for whoever has me, here's my 'want to read' shelf to make it easy. Jordan Smith’s 'to-read' books on Goodreads (27 books) But also I happily welcome surprises. Every year I get something I didn't expect and every year I've loved it. But I am legally required to read what is gifted to me, so choose wisely
For whoever got me, I apologize that my shelves are huge haha. Hopefully my read shelf and owned shelf help.
Whoever got me, I just started using goodreads this year so if it’s not helpful feel free to pass questions along via owain
this was my immediate thought as well lol. would be even funnier than them sending me my own book signed by them
about halfway through Shadows upon Time and it still amazes me the kind of mind-fuck revelations Ruocchio is pulling out of his bag this late in the game.
Strength is a pretty big improvement over Will, but I absolutely loathe a choice he (as author) just made to the point I’ve mentally dropped its rating.
I see a lot of complaints about certain plot choices. They're all pretty valid, but I still enjoyed the story enough. The most common complaint I see is the complete sidelining or characters from book one. Ulciscor is barely in it. Lanistia does one thing and that's it. The students from the Academy are also barely present (except for Aequa, and in her case....yikes). I understand why this was necessary in terms of the scope expanding so much to three timelines and new settings, but it makes me a little sad. I really liked Ulciscor and Lanistia. The new cast in Luceum feels like a bunch of cardboard characters in comparison to the Academy students. And while Obiteum only had a few new characters, I enjoyed meeting them (especially Ahmose). There's more I could say about pacing, but I'll leave it at that.
I finally finished DCC book 7! It definitely broke the streak for me as steadily getting better each book but it was still solid. I know ranking discussions are often frowned upon, but since I'm thinking of it, I'd probably go something like the below. I am a little nervous for the direction for 8 as the small stakes have kept me invested and the story is just getting massive now with all the intergalactic politics. 6 / 5 / 4 / 7 / 3 / 2 / 1. Disquiet Gods reread now and onto book 7. Hopefully I'll have both of those knocked out by early in the new years assuming 2-3 weeks a book. Strength of the few will be soon. but again after a reread so a few months out. It's interesting to see the opinions rolling in (here and elsewhere) and as always, such an ace community with using spoiler tags!
As an aside, being an audiobook listener is wild when you see how the names are spelled. Aequa is what prompted my post. I hate when a villain villains for the sake of villaining. I just didn’t buy that interaction at all.
Yea, I read the 1st red rising and while I didn't hate it by any stretch, I guess I wasn't compelled enough to keep going? However, everything I've read regarding the tone / plotting etc makes me think I'd like it and should definitely give it another go. I guess it starts YA but isn't really at all once it gets going? I also have the habit of assuming anything with teen / young adult characters is YA, and while it's a pretty fair generalization, it's not always going to be the case.
Like I said, it's probably totally unfair, but teen characters often put me in that mindset until the book then takes me out of it with its subject matter / style etc. I only read the first book about 7 or 8 years ago and so I barely recall specifics of what that first book contained but if I recall at the time, I left it still feeling like it was geared towards a YA audience (even though I now know that it's not - I haven't read spoilers, just general vibes that it gets dark). if the first book is pretty dark, I either am desensitized LOL or just have bad memory - very possible to either.. It's a series with enough hype that I'd definitely like to get back to it at some point. They start off short which I like as it lets me build momentum before committing to any door stoppers.
I would definitely give it another shot. I love the first book, but it is literally just a prologue. Book 2 is where the story really starts cooking.