Earwen
no bad stories in this one but some worked for me better than others.
favorite stories:
take only what belongs to you
fidler fool pair
I love the story and the mood of this but it could use to be 200 pages shorter and then 100 pages longer still to give it a proper ending.
First off - the story takes a lot of twists and turns and anytime they're in a new locatio ntalking to a new character there is a massive infodump that doesn't matter wahtsoever. I don't need pages on classical music and pianos just because a character happens to be into it. Ditto with black magic. Just give me what's important to the story!
As for the ending , if it ended a few pages before I'd be content. But the specific moment it cut off felt cheap. I like open endings but this is an ending where the character I've been following for 600+ pages will get resolution, it is only I that is left out. Feels very constructed to me. He should join me in my confusion.
Not as good as the first book, I read the author got bored with the series by this book and it shows. It's still fun though and how many extremely self aware urban fantasy series with lesbian anti-heroines are there? Not many.
A quick search shows a million forum posts decrying that this is about lesbians but no other interpretation of the story makes any sense. Just looking at the hard facts and no personal interpretation of the ice stuff...
-unn keeps away from the other kids for reasons she refuses to talk about
-siss keeps starring at unn at school to the extent the other kids comment on it. Her reaction is basically “and what about it”
- the connection they feel that they cant put into words and their weird awkwardness and excitement around eachother which the first 25% of the story describes
- “we should take our clothes off itd be fun - no wait im embarrassed now this was the worst idea”
-unn tells siss that she has some deep secret that she wouldn't even tell her mother but she may tell siss who then freaks out because she doesn't want to hear it yet and leaves
-talking about the same secret unn says she won't go to heaven
- the next day siss is excited to meet unn at school and greet her so that all her friends know “how they stand”
- siss freaking out about people asking what unn told her even though she technically said nothing unn obviously knows what unn meant.
- siss is afraid the unnamed new leader girl of her friend group will end up missing like unn because she took a liking to her and tells her basically that they can't go to eachothers houses.
Either the author intended to write it as a lesbian story or he has no idea how kids talk to eachother. Either way if you're reading this in the current century it's impossible not to read it as gay.
..this isn't a review I just got annoyed at some forum posts from 2004 ¯_(ツ)_/¯
This book is honestly so funny I've been thinking of it everyday since i read it
-keeps getting on ships despite EVERY TİME he does so he either gets scared shitless, attacked by pirates, taken as slave, ship capsizes, etc. Even after the whole island thing a few years later he goes back on a ship.
-Robinson has two cats that he brings to the island , there are also wild cats on the island. He later sees a bunch of new kittens that seem to be a mix and doesn't understand where they came from
-when he converts Friday, Friday is confused about why god allows satan to exists, crusoe has a crisis of faith and gets sick. Eventually he manages to explain it to Friday, who clearly still thinks its stupid
-friday fantasizes about taking him back to his home island and make him teach the people there. crusoe grows jealous because he thinks thatsomehow translated of wanting to leave him.
-he spends months making a ship that he has no way to actually bring to water. He later once he has more people attempts to make a ship again. This time he makes it too small for all those people.
-he voices he would rather be eaten by cannibals than go to spain
-walks around with like, 5 guns. he would have loved shooters.
-“first of all I married, and that not either to my disadvantage or dissatisfaction”
-the literal full title of the book “The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pyrates. Written by Himself.”
“written by himself” isn't the only lie in it.
I read this very mediocre book for the promise of lesbians but they don't even end up together because Taisin decides being a priest is more important to her. I don't get too broken up about bittersweet endings but this was the only thing the book had going for it and it just threw it out the window. Not to mention during the story Taisin was given every reason to change her mind about being a sage as she discovered they've been lying to her all along. But that plot thread isn't developed further and later completely ignored.
This book made me experience the complete range of human emotions. Obviously it was hilarious - it's Douglas Adams- I didn't expect to laugh out loud multiple times which is rather rare for me. Obviously I need to reread hitchhikers guide. Perhaps a little less obviously it is very sad as it deals with endangered species - some of which have died out some have flourished after the books publication -. And it is infuriating because it is our fault that they did. Humans are kind of dicks to our fellow animals. But there is also hope in it and seeing the men and women who try so hard to help those species is heartwarming.
This is the sixth novel I read by Kiernan, including the books she wrote under the name Kathleen Tierney. How do you rate a book that you loved until exactly half way through, and then stopped caring completely? I'm already forgetting the latter half of it as I write it, there were individual passages that I loved but as a story it was a mess. Of course it is meant to be confusing, I don't mind not getting a clear answer on things, especially on books like this. I didn't even want a clear answer. But the latter half just kept on piling questions that you know won't get answered, and not in a way that kept me interested. There is a point where things get too weird to care about, it stops being shocking or interesting, Towards the end I just thought, “okay now this is happening. Why not”. I get it, the truth is terrible and humans can't possibly comprehend it but the first half did a better job of conveying that feeling. It didn't help the two of the more interesting main characters got effectively written out of the story. So, first half of the book? Really good. Kept me on my toes the whole time. The characters, the mysterious events, how it's seemingly connected when it can't possibly be connected. I loved it. I'd give it 4 stars.The second half as written above, around two stars maybe. It wasn't offensively bad.So I suppose this would average out to 3 stars. Which feels too much and yet 2 stars is too little (I gave [b:Cherry Bomb 22544020 Cherry Bomb (Siobhan Quinn, #3) Kathleen Tierney https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1409122862s/22544020.jpg 41999445] 2 stars, and this is definitely better than that). I guess a 2.5 if possible would be ideal. Let's say I gave a bonus half star for Dancy because she's great and I look forward to read the other stories Kiernan wrote about her.
2.5
I don't seem to get along too great with Kiernan's earlier works. A lot of interesting stuff in that one but it was kind of all over the place.
Very nice little novella that focuses on raising a tamagotchi like artificial intelligence. It was great right up until the ending which really felt like a cop out.
The main conflict in it is porting the AIs to a newer platform. There are several solutions presented thorough the story which weren't accepted due to various reasons. But the end solution is simply going back to one of the earlier rejected ones. Which might be realistic, perhaps, but to me it felt like the author couldn't figure out how to ultimately end the story.
Still definitely worth reading if you're interested in artificial intelligence at all, and even if you aren't.
Stand in for whole series
A bit melodramatic sometimes, towards the end it started feeling like a soap opera. But overall I enjoyed it a lot. The training sections were fun, and I really liked the sci-fi elements. I thought the way people talk about space missions and peoples objections to it was handled realistically for a near-future setting.
This was exactly my kind of atmospheric gothic horror. Well, perhaps I shouldn't call it horror. It really is more of a historical fiction with some elements of horror - I don't think anyone would get genuinely spooked by it, except Stephen King apparently but at this point I'm convinced he blurbs everything with a variation of “This was so scary I peed my pants 3 times”.
This book was so uncomfortable, I couldn't keep going. First of all, it's marketed as a lesbian book but really, i have my doubts. As the synopsis says the main character is transported to 1085 spain where she meets Luis and falls in love with him, not knowing he is, at least biologically female. She keeps saying how wrong it is for her to love Luis despite being a lesbian and when she finally learns the truth she is relieved and claims she must have somehow sensed it. It so ridiculous, why would a lesbian be interested in someone who she thinks of as male? The obvious answer is that she is bi but neither the book nor the character acknowledges that. Luis being a woman in itself is also questionable. It's difficult to ascribe gender identity to people who lived 10 years ago much less 1000. Perhaps Luis if living in the 21st century would happily live as a woman and perhaps not. In the context of the time he lives in however he seems to consider himself a man, and is uncomfortable when the main character keeps referring to him differently. Which she does. Repeatedly. As said, very uncomfortable. On top of all of this the cheating aspect bothered me (somehow understandable as her girlfriend lives 1000 years in the future and she doesn't even know if they'll meet again but she still seemed to be over it too easily), and also it was simply boring.
despite the unique concept, essentially a rehash of every literary contemporary privileged millennial woman complains about life book written in the past few years.
Not sure about the bit about dyslexia bro...
honestly I feel like I got into this book already knowing its most relevant talking points. The most cutting remarks I had already read quoted elsewhere. The rest ranged from good to questionable (see aforementioned dyslexia)
There are some non fiction books that flow like a story. This isn't one.
I have two main grips with this book. The first one is that a lot of the information in this book only very indirectly relates to Mary Anning. A lot of time is given to discussions of paleontology, some of which is warrented to show how Mary's findings influenced the world. But Mary wasn't a part of those discussions, being a woman. Almost half the book is about various men and their differing opinions of fossils. It's not inherently uninteresting but It wasn't what I wanted from this book. A good portion of the book was also related to events surrounding Lyme Regis, again some of it is warrented as that's where Anning lived and made her discoveries. But did there need to be a whole chapter about a landslide that the book admits didn't really affect Mary? What about a random fire? Or taht the queen was there at some point? I understand there isn't much information about Mary Annings life, but rather than reading all that superfluous stuff I'd rather the book was just shorter.
The second point is the writing is really dull. One thing that was very distracting was how the author kept describing what Mary “must have felt” or “no doubt” has done. I know you can't read inside the mind of a long dead woman, there is no need to remind me that it is the authors assumption every second, alternatively the author could have just refrained from commenting on what Mary “no doubt must have felt, probably”. I just don't think Shelley Emling is a very good writer, a lot of sentences just sound awkward and she always sounds unsure of what she's saying even when she isn't “supposing” what is going on in Mary's mind.
Despite my problems I enjoyed learning what little there is to learn about Mary Anning and if you are interested in her life I'd recommend this, juts be prepared to do some skimming.
Note: author posted a continuation of the story here https://archiveofourown.org/works/12859701
I loved this but the events in this book could have been 2 separate books!! Especially the last two chapters had so much packed in. Then again reading those made me anxious on what would happen next so maybe I shouldn't complain it was over quickly.
I question the decision to take the story of a real life scientist woman, who has very little known about her beyond her discoveries, and make a decent chunk of the story about her pining after some man. There is no way to know whether Mary was actually involved with him in reality, but it is telling when the story of a scientist is taken and put a ridiculous romance story in. Is it unfathomable to think a woman might not have interest in men? Or simply prefer her scientific discoveries even if she does have interest? Why must a man take center stage in this story advertised as being about two female friends? Why must the same man be the driving conflict between the two making them get into a ridiculous, unbelievable fight? Why must Mary not only be portrayed as a lovesick, stupid girl but also turn away from fossils because of perceived rejection? Why must Elizabeth be portrayed as jealous of Mary because of the attentions from said man when she herself expresses nothing but annoyance at him? Why when early in the book she seems perfectly content with her lot suddenly she is so upset that Mary might get attention from men, attention Elizabeth recognizes will never lead to anything, and be jealous of her still?
Out of the two fictional books I found about Mary Anning this was the one not labeled romance but about friendship between Elizabeth and Mary. Is it this hard to write a story about two women, two scientist women and not make it about a men and their bickering over men.
Before and after this chunk of the story the book was pretty good. So obviously the author is capable. But writing about women without making it about men is apparently unimaginable to some regardless of talent.
I liked this a lot... maybe I'll return to the imperial radch series I never finished it
Wow! This was just bad at every level. Not even entertaining. I pushed through because it's short and everyone was gushing about how fucked up the ending was. And it was just nothing? Also I don't know the author etc but I find it hard to not see the homophobic connotations of a lesbian obsessed of having a child to the point of doing atrocities.
The dialogue was extremely unnatural, so was the relationship progression, I know I know it's not a normal relationship plus it's basically a short story but as is it just feels like a - “wouldn't it be fucked up if that happened”. Have read 2 sentence horror stories with more substance. Boring.
edit: I keep thinking about this book, and the more I think about it, the more I dislike it. In the end, it really was so juvenile, and worse, boring. I'm lowering my score to reflect my feelings on it, if 2 stars means “it was ok” it definitely doesn't deserve it in my eyes.
original review below
I found this book to be too ambitious for it's own good, tried to do too many things, didn't really do any of them, threw in a very stream of consciousness rant at the end, which I'm sure was intentional but reading it I couldn't help but feel like it was a cop out. Maybe if you throw everything in your mind at the wall, it will look like the resolution of a narrative. In general I found too many large sections in this already small book, to be of little substance.
The lack of subtlety, not an inherent fault nor something I expected out of a book that starts with stating it is about fascism, at times got to the point of being comedic. In the same chapter the TERF character mentions her discomfort with trans women in bathrooms not only are we told (otherwise irrelevantly) that a trans woman was in fact shitting next to her earlier, but she also gets sexually harassed by another woman.
Something I found odd, was the lack of tying the TERF movement more directly to other forms of the alt-right. In my experience a lot of terfs are bigoted in many other ways, and happy to throw in their lot with other alt-right, anti-lgbt, misogynist groups. But the terf women are portrayed surprisingly sympathetically all in all, they seem to at least, be well intentioned at some level. They're are liberal (“liberal”) women, academics, and the only one of importance besides the co-lead is a lesbian who almost assaults her (I assume based on a well known terf lesbian who also was alleged to do similiar). Of course those as portrayed in the book exists too but when the rest of the book deals with swastikas, and nazis, alt-right the omission feels strange. The closest to it is several mentions of how white the terf goup is. But perhaps this is just a side effect of the short length combined with trying to juggle too many topics.
Lastly, this book draws intentional comparisons between itself and The Haunting Of Hill House, Hill House is a short book.It manages to be complex in it themes and concise yet beautiful in it's language, but also subtle. This is none of those things, and it doesn't have to be, but Tthe multiple callbacks of to the opening paragraph of hill house (which I love!) are beat over the head , at first it's almost cute then it's just pointless.
Not as good as the previous volume edited by Joshi. This one was actually a struggle to finish. There were some stories better than others, but even they were not as good as the standouts in the previous volume overall. Not to mention, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, which is the bulk of the book I couldn't stand. I actually dropped it 1/4th of the way which is a shame because I thought I liked Lovecraft's longer form fiction better, and this one is one of the longest.
Stuff I enjoyed:
The Tomb (this was hilarious Germans really be like that)
Beyond the Wall of Sleep
Under the Pyramids
Pickman's Model
At the Mountains of Madness (I'd consider this the weakest in this list but I loved the arctic setting)
The Thing on The Doorstep
I didn't regret reading this but not sure if I'll pick up the next and last volume of his works in this set edited by ST Joshi. Though there is at least one more story I definitely want to try out.
I don't really like romance so I'm not sure why I keep picking these books up. I did enjoy the martial arts and competition aspects but I felt cheated out that the main conflict is a homophobic family instead of anything directly to do with that. It's probably my favorite lesbian romance I read which isn't saying much but it's something. Now I can say joe rogan is a character in my favorite romance book. Because he is.