The Cracked Mug v 2.0

[erikavonkaiser]

speaking of books I started reading Homeland (the first Drizzt Do'Urden book) which I have been enjoying so far (very soap opera in a fantasy world vibes, aka right up my alley) and when I added it to Goodreads I saw this:

Screenshot 2023-11-07 092522.png

the review goes on for 40 more years but like, my man,

this book came out in 1990????

I'm absolutely not saying it's not worthy of critique (it is!) but it feels hilariously white-guy-up-his-own-ass to call a decades-old R.A. Salvatore book "a sociologists dream-come-true" especially when, like, Underdark Drow have an aggressive matriarchal society that was likely originally inspired by spiders, it's really not that deep

[erikavonkaiser]

is it really a sociologist's dream come true or are you just being a dudebro about the concept of women who hate men

[erikavonkaiser]

while looking for my last VHD book review I clicked page-by-page and discovered three things;

1) I am a doofus and a moron (affectionate) because I literally give all the posts a hashtag for the SOLE ENTIRE PURPOSE of easily finding them without having to click through pages
2) I am actually THREE book reviews behind, I didn't realize I never reviewed Dark Nocturne
3) I have been really goddamned tired for several months, good lord, that is definitely the theme of a lot of my posts. I would actually say I'm doing a lot better (taking vitamins daily again seems to have helped a lot, leading credence to my theory a lot of my exhaustion is rooted in disordered eating troubles), although it hurts to see how much time I've spent this year wishing I had energy

[erikavonkaiser]

Vampire Hunter D Volume 10: Dark Nocturne by Hideyuki Kikuchi
Three stars
(would've been an easy four stars if this had just been Legend of the War Demons tbh)

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This is the first one that was a collection of short stories, and to be honest it's been a minute since I actually finished it so my thoughts aren't fresh anymore (at a glance I shelved it as "finished reading" on September 16th so uhhh, woops). I'll split it into the short stories themselves:

Dark Nocturne: this is the title story and it was ......... okay. My main impression was the ending felt super abrupt; I would say my overall critique of the entire book is that Hideyuki Kikuchi is not the best at story pacing, so this one and the next one both felt like drafts that needed more time to bake vs. completed and self-contained short stories. The concept of this one was very strong, though (basically D is investigating a vampiric siren song that draws men to their deaths), it's just that when it ended I was like "um??? wait where's the rest of the story"

Notes on Imagined Autumn: I honestly don't remember much about this one, woops, the blurb says something about a ritualistic sacrifice and I'm getting vague memory hits from that but I'm gonna go ahead and say this one must've meandered and ended abruptly, too

Legend of the War Demons: okay but THIS ONE RULED

First off! It has the first example of homoromantic affection I've seen in these books that isn't treated with some element of negativity. The books don't necessarily go out of their way to be homophobic, but the vibe is definitely that men who find D beautiful or who are drawn into his angler fish aura are often villains, deviant-leaning men, or men who are shocked at themselves for feeling such an unnatural thing. But the (masc-presenting) golem in this one openly says that he wants to help D because he loves D romantically, even though he knows D isn't interested in reciprocating, and it's honestly kind of earnest and cute. D himself is polite about it; a lot of time he more openly rejects people who express interest in him, but that's because a lot of the time they are teenage girls.

And otherwise the story was fun! Basically the golem and a genetically-engineered young woman were created by long-dead Noble societies to do battle with each other, and are drawn to do so until they fight to the death. D is looking for a cure, since the young woman only "awakens" to her true nature sometimes because it's been centuries of this and she and the war golem are both kind of not working correctly in different ways. So D travels with them both and occasionally has to keep them from killing the other, all while trying to solve how to cure the young woman so she and the golem can have some peace and the long-dead vampire societies can finally end their conflict.

It was fun! I liked it a lot, the characters were really great and the concept was a lot of fun. The golem was adorable.

Ordered from most to least-liked, and I am forcing myself not to give commentary on my decisions:

Vampire Hunter D Volume 5: The Stuff of Dreams
Vampire Hunter D
Vampire Hunter D Volume 8: Mysterious Journey to the North Sea - Part Two
Vampire Hunter D Volume 7: Mysterious Journey to the North Sea - Part One
Vampire Hunter D Volume 10: Dark Nocturne
Vampire Hunter D Volume 9: The Rose Princess
Vampire Hunter D Volume 4: Tale of the Dead Town
Vampire Hunter D Volume 3: Demon Deathchase
Vampire Hunter D Volume 6: Pilgrimage of the Sacred and the Profane
Vampire Hunter D Volume 2: Raiser of Gales

#books2023

[erikavonkaiser]

Legend of the War Demons also had this delightful sequence

Screenshot 2023-11-07 115501.png

[erikavonkaiser]

hah when I was looking for that in discord I also found a picture I took of when the golem says he has a crush on D

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[Fetian]

speaking of books I started reading Homeland (the first Drizzt Do'Urden book) which I have been enjoying so far (very soap opera in a fantasy world vibes, aka right up my alley) and when I added it to Goodreads I saw this:
Screenshot 2023-11-07 092522.png
the review goes on for 40 more years but like, my man,

this book came out in 1990????

I'm absolutely not saying it's not worthy of critique (it is!) but it feels hilariously white-guy-up-his-own-ass to call a decades-old R.A. Salvatore book "a sociologists dream-come-true" especially when, like, Underdark Drow have an aggressive matriarchal society that was likely originally inspired by spiders, it's really not that deep

Really weird for your review to be "I don't have anything to say about this but I bet someone does!"

[erikavonkaiser]

@mek also the gall of telling R.A. Salvatore, of all people, that he has bitten off more than he can chew---

salvatore.png

I'm sure some of those are repeats/anthologies/he's a guest writer but idk man I'd say he knows how to bite off exactly what he can chew, whether you like his works or not

[erikavonkaiser]

Vampire Hunter D Volume 11: Pale Fallen Angels - Parts One and Two by Hideyuki Kikuchi
Five stars

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AND

Vampire Hunter D Volume 12: Pale Fallen Angels - Parts Three and Four by Hideyuki Kikuchi
Three stars? idk man it lost the thread a lot

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I'm reviewing these two at the same time since they're separate books but all parts of the same story. This is the longest story Kikuchi has told so far! It definitely suffers for that, because parts one and two are way stronger than parts three and four. As I've mentioned before, pacing is not his strongest suit, and I think his best stories are contained in one novella. But the first book of this one absolutely slapped; the basic premise is, for the very first time in D's history, a vampire has hired him. Baron Balazs wants to kill his father and hires D to protect him en route to do so, as the Baron is a full-blooded Noble and cannot travel or protect himself well during the day, and his father has sent numerous people to try and kill him. D initially refuses but does agree (perhaps in "I also hate my dad" solidarity), although stipulates that for the duration of their contract Baron Balazs cannot drink any human blood, and they end up forming a genuinely interesting alliance/friendship! Shenanigans happen along the way and D ends up with an entire troupe of people he accidentally is beholden to protect and is a little endearingly grumpy about it at a few points. Loved this entire book, it was action-packed and I loved the relationship between D and Byron.

The second one is Baron Balazs's confrontation with his father, and also some stuff about the Destroyer, and there's a lady made of water, and to be honest it just goes off the rails and meanders a lot. It's basically what's left of the villain troupe from the first book all doing stuff at the same time, but there's no real clear threads because Baron Balazs fails to kill his father and then is off-screen for a while and then pops back up later after having had a Rough Time. D manages to help him but there's just, there's a lot going on. We do learn why Baron Balazs is different from other Nobility, and that he is likely also one of the Sacred Ancestor's experiments (though, I think, not his son; D is openly referred to as Dracula's "only success" and I think in part because he is his actual dhampiric son).

also good LORD the ending is homoerotic if you're of a mind to read it that way (obviously, I am); through a series of events that aren't really the Baron's fault, at the very end he ends up killing and drinking the blood of a young girl. He's horrified with himself and asks D to kill him, and D asks him who the client is, basically -- like, who is hiring me for this vampire-hunting job? And the Baron says he is both the client and the target, he's hiring D one final time to kill him. D agrees, stabs him through the chest and MISSES HIS HEART ON PURPOSE SO HE LIVES, then walks out.

It's the only time I've ever seen him spare someone like that and idk man, gay

Ordered from most to least-liked, and I am forcing myself not to give commentary on my decisions:

Vampire Hunter D Volume 5: The Stuff of Dreams
Vampire Hunter D
Vampire Hunter D Volume 11: Pale Fallen Angels - Parts One and Two
Vampire Hunter D Volume 8: Mysterious Journey to the North Sea - Part Two
Vampire Hunter D Volume 7: Mysterious Journey to the North Sea - Part One
Vampire Hunter D Volume 10: Dark Nocturne
Vampire Hunter D Volume 12: Pale Fallen Angels - Parts Three and Four
Vampire Hunter D Volume 9: The Rose Princess
Vampire Hunter D Volume 4: Tale of the Dead Town
Vampire Hunter D Volume 3: Demon Deathchase
Vampire Hunter D Volume 6: Pilgrimage of the Sacred and the Profane
Vampire Hunter D Volume 2: Raiser of Gales

#books2023

I feel like at the end of the year I need to scrutinize and re-order my tier list, it feels like it's gotten a bit chaotic

[erikavonkaiser]

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus
Two stars but I am mad about it

Screenshot 2023-11-09 204811.png

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

okay so,

I did not enjoy this book!

But I feel like it's not for the reasons most people with middling reviews didn't enjoy this book. Lemme break it down into sections--

1) the whale stuff
I was fine with this content, actually! The book touts itself as "scientifically accurate" and to me, a complete layman in regards to whale biology, it passed. Most readers were upset more of the book wasn't about surviving in and/or escaping the whale, but I didn't really expect the entire book to be about that because, like, at that point it's turned into a wild Magic School Bus Adventure. The narrative was careful not to paint the whale as a villain, and just as a circumstance. The descriptions of how the stomach/s moved and the conditions within, as well as how he maintained his diving equipment and the whole air/pressure situation, felt tense and good.

2) the daddy issues stuff
OHKAY SO GASDih;osdfgh dfsbf

The core story is that Jay, who is like eighteen, is going on a dangerous dive in order to try and find his father's remains in the ocean. His father committed suicide by jumping off a boat because he had incredibly terminal cancer; before that, he and Jay had not spoken or seen each other for something like two years, because his father was an abusive alcoholic. The catalyst event was a fight between himself and his father where his father behaved aggressively and Jay, scared, fled from him and his entire household. (He has two sisters and a mother and I! hate them!!!!!)

That's all fine, and complex, and at first I thought I was going to be okay with how the novel explored some obviously very heavy themes: you have regret for not making amends, you have the weird sensation of others treating someone like they were a saint when they were not solely because they are dying/dead, you have familial pressures to behave certain ways, etc etc lots of stuff going on

fffffffffffffffuck how the writer decided to handle it!

As a caveat I am obviously very sensitive about this entire theme, and I acknowledge that, but the final resolution placed way too much goddamn blame on Jay, a child, for his father's shitty behavior. Yes, you often do have good memories of people who abused you, mixed in with the bad. No, those good memories do not mean that the times were better than you remember. Yes, it's difficult and weird to know that the monster of your childhood (or whatever situation) is also a human being who is capable of love and laughter. But again, no, that does not mean that you owe them anything. The child is not obligated to make amends and peace, regardless of age, although to me it's important, as well, that Jay is quite young. If Jay's dad wanted peaceful resolution, he could've used his fucking big boy voice to apologize. If he couldn't even manage that on his death bed, then I think he should jump into the ocean twice.

Yes, I'm being very harsh.

3) the writing style
This is also a thumbs down for me, although definitely less of an aggressive thumbs down than point #2.

The way I would describe my issue is that the writing style felt a little too "try hard"? Like, as the reader, there were a lot of times where I felt like the writer was perhaps overly proud of landing a real heart-wrenching line or a zinger of a metaphor. I am not sure how to define the difference between that and actually doing those things, but I think some of it is he just did it way too often. I dunno how else to describe it except to say my impression was the writer was extremely aware he was writing an emotional story about connecting with your dead abusive dad and that awareness kept some of the prose from feeling genuine. Don't know if that makes sense, or is even fair, but it's how I felt!

#books2023