Rowan > Recent Status Updates

When I die I hope I go to hell so I can find Fred Singer and kill him again

I don't know what Marcus Kliewer is doing differently from other horror writers, but his books actually scare the shit out of me

More than any other book I think I've read in my entire life, this is a fascinating psychological profile of its author. I am not so much reading a scifi novel as I am studying Orson Scott Card like a bug under a magnifying glass.

Oh Edrahasivar VII we're really in it now

I'm becoming more and more convinced that Adrian Tchaikovsky might be the greatest science fiction author of our time

this isn't bad but i just feel like it wants me to think it's a lot deeper than it is

the worst thing about this having been published in 2021 is that i want to hear the authors talk about AI so bad

January Stirling you have the moral backbone of an eclair

the first third or so of this was really engaging but it's been pretty steadily losing me since then

"rowan didn't you read this like a month ago?"

yes, and?

putting this on pause for a bit. it's not what i expected from the blurb and it's not really holding my interest. not sure if i'll pick it back up

my audiobook keeps randomly jumping back to arbitrary points, so i'm going to take that as a sign that the stars are not in alignment for me to read this right now

World's gone to shit, time to reread the goblin emperor about it

Rereading these books always feels a little like coming home

if anything happens to the parrot you will see me on the news

i enjoyed camp damascus but i'm LOVING this

Think I might be about to drop this. No idea how it's rated so highly; the characterization is wildly inconsistent and I, for one, am sick of reading about the narrator abusing this poor disabled woman

I remember reading the original version of this online, god, like 10 years ago probably? Or maybe it was something I heard during that month of my life that I was binging the No Sleep podcast? I don't remember, exactly. But the story itself has haunted me ever since. Saw this at my local bookstore and figured it might be time to revisit and see if it holds up :)

Oops... library loan expired. Will be coming back to this

Gotta reread this before the sequel, I do not REMOTELY remember what happened u_u

I want to expand this into a full review when I'm done but I JUST learned the author is a filmmaker and that makes so much about this book make sense. It uses a lot of "cinematography." Sometimes this is good! The PoV shifts are as smooth as silk, like a camera switching from following one character to another. Sometimes this is bad! Some visuals that would work in film are eye-rollingly heavy handed in prose.

I had so much fun with translation state, then subsequently trying to pitch the series to my group chat, that I "accidentally" talked myself into rereading it

I love how book club allows me to experience the most hilariously rancid historical takes. "I think I'm much better and smarter than other novelists and my characters are much more original. Anyway let me tell you how colonialism is good actually, and educating the masses leads to anarchy and misery. How bout that divine right of kings--i mean queens, eh?"

weird book

Setting this aside for a moment to start on the book club pick

The writing here is fascinating and really compelling--the shifting timelines and perspectives are remarkably cohesive! I've never read anything quite like this, including the author's previous book

It's been almost 7 years since I read this trilogy... let's see if some time and distance has improved my opinion on how everything ends