Alex Richey
I had a lot of ups and downs with this. I was originally annoyed by how bloated and useless a lot of the text felt, only to be pleasantly surprised by how much of it ended up mattering. I also came to enjoy the characters enough that their ramblings became more than tolerable, enjoyable even. I still think you could cut about 1/5 of the content without losing much, but it worked out for me anyway. What an interesting story. I frequently found it hard to put down–I just had to know what came next!
This helped me understand a lot about how trauma manifests and how it's treated. I've gained a lot of insights into my own experience with trauma. Some of the example cases were extremely difficult to read about, and some asked for more sympathy from me than I felt willing to give, but did demonstrate the author's points really well.
The issues I have with this might be inevitable, but I'm hopeful for where this is going.
The pacing is lightning fast, jumping from segment to segment with almost no room to breathe. For readers already familiar with the story, this probably isn't as much of an issue, but it's my first time and I barely had time to process what was happening before the next big thing. There was also a lot of world building and info dumping, which is inevitable for the start of a series like this one. But therein lies the hope, because once we finish explaining how the world works, we finally get the story.
Sophie is a good person and remarkably talented at most everything she does, and that's pretty boring right now. I hope to see her face situations that make her more interesting in the future.
What I found most surprising was that the writing style stayed pretty consistent from the original novels. Paolini has grown significantly as a writer, and I love his new scifi books so much, and I expected that returning to this series would read differently.
But it still feels like Eragon, and I like that better. It's comfy coming back to this world. And writing Murtagh and Thorn's traumas was handled well, and needed the time and experience Paolini has gained to come through so poignantly. This was a painful read, but a story worth telling. From the author note, it's clear that more stories are coming, and I'm here for each and every one of them!
A melodramatic retelling of the making of the Gundam franchise, featuring it's original creator and director, several animators, designers, business people, and die-hard fans. While this is a highly exaggerated version of the truth of events, it is still based in real history and absolutely fascinating.
My biggest complaint is that sexual assault and harassment against women is used for comedy. I'm sure this was probably pretty normal for the late 70's and early 80's, but it wasn't funny then and it isn't funny now.
This was cozy and charming. It started a bit slow, info-dumping as the character is introduced to the world she's suddenly found herself in, but it picked up half way through and I'm excited to see what cool things Sei will find herself doing next. All-powerful characters can be a hit or miss for me, but her nerdy personality and circle of pretty boys are holding my interest for now!