Sharks in the Time of Saviors • Stories of the Raksura Vol. 2 • Bunt! Striking out on Financial Aid • Jane Austen's Bookshelf • The Edge of Worlds • The Colour of Magic • The Harbors of the Sun • The Adventure Zone: The Eleventh Hour • The God of Lost Words* • The Light Fantastic • The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen • The Listeners • A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel • The Orb of Cairado • The Staircase in the Woods
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Sharks in the Time of Saviors - I've had my eye on this one for a while - I definitely have an interest in stories about native Hawaii, and with a little bit of magical realism? Cool! The more literary vibes kept me away for a bit, but I finally gave this a shot. Did not like. The beginning felt like it had promise, but I kept waiting and waiting for it to go somewhere. It did eventually, sort of, but too late for me. I'd have been a lot happier if I'd dnf'd this. Instead I would recommend Hula by Jasmin Iolani Hakes.
Stories of the Raksura Vol. 2 - not much to say that I didn't say about Vol. 1. Liked this a lot, especially the babies!! I'm kind of glad that Wells put the first clutch in a short story/novella and not one of the main books, but I *do* really wish we could see more dad!Moon. Martha Wells, if you write any more short Raksura stories I'd love to read them!!!!
Bunt! Striking out on Financial Aid - So glad to have finally gotten around to this! Laugh-out-loud funny, deeply emotional, and breathtakingly tense - what a delightful read! (I think the creators might also have a grudge against art school, which makes me very glad I settled for a studio art minor). Would have finished in single sitting if only I'd had another hour, but as it is it still only took me two days. Highly recommend if you're looking for something quick and snappy to read this summer.
Jane Austen's Bookshelf - what an interesting book! Much thanks to Dr. Brown from university and her courses on Jane Austen and her contemporaries (which were some of the only books I loved and kept from my Literature degree), so I didn't go into this totally blind, just a little! I need to find the lists I was copying out while listening to this of books to look for, but I definitely plan on getting a copy of this for myself (I'm undecided if it should sit on the nonfiction shelf or next to my copies of Austen, Burney, and Edgeworth)
The Edge of Worlds - on one hand, let these people rest! Can't they just have some peace?? On the other - more yummy yummy books for me to read, and also starting to wrap up a few of the dangling threads from the original trilogy.
The Colour of Magic - I know that this is really not recommended as a starting place for Discworld. I did it anyway, and I have regrets, but I stand by it (I'm definitely overwhelmed by the number of books and subseries). I don't know that I would have liked this even at the best of times, but it happened to land at a bad time, and it was a complete slog. Nothing against Rincewind in particular, because I do love a character getting dragged kicking and screaming along by the plot, but...eh. I do adore The Luggage though. I think it'd get along well with Mosca's goose from Fly by Night. Not going to put me off from attempting further Discworld.
The Harbors of the Sun - all in all, a pretty decent wrap-up to the series! Explored the Forerunners a bit more, which was kind of a weird thing that hadn't really come up until book 3, and, most importantly to me, did at least some work on ameliorating "the Fell are an inherently evil race" thing from the earlier books, which I really had not liked. Would have liked to see more chill times in the colony with dad!Moon, but I can only hope that Wells will write some more short stories. (I told myself earlier in the series that oh, I like these but probably won't need to buy myself copies. I was so wrong haha).
The Adventure Zone: The Eleventh Hour - I'll be honest, it's been so long since I either listened to the original podcast campaign or read the previous books in this series, that my grasp on some of the finer details of the set-up was a pretty sketchy. Still! Moved through the main plot of this pretty quickly and finished it one or two sittings. Had a good time and will try to get to the next one soon.
The God of Lost Words - Final book in the series, and I'm so glad to be done with it. The first book had enough interesting concepts that I liked it, but book two was mostly filler to connect the others, and while this book was definitely better than that, I'd entirely lost interest. So many plot threads left dangling or underutilized, and the characters lost their sharp edges and were all inexplicably into each other. There are plenty of other, better, books about magical libraries or afterlife bureaucracies out there; I would not recommend spending your time on this one.
The Light Fantastic - this one admittedly went down a bit easier than The Colour of Magic, but who knows if I was just used to the characters by now, in a better mood, or it actually was better.
The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen - I haven't been keeping up with KJ Charles' new releases as well as I'd like to, but I finally made it to this one. What a delightful breath of fresh air after a couple of bad audiobooks. A great addition to her collection of historical gay romance/adventure books.
The Listeners - can't believe I actually managed such a quick turn around on this, and in print no less! I've really been looking forward to Maggie's first adult release and had my worries lulled a bit by all of the praise it's been receiving. I thought it was fine. Interesting, sure, and I was happy to keep reading it, but there's just a little too much sameness with some of her other books (the Raven Cycle in particular) for it to really stand out to me. (I'm also not a WW2 person - I don't really read much set past the 30's). Very curious how it works for people who haven't read her other books. I'll keep my Libby hold on the audiobook to see if a reread offers any improvement.
A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel - Doomsday book two. For some reason this one wasn't as much a hit with me as the first one, but it made an excellent use of dropped tidbits from the first book and I have no real complaints. Maybe I should have just waited a bit longer after the first one to read this.
The Orb of Cairado - finallyyyyyyyyyy. After finishing The Listeners in print I wanted to start something new while on vacation but wasn't quite ready to jump into a new book yet. I was updating my 25-in-25 list and saw this and thought it was perfect. Pulled the ebook up on my phone and had it done in an hour or two. A fun little bite of a story, though probably more of interest to people who liked the Celehar books.
DNF
The Staircase in the Woods (15%) - I really like the idea of 'weird shit in the woods,' but struggle with most books categorized as horror. I stuck this out for 2 hours but I couldn't get into it, so quit. I'd been eying a different Wendig book as well but now I'm reconsidering that. (maybe if T Kingfisher had written this I'd have liked it. Not that I've liked all of her horror, but so far she has the best track record).
A quick catch-up post with two YA graphic novels. Brownstone is a coming-of-age story about a teen reconnecting with her estranged father and his culture; Bunt! is a comedy about college art majors forming an impromptu softball team for a chance at a scholarship. Rather different, but both very good, depending on what you're in the mood for.
But damn if I'm not proud of it! This is a rigged and animated (the lips and teeth are rigged too but I didn't end up animating them) model of @mynameismad 's awesome mimic concept! I wanted to stay as true to the original as possible so I hand painted. Every. Single. Texture.
Sorry the post is so image heavy I just wanted to show various angles and the like.
