pedanther's reviews
381 reviews

The Dragonhiker's Guide to Battlefield Covenant at Dune's Edge: Odyssey Two by David Langford

funny fast-paced

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

3.0

This collection of parodies has not aged well. There's a conspicuous reliance on humor involving drunkenness, sex, and the female anatomy, only some of which can be justified as exaggerations of elements present in the works being parodied. It says something that I laughed harder while reading the foreword than in any of the parodies that followed. The one that worked best for me, foreword aside, was "Lost Event Horizon", possibly because the parameters of the parody dictated a straight-edge hero and an absence of female characters and the author was consequently obliged to come up with some actual jokes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Gore, Homophobia, Sexism, Violence, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Alcoholism, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Racism, Sexual content, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, and Abortion

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Child death, Fatphobia, Rape, Medical content, Grief, Abandonment, and Colonisation

Hexarchate Stories by Yoon Ha Lee

adventurous dark funny fast-paced

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

4.0

The star of the collection is the novella "Glass Cannon", which takes up about two-fifths of the book and single-handedly lifted my rating for the whole. The rest of the contents are not bad, but a lot of them are slight: there are a few that I would call proper stories, and a lot of brief vignettes and scenes that are interesting if you're already familiar with the characters but don't stand on their own. Still worth reading for a fan of the series; and for a fan of the series, the author's afterwords talking about his inspirations and influences are also good value.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Self harm, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Drug use, Eating disorder, Genocide, Pedophilia, Excrement, Death of parent, and Colonisation

The graphic sexual content is in the vignette "Gloves".

Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Eating disorder, Gore, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Murder, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and War

Minor: Genocide, Rape, Xenophobia, and Excrement

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

adventurous challenging reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Genocide, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, War, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

A Dark Victory by Dave Luckett

adventurous challenging medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Violence, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, and Death of parent

A Dark Journey by Dave Luckett

adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Excrement, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, and War

Looking Backward: 2000-1887 by Edward Bellamy

challenging reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Mental illness, Racism, Sexism, and Classism

Minor: Child death, Suicide, Islamophobia, Grief, Acephobia/Arophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and War

The Good Book: A Secular Bible by A.C. Grayling

reflective slow-paced

3.5

There were parts of this that were definitely worth reading. I wish they'd been properly attributed, so I knew who to thank for them. 

I have mixed feelings about the "Secular Bible" conceit. It works as a way of drawing a potential reader's attention; I might not have ever heard of this book if it had been called something more restrained, and the series of events that led to me having this copy would never have happened. But I don't feel like the efforts to mimic The Style of The Bible achieve anything useful, only to distance the reader and give the impression that the work of one man is trying to drape itself in the borrowed finery of a major cultural artifact created by many hands over the course of centuries. 

(Of course, while the compilation is the work of one man, the text isn't - but that brings us back around to the fact that I wish the one man had chosen a different format that included proper attribution. Some of the more distinctive bits are susceptible to being Googled, but there are other bits that I'd really like to know whose words they really are.)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Xenophobia, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Miscarriage

The content warnings largely pertain to the section "Histories", which is derived from Herodotus' histories of the Greco-Persian Wars and includes accounts of atrocities both on and off the battlefield, and to the section "Acts", which is derived from Plutarch's biographies of famous Greek and Roman leaders.

A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Sexism, and Antisemitism