Claire > Recent Status Updates

Ugh, why is the author making me read 80 pages of zeroes youthful Harvard shenanigans. Can I just skim over this?

Surreal office politics. Uh, ok. Not where I would have taken the sequel. I can see why people are disappoint in this one

This author obviously really really (really) wants to be Douglas Adams. Half the time it's fun and entertaining, the other half it's obnoxious and trying too hard. I think it could have used a better editor to cut down on some of the metaphors.

6. Pickman's Model
The narrator screams, twice, because he sees a scary painting. Sorry, but sometimes Lovecraft's narrators seem like total wimps

Only the first chapter is labelled 'Prologue', but I'm pretty sure I just read 200 pgs of prologue. I did like most of it, but overly long books that don't respect my time is one of my pet peeves.
That said, I really appreciated the bullet form synopsis of the first book because it's been a really long time since I read it and apparently I completely forgot the ending lol

5. Dagon
A little short, a lot of similarities to the Call of Cthulhu. The ending scare was fun

4. The music of Erich Zann
A fun little story. I really liked the description of the houses and street. Very atmospheric

3. The Lurking Fear
Alright. Honestly I was a bit distracted by how prejudiced he was against... rednecks? I was expecting the racism, but I was surprised by that. Although he makes comments about 'unfortunate' ancestry which I'm guessing is an allusion to mixed race so... Different side to the same coin I suppose

2. The Color Out of Space
Wow! Creepy and mysterious

1. The Call of Cthulhu
This is it! The beginning of the Cthulhu mythos! It's got enough to be intriguing but the pacing was kinda slow and a little anti climatic. He just goes back to sleep? Hmmm

I picked this up in a used bookstore, mainly because of the cheesy 80's cover. It's a different version than the one seen here. The character has a codpiece. It's amazing

So... The last hundred pages were a wild goose chase and we're back to square one? Why.

The writing is a bit dense. It has a tendency to introduce a lot of terms without really explaining them and you slowly figure them out via context. So I've found myself doing a lot of re-reading. It's intriguing, even if it has a bit of a learning curve

Finally getting around to it! The second book was such a slog, it's a relief that at least so far the pacing is much better in this book. That said, wow there's a lot I don't remember from the second one. Good thing I just discovered there's a glossary thing with people and terms in the back

While reading the first book I was too taken aback by the weird sexual dynamics to really think them through. Essentially, Palmer has set up a world where there is a secret cabal of political leaders who all share the same sexual kinks, that are taboo in their society, and stay in power via a careful blend of seduction and sexual blackmail and carry out assassinations for 'the greater good'. What a bizarre set up.

When a character does something stupid because of an emotional outburst it's annoying but understandable. When a character wants to do something stupid, is aware it's stupid, has plenty of time to think of a better idea, another character even explains why it's stupid, but they do the stupid thing anyway... Is this bad writing or is this character just stupid?

Definitely one of the weirder books I've read. Actually kind of reminds of Barbarella? It's got the same creepy, gruesome and ridiculous vibe

Hm, is this the first in a series?
I feel like it's just barely getting to the interesting part. It seems doubtful it can do it justice in the pages left

This book gets a lot weirder after the half way point. I think she wanted to make sure the reader was hooked before bringing out the really weird stuff. I feel like I would get it better if I was familiar with Sade's philosophy. As it is... where the hell is the author going with this?

The first chapter was really difficult to get through. Lots of terms introduced without explanation. But things and world building start getting explained after and it's really cool and detailed

Kind of a dense read. Lots of techno slang and stuff gets thrown around. There's enough context that it's all understandable, but there's so much of it that it feels like you have to plow your way through

It's a quick read, and entertaining, but sometimes it's a little too focused on sounding witty and funny. Some objectively awful things happen in the story one paragraph and the next paragraph the narrator is still trying to make funny quips. It makes for a confusing tone at times

"And since their horses were not much bigger than deer"
Um, what? Since when are deer that large? Are European deer bigger? I think I read somewhere that immigrants accidentally thought some deer were elk/moose in America and changed the names from what they are in Europe.
Oh snap according to google it's true. Red deer=Elk, Elk=Moose Yeah elk are big. This works now

Ugh, this book is really to be way more familiar with history during this time period than I am. It's also expecting me to be way more interested in medieval weaponry than I am. Sorry, can't finish

A nice quick beginning, getting thrown into the main plot right way... Thank god.
Obviously it's a short book, but soooo many authors waffle around for at least 100 pages before getting to the main plot. If you make me wait til the halfway point to get started on your main plot I. am. getting. bored.
And I am definitely not bored with this book

So, the first thing Griffen does upon meeting with his sister is think about how she totally has a smoking hot bod. Like, with big boobs and everything man. Pretty off putting. Otherwise it doesn't seem to be going all Game of Thrones so I'm going to put this down to Male Author Being Stoopid

So... I read the summary of the third? book and thought it sounded really cool so I grabbed the first without looking at it, and... I thought it was like a dragon world, or a dragons and humans living together world. It's not. The dragons are shapeshifters in hiding, no one knows about them. The main character didn't even know. Super disappointed

This one is a lot more technical than the first book. A lot more discussion on how to make medieval cannons have better accuracy and rate of fire, or how to adapt modern technology into something sustainable in the 1600s.
And it's cool the authors are into that, I guess? But wow, it is slowing the pace to a crawl

Yeah, this isn't going to happen. I don't find any of these characters interesting and the pace is really moving at a crawl. Maybe I'll try again some other time

Ugh. So slow, who are these people it's talking about again?