The Harlequin by Laurell K. Hamilton

A mostly spoiler free reread review.

First and foremost: Forbidding any knowledge of The Harlequin to even be passed to a Human Servant or Animal to Call is a dumbass rule. If Anita hadn’t learned about The Harlequin, she definitely would have held this stupid ass secret over Jean Claude’s head for the rest of their lives and probably, given how he doesn’t even want to accidentally tell her via their dreams, she would have found at that way eventually anyway. Stupid, stupid rule. I’m glad Anita gets to say as much about an adjacent part of the rules. I do also wonder, if The Rules say The Harlequin are not to be even mentioned, how does knowledge of them and their Rules get passed around?

It makes me happy that Anita is able to talk out her Nathaniel issues with Nathaniel.

Oh hey, Edward’s back. I didn’t super realize I’d been missing him, but I was so… yay? I super hate that he was forced to bring Olaf in on this. I fuckin' hate Olaf. He's not at all interesting to me and is really just gross. I did kind of like Peter being around, but, like Anita, have issues with that because he's friggin' 16. Even if trauma made him grow up quicker, it's not great to have him almost get killed so young.

Yet AGAIN, we have to deal with Richard and his issues. I’m so, so tired of this. I know Anita is also tired of this. They need to just stop letting him in whenever he shows up unannounced. I understand The Harlequin are in town and you want the Triumvirate all together but come on. Get the man his own room where he can go and not bother others with his bullshit. It feels like Richard's shit has finally come to a head, but it's felt kind of like that before, so I'm not actually holding out hope. I mean, I know, because this is a reread, that he gets "better" and becomes less present overall, but I cannot for the life of me remember when that actually starts happening. Whatever, he needs to stop showing up and fucking everyone over at exactly the wrong moments.

The backstory recaps feel clumsy here. Very “we both know this information but I’m gonna tell you anyway” followed by the larger context. I understand you’re kind of supposed to be able to pick up any book and understand what’s going on at any given point but… it’s getting ridiculous.

Politics, oh politics, I hate the effing politics. <— that was in a little sing-song voice in my head. But seriously, I hate the politics of this crap. I also hate Dolph taking out his issues on Anita. She should have told him to fuck off way before she did. Honestly, Dolph is devolving the same way Richard has. All that hatred interfering with his job and making him a less likeable character... I don't like it and am super tired of it.

The Harlequin seemed to take me forever to read. I just had to keep stopping every few paragraphs in places because the characters were just annoying me so much. I do like The Harlequin as a concept and they do eventually make a more robust appearance than they do here. I had been expecting (as it's been so long since I first read this) that to happen here, but it didn't, so I am a little disappointed. So... yeah. I'm overall frustrated with the series at this point. I think rereading them all in a bunch like this isn't the best method for a reread. 

Favorite Line

"Friends want what's best for you more than they want sex." - Anita Blake

In Other News 

So, for those who don't follow me on Social Media (Threads is where I hang out 99% of the time these days) I have been spending most of my time in Pokemon Land. While waiting for the Pokemon Legends: Z-A DLC, I was using the Vizualizer function over on OviPets to create Pokemon. Did from Bulbasaur to Wigglytuff, making my to-do OviPets Project List way longer... I'm not even halfway through the Kanto Dex. 😫

And now the Pokemon Legends: Z-A DLC (Mega Dimension) has been released. I've been enjoying it. It's honestly more of the same, just with more Pokemon and black-and-white Lumiose settings.

I have decided to take a break from my Anita Blake reread. I think the next few books will make me less frustrated overall, but... I'll pick that up in the new year. I'm going to be jumping into Anne McCaffrey & Margaret Ball's Acorna series. I read and reread the first book several times in my early teen years and now it's time to jump back in and actually read the whole series. 

Pokemon Legends: Z-A

This post will include game and storyline spoilers for Pokemon Legends: Z-A. If you're worried about that kind of thing, I highly recommend not reading this post. You've been warned.

I have honestly been taking my sweet time playing this game. It's a lot of fun and really quite chill. I've personally been referring to it as "Pokemon Ooh Shiny!" in my head... which is funny because I have yet to catch any shinies other than the "Government Mandated Mareep." (There's a side quest where you find a shiny Mareep for someone and get to keep it.) But seriously, the amount of random crap to pick up as you're running around the city is insane. I've been pulled off course at the drop of a hat by the random little yellow shinies to pick up.

Lumiose City is labyrinthine. The graphics may not be the best, but the setting feels lived in by its NPCs... which there are a lot of. I honestly don't look for absolutely excellent graphics in my Pokemon games. I have seen artist renditions of realistic Pokemon and, while fun to look at, I don't really need that in my games. Character customization is back with a vengeance. The only thing I have to complain about on that front is the inability to mix and match pieces outside of their "sets." For example, I wanna wear a leather jacket with a t-shirt and you can only swap the t-shirts with "shackets" and wear a leather jacket with a sweater. I get why all that is, but I miss being able to swap indiscriminately. But hey, I was able to put together another Carmen Sandiego cosplay, so I'm overall happy on that front.

I could honestly take or leave the story line. I'm really here for collecting the Pokemon and running around. It's interesting to be running around, saving Pokemon from weird Mega Energy spikes and collecting the Mega Stones, but the rest is honestly just fluff for me. I barely read the text and just kind of... go along with it. The story line is not where my interest lies. I'm too busy doing side quests and catching Pokemon. Boy, are there A LOT of side quests. Some of them are kind of fun, a good chunk of them are battles. Speaking of battles, you have to do A LOT of them, too. Trainer battles to earn the Challenge Tickets for the Battle League or whatever it's called. Honestly... it's a grind.

Which then brings me to the controls. I have issues with the controls. I'm not sure if it's lingering muscle memory from Legends: Arceus or what, but... I don't find the controls very intuitive. I very much dislike having to use the "focus" button during battles. Like, dude, we clearly need to target the Pokemon and keep targeting them, so why, in one-v-one battles, do I have to "focus" exactly? Any Pokemon that uses something like "Take Down" runs through your Pokemon and you lose "focus" on them and have to readjust your avatar to readjust your "focus," which I think is dumb. Corbeau's Gyarados about killed my Pokemon at least twice on separate occasions because of this exact issue. Much frustration. Aaaand your Pokemon will also attack bushes and things during a battle instead of the Wild Pokemon you're trying to attack... not great. Little bit silly. Mostly frustrating. But hey, they have Pokeball Return Guys at all the Pokestops, so you can get back Pokeballs you missed with, so that's cool.

Really, honestly, Pokemon Legends: Z-A is fun. It's open world enough that you can just kind of go wherever at any given moment, but structured enough to keep you on-task when you need to be. From what I've seen in my corner of the internet *cough* Threads *cough*, I'm not the only one who thinks so. There are a lot of people who're having fun just taking pictures of their avatars with their Pokemon. It's pretty great.

I'm not sure where I am exactly, in terms of the main part of the game... I did just hit Rank B today. But I'm having a lot of fun. That's the main draw of this entire franchise for me: how fun it is. So... yeah.

From the Pokemon Museum

From the Pokemon Museum

 

In Other News

I finished my Magnadramon X project over on OviPets. Took me a year and three months to complete these guys. They're part of my Mega Digimon Project.