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

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

yeah, splitting the second half of the book between niko and darkling would have been so good. i guess it would have kind of spoiled some of niko's sneaky plans though so maybe that's why she didn't do it. i'm never really sure whether i like darkling's pov or not. i mean it's obviously similar to cal's but also different. last time i decided i didn't like it but this time i was weirdly enjoying it lol

haha i love robin but he is definitely A Bit Much at times

and i probably love cal and niko's angst a liiittle bit more than i should. the whole thing with the troll and with cal basically thinking niko is dead even for a few seconds and then like you said later with his conversation with robin at the bar. delicious brotherly angst! i live for it lol

sooooo i might have accidentally finished today lol. i was going to try to space it out but i'm apparently in a slump where i don't want to read anything on my rather large tbr. but i'm still around to talk as you make progress! you're about to meet robin i think and that's just an entire experience lol

haha i'm the exact opposite with most things now. i'm like 'oh god this series has more than 3 books out already? guess i'll start it never' ...and yet i still spend my time rereading this whole one almost every year. #oops

i started the first dresden book once years ago and only got a few chapters in, not because of any real misogyny in that short bit but just because i was pretty bored. i put it back on my tbr because everyone just raves about it though so i figure i should get through the first one at least. i think i'm gonna do audio on it so i can just like passively listen though lol

maybe i should check out nightside! i'm always DNFing urban fantasy books because most of them are just all the same, but i love them when i can find a unique one

yeah the first three books are completely from cal's pov, but the fourth book is split between cal and niko and i really like how she did it. book 8 is also split between them and it might be my favorite in the whole series.

i listened to another hour today so i think that was chapters 8 and 9. like i said, i'd be interested in your first impressions of all the characters.

i fell immediately in love with cal the first time i read this, which is good since you get a lot of him with the first person narrative lol. i have a soft spot for the sarcastic asshole archetype but a lot of authors i feel try to hard with it and it feels awkward but i like it here. it also unfortunately often comes with a large side order of misogyny which i also appreciate the lack of here.

i am ashamed to say that i did not immediately warm up to niko on my first read, and i think it took me until he finally gets POV later in the series to see how absolutely hilarious he is under his stoic exterior.

i could go on all day but i'l wait til you officially start lol don't want to get too ahead of myself

i listened to chapters 1-7 today so about 30%. would love to talk about first impressions of characters [or maybe how your impressions change if you're rereading] but also i haven't heard from either of you in awhile so i don't want to type up a huge thing if you've both dropped out -_-;

so i didn't get this started yesterday bc i'm listening to the audio and me and my roommate basically just watched tv all day lol. started this morning though so i should get through a few chapters. gotta say i'm glad they switched narrators after the first book because i am not loving this one so far

hey, just wanted to bump this since we're gonna start in a few days and maybe some more people would see it and want to join in :) can't wait to start my millionth reread of this series lol

oh, i didn't know it was linked to a particular person and was a thing outside of this group. i thought you guys just made it up lol. and it probably was on thursday last year then, but since i always work on thursdays as well that's probably why i was confused.

@Laura i guess really people work on all days of the week but i would say that saturday or even sunday might cut down on the amount of people who have to work. also i think it's been friday for the past two years so maybe it could just be a different day each year?

finished Alien: Echo! although i only had about 100 pages left lol. very good, would definitely recommend it even to people like me who aren't super familiar with the alien universe

gonna see how far i can get in Seven Blades in Black now i think. it's so long though that i don't know if i'll be able to finish it tonight even though i've only got about 30% left

i'm awful at thinking up questions but i can't wait to start reading! this book has been recommended to me a lot

not sure how much i'll actually get done today, but i've started Over Your Dead Body on audio, will read a little bit of Seven Blades in Black, and hopefully finish the last third of Alien: Echo.

is anyone else realizing that they mostly read either very new or very old books? I've not read a single thing from 2001-2008 yet this year - and don't even have a book from 2004 on my whole tbr - yet i'm almost done with the 3-4 newest years and have also read several pre-2001 books that i obviously can't count lol. what is it about the early 2000s that apparently causes me to not add those books to my tbr???

Me too!

[edit] reading progress for the day

finished The Monster of Florence
read a little bit of Dark Rivers
listened to two hours of audio on The White Road
read Saint Young Men, vol. 1
read about 20% of Mycroft Holmes

and i think that's it for me! pretty productive i think lol

haha yeah work will definitely get in the way a bit, but i pretty much always read for over 2 hours a day so i will still at least get something in

[edit 4/12/18] ok so i did:

last third of Alien: Echo
about 30% of Seven Blades in Black
first 3 hours audio of Over Your Dead Body

unfortunately this always falls on a day i have to work lol

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

This is the way the world ends. Again.

Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze -- the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization's bedrock for a thousand years -- collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman's vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.

Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She'll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.

Ash by Malinda Lo

Cinderella retold

In the wake of her father's death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.

The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King's Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash's capacity for love-and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.

Entrancing, empowering, and romantic, Ash is about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.

thank you too, it was nice to read it with someone else even if everyone else decided to stop after book one lol