Dani ❤️ Perspective of a Writer > Recent Status Updates

We meet Tianlan of the Catseye, a queer ranger sent to protect a goddess who also happens to be her secret lover. After a horrible experience where she lost her whole team. We’re thrown into a complex world with a lot of history.

But this wrong sides thing makes reading the book tiring. Sure tension is high! The wrong people are winning and I’m dying for the right people to start winning. But the fact is I don’t want to be so worn out reading that I want to stop reading! That defeats the purpose of reading being enjoyable. Despite these two problems I think the book is really excellent certainly better than his first book.

Wow, pretty exciting stuff. I’m pretty sad that Daren’s sister is dead. While I want the abd to live so they can go free I’m really rooting for the Nigerians. I don’t want Biafra to win. They’re in the wrong. I feel like I’m on the wrong side. I don’t want my protagonist to win! I want her enemy Daren to win. It doesn’t help he’s humanized thru Iffy’s POV.

Onyii meets her synth, her abd slave boy, Agu. He nearly dies trying to master the shooting she asked for not going inside during a thunderstorm. She’s told to teach him an instrument so her can adjust. Later she finds him downloading music and realizes it’s something he wants (synths aren’t supposed to want things!) and is beautiful.

The two camps Iffy and Onyii visit are super scary. O meets abd or slaves that the war girls are using as soldiers without souls. Iffy meets some of these soldiers that have been captured. And one blows himself up!

Reading the note in the back if I’d known it was based on Plato I would have passed on this. It’s boring. The dragons were incidental. The story is depressingly adult. Knowing it’s based on The Republic and a love of classics I realize I would never enjoy this.

I liked Power because in a sea of boringness he made waves. But he’s a swing character, crafted to do the opposite of what you expect when the author needs something doing that doesn’t make sense. I liked Lee and his determination to do what is right. It mirrored Atreus who was willing to commit atrocities to remake the world.

He does it... kills her. Atreus was going to kill him even if he did... but Power realized and hints it to Annie. Who brings witnesses to save him. So yeah I was wrong about Atreus... a nameless solider tasked with killing the boy saved him. Just disobeyed and dropped him at the orphanage. We learn in flashback.

Oh boo boo they rehash what they’ve both known about each other in detail. Power finds a note Julia sent and tries to arrest Lee and Annie. She calls for her dragon and wrests back control. They head off to Atreus. Who I think totally knows who Lee is, he needed a Dragonborn to spark the dragons. So melodramatic... total tripe! 🤢

This has become so dreary! I thought is as slow and boring before but now it’s so depressing that killing myself would be an escape I relish! When the other side takes out their ships Atreus immediately goes back to the old ways and uses dragons to get all the food. Then they decide who is worth living!

The most exciting scene just happened when Lee’s dragon sparked in their battle for top spot and he flamed Annie. He had to jump from his dragon to hers to open her coolants and save her. Though no mention is made of his saving her life. He’s tapping Crissa the girl who likes him even though he knows it’s only sex for him. Totally reads as adult.

Gosh this is incredibly boring!! So drawn out. Really a romance between two adultish teens who will become the leaders of their country. The romance is nuanced and slow burn, as they jockey for position in the government as well as with their feelings. The dragons are very light. There is no action plot! It’s all classes, personal interactions and slow moving war chest beating.

Oh yay! Darren made it! He’s been totally remade but I was so happy that he survived at least. Onyii has become a monster killer. Now the two just have to meet.

End of part I. Then a 4 year time jump. I was sad that the guy who picked up Iffy seemed to die. He seemed a good sort who would have kept her straight.

It seems the ship Iffy was on exploded due to a bomb the other girl put on it. It kills the others? But not Iffy? O is picked up by the General of the Biafra army, the side she used to work for. He shows her something on a tablet and she goes berserk saying she’ll work for him to get her revenge. The robot of Iffy’s comes out still alive but dies? in a radiated desert?

At least in the last 20 pages something has happened with those on the other side of the war! Power also was intriguing how he worked over Annie, made her realize she’s been overthinking her qualifications as head of attack! I do like this subtlety but the pacing is mind numbingly slow.

This got boring. I realized this is really about Annie and Lee’s history with each other and with their past. It’s subtle like an adult novel and lacks action. Lee wants to be with Annie and she him... BUT he’s really from the old guard. She can’t forget that and he realizes this. The whole position jockeying is really about their romance!

Wow... I’m not sure what’s going on but Iffy seems to have found her people?

Reads like an adult book but not so heavy language. I am enjoying it despite its lack of action and focus on character and angst.

I love Annie and Lee’s history at the orphanage. She’s forced him to see truths about his dad that are hard to swallow. She really cares for him too.

Uh oh! Iffy’s in trouble...

Oh wow... what a horrible mistake to make. But what a trap?! Loving the mech uses and girl power.

I like both sisters. A smart girl like Iffy is chaffing under her sister’s strictures... but you can’t blame her sister... she knows what’s out there and doesn’t want to see the little girl ill prepared for it!

I thought the forgiving part was a little overwrought but I liked how she used the mirror altars!

Wow! The duel was incredible... but she had to do what was least expected of her otherwise she couldn’t have gotten the upper hand. I like that she didn’t strip the demoness of her ability to survive!

Squeezing the paper girl’s hand in mine, my mood was dark and thick as I rattled off the names of the men and monsters who needed killing: The Ghost Magistrate. Xu Shengdian. Gan Shuhao. Biaozu.
This was surprising! He has a bribe and a trap ready... but she also has a plan!

Her and her father talk on the train. The Tiger monk leads them there due to hair on his tail. I liked how we got to view Chinese culture. Even if it’s a bit wrong headed at least we can understand the thought process behind it.

Woah! The hex was crazy! When her father laid out what she did to escape it blew my mind! It was crazy cool how she got out! And it’s so Chinese how she beat herself up about falling under Xu’s charm. I love how she went to her father and he reconciled with her. Told her of his love of her husband. Then the Tiger monk!

... this morning, when I woke, I woke driven by a mission, to protect three little girls: a ghost girl, a paper girl, a living girl. All defenseless.