Jacob Tender

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

An improvement on the first in many respects! Can’t wait to see how all this plays out.

This is my breakfast club.

"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.