Yanik > Recent Status Updates

So good to be back to this.
Again, a very different premise, but I like the full-on focus on the Roci crew.
This one will be very world and character building heavy, and I'm here for it.
Every single one of my Expanse novels has a George R R Martin quote on the front, but I feel that this one might come closest to following the SOIAF format.

Have been making slow but steady progress on this and mostly really enjoying it. Just that other books have taken priority a lot of the time which kind of hinders the flow. But then again, there is sometimes decades between chapters so the internal flow of time isn't that minute anyway.

Enjoying the flow more, if not for the plot, definitely for the journey.
Rey quoting an ancient text:
"Jedi were taught to let go of all attachments, but everyone needs something to fight for, and more than ideas, people."
Pretty sure that is a direct line from a THR novel, though I'm not sure which.
TotF, LotJ?

Oh, all 'Electrosecreteries' were 'She'.
That will probably not balance out pretty much everything else and their dogs being men though.

That action sequence was simply bad. I often use the term Marvel-esque for these kind of things where quippy, shallow dialogue is thrown around and meaningless, showy action moves are displayed. Roux has written a lot of Marvel, so I guess that checks out.
But this was simply written badly as well. No sense of location, scale, momentum, or even real danger. This reading experience is a real whiplash of quality.

That action sequence was simply bad. I often use the term Marvel-esque for these kind of things where quippy, shallow dialogue is thrown around and meaningless, showy action moves are displayed. Roux has written a lot of Marvel, so I guess that checks out.
But this was simple written badly as well. No sense of location, scale, momentum, or even real danger. This reading experience is a real whiplash of quality.

Temples, puzzles, traps, tombs, ancient texts and mysteries.
All perfect for the Tomb Raider mood I have been in!

Back to 'what if' dreams and visions.
But, for the last 40 pages it book directly addressed my criticism by focusing on grounded, emotional storytelling and connecting the characters' internal struggles to their daily life and situation. Loved it.
As long as we can keep this balance, I can keep up with this more floaty, slightly fan-fan servicey storytelling.

Plot isn't really grabbing me so far, it's hard to connect to. There is a lot of 'what if' visions and dreams going on, a lot of verbatim movie scene qoutes, sometimes with only the slightest of inflected twist. Part of that is the Dagobah Cave effect going on at Tython, but as a story vehicle it can only interest me to a certain extend.
It's all super portentous and grand with force powers dialed up to 11.

It's fun, a decent disaster story, though pretty much fully outdated in pre-Apollo tech and morals. One of the first points of action was to ask the present woman to help make lunch.
A lot of time is spent on evaluating the progress of humanity and that of the male POV characters. As a result, the word 'man' often is splattered about a dozen times on the pocked sized pages which gets quite tiresome.

Sorry, but nope.
Nope, nope, nope...

It is interesting is how in many of these stories with heavy anti corporate, capitalism and control themes the main characters don't seem to be fully on board with the cause and more in it for solely selfish reasons.
It's an effective way to present these ideals (that often range into revolutionary and anarchism) without being preachy. The catch is that almost none of the POV characters have been sympathetic.

"His blocks were dissolving like salt in water. I felt him. It was incredible. Beautiful. And Sensual. I wanted him, just as Earth salmon ready to spawn felt driven to swim upstream, against all obstacles, to reach home and reproduce."

Part of me feels like the boy at the start of The Princess Bride: Is this a kissing book?
Maybe I should just give it a chance.
Large parts of me are like: Awgawds what the fuck?

I absolutely love the Minority Report movie.
First time reading the actual short story it's based on.
Based on is the correct term, beyond the premise and usage of Dick's early Cyberpunk dystopia it is a wildly different story.
I liked it even if it was more grimdark and somewhat convoluted.
The Precogs being nothing more than abused and objectivised, vegetative teenagers fit with that.

Loving the writing, world building is fantastic, characters are fun.
But I'm starting to fear this might be too much romance for me.
Especially if the plot might be going the way I think it is now.

Meepka is a treasure in her own right.

Fantastic intro. Bit of a heavy handed sit-down exposition bit now, but damn is that a sick way to build a human dominated galaxy.
An entire empires from obducted Neolithic Mesoamericans? Love it.

Ugh, what a fantastically emotionally detached POS Jaylen is.

Really enjoying it so far. Absolutely Roux's prose!
Also, holykriff, what a fantastic THR reference!:D

It came in early.
Kriff it, we doing two SW novels at the same time now!

Really enjoying this, breezing through.
Nd-5's progression is fantastic and precious.
Damage, both physical and mental are a running theme as well as layers of trust and dependency. It's a thrilling sweep through the SW underworld, but with deep emotional storytelling, much like the game.
Anyway, need to double-time this, SW Legacy is coming in tomorrow!

The Chromium Fence was very blunt, heavy handed and almost a caricature of us/them Fascism. But, ugh, was it pitch black.

Picked this up again. Want to bring more fantasy into my active reading but need to finish this omnibus chonker first.
Anyway, yay Skaven.:3

Pay for the Printer was very cool, especially in our world of 3d-printing and AI reliance. Very relevant message.
In the middle of War Veteran and I'm not really feeling it. Bit too much of the classic sci-fi tropey pitfalls. The Cold War-reflective premise is decently interesting, but the characters are just wildly bizarrely out of place. Add to that mid-century standards and time-travel...We'll see.

Not entirely sure when this was written, '87?
Eitherway, there's some serious blue-tinted glasses views going on here. Not sure if this is the perspective I want. Though I guess I should not be too surprised given the source.

Upon the Dull Earth is why I read. Such a bright, vivid piece of storytelling that masterfully paints a world and pulls you in, for a short bit makes you part of its bizarre chaos. The fact we follow the POV of Rick, the possessive, self-centered boyfriend to the fantastically fascinating, intelligent, Silvia who communicates with the beyond and has her life planned out for herself is very poignant to the theme.

Shell game was fun, in a dark psychological horror kind of way.
Upon the Dull Earth was on another level. Fantastic prose, great characterization for its tiny cast and huge, terrifying implications with its biblical horror fantasy plot.

Oh wow, there has been a lot of hyper-capitalist dystopia and a decent amount of android/robot exploration, but it hasn't come together like this before.
Sales Pitch was an actual 1954 Cyberpunk short story. Yes, it has the gender norms, mid-century trappings and vocabulary of the time, but man is it cyberpunk in everything else, from the visuals and themes to the dark depressive storytelling.