roadtripreader's Reviews (357)

 Kid = Me.
Candy Store = This series.

I bow down to the patron saint of books and reading , you heard my reading-slump wail!(wait, is there one? If there's one for thieves, there should be one for bookworms). I was this close to going on a full week streaming binge-watching session followed by an internal struggle to read once again followed by an overflow of snacks and procrastination while I search for something in my pile of uncracked spines. But then, I took a look at the books I haven't picked up of the counter in the corner of my mini-library and rummaged through like I was looking for a missing dollar. Found the Legion collection and here I am.

Cue the angelic chorus of hallelujah now...excellent.

The events in this book pick up almost right where the first ended - the mystery of Sandra, Oh Sandra - where for art thou? Seriously Sandra, quit playing - Stephen is actually slowly losing his mind or rather, his aspects are taking over and some are bringing friends. Looking at you Audrey and Kaylani. Which makes one wonder - can delusions have delusions have delusions, have delusions and round and round that question goes unanswered irl.

Is it weird that I feel like I'm hanging out with the aspects as much as Stephen hangs out with them. I feel their echoes when I finish reading and sometimes, if I'm doing something that feels reminiscent of a Tobias anecdote - well there he goes, giving me some interesting facts about something I've clearly just read or seen. That's what I love about books - even the bad ones, you're stuck with these murmurs of the world within the pages for a while and it makes our 3D reality all the more sweeter.

In short - an awesome, rejuvenating read. 

 Man what a chore. Which is disappointing because I was looking forward to this book. I took copious amounts of breaks for a book that is barely 280 pages. Why? Because it was so dreadfully boring. Are you trying to ruin Bakeoff for me? Because you very nearly did. Honestly, a cozy mystery should not drag ridiculously like a drifting car in the Fast and The Furious and yet...this one did.

Here are the bones I need to pick:

1. Why is Betsy Martin's story told through third person narrative whilst all the bakers share their story through first person narrative? There seems to be no point other than an identical structure to the Nancy Warren series with the exception that it follows one contestant's point of view not the lot of them. Oh and WHY is Betsy the Judge and host, what blasphemy is this?

2. Why are there only six contestants and only six days of filming. Don't know what that is, but it aint no Bakeoff. The expected timeframe for suspension of disbelief is cutting it too close and does not feel at all like Bakeoff. And hey, this is coming from someone who read a book about witches baking in a bakeoff style competition - I can suspend some disbelief easy peasy.

3. Why are the contestants / characters on the Bake Week so dreadfully boring? I cared not one iota for any character. I didn't hate them. I didn't root for them. This book did not emotionally connect with any part of me. I just felt like a scientist observing a rather boring experiment with mild interest but really ready to go hunting for some theory that can't be proven just to wake me up from the slumber.

Look, Nancy Warren did this WHOLE Bakeoff-murder thing and she did it with the right amount of quirk, murder, magic and cozy. So I have to ask, was this meant to be a full on mystery but was marketed as cozy or is it just a flop in my eyes? Is it just moi? It tries way too hard with the jump scares and I just couldn't be bothered to feign interest.

I built this book up in my head and it just failed to deliver like dough that hasn't risen and churns out dense dry Danish pastries during Pastry Week. 

 If there's one thing the Anderson Project series did achieve successfully - it's put Richard Anderson's art in the spotlight. The cover, the actual painting is so eerie and prickly and almost weirdly familiar that I had to go and do an excavation on the world wide web and find his art. Turns out he is not some ancient from hundreds of years ago. So, I spent the better part of this exercise in getting rid of reading slump, studying so many pieces of art and then coming back to this painting.

REBORN
Thankfully, the book slump I was falling into earlier has subsided. Reborn jarred me right out of it with that entire sequence between the human detective and the Tawnin alien with two sets of arms, no mouth, and just sheer terror in the idea of standing next to one let alone coupling with one. The question of humans having multiple personalities as argued by the aliens is unsettling. If you exorcise the memories of a murderer and leave only the memories of normality, does it really make the person different and no longer a murderer? Well, whatever rage and intent led to murder is not tied to memories but inside the human mind and chemically inextricable, the murderer may not remember killing someone but that entire chemical explosion of rage or cold calculating intent will come together again and again and the human will respond memory or not - so the Tawnin are full of it. I mean, the police officer proved that point. No matter how many times he was reborn, he was still always lead by his thirst for vengeance.

SPACE BALLET
The science of dreams is explored and taken levels above with the second story and really goes in a direction I did not see coming especially after reading reborn, it made sense on the surface that the image depicted the obvious UFO and Alien backstory. This one is unique in that it is entirely human, and entirely. Precognition through dreams. Who hasn't had a dream that seems strangely if not frightfully prophetic? I enjoyed the scientific endeavor and the other "ultimate intimacy" in which students entered each other's dream to better understand the meanings it could hold.

BLAH BLAH .... THE LET DOWN
The trio of short stories would be a perfect encapsulation of the images were it not for number 3, which I have dubbed "Dawn of the Planet of the Parrots". There is something long-winded about the author that in 32 pages, I felt like I had read a 200 hundred page novel - not in the wow this is very informative and full of little nuggets of gold but rather in the ...god when will it end. We get it, the parrot is Caesar and the rest of the African Greys are the troop that take over the world. Or whatever. 

I think I get along pretty well with old folks, I think of Pixar's UP, that melody that tugs at my tear ducts and I think of my grandma and the people I cared for during my 12 months as a volunteer at a care facility for the elderly whilst at college and I think - Well, heck yeah I could get Maud to like me. But I prefer breathing, and living way more. So, sorry Maud but I can't even try to get you to like me because my sense of self-preservation and survival skills coupled with your elderly methodical bloodlust are not bound to meet in the middle. Like ever.

On the surface, one would think she just up and decided to start dropping bodies, but I think she started killing in her early 40s. There is no evidence, and only a hunch but I know a dissociative episode when I see one and that looked like a blitz kill in an dissociative episode. But beyond that, this is not your run of the mill serial killer. She is prolific in her old age and ....here I shudder, methodical and successful at diverting suspicion. Let's face it, all her victims were vile opportunists: Jasmine sucked big time and Zazza was all kinds of garbage, oh and that dude - I was beginning to think she hated women until he came along.

Is it weird that I was worried the authorities would catch onto her trail? Feels like I should feel conflicted about that. I like you Maud, the same way I like a tiger roaming in the jungle at a safe enough distance for me to appreciate.

 

 There are some books that are just not made for the big screen - elements won't translate on celluloid and cinematography can do little to change that. This is not that book. This one has the makings of a SF/Steampunk visual feast of vibrant colors and people and a glorious assault on the senses. This would be the quintessential Steampunk Odyssey and I'd probably be first in line to get my ticket. Hey, Dennis Villanueva if you're looking for your next big visual after Dune, come hang out in the folds of this series.

"The Earth doesn't shake the tower, the tower shakes the earth."
- Everyman's Guide to the Tower of Babel, IV. XII

Thomas Senlin never stood a chance. Poor Bugger.

Senlin is a man blindsided by cold hard reality. Lulled into a sense of security and social standing in his sleep portside town of Isguah, the number one tourist destination in this universe was supposed to be as easy as his life had been thus far. A headmaster of great standing becomes a man lost and in denial within a day of wandering near the Tower...not even in it. He is an innocent, naïve and foolish lost soul in the Tower of Babel - the perfect prey to be swallowed whole. And yet, there is something about him that gives the reader hope despite his outright denial of the barbarity and injustices of the Tower. Senlin is a thinker, an analytical one at that. Even without realizing it at first - he asks, why? He is not yet on the verge of the answer, nor is he anywhere near the beginning of his true ascent which I can only guess takes place in further books. But we bare witness to a man's realization of his place in the world and how vast and dark and debauched his "northern light" in the Tower of Babel.

Josiah Bancroft has this ability to hoodwink the reader into a false sense of calm, control, security and hope after plunging the main character into some precarious situations. So lulled into falsehood that you begin to pity Senlin's naivety as he believes:

1. The Tower is good - it can be barbaric
2. The Baths are the ultimate in civility, decorum, respect and hospitability.
3. Marya is okay. She will find me (Senlin) or she will wait.
4. Everything will be alright.

Bancroft you sly devil. A great introduction to an ingenious premise well executed and full of nail-biting sequences that have you almost ready to shut the book in hopes of saving Senlin. 

 I had an itch that could only be scratched by a dose of Brishen and Ildiko's story. So I scoured the Wraith Kings Series for one of the in-between novelettes/shorts that follow Radiance and found this one.

Despite not reading the books wherein the first two stories are set (Strong Blood and Crow Awakened) I was intrigued by the time travel in one tale and the dramatics of good news in the second tale. But finally, I made it to the third story, Matter of trust and wowza was that a steamy affair I did not expect, given the tame preceding two stories before it. Okay but seriously, Is it possible to love already beloved characters even more than before? I mean the last time I adored characters to this extent was as a teen watching ATLA on Nickelodeon and rooting for Zuko to find redemption, Toph to annihilate all enemies and Aang to temper his shame and be The Avatar. Glad to welcome Wraith Kings into the hallowed halls of my mind palace, where The Lord of The Rings, The Hobbit, Good Omens and countless others take up space.

Good to finally have a fantasy romance amidst all the scifi, high fantasy, scientific non-fiction and detective mysteries (including cozy) I seem to devour daily. 

 Never saw the Kit Harrington movie adaptation of this movie and I'm glad I didn't. Reading about that doomed city at the base of Mount Vesuvius and the events in and around those eighteen hours before eruption in a fictional capacity has been exhilarating.

Maybe it's because I had just watched Blood of Zeus, the Netflix anime that has so much potential but is shackled by the streamer's indecisiveness. Anyway, for some reason Attilius reminds me of Heron. Not Heron the demigod, son of Zeus and gifted with lightning but the Heron who is in mourning, headstrong, determined and righteous in his science. Attilius has other qualities that would have made him the demigod of aqueducts - he is an engineer of insanely high intellect and a keen and fine tuned sense of intuition.

I'm convinced that just before a natural, catastrophic disaster takes place - >the earth holds a séance with the soon to be departed souls of the inhabitants within the impact radius. The unsettling atmosphere leading up to the event tells me that the spirit almost knows something is about to happen. More often than not, some sort of tension, unrest - even riots occur just before the event. But then there's The Great Tsunami (Bali and surrounds)of our century and how everyone was just in utter shock and of course the Great earthquakes of Hatay in Turkiye - so yeah, maybe the earth is just shrewd and picks and chooses when to give warning before unleashing hell.

In a race against a volcano that he didn't even know he was racing, Attilius is steadfast, focused and in the zone trying to repair the part that is blocking the flow to several towns along the route of the aqueduct. There is love, there is corruption (seriously, corruption is probably the oldest vice on earth right?), there are slaves, there are free men, desperation, ridiculous wealth and an archivist willing to give his life to document the eruption for all in the future to behold.

Mount Vesuvius is the real protagonist here. And what a might and frightening one at that. 

A testament to hope, the spirit of the volunteer, teamwork and the nature of man's best friend.

As a dog person through and through, in fact I'm convinced I was not a wolf but a dog in a previous life -a  shout out must be done to the dogs (and the riders) if you please:

Alright, in the words of "Wild Bill" Shannon":    Hell Weltz, if people are dying ... let's get started.

I can't imagine what our 21st century pandemic would have done to the community of Nome, Alaska.  The description of that Diphtheria disease sounded way to close to the past 3 years and that virus that set peoples lives back by about 3 years.  And yet, without the resources we have to day - their death toll was actually 5 in a span of 10 days.  The sense of urgency and the work done by Governer Bone, Dr Welch, Emily Morgan and the Health Council of Nome could definitely teach our world a thing or 2. 

There were so many heroes, I have to single out the first relay team.  Faced with this daunting task, some had just returned from a very long mail haul, heard they were needed to save the lives of children in the neighboring sister-town and the went out, got their sleds read and did it.  Something about being brave in that time hits differently to our time.  Maybe it's the overexposure of everything on all media platforms but in the 1900s, facing all but certain death on the ice, these Sledding teams did what was virtually impossible.  For that and that alone, I will brave the cold Alaskan weather and come visit some tourist destinations dedicated to them.

Seriously though having just come out of a 3 year pandemic - when is earth going to stop trying to annihilate the 8 billion humans like we're parasites in the bloodstream?  I mean it's already heating up like a fever on this surface.  Sigh...will they be telling our story in the next 100 years and will it be as inspiring and unbelievable as this one? Yeah if the immortality scientists could get a move on with the fountain of youth I'd be able to hang around until then.
 

Can't believe this is my introduction to Neal Stephenson's work? What a way to start! I cackled, nodded sagely and pondered the world in which operating systems are bigger than the Superbowl.  Happy to report that his wit and observations piqued my interes in the rest of his repertoire. 

To the topic at hand.  What if, stay with me, our world is the one Aliens deem magical?

What if Technology and Science are just magic in a parallel world. I mean  - look at the marvels of our sorcery.  We can heat food and reheat it in colorful boxes (they used to just come in black and silver for decades). What about suspending moving people inside flat contraptions we hold in our hands or larger ones we nail to our walls and watching them go through life in a flurry of action, drama, mystery, fantasy, romance and so much more? What about the thing that has an invisible  power and existance that we can't physically touch but it knows everything and tells us everything and connects us to everything and as the saying goes: "if it's not on Google it's not worth knowing?" 
Sorcery my fellow Homo Sapien.

The teletype sequence sounds like something from Unseen University in Disceorld. Young apprentices (high school students) need to first write down alphanumeric code on paper (spells) then go to their teletype room and input the spell into the electronic cauldron (machine, not computer) and it eould boil away communicating with the spirits (university mainframe) which would send back a powerful elixir (teletype receiving meaningful symbols via) letters. Maybe Rincewind could learn this sorcery.

Magic I tell you. Magic

SUNDAY RE-READ
There is no way I could embark on a journey into the sea with 2 of my favorite Romantasy Novellas from one of my faves. The first of which is Night Tide. This time around, I was really paying attention to the sea creature. I want to know how sentient-sapient it is to manipulate it's prey (humans) into willingly walking right into it's jaws deep in the ocean.

This was beautiful.

*************************************************
OLD REVIEW
The sea monster trope done well it's almost achingly beautiful.

Night Tide is a seaside mystery filled with the blue unknown of waters deep, lucious and utterly breathtaking. This novella has expanded my understanding of the Wraith Kings Universe. I opened the book expecting to dive right into another fantasy romance but the build up was elegantly done. The charged atmosphere of the unknown in the deep sea, the grief hovering just above and following the village everywhere was mysterious and beckoning and a premonition of tragedy vibrated of the pages. In short - as incredible as Greek Tragedy of Poseidon's own making, of lurking monsters deep on the seabed and intrepid Trawlers wading deeper into the blue velvet and love gained and lost.

The atmosphere feels very Scottish Highlandsy from location, English dialect and the unconfirmed presence, of sea monsters though unseen, still believed in for hundreds of years. This is the kind of world-building history I love, the lore of old times colliding with the present.

What I wouldn't give to have a horse like Gitta with hooves as big as plates, built solid like an ox and standing at seventeen hands high. She seems warriorlike and powerful set against the backdrop of "The Gray". The entire trawling sequence involving the villagers and their horses wading into the water until waist deep, nets behind them dragging across the seabed until filled with fish and shrimp is strangely soothing and unexpectedly beautiful. 

Reading about the human experience after exploring the life of the Kai Elder Race in Radiance (Wrath Kings 1) has only made me love the series more.