The Lives of the Dreamer Fithp

26. Cale Dietrich, The Love Interest -- cyanshadow brought it up for a possible synch read, and then ikel89 kept texting quotes at me, and I succumbed (story of my life). It was... OK, so, when I read Rebel a few weeks ago, that included an "Ember Island Players"-like interlude where Our Heroes go to watch a play based on "ancient literature" (the setting is post-apocalyptic, so 21st century qualifies), which is an excuse to make fun of and subvert YA dystopia tropes. Here are some quotes about it:

"Ten thousand years ago, the evil government controlled everything. [...] But most oppressive of all, the government controlled love. [...] the government assigned Madison two potential boyfriends, one the sweet aristocratic boy she'd known from childhood and the other a prince who appeared to be evil but was secretly a tormented rebel. [...] Then Madison met Kayleigh, a blonde [...] girl who introduced her to the secret underground rebellion. They had much better chemistry than Madison had with either of her assigned boyfriends. [...] Madison and Kayleigh got engaged and established a new and more just government, Madison's assigned boyfriends declared their love for each other."

The Love Interest takes that joke scene and basically stretches it to a full book, only ( not as good )

A pity, as the idea had potential, and I do wish someone with the actual skill to write characters, worldbuilding, and decent prose had taken a shot at it instead...

27. Yoon Ha Lee, Raven Stratagem (Machineries of Empire #2) - OK, wow, that was really good! isis, and another person who read it in ARC, said they enjoyed it more than Ninefox Gambit, and I have to agree. (I think in this case, a lot of that is to do with being used to the worldbuilding already, and so getting more out of it from the start, and also the story starting with a lot of balls already in the air rather than waiting to get to the real plot.) ( MASSIVE SPOILERS from here! )

I also went and read what hexarchate short fiction I could find online while waiting for book 2 to drop:

A ficlet story on yhlee's LJ: The Robot's Math Lessons (featuring wee!Cheris being earnest and mathy).

The Battle of Candle Arc, prequel of sorts to Ninefox Gambit, taking place well before the book starts, Jedao POV. isis mentioned that it was a gentler introduction to the universe of the hexarchate than Ninefox Gambit, and I agree -- it's less in media res, more stuff is explained about how the calendar-based ~magic stuff works, the factions, etc. So if you're looking to test-drive the universe, this could be a good entry point. And I liked the story itself, Jedao being very much the brilliant general already, and the mil-SF tricks. Jedao recovering from injuries throughout the story was a touch relevant to my interests, too.

Extracurricular Activities, Jedao POV from when he was a young man (8 years out of Shuos Academy), rising through the ranks. Jedao gets a care package from his mom, a promotion, and laid, not necessarily in that order. Much lighter than the books, it's a ( heist-like adventure (mild spoilers) )

Factions cheatsheet, which includes some extra-canonical information (like clearing up for me why the Kel seemed both like an ethno-cultural group and a job-based faction)


28. Nora Sakavic, The King's Men (All for the Game/Foxhole Court #3) -- the end of the 'murdersports anime' trilogy, and every bit as ridiculous as the fist two books. The pacing is so weird with this series. Like, it really should've been one longer book, I think, with the melodrama dialed down about 80% and all the ridiculous mafia stuff and torture porn cut out. As it is, ( with spoilers! )

Overall verdict: the game moments were fun, and when the series eases off on melodrama and over-the-topness of the narration and leaves the ridiculous mafia stuff behind, there were some nice moments of team-as-family, which is a dynamic that can work for me. The ratio of stuff that worked to stuff that didn't is probably at most 40/60 in any given book, and oveall maybe as low as 25/75. BUT I found that reading the last book after The Love Interest made me more kindly disposed towards it. XP

*

We watched the Beauty and the Beast movie ( it was fine, but very much like the original cartoon )

*

L wants to hoard the remaining Sherlock episodes or something, so we went back to watching Buffy instead, having taken a break some time around October-November. We ended up finishing season 3, so here are the write-ups: ( Bad Girls through Graduation Day )