January media

[nrgburst]

Books/Webcomics:
Made a goal of 50 books for the year and have already made a good start towards that! All of the ones I read this month were in series, which I didn't do on purpose - in retrospect, my choices seem based on a philosophy of Pirates Float My Boat. 🏴‍☠️⚓

  Between Earth and Sky #1 and 2 by Rebecca Roanhorse
Great epic fantasy series set in early S. America, but it's not going to be done until August. 😭 My fave is the bisexual Teek (mermaid) ship captain Xiala, who starts out hungover and cussing in jail (SHE IS A DELIGHT), but Naranpa, the idealistic priestess who keeps untangling the threads of huge plots that are dovetailing in her city, really grew on me in the second book. Can't wait to see how this series ends! 

  Red Rising Saga 1 and 2 by Pierce Brown
I really liked the first book - this is basically Hunger Games in Space in a sci-fi dystopia where humans are split into coloured castes and the MC is a Red slave who is turned into a sleeper agent Gold (ruling class). The second book has him starting a civil war that can split the power of the Golds so that the other colours can push for revolution in the chaos. TBH, the constant fighting and betrayals just started to get a bit tedious to me by the end though, as well as the MC Darrow's incredible plot armor. Also the only female character with an actual character role keeps getting offscreened. Gah. I probably won't read the rest of the series. 

 Magic Tides by Ilona Andrews
This is a Kate Daniels book BUT it also has Curran and Conlan POV chapters and is set in a different state and a few years after Magic Triumphs. A super short and easy read - I read and returned it in a day so the next person on the super-long hold list could get it! And if anybody has read the Curran POV chap out there by Gordon Andrews, you will probably also cringe at how Curran disparages Kate's abilities to their kid in their "holding down the fort" chapters while she's off on a mission trying to save a neighbor's kid in hers. Seriously made me go WTF. Decent plot though, and it's setting up the next arc of books for Kate and Co. as well. Still, I hope they stick to Kate POV in the next. 

  Fable #1 and 2 by Adrienne Young
After Kate's ocean adventures in my last book, I just wanted more sea adventures, so I tried this series. Fable is a teenager who is very good at diving for treasure, but also struggling to survive until she bargains for passage away on a ship and ends up getting close to its crew. There is actually a prequel focused on Fable's dad Saint, but I'm not likely to read it - I like the HEA in this, and I'm satisfied. 

 Daughter of a Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller
After Namesake, I actually read Golden Son, so I was extra delighted by the lighthearted tone and style of this - like a nice palate cleanser. Alosa, the main character, is very proud to be a Very Good Pirate and has been sent on a mission by her father, the Pirate King, to find a map hidden aboard an enemy ship. So she keeps having to escape and get caught again on purpose, so they don't realize that she needs an excuse to stay on board. A fun romp with a side of romance and a bit of fantasy - warning that the title of the next book is a spoiler for a major plot point in this book. 



I've also been binging Solo Leveling on Tapas because they made it 3hour WUF and have a few special episodes coming. So I finished the main series, and I am actually a bit disappointed by the ending after alllll that buildup. Like, he saves the day for everybody but... he does it offscreen. I guess we had just seen him fight the Big Bads but still, it was a letdown.


TV:
I finished a couple of series in January: S1-5 of 911 and Andor. I've also been rewatching Castle, which I can honestly say, I find a lot more fun than Mentalist. 911 feels a lot like Grey's Anatomy to me, with the Crazy Storylines built around the theme of the ep. I can also see why everybody on tumblr (and I think somebody on my reading list) ships Eddie/Buck - they're like Wednesday/Enid on Wednesday: sure they have obligatory hetero romantic interests but it's pretty obvious the cornerstone of their hearts, the person they have Intense Emotions for, is actually the "best friend"? (The writers seem to acknowledge this with Eddie and Buck being mistaken for a couple in series too, LOL.)

Andor was honestly amazing - how does it exist in the same Universe as that last movie that Shall Not be Named because it was so bad? Or Obi-Wan which was all hype, overacting, and plotholes big enough for the Death Star to slip through. Andor just had so much to say about societal control and politics, about human flaws and love in spite of that, and its characters are so real, even the Imperial bad guys. The impenetrable bureaucracy too, hahahaha too real! Plus how the tension started out as a trickle of unease that kept ramping up as things got revealed! I am just despairing at how the next season won't be coming for about two years, but I'm sure it will be amazing too. I will probably re-watch this soon, but next on my TV list is Interview with the Vampire. 

Any thoughts on these series, oh reading list? Or pirate-y book recs? LMK!

Comments

[rodo]

Andor was great! The only criticism of it that I could sort of get was that it was too slow, which was true in the beginning, but which was a plus for me, if I'm being honest. That way, it draws you in and builds, rather than being stressful throughout, which can make a story kind of one-note for me.

[nrgburst]

Ah, true. I did like the pacing of the eps in last half of the season a lot more than the first few. And in retrospect, we never find out the actual truth of what happened on Cassian's home planet, do we? Like there was some sort of bio weapon accident and ??? I wonder if that will ever get resolved, or the missing sister thing.