thelostvoid's reviews
857 reviews

Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang

5.0

Oh. My. God. 
I am simply wrecked by this book. I knew that M L Wang was incredible, and have been so excited to read her work but I am simply floored. I was sobbing for the last like, 50 pages and I feel like this book will stick with me for a long time. Holy shit.

Moira Quirk of course did an absolutely stunning job with the audiobook, she puts such emotion into her performances and brings characters to life simply beautifully. 

The Apples of New Eden by mars adler

4.5

I am a simple man, I see Mars Adler has released a new book and I buy it and aim to read it as soon as possible. This was incredible. I was a bit wary because I have been reading a lot of sci-fi recently, just hoping that it wouldn't feel too similar in that way but it was literally not an issue. Holy hell this was good. I don't think Mars is capable of writing something bad though, so that's fun. 

Obviously, this was horny as hell (fucking around with wires and cybernetics as stimulation = PEAK) and I greatly appreciated it because daaamn yes. Loved the augmentations and world building and characters as well. Not gonna lie, I kind of hope we get more of these characters or at the very least this universe again because I really like it. 

Carl's Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman

4.25

Things are definitely Developing in the world outside of the Dungeon and I am intrigued. Also great to see more development between Carl and Princess Donut (and Mordecai!

and also Katia, she seems cool!

These books aren't like, life changing or anything of course but my god they are entertaining and I think that is exactly the kind of stuff I need to be reading at the moment so I am having a hoot, even if I am not like the most emotionally invested in these characters or whatever. 

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

4.25

This is my 1000th book marked as read on Storygraph - isn't that fun!

I saw a few people mention this online, and since I've got Kindle Unlimited for a couple of months, and feel pretty good about the size of my owned TBR, I thought fuck it. This is definitely chaotic and fun and silly, but also I am surprised by the amount of world building and politics and stuff like that. I am super curious to see where everything ends up going in this series. 

The Witch and the Tsar by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore
Did not finish book. Stopped at 65%.

I am so sorry but I simply cannot deal with how boring this has been and

now Yaga is pregnant right after having a stupid argument with Vasily and she's not telling him she is pregnant either and this is the kind of like, non-communication relationship fuckery I cannot stand.

  Also what even is this plot like where are the stakes?? I don't care anymore and we are not forcing ourselves to continue because I can feel this audiobook putting me into a reading slump.

Don't Let the Forest In by C.G. Drews

medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I follow this author on tik tok, and was following them for a while and they they started posting about a book they had written that was about toxic relationships and boarding schools and spooky forests and I simply knew I had to read it. And we did! I am slightly smug about finishing it within one day - and on the first day of the new year wahoo - and also because I called the shit out the twist like just over halfway through the book. It was delicious, and it really rounded everything out. The guilt and anger and grief mixed with spooky forest magic. Tasty stuff! 

Obviously this is YA, so things were pretty straight foward in terms of like, the overall plot and the side characters being pretty obviously allies/enemies but that's not really a problem at all and I love that this exists and will be a gateway for younger audiences to get into this kind of weird, twisting, emotional toxic vibe because oh boy is it fun to read about. Also spooky forests are always a big win. 

I also want to add that as someone from Australia, who was born in Byron Bay the fact that Andrew is Australian and his dad is from Byron Bay along with the various Australian references really took me the heck out my goodnessssss ahaha.

System Collapse by Martha Wells

4.5

Well damn - not only did I finally get my grubby hands on a copy of this book but I managed to finish it in like less than a day and right in time to have finished reading/rereading Murderbot just before the new year starts. 

This was fucking great, I love getting to see some of the like ... consequences for all the fucked shit Murderbot has seen and experienced within its narration. It felt like the perfect time within the series to have a more serious tone-shift of like, ok Murderbot we do need to deal with the emotional damage and trauma you have and also having it be connected to community and such. I don't have a lot of words on specifics about this but I really enjoyed it!

Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson

adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I cannot believe that I managed to finish this in five days. Holy hell. It was a real dedicated effort but my god it was worth it. I wasn't going to be able to like, pace myself once I had the book in my hands and the Sanderlanche fucking HIT.
What can I say about this book, this series, this conclusion of the first arc of The Stormlight Archive. I was full sobbing, tears landing on the page, for large amounts of the final 400 pages. The place this ended was absolutely incredible, makes perfect sense and has me shattered.

I can forgive a lot of things, but having Kaladin, Adolin and Shallan separated not only by city but being in separate realms?? Killing me. Absolutely horrific. I guessed that Kaladin was going to become a Herald but I didn't think Shallan would end up stuck in Shadesmar and it hurts so much to know that they aren't going to see each other again - at least for a very long time. Ahhh. Oh my god also Renarin and Rlain?!? They are together and it was so incredible and they freed Mishram and shit aahhhhh!

I would love to have coherent thoughts, or vaguely clever thoughts about all the cosmere lore and like reveals but frankly this book drained everything out of me and I am a husk of a person. Fucking immaculate.

Ink, Blood, Sister, Scribe by Emma Törzs
Did not finish book. Stopped at 26%.

I said this was the year of me DNFing shit I wasn't enjoying, and my god is that apparently the vibe of the past couple of weeks holy hell.

I really wanted to like this - books and blood and spooky shit happening in Antarctica - but I just don't care about these characters or what is going on or what is going to happen. I think that Nicholas' stuff is the most interesting which is ironic since he isn't even mentioned anywhere until you get to his first chapter like, 64 pages in. 

The Councillor by E.J. Beaton

4.0

This was absolutely not what I was expecting it to be, shocker. I found it to be both engaging and more predictably uninteresting which feels like a wild combination. The characters and their relationships felt solid, I particularly adored Luca

something about the suave, aggressively competent, villain-coded twink being the most submissive man to exist really hits the spot

and found all the Councillors to be intriguing. But the intrigue of the plot itself fell quite flat. Reveals that didn't feel like reveals at all happening in sequence which made me really lose interest in the plot towards the end

just in time for Luca and Lysande to start more purposefully flirting to pick up the slack

. Genuinely giving this an extra half star because of how much Luca as a character scratches my brain just right, he even has the same name as one of the only DnD characters I ever played through an entire campaign with. Wild!

Overall, I didn't go in with super high expectations and left feeling like this was a decent book which I think I want to like more than I did. Unfortunate. Moira Quirk did a great job with the audiobook though!