Stephen > Recent Status Updates

This is what Sarah Gailey was shooting for and missed badly in the her overrated Upright Women Wanted. Anna North can tell a story. Gailey not so much.

Terrific!

cover says romantic pirate adventure. half way through not a single mention of anything remotely piratey, and no romance. in fact the only male-female relations thus far are prostitution and assault none of which done by pirates. 😠

Fascinating, yet hard to read. Yet another history where old white men in wood paneled rooms seek to enrich themselves at the expense of those who are not old and white, by every means possible including murder. 100 years later and the US electorate still tolerates/encourages this behavior. Sad.

Delicious! Reminds me of Baru Cormorant - strong female lead playing a game of empire, though in this case she is not out for vengeance. The style in interesting, narrated vs organic but it works for this story. The author should have fleshed out Thene's history more to explain how she became good at games, but she is interesting if a bit opaque. Points to Baru for including this detail.

Chapter 6. Liking this a lot so far

wacky and fun

Thompson lost the plot of his own book. Not often one can identify the exact page when a good story crashes and burns. In this case it occurs on page 177. Downhill from there.

The story begins to coalesce. Some interesting characters. Wilf Netherton not one of them. A drunkard publicist - which kinda says it all. If your only reason for being is to burnish someone else's image do you even need to exist?

True to Gibson MO. Dropped into a world a step or two forward tech-wise from today. He intros new tech and lingo explaining none of it expecting the reader to figure it out. Writing is shorty and punchy. The plot moves quickly but..every 5-50 pages you encounter a orphan sentence or two that reads like a remnant of a draft paragraph excised from the final copy and you go what the.... No idea where this is headed.

starting to feel like gonzo for the sake of gonzo. riotous wordplay to little purpose. and yet another writer who clearly doesn't understand how to write a metaphor. so far most have been awful.

How very odd. Feel like I'm on a carnival ride through a fun-house. Everything bizarre, with no clear destination.

“One of the officers wore camouflage and a high-vis tabard, which seemed perhaps a mixed approach.” Ha!

Atmospheric. Love the writing. Mirror-touch synesthesia in the main character a brilliant choice. I think I’m going to like this a lot.

Interesting as followup to The Professor and the Madman but not clear where it’s going yet.

Exquisite as I remembered from first reading twenty years ago. Dialogue sparkles and the plot is layered like an infinite onion. Absolutely marvelous. I shall need to visit Scotland again after this.

Lymond entering the hall of Midculter as written by Dunnett,” Lucent and delicate, Drama entered, mincing like a cat.” What aa apt description and delicious turn of phrase.

Last read this close to 20 years ago. Loved it then. Loving it again. Loaded with historical references, full of vibrant characters and very smart language, yet paced like an adventure, Dunnett is a masterful storyteller.

written in 1920s-1930s, howard is the foundation upon which modern epic fantasy, particularly dark, is based. howard's kull, conan, and other serials were published ten years before tolkien's hobbit and 20 before lotr. howard's ability to create legendary characters, worlds, and urgency within the few pages of a serial should be the envy today's authors who struggle to a story in 100s-1000s of pages. a true master.

putting aside for now which should tell you a lot about how this book is likely to rate. starts strong but klara stalls at the intelligence of a five year old. i'm not sure ishiguro understands ais are capable of learning.

Just learned The Hidden Palace (The Golem and the Jinni, #2) is coming out in June. G&J one of my favorite books a few years back.

Beau to the rescue. i've a bad feeling about the holes in the taxidermy.

the evilness is related to willows. why is the tree on the cover not a willow?

home! and only at the half way point? what's left to do? 1) close the hole, never go back. 2) buy 1000 gallons of roundup and keep handy in case the willows find a into the museum.

grrr. blake crouch moment. when in alien place w 100s of doors, let's wander off! at least k&s tried to mark where they started from (but a stick? how stupid when carrying a tool box and roll of string) vs dumbass "scientist" dark matter who just wanders off, opens doors, and walks through. scrape an x on the starting door people. mark the doors you visit. hate manufactured stupidity. k&s deserve better.