P. Kirby > Recent Status Updates

Meh. I'm not buying Scythe Rand's motivations for betraying Goddard. I mean, her and Tyger? Come on! It's so...contrived. Unrealistic.

Random thought. If Scythe Goddard is named after Robert Goddard, "father of American rocketry," what's his beef with scientists? I don't remember if this is ever explained.

The Cannon Tunnel," explained Marchenoir. "This part of the city has tunnels going every which way. They were used by lawmakers and their staff--I suppose to get around unseen by the murderous mobs of the mortal age." Murderous mobs. If only.

"I you don't have any actual books, then what is this place even for?" asked Munira.

He puffed up, taking on an indignant posture. "We preserve the idea.

This is one of several instances where I find myself thinking, "The author is totally taking a piss." In whatever context you want to take the idiom. It reads very tongue-in-cheek or as borderline parody. Just not precisely sure what he's parodying.

"Good," said Marchenoir. "This city attracts unsavories, you now. They come because they think it's lawless here.

Washington D.C. has always attracted unsavories. In our day, we called them politicians, son.

She had never felt so far from Rowan.
Zzzzzzzzzz. Cold as ice, no chemistry, unnecessary romance makes me sleepy. These two have never even been together long enough to be in love. ZZZzzzzzzzzzzZZz.

The Scythes' election is reminiscent of the 2016 U.S. election. Except, comparing Goddard to the travesty in the White House feel wrong. Goddard is evil, but he's also smart and moderately eloquent. :D

And the pain...the pain of my awareness is unbearable. Because my eyes do not close. Ever. And so all I can do is watch unblinkingly as my beloved humankind slowly weaves the rope it will use to hang itself.

Heh. Yeah, we humans are a bottomless fount of self-destruction.

Scythes Morrison? Angelou? Beyonce? Ugh! It's like all history and culture stopped in the early 21st century.
#LazyWriting

I can remove and raise every unwanted fetus in vitro, then place it with the perfect loving family--thereby ending the argument between right of choice and sanctity. Which is why Thunderhead is better than a god. Thunderhead actually gets things done.

I'm more horrified that a certain evil Scythe is back from the dead, than I am over the end of Tyger. That's the problem with writing a character archetype (party boy) and not an actual, fully realized character.

I don't trust the man, Hettie.

Me neither. Tom may be a controlling douche-canoe, but Dr. Kelly is too perfect, too nice.

How ironic, then, and how poetic, that humankind may have created the Creator out of want for one. Man creates God, who then creates man. Is that not the perfect circle of life? But then, if that turns out to be the case, who is created in whose image?

If we are created in god's image, the image is fuzzy and resulted in bad knees, backs, and fucked-up sinuses.

Tyger is something beyond dumb-ass, stupid young male taken to the point of parody.

"I know the things the Tonists believe are ridiculous," Citra said, "but I suppose to some people, there's something compelling about them."

"That's what turkeys think about the rain, "Marie pointed out. "They raise their eyes heavenward, open up their beaks and drown."

LOL!

Citra is such a pill. Ugh.

You Tonists pretend to be wise--but you entire system of belief is fabricated. It's nothing by convenient bits and pieces of mortal-age religions--and not even the good parts. You've taken it all and have stitched it together skillessly into a clashing, motley quilt.

Pretty much describes ALL religion. Recycled themes and narratives with new-ish faces.

I guess, it's necessary to advance the plot, but Rowan is a dumb-ass.

Currently there are 12,187 scythes in the world, each gleaning five people per week. However, in order to bring about zero population growth once humanity reaches the saturation point, it would require 394,429 scythes, each gleaning one hundred people per day.

Dun, dun..dun!

Mault and other unsavory clubs sound like something from Demolition Man, or a fluffier version of Westworld.

A self-important dictator gives permission for his subjects to blame the world's ills on those least able to defend themselves. A haughty queen gives permission to slaughter in the name of God. An arrogant head of state gives permission to all nature of hate as long as it feeds his ambition.

Sounds like the thing in the White House and its followers.

Perpetual observation is nothing new: It was a basic tenet of religious faith since the early days of civilization. Throughout history, most faiths believed in an Almighty who sees not just what humans do, but can peer into their very souls.

God, the original creeper.

This is slight improvement over the first book--which was okay, but not amazing. The greater emphasis on the Thunderhead and the new character, Grayson, minimizes the pointless "love" story between Citra and Rowan.

Tom's a controlling asshole and thus far, the weak point in the love triangle.

I'm reading this primarily because it was sitting on the new arrivals shelf at my little village library. And because I never seem to finish any series. But...I was no where near as blown away by the first book as most readers. Hmmm. We shall see.

I listened for them, but heard only my steps across playa dust. For all we do, we vanish this easily, opening a space at the end of one age to send our children into the beginning of the next.

We call it Anthropocene. It means New Man, the time of humans. I prefer Hubriscene.

Heh. I concur.

So far...it looks promising.

At Point Hope, Alaska, the captain who brought in a whale can be asked to hand over anything he owns: he is expected to fill the Thanksgiving and Christmas feast, giving everything away until his stores are empty... Families might go broke, but the reward is a position in the community, the honor of taking a giant animal. That may be the reason people hunted [Ice Age] megafauna in the first place.

Clovis [spearhead technology] being named after the town has more to do with the persistence of an Eagle Scout and a Chamber of Commerce than with science. I find this especially fitting. Science is useful, it fills in the blanks with precision, but history is ultimately more about stories and the unfolding of human whims.