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

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

The challenge book is done. It's a great example of a YA romance that I don't like. Now I'm going to turn into a vegetable and try to forget everything I read.

Must resist urge to throw book across the room...
Must finish book for challenge...
Must ignore Triptych that I just downloaded because it became available nearly a month early...
Must ignore the next volume of Isekai Smartphone...
Must ignore second volume of Sword Daddy...
Must ignore all the manga on my table...
Must finish challenge book...

I did a dumb that I'm going to try and spin into something good. I went out for groceries yesterday and forgot all the makings for my lunch for the week. Now I could go back out today but I'm feeling lazy. I also could go out tomorrow after work and get my usual stuff or I could try something different. I did some poking around and found a few interesting restaurants within a 15 minute walk of work. I'm thinking of just going out to eat this week. It's not something I normally do so it would be a nice change of pace.

Just going to do my recap a bit early so I can get back to relaxing today. I got a whole weekend to myself after working the last two so I am enjoying things today.

-3 Stars
I'm going to start with this book as I have a lot to say about this one. I originally read this book about a decade ago and this book did not age well at all. I've been rereading this series over the last year on audiobook and been enjoying the experience. That was until I got to this book. To start with none of the characters feel right for what has been established over the series. For instance the character of Evanlyn. Over the course of the series she has faced just as many challenges as Will and Halt. She survived for well over a year behind enemy lines while nursing Will through health issues. She has fought on the front lines of battles. The list goes on and on and on. In this book she suddenly needs to be protected from dangers because she is a girl. It's like the events of the series just never happened. They make reference to them but they seem to have forgotten what happened during those events. Then we get to the more problematic elements of this book. This series likes to take cultures from our world and put a fantasy twist on them. It's a smart idea honestly and kind of takes a page from urban fantasy. Here is this thing similar to you so you already know many of the details and here is my unique twist on it. This book is set in the fictional country of Nihon-Ja and if you know any Japanese you will immediately know that this is set in this worlds version of Japan. This is where things get just to get awkward. It's a very Western version of Japan that is not the most flattering. There is a lot of stereotypes in this book is what I am trying to say. Including the cringy "the katana is the greatest sword in the world and can cut through anything because of its superior craftsmanship". Then we get to the problem with the book that once I saw it I just couldn't unseen it. The white savior trope. I even feel uncomfortable about this because it's not something I like talking about with books. The emperor of Nihon-Ja is facing a rebellion and one of our cast is there visiting and helps out. The rest of our cast hears about it and sails around the world to help their friend out. Once the cast of characters is reunited this trope really kicks into high gear. Basically all the decisions about what to do, how to do it, when to do it, is all done by our main cast of characters. The locals, including the emperor become background characters in their own country basically and only get scene time if they are required to be there. Then there is the scene that really got awkward. Evanlyn and Alice depart on a diplomatic mission to recruit a tribe on the other side of this big lake. They make contact and it's full blown hand gestures with "me Evanlyn, me friend" and this goes on and on for some time. Now keep in mind that they are still in Nihon-Ja just on the other side of the lake. Also keep in mind that Alice can speak the Nihon-Ja language to some degree. Instead of opening with the local language they open with "Me Evanlyn, me friend". Of course the tribe from the other side of the lake speaks Nihon-Ja, shocking I know. I'm not going to jump on the "this book is racist" train of thought or anything but oh man was this book really uncomfortable at times. I'm not even getting into the fact that the portrayal of the "Japanese" military is just horrid. The only weapons they had were the katana and a few bows. They basically had no tactics besides blindly charge into battle as individuals. I'm no expert in Japanese history or anything but this seems more than a little disingenuous to say the least.

Now for the inevitable question, "Gord why did you give this book a 3 star rating?". Honestly if I were to have read this book as a standalone for the first time I might have given it a 2 star rating. The book gets a pity star from me because I like the series and the characters but this book was just not good. I do plan to continue the series but I know the first book in the Royal Ranger series has the infamous woman in a fridge trope and I'm dreading that. First though I have a collection of short stories and then it's the Royal Ranger series.

-5 Stars
Now to something a bit less controversial, In Death. I've got a lot going on this month at work and not a lot of reading time so having this to read this week was nice. It's like coming home to some dear friends and it just feels great. I will say that the ending felt a little rushed on this one. I feel that Eve would have eventually solved this case but it needed to be sped up to hit a certain page count so the killer randomly does something stupid and essentially hands himself over to Eve. It felt a bit rushed but the mystery is not the main reason I read and enjoy these books.

-5 Stars
Oh man, oh man, oh man this book was good, no this book was great. The critical side of my brain realizes what the author was doing very early on when he as setting up the hype but the primitive man side of my brain loves the pay out for all that hype. The moment where the chapter ends with a simple "Exchange" had me jumping around in my chair in excitement. This book is, at it's core, a simple power fantasy but man is it fun to read.

-3 Stars
I'm going to parrot what a lot of other reviews I read were saying. The art was nice but the story was kind of meh. It's about two foreigners traveling through a section of Japan looking for yokai. It felt kind of like a collection of random short stories loosely tied together. It wasn't bad but it didn't blow me away either.

-3 Stories
Another comic about the authors cat. The story shows the cat from two POV's. One is from the real world where Cinnamon is a 6 month old kitten. In the other POV Cinnamon is a Mad Max style hero battling her evil owner to unlock the universes supply of catnip or doing battle with this unbeatable enemy (the laser pointer). Cute, funny, and it works but didn't blow me away either.

Here is what I'm reading next.

On audiobook I'm going to be starting and then I should be starting .

For regular books I'm currently reading . Yes it's power fantasy isekai and yes I know it's about as bottom of the barrel as one can get but I'm curious and I need some light reading today. After that I've got I need to read for a challenge and to get it back to the library. I'm holding my nose and just downing this one. After that I've got a bunch of manga to read.

It's 6am and I'm reading at home instead of walking to work. This weekend already feels a 1,000% better.

It's on order and there is a line up for it or else I would consider the renewal option.

I... I... I found something at the library that would be cool but I don't know if I can watch that much tv in 3 weeks. It's the complete MacGyver pack. All seven seasons, that's all 139 episodes, and the two movies that also came out. That would be 6 episodes a day, every day, and then I have to get to the movie.

Meels wrote: "Ask your coworker what they say to him."

He told them he was busy and to get back to him in April if they still wanted to chat.

Katie wrote: I get your fear Gord. Anytime HR wants anything it makes my mind jump to being laid off/let go.

Exactly! If we chatted on the regular it would be one thing but to suddenly reach out after years of silence is just suspicious.

That's awesome! Congrats! Definitely a reason to get some ice cream.

Alright, I'm retreating back into some comfort reads for a while. I've gone through and requested more Komi, Princess Jellyfish, Reincarnated as a Sword, Solo Leveling, and Yugioh from the library. I kind of want to focus on this for my physical reading while leaving all the other stuff for audiobooks.

I don't think it's just me that the rep wants to talk to. I know my coworker got pinged as well. I'm starting to get the feeling that it's just a general inquiry. Still don't like it though. Why? Hard to explain but I don't like someone paying attention to me who doesn't normally do so. Your department has ignored me more or less for 9 years so why do you suddenly want to chat with me now? I'm taking the route of ignoring the email and hoping it goes away for now.

On a side note today marks my ninth year at this company. Crazy that it's been that long.

I might be a bit paranoid here but I think it's justified. Our HR rep reached out to me out of the blue to "see how things are going". Now we don't have a local HR rep and because I came in through a temp agency I've rarely seen a HR rep ever. At most it's in passing when someone comes for a random visit. Even stranger is that she was here just a couple of days ago doing a tour getting to meet people. Why didn't you talk to me then? You were introduced to me and all that. I feel like a cockroach suddenly exposed to sunlight and I must flee to my dark corner.

Laugh if you must but I'm super stoked right now. My library finally got my copy of Darkwing Duck season 1 in and I plan to spend Saturday afternoon/evening vegging out watching 90's cartoons. After the week, no the month, I've had it's well deserved.

I might have made a small tactical error this morning. I finished Secrets in Death and that was good. I was pondering what to read next and I had no interest in starting The Prisoner so I snagged Solo Leveling 4 which is a book I really want to read. That was where my error was made. I started the book and it's exactly what I wanted. The problem is that I have to go work soon and I really, really don't want to put down my book.

I read the first one and I'm kind of dreading a reread because of what happens in the book. I think what has happened is I've just became more aware of these negative tropes and can more easily identify them. I'm not going to jump on the boat and say that the author or the book is racist but it's just uncomfortable. I know the series throughout takes other cultures and gives them a fantasy twist but it just doesn't feel as wrong as it does here.

Also, why do we need to be reminded every 30 seconds about the whole bowing thing? Seriously, give it a rest already.

Nope, it was published by Random House.

Like I said, I might be looking at things to hard. I understand that the MC and party will always be the forefront of the story but this just feels off. Especially compared to the other books in the series. Right now I don't see this getting anything above a three for me. It's just disappointing to see this as I know that one of the next books in the series has a woman getting fridged and that is not a good trope.

This is not something I normally criticize a book for but, how shall we put this delicately, I can't help but notice that the foreigners are the ones that come in and save the day. I'm at the section where everyone is reunited and it feels like the everyone but our main cast has taken a back seat. It just feels odd. The men are doing manly man things and plan everything military related. The women are the ones planning all this diplomat stuff and all the locals are just kind of there in the background waiting for their chance to have a small scene. Maybe I'm just reading to much into things but it's just kind of weird.

I'm rereading The Emperor of Nihon-Ja and I'm 60-70% of the way into the book and I'm having this realization that this book isn't holding up as well as I remember. The characters just don't feel right based on what we have seen for the rest of the series. It's also kind of awkward, maybe problematic is a good word for it. There is just somethings I can't unsee with this book.

Going to try something new tomorrow. I'm going out for a solo lunch. I need about 30-40 minutes for walking and shopping but I want pita bread and my local grocery store doesn't even have the crappy kind. I figured while I was out I could also grab something quick to eat and just have that when I get back to work. Normally I don't leave work during the week unless it's to the farmers market across the street or with someone else. It's about 1km or .68 of a mile so it will be a quick walk.

Not as much reading got done this week. Work has been stupid busy and cutting into my reading time. Hopefully things will get a bit better this week.

-4 Stars
The final book in the Grant County series and this book held nothing back. It came out the gate running and the pace never really relaxed after that. This was the kind of thing I was looking for in the series after the second book absolutely destroyed me. It kept me guessing the entire way through the book and I loved how the story was told from two POV's in two different times. Those two different times being only three days apart so you knew at some point in the story things would finally loop back to what was happening in the beginning. I have one serious bone to pick with this book though and that was the very end. I wont spoil anything but there was one major plot line for this series that felt unresolved. For the ending of any other book in the series that could be fine as it could be picked up in a later book. This was the series finale though. Everything should be wrapped up with a nice neat bow on it. Maybe a minor subplot could be teased if you weren't sure how final this finale was but you don't leave a major plot point on the table unfinished like that. Now I understand that these characters do show up later in the Will Trent series but it still doesn't take away from the fact that things feel unfinished for this series. Overall though this was a great book in a great series that I was finally convinced to read. Now I'm just waiting for the first book in the Will Trent series to see where things go next.

-3 Stars
I have two train of thoughts on this book. This was a "romantic suspense" story set in Hawaii, which is why I read it in the first place, and is about human trafficking, military vets, and some romance/sexy times. On the whole the book was alright. I can't really complain about anything to much but at the same time it wasn't the greatest thing I've ever read. Now there is the other part of my brain that feels like Goodreads lied to me here. If you've been following my weekly updates for a while one of my "guilty pleasures", that I don't feel guilty about all, is reading men's action adventure novels. Things like Deathlands, Rogue Angel, Mack Bolan, etc. I'll never claim that these are great books of literature or anything but it's kind of a throw back to when I was in my teens. Unfortunately this genre is just not popular and after Gold Eagle was closed down, thanks Harlequin for that one, I've never really found anything that scratched that itch quite like a Gold Eagle book would. Quite often though I'd see Goodreads recommending books just like this in the "other readers liked this" section. I was highly skeptical of this as romance was never really a driving force in these type of novels. It felt like it was based more on the covers then anything else. "Your cover has buff military man with a gun and this book has buff military man with a gun so that means they are same " kind of thinking. No, just no. There was action in this book but it was more legal, above board, lets leave all the real bad stuff for the police kind of action whereas the books I enjoy was more concerned with a body count then any legalities. It involved black ops scenarios, apocalypse scenarios, or just scenarios where cops were no help. The books I was enjoying were more concerned with the action then anything else really. My low key search shall continue but this style of book is now another option on my shelves if I'm ever looking for challenge books or what not.

-4 Stars
Finally, a short comic I can use for a challenge. It was only for this specific challenge but still. Joking aside I've heard of this comic before and I've also heard of the author, Alan Moore but I've never read either. Overall I thought that this was a solid comic and I love the idea that the only thing between a regular person and The Joker is just one bad day. I have some mixed feelings about a Joker origin story as I've always liked the idea of The Joker just being this unknown force of chaos. Then there is the ending. Incredibly open ended and left up to the reader to interpret it how they want to which is a bold move. I have my personal feelings but I won't share those here.

-3 Stars
More Hunter Hunter and it was good.

As for what is next.

On audiobook I'm about half way through and I'm enjoying it. I've been waiting for a long while to continue my reread of this series and I'm glad to be back.

For things that are not audiobooks I have two books I need to complete for the library due dates. I have and . I started with Secrets because I'm just plain tired and I want a warm hug from my book. I'm not sure about The Prisoner though. I requested this at some point last year and was waiting for it to come out and for the library to get it. I just don't feel an urge to read it, it doesn't help with any obvious challenges, and I've seen some pretty mixed reviews of it. I might read, or I might just return it so I can read something else I want to read.