Dev’s Comments (group member since Sep 09, 2017)

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

loki is a character in another one of her series - although he has always felt pretty OOC to me - so i think that was the only reason he was in this book, although i guess she could have been planning something more with him.

and i agree that another book would not have 'saved' it but it's just so frustrating that she spent the ENTIRE book playing game of flashbacks and then ends right in the middle of a battle like ???? she could have easily not had this be a two parter if it wasn't for rehashing past plot points.

and god, cal is just so bi and so in denial i'm just like please rob come back from whatever self imposed exile you are in to write a short story where cal sleeps with a dude because i think it will do wonders for his temperament lol

but yeaaaaah. i told you guys it was pretty awful. i wonder if cathy is still planning on reading it

ok i finished today and good riddance lol

i think my 'three redeeming scenes in this book' are as follows:

the party at robin's (view spoiler)[loki is making a cameo appearance from her trickster series and although her version of him has always felt very off to me it is amusing to see him and cal snarking at each and the fact that him and niko planned how to stop ragnarok is just hilarious (hide spoiler)]

the robin hood flashback. my feels! enough said

a particular part of the cal and robin bonding time (view spoiler)[aka when robin gave him a massive amount of hickies and cal just fucking went with it and then later robin drugged him and cal told him he would sleep with him 'if he wasn't straight' like ...cal! you! are! not! straight! stop lying to yourself and sleep with robin ffs (hide spoiler)]

Completion Post


Nevermore by Rob Thurman

date started: 8/4/19
date finishied: 8/6/19
pages: 352
genre: No

R: Rob Thurman [author]
C: Cal Leandros [character]

i figured it just meant 'animals that eat meat' even if they do eat plant matter as well, but we'll see what they say

Starting again, getting through a lot of series this year!

Start: 7/29/19
Level: Sequence (51 + books)

01 Bloodbath [Henrietta Lee Book 2] by Stephanie Ahn
02 Nevermore [Cal Leandros Book 10] by Rob Thurman
03 The Fear Institute [Johannes Cabal Book 3] by Jonathan L. Howard
04 Agent [Empowered Book 1]* by Dale Ivan Smith
05 Demon Born Magic [Ella Gray Book 3] by Jayne Faith
06 Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Adventures Volume 2 by John Dorney
07 Midway [The Harvesting Book 1.5] by Melanie Karsak
08 The Brothers Cabal [Johannes Cabal Book 4] by Jonathan L. Howard
09 Mutiny at Vesta [Shieldrunner Pirates Book 2] by R.E. Stearns
10 The Power of Mercy [The Superheroine Collection Book 2] by Fiona Zedde
11 Home [Binti Book 2] by Nnedi Okorafor
12 Hexed [Iron Druid Chronicles Book 2] by Kevin Hearne
13 Caitlin Ross and the Commute from Hell [The Future Next Door Book 2] by Brian Olsen
14 The Fall of the House of Cabal [Johannes Cabal Book 5] by Jonathan L. Howard
15 Midnight Reynolds and the Phantom Circus [Midnight Reynolds Book 3] by Catherine Holt
16 The Hound of Justice [Janet Watson Chronicles Book 2] by Claire O'Dell
17 Johannes Cabal and the Blustery Day: And Other Tales of the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard
18 Thief of Time [Discworld Book 26, Death Book 5] by Terry Pratchett
19 The Unkindest Tide [October Daye Book 13] by Seanan McGuire
20 The Red Threads of Fortune [Tensorate Book 2] by J.Y. Yang
21 Darkdawn [Nevernight Chronicles Book 3] by Jay Kristoff
22 The Descent of Monsters [Tensorate Book 3] by J.Y. Yang
23 Nemesis [Circuit Fae Book 4] by Genevieve Iseult Eldredge
24 Tunnel of Bones [Cassidy Blake Book 2] by Victoria Schwab
25 Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider, Vol. 2: The Impossible Year by Seanan McGuire
26 Infinite Dark, Vol. 2 by Ryan Cady
27 Blood Storm Magic by Jayne Faith
28 Monsters [I Bring the Fire Book 2] by C. Gockel
29 The Night Masquerade [Binti Book 3] by Nnedi Okorafor
30 The Ascent to Godhood [Tensorate Book 4] by J.Y. Yang
31 Lumberjanes: Somewhere That's Green #1 by Seanan McGuire
32 Heathen: Volume 2 by Natasha Alterici
33 Chaos [I Bring the Fire Book 3] by C. Gockel
34 In the Balance [I Bring the Fire Book 3.5] by C. Gockel
35 The Wicked + the Divine, Vol. 9: "Okay" by Kieron Gillen
36 The Reptile Room [A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 2] by Lemony Snicket
37 Wayward Son [Wayward Son Book 2] by Rainbow Rowell
38 Paper Girls, Vol. 6 by Brian K. Vaughan
39 Fates [I Bring the Fire Book 4] by C. Gockel
40 The Slip [I Bring the Fire Book 4.5 ] by C. Gockel
41 Monstress, Vol. 4: The Chosen by Marjorie M. Liu
42 The Sea of Monsters [Percy Jackson and the Olympians Book 2] by Rick Riordan
43 Such Wicked Intent [The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein Book 2] by Kenneth Oppel
44 The Barrow Will Send What it May [Danielle Cain Book 2] by Margaret Killjoy
45 Warriors [I Bring the Fire Book 5] by C. Gockel
46 Monster of the Week [The Rules Book 2] by F.T. Lukens
47 The Causality Loop [Place in Time Book 4] by Wendy Nikel
48 Voracious: Appetite for Destruction [Voracious Vol 3] by Markisan Naso
49 Spectacle Vol. 2 by Megan Rose Gedris
50 The Tyrant's Tomb [The Trials of Apollo Book 4] by Rick Riordan
51 Princeless Volume 9: Love Yourself by Jeremy Whitley

-------------------

And I'm just gonna go ahead and do my next round in the same comment:

Start: 7/29/19
Level: Sequence (51 + books)

01 Ragnarok [I Bring the Fire Book 6] by C. Gockel
02 The Fire Bringers: An I Bring the Fire Short Story by C. Gockel
03 Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood by Oliver Bowden
04 Shades of Magic Vol. 2: Night of Knives by V.E. Schwab
05 Eat the Ones You Love [Jenny Undead Book 2] by J.L. Murray
06 Mycroft and Sherlock: The Empty Birdcage [Mycroft Holmes Book 3] by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
07 Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues [White Trash Zombie Book 2] by Diana Rowland
08 Mark Park and the Flume of Destiny [The Future Next Door Book 3] by Brian Olsen
09 Giant Days Vol. 12 by John Allison
10 X Marks the Spot [Lumberjanes Vol 14] by Kat Leyh
11 White Trash Zombie Apocalypse by Diana Rowland
12 City of Night [Frankenstein Book 2] by Dean Koontz
13 The Wee Free Men [Discworld Book 30] by Terry Pratchett
14 Isabellae Volume 2 by Raule
15 The Crow: Flesh & Blood by James Vance
16 Dead and Alive [Frankenstein Book 3] by Dean Koontz
17 Runemaker [Runebinder Chronicles Book 3] by Alex R. Kahler
18 A Hat Full of Sky [Tiffany Aching Book 2] by Terry Pratchett
19 The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark
20 Princeless: Raven the Pirate Princess Book 7: Date Night by Jeremy Whitley
21 Rick and Morty, Vol. 10 by Kyle Starks
22 Come On Steal The Noise [Kilchester short story] by Adam Maxwell
23 Half-Off Ragnarok [Incryptid Book 3] by Seanan McGuire
24 Supernova [Renegades Book 3] by Marissa Meyer
25 The Titan's Curse [Percy Jackson and the Olympians Book 3] by Rick Riordan
26 The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe [Welcome to Night Vale Episodes Book 2] by Joseph Fink
27 Come Tumbling Down [Wayward Children Book 5] by Seanan McGuire
28 Curse Words, Vol. 5: Fairy-Tale Ending by Charles Soule
29 The Night Country [The Hazel Wood Book 2] by Melissa Albert
30 Pocket Apocalypse [Incryptid Book 4] by Seanan McGuire
31 Dakota Bell and the Wastes of Time [The Future Next Door Book 4] by Brian Olsen
32 Chaos Choreography [Incryptid Book 5] by Seanan McGuire
33 The Dreaming, Vol. 2 by Simon Spurrier
34 Deathless Divide [Dread Nation Book 2] by Justina Ireland
35 The Once and Future King [Rat Queens Vol 7] by Ryan Ferrier
36 Die, Vol. 2: Split the Party by Kieron Gillen
37 Shattered Minds [Pacifica Book 2] by Laura Lam
38 Lost Souls [Frankenstein Book 4] by Dean Koontz
39 The Legend of Korra: Ruins of the Empire Part Three by Michael Dante DiMartino
40 Imaginary Numbers [Incryptid Book 9] by Seanan McGuire
41 The Chaos Curse [Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond Book 3] by Sayantani DasGupta
42 Saga, Vol. 2 by Brian K. Vaughan
43 The Wide Window [A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 3] by Lemony Snicket
44 The Buying of Lot 37 [Nigh Vale Script Collections Book 3] by Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor
45 Lumberjanes Vol. 15 by Kat Leyh
46 The Thornthwaite Betrayal [Book 2] by Gareth P. Jones
47 The Arctic Incident [Artemis Fowl Book 2] by Eoin Colfer
48 Lumberjanes Vol. 16 by Shannon Watters
49 Giant Days: Early Registration [Prequel] by John Allison
50 Giant Days Vol. 13 by John Allison
51 Lumberjanes: The Infernal Compass by Lilah Sturges

*I had previously read the prequel books

i'm through chapter 11 now and i think one of the main problems with this book - and also the previous one to a certain extent - is that she has clearly run out of ideas of things to do in the current timeline. like if she just wanted to write a book that was all about their past lives then DO THAT instead of pretending to have a thin thread of plot and spend half your page space on flashbacks. honestly the past lives thing annoys me a bit but if she had just published a book where each chapter was a different past life i feel like it would have been better than this.

hope you don't mind but i was the word fairy who assigned letters to most of our finished books [i didn't want to use the good fight for the S to finish our first word since it works for U and i feel like we'll need it later lol]

Completion Post


The Good Fight by Scott Bachmann

date started: 8/5/19
date finished: 8/5/19
pages: 186
genre: No

U: U2 [actual superhero name, not the band lol]
E: Fred Elders [character]
R: R.J. Ross [author]
C: Cheyanne Young [author]
S: Scott Bachmann [author]

yeah this is definitely the most prepared i think i've ever felt going into a challenge lol

haha i was just about to come over here and tell you guys that you needed to start suffering with me ;) i'm not sure what chapter i'm on but i'm about halfway through.

AND I KNOW, IT MAKES NO SENSE! (view spoiler)[traveling back a few hours or even months i guess would make some amount of sense but like why go back 8 years???? i guess bc that's where the vigil assassin went but if you kill him in the present timeline then he won't go back so problem solved. and yeah the choices he makes in the past are just BIZARRE. i mean ...not only all the things that he's changing but yeah all the dicking around he's doing in general.

i just have no idea how she thought she was going to end this. like was she going to say that cal fixes everything and goes back to a future that is 100% the same somehow? was she going to reboot the whole series in an alternate timeline? was future cal going to die and then past cal and niko had to figure out how to stop that???? none are good options but like ...idek. (hide spoiler)]

i don't know if the fact that it's unfinished is more or less infuriating lol

DQs day 4

15 – Many feel the second half of the book isn’t as strong as the first. Do you agree? Do you think it’s too condensed, or meanders too much?
i kind of feel that way sometimes but i think it's only because we've got so many characters going on and crowley and aziraphale disappear for a large part of it. considering they are far and above my favorites in the book that is kind of disappointing, but like i said before even though they are the obvious fan favorites and the show focused on them much more, the book is not really 'about them' and the whole point is that they don't actually contribute to the plot there very much. i guess it's a bit of a turn from the first half of the book because the book turns to be more about adam and anathema in particular than aziraphale and crowley, but i think it's right for the story they were actually trying to tell.

16 – How did you feel about the book now that you’ve finished it? Did it meet your expectations? If it was a re-read does it tally with your memory of the book?
i do always kind of forget how much of the book crowley and aziraphale are not in, but i still really love it even if there are several parts that have definitely not aged well in the past 30 years [although he did a wonderful job updating it for the miniseries so i know that he is not unaware of them]. i listened to the audio this time, which i really enjoyed overall although his voices for adam and war i thought were weirdly awful. oh well, i guess there are only so many voices one person can make

17 – How well did you think Pratchett and Gaiman managed to write together? Did you ever feel like you were reading two different authors, or did you find they blended well together?
i think that there are certain lines or parts where i can go 'that was definity X author', but overall i think their styles go very well together. like the line about witches working naked i think was definitely terry and the whole body horror through the phone line was definitely neil [as was war in general i'm pretty sure], but i didn't feel there was ever a disconnect between parts.

18 – Have you read any other works by either author? Do you think you are more or less likely to pick up any of their individual books in future?
i've read a lot of things by gaiman and while i generally like them, i feel like he has definitely become a better writer as he's gone along. at this point in time i think it's clear that pratchett probably reigned in a few of his more unfortunate early era tropes that he liked to use a lot. i've read a few of the discworld books as well - colour of magic which i did not like, and most of the death series which i do like but am not used to reading such old stuff with so few female characters anymore. i'm going to try the witches series next to rectify that.

Completion Post


The Catalyst by C.M. Raymond

date started: 8/2/19
date finished: 8/4/19
pages: 245
genre: No

E: Elijah Branton [character]
R: C.M. Raymond [author]
C: Catalyst [title]
S: Steel City Heroes [series]

Day 3: Thursday and Friday

10: How do you think the baby mix up influenced how Adam turned out? Or was the mix up what was really supposed to happen in going with the theme of all actions and events being part of a divine plan?
well ...kind of spoilers maybe? (view spoiler)[i mean they say later that allowing him to grow up alone made him neither good nor evil but just human and that is ultimately what caused him to do what he did to stop the apocalypse. as for the 'divine plan' it's really left very unclear in the book whether there is such a thing or whether the angels are kind of just assuming what god wants in his general absence. (hide spoiler)]

11: Crowley and Aziraphale tried to shape the upbringing of the Anti Christ only to have the wrong kid. Do you think Adam would have discovered his powers earlier if they had been influencing him instead?
i got the impression that the powers weren't supposed to actually manifest fully until it was close to his 11th birthday since that was the set time for everything to happen, but i guess it's possible that he would have been able to do some small things earlier. i think it was more the hellhound being released that started everything so timing-wise it probably didn't make much of a difference.

12: Do you think Anathema knew that Adam might have special abilities when she met him? Was that why she gave him the reading material?
i think she knew something was weird about him since she couldn't see his aura, but she was probably also just being nice since he came over and tried to comfort her when she was upset and they started talking and got along.

13: Like me, were you worried about what had happened to the 3rd baby? What did you think when you read the little size piece about Greasy?
i was not really that worried about it but i do think it's funny that baby #3 basically grew up to be adam's ~rival~ lol

14: There are some secondary characters that seem to have no real purpose in the book yet: Raven, Newt and Shadwell for example. Do you have any theories as to the parts they will play in stopping or helping the impending Armageddon?
well, this is the third time i'm reading this so i'll just say wait and see, they do definitely all have parts to play.

@claudia yeah that doesn't sound fun but at least you're almost done lol let us know if you need to slow down the buddy reads though

i started this morning, i think i'm a few chapters in and there is just no part of this book that i am buying at all

cal vs. cal (view spoiler)[like i do not buy that bb!cal would not recognize that current cal is just him but older. i mean yeah i looked slightly different at 26 than i did at 19 but ...not enough that people who knew me wouldn't recognize me much less me recognize myself. hell, people i haven't seen since middle / high school generally recognize me if i see them around town somewhere. i would buy it if he still looked more auphe but rafferty reset him again so ...should be looking pretty much the same, albeit with more scars (hide spoiler)]

also and i just realized this with this current reread (view spoiler)[cal does theoretically have the ability to gate through time anyway so it's kind of silly to have him use vigil tech in order to do it. i know he'd need a huge power boost but i think reading about him trying to figure out how to do it on his own would have been interesting. also it would make more sense i think if he would have not gone back so far in time. i mean he could have gone back a few months or a year when the vigil was already on their radar and be like 'hey robin you need to take care of this' and there would be a lot less trouble with screwing with the timeline [not that she seems to be very concerned with that anyway]. (hide spoiler)]

idk, i am just so picky with time travel narratives and right from the beginning it seems like she has put no thought into it whatsoever.

Completion Post


California Bones by Greg Van Eekhout

date started: 8/3/19
date finished: 8/3/19
pages: 304
genre: No

E: Greg Van Eekhout [author]
R: Jonathan Todd Ross [narrator]
C: Title
S: Sebastian [character]

haha yeah, i just make myself be chill for team challenges because ultimately you can't control what your other team members do

ok cool. i was thinking about skipping it but since they lowered the page limit to 100 and my team decided we would limit the books we counted in order to keep ourselves in the 21-40 books range to lower stress that it wouldn't be too bad. i don't know if i'm just in a slump or what but wheel has been stressing me out this year

Completion Post


Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

date started: 8/2/19
date finished: 8/3/19
pages: 412
genre: No
BOM: link to first comment

C: Crowley [character]

@Snowtulip i know that really ALL the characters are important to the story but yeah whenever crowley and aziraphale are not around [which really is a lot of the time] i'm always like where! come back! angel and demon buddy cop movie! lol at least i realize i'm missing the point? ;)

DQs Day 2: Wednesday

5. Aziraphale and Crowley discover that Warlock isn't the antichrist and are in search of the real antichrist; why do you think they didn't catch on to this earlier?
i think they probably just thought that they were doing such a good job and that was why he was so normal and didn't want to even consider that there would be another reason. i guess it's probably not something you would be thinking about unless you had a reason to and as far as they know nothing really would be amiss until the 11th birthday.

6. The manor is just a little different than when the babies were born (hehe). How do you like Mary Hodges changes? Is the portrayal of corporate retreats accurately reflected?
i've never been to a corporate retreat but it does certainly sound more exciting than powerpoints lol. i do like that mary showed up again and that she was doing so well for herself though.

7. Aziraphale is excited to have the very rare book of prophecies in his hands and treats it with utmost care; does his love of books endear him to you more (well, his upgrade of Anathema's bike also made me smile at him)?
aziraphale is just so relatable. he doesn't want to sell any of his things and he just wants to eat and read all the time and has found a way to have a 'job' and also not really have to do anything lol. #thedream

8. War is on vacation; this scene is packed with nuances, but we get the sense of impending doom; what do you think the lords of hell add to the story, do you like it?
i don't really like war as a character in the book. in the show i think neil updated things very well but in the book it always seemed very ~sexy lady with a sword who makes men fight over her~ which i guess is a very 90s fantasy concept but anyway. the lords of hell are interesting although not necessarily my favorite part overall.

9. Keeping Cat's theme going, what is your favorite quote from this section?
as i answer this i am about a half an hour away from finishing the audio so i honestly have no idea what was even in this section or what quotes are from it. was the bebop thing in this section or the first? because that always makes me laugh.