Jed > Recent Status Updates

I loved Ready Player One. I felt good pacing, the character relatable and engaging, blah blah blah. I feel much differently about Ready Player Two so far. I know I'm early in the story. I have been struggling with entire pages of tedious reference about what happened between books 1 and 2 with respect to IOI, GSS, and the public. I'm working through it but, damn. I'm finally to the boardroom. Fingers crossed

I'm really loving this book. There seem to be two primary arcs, though the third I feel like is waiting to explode onto the scene when we learn more from the more mature characters. It feels strongly of being a beginning or a series and I'm excited to continue

Second read overall, first time in 20 years. I forgot all of the adventures! The detail is far less than critics accuse of, some more of which I would appreciate. But I'm still enjoying the originality of the tale and remembering why Tolkien will always be the king of my love of fantasy stories

I just finished book two, Two Serpents. I enjoyed the newness in Thee Parts Dead somewhat more but Two Serpents showed something intriguing by the end. I'm into this adventure and look forward to seeing where book three takes me

I don't know what about this book struck me the most. The characters spoke to me. The near-future milieu spoke to me. The idea of Walkways forming a nation without borders spoke to me. The straight-up emotion, idealism, and dialog spoke to me. I think I loved this book. It's rare for me to feel this way about a book

I got through chapter 3 and am just too bored to continue for a while. I'll come back later but for now, it's abandoned.

I am enjoying the story so far. The lack of dialog is different but it's a fine way to tell the tale of a loner wizard fleeing from an unknown peril

"Lesser Demons," by Norman Partridge. This was a very accessible story about a world gone mad with supernatural beings and other side effects. Told from the perspective of the extremely pragmatic town sheriff, it follows him as he makes sense of his new place in the food chain. There's some subtlety to the story telling but I don't think I'm missing something important on my first reading.

"Violence, Child of Trust," by Michael Cisco. Nine pages, told from the changing voices of brothers who seem to kidnap and sacrifice girls to some unknown power. I feel like I missed something in the text by not taking carefully enough. It was interesting, but actually horrific

"The Correspondence of Cameron Thaddeus Nash". So boring. I'm glad that chapter is over.

The Truth About Pickman by Brian Stableford is a short dialog between two intellectuals and there's a mystery readers aren't party to until the end. Decent read, nothing spectacular.

Do you ever read something and, when it's over, say to yourself, what did I just read? That is how I feel after reading Rotterdam. Oh well, on to the next story!

Inhabitants of Wraithwood by W. H. Pugmire. The story is wicked and ephemeral, which makes it fascinating to me. The story is long for this book, but I didn't want to stop reading once.

"The more rules there are to violate, the more violations there will be, because what we call reality is an interpretive construct of the human mind; a reality we re-make every day to deny the howling nothingness of existence and the meaningless tragedy of life."

The Broadsword. This is the most horrific story I have ever read and I truly enjoyed the entire 50 pages. Laird Barron, thank you.

Desert Dreams was a well-paced story that I found horrific and exciting as it displaced sanity. I did not read through Pickman's Other Model - I lost interest about half way through. I may try that again later, but for an opening story to an anthology, it was weak. Copping Squid was rushed early on, but I liked how it progressed afterward. It felt like what I expect of Cthulhu mythology (same with Desert Dreams)

Bod is 14-15 now. This book is much deeper and nuanced than Coraline, so I'm now reading it for myself instead of my daughter. It's a small and imaginative adventure that feels much grander than it "really" is.

"Bod took the new list up on to the side of the hill, and tried to read the words, but his attention kept sliding off it." - I love the idea of attention "sliding off" the thing it's supposed to stick to. I want it to stick, but it keeps sliding off!

'Calling cats,' it confided, 'tends to be a rather overrated activity. Might as well call a whirlwind.'

"A Song Before Sunset" is one of my favorite stories in this collection. It's very short and has only two major characters but is full of heart and thought.

The End of The World As We Know It struck me as lazy storytelling. The fourth wall is completely gone with the author speaking directly to the reader. The recitation of Earthly calamities throughout recorded history did nothing for me. I liked the ending.

Ginny Sweethips' Flying Circus read like Six String Samurai. It was far too silly for my tastes. While I liked the referenced movie I don't like reading it.

I really enjoy reading Gaiman. His style of storytelling is vague enough with details to allow one's mind to fill in the picture while not detracting from the overall current of the scene. I unfortunately read Anansi Boys (part two of this series) first, but so far have not had a clash or spoiler from that book.

Speech Sounds was a very unusual story for me. I'm glad to have encountered it for the sake of its uniqueness but cannot say that I like it. Some of these PA stories are downright depressing!

I just finished "And the Deep Blue Sea". It was reminiscent of The Stand in the sense that there were mystical aspects to the story. I enjoyed reading it but was left somewhat dissatisfied.