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

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

A couple of quick questions

Bilingual character - Does it have to be limited to two languages or can it be more? Can it be something like a magic spell/boon that allows the MC to understand all languages?

Trilogy - All three books in a trilogy or just part of a trilogy?

I'm in

(view spoiler)[
One Word Title
Has a Bilingual Character
Trilogy
Published in 2024
Over 500 Pages Long
6 Syllable Title
About One of the 7 Deadly Sins
A Series with at least 8 books in it
Reread a Book You Read Over 9 Years Ago
Perfect Rating (5 stars and a heart)
About Rock n Roll (fiction or nonfiction)
Read 12 Books on Your TBR (hide spoiler)]

Meels wrote: "Brittany, thank you! That’s exactly why I read 1-2 star reviews over 4-5 star gushy reviews. I want to know what didn’t work, and if that is something that would bother me or not. It actually saves..."

I am covering for my coworker for the this week and then I am off next week.

Well that was a long, long night for me. I crashed as soon as I got home last night and slept hard for a couple hours. That basically became the trend for the rest of the night. Sleep for an hour or two, wake up for a bit, crash again, rinse and repeat until about 15 minutes ago. I can't say that I am 100% this morning but overall I would like to think that I am getting better. Once again, going into work today. It's only a half day and I should be able to get away with just sitting there doing as little as possible.

Cee wrote: "Gord wrote: "Bleh, I was wanting to sit here and suffer through the day while being left alone. Instead someone is trying to ram in some last minute work. Bleh I say, bleh."

How dare they! Doesn't..."

See, I wasn't feeling to bad when sitting still doing next to nothing. Now that I am moving about I am really feeling it. The biggest thing is that I am just feeling tired and want to go home to sleep. Oh well, nearly done the work and then I can get back to doing nothing.

Bleh, I was wanting to sit here and suffer through the day while being left alone. Instead someone is trying to ram in some last minute work. Bleh I say, bleh.

If there was ever a day that I wanted to call in sick it would be today. I'm not dying or anything but I'm not 100% either. Unfortunately I don't really have an option as my coworker is off today and there needs to be one person on hand in the shop. The worst part is that there is likely going to be nothing today but I have to be there just in case.

I don't like giving one or two star ratings and they are rare but if the book deserves it then the book deserves it. Out of the 370 ratings I've given this year I have only given three 1 star ratings and eight 2 star ratings. A 1 or 2 star rating is a book that has really started to annoy me so it has to work for it but once it gets to that point there is little turning back.

My goal this year is to walk 2,000 km or 1,243 miles. I was super close to hitting this goal this year so I want to try to hit it in 2024. I also want to look at ways to expand my walking in some ways. This is heavily dependent on work and what happens next year.

Well I feel a little bad. There is nothing to do this week right now but it looks like the last couple of weeks was stupid busy. Especially with only one person in the shop.

I return to work today after nearly 2.5 weeks off and I am not impressed. Everything feels off right now. For the last couple weeks I'd wake up, play something or watch something, nap, read, etc. Today I feel the weight of a schedule as I have to eat by a certain time, shower by a certain time, etc, etc. I'm really hoping that everything is going to go to plan and the next couple of days are going to be nice and quiet. After Friday I am once again on vacation but that feels a long way off.

I went over to a friends house last night and we hung out chatting and eating pizza. She has had some health issues the last few years so being able to hang out was pretty nice.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and anything else I might have missed. Hope you all have a great day today.

I've started playing PowerWash Simulator and this game just makes time vanish. I'll throw on a two hour podcast, fire up this game, start cleaning something, and suddenly the podcast is over. I swear that only five minutes has passed but in reality two hours have.

You know your in for a weird day when not even five minutes after waking up you have Spice Girls stuck in your head.

If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends
Make it last forever, friendship never ends
If you wanna be my lover, you have got to give
Taking is too easy, but that's the way it is

If you don't know that one then here, suffer with me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJLIi...

Brittany wrote: "I got back wednesday night from my visit home and an early Christmas. Landing in Toronto, making the 2 hour drive to London and then going to work for 8 hours was not a fun time. But it gave me mor..."

That is a rough start to any shift. Good luck on the next several days.

A funny for Christmas

I'm reading Faithless in Death right now and man this one is an emotional one. I also can't help but draw parallels between some of the things in the book and what was happening in the real world when this came out. I'm not sure if that is the case but I can't help but wonder if Roberts/Robb drew inspiration from what was happening in the States.

I'd be interested in this. I'm planning to keep my walking goals for next year but I want to maybe add to it somehow. Maybe have a hard "I want to hit X amount walked" and then a more flexible stretch goal that is a higher. Maybe set something up so that two of my walks in the morning talk the longer route or something like that.

*Crawls out of his cave and throws out an update for the people before scurrying back into the shadows*

Bitter Fruit -3 Stars
I was talking to some one about Gold Eagle and it got me wanting to read some cheesy action adventure stuff. There is not a lot I can really say about this that I haven't said before. It's another Gold Eagle novel in the Deathlands series. The only thing really different about this one is that it is set in England instead of the US like they normally are. It's just a book where you turn off your brain and look at the pretty explosions.

You Sexy Thing -3 Stars
This book, this book I have many things to say about it. This is a real low three star rating, getting close to the 2.5 star territory. I think there are a lot of interesting ideas in this book but the execution just fell flat for me. Now part of it could have been my expectations heading into this book. I was heading into this book anticipating something like Kings of the Wyld where these dangerous and grizzled old veterans come out of retirement for one last adventure. What I really got was essentially a character piece with a couple of action scenes tossed in that were really just them running away from things. Which could have been interesting enough but only a three maybe four characters were actually focused on instead of the whole crew. There are a couple things I want to talk about but they are from the end of the book so spoiler wall.

(view spoiler)[
The first thing that I want to talk about is the torture scene towards the end of the book. Now in the grand scheme of torture scenes that I have read this was pretty mild in regards to content but it was the length. I listened to this audiobook while out for my daily walk which is usually a little over an hour long. For the entire time on my walk, and a bit more afterwards, it was just the constant stream of mental abuse and some physical abuse from the big bad guy. It just got to be tiring and a bit uncomfortable after a while. I'm not even sure what the entire point of it was either. It was already pretty well established that the bad guy was ruthless and bad by that point. Even if you want to use these scenes to really hammer that point home do you need it go on for over an hour? It also really clashes with the pacing and tone that the rest of the book had already set. This happens in the last third of the book and it just feels so out of place. Then there is the ending. It's revealed that the big bad guy is still alive and gunning for them. With everything else from the end of the book it felt like everything that I read was essentially pointless. There could have been a couple tweaks at the beginning and we would have been in the exact same place as we were at the end. It's not a great feeling when you get to the end of a book and it all felt pointless. That everything you read was essentially for nothing because you are basically back to where you were at the beginning of the book. Combine that with the lengthy torture scene and I was just left feeling frustrated by the end. (hide spoiler)]

I know that I have been pretty critical of this book but there is one thing I really want to praise and that is the world building. The creatures, the world, the history, everything was super interesting and I wanted to know more about this world. In the crew alone you have a four armed alien, a bird creature, a chimp, a squid creature, and twin werelions. There is also this blend of various sciences and magic to make everything work The world building just made this book feel like it was a world full of so many super interesting things to explore and eat.

The Mimicking of Known Successes -4 Stars
This brings me to this book. This book was an absolute joy to read and it left me wanting more. I'm not sure if I can wait until February for the next one. On the surface this book is a mystery set on Jupiter. So you are obviously pulling from those two different genres but there is so much more than that. The mystery feels like a blend between a cozy mystery and a historical mystery. The book felt like it was set in Victorian era England but with the occasional reminder that it was in fact a sci-fi set in the depths of space. Now this could have just been my imagination but I also got a faint hint of steampunk vibes as well. Nothing concrete but just a kind of vibe I was getting. On top of this there is also a sapphic romance in the novel as the two main characters are ex's seeing each other for the first in years. Like so many other things in this book this was also subtle and not up in your face. By the end there was definite romance but it took some time to build up to it. The mystery was solid, the romance was cute, the world building was amazing, the characters are great. This was just a treat for me. There was more than a few times I just wanted to crawl inside the book so I could explore some of these platforms that were being talked about. This book not only got me wanting the next one but just more cozy books set in space. Not sure where to go looking for that though.

Now for all the comics and manga

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The IDW Collection, Volume 12 -4 Stars
More TMNT and it's still fun but the shine is kind of starting to dull a wee bit. I just feel like there are two many things going on making the story feel kind of disjointed. I also wasn't a fan of the Bebop/Rocksteady special either. Like the last one in a previous volume it starts out alright but then quickly over stays its welcome. I'm nearly caught up on this series though so that is nice.

Sorceline -3 Stars
This book has me feeling rather conflicted. On one hand the art work in this book is amazing and every page is just a feast for the eyes. The world building for the book is great. This secret island where those specially chosen can come to learn crypto-zoology is interesting. Combine that with how you get chosen and the creatures on the island are all cool. The story on the other hand is like watching paint dry. I struggled to stay engaged with this story. The worst part is I'm not sure if this is the authors fault or if it's a translation issue. I'm going to lean towards it being a translation issue. There is one more book and I'm going to read it just to see the conclusion but my expectations aren't that high.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 2—Battle Tendency, Vol. 3 -5 Star
It's kind of spooky how fast I read this book. I started reading it figuring I'd get a few pages in while having a coffee. Next thing I know I'm two thirds of the way through the book with half a cold coffee left over. This book had a couple of great fights in it while also building to the conclusion of the story. I really cannot wait for the final volume.

His Majesty the Demon King's Housekeeper Vol. 3 -3 Stars
His Majesty the Demon King's Housekeeper Vol. 4 -3 Stars
More cute cleaning in a fantasy world with a super hot demon lord. It's mindless popcorn fluff that is entertaining.

The Nightmare Brigade #2: Into the Woods -3 Stars
I enjoyed the first book but this one kind of lost me when it started doing the whole dream within a dream within a dream within another dream story line. It just kind of got a bit confusing. The final story with the werewolf though was pretty good and I kind of wished that was the next story line and not the whole dream in a dream one. I don't think this is the last one in this series and I'll come back if more is ever published.

Unfamiliar, Vol. 2 -4 Stars
More of this cute blend of cute things, horror, and fantasy. I think this is the end of the story which is kind of a bummer as this is just a fun read.

As for what is next

The Twisted Ones
This will be my next audiobook that I'm listening to. Yes, I'm listening to a horror novel at Christmas time, don't ask.

Outside of that I just have this never ending stack of things from the library.