Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

Book #102 of 2026: Calculated Whisk

2026-10-18T01:26:44Z

Calculated Whisk (Tales from the Dragon Diner #1) by Lindsay Buroker.

Quick synopsis: In the space of a week, two enemies who fought on opposite sides in a war become trusted friends. One of the two wants more than friendship. And there was a cooking contest.

Brief opinion: Cozy books are so not for me. The story made so little sense and the characters' actions made even less, all in pursuit of "cozy".

Plot: A war between dragons and "everyone else" ends. The dragons can shapeshift and one (Jildarin) takes the form of a human so he can open a diner and cook for people.

A woman (Rylana) from the other side of the war, one who shot Jildarin almost in the eye, nearly killed him, needs a job so she shows up on his diner's doorstep.

She gets hired and spends most of the story trying to get Jildarin to like her, first as a friend and then more.

Plus Jildarin wants to enter some cooking contest, but there's an unbelievable plot about another cook trying to kill him so that other cook will win.

Editing: I can't complain about the editing, it was really good.

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: I can see why I picked this book up. The story has such potential. If only it had been handled in a realistic way instead of "cozy".

I was really surprised near the end of the book to learn this all took place in a week. They went from mortal enemies to trusted friends/budding relationship in a week. All of the logic was like that: Sacrificed so everything would be "cozy" -- no real conflict or tension. Nothing was realistic at all.

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️⭐️ - Disliked. I enjoyed the beginning of the story, but by the 50% point had lost all interest. For some reason I kept going. At the 60% point I really wanted to DNF it, but pushed through to the end for some reason. I should have DNFed it.

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2026 books, book review, audiodrama

2026-10-04T22:31:26Z

Animorphs #51: The Absolute. It pains me to have to DNF a book when we're so close to the end of this long series. This was one of my least favorite books: All action. Three main characters: Marco, Tobias, and a governor. The two of them kidnap the governor and the rest of the book is about that. There's a train heist. They blow up a yacht. Multiple battles with the US military. Marco (as a gorilla) drives a limo as they kidnap the governor. In 2019 I gave this one star and called it "a complete and utter waste". 2026: DNF early on.

Animorphs #52: The Sacrifice. I don't usually like Ax books (his are supposed to be funny, but the humor doesn't work for me at all, probably because I'm not a preteen), but I loved this one. Ax is so different now, he's grown up as much as the human Animorphs have.

While I did have a couple issues, all in all this was one good story. The war is really ramping up (with only two books to go) and the kids are all so mature now (and so very PTSD in different ways). Instead of reacting to and defending against the Yeerks, the Animorphs are starting to go on the offensive. And being on the offensive means innocent people might get hurt. Back in 2019 I gave this five stars, and I agree this time. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️- Loved

Animorphs #53: The Answer. It felt like it took forever to do my reread of this series, but also the end has come too soon. This book and the next/last one are easily the best two in the series. This is a Jake book, and he sounds like an adult now. A battle commander. Which he is. So many deaths in this book (17,000+ yeerks died at once, an army of humans, a bunch of disabled kids..). I just wish the whole series could have been the same quality as this book. Back in 2019 I gave this three stars, but this reread in 2026 is: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️- Loved

Animorphs #54: The Beginning. I can't believe it's over. The end of this massive war, the end of a 50+ book series. Back in 2019 I gave this final book two stars/disliked, but it worked a lot better for me this time.

Back then I had had an issue with the whole "Animorphs In SPACE!" ending, but this time I was okay with it. I didn't like it, but maybe since I knew it was coming it was more okay with me.

My issue is a sadder one. In the seven years since I last read this series, the world has changed. America has changed even more. Once they won the war, the kids became worldwide heroes. No part of the media had a single bad thing to say about them. But today? FOX news would make up some stupid crap and half the US would believe it. The vast majority of people would be armchair quarterbacking every move the Animorphs had made. It wouldn't surprise me if the kids were arrested. It was a depressing distraction from the story.

For as many bad books as this series had, it was full of good ideas and the pre-space ending was so good. I'm happy I reread it and now I'm looking forward to reading some fanfics!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Liked

National Emergency (audiodrama/podcast). Set in our world, one day those national emergency announcements start happening. They contain very weird instructions, like everyone in a home has to go to a different room and no one can be facing the front door. If you hear a knock, ignore it. If you hear voices, ignore it. If you feel something touch you, ignore it. If anyone fails to follow the instructions, they vanish (and presumably die). Luckily it's rare for anyone to have one of these events happen to them. But Owen, our main character, was involved in one of the first ones. He lost his wife in it, wrongly went to prison for it, and now that he's out more of these emergency broadcasts keep happening around him...

The story is so creepy (and chilling at parts), the voice acting is outstanding, and the audio mixing is perfect (unlike the last one I listened to).

You can listen to National Emergency for free right here.

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Animorphs: Book #96 and #97 of 2026, two DNF, #98: Derelict (audiodrama)

2026-09-28T00:57:54Z

Animorphs #47: The Resistance. Half of this book was about Jake's grandfather fighting in the Civil War, with no logical reason at all why the reader was seeing it. The other half of the book was even worse (about the Hork-Bajir aliens and some Star Trek fans who acted like no humans in the world would). I gave one star on my first reading in 2019, DNF this time.

Animorphs #48: The Return. My least favorite part of the series's plot is the "gods" (aliens so advanced they may as well be gods). This book was about them, and even worse brought David back, which ruined his whole trilogy. I gave one star on my first reading in 2019, DNF this time.

Animorphs #49: The Diversion. Tobias, the boy trapped as a hawk, has a whole complex backstory. Much of it is not believable (his father is one of the Andalite aliens, the blue deer-like aliens with four eyes), but the part about his mother abandoning him is more grounded. This book reunited him with her and started the "get the parents out of danger" subplot of the book's finale. I gave it only two stars in 2019, but I really enjoyed it this time. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ½

Animorphs #50: The Ultimate. Most of this book was so good. With the war really ramping up (somehow there are only four books left in the series!) the Animorphs (finally) realize they need more than the six of them to fight millions of Yeerks. They decide the only ones they can really trust are very disabled kids: Kids with bodies the Yeerks would never want. The ending didn't work for me, but the rest of the story was great. I gave it only three stars in 2019, but I really enjoyed it this time. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ½

Derelict: An audiodrama (like an audiobook only as a podcast), and much longer than the average audiobook, so I'm counting it as a book for the year.

In season 1 ("Fathom"), a door in the deepest part of the ocean has been found. A massive door. A corporation has built a lab/base at the bottom of the ocean to study the door. And open it... Which, of course, lets out something that should never have been released.

In season 2 ("Derelict"), seven years later, set in space, a massive derelict ship is in orbit around a star. That same corporation sends a team there to investigate. Or do they?

I loved the story, the voice acting was outstanding, the only issue was that the audio mixing was too often way off. It was so hard to hear the dialogue through all the sound effects. Still very worth listening to! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ -- One star off for the dialogue issue.

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Animorphs: Book #94 and #95 of 2026, two DNF

2026-09-24T23:17:31Z

Let's get back to Animorphs and see if I can finish this series up.

Animorphs #43: The Test. Quite a good one! A few books back, Tobias (the kid who is stuck as a bird) was tortured for hours. Physically, mentally, emotionally. His torturer is back and poor PSTD kid has to work with her again. I rated it 5 stars back in 2019, but for some reason I was less into it this time. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Liked

Animorphs #44: The Unexpected. Ugh. So close to the end of the series, such a bad book. For completely unbelievable reasons, Cassie ends up in Australia where she and another teenager have to amputate a 70 year old man's leg. I gave it one star in 2019, DNF this time. Life's too short to spend time on an awful story.

Animorphs #45: The Revelation. Marco, who started this series as the comic relief character, has become perhaps the most hurt by this war. His mother was a Controller for years, working for the enemy, while living with Marco and his father, then she faked her death and Marco had to deal with that. Then he learned she was Visser One, the highest Yeerk leader. In this book he and the other Animorphs work to rescue her, and in the end they get her free of the Yeerks. It's far from a happily ever after ending though... In 2019 I gave it three stars, but I liked it a lot more this time. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ½ - Liked a lot

Animorphs #46: The Deception. Nope. Just nope. DNFed pretty quickly. This is the book where almost nothing was reasonable or made sense. The kids steal and fly one of the Air Force's newest, fastest jets. Crash it into the ocean and walk away completely healthy and without injury. Military men see Ax in his alien form and are not just A-OK about it, they're respectful to them.

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Book #93 of 2026: The Bee-ginning | DNF: The Bears and the Bees

2026-09-20T20:52:00Z

The Bee-ginning (The Bee Dungeon #1) by Icalos.

Quick synopsis: Set in a fantasy world, a beekeeper is killed and reborn as a "tower lord" (or dungeon master). Basically he has to build a dungeon from scratch using mana/his mind/magic. Also he has lots of bee friend.

Brief opinion: I appreciate how LitRPG has matured to the point where we could get a book like this. I remember the early days when it was just male fantasy stuff, women only existed for sex (or as the villain if she's ugly), etc.

This was a very nice, calm, cute story. Sort of like cozy LitRPG (two genres that really shouldn't work together but in this case do.)

Plot: When his village is attacked, Belissar is saved by a bee. He awakens as a "dungeon core" (Dungeon Core is a subgenre of LitRPG, basically a dungeon is an extension of one person). He has to build the dungeon from the ground up, picking the type of rooms, features of it, etc. Think the Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley kinds of games.

Most of the dungeon was just Belissar and his bees developing the dungeon and occasionally fighting off a threat.

Editing: Not perfect, but for self-published LitRPG it was good.

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: First off, I hated his name. Belissar. Bee-lissar. The book leaned in to puns, which I found neither amusing nor clever. Each chapter had a pun as a title: "Curiosi-Bee", "POBee" (POV), "Shocking Bee-vent!", "Diploma-Bee", etc. At least, other than the main character's name, it was kept to chapter titles.

While I totally accept that the bees wouldn't have actual names, the naming system used by them was really annoying. One bee/character is named "The First Queen of the Second Spawner's First Dynasty, first of her line".

As for things I liked, generally I liked the whole book other than those two minor things. The story was nice, low stakes, and the dungeon building was relaxing in the same way Animal Crossing/Stardew Valley are. The main character was nice, the bees were friendly, everything was just nice and calm and relaxing.

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Liked. I had no question at all as to moving on to book two.

DNF #49: The Bears and the Bees by Icalos. I ruined this book for myself. Generally I don't look at reviews until I'm done, but this book seemed slower than the first so I checked a couple reviews to see if others agreed. One review ranted about how often the main character said "Um". I thought that was odd, since I didn't remember him ever saying it. Turns out somehow it just was part of his dialogue to me, my brain never really noticed it. But once I was looking for them... Belissar used at least one "Um" every time he spoke. If a chunk of dialogue has two sentences in it there might be two or more "Um"s. I couldn't stop seeing them to the point where I couldn't even focus on the story anymore, so DNF at 10%. Maybe I'll pick up this book again in the future, once I've forgotten about the Um use.

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Book #91 of 2026: Moon Called, #92: Ride North

2026-09-12T01:01:54Z

Moon Called (Mercy Thompson #1) by Patricia Briggs.

Quick synopsis: A shifter (were-coyote) runs a car repair shop and helps solve a werewolf pack's murder-mystery.

Brief opinion: That cover is one I'd usually go run screaming away from, but this book was recommended often enough that I finally gave in and tried it. I liked the first half of the story, but the second put me to sleep.

Plot: Mercy, a Shifter (can instantly become a coyote) was raised by werewolves (takes time and pain to become wolves, but they're much stronger both as human and as wolf), and so when the daughter of an Alpha is kidnapped, she leads the charge to get her back.

The plot became a mess of other things, including drug testing on werewolves and other stuff I've already forgotten (I just finished reading the book this afternoon).

Editing: It was published by Ace, but I kept thinking it was self published. So many grammar and writing issues!

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: I really enjoyed the first half of the book. The world building, the magic, the other creatures that live among humans, but the plot held zero of my interest. None. I kept wanting to just drop the book through the second half.

Also, even though this is the first book of a series (16 books long!), I kept feeling like I had missed reading a book. Characters kept being mentioned and I had no idea who they were. I even googled one (a supposedly famous dog breeder), thinking it had to be a real person. Nope, they were all just characters from some other series the author wrote.

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: Really liked and really disliked averages out to: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Okay

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Ride North by Maria De Jong.

Quick synopsis: A young girl is angry that her father is getting remarried, so she runs away, riding her talking horse across New Zealand.

Brief opinion: So many YA/MG books work for adult readers. Ride North wasn't one of them, but you can't blame a YA/MG book for not working for people not in the target audience.

Plot: Folly is a typical preteen girl. Emotional, angry, and with next to no thought about the feelings of those around her, even her closest family members.

After Folly's mother's passing, her father falls in love and intends to remarry. Folly is having none of it. She's god awful to her stepmother-to-be. When her father tells her they're moving, that's the last straw. She takes her mother's ashes and her somehow-talking horse and runs away.

How does the horse (named Tooth) talk? It's never explained. Only Folly can hear him.

Folly and Tooth head for the northernmost part of New Zealand so she can spread her mother's ashes at a sacred place.

Most of the details of her weeks long trip aren't covered. Food is barely mentioned, bathroom and other personal issues are completely ignored.

Eventually she's in a place with a TV and spots a news story about herself. The authorities think she's dead, that she was washed away in a river. The reporter is with her family. Her father and his fiancée are crying, as is her little brother. And so what does she do? Gets angry again and continues on without calling them or sending an email or anything.

Eventually after weeks of sleeping outside with no shelter she gets very sick. The authorities find her and bring her home, where her father isn't the least bit angry with her.

Editing: Fine.

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: I hated Folly so much, but I'm an adult and very much not who this book is intended for. How could she have seen her family grieving and just walk away, leaving them in pain? I guess that's just how kids are?

I really really disliked that it was never explained how a horse and a human could talk. Complete conversations, just like two people would have.

I did like reading about New Zealand.

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️ ½. For me personally, I hated this book. I would have DNFed it if it hadn't been so short. Kid readers would probably love it, but I can only rate it on my own feelings. The book was only a couple hours of reading, but it felt like it would never end.

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Book #90 of 2026: The Lost Kingdom | 2 DNF

2026-09-01T16:35:04Z

The Lost Kingdom by Matthew J. Kirby.

Quick synopsis: An alternative history story set in the American territories before the US existed. A group of philosophers and scientists (and a son of one of them) head into the wilds on a one-of-a-kind airship in search of a rumored army that they hope will help them (England) against the French.

Brief opinion: I really enjoyed most of it! Unfortunately the parts I didn't like marred the parts I did.

Plot: Billy Bartram, his father, and a group of scientists and philosophers use the world's only airship to head into the wilds of not-yet-America. They travel from "state to state" (territory to territory, like the Ohio Territory) in search of a Welsh kingdom. Rumor had it (and real life myths describe) that a Welsh king brought a group of his people to North America long before Columbus arrived. The English hope to use the Welsh army against the French.

A lot of the story was about traveling and searching (which is fine, it was all interesting), but a big subplot was about Billy and his father. Billy started out seeing his father as a hero, but as the story went on he learned how extremely flawed (and racist) his father was.

The conclusion of the story involves a big battle, a bear-wolf (mythical massive predator that somehow followed the airship across multiple territories), and bad injuries that brought the story's mythical elements into the forefront.

Editing: Perfect.

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: I LOVED the idea of this story. I've never read alternate history stuff before, but I really liked this example of it. The description of the American territories was so interesting! And best of all, all of the character voices felt perfect for that period of time. (The two kid characters were extremely respectful of the adults, what a breath of fresh air!)

As to what I didn't like... well. All the stuff from myth, which I won't list to avoid spoilers, but one of them shaped the entire end of the story. Also the bear-wolf was at first interesting until it somehow just kept appearing whenever the story needed tension. I'm not sure how I feel about there being herds of mastodons roaming around.

The size of the crew became an issue at the end of the story. One of them played an important role, but I couldn't remember which of the men it was.

While Billy was a complete, believable character, Jane (the other child) was the opposite. She had nearly no characterization and could have easily been dropped from the story without changing much. I wish she had been as fleshed out as Billy was.

Kirby has a degree in history and loves to research for his stories. That was very much in evidence in this one, which I really enjoyed. After the story ended he included a section describing the sources for everything from his book and how his story differed from real history.

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Liked. Without the mythological elements, this would have been a five star for me.

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DNF #47: How to Free a Jinn by Raidah Shah Idil. "It's not you, book, it's me." Well written, the character (a Muslim girl who moved from Australia to Malaysia) was interesting, and I don't think I ever read a story set in Malaysia before... all of it was good, it just didn't work for me.

Insyirah's family was happily living in Australia, but her grandmother's failing health prompted the family to move back to Malaysia. Insyirah, who has at least anxiety if not something more, is settling into her new school surprisingly well, when she starts seeing ghosts.

I'm not sure why this didn't work for me. All the pieces were there, I just had no drive to keep reading.

DNF #48: Clara Poole and the Long Way Round by Taylor Tyng. Almost from the first page, this book didn't work for me. The main character didn't feel real, the humor put my teeth on edge, and (perhaps unfairly to let this impact my reading) I really disliked the About the Author section. Use that section to tell me about you, author, not to market your book.

Anyway. In it a young girl has no issues with putting herself into danger and takes off on a plastic lawn chair held aloft by some party balloons. I checked other reviews to see where the story was going and decided to just DNF it.

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Book #89 of 2026: I Am Wolf | 3 DNF

2026-08-27T22:47:02Z

I Am Wolf by Alastair Chisholm.

Quick synopsis: For completely unexplained reasons, some people now live on giant "Constructs" (animal-shaped robots). The world as we know it ended (again, for unexplained reasons) and for unexplained reasons these robots that are so high tech they might as well be magic. For unexplained reason. Notice the trend here?

Brief opinion: This might be the most frustrating book I didn't DNF. The idea of it was good, but nothing was explained. NOTHING. And, unsurprisingly, there were multiple logic holes/errors as well.

Plot: Society as we know it has ended (why? how? it's never explained). Somehow, despite that, there are now giant robot-like things that somehow run on the psychic energy/thoughts of the crew. How were these robot-animals made when society has ended? Or did society evolve to the point they could create these before everything ended? Who knows.

Coll is part of the crew of Wolf. (All the characters have non-modern day Earth names... except when the author needed to include a joke, then two "normal" names were used.) Somehow, when the crew all think of Wolf doing something (like walking or fighting) their collective thoughts makes it happen. How in the world does that work? No idea, it's not explained beyond some ~~magic~~ high tech metal.

One day during a battle, Coll falls off Wolf. He hits his head on a boulder from a far distance up (these robots are so massive the crews can be 100+ people, they need to climb cables to get up/down from the robot's back) and he walks away with just a concussion. How did he not die? How did his head not crack right open? Who knows.

Coll and some other kids have to survive on the ground and Coll tries to find Wolf again so he can rejoin the crew.

To find Wolf, one girl somehow, on her own, makes a new Construct. And, by the end of the story, somehow when another girl simply thought about it flying, it just sprouted wings and did so. A giant robot made of metal. The power of positive thinking!

Editing: I saw no issues.

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: This was such a good idea for a story, but everything about it let that idea down. Nothing was explained. You cannot have giant, animal-shaped robots that run on psychic energy/group thinking just appear on Earth with no explanation at all.

There were a number of logic issues/plot holes. In addition to the "Coll not dying when he landed on his head on a massive rock from a mile or so up" there were just outright errors. Like at one point the characters said they had years of supplies and a couple days later they were one step from dying from lack of supplies.

I really liked this idea. Giant animal-shaped robots are cool! But you need more than "cool" to have a reasonable story.

Edit: Wow. The summaries of the next two books start with: "An outstanding, highly original and unputdownable read. Following on from I AM WOLF, this is a bold, thought-provoking adventure..." Right. The only reason it might be "thought-provoking" is because the reader is left wondering how/why/when all this happened. I hate it when authors use the very first sentence of a summary to market the book.

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️ ½ - Hated. Half star for the idea, and that's me being very generous.

DNF #44: My Sister the Moon (Ivory Carver #2) by Sue Harrison. I loved the first book so much, but right off the bat this one nearly lost me. Instead of being about the characters in book 1, it was set 16 years later and about their kids. I tried sticking with the story, but the main character was so abused that I just didn't want to read it. Raped repeatedly, beaten daily, emotionally abused endlessly. Plus there was a love triangle, which always makes me run away. And, unlike the first book, this one had a ton of scanning issues and errors. Sadly DNFed at 22%.

DNF #45: Gumbones by Jenn Bennett. This one hit my "I don't like reading about real people in the real world" button and I DNFed it fast. Per other reviews I was nearly to the part where they go into the underworld, but based on those reviews I wasn't too interested, so I just dropped it early on.

DNF #46: Finding Hope (Whistledown Farm Adventure #1) by Nicola Baker. Continuing to try to clear out the oldest books on my Kindle, this is another from five years ago. I'm not sure why past-me picked up this one. There's nothing wrong with the story or writing, but it's another "real people in the real world" stories when I mostly read sci-fi/fantasy.

In this one a city girl has to go stay on her aunt's farm for a couple weeks and learns how to take care of animals. Again, not bad, just not what I'm looking for. DNF about 20% in.

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Book #87 and 88 of 2026: Mother Earth Father Sky and Wolf 359 | 1 DNF

2026-08-23T16:20:38Z

Wolf 359 (podcast) by Gabriel Urbina. (While this is a podcast, it's basically an audiobook. Since it's more than twice as long as the average audiobook, I'm counting it as a book for the year.)

Quick synopsis: Doug Eiffel, the most stupid, annoying man ~~on Earth~~ in the universe is sent to work on a space station orbiting the Wolf 359 star. Many things go bad. Doug makes them even worse.

Brief opinion: I liked the story, the setting, the whole idea of this story, but I have never hated a character as much as I did Doug. I was indifferent to most of the other characters other than one (who died, so...). It's hard to love a story when you hate or are indifferent to all of the characters.

Plot: On an old, run down space station, a small crew (three people + an AI) are tasked with searching for alien life.

Season 1: Mostly just Doug being a stupid asshole. He literally (LITERALLY) repeatedly risked the lives of everyone on the station just so he can avoid doing work. Seriously. Not even just once! He couldn't say a word without including some stupid pop reference. He was disrespectful to everyone and, to quote the old Community show, he was "compulsively defiant".

Seasons 2-4: The story started rolling here, while season 1 was mostly just about the characters. Season 1 was a "comedy" (completely, utterly unfunny, I was not even mildly amused once in the whole season) but in seasons 2-4 the show became a sci-fi/horror story.

Various things happened: While listening for alien transmissions, Doug picked up a broadcast of classical music. The mad doctor went madder. The AI glitches endlessly. A woman returns from the dead. Then the big evil bad corporation arrives and tries to kill them all.

Editing: The sound editing could have used some work, but the podcast is about 10 years old so that's understandable. Sometimes the dialogue was hard to hear when there were a lot of sound effects.

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: I really, really liked the idea of this story. Horror in outer space! Aliens! A doctor with very questionable morals (and a wonderful Russian accent)! But man, how do you enjoy a story when you DETEST the main character? My hatred for Doug only grew as the story went on, my opinion of him never changed.

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Okay? I guess? I listened to the whole thing, I mostly enjoyed it, but I want to stab Doug over and over and never hear another word from him ever again. And he was the main character/narrator so...

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Mother Earth Father Sky (Ivory Carver #1) by Sue Harrison.

Quick synopsis: Set in prehistoric times in the Bering Sea, a young woman tries to survive after her village is destroyed by raiders.

Brief opinion: Holy cow, this was so good! I loved it from first page to last! While it did share a number of plot beats with Clan of the Cave Bear, the setting and main character were completely different -- it felt like its own, unique story.

Plot: Chagak, a girl who only just is becoming a woman, is saved from being massacred with the rest of her village because she just happened to be out gathering when it happened. She returns to find everyone dead, all of their homes burned.

She ends up finding a beach where an old man, Shuganan, is living alone. He carves very realistic people and animals, and most people think the little figures hold power; he himself thinks they all have a spirit/soul in them. At first Chagak doesn't trust Shuganan (how can she trust anyone?) but over time their trust, and then love, grows. They come to consider each other as family.

Eventually a man from that tribe of raiders finds them and things go very, very, very bad for the two of them. It's a living nightmare for them. Chagak is raped and, we later learn, becomes pregnant from it.

Once the situation with that man is behind them the two try to recover.

The story splits at this point and starts following another character: A man trying to find a new home for what's left of his tribe (a giant wave wiped out his village). He finds that beach and the second half of the book explores how impossible it is for Chagak to trust another man ever again. Other things happen, like a big fight and hunting and such, but the story mostly focused on the people.

Editing: I believe this was a scan of a physical book. It was really good for a scan, but about a quarter of the book had no space between sections, so you'd be reading about one character and then the next paragraph would be about the other character. Other than that, everything was good.

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: I loved everything about this story. Chagak and all the other characters felt so real. Her reactions were so believable (and painful to read). Nothing in the story was rushed -- even at the end she was still struggling to trust anyone.

The only thing I didn't like was that a character I really liked died, but it was completely reasonable to have happened and fit the story. It would have been unbelievable for him to have lived.

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️- Loved! On to book 2!

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DNF #43: The Legend of Black Jack by A.R. Witham. This is one of those rare books that annoyed me right off the bat. Something about the writing style rubbed me the wrong way; it came off as so arrogant somehow. It felt like it wasn't written for me. And that became quickly proven true. The author used the worst, most annoying trope: Of course the bad woman had to be fat. Let's describe her rolls of fat and her awful diet and how fatty fat fat she is, because of course fat people are bad. DNF early on, and yet still not soon enough.

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Book #86 of 2026: City of Islands | 2 DNF

2026-08-18T22:47:38Z

City of Islands by Kali Wallace.

Quick synopsis: Set in a fantasy world after society fell and had to be rebuilt, Mara wishes she could do magic but instead works as basically a slave diving for treasure.

Brief opinion: I enjoyed this book so much! I love it when authors trust their readers and don't spell out everything in exacting details. And unlike so many other YA/MG books, the adult characters didn't exist just as roadblocks for the young main characters.

Plot: Long ago humans lived under the Founders (sort of like mermaids if they were part of a horror movie). One day for no reason any human knew, the Founders all just left.

Generations later humans are living on islands, the Founders' underwater cities dead below them. Human society is in a very simple state, though they do have one city. Magic exists, and most people know a few very simple, weak spells (songs), but the powerful, world-changing magic of the Founders is long gone.

Mara is an orphan in a society with no support system for them. She ends up in a horrible job, though she's lucky to have one at all. Eventually she becomes a diver instead. Her and other children free dive to find lost, sometimes magical treasures on the ocean floor/Founders' lost cities.

She ends up finding bones of creatures that shouldn't exist, and that starts her assignment/mission into a fortress on an island that sings with magic... and that kills people it doesn't think belong there.

Editing: Grammar-wise, perfect. There were two other errors (during a conversation a wrong character name was used and while traveling the author wrote something like going in instead of going out) and though they did make me stumble and have to reread to figure out what was going on, it was still a minor thing.

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: I don't think there's anything in the book I didn't like! I loved that the adult characters from major to minor had their own plans and goals.

I've never seen a magic system like this one before (all spells are songs, you have to get the wording right, the pacing right, all the notes right for it to work).

The world was so interesting, and I loved that the Founders weren't just mermaids. Giving them a horror twist was so much more realistic to me.

The characters were all so realistic and believable. None were perfect and they all had their own goals.

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️- Loved. I sort of wish this book was the start of a series, but it also felt like a complete story with a perfect ending, so I'm sort of okay with it being stand-alone as well. I'm going to pick up a couple of her other books.

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DNF #41: The Ghost and the Greyhound by Bryan Snyder. While the author of this self-published book did the thing I hate most (made up a publisher so their book wouldn't look self published), the story wasn't bad at all. A boy stumbles into another world (the book seemed to be using the multiverse theory), a world where animals talk. Then he, his dog, and a squirrel enter a world where ghosts are real.

It wasn't poorly written, it just didn't hold my interest. DNF at 29%.

DNF #42: The Turnkey of Highgate Cemetery by Allison Rushby. First off, to be completely shallow, I hate the cover so much. The ghosts are supposed to look the same as when they died. This girl born in 1800s certainly didn't have a tiny little mouth and a perfect nose and bright white clothing...

Anyway. I liked the idea of the story (one person who is buried in a graveyard wakes up and becomes the caretaker of it), but instead it became more of a World War II story, which is something I never want to read. Not poorly written at all, just not for me. DNF at 26%.

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Book #85 of 2026: Firstborn | 5 DNF

2026-08-09T19:51:11Z

Working my way through the oldest books on my Kindle. Sometimes it seems like they fall to the bottom of my TBR pile for a reason...

Firstborn by Brandon Sanderson.

Quick synopsis: A story (novella) of a younger brother in his older brother's shadow and lots of space battles.

Brief opinion: Apparently this was Sanderson's first ever published work. Other than the ending, it wasn't bad. Nothing special but not bad. But I actually said "That's it? That's how it ended?!" out loud when I reached the end.

Plot: Dennison's older brother is a military genius, the best commander in an entire empire, the best strategist in generations. And Dennison is the opposite.

Growing up in his older brother's shadow, he never has a chance to succeed, never is judged for himself.

But when the two face each other on the battlefield, of course Dennison comes out on top

Editing: Other than one editing issue, it was good.

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: The two brothers were too black/white for me. Also I would have rather their relationship had been explored more instead of the space battles.

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Okay. I need a "meh" rating instead of okay. The story was fine, not good, not bad.

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DNF #36: Adaptation by Malinda Lo. I've never been suspicious of a book before. Right from the beginning I had the odd feeling that this book was going to take a left turn and become something completely different than it was in the beginning. And I was right.

The story started in the most interesting way: One day flocks of birds throw themselves into airplane engines. Planes keep crashing one after another. That would have been an interesting story, but instead it's just setup for a YA love triangle story. Not my thing at all. DNF about a quarter of the way into the book.

DNF #37: The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst. This was one of those annoying kind of book: Not bad enough to DNF it, but I wasn't enjoying it at all. Usually I force myself to keep reading, but this time I just dropped it.

Set in a magical world (one with elemental spirits all over the place), a teenage girl wants to get into the magical academy. The worldbuilding was fine, the writing was fine, but I feel like I've read that setup hundreds of times already and neither the story nor the characters hooked me. DNF at 12%.

DNF #38: City of Shards by Steve Rodgers. This book turned me off right away for what was perhaps a petty reason: It started with so many pages of timeline, going back thousands of years. That's kind of like starting with a glossary of in-story terms or a list of characters. If the information is important, give it to me as part of the story!

Anyway, checking the other reviews, it looks like it wouldn't work for me at all, so DNFed it pretty early on.

DNF #39: Dome by Bryan A. Young. Extremely stilted dialogue and teenagers texting with near-perfect grammar, while ironically the editing in the book itself was awful. Typical self-published book. DNFed early on.

DNF #40: Emma and the Banderwigh by Matthew S. Cox. This book should have worked for me, it should have been perfect for me. I have no idea why I couldn't connect with it. The writing was great, the story and worldbuilding were perfect matches for me, and the characters were all good. But somehow the story never held my attention, every time I picked it up my attention wandered and I had no drive to read it.

Set in a fantasy world, Emma is told fairytales by her grandmother, but it turns out those stories are real. Monsters are real. Magic is real. And the monsters are after Emma's family... DNF at 48%.

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Book #84 of 2026: Queen in the Mud | 1 DNF

2026-08-04T16:20:22Z

Queen in the Mud by Maari.

Quick synopsis: A woman on Earth is somehow reborn in a videogame (it's LitRPG, you just have to accept that). She's reborn as a lizard -- a salamander to be exact. A snack to anything that comes along...

Brief opinion: I was happily surprised at how much I enjoyed this book! It avoided all of the (many, many) issues with LitRPG in a fun way.

Plot: Young woman in America suddenly wakes up inside an egg. Time passes slowly (and confusingly) until eventually she hatches. She has to survive as a lesser salamander until she can level up into a bipedal, more intelligent form. From there she has children (against her will, her species has eggs once a year, asexual reproduction), but she quickly comes to love them.

The story follows her as she grows stronger and builds a community.

Editing: Like most LitRPG books, the editing in this one is pretty darned bad. Not unreadable, but too many basic errors. Also this book did what a few LitRPG ones do: Puts the stats/spell info into a special text box. I hate that, because unless you keep your font size at exactly 100% it becomes unreadable.

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: As I've said in other reviews, the LitRPG genre should work for me. Unfortunately 98% of the time it's male authors writing male power fantasy for male readers. (But hey, that's down from 100% just a few years ago!) I had stopped even giving the genre a chance anymore, but in recent years it's expanding (a little) and becoming enjoyable for other kinds of readers.

I loved that the main character grew in power, but it was a completely reasonable way and amount. I LOVED that healing by magic doesn't magically cure characters back to 100% perfect -- bad injuries could still take months to heal.

The author fleshed out all of the characters from major to minor. The conflicts were believable. The magic system was interesting without being at all intrusive on the story.

I rarely say this of self-published books and almost never of LitRPG ones, but: This author did everything right (other than the two editing issues). I really enjoyed this story.

On the 'what did I dislike' side, the only thing that makes me sad is that the author will likely not be continuing this series. It's been six years since the first one came out. I'd be happy to read more from this author, either this series or a different one. (I need to finally check out that Royal Road site to see if the author is posting more there.)

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ½ - I loved it, but half-star knocked off for the editing issues.

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DNF #35: The Journey (Animorphs #42) by K.A. Applegate. This late in the series (only 12 more books I think?) it's really unacceptable to have such a low quality, filler episode, waste of a book. Or, as I said in my 2019 review:

This may have been the worst "filler ep" book in the entire series.

The Animorph kids shrink down small enough to have a battle inside Marco. While Marco has a fight with a pit bull. A rabid pit bull.

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Book #83 of 2026: The Second Chance of Darius Logan | DNF: The Extraordinary Disappointments of Leo

2026-07-31T00:01:58Z

The post title got cut off, but it amused me to read two books in a row with the same title format:

The Second Chance of Darius Logan
The Extraordinary Disappointments of Leopold Berry

The boys' names even have the same number of syllables in them!

The Second Chance of Darius Logan by David F. Walker.

Quick synopsis: Darius's family is killed in the worst attack that ever happened to America (an attack by an alien force). Without any support, he ends up on the streets. Then ends up arrested. He's given a chance to turn his life around in a program that puts him to work as part of a team that supports superheroes.

Brief opinion: Though the ending didn't work for me, this was still the best book I've read all year. (And for those reading this on GR, this is book #83 of the year so far.) Unfortunately the story's end didn't work for me at all, but it was 100% a me-problem. It fit the story perfectly and the average reader probably loved it.

Plot: Set on an Earth where superheroes, "metahumans" (humans with extra powers or monster-like mutations), and aliens exist, Darius Logan is living on the street. His family was killed in The Attack (basically aliens and robots destroyed part of New York), and how in the world is a pre-teen boy supposed to survive on his own? For a while he's passed through a number of foster care homes (which are nearly worse than living on the street), but eventually he ages out of that and just has to try to survive by eating out of the trash and doing his best to avoid the giant, literally man-eating rats.

Due to a poor decision, he's left holding the bag (heh, again literally) when friends commit a crime, and he is arrested. This would be his third strike, and even though he's still a minor (17), he'll be going to prison for a long time.

He's picked to take part in a program that aims to turn people with a criminal past (including supervillains) around. Everything seems to be going well, except the head of security hates him for some unknown reason. Like goes out of his way to harass, beat him, and tries to make his life miserable hates him.

Darius is doing outstandingly well in the program. He's making friends, a (found) family, and he's promoted at his job. But he's never stopped having nightmares about The Attack, and then it happens again...

In the end: Darius doesn't just become a superhero, he becomes something even stronger. He bonds with an alien and that makes him stronger than even the strongest superhero. It's not even close, he's stronger than a bunch of superheroes put together and he saves the day.

Editing: Nearly perfect! Better than even other traditionally published books. There was just one error (that happened four times). For some reason there was a space before a period at the end of a sentence (three times) and once before an exclamation point. Weird that it happened four times, I wonder if it was an ebook formatting thing?

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: First off, I loved (LOVED LOVED LOVED LOVED) nearly everything about this book:

The author did what I love best: He trusted his readers. Even though this is a YA book, he didn't explain every little thing. For example, he name dropped in-story wars but never explained what they were, which made the story feel so real! If you mentioned World War II in a story, you wouldn't then go on to explain what it was about.

I love it when YA books have things that adult readers would catch but young readers would miss. For example, this rather chilling mention of how Darius would get raped if he went to prison:

A Bit like you--you'd have been chewed up and spit out. They'd turn you out and pass you around, trading you for a pack of cigarettes.

On a lighter note, the superhero names were so much fun and so believable! Stixx and Stone (husband and wife team), Billygoat Gruff (that one tickled me!), ... aw, my Kindle seems to have not saved my note with other names I liked.

All in all, the world was so realistic and believable. I loved (nearly) all of the characters! We weren't supposed to like the head of security and he's the only one I didn't like.

On that note, the author did (yet another!) thing I love in YA books: He didn't make the adult characters useless. Too many YA books make adults nothing but road bumps in the main character's plot. I liked the adult characters even better than I did Darius. (I'd LOVE a story about reformed Otto!) They all were full characters with their own history and stories going on.

On the "what I didn't like" note, one small one: The story had a URL in it, and I really wish it had worked! ...okay, now that I think of it, its contents wouldn't have been at all appropriate for a YA aged reader, and I wouldn't have wanted to watch it myself (it was videos of a kidnapped superhero being tortured to death), so I have no idea why at the time I was disappointed it didn't work.

And, as mentioned, the one big thing I didn't like: The ending. I loved it when Darius was just a normal person in a world full of superheroes. I always would rather read a "normal person" over an overly powerful one, let alone the strongest one on the planet. BUT. The ending was perfect for a superhero story. As I said, totally a me-problem.

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️- Loved! Even with the ending, I loved this story so much. It seemed like there was room for another book, I hope the author continues the series! Or another book, another book would be fine too. (Alas he seems to mostly write comic books and graphic novels.)

And thus concludes one of the longest reviews I've written in quite a while.

DNF #34: The Extraordinary Disappointments of Leopold Berry by Ransom Riggs. This book didn't work for me for a number of reasons, but most of them were me-problems.

1) Maybe I've been reading too much MG, but the character felt way too old to be the main character in a YA book. 19, getting ready for college, not just driving a car but able to repair it. Google says 19 is acceptable, though 16-18 is the usual age range for YA.

2) It felt like the 19 year old was way too old to be finding a magical doorway into another world. Which is STUPID of me. Why couldn't an adult find one? An elderly person finding one would make for a great story! I have no idea why it felt so wrong in this case.

3) I didn't like the main character at all (to put it mildly). Sure he has a rough life, but I was not at all enjoying reading about him.

4) As I've said in previous reviews, I'm really not interested in reading about "real people in the real world". As of the 21% point of this book, that's all this was. Kid goes to high school, has a horrible father, had a best friend... just not what I'm interested in reading about.

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Book #82 of 2026: Cage of Souls | 3 DNF

2026-07-26T23:43:21Z

Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Quick synopsis: Set in the distant future, a man writes about the world ending around him. Also goes to prison and nearly dies many times.

Brief opinion: Tchaikovsky books always have two things: The world ending due to man-made environmental damage and spiders. This book was no exception. And, honestly, it's getting a little old. Even if the spiders in this case were more creative than usual.

Plot: The sun is dying (because humans in the past, us, messed with it to try to make more energy) and there's one city of humans left on the planet. And one prison on an island in the middle of a deadly jungle.

Stefan Advani is writing the story of his life and the world dying around him. This book is the book he's writing, so we see it all through his eyes and his words. He ends up being sent to the island prison where things are rather hellish. It's run by a sadistic psychopath with no oversight.

Then the whole story grinds to a halt as the next 25% of the book is a flashback. As far as I can tell, it had no impact at all on the current-day plotline, other than derailing all the tension.

While Stefan is in the prison, something happens in the one remaining city, and it looks like the end of humanity for sure.

But hey, there are "web-children" who can live on the dying Earth just fine.

Editing: I don't know what it is with his books, but they always have some pretty big editing issues. Typos, wrong words used, wrong punctuation. Weird for a traditionally published book.

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: I loved the first 25% of the book! Life in the prison was so interesting, as was the alien-like malicious-to-humans jungle around it. But then the flashback started and the story hit a brick wall. All the tension? Gone. And it just went on and on and on. Then back to the prison for a bit before another flashback...

Tchaikovsky's books are generally quite long, and this one was no exception. I was bored and ready for the story to be over by the 80% point, which might have contributed to me not liking the ending at all.

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Okay. This is a hard one to rate. I really really liked the first quarter, disliked the second quarter/first flashback, mostly liked the next part, hated/skipped the next flashback, and didn't really like the ending. I probably should rate it lower than 'okay', but I really did like the beginning and Tchaikovsky is a good writer.

DNF #31: The Familiar (Animorphs #41) by K.A. Applegate. Not just a bad book, but a bad placement of it in the series. This book did the exact same thing as the last Animorphs book, Back to Before. Back to Before was a "what if" book: What if the kids never got the power to morph, they were just normal kids? This book was another "what if" story: What if the Yeerks won? I'm always down for a "what if" story, but two in a row was odd, and this one was just so poorly written. I gave it one star the first time I read it and just DNFed it this time.

DNF #32: We Can Never Leave by H.E. Edgmon. It's (luckily) a rare thing for me to dislike a book from the very first page. Something about Edgmon's writing put my teeth on edge, so I checked the reviews and yep, it was going to get even worse. The author breaks into the story to talk to the reader, things like: "This whole thing is reeking of a religious cult. Have you picked up on that yet?" Just not for me. DNFed early on.

DNF #33: Kaya Morgan's Crowning Achievement by Jill Tew. There was 100% not a single thing wrong with this book. Writing was good, characters were believable, everything was fine. So why did I DNF it? I just really don't enjoy "real people in the real world" stories. Since this one was set in a Ren Faire I had thought I might be okay with it, but nope.

The story dealt with themes of racism and loss. I was really impressed by how it handled both. I kept thinking I should finish it, but the story just wasn't of interest to me. Back to fantasy and sci-fi!

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Book #81 of 2026: Unboxing Libby | 1 DNF: This Used To Be About Dungeons

2026-07-16T18:45:46Z

Unboxing Libby by Steph Cherrywell.

Quick synopsis: What seems like a story about human-sized robot/AI dolls to keep kids company turns into something much darker and more serious (though young readers could easily miss that).

Brief opinion: Based on the cover and title, I avoided this book for so long. "Why did I get a copy of it? Why is it on my Kindle? This doesn't seem like something I'd read!" I was so wrong. Well written, surprisingly dark and serious, to me I see it more as a story about slavery and personhood than about dolls for kids.

Plot: Set in the far future, humans are just starting to get Mars ready for masses of humans to arrive. Many communities (towns) are being built, tons of buildings. But how do they test it all to make sure it's working and ready for humans? Use some unsold "dolls" to live in the towns a while and make sure nothing goes wrong. (One of the characters said something like "better they die than a human does.")

These dolls come in a handful of models. Libby dolls are stereotypical girls (very social, happy, outgoing, love pink, and their clothing is just a little too tight). Wendys are smart (to understate it, they're genius). Robins are sporty. Noras are into all kinds of art. And there are a couple other types. So each community will end up with a bunch of Libbys, Wendys, etc and so they give themselves and each other nicknames -- you can't call five girls all Libby without there being confusion.

At what point does a robot become a person? As the story goes on, the dolls (and action figures -- there are boy robots as well) become more and more like people. They're still restricted by some rules of their programming, but they're no longer just a Libby or a Roxanne or a Nora. Plus of course they look just like humans do.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the plot tackles the issue of them becoming people, of wanting to live instead of just being destroyed when they no longer have a use to the humans.

Editing: Perfect. I didn't spot one error. (Though I got lost in the story, that always risks me missing an issue.)

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: It's not often I think about a book once I finish it (I'm too eager to jump into the next one). This one has really stuck with me. The girls (robots) were such realistic characters, and so what happens to robots on Earth (and now Mars) is all the more disturbing. How could people "kill" them so easily? How could they not be seen as people?

And related to that: How could you buy people? And just destroy them when the child gets too old for them? It's so convenient to see them as not-people.

I'm not sure what the author intended the message to be, but it struck me as a story about slavery. The author is nonbinary, so I'm betting it's also about that, about being seen as a person even when you're different.

Even after I finished the book, I'm still surprised that I liked it so much. I'm going to look at the author's other books and see if there's another I'd like to try.

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️- Loved. Five stars, no notes. Loved this book.

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DNF #30: This Used To Be About Dungeons by Alexander Wales. I almost always go into a book completely blind. My Kindle usually has about 400 unread books on it, so by the time I get to one I've usually completely forgotten what it's about. In the case of this book, I spoiled that by reading reviews.

One reviewer said the author is rational, so this story is like Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (a series I loved enough that I've read it a few times now). It is nothing like it.

Another reviewer said every character is neurodivergent, which I then kept looking for instead of just going with the story.

Anyway. This is yet another Cozy book that hasn't worked for me. I think the genre just isn't for me. The story didn't hook me and I hated the main character (and didn't like any minor ones), so DNF at 16%.

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Book #80 of 2026: Back to Before | 1 DNF: The Full Moon Coffee Shop

2026-07-11T00:37:40Z

Back to Before (Animorphs #40.5) by K.A. Applegate.

Quick synopsis: What if the Animorph kids never walked through that construction site and so never got morphing powers? Never knew about the Yeerk invasion? This book explores that what-if.

Brief opinion: How did I miss or skip this book back during my first read of the series? It was so good! Like the best kind of fanfic, it put the perfectly in-character characters into a totally different situation.

Plot: Jake, as PTSD as all the other kids, is in bed after an especially bad battle. The last words of a dying human controller keep playing over and over in his head, begging Jake for help. The minion of the evil god-like alien shows up and tempts him with an offer to roll back history, change the past. No longer will Jake and his friends have to fight this war alone, they could be normal kids...

What the minion doesn't tell Jake is that everything else would be the same. The war, the invasion, Jake's brother being a controller... all that but the kids would no longer know about it and would have zero ways to fight and defend themselves.

Unsurprisingly everything goes bad. Surprisingly the kids die one by one. Not off-scene, not implied, they die slowly and painfully and there are no attempts to hide what's happening to them.

Editing: Probably the best edited book so far. I didn't spot any typos (though I was completely lost in the story, so I might have missed some).

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: It's so clear this was a Michael Grant book. It was clearly his writing and his exact kind of story. I love that man, he writes the darkest stuff. I mean he killed these children. These poor kids who have been fighting for the planet, fighting without support, for a couple years now. And they died one by one, in pain and in blood and in fear.

The whole book was like great fanfic, the kind where the author puts the characters into a completely non-canon situation and you get to watch it all play out. Military men now running a coffee shop, alien race now high school kids, that sort of thing.

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️- Loved. Even though this was a Megamorphs book (so longer than the usual books), it was still way too short.

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DNF #29: The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki (Translator: Jesse Kirkwood). Me not liking this book is totally on me. I read the reviews and was pretty sure I would dislike it, but the title and a cat on the cover won me over.

I should have listened to the reviews. The writing didn't hook me at all (the writing in translated books never hook me), but the story was the real issue. Do you like astrology? Think a person's/character's entire life should be based on it? Romance, work, where to live, what to eat, all based on your star sign? Then this book's for you!

The cats weren't even real cats, they walked on two feet.

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Book #79 of 2026: New Horizons (Beneath the Dragoneye Moons #8)

2026-07-08T23:31:35Z

In non-book blog news, I got the 3,000+ tags I used on LJ down to 57. Especially with no function on DW to search your blog (at least not without a paid account) the loss of all the tags is going to hurt, but hey at least my blog shouldn't vanish. ...hopefully...

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New Horizons (Beneath the Dragoneye Moons #8) by Selkie Myth.

Quick synopsis: What do you do when your character is immortal and one of the strongest people on the planet? Reset things somehow. In this case, Elaine insults a fae by mistake and gets tossed 20,000 years into the future...

Brief opinion: It's kind of funny:
I loved Dungeon Crawler Carl, a litRPG book series, but book #8 killed all positive feelings I had for it.
I loved the Dragoneye Moons books, a litRPG book series, but book #8 killed all positive feelings I had for it.

Plot: 20,000 years in the future, Elaine is still immortal in a world of mortals, but somewhat less "strongest person on the planet".

In this future world, ~~Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry~~ School of Sorcery and Spellcraft exists and though is expensive and exclusive, Elaine gets in for free.

The biggest plot point in this book and at least the next few books is that she gets a girlfriend. The first half of the book is, to quote another reviewer, "expositional waterboarding". Unending minutia about what she learns in class (when the character reads a book, the author adds page after page of it into the story). The second half is even worse: Elaine gets a girlfriend and they do little but hang off each other, make out, and think about how sexy the other is.

Oh, and Snape is apparently a professor. He even said the whole "bottle fame, brew glory" quote...

And for some reason, after seven books of normal magic, now suddenly they need wands. Of course we learn the wood type and exact length of Eline's...

Editing: The one thing I can't criticize is the editing. After starting out god awful, each book improved. This book was actually nearly free of errors and issues.

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: After really enjoying the previous seven books, I can't name one thing I liked about this book.

What didn't I like? Everything. By moving 20,000 years in the future all the good things from the previous books were gone. I have zero interest in hundreds of pages of two people lusting after each other. And have I mentioned Temu-Hogwarts? The author wasn't even subtle about what the school was.

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️ - Hated. I nearly DNFed this book so often, and I really should have. As the next book continues to be all school/lusting, and the book after that continues the lusting for each other, I guess this is the end of the series for me.

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Well, since English LJ may or may not be down for good, how about a book post here?

2026-06-28T00:58:58Z

For some people (me included) LJ has been down for more than a week now (connection times out). Some people in the US can still reach it. Unfortunately DW's importer isn't able to, it's sitting at trying to log in to LJ. Hopefully at some point it will succeed. My last import here is a year old...

Books #72-78 for 2026

A Parade of Horribles (Dungeon Crawler Carl #8) by Matt Dinniman. Immediately after my first listen, I started again. I thought my expectations must have been too high, because otherwise how could I have disliked a DCC book so much?

Nope. I liked it even less the second time. I downright hated it. It was about 24 hours to listen to the audiobook, and 22 of those hours were just a pointless filler episode.

The "humor" was so much worse this time too. If I ever hear the word splooge again...

After listening to books 1-7 over and over (starting over as soon as I finished the series) this book made me not want to listen to those earlier books ever again.

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Beneath the Dragoneye Moons series, books 2-7, by Selkie Myth.
Adventures in the Argo, Ranger's Dawn, Beyond the Wall, Moonveiled Journeys, Immortal Moments, Return to Remus

I really should have stopped after each book and reviewed it, but I couldn't stop reading this series. Even with all of its flaws, for some reason the story hooked me so hard.

The flaws are many. The editing in the early books is unacceptable. The author loves puns and italicizes them so you can't miss them (which makes them even less funny). Most character names are stupid because the country the story is set in is fantasy-Ancient Rome.

How did this story hook me so hard? I can't even explain it. The main character (Elaine) starts as a pre-teen girl and by book 7 she hit 20. She's had so many adventures and has grown so much!

While this is LitRPG, it has none of the usual issues with that genre. Women don't exist just for the main character to have sex with, the main character isn't the strongest person in the world, etc.

Even when it seems like Elaine is getting too much, somehow the author makes it okay. For example, in book 7 she got a pet, an animal that has never been seen in this world before, one most people don't even know the name of it, one of the most powerful animals in our mythology. But the creature as so many flaws and shortcomings that it works. In other LitRPG books, it would be a mega-powerful creature.

Another example is that Elaine is now immortal (in a world of mostly mortal humans). That could so easily be seen as overpowered for the world, but there are enough flaws, shortcomings, and other issues with it that it feels fairly handled.

Every step of the way feels like Elaine has earned her powers. That's so incredibly rare in LitRPG books!

There are 10 more books out (and these aren't short books!) and the series is still ongoing. I'm happily going to continue with it.

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Edit: Well that's one difference between DW and LJ:

"Adding this tag would exceed your maximum of 1000 tags. You will not be able to add new tags until you delete 1310 existing tags."

Guess I'll have to come up with a whole new tagging system.

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Ellie New Cat has communication issues with her automatic feeder

2017-04-09T02:08:57Z

Crossposting this by hand from LJ. Reminder, if you want to see my LJ posts on DW, you can follow this feed: http://thistlelj-feed.dreamwidth.org/

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No matter how often she gently taps it, unlike people, the feeder just won't respond.

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A tale of two blogs

2017-04-08T19:54:43Z

(Crossposting by hand from LJ.)

At first I was sad about people (again) jumping ship from LJ, but now I'm more annoyed by the situation than anything else. I've put way too much time and effort trying to figure out how to keep reading journals and not losing contact with people, but came up with no good solution.

There's no way to not lose quality in my posts. If I post on DW and let it crosspost to LJ, I lose icon selection, plus there's the whole locking issue. (Not that I often lock posts, but I darned well should be able to if I want.)

If I read my friends list on DW (using a RSS feed to bring the posts from LJ to DW), again I lose icons, but also formatting and other things. Plus I wouldn't see others' locked posts.

So sorry people who are leaving LJ. I like you all, but the best I can do is try to read my DW circle (or whatever the hell term they use). I can't promise I'll remember to on a regular basis, but that's the best I can do.

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92: I hurt

2011-04-30T13:51:59Z

I am wounded. The diseases are more than I can control. I did not report for duty to the Blade. I fed my blade. I must feed it more.

I do not like the Blade. I went to many places to find better Knights. I found a strong one in Silvermoon City, but he got angry. He was wrong. He said Mornherald was a lie. He said some things which were right, but he said many things which were wrong. He was confused. He was bad.

A living elf bound me in chains made of shadow. I could not break them. I could not move. The bad Knight cut off my ear. He infected the wound.

He said Mornherald would die. He told me to kill myself. I did not obey.

I will not speak to him again. He is bad.

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91: Mute people cannot sing

2011-04-24T04:07:45Z

I did not go to Story Circle. I was on duty. I earned gold today. I went to Silvermoon to spend it. I bought many good things.

There was an elf there. He was mute. He played an instrument. He played well, I listened to three songs. I looked at his throat and his mouth, but I do not know why he was mute. He could not tell me.

He tried to run when I checked him. I did not kill him. I chained him in place with ice, and when I was finished I released him.

((This is what he played. Everything from that soundtrack is amazing! Line this or this.))

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90: The living are bad. I am bad.

2011-03-24T03:18:41Z

The elf with the beads is bad. He is not of use. He is bad. He was to sing the second song. He would sing it if I sang a good song. I did. I sang a good song and he did not sing the second song.

He said Mornherald would die. He said Mornherald would be hurt and die. The elf is bad.

I hit him. He is Llevelys's elf. Llevelys is senior. I am bad.

I would kill him if he were not Llevelys's and not of the Horde.

Mornherald will not die. He is strong. If he is hurt, we will feed our blades. He will not die.

((Haken sang the wonderful Great big Sea's Boston and St. John's. Lyrics, but even better: the song itself. I uploaded the CD version, because it's so much better than the live versions that are around on the net.))

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89: Words do not have souls

2011-03-21T20:19:40Z

The living are bad. The useful elf with the beads knew two songs. He would not sing the second. I would learn both. The first was a good song about a fish. Fish are useful. I catch them every day for the village and for Dog and Little Dog. Dragon eats fish, but Hip does not.

The elf was bad, but he belongs to a senior knight. If he were my elf, I would make him obey and sing both songs.

The living are stupid. He said he would not teach me the second song unless I knew the words for the first. I learned them all. I sang the fish song. He said words have souls. The living do not make sense. Words do not have souls. Words are words.

((Song from the scene: Big-Eyed Fish, by DMB.

Also, I forgot to post this one here, so it's later on DW than it was on LJ. Sorry!))

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88: A story about a puppy

2011-02-21T03:11:41Z

I told a story at Story Circle. It was about a puppy:

A puppy was born. It was a good puppy. It lived with its mother and with a family of the living.

The puppy grew. It played with the children. The children threw a ball and the puppy chased it. The puppy liked to eat.

The children took the puppy for a walk. It died. The children screamed. They ran away.

A death knight found the puppy. He looked at it. It was dead. Dogs are good animals, so he made it move. He ordered it to stand and to be a dog. It obeyed.

It is better now.

I brought the puppy in a box. I took it out when the story was done. It obeyed. I will make a bigger ghoul-dog next time. A puppy is not strong. It did not scare the living.

There was another knight at Story Circle. He had a dragon, but it did not obey. Dragon is better. She obeys. She will be big enough to ride soon.

I will write another story to tell next week.

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