Ben Saufley > Recent Status Updates

Really enjoyed Tchaikovsky's Children of Time as intriguing speculative fiction. Not enjoying this nearly as much. It's a cliché of "world-building" where a million made-up species and sects are thrown at you and then they all fight each other or engage in political intrigue and it's mostly meaningless to me. Not a DNF, but looking forward to being done.

Loving this book. Want to know where it's going but don't want it to end.

Also there was a line just now, "I'm a child of ash, but I'm also a child of blood" and I'm realizing how easily this book could've been called Child of Ash & Blood and I'm so glad it wasn't.

Wow I am loving this so far.

This is … really, really good

Really, really enjoying this so far

Really, really enjoying this so far.

Very accessible and I'm honestly shocked at just how many things I've already encountered that I had no idea about before.

Not loving it so far. I think it's supposed to be sexy? But combining that with the trauma both women have encountered is just kind of gross and the fact that it's written by a dude is … unsurprising I guess?

Just started this. It's got an interesting format, especially for an audiobook. There's one narrator who I would assume is doing footnotes (he also had an intro) but then two other characters sort of fighting to tell stories and I can't quite figure out how the two intros (footnote guy and these other two in a prison cell?) relate. Plus this: https://xkcd.com/483/

Considering giving up on this. Within five minutes of starting there's a bunch of just cringeworthy "men writing women" and since then it's mostly been people explaining backstory to this amnesiac who can't let anyone know she's an amnesiac. But I've already sunk several hours in and I'd hate to lose those hours toward my reading goal. Plus, the world is at least a little interesting. And it's already a TV show?

So far feels like Bobiverse, but with less humor and less of whatever we call that male-nerd-of-a-specific-age nostalgia/aesthetic that drives books like Bobiverse and Ready Player One?

Enjoying the book so far. The Audible reader is not great though.

Feels cartoony & childish, in a way that doesn't jive with me. Like Spy Kids (which missed me by a few years) or a certain strain of "big kids" Nickelodeon shows from the 90's, centered on some adolescent idea of coolness that doesn't resonate. The supposedly savvy tech references, dated as soon as they were published don't help. I'm afraid I may have just missed out on the right time to read this one. But we'll see.

Really enjoying this so far. Starting to worry that I'm gonna be let down by the conclusion like I was by _Vox_. Interesting format, interesting characters, interesting situation developing. But it has to pay off somehow—I worry that this will be another book that created an interesting world with an interesting premise and then said "the end!" as if the concept was enough. Fingers crossed.

I feel like, before the Trump era, this book would be written off as unsubtle, heavy-handed—and I mean … it is, but it still feels disturbingly possible right now—the general arch, not specifically the sci-fi "100 words" devices. It's definitely interesting so far, while also being absolutely maddening. I'm glad I'm already 12% done after one drive into work, because I don't think I could immerse myself for too long.

Really surprised by how much I’m enjoying this. It’s a unique world and a fun set of characters and dynamics. I wonder if I’ll feel the same by the time I’m done, once the joy of discovery has worn off and it’s just the basic story arc I’m left with, but right now I’m having a blast.