Lee Hunts

I just finished reading Forbidden Knowledge by Stephen R. Donaldson. This is the second entry in The Gap Cycle, which is a five book science fiction series that was written back in the nineties. With this book, the series is starting to inflate into something expansive and engrossing on an epic scale. I really enjoyed the first entry of this series, The Real Story; particularly the horrifying elements and the deeper questions about the nature of control and the human capacity for depravity. This entry continues those questions, carrying trains of thought along related tracks. But alongside this, the story expands to bring in the political intrigue and the worldbuilding elements that weren't mentioned but hinted at in the first entry. Apparently, the epic aspect of the story only grows further from here. While that is amazing and has me excited for the rest of the story, I also found myself rather captured by the subtleties that were evident in this story. Every action seems to matt...

I just finished reading Yellowface, by R.F. Kuang. I am familiar with Kuang through her Poppy War trilogy, which I have reviews of for each entry. I will link them below. The short of it was that I thought the Poppy War series was alright overall. The second entry was my favorite, with the first being fairly good, and the final one finding itself in a neutral position (a lot of negatives, a lot of positives, and an overall balance as they cancelled each other out). While I enjoyed the grimdark world that was created for the reader, there was also some messy dialogue, New Adult elements in the first entry, and heavy-handed moralizing that I found eyeball rolling. Kuang and I do not share the same political persuasion, if only because I am not hard left wing and I am generally anti-woke. And when I learned that she had another book out (aside from Babel), I wanted to at least try it out, especially when I read the premise for the story. A white girl steals a manuscript from her Asian bes...

This is just the scattered musings that I wrote down as I listened to the audiobook. The general idea is that this is a variation of Critical Race Theory made digestible for a wider audience. Kendi tries to dismiss this, but anyone who has read the basics of CRT can see the basic ideas reflected; at best, he criticizes some of the more obnoxious variations of CRT. Racism is not reducible to individual biases, but is systemic/institutional. This assumes that the ultimate problem is racial disparities. Colorblind policies are racist in the context of the wider system, as they do not work against the system, instead allowing the disparities to persist. CRT is especially known for suggesting that our society is built to be racist, rather than racism simply being a bug within a non-racist system. Kendi suggests something similar at the end, concluding that our modern (2020ish) society is basically stage-four cancer. Cap all of that off with a starry-eyed ending about how things can get bett...

I just finished reading Emperor of Thorns, which is the climactic novel in The Broken Empire trilogy. I pushed through all three of the books in the series, as I was rather captured by Jorg, the main character. (Even as other people are outright repulsed by him . . . I should probably mention that, lol.) This book follows up the last book two years down the line, while also following a timeline from five years in the past. Another inserted perspective is also thrown in, similar to Katharine's from the last book, though this is executed in a different way. The second plotline serves a similar function to the secondary plotlines in the last two books: filling in the information that the main plotline requires in order to progress. Basically, all of this funnels the story toward the climax, where Jorg looks to become the Emperor, with the added tension of the Dead King, as he approaches the capital and wants to consume the world by killing everything in it. No Spoilers I was really le...

I just finished reading The Real Story by Stephen R. Donaldson. This is the first entry in The Gap Cycle, which is a five book science fiction series that apparently expands massively in the next volume. As I implied, this story is smaller and rather simple. It involves three main characters: Angus Thermopyle, Morn Hyland, and Nick Succorso. Most of the focus is on Angus, however, as this nasty and even monstrous man shows up at a bar with Morn at his side. This draws attention from almost everyone, but especially Nick Succorso. And theories naturally come along, with events seeming to unfold in a particular way. But that is apparently not the real story. What follows is quite literally the real story, outlining the events as they actually occurred. No Spoilers The Prose The first thing that stood out to me in this story was the prose. In particular, the perspective that Donaldson used was fascinating and worth mentioning. The beginning of the book opens with what I ended up calling ...

I just finished reading King of Thorns, which is the second entry in The Broken Empire trilogy by Mark Lawrence. This book follows up on the first entry, continuing the plot lines with interesting point of view shifts that relate to how the original story was told. I will be spoiling the first entry of this series throughout, so click away if you want to avoid that. We last saw Jorg, the main protagonist, manage to capture the castle of Count Renar, with Jorg proclaiming himself King of the lands of Renar. There are two following plotlines, where we see what is more-or-less the immediate aftermath of Jorg's rise to power, and then see Jorg's place four years down the line. The back of the book fills in some of the details. Jorg is now surrounded by a multi-nation army, and they are almost certain to lose. Jorg is now forced to surrender or sacrifice many as he faces down the enemy in a live or die situation. Also, "Jorg," as I say, is actually pronounced as it is spel...