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

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

I think the Libby app has a very loose definition of available soon. On Apr/30 I requested an audiobook for a timed monthly challenge. I was first in line and was told it would be "available soon". In my head I figured I'd have that inside of a week. Probably a couple of days tops. Ten days later I'm still waiting. This is halfway through a standard library loan period at this point.

*runs off to try it*

Huh... I legit never knew that but that was kind of cool. That was a nice random bit of something this morning. Thank you Katie.

Well that is a bit of a bummer. I'm reading Foxglove Summer currently and I figured I'd be smart and put my hold on the next audiobook as the wait lists are a bit long. That is where I discovered that my library does not have the rest of the series on audiobook. I'm enjoying the series and especially the narrator. Time to try something new and request some audiobooks through the library.

Well this is the weirdest feeling order I've seen yet. It's for a small part for the hospital near my house. I could literally throw this in my backpack and drop it off on my walk home if I wanted to. It's nothing serious or major but it's just weird that something so close to me using something I handled in a professional matter.

Well they finally calmed down at some point. I went to another room to read and nap while they finished their elephant taking tap dancing impersonation.

I'm trying to take a positive approach to this week but I've got a full blown case of the lazies. I just want to curl up with my books and not deal with "The Outside". I was hoping to have shaken that over the weekend but this feeling has settled in deep. I'm not feeling blue or anything just unmotivated. Having a 70% humidity rating today after the bone dry state of things is not helping either. Everything is just icky feeling.

I don't think it's moving. It could be exercise but this is the first time I've heard them in a long time. At this point I think they are trying to join me in my apartment but they are to embarrassed to knock on the door so they're trying to break through the floor.

I'm not sure what my upstairs neighbors are doing but they are causing a localized earthquake in my apartment and it has been going off and on now for at least a hour.

Have you guys read anything else by Martha Wells?

Oh I'm not done with the series. It just felt like the series could have ended there.

Time for my weekly wrap up and oh boy do I have thoughts and opinions on what I read. They might not be the best thoughts or opinions but I have them. So brace yourself this will be a bit longer as I share these thoughts and opinions.

Strike the Zither -3 Stars (on the 2.5 side of 3 really)
As I mentioned last week this book was read to complete a particularly annoying challenge. It also helped with a few other challenges as well which was a massive bonus. That being said I wasn't really feeling this book. It was nothing the book did really, I just wasn't in the mood for it. I pushed on though because I wanted to get it completed and there have been plenty of times where I've picked up books I wasn't feeling and they have turned out great. This was not one of those books. I just never clicked with this book and I can't really say why exactly. I'm not sure if it was the MC, the narrator, the writing, or just some combination of those three. I know my feelings for this book ranged from "meh, this is alright" to "please, please, please, just make it stop". So what is this book about? The one comment I read said this was a "feminist retelling of Romance of the Three Kingdoms". Now I can't really confirm this one way or another as I know very little about Romance of the Three Kingdoms outside of hearing the name before. Basically this book is a tale of "China" in a state of turmoil as various factions battle for power. Our MC is a strategist who is trying to help her Lordess gain power to protect the Emperor. Their main opponent, and the antagonist of this book is Miasma. Not a poisonous cloud floating around trying to kill people either just someone with the worst choice of villain names ever. No joke, for the first few pages of the novel I thought it was some sort of cloud that we were dealing with before I figured out that it was just a person. Speaking of Miasma, the book tells us that she is a young and intimidating physical force that everyone fears. The only problem is that the narrator made me think of Yzma from The Emperor's New Groove. I'm sure you can see the disconnect between the two images.

Lets get into the MC for a little bit. I just didn't like her and I just never clicked with her. One minute she would be all "I'm the greatest thing ever and you mere peasants are lower than the dust on my slippers". Then she would suddenly switch to "woe is me, no one loves me, everyone I know has died, my life is never ending suffering, woe is me". Then there is one other side to her that we get later. This is the angsty romance angle as she is suddenly smitten by someone, no spoilers here, and this goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on. Of the three this is by far the worst and, in my opinion, the lowest point in the entire book. These parts were just painful and the whole romance aspect just felt unneeded in the book. It just felt like it was there because a YA book needs to have a romance subplot. At least it wasn't a love triangle so I guess bonus points for that.

Overall I just wasn't vibing with this book and I just never got invested in it. This is the first book in a trilogy and I will not be reading on. I got what I needed from this book and now I'm moving on.

Intergalactic Exterminators, Inc -3 Stars (closer to the 3.5 side of things)
I never thought I'd be here a week ago. A week ago I figured I'd be here this week singing the praises for this book. Instead my response is going to be a bit more tempered. This book was recommended to me by a friend here on Goodreads and it sounded right up my alley. To the point that I even requested my library go out and buy me a copy of this book. The book even started out strong giving me some super strong Monster Hunter International vibes which is exactly what I was wanting from this book. Then things kind of just felt apart. In my head I was expecting this band of alien/human misfits traveling the galaxy fighting all sorts of alien monsters and the strong Monster Hunter vibes really gave me hope. Now I can't say that the book never delivered on this but it was only one of the two and it was only in small drips. We got some really cool scenes where they were fighting monsters on alien planets and those were fun. Those moments though were few and far between and what we got between those scenes was dull and mundane. There was a lot of scenes where our MC's were worrying about their families problems or the problems of other people in town and, to be blunt here, I just didn't care about them. Which leads to one of my big problems with this book. I just didn't care about any of the characters. I wasn't invested in either of the main characters or their problems and no other characters really got developed. I wouldn't even call them stereotypical or tropes. They were just kind of names with a basic physical description who happened to be there when the story needed them. This book also never felt like it had a coherent plot either. It just felt like short stories or situations that were all loosely tied together. There was the story concerning Nina's sick father, there was Russ's family problems with the bookstore, there was the illegal immigration story line, the story line about a company trying to take over the extermination business by using robots, the owner of Intergalactic Exterminators story about her trying to prove herself worthy of the family business. There was all these subplots that just felt like they existed but nothing to really all tie them together. It even shoehorned in a twist, cliffhanger ending in a book that is a standalone novel. A twist that I more less called very early on in the novel.

I know I've been super critical of this book but it wasn't a horrible read. There was a very interesting idea here and there were moments where I felt that this novel really tapped into this idea well. This was also the author's debut novel so maybe they are still trying to find their style and hit their stride. I'm far from swearing this author off and if he releases a sequel to this novel I'd be more than willing to give it a shot.

Exit Strategy -5 Stars
This was the standout star of the week which shouldn't be a massive surprise. I've really fallen in love with the Murderbot series and the MC of the series. This was another solid entry into this novel and some more great growth for the character as he is reunited with the original characters from the first book. This was once again a great blend of action and emotional moments. It also felt like a great place to end the series as well. I wouldn't be surprised at all if someone told me the author planned to end the series right here. It felt like it wrapped the story line from the last few novels while leaving openings in multiple story lines for new things to be explored. I am so glad that I was "coerced" into reading this series.

Sadako-san and Sadako-chan -3 Stars
This is a blend of humor, cute thing things, and horror which just works. It stars Sadako-san, from The Ring series, and it's been interesting to see the shift in this character over the last few years. At her core she is still a horror character that is spooky as hell but I've seen different versions start to emerge as well. There has been cute ones like this, more family inspired ones like Erma, weirdly sexy ones because the internet. I also like that while this one was mostly cute and fun it still had some darker elements lurking under the surface. Of course you have Sadako-san being all spooky but there was also Sadako-chan. This mysterious young girl who has been locked in her closet by her mother and never allowed to leave because she is supposed to the reincarnation of Sadako. It's never really explored but it does raise all sorts of questions. Is she dead? Where is the mother? What is up with all the talisman's on the wall? Is she supernatural in some way or just a mistreated kid? I'm not sure I'd buy the second volume but if I can ever find it through the library I'd read on.

Crazy Food Truck, Vol. 3 -3 Stars
The conclusion to this series and I have many mixed feelings about this. I love the idea of this series. The idea of a food truck being driven around the post apocalyptic wasteland by a badass old man serving up food to survivors. What's not to like? I just feel like the story never reached its full potential and ended before its time. I'm not sure if it was the author's decision or the series was cancelled before it was supposed to end but I just kind of felt unfulfilled. Especially with the ending that we did get.

Fist of the North Star, Vol. 8 -3 Stars
More musclebound men killing each other in weird ways. This one had someone get their head slapped clean off which is a first for me, I think. I wouldn't call myself a massive fan of this series but I can appreciate what it is and the influence it had on numerous things.

Now what is coming up next.

Foxglove Summer
I was wondering what to listen to next when my hold on this book became available and it works perfectly. I wasn't in the mood for yet another challenge book and I really enjoy listening to the narrator of this series so it's a win win all around.

For non audiobooks I've got a stack of manga/comics this week. I'll just throw the covers up for these ones.

I just need a moment here.

Our province is going through it's usual spring tradition of trying to burn everything in sight. I do believe that as of yesterday morning there was 79 active wildfires here in the province with a few of those considered to be "out of control". This is a fairly normal thing for where we live with some years being worse than others. Depending heavily on the weather and the winter we had. So far this spring has been hot and dry meaning that things are a wee bit volatile. I was reading some stuff this morning where there are idiots, this is me being as polite as possible, out there that believe that this is a far left conspiracy to suppress conservatives. How fucking out of touch with reality do you have to be to believe this level of stupidity. Why are people giving any of the stupid fucking conspiracies any sort of consideration? When did we get to this level of fucking stupidity that any bad thing that happens has to be caused by a far left boogie man? I'm just so fucking done with this stupidity.

I'm sorry for the swearing and I'm going to go and crawl back into my cave for a while. I know that it won't go away if I ignore it but I just don't want to think about/deal with this right now.

The angst, the romantic, lovey dovey angst. It's enough to make me want to vomit

I'm full on in a mood this morning. I'm tired of the heat, I'm tired of people, I'm tired of being a responsible adult. I just want to hibernate with some snacks and my books today. Instead my coworker has today and Monday booked off for his birthday so I have to be in the shop today. Bleh and all that.

I'm stealing this from another group I saw it in. Some potentially good news in regards to book bans in Illinois.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05...

We all get these phases. I might take a small break from reading, for a few hours or so, and then the itch returns. When I get into these moods I pick up something I know I'll love. An In Death novel for example or a favorite manga series. That or I just read something easy and pointless and suddenly my slump is gone and I'm 300 chapters deep into a webcomic. That's happened a few times.

There... there is something wrong with my head I think. I'm scrolling through the reviews for a book and I'm seeing comments like "pure garbage", "sickening and rather disturbing", "it's bloody, full of boobs and hilarious". Now instead of running away from this book I'm rather curious. I mean how bad could it really be? I've seen plenty of reviews in my time claiming that the book is a violent bloodbath that made the reviewer want to puke and all that happens is a single paper cut. That being said with the cover and the title I think there may be some validity to some of these reviews. Still curious.

For the curious I'm looking at Zombie Tramp: Year One Hardcover Risque Variant thanks to someone on my timeline.

Nope, no walking today. I could but it is as hot as Satan's ass out there today and I just have no energy. It's a blistering 30c/86f and I'm just not ready for this heat. Later in the summer, sure I'll tackle the heat but not right now. Just a week ago it was hovering around 14c/57f and I thought that was hot.

I've got 10 left right. I've been taking a much more passive approach this year. Combined with audiobooks not being easily searchable means it has been a bit slower going. Currently I have this left:

Bakery
Mall
Toilet stall
Balloon
Race
Dark Chocolate
Salad
Goose
Hamster
Humming bird

Whooooo! The good times keep rolling. Our boss looked at our Christmas list and asked why we chose all cheap tools. We explained our reasoning and the basic response was "Hell no, we need to look good for customers, I'll get quotes for all high end tools". Free upgrades and all fancy toys. What a shift in mentality from when I first started. When I first started here asking for $20 felt like you were asking the boss to go bankrupt.

Second, we have mystery crates coming in. One of our service shops was cleaning out their trucks and shop. They dumped all sorts of tools into a couple of crates and had no idea what to do with it. We offered to take them and go through what they didn't want. It could be all crap or it could be a bunch of free cool stuff.

Currently I'm listening to Strike the Zither and it's just not clicking with me. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the book but I'm just whelmed. Neither over or under I'm just somewhere in the middle. I don't know if it's the narrator, the MC, the writing, or some combination of those three elements. A lot of my mixed feelings center around the main character, Zephyr, Rising, Zephyr, or what ever name the book is deciding to use at that moment. I swear in one breath you get someone who is "I'm the greatest in the world and you are mere dust beneath my feet" while an ojou-sama laugh rings out. The next is 90's goth emo angst "I was an orphan, no one loves me, everyone I know has died, woe is me". I just don't feel a connection between these various sides of her.

Just some casual rants about other things in the book. Why do some characters have names like Crow, Cicada, Plum, etc while others have traditional Chinese names? Pick a style already. Speaking of names, the big villain is Miasma. For a while at the beginning of the book I thought they were escaping some cloud of something that was chasing them. Nope, it's just a person with a weird name. Also, the narrators voice for this character makes me think of Yzma from Emperor's New Groove for some reason. Legit no idea why but it's now how I picture this 20 something year old character.

Any way, I'll keep reading but unless something drastic happens this is firmly buried in 3 star territory.