The Dragon Has Some Complaints by John Wiswell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think this one was a winner. It's not often you see a crafty disabled dragon learning to trust a human to bring him back to health, join the army, learn some secrets, and help his human get some action. All while having snarky conversations with yourself, or at least your other personalities living in your multiple heads.

It's billed as a cozy fantasy and it definitely is, but it also gears up in the second half of the novel to fighting and dealing with some rather big issues. (Plotwise, if not character-wise.)

All in all, it reads a little annoyingly in the beginning, but once we get into human society, I found it awfully comfortable and amusing. It flows well. And when the jig is up, it's interesting how the changes keep coming.

Definitely worth the read if you want some cozy dragon fiction.

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Ascension by Nicholas Binge
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I want to love this novel simply because it tries to do so damn much. All at once, it tries to be a mystery a-la Vandermeer's Area X, a hard SF a-la Bear's Tangents, a big-scope mind exercise like Reynolds is wont to do, and, interestingly, a thin-air experiment in mountain climbing and time dilation.

It has ALL the elements that I'd classify as a rip-roaring good time. And, for the most part, it pulls it off.

Where I stumbled a little was in the characters' pathos. It should have been fine, honestly, but I was perhaps a bit annoyed with the length of time spend on the past when I just wasn't feeling it. Maybe that's just a me thing, but I found myself wanting more and more of the present and a progression of the plot, or perhaps something really surprising to come along and jar everything loose once again.

It does happen. And I really did enjoy this book, but it still kept it from truly flowing well for me. It was close, however.


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Andy in the Apocalypse 2: A LitRPG Adventure by Plum Parrot
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Pretty standard LitRPG, with the focus on settlement building and early-days threats before a full invasion of Earth.

For all that, it's still enjoyable and an easy read, but I don't expect anything else from Plum Parrot. I'm almost always very satisfied, and this is no different.

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Doomed by Chuck Palahniuk
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is also pretty funny, especially in the growing situation of her afterlife and the meaning behind it. It moves away from the whole "Hey Satan, it's me, Margaret," Bloom meets Dante reference and goes all fate-and-ghost-and-family drama in this one.

And while it isn't all heavily focused on individual zingers like the first, it DOES have some killer situational humor. Real dookies of situational humor. So much so that it's almost Palahniukian in its power.

Oh, wait.

Yep, this is absolutely a Palahniuk. Deliciously dark and evil while being almost or even completely innocent and relatable.

And those rites of the dead? Muahahahahaha



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ONE PIECE 115 by Eiichiro Oda
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Finally getting to the semi-conclusion of the battle of the giants (not just Rocks, but the fantastic viking island of giants, themselves) was just as great as all the spoilers promised.

And the end? Damn it. Imu. Too many questions, never enough answers. And more questions on top of that.

Chopper? Super cola? Loki himself? All of it is just too cool.

I hate having to wait for another volume. ; ;


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Damned by Chuck Palahniuk
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm generally a huge fan of Palahniuk's dark humor, and this book is absolutely in that category.

As for WHAT this is, it kinda subverted my expectations in a great way.

Thirteen year old girl dies of pot overdose. Goes to hell. Yep. Now, if you think that's f**king dumb, just hold my beer. Hell is absolutely overflowing with dumb shit. And wait! For a limited time, you'll get to see what Earth is up to!

Yep. THAT is where your expectations should be. Oh, the great ironies. And great writing, too!

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Omelet Endgame by Dakota Krout
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It feels like a big conclusion because it HAS a huge conclusion.

I mean, by the illustration right on the book, we have it all! The utter and complete defeat of another race of people trying to wipe us out, total annihilation, by the tasting and eating of an omelet.

I personally thought that the illustration was a funny example of just a funny scene in the story, but nooooooooo. It's super important and life-changing. Indeed it is.


The rest of the novel is a decent LitRPG, level-ups by purchases, and making a new soda queen friend. Pretty standard fare. Peanut butter balls or sad doughnuts aside.

Not bad. Sometimes very funny.

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