Shay > Recent Status Updates

Rereading this bc its great and I recommended it to somebody and its been a while since I'd read it the first time.

After having to renew my library loan of this twice I'm giving up and putting it in the DNF stack. I'm a bit bummed because its clear that this is a well written book, I just don't think I'm the intended audience. I'm over halfway through the book and I still just don't care about these characters.

I'll be recommending it to other people as I see fit, but its just not for me.

First page and I'm already hooked by the absurd hilarity of this conversation between the witch and Floralinda.

“I’ll be right back,” he said. “Try not to get eaten by a bunyip because you think it needs a square meal, a’right?” He turned and lumbered back into the swamp.

Thou Shalt Not Denude the Airplane’s Cheese Selection.

And right here is the point of the book. I'm sold.

“Gentlemen. Mrs. York. There is a saying in Switzerland, ‘Ne pas mettre tous ses œufs dans le même panier,’ which you will know in English as, ‘Do not put all your eggs in one basket.’ The United Nations feels that, in addition to reducing the damage here on Earth, we must also look beyond our planet. It is time, gentlemen, to colonize outer space.”

“No, but I think this could be an extinction event.”

Well, shit. Maybe this isn't the right time to be reading this book. Too late now, I'm already too engrossed.

I love the word Arachnomorphic!

Just finished reading chapter 1.2 "Brave Little Huntress", and I'm really loving the writing style.

The POV character (because calling her a protagonist is somehow wrong) in chapter 1.1 reminded me a lot of the cold, brilliant, calculating scientists in Seanan McGuire's fiction, which is a mind I want to see more of. I love an "evil" scientist whose motives are so utterly relatable.

Something about the pacing of this book is throwing me off. Not necessarily in a bad way, just in a way that I'm not used to. But I really like the role that Armin is playing in this story, and I'm really glad that Nilah has had something to contribute and has seemed to be growing up through this whole ordeal.

"Because if she could just erase her past then she could write herself into whoever she wanted to be in the present. "

This book is hitting me right in the gut. I just relate so much to Rin. Growing up mistreated and knowing that you were more than that and fighting tooth and nail to get beyond it is my story, and Kuang keeps using the same mental verbiage I use and that just knocks the breathe out of me.

This books has a similar flavor to The Stone in the Skull by Elizabeth Bear to me, but I can definitely also see it appealing to people who liked A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan. I'm a fan of both so I'm really enjoying the world that Samantha Shannon is building here.

"He was the sort of rural soul who had more fingers than teeth—and he was missing several fingers."

This is going to be a funny book, I can already tell.

you know, I put off reading this book because after Old Man's War I was so sure that Scalzi couldn't match its amazingness. But here we are in a sequel that's only got maybe two characters from the previous book and I'm still hooked. Scalzi is so amazing at pushing past the tropes and making you really wonder the big questions.

I really hope this turns into a sort of boarding school for druids. I'd read an entire book of just that. Except that I'm not 100% sure that Owen is the right person to be teaching it...

There are few voice actors who embody their audiobook characters as well as Luke Daniels as Atticus O'Sullivan. I really appreciate whoever cast him.

Slowly but surely working my way through this one.

Setting it down for now, will pick it back up again later.

I know that there's a lot to cover, but this one has some really slow, dragging moments.

I finally got a copy!

Ok, I didn't think about how useful super healing would be for getting out of ropes.

So, we still don't know who Quentin's parents are. I'm betting that they're the High King and Queen. That would elevate the politics of the series to a whole new level, which Seanan is good at.

Whoops, there it is. The elfshot is the same as Whalter was telling her about. Connor's going to die.