pick me up and dust me off
Sep. 25th, 2025 05:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smilebackwardsStar Wars: Jedi Apprentice: The Day of Reckoning by Jude Watson. Reading old YA Star Wars books in an effort to get my Obi-Wan angst brain back in gear. I stalled out on a fic I started back in January. Someday I'll find the book in this series that has the Melida/Daan backstory we all love and I've absorbed by fandom osmosis.
Despite my attempt to work on the Star Wars fic, I instead started a new XMFC fic for X-Men Remix Madness 2025. Love that Remix fest is still going after all these years.
In other news, I finally upgraded the OS on my laptop which I absolutely hate doing and lo and behold it is Annoying. Oh, now my programs don't work and I have to go download new versions?? And the old versions were better?? If only I could just take the security patches.
Despite my attempt to work on the Star Wars fic, I instead started a new XMFC fic for X-Men Remix Madness 2025. Love that Remix fest is still going after all these years.
In other news, I finally upgraded the OS on my laptop which I absolutely hate doing and lo and behold it is Annoying. Oh, now my programs don't work and I have to go download new versions?? And the old versions were better?? If only I could just take the security patches.
A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan #2), by Robert Jackson Bennett
Sep. 24th, 2025 09:19 amrunpunkrunAnother Ana and Din mystery. It was fine! But, like the first book, it lacked charisma. I'd put it down fully intending to pick it back up again once I'd eaten dinner or brushed my teeth or ensured the kitten wasn't quietly unravelling the fabric of the universe, but once I got back I'd do literally anything but pick it up again, sometimes leaving the actual book open next to me while I played hours of picross, watched trashy documentaries on Netflix, or read articles I'd had languishing in open tabs for months.
The world is interesting, but the main characters still aren't doing it for me. Like the first book, I was more intrigued by the secondary characters. Here, the warden Malo with her brash confidence, traumatic past, and uncertain future, and in the last book, the investigator who was better with a sword than a notebook and whom I'd inadvertently—and with absolutely no encouragement from the text—pictured as Gimli from The Lord of The Rings movies. Din, in many ways, reads as a means to an end, a recording device more than a fully developed person with his own voice and thoughts, and Ana, well, I figured out what she was before Din, but that's not saying much.
Contains: smoking (especially as a form of self-medication); hereditary enslavement; descriptions of violence and dead bodies; body horror.
The world is interesting, but the main characters still aren't doing it for me. Like the first book, I was more intrigued by the secondary characters. Here, the warden Malo with her brash confidence, traumatic past, and uncertain future, and in the last book, the investigator who was better with a sword than a notebook and whom I'd inadvertently—and with absolutely no encouragement from the text—pictured as Gimli from The Lord of The Rings movies. Din, in many ways, reads as a means to an end, a recording device more than a fully developed person with his own voice and thoughts, and Ana, well, I figured out what she was before Din, but that's not saying much.
Contains: smoking (especially as a form of self-medication); hereditary enslavement; descriptions of violence and dead bodies; body horror.
*clings to internet*
Sep. 22nd, 2025 08:12 ammelaganHome again. I've been away for a few days visiting family in another state. The internet is available, but I haven't been on it much. So *waves to my DW peeps*
Sept is always busy. Much adulting has ensued all month. Stuff like car inspections and flu shots. Nothing glamorous - trust me on that. Now hopefully I can get back to that![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
trope_of_the_month fic I've been messing with.
:)
Sept is always busy. Much adulting has ensued all month. Stuff like car inspections and flu shots. Nothing glamorous - trust me on that. Now hopefully I can get back to that
trope_of_the_month fic I've been messing with. :)
Duolingo Japanese Vocabulary, Vol 4
Sep. 21st, 2025 09:22 amrunpunkrunLike many things this year, my Japanese study has been greatly reduced by time and circumstance. In January I stopped doing my daily work on WaniKani (where I'd reached Level 9) and KaniWani but kept up with my lessons on Duolingo. Much of my vocabulary has slipped away from me, but the grammar persists, and the vocabulary's easy to look up, so I'm not that bad off, and I can pick WaniKani back up whenever I want because I have a lifetime subscription. I'm just gonna be SUPER BEHIND when I do. ウヘッ。
( Vol 4 )
Volume 4
Describe a wedding | Make plans to go out( Vol 4 )
(no subject)
Sep. 20th, 2025 11:28 amrunpunkrunALSO, long time no see, but I've been quiet because I've been WRITING. Stay tuned for Kirk & Spock bonding in their shared bathroom.
The Tainted Cup (Shadow of the Leviathan #1), by Robert Jackson Bennett
Sep. 20th, 2025 10:45 amrunpunkrunSet in a place that is probably not Earth, or Earth at a very different time, where kaiju rise up out of the ocean during the wet season and head for land. In the Empire, the Engineers maintain the sea walls that keep the leviathans out; the Legion fight them back; the Apothetikals develop organic means to alter the plants and animals—and people—that make it possible to survive in this hostile land, and the Iudex investigate the crimes. The wet season's coming and Dinios Kol, Imperial engraver and (apprentice) assistant investigator, has been sent to the scene of a ghastly murder to engrave it in his memory and report back to his master, the reclusive and eccentric (and possibly autistic) Anagosa Dolabra.
This is a plot-driven mystery, more focused on the details of the investigation than the development of the characters, and for me that made it feel a little empty. The ad copy wants you to believe Din and Ana have a Watson and Holmes thing going on, but that is barely the case. The characters are mostly a means to an end, a collection of characteristics rather than actual people, and this includes our first person narrator, Din. He's a nervous little (queer) guy, basically, only tall, did he mention he's tall?? He's tall, gang. And dyslexic. I liked him well enough, but I never felt like I really knew what he was about.
The book has a fantasy science-fiction vibe, and a bunch of new guys, like whenever RJB needed to explain a crime he just invented a new type of guy. It was starting to feel a little silly. Like, "Oh, didn't you know about this type of guy? It's the only way this mystery makes sense!" I don't think the mystery is the kind that can be solved just by paying attention, rather it's the kind with an extensive drawing room scene near the end that explains it all.
And I guess I've been reading exactly the right amount of Adrian Tchaikovsky because I kept wondering what was up with the leviathans, like what's their deal? Has anybody bothered to ask why they want to come on land? Maybe it's part of their life cycle, maybe there's something there they need—but this is not that book. It's a fantasy murder mystery set in the middle of a seasonal kaiju attack that must be stopped, and that's fine, it's just one more way the story lacked depth. But the mystery and the world building were enough to keep me engaged, and I'm curious to see what happens next so I've already checked the sequel out from the library.
Contains: body horror; a lot of blood; fear of contagion; sword violence.
This is a plot-driven mystery, more focused on the details of the investigation than the development of the characters, and for me that made it feel a little empty. The ad copy wants you to believe Din and Ana have a Watson and Holmes thing going on, but that is barely the case. The characters are mostly a means to an end, a collection of characteristics rather than actual people, and this includes our first person narrator, Din. He's a nervous little (queer) guy, basically, only tall, did he mention he's tall?? He's tall, gang. And dyslexic. I liked him well enough, but I never felt like I really knew what he was about.
The book has a fantasy science-fiction vibe, and a bunch of new guys, like whenever RJB needed to explain a crime he just invented a new type of guy. It was starting to feel a little silly. Like, "Oh, didn't you know about this type of guy? It's the only way this mystery makes sense!" I don't think the mystery is the kind that can be solved just by paying attention, rather it's the kind with an extensive drawing room scene near the end that explains it all.
And I guess I've been reading exactly the right amount of Adrian Tchaikovsky because I kept wondering what was up with the leviathans, like what's their deal? Has anybody bothered to ask why they want to come on land? Maybe it's part of their life cycle, maybe there's something there they need—but this is not that book. It's a fantasy murder mystery set in the middle of a seasonal kaiju attack that must be stopped, and that's fine, it's just one more way the story lacked depth. But the mystery and the world building were enough to keep me engaged, and I'm curious to see what happens next so I've already checked the sequel out from the library.
Contains: body horror; a lot of blood; fear of contagion; sword violence.