Jacob Tender

So ends my 3 month speedrun of DCC. All set for book 8.

Beautiful illustrations and story. Not sure what age bracket is meant to be the audience. The language reads older than the cadence implies.

Order 9066 is one of many shameful acts conducted by the US government on minority groups. The only thing more sad is that we never seem to learn.

"I could not tell my father that boys made me anxious. And so I invented individual reasons to dislike them. The hope was that I’d come off as discerning rather than frightened."

God, when David Sedaris hits. He hits. Very excited to see him read some of his work later this week.

"Just pretend like you half understand"

As invested as I am in the story now, I can't pretend that this was a particularly good book. Not that it will stop me from continuing. I just hope this is a series low.

I had no idea what was going on for most of this one. The Tangle is too complicated. At least for an audiobook. I found myself frequently zoning out as it explained lines and stations our characters would never visit. Wholly inscrutable plot setting.

The catch phrases are getting annoying. You can't punctuate every dramatic episode with the same mantra. The heavy-handedness cheapens the action.

Audiobook specific: I wouldn't begrudge Soundbooth Studios re-recording the train dwarf. I had an immediate reaction to the dreadfully amateurish reading. Then read more about the voice "actor."

The positive news is Donut has fully evolved into an early 2010s lasercat meme and some secondary characters were developed to a point where caring about them is possible.

It seems to me that the trick to a successful novella is making up for time with personality. Murderbot’s quirks align closely enough to my own neurodivergences that I can look past this book’s shortcomings.

In many ways the first half of All Systems Red feels like a paraphrasing of a book. So much is glossed over or taken as read. Things start to click after everyone involved is on the same page. Even with just a few dozen pages left to go, I found myself tripping on awkward sentences that would have benefited from more words and different punctuation.

This was a funny read in such close proximity to Becky Chambers’ Monk + Robot duology. Brief reads about quirky robots trying to find ways to help humans while also prioritizing their own interests.

I think I can visualize how this show would play out enough that I’m not convinced I’ll watch it. At least not until I finish the next installment.