Dave Stone > Recent Status Updates

Not my typical book, but I'm learning a lot of stuff. Not all of it reaffirms my world view but I agree with the author that it's better to use your brains before you use force.

ISTG if they don't get Arwin in the Explorer's Guild in Stormtower with the endorsement of 2 founders I'm gonna write a very strongly worded letter

This has been a difficult read. Very little has happened and it's taking a long time to not happen.
The first 4 books were fast, fierce, & fun. This one is trying to build tension or establish mood or some shit. It's not doing it very well.
I'm reading it to get through it at this point.

This one is kinda' dull for a MSE book.

Mostly cute & sweet, but where this breaks down is when Broccoli is faced with people of bad faith and ill intent. Having a fictional character use positive energy to counter real world evil breaks the suspension of disbelief. If she can't / won't take a stand against real evil than the book shouldn't have any, and stick to cute cartoon adversaries that can be won with hugs & tea parties.

Funny how a little time can make a big difference when you read a book again.

I have been amazed by Raven's ability to walk the fine line in this series.
(especially with how annoying I found some parts of Stray Cat & Dead Tired)
This book has been no exception, ...except. Broccoli has been a bit more dumb than I like in a MC.
Lots of media portrays happy people as stupid. It's an old, old stereotype. Raven has managed to avoid this trap, but came really close in this book.

ah, the first really insufferable character. I could have done without this guy, but in all fairness... He could be much, much worse.
...So, I guess thanks?

I liked this series so much more 4 years ago

New DELVERS LLC
on Blaise Corvin's Patreon last night he posted:
Delvers LLC 6 Prologue
with a promise to post additional chapters that are already done in the days to come.

still cute, sweet, and fun.
No idea how long this joke can go before it wears out but I'll take that ride.
So far the addition of dragons was a nice touch.

You know I'm going to support anyone who fights Amazon
Book 5 is out on MSE's web site, but is not listed here on Goodreads.
I started reading book 5 and couldn't remember any characters or where the story left off, so back we go.

I'm amused, but a little perplexed by the F/F subtext. wouldn't it have been better if it had been implied, instead of beating it over our heads?

Okay, it is starting to get TOO sappy / silly in parts. Working extra hard to please people who disrespect you does not make you 'nice', it makes you a tool.
Sure give people a second chance, unless that first chance was them trying to harm you.

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?