Mike > Recent Status Updates

Yeah, this is getting kind of underwhelming. I guess it's a slow buildup to some sort of really good payoff, but I can't help but wish it was a little more clear what the driving tension was supposed to be. Because honestly, I see nothing moving the plot forward at the moment.

Y'know, I kind of assumed that all of this was building up to something, but I'm starting to think maybe it wasn't. I expected the payoff to have started by now, more than halfway through my edition of the book.

If I had one complaint, it would be that the pace is a bit slow. I'm still not sure what the overall conflict is supposed to be - it's getting to the point where the flashbacks are a lot more interesting than the main plot.

This is very dark, but not in a way that constantly punches you in the face. It's more subtle than you'd expect.

The obvious comparison for this book is Cirque du Freak, only that series sucked, and this is awesome. It's like Cirque du Freak, if that series had an interesting protagonist and good writing.

This is so good. It's difficult to even describe how well-written it is.

I'm trying to figure out the setting. We're definitely thousands of years into the future, and none of the place names are real. But this society seems to have the exact same knowledge of medicine, social standards, and language as Victorian England.

I have to find out more about this novel's portrayal of mental illness, to see whether or not it's ableist, before I can fully get behind it. But from a storytelling perspective... this is shaping up to be one of the best things I've read this year.

This story requires a lot of exposition, but Lam does an excellent job of incorporating it into the story, so that it never grows tedious. This book's opening events aren't necessarily essential to the story, but they're interesting - they create a nice atmosphere, and the exposition is incorporated so smoothly, you barely notice. I'm liking this so far.

I had better be able to actually start reading this book, this time around.

This novel seems to have no plot to speak of. I'm, like, three quarters of the way in, and I haven't seen any sign of the main, pivotal event described in the blurb actually happening.

I might've liked this if I hadn't read The Outsiders first. This has all the same strengths that The Outsiders had, and some flaws that The Outsiders didn't.

Also, is the plot going to start anytime soon?

So, I don't normally criticize book characters for being unintelligent. Well-rounded characters should make bad decisions sometimes, and I don't like the implications of being frustrated by this. But holy god, Ester's decision-making is so bad that it should count as a plot-hole. It makes everything that happens feel so contrived - all the conflict is incredibly forced.

There's a ton of direct characterization here, and very little indirect. I'm not sure if these characters are actually very different from one another - every time they do something specific to their personality, Bryon points it out for us, as if we're too stupid to notice it ourselves. It's kind of a condescending tone.

So this is going to be a YA book written by a white author that acknowledges and discusses black militancy and radical black movements of the sixties. I honestly don't know what to make of this, so far. I might just be the wrong person to review this book.

This seems really similar to The Outsiders so far. The setting is literally the same, and the writing style and characterization isn't that different. Let's hope it's more than just a shameless rehash.

The dialogue is a little sub-par (Ester's mom sounds so much like a stereotypical sixties mom that it hurts), but I like Ester herself.

These reasons the movement failed are really fascinating. Gitlin does a good job of capturing how it felt to the people inside the movement, and how it looked to the rest of the world.

I'm not sure what to say at this point. I've made so many status updates, I feel like I've said everything.

I'm kind of afraid this novel is setting up King-Roy as kind of a Magical Negro to help Ester with her problems, but it's too soon to really tell for sure. Also, Han Nolan really loves writing about eccentric families.

Holy god. I didn't think it was even possible for Misa to undergo a Flanderization, but she only gets more annoying with each passing volume.

Sing by Karin Tidbeck: 4/5 Great worldbuilding, good protagonist

Social Services by Madeline Ashby: 3/5 Good worldbuilding, ending not set up very well

The Road of Needles by Caitlin R. Kiernan: 2/5 Lots of potential, confusing structure

Mystic Falls by Robert Reed: 1/5 Awkward writing, worldbuilding lacking

The Queen of Night's Aria by Ian McDonald: 2/5 (DNF) Infodumps, awkward writing

I didn't realize how much hatred there was for the anti-war movement. It doesn't really fit with the rest of what I know about the sixties.

I'm trying my best to like this, I really am. But it just feels too much like a Lifetime movie. It's predictable, the characters are bland, and the happy ending here is way too simple and happy to be believable.

The Promise of Space by James Patrick Kelly: 5/5

The Master Conjurer by Charlie Jane Anders: 4/5

The Pilgrim and the Angel by E. Lily Yu: 3/5

Entangled by Ian R. MacLeod: 2/5

Fade to Gold by Benjanun Sriduangkaew: 4/5

Selkie Stories are for Losers by Sofia Samatar: 3/5

In Metal, In Bone by An Owomoyela: 3/5

Kormak the Lucky by Eleanor Arnason: 2/5 (DNF)

I always kind of assumed Malcolm X was assassinated by white racists. It genuinely surprises me that it was Nation of Islam members who assassinated him.

Rag and Bone by Priya Sharma: 4/5 A tad bit hard to follow, but very original and interesting.

The Book Seller by Lavie Tidhar: 3/5 I couldn't get into the story that much, but I liked the protagonist.

The Sun and I by K.J. Parker: 3/5 Excellent premise, but it falls apart around the halfway point, where the internal logic starts to feel like it was made up on the spot.

This makes me want to read a more detailed book about Castro's Cuba, to see what it was really like for the people living in it. Gitlin's perspective is interesting, but it's also super limited.

I'm glad they didn't save that 'twist' for the end, because man, that was obvious.

The Herons of Mer de l'Ouest by M. Bennardo: 4/5 Anticlimatic, but great writing and atmosphere.

Water by Ramez Naam: 2/5 Cliched and boring.

The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling by Ted Chiang: 5/5 Thought-provoking and well-written.

The Ink Readers of Dio Saket by Thomas Olde Heuvelt: 3/5 Nice writing, boring.

Cherry Blossoms on the River of Souls by Richard Park: 3/5 Good idea, bad execution.