Gord’s Comments (group member since Apr 06, 2017)

Gord’s comments from the Vampires, Weres and Fae! group.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone

☠️

Fright

While last week I had very little to talk about, this week I am making up for that. Without further ado lets get into it.

We Are Legion (We Are Bob) ⭐⭐⭐
Before we get into this one I just want to clarify that my rating is more like 2.5 stars but I gave it a pity bump to 3 and I'll explain why in a bit. This is a series that I have been hearing about for years now but it was always locked away in Amazon jail. I was very surprised, and excited when I discovered that my library had physical copies of it so of course I requested my own copy. For me this book can be split into two parts. The first part was the set up from the premise that I have been hearing about all along. Bob dies in our time, gets cryogenically frozen, wakes up the future to find that he no longer has any rights as a cryogenic person. The exploration of the new world, him basically being a computer program (AI) at this point in time, his decision between taking places in things or being deleted. All of this stuff was interesting and really got my hopes up for the book. Then we get to the latter half of the book and here is where things go off the rails for me. Bob is launched into space on a probe to find a new planet and he gets to his destination. He removes all his safety protocols, explores that area, and is faced with a choice. Continue his mission as directed or do his own thing. Of course he does his own thing. He starts building other ships, space stations, and most importantly, clones of himself. These clones then split up and start exploring the universe and doing their own research, cloning, building, etc. This is where the book turned into an absolute slog for me. Each chapter was a different Bob and what they were doing. You had one Bob that went back to Earth to find out what happened after they left. One Bob stayed where they were and leaned real heavy into R&D. Other Bob's went out to explore various places in the universe. The tone of the book felt like it shifted from a story one would normally read to almost like a textbook or a blog. The normal story structure was just gone and it was just a documentary of what ever the current Bob we were following was doing. This part of the book took me so long to get through and I seriously considered DNF'ing the book a few times. Just to be clear, I don't necessarily think this book was bad per se but I do think this book was just not for me. Obviously there are a lot of people who did like it and books like this. Needless to say, I will not be continuing with this series.

Hot and Badgered ⭐⭐⭐
This is a buddy read and a reread, for the the first book at least. I was a bit worried heading into this book as I've kind of moved on from UF and PNR since I last read this book. It's not that I hate these genres or anything, the shine and appeal of them have just kind of worn of for me. It's still a genre that I will dabble my toe into from time to time but it's not the go to it once was. Reading through this book kind of confirmed it for me. It was a perfectly fine book and was definitely entertaining. Hell, it even got me to chuckle a few times. That being said, when you take a step back there are some issues with things. This book was essentially 400 and some odd pages of set up. The main conflict is not resolved by the end of the book. Heck, we barely figure out who the bad guys are by the end. The romance is "set up" but compared to other romances that I've read and liked this year there really isn't a whole lot there. It's basically 400ish pages of three delinquent characters being delinquent characters. What saves this books is that those three delinquent characters are really entertaining. We are reading book two next month and I'll be back to continue my adventures.

The Druid of Shannara ⭐⭐⭐
I'm not sure if I was just in a mood or what but this book really felt like it dragged for me. Especially after the first one was so entertaining. I want to chalk it up to middlebookitis but there were legit things that happened in this book. My problem is that between things getting accomplished there was a whole lot of rambling, navel gazing, and meandering about. The main focus of this one was Walker's quest to return the Druids and Paranor to the Four Lands. It hit a lot of the expected tropes with a band of strangers getting together to go on a quest. There was also an evil king at the end of that quest and all that. There was just so much contemplation in this one and part of me gets why it's there. It was needed for Walker to get from where he was at the start of the series to where he is at the end of this book. It just felt so excessive and borderline repetitive in this one. I will be back for the next one as it's the one character in this series we have spent the least amount of time with but I'm probably going to need a break before I get to it.

Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill: Volume 4 ⭐⭐⭐
Not a lot to say here, it's more of what I expected from this series. Tons of cooking, communing with the Gods, stomping high level mobs, etc. This is just a cozy read and I have fun with it.

Now for the manga

Manhole Volume 3 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Heading into this one I did not realize that this series was a trilogy and not something longer. I was very surprised when things suddenly moved into the end game and the bad guy was caught. The bad was caught but it's also heavily implied that this story is not fully over as well. We probably won't see that story but the world this takes place in will probably be dealing with this for a good long while afterwards. Overall I really enjoyed this one, it was a good crime thriller/horror manga series and I am curious to check out more for this author.

One Piece, Volume 9: Tears 😢😢😢😢😢
This is the volume where we get Nami's backstory. If you know then you understand my rating. If you don't know, lets just say that this is where the kiddie gloves come off and we get to see some serious tragic back story. This is generally the point where a lot of people get fully hooked into the manga series.

Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You, Vol. 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I love this series and this pair of MC's. Not a lot to really say here as this is a slow burn romantic slice of life but I am loving it all.

Cosmos, Vol. 2 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
What is up with me and tragic backstories this week? I won't spoil anything but the second half of this volume had my eyes leaking. It also dropped a whole bunch of foreshadowing for one the characters as well. Foreshadowing that implies a lot of pain as well.

Wash It All Away 03 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
This series has me feeling rather conflicted. On the surface it is a wholesome slice of life manga about a young woman with amnesia who runs her own laundry service. There are also some really odd undercurrents that I am not sure about. There are definitely some odd ecchi moments mixed in that clash with the more lighthearted slice of life moments. There are also some darker tones hinted at when it comes down to her backstory as well. Maybe I'm just misreading things but it's just the vibe I am getting. I'm still here for this one but I really hope we get some sort of answers soon.

Now, what is next.


I'm not sure if I'm emotionally ready for this one but this is my next audiobook


This is my main book with a bunch more manga as well.

Toast

Tea

A lot of that comes down to weight and calorie intake. For my age and height I'm needing something like 2-3 calories a day. I've seen women that needed half of that just to maintain weight and that is hard.

That looks super cool! Have fun exploring the gardens

It also gets hard the closer you get to your target weight. Is that the best way to word it? Basically the first amount of weight that you lose is the easiest and then it slowly gets harder and harder as you go along.

These last five pounds has felt like a bit of a hurdle. It was slower then previous weight loss and I had a bit of a stall in the middle. I still got there but it felt a bit harder then previous goals.

I'm down another 5 lbs!

Butler

I wish I didn't have to sleep as well. I seem to struggle with it more and more the older I get. Especially with this stupid vertigo stuff. Just let me stay awake and do me stuff for a few hours

Hair

Work (my boss's name is Kevin)

Emu

I took a sick day yesterday (tired, cold, and vertigo all at once. I handle two at a time, not three) and I slept so much. I basically slept all morning and didn't start really moving until almost noon. I also got caught up on some reading and I watched a couple more episodes of Fallout as well. Yesterday was a much needed reset for me.

Sesame

Doctor

Isn't that Oregon Trail?

My word: Game