Butterfly Effects by Seanan McGuire

Spoiler for the end of Butterfly Effects in the review (at the end and nicely separated) for We Sing it Anyway, the novella included at the end.

I feel like I always start out reviews of books I'm not entirely sure about with something like Butterfly Effects was... interesting. It's not an entirely bad way to start a review, but I'm also not sure it's helpful.

Anyway, Butterfly Effects is basically book trying to tie up some loose ends left by the last chunk of novels, specifically those left around Mark and Artie/Arthur. It did so in a way I'm not entirely a fan of... I do so hate when a character is "held to account" by characters/societies who have absolutely zero jurisdiction and zero reason to be involved at all. That said... it was okay, I guess. It also feels really weird saying that about an InCryptid novel due to my usual enthusiasm for them and the characters.

I am very glad to see Alice settling into life after finding Thomas. I am also very glad to see Antimony and Sam living their best lives in proximity to that. I was less enthused about Johrlac society and the Kairos clinging to the outskirts of that. It was honestly whatever. The Johrlac are... honestly quite "meh," as I imagine a telepathic society ruled by queens is wont to be. Very akin to watching a movie like Ants where a main character didn't appear to break society because "individualism is better" or whatever.

The story itself was also rather "meh." I spent part of it going "okay... so Sarah's got a goal that she immediately abandons because this Kairos child shows up in the middle of it... why?" Just... that was very weird to me. Everyone else was very focused on their goals, as I would expect them to be. We also got some explanation as to why dimension-jumping is still bad, actually from a power stand-point. Made sense. Really, the point of the story was the very end, which I'm not going to spoil, but... yeah... everything is mostly tied up with a pretty neat bow. I am, as usual with InCryptid, very interested in where we go from here.

Favorite Lines

"Tomatoes are only considered a vegetable for tax purposes anyway!" - Isaac

"Lady, I know you've been out of touch for a while, but if you think I'm going to go along with that, you're absolutely out of your gun-loving, banana-shit mind." - Sam Taylor

"I think we'd all like an adult, sweetheart." - Alice Price

"That shit never worked. Not from the beginning to the end of time. Bullying your queer kid isn't going to get you a straight one. If you're lucky, it'll get you what James's dad got: a living queer kid who doesn't consider you family and will never voluntarily speak to you again." - Antimony Price

"We Sing it Anyway"

The perfect novella ending for Butterfly Effects. Things definitely nicely tied off with a bow.

I hadn't exactly wondered how Elsie was coping, but I am glad to have gotten that information. Mary and Rose are always fun to see. Of course, the "return" of the brothers was sweet. I definitely choked up as Mary affirmed Arthur/Orin.

Favorite Line

"Friends don't let friends accept new legal names from religious rodents." - Artie Harrington 

Tales from the Folly by Ben Aaronovitch

My review is broken into pieces following each individual story in the order I read them in. I read 6 of the stories contained in Tales from the Folly.

"Moment One: Nightingale — London September 1966": Basically just noting the origins of the idea of Nightingale’s Jaguar and the “birth” of Mama Thames.
 

"A Dedicated Follower of Fashion": That… was oddly compelling and then very weird all of a sudden at the end. The subject matter was honestly not my thing, but the writing was good enough to keep me engaged.
 

"The Home Crowd Advantage": I liked that one. Peter is ever the practical man. Definitely helps he didn’t gain magic until adulthood.
 

"Moment Three: Tobias Winter — Meckenheim 2012": Okay so, clearly more to “The Agreement” than I originally thought… which was that it was silly. But I guess we’ll be finding out just how that works in Moon over Soho.
 

"The Domestic": Kinda sweet, all things considered. I like that Toby’s actually being useful every once in a while.
 

"The Cockpit": Very sweet. I liked all the literary references and having a bookshop god that requires reading as a “sacrifice” is cute. 

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

This marks the beginning of my second attempt at reading through Discworld. So far, it’s gone far better than the first attempt. I actually want to read the next book, for instance.

I don’t really have a lot to say about Guards, Guards. I think it’s definitely a good jumping-on point. It’s fairly well paced. The world presented is interesting enough and works well within its own logic.

I thought Lord Vetinari’s view of the world was actually pretty spot on, if a fairly bleak way of putting it. We’re all varying degrees of “evil,” that is to say, shades of grey.

Aaand. That’s it, really. On to the next one. 

Pokopia Review

At time of writing this, it's been two weeks since Pokemon: Pokopia came out and I am definitely hooked. Seriously, all of my time not spent at work, eating, sleeping, or going to the Dallas Arboretum with my Boyfriend is spent playing Pokopia.

This game is so, so much fun. It's so cute. I love it to death. It satisfies my Pokemon, puzzling, and creative itches all at once. I've never really been a fan of battling in Pokemon, despite the fact that's pretty much the entire franchise base. Pokopia is a lovely change from all that. You can collect them all (well, 300 of them, apparently) without having to train them to do anything. They just get to vibe and be adorable in their little environments. You get to build them houses... all of this at your own pace, too, which is nice. Pokopia is really just vibes.

 I also really like the music, for the most part. Again, it's just vibes. The music isn't jarring, but rather quite peaceful... until Rotom comes in and makes things a little crazy. But then, you can collect CDs in the game and make Rotom play something more peaceful. 

If I had once complaint, it's the lack of a unified storage system. I really quite hate having to jump between "realms" to get stuff I need. The item stacking only goes up to 99 and I have approximately... oh, 20 stacks of Volcanic Ash alone from Rocky Ridges. The lack of storage labeling also sucks. Gotta open every box to find what I'm looking for and I probably have the same item in a couple different boxes because I forgot it was in another box to begin with. Just... the storage system needs work/an update.

Being a Day Two or Three player (my game arrived late), I have been taking part in the month-long Hoppip event. It's alright... I, like some other players I've seen, honestly think it's lasted too long. It's not really that big a deal. Just one more thing to collect from the Dream Islands we're looting. But hey, I guess I'll just find a place to have a field of dandelions.

I really don't have anything insightful to say about Pokopia as a game. I'm not a big "gamer," so a lot of the technicalities are lost on me. It's been a while since I was so locked into something like this.

It's also been pretty fantastic seeing what the community has been doing with their Pokopia games. The community's so creative with their builds. Pokopia is one of the most endlessly customizable games I've ever played (having completely missed out on Animal Crossing and Minecraft). I can only aspire to those levels of greatness. I'll just be over here with my simple gardens and building re-builds.

And Now... More Cute

Double DNFs

Welp, I had a pair of DNFs happen in the last week or so. Figured I'd go ahead and share my short reviews of them because why not.

 

What Abigail Did That Summer by Ben Aaronovitch


I was honestly just very, very bored with this one. I also didn't appreciate the footnotes explaining modern slang terms Abigail uses. Either don't use them at all or trust your readers to figure out what they mean on their own.

Tea & Alchemy by Sharon Lynn Fisher

Largely alright, but certain plot similarities to Twilight kept jumping out and taking me completely out of the story. That’s not to say the plot is actually following the Twilight model, just… ya know, I saw the bits and am nope-ing out.

Hit List by Laurell K. Hamilton

The reread review of the book I almost DNF'd due to Olaf being present. We begin this Hit List reread review with some chunks directly out of my notes (mostly because I don't want to rewrite the quote out).

It’s hopefully not an omen (it was) that my first note is about stupid, fucking Olaf. “Edward wanted me to encourage the attraction, because it was the closest to healthy Olaf had ever been around a woman, but we both agreed that the line between being Olaf’s serial killer girlfriend as we killed vampires together and triggering his own serial killer needs toward me, was probably a thin one.” This is gross and ya’ll just need to fucking kill the man. I don’t care how good he is at killing vampires. This is not safe in any sense and you just need to yeet Olaf off the damn planet. No. Fuck off with this.

Okay, seriously, the entire plot of this book grinds to a screeching, Olaf-shaped halt when this man is “on screen.” Edward and Anita have a literal phone conversation ✨in front of him✨ about his frigging dating habits/wants. Seriously? Ugh. No. Stop.

(End note chunk)

Olaf is clearly my main issue with Hit List. The rest of the book is mainly fine. I don’t exactly like the whole “come show me your power before I deal with you because I don't believe everything everyone else says about your metaphysical prowess” tiger bull-crap, but I’ll take it over Olaf. The action is good. I quite enjoyed the forest fight and the ending fight. I will say, too, this is not the first time nor the last where Anita has to be physically kidnapped to actually move the plot forward. So, that’s a thing I noticed this time around.

I had a note about Karlton and how she was essentially fridged. I didn’t and don’t think it’s a great look to do that to a Black woman. I had, at time of note-taking, forgotten that Karlton does show up later in the book. Her testing positive for lycanthropy does, however, set the stage for Marshals under the Preternatural Branch to be able to continue their work despite being lycanthropes, which is good overall, I think. Not super great from the Olaf standpoint of it all, but, apparently we can’t just kill him so… yeah. Also set up, not because of Karlton, is the deputizing thing. This is helpful in allowing Anita to bring along her bodyguards and "food" in the future, as well as having other characters "on-screen" more. Yay.

If you cut out the big chunks of Olaf (which I would very much like to do), Hit List is a fairly solid entry. It's always nice when the vampire hunting comes back into the picture as more than a blip or backstory.

Favorite Lines

"Then they must have already found it, because everyone looks for home in someone." - Ethan Flynn

"If you live through the disaster you still need to get groceries, do laundry. That's one of the hardest things to understand when you first get involved in violence. That once it's over the world goes on, and you have to go along with it." - Anita Blake

Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch

There is a slight spoiler for something reveal mid-book. Just a bit of a warning.

I definitely liked this one a lot more than Broken Homes. The lore especially was right up my alley. I also like Beverly Brook more than I ever did Lesley. That is not to say Lesley is a bad character, I’m just less fond of her. *shrug* But anyway, Foxglove Summer fully introduces the Fae in what I think is a rather classic but brilliant way. Although fairyland itself doesn’t have so much “screen time,” it lived up to my expectations of what we might get.

Changeling lore is usually pretty fun. Being the veteran of fantasy and mythology that I am, I clocked it pretty much from the start, or at least, upon the return of Hannah and “Nicole.” I didn’t anticipate the “Derek” of it all, but that was a nice little twist.

I think I also preferred the group of police from Leominster over the London group. They seemed much more chill and open about the whole Folly business. I’m appreciative of open-mindedness around weird things you demonstratively know are happening, rather than immediately going down the “don’t ask/don’t tell” route.

So yeah, Foxglove Summer was quite enjoyable. Good world building. Solid entry.