Chris > Recent Status Updates

So long. Can’t consume as quickly as past books. Surely I can make it.

Just noting that I’ve been thoroughly pleased with this one so far. It’s quite my style, whatever that means. Expanse vibes for sure, but still its own animal. I like that it has only two POVs to keep it simple. The audio performers are doing marvelously.

The multiple POVs are a little confusing for me so far, but I might do better now having just glanced through someone’s review and brief summary of them. I can’t say this is rich or meaty, but it’s passable fair. The voice performance is great. I suppose I’d like to see something happen soon besides sneaking around, having conversations, or students fighting.

This is well written but not well written. You know? Sentences are solid. Sometimes there are lines of dialogue that don’t quite stand, but otherwise it seems fine. (The audio performance is excellent, which I imagine does assist.) But the story itself is weak. There’s meant to be this tension between two men, but it’s gimmicky. There feels a lack of maturity and experience with actual leadership and politics.

I’m not sure if it’s my current state of mind or what, but I’m not enjoying/appreciating this, and am even finding it a little trite or something? I’ll have to read other reviews to see better thoughts on it. It’s definitely about an event that should not happen, a tragedy and despicable action. But this response in memoir is somehow not hitting its mark with me.

I dig. Seems like such a creative and exploratory novel. Several interesting themes. Exciting artwork.

This rolls a little slowly, as the reviews allude to, but overall it's really not bad. You can tell the guy writes, which is nice. I prefer a little more warrior fair and quicker pace, but this is humming along fairly enjoyable even so. And I like MC girl's numerous brothers.

The writing just isn’t great, but this leveling up business is engaging. There’s so much strangeness and off-kilteredness. The relationships are awkwardly portrayed. There is way too much laughing. But there’s a lot of power potential, and we’re all here for it.

This writing is not overly good. I’m having trouble sticking with it, but I’ll persist a while longer. Maybe I can make it all the way; it seems to be reading fairly quickly.

It feels inconsistent. I did not gather there was religious tension from the opening monster scene. Nor that the mother is sketch. Monster fight does not lead there organically. But then this 7yo calls Mom a B and literally says hey cuz.

I’m a tiny bit lost, but I think it’s more a sensation due to the book progressing gradually rather than my actually having lost any significant thread of plot. I do kind of wish it moved along a little more, but the inner dialogue and political considering are fairly enjoyable. It reminds me of a somewhat less engaging Goblin Emperor. It’s all right. I can finish it.

It’s been okay. Like I think I saw in reviews, it’s a bit slowish to get going. And via audio it’s been a little tricky tracking the characters with the several POVs. Also I’m not super invested. So it’s been a fine vacuuming background listen so far. I’m not super clear about what’s going on, but I imagine things will pick up soon and be more fun. Getting those Spotify hours in.

Frankly, I’m appreciating this more than I expected. I have quibbles, but more nods. It’s nothing overly earth shattering, but probably a hit of what I need right now.

We started reading this together at staff worship. The paragraph-break formatting and sometimes the stylistic choices of the author irritate me, but I’m trying to welcome the constructive criticism. I can’t help feeling a little defeatist when he describes rabbis as picking the best of the best only, which I can (foolishly, no doubt) take to mean how do I ever have a chance? But I wonder if he’ll address that.

As soon as I started this I realized I had tried it out before. Remembering that so quickly is actually kind of surprising. A year and a half is plenty long enough for me to have completely forgotten everything about this. But I hadn’t, and that made me worried I’d not be able to continue. Again. But I am, or at least am so far. It’s just now getting a bit boring, but I’ve just finished my run, so, perfect.

Honestly, so far this is not that engaging. I think for me specifically, it’s partly because the central character is a thief, and I’ve never seemed to warm to thief stories as much as warrior ones. It may also be in part that it’s all in retrospect, and I don’t recall mention of the hook that would make me interested in this guy’s life story. Maybe I missed it. Or maybe it’s meant to be suspenseful…

We’re getting into the groove of things. Druss has arrived to the keep and doled out succinct but lethal directions as to the recuperating of the quality of the Drenai men there. Logistics and hardening, razing and group naming. It was good stuff. Leadership!

The writing is still stilted, but I’m either getting used to it or it’s sometimes slightly smoother.

It begins! I am nitpicking the writing, but I like the setup so far. It’s classic, the world, the ale and the innkeeper and the athletic young soldier. I eagerly await the meeting of the Legend.

It's definitely not as exciting as I wondered it might be, but it's still quite fascinating and, I think, well written. Kind of like a combined Children of Time with World War Z (the film). That's probably a terrible combo-comparison, but they're the ones that popped into my mind and those with which I'm familiar. Also at this point the story could go in many directions: redemption or absolute horror among them.

Okay, that was a great reveal. After a slow, curious first hour-plus, we get a sudden drop into a new reality. Love it. Based on ratings maybe I won’t be so fond of this all later, but that moment was excellent.

Snagged from available library audios. It’s not great. This woman’s lips sound so plump she should get them checked out. The sexual tension is alarming. I fear I’ve picked up the wrong genre. But I want to know if she’s the murderer or whatever. Also how many more times plump lips and blue blue eyes are mentioned. Mega eye roll.

There we go! This has been a gradual build and reveal, daringly close to slow. But that fight for a son and a sudden dose of strength was intriguing. Let’s pull together these threads and see some power.

I’ll add that the writing is solid and the voice performance excellent.

I keep falling into the mindset of thinking these will have a horror twist at some point. But they’re all wholesome so far. This chapter six business eventually becomes pretty deep(?) when it’s exploring misremembered memories between a father and daughter, the resulting relationship troubles, and then the misinterpreted reconciliation (keyword: therapy). Very astute of Chiang, I think.

Boring. But apparently I’m missing a lot because all the reviewers I follow enjoyed it. I think it picks up? Also it may help if I had a better understanding of Shakespeare and mythology and such (Kelly refers to these). Also I have tuned out some of it because it’s sluggish and I’m uninterested. Maybe I’m simply missing the great heft of quality.

I’ve somehow been strangely into this even though it feels like I don’t like it. I find tuning out both good and bad. Sometimes I miss things, as per, but sometimes I miss things and can just keep track of the overall story instead of getting sidetracked with his intrusions of complicated words or phrasing or structure. Overall it’s a little tricky and I’m not sure what I’m missing.

I’m giving this exploration of consciousness a shot. So far so dense. I have to hold my phone in hand so I can constantly rewind and try to understand. This will not go over well when having to clean and rewind at the same time. I fear a dnf.

Man I love An Old Dog in March.

…

recovers his balance,
and, one ache at a time,
lowers himself

to the solid field of promise,
where with pink tip
of tongue between his teeth,

and frosty muzzle,
he sips the cool, delicious,
richly storied wind.

Not great. But it made a lot more sense when I opened the author’s page on here to see a black and white photo from maybe the 60s? I should’ve checked to see when this was written, but I can’t imagine it’s been fewer than 50 years ago (now that I know the author’s lifespan). It does not help that the audio performance is less than stellar. But it’s only 4 hours long. I can do it. 2.5x speed baby.

I feel vindicated, glancing at reviews just now, in my feeling that this “introductory” book feels more dense and complex than I would have expected given my assumption of what anything “intro” would provide. So while I, too, feel that I “don’t understand a word” of this book, I also feel like I’m getting a glimpse at the academic and historical sides of poetry. It’s interesting though forgettable.

I am laugh-crying through this it is so abominably beautiful and precious. I am so glad she left us these audio treasures.

Never mind, I give up. Pretty cover, but neither the story nor characters are grabbing me. It has too much stereotypical YA flavor for me even though these are more so young adults. I think the voice performance doesn’t enhance it either. Or perhaps it enhances the negatives instead. Anyway, I’m off for something else.