Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

The Hunter by Jordan Reece. I originally read (and loved) this in 2019. Original review here:

Every now and then, I run into a self-published book that I cannot believe isn't a traditionally published one. This was one of those happy cases.

Set in a world that's a cross of fantasy and steampunk, the plot reminded me a lot of Lord of the Rings (in a good way, not like it was just a copy of that book). The main character, Elario, is a simple farmer and a man with a very weak power to heal. All he wanted to do was farm and tend to the health of the people in his little village, when an Object of Power falls into his lap. Trying to do the right thing with that object leads him on a quest from one end of his country to the other, and had an impact on the whole country.

Though this book is labeled M/M, that's kind of an odd thing. The romance is just a minor part of the story (we don't even meet the love interest until well after the halfway point of the book). I did like their relationship a lot, but this wasn't a romance book, so seemed like it really didn't need to be labeled as M/M. (Though, admittedly, that did help me to want to pick the book up, so I guess maybe it could be considered an advertising tactic...)

This book was really long, but unlike other long books I have enjoyed, I never got bored at any point, and I never got into that mindset where I kept checking how much more I had to read. I just kept enjoying it from the first page to the last.

It seems so rare nowadays that a book isn't just a part of a trilogy or a series, but as far as I can tell, this book is going to be stand-alone. It wrapped up perfectly, no loose ends. That's quite a refreshing change.

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To add onto that review, the worldbuilding was so good. I loved the magic system, the religion, characters, everything about this book. It was very long; it took me 11 hours to read (YA books take me about 4, adult books about 8), but I loved it all from beginning to end.

Kid Dark Against the Machine by Tansy Rayner Roberts. While usually I argue you very much can tell a book by its cover, in this case you cannot. The cover makes this look like a cartoony story for young people, but it was a really good read for adults as well.

Set in our world other than that "machines" have somehow come into existence. Did aliens drop them off? Did the government somehow make them? No one knows. But one appeared in every country and once every six months it picks a new name. That person is given superhero powers, a costume, and a superhero name. (One of the previous superheroes also loses their powers at that time, so there's always X number of superheroes in that country.)

The machine sounds like a good idea, except it can pick anyone. The book follows someone who was picked at age 12 (and picked to lose his powers at 14). What happens to a minor when he's made into a superhero and the adult superheroes don't want him around (he's a kid! He could get hurt!)? What happens when he knows he's going to lose his powers? How much of the last two years was him growing up and how much was it the machine and so he'll lose it? He missed years of schooling, so how does he catch up (if at all)? How could he even go to school anymore, when everyone knows he had been Kid Dark?

The book was set ten years or so later, following that boy who became a superhero once he grew up as a non-super person and tried to find his place in the world. It was wonderfully dark, sad, realistic, and yet hopeful as well.

DNF #160: Crooked Raven by Talis Jones. DNF at 1% into the book. The writing was just too hard to follow and there were too many editing issues. The cover is nice though.

DNF #161: Orphans of the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein. Published in the 1940s, I suspect my issue with this "book" (a collection of two novellas) is that it was extremely dated. It felt like the story had a lesson, but it so unsubtle that it was hitting you over the head with it.

Set on a space ship that would take generations to reach its goal (a new planet for humanity), somehow all of the humans on the ship forgot... everything. Earth, their goal, even what space travel is. They thought their life on the ship was all there was and that the ship was a god. It was just completely unbelievable.

I believe it was also a scan of a physical book, it had SO MANY errors and typos.

I always feel bad DNFing big name authors, but this book just did not work for me in every single way.

DNF #162: Inside the Tiger by Hayley Lawrence. Set in the US/current time, a teenage girl gains a penpal on death row. The book didn't seem badly written, but it just wasn't something I was interested in reading. I pushed myself to the 10% point and then DNFed it. Not the book's fault at all, just "real teenager in the real world" is subject I'm generally not interested in.

DNF #163: Gyrfalcon by Anna Butler. So many times I say "This isn't usually what I read, I have no idea how it got onto my Kindle!" but thanks to Goodreads, I know the source of this one. Another reviewer mentioned it was a free giveaway on Amazon. Military fiction is just not my thing, no matter the price. It seemed well written, but it just went way way way too far into detail on all the battles.