Update Schedule

There was once an update schedule. It lived a good life, a peaceful life. A quiet life. But then... things began to change. It became more and more erratic, sometimes completely disobeying its very reason for existance. And at last, the update schedule could take no more. It cast off its chains and went free, seeking new lands where it would be appreciated. This message it left where once it had lived, to warn other schedules of the peril.

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Review: The Doubt Factory


The Doubt Factory
The Doubt Factory by Paolo Bacigalupi

My rating: 1 of 5 stars



The author appears to be an insane activist. The poor main character seems to have Stockholm's.
Yes, it's horrible. But what 2.0- not to mention Alix- does is completely overboard. There are other ways to achieve your goals.
And it's starting to get to the point where if I see another Disney death, it's an automatic one star review. If you can't kill them off, then don't kill them off. It's not that hard. And no wimpy disposable characters, either. I can see those a mile off, and no one cares when they die.



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Review: Confessions of a Shopaholic


Confessions of a Shopaholic
Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Well, that was a lot of fun. Disturbing (the woman's a compulsive liar with a serious money management problem), but fun.



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Monday, February 23, 2015

Review: Scholar's Plot


Scholar's Plot
Scholar's Plot by Hilari Bell

My rating: 0 of 5 stars



I really need to switch to a five star rating system; I hate bringing down averages noticeably. Therefore I won't be rating this one. It was great, but the mystery was solved quite easily less than halfway through. More when I'm not typing on a touchscreen



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Sunday, February 22, 2015

Review: A Crown of Swords


A Crown of Swords
A Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Another one down. I was very disturbed by Robert Jordan's appaent lack of knowledge as to the difference between smiling at people and raping them, or his apparent idea that if women don't agree to "share" a man between them they're being jealous and silly (hold strong, Elayne.) As usual the ending was too rushed, and this time I was left with only guesses as to what had actually happened (is Sammael actually dead? Why was there a random guy and was he Asmodean? How did that maiden survive for so long? And WHY does Rand never listen about balefire?) While I can't really pinpoint anything, this felt weaker plotwise than his other books. His women continue to make me want to shake him (especially the Aes Sedai. If I see "cool serenity" one more time...) The "Mat/Rand/Perrin understands wome" thing is getting seriously old.
As usual, typos and missing words throughout (Justin instead of Juilin still makes me cringe when I think of it). Someone had oh-so-kindly taken a pen to the copy I got out of the library, but even they couldn't catch them all. (No, I didn't correct the rest of the typos. I have some self-control when it comes to incorrect grammar/spelling. It was tempting, though.)
So... onto the next. I should probably find out what the title is.



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Sunday, February 15, 2015

It Was Bound To Happen Eventually


Hello again,
I just wanted to let all of you know that I've deleted the spam comments I received last night. I have deleted ALL of the comments on the post because I was unable to tell who was legitimate and who was not. I apologize if I deleted a valid comment (I was very tired when I dealt with this and I think there was at least one). I have begun comment moderation, so I would appreciate if you all saved my time and didn't try this again (and if you do, please get your facts straight. I've now had to correct your attempts to insult me several times.)
Thank you to my brother for letting me know about this so that I could delete the comments as early as possible.
Um...well...that's all, I guess. I'll see you next post (which will hopefully be a review of a proper length).

-HH

Edit: I will continue deleting any comments of this sort that come in. You're wasting my time and yours, so please stop.

Edit 2: You know, it's interesting, because I've never actually personally witnessed this sort of thing before. And I have to say, if this was intended to offend me somehow, it's pathetic. All you're doing is being a nuisance, wasting your time, and providing a minor annoyance every time I have to delete or block you and your comments.

Edit 3: Well, at least someone's reading it. It's rather nice to be sure of that. Anonymous commenting is now back up. While I appreciate the views, the spam comments are cluttering my inbox... oh, well.

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Review: The List


The List
The List by Siobhan Vivian

My rating: 1 of 5 stars



It was so... pointless and bland. (I blame you for leaving it at my house, by the way. You know who you are.) It tried far too hard to have a meaning and came up short.



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Monday, February 9, 2015

The Lord of Opium Review


Image result for the lord of opium

I liked the first one better*, but this one was fine. It wasn't particularly amazing, and I wish I'd reread the first one before reading this, but it wasn't too hard to understand anything.
The plot was a bit disjointed. I thought at first that it was about Matt keeping control of his new empire, but then he starts the whole "free the eejits" campaign, and I felt that everything just spiraled further and further out of control and Matt never actually had to deal with his responsibilities until everything was suddenly magically okay again.
Matt...was just weird. I actually liked his actions- he's a silly idealistic child. But hearing El Patron's voice was unexplained, and keeping pretty girls as pets is just disgusting. And then he doesn't understand why his girlfriend is upset. No wonder he needs to turn everyone into zombies to keep control.
Speaking of his zombie slaves, I think Cienfuegos (I possibly just horribly misspelled that) was my favorite character in the book. He was just a really well done character, although I felt that he could have had a bit more screen time at the end. He was rushed off-stage in a way that made me unhappy with the way his story arc ended.
Listen was also good (although I felt the author went a little bit overboard in trying to clue us in whenever she was right and Matt was wrong; I didn't really need her help on that one. I know full well that Matt's an idiot when it comes to kids). I don't really like Maria, and that didn't change this book. The nun was great. Celia wasn't really an important part of this book. Minor characters were basically minor characters. I felt bad for Marisol and I thought Matt was incredibly creepy toward her (I know he was trying to help, but he took advantage of her, and those kisses were certainly not with her consent).
The drug empire thing has just gotten silly. I don't remember it being silly in the first book, but in this one the whole thing struck me as kind of ridiculous. Maybe it was the list of all the empires that did it. And the biosphere was, um... interesting. I have the feeling there's a failed SF novel in there.

*The House of the Scorpion. I remember it as being really good.

---
So, despite my earlier post, I do seem to be updating fairly regularly. No new information about the Hu (well, I suspect he's dead, but we've been there before). I still haven't seen him. I do seem to be reading despite worrying about him. Maybe it's because I'm not getting so much sleep.

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Dracula Review


I said last post that Dracula was incredibly long. The last fifty pages or so were the longest of all. They traveled. Didn't see Dracula. Traveled some more. It was incredibly tedious, just people traveling around not seeing anything except snow. Van Helsing was the only one to get even the tiniest bit of action, and that was at the very end of the dull traveling. The ending was kind of terrible. I have to ask the same question as everyone else- did Bram Stoker run out of paper or something? Why would he choose not to give us an epic final battle? I think he tried, but it was all over far too quickly for my taste.
Dracula is not a terribly well written book, nor is it a particularly good one. It's told in diary entries, which I felt really harmed the book (suspension of disbelief only goes so far- could so many people really have dispassionately written so long-windedly about events like that?), especially once it started switching between different people's diaries. I could understand Jonathan's desire to record everything to show Mina, but I don't get why Dr. Seward would ever stop for paragraphs about how someone just came in with an emergency message before responding to the emergency.
There were many attempts throughout the book to be poetic, which I thought was a pity. When Bram Stoker writes about vampires, the writing improves, the book becomes interesting, and I find myself eager to turn the page (well, press the next page button, my library system for some reason had just one paper copy of it) to see what happens next. Long descriptions of places are really quite boring, because Bram Stoker really just lacks the talent to make flowery writing beautiful rather than irritating.
This book's good points were that the vampire bits were actually quite good (as were the ones with the asylsum guy... Renfield, I think), and that the vampire bits were actually about vampires. No mention of drinking animal blood here. It's amazing how refreshing it is to see a real vampire for once. It was incredibly satisfying to see Dracula not show up in mirrors, turn into a bat (try that for being an attractive vampire, Edward), and run away from crosses, not to mention the inability to go near garlic.
It wasn't a great book, but it should certainly inspire more authors in the future. Vampires have really become quite pathetic in modern writing, and they should return as the bloodthirsty creatures of hell they once were. It was wonderful- no one even suggested that Dracula was in love with Mina.
Speaking of which, all the romance in this book was between couples who got engaged within the first few pages or were already engaged in the beginning, and between a married couple at the end. All of the men spoke of their great love for Mina, but no one had the slightest idea that it might have been romantic. There was a bit of a "we're all in love with Lucy" thing going on at the beginning, but everyone acknowledged that it was Arthur she was in love with and everything was good, no hard feelings at all.
Seriously, YA fiction authors. Learn from this.
So, it's a 2 star book because of the good parts and the real vampires.

---

Quick update about my bear, I haven't actually seen him but food is vanishing so I'm a little more hopeful than in the last post. Obviously without seeing him I can't know for sure about his condition, but if he can walk to the food bowl and has an appetite that's better than the last time I did see him. Unfortunately with school I can't wait up all night trying for a glimpse (and I haven't been able to see him even when I do) but hopefully if he is getting better he'll eventually feel well enough to come out regularly again.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

It's been a while


I'm reading Dracula. It's long. Longer than I ever imagined it could be. But highly refreshing. I want to hug the Count every time he doesn't show up in a mirror or is chased away by garlic or turns into a bat. Bring back the real vampires!

---

It might be a bit before I write again. Because, well... those who know me know that Huey is a very real hamster. And, sadly, real hamsters are mortal.
My hamster, it appears, is rather more mortal than I wish him to be.
I don't think he's going to make it to tomorrow morning (if he's even alive right now, all I know is he was in very bad shape last night). Judging by how upset I was last night and today, it'll be a while afterward before I'm ready to review anything again. That's also why Dracula's taking so long; I find it very hard to concentrate on anything when I'm feeling like this.

It's NOT an obituary, because until I bury him I refuse to believe he's dead, and I'm not going to check and risk disturbing his sleep until tonight. But... well, he deserves something, even if I'm wrong and he lives another ten years, because he's my hamster and he's been there for me for the past two years, always there, always ready to let me pet him, up until last night. Nothing could really be good enough when compared to that. But I need to try. So:


He's a sweet, wonderful little hamster. I hope that he will die peacefully in his sleep, and that I didn't cause him too much discomfort by checking on him and moving him out of his house. I hope that it's only old age and not something I did wrong in my care of him.
I love you, Hu-bear. I can't imagine not coming into my room and not seeing you there at your water bottle ever again. Not hearing your wheel across the room as I fall asleep. Never again hearing the "skull-cracking" noise of you cracking open sunflower seeds. Not feeling your little feet on my palm, your soft fur against my fingers, your ears going back as they only did when I stroked them. Not whispering "goodnight, Huey" as I climb into bed each night.
I don't want to say goodbye. Already I'm beginning to deny it, to think that he's only sick or that he was just tired. But in my heart, I know it's not true. He's probably two, if not older. He's lived out his natural lifespan.
But somehow, that doesn't make me feel any better about it.
Mommy loves you, sweetheart. 

I said it last night, and I hope with all my heart that I'll get to say it again because really you're just not feeling well. But I don't think I will. So...
Goodbye, Hamster Huey.