Hello again, everyone! Today’s post is another mini book review. I received the last book of this series from NetGalley. So, I bought the rest of the series to get caught up before the last one is published. This is the first of the three I’ll be reviewing this month. Let’s get to it!
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Today’s post is a recap and review of some recent Eternals single-issue stories. I’m not sure why the ongoing series was paused for a bit after issue six in favor of these separate stories, but I’m looking forward to seeing what they are about, especially with the movie so close and the way issue six of the series ended. If you are curious about my thoughts on the first six issues of the current Eternals run, you can find them here.
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Hello, everyone! Today I’m bringing an extra mini review for a book I’ve been waiting to read for what seems like forever. I requested A Marvellous Light months ago on NetGalley and had given up hope of being approved. I was eagerly awaiting getting my hands on it since today was the publication day. Then, last week, I got an email saying I was approved for the eARC. So, of course, I had to drop everything else and read it, and I’m glad I did. Without further ado, here are my thoughts!
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Happy Saturday, everyone! We’ve reached the end of another week. Today I’m going to, once again, wrap up my week, including notes about my personal life, blog posts/book reviews, reading updates, book acquisitions (if any), and comic book acquisitions and reading progress.
It has been a pretty great week. My wife is on vacation, and it has been fun getting to spend more time with her. We haven’t done much but hang around the house, but it has been nice. I wish there was something more exciting to say, but I’ve mostly spent the week watching TV and doing household chores and errands. I have made some progress on my Doctor Who 13th Doctor re-watch, and am excitedly anticipating the premiere of Series 13 tomorrow. I’ve also spent a lot of time getting the treats ready to give out to trick or treaters tomorrow night. We are giving out bags of candy to keep people from digging their hands into a bowl, which requires much more prep work than I initially thought.
I didn’t buy any books again this week! However, I did get approved for two new titles on NetGalley. They won’t be released until next year. So, it’ll be a while before I get around to reading them, but I’m looking forward to both.
Once again, I went to the comic book store this week. So, I have a mix of digital and physical comics. This week was also pretty diverse in what I picked up, but it still heavily included Star wars and Spider-Man.
As for reading comics, I didn’t read much this week. I kept up to date with Star Wars and Spider-Man and read some of the Star Wars Adventures issues. I also read the first book of Catwoman: Lonely City, which was a really great read.
This was a pretty slow reading week for me. I read the fourth volume of The Way of the House Husband. I also read Jade City and started A Marvellous Light. On the bright side, they were all pretty great (at least so far as I haven’t finished A Marvellous Light yet).
This has been another busy week for blog posts and book reviews. I once again managed to post every day this week! My posts from the last week are listed below:
There you have it! Another weekly wrap-up. I love reading wrap-up posts. So, if you’ve got one for this week, please leave a link to it in the comments, and I’ll stop by and check it out.
Hello, everyone. It has been a while since I listened to one of the Big Finish Doctor Who audio dramas. I was excited to listen to this one since it stars both the ninth Doctor, who was back to Doctor Who for the first time since 2005, and the Ravagers, which seem to be making an appearance in the upcoming series. Having finished it, I’m even more excited now for series 13, which premieres on Sunday!
1.1 Sphere of Freedom
On the Sphere of Freedom, the Doctor is about to shut down an evil Immersive Games business empire. He’s assisted by a valiant galley chef called Nova. But his plan spectacularly fails… And who exactly is Audrey?
Mini Review
Eccleston fell back into this role fabulously, and it was like he never left. It was such a joy to have him back as the Doctor. However, the story started out a bit weird with the beginning really being somewhere in the middle, and I didn’t care for how most of the run time was dedicated to telling the story of how the Doctor made it to the point heard in the first track. I did like the new companion, however. She seemed to have quite the personality and will probably be great at keeping the Doctor on his toes. The villain of the episode was pretty obvious early on despite the attempts to make it mysterious, but the way it unfolded did leave me curious about where the story goes from here.
1.2 Cataclysm
Nova is dislocated in time while the Time Eddies are out of control. Meanwhile, the Doctor is about to face the end of the universe. Or is that just the Battle of Waterloo?
Mini Review
I really liked this story. It was action-packed and super timey-wimey with the Doctor crossing his time stream and visiting places all out of order. The story also shed some light on what the Ravagers are, which was very interesting. It had some great Doctor and Nova moments, as well, and I was really loving the two of them together. My only complaint would be that it was hard to follow at times because the story bounced around so much, but it didn’t impede my enjoyment of hearing how the mystery of Audrey and the Ravagers unfolded. The story once again left off on an exciting cliffhangers that made me want to move straight on into part three despite already being up way too late.
1.3 Food Fight
The TARDIS is starting to get a little crowded! Audrey finds herself haunted by a ghostly Doctor.
Mini Review
This story was a pretty good way to wrap up the Ravagers arc. It definitely makes me anticipate seeing them on the show in the new series. It was just as convoluted (AKA timey wimey) as the second story of this arc, but it all came together in an interesting and logical way. I loved the explanation for why Nova knew how to ask the right questions and am looking forward to getting more adventures with her and the ninth Doctor.
A breakthrough in human cloning becomes one woman’s waking nightmare in a mind-bending thriller by the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Gibson Vaughn series.
In the near future, advances in medicine and quantum computing make human cloning a reality. For the wealthy, cheating death is the ultimate luxury. To anticloning militants, it’s an abomination against nature. For young Constance “Con” D’Arcy, who was gifted her own clone by her late aunt, it’s terrifying.
After a routine monthly upload of her consciousness—stored for that inevitable transition—something goes wrong. When Con wakes up in the clinic, it’s eighteen months later. Her recent memories are missing. Her original, she’s told, is dead. If that’s true, what does that make her?
The secrets of Con’s disorienting new life are buried deep. So are those of how and why she died. To uncover the truth, Con is retracing the last days she can recall, crossing paths with a detective who’s just as curious. On the run, she needs someone she can trust. Because only one thing has become clear: Con is being marked for murder—all over again.
This was a twisty, fast-paced sci-fi thriller that I didn’t want to put down. It explored the ethical and moral dilemmas associated with cloning. I enjoyed the way the author framed these discussions about what constitutes personhood and how to ensure the new technology would be used for the good of all and not just the elite. The world-building was also very interesting, and the author’s take on what the political landscape and environment might look like in the near future left me contemplating how we could avoid that future. The writing was simple and easy to read, and the pacing of the story kept ratcheting up the tension at every turn. I loved the character of Constance and getting to see her thoughts as she struggled to come to terms with being a clone. This book kept me guessing for quite a bit, but I did eventually figure out the surprise before it was revealed. The ending felt a little over the top and seemed like the easiest answer to all the mysteries, which is one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to thrillers. Overall, though, I enjoyed the ride, the author’s interesting take on the future, and the ethical and moral implications of the work. Therefore, I rate the book 4 out of 5 stars.
Happy Saturday, everyone! We’ve reached the end of another week. Today I’m going to, once again, wrap up my week, including notes about my personal life, blog posts/book reviews, reading updates, book acquisitions (if any), and comic book acquisitions and reading progress.
This has been a really great week. I’ve been able to get some organizing done and get all of my LEGO collection into one closet with space to spare. I still need to organize my comic book collection and find it a new space to live, but I guess that will be next week’s project. I’ve made some progress on my 13th Doctor re-watch in anticipation of the new season of Doctor Who on October 31. I’ve finished Season 11 and plan to finish watching all of her episodes again before the premiere. I also watched the new Dune movie this week, which I greatly enjoyed. Now I really want to read the book!
I’ve spent a ton of time outside this week, as well. The weather was so nice at the beginning of the week I spent most evenings out on the patio with a fire. I also did some landscaping and put up our outdoor Halloween decorations. If you’d like to see pics of the decorations, be sure to check out my Twitter timeline. Unfortunately, the autumn-like weather hasn’t lasted, and it is now back to being 90 degrees here in Louisiana. But it was nice while it lasted.
Last but not least, today is my wife’s birthday! We will be celebrating for most of the day with family, and I spent some of my time this week getting ready for that and making sure all her gifts are in order.
I didn’t buy any books this week! The Prison Healer finally became available at the library, and I was approved for The Wolf Den by NetGalley. So, even though I broke the book buying ban, this month I’m still set to buy fewer books than the last few months. I consider that a win.
I went to a comic book store for the first time in the last 1.5 years! I switched to digital comics at the beginning of the pandemic and haven’t been back to the store since. I’ve really missed going in there and browsing through stuff. Shopping the digital store just isn’t the same experience. Moving forward, I think I’m going to get some books in a physical format and continue buying others digital, simply for the sake of space. We’ll see how it goes though. I may switch back to all digital if there are production/distribution issues like at the beginning of the pandemic. That is what ultimately made me decide to switch before because it was very hard to make sure I got all the books I want, and I hate having gaps in my physical collection.
As for reading comics, I’ve made lots of progress. I read Sinister War and caught up on Spider-Man. I also finished reading the recent High Republic comics and stayed up to date on the War of the Bounty Hunters. Over the next week, I plan to work on some of the Star Wars Adventures books now that I’m up to date on everything else.
It has been an incredibly eclectic reading week. I finished another manga volume of The Way of the House Husband. I also finished the newest Star Wars book Star Wars: Visions: Ronin. I’m also slowly making my way through the Harry Potter series for the first time. I’m trying to finish it before the end of the year, but the books just keep getting longer and longer. I have been enjoying them a lot, though, and this week I finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I also read a bit of poetry this week and finished Where Darkness Meets Light, which was an interesting collection of poems about mental illness. Finally, I read one of my most anticipated books of the fall, The Bone Shard Emperor.
This has been another busy week for blog posts and book reviews. I managed to post every day this week, and I even posted twice yesterday! My posts from the last week are listed below:
There you have it! Another weekly wrap-up. I love reading wrap-up posts. So, if you’ve got one for this week, please leave a link to it in the comments, and I’ll stop by and check it out.
After the sudden death of his mother and the disappearance of his father, seventeen-year-old immigrant Ezra Newport is assigned to live at Belfast Preparatory School until graduation. The year is 1906, and a growing unrest in the world slowly begins to creep its way into Ireland. Unexpectedly, Ezra stumbles upon a secret society known as the Third Order of the Magi, a group sworn to protect citizens through magical powers granted by their ancestral predecessors. He soon discovers the happenings of his life were never accidental but instead, guiding him toward an existence he never dreamed possible.
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