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bearshorty Books
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
There were a lot of things in this book that were weird and sometimes annoying. Some sentences felt very short and choppy and just weirdly structured. I think the author was trying to do this for one character in particular. At one point a character was doing a recap of everything that happened in the previous 600 pages to her character. It was really not necessary. I just read it. the main 'mystery' about the White Ship and why characters where scared of Ellen did not live up to the hype. It just seemed silly in the end. Ellen's story seemed just weird overall. And I really didn't like the end part about Thomas Becket with Philip being present at his death. That part just felt tacked on just for the sake of including a historical episode.
That said I did enjoy this book for many of its characters and the plot. Philip and Aliena and Jack were interesting characters. I liked how Philip's flaws were clear through other people's experience. And I really liked Aliena's character journey and how she used her brain to establish herself and take care of her and her brother, although I could do without the violence. There was a lot of good details in this book. I thought it portrayed well what it was like to live through the Anarchy when people don't have recourse if someone comes to burn their town down. And I enjoyed how just when things were looking up for Philip, disaster stuck, but out of the disaster there was always away to make things even better. I was always rooting for him.
I read 1200 pages in six weeks and I didn't want to take a break with another book. I can see why this book is so popular and I'm glad I read it. Despite its flaws there is a lot of compelling details in this book. So I would give this book 4 out 5 overall.
Blood of Tyrants by Naomi Novik
This is the 8th out of 9 books in the Temeraire series. I really enjoyed it. I had low expectations since I read that it was weaker than the previous one. And I really loved book 7. And I'm not a huge fan of amnesia stories. But I thought it worked in this book and I was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed the first two parts about Japan and China. The book did stall for me on the Russia part - I thought the Russian practicality was conveyed well but I'm not a big fan of war writing. I had the same reaction Book 2 battle.
But the first two sections were good - and I even liked the amnesia story. It was fun to see how far Laurence had come as a character and I liked the humor of it, especially when Temeraire tried to talk about marriage to Laurence. And of course this loss of memory and Laurence trying to figure out his motivations, I feel, finally let Laurence reconcile his treason with his conscience. That was well done. In this series I do mildly ship Laurence and Tharkay - I just feel they are written with all the romantic tropes, but mildly because I don't really care that much about romance in these books, and I enjoy the canon relationships - so the whole seeing Tharkay making Laurence remember just made me chuckle ad filled me with glee. At this rate I will cross over into fanfic soon.
I'm looking forward to Book 9 but part of me is sad it will be the last one. I did get one of my coworkers into the books so I'm passing on my love for this series.
Reading now: Brief Cases by Jim Butcher - I'm really having fun with it and the short stories just remind me how much I missed these series and how I hope for the next book.
TV
Star Trek Discovery: Season 1
This series is a little slow in the beginning and loses some speed in the end. There are a lot of inconsistencies. They had such a great reveal at the end of Episode 12, but it was resolved and poorly at the end of the following episode and the series moved on. But the middle section was wonderful, especially Episode 7, which I just happened to watch on my birthday. And the characters really grew on me. I hope the show will find its voice and sticks with it in Season 2. I hope more characters will get explored - I don't remember the names of most people on the bridge. Michael is great though. I'm glad the War with Klingons story seems to be done - I'm tired of war stories. I was exploration stories from my Trek, not war stories. So overall I ended up enjoying this show enough even with all frustration. It was a very uneven season but it was also Season 1. TNG didn't hit it's strike until Season 3. I look forward to more.
Now watching Agents of Shield Season 5.
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
There were a lot of things in this book that were weird and sometimes annoying. Some sentences felt very short and choppy and just weirdly structured. I think the author was trying to do this for one character in particular. At one point a character was doing a recap of everything that happened in the previous 600 pages to her character. It was really not necessary. I just read it. the main 'mystery' about the White Ship and why characters where scared of Ellen did not live up to the hype. It just seemed silly in the end. Ellen's story seemed just weird overall. And I really didn't like the end part about Thomas Becket with Philip being present at his death. That part just felt tacked on just for the sake of including a historical episode.
That said I did enjoy this book for many of its characters and the plot. Philip and Aliena and Jack were interesting characters. I liked how Philip's flaws were clear through other people's experience. And I really liked Aliena's character journey and how she used her brain to establish herself and take care of her and her brother, although I could do without the violence. There was a lot of good details in this book. I thought it portrayed well what it was like to live through the Anarchy when people don't have recourse if someone comes to burn their town down. And I enjoyed how just when things were looking up for Philip, disaster stuck, but out of the disaster there was always away to make things even better. I was always rooting for him.
I read 1200 pages in six weeks and I didn't want to take a break with another book. I can see why this book is so popular and I'm glad I read it. Despite its flaws there is a lot of compelling details in this book. So I would give this book 4 out 5 overall.
Blood of Tyrants by Naomi Novik
This is the 8th out of 9 books in the Temeraire series. I really enjoyed it. I had low expectations since I read that it was weaker than the previous one. And I really loved book 7. And I'm not a huge fan of amnesia stories. But I thought it worked in this book and I was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed the first two parts about Japan and China. The book did stall for me on the Russia part - I thought the Russian practicality was conveyed well but I'm not a big fan of war writing. I had the same reaction Book 2 battle.
But the first two sections were good - and I even liked the amnesia story. It was fun to see how far Laurence had come as a character and I liked the humor of it, especially when Temeraire tried to talk about marriage to Laurence. And of course this loss of memory and Laurence trying to figure out his motivations, I feel, finally let Laurence reconcile his treason with his conscience. That was well done. In this series I do mildly ship Laurence and Tharkay - I just feel they are written with all the romantic tropes, but mildly because I don't really care that much about romance in these books, and I enjoy the canon relationships - so the whole seeing Tharkay making Laurence remember just made me chuckle ad filled me with glee. At this rate I will cross over into fanfic soon.
I'm looking forward to Book 9 but part of me is sad it will be the last one. I did get one of my coworkers into the books so I'm passing on my love for this series.
Reading now: Brief Cases by Jim Butcher - I'm really having fun with it and the short stories just remind me how much I missed these series and how I hope for the next book.
TV
Star Trek Discovery: Season 1
This series is a little slow in the beginning and loses some speed in the end. There are a lot of inconsistencies. They had such a great reveal at the end of Episode 12, but it was resolved and poorly at the end of the following episode and the series moved on. But the middle section was wonderful, especially Episode 7, which I just happened to watch on my birthday. And the characters really grew on me. I hope the show will find its voice and sticks with it in Season 2. I hope more characters will get explored - I don't remember the names of most people on the bridge. Michael is great though. I'm glad the War with Klingons story seems to be done - I'm tired of war stories. I was exploration stories from my Trek, not war stories. So overall I ended up enjoying this show enough even with all frustration. It was a very uneven season but it was also Season 1. TNG didn't hit it's strike until Season 3. I look forward to more.
Now watching Agents of Shield Season 5.