Books

Well, looks like May is just blazing on by. Fun times.

Anyway, I've been enjoying some books and thought I'd add commentary:

Holy Sister by Mark Lawrence

The third and final book in Lawrence's Ancestor trilogy, it brought an end to Nona Grey's story which started in "Red Sister" and then continued in "Grey Sister". I have to admit that, while I enjoyed "Holy Sister", I found it a bit rushed for my taste. The book did a bit of a jarring jump that felt out-of-place given the tight time-frames and story details that were in the previous two books. Still, I enjoyed it all the same.



Polaris Rising by Jessie Mihalik

I picked this one up having read a review on io9. It was billed as a classic space opera, complete with a space princess and a rogue. I decided to give it a chance.

Can't say I regretted it. It's a bit romance-novel but has some cool space opera in there. I genuinely enjoyed all the characters and their interactions. There were cliches galore, but it is space opera,and the cliches were done quite well. I may have to try more of Ms. Mahalik's works.



One Word Kill by Mark Lawrence

I had to return to Mr. Lawrence's works to see his take on weird science fiction set in the 1986. I truly enjoyed this book for a variety of reasons. Lawrence did a marvelous job capturing the angst of a teen learning he's dying of cancer (yikes!) without completely soaking the story in hopeless angst. He also captures the feel of some eighties teens playing D&D along with young love and all that stuff.

Oh, and there's time travel. That was good times too.

A fun read. I look forward to the other books in the series.



A Time of Blood by John Gwynne.

Sequel to "A Time of Dread", which is itself a sequel to his first Banished Lands series, there was more of the schemes of the evil Kadoshim as they fight against the forces of the Bel-Elim and the descendants of the heroes from the first series. I have to say that this book really didn't grab me like the others. I felt a bit like this one retread a lot of stuff I've already read a few times in his other works. While a fun read, there was nothing in this book that really stood out. I'm hoping Gwynne has a fresher idea for the next book.

Avengers: Endgame

Saw it.

No spoilers here. Just needed to say that I really, really liked it. Fun movie. There's a climactic moment that made me squee. Oh, there were a few plot holes (kinda big ones) but overall I have to say I really liked how they tied several stories together.

A scattering of topics

• Have gotten a lesson this week in bureaucracy. Trying to figure out what my next step is to get a proper resolution. I hate this crap.
• I've come to the conclusion that I'm criminally out-of-shape. Ridiculously so. I shouldn't be this out-of-shape. I mean, I fairly regularly practice martial arts and all that. Turns out if you only do a martial arts class a couple of days a week and do fuck all for the other five days, you don't really progress very much. So it's time to up my game. Went jogging today and... wow do I have a ways to go!
• I've been given an amazing gift: a Traumahawk! Yes, that's right, I have another Zombie Tool! Oh glory day! This thing is a brutal bit of metallic awesome! I'm amazed I haven't broken anything in my apartment (or cut off a limb). Yet.
• I think I'm obsessed with bullet points.

Obligatory April post

Yeah.

So I finished "A Veil of Spears", the third book of the "Shattered Sands" series by Bradley P. Beaulieu. Goddamn that series is getting intense! The last book is due around July and I simply cannot wait!

I just finished (like an hour ago) "Tiamat's Wrath" by James S.A. Corey. Book 8 in "The Expanse" may well be the best of the series thus far. I can't recall being so utterly drawn into a novel in a long time. The sheer, mind-boggling, amount of shit that went down in that 500+ pages of awesome has left me in awe. I'm not ashamed to admit there was a point when I had to close the book 'cause something happened that made me get a bit choked up.

Oh, and now it's suddenly April. It's six days into April. 2019 seems to be burning along at a disturbingly-fast clip. Not sure how to process that.

WTF?

How is it over halfway through March already?

Seriously, HOW THE HELL DID MARCH GET SO FAR ALONG????

I swear it was twenty seconds ago when I looked up and it was mid-February. 2019 is moving faster than I'm comfortable with.

Captain Marvel

I saw Captain Marvel last night.

Damn that was a fun movie! I'll admit I was a little worried the film was over-hyped, but I have to say that Brie Larson did a fantastic job as Carol Danvers. Hell, the entire cast was solid. The story did a good job of translating her weird origin (in comics) to film. The fights and effects were up to the normal standard of fantastic.

There were a couple of points where I felt the writers were being a bit too self-referential, but I guess I should have expected that. It certainly didn't detract from how enjoyable the film was.

Thoughts on Alita: Battle Angel

I caught Alita: Battle Angel the other night. If you've seen the trailers, you pretty much understand this movie. If the trailer didn't illuminate you, the movie isn't really going to help. It was a fun action flick with great effects and fantastic fights. It would have been greatly improved by removing all speaking scenes outside of battle-banter. Any and all attempts at exposition or plot development should especially be purged.

Get past all that, and it's a solid flick. Loved it.