Daniel Shellenbarger > Recent Status Updates

The Alex Benedict books are very strange, they're set in the distant future but they're basically archaeological/antiquarian mysteries of things in the not quite so distant future: not much action involved, it's mostly research in archives and asking the right questions, and a little field work. It's definitely very dry, but it's also interesting.

I think it's worth mentioning why I haven't made progress on this recently. Partly, I got distracted. Partly, I'm a bit annoyed with some of the characters being stupid, mind-frelled, and inconsiderate. Partly, I feel like the story is spinning its wheels a bit. Mostly, though, I'm just a bit burned out on epic fantasy at the moment and need some time with my other favorite genres to get reenergized in my reading.

I admit it, I'm a bit burned out on epic fantasy at the moment. I reread all the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time books (minus the prequel) over the past year and reread The Ember Blade last month (and read the first half of its sequel), and I need a change of pace to get me energized to finish The Shadow Casket and get into Sanderson's WoT books. So, a bit of cozy far future space mystery-archeology sounds about right.

wow, if I didn't know things get worse, I'd say Sharpe is at an all time low... lost his captaincy, lost the light company, stuck in an administrative unit, has to put up with that monster Sgt. Hakeswill, and his woman and child are stuck in a besieged French-controlled city.

ish, I have been reading this on break, I just don't remember to update my progress.

I believe I mentioned in my review of First and Only that I felt that it was a good place for someone new to WH40k to dip their toes in the water, well Xenos is about 180 degrees from that, this is deep-lore warhammer, which isn't to say it's bad, but it does not hold your hand as it goes on about the warp and chaos and xenos and the picayune particularities of the imperium's byzantine bureaucracy.

Ok, so I started reading Sharpe's Company because I was falling behind in my reading numbers because Shadow Casket is a big book, then I started reading Sharpe's Battle (for reasons previously explained), then I went back to Sharpe's Company then Sgt. Hakeswill showed up and I started reading Xenos to escape his slimy disturbing presence.

I gotta say, Pete Postlewaite really captured the essence of Sgt. Obadiah Hakeswill perfectly... eugh... (shudders)