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

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

Just need to ramble a second. I'll try to post more more clear and coherent thoughts later this week. I just finished American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century and I'm torn on it. The subject matter is disturbing yet intriguing. The delivery is meh. I'll be honest here the book is really, really , really, heavy on facts. For a nonfiction book that is not a bad thing but it was dancing real close to that whole "reads like a text book" line. The narrator though, the first thought to me is that she sounds like the narrator from one of those safety videos we have to watch at work. You know the ones. They sound like they are trying to suck all fun and excitement out of the entire universe with just their voice alone. It was just this flat monotone drone that went on and on. This book felt so much longer than it was. Then there are the events of the book. Killer, he was creepy, weird, and I don't think we even know a fraction of the horrible things he did. The police that handled this case though make me want to rage. The sheer incompetence of the APD, the DA, the ACC and basically everyone but the FBI was staggering. In many ways it's a good thing this guy never made it to trail because this case was compromised. The likely hood of it getting tossed was pretty high.

Overall, that was a pretty good day but the ending can go pound F@*$ing sand. I got on the bus to get home, sat down, pulled out my phone to check my texts, bus pulls out, and immediate violent motion sickness. Like full on sucker punched in the gut by King Kong levels of nauseousness. I don't normally get motion sickness but every once in a while it just hits me hard. It seems to hit me when I'm looking at a screen and the bus is moving. Not every time either but every once in a while the stars align perfectly and I'm horribly sick. That took sheer will power to get home without tossing my cookies. I've been home for 10 minutes or so and still feel queasy.

standing in line waiting to get into the opening ceremony while surrounded by bright and cheerful things. meanwhile I'm listening to a serial killer recount all the horrible things he did to a dead body. just another day

It's nearly time to leave. Excited for this weekend is an understatement. I've been scoping out food spots near the convention center and I've found some interesting things. All my stuff has been charged up and ready to go. I've got back up books for my back up books in case I finish things faster than I anticipated. This will also be my first con where I'm a bit more tuned in technology wise with my new phone. Should be interesting to see how that all goes.

I made the right call getting my 3 day pass in advance. It was just announced that the 3 day passes are now sold out. All they have left are the single day passes and those are selling fast. Plus there is a small Demondice update. While she is not going to be here for the concert she is still going to do the Q&A via a video call in. My gut is telling me that getting into that is going to be bonkers but I'm still going to try.

I'm doing a bit of an early update this week. I'm on vacation and have been reading a tiny wee bit. I'm also going to an anime convention for the next few days so I'll be pretty busy over the weekend.

Deal with the Devil -1 Star
Let's get this stinking dud out of the way first shall we. One of the groups I'm a part of was planning buddy reads for this year and this was one of the candidates on the list. The series name hooked me in hard and then seeing comparisons to Ilona Andrews made me justifiably intrigued. The series name is Mercenary Librarians and I'm sure you can see why someone like me would be intrigued by that name. My brain conjures up all types of ideas about battle hardened librarians braving the wastelands to bring back scraps of information from the old world. What I got was this boring romantic drivel about perfect people having perfect sex and generally just being perfect unless the author needed them to suddenly be as dumb as a post for a specific story beat. It's your bog standard paranormal romance with a very slight sci-fi paint job. I have so many complaints about this book so lets get started.

This author either can't write action or didn't want it in her action series. Early on there is a scene where our main party is overwhelmed by bandits and it's looking tense. Then conveniently all the bandits happened to have the same old tech and our party just happened to have this "device" that could disable this old tech. One wave of this McGuffin thingie and the scene is done and we are back to driving through the country. The worst example though is a little after this. The main part finds themselves in a situation where two of the men have to participate in a cage fight. Now this is a perfect time for some brutal action as you have two jacked up super humans beating the ever living tar out of each other in a steel cage. Instead of this bone rattling action we get the MC's holding hands for the first time and all the tingly feelings. Then another character gets their romantic set up, outside, away from the cage match. Every time the book would pan over to the cage match it would then quickly pan away to something else and it was so frustrating.

Then the book itself just felt pointless. The whole set up for deceit and backstabbing amounted to nothing when the big reveal was basically wrapped up in seconds and then everyone was BFF's. The big treasure hunt/heist was a nothing burger when it's revealed that the thing was Atlanta all along. I don't care about spoiling this either as we don't even get a resolution to this story point until the epilogue. This super important trove of information that everyone has being searching for since the end days and it's hand waved away in the epilogue. Oh, oh, oh, one other thing. Gothic villain eyes. No idea what that means? Neither do I but it was used half a billion times to describe one of the love interests.

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly -4 Stars
Now we can get to the better stuff. I'm on a bit of a nonfiction kick as this is the genre selected for a monthly genre challenge that I'm participating in. I'm familiar with Anthony Bourdain from his TV shows and I rather enjoyed watching them. When I saw this book on one of the lists I had to pick from it seemed like an easy choice. One of the nice things I found with this audiobook is that it was narrated by Anthony Bourdain himself. It just added this level of connection to the story. Instead of someone telling you a story about Anthony Bourdain it was him telling you his story. Combine that with his voice and his story telling abilities and it was just a great experience. I got to learn a bit more about the man, his early career, and the food scene in New York.

No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War -4 Stars
Last week I ranted a bit about the not so good self help book that I had to read. The one nice thing that came from that book was that it led me to this book. Don't get me wrong the self help book was still bad and his portrayal of this man was frustrating but it led me to something interesting. This is the memoir of Hiroo Onoda, one of the last Japanese hold outs at the end of WWII. He continued fighting in the Philippine jungle for 30 years until he finally stood down in 1974. It was an interesting glimpse into what they had to do to survive, the struggles they faced, and how they justified the continuance of the war. It's so easy to look at it with modern eyes and modern standards like that self help book did and judge them harshly for what they did. I feel like it's a lot more of a complicated issue involving different times, different cultures, and different ideologies. Now I will admit that the book glosses over things or downplays them. For instance the author talks about merely shooting near the locals to scare them away. It's well documented though that he and the others he was with murdered a lot of people. At least 30 people from what I've read. I'm definitely glad that I found this book and gave it read.

Princess Jellyfish 2-in-1 Omnibus, Volume 7 -4 Stars
I'm coming up on the end of this story, two more omnibus editions, and it kind of feels like it. It kind of feels like things are moving into place, maybe. I'm just trying to figure out Kai and what his scheme is. I'm not sure if he is the "villain", a love rival, just a greasy dude, a sympathetic character, some combination of those. Regardless I've requested the last two volumes and I'm going full steam ahead.

Run on Your New Legs, Vol. 3 (Volume 3) -4 Stars
Run on Your New Legs, Vol. 4 -4 Stars
This series is just such an interesting glimpse in the world of para athletes and what is involved with it. It's also a glimpse into what life was like during the big C in Tokyo. I discovered though that this series is only 5 books long and that is a bummer as I feel like it's just getting started. I know it's not the story that can go on and on like One Piece or Case Closed but I feel like there is still stories to be told here.

As for what is next that is a billion dollar question.

American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century I've started this one on audiobook and so far it's a bit dry but interesting.

Broken Souls I think this might be the next audiobook I work on this weekend while waiting in line.

As for stuff that is not audiobooks *shrugs* I am really not sure. I've got a bunch of manga from the library, as usual, but I'm not lugging those around with me at the con. I'm thinking of just downloading some light novels and reading them on my phone.

It's been a while since I did that. I'm just getting things done up today before the con and was doing my laundry. Now I didn't wash my entire wallet but I did wash my debit card. I've taken to just leaving my wallet at home if I don't need it. For instance if I'm only going out for a walk and maybe stopping for a snack or the library then I'll just take the two cards I need and leave the rest at home. It should be fine but I'll be testing it out today before I head out to the con this weekend.

I thought this was just a meme floating around FB. To know it's actually real is... kind of disgusting.

I'm reading No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War and it's a bit of an emotional read. It's the memoir of the Japanese man who continued to fight WWII long after the end of the war. He did not officially stand down until 1974. It's so easy to sit here some 50 years later and criticize this mans decisions but it was a different time, a different culture, and a different mind set. I know that it's a cliche saying but I feel like it really applies here.

Well booooooo. The musical talent I was stoked to see this weekend just cancelled. I'm not blaming her or anything. She is sick, not much I can do about that but it does suck a bit.

That is steep, I pay $65 for a general three day pass. A VIP three day pass is only $140.

San Diego Comic Con would be an amazing event to witness but the crowds *shudder* the crowds. There are times where my local con is a bit to much for me and I think last year was the first time we broke 20k attendees. I would become incredibly overwhelmed at something like Comic Con.

Got my card, got my pass, and got that peace of mind that I'll be getting into the convention this week. Overall that was pretty easy and I've got it for next year as well now.

I found out that I can get a preloaded credit card from Canada Post so I think I might snag one tomorrow so I can snag my pass and have some piece of mind.

Brittany wrote: "Enjoy the vacation Gord! Try not to worry about work. Yeah summer walking while carrying things is not ideal"

I'm trying to enjoy my vacation but I've got this stupid anxious feeling growing in the pit of my stomach. Normally I get my three day pass at the door and it's never been an issue. I've thought about getting them online but I don't have a credit card. It was announced today that they are already over 90% sold out now. It seems like this small event is growing rapidly out of control and my old outdated ways just don't work anymore.

I'm done and now I'm going to share my thoughts. First, general thoughts, and then spoiler filled, unhinged, ramble hid behind a spoiler wall.

I was super stoked for this series when were talking about series to read this year. It's called Mercenary Librarians for Pete's sake. That series name alone stirs up so many amazing ideas in my head. The idea of these battle hardened librarians heading out in this post apocalyptic wasteland facing all sorts of threats like mutants, environmental, bandits, etc to bring back scraps of information from the old world. What I got was this boring, by the numbers, romance drivel that I've felt like I've read so many times before. I went in expecting a filet mignon and feel like I got a month old moldy off brand spam sandwich.

Now for the rambling
(view spoiler)[
What in the ever living fuck was the point of this book? The thing that Nina wanted all along was in Atlanta the entire time and they got it in the epilogue with no conflict at all. This book felt like it could have been shaved down to a novella if people just sat down and talked for about a hour. Seriously, after one bout of backstabbing suddenly everyone is friends or more. Yes, more. Don't think I didn't notice that there were two other couples set up. Following the trilogy trope where each book has it's own couple that fall madly in love with each other while following some loose overarching story. This entire book was basically perfect people meeting perfect people, having perfect sex, and all around just being perfect unless the author needed them to not be perfect for a story beat.

Now a couple of other things I wanted to ramble about. This author clearly does not feel comfortable writing action scenes. Any time there was an action scene it was quickly dealt with so that we could get back to all the talking or the action took place off page. Take for instance the cage fight scene. This is a perfect scene for some absolutely brutal action. Two jacked up men with all sorts of implants and injections making them way stronger than a normal man beating the ever living crap out each other in a steel cage. Anyone else notice how the author cut away to anything else while this was happening. Nina and Knox holding hands for the first time and all the tingly feelings. Maya getting overwhelmed and having to step outside to get away from it all and another romantic scene. Nina talking to whatever generic thug who's name I can't remember while Knox was fighting. Anything and everything so that we didn't see what was happening in the cage. Or the scene with bandits for the first time. Suddenly all the bandits have some sort of outdated tech that our MC's just happen to have a way to exploit allowing them to disable everyone, quickly wipe the floor with them, and then back to the brooding. Or the scene later on at the hospital. Again, not a bad start. Knox and Nina, two jacked up super beings, the peak of human engineering, "fighting" it out. Look how quickly that scene was just over and done with. All those mercenary thugs that were there are just gone now and we can casually stand around arguing about all the backstabbing that just happened.

Then there is Maya. What in the hell are "gothic villain eyes"? Seriously, that phrase is bantered around about a 1,000 times in this book but I still have no idea what in the hell it means.

Any way, I'm done, moving on to something else to read. Maybe I'll finish up that Anthony Bourdain book next. (hide spoiler)]

In my opinion, I would say skip it. I did not have a good time with this book at all. I've still got like 13% of the book to go and I have been procrastinating for the last several hours now instead of just finishing it. I've been watching true crime things on YouTube instead. I'm now going out for my daily walk instead of finishing it with the the promise of "I'll finish it when I get home". I think my biggest motivator at this point to finish it isn't the book itself its so that I can move on to something else.

Now this comes with the usual caveat that I am a whacko fringe reader with the weirdest tastes in books and my opinions about books could be so far off base that they are in a different galaxy. Any way, I'm now procrastinating on going out and completing my walk.

I'm nearly done with this book. It's going to take a heroic act of something happening in the last 20% to make me even think of picking up the next book. I'm trying to decide if this book is worthy of me ranting about or if I just want to let it slip quietly from my mind.

Ahh yes, when heading out into the post apocalyptic wasteland full of all sorts of threats and dangers I also make sure to pack multiple sets of sexy underwear. Priorities and all that.

Really, really not feeling this book at all. I was here for some bad ass mercenary librarians and what I'm getting is mindless romantic drivel. Maybe it's just my caveman male brain that just wants action but this is just boring.

I'm about to start chapter five and there is just something off feeling about this book. How to put this. Someone can't just feel an emotion that emotion has to be the most intense emotion ever felt in the history of mankind. Especially when it comes down to the horny feelings. There is that and this repetitive feeling of "I'll do anything to protect my _______". I get it, both sides have a stake to protect, their own schemes on the go, can we just get to something exciting already. There is also that feeling that the world building has been just kind of glossed over. Things happened, more things happened, and here we are. I'm far from giving up on this book. Their about to leave the city and partake in the classic "heist" story line. Maybe we will get some exciting happening outside of the city. That and some world building because for a post apocalyptic world it doesn't really feel that post apocalyptic yet.

Any way, that's enough nit picking for now.