K.J. Russell > Recent Status Updates

LL sure is good at writing about people meeting gruesome ends.

Really like how this story handles soldiers. It kind of epitomizes the machismo ideal of honorable service. Just that right mix of mythic fantasy and real world authenticity, with all the romanticized brutality that makes the historical military drama work.

"No man knows the hour of his ending, nor can he choose the place or the manner of his going. To each it is given to die proudly, to die well, and this is, indeed, the final measure of the man."

Thinking about my grandpa reading these lines near the end of his life. Almost biblical before a segue into the mindset of soldiers. Wonder how he felt about it.

From a collection of classic LLs inherited from my grandpa. This copy is old and worn, held together by tape. There's an unfilled medical label used as a bookmark.

Oh yay! My favorite character is here! I'd gotten resigned to never seeing them again after however many books ago.

It's not like I don't like Roic. He's a fine point of view character. But I feel like LMB is leaning into her habit of having the most interesting events happening just off-screen, to be explained later. And I've never liked that about these books.

I don't really understand this treatment of Roic. He wasn't portrayed badly in his last appearance, and the snafu with the Escobarran investigators was far too silly for me to take seriously. Odd to see it being taken seriously in-world. Unless it turns out to be just Roic projecting his own insecurities, but I'm not sure I see that.

Wow, digging deep for callback characters. I appreciate that. Haven't seen Arde in like ten books. I thought there was a reason Baz doesn't come to Barrayar? I couple notable missing parties. Maybe Elli and Bel are on a later flight.

So in the end the conflict we eventually get is resolved by a bunch of bad guys passing around an idiot hat and self-destructing for no reason, while a side character detangles everything off-screen. Come on. That's so unsatisfying. I consumed so much of this series so eagerly, but this book might just break me.

I always struggled getting through the galas and dinner parties in the Cordelia's Honor books. This is like an entire novel full of that, and it's also like twice as long as some of the other books? It was very funny for like 50 pages and then got boring again.

Hahaha I wondered if that's where this was going. I'm so glad it went there! This book might be dull as heck right now but at least it still flashes with humor every now and then.

This is reading like a regency romance with no real tension or stakes. It's boring me to tears. T_T

Wait, which vexed bureaucrat was Rene? I need a spreadsheet to keep track of all these subplots.

We've broken way out of the hyperfocus on Miles with FIVE different narrators, and now we've got the opposite problem. It's a whole lot that's adding up to not very much. This book is a snooze so far, sadly. And it's not for a lack of plot. "Memory" also had this cozy domestic vibe and it was stellar. Here, it's just not working.

Going into this expecting more Miles/Ekaterin focus, probably some political plots around Gregor's wedding. HOPING for more returning characters, since the last novel has none of Miles' old friends in it. I love Miles. I love the other characters, too. Ekaterin is growing on me but where are my legacy faves? Need LOTS of that, please! And let's also check in on the Dendarii maybe?

Miles, back off. I know you're trying to help, but you can't solve someone's problems by bossing them around.

Wow, Tien. Good job. You did it! You really fixed it.

I know it isn't new for Miles to take a turn with the idiot hat, but this strains believability just a little bit. Come on, man. :/

Just because I don't like Ekaterin doesn't mean I'm not worried for her. Good luck, lady.

So, obviously I despise Tien, but more importantly: I don't like Ekaterin very much. I pity her, of course, and she's very much the image of someone who is the product of all the negative aspects of her society twisting her. Understanding that, I still dislike her! But this series has a habit of taking characters I don't like and making them faves, so we'll see where this goes!

Very interesting tonal shift here, compared to the rest of the series. Almost slice of life. This feels like a novel-length denouement from the intensity of the previous books. Well-earned. This book might work alright as a standalone, but I feel like it's especially effective for longtime readers who will get all the references.

Before I move on. This is probably one of the darkest things I've ever read. Certainly the most extreme torture I've seen in fiction. Hypocritically, I tend to avoid this stuff. But the writer somehow maintains such respect for the dignity of her characters, it just worked. Color me impressed and surprised.

Lagging a bit... and now they're getting lunch, so. Lagging a lot, actually.

Y'all I've barely started this book and I'm about ready to give it 5 stars already. I am so in.

Oh my god. Oh no.

Well you could see that coming from a hundred pages off, and it didn't exactly stick the landing. No real suspense, surprise, or sadness for me here, unfortunately.

So far, not quite as enthralling as the other 2 books in this series, but those 2 books were excellent, so I'll give it a pass. I've got a lot of book left to read.

I strongly feel that this series suffers (and benefits!) from its narrow focus on Miles. So much of the important action in every book happens off the page because Ivan/Bel/Elli/Tung/Elena are being action heroes while Miles is either unconscious or captured. I also miss Cordelia as a protagonist. It would be awesome to see what she'd do with this antagonist. Also, again, how is Taura just not in this book?

This book is an interesting case. It reads as a direct sequel to Borders of Infinity, but should be a direct sequel to Labyrinth, with its focus on cloning and retroactive recontextualizing of some events. Continuity is becoming an issue. It seems to ignore past interactions with the rulers of Cetaganda and Jackson's Whole, but references a one-off joke Ivan said in Book 2. Taura's absence is glaring.

Early thoughts. This novel so far does not seem to have any single coherent plot line. It's following Miles, but so far we've been introduced to 3 completely different places and 3 completely different casts of characters. Each time it seems like things are about to get interesting and take off, some superior comes in and orders Miles off to the next unrelated plot thread. Maybe it comes together, but feels iffy now.