Dave Stone > Recent Status Updates

for a book that almost too cute, this is pretty good.
Good story, good pacing, good character development, good world building.

This is very cute & sweet. RavensDagger perfectly threads the needle between too much sweetness and just the right amount of pathos. This trick requires a light touch. I'm impressed. Raven usually just goes over the top.
(Vibrating wand of cure hysteria. I'm dying)

BETTER
I was thrown by the abrupt tone shift from book 1 to book 2. Now that I've been in book 2 for a while I'm more acclimated. I still think this would have been a much better book if it had the tone of book 1, but it's not a bad book as it is, just a lost opportunity to have been better.
-I'm still geeking out that it's set in an obscure Russian Sci-Fi novel from 1972.

A little less fun, and a lot less funny.
Book 1 showed how great it is to be a magical girl
book 2 says that crystal is wrong and that its no fun to be a magical girl
What a way to strangle a franchise in the cradle
Props for setting this whole book in Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky, but maybe that would have worked better with Stray Cay or Dead Tired.

I've noticed a pattern with Ravensdagger. It's here as well, but I find it less aggravating this time. ...or should I say, so far.
The plot armor is thick and NOBODY asks any obvious questions that would spoil the gimmick of 'comedic' misunderstanding. The stakes are life or death for cities & nations, but the MC acts like a silly goose, clowning around while people die and that's played for laughs.

WOW! This is NOT what I was expecting.
I'd heard the Churchill was a 'complicated' character. I'd even heard that he was a right bastard. What I've never appreciated was just how big a screw up he was before becoming MP. His list of failures is staggering, the cost of his failures in human lives is appalling. how this man was allowed to be so much as a dog catcher should be the bigger mystery.

I wonder if hearing this book was a disappointment has become a self-fulfilling prophecy? It doesn't seem that bad, but I'm only catching bites of it here and there between chapter drops from Patreon. FYI Beware of Chicken is in top form, Bog Standard Isekai is keepn' it fresh, but Benjamin Kerei is knocking my socks off. When his new book The Magistrate comes out. Go get it. -or read it right now for $3 a month

So far the big mysteries are:
Why did early hominids become bipedal?
What was the real Paleo diet ?(hint, it was less meat than you'd think)
How did modern humans come to be so many colors?
and maybe most importantly...
IS there anything real (non-arbitrary, not a social construct, actually grounded in science) that separates us from all the other life on earth?

WOW, 27% in and the professor is still talking about bipedalism. Who knew walking was so complicated?

This is NOT a typical horror story. This reads like one of the books they made you read in high-school like John Steinbeck or Harper Lee. But it just happens to have a monster in it. I'm waiting to see who the real monster is.
Anyway, the writing style surely won a bunch of literary awards and explains why I'd never heard of it.

This is a great resource for people who love books, and like horror especially. its also a mini history of publishing from the 60s to the 90s

I love Jack Campbell. This is military sci-fi writen by a career military guy who is a damn good writer. The macho mirror flexing is an absolute minimum, but the premise is also a bit contrived to fit the needs of the author.

Reading old Sci-Fi from the late 50s - early 60s is a bit like listening to recordings of old timey radio drama. It's so quaint and charming for a while, but I can only take so much at a time.

It's a tough call whether to say I'm reading the omnibus, or to say I'm reading the individual books that are contained in that omnibus. Even more so when the series is obscure. This compilation has a publishing date of 2001, but the originals were published in the early 60s.

80 - 90% of this "book" is a condensed retelling of the total X-men saga from the 60s till (now?). there are meta details like Chris Claremont
comes back to Marvel for this one, or Grant Morrison was brought in for this one.
Reviewing the total story I'm left with one impression: "What a mess"

I'm stuck!
This book stressed me out, then got to an annoying part. Just when a bunch of other books I really want to read right now came out. Every time I pick it up to finish it real quick, it's still at that annoying part.
...but if I set it aside here I'm never coming back.
it's like trying finish the left overs when you just got delivery.

I heard that book 2 just isn't any good, but I wanted to check out book 1. Now I'm crying because I'm kinda hooked and there's no way there will be any satisfactory resolution by the end of this.

A fun start from the guy who wrote Bog Standard Isekai. Everyone says book two takes a nose dive, but I still want to read book one.

This may have started out "Cozy" in book 1, but the stakes are worse than life & death now. It's pretty good for a slow story with high stakes, but it's mildly stressing me out and that's NOT the point of cozy.

It goes from pretty funny, to not funny one bit.

it's weird to read a history book about a time you were alive for.
Also I thought these games came out earlier than this. I remember where I was when I first saw Diablo, & Star Craft thought it was years before they say here. I thought that was 94... but I had a lot of other stuff going on back then so who knows

This book isn't as bad as my long breaks would make it seem. Murderbot, Harry Dresden, and Beware of Chicken have all taken priority over this one

Novella / short story
This is part 2 of The Law but this time Harry has to defend Tripp the scumbag mobster.

So a New Murder Bot, AND a new Harry Dresden came out on the same day.
...but witch one to read first?

light on sex scenes with more story. This has a more "Terry Prachetty" vibe than Villain for Hire.

the first 30% of this book is "Villain for Hire Series" set in Transylvanian instead of Metropolis.
Substitute Super Villain with Mad Scientist but keep the humor the same. Think Young Frakenstein with more "Great knockers!" jokes and them make it a harem.

Wish I was enjoying this book as much as everyone else did. This thing is cringe

WOW! a really likeable guy turns into an entitled prick so fast you'll wonder if if wasn't just faking the likeability all along.

I know I've just started, but this is some of the worst dialog in a Jan Stryvant book. I know Jan doesn't go in for witty repartee but this is awkward and klunky.
I have faith, I know this guy can write good but so far...

Quick reminder that a lot of what I'm reading these days is on Royal Road & Patreon. Bog Standard Isekai 6 is getting good, and Benjamin Kerei (Oh Great, I reincarnated as a farmer) has an amazing Xianxia / cultivation series called The Magistrate in it's 3rd book of the trilogy. and as always Beware of Chicken is like candy.