HardLight > Recent Status Updates

There's a lot of bad worldbuilding at the start with characters talking for the sake of the audience to rush the development of the world of Dune

And I really don't like the character saying things like "as you know (xyzabc) for the (123456) we need to do the (@#£&+)" as no one talks like this, it's contrived

If this keeps up I'll be dropping this quickly

This book up to now has been an author trying to justify a plot point in the face of what I am certain is overwhelming fan negative response to the ending of the previous book and I don't like it.

If he would have just dealt with the expelling of Sakura how he had for Yamauchi and left it at that, but this forced justification screams of a desire to keep a rivalry in that has run its course.

not good at all

I am in awe at how different this book is than the previous books, holy hell is this amazing up to now, from the plot being different to the characters growing and changing, I am LOVING this

I'm getting a few Shannara vibes as we see various Tolkien elements cropping up more and more.

it's better than Shannara by leagues but it still annoys me a bit

It's decent up to now, though a little problems in starting and stopping going on.

It's okay up to now, nothing massive to speak of, traditional fantasy characters and at least a decent world being built.

Again the straight 2 year timeskip, oh god dammit this is getting annoying.

The retread ground with Isana is a little annoying, she is in danger, tries to save family, gets kidnapped by bad guy while suffering losses.

There's parts that are just annoying to me and the needless death of characters for shock value is one of them

ugh,
this is a little difficult to take, I'm enjoying it more than the last book but it's still grinding at points, needless reasoning for needlessness and a 2 year time jump. For a developing hero and his allies. Nah, I hate that sort of thing..."hoping" this pays off because if it continues I'll drop the series.

this is by far the weirdest thing I've had in a while to read. I'm swinging back and forth between loving it and it dragging like a nightmare.

Jumping from Tavi to Amara to Fidelias and there being little connectivity between them is difficult. It's like switching between first and fifth gear in a car at 90 mph sometimes and I'm feeling jarred at times.

that...was both beautiful and heartbreaking.

Rem Natsuki.

Oh it hurts! God DAMMIT does it hurt!

A single page for it and I knew it was coming and it STILL hurts.

Then I find out that not only does Tappei like torturing us, he puts in the RE:If with Rem right after it that I'm about to read.

It's like he gains power from our tears or something

There's something I've hesitated on actually saying about King's type of writing that has irked me from the first and with the Shining I'm just through pussying around about it.

He includes ridiculously caricatured racist behaviour by people - largely White people towards Black people - and none of it more annoyed me than the useless pulling over and insult for Dick Halloran going to the airport.

I'm 90% sure I'm right about what Wendy was supposed to be in this book when King started writing this
She was originally intended to be one half of a cycle of abuse that Danny is going through with her and Jack being polar opposites Jack having anger issues and not liking his work being insulted while Wendy is obsessive and fascinated with death
One is driven to lash out at the other and Danny is the one who suffers

Part of me is thinking that King had an idea at the start for Wendy to be a Munchausen's by proxy sufferer as all her thoughts revolve around death, dismemberment, disease and illness. Just having that "oh what will happen to Danny" at the doctor's office screams that.

But with Kings stream of consciousness style of writing it got lost maybe because I don't see people commenting on it.

Let's start shall we?

Jack is perfectly scary in his initial thoughts, the anger he's not addressing that's bubbling just under the surface is enough to scare me about him

Danny, my heart is gonna break for Danny I just know it, he's a kid terrified of losing loved ones and he's 5!!

Wendy...*sigh* how I already hate her. I'll explain in the review but rn I'm thinking "expectations too high, upset over hardships"

I have to remind myself that this is the FIRST of the Lecter series that it's not the look back on it after Silence

Because one of the things that keeps coming into my head is the deep dives into the backstories of people, and to do so late in the book feels weird. Learning Will was poor at the near end feels disjointed to me

It works in Silence as Clarice is hiding things from Lecter but here it's wrong.

I'm a wreck for this book, just getting to the "Do you leave a light on after bedtime? Because I get a little scared in the dark sometimes. If it's a strange place." has me blubbering already.

SO pissed off with the anime not including that scene with Beako! Holy god would that have added pressures to Subaru's story for the ending and made us all the more desperate to see season 2!

OH that annoys the hell out of me it not being there!

Outside of that, fantastic build up. Not exactly the biggest fan of "scene done 2 times from two perspectives" but decent enough up to now.

All the signs are coming and I am going to hate it, I mean the last time I was in tears over it and I'm gonna be in tears over it again.

レムって、だれのこと？

I am such a fucking simp for Rem

I keep running into something in this spooky month re-read of King's work and it's constant references to other material, whether it's songs -which I really forgot is heavily featured in the Stand - or the other written works. Especially Poe there's always some reference to Poe in anything King writes and while I used to find it charming, it feels insulting to see The Raven mentioned 3 times in this story (the judge)

Another update about Frannie.

"You made me feel like I treated Harold very shabbily" with big crocodile tears on her fucking face.

I'll repeat this, Harold is a bastard asshole, but he's the worse for knowing Frances Goldsmith. Most people who meet her are because she's a user of people. In fact all the survivors are some form of users which is likely deliberate.

Reminder, give an argument on Jolene and the story Lucy tells Larry.

"love a little too much" with the insult of "crazy jealous husband".
Either Captain Trips was the rapture and all that's left are the sinners on the world or Stephen King has a VERY fucked up view of gender politics

Still enjoying this book immensely and it's still probably the best thing King has written but I'm still having one tiny issue.
Frannie Goldsmith. I'll go into it in the review but I'll just give a tiny bit here.

She's incredibly whiny and selfish in every aspect and not a nice person at all. She's partially the reason why Harold goes the way he does and he was always a bastard and unlikable, but she made him worse.

Having given up on the Dark Tower re-read because Stephen King had made too many prograstinating problems with the series by Wolves of the Calla, HardLight had been looking for a horror title to read during spooky Month.

Then he remembered the fact that he's living through a Poor Man's "The Stand" still and thought "Eh, why not?" and began reading.

Still enjoying it, though I have words about Frannie

Up to now the vast majority of this is all flashback and it's all something I don't need to hear.

It's padding, useless useless padding and while its interesting to see Young Roland and his one true love, it's not something we need to see or hear.

The only important part is the Pink of Mearlyns Rainbow, everything else is fluff.

Still fun but the beginning is slow af, I'd forgotten how boring Roland is when he's at the beginning of this tale.

I'm fascinated by this book but at the same time it's like wading through mud at the start. I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to like the Main Character or not.

I'm struggling a little with it at the moment, build up is a little flat, though the hinting at Greed's power base is a cool thing I wish they'd kept in the Anime....