In some ways the second book is very different and in some very much the same. I imagine if you didn't like the first you wouldn't like the second. For some reason I find the persistent WTF IS EVEN GOING ON of it all very pleasing, but if you do not you should probably avoid
I just said that you're pretty. Even when you're covered in...engine grease, you're... No, especially, especially when you're covered in engine grease.
Simon ,'Jaynestown'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
-t - Sep 16, 2022 11:58:45 am PDT #27429 of 28067
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
Jessica - Sep 16, 2022 12:02:01 pm PDT #27430 of 28067
If I want to become a cloud of bats, does each bat need a separate vaccination?
For some reason I find the persistent WTF IS EVEN GOING ON of it all very pleasing, but if you do not you should probably avoid
I think what I like about it is there are good reasons why the characters don't understand what's going on, so there's never the sense of "If you would just TALK to each other!!" that you sometimes get in books with this kind of mystery? (Not that there aren't situations that would be vastly improved if certain people WOULD just talk to each other, but you as a reader don't ever expect them to actually do so.)
-t - Sep 16, 2022 12:53:19 pm PDT #27431 of 28067
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
That's true, there's a definite sense that it all does make sense I just don't know how yet which is not always there in this kind of thing. The WTF-ery kind of reminds me of Riverdale which I don't think did secretly make sense but I enjoyed the WTF-ery of it very much for a while anyway. Probably not a useful bit of data but I offer it up anyway.
-t - Sep 16, 2022 1:19:16 pm PDT #27432 of 28067
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
I definitely have to re-listen to the first two to remind myself who everyone is by the time this book starts.
Oh, good idea. I can do that and will probably be better off for it. I think I meant to start that earlier this month to be ready for the new one but I forgot.
meara - Sep 16, 2022 1:55:30 pm PDT #27433 of 28067
Yeah, the “nobody has any idea what’s going on” is not my favorite genre. Give me competence porn any day.
-t - Sep 19, 2022 11:50:10 am PDT #27434 of 28067
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
Dang, Sept 18 was a busy day for everyone in Dracula!
Steph L. - Sep 19, 2022 8:10:12 pm PDT #27435 of 28067
the hardest to learn / was the least complicated
Dang, Sept 18 was a busy day for everyone in Dracula!
I cringe every time Lucy gets a blood transfusion. Like I have to read it with my hands over my eyes, peeking through my fingers. (Yes, I know Dracula was written before blood typing existed, but I live in 2022 and it freaks me out. She's gotten transfusions from 4 different people. FOUR! I'm just going on the assumption that she's AB+.)
And also! She's gotten 4 transfusions -- do you think Dracula is confused as hell? Like, he goes one night and drains her almost competely...and the next night he does back and she's full of blood again! And then 3 more times! He HAS to be bewildered. (But he's also not passing up a good meal when it keeps presenting itself.)
-t - Sep 19, 2022 9:04:31 pm PDT #27436 of 28067
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
I know! Just blithely filling her up with blood from whoever happens to be handy, yikes! I am actually AB+ and I wouldn’t want to do that. Convenient from the drink-all-you-want-we’ll-make-more perspective, though, you are correct.
I somehow didn’t really notice in previous readings that they use wreaths of garlic flowers, not cloves of garlic. That should make a comeback.
Does it seem sinister that Lucy’s mother, Harker’s employer and mentor, and Holmwood Sr all die more or less at the same time? Another thing I didn’t really notice before.
juliana - Sep 20, 2022 8:49:40 am PDT #27437 of 28067
I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I miss them all tonight…
Does it seem sinister that Lucy’s mother, Harker’s employer and mentor, and Holmwood Sr all die more or less at the same time? Another thing I didn’t really notice before.
Oh, very much so. That really got brought home in this serialized re-reading for me, too. It's very much more "creeping horror" which is so perfect for Dracula.
Ohhhhh, Nona the Ninth, y'all. I'm just in love with her so much, and with TazMuir's layering. It's so great.
Although I did have to go back and re-read The Hands of the Emperor for some hopeful post-collapse (because that is what The Fall was) fiction after that.
-t - Sep 20, 2022 8:55:13 am PDT #27438 of 28067
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
This read is at it happens thing is delightful, I have to say.
I still haven't started Nona, I only got as far as making sure I have Gideon and Harrow ready to listen to...it's too bad I can't just devote myself to that 24/7, I think I'm going to want to
BTW, juliana, there's a new young Kip novella or something out - Those Who Hold the Fire