Brandon > Recent Status Updates

It’s a little Star Trek, a little Firefly, and a touch Expanse. In other words, entirely my thing.

I love it

Super intriguing so far. I loved Children of Time. This book is very different from that one, but Tchaikovsky’s ability to craft characters you love is already on full display.

This book is killing me

I don’t think I like this book.

It took a while to get into this book, but I am fully hooked now. There’s a familiarity to this story, despite the fact that it largely takes place in rural China in the late 70s.

Oh man am I glad I had no idea what this book is about. I just felt the bottom drop out of Mandel’s carefully crafted world. Whatever else happens, this moment was amazing.

Ooh, unexpected shared universe. Go on, you indulgent author.

I already love it. But I always start that way with her books.

“I know no one will read the deck or forward it or save it to their desktop or remember it at all.

They will laugh it off and the idea of the deck will leave their minds in a matter of hours or minutes.

And yet I cannot stop making the deck.”

Very confused about the physics of that finale, but it is suitably epic.

My one complaint with this book is how stuffed it is with small side adventures that don’t get the time to shine. There are so many stories within this epic, and most of them are over and done with before you get a chance to really sink into them. And in order to complete them so quickly, Shannon leans heavily on coincidence.

Such emotion!

This book makes me appreciate Fallen Night even more for bringing to life so many of the people and events referenced here.

On the other hand, Priory is so much better in every way that it makes Fallen Night feel more like bonus content than its own thing.

This book is even better than I remember. And all the bits of Great Sorrow lore peppered throughout the story are so much more impactful now that I’ve read Fallen Night.

Re-reading this one after finishing Day of Fallen Night

Hearts are breaking!

Even when dragons are setting your cities aflame, you still gotta take the time to get busy.