Alysa’s Comments (group member since Jun 27, 2015)

Alysa’s comments from the Nothing But Reading Challenges group.

Claire wrote: "I’m okay if someone takes the last place in the first story ladder. I can always find other open prompts."

I’ll put my book in for the first rung in second ladder, as Mel suggested. We can always move stuff around later depending on how the timing works out :)

@ caps:
Round 3 tab has a formula error in R3L041 (as in, it is not populating). IDK if any other cells are affected.

For the second title ladder I am hoping to read The Last Murder at the End of the World but IDK what round it will work best for, so I don’t want to put it in the spreadsheet without coordinating with the rest of you…
What do folks think? Is anyone planning to read an old BOM that ends with a T or starts with a D?

@Claire, if necessary I could read it towards the end of this Round (round 3) in place of the final rung of the first title ladder.

ETA: if it can't be coordinated for a BOM ladder, I may try to read it for Round 3 anyway, because it seems to work for Mini 6 task "involves a countdown or deadline"!
But I am not going to put it on the spreadsheet until I'm sure I'll be able to finish it this round, because Mini 6 is limited to this round.
If it doesn't work out, there's always one or the other BOM ladder. 🙂

Woohoo!

It looks like when the books in the Books tab got reordered by reader, something weird may have happened with Round/Spell-Out assigmnents -- I had put Snow Like Ashes as a planned book for a future (unselected) round, no spell out or task info yet, but I noticed it got put on Round 2, Letter A somehow.
I have removed it !

I have just updated my last book for Round 2.

I started a book for the next round, and will start another later today or tomorrow, but won't finish anything else for Round 2.

I had already put mine for Mini 1 in Round 3, so you can put yours for Mini 6.


If we need more MPG Time Travel for full repeat of Mini 1, I'm sure we can collectively find stuff. I already found a second, quite short MPG Time Travel book in case nobody else has covered it, when the time comes :)

@Elisabeth - the new Mini also has a task for "time travel tagged 10x" so if your book fits Round 3 we can actually both read our time travel books!

Assuming "tagged 10x" means at least 10x and not exactly 10x.
You never know...

Apparently my notifications are wonky again. I saw on the spreadsheet that we have our Round 3 word, but haven't seen any notifications since the "Hobbit Xmas Story" like 7 hours ago. Argh.

I was coming to ask if folks think this is a Brown Cover:


To me it's a kind of orangey-brown. BUT now that I have seen we have new "Mini 6" tasks, I'm wondering if I should use it for one of those instead of trying to help complete Mini 2 anyway...
I will go forth and figure out what fits.

Wow that's amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a party!

👏👏👏👏👏👏

Day 4 - Chapters 30-39

15) After everything you've read so far - what genre would you call this? Were you expecting it to veer so close to horror, or is that just because I hadn't read the first book?

It's fantasy, but like, a fantasy-procedural subgenre, which is awesome.
If you didn't expect horror that's definitely because you didn't read the first book. I think the first one had even more body-horror stuff than this one, or at least the same amount.

16) What do you think of Ana’s meals? There seems to be a big focus on them and I'm trying to figure out what the author is trying to tell us.

On the one hand it seems like a way to simply emphasize Ana's eccentricity, but on the other it seems like part of the sensory strangeness that makes her such a great "investigator" -- like her ability to see patterns and make inferences relies on every possible sense memory. Not like Malo's senses but almost more like a version of Din's memory engraving.

17) Why do you think he’s killing people, what is the ultimate plan? Is anyone else fascinated and completely in the dark?

I've read ahead quite a bit, and am even MORE confused by the killer's motivations and ultimate plan!

18) Do you think we will meet Pyktis by the end? Do you think he is a stranger or secretly someone we have already met?

I think we'll meet him, and I think he's someone we haven't secretly met in another guise, but I could easily be wrong.

19) Do you think it's a good idea to move the marrow? Do you have an idea of what happens next?

Bad, bad idea. Super unsafe and risky. If they try, what happens next will be contagion madness.

Elisabeth wrote: "Alysa, I'm happy to postpone finishing mine for the genre reboot if yours fits the new word. We should know what that is soon. I have plenty of other books waiting to be read."

Either way is fine with me, and I don't want to make you pause and resume if you wouldn't otherwise! I thought you hadn't started yet for some reason. But indeed let's see what the new word is.


Today is my and my daughter's birthday! I do not feel old enough to have a 15 year old 😂

Speaking of MPG Time Travel -- I have one that I want to read for Round 3 (assuming it fits the spell out), but since Elisabeth also found a Time Travel book, I can postpone mine 'til whenever we finish, and then restart, the Genres mini. 🙂

Cat wrote: "The creeping horrors of the environment reminds me of the Area X trilogy, though the rest of the vibe is very different!"

Oh that's a good reference, Cat! I think it didn't occur to me because there's no link to alien worlds here... that we know of...LOL

Day 3 - Chapters 21-29

10. How do you feel about Din and Ana’s relationship? Din is her assistant, do you see them that way or more as equals? Do you feel like their relationship changed at all up to this point of the book?

I think maybe Ana has started to care about Din a little bit more on a personal level (and that's a maybe) but she still treats him as a subordinate in all the ways that count. He still has to fetch for her and clean up after her, which in itself prevents them from being equals, though one could argue that Din doesn't feel like he absolutely has to do whatever she says. He pushes his boundaries a little.

11. Din has asked Ana why she hasn’t disclosed her augmentation, why do you think that is? What augmentation would you want if you were investigating this crime?

TBH I'm wondering if RJB will ever actually reveal Ana's supposed augmentation(s) or leave that as a permanent question.
Super hearing seems pretty useful here, so long as it's possible to dampen whenever you don't want to actively use it!

12. How do you feel about the explanation of why the empire is trying to stabilize the marrow? Do you believe the motive started for the benefits of the people or was it always just political?

Hard to say. And those motives aren't mutually exclusive, especially in any world where power CORRUPTS! Hehe.

13. We have a suspect! Ana also concludes that he could have taken everyone out already and is confused as to why he hasn’t yet, why do you think he has waited?

No idea. Perhaps waiting for a symbolic time.

14. So far in my reading I have thought there have been several details that have reminded me of other novels (especially Sci-Fi). For example, the heavy emphasis on augmentations reminds me of The Murderbot Diaries. Where there any elements that made you think of other works, novels or otherwise?

Nothing in particular, besides the obvious Holmes & Watson vibe (and that Riverside thing I mentioned in another set of DQs). As you say this "augmentation" thing is not uncommon in sci-fi/fantasy novels. Maybe just references anything where people have implants that give them heightened senses. But I think this series does it in an especially interesting way, with the biological agents coming from the Leviathan blood as opposed to anything resembling what most people would consider "tech" (like mechanical parts or computer chips and such).

Day 2 - Chapters 11-20

6. After establishing the hypothesis that it was not Sujedo, but an imposter, Din questions Ana on the how. What are your ideas on how this imposter actually proved his Treasury credentials without living blood?

I've had a hard time with that because he can't just be, like, carrying a bottle of blood or something like that. It's got to be something quite complex, such as giving himself a huge transfusion of Sujedo's blood, but that would involve even more interventions, like something to make it so his body doesn't reject another blood type or whatever. IDK how "realistic science" this book might need to be, but whatever the explanation it still need to be possible "in world" and perhaps I'm not imaginative enough to guess at what that would entail.


7. The owner of the Apoth Box also began tapping on his body/clothing… as the chapters progress, it is clear that this is an important detail, but might it also be a red herring? Any thoughts or ideas?

It's pretty obviously an important detail! Some sort of code.


8. More questioning of Ana’s alterations has begun! If you read the previous novel, did you make any assumptions to that end? And do you have any new ideas?

I thought I remembered something about a big reveal in Book 1 that she had not actually had any alterations and was just born this way?! But unless the author is ret-conning here, I am probably misremembering and it was more like most of her differences are inborn while there's at least one major thing that's not.


9. The King of Yarrow, and those in his employ, seem very… corrupt. Considering the book's title, do you think the corruption is relevant to this murder, or a side plot?

Hard to say at this point if the corruption refers to the court of Yarrow, to employees of the Empire, or to both. To me it overtly refers to physical corruption, as in contagion or spoilage, so there's likely some double-meaning going on. Or maybe triple.

Lexi wrote: "I have read Riverside but it didn’t remind me of that but interesting reference from Alysa.

I was thinking specifically of how the “Old Town” is presented here, like the buildings where everybody visiting from the Empire are made to live and work. Once fine but now damp and crumbling. It struck me so much that my mind jumped immediately to the world of Riverside.

Lexi and Vicki are definitely right about the swamps and swamp animals eating people being reminiscent of coastal southern U.S. states though. I would say maybe the jungle areas of South America too.

Alysa wrote: "ETA: I moved it to C23 - purple in text
But if captains think it works for Grey text on cover, feel free to move it again.

FYI A Drop of Corruption also works for *all* the remaining Color in Text tasks in Mini 2, if we're still trying to complete that faster so it can be restarted. 🙂

I put relevant examples in Column P of the Books tab of the tracking sheet. I used HC page numbers but I can get the Chapter Numbers too if that's helpful for anyone else.

Day 1 - Chapters 1 -10

1. As The Tainted Cup was a recent BOM, how did you like it? Are you here for the book, or just for the BOM points? 😉
If you liked it, what are you hoping to see or learn more about in A Drop of Corruption?

For the book! Though I tend to read series spread out over a longer period of time so I probably would have waited at least a couple more months to read this if it weren't for the BOM (the BOM, but not necessarily Wheel).
I loved Book 1, and here I am looking to see if RJB deepens both the world building and the characters. Would be nice if the secondary characters are as interesting as they were last time, too.

2. The mystery so far feels like a “locked-room” kind. Do you usually enjoy that type of mystery, or do you prefer others?

I don't read many mystery stories except when they are exactly this: genre-cross Fantasy-Mystery! And then I really love it.

3. Din really got hit with some serious money problems early on. Do you think he’ll actually deal with them this book, or are they the kind of thing that’ll keep haunting him in the next one?

I think this money situation will follow him through the whole series. Its the only thing that makes sense at this point and any other scenario that I can think of feels like it would be either narratively unsatisfying or just out of character.

4. The political intrigue is building nicely — Yarrow seems half in, half out of the Empire, and we’re starting to see how people on both sides of the law feel about that. Do you think the King might actually be in cahoots with the smugglers somehow?

No idea yet. It seems like the King and his court just want to stay as separate as possible from everybody else, while still reaping the benefits of royalty.

5. When you read the description of Yarrow, did it remind you of any real place? If so, which one and why?

It didn't remind me of a real place so much as it reminded me of Ellen Kushner's Riverside. It's so similar in its imagined fancy history and its current moldy state that I would actually be very surprised if it's not an intentional reference!

Melindam wrote: "I've starred A Drop of Corruption as I'll need to write the DQs for tomorrow, but it is not our friend for Venezuela."

Oooooh in Chapter 10 we meet a character named Umerus Kardas! A U name!