Dragna rated Kings of the Wyld: 4 stars
![Nicholas Eames: Kings of the Wyld (Paperback, 2017, Orbit)](https://bookwyrm-social.sfo3.digitaloceanspaces.com/images/covers/9df90293-29a9-4a41-ac79-cdfbc3c55355.jpg)
Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames (The Band, #1)
"Clay Cooper and his band were once the best of the best -- the meanest, dirtiest, most feared crew of …
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"Clay Cooper and his band were once the best of the best -- the meanest, dirtiest, most feared crew of …
The second part of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic adventure THE LORD OF THE RINGS
The Company of the Ring is sundered. …
In To Infinity and Beyond, renowned astrophysicist and bestselling author Neil deGrasse Tyson teams up with StarTalk senior producer Lindsey …
I loved the format of this book, and genuinely appreciate the absolutely stocked bibliography for further reading, and the ending references of which books provided which information. If you're at all interested in medieval Europe, but find the vast literature to be as intimidating as I did, this is the perfect place to start.
Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous …
Absolutely incredible novel. It has been a long time since I read a book like this in bunches. I struggle with my focus but this had me locked in. Can’t recommend it enough for sci fi fans, lovers of language, and intrigue, and love, and so many other human things.
I try to start reviews from the bottom up, by that I mean giving it stars as I go through my own personal criteria. This is probably the reason I almost never give a book under 3 stars, I don't finish books I hate reading (I might want to rethink my personal rating system because of this as I'm not a book critic so it doesn't really matter).
The plot and pacing of this book are adequate. It's a well written tale, with a few cliches and character tropes that sort of nagged at me throughout. Yesterday, though, I realized it was a four star because I kept on bitching to my wife about different characters.
It didn't matter that the story wasn't the most engaging, all of these characters had become so real to me throughout that I was wishing I could sit them down and talk to some …
I try to start reviews from the bottom up, by that I mean giving it stars as I go through my own personal criteria. This is probably the reason I almost never give a book under 3 stars, I don't finish books I hate reading (I might want to rethink my personal rating system because of this as I'm not a book critic so it doesn't really matter).
The plot and pacing of this book are adequate. It's a well written tale, with a few cliches and character tropes that sort of nagged at me throughout. Yesterday, though, I realized it was a four star because I kept on bitching to my wife about different characters.
It didn't matter that the story wasn't the most engaging, all of these characters had become so real to me throughout that I was wishing I could sit them down and talk to some of them. Others I was just slagging off to my wife, and quite a few I was just idly bitching about. It was fantastic, and few others besides Stephen King can get me feeling so much about characters written on a page that could exist in my life but luckily don't. That was enough to turn this 2-3 star "okay" story into a 4 star character driven bitch fest (on my part), that had a largely satisfying ending.
I hate myself a little for that title.
Every time I read a King novel, I'm somehow freshly reminded at how good he is at writing characters. Each one is incredibly unique, and frankly I don't know how he continues to do it despite his astoundingly prolific career that's now several decades long.
Mr. Mercedes is a departure from my normal King read. I usually pick out a classic horror every October to read, but my step-mother-in-law (I know, it's the best I can come up with), said I absolutely had to read this series. Without any spoilers I can confidently say that she has a severely, and wonderfully, twisted mind. This is roughly the equivalent of a an incredibly well down Netflix adaptation of a true crime story.
There are no bumps or jumps in the night, no creepy crawlies, or murderous clowns. The accuracy and...probability of this story …
I hate myself a little for that title.
Every time I read a King novel, I'm somehow freshly reminded at how good he is at writing characters. Each one is incredibly unique, and frankly I don't know how he continues to do it despite his astoundingly prolific career that's now several decades long.
Mr. Mercedes is a departure from my normal King read. I usually pick out a classic horror every October to read, but my step-mother-in-law (I know, it's the best I can come up with), said I absolutely had to read this series. Without any spoilers I can confidently say that she has a severely, and wonderfully, twisted mind. This is roughly the equivalent of a an incredibly well down Netflix adaptation of a true crime story.
There are no bumps or jumps in the night, no creepy crawlies, or murderous clowns. The accuracy and...probability of this story is what chills me to my bones. The growth of Detective Hodges, and even his failure in growth and recognition thereof, is such a beautiful depiction of someone struggling to come to terms with the failures in their life.
Everything I want to say about this book is a spoiler, but suffice to say King's characters, emotions, and brutality are all present, and in a decidedly unique (from my experience with his novels) manner.
In a mega-stakes, high-suspense race against time, three of the most unlikely and winning heroes Stephen King has ever created …
I’d love to say the main reason I didn’t like this book was the translation, which was absolutely horrendous, but the story itself was extremely dated in ways that were quite uncomfortable to read through.
Primarily though the translation was what kept me out of sync. There were moments where it genuinely felt like I was reading through a thesaurus. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it did not fit the tone or voice of the story at all.
Content warning Some minor story spoilers here, fair warning.
I spent a long time thing about this review, and I want to get through all the things I loved about Loveless (please don't see what I did there) first.
The importance of a story like this being told, being available for younger adults (and honestly younger people still), cannot possibly be understated. I'm not aro/ace, but I was a teenager, and I did go to college.
As a guidebook it's nearly flawless. By guidebook I don't necessarily mean steps one would take to get through these situations, so much as a guiding light through the difficulties of exploring romance, sexuality, and self at ages where everything is already so overwhelming, but the expectations piled on top of all of us to have a full understanding of ourselves and to conform is just....this book hit on all of that.
Georgia's journey present a tale as old as time journey for a young person, through a very different prism. The expectations we're asked to set for ourselves based on instructions we're receiving from all around us, leading us to decisions that are quite frankly incredibly damaging.
For me the importance of the story was....yes it was Georgia's discovery of self, but for me it was also so much more than that. It was that discovery could look different for each person. We followed Georgia's, but we also had glimpses into her best friend's (Pip and Jason) stories, and even more views into her college roommate's (Rooney) journey of self discovery.
I'm hating how I'm writing this out, but it was that broadening of topic beyond Georgia's own finding of love and peace of mind, to the idea that each journey is different and fine that led me to feel a little....disappointed at the one aspect of this book I have negative things to say about.
The looming specter of cishet relationships, and their toxicity, never seemed to resolve in the same ways all the other relationships did. Let me preface this last part with saying I absolutely do not think that it was the author's job to do this, just my own view of the story itself.
A lot reviews I saw said similar things "I'm not aro/ace, but" or "I have a friend who is aromantic and I think that helped" and that highlighted for me why the cishet relationship presentation bothered me so much. I believe this is an important book for everyone to read at a younger age, decidedly much younger than myself. It's a great introduction to the pain and struggles unique to those in the LGBTQIA+ community, but more importantly how so much of it is the same as anyone else when just the discovery of self is looked at (as it was so strongly in this book). I'm bisexual, so I know how exhausting it can be to have people ask me incessant questions about it, especially when they point out that I'm married. It shouldn't be the job of the individual to be both an ambassador and a guru/teacher for all others. Here's your book, read about these things, learn.
But the cishet representation is alarming. If you present only toxicity, and hurt, and hateful disgusting relationships, those who are in perfectly happy cishet relationships could feel attacked, and not want to read what is otherwise such a beautiful and amazing story of true love. The angst and antagonism to the "norm" is something I totally get, but there were parts of this book that made me feel like the characters now believed that cishet individuals are loathsome fools, and the LGBTQIA+ community is there to save everyone from it. Having Rooney and Pip get together felt unnecessary (and also gave Rooney a free pass to ignore that while her relationship was toxic, she'd made some horrific choices to get herself to that spot), Jason never progressing past his unrequited love felt empty, Georgia's unnecessary fear of Jason's friends was a good point but coupled with everything else just felt like a piling on of this emphasis that the only comfort to be found is in your own community. A lot of that is reality, but this is a story that has grains of truth of peoples experiences, and exaggerates others to make a perfectly happy ending to a heartwarming story.
With all that said, read this book. I would have given it a perfect score but for that last point. This really is otherwise the perfect story to help people understand we're all trying to live out this journey, and it's okay we're doing it differently. Oh one final point, I think all of us could benefit from being basically forced to look deeply not just at our gender/sexuality, but how that plays into our lives and decision making. Too many I know are following a script loosely simply because they were never challenged externally to find out more about themselves because they did the things people were expecting them to do.