The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

Absolutely delightful. I loved it so, so much. Relatively low stakes, just shy of cozy, I would say, assuming your cozy includes the occasional little adventure. This was just the right blend of realism and sci-fi.

I will say, I was expecting more description of the Kaiju and their parasites, though I guess ultimately my brain would not have done them justice. A rough sketch is good enough, I think. I feel like, unless you’ve actually got a visual, description just won’t do what’s in your head justice. It’s the whole movie monster thing: scarier when you haven’t seen it.

I also really liked Jamie and her friends. Even frigging Sanders had his moments. Scalzi’s character work was quite good.

The Kaiju Preservation Society is honestly one of those books I didn’t have any deep thoughts about. It was fun. It was mostly light. I definitely recommend giving it a read. 

 

Favorite Lines

"I like land," I said. "I don't drown there." - Jamie Gray

"No, they don't. They have shredded orange and white sadness that mocks cheese and everything it stands for." - Jame Gray

"Angrily consume your bacon on the toilet, is my advice." - Dr. Lee 

Probability Moon by Nancy Kress

I wasn't sure what to expect with Probability Moon. I don't read a lot of sci-fi and my last foray led to a DNF so... yeah. I actually enjoyed Probability Moon.

I found this exploration of reality quite interesting, if not compelling at times. I definitely feel like a society in which everyone shares the same reality is problematic af, as Bazargan knows and David can't quite understand, especially in terms of introducing such a thing to humans. The fast that it managed to be home-grown on World is definitely a slightly different animal. There don't seem to be any, shall we say, large personalities taking over the entire mechanism, like I and Bazargan imagine there would be for humans. I do wonder how prevalent mental illness is on World, given they literally kill anyone who doesn't share reality, especially if they never develop empathy. It also isn't explored how Worlders deal with scientific advancement aside from the brief foray into the antihistamine thing... would head-pain prevent delving too deeply into the science or what?

Along with how World's shared reality mechanism, we also get a glimpse into how future humans might deal with some of these things via chemical alteration. That isn't delved into as much, though it does play a large part in David's character arc. I had twigged he wasn't exactly neurotypical to begin with... he was just too set in certain mind-sets regardless of his chemical alteration thingy... didn't imagine he was a bad off as it turned out he was, but... yeah.

Enli's progression was honestly something I think she needs to have a very frank but obviously very private discussion with one of the priests about. Figuring creatures without a shared reality into Worlder reality just seems like something that should be done. Understanding that a creature could be that different from you and still function or be "real" just seems like an overall good thing. Maybe that's a very human-centric thought process but when the consequence with basically "death to anyone without a shared reality"... seems like a not-great way to go about life in a universe full of such different people. I do hope Enli finds someone to talk to about that at some stage in her life without being forced into "unreality" again.

I was much less invested in the space part of the plot. It felt like more or less bog-standard sci-fi space stuff. The characters dealing with that weren't developed as much and not very interesting as a result. Setting up the weirdness of the artifact coupled with the one buried in World was vaguely interesting, but only vaguely. I am kind of wondering if the Fallers have a similar kind of shared reality thing to the Worlders and just decided that everyone outside of them is unreal and worthy of death as a result... seems like it's either that or they're like Daleks. If you're not a Faller, you're unworthy of life. Actually, yeah... space-faring Worlders who haven't accepted the idea of multiple realities would act exactly like Fallers have done. So... that's a thought I came upon while writing this review.

That's one of the things I actually quite like about Probability Moon. It's thought-provoking. I don't know that I'll be sitting with these thoughts for a long time, but they're there and making my brain itch. 

The City, Not Long After by Pat Murphy

I found The City, Not Long After quite chill for a post-apocalyptic novel. I honestly haven’t read many, but what I have read tend to focus more on the violent, uneasy parts than this did. Not that there isn’t any violence here, but the hopefulness and artistry of San Francisco’s population supersedes it.

The surreal elements were neat. I kind of like the idea of the city’s soul basically coming back once there isn’t such a heavy population and helping to defend itself and its citizens. The magical moments it brings, too, are fun.

I found the characters quite vivid. Each important, named one got their own little backstory section, which was nice. My favorite was probably Snake. I like how he found his art and what he ended up doing with it.

I also really loved all the art installations the San Franciscans did across the city. The descriptions were definitely vivid enough, I could see them briefly and feel their impacts on Jax. The art itself made just as much impact as the characters who made it.

I found Fourstar rather flat, though I figure he’s meant to be. Just the kind of antagonist who everyone can envision and make as intimidating, or not, as they want. He reminds me of the Commanders of Gilead, to be honest. There, but not a super direct threat to Jax et al. until he is. I think he just can’t be seen to give up, even if he wanted to, but I also don’t think he really thought he was going to make it out of San Francisco alive… I’m not entirely sure, but also don’t care enough to keep speculating on his motives. He wanted to bring the US back together for whatever reason and that honestly just makes me roll my eyes in his direction.

I can’t help wondering if the rest of the US outside of San Francisco got themselves back together or ended up less US and more like Europe is, just given the breadth of the states. That’s honestly someone else’s story to tell and not really important here at all, I just wonder.

The City, Not Long After really sticks in the brain. It’s thought provoking and surreal and just the right amount of melancholy while still managing to be hopeful, I think. 

Acorna's People by Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

Honestly, right off the top, the vibe of this book is different. Something in the way things a described… so different from the first two in a good way. This, unfortunately, does not last. There are literally parts of this book that just rush past or just seem to get utterly bored with what's going on and both draw out but rush at the same time. I did very much enjoy parts of this book, while others left me wishing for those parts. I think the story overall hangs together well enough, but... I doubt I'll be rereading this series again.

I found the antagonist characters both extremely boring and annoying. Every. Single. One. Of. Them. Count Edacki was the boring, in the background, capitalistic asshole out for literally just making money. Captain or Admiral (I literally don't care about his title) Ikwaskwan was apparently in it for revenge against Nadhari... still not entirely sure what that was about, but it was gross. And then there's Kisla and Yasmin, who were both mentally ill and exploited by Edacki for his own ends. They were also incredibly boring and predictable. Thanks, I hate it.

I was really far more interested in Acorna's plot-line trying to learn and fit into the Linyaari society than I was in the plot-line involving her "rescue." While I was reading that part, I was desperate to get away from Hafiz et. al. and back to Acorna. Even the book itself seemed to be utterly bored with itself at that point. I considered skipping chapters... which turned out not to be needed. Once I was able to push through and get into the meat of the story, it was better.

I believe I either went on a bit of rant about in Linyaari and their inability to do ambassador-ing correctly in my review of Acorna's Quest. Well, apparently the species they have treated with in the past also have this problem. Just gonna up an believe a species they just met instead of trying to get some explanation from long-time trading partners about the allegations. Nope, everyone in that sector of space is stupid. There is such thing as too much trust and too much ethics and a severe lack of questions. Thanks for enabling the capture and torture of your supposed allies, guys. Real helpful. Ugh. I was just so, so frustrated with this.

Although I don't think the ending of the book really needed to be drawn out, I did find it kind of rushed. I will concede that it was very clever of Acorna and crew to lure the antagonists into Federation space instead of trying to fight them. I was expecting a fight, really. They were certainly out-gunned. But everything just unfolded quickly and smoothly and the bed guys were apparently punished, so yay.

I'm clearly not overly enthralled with this series. This one felt better than the last, but I think it might be time to call it quits. We'll see. 

Favorite Line

"Some people can hear nothing but their own inner voices shouting at them so loudly that they come to believe the shouting at them so loudly that they come to believe the shouting is coming from others." - Neeva 

Acorna's Quest by Anne McCaffrey & Margaret Ball

I honestly found Acorna's Quest to be frustrating. A good chunk of it is annoying, buoyed only by the interesting part and my completionist need to get through it. There is a slight spoiler in the last paragraph of this, regarding the very end of the book. But also... this is the kind of book where the bad guys don't fare well so... like I said, the spoiler is slight.

First, the interesting part was aboard the ship/space-station Haven. I liked Markel and enjoyed him meeting Acorna and Calum. The whole Haven storyline was, as ever it seems these days, weirdly prescient. Although both "government overthrows" on Haven didn't take very much time at all, it was still much more fun reading than the rest of the book...

The rest... ugh. So, I wrote this whole long thing on my phone about how the Linyaari are incredibly stupid, partially naive, and too ethical to be allowed... which is all true. They apparently don't know how to do "First Contact" very well at all, either time they attempted it. They have apparently never met any species even close to like them (or us) in intelligence and so just treat us as lesser beings. Apparently attempting to find someone in charge never occurs to them. And then! the whole thing about never even having tried fighting the Khleevi... oy vey. I was just very, very annoyed with them from the get-go. I definitely feel like Acorna's going to have a heck of a time adjusting to the Linyaari way of life.

Speaking of the Linyaari's failure to try and find someone in charge, let's talk about Karina. I hate her. So, so much. Woman's insane. It's not the pseudo-psychic thing, it's the parasocial relationship she's apparently formed based on *checks notes* Acorna acknowledging a single email out of 65 that were apparently sent. What. The Actual. Fuck. Ma'am. No. Thinking you have an actual relationship (psychic or otherwise) with someone based on that alone is just... psychotic. Really. I also sincerely hate that a man supposedly as smart as Hafiz Harakamian could fall for her. That it at least super started out as physical doesn't really make it less icky, but the whole thing gives me the ick so... yeah. I can only hope Karina isn't around in later books.

I also didn't enjoy Pal and Thariinye posturing around Acorna. I've never liked the Pal/Acorna pairing and the way he more-or-less tries to steamroll her agency here doesn't make it better. I have truly had it with this particular flavor of relationship.

I also did not need Ed Minkus and Des Smirnoff to show up again. They really only served to get Dr. Hoa on board with getting rid of the Khleevi... which I feel like someone else could have done. The Khleevi honestly felt like more of a threat before they actually showed up to be slaughtered. The running around about them didn't end up feeling like such a big deal, honestly. Probably another reason why I didn't enjoy this book very much. I guess it felt like more setup to get Acorna back to her people... a lot of telling and not a lot of showing. Ultimately, not my cup of tea. 

Favorite Lines

(The silly twit doesn't think, she stirs brain-bits around like a nut-and-root stew, you never know what's going to bob up next.) - One of the Linyaari about Karina

"It is not a waste if we are able to help people desperately in need," - Acorna 

Acorna by Anne McCaffrey & Margaret Ball

Semi-spoiler free reread review.

I honestly cannot remember the last time I reread Acorna. I do remember being absolutely enamored with it. Acorna was probably my first "Adult" sci-fi book, though rereading it now, it definitely feels more in the Young Adult sphere... though the themes of child slavery and pedophilia are very strong here, through the second half of the book. Honestly, the whole thing reads like fairly rushed setup. It's not bad, exactly, just quite rushed. There's not really much given time to breathe properly.

I kind of enjoyed some of the world-building here. It's interesting that Islam has apparently survived into the far future, though I know next to nothing about it so I can't speak to how accurate its portrayal is or isn't. The stuff with Jana in the mines was quite vivid, also reminding me of Mercedes Lackey's Mags character ( The Collegium Chronicles ) in the process. But that's really where the world-building excelled. Everything else just kind of fell flatly into "here's a planet with very delineated class boundaries we're not really going to look into" territory.

I felt Acorna's rise to mythical figure happened way too fast. It was, what, weeks, maybe? That was also very unclear. Also the adult relationships just falling into place. Everything neatly tied off with a bow, though technically open ended was Calum and Acorna are presumably going off in the next book to actually find her planet. Even the over-arching menaces/antagonists were a non-issue. it was very clear Acorna et. al. had plot-armor out the wazoo from the beginning. Just... yeah. Everything felt rushed. There was enough detail to keep one interested but... other than that... bleh. I definitely wasn't as into Acorna this time around as I used to be. Really hoping the rest of the series is better. 

Favorite Line

"Can any system really compete with the massive inefficiencies of a well-entrenched bureaucracy?" - Rafik Harakamian 

The Renegades of Pern by Anne McCaffrey

The Renegades of Pern made me realize that, unless there are very large deviations from the original text, I don’t enjoy reading of events that have already happened. Or at least, not in McCaffrey’s style. Because I’ve been reading in chronological order, there’s several instances in The Renegades of Pern where the story is re-tread. There was a retelling of Piemur’s arrival in Southern via Sharra, Thella’s version of Aramina’s recuse by Heth, and a good chunk of The White Dragon through Piemur’s eyes. It was alright, but I just read all that elsewhere.

That said, the rest of The Renegades of Pern was alright. I was honestly bored with the second half of Jayge and Aramina’s story, but did enjoy the ultimate ending. Thella was slightly compelling, until she went full-on revenge-girl. Like, I enjoyed that she was willing to strike out on her own and that she managed to mostly do it successfully… but then it was all “they have seen me, they must die” and that was just less fun.

Most of Piemur and Toric’s bits were re-treads of what happened during The White Dragon. That changed during the last few chapters, where more exploring of the Southern Continent happened. That part was interesting. I won’t go into specifics on that, but it was a continuation of Pern’s story that’s looking like a lot of fun.

Dragon's Code by Gigi McCaffrey

Really just not a fan of this at all. The stakes just aren’t there for me, especially after reading The White Dragon, which Dragon’s Code takes place during. I don’t think I’ve ever been that big a fan of Piemur’s, so having him as the POV character most of the time is just whatever. Dragon’s Code just isn’t inspiring me to pick it up half the time, so… DNFing.

The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey

2018 First Read

This book is a ridiculous mix of absolutely nothing happening followed by spurts of ALL THE THINGS happening followed by more of nothing. The pace is ridiculous and it’s hard to get a good reading rhythm going. Not as good as Dragonflight and Dragonquest, which it’s lumped in with, but the boring parts are definitely worth pushing through to get to the more exciting bits.

2025 Reread

So, the thing about The White Dragon is: the pacing is all over the place. On this reread, I’m remembering why I DNF’d The White Dragon in the first place. Don’t get me wrong, the story is good and rewards reading, it’s just that it goes from an adventure to lots of talking to some more adventure to more talking to… you get the idea. And it’s not really until the last 100-or-so pages that the big, Pern-changing discoveries are made… but that would be telling. 🤫

Anyway… by far, the star of The White Dragon is the White Dragon himself: Ruth. Ruth really distinguishes himself over the course of the story, honestly showing more intelligence than even his parents. Ruth is also quite funny, at times. He’s indispensable as a fire lizard interpreter, too. There’s a constant worry about his sexuality, weirdly enough, that I found, well, really just weird. I guess for more sexual beings than myself, worrying about whether or not the “runt” dragon was ever going to mate is worthwhile, but… yeah. Felt weird to me.

I quite like Jaxom and “watching” him grow up. He and Sharra make a nice couple. I like her, too. She’s, I think, what I would have liked Mirrim to turn out like… which was a bit of a disappointment, to be honest. Mirrim’s descent into, basically a shrew personality-wise, wasn’t great. But hey, it takes all types to make a world.

So, yeah, The White Dragon is definitely worth the read, even if it admittedly took me a few tries to actually get through it. I will add that doing the reread was also a lot of waiting for things to happen. Just soldiering through the more boring parts to get to the fun or interesting parts. But definitely worth it. 

Random Continuity Error

So there's this whole part where people talk about Robinton not being able to sail... except that in The Masterharper of Pern, he does sail. Manages to keep him and his unmentioned wife afloat for the entirety of their sickness and the storm or whatever... but yeah, not mentioned in The White Dragon at all. Yay for publication retcons.

Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern by Anne McCaffrey

Well, I had barely remembered anything from Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern from when I read it at 12… I think I was 12, anyway. The librarian who recommended it to me was a little apprehensive because of the absolute nothing of a sex scene. Speaking of, the thing I did remember was Moreta and Alessan being a thing. The rest… not a lick of memory.

Oooofffff, this epidemic storyline hits differently now. I find it really interesting that Pern manages to do such a better job at getting everyone vaccinated than we seem to be able to do with much more advanced tech. I mean, this was Sci-fi from the 80s, so McCaffrey was clearly more hopeful and hadn’t experienced the ridiculousness that was COVID, but still… This is also the third storyline of the Pern chronology to deal with an epidemic. The last two were written well after this, but it is worth noting.

The speed at which this disease jumped species, even if they’re all Earth-ancestry species is super concerning… not that anyone has brought that up at all. Though maybe it was something the Colonists brought with them, jumped species to the cats, then was able to jump back fairly quickly… still really concerning and not talked about at all. Just waved away with a “it’s zoonosis.” Okay then.

First time in the chronology there’s actually a queen’s wing. That was fun to see. Actually, getting more with the queens was fun. I don’t remember Lessa, for example, having to sleep off the Hatching Grounds due to Ramoth clutching. So that was neat. I love Orlith.

I actually quite liked getting more info on Falls and the aftermath. Taking care of injured dragons is more interesting than Plagued ones or humans. Very glad Moreta was able to pass some of her dragon healing knowledge on.

What is it with Fort Weyr producing surly Weyrleaders?? Sh’gall, D’gan… wtf. Although the real curmudgeon of this book was M’tani of Telgar, so that’s a bit of a difference.

Not sure this late-introduced mystery of Rill needed to be a thing. Although what might have been a typo already gave away who it is… if it’s relevant in later books, chronologically speaking.

Anyway, Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern was a lot of fun. The characters were engaging, the pacing was good, and the ending was surprising.

Surprise Baby Review!

Adulthood Is a Myth by Sarah Andersen

I knew this collection was going to be 99% relatable and it was. I’m gonna go hide in a blanket pile with my books now. 

GoodReads Reading Goal

Happy New Year! Just wanted to note that, as it is January 1st, I have set my Reading Goal at 100 books. the last couple of years, I've read well over 100 books, so I feel this goal is achiveable, even without an injection of 20 anthologies. 😜

Also, my reviews for today and tomorrow are from 2024 and don't count toward this year's goal. ✌

Sky Dragons by Anne & Todd McCaffrey

Overall, Sky Dragons makes a nice change of narrative from following Fiona and Lorana for two books. It was also a lot more fun, as there wasn’t as much doom and gloom hanging over everything. As usual with these last couple (chronologically) books, there is some filling in of the overall Pern narrative through the use of time travel.

Book One: Sky Dragons

I’m actually really enjoying Xhinna, here. She faded fairly quickly into the background during the last two books, especially given her absence from Igen. But here, she seems to be flourishing. I do think it’s a little odd that saving Pern seems to be on her shoulders. I get being the first female Blue rider and apparently needing to prove herself in that regard, but I’m still not sure why saving Pern seemed to end up being Xhinna’s responsibility. Gotta theme those female main characters, apparently.

Okay, so… how’d the cats end up on the islands, exactly? Given where the islands are and that Tuberman’s cats would have been on the Southern Continent… this just doesn’t make sense. This is not explained, but the cats come in handy (no, I will not refer to them as Mrreows) so I guess we’ll just hand-wave that.

I really enjoy Jirana. She’s a lot more plucky and less wispy than a lot of other female-child-seers tend to be.

I was a little put off, late in this part of the book, by how much of the book went by in a play-by-play of the time. Just seemed like a lot of time to spend directly in the action vs how much time needed to elapse for Sky Dragons to match up with the rest of the timeline. Not that there weren’t little time-jumps, but they didn’t seem long enough.

Book Two: The Sky Dragons

Back to business as usual for the Weyrfolk, only, ya know, on an island. Not gonna lie, my eyes were glazing over again when the numbers and logistics came back into the mix. However, hearing about how D’gan dealt with coming back to Telgar was rather amusing.

In Conclusion

Sky Dragons was a nice change of pace, while still sticking to the "gotta save Pern via judicious time travelling" thing that last two-three books (depending on what order you're reading in) have had. I very much liked that this mainly stuck to the one story line, even if I had been a little worried about its length vs the length of the book itself. It was nice not to be overly bored with logistics for once, as well. They were worked in a lot better this time, in my opinion. Definitely a solid Pern entry.

Favorite Lines

"Adults are only grown-up children, after all." - Xhinna

"Girls, as you may have noticed, are dangerous." - R'ney

Dragon's Time by Anne & Todd McCaffrey

I can’t pinpoint what made Dragon’s Time so much better than Dragongirl, but pacing is a big part of this. The pacing was so, so much better. I practically flew through Dragon’s Time.

The time travel is very heavy here, but mostly well done. Lorana’s adventures through time were alright. I think the concept of a Beacon is interesting. Lorana was definitely more relatable here. I particularly liked her first little thing with Tenniz. And “seeing” her be at least somewhat in space was interesting. It was also really obvious to me that F’jian was doing a “Time Traveler’s Wife” kind of thing, which was fairly sweet. Terin’s initial reaction to it was super understandable.

There also wasn’t the dire sort of feeling that Dragongirl had about the state of the Dragons. We didn’t get, or need, up-to-the-moment updates about how many dragons were left. The worry was still there, just not nearly as oppressive this time.

I do like that we get some dragon-switching. It’s an interesting concept, especially in light of the more open attitude Fiona and Telgar Weyr have been promoting.

The last third of the book honestly had me confused. I don’t usually rely on maps, but I wish the islands were included. I guess that’s regarded as a spoiler, which is why the map didn’t appear until after the last chapter. I had a hard time visualizing where the heck Fiona and them were. I would talk more about the goings on there, but I do feel like that’s a lot more of a spoiler.

But anyway, Dragon’s Time was definitely a lot more enjoyable than Dragongirl. That’s the main feeling I’m left with. I’m also relieved, because I do want to enjoy my time reading and rereading Pern.

I've Done It Again!

I'm not re-upping my goal again this year. Just gonna see how many I get through for the rest of the year in a chill manner.

Dragongirl by Todd McCaffrey

Dragongirl falls squarely into the category of "Books I Really Should Have Just DNF'd." It is truly the most boring Pern book I have ever read. The only reason it didn't end up in the DNF Pile was because I'm waiting for the next batch of Pern books to arrive. I am so very, very over the repetitious, uninteresting style Todd McCaffrey has adopted for telling this story. Seriously, my eyes should not glaze over while reading about how the dragons of Pern are in peril... again. I should not be over that, either... and yet... so over it.

Probably the only thing I liked about Dragongirl was the Polycule of Fiona, Kindan, Lorana, and T'mar. I like that it exists. More Poly representation is good. I'm did not, however, need to know the opinion of almost every Weyrwoman on Pern on the existence of said Polycule, but Fiona just seems to keep bringing it up at every opportunity. I mean, yes, it was incredibly weird how the whole thing came about... bordering on problematic, really... but I don't see why she felt the need to discuss it with every Weyrwoman she encountered.

There were also a couple of severe character assassinations here, in my opinion. Lorana went from "Reluctant Savior of Pern" to "Pregnant and Really Worried About It" to... well... spoiler spoiler spoiler. Kindan was severely one-note here. Reluctant Weyrling Master who keeps not Impressing and is just mad about it. I also found it really, deeply weird that Kindan is/was apparently so hung-up on Fiona's long-dead sister that he mistook Fiona for her and still thinks about her... That was barely a relationship and she's been dead for at least 12 years. I'm sorry, what?

Uh... let's see... There were also two pretty identical scenes of M'tal fighting Thread over Keroon. Apparently the wind being messy the first time did not stick in their heads for the second time. Nuella is barely a blip here, even though she really should have been at least slightly more involved. Apparently we're still not including the Wherhold in big, Pern-wide meetings concerning Thread despite Fiona having been close with Nuella previously and knowing how important Watch-Whers are, actually. And just to bring home how really mundane and in the weeds of running a Weyr Dragongirl got... one of the last discussions of the book was Fiona and T'mar discussing moving to the other side of Telgar's bowl. Seriously. Just a discussion about moving house.

I'm really dedicated to reading the Pern series all the way through, at least once. I want to see what I missed out on the first go-through and how the timeline goes. However, if any more of the books are like this, that's going out the window. Dragongirl was just dull for most of the "run time." Again, I should probably care that the dragons are in peril again, but I was driven into not caring at all by how many times it was brought up hopelessly and in the most boring manner possible here. Oh, and Dragongirl does another thing I hate: it doesn't really end, so much a peter out into an apparent, uninteresting cliff-hanger. So.. yeah.

Dragon's Fire by Anne & Todd McCaffrey

Dragon's Fire is honestly the worst Pern book I've read so far. The antagonists are one-note, most of the characters aren't even likeable, and the story is honestly just boring. The main point, it seems, is to explain the differences in Firestone and how the safe stuff came to be mined as opposed to the more unstable version... and how they figured out the Shunned problem.

I kind of liked getting some "behind the scenes" stuff at Camp Natalon that synchs up with the events of Dragon's Kin. Knowing that Zist had some more going on than just Nuella's lessons. Honestly, Pellar's story toward the beginning of "Book One" was the most engaging part of the book.

I found the rest of the book very disjointed. Too many POVs and too many absolutely horrible characters. Horrible in their personalities, although they also didn't feel very rounded, either. I'm really not sure how D'gan ever became a dragonrider. I would have thought the dragons would be better judges of character, but I guess not. Tenim is one note as all get-out. He's just greedy and that's it. And Tarik... still a horrible human-being. Makes sense that he was Shunned. Oh, and Moran... he's really just super flawed and not fleshed out nearly at all. Like, kind of good for him, taking in strays, but he largely throws their care onto Hala so... eh. Just too much absolute nonsense, in my opinion.

I honestly feel like I could have skipped Dragon's Fire in my chronological reread and not missed anything.

Dragonseye by Anne McCaffrey

Dragonseye is interesting. First, it has to let readers know the changes that have happened, basically since the last moment of Dragonsdawn (as Dragonsblood had yet to be written at this point). It had to straddle the 200+ year time difference and the divide in technology levels during that timeframe. I think it did that reasonably well. Secondly, Dragonseye had to tell an entertaining story. This went mostly okay, though the overall ending felt protracted.

It is interesting to read these books in chronological order. I haven’t read a good chunk of them before. I can see where parts of Pernese history are being filled in. Like the learning songs being written. It doesn’t quite feel like a checklist of things that need to be explained being explained, but it also kind of does. I didn’t ever think about how certain things (like the learning songs) came to be, but it is nice to have the explanation. “Seeing” the experience of declining tech is also kind of sad, to be honest. Like, you know it’s gonna happen eventually, but “being there” for it is a whole other matter. I was also not expecting there to be any kind of argument over “losing” Earth’s history, though it makes sense from the person it came from. There really is no reason to keep absolute ancient history from a planet you will never go to or interact with alive for most of the population.

Okay so… Lord Chalkin. Immediate hatred for this man and all his ilk, in and out of fiction. The EXPERTS are telling you what’s going to happen and you are just willfully not listening to them because you “know better” because of your rudimentary science classes. Speaking of which, he apparently also didn’t pay enough attention to understand that the tech the original Pernese settlers had is WAY beyond current capabilities. And, ah yes, Chalkin is such an ass he doesn’t want to thank a dragon for transporting him. Fuck this guy. I am extremely glad everyone in the text agrees. I also feel like Chalkin’s inclusion is just a little too much reality seeping into my Science Fantasy book right this moment. I will concede that this feeling is a product of when I’m reading. The ending to Chalkin’s storyline was satisfying.

I really enjoyed the look into being a newly Impressed dragonrider. Even more so that it’s a female Green rider. Debera’s a good POV character and I’m in love with Morath. Hard not to love the dragons, I think, but still. Love them. I also didn’t mind the romance between Debera and Iantine. It was sweet and just enough in the romance category.

I felt the ending of Dragonseye went on a bit too long. I understand that the actual story had to do with the reemergence of Thread and not Chalkin’s whole thing… but it felt like the end of Chalkin’s storyline should have been the end of the book. Not that I didn’t like getting a bit more of day-to-day in the Weyr, but it seemed to go on longer with each page.

But yeah… overall, I enjoyed Dragonseye. Had a hard time putting it down, actually. Excellent story. Excellent writing. Had enough info to stand alone, if need be.

Favorite Lines

"That was the purpose of education: to develop the skills required to solve problems. And to utilize the potential that existed in everyone -- even a Bitran, he added sourly." - Narration, Clisser's POV

"The people needed dragons' help. I listen. We all do." - Charanth

Thought This Was Interesting

"He read accounts of persons who never left their home place, contacting others only by electronics, living as eremites. Not so much out of fear of the outside world, as out of indolence." - Narration, Clisser's POV

Just amused at the Sci-Fi foresight of McCaffrey from 1997.

The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall by Anne McCaffrey

My review is broken into pieces following each individual story in the order I read them in. I read all the stories from this anthology. You may clap.

“The Survey: P.E.R.N.”: I enjoyed it. Actually kind of interesting to see an off-planet team evaluation of Pern.

“The Dolphin’s Bell”: Really nice to get some idea as to what “Dolphineering” was like in the beginning of Pern’s occupation. I was not expecting the Dunkirk reference. I’m honestly not sure what I was expecting, but this was a nice story following The Crossing’s water route.

“The Ford of Red Hanrahan”: Liked it well enough. Felt like it got a little too into the details of moving from Fort to the new holding. I was pleasantly surprised at which holding this turned out to be, so I won’t spoil it.

“The Second Weyr”: Teared up a bit when the Weyr was named, even though I knew it was coming. The rest of the story was just a lot of “ah yes, these things need to happen” but it was entertaining enough.

“Rescue Run”: Honestly, really weird to be thrown back into the hardcore Sci-Fi part of the the Pern universe after being out of it for a bit. I hate Kimmer. I think it was ultimately irresponsible of Benden and his crew to not do some more investigating of the Northern Continent, but, ya know, Pern can just exist outside of the broader human empire or whatever.

Dragonsblood by Todd McCaffrey

Dragonsblood is a beautiful first outing for Todd McCaffrey. It truly feels completely connected to the rest of the Pern novels. Not only that, but the triumphant ending had me in tears. The overall story line is a little complicated and there are a lot of characters to keep track of, but it really makes the world feel lived-in.

I quite like Lorana as a character. She does kind of seem like an overly-cheerful type, but that's balanced by all the suffering the poor girl went through and goes through in this book. I feel, like her multi-dragon-hearing predecessors, Lorana would, and I guess does, make a good Weyrwoman. I am glad we get to know her some before she Impresses Arith.

Wind Blossom was nice to get to know outside of the small bits in Dragonsdawn. I feel for her. Generational trauma combined with the Watch-Wher stuff could not have been easy for her. Not to mention trying to break herself of similarly traumatizing Emorra. It must have also been heart-wrenching for a healer like her to be faced with the decline in technology, as she was. I can't imagine having to go from having genetic manipulation capabilities to not even being able to synthesize antibiotics.

I honestly found the parts with D'gan extremely annoying, though they do eventually pan out plot-wise. I despise characters who are just so caught up in their own crap to the detriment of others, especially if they're supposed to be leading them. Like, sir, you're not even listening to your DRAGON when he tells you he's unwell. What. The. Fuck. Ugh. Thanks for being a despicable plot-point, though, I guess.

I'm also not going to lie, my eyes glazed over when the intricacies of Pernese DNA/PNA was discussed. That felt a little too in the weeds, but I also understand how it was necessary to explain just how different they are from the humans we're used to dealing with. Just got a little to hard Sci-Fi for my little brain to handle for a moment there. That said, the entire disease story line definitely hit different in 2024 than I imagine it did on my first read. COVID and all that. And worse, as it's the dragons affected and the human characters have little to nothing they can even do about it.

Dragonsblood is definitely a fantastic entry into the Pern lexicon.

Favorite Line

"A atarved stomach needs to learn to eat all over again." - K'tan

Dragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey

This marks the beginning my first full reread of the Pern series. This time, I'm reading in the chronological order recommended by the Pern Fandom Wiki. So far, this reread has been interesting. I think I was more fully invested this time, than my last time reading. Sallah, Sean, and Sorka, being the main touchstones. Sean and Sorka, in my honest opinion, just fell into that category of "you know we're going to grow up together and end up married just because" thing... which is fine. I didn't really need this to be a sweeping romance.

Dragonsdawn did exactly what it needed to do, in terms of telling the story of how Pern was first settled. It didn't feel like a check-list, either, which tends to happen with some prequels. Having read it, and a good chunk of the Pern series before, I really feel like this did a good job. Dragonsdawn is also told in such a way that is can definitely serve as the first book of the series proper, as well. There are definitely bits that are kind of Easter Eggs for those reading the series in publication order (or however you're reading it where this isn't the first book), but it's not overburdened by them.

I found the Avril Bitra storyline rather "meh." Her plan just seemed really silly to me. Doable, apparently, according to the story, but very silly. Add Nabol, a name that tends to produce antagonistic characters in the Pern series, and I was just checked out of the whole thing. Greedy humans will greedy human their way to death and that's fine. Honestly, it's interesting that the names Bitra and Nabol long outlasted their namesakes, especially as Bitra, at least, didn't have any descendants.

I found myself incredibly enraged at Ted Tubberman as he stubbornly lobbied for calling for help. He reminded me a lot of certain Right Wing people who just refuse to listen to reason... or even the majority. I vaguely remember some mention of felines being hunted on the Southern Continent later in the series, but I don't know that I was interested enough to really care about where they came from. Good to know, I guess.

I love the dragons. I had honestly been expecting Sean and Sorka to Impress first, so it was surprising when they didn't. I really enjoyed the Dragonriders figuring out how the Dragons worked, mostly on their own. That part of the book kind of flew by in a 1980's-style montage, even if it was satisfying. The ending, despite knowing full well the Dragons would be fully functional, made me cry.

So yeah, Dragonsdawn is a very good prequel and a very good beginning. I've been looking forward to this reread and continue to do so.

Reviews Batch 13

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
Originally Posted to GoodReads: November 8, 2021

Just not that into it

Okay, first, I couldn’t really connect with any of the main characters, so that’s a big part of my problem. Second, there’s just so much crammed in here. It feels like the book was longer just because of how much happened that wasn’t even that integral to the plot. Third, the world building was alright, but again, there was just so much crammed in and then never actually explained. Fourth, the villains were crap. Kind of built up to be more than they were. And then they seem to be foiled in the end by… machine malfunctions. I’m confused as to what actually happened. Of course, jumping between points of view at that point really wasn’t helping either.

Really just not a fan of this. Wasn’t any one thing, just a whole lot that kind of petered out with more of a whimper than it probably meant to. 

Harry Potter: A Journey Through A History of Magic by British Library

Originally Posted to GoodReads: November 16, 2017

A fantastic and beautiful look at an exhibition most of us will tragically never get to see. The art, most of it my Jim Kay, is beautiful. I particularly loved looking at the old illuminated manuscript pages. The bits of unused writing from Rowling's drafts made me smile and gave me a nice reminder that even the best books start out needing some work.

Honestly, I probably won't reread this. Might look through from time to time just to look at the images. It's not really a book you read, if that makes sense.

Also, if, for some strange reason, you decide to pick up this book without reading the Harry Potter series first (what's wrong with you, go read them!), there are spoilers for the series.

 

An Accident of Stars by Foz Meadows

Originally Posted to GoodReads: November 27, 2017

Really awesome. Loved all the interconnectedness of everything. Loved the multiple narrators. Loved the fleshing out of the different cultures, as well as could be done in a first book. Loved the representation of non-heteronormativity.

My only real critique would be that the publishers needed to pay attention to where gaps in the text should be. There were several spots where I was confused due to a lack of spacing between paragraphs during a perspective jump.

Remembering The Sickness by K.A. Applegate

This post is going to be starting off a new review series, separate from my main series of reviews. These will be just as lazy -- probably lazier, even -- as my usual reviews. According to the data I've put into GoodReads, I've currently got a "Read" count of 945 books. I've only officially reviewed a very small sampling of those and really don't intend on going back and rereading all of them in order to properly review them. So, while I was spraying down meat saws at work, I had this idea to do a series of reviews based solely on what I remember of a random assortment of books and possibly the blurbs. I thought I might also do this style of post for what I'm about to read, just to see how much I remember vs what my rereads turn up. But yeah, mostly these "Remembering" posts will be for books I have little to no intention of rereading. They'll also have no particular order, just what I happen to have my mind on at any given moment. The format will also be open to change at any given moment. I haven't settled on what exactly I want to do with these yet so... yeah. There will be spoilers.

Enjoy.

The Sickness by K.A. Applegate

I was a huge fan of Animorphs when I was in Junior High. Like, HUGE. I am embarrassed  to say that I created a weird form of "Tag" based around the series. That's how big I was into it. I read all 54 books and the surrounding "Mega Morphs" and "Chronicles" extras. I even watched a few episodes of the Nickelodeon TV show when I had access. It seemed fitting to start off this new series of reviews with an Animorphs book, specifically my favorite one: The Sickness. Book number 29.

Every Animorphs book follows a different member of the protagonist group, in this case, Cassie.

I have no idea how The Sickness starts out, only that the Animorphs are on one of their self-assigned missions and Jake, I believe, starts getting sick. Like, throwing up and not being able to stay in his animal forms. I distinctly remember the throwing up bit, because there's a whole part where Cassie and Marco are walking Jake home and Marco starts riffing on all the different names for puking. My adolescent brain loved that bit. Anyway, one by one, each of the Animorphs except Cassie falls prey to whatever this sickness is. There's something about it being passed through the morphing ability, but it's all kind of vague and I'm pretty sure we never find out why Cassie doesn't end up sick.

However, we do find out that Ax, the sole alien of the group, has some brain-swelling or something as a side effect of the sickness and Cassie, as the proto-vet or whatever, has to do some surgery in order to relieve the swelling. This needs to involve a Yeerk for some reason, but to get ahold of one of those, you gotta get to the Yeerk-pool... and that's as much as I remember about that particular plot point until:

Over the course of the book, Cassie also has to befriend a Yeerk (the brain-invading slug-like parasites the Animorphs are fighting the entire series). Or, befriend isn't exactly the word as Cassie makes a deal with this "girl" to basically get herself stuck in an utterly useless morph in return for the Yeerk's help. Cassie does this, I remember, but it's ultimately okay because of a weird quirk in the morphing tech that allows metamorphosed morphs to restart the morphing clock. So apparently a caterpillar turning itself to goo and then becoming a butterfly restarts Cassie's morphing clock and she's back to being a human in the end. Which... ya know, I'm glad I didn't know more about the butterfly life-cycle at the time, because I call shenanigans about that 2-hour-and-you're-stuck clock in that case... but I also don't know how long that whole process actually takes and now I have questions.

But whatever, Cassie does Ax's surgery with the help of the Yeerk "girl," the rest of the Animorphs basically get over the sickness, and everyone comes out all hunky-dory at the end of the book. I think the Yeerk "girl" also lets her host go and gains morphing abilities of her own... and purposefully gets herself stuck as something else, but I could be completely misremembering that. 54+ books of memories, I'm bound to get things mixed up.

I probably reread The Sickness at least five times as a kid. It's probably why I remember so much about it. The Animorphs books were below my reading level even when I was reading them the first time and they're kind of short. I tore through them pretty quickly multiple times. A good chunk of that series is a big blur in my head. That's also fairly understandable as Animorphs is one of those formulaic series mostly written by ghost writers. That said, I highly recommend Animorphs as a series for kids interested in sci-fi but not super sure if they're going to like it or not and animal lovers. Animorphs is more heavy on the animal facts than it is the actual science fiction aspects, from what I remember anyway.