Jonesy > Recent Status Updates

Here goes nothing...

I picked this up for free at a used book store's free bin. I am glad that I did; thus far, this has to be the most hilarious smut I have encountered, and that's saying something.

Men are bullshit.

After listening to this for hours, I think I may have to stop. There is only so much crazy that can be introduced out of nowhere before I start being paranoid about what drugs someone spiked my lunch with.

Wow. That's a first.

If the smug and pretentious narration keeps it up, I may need to abandon this book. A crying shame, since I loved Watership Down and have heard good things about this.

I'm honestly not sure which was stupider: the almost self-defeating conspiracy or the lame cover up that no-one with two brain cells to rib together would fall for. I do believe I'll act on one of my prior posts and cleanse my palette with Conan before continuing.

I almost contracted whiplash after switching over to this again after finishing Mists of Avalon. I'm already thinking this was a mistake.

"They can influence what people think of as acceptable behavior in an intimate relationship!" And here I thought that whatever consenting adults agreed to was ok. Butcher does realize that that one Oglaf strip was a joke, right?

Whatever. putting this on hold while I read something else. Think I'll read some more MZB in the meantime.

To say nothing of an adventure story starting a halfway interesting moment, even if it's just an action scene... And then cutting out the culmination. Bad writer, no biscuit.

Trying to see if the rest of this book measures up to the standards of Bradley's work. So far, all I am seeing is a lot of evidence the Robert Asprin was asleep at the editor's chair.

Well, fuck. That was actually not bad.

I've had enough. Skipping to one of the later stories that is written by an author recommended to me. I am not going to wait through the proverbial main course of shit to see if the dessert is any better.

You know, drawing attention to your infodumping doesn't do anything but make it more irritating. Stop it.

Fuck me, how is it that I actively want to put this down and in favor of more Conan? Yes,yes, I know, fun pulp stories, but the racist and sexist undertones got pretty wretched at points, and yet I still am tempted to risk reading more of REH making an ass of himself through the omniscient narrator and nonsensical pandering than I am of continuing this fucking shambles.

Also, my concerns about the insecure prelude trying to preemptively defend against accusations of inconsistency between stories seem to be bearing fruit.

Poor writing is bad enough without it helping me identify some form of crime against literature in the process. Case in point, 'grocery settings': the mere listing of things that the author pictures in the scene with all the artistry and flourish of someone writing down a list of groceries.

Second story was an improvement, if only because it waited until the end to start losing me. This does not bode well.

Intro was interesting enough that I wanted to keep reading... even after the first story proper turned out to be nigh on unreadable.

I'm seriously hoping that this character who just pulled the most out of left field deus ex machina was mentioned earlier and that I have just forgotten they were.

I'm seriously hoping that this character who just pulled the most out of left field deus ex machina was mentioned earlier and that I have just forgotten they were.

Ye gods. I'm not quite sure what to think about this one.

Jesus, Youth was rough. Kind of terrified about what to expect from the other two stories.

I'm skipping out on Bruno and Sylvie for now. The lack of Carroll's signature wit and the ponderous length are not endearing themselves to me right now. Will have to come back to this after I sample some of the rest of his work.

Stark seems to have forgotten that the end has come and gone, and he has allowed. Either he has something else up his sleeve related to the main plot, or this is bad writing.