Stephanie > Recent Status Updates

Well that was an unexpected name drop! What are they up to...?

I always love it when an English book uses French, and even better, when the French is correct!

Oof! The intro was a bit of comforting deja vu, as I just finished listening to Andalite Chronicles before this. The alternate present here: the Empire, the war on "primitives", slave ownership, limited state media, and authoritarian leadership...let's just say, it echoes VERY strongly with the current state of the US with the attempts to curb free speech, deport immigrants, push "traditional" gender roles etc.

I'm making the switch to The Story Graph - find me there with the username "missflyer" (as here), and I'd love to keep connected with you there!

Violet, you should have gone where Aaric told you to go...

It feels like it's taking me forever to read this (no audiobook) - lots of building, discoveries, action, movement, etc., but I'm ready to advance. Maybe it's my mood. Plus, it had been too long since a character we knew had died unexpectedly.

Violet, you went from understanding what he wrote being code for one thing (believable, and backed up by evidence, and not good news) to thinking that he meant it as he wrote it, without a line of thought to hint that you changed your mind about it. And you're too smart to have just dismissed the evidence in favor of the more hopeful conclusion.

Whoosh that decade of upheaval went fast! With both highs (e.g. Tarzan the movie and the musical, and Brother Bear) and lows (the ending of his third marriage, the physical ailments. We're in the alcohol now...).

What I need now is a chapter from Xaden's POV. I need to know first-hand what is going on with him! He's going through the sort of thing I love getting the nitty-gritty on.

It's interesting to see the links between the music he's making and his personal life. Not to mention how crazy busy he kept, especially in the late 80s/early 90s! I also finally picked up a few Genesis and Phil Collins' solo CDs to give them a listen, especially since he keeps telling how this song or that CD was him writing about his marriages/partners/feelings.

I may not have known anything about Genesis either before I started this, but once he joined them and through the 80s (about where I'm at) has been very interesting to hear about! The ups and downs, the ins and outs of a growing-in-popularity band and incredible mismanagement of money (or, in the bandmates' cases, probably just not knowing the money side of things to watch it). Plus the codas about his romantic life.

So many famous name drops... But since I'm not a huge music person, most of them slide right past (exceptions: the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix). Collins sure brushed elbows with a lot of people during his teens/early 20s when trying to get into the music scene, and that's kind of the framework holding together the string of other musicians.

I love Tairn's grumpiness.
The more I think about it, the more interesting I find it that Basgiath chose to weed out the "weak" riders by death during training. Instead of, training them specifically/directly to have survival skills and encouraging them to be stronger, and if they can't shape up, they ship out to other duties/quadrants. But then, maybe it's because of what is actually waiting on the front lines...

So many threads, some seen, some hidden, joining together! And each of the kids is getting a chance to grow.

Tilly realizing the importance and lastingness of sisterhood is hitting especially close.

So many characters to follow and so much going on!

Getting closer!!