Daniel > Recent Status Updates

Ok, everyone said this was good, but in my defense, the cover is awful.

Silent as the Grave - meh.

This is not giving me what I'd hoped for so far... :/

All educated and off to New York.

No real personal info yet, just context. I know squat about New Orleans in the 1800s so good background as to why Herriman's family decided to move to LA and pass as white, but sadly no first hand explanations here, and we've only just hit 1890, the year of the move, and Herriman is 10. Unfortunately the barrage of place names and similarly named people are just bouncing off me. Expecting good stuff ahead though.

Would really like to read something actually GOOD now...

Dusk to Dawn - achieving all new levels of unbelievability.

idk if it's me or the book, but running out of steam here...

Only through the intro, but so far I'm disappointed. There is good info here, but I was expecting less academic more journalistic. It's excessively wordy. He seems dismissive of actual authors and to vastly overrate the influence of every random menial at the publishing house. If you treat "fiction" as an undifferentiated mass and restrict that to the actual gatekeeping roles, maybe. But ugh...

Two Murders, One Crime - Yeahhhh, no. That sucked. CW is versatile, no doubt. Lot of different types of stories here so far. But I really disliked the voice in this one, and the lack of a consistent protagonist, the way it started... nah. That didn't work for me at all.

3) Morning After Murder - Best start yet, but broke my suspension of disbelief before the end.

2) The Corpse Next Door - this one felt a bit more right sized, though the story wasn't as good as Rear Window, and the omniscient pov was noticeable. Looks like it's about 5 years older, so maybe not surprising it's not as good.

Title story. Somehow a bit slow but also breathless. idk how else to describe it off hand. Quite good though. Wasn't sure I'd read more, but will keep going for now.

finally, something has happened. (about halfway through the final novella)

This one's epistolary. 😁

So far this has mostly felt like reading a history of one corner of psychiatry, and the politics around trauma/ptsd, and as such it is enraging. Supposed to start focusing on actual treatment in the next chapter, so we'll see if that continues.

Habitat - A dragon. Wasn't expecting that. Shortest thing in the book I think, too lazy to double check. Good though.
Skipping the next, which I've read already as a standalone. Just one thing left, the longest thing in the book at 180 some "pages" according to kobo. 🤞

The Best Man Wins - Blacksmith hired to make a sword. Predictable to the point I almost felt like I had read it before, but I'm 98% sure I haven't. Still really enjoyable though.

This is definitely not improving my opinion of the American medical system. Near as I can tell I'm about halfway done. Two more chapters to go before he starts getting into treatments.

Portrait of the Artist - Gah! The artist woman, she was in another story, but I don't remember which. Anyway, this was her POV sort of origin story. Good. Somebody make a Parker wiki documenting all the little links and references in all his stories.
Prosper's Demon - Already read as standalone volume, skipped.

My father always reckoned his sons moved at the speed of narrative; they could cover a thousand miles in the space of some time later they arrived at their destination.

If it ain't nothing looks interesting, it's everything looks interesting...

Not having been given any reason why this would be impossible, I am having a hard time accepting that the first thing SecUnit did on returning to the ship at the end of the last book was not set ART to manufacturing 8-zillion new drones for it.

Murderbot murders bedtime.

Reread for the new one.

One more chapter and the chase begins. Yep, that's right, the thing everybody thinks this book is about is only the last 45 pages.

123 - The Musket, Starbuck's courage fails him, and all are doomed.