Bloodtraitor by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

An Apparently Spoilery Review

Originally Posted to GoodReads: May 30, 2016

THERE ARE POSSIBLY SPOILERS HERE. I DON'T REALLY CONSIDER THEM SPOILERS, BUT I'VE BEEN KNOWN TO BE WRONG. SO THERE'S YOUR WARNING.

So... I'm not sure exactly how to feel about Bloodtraitor. On the one hand, I liked the flashbacks/visions, I enjoyed the meetings setting up the fall of Midnight, I enjoyed the short references to the future of Nyeusigrube, and I liked the completely random glimpses of life outside of Midnight proper. On the other hand... Malachi was every inch the "second generation slave" he kept talking about, despite very few actions to the contrary. He was a blank slate who pretty much got shoved from one place to another so that the more major players in this little war could talk to each other. I would honestly have had a better time reading this story from someone else's point of view.

I've also come to the conclusion that The Maeve'ra Trilogy seriously suffers from being a prequel to everything but The Keisha'ra Series. The big players in those books put in appearances here but there's no tension because we all know they go on to all but star in other stories. Hell, no one even gets injured aside from the slave characters we don't even meet or care about... and the ever-boring Malachi. I honestly think there should have been a break in the first-person narrative style here to include, instead, a third-person omniscient narrative... or something. First-person just did not do this book, or perhaps even this trilogy, any favors.

I won't likely be rereading The Maeve'ra Trilogy any time soon.

Princess Ben by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Princess Ben is a semi-interesting take on both being a princess and fairytales. Ben herself isn’t the typical fairytale princess and has a rather abrupt ascension to actually having to act like one. The fairytale aspects show up now and again, but also permeate the narrative fully. Never felt like we stepped out of that realm and into our style of reality.

I find it somewhat infuriating that Ben’s princess lessons did not include matters of state. On the one hand: sexism. On the other: she’s heir apparent and should really have some schooling in matters of state as opposed to the needlework she’s clearly crap at. This is especially frustrating as Queen Sofia is running the country and is also female so… ya know, gotta love that double standard.

That’s not really the point of the story. The point, I think, is Ben finding herself as a princess. Figuring out who she wants to be as a person after losing her parents. Ben’s not super clever, nor stupid, just a girl with this weight put on her suddenly. It doesn’t help that the adults around her give her no time to mourn nor actually take any interest in her aside from molding her into who they want her to be. It’s entirely reasonable that Ben would act out the way she did.

I was amused by the magic book and its refusal to allow Ben to learn any more unless the room was completely clean. I do wonder if she ever went back to finish that particular job… it’s not mentioned in the coda. Anyway, it’s clear Ben knows exactly what she needs to know from the book anyway.

The ending was alright. Everything’s ostensibly tied up with bows even though nothing is absolutely perfect forever. That message was a fairly nice one to have included, even if it’s overshadowed by the bows.

I’m not really sure there’s much more I can say about Princess Ben. It was an enjoyable, mostly rollicking adventure.

This Was Supposed To Be Fun

Alternative Titles For This Post Are As Follows:

You Don't Have to Monetize Everything

I Just Craft For Funzies

Being Good At Beginner Craft Kits Does Not Mean I Should Start an Etsy

Stop Telling Us to Sell Our Crafts

So, I have recently become enamored with needle felting. I finally bought a kit and made a little dinosaur dude and then used the kit leftovers to make another slightly different one. These were Mr. Derp and Beatrice.

My boyfriend requested I turn Beatrice into a keychain for him. So I did. He took this to work and I received a text telling me that one of his coworkers thought it was cute and that she thinks I should start an Etsy. My response to this... "ma'am, that's a beginner project and you should maybe look up needle felting on Etsy to see why this little monster-thingy is unimpressive."

I have been unpacking this response to myself all morning.

It really feels like that's a kind of rude response. Or maybe a humble one if you look at it from a certain angle. I'm not sure. But like, I'm also not wrong. But also, I feel like this is a response that a lot of non-crafty people have been giving me my entire life... and also some crafty people, like my mom. But also... I craft specifically for fun and relaxation and I don't really want to get into selling the things I make. I will occasionally make custom Christmas gifts for my family but... not every year because making even that amount of things just starts feeling like a chore after a while. I'm not into crafting for the mass production side of things.

I feel like people whose response to any type of crafting is "You should start an Etsy" think that's a compliment but I feel like it's closer to the "Oh, you'd make such a great mom" kind of thing you get while babysitting. It feels like I'm being threatened with more than I can take on. You don't understand how much goes into things like Etsy stores and it's frankly more than I feel like I can or want to take on. The same way I can be a good babysitter but having my own child is just... no thank you. Do not want. I don't know if I'm the only one who feels this way, but there it is.

I'm also not going to lie, I've also said "You should start an Etsy" to my mom. She's been trying to get me and my sisters into crafting since we were kids. We come from a long line of crafters, so this is not weird. I've done cross-stitch, drawing, painting, and now needle felting. My mom spent most of my childhood cross-stitching and now crochets a lot. And I mean, a lot. She made a friend of mine a plush in the five days I was at her house. We all got crocheted things for Christmas the last couple of years. She made my dad a Granny Bael plush for his in-person author appearances. It makes sense to me that she should start an Etsy with just the sheer amount of stuff she makes. Not a thing, though.

"Etsy takes too much money from crafters. I won't "get an Etsy" or purchase from there." - My Mom

As a person who only occasionally shops on Etsy and isn't actually a part of any crafting communities, I don't know a lot about how Etsy actually works. I know they give you a space to sell your stuff and take some fees off the top. I have been hearing lately, though, that they've been charging too many fees for a lot of makers to continue using the platform. (My mom's quote came after I wrote this paragraph) That and figuring out shipping and things is a big reason for me not to start an Etsy. Again, I have no idea how any of that actually works, but I don't want to sell my stuff anyway so... much shrugging.

That brings me to another point: I craft for me and not for anyone else. Crafting, for me, is strictly a hobby. I don't do it very often and when I do, it's usually either something I wanted or a gift for a family member. Crafting is fun for me. It scratches a creative itch I can't get relief for anywhere else. I really feel like turning it into a side-hustle would leech the fun out of it. I don't want to leech the fun out of me leisure time, thank you. Even making a largish number of gifts for Christmas will often turn me off from doing it. It's just... let it be a damn hobby. We're living in a Capitalist nightmare world of "make money off everything you do" and it really just needs to stop.

I don't even make money off this blog! That's not to say I haven't tried. Google doesn't think my content is "high brow" enough. I don't do sponsorships because a) never been offered and b) I do this blog for fun and c) making it not fun means I stop doing it. I read or play or watch and share my opinions. That's it. For fun in my off hours.

I guess that's really my point with all this: if it's not fun, I'm gonna stop doing it. I put in my 40 hrs a week at an objectively not fun job. That's enough not fun for me. I gotta rest at some point and crafting helps me do that.

So basically: Stop telling crafters to get an Etsy.

Collegium Chronicles Series Overview

 Collegium Chonicles by Mercedes Lackey

This post will contain spoilers for Collegium Chronicles and previous Valdemar series on the timeline. You have been warned.

I had read someone's review of Foundation where someone said Mercedes Lackey was rewriting Harry Potter due to similarities between Mags and Harry and kind of the plot. (This was after I'd read Foundation) Though there are a few similarities in Foundation, Collegium Chronicles is definitely not Harry Potter rewritten for Valdemar. To begin with, the story takes a turn for the very dark very quickly. Mags is by no means a Harry type character. Mags is way more clever and thoughtful and actually athletic than Harry ever was. There is also Kirball, which I felt was much more fun to read than Quidditch and was definitely different from Quidditch. For one thing, all the players are actually engaged with the game at all times rather than having a Seeker off to one side trying to find the Snitch. That's pretty much where the Harry Potter similarities end. The additional characters don't even have one-to-one analogues once you get past Bear and Lena being male and female like Ron and Hermione are. Would I recommend Collegium Chronicles to Harry Potter fans? Yes, depending on the age of the Harry Potter fan. Like I said, Collegium Chronicles gets real dark, real fast.

I really feel like Collegium Chronicles is really an extended prequel to Herald Spy (which I have not read yet). There's not a lot that goes on that doesn't add to Mags' ongoing accumulation of skills. Even Mags' small circuit run had very little in the way of actual Herald training. We actually don't get a lot of Herald training for Mags. He's mostly either catching up in academic classes or running around for Herald Nikolas doing the spy training thing... and of course the kidnapping situation in Redoubt. Mags will clearly not be a traditional Herald and so getting too into the weeds about traditional Herald training would have been a little silly. Add to all this the fact that technically, due to how new the Collegium is, Mags is technically getting a more "traditional" round of training. He's taken under the wing of a Herald as an apprentice rather than being stuck in a classroom all the time.

Collegium Chronicles has a large focus on the lasting trauma that Mags suffered throughout his early life. There's not a book that goes by where Mags doesn't look back on dwell some on his life in the mines. I honestly found this a little annoying, but I realize through my own dealings with trauma (nowhere near the level Mags or others have gone through)  that trauma does color your life in ways you might not think about. It does make sense that Mags would keep coming back to it over and over again. One thing about this I found lacking though, was the hammering down of how old Mags is actually supposed to be at any given point. The timeline of Collegium Chronicles seems to take place over about three to four years, but I'm not even sure on that count. I assume by the end that Mags would be about 18, maybe? It's really hard to pin down, especially because of the pseudo-renaissance-y society that Valdemar has at this point... after all, Lena and Bear get into a huge kerfuffle about getting married when they did due in part to their age. I feel like the age thing is important here, because Mags' whole life before becoming a Herald Trainee was the mine and it would be nice to know how long that actually was.

All of the secondary characters in the Collegium Chronicles are very secondary. We get a little bit more of Bear and Lena during Foundation, but after that, they're just sort of floating in the background. Given how much stress was put on Master Sorenson during Foundation, I thought that group of high-born people was going to have more of an impact on Mags' life... they did not. We barely get any more Lydia after that and the focus definitely shifts toward Amily. Amily's characterization is mostly done through stressing how she's her father's daughter and really more into the research side of things. She is shown to be adaptable after the surgery to fix her leg and kind of becoming Bear's assistant during Bastion. Nikolas actually ends up with more characterization than anyone else. He is at the forefront of Mags' training and Mags seems to spend more time around Nikolas than pretty much anyone else besides Dallen. Dallen himself is actually my second favorite Companion after Yfandes. He's just a generally fun-loving Companion who has zero problems throwing shade when he feels it necessary.

I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention the Kirball team. Gennie and Jeffers were probably the most active in terms of the narrative. They're also literally the only two I can actually remember off the top of my head. I liked Gennie a lot. She was a solid team captain and has a good head on her shoulders. I'm glad the Kirball team came together around Mags a few times, trying to shield him from the whole "foreigner" issue during Intrigues and from being overwhelmed when he returned from his kidnapping at the beginning of Bastion.

Other characters of note are of course Lita, Jakyr, Franse, Reaylis, and Bey. Lita and Jakyr serve as the adults in charge of Mags' circuit run. That's really where we get to know Jakyr even though he was the Herald that helped Dallen get Mags in Foundation. He, like Lita, are kind of in the background the entire time, but like, way in the background. I really enjoyed Franse and Reaylis. I gushed over Reaylis in my Redoubt review so I won't go back into that here. Bey was an interesting addition at the end of Bastion. I think he largely served the purpose of getting Mags some assassin training without actually having to train Mags to be an assassin. I feel like Bey's assassin skills would be super applicable to spying. I mean, clearly, as Bey spied on Mags and friends the entire time they were at the Bastion. I do wonder how much of Bey's spying got him in turn spied on by the vrondi... he did not seem bothered, so... I don't know. That whole situation was just odd.

I also noticed a few things about magic in Valdemar that were interesting, to say the least. Reading through these books in chronological order has me questioning how quickly Valdemar seems to have forgotten things over the years. It's also a tad weird, because (according to the Valdemar Wiki) it's only been about 50-some odd years since Vanyel died. It just seemed really weird to me that things like Mages and the magic they wielded would have faded into obscurity so quickly. The Heralds of Mags' time rely solely on whatever mind-magic they might have and don't seem to have any curiosity as to, for instance, Vanyel's magic would have worked. I know that all the Herald Mages were basically killed off with Vanyel, but I find it really odd that Valdemar has absolutely no mages anymore, at least not until Elspeth in the Heralds of Valdemar series. I probably shouldn't be surprised that the information has been lost and turned into heresay so quickly, but I am and it's sad. I guess the combination of Stefan and the Companions really did a number on the information about magic being more common place. The fact that the Companions are semi-actively discouraging their chosen from even trying to delve into magic or the potential of the Mage Gift probably helped all this along. We see Dallen just be like "it doesn't matter" when Bey unwittingly gives a bit of this kind of info to Mags... and of course no one knows what's going on with the Magic Stone focus thing-y holding the Herald Web together. Companions are a bit sus, man; I do not approve.

Overall I really do feel like Collegium Chronicles is a prequel to Herald Spy. Mags is getting his training and managing to set up both support and information networks. There isn't really a strict progression of one year to the next, which does make sense given how Companions end up deciding when to choose their partners. I'm not sure how I feel about the ending to Collegium Chronicles. I feel like it'll just bleed into Herald Spy, but I guess I'll have to start that and see.

Bastion by Mercedes Lackey

A Spoiler Free Review

Bastion is actually where Mags gets a 99% normal “year” training to be a Herald. I rather enjoyed this one, though it doesn’t actually feel like a finale at all. Not that those things are mutually exclusive, but… yeah. Bastion had Mags and friends headed out on Circuit for that last bit of training they all needed… and for a change in Mags’ identity apparently.

I know that most of the Heralds series are either duologies or trilogies and The Collegium Chronicles is the longest series. However, that really doesn’t mean we can’t remember the important bits of what happened in the last four books. There were several instances of straight-up text-lifting in order to refresh us on Mags’ memories. As soon as I realized this, I skipped them wholesale. I feel like, had I read them, they would have dragged the momentum of the current story down.

I was not expecting Lita to be the “other person” added to Mags’ band during Circuit. I like that Jakyr had someone he knew well to bounce off of and Lita turned out to be a good addition overall. I also feel like Jakyr got some more fleshing out here, which was good because most everyone else is still fairly flat. The story isn’t really about Bear, Lena, Amily, or the adults, but it would have been nice for more of their personalities to come through. I think Lena barely did anything in Bastion worth her actually being there, to be completely honest.

I was pleasantly surprised to see an empty Tayledras Vale. I would have thought there might be more of those dotted around Valdemar, but I guess not. I was also actually surprised that Jakyr had met some Tayledras. Guess at least one Herald a generation is their quota.

On another note: the Companions are apparently burying even the very idea of magic and mages. Dallen telling Mags “it doesn’t matter” during Bey’s little sharing session confirms that. On the one hand, this makes sense as there apparently weren’t any Mages born between Vanyel and what’s-her-face-Princess-something… On the other hand, I feel like it puts Valdemarans at a disadvantage to cultures that have more than mind-magic to go on, like the Tayledras and Karsites. Just in The Collegium Chronicles we have the Heralds being completely in the dark about the vrondi and that was actually kind of important but reduced to a footnote.

Speaking of Bey, he is easily the most well rounded secondary character of the lot. He’s clearly got a personality on him that vaguely clashes with his assassin thing. I liked him a lot.

Bastion was an alright end to an alright series. Definitely went out with less of a bang than I maybe thought it might. I dunno, I enjoyed it overall.

Favorite Lines

:Yes, well, civility is an art form not practiced nearly enough,: Dallen observed

"The person who throws his weapon at the enemy is an idiot. A few moments after that, he will be a dead idiot." - Mags

Pocket Apocalypse by Seanan McGuire

A Spoiler Free Review

I honestly spent a good portion of Pocket Apocalypse being very, very annoyed in the direction of Riley Tanner and the members of the Thirty-Six Society who agreed with him. I have never been a fan of people who ignore the advice of experts in their midst or those men who think they actually have a say in who their daughters end up marrying. Pocket Apocalypse had both of these things and it bugged the ever-living-hell out of me.

It was quite interesting to see Lycanthropy actually treated as a disease, although clearly not as fatal as Alex and the Prices thought. I'm also interested in the concept of rhino lycanthropes... it's not often at all that herbivores end up as a lycanthropy strain in any universe.

I'm not sure how to feel about Shelby's family. They're much more dedicated to security than the Prices (as evidenced by Dominic not getting the third degree in the short story "My Last Name" (available on Seanan McGuire's website)). Not sure I agree with how crazy they are about it, though. Also the fact that Riley kept calling Alex "Covenant Boy" the entire time... I very much dislike how hostile Riley is toward Alex. I get it, he's the dude fucking your daughter and you don't approve. Get over it. He's here to help, as he keeps saying. Ugh.

The Thirty-Six Society was semi-interesting, as secret cyrptozoologist societies go. They really seemed more like doomsday preppers than cryptozoologists. I guess that kind of makes sense, given Australia and all. I dunno, they were largely just kind of around as camouflage for the werewolves and additions to the Alex bashing.

Basil is my new favorite Cryptid. He's pretty awesome and I hope he gets all the Tim Tams he wants. Seems like he deserves them.

I got a little teary eyed reading the final battle. Like, good tears or the happy variety. Something about the entire family teaming up in that last moment with help from Dr. Jalali... it just made me happy.

So anyway, I very much enjoyed Pocket Apocalypse as a whole... once I got past the Alex bashing. It was fairly entertaining and the antagonist didn't come out of nowhere this time, so that was nice.

Favorite Lines

"Hello," she said. "Have you heard the good word of Wadjet, Protector of Egypt and great snake of the Milky Way?" - Dr. Helen Jalali

"I think you'll find that when you're looking for a patron goddess to consume your eternal soul and save you from the fires of your current religion's afterlife, Wadjet is absolutely the best choice available." - Dr. Helen Jalali

"No one's kidnapping a priest," scolded Charlotte [Tanner]. "It's rude to abduct the clergy."

Short Reviews Batch 6

Omens by Kelley Armstrong
A Spoiler Free Review

Originally Posted to GoodReads: May 15, 2016

The opening book to Kelley Armstrong's new Cainsville series was pretty darn spectacular for an opening. There were intriguing characters, a nice mystery, and some twists on "powers." I very much enjoyed "Omens," so much so that I was up until 2 AM reading last night and spent most of my morning reading as well.

"Omens" really ramps up toward the end, though it is by no means slow getting where it's going. There are intriguing mysteries set up that will carry through the series, some introduced right at the end, which was a surprise.

I will happily follow Olivia, Gabriel, and the rest of Cainsville into the events Olivia has apparently launched herself into.

A Wizard Abroad by Diane Duane
A Ridiculously Short ReRead Review

Originally Posted on GoodReads: May 30, 2018

I'm pretty sure this book is why I was so disappointed reading Crimson Death by Laurel K. Hamilton. You get a really good feel for Ireland in this book. Not to mention the story is really good.

Half-Off Ragnarok by Seanan McGuire

A Spoiler Free Review

A snake, a snake
Snaaake! A snaaaake
Oooh, it's a snake

Sorry, couldn't help myself. Had that stuck in my head as the beginning of this review since I started reading this afternoon. Half-Off Ragnarok is filled to bursting with snake cryptids, most of them sapient. It was actually a lot more fun that I had originally thought upon starting my read.

I enjoyed getting to know Alex and the Bakers. Alex isn't nearly as outgoing as Verity, but he definitely knows how to handle himself, so that was good. I find it a little odd that he's as bad a liar as he's made out to be, but we don't really see that, only hear about it from other characters. Angela Baker's probably my favorite of the extended family aside from Sarah and I'm immeasurably glad she's looking after Sarah. I mean, having adopted Sarah in the first place, I would assume that'd be the case, but still... I like her and I'm glad she's around.

Of the other new characters introduced, I definitely loved Chandi right off. Yeah, she's entitled and all, but I like spunky little girls who take no shit and give plenty of it back. I liked Dee from the beginning. Not much to say about her character though, she's there and likeable enough. Shelby though... I really did not like Shelby for the first third of the book. I wrote my initial notes about her right before she was revealed to be a fellow cryptozoologist... she just rubbed me the wrong way with how she treated Alex and her views on relationships. Sorry, but the view of "Any woman in the world will tell you that one date cancelled is too many" is both barf-inducing and patently untrue. Shelby did grow on me some over the course of the book. I like that she's so delighted by cryptids and takes Alex's lead in situations where he clearly knows more than she does. And that's not a sexist thing. It's smart to follow the lead of people who you know, know more than you do.

The story itself was a semi-interesting who-done-it. I always like seeing cultures that don't exactly match up with our own and Half-Off Ragnarok had that in spades. At least three differing cultures (assuming you count the "fringe" gorgons as different than the main ones) on display here, not including the Price/Baker family dynamic. The who-done-it villain, though I won't say who it is, was basically an incel/boomer cross, which, ya know, was fun, I guess. The motivations on them were... yeah, just a lot of anger at everyone and everything and definitely came from the most hinged of minds. Most definitely.

But anyway, Half-Off Ragnarok was surprisingly hard to put down. I'm not sure why I found that surprising, but I do. Seanan McGuire's work has an almost Netflix-like quality to it, in that you just want to keep going and going as long as there are words on a page. It's really no different here and there are less divisions in the narrative than the first two Incryptid books had, so that almost adds to that feeling. I did finish Half-Off Ragnarok in less than a week so... yeah. Pretty dang good.

Favorite Lines

"I'll never understand the human idea that children are invariably more valuable than adults," said Dee. "If you have twenty adults and twenty children, and half of them are going to die, you can't save just the kids. They'd starve to death."

"The world could end, and anything morphologically feline would find a way to take a nap." - Alex Price

"The natural world has a place for everything. It's just that some of those things make me think that Nature isn't very fond of people." - Martin Baker

"Tweed is a lifestyle choice," - Alex Price

"Rules only matter if everyone understands them, agrees to them, and can be trusted not to break them. Bearing those irrefutable facts in mind, rules never matter at all." - Thomas Price

"a sulking sister, rewarded for her efforts, will proceed to push her sulking to ever-greater heights, until an entire platoon of pigeons could perch on her out-thrust lower lip." - Alex Price

"Being smart isn't good enough. You need to be educated, and you need to be open-minded, and you need to remember that what you don't know can most definitely hurt you." - Martin Baker

And A Video If You Didn't Understand My Opening Lines

 

Redoubt by Mercedes Lackey

A Spoiler Free Review

So, Redoubt was interesting. I honestly thought Mags might end up having a somewhat normal year, for once. Boy was I wrong. Should have known. Halfway through, we’re suddenly thrown from Mags’ rather comfy “normal” life straight into fever dreams and a survival story. Wasn’t exactly badly done, but definitely an abrupt change.

It is also the Year of Weddings! Opening with Lydia and Prince Sedric’s wedding, which sounded like quite the spectacle, actual small wedding aside. Followed several weeks? (It is a little hard to tell time in these books.) later by Lena and Bear getting hitched. That was even more interesting and I really wish a) we actually knew exactly how old these kids are and b) we got every bit of Bear’s father’s crazy-pants rant. I’m assuming the “kids” are at least 16, probably, but I’m definitely not sure as it’s never stated anywhere. Aaaand I have a perverse fascination with listening to unhinged people rant and then get their comeuppance… makes for fun (if often enraging) reading.

Kirball was yet another fun bit of reading. A lot going on during Kirball and a tad confusing at times to follow, but still definitely my favorite fictional sport. I would never play it, but it sounds fun to watch. They need commentators.

Now we jump to the second half of the book where Mags spends a good chunk of time in fever dreams. Flashback-y fever dreams that honestly had me wanting to just stop reading because we’ve been over and over and over Mags’ past in Cole Pieter’s mine. Four books later essentially being back there was kind of annoying. Here’s hoping Mags is well over that part of his past now.

I actually enjoyed the survival bit with Mags trekking through what turned out to be Karse. It was a lot more fun than the survival bit in The Silver Gryphon. Maybe that’s because it was just Mags with no other crazy threats involved. I dunno.

And then we meet Reaylis and Franse. I loooove Reaylis. He’s a pretty perfect example of a talking cat and we know I love talking cats. Franse is… well he’s there. He’s alright as a character, but not anything super special. Their bit of the story was also enjoyable. I like Suncats as a concept.

The last part of the story reveals a bit more about the society Mags’ parents came from. It sounds to me like an Eastern-based society, just based on a couple of the names. Other than that, still a mystery to the reader, and Mags. Guess we’ll find out in Bastion.

So yeah, Redoubt ended up being much more action-packed than I was expecting. Was definitely not expecting a look into Karse. And, uh, yeah. Looking forward to Bastion.

Favorite Quotes

:Cats do what cats will do, and neither man nor god can do anything about it.: - Reaylis

The cat paused. :What always happens when religion goes to the bad?: the cat replied, and resumed his grooming. :Power. The love of power overcomes the love of the gods. Priests stop listening for the voice in their hearts and souls—which is very, very hard to hear even at the best of times—and start to listen only to what they wish to hear or to the voice of their own selfish desires. Priests begin to believe that they, and not the gods, are the real authorities. Priests confine broad truths into narrow doctrines, because more rules mean that they have more power. Priests mistake their own prejudice for conscience and mistake what they personally fear for what should universally be feared. Priests look inward to their own small souls and try to impress that smallness on the world, when they should be looking at the greatness of the universe and trying to impress that upon their souls. Priests forget they owe everything to their gods and begin to think the world owes everything to them . . . : the cat stopped, and shook his head. :Power is a poison. Priests should know better than to indulge in it. But once they do, you stop having those who wish to serve becoming priests, and you start seeing those who wish to be served becoming priests, and the rot sets in. It started to happen long ago here as humans reckon time.: 

:Gods do not sweep in and fix things. You are not children to be saved. You must save yourselves.: - Reaylis

That was the choice: to lie down and be abused, or stand up and refuse to be abused and throw the abusers out. Lying down and taking it never worked anyway; you might suffer and die if you fought, but you were going to suffer and die regardless, and at least the suffering and dying part would be shorter if you fought.

    :So you see.: The cat nodded. :It’s not punishment for allowing this to happen. It’s the consequence of allowing this to happen. It’s the consequence of cowardice, of apathy, of giving up. The two things are very different.: - Mags and Reaylis  

Special Edition

 It's always fun to have a special edition of a book. Observe:

That's my brand new copy of Magic for Nothing by Seanan McGuire. Just a random misprint. Thought I'd share.

Groot pants from MeUndies. Not sponsored, but highly recommend.

Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire

A Spoiler-Free Review

I loved Midnight Blue-Light Special so much, I'm not even sure I have the words to articulate it. There were distinct Buffy, Season 7 vibes mixed with Seanan McGuire's unique brand of mythology and just the right amount of anxiety running throughout. I love pretty much all of McGuire's characters, although Sarah and Istas really stood out this time around. Partially because Sarah got to carry the story for a bit and Istas... Istas is the next best thing to a talking cat, which is saying something because I love me a talking cat.

So first, I really like my brain's version of how Kitty turned he uncle's strip-joint into Freakshow. I just loved that idea and would definitely visit myself if given the chance. Also, Kitty kind of amuses me. Her dress-sense is just the best contrast with her attitude. Chef's kiss. I also really love how she decided to turn Freakshow into a safe-house. Definitely a contrast her her uncle.

I also quite liked Verity turning her own safe-house into a safe-house for more than just herself, Sarah, Mike, and the mice. It was honestly that, that gave me the Buffy, Season 7 vibes. Just random cryptids showing up for safety's sake. Not actually, though, because it was ultimately only Sunil and Rochak, but still. I enjoyed Uncle Mike. Nice to know that the Gucciard family is still around and kicking. They're introduced in the short stories that are largely available on Seanan McGuire's website and I highly recommend reading those if you're enjoying this series.

Sarah's chapters in Midnight Blue-Light Special were interesting. I'm glad we got a good look at how she thinks in order for her fate at the end to really pack more of a punch. Like, I enjoyed Sarah in Discount Armageddon, but she's largely seen as an aloof nerd by Verity. Getting to see how she thinks and experiences the world did more to fully realize her than anything we got in the last book. And I know you're probably going "well duh, cuz that's what being a main POV character does" but I'm also having a bit of trouble actually saying what I mean about Sarah. She's definitely more than an aloof nerd and actually a lot more insecure than I think Verity gives her credit for.

As fun a running around with the Price family is, I do actually kind of want to see some of this stuff from a Covenant perspective. I feel like The Covenant isn't as fleshed out as it could be, or maybe even should be. Just going off of Margaret Healy's reaction to Verity... they're really fucked up. Like, really fucked up and I'd weirdly like to see just how that level of fucked-up-ed-ness comes into being. But maybe not. I don't know. The InCryptid universe is just so different than your run of the mill fantasy universe and just seeing how the denizens of it outside The Covenant function make me question how The Covenant actually functions. Maybe I just have questions. I dunno. Religious zealots of all kinds make me angry so... I just don't know.

Speaking of The Covenant, Dominic has a bit of a crisis here. However, it's supremely uninteresting to me. I had zero doubts about Dominic's ultimate loyalty. Just... bleh. Probably the only thing about Midnight Blue-Light Special I didn't enjoy. Dominic was kind of amusing in the last book, but here... just nah. He's boring and one-note.

Midnight Blue-Light Special was definitely an enjoyable read. I'm so very glad it lived up to an expanded on everything Discount Armageddon started. I didn't really have any doubts about that, but... ya know, sequels and all that. Also, on a slightly separate note: I like how the narrative is divided into smaller chunks. Makes it a bit of an easier toilet-read, if I'm being completely honest. But yeah. Loved Midnight Blue-Light Special. Istas is the best.

Favorite Quotes

"If wishes were horses, we'd have a way easier time feeding the chupacabras." - Verity Price

Not a quote, I just like the term: "Pantheistic Cryptid Mouse Dream House"

"There have been rumors which indicate that a sewer kraken may be making its home dowtown. I would enjoy the opportunity to battle something with that many limbs." - Istas

    "I was unaware the telepathic girl possessed a temper. This is pleasing. Temperamental people are more likely to participate in carnage.

    "Sweetie, what have we talked about?" asked Ryan.

    Now it was Istas' turn to sigh. "Humans are discomforted by excessive discussion of their squishy interiors."

    "Which means...?"

    "No referencing carnage more than once in a single conversation."

    "As the dominant human in the room, that rule is hereby suspended until we get my niece back," announced Uncle Mike.

"Vengeance carnage is often satisfying, but it takes longer to perform properly than the kind which does not require a death to begin." - Istas

"If we encounter heretics while on the search for our brave Priestess, we will smite them down wuth the Fury of a Thousand Angry Rolling Pins!" squeaked the mouse.

All Just Glass by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

A Reread Review

Originally Posted to GoodReads: May 11, 2017

On first read, I didn't like this one. Didn't like it at all.

On second read, I figured out why:

This book is all over the place, no least of which because the characters are dealing with losing a family member. Also, there are just too many characters to keep adequate track of. Adia, Sarah, Zachary, Jay, Dominique, Christine, Heather, Kaleo, Kristopher, Nikolas, Kendra, etc... Just so many. So many differing viewpoints that the actual story gets rather lost.

The resolution... it's too quick. Too quick and too utterly easy. Everything just seems to collapse around two moments and then it's sort of explained what actually happened in the epilogue. I didn't feel connected to anyone in that room aside from Sarah and Jay and that's because of the previous and future books. There was no emotional resonance with any of the other characters. No real sense of relief. Too easy and too quick.

All that said, seeing the dissolution of the "Vida perfection" was nice. But that's all it was. We didn't really spend enough time with any Vidas besides Sarah and maybe, maybe Zachary but I wasn't at all invested in him so it ended up not mattering so much. Granted, there also aren't any other Vidas besides Dominique and Adia to try to connect to and I just don't to either of them.

It would have been nice to get maybe two books instead of this one or a longer book. Really deal with what was going on with the characters and Dominique's past, which is barely alluded to and barely explained and yet is really the lynch-pin to how the book ends up.

Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire

2023 Reread Review

Spoiler Free

I did a very short review on my first read that basically consisted of “it was good” and “I look forward to the next one,” which is still true. I had a lot of fun rereading Discount Armageddon. The book itself is currently serving as my mousepad while I’m on vacation.

I find Verity an interesting protagonist. She’s got a sort of Buffy mentality to monster — sorry, Cryptid — fighting and having some sort of life on the side. I like her no-nonsense approach and her curiosity. It also helps that she’s an athletic person to begin with. There are just too many “hey, I’m the protagonist but I don’t actually do much in the way of exercise but I look fantastic and have great fighting stamina” protagonists out there. Verity is not one of them.

I found Dominic’s progression from monster killer to more tolerant dude really quick. I believe Verity seconds that a few times in the book by looking at him askance. He’s an alright character, but he is honestly quite blank.

I love all the Cryptids. I find it really interesting that a lot of them are therianthropes rather than just critters. The pseudoscience that McGuire puts into them is pretty well thought out, if wacky. But hey, Cryptids are pretty wacky to begin with so… much hand-waving. I definitely enjoyed the change from the bog-standard vamps and witches.

Discount Armageddon was quite fun. Loved the mix of humor and action. Loved the characters. Loved the Cryptids. Just a lot of fun overall.

Favorite Quotes

"There's no such thing as a normal life. Some lives are just more interesting than others, and we shouldn't judge people for being boring." - Evelyn Baker

"We all make mistakes. Luckily for us, there are very few mistakes that can't be solved with a suitable application of either lipstick or hand grenades." - Frances Brown

"When all else fails, put on a fresh coat of lip gloss and pretend you have no idea what that horrible thing that just went running down Main Street was. A surprisingly large number of people will believe you." - Frances Brown

"If you interfere in any manner with our continued survival, I will play skipping games with your intestines while wearing your lungs as a hat." - Istas