It really is difficult to explain this without calling it weird. But that’s par for the course, I think! What a weird concept. Aliens that don’t understand language as spoken by humanoids, but are also nourished by it. And a place where language is weaponized, and, as you might guess from the title and name of the place, a milieu of creatures congregate, it erupts into a wild plot, on top of the ways the species are examined. Another fantastic effort. I do still prefer Perdido Street Station, though, despite this probably being more cerebral.

What a massive step backward, imo. Rather than continue off the cliffhanger of the previous arc, it’s an entire collection of random stories pertaining to the agency. Some of how the other characters became involved, but not all, despite the last one saying one who doesn’t get featured has a wild recruitment story, mind you. Also, the art is different each issue, so the tone and atmosphere, which is what much of the entire thing has going for it is obliterated—with cartoony looking stories. A couple of which are interesting, but none of the presentation remains the same. I really have no idea what was going on here. An entire arc without the main plot line? No thanks!

The eternals awake to a betrayer-murderer, Thanos in their midsts, and the more they pull on the thread, the more the usual suspects don’t make much sense. It’s a pretty quiet arc as it goes, but I liked the ending and the pacing just fine. It’s not a normal superhero story, but that’s one of the things that I felt made it work.

I was pleasantly surprised by the movie, based on another book in this series, so gave this a shot. Possibly, the narrator just wasn’t delivering the lines well, but I found him pretty insufferable in an unfun and uninteresting way. Could be better on the page, but I’ll never know. Far to grating for me, dnf at 15% in.

A fun premise hampered by pacing that makes it so things don’t actually get rolling until well into half of it. If I didn’t pick it up during an audible sale id have dnf’d it probably. It does work up to a fun finale and shake up, and the characters were well realized. But much of it feels like it’s spinning wheels, reiterating things we already know about the setting and the character work.

When is it a better time to re read from the start than a new volume drops after a long hiatus, amiright? So glad it holds up. I remember buying the first issue on it’s something-stupid-print run, like 16th, or something. It’s all still gold. The combination of adult, sex positivity, wild, fantastical pairings of imaginative species and this story of a child—who continually drops huge plot beats and foreshadowing—hunted my a lying cat and a royal Android, well come on! What’s not to love. It’s a lot more sexual than I remember, and how I missed the cliffhangers and scene openers to each issue. Just jazz hands.

What a flighty, strange little book. I liked it; didn’t love it. Mostly because I liked Elizabeth as a character a lot and thought it kept things fresh with its flitting around in time, and a particular funny / exasperating scene regarding her getting a passport and that process, as well as a pretty fitting ending. I don’t feel like it’ll stay with me long, but was still a better experience than most too, weirdly.

The audiobook is the way to go with this one. Fantastic stuff, probably made me enjoy the book even more. But even so, I think this is above average than the typical fantasy fanfare; I can see why it’s fairly popular. The setting is evocative, character exactly how I like my thieves: Not irredeemable, but tinged with a kind of realism regarding corruption and the way the world works, and ip front about their own opportunistic nature.

It’s a pretty bleak world, ruled by the guild that educated him and indentures all sorts to carry out their will. There are goblins that are particularly nasty, but more so because of socio-economic circumstances and other stuff. The world building specific to thieving and magic was really interesting, though not wildly novel, but that is wildly rare now, with the market saturated with these kinds of stories and D&D-esk stories more so.

I’d describe it as something just really well executed, at every level. It won’t blow your mind if you’ve been reading in the genre for a while. But it’s funny and poignant and earns it’s twists and endings; it’s even sweet sometimes, which is a feat for characters constantly assailed by dangers and not exactly likeable, generally. I’d certainly pick up the next and that’s not something all that usual for fantasy series these days.

A very solid, melancholic story about peoples’ lives being changed by war in large and small ways. A possible great love disappears amidst a doomed companionship due to their being different religious denominations. Decades later the fallout of many decisions are felt. It’s not a wildly novel plot, but it is done very well. Examining PTSD and philosophy and the things that bring people together and rip them apart. The character work is the shining star here, as the pacing is pretty slow. It was very enjoyable for me though. But I like very sad novels, typically.

And snap, crackle, pop, it’s back, true to form. Far more punchier and on point than the second omnibus, despite having a whiff of tying up loose ends that seemingly don’t need tying up, really—until it ends up being really well done and far better than it has any right to be.

After all, ostensibly, the plot beats do hit on already introduced themes: contradictions in people revolving around war and moral ambiguity outpaced by basic motivations that people just cannot seem to get rid of, especially under any kind of “fire”. But the simplicity also allows for really effective storytelling and plotting that just works. There are always earned costs to things and things are constantly shifting, rather than a “winner” emerging.