Sravanesh > Recent Status Updates

I love the Cosmos series, especially Season 1 with Neil deGrasse Tyson. Then he was mired in a sex scandal of his own making. He came on to a subordinate who claimed much worse. He cooperated with the investigation and was cleared of all wrongdoing, but it killed the hype for Season 2. This is book Cosmos was based on. Carl Sagan is intelligent, but also patronizing. The book title makes non-atheists roll their eyes.

The first book was truly amazing. I could not put it down. The lore, the characters, the story, and the incredibly intricate mystery drew me in. This book is boring after a cliffhanger and the end of the last book. The characters are spaced out. The lore kind of disappoints, without as satisfying plot points. I switched over to the audiobook about 2/3rd's through because I couldn't focus on the book...

Bought the audible audiobooks and I'm listening to Jeff Hays (who does a very good Donut). Listened to the ending like four times already. These are very enjoyable, low stress, conversational prose, fun character books. Great series and I look forward to the TV series.

Bought the audiobooks for the series and I'm listening to them. Wanted to start with this bad boy.

Been a stressful book so far, up until the last heat, when Carl has one of his great ideas and plans. I'll finish this weekend. After that, I guess I'll have to wait two years for Book 9, and then another couple for the finale. Haven't looked at any message boards or theories, so I guess I'll occupy my time with that. And they are adapting the show, so that's somethin. But it'll feel like Donut cast Hole on my heart.

A very different book than the action-packed, satisfying Book 7. This one feels claustrophobic and anxiety-inducing, and it displays how sadistic the AI really is. But the author continues to tunnel deeper into lore while going deeper into the dungeon. I'm wondering where this rabbit hole ends, but I'm still enjoying the wild ride.

Fantastic book with very great insight into the vengeance-obsessed madman that is Trump. This fucker is a stain on our history and has set back our country for generations. But I will say that his shake-ups with the federal bureaucracy and retribution toward enemies may bite him as it becomes the opposing party's playbook when they're in power.

On the last book available now. Been quite the ride. These books are very enjoyable reads, and the characters are very entertaining. The video game dungeon system is also addicting to read, so much so that I always start the next book after finishing the last one.

Best book on the series so far. Very funny, great action, great characters. I have no idea what the fuck is going on but I am here for it.

Best book so far. Light on the humor, especially with the hilarious crab ending from the last book. Just read one of the most viscerally satisfying and badass, vengeance-quenching chapters. This book is well-earned wish-fulfillment.

Not sure where this one is going -- it certainly wasn't a filler book, and they finished a really crazy quest in the Desperado Club. Though I could tell Carl and Donut will be alive, who knows with the others. It seems although like the author is giving us close calls for the other characters to foreshadow their eventual demise. Still, a very good read so far!

Last book was very satisfying in the revenge that Carl took out on the out-of-worlders but convoluted ending. This season is more straightforward but with a Yu-Gi-Oh-Type playing card combat system. I just finished the surprise Thorn Room boss battle, leading up to the funniest shit I've ever read. With the goat acolyte and then the AI posing as an NPC for foot stuff. This author is fucking hilariously sick.

Learned about how slavery was so heavily discussed in the early drafts of the constitution, bill of rights, and even the declaration. The founders and others felt they didn't need a bill of rights (certainly Madison and Hamilton in their federalist papers thought they didn't) because they believed the structure of the constitution was enough. They specifically meant white men owning property when they said "all men."

Split between four POV characters (Darrow, Lysander, Lyria, and a fourth gray mercenary-thief dude), this book takes place 10 years after the original trilogy's end. Morning Star was incredible, and this book is taking its time to build tension and these new set of characters up. Looks like it's going to come to a head on Venus and the outer moons.

This book is faster paced than the previous two book, and takes place in a giant forest with multiple storylines and dinosaurs, including more action on the people running the show. Carl's character is really male-wish-fulfillment and a giant gary stu for sure, but it's an addicting read. The Miriam Dom and Prepotente scene was heartbreaking. This book has heart and it's fun!

This book has a lot more contention b/w Carl and the admins, leading to a successful, accidental assassination of an admin, and then being cleared in the investigation because they couldn't prove it. And then he got the three artifacts together to open a gate and the system froze for lawsuits. Very intriguing. I like it when they pull back the curtain and discuss the conflict outside this oppressive game.

Already liking this installment better than the train tangle of Book 3. Gods, that was frustrating to visualize. This one has (more!) explosions, town intrigue and mysteries, and a quadruple puzzle for crawlers per "bubble." And it keeps Carl's hatred for the system at a priority.

This has not been a fun trip down memory lane. Crichton essentially came up with all this time travel technology just to abandon it and shoehorn in a fucking medieval setting. Why? So he can pontificate about how history has it wrong and that it was deadly times back then all the time? Or that the bad guys won and wrote the history books in their favor? This book does not hold up.

Has been a fun read, but I really don't like the damn train level motif. It's confusing af and I lose interest when they talk about train mechanics and which ghouls are at what station and the abyss is where. Love these two characters though. Carl and Donut are the best buddy comedy duo.

Finally got to one of the biggest scenes, <spoiler> where he defeats a friend turned foe and names the ship. He also has a bit of skullduggery where he goes against one of his allies and destroys the docks of Ganymede. </spoiler> Fantastic book so far. Just waiting for the rug to be pulled under him like the last book's ending. I have a feeling <spoiler> we're seeing the last of Darrow in this series. </spoiler>

Truly a joy listening to this full cast audiobook. The voices are so great, except Snape. The music and the audio design is awesome. This is well worth the audible credits.

Gosh, with the Reaper escaping, I knew this would be a crazy book but now there's another huge character death that was a favorite of mine. Really sad to see him go. But this has been a truly fun series to listen to on audible.

Really enjoying this series now. It's very similar to The Expanse series, where the solar system has been colonized, but way in the future, where generic engineering, terraforming, and space travel has been perfected. They still have a finite energy resource, "Helium-3." But the protagonist, Darrow, is a double agent. A secret "Red" infiltrating the ruling and generically Superior class "Golds" to start a revolution.

Very much in the vein of hunger games, divergence, etc. Feels like a teen book target than adult sci-fi. It has its moments though but the first book is a drag.

Very lost as to where this story is headed. The three Vis perspectives might converge into one, but I don't think I'd like that. I would like to see each of them live their own lives.

Another dystopian novel where the hierarchy severely oppresses the lower classes. In this case, the higher "Golds" keeps the millions of Mars underground "Reds" down so that they can mine this universe's "spice." And of course, there's one tragic figure who was in those mines who went through the trauma of his wife being murdered by the empire and he vows revenge. So he joins the terrorist/freedom fighting group...

As all the previous full-cast audible audio editions, this audiobook is also extremely well done. The Cave chapter with Harry and Dumbledore was exceptional, with the eerie music, sound effects, and voice acting. Professor Slughorn is also much better here than in the movie. Love these full cast editions. Highly recommended.

I have liked this book less and less after listening to it. The medieval stuff seemed completely shoehorned in, and doesn't make sense why educated historians would agree to do any of this time travel... It does not seem to hold up as more than a quick, entertaining read over the weekend. This was not the revolutionary and cutting-edge time-travel book that I thought it was when I was 16 y/o.

After finishing the book 4 full cast edition, I thought it would be a slog to listen to this as this is my least favorite book. Least favorite b/c of Umbridge, and Harry being testy due to his scar always hurting and irritating everyone around him, and of course his godfather's you know what. But it has been a delight. The full cast here (even with Snape, whose voice actor isn't as annoying) is fantastic!

Have really loved the cast recording. Every chapter has been a delight and all the voices (save Snape's ill-suited voice actor) are fantastic. The chapter with the pensieve and Barty Crouch sending his Death-Eater son to Azkaban is bone-chilling and extremely well done.