brenticus's reviews
657 reviews

Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

An incredibly moving work. It's about family, addiction, legacy, and more, all wrapped up in a story about an adopted teenager being asked to guide his dying birth father to the place he wants to die. 

Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis

challenging informative reflective fast-paced

4.0

By and large I think Varoufakis does a really good job of highlighting how the "cloudalist" class emerging in the modern economy differs from the traditional capitalist mold enough to warrant a new name. The way he explains the roles of consumers, workers, and traditional capital clearly lays out how it's different from how the economy is "supposed" to work, and the nature of online marketplaces and cloud expenditures as fiefs and rents is put better than I've ever seen before. 

Sometimes his terminology gets a little muddled, sometimes his understanding of technology is a bit mixed, and sometimes his vision of how to escape this mess seems a bit optimistic or misguided. But these are all small footnotes on a brilliant explanation of why things are so different now compared to 20, 50, even 100 years ago.

Dragon Ball, Vol. 5 by Akira Toriyama

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

The end of the first Budokai Tenkaichi is a lot of fun. It just gets more and more goofy until it ends in an all-out manly exchange. Super good.

After that is the introduction of the Red Ribbon Army, and dear god I forgot how rough the start of this was. Muscle Tower is just... not fun. But at least it's shorter in the manga. 

5 Seconds Before a Witch Falls in Love by Zeniko Sumiya

funny lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I read this as a digital release a while back and loved it. Still a few cute romances, even in paperback form. 

Elden Ring: the Road to the Erdtree by FROMSOFTWARE INC.

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Now, it's obviously a parody/gag manga from the word go. The bottles-stuck-to-ass gag is pretty great. Every interaction with Melina is a joy. Godrick is goofy.

But it's also kind of a good Elden Ring manga? Aseo is such a dumbass it can't help but be a comedy, but it also rings true to the spirit of the game in a lot of ways and the characters don't feel like they need to stretch all that far to fit in to this manga's gags. It's mostly just that Aseo has half a brain cell and never knows where it went.

Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I think I bought this book when it first came out, excited for a new era of Star Wars to be explored, and then, as I do, I kind of kept putting off reading it. That was a mistake.

This is a brilliant introduction to an era of Star Wars that is really foreign to the stuff we've seen before. Where technology isn't quite what we're used to, the factions of the galaxy aren't quite how they look later, even the conflicts are simply not like anything I've seen elsewhere in all my reading and watching of Star Wars. This really set up the High Republic as an era of peace, and it highlights just how fragile that peace is.

My initial excitement for the High Republic feels validated with this. This book isn't simply a story set on Star Wars planets with Star Wars characters and hand-wavy Star Wars technology and magic. It's an examination of what that universe looked like hundreds of years before we're used to it, and it shows something that is truly interesting to see.

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson

informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.0

While a bit scattershot in some chapters, this was a great listen that covered a lot of interesting nuggets of knowledge about our universe: what makes it up, how it functions, what mysteries it holds, and how we try to understand it. 

Babel, Vol. 1: A Girl Embarks on a Journey of Words by Kuji Furumiya

adventurous slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

This read was about half way to being very good. It hits a lot of good notes with the characters and their development, the mild complexities of the setting, even the stakes for the various conflicts, but it also shuffles along in an odd way. The characters demonstrate their agency constantly, but it also feels like they're just stumbling into conflicts randomly and arbitrarily find themselves capable of resolving them. They do things, and things happen to them, but those two concepts feel disconnected.

I'm interested to see where this goes, and I quite like Shizuku and Erik for the most part, but the way the plot moves ahead just doesn't always work for me.

Laid-Back Camp, Vol. 8 by Afro

funny lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

They camp. The camp is comfy. I am happy.

The Invincible Shovel Vol. 7 by Yasohachi Tsuchise

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

It's a bit of a sudden ending, but it's sudden in a way that just absolutely makes sense. Alan is practically a god, negotiating and fighting with the most powerful beings in existence. Catria has gained so much power that she is practically a miner herself. Lithisia has just entirely stopped being a human, instead becoming a vessel for ever more impressive shovel powers. 

So how long does it take to beat Zeleburg, the final enemy they've been aiming for the whole time? Not long. 

There are so many funny moments in this volume, some nice character development, and some actual tension at times. It's a solid ending to the series.