galacticvampire's Reviews (366)

You know that scene in Ratatouille where Remi eats the cheese, and then the strawberry, and then the strawberry with the cheese, and then he closes his eyes and there's a bunch of fireworks?
That was me reading this book.

I've read Star Wars books I loved before, but Light of the Jedi went, narratively, where I never imagined it could.
It's ruthless. It kills characters. It gives them depth.

With so many switching povs is impressive how much it builds, because in the end you don't spend that much time with each character. And yet you feel the weight of every decision, of every fear, every bond. You feel the hardship of a wookie who can't be understood, the pain of a Jedi feeling a partner disappear, the machinations of a truly unpredictable antagonist.

I will say that, with so many new characters, I was quite lost and had to keep an infographic with illustrations to remind myself who exactly everyone was and what they were supposed to look like, but that's mostly part of the overall Star Wars experience. 

This is an incredible introduction to this phase of galactic history and I can't wait to read the rest of it!

This book feels like a Saturday afternoon movie. It's basically a little mermaid retelling from the prince's pov, and everything about the vibe says "lighthearted and juvenile" until there's some torture scenes and quite a bit of sexual innuendo more fitting to a YA story. The tone shift was weird but didn't take me out of the story.

It has a very simple premise and the ending overall is quite underwhelming (in a sense that it plays out pretty much the exact way you know it will) but I had my fun with it and really enjoyed how the characters interacted with each other. I only wish the potential with a lot of the worldbuilding didn't fell so flat, because there were some very interesting details.

It's a cute little romance, nothing incredible but sweet enough to entertain.

A deep dive on the research and development of the Death Star (or, as it's called here, Project Celestial Power), Catalyst is certainly directed to the more lore-savvy fans.

We have insight on the workings of kyber crystals, the perception of the force by non-force sensitives, the perspective of more-or-less civilians on the early days of the Empire, and a lot of the bureaucracy and politics behind the scenes.

It's basically a big encyclopedia run of the events, but the themes about responsibility and the atrocities of a dictatorship could still make it's arguments.

It's very much "little plot, tremendous worldbuilding", and while I wouldn't describe it as a fun read, it was certainly interesting.

Padawan is a beautiful story about growing up, facing your fears and choosing the light. It's Star Wars at it's core.

A perfect companion to Claudia Gray's Master and Apprentice, we see an insecure and green Obi-Wan. His fears of not being good enough, not being able to help people, to never reach his potential as a Jedi, are debilitating to him, and is so great to have another part of the picture on how this absolute need to do the right thing impacts his character.

My minor nitpick with the book (and the reason it isn't a full 5★) is that I feel it could've taken it's time to wrap things up a bit more. I understand his relationship with Qui-Gon couldn't be fixed in this book, and the ending wasn't unsatisfactory per se; but after so many pages exploring Obi-Wan's connections with other beings, the ending felt a little underwhelming.

This is absolutely a feel-good book. And it achieves this vibe while portraying anxiety and pain and fear so weel, but balancing it out with friendship, a surprising amount of lighthearted humor, and the unwavering moral compass of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

A especialidade de Lovecraft é, sem dúvidas, sua habilidade em criar atmosfera tensas. Mesmo em contos nos quais não me interessei muito pelo enredo, o tom de mistério e catástrofe estava presente.

Entendo que é da natureza dos contos serem curtos, mas ao mesmo tempo aqueles de 5, 10 páginas deixaram grande sensação de que faltava espaço para desenvolver a ideia. Sem sombra de dúvidas, aqueles nos quais ele se permitiu se estender mais foram os mais envolventes e cativantes.

No geral, houveram contos que me fascinaram completamente, e outros que faziam 10 páginas parecerem 100. Além disso, o ensaio no final sobre a literatura Weird, apesar de bem argumentado, me pareceu um tanto presunçoso.

Meus sentimentos sobre Lovecraft após dois volumes de contos é, em resumo, que ele seria um incrível diretor de cinema, mas patinaria um bocado para fazer o roteiro sozinho.

I really enjoyed the final installment of the Aftermath trilogy. The wrap up about Palpatine's Contingency plan in case the Empire fell, the layers of manipulation and several different perspectives on the same issues (that for once didn't feel random or tiring) painted the galaxy's scenario beautifully.

With the comprehension that this came out before even The Last Jedi, I understand that many things about the uhm aftermath of empire's fall could be extremely detailed, as they would spoil what was ro come in the movies. But I still felt that something was missing, that there was obviously more to be told, explored, a bigger finale. Even in retrospect, knowing that episode IX didn't do a great job of explaining how exactly somehow Palpatine is back, they could at least let the books do that.

And that's my main takeaway for the trilogy: a great set up, love the themes, but many of the payoffs were left to the movies and they just never came. If there was one thing that was already cooked and served for the Sequel Trilogy to take, it was these book's worldbuilding, and I can't help but feel that they were severely underutilized.

Life Debt brings a new layer of sophistication to the themes of war, loyalty and what turns the gears of a political system.

Read after Bloodlines, it's very interesting to see how the seeds of the fall of the New Republic are already there from the start. The bureaucracy and compromises, although understandably a fundamental part of democracy, tying the hands of people who want to do good for the galaxy.

The book also turns up a notch on violence and cruelty, always a good reminder on how integral exploitation is in an Empire. The New Republic might need to deal with things better, but the author never uses that to falls back into a "maybe the Empire had SOME good" argument.

I can appreciate the maturity of the narrative in not pretending the plot twist was a huge reveal, and relying much more on the consequences of it. It was a very natural progression for the story, and the author seemed to realize a good portion of the audience would see it coming and dealt with the situation accordingly. 

My only draw-back still is the constant pov shifting, a bit heavy handed for my personal taste, but still considerably better executed than in the previous book.

With the hindsight of the full sequel trilogy and the mandalorian show, it is clear this story sets up many important things. Despite that, it doesn't give much when considered on it's on.

I didn't care that much about the characters, and even less about their goals and overall plot. Bones, the droid, is the only that captivated me, full of quirks and silly moments that actually got some laughs out of me. Temmin, the boy, also had potential and I wish the story explored him and his complexities more.

The frequent interludes also bothered me. I appreciate how they helped paint the galaxy's situation at that point but most of them just took me out of the story completely for something I didn't care at all.

I did like tho how it didn't try to make the imperials quirky or likable or "just doing their job". We see them choosing over and over to keep their path, and I believe that's an important perspective to have as well.

Overall, not a bad book, but not good either. Felt like something I could've gotten from one of the guide books, or summarized as part I from what is book 2.

Cemetery Boys is a perfect balance between cutesy romance and cultural appreciation. I adored Yadriel and Julian and the themes of belonging and family that surronded them.

The magic system and social commentary that revolved around the Latine experience and culture, for the better and for the worst, where great. As someone who wasn't that familiar with some religious customs it was perfectly explained, and the social topics discussed without dramatically waving a flag to the reader that Look I'm Talking World Issues Here. Things just were. It's part of the world and it's there, and the author managed to have this realistic approach while condemning that they were bad. Yes, trans people are very casually misgendered. It is bad and should change. It also frequently happens without the other person being The Evilest One.

Why it doesn't reach the 5★: I enjoyed the experience, but it didn't WOW me. Even with the innovative setting the plot itself was somewhat predictive, this is very much a Characters Story. For that, I wished there was more. We only get a glimpse of several topics with potential that could've been explored in some extra 50 pages or so. (It also annoyed me the anglicanised usage of Latinx and brujx as a gender neutral term when Latine and bruje are right there and are actually pronunciable, but I recognize is a personal preference)

I came to Running With Lions looking for a simple, lighthearted romance, and for that I don't have many complaints. It is a very simple story about teenage love, thinking about the future and figuring out who you really are. But that's pretty much it, it did it's job and I was satisfied enough.

The flaws come mostly in the writing, that really surprised me as something that went through an editorial process. We see quite repetitive dialogue, character presentation as simple as "this is x. He has this hair and is this minority", and a very unimpressive attempt at both soccer and British lingo. (I get it, the character has an accent, you don't need to use the words bloody and mate in every sentence he says).

There were many plot points that showed potential but were merely nodded at, and I feel that exploring these struggles could've given greater depth to the book. Some characters are assholes just because and everyone is ok with it, they hate each other because.... I guess they do? 300 pages is comfortable enough to develop storylines.

But it was overall a good experience. I liked the main couple and the message about self-acceptance, and Sebastian's anxieties felt extremely real. It's not mesmerizing, but entertaining enough.