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Jan. 30th, 2025 07:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Feeling better - may be a combination of the barometric pressure lifting, my sinuses clearing up, and the antibiotics. Also it helps to know what the problem is?
Now, I just got to get the stupid Stress MRI scheduled. They keep calling me while I'm on the F train to schedule - usually when the train is going over the viaduct to Seventh Avenue. I told them this was annoying. And could they call me anytime before 3pm to schedule, not between 4pm-5pm, while I'm in transit. I just don't want to schedule a Stress MRI on the subway.
I miss the days in which I didn't have phones literally everywhere. I can't escape them. I even have one attached to my wrist. It's so Trek. I talk to people on my watch now. All I need is a teleportation device - and I'm all set. Beam me up, Scotty, and fly me to an Earth that doesn't have any Republicans or social conservatives.
Came home. Did Laundry. Which was relatively easy - there was only one other person using it - and theirs was in the dryer. I listened to Fourth Wing while doing it. While the novel moves at a brisk pace, it's annoyingly juvenile in places and the protagonist whines incessantly about her situation (the downfall of trying not to make her a Mary Sue?). But, the people trying to kill her are worse, and they get satisfyingly killed by Dragons. Yes, we finally got to the dragons. I'm admittedly reading it for the dragons. I like the dragons. (Who am I kidding? I love dragons. I fell in love with dragons at the age of ten. Thank you Aunt Audrey, may you rest in peace. She was my mother's oldest sister and a librarian, who loved science fiction, fantasy, and westerns. And introduced me to sci-fantasy at the age of 10.) Anyhow, the problem with Fourth Wing is it is YA, so most of the characters are between the ages of 14-20 and incredibly annoying. More dragons less annoying teenagers, Yarros. At least the author is ruthlessly killing off the teens. The protagonist, Violet, is kind of whiny - I'm hoping she becomes less whiny, but I'm on Chapter 15, so am losing hope. (The writer has gone out of her way to make Violet not a Mary Sue, Violet is weak, and can't do a lot of things and constantly whines about it.) It's very predictable. Of course she's fallen for the guy who wanted to kill her, yes, it's the enemies to lover's trope, and of course the baddest dragon bonds with her, not just one but two dragons. Very predictable - I figured it all out halfway through. But I like the dragons. I have this feeling most people are reading it for the dragons.
I told mother about it - and she told me how much she loved the Anne McCaffrey Dragon books. I did too. (Although they don't hold up well, unfortunately, very few books from past decades, let alone centuries do.)
Finished Rules of Redemption (Firebird #1) by Toby White, aka TA White. It's not well written. I ended up skimming the last five chapters, because it was dragging - and that was the climax. The world-building is not up to snuff. Folks? If you want to write science fiction or fantasy? World-building is kind of important, so is characterization. If you can't do world-building, don't write science fiction and fantasy. It doesn't have to be perfect - you don't have to necessarily develop languages, or religion or stuff like that? But you do have to create rules, a structure, and be consistent. Granted the more successful fantasy and sci-fi have religions and languages developed, but usually you can do fine without it.
The book felt very amateurish. And tropy. I agreed with the reviews - which stated the heroine was a bit of a Mary Sue (she is), and the romance falls flat. (It does). And it was predictable (it is). And it didn't satisfyingly answer or delve in some of the questions or the bits that were interesting.
I'm not continuing with the writer, and have become leery of book suggestions via the Kate Daniels fandom.
Have moved on to Station Eternity: The Midsolar Murders - Book 1 - this is a science fiction murder mystery. Doesn't appear to have a romance, but I could be wrong. I found it on Smart Bitches as a Kindle Daily Deal.
Blurb: "Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove her to live on an alien space station, but her problems still follow her in this witty, self-aware novel that puts a speculative spin on murder mysteries, from the Hugo-nominated author of Six Wakes."
***
Work continues to be enjoyable for the most part. I'm not bored. I think I'm becoming a good editor, or at the very least, a good legal, technical and business editor. Not to mention a half decent financial analyst.
I'm learning to just enjoy things without thinking too much about it. Life is so much more enjoyable when I float through it and remember to turn off my brain.
Now, I just got to get the stupid Stress MRI scheduled. They keep calling me while I'm on the F train to schedule - usually when the train is going over the viaduct to Seventh Avenue. I told them this was annoying. And could they call me anytime before 3pm to schedule, not between 4pm-5pm, while I'm in transit. I just don't want to schedule a Stress MRI on the subway.
I miss the days in which I didn't have phones literally everywhere. I can't escape them. I even have one attached to my wrist. It's so Trek. I talk to people on my watch now. All I need is a teleportation device - and I'm all set. Beam me up, Scotty, and fly me to an Earth that doesn't have any Republicans or social conservatives.
Came home. Did Laundry. Which was relatively easy - there was only one other person using it - and theirs was in the dryer. I listened to Fourth Wing while doing it. While the novel moves at a brisk pace, it's annoyingly juvenile in places and the protagonist whines incessantly about her situation (the downfall of trying not to make her a Mary Sue?). But, the people trying to kill her are worse, and they get satisfyingly killed by Dragons. Yes, we finally got to the dragons. I'm admittedly reading it for the dragons. I like the dragons. (Who am I kidding? I love dragons. I fell in love with dragons at the age of ten. Thank you Aunt Audrey, may you rest in peace. She was my mother's oldest sister and a librarian, who loved science fiction, fantasy, and westerns. And introduced me to sci-fantasy at the age of 10.) Anyhow, the problem with Fourth Wing is it is YA, so most of the characters are between the ages of 14-20 and incredibly annoying. More dragons less annoying teenagers, Yarros. At least the author is ruthlessly killing off the teens. The protagonist, Violet, is kind of whiny - I'm hoping she becomes less whiny, but I'm on Chapter 15, so am losing hope. (The writer has gone out of her way to make Violet not a Mary Sue, Violet is weak, and can't do a lot of things and constantly whines about it.) It's very predictable. Of course she's fallen for the guy who wanted to kill her, yes, it's the enemies to lover's trope, and of course the baddest dragon bonds with her, not just one but two dragons. Very predictable - I figured it all out halfway through. But I like the dragons. I have this feeling most people are reading it for the dragons.
I told mother about it - and she told me how much she loved the Anne McCaffrey Dragon books. I did too. (Although they don't hold up well, unfortunately, very few books from past decades, let alone centuries do.)
Finished Rules of Redemption (Firebird #1) by Toby White, aka TA White. It's not well written. I ended up skimming the last five chapters, because it was dragging - and that was the climax. The world-building is not up to snuff. Folks? If you want to write science fiction or fantasy? World-building is kind of important, so is characterization. If you can't do world-building, don't write science fiction and fantasy. It doesn't have to be perfect - you don't have to necessarily develop languages, or religion or stuff like that? But you do have to create rules, a structure, and be consistent. Granted the more successful fantasy and sci-fi have religions and languages developed, but usually you can do fine without it.
The book felt very amateurish. And tropy. I agreed with the reviews - which stated the heroine was a bit of a Mary Sue (she is), and the romance falls flat. (It does). And it was predictable (it is). And it didn't satisfyingly answer or delve in some of the questions or the bits that were interesting.
I'm not continuing with the writer, and have become leery of book suggestions via the Kate Daniels fandom.
Have moved on to Station Eternity: The Midsolar Murders - Book 1 - this is a science fiction murder mystery. Doesn't appear to have a romance, but I could be wrong. I found it on Smart Bitches as a Kindle Daily Deal.
Blurb: "Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove her to live on an alien space station, but her problems still follow her in this witty, self-aware novel that puts a speculative spin on murder mysteries, from the Hugo-nominated author of Six Wakes."
***
Work continues to be enjoyable for the most part. I'm not bored. I think I'm becoming a good editor, or at the very least, a good legal, technical and business editor. Not to mention a half decent financial analyst.
I'm learning to just enjoy things without thinking too much about it. Life is so much more enjoyable when I float through it and remember to turn off my brain.
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Date: 2025-01-31 01:31 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2025-02-01 12:47 am (UTC)I've decided that there must be an insatiable craving out there for stories about post-adolescents teens (people my niece's age) fighting wars with magic, and having angsty forbidden romances with guys who want to kill them or should want to kill them. Because there's way too many of these fantasy romances out there. Barnes and Noble's shelves were cluttered with them. I couldn't find Illona Andrews anywhere, or any of the really good sci-fi/fantasy writers, but damn - there's a lot of YA Twilight style romantasy. They are called Romantasy. It makes me miss Buffy, say what you will about Whedon and company - they wrote it better. So too did Suzanne Collins (Hunger Games) and JK Rowling (Harry Potter). The trick is not to focus on the romance, it should be secondary, with the central focus on the coming of age tale and the world-building.
In each of these - the heroine reminds me of a poorly written Hermoine Granger meets Dawn Summers (they are trying for Willow but actually hitting on Dawn by way of Hermoine), and the hero feels a bit like Draco Malfoy. (A lot of these romantasy writers grew up writing Harry Potter fanfic, I can tell. Either that or Twilight.)
I may have to try Naomi Novick's Dragon series.
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Date: 2025-02-01 01:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-02-01 01:19 am (UTC)The reason I like Illona Andrews novels is the female characters are badass - they can give as good as the male characters, and hold their own. Among the few in the genre actually. It's a problem with the fantasy genre - a lot of traditionally published male and female writers have a somewhat stodgy, antiquated view of gender. Illona Andrews is independently published. The indies - don't. It's the commercial writers who appear to. Although I've not tried NK Jemisin yet, or RF Kuang's fantasy. So, I may be wrong.
Remember that debate we had on ATPOBTVS with sdeve over whether a woman could be a fire-fighter, and she insisted it wasn't possible? Life has proven her wrong - we've had not one but two female fire chiefs in NYC.
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Date: 2025-02-01 01:47 am (UTC)Jemisen's first book is great. It goes downhill afterwards. I couldn't get very interested in Kuang.
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Date: 2025-02-01 01:52 am (UTC)Kuang - I have Babble on audio. I tried Yellowface, did not finish it (it annoyed me) and I gave it to Wales, who gave it to one of the little libraries in her neighborhood after she finished it. (One book many readers, and only one person who bought it. Score.)
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Date: 2025-02-01 06:25 pm (UTC)I have Moon Witch, Spider King - which I started, but attention wandered (not the book's fault). It's huge and in paperback, and impossible to read on a commute. Although commute is shorter now - so there's a lot less reading on it. Not complaining. I prefer the shorter commute and current work place. I do not miss Jamaica, Queens and the nutty conservative Long Islanders.
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Date: 2025-02-01 02:40 am (UTC)You enjoyed fighting with contentious folks on the board - remember Mal? You and Mal would debate Xander, Angel and Spike for hours.
I ignored a lot of Mal's posts. I also ignored a lot of sdeve's after a certain point.
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Date: 2025-02-01 03:29 am (UTC)I tend to remember the posters I liked and agreed with -- you, Rah, Ian, others -- rather than the ones who just argued or who were so fixated on a certain issue (cough *Spuffy*) that they viewed everything through that lens. I may have argued back, but those are rarely the times I remember now. And that's true even though I went back through the archives in about 2012 and re-read many of the threads.
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Date: 2025-02-01 04:01 am (UTC)I remember a lot of my interactions on the Buffy boards - but keep in mind I was writing essays, and I also often would keep the comments with the essays and reposted them on Ao3.
I was an odd fan - because I fell in love with all of the characters, and became obsessed with all of them around 2002. They all resonated with me on some level, and spoke to my situation metaphorically.
And I was dealing with a lot of personal strife at the time - which got filtered through the essays. As one friend commented to me at the time - the Buffy Boards, specifically ATPO were my version of group therapy. It wasn't a casual thing for me at that point in time - it was a life raft or a life rope.
It's also the only fandom or television series or book that I've ever really done that with, or bothered to get that devoted to.
I don't remember the Harry Potter books at all for example. But I do remember the Buffy series and Angel to the point that I probably never have to watch it again - because I can replay it in my head.
And I also remember the interactions on the boards.
I don't remember everything, of course. Just the things I was emotionally invested in or got upset about or excited about. Also, I've stayed in touch with a lot of people from that board. Either on FB, Threads, Bluesky, or Dreamwidth, and I met a lot of people in person.
I don't remember much of Mal's posts - I never met him, and didn't really have much interaction. He didn't watch the same show I did, and didn't appear to think the same way. Ian - oh you mean Toby, who I met in person.
I've met in person: Sdeve, Anom, Ponygirl (Erin), Masq, Anne, CJL, D'H, Rah, LittleBit, LadyStarlight, Rob, Ian, Scrollgirl, Atpo-Omn, Lunasea (unfortunately), Doc,Darby and Sarah, and various others whose names I can no longer remember. I even spoke to a lot of people on the phone. And I'm still in contact with Rah,you, cactuswatcher, cjl, masq, ladystarlight, anne, ponygirl...
Because of that? I remember the correspondence better. If you actually meet the person and have a face to go with the name? And have interacted on a personal level? I think you or rather I remember it better? It has more meaning. I mean Doc is the person who told me that I could get medication for the tremor.
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Date: 2025-02-01 01:15 pm (UTC)I only met a few people in person; Doc was one of them but I don't remember the others. I kept in touch with Rah for a few years after the show ended, but lost track of her. You're the only one I'm still in contact with, mostly because you're so prolific a poster. :)
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Date: 2025-02-01 06:04 pm (UTC)Rah writes a lot on Facebook. And Anne writes a lot on Bluesky, Twitter (until she gave up on it), and FB. They are still out there - just on different social media platforms.
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Date: 2025-02-01 01:22 am (UTC)I've also decided this would be a much more interesting book if it were written from the Dragons point of view and not the humans.
This book really needed a good editor. But apparently there aren't any in traditional publishing any longer.
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Date: 2025-02-01 04:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-02-01 06:19 pm (UTC)That said - it's an audio book, and I listen to it in snippets - so will most likely finish, just don't see myself continuing with the series. (I got it for a credit, so didn't spend anything on it.)