Review Braindump

Since last updating this blog, I’ve now read all of Stormlight Archive and am making my way through Mistborn Era 2 (plus a few others). Here’s some braindump-y thoughts about my latest reads:

  • Stormlight is amazing. Definitely my favorite Sanderson series sorry Mistborn Want more now, plz.
  • I aspire to write like This is How You Lose The Time War. I’m considering using a quote from it in my wedding. Seriously. Gorgeous.
  • Skyward is really solid YA. Looking forward to continuing it.
  • I feel…conflicted about Wax and Wayne. I like it, I like returning to Scadrial, but I feel really weird about the police aspects #ACAB #DefundThePolice and the “riot” aspect of Shadow of Self. Also, please give me more Steris it worked when I asked for more Shallan!
  • I started Dune. It’s going…better than I expected. Audiobooks definitely help me get through dense sci-fi/fantasy books.
  • I’m being better about DNFing books rather than rage reading them. Not catching my interest? That’s fine, but I’m not going to waste time on it.
  • Started Priory of the Orange Tree too. Not quite what I expected I somehow missed there were going to be dragons, despite there being one on the cover, and I’m not a huge dragon girl but I’ll definitely be continuing it also, I actually own the ebook, so that helps.

Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo

I love Leigh’s writing. I love her world building. As I’ve mentioned before, the Six of Crows books are my comfort books – I return to them time and time again when I’m feeling anxious or stressed.

That being said, I don’t think Rule of Wolves is her best work. Something about it – especially the first third or so – felt incredibly disjointed. There are so many new settings and characters that are introduced in a manner that seems almost rushed. It didn’t seem as immersive as her previous works (especially Six of Crows) and even some of the side characters we love seemed a bit flat (I still don’t care about the Darkling, sorry fangirls). Parts of it seemed overly convenient, but there were also moments that took my breath away and lines I desperately wanted to highlight (but for once I was reading a physical copy).

That’s not to say I didn’t love it. I almost cried several times. I made strangled noises of glee when certain characters returned. I read a 600 page book in two and a half days like the height of the Harry Potter days. I think it’s a good finale, but I wanted more (and maybe we will get more?). Still four stars because…it’s Leigh Bardugo and she is the Queen.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Now I just have to last until April 23 when we get the Shadow and Bone TV series.

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

I’m apparently on a Sanderson kick lately watching his class, rereading The Final Empire. Which kind of pains me, because I’d love to be reading BIPOC and women authors rather then yet another white guy, but here we are. Because he is just that good.

I loved all of the characters – honestly more than I loved Mistborn’s characters. Kaladin’s struggle with depression was incredibly real. I missed the non-Kaladin characters during the sections that didn’t include their POV. I want more Shallan especially.

The ending like, the last 90 minutes of the audiobook? because yes, your girl listened to all 45 hours of the audiobook in two weeks felt ever so slightly rushed, after the pacing of the rest of the book. Maybe a little bit more time spent with Shallan and Jasnah would have signposted it better? But that’s such a nitpicky thing.

Sanderson also isn’t necessarily the prettiest writer, but his writing immerses you in the action and characters (perhaps less so the setting, but I found it easier to picture the world in this book than in Mistborn, perhaps because of its incredibly unique flora, fauna, and weather patterns). I was also glad to be out of the YA fantasy space for a little while.

This experience has also reminded me of my love of audiobooks. I’m someone who likes to do things with my hands (knitting, sewing, chores) and being able to read because yes, listening to audiobooks is reading – fight me made me far more likely to actually complete this book. If I had been reading it as an ebook or hard copy – no way would I have been able to complete it so quickly/at all. It helps that I’m in the middle of Sock Madness (yearly international speed sock knitting competition, for the uninitiated). I also found that I chose listening to the book over mindlessly surfing the internet – a great thing to discover as I try to spend at least some time away from screens while also trying to read more.

Anyway, Sanderson’s great. I’m seriously considering grabbing a physical copy of the next book from the library tomorrow when I’m at work – and I’m to the point where I almost never read physical copies oh, Libby how I love you. Five cups of tea.

These Violent Delights

This book had so much potential, but I never felt connected to these characters, especially Juliette and Roma. Lots of showing, not telling without really building the suspense of what happened to them before (is it because of how young they were? Probably). Some of the same issues I had with The Gilded Wolves, where new characters and developments don’t feel appropriately signposted. (The?) Larkspur just seemed to appear out of nowhere at around the 45% mark (unless I missed something, which is possible). The Secretary-General also never felt dropped into the story and completely flat (and the plural of the position is Secretaries-General, just to get it off my chest).

Juliette is another character (like Celaena in Throne of Glass) who is constantly described as being capable and violent, and yet we rarely seem to see it (the ending, discussed a bit below, changes this somewhat, but not enough). She oscillates between perfect socialite and ruthless heir, but rarely when it seems appropriate. We hear about her partying in America, but never see this behavior return except for drinking an entire bottle of gin? She feels little Mary Sue-ish to me – good at everything, but still not feeling ‘good enough’. Roma also has inconsistent characterization, to the point that Juliette literally references this within the book.

As has happened with a number of recent reads, I felt no emotional attachments to the side characters that our MCs are supposed care about (Mr. Li, Alisa). I did actually care about Benedikt and Marshall, but they still seemed flat and there wasn’t enough of them. Tyler’s name pulled me out of the story every time – to the point that I looked it up on Behind the Name and found no evidence that it was used/popular in the 1920s. Yes, yes, I am petty.

Despite some very poetic writing, the city never came to life as in books like The Green Bone Saga or Six of Crows. The payoff/ending was surprisingly solid after a shakey and sloooooooow promise and progress (see this post for more on promises, progress, and payoff), but that wasn’t enough to redeem the book and its uneven and inconsistent characters. This ended up being another rage read, because I wanted it to be so much better. Two cups of tea.

Brandon Sanderson’s Promise, Progress, and Reviewing

I started watching Brandon Sanderson’s lectures on writing science fiction and fantasy after seeing Kate Cavanaugh’s review video of the class. I highly recommend watching this series if you’re interested in writing of course, but also reviewing, mainly because it helped crystalize and identify a number of issues I’ve been having with some of my recent reads.

Sanderson talks about his three parts of plot: Promise, Progress, and Payoff. In my understanding, Sanderson’s Promise is different than the Promise of the Premise referenced in other plotting methods, which tends to correspond to the Fun & Games beat of the Save the Cat method. Rather, Sanderson’s Promise is at the beginning of the book, a promise of the tone, character arc, and plot to come. This is why so many fantasy books begin with a prologue that sets or promises? the tone for the rest of the book. Farm boy going about his boring day – even if that is where our story begins – probably isn’t consistent with the overall tone of the book.

And this is where I’ve been finding a lot of my recent reads falling flat. A Crown for Cold Silver which I didn’t review on this blog, but will reference in my review of the second book of the series is the exception – it nails this promise from the first line:

It was all going so nicely, right up until the massacre.

A Crown for Cold Silver by Alex Marshall

Already, we get the darkly funny tone and set the stage for the amount of violence that is about to occur. Promises certainly don’t have to be delivered in first lines or even first chapters, but they should set the stage for the story to come.

Meanwhile, Queen of Coin and Whispers opens in a location we never see again and while there’s probably some symbolism in the dead sheep?, it doesn’t exactly set up the alleged intrigue and again, alleged romance of the rest of the book. The Gilded Wolves could have had a good promise if the heist actually had anything to do with artifact that is stolen in the first chapter I’m still salty about that. Because promises that aren’t consistent with the rest of the book piss off readers. The only reason I finished both of those books is because I was rage reading toward the end luckily, I enjoy complaining a lot.

It’s not just the promise, of course. It’s the progress too. Even the strongest promise doesn’t guarantee an enjoyable book. Both of the books mentioned above struggled in the progress department too. It’s here that reviewers often talk about a book dragging or issues with pacing seriously, am I the pacing police? – the book’s progress has not been clearly indicated or ‘signposted’. This is especially true for someone like me, who primarily reads on Kindle, where I can’t see the physical number of pages left in the story. Without clear markers, the reader feels lost in the story and while we talk about getting lost in books, this isn’t actually a good thing. Here again is where A Crown for Cold Silver does well – as we slowly realize how the wide cast of characters are connected, many of their stories begin intersecting, drawing the story and the reader forward to its payoff. This book took me three months to read, but it never frustrated me like Queen or Wolves. I wanted to keep reading, rather than desperately trying to get to the end.

Of course, this structure overlooks vital parts of storytelling and reviewing, including characters and setting. But it has helped my understand what sets my teeth on edge when I read inaccurate promises and wander lost through muddled progress. Maybe it can help you too.

The Gilded Wolves

I fucking love Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom. They are my comfort books. I have been following all of the actors in the upcoming Netflix series since they were cast.

So when I came across The Gilded Wolves (thanks Storygraph!), I was immediately intrigued, because of its similarities to Six of Crows. I love heists. The world sounded interesting. Count me in.

Now, the problem with reading something that is similar to something you love is that you constantly compare it to the original. If you’re a high fantasy fan, how many times have LotR clones fallen flat? Harry Potter readalikes?

That’s not to say that The Gilded Wolves isn’t original – the worldbuilding certainly is. But the lens through which I am reading and reviewing it is most definitely colored by my experience with the Dregs.

(more…) “The Gilded Wolves”

Queen of Coin and Whispers

I was drawn to this book because it reminded me of one of my own story ideas (actually two of them – I’m a sucker for assassin characters and queens, apparently). While it was an entertaining read at the beginning, the world and characters felt flat and there was far more telling than showing and the pacing at the end. wtf?

Everything felt very surface level: Lia’s “threat” to expose Xania didn’t feel like it held much power; characters and plot points were dropped in when convenient, rather than built up to. I can barely picture the characters at all because there was little to no description (Xania is POC I think? based on a few passing mentions of her skin color and hair texture from her own POV). While mildly less infuriating, it reminded me somewhat of Throne of Glass, which I reviewed in 2016 (the last time this blog was active lol). There were several times when I would turn back a page or two to see if I had missed some sort of action or explanation (I never had).

Chapters are very short, which keeps things moving quickly, but doesn’t allow for much depth. They all seem to end on Poignant Last Lines, which makes none of them seem important. Plus who’s letting these teenagers be in charge of a country without any supervision or input from adults? am I old now? I might be too old for YA now, huh? How is Xania installing all of these agents? Where are they coming from? When is she sleeping?sleep is important, kids

Apparently I have more Thoughts than I expected. Also, the single quotes in the library ebook version killed me.

(more…) “Queen of Coin and Whispers”

Smudge Odette Olivia MacNamara 1999-2021

Smudge was born on approximately August 15, 1999, the second smallest of a litter of barn kittens. At the age of 6 weeks, too small to jump onto my bed at night, she and her calico sister Chip became my 8th birthday presents – but Smudge was always mine.

She remained tiny throughout her life, a lover of laps and belly rubs. She was a constant companion, tolerating being dressed up in doll clothes (never by me – only be friends), her soft fur drying many, many tears. She would come when I called her name, her belly wobbling back and forth. She knew that yelling, especially in her later years, was the best way to get attention (and she was right).

She was stubborn. After radiation treatment for her thyroid, she had to sleep in a separate room, only to make her presence known every morning by ramming her 7-pound body against the closed door. Losing sight in one eye never slowed her down. She would claim laps for hours on end, her purr a gentle, comforting rumble.

Smudge outlived all of her siblings, living to nearly 21 and a half and through three separate presidential administrations (her calming presence was most important during the last). She left this world on her own terms, after saying goodbye to her girl one last time.

New Year’s Necessary Magic

I’m bad at New Year’s resolutions. While I’m very good at follow through in much of my life, big abstract ideas like resolutions (or blog posts…) can be difficult to focus on. So this year, I’m trying intentions? ideas? mindsets? idk, but let’s talk about it.

I like to multitask. A lot. Like, half a dozen browser tabs, watching something on YouTube or Netflix in split screen while browsing the rest of the internet type of multitasking.

I’m also an anxious person. Without the coping skills I’ve developed (and even sometimes with them), I could likely be formally diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety. And I should probably visit professionals about that, but that’s not what we’re talking about today. Because my brain is very…loud with all those anxious thoughts, the flitting between tabs and videos and the rest of the internet only amplifies that.

So this year, I’m going to try (emphasis on try, sorry Yoda) to be more intentional. To focus on one thing at a time, so I don’t find myself in the middle of fifty things and have no idea of where I left my phone or La Croix. To get up and do that thing or write it down in my bullet journal instead of letting it take up residence in my (already very full brain).

This also means that I am going to be more aware of how and when I use social media too. I get most of my news from Twitter – which means my anxious, full, loud, brain gets invaded with all of the horrible stories and images that populate that particular social networking site. So I’ll look for other resources for news (still need to stay informed!). Social media has also become a mindless time suck, something I click on without thinking and somehow have five tabs open to Twitter in the same window and haven’t retained anything from the tweets I’ve already read…five times over.

Intentional means boundaries – including saying no. I have a hard time doing that, especially at work. I shoulder way too much of the work, which only leads to more anxiety spirals. And I need to be better to myself. So I’ll close with my mantra for this year (blatantly stolen from a Pinterest picture, which in turn is from another blog).


no
is a necessary magic.

no
draws a circle around you
with chalk
and says
i have given enough

Camp NaNoWriMo!

Well, it’s that time again – time for Camp NaNoWriMo!

For the uninitiated, Camp NaNoWriMo is a more “customizable” version of NaNoWriMo [National Novel Writing Month] that runs in April and *checks notes* July. I’ve tried it a couple of times in the past and…generally failed [see also: most November NaNoWriMos I’ve participated in]. April also isn’t the best timing – I’ll also be participating in Sock Madness. And yet, we’re going for it.

Well, I’m going for it. Not sure about you, dear reader.

Camp’s perimeters are customizable and can be measured in word count, hours, minutes, lines, or pages. I’m aiming for 30,000 words – hopefully writing ~1,000 words per day.

I’m working on a novel that I’ve been trying to write for the better part of a decade. Here’s the synopsis from the Camp NaNoWriMo website:

Callan longs to be bold like his brother, to be decisive like his father, to explore the world beyond his family’s manor. But as the second son of the Loch’s Governor, he will never be a leader, will never have to make significant decisions. When tragedy strikes, he finds himself running for his life – straight into an young assassin with dark secrets. Together, they’ll spark a revolution that will change the Continent forever.

I will be starting with several thousand words, as I was eager to jump right into this story. This is also the first story I’ve outlined using the Save the Cat method, which I’m currently preferring over Kat’s 27 chapter method (sorry, Kat!).

Below is the spreadsheet for this go round as well as my Spotify playlist!

(more…) “Camp NaNoWriMo!”