Jordan

Not directly book related, but indirectly related.

Amazon is, apparently, going for carrier pigeons -- or in this day and age, carrier drones -- to deliver their products. At first I thought it was just an elaborate joke, but no. Apparently I'll be able to get books shipped to my house by drones.

The science fiction nerd in me is screaming in happiness.

And there isn't really any other part of me. It's mostly all science fiction nerd.

And if a drone happens to fall through my roof or into my back yard, I want to keep it.

Video of Amazon Drones!

PS / Edit: I cannot for the life of me get the link to open in a new tab rather than over-riding this page. I give up.

/rage quit

College friend of mine, majoring in English, gave me some wonderful advice:
"Go back and remove all your adverbs, or go back and read a book with a lot of adverbs that you actually liked. Copy the page down, like write it down somewhere, and then edit it -- remove all the adverbs."

So, I went back, re-read a few books I really, really enjoyed. Realized that...certain books use way too many adverbs. It's borderline purple prose in and of itself ( at least to me ).

Even Harry Potter, despite how much I liked the entire series, has a few instances of over dramatic use of adverbs.

Granted, there is a time and place for adverbs. Spitting them out in every sentence, though? Bad idea.

Edit: In my contemplative moment, I left out the reason for this post. Certain books read -amazingly- better without adverbs.

Books that I couldn't even get through the first couple of chapters I can actually READ without wincing every couple sentences.

It took me an agonizingly long time to finish this book. There were some parts I liked -- and some parts I absolutely loathed. I ended up stopping around 30% in, then again around 55%. Then suddenly it was over before I knew what was going on.

Almost everyone I know sang praises about this book. How great and wonderful Georgina is, the sexy-time scenes being good, the dialogue being witty, etc. I kind of ... didn't like it, but it wasn't exactly bad, either? I don't know. Maybe I'm crazy.

More ranting below, to save on peoples pages.

Because I did. And let me tell you, as cool as it was to randomly tack on different blocks, it made the entire 'structure' unbalanced. It usually toppled to one side once you got too high or put too many misshapen blocks together.

I'm at that point in the book. I was waiting for a little more background that still hasn't shown up, so everything is starting to teeter off to one side.

Also: Is there going to be a quiz at the end of this book that asks about all these designer shoes and clothes? Are they relevant to the plot? Maybe I just don't get it.

Lastly, and this is mainly for my own personal amusement: I noticed that Richelle Mead REALLY likes to use ellipses and en dashes. To the point I went back and started counting, actually.

Just started this. A few pages in and I already face palmed at least twice. Maybe my expectations for a Richelle Mead novel are just too high ( not that Vampire Academy is in my top ten favorites or anything, but still ).

With the movie release of Ender's Game a few short weeks away, I decided to dust off the book and give it another go. Let the story sink in fresh and get ready for Hollywood-ified story elements.

I'll start off by saying that I would have rated this book quite high originally, but after quite a few years of reading for enjoyment, I find that I can no longer do so. With more reading experience under my belt, and a lot more science fiction books to better judge different works in the genre, I guess I just fell into the theme of "the good old days"; ignoring the bad experiences and focusing on the good ones. I did that to the point that I misjudged this book and ignored the things that stood out about it -- both good and bad.

So, for those who just want the quick and dirty ---
The writing is concise, if brief, with descriptions varying between very good detail to none at all. This both works and doesn't. It leaves a lot to the reader's imagination, but with too little description, there isn't enough information to get a good sense of what's going on around the characters. More than once I wished I had more description, while other times I felt the narrative could've used with less.

It's weakest point, however, is a complete tie: the characters and the 'science behind the technology'.

While the details about setting and certain descriptions were varied, there was even less details about any of the technologies used or how they're used in other ways, despite the incredible ways to use that technology, and often requires a massive suspension of disbelief to move past.

The characters themselves were not quite card-board cut-outs, and certainly had life, but there were many contradicting actions and thoughts ( and some no more than a few pages after/before) that went against everything the character may have stood for or been attempting to do.

So, with that, the more detailed rant follows.