Eric > Recent Status Updates

The Deltans are orcs

Really enjoying this so far.

The book is now irritating. Part of that is the narrator. But part is the wooden dialog, toxic relationships, and posturing. The book would be much better dramatized because the author is always adding "he exclaimed" or "she shouted miserably" after every line, chopping the book up unnecessarily. And don't get me started on the immature view of sex and relationships. This might be a teen writer.

I don't like the main character or his companion yet. However, this book is explaining to me the assumptions that underlie other "cultivation" novels. It's so good to finally have the background that other authors assume.

The colonization and abuse feelings are pretty harsh. I get pretty tense reading this.

They are at the brothel. This entire scene has been hard for me to read. And nothing much is happening yet. This book looks to be a very slow burn.

I still hate the protagonist. I'm hoping he'll get better but I'll quit the book at 33% if I still hate it. I'm disappointed, since the author knows how to write. He's just writing the wrong story for me.

It's a strong homage to Sherlock Holmes. The titular angel is reads as modeled on autism. Very pleasant book.

He's a technically skilled writer, but his protagonist and his world grate on me. I'm having trouble listening to more than a few minutes at a time. It's less space opera and more "whiny teen rebels in foolish ways."

Three cries now. Page 100 - choosing Shizuka's childhood violin was the third.

I already feel this is going to be a 5-star book. I've cried twice. Not what I expected from "The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet" meets "Good Omens." There's no snark here. Just people dealing with a messed up world. It uses aliens as an excuse to tell about the trials of Vietnamese refugees in a bigoted new world.

Ryka is such a better writer than the author of the owner series. I was expecting more comedy, but it's actually dealing with some pretty difficult subjects in a nuanced and kind way. While still having someone who's out to collect souls for the devil.

I'd been holding out hope that Hannah would betray the increasingly unstable sociopath main character at the end and take his place for the rest of the series. But finding that his sister was transferred to Mars crushed all hope. He will survive and take the Argus station to Mars to join with his sister.

The protagonist is almost a sociopath - he kills bureaucrats with no remorse. They are merely responding to the same awful system he's in.

The detailed examples in the chapters on "codependency and differentiation" (5) and "dealing with differences" made me aware of levels of complexity that are way beyond my personal experience. I feel like I'm learning a lot.

I was worried by the reviews, but the main character seems interesting so far and to live in an interesting world.

The combat is interesting, as is the war. This "staff of blue" is not a name that rings well for me. That it is only 34% of the way in tells me that they will have a long time until they find it, if it even is the tool they need. (Which I doubt.) The mystery of the aliens (the two species they are fighting and "The Vanished") is a significant part of my desire to keep reading.

Now we're past the "I feel horrible all the time" section of the book. (It included an attachment rundown. I feel like I have a predominantly avoidant attachment style.) The book is starting into practical things we can do to improve.

So far the "motivation" section feels like a slog through shame and/or sadness because I have no friends and haven't for years (though I've tried) and I'm reading about all the ways this is bad.

I should mention that I started reading it now because it was new in the library, so I could get a dead-tree edition right away.

(Spoilers)






The book was a little slow to start and the first-contact caught me off guard. (I was expecting a colonization narrative.) But the adaptation to the soft blade seems reasonable.

I'm surprised how much I like this book. It is less a "will they won't they" plot than a developing (but still NRE-filled) plot. I don't like the rapidity of extreme commitment - but that is probably a genre convention.

This is the same book mentioned in this review in Astral Codex Ten: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p...

Only a few pages in and already people are treating one another like trash. I had to put it down and read something lighter. Racism, both systemic and personal, environmental collapse, inequality, nasty power relations, ... This book is as woke as a person on meth, caffeine, and cocaine at the same time. (As I might have expected given the author page.) Hopefully they'll tone down the nastiness eventually.

Not as balanced a review as I'd hoped. However, I'm understanding Theory better than when I read its advocates.

Where the author makes Thisbe do stupid stuff (tracking Dominic under false pretenses) was very hard for me to get through, taking several days. But then things got steadily better. However, with anti-aging medication gender reassignment should be easy. So they shouldn't be focused so much on gender.