Mike Finn > Recent Status Updates

This is a relaxing comfort read. Everything goes the way I expect it to. The humour lubricates the story without underminging it. The world building and character development go hand in hand. The plot is there mainly to keep everything moving forward and to introduce specific risks.

This is well-written. The world it takes place in is thoroughly imagined. The characters are easy to believe in. The magic feels as real as any of the technology that I use but don't understand.

Yet, I'm setting it aside at 30%, just as I'm about to shift point of view to another of the three main characters. Maybe everything changes then.

Why not read on?

Because the whole premise seems cruel and pointless.

This keeps making me smile. It's sweet without being twee. It's like a hope turned into a promise. Instead of being asked to suspend my disbelief I'm being encouraged to extend my belief.

Baldree has a talent for making the mundane into something magical by adding, hope, kindness and tolerance.

This is sharper and funnier than the first book. I like the dynamic between the protagonist and her mother. I like the way the book looks at the 'Wellness Industrial Complex' and the mindset of the anti-science, anti-vax mobs.

I'm beginning to dislike this book. The situation is too like those horrible 'SAW' movies. What is being done to these children and what they are being made to do is repulsive. I don't see the point of it, unless I'm meant to enjoy seeing young people being twisted into killers and or torn apart in front of those they love.
If the story's tone is the same when the POV changes from Fabian to Credence, I'm done.

This off to a ponderous start. A lot of detail on the insanely lethal challenge the students face to graduate. Very littel world building. Almost no character building. The first part is told from Fabian's point of view. So far I've been given no reason to like him or care what happens to him. I can't see me making it through 14hrs of this if I'm not invested in the characters.

I'LL BE WAITING FOR YOU WHEN THE SWIMMING POOL IS EMPTY

This is a satirical piece that imagines a privileged young man on his Wanderjahr landing on a blades-and-bows world world in the middle of a battle and politlely but firmly trying to 'improve' things... while respecting the local culture, of course. It's an object lesson in why the Federation in Star Trek imposed the Prime Directive.

FOREVER TO A HUDSON BAY BLANKET

This was a playful time travel paradox story with a little lighthearted romance thrown in. Much is made of the niceness of the young Canadian man who is the star of this story. Sadly, it is ultimately his undoing. This is one of the most original meet-cutes I've ever seen. The story has a mix of innocence and lust and zest for life that I'd normally associate with 1940s RomComs.

This book makes me smile. In most thrillers, each twist reveals dark secrets that worsen my opinion of the characters. Here, each twist shows that none of the characters are as monstrous as the others assume but they misunderstand one another in ways that reinforce their worst fears and which push all of them towards terrible actions that, as the reader, I'm hoping they'll avoid. It's a fear-fed comedy of errors.

This book makes me smile. In most thrillers, each twist reveals dark secrets that worsen my opinion of the characters. Here, each twist shows that none of the characters are as monstrous as the others assume but they misunderstand one another in ways that reinforce their worst fears and which push all of them towards terrible actions that, as the reader, I'm hoping they'll avoid. It's a fear-fed comedy of errors.