Casey Blackbird > Recent Status Updates

I’ve finally made it to 1963.

How? How!? HOW!?!? Is this only halfway?

I have the down-bads for this book. I’m waking up and reading it in bed before work. I’m reading it before I fall asleep. I’m reading it while food is in the oven. Derry creeps me out.

So yeah, the third to last chapter was a good conclusion, the last two chapters weren’t well done. It drew some ideas together, but left too much fuzz around things that Jordan was doing 800 pages ago.

So, the final chapter in Emond’s Field was powerful. Jordan’s idiosyncrasies took a backseat to some real beauty. Only one allusion to the next book that leaves us baffled. THE LAST CHAPTER THOUGH? dog water. He did this with the last chapter of the Eye of the World—only Jordan can picture what’s going on. The web he wove wasn’t tight enough.

I need to finish by the end of this month.

OK so the last act of this book jumped out of nowhere, to the point where it didn’t make sense. We knew that this was coming, but I thought it’d be a couple books down the line.

We’re at the point where I should be getting an idea how the book is going to end but I have no idea what’s going to happen. Also, we need Elyas to return and give us wolf lore. I WANT WOLF LORE.

This series could’ve been two books if the good guys would’ve just paused to compare notes. “Hey all, I know we have differing motives, priorities, and interests. But we could probably stave off the apocalypse and keep Rand from breaking 3+ hearts needlessly if we all just put our cards on the table instead of all this conniving.” Loial could be a fair third-party. Everyone loves and trusts Loial.

(1) Lan deserves better than being bullied and pushed aside by the strong women in his life. He has impeccable character, is kind, and cares for the vulnerable. Thom, Loial, and Lan deserve better than this whole apocalypse and scheming thing.
(2) The gender-dynamics are getting REALLY REPETITIVE. And weird.
(3) It does something to a man to be on p.605 but only 57% through the book.

This is a 1k page book and I’m finally convinced that I won’t DNF. Reading this size of book on Kindle is SO MUCH BETTER. Also, I’m happy to see the return of the character in book one who got me hooked. That said, Jordan’s prose is weaker in this one and it’s missing the “journey” that the other three each had.

Let us be so for real: Loial is the greatest character ever. If he ever dies, in any of these 97 books, I will never forgive Robert Jordan and his Episcopalian soul. We had a close call where I thought he was going to be sloppily killed off. Don’t. Loial’s hero’s death is spending his centuries of life writing histories and playing that weird board game by the fire.

It was nice to have the gang back together for a few chapters.

Don’t read Tozer. If you want what Tozer is often used to accomplish, then pick up J.C. Ryle’s book, Practical Religion. I’m serious.

(1) We would be greatly helped by the robust publication of helpful booklets on Christian life / sanctification. This is not one of them.
(2) My wrestling with Tozer is ongoing. We would have loathed each other. When he gets things right, he’s great. But it’s drowned out by his bad attitude.

I take back what I said about the narrative pace

I dislike how much I like Sevro/Goblin

I’m still enjoying this, but, two things: (1) the timeline in the castle is making me scratch my head; (2) the movements from section to section are very drastic, and the feel of the novel changes every 75 pages or so.

The narrative pacing of this book is perfect.

So, I’m still a little worn out on dystopian stuff. The sparing prose and a moody first-person narrator almost pushed me off in the first 20 pages. But, this is compelling writing and I’m hooked and read nearly 100 pages the first day so there’s that.

The premise/form of this book was super engaging. That said, this isn’t a book in and of itself. This is the first act of a single, 2,000 page book that’s cut into a series. The characters’ formations are small and unstructured. The plot is a straight line. Some of the references are cheap shots. Needed another editorial pass. Crude, violent. Super engaging, it’s an active choice to not pick up the sequel.

So. The language is incredibly rough, the content is frequently crude, the combat regularly gory. It feels, also, as though it could’ve used one more editorial pass. But it reads so smoothly and the premise/form scratch such an itch in my brain that I’m struggling to put this down 😂

“All matters of technique have to do, not with the desire to be clever, but rather with the intention to be alive and open to the surprise of the gospel.”

I don’t know why, but I’ve been refusing to read the Space Trilogy for a while. But I’m kinda hooked?

I don’t like writing negative critiques on here, so I won’t post a review. But this one was a turn in the series and I doubt I’ll pick up #4. The denouement mirrors the angst of a lot of contemporary mysteries, and not in a compelling way. The content is darker throughout, which feels awkward juxtaposed against the hokey cowboy humor. #1-2 were great, this one fell short.

I’m too deep in to DNF but we’re ready for this one to be done.