Mel > Recent Status Updates

I hope I have not guessed this. But I think I’ve guessed this. Burned houses and “The bigger ones” “crow tattoos on the lady in the rival pub? Plus the names…but then a lot of those names are still common in Ireland so????

I’m only 5 (pretty short) chapters in and this completely and totally slaps. Isolated island, somebody waking up buried alive (alive?) some fucked up fraternal situations, a plague of some sort, a depressed 20 something outsider who thinks he’s a poet, dark Celtic seaside folklore? Let’s goooo.

I’ve been in a sci-fi and space opera groove and the complexity of that and the drama of the World Cup has left me in a slump. Time to scare/disturb myself into feeling something.

Irreverent scifi art heist novella, please help me out of my reading slump. Please clear the cobwebs.

Bruhhhhh this woman is unwell.

The nonlinear structure and full cast of completely unreliable narrators is REALLY well done. Naming a baby in a book that is strongly leaning on water faery lore, “Undine” ???? Meh.

I don’t like Tug anymore.

This feels like the Robin Hobb I know and love shook hands with Ray Bradbury and that handshake produced this. And I love that. I am also reading like four pages a day rn cus it is World Cup time and may just put it down until the end of July so I can give it what it deserves.

Okay, Robin!! Hearing her narrative style in a hard scifi and not a high fantasy was jarring at first ngl. But I love this. (Yes, I know it is Megan. But my brain won’t give up Robin. Sorry)

Deckensons hair being long and pale and flouncy and his stature being described as fine boned??? Only recognizable as male because of the pronouns his secretary used to describe him??? Is this a prototype for Beloved?

Obsessed with this unseen alien who talks shit about the human captain to the only other human on board via the intercom. Very fun. Tug is my favorite so far.

Realizing at 6:30 am on a Sunday morning that two of the main characters in the book you’ve been waiting for have the same names as your exes? Dope lol

My first Hobb as Megan Lindholm! My first Hobb scifi!! Its copyright date is the year I was born!!! Nothing could possibly go wrong.

Okay, final stretch of this audiobook. I need strange and horrific happenings.

Bruuuhhhhh I’m so stressed and claustrophobic and on edge. It’s so awful. I love it.

I love books that speak complicated science at me. I also love the blunt single sentence reminders that the shutter tests are failing before the story pivots. It’s delicious anxiety in a controlled setting.

I’m still trying. I understand why this book is beloved. I was super excited about it when I started. But this reads more like an anthropological/evolutionary journal than a novel. It’s interesting, but I don’t feel like Ive had enough time with any one character to be emotionally invested. And there isn’t really any rising action/relief of tension. Cus there isn’t really tension. Idk. I’m trying.

Brutal, uncanny killer mermaid cold open? Scientific and Romantic (with a capital R) descriptions of the ocean? Hell—and I cannot stress this enough—yeah.

Okay, so the last two pages of this book has made me completely rethink and feel guilt over my dislike of book 2 😬 150ish pages to go so we’ll see how Robin pulls this together. But I feel silly. Oops.

I’m enjoying watching the evolution of both groups of characters as we jump forward through the years. This feels more like being an anthropologist observing different cultures and less like being a reader participating in an active story. I’m still waiting for the moment when an active plot starts? So far it is all incredibly passive.

So everything that annoying me about book 2 is what’s making book 3 so interesting. The emotional, moral, and political conflict is scrumptious. Still waiting for Tiber to play any part in this story. He was set up to be a catalyst for something all the way back in book 1 and still nothing has happened with that.

Okay, the bug storyline is more interesting now they have had a brief interaction with the humans. And I am grudgingly enjoying the process of sped up evolution of the spider culture through the nano virus. But ultimately I and not invested in them. (I’m aware that failing to empathize with the non humans characters is a bad thing but there it is)

Call me human-centric, but I simply dread having to care about the nano-viral spider colony. I know I should because this is very much presenting the thesis of the entire novel. But simply do not.

Epiny, my baddie. My gal. My best friend. Thank you for making me care about Nevare as a character rn cus he has done a poor job of doing that himself. Again, you’re a straight up gangster. Xoxo -Mel

Okay. Last book. I swear to god, Robin if this is another stone wolf situation I’ll be pretty grumpy. If this man has to become a friggin tree at the end…

Spoke it into existence. Epiny, my darling gal, thank you for strong arming some plot into this first person story from the perspective of a stupidly and boringly honorable white boy with a victim/martyr complex.

I’d read a series about Spink and Epiny and probably really enjoy it. I wish the writing wasn’t so damn good. Cus the story and its protagonist are pissing me the hell off…and not in the “good art evokes emotion” way. In the “this boy is stupid as all hell and The Magic being a character propelling the plot is only fun when it isn’t vaguely done for 600+ pages” way. It’s starting to chafe.

Nevare is a bone head. Fitz is also a bonehead but at least Fitz is not annoying. Nevare is starting to be annoying.

The pacing for the first half was clumsy and I dislike how a lot of topics/plot points have been handled. But the last hundred or so pages the story has finally hit its stride. I think I dislike the Specks and the Gernians equally and feel awful for the Plains-people. I am intrigued by this carrion god of balance. Hope that’s something. Hope it finishes stronger than it started.

The small moments of Nevare learning to adjust to his new circumstances and being incredibly competent but sad are surprisingly calming????