Ren

Dragged a liiiiiittle bit more compared to the previous 5 volumes, but it's mostly because there's some major characters, plots, and world building being introduced here.

I'm so invested in all of these characters - from Godot to Isidro, it's really hard to put these books down for me because I need to see whats going to happen to them. The author does such a fantastic job of getting you invested in every character - even the ones you dislike & know are evil - because his writing is just that good.

Also The SECOND eclipse is coming???? HUHHHH!!!!

Wow. You know by reading the first volume kind of what's going to happen, but I really did not expect THAT.

I am so invested in these characters. I felt my heart breaking in volume 13. I can't stop thinking about it. It's ruined me.

I heard the next volumes aren't as good - and sure, we're following a different arc - but the lost children arc is interesting in its own way and I'm excited to see how it ends.

I considered taking a break after finishing this volume but I just need to see what happens next

just speechless

Holy shit...this was dark but incredible.

Some really incredible moments. The story from the first two deluxe editions was great (Black Swordsman & Golden Age), but the volumes and arcs in this one just solidified the story for me. Couldn't put this down, and I'm so hype for the next one. Gotta see what the eclipse is all about

Second deluxe edition really picked the story up a lot, so excited to read the next one

wanted to read a book about a bunch of stupid sorority girls and this definitely scratched that itch, but the author messed up their own timeline several times in the book and it was distracting.

I didn't really expect any character growth given the girls in this book are about as deep as a puddle but damn these bitches are EVIL to each other lol

Rhys was a much better character to follow in this one instead of Sloane. I enjoyed his POV much more.

Nothing crazy inventive going on plot-wise but the new characters the author introduced were way more interesting than the ones in the first book. Seems like there should be a second book.

I love zombie books. it's one of those tropes I can never get enough of.

Unfortunately, this book was a huge miss for me. Maybe if I had been a younger reader I would have enjoyed it more, but I doubt it. The main problem isn't even the lack of action - plenty of good zombie novels don't focus on zombie kills - but the lack of growth or progression in general.

If you're going to have a zombie novel that isn't action heavy and more of a character study, we need to see character growth. Everything that happens in this book is just repetitive with little payoff. Trace hates Cary. Sloane is sad about her sister. Sloane wants to “leave” and maybe by the last page of the book she's decided she actually doesn't? But it's vague, and really it's not enough for me. She had no growth, even with her relationship with Rhys she still shuts him out. She was so unlikable for me and I think she dragged down the book a lot.

Grace is the only character that has any type of growth, but if you read the book you'll see why that's disappointing. Harrison is completely forgettable since the only things we know about him is he's the youngest, he's a “geeky” type, and he cries all the time. Rhys is really the only likable, rational character here, but he's overshadowed by all the teen angst and whining by the other characters.

The forgivable thing here is the authors writing is easy to speed through since it's dialogue heavy, so the book didn't take much time to read.

If you're looking for a slow burn/character study zombie novel I'd recommend something like Zone One or The Reapers are the Angels instead.

I might check out the novella since it focuses on Rhys, but I'm disappointed with this one. With the glowing reviews I expected much more.

This concept was really interesting, but man the writing was really not great. This book is supposedly for teens? middle grade maybe? but none of the terms/world building that happens in the book is really explained.

I was at page 400 and still didn't understand what anyone meant by “Protocol” except it's a law maybe? A decree? Who knows? I was able to pick up on some other concepts like “Non-Era” but it took wayyyy too long for any context to be given to explain what it could possibly mean. This happens multiple times throughout the book.

I really liked the idea of Sapphique in particular - this mythic man who escaped the prison - I loved it, and especially the blurbs at the beginning of each chapter - but it was really odd how the characters would get somewhere and they were like “Sapphique took this exact path!!” .....were we supposed to know that? I feel like Sapphique could have been explained more before the journey began. He was a really cool character to follow, but I felt like some part of his story was missing for me and it's probably because it wasn't explained well.

Lastly, and most importantly, the majority of the characters are insufferable, with the exception of Jared, Finn, and Gildas. I mean they were all really selfish, mean, and boring characters. I had no investment in them at all.

I wish I had more investment to read the second book, but the world building is already not great, and they killed off one of the 3 characters I liked, so I just don't care.

I really did love the concept though, and the steampunk-ish vibes and will give it some credit for that.

that was...visceral

Jinshi is sick of maomao's shit and I'm HERE FOR IT

Love that the political drama is starting to become the main plot here. With Jinshi's identity being revealed, it's going to be interesting how he interacts with the characters moving forward.

I'm interested to see how the La clan and the new empress plays into the political drama in the other books

decently sized frog

Maomao's backstory :)

“But neither infinite power nor infinite wisdom could bestow godhood upon men. For that there would have to be infinite love as well.”

This book hit on everything I love in a book: Religious themes, post apocalyptic civilizations, dark ages, and technically advanced civilizations.

Really if any book has a good combination of science and religion, I'm there. This book was so fantastic from start to finish, especially Fiat Lux.

I loved the Latin used throughout, the themes and side stories, Benjamin (or Lazarus, I suppose), and of course what kind of quasi-religious/post apocalyptic story would this be if there wasn't a ton of crazy weird shit happening in the desert?

I really tried to read this slow and digest everything the author was throwing at me, but the scene of the Thon having the history of the Flame Deluge told really stuck with me - and really cemented this as one of my new favorite sci-fi stories.

Wow, this book was some ass.

This topic can be written about in a nuanced way, but this book should serve as what NOT to do.

I'm reading through some of the booklets my mom kept with her until she lost her battle to ovarian cancer in the summer of 2021. this one was nice. I think she took a lot of the advice here to heart. ❤️

this book was so fiercely 2010 but that's kind of what I was looking for anyway.

sooo beautifully written. I love the heavy nature themes Doerr uses in each story - and his writing is so vivid, you feel like you're in the stories, too.

My favorites were:
• The Hunter's Wife (my favorite)
• For A Long Time, This Was Griselda's Story
• The Caretaker (second favorite)
• The Shell Collector

Spoilers abound

Not for me. I really enjoyed reading the introductions and added text at the back of the book, and reading Burroughs talk about this book and the formation/publishing/court case around this book was much more interesting.

This is the kind of book to me that you don't really need to read the full thing to get the gist of. And I did not.

You're reading Burroughs' heroin-fueled gay (sometimes pedophilic) fantasies, satire of crime novels, satire of the medical industry & their lack of respect for addicts, amongst other things. There are some funny parts, but I found a lot of it very sad. Obviously this book is depraved but I just didn't find it interesting. I also didn't like Fear & Loathing so I think this type of book just isn't for me.

At least when I read American Psycho I had more to take from it, and this book has very similar vibes.

I can appreciate what makes this book important from a literary history standpoint, and would recommend anyone who is interested in reading this to go into it reading each section/section like an individual drug-fueled letter rather than anything cogent. Reading the court case surrounding this book was really interesting and regardless of how fucked up some of this is I 100% agree with the decision to allow people to read it and booksellers to sell it.

As for me I am getting this off my bookshelf expeditiously

This book was REALLY not for me. 4 people recommended this book to me. The premise was so interesting. I loved the idea of a military force only wanting to recruit senior citizens; theres so many interesting ways this story COULD have gone.

No spoilers, but that whole premise is not really used at all. There's a cop-out the author employs that completely destroys the entire concepts initially laid out for us.

I also did not like how everything just happens for our MC. There's so many conveniences and plot-holes, it's incredibly hard to suspend my disbelief even for a sci fi. As I started a chapter, I immediately knew what was going to happen by the end of it. I pissed off my friends who recommended the book to me by predicting everything. (hehe)

The only character that is interesting dies in an unceremonious way - and it's glossed over so fast.

This book just left me so disappointed. I hope someone else takes this concept and actually does something interesting with it.

uh...what the fuck was that

This left me with the same emotions I had reading/watching Aniara (although I'll say Aniara is much more bleak).

So many things I could say about this book but I'm going to say this book has touched me and I don't think I'm going to stop thinking about it for a really long time. A new favorite for sure.

I've waited YEARS for this story and savored every second. Much better than TBOSAS in my opinion.

Nothing could ever prepare me for the Ampert scene...

Enjoyed this so much. My favorite stories:

I don't think I have one favorite, so much as a “liked” category and a “not so much” category. For me it's:  

I enjoyed all of the stories aside from Especially Heinous, since I'm not a huge SVU fan.

My favorites were The Husband Stitch, Difficult at Parties, Inventory, and Mothers.