Harry Shaw > Recent Status Updates

Great pallet cleanser for a shite run of novels I've been reading. Amazing Artwork as usual. Brutal and slightly even unsettling with the creepiness of the creatures

Ironically, the structure of it being written in verse is what is pulling me through the book. When I heard it was in verse at book club I thought it would be a chore but without it's rhythm it would have been a brutal read. The content however is trite. I absolutely hate the main character, her self pitying and lashing out with her own misery and bitterness at others.

Yuck, the content of the Poet is everything I dreaded about women's romance fiction. Narcissistic, finger-pointing and unfocused. I hate it when a lead character is so infatuated with another character that it feels as if they are in their own story as an outsider. A third through, and I find the book is almost written in the second person by how captive she is to her "successful academic university professor lover".

Again, getting through this slowly. Partly savouring it and partly because I was expecting deeper dives. It gets very repetitive. Saying how much effort they put into everything, how close Fortiche Studio worked with League of Legends, but that's all that is said, repeated over and over again. It doesn't really go into the how, which is what I would find more interesting.

I actually got much further than my last update before I put Scaramouche, The King Maker, Down. I intend to pick it up again and finish it. It's definitely inferior to the first. Two-thirds in, and I am still "waiting" it felt like. Whereas the first had the three inner books that were so fun to get through.

I am enjoying the book, but I thought I'd blast through reading. It's not the deep dive I was hoping for. It doesn't provide the behind-the-scenes technical knowledge or breakdowns I hoped for. More just explosion diagrams showing the initial concepts to the final. Not much of the "How".

Started this yesterday. It's easy to read because it's simple. I think maybe some of this may have been lost in translation to English because it is very frank and literal like the Finnish language but I don't have the nuance to know how it is different to English.

I would never have read this myself but I am going to finish it because it is my Waterstones book club for December.

Again, I'm really enjoying reading the source material as a recap for season 4s release. I actually think the show has fleshed out a lot of the plotlines. Slightly sad that I will reach where the show is up to soon and stop reading. The art style is amazing as well.

Really enjoying reading this as a recap before season 4. I think the show has actually enhanced a lot of the plot lines. Some stuff in the book is funnier, maybe because I am imagining the delivery.

Up to issue 17 so far. I'm into season 2 of the show now. I'm really enjoying reading invincible. It's my first time reading a supporting comic for a show I've already watched. So far I'm very impressed with how the show has fleshed out the storyline from these panels and the reveal of the who dun it is far superior in the series. That being said I've found the comic far funnier where I've actually laughed out loud.

Very much enjoying this book. Some of the nuances Peter discovers about Chinese life I realise I have observed as well in the manner of international students at university. It would have been more useful if I'd read this prior to studying.

Read a lot more last night. A very interesting book on somebody experiencing China and communism for the first time at a boots on the ground level. My favourite chapters are the journalistic ones describing his time there. My least favourite are the bridge chapters in between those describing the history I find them boring, I don't think they're particularly well written compared to his recounts.

Started this alongside scaramouche. It's fun so far and I needed some sort of contemporary break from scaramouche. Sometimes that 1920s literature can get too flowery in how it's written especially at the moment where they've been stuck in the same place for the first 100 pages. I will go back to it as I remember Sabatinis takes quite a while to set the foundation of his stories. This however has been very funny.

Always a pleasure to be back in Raphael Sabatinis world. Funny, intelligent and fast paced. So far it is a direct continuation of the ending of Scaramouche which I still remember very well. Darth Vader to Luke Skywalker "I am your father!" Comes to mind 😂. Looking forward to where this goes. The king has just been executed in the French revolution.

Read the second part of Letters From Zedelghem. Was my favourite story in the first half and is still my favourite now Excellently written. My copy of Cloud Atlas is 529 pages. I am on the final chapter so will update when finished. Goodreads only has the book listed as 509 pages.

Again, the second part of half lives Louisa Rey mystery was great. The stories are reminding me of other pieces of media or fiction I've consumed in the same lane. I mean that in the most positive way possible, this last chapter heavily reminded me of The fugitive with Harrison ford when he's trying to expose the pharmaceutical company, whereas Louisa is trying to expose clean nuclear energy government scam.

Wow, Cloud Atlas requires discipline to get through but once you've invested the time it pays off. Really enjoyed the middle bridge chapter Slooshas Crossing. The following chapter Sonmi (which I mentioned previously I did not enjoy particularly.) was amazing as well. Thoroughly enjoying the second parts of the initial stories now. Ghostly tale of Timothy Cavendish was very funny as well.

The middle chapter of the book, before the initial chapters are revisited, is Slooshas Crossing. It is my favourite chapter so far, and I am interested to see where it goes. It reminds me of Horizon Zero Dawn's Plot, where human technology has backslid due to a massive extinction/ fall event, and older, more advanced technology is being rediscovered.

The stories I am reading aren't particularly interesting at the moment. Halfway into the book I hope the chapters that revisit actually make them better. I found the Sonmi chapter particularly tiresome the sentient robot or replicant in this case has been done to death and better. The chapter really dragged for me. My favourite so far was letters to Zelghelm or however you spell it.

Just started the third story. Still have no idea where Cloud Atlas is going tho. The second story only had a very brief link to the first.

I swapped in between reading Odyssey and Unruly because I was listening to Odyssey on audiobook and wasn't really enjoying it. Not sure if it was because of Stephen Fry's narration now. He is an emotive narrator which I have fond memories of childhood of with the Harry Potter books. Had difficulty getting through the Sherlock book with his narration as well. Swapped to reading it and am enjoying it more.

I enjoy the irreverence of this. It is simple, and of course, I am not remembering all the names, but it is signposting areas of history I feel I vaguely remember. I didn't realise how some of the things in England came to be. It's not very sophisticated, as it is now likes to be portrayed in modern media.

Started this after seeing a random video of David Mitchell deciding his favourite king which ended up being promotion for this book. Ended up getting halfway through it walking through London. Appreciated the irreverent wittiness you can expect from Mitchell as it was a painful walk because of my hips.

Pretty disappointing 60% in. Not finding the story particularly interesting. I guess because it's only 125 pages it's not particularly detailed. I very much like historical fiction to have more detail. Will finish the first book however.

Thought I'd try this on audio whilst I read a non fiction book. Has been fun so far. I'm finding it interesting drawing the parallels to the modern day BBC adaptation. Funny how there was a war in Afghanistan in the 19th and 21st century!

A promising start.

Forgot to do updates as I read because I got stuck around chapter 7. The final two chapters of the book. I haven't found the book very compelling because of its format. All the asides and diagrams aren't particularly useful. Towards the end there seems to be an asterix aside on every other page which really breaks the flow. I guess as well because it is dated because of the advancement of AI since 2017.

So I read slightly more of this book yesterday. I got to a point where I wanted to see whether Max Tegmark had made more up to date commentary on AI since this was published in 2017. 8 years ago. What I saw in interviews was extremely alarming. AI has passed the Turing test which means we need more legislation in place to make sure that it isn't negative. I watched his TED talk and a 45 minute separate interview.