Michael Sands > Recent Status Updates

A little more matter of fact than the movie but still beautiful so far. Very digestible bites for the kiddo. The chapters are pretty much too short imo and border on 'shorts'. Thankfully they are not too episodic in nature and more like paragraph breaks for ideas.

Sheeeeeeesh. I've enjoyed the hell out of this but if the ending doesn't tie it together well I might feel less enthusiastic. Still an incredible achievement so far. No way any of this could have worked without the writing being this good.

Progressing a little too slowly i think. Will need to dedicate more time to keep it together in my mind and meaningful. So far a pretty simple story with potential.

As enjoyable as this is, I cant help but feel like Ruocchio routinely misses the mark on making the weaknesses believable for the ruling powers that are exploited for the plot. I have 0 belief that a criminal society could just exist on a snowy planet occupied by the empire and not just be scorched from orbit. Worse still when they poke the bear, taking down shuttles/raiding, and still have no response to scale.

Enjoying this audiobook/novella more than expected. Scrappy fellow.

Nice to be in someone else's head other than Hadrian's...

Ok yes, I'm definitely just annoyed by the false barriers being put up for plot tension when it comes to Hadrian. This latest sequence was equal parts too hard and stupid, and too easily resolved. I would say, if there is unresolved aftermath of the fight here, it will still be too easy. Ugh. Hope this is not going to continue like this. We still have 2 books to go...

When this series talks about new stuff, I am all in. I think i have lost all patience for Hadrian being in physical peril. Not because I care what happens to him. When he is under attack i feel myself wanting to skip the action and get to the outcome and implications. Could be his lack of (spoiler) - I care what happens to his crew and others around him. Not sure how that works when I still enjoy the world building.

Sometimes i take a break and come back and this feels like a refreshing return to another world. Wish I always got that feeling with this series but it is still good enough to keep me so far.

I'm so uncomfortable lol.

:O
Well, that escalated quickly. Perspective is everything in storytelling
This will never be a movie, I can already tell lol.

This is already awesome.

Sheeeeeeeesh

Last book took a lot out of me. We carry on slowly.

Engineering/programming magic system. Religious colonial adjacent arctic circle metropolis with a mysterious energy based, sentient? blight outside the walls. Social class a central theme in a patriarchal society with a female lead. Efficient character writing that makes you like or hate them easily. Not sure how this couldn't be at least interesting. Enjoying it quite a bit so far.

Slowly consuming this one. Has all the pieces I want from a cyberpunk novel so far but barely even started yet. I like the framing so far though.

I see what is happening here, I think, but hard to tell how much of the detail is more than just colourful framing for these letters back and forth. Not sure how i feel about it yet but not immediately loving it. Not hating it either.

All stuff I've heard before, so far, but its a tight package at least and a good reminder. Listening to Neil in non-podcaster tone is less performative and I am not sure if i like that or not. He does a good job but i haven't heard any long drawn out bassy sentence finisherrrrrrrrrrrrss.

Keep it movin

Ah man Piranesi. I'm so sorry and I dont know why yet. But I am. Getting really interesting.

Not what I expected but still I feel myself being drawn into this strange little-big world.

This is extremely well crafted.

I'm so tired, boss. Let's just die about it.

Yup.

The writing is slightly more brutal than i remember the movie feeling. Not crazy but the peril is more pronounced.

I'm tired, boss.

Kinda already love this.

Every time I feel like the pace is entirely too slow for a final act, there is just enough character and world building to keep me going. That said, this feels more like book 3 of a 5 book series. Maybe it is more like book 3 of a 15 book series. Still like it though and the female touch is on character moments is very welcome.

I had to keep telling the kiddo to lay down - even though she was dead tired. I think it helps that she has seen the movie so is anticipating the story and enjoying the cute animals, mixed with her recent experiences seeing some of these very animals in real life. So far so good and she is confident enough to read a page or two herself.

Its almost like Hobb didn't know this was the last book in the trilogy. The pace is nearly identical to the last two books. Not sure if that is impressive or not.