What she finds in the endless fog, and the truths that Merlyn reveals, will change her forever - and set the whole world in a new direction!Acclaimed author DAN ABNETT and renowned artist ALESSANDRO MIRACOLO bring their unique new vision of the She-Devil With a Sword to a stunning conclusion in this second volume of Immortal Red Sonja! Collects issues #6-10.

Volume two of Dan Abnett’s Immortal Red Sonja wraps up on the story of the cursed mail shirt, supposedly containing the spirit of King Arthur. I find it a bit disorientating as a fan (and sometime scholar, dissertation and all) of Arthuriana: the cherrypicking and twisting of names and stories is a bit bewildering, and yet there’s clearly knowledge behind it (linking Gawain with the Green Knight, though of course the Green Knight should be Bertilak, not Gawain). Sometimes it was hard to tell if it was deliberate distortion or just random scraps cobbled together without research.

Story-wise, it was fairly unsurprising, and I have some kind of feeling about the idea of Red Sonja, of all people, being a successor to King Arthur. What in the heck. She should be underestimated at your peril, but she’s not High King material, and it’s especially weird to have her be the heir to a Welsh king (prince, in the original, but okay).

In the end, I think my ambiguous feelings about the first volume resolve to oh hell no, not so much because it adapts stories of King Arthur and twists them far out of true, but because it just doesn’t come together.

I’m not a great lover of the art in this particular run, though some of the cover variants are great.

Rating: 1/5 (“didn’t like it”)

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Review – The Odd Flamingo

Posted August 23, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Odd Flamingo

The Odd Flamingo

by Nina Bawden

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 256
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

Rose has news for Celia – she is due to have a baby by Celia’s husband, Humphrey. Soon after, the seeds of scandal bear a criminal fruit when a body is discovered in Little Venice along with Rose’s handbag. Celia drafts in an old flame, Will, to root out the truth from suspicions of murder and blackmail, as the evidence starts to converge on the patrons and strange goings-on of the seedy Chelsea club, ‘The Odd Flamingo’. First published in 1954, this was one of two gritty and atmospheric crime novels written by the accomplished children’s author Nina Bawden.

I knew of Nina Bawden because I read Carrie’s War in university — I think for the children’s literature class I took? I hadn’t expected to see a book by her from the British Library Crime Classics series, that’s for sure.

The Odd Flamingo turns out to be a noir-ish and rather grubby story, in which few (if any) people are genuine or trustworthy. Bawden carefully gives us the hero worship the main character has for his friend Humphrey, and his idealisation of a young girl, Rose, who seems fresh and innocent… and then carefully spends the whole book tearing it down.

It’s pretty weird as a mystery/crime novel, because the main character doesn’t really get very far in solving anything, and the interest (depending on your tastes) is more on the character studies. I found it overall pretty unpleasant, and while I could admire the craft, it wasn’t what I usually hope for in classic crime. (Which is fair enough for the series, to be clear: even “classic crime” as a concept contains multitudes!)

It’s an interesting read, but not one I enjoyed in and of itself.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)

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Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted August 23, 2025 by Nicky in General / 17 Comments

Happy weekend! I must admit, I’m looking forward to it: despite having a day off for my birthday, it’s been a weird and tiring week, in part because I got my exam results. I’m proud to announce that I will soon be graduating with merit for my MSc in Infectious Diseases from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. I just missed a distinction, too, so given everything that’s happened this year, I’m very proud of what I achieved.

But now it’s definitely time to chill.

Books acquired this week

This week was my birthday, so of course I got spoiled! I think I’ll split things into multiple posts, just because oof, there’s quite a bit, and I also had a library haul too. I think for this week, I’ll start by showing off the fiction books my wife got me for my birthday, and my library haul.

So first up, the birthday gifts that were fiction!

Cover of Peerless vol 1 by Meng Xi Shi Cover of The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley Cover of Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry Cover of Reignclowd Palace by Philippa Rice

Cover of Cackle by Rachel Harrison Cover of Swordheart by T. Kingfisher Cover of The Palace of Illusions by Rowena Miller

Quite the haul, I know! I’ve seen reviews from several blogs I follow about most of these lately, so I’m looking forward to reading them. Peerless was recommended by a fellow danmei lover on Discord, though, and Reignclowd Palace just caught my eye with the pretty cover (and I liked the first chapter), so I added it to my wishlist.

Aaand here’s the library haul, too!

Cover of Dressed: The Secret Life of Clothes, by Shahidha Bari Cover by Nineteenth-Century Fashion in Detail by Lucy Johnstone Cover of 100 Dresses by The Costume Institute

Cover of Neither Snow Nor Rain: A History of the United States Postal Service, by Devin Leonard Cover of The Post Book by Vincent Schouberechts Cover of Strange Houses by Uketsu

I’d put Strange Houses on hold, since I really liked Strange Pictures (such a weird book, but fascinating), and the others were somewhat random picks that happened to be close together in the non-fiction section. The postal books will probably get reviewed for Postcrossing’s blog.

Next week I’ll show off the books my sister got me for my birthday, the non-fiction my wife got me, and a couple of other books my wife got me to celebrate my exam results!

Posts from this week

First up, the reviews…

And the non-review posts:

What I’m reading

I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading this week, including unearthing some stuff that’d been hanging around on my TBR for a while. It was a pretty satisfying week for reading! Here’s the usual sneak peek at the books I finished and intend to review on the blog:

Cover of Devolution by Max Brooks Cover of The Odd Flamingo by Nina Bawden Cover of Valkyrie: The Women of the Viking World by Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir Cover of Solo Leveling manhwa vol 8 by Dubu

Cover of Solo Leveling manhwa vol 9 by Dubu Cover of Preventable by Devi Sridhar Cover of History in Flames by Robert Bartlett Cover of 100 Dresses by The Costume Institute

For this weekend… well, if I want to finish up my Litsy BookSpin list this month and get a blackout on my bingo card, I need to get back to reading some of the books I’ve got on the go, and start on a couple more! I want to finish Laura Spinney’s Proto, for a start, and maybe start reading Margaret Elphinstone’s The Sea Road.

But as ever, it’s wherever my whim takes me: if it feels like too much pressure, I’ll just read whatever I like. Reading goals aren’t any use if they make you feel like you’re missing out or not having fun.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz, as usual!

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Review – Monsters

Posted August 22, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Monsters

Monsters: A Bestiary of the Bizarre

by Christopher Dell

Genres: Non-fiction
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

Monsters have preoccupied mankind from the earliest times: even cave art includes animal-human monsters. Certainly monsters were present in the ancient religions of Egypt and Mesopotamia; the Old Testament describes the giant land and sea monsters Behemoth and Leviathan, while in the world of Classical mythology, monsters embody the fantasies of the gods and the cruellest punishments of human beings. While we may no longer worry about being eaten by trolls on the way home, there remains a fascination with these creatures who have shadowed us throughout history. This book explores monsters down the ages and throughout the world. It provides a dark yet engrossing visual history of the human mind, lit up by flashes of wild and unearthly inspiration.

Christopher Dell’s Monsters was a bit of a random choice from the library while I happened to be in that area of the library for something else. It’s a pretty fun volume, largely reproducing images of monsters with only brief discussion of those monsters — it’s all in full colour, glossy pages, etc, so it certainly looks good.

I would’ve loved a bit more discussion, of course, but that’s not really what the book is meant for. If anything, given that, it felt like it needed to be longer and include more examples and images. In addition, it’d have been helpful to have an info bar about each individual image, rather than just a bare list of the images on preceding pages.

Interesting, but not well executed.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)

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Review – Beneath Our Feet

Posted August 21, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Beneath Our Feet

Beneath Our Feet

by Michael Lewis, Ian Richardson

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 240
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Britain has a rich past, with incredible archaeology. Every day, new discoveries transform our understanding of its history. Most are made not by professional archaeologists, but by ordinary members of the public. Some are chance finds; others are recovered by the thousands of fieldwalkers, mudlarks, and metal detectorists who scour Britain's countryside and waterways looking for artifacts and coins.

Beneath Our Feet is a celebration of this growing public involvement in archaeology, and of the groundbreaking work of the Portable Antiquities Scheme managed by the British Museum in England and Amgueddfa Cymru in Wales. Its mission is collaboration with public finders, encouraging them to report their discoveries so they can be recorded on a national database and shared with archaeologists, historians, and everyone with an interest in the past buried beneath our feet.

From the 3,500-year-old Ringlemere Cup to the Anglo-Saxon Staffordshire Hoard, a heart pendant connected to Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, and a jar of American gold coins buried by a Jewish refugee fleeing the Nazis, these are the stories of more than fifty astonishing treasures, the people who found them, and how they are reshaping British history.

Beneath Our Feet is by Michael Lewis and Ian Richardson, but it covers the finds of many ordinary people — not archaeologists, but metal detectorists, fieldwalkers, mudlarks, and people who just chanced across their finds. In the UK there’s a system to get such things declared and recorded in order that museums can acquire them for display and study, which is great, and here the authors show off some of these items.

It’s a fully illustrated book with colourful, non-glossy pages, some of which are the items themselves and some just images that cast some light on them. I could’ve done with more sense of scale on some of the items, but for a few they do show the scale and the comparisons. Each object or set of objects gets discussed quite briefly, within a couple of pages, and a note about where it can be found now (e.g. a museum or a private collection), so it’s more of a taster than anything.

I really liked it — as a kid who grew up watching and loving Time Team, this kind of “everyday archaeology” (though some of the objects found are in fact officially Treasure and incredibly opulent) is incredibly fun to read about. And it’s a really well-presented book.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – Most Delicious Poison

Posted August 20, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Most Delicious Poison

Most Delicious Poison: From Spices to Vices - The Story of Nature's Toxins

by Noah Whiteman

Genres: Non-fiction, Science
Pages: 304
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

A deadly secret lurks within our kitchens, medicine cabinets and gardens...

Digitalis purpurea. The common foxglove. Vision blurs as blood pressure drops precipitously. The heartbeat slows until, finally, it stops.

Atropa belladonna. Deadly nightshade. Eyes darken as strange shapes flutter across your vision. The heart begins to race and soon the entire body is overcome with convulsions.

Papaver somniferum. The opium poppy. Pupils constrict to a pinprick as the senses dull. Gradually, breathing shudders to a halt.

Scratch the surface of a coffee bean, a chilli flake or an apple seed and find a bevy of strange chemicals - biological weapons in a war raging unseen. Here, beetles, birds, bats and butterflies must navigate a minefield of specialised chemicals and biotoxins, each designed to maim and kill.

And yet these chemicals, evolved to repel marauding insects and animals, have now become an integral part of our everyday lives. Some we use to greet our days (caffeine) and titillate our tongues (capsaicin), others to bend our minds (psilocybin) and take away our pains (opioids).

Inspired by his father's love of the natural world and his eventual spiral into the depths of addiction, evolutionary biologist Noah Whiteman explores how we came to use - and abuse - these chemicals. Delving into the mysterious origins of plant and fungal toxins, and their unique human history, Most Delicious Poison provides a kaleidoscopic tour of nature's most delectable and dangerous poisons.

Noah Whiteman’s Most Delicious Poison: From Spices to Vices – the Story of Nature’s Toxins is primarily focused on the issue of addiction, and includes discussion of his father’s alcoholism and death due to complications thereof. It muses on his own likely propensity toward addiction as well, and generally seems to be part an exorcism of Whiteman’s own demons around addictive plant products.

There is a great deal of discussion of chemistry and biology as well, discussing how exactly the toxins work, and how they interact with receptors — and even how that might have evolved (often coincidentally, but sometimes based on the fact that some things are widespread across the animal kingdom, having evolved early on). It was this that I was interested on, and it largely didn’t disappoint, though I felt the emphasis on addiction meant a bit of a narrowed focus beyond some other plant toxins that would’ve been interesting. Basically everything came down to addiction within a few pages, and I don’t think that emphasis was really clear in the book’s description.

I did also find Whiteman’s style a bit challenging, rather inclined to jump around/link together topics that aren’t closely linked in a very “and another thing!” manner.

Overall, not quite what I hoped for.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)

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WWW Wednesday

Posted August 20, 2025 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

Cover of Preventable by Devi SridharWhat have you recently finished reading?

Devi Sridhar’s Preventable, a book about the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic completed/published in 2022, which makes it off-base on a number of things (e.g. basically commenting that Trump’s hate on for the WHO doesn’t matter at all and was just words). I found it a bit too “yup, let’s get back to normal” at the end, particularly given that she assumes that’s possible because of vaccination… which is no longer widely or freely available in the UK. But mostly it was a pretty good look at the initial situation.

Cover of Paladin's Strength by T. KingfisherWhat are you currently reading?

I just started History in Flames: The Destruction and Survival of Medieval Manuscripts, by Robert Bartlett, which I just got today as a birthday present! Not very far into it yet, but I might finish it today — it’s not very long.

Other than that, I have a few books on the backburner, but nothing else at the forefront of my mind. I do want to finish Lex Croucher’s Gwen and Art are Not in Love, Laura Spinney’s Proto, T. Kingfisher’s Paladin’s Strength, Caitlin Rozakis’ The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association, Victoria Shepherd’s Stony Jack and the Lost Jewels of Cheapside and Molly Conisbee’s No Ordinary Deaths, because they’re all on my August Book Spin list on Litsy, but we’ll see, that’s a lot!

Cover of The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System vol 3 by MXTXWhat will you be reading next?

Probably I’ll start my reread of the third volume of The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, as a birthday treat. Since I have the day off, I might finish up with that, in which case I might start one of my new books — Carwyn Graves’ Tir: The Story of the Welsh Landscape is calling to me, or maybe Rachel Harrison’s Cackle — or start on a book that’s been on my backlog for a while, Margaret Elphinstone’s The Sea Road.

 

Quick reminder: I added a captcha to my comment form because of relentless spam. It should be invisible to legit users, and people have been commenting OK as far as I can tell, but if you’re having any difficulty with commenting, shoot me an email at bibliophibianbreathesbooks@gmail.com so I can troubleshoot! ♥

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Review – The Undetectables

Posted August 19, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – The Undetectables

The Undetectables

by Courtney Smyth

Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 442
Series: The Undetectables #1
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

Be gay, solve crime, take naps—A witty and quirky fantasy murder mystery in a folkloric world of witches, faeires, vampires, trolls and ghosts, for fans of Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey and T. J. Klune’s Under the Whispering Door.

A magical serial killer is stalking the Occult town of Wrackton. Hypnotic whistling causes victims to chew their own tongues off, leading to the killer being dubbed the Whistler (original, right?). But outside the lack of taste buds and the strange magical carvings on the victims’ torsos, the murderer leaves no evidence. No obvious clues. No reason – or so it seems.

Enter the Undetectables, a detective agency run by three witches and a ghost in a cat costume (don’t ask). They are hired to investigate the murders, but with their only case so far left unsolved, will they be up to the task? Mallory, the forensic science expert, is struggling with pain and fatigue from her recently diagnosed fibromyalgia. Cornelia, the team member most likely to go rogue and punch a police officer, is suddenly stirring all sorts of feelings in Mallory. Diana, the social butterfly of the group, is hitting up all of her ex-girlfriends for information. And not forgetting ghostly Theodore – deceased, dramatic, and also the agency’s first dead body and unsolved murder case.

With bodies stacking up and the case leading them to mysteries at the very heart of magical society, can the Undetectables find the Whistler before they become the killer’s next victims?

In the end, Courtney Smyth’s The Undetectables didn’t really prove to be my thing. I loved the tagline (“be gay, solve crimes, take naps”), and I loved the fact that Mallory has a serious and potentially limiting disability, which is never ignored in the course of the story even when she has to do heroics. I don’t know from experience whether her fibro was portrayed accurately, but I appreciated the inclusion — along with the various flavours of queerness, too.

However, it just felt a bit… lacklustre? Obviously, because I’m a mystery fan, the mystery element was pretty important to me, and it felt like the girls kept missing really obvious clues — and then I hated the villain monologue section, with all the super-manufactured clues. The narrative lampshaded that a bit, in that Mallory very much thinks the puzzles are stupid, but… ugh, so many pages taken up with that.

And then there was just a certain immaturity to the relationships. In a way it makes sense for the main character, who has felt left behind by the others, but it wasn’t just that. Cornelia’s relationship with Beckett is transparently bad. Not that older people don’t get into bad relationships, or that it’s about maturity or intelligence exactly, it’s just… not the kind of situation I enjoy reading about, and makes me feel like I’m back in school.

I did like the relationship between the three girls, and the deep friendship between Theodore and Mallory. There were definitely good elements. But I finished it and thought… I’m not sure that was a good use of my time.

I am sure, however, that it is the perfect read for many people! I mean, look at that tagline.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)

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Top Ten Tuesday: Doorstoppers

Posted August 19, 2025 by Nicky in General / 27 Comments

This week’s theme from Top Ten Tuesday is all about the big chonky books. I don’t have stats on all my books, since I left Goodreads in a huff some years ago and then only settled into StoryGraph a year or two later… but let’s see what I can do.

I’ll skip the most obvious (The Lord of the Rings) and the technical (Control of Communicable Diseases Manual), I think! I also realised that the illustrated Earthsea I have is probably chonkier than any of these, but I didn’t think of it. So here we go.

Cover of The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard Cover of Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey Cover of The First Binding by R.R. Virdi Cover of Vanished Kingdoms, by Norman Davies Cover of The Ember Blade by Chris Wooding

  1. The Hands of the Emperor, by Victoria Goddard (899 pages). Some editions even run to ~1100 pages, but mine’s “only” 899, and apparently one of my chonkiest books. I’ve read this one, and really love it — I want to reread it soon. It’s wish fulfillment, about dismantling an empire and turning it into something fairer and kinder, but the relationship between the former Emperor and the main character, Cliopher, is really lovely. There’s also At the Feet of the Sun, the sequel (at 790 pages). It looks just as chonky on the shelf, though! I have to get round to it soon, but I’ve waited long enough thanks to a poor attention span that I really do want to reread the previous book first.
  2. Kushiel’s Dart, by Jacqueline Carey (901 pages). I’m surprised this is so long, actually, because I know I’ve completely inhaled it in the past, and these days I seem to find 400 page books quite intimidating. It’s the start of a fantasy trilogy that I really love, though sometimes the violence (consensual and otherwise) is a lot to read, even with the conceit of Phèdre’s abilities.
  3. The First Binding, by R.R. Virdi (929 pages). I don’t remember anything about this one! I haven’t read it yet, and I think I had it as an e-ARC. Oops.
  4. Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe, by Norman Davies (830 pages). This one’s still on my TBR, and I’m still looking forward to it, but… it’s just waiting for me to get round to it.
  5. The Ember Blade, by Chris Wooding (824 pages). This is another one where I don’t really remember anything about it, it’s just been on my TBR a while. It sounds like pretty traditional fantasy, like it makes a point of being so even, so… maybe it’ll be fun?
  6. Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities, by Bettany Hughes (900 pages). I’ve liked some of Hughes’ work before, which I read because she got an honorary degree from Cardiff University at my first graduation ceremony. So I’m curious about this one, but it’s quite a commitment, so it’s been waiting on my TBR for the right mood.
  7. The Thousand Deaths of Ardor Benn, by Tyler Whitesides (784 pages). Again, this sounds like pretty traditional fantasy, could be fun, but I haven’t got round to it yet.
  8. Making History: The Storytellers who Shaped the Past, by Richard Cohen (708 pages). Understanding who is writing the history books is a very important thing, so this sounds very interesting. Though slightly daunting!
  9. European Travel for the Mysterious Gentlewoman, by Theodora Goss (708 pages). I haven’t read the first book yet, so this one’s waiting behind that one. I didn’t realise this was so chonky — I have the ebook edition!
  10. Plagues Upon the Earth: Diseases and the Course of Human History, by Kyle Harper (704 pages). As ever, can’t resist something about infectious diseases! I think it’s been on my TBR since last year? Ish? But I thought I’d probably enjoy it more when my MSc is all done and dusted.

Cover of Istanbul by Bettany Hughes Cover of The Thousand Deaths of Ardor Benn by Tyler Whitesides Cover of Making History by Richard Cohen Cover of European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman, by Theodora Goss Cover of Plagues Upon The Earth by Kyle Harper

So there we go, those’re my chonkers — mostly still waiting to be read!

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Review – A Side Character’s Love Story, vol 16

Posted August 18, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – A Side Character’s Love Story, vol 16

A Side Character's Love Story

by Akane Tamura

Genres: Manga, Romance
Pages: 162
Series: A Side Character's Love Story #16
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Nobuko and Hiroki's long-distance relationship has hit a bit of a rocky patch. Hiroki is plagued by his own anxieties, but still rushes to Nobuko's side when he senses something is amiss. But when they finally meet, she has an unusual request to make of him... How will their relationship change as they try to focus on life beyond love?

Volume 16 of Akane Tamura’s is the last one I hadn’t reviewed fully, and now I’m almost at the end of the series so far in my reread! Boo. It’s another really cute volume, even though Hiroki is struggling with feeling jealous and Nobuko is still finding her way with new friends and coworkers. I love how Hiroki and Nobuko communicate and work things out, and how Nobuko resolves herself to do better — for Hiroki and also by apologising to Asuka.

The side characters are really quite prominent over the next few volumes, with Hiroki so far away, and I don’t always love that because I’m here for Hiroki and Nobuko. Still, Asuka’s love for Tai is cute, as is Aoike and Shiotani’s friendship.

Honestly it’s all a pretty realistic portrayal of young adulthood, made interesting by the fact that Hiroki and Nobuko are sweet and determined to make their relationship work, unwilling to let lack of communication hinder anything. You can really root for them.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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