Stijn Bun > Recent Status Updates

Notes the story so far:
Priest's: FUCKED UP
Soldier's: Cool!
Poet's: Intriguing
Scholar's:
WHY WOULD SOMEONE WRITE THIS.
IT'LL TAKE WEEKS TO EMOTIONALLY RECOVER.
WHAT THE HELL?!

What an interesting take on young Geralt so far...
Love to see a young protagonist that fails not because they're incompetent, but incredibly gullable and not used to social customs yet.

(Which makes sense if you spent the first 18 years of your life in fantasy bootcamp, never seeing the outside world)

Although it's entirely just buildup so far, every page burns with tension...
You just know these people will go through hell....
Oh god...
I wish them the best...
But it probably won't save any of them...

Wow!
Great to see Howard coming out of his earlier flaws. Conan is accompanied by two interesting characters who aren't bad stereotypes (as was previously often the case).

It's also great to see these other characters shine for once, and having them rely on each other in interesting ways.

These stories were written back when there wasn't a consensus on how to write fantasy, so it's nice to see Howard discovering.

It took a bit, but the book has truly kicked into that 11th gear that the first one was in from the start.

On the one hand, that has made this book harder to stick to so far.

On the other, with the extra build-up I'm extra excited how this'll turn out now!

The whole Sham plotline really didn't catch my attention.
It all felt INCREDIBLY predictable, something this series usually is not.

But then we got introduced to the warden.
WHAT THE HELL IS HIS DEAL?!
WHAT IS GOING ON!?

I'm hooked again!

This is everything I wanted from mercy of the gods
(the first book in the captive's war series).

We finally get payoff!
We finally get stakes!
We finally get tension!

The characters are still bland compared to their other works.
But that can be excused in a novella that's this compact.

No one (that I've encountered at least) writes warfare and sieges like Abercrombie. It might be a fantasy book, but it feels gutteral in a way only matched by actual historical accounts.

(What probably helps in this book is the fact that magic is barely even present, but still.)

A resistance?
A counter-resistance?!?!

Now we're getting somewhere!

Slowly but surely the pace is picking up....
It's growing on me!

Except for *THAT ONE* fight in Matthew Colville's "THIEF" I've never seen a fight that was THIS built up and also still managed to exceed all expectations.... Damn!

I'm quite worried about the political plot however...
I feel a plot twist coming....
And I still can't tell exactly where it will happen...

PART 1 ABSOLUTELY RUUUUULED!!!
I've been putting this off for way too long. This is exactly the type of stuff you want to see from the final book in a trilogy, page after page of plotlines closing in ways that are either amazingly satisfying, or so unsatisfactory that you feel the characters' hate boiling up as your own frustration.... Amazing!

It's truly getting somewhere now!
Slowly but surely I'm warming up to the characters, even if the world or plot haven't fully captured my interest just yet.

It might just be the weird names and large cast that all goy introduced at once, but so far I still find them all quite hard to distinguish, and visualize in my head.

The plot is also not as interesting as the first expanse books so far? But I trust the author, and have been told it gets waaaaay better over time.

So I'm just going to force through it, since I trust that there'll be a satisfying ending!

Everything is absolutely going to shit, and this book was already a page-turner when stuff was going well!

Completely forgot to update anything while reading this book.
I haven't read the martian, I just watched the movie.
But it's giving that exact same feeling of someone trying to work through a HORRIBLE situation with real-world science.

Only this time he has an alien buddy...
But after 8 whole chapters of just trying to learn an alien "yes" and "no", it definitely feels earned.

It may be the 2 books of characters fumbling around and messing stuff up. But now having some ACTUALLY SATISFYING scenes is such a glorious breath of fresh air it's indescribable.

I'm scared...
For the first time in three books things are going well for these characters...
This is not the kind of world where things go well for people...

Help...

Although we've had some of the best scenes in the whole book, it's also getting vague in that "oohhh, look how trippy I can write" way...

we'll have to see where this goes....

3/5 chapters done.
The narrator is becoming more and more untrustworthy.
The scary bit? She knows it too...

This is great stuff hahaha

The further we get into this saga, the more interested I get in 2/3 plotlines, and the more I start to check out on the bland fantasy questline. Luckily the other two plots are so good, you can look forward to those chapters.

(NOTE: I read more than this, but the page count on goodreads is incorrect, the book is a solid 130 pages longer than it says here)

The further we get into this the more thorough and thoughtprovoking this book gets, while still staying a breezy read!

Such an interesting format....
Following the fictional diary of someone who reflects overly deeply on her bizarre expedition into an even more bizarre area...

Not sure about the characters so far. But the setup and style are great!

So far it's not just what I wanted from a sequel, but so much more. It's actually insane how well Eames delivers on EVERY aspect.

Absolutely terrifying first chapter....
Already off to a horrifying start...

And I think it's only going to bet worse (better)....

Bit of a slow start, but I like the characterization way more than Tim Pratt's previous Star/Path-finder novel. In that one the characters never moved past their initial archetypes, but here there's already a lot more depth (or at least, style) to the main cast.

Holy-
That was some of the best action I've ever read.... This is getting up to Matthew Colville levels of madness interwoven with fear in every sentence!

Fear the bloody nine....

It's a bit weird going back to Abercrombie's first works after reading his most recent novel, but reading his grimdark stuff does feel like coming home in a way.

Even if coming home is the nastiest, moldy, bloodsoaked and gangrenous place that could exist

Although the plot is quite predictable, and the characters aren't that deep, this is quite the addictive read.... Maybe it's just because of the whole "D&D campaign turned into a novel" thing hits both of my main hobbies....

This is the first YA book that I've read in....
8 years or so? And honestly, it's refreshing!
Although I do miss the emotionally complex scenes of a full-fledged book, it still manages to spark some creative thoughts every once in a while, on top of having fun banter and action to relax to after a heavy day :)