Miss Ellicott's School for the Magically Minded by Sage Blackwood

Miss Ellicott’s School for the Magically Minded is alright, I guess. It’s not exactly bad and not exactly good. It has a certain atmosphere that I enjoyed, but the story just wasn’t awesome.

Miss Ellicott’s is told from the point of view of a 13 year old who basically knows nothing about the society she lives in or anything about the history of the place. It shows. It’s in-built into the plot that this is eventually reversed, through stumbling through the bureaucracy and onto a hidden/lost library. Honestly, Chantel does a lot of stumbling around and not a lot of reasoning, which is what bugged me, I think. She also doesn’t have much of an inner voice, either, so I think it was hard to get into her as a character.

I liked the whole concept of Lightning. A snake familiar who can turn into a dragon if you let it grow with you so you end up influencing each other, essentially. I did find it weird that there weren’t any other familiars present or mentioned… probably another thing that bothered me. This magic system is just very airy and full of “wha huh?” The magic system is not the point but also not explained very well at all.

Miss Ellicott’s was kinda cute and engaging enough for me to get through it. I might have enjoyed it when I was younger, but… yeah. It’s very solidly in the “okay” column.

Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs

A Spoiler Free Reread Review

Blood Bound was pretty good. I’m not nearly as high on it as I was on first read, but it’s still really good. I had a hard time putting it down at points. I feel like the Mercy Thompson world is very lived-in. It feels very real. Lots of moving pieces that don’t just stop moving because Mercy isn’t “on screen.”

I’m not super into this love quadrangle Mercy seems to have found herself in, through no real fault of her own. I don’t think we needed to add Stefan to the mix, having Samuel around already was enough. That said, Mercy isn’t as confused or even questioning like most female protagonists in these things, so that’s a welcome change.

Here we get a distinction between what Mercy is and the Skinwalkers of Native folklore/religion. I’m glad there is a clear distinction because Mercy is definitely not a Skinwalker. To that point, I feel like Mercy needs to sit down with Stefan and make him tell her what he knows about her abilities. He keeps saying things to her about her abilities that she doesn’t even know.

I really appreciate that Mercy’s fairly practical. Vampire Sorcerer who would definitely kill me? No thanks, think I’ll stay home and let other people deal with it. Well, until she basically get baited into going after Littleton via Marsilia. I’m glad it took Mercy a little while to figure out her ghost thing, since she’s so not used to actually using it actively. I’m even glad it took her a while to figure out the mystery of where Littleton was and all that. She’s a mechanic, not a detective and it shows in a good way.

I thinking bringing up the issue of young, untrained, attacked werewolves, especially female ones, was an interesting addition to the book and lore. Blood Bound has a lot of trauma in it. Mercy’s trauma with the sorcerer, Samuel’s trauma with his girlfriend in Texas and the car crash that made him remember it… I also think Mercy was the best person Tom Black could have come to about his daughter. I feel like she was most likely to tell it how it actually is, rather than lying or upselling anything. That he was more integral to the plot was a little bit of a surprise, but done pretty well.

I like that we get a bit more about the Fae. Mainly about how they’re not actually as powerful as Mercy thinks but also that they’re a lot closer to extinction than anyone would have guessed.

So, I’ve read a lot of vampire books over the years and in every universe, vampires are different. Even our own mythological vampires are very different depending on which you’re looking at. I find Mercy’s mantra of “Vampires are evil” a little bit hilarious because of this. Overall, the reason vampires are “evil” is because they’re pretty much just people with a few extras tacked on. It’s not usually the bloodlust that makes vampires “evil,” it’s the people-y-ness. People are capable of a lot of bad and when you essentially take away the governance that keeps us in check, we get worse. That’s vampires. Vampires are “evil” because people are “evil.” On a slightly separate note: these are the slowest reproducing vampires ever. I’m glad we basically got an info dump from Stefan’s menagerie. Good to have as much info about the people we’re dealing with as possible.

I really, really appreciate that killing vampires doesn’t come super naturally to Mercy. I feel like that initial period of killing vamps gets completely skipped over in most, if not all, cases of vampire hunters. Either that, or the hunters are already super cool with just taking out vamps left and right. Not so with Mercy, and I’m glad of it.

I don’t really have a conclusion to this thing. Blood Bound was a good sequel and I’m on to the next one.

Favorite Lines

"Never thank a fae or you'll be washing his socks and paying his rent before you can say effluvia ten times." - Uncle Mike

"Look. The wooden stake thing works, but it's better if it's oak, ash, or yew. And if you kill them that way, you have to cut off their heads or burn the body to make sure they stay dead. Remember, a dead vampire is ashes. If there's body, it'll come back -- and it'll come back angry with you. Cutting off their heads is pretty good, but difficult. They're not likely to stand around and wait for the chainsaw. Sunlight's good, too. But the stake and sunlight, they're like kicking a guy in the balls, you know?" - Rachel

"Dracula, he isn't, but where there's werewolves, there certainly ought to be vampires." - Gabriel Sandoval

The Vampire Post

I was making a paragraph-long note for Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs while I was reading today (7-27-23) about vampires. The note kind of got stuck in my head and so this post was born. This is part rant, part character study, part blather, part me gushing. There will probably be spoilers for a lot of things... I'll go ahead and list them before the next paragraph after I actually finish writing this thing.

Spoilers For: Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries (TV Show)

I've read a lot of books that are about or include vampires. My favorite media properties also include vampires. Basically, if there are vampires, I'm at least going to check it out. Vampires are my favorite mythical creature outside of unicorns, which I collect. Vampires are just so darn interesting and come in all sorts of flavors. Every book series or media property has their own take and possibly even multiple takes on vampires. Everything from monstrous, barely human revenants to the ones you wouldn't even know were vampires at all if you weren't told and everything in between. And yes, even the sparkly ones count.

What really sent me down this rabbit hole this time was that Mercy Thompson, the main character of Blood Bound and where the series gets its name, keeps saying that vampires are evil. Over and over again. My note for that review was basically that vampires are evil because they're humans with a bit extra. No matter what form they're found in, vampires always start as humans... well... Bunnicula is a rabbit, but I haven't touched those books in so long I'm not even sure what was going on there. Anyway, humans, as we all know and deal with every day, are the absolute worst. It follows, then, that vampires would be even worse than that due to the fact they're basically us without society holding them back. They have powers and live outside human society and without human rules, a good chunk of them don't even have a soul.

My take on vampires is probably really unique among vampire fans, or at least ones I've come across on the internet. I've got this weird thing where I can compartmentalize according to what I'm consuming. That means my brain-space can have room for both Selene from Underworld and Edward from Twilight and they're not constantly locked in a death-match where Edward won't ever win... probably. I frankly think the mind-reading bit would give Edward an edge, but that's a discussion I'm not seriously having so... yeah. Basically, the multi-verse has room for all the different iterations of vampires and Edward really needs to watch some Buffy, The Vampire Diaries, and Supernatural in order to properly understand that he does have a soul.

Souls are actually an interesting component of vampire lore... and a fairly recent one, from what I can tell. The vampires of Buffy don't have souls unless they're cursed or go get them back. The demon that "infects" the vampires basically lets the meat-suit's soul go and takes up residence. The Vampire Diaries (TV show, I couldn't stand the books enough to get past a chapter or two) has vampires "turning off their humanity" which is basically letting the "soul" or conscience take a nap while the baser instincts take over. Supernatural... vampires kind of have souls, but they go to Purgatory instead of Heaven when the vampire is killed. There are more instances of humans not having souls than there is even discussion of vampires souls in Supernatural. Then there's The Hollows series by Kim Harrison where vampires are alive until they die and upon death lose their souls. That's just the four I can think of off the top of my head. Basically the lack of soul gives the vampire free reign to be as terrible as their little hearts desire without feeling any guilt over their actions... or much of anything, really, if Supernatural and The Hollows are to be believed. Again, this all comes back to humans without morals.

If the vampires do have souls -- which I'm going to assume most other iterations do -- they often have some form of society that's just outside our own. The Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter novels by Laurel K. Hamilton have a ruling class of vampires based on the amount of magical power they can wield over those weaker than them. Not just a ruling class, either, but just stronger and weaker vampires in a hierarchy inside of all that. The vampires of the Mercy Thompson series have a "seethe" to answer to, which also runs on who has more power... I'm pretty sure anyway. The Mercy series mostly deals with werewolves and it's been a while since I've read the entire series. Heck, even The Twilight Saga has the Volturi as their "vampire police." This sort of thing basically takes money (though the ruling vamps are often rich as well) and replaces it with magical power of some kind. Usually, if you have more power, your ego is also through the roof, whether you're human or vampire, it seems, and that leads to all sorts of fun (if terrifying) shenanigans within the power structures. The more power you have, often the more unhinged you become, even if you didn't start out that way and especially if you don't have a plucky human or two keeping you on the sane side... and most don't.

In addition to having societies of their own, vampires will also come in different flavors either from series to series or within a series. Got your bog-standard faster, stronger, compel you with their eyes like a snake vampires. Got your not-even-human anymore vampires, often called revenants and usually bad news for anyone if they're loose. Got your able-to-rot-but-not-die vampires. Got your illusion-creating vampires that only look human because that's what they want you to see. Got your immune to sunlight vampires, sparkly vampires, vampires that house demons, and vampires that are barely more than human. Vampires that are human aside from occasional blood-lust and slight speed and strength buffs until they die and lose their souls. That's not even touching on the powers vampires can possess.

Aside from strength and speed, these can include but are definitely not limited to:

• Telepathy
• Foresight
• Illusionists
• Elemental Manipulation
• Taser-like Electricity Powers
• Shapeshifting - animals or mist
• Lust Bringers/Feeders
• Lover Bringers/Feeders
• Anger Bringers/Feeders
• Teleportation
• Control over animals/therianthropes (basically were-animals)
  

The one thing most, if not all, vampires share is the blood-lust. Where there are vampires, there is their main food source: us. As we all know, the most dangerous game is Man so vampires have to be even more dangerous than that. Human blood does it for most vampires, usually because animal blood just lacks... something in the metaphysical/preternatural realm no one ever quite puts their finger on. Some vampires can feed off animals, but apparently humans just taste better in those universes so... yeah. Human blood or bust. Often there's a metaphysical/preternatural life-force thing that's conveyed through the blood, but I largely think a human chowing down on another human is better left to the zombies. Blood's just cleaner and technically renewable. Some universes even have synthetic blood: Underworld and The Southern Vampire Mysteries, to name a couple, but real human blood remains king.

Vampires are just plain neat. I feel like a discussion on what they allow us to explore about ourselves is a little outside of my wheelhouse and has been done to death elsewhere. I like them, I know a lot about them, and I can discuss them at length. I've also honestly only hit on a few of the series I've consumed in this write-up, and clearly a lot of what I've mentioned here are the Big Names in Vampire Media. I have also read Dracula, just so no one recommends I read it. That Netflix three-part mini-series from 2020 was mostly excellent, by the way. I've got a lot more on my TBR list and am looking forward to consuming much more vampire media.

This entire post has been written off the top of my head, with the exception of having to look up what the Sookie Stackhouse novels are actually titled... have not read those and the accents in the TV show just shut off my brain so... yeah. Hope you enjoyed this nonsense.

Reviews Batch 9

I had a lovely bit of trouble while putting this post together. Apparently GoodReads had a weird fart where it wouldn't recognize a logged in account on individual book pages... which is where you have to go to follow a small path of links to get to the HTML copy of the reviews, which is what I re-post here. There really needs to be a better way to get to your own review not in edit mode. Anyway, enjoy these very short, old reviews of mine.

Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce

Originally Posted to GoodReads: July 28, 2014

For some reason I was expecting Battle Magic to focus as much on Evvy as it did.

I thought the new characters and lands introduced were quite interesting. I kind of wish there could be some more books set in them rather than back in Emelan.

I pretty much blew through this book and very much enjoyed the ride.

Wizard's Holiday by Diane Duane
Originally Posted to GoodReads: July 29, 2018

Fun and a hell of a lot more fast paced than the last one, or maybe the last one was just hard to get through... anyway... i enjoyed the look at wizards beyond humans and planets beyond Earth.

 

Doctor Who: The Legends of Ashildr by Justin Richards
Originally Posted to GoodReads: July 31, 2021

It was alright. The first story was kinda crap, not gonna lie. Didn’t like it or, essentially the framing device, i guess. The rest of the stories were better. The plague one would probably have been more heartbreaking without the addition of aliens, who i thought didn’t need to be there at all. But yeah, pretty alright.

 

In Other News

I've finished another OviPets Project! Introducing: Puyoyomon!

Puyoyomon took me just about 4 months even to complete.

The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett

Originally Posted to GoodReads: July 25, 2016

I really and sincerely do not know what I just read... like, I know what happened. I know I read The Color of Magic. I know that a series of events took place in the book. I could tell you what that series of events was, probably even in order. I could not tell you what the point of it was. I could not tell you the motivation behind the events other than this: "Apparently Fate wants Rincewind and Twoflower dead... for some reason, which no one gets to know."

I feel like The Color of Magic tried too hard to be The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I enjoyed Hitchhiker's. I could follow Hitchhiker's. Hitchhiker's makes sense. The Color of Magic just doesn't hang together, in my opinion. I just... what? Why? Huh?

This thing happened. This other thing happened. There was some bit of world-building in each area. There was increasingly weird world-building elsewhere. There were asides with "gods" and semi-imaginary dragons, and then this alien water-troll thing. And the day is saved because sapient pearwood... except not, apparently. And then... the end of Divergent before that was even a thing... And I just can't.

Also, apparently octarine is yellow-green or something.

My original plan was to go ahead and read the entire Discworld series but... that's no longer on my to-do list. Re-gifting this travesty of a book to someone who will enjoy it definitely is, though.

A Note From Present Me

It has come to my attention that reading Discworld in order is a bad idea. Instead one ought to read certain storylines? I don't know, but I will eventually be reading the Death arc... at some point in the future.

Family Spies Series Overview

Family Spies by Mercedes Lackey

This Post Will Contain Spoilers For Family Spies, The Herald Spy, Collegium Cronicles, ETC, Through The Back Catalogue of Valdemar Books. Also A Slight Spoiler For Heralds of Valdemar.

You Have Been Warned.

Once Upon A Time, Herald Mage Vanyel took it upon himself to create a magical early warning system consisting of air spirits known as vrondi. The vrondi were to watch for any signs of magic within Valdemar and report back to the Herald Mages so the Herald Mages could take care of the Mage they saw. However, Herald Mage Vanyel did not forsee that he would be that last of the Herald Mages for nigh on 300-something years. The vrondi were left with no one to report back to and instead simply watch the Mages, if they cross into Valdemar. Somehow, Herald Mage Vanyel's clever spell also caused Mage Gifts to be suppressed within Valdemar until such time as Herald Mage Elspeth's Mage Gift manifested... I guess. The spell somehow also made it weirdly hard for anyone in Valdemar to talk or think about magic at all, unless it's Mind-Magic... apparently. Oh, and the vrondi know when and where Valdemar's borders are at all times, even after expansion. How is anyone's guess. The vrondi don't bother Mages outside of Valdemar, either. Also, Herald Mage Vanyel didn't tell anyone about his vrondi warning system. But the focus stone he used to set the vrondi spell and the Herald Web knows about it, but no one can remember the stone even exists... except Herald Mags... it's all very complicated. I've said it before and I'll say it again: this vrondi thing is stupid.

Meanwhile, Mercedes Lackey decided to write Family Spies; a series in which each of Herald Mags and Herald Amily's children go outside Valdemar and have one magical adventure each. Perry's adventure took place in the Pelagirs, which still has magic and is just very odd to begin with. Abi's took place in a bit of unincorporated land Valdemar was looking to annex at the request of its inhabitants. And Tory's was mostly in Karse and a couple of the lands surrounding it. Honestly, I found these stories much more fun and interesting than I did the entire The Herald Spy and Collegum Chronicles series. No court intrigue, no annoying characters I didn't care about, very little actual spying... not that the spy training didn't come in handy, mind you, it just wasn't super prevalent. I think Perry got the most use out of his spy training, going deep undercover like he did. But yeah, none of these adventures was even able to take place within Valdemar because of the overall magical nature of them. Not exactly a bad thing, but... ya know... really obvious.

I did very much enjoy getting a look at the other creatures that inhabit the lands surrounding Valdemar. The dyheli finally got more than a passing mention and their own magical refuge by the end of The Hills Have Spies. We got a kyree encounter in the form of the Scooby Doo dupe Ryu and Larral. They're alright, I guess. Oh, and that Scooby Doo thing is better explained in a short story "Moving Targets"... Herald Arville is basically Shaggy and that big ol' wagon Mags and Perry use was the Mystery Machine. It was a whole thing. The afrinn were a fun addition, though I would very much like to know what the big difference between afrinn and vrondi are... probably the amount of power or something. Also, afrinn reminded me a lot of djinn, but that might just be me. I didn't particularly enjoy the Karsite demons, but I'm glad we finally got a better description of them than just "demons." That's such a catchall term these days.

I think my favorite characters were Abi, Jicks, and Sira. Abi's definitely my favorite of the Mags/Amily Clan. She's sure of herself and fairly unruffled when it comes to most everything. Also nice to get that Ace representation. Jicks was a fun lesbian mercenary, though that's pretty much her whole personality so... not real deep, but fun. Sira's a badass with a heart of gold. I like how resourceful she is and how attached she got to her afrinn friends. Her parts of Spy, Spy Again were a welcome break in between Tory's narration of their travels.

I honestly don't have much to say about Family Spies as a whole. Each story was self-contained, sharing characters but not much else. I liked Abi the best, out of the three kids, though her story was honestly the weakest. Perry was alright and Tory was mostly just dragged along on Prince Kee's adventure. I definitely had more fun with Family Spies than The Herald Spy.

Spy, Spy Again by Mercedes Lackey

Spy, Spy Again was probably my favorite of the three Family Spies books. I liked the switching perspectives between Tory and Sira. Sira was a lot of fun and it was fun getting to know a more far-flung country of the Valdemar Universe. That said, most of Spy, Spy Again took place traveling to and from Karse and that was rather… monotonous. I’m very glad we got the bits with Sira and the afrinn interspersed throughout.

The Karstie priests are fucking idiots. Sexist idiots. Their entire reasoning for Sira not being a Sleepgiver was based on her gender. So, so dumb. Probably could have infiltrated the Karsite priesthood via female cooks or servants and just poisoned them all. Whatever ended up happening to the ones in the prison, they deserved it. I hope the priests at the end got buried when their strength ran out under those shields. Just… ugh.

I quite liked the afrinn. Elemental spirits are fun, when they're not vrondi being annoying. It was really convenient for the travel back to Valdemar for Eakkashet and the other to tag along. It was also super convenient to have Halina negotiate with the vrondi about the Mages. Still really bugs me that that’s even a thing… and I could have sworn Vanyel had them watching only when magic was used and not, like, all the time. More ughs in the direction of that. Good thing Kee was alright going back to Sleepgiver Mountain at the end.

Speaking of the end, it was wrapped up cleanly, if not satisfactorily. I won’t say more, because spoilers. But yeah Spy, Spy Again was pretty good. Definitely my favorite of the three. 

Favorite Line

"Any sane man knows that walls don't work. You can't guard every furlong, it would bankrupt you, and you still wouldn't have enough people to do it if you put everyone you could call a fighter in the country up on it with a spear. And what good's a wall with no one on it? Anyone can go over or under it. A wall's useless except around a city, and even then, it'll only defend you for about a month in a siege." - Tiron

Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

2023 Reread Review

Originally Posted to GoodReads: July 20, 2023

I really like Moon Called. This is my third read through and it still holds up fairly well. I am a little peeved that Mercy’s super intuition about the plot, but someone had to do the thinking parts so it might as well be her.

Not sure if I really appreciate the first big lore dump or if it’s really well done… cuz it’s a lot… it does, however, highlight that human tendency to other anyone who doesn’t fit into the nice little boxes. The Fae receive the same treatment as people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and Native peoples do in our world and I seriously doubt that sort of thing stopped in Mercy’s either. It’s really quite sad but unsurprising. I think I’ve decided it’s an alright lore dump, just seems a little weird as we have so far no encountered any Fae other than Mercy mentioning Zee in passing.

I find the pack structure of the Patricia Briggs Mercy Thompson universe kind of interesting. Not so much the individual packs themselves, but the overarching thing with The Marrok. Having a higher order or office or whatever to answer to isn’t something I’ve seen a lot. Usually it’s just the individual packs and you’re lucky to get any pack other than on the one you’re introduced to as a result of the story. It’s lucky there is a more-or-less neutral party to take an injured Alpha to, especially as Adam being injured had nothing to do with pack politics. Part of me would like to rant about how werewolf packs work differently than real wolf packs, but I’m just gonna chalk up all the “Alpha” nonsense to the human part of the brain influencing the wolf bits… and even then it’s problematic as fuck so… yeah. Also, this view there werewolves have towards humans is dumb, in my opinion. You might be a werewolf but I assume you spend more time in human form than wolf so treating humans as lesser and/or nonexistent is stupid. Aaand I won’t get started on the women thing… always prevalent in lycanthrope society apparently and always gross.

For some reason and despite a physical description of him, I have blended Sam with Sam from the Twilight series in my head. Probably the same name issue and probably because Charles is definitely Native in looks and Sam’s brother.

I love Warren and Kyle, but I’m not sure if that love was born here or later on down the line. Still, they’re great. Pretty sure it’s a later thing, thought Kyle takes Mercy’s outing of herself and Warren like a champ.

I am really amused that Mercy wears a lamb instead of a cross. Anita Blake does that same at some point, I believe. Makes sense and I truly agree with Mercy’s spiel about the torture device thing with crosses. I’m honestly not sure how I feel about the vampires being involved with the plot. Pretty sure it’s some setup for later… I don’t remember as it’s been a few years since the last time I was reading Mercy. There is a lot of world building that gets done here and it’s a little hard to keep track of everything. The vampires don’t play that big a role at all in Moon Called but they are part of the overall preternatural community of the Tri Cities so… much shrugging.

2017 Reread Review

Originally Posted to GoodReads: October 16, 2017

First off, I love love love this book and this series.

Second, there's a crap ton of things that happen here, but it somehow doesn't feel rushed --or rather, it feels the proper amount of rushed-- at all. Feels more true to life where you're in a crisis and things just keep happening one right after the other, some spurred by others. No long bouts of thinking about things in-depth between actions or bits of dialogue. It's honestly refreshing after rereading a good chunk of Anita Blake.

Third, Mercy is probably my favorite heroine at the moment. She's no-nonsense in the best way. She and Adam make me laugh.

Speaking of Adam, I really enjoy the side characters in this. My main faves being Warren and Zee.

Anyway, I'm tired and gushing, so I'll leave it at: frigging loved it. 

Favorite Lines

"Love thy enemies, it says in the scriptures. My foster mother always added, "At the very least, you will be polite to them." - Mercy Thompson and Evelyn

"Hard truths can be dealt with, triumphed over, but lies will destroy your soul." - Bran Cornick

"When a wolf watches a lamb, he's not thinking about the lamb's mommy." - Adam Hauptman

"I don't play games with people I care about, and I won't let them play games with me." - Mercy Thompson

Reviews Batch 8

Wicked As You Wish by Rin Chupeco
Originally Posted to GoodReads: 7-20-20

So much stuff

So, I know the fantasy world created here is big and complicated, but I feel like that could have been conveyed a lot better than it was. Exposition was delivered 90% of the time through dialogue info dumps, which I am not a fan of, to be honest. There are too many characters and too much info to keep track of all at once. I feel like it would have been better delivered in smaller chunks.

While I appreciate the diversity of the characters, they mostly read as fewer than they were, if that makes sense. Probably another case of too many all at once and not enough “screen time” to really establish them as individuals.

Other than that, I felt like Wicked as You Wish was alright. Fast paced and easy to read, just too much info all at once and too many characters to keep track of. 

The Magical Unicorn Society Official Handbook by Selwyn E. Phipps
Originally Posted to GoodReads: 7-20-21

Gonna start out by saying: I probably would have loved this book if I were much, much younger. It reminds me of the Dragonology book and surrounding “-Ology” series except that it’s more story-centric than information-centric.

A fairly good book for younger readers but not so much for a 30-something unicorn collector. This book will stay in my collection but I doubt if I’ll pick it up again.

Backpacking Through Bedlam by Seanan McGuire

This review is gonna be a little different than my usual. Basically random notes I made while reading, following this paragraph. Backpacking Through Bedlam is basically Alice’s homecoming book. She and Thomas and Sally get home and immediately have to go help Verity is New York. It was a lot of fun, but I don’t really have much to say other than my notes so… on to those.

I really do love the Aeslin mice. Probably because all the Prices love them, but still. I think they’re a weird critter — with the religion thing — but also very cute. They’re often the ones moving me to tears, all truth be told.

Aaand of course we’ve landed in that universe Sarah and Annie ended up in in Calculated Risks. Should be fun. And amusing that Alice thinks it’s super improbable before finding out that, yes, it was Sarah and Annie who landed the “masonry” there.

Don’t know if it’s my mood lately or just that I’m ridiculously attached tho these characters, but I’ve been tearing up every time something happily touching happens. Something as simple as Sally introducing herself as a Price, for example. Tears. Blegh. Love it and hate it. Sally has grown on me a lot like she’s grown on Alice. I was genuinely almost crying at the end of the book… which I will not spoil.

I’m so happy to have Istas back. I love her so, so much. Having her interact with Alice and Sally is just… chef’s kiss. Love it.

I am very pleased with how the Covenant stuff worked out, at least for now. I'm definitely anticipating blow-back, as this is, in fact, a war. But yeah... hope Sarah's not too messed up about what she had to do. Lord knows she didn't share all her thoughts on the matter with Alice.

The Mysteries of the Stolen God and Where His Waffles Went

I was not expecting a deeper look at the Aeslin, but I liked it, I think. Also, James is growing on me, given he’s not background here. I feel like Jane needs to get over herself and realize that her feelings are just hers, valid as those feelings are. I feel like she hasn’t really tried to understand Alice and probably never will. Aaand I love the Price family. They’re so accepting of the members they’ve adopted to the point it just brings me to happy tears… again. I'm also happy for a look, albeit a tiny one, of what Artie's like now he's been rebuilt by Sarah. Kind of hoping we get more on that and that it's not, like, super debilitating.

Favorite Lines

"Nothing gets better if you don't open your damn mouth. Okay?" - Mary Dunlavy

"We make monsters whenever we disagree about how a limited resource should be spent. It's so much easier to kill a person whose personhood you've stolen away." - Thomas Price

"People who have sense to recognize me for what I am aren't scared of me," she said. "They're terrified, as well they should be. I am nature's perfect killing machine."

     "Here I thought that was cats," said Ryan, in a tone that indicated a frequest joke, something with the edges of it worn smooth between them.

     Istas looked at him with polite blankness. "It is also cats. More than one thing can be perfect, it's not a competition."

In Other News

 

I have decided, given the length of the InCryptid series, I will not be doing a Series Overview... unless I change my mind sometime between now and... if I ever Do The Thing. Anyway, I'll be moving on to rereading/finishing the Mercy Thompson series by Particia Briggs.

Spelunking Through Hell: A Visitor's Guide to the Underworld by Seanan McGuire

Yet another Incryptid book that has be in tears at the end. Spelunking Through Hell was a bit of an emotional roller coaster culminating in some very happy tears. I made the mistake of reading the fist few lines of the blurb for Backpacking Through Bedlam when it arrived at my apartment and, well, that made parts of this plot ridiculously easy to telegraph. Kind of akin to rereading, where you know who the mysterious, largely unnamed characters are going to be. Also made Sally not a surprise. This is why I don’t read blurbs after the first book if I can help it.

Spelunking Through Hell is a weirdly technical book, for all that dimension hopping is usually not met with technical descriptions in most of the fantasy I’ve encountered. It doesn’t exactly stray into the hard science-fiction aspects, but it is close. That, and the description we get of flensing… well, let’s just say I’m glad my brain’s been shielding me from the gorier mental images that could conjure up. Aside from the technical bits, I enjoyed getting to visit other worlds with other “cryptids,” the designs of which I’m also in love with. Ithaca is definitely my favorite of these worlds. So sue me, I love my Greek mythology and stuff based on it.

Interesting that the luck thing has to be explained again. I mean, not completely, since Alice (and the rest of the Price-Healy-Harrington-etc clan) have no idea that Frances Brown was the daughter of a Luck cryptid. But yay for the refresher as to luck being able to be stripped. Basically incorporating that into the pneuma stripping thing was a good call, I think. Made all that easier to digest.

The demise of Naga was hardcore. I won’t say more than that, but wow. I really find everything Naga did utterly despicable and the conversations around consent really important. After all, I really don’t think consent given under as much distress as Alice was clearly under in the first place should be taken as consent at all.

We haven’t really gotten a lot of Thomas Price as a character up until now. He did appear in a couple of the short stories available on Seanan McGuire’s website, so I did kind of have an idea of how we was as a person. I am glad to see his time in the dying dimension didn’t strip him of his ideals and such. Alice deserved to not have to go through that kind of heartbreak. Sally, to finally get back to her, was mostly delightful. I like her badass-ness and her protectiveness of Thomas. That last bit makes a lot of sense given how she was apparently the same way with James when they were kids. I’m looking forward to getting to know her more in Backpacking Through Bedlam.

I mentioned in the beginning that Spelunking Through Hell had me crying happy tears. This paragraph will contain spoilers because it was the epilogue that did it. The Aeslin Mice and Kevin having their little reunions was really what did it. I love the Mice and really missed them in the last couple of books. They weren’t super around for Sarah and since Alice didn’t have them this time… anyway, they were missed. Thomas’ reaction to them was basically mine, especially as soon as one of his clergy showed up. I hope the unaffiliated novice basically starts Sally’s clergy, since she’s definitely sticking around. And man, who wouldn’t be in tears watching a father and son reunite? I’m tearing up just writing about it. Just… ah! I was half expecting Spelunking Through Hell to end on a cliffhanger and boy am I glad it didn’t. So satisfying.

And Sweep Up the Wood: Uh, so… that was maudlin. And I guess it’s great to “see” Alice and Thomas’ first foray into their relationship. I uhm… have no other words.

Favorite Lines

"I like my torso. It's where I keep my lungs." - Alice Price-Healy

"We're basically swamps that decided to go for a walk one day and haven't figured out yet that it's ridiculous thing for a swamp to do." - Alice Price-Healy

"Sure, it had failed when Thomas tried to shoot me, but the first rule of gun safety is that no gun is unloaded unless you verify it for yourself. The second rule of gun safety is that it still isn't unloaded, because invisible bullets can happen to the best of us." - Alice Price-Healy

"Raising your daughter to think that her only value is in sitting pretty and pristine on a shelf somewhere doesn't get you a functional person, it gets you a monster in waiting." - Laura Campbell

"That's another way trauma works. For every bruise you can see, there's another spot where it's just all about the internal bleeding." - Alice Price-Healy

Eye Spy by Mercedes Lackey

The first half of Eye Spy is rather anthology-like, threaded together with Abi’s schooling and her run-ins with the Remps. The second half focuses on Abi’s “big adventure” in the wilds of an un-incorporated territory. The second half, I feel, is much better than the first half. There is a slight spoiler in the paragraph right before the “Continuity Error” section, just FYI.

I really like Abi as a character. She’s level headed and smart and apparently Asexual, so yay for representation. I quite like the way everyone’s treating her Gift. I even like the way Healer Sanje is planning to alter and train it. It’s fun to watch someone slowly learn about their Gift rather than just have it and have mastered it and/or master it quickly. Feels more realistic, especially if it’s a weaker Gift at first. Abi’s whole progression in this book is realistic, which is good.

Most of the characters introduced in Eye Spy are ancillary. The most important and recurring character is Princess Kat. I liked her. Abi’s school mates were largely just there to pad out that part of the story, I feel. Stev and Jicks were alright. I doubt we’ll see much more of Jicks, which is a shame because she was a fun, active character. Finally, the Masters that rounded out the Valdemar delegation were alright. Again, mostly there to pad out the story and give expertise where Abi could not.

On a separate note: Mag’s annoying accent is back and I still hate it. Along with the story of The Order of Sethor which I had hoped to never hear from again… only lasted for half a second, story-wise, but I’m still annoyed.

Aaand my favorite thing to gripe about: Magic. Because Abi is across the border out of Valdemar, we get another example of how Valdemar is dumb because of the lack of magic. Everyone outside of Valdemar seems to have magic and Valdemar only has mind-magic because… Vanyel, apparently. Still so very, very dumb. Especially if sections that have magic are thinking to incorporate themselves into Valdemar. All the Mages in those sections are going to go nuts once the vrondi start watching them, which is not a good thing. This story just hammers home how dumb Valdemar’s anti-magic thing actually is.

I find is ridiculous that Dudley Remp thinks he actually has a chance to take over whatever land he wants outside Valdemar. It doesn’t actually make any sense and is only a plot point due to his connection to Abi. That Abi thinks this makes sense… just no. This reveal just up and killed my enjoyment of this book. I really would have been completely fine with Karsites as the antagonists at the end.

The Continuity Error Section

Couple of mistakes I noticed right off: when describing how Amily was chosen by Rolan, Anily was referred to as Kat’s mother. A King Stefan is mentioned here when it should be Sedric.

I’m also very confused about Master Leandro and Tuck. In The Hills Have Spies Perry mentions that Master Leandro was the one who made Mags and Amily’s weapons-laden wedding clothes, making me think he’d been retconned to be Tuck. Now, Abi’s talking about a “mysterious craftsman” in Haven who can’t be anyone but Tuck. So apparently Master Leandro is just Master Jorthun’s Weapons Master. This is annoying and confusing.

Overall, I like Eye Spy. It might not have been as good as The Hills Have Spies but it wasn’t a disappointment, either. I’m looking forward to finishing off this trilogy.

Favorite Lines

"I like clever people. Dull ones irritate me, especially those who expect to be told what to do, and if they are not told, do nothing, even when something that needs doing is right in front of them." - Healer Sanje

"I've dealt with bureaucrats all of my life, my dear," Vance replied. "They're like a nervous horse. If you give them a chance to think, nine times out of ten they freeze, and the tenth time they balk. The only way to handle them is to rush them at and over the problem before they get a chance to get a good look at it." - Master Vance

Reviews Batch 7

A Wizard Alone by Diane Duane
Originally Posted on GoodReads: July 10, 2018

A pretty good exploration of grief and, though I'm by no means an expert on the topic, autism. Like, this was the book that gave me at least some understanding of what autism is, even if the character in question is at the severe end of the spectrum and we still don't have any concrete evidence as to what's going on in autistic heads. But that's all I'm gonna say about that for fear of shoving my foot down my throat.

The only really problematic bit comes at the end, so from here on out is spoilers. 

Okay, so I completely understand that Darryl is a Wizard and a special "creature" in addition to being a Wizard. I completely buy the conceit that he can do things like shove his autism off on Kit and leave it behind in a magical construct. However, I personally think that using Wizardry (and Darryl's special snowflake-ness) as a cure for autism is problematic. It's wish fulfillment and I'm pretty much left thinking "That is not how that works and saying that's how that works is problematic." But, as I've said before, I'm by no means an expert or anything so discussing it further is beyond me. *shrug* This is just how I feel about it. [Okay, so I completely understand that Darryl is a Wizard and a special "creature" in addition to being a Wizard. I completely buy the conceit that he can do things like shove his autism off on Kit and leave it behind in a magical construct. However, I personally think that using Wizardry (and Darryl's special snowflake-ness) as a cure for autism is problematic. It's wish fulfillment and I'm pretty much left thinking "That is not how that works and saying that's how that works is problematic." But, as I've said before, I'm by no means an expert or anything so discussing it further is beyond me. *shrug* This is just how I feel about it. (hide spoiler)]

Magic Binds by Ilona Andrews
Originally Posted on GoodReads: July 10, 2021

It’s been a very long time since a book has legit made me cry. Like, actual tears with some hard-ish breathing. Magic Binds is awesome. I loved it. I can’t wait til Tuesday when Magic Triumphs arrives.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Originally Posted on GoodReads: July 18, 2017

Yup... that was definitely a book.

The beginning was alright, the middle meandered a lot, and the end very much reminded me of "The Warlock's Hairy Heart" from J.K. Rowling's Tales of Beedle the Bard. So, I guess I know where she got her inspiration for that one from?

Though I've seen a couple Dorian Gray movies, or I guess I should say, I've seen one and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen which has Dorian in it... I wasn't expecting Dorian to be the one who "killed" his portrait. It also seemed to happen rather suddenly... or maybe I was just so tired when I was finishing it that my skimming made it seem to happen more suddenly than it did.

I don't have any deep thoughts about this book. I've been wanting to read it for a long time and now I have so yay, I guess?

The Hills Have Spies by Mercedes Lackey

The Hills Have Spies was definitely a better start to a series than Closer to Home. I feel like I’ll enjoy Family Spies much more than Herald Spy just based on The Hills Have Spies alone. I feel like Perry is a much more interesting protagonist than Mags, though we do get more of him here. I was also pleasantly surprised that the antagonist wasn’t a last minute thing. He actually had menace.

Master Leandro is the dude Tuck was apparently retconned to be, at least as far as the artificing of Mags and Amily’s wedding clothes… and mixed with whatever Weaponsmaster worked with Mags. I find this change very odd, given the books were published in the order I’m reading them. Someone really should have caught this and fixed it.

I find it interesting that Mags had an issue with Larral “choosing” Perry. Kyree might not be Companions, but Dallen’s right: they’re pretty darn close as far as lasting friendship. Considering what ends up happening, I’m a little more understanding, because there’s no way a Companion would have either dragged or allowed his Chosen to drag them into the situation Perry and Larral get themselves into. I also feel liked Perry choosing to go off on his own is a consequence of how he was raised. Mags and Amily essentially raised their kids to be little spies and therefore more apt to be sure of their decisions to run off on their own to do spy things. I’m happy that’s acknowledged, too. Perry and Larral still should consulted with Mags about the whole thing… but they didn’t, so joy.

The inclusion of dyheli is nice. Previously, they’ve been mentioned but not actually appeared in any of the books. I do kind of question why they were created at all, being one of the species Urtho did create. They’re basically telepathic deer… and still pretty much act like deer so… yeah. I feel like even the “trampling our enemies” thing wouldn’t even be all that effective, except against something like the slytha. Overall, the dyheli aren’t incredibly interesting as a sentient species. I like Roya, though, he’s an amusing character. I almost always like the snarky ones and he’s definitely snarky.

I am both surprised and not that Mags is still having flashbacks to his time in the mine. He’s nothing if not predictable that way.

I’m not sure how I feel about this “Master” person. His description kind of left me with an image of a taller version of the “Dobby Doctor” from the end of Season 3 of Doctor Who. He’s also a cannibal, so that’s… gross. And he’s cruel, to boot. He was somewhat menacing, though mostly just because his powers were so strong and he was really paranoid.

Oh, now we’re at liberty to just discuss vrondi. Could barely discuss magic in the last eight books and now we’re making plans involving vrondi. Because apparently Vanyel made it next to impossible to discuss magic inside Valdemar… which I still think is colossally stupid. Most, if not all, of Valdemar’s neighbors use magic and mage potential is still around in Valdemar. I’m still super frustrated by this. Especially since apparently Mags has special Valdemar-Heartstone privileges… like what? Why? That makes zero sense.

So I think the ending was alright. Guardian honestly reminds me of the earth spirits from the Foundation series. The amount of raw magical ability on display was amazing. I feel like Perry’s pretty well set up for the rest of the series and I’m looking forward to it. Just hope we don’t go back to focusing on Haven-centric stuff. That was boring.

Calculated Risks by Seanan McGuire

Calculated Risks is basically one big bottle-episode character study. Definitely not a book to put down and pick up and put down and pick up — which I did for the most part. It is definitely a book and a story that works better in much larger chunks than I was reading it in. I recommend reading it when you have time to actually sit down and read it. All of that said, Calculated Risks was very good.

Poor, poor Sarah having to deal with the closest members of her family without them remembering her. I don’t know if I could have coped, but she manages arguably better than anyone could be asked to. Especially given that they all have to deal with the stress of an alternate universe and basically zombies at the same time. I also believe I said in my Imaginary Numbers review that I wasn’t really affected by the Sarah/Artie romance… Calculated Risks made me feel it in-absentia. Sarah’s heartbreak during the 24-hours or so during which Artie does not remember her is palpable.

Artie during this whole thing is a giant jerk and is called out several times for it. Given how much time he and Sarah apparently spent together throughout their lives, I do not blame him one bit. I’m sure having such patchwork memories to deal with was awful. I do like that he eventually came around and it is very helpful to remember that Calculated Risks takes place over 48-hours so it’s not like there was a lot of time to process.

I like James a bit more now. Getting the little bits of time with him near the end reminded me that he’s a research nerd and maybe doesn’t have much of an outward personality, which isn’t a bad thing. I also think his rapport with Annie is pretty awesome. They really do feel very much like James took to being a Price quite quickly. I’m sure being stuck in a camper with Annie and the gang helped with that, but I really felt his whole thing here… if that makes any sense to anyone but me.

Annie was her loveable self throughout. I am glad we basically got to see how well-rounded she is as a person from both inside and outside perspectives. Sarah was definitely right when she called Annie “the flexible one.” Annie will always be my fave of the Price “kids.”

Finally, Mark. Hmm, he’s alright for a fully adult cuckoo. I quite like somewhat acerbic heart-of-gold type characters. Like, we know he’s inherently selfish, but not entirely so that works. I also definitely think he did a bit of a whammy on Annie, James, and Artie to make them more comfy around him, even if it was unintentional and not really addressed. I feel like Mark would be a good ancillary character to have around after this.

The story itself was mostly a bottle-episode focused on Sarah. I didn’t really feel much dread until the giant spiders started appearing, which was over halfway through the book. Aaand I don’t like giant spiders, not even Greg. I tried very hard not to think about Greg or the mantids and focus myself on Sarah and the other humanoids. Speaking of, we finally learn why the Prices are luckier than normal humans! That was fun, even if I can’t remember the name of the species their luck comes from. We do learn a but more about cuckoo brain-ology though. Seeing them pretty much from tiny to fully instar-ed out helped with that.

I’m glad Sarah basically found a way to de-cuckoo the cuckoos… or at least the kiddos who “made it” to the Iowa thingy. Hopefully they make a point of going about de-cuckoo-ing any others they can. I’m interested to see how the species is going forward.

So yeah, Calculated Risks is very emotionally heavy and should be read (in my opinion) in as few sittings as possible for full enjoyment. Really let those emotions sink in a burrow, man.

Favorite Lines

"And then it was said and Stated, as it always shall be, Never Split the Party!" - Aeslin Mouse

"Dumbledore was a dick," - Sarah Zellaby

"Sarah is my cousin, because  say so, and I'm the terrifying one." - Antimony Price

"Is that the correct plural?" I asked. "I thought it was 'mantids.'"

     "I don't think the correct plural is appropriate for me to use around children" - Sarah Zellaby and James Smith

 

Singing the Comic-Con Blues by Seanan McGuire 

Novella Included in Calculated Risks

I’m not overly fond of nine-years-ago Annie. She might be a quippy smart-alec but she’s also just straight-up mean. Seriously, the amount of Verity hate in the entire thing is egregious. Needs character development.

This novella was kinda cute, but not really satisfying. I mean, I would have liked to get an actual resolution to the siren, rather than just the “let’s talk in a few hours.” Sarah was adorable. Artie was there, being nervous, but largely just there. Much shrugging. 

Favorite Lines

"I am what happens when nerds are allowed to marry and thus produce even more nerds, like nerdiness squared, like what happens when Seymour from Little Shop is allowed to hook up with Jordan from Real Genius. And if you got both those references, odds are good that you're a nerd, too, which would explain why you're following this road trip of the damned." - Antimony Price

"Why? Are we expecting a visit from the normal people for some reason? I thought I was done with them when Artie graduated and they stopped trying to strong-arm me onto the PTA." - Jane Harrington

How I Do Ovipets Projects

I just finished my first MarineAngemon project! It took me approximately 9 months, due to how I do my projects, which is honestly quite haphazard.

I figured I'd take this opportunity to explain my project process. This probably not going to make a whole lot of sense to anyone who doesn't play OviPets, but... oh well.

I want to start out by saying that I work full time and have very little mental space for a lot of craziness in games. Remembering combos is not in my wheelhouse. This is why I've settled on pretty much exclusively playing Pokemon and OviPets. Both allow me to drop and pick them up at any point with minimal memorization and allow me to play more-or-less in a vacuum. Keeping my sanity via their repetitive natures is fantastic. I love the low-maintenance nature of OviPets, so I developed a low-maintenance breeding style that will eventually get me the pets I want, even if it means my thousands of ideas sit on the back-burner and I don't make lots of credits selling them.

Visualizer

I first start with using the Visualizer in the Lab section to visualize my project. I have a ridiculously long project idea list that I've both written and spreadsheet-ed, so I use this to also tweak my original design. I either add mutations or tweak colors based on what I'm going for.

Starting work on Tyrannomon

Generation

I take my newly visualized design and plug the colors into the Generator. At this point, I'll usually generate at least 8 pets or each gender for a total of 16 pets. Usually 2 of each color lock. This may vary depending on the colors I'm trying to get. I find mixing the color locks gets me a better mix of colors to, well, mix and end up with what I want. 

I then name my pets and plop them into their tab. Unlike a lot of project breeders, I don't have a naming convention or anything. I usually just go through baby name lists I find online and name my pets that way. I don't think I'd ever remember the naming convention stuff anyway, so I just stick with what I've ended up putting in my tags.

Color Correction

I start of breeding my pets four in the morning and four in the evening, just for my own sanity. I usually don't have a lot of rhyme or reason to the way I end up doing it, just trying to get the colors of the offspring as close to what I originally wanted as possible. This process usually takes about a month, breeding twice a day, every day. Again, I try to get as close as possible to the colors I originally wanted, but I'm not SUPER picky about this because the colors tend to even themselves out over the course of the entire project. I'm not trying to make pures here, anyway. I managed to to that only once and I have, like, three pets total from that accidental pure line...

You can see the color variation I've got to work with here.

Traiting

After about a month of color correcting, I go on to trait my pets. I do 8 pets per trait and I don't worry about the genders. If, for some reason, I'm still working on a particular project in a year, I'll re-trait. But otherwise, I spend the credits to trait one set and then pretty much hoard credits between projects.

Breeding

So, this is where things really start to get haphazard. I breed almost completely at random. Say I have a project with 4 traits (Body, Ears, Head, Tail). I'll breed my four pets in the morning with a compatible pet from each trait section. So one will get a Body, one Ears, one Head, one Tail. At night, I go backward: start with Tail, then Head, then Ears, then Body. I do tend to skip a particular section if the pet I'm breeding already has the desired trait (showing or otherwise). The goal is to eventually have pets that at least carry every trait I want so their offspring have a greater chance of showing that trait in the future.

I also usually breed the first 4 pets that come up hungry at time of breeding. Since I'm feeding them, I might as well breed them. If there are no pets that come up hungry, I count down a certain number or rows depending on what day it is and feed/breed those 4 pets. This end up mixing colors and traits in a satisfactory manner, even if it does end up taking a really long time.

How the offspring comes out will be at the mercy of the algorithm. The rest of my breeding is pretty much at the mercy of the algorithm. If I get a traited pet, great. If I don't, also great. What I end up with is usually a pretty diverse breeding pool.

Organization

I mentioned in the Breeding section that I'll breed each pet with one from a trait section. That's how I order the pets in their tab. I use tags to tell me whether a pet is the color I want and then after that, how many traits a pet has. I will then organize my pets via their tags and later, when they're given or are born with traits, by their traits.

I use tags to keep track of which pet has which traits

 Whenever I feel like I have either too many pets or a good amount of pets of a certain tag-type, I will cull my tabs. First the not-correct-colors, followed by the non-traited pets, followed by the green tagged-non-trait pets, and so on and so forth until I eventually end up with the pets that have the most traits I want at the end to breed into the finished products. In addition to the tab culling, I do cull as I hatch the pets. So if I'm at the point where I only want pets with three traits and up visible, any pets who come out un-traited or with only one or two traits gets put up for adoption rather than sent to the tab for breeding. This is how I keep my pets at a good number for me to keep up with.

Finished Projects

So, now that I've finished my projects, what do I do with them? I send them to the tab that represents their project, of course. Digimon to the Digimon tab, Randos to the Misc Project tab, etc. I only keep 5 males and 5 females of each finished project. Again, I want to keep my pet numbers down.

My current tab configuration

I keep the finished projects separate from their breeding tabs so I will remember not to breed them and hopefully end up with actual breeding pairs I can use. This doesn't always happen, but 9 times out of ten, I end up with at least 2 breeding pairs... which I'm also not really picky about. So long as I have my pretty pets to look at, I'm happy.

Ending Comments

So yeah, that's it. That's how I do my OviPets projects.

I think I started doing it this way as a sort of compromise between what tutorials out there have you doing and what my brain could actually handle. Lord knows I would forget what my naming conventions were supposed to be... I can barely remember what was on a particular tag I just looked at.

Not to mention, this way is a lot cheaper than the way a lot of project breeders do it. There's less traiting, for one. That alone would cost hundreds, if not thousands of credits... I imagine, anyway. My way, I spend a set amount on generation and traiting and hoard the rest for later. I also have drastically fewer tabs to keep track of.