HOLY CRAP.

That was amazing.

I don't even have the words right now!

I was expecting something slightly more funny and less serious, but How to Survive a Robot Uprising tackles the upcoming robot-apocalypse describing different types of robots that will bring our demise. It is easily portable and fits in a pocket, gives tips about escaping a smart house and if anything, made me aware of all the possible thing that can kill me.

Quick read, not as funny as I expected it to be though, and I'm afraid that in the event of a robot-apocalypse most of the information might be out-dated.

Happy Friday!

 

These are my reads for the upcoming weekend. 

 

I am about 100 pages into The Sunne in Splendour. Penman hits the ground running and hooks  you. I was holding my breath during Sandal Castle and thought, why do I not read more of this woman's books? So good.

 

The Clockwork Dynasty is a Netgalley read about mechanical beings that exist undetected among us... but actually takes place in 1725 Russia - I'm botching the blurb but it's different enough to be intriguing.

 

Getting dressers for post- wedding apartment and saying goodbye to my little brother who will be moving across the country on Monday. So emotional weekend ahead.

 

What are your weekend plans?

 

Happy reading!

 

 

I got a feeling this was going to be "that kind of book" from the first few sentences. "That kind of book" being a dudebro book where all the women are barely there and everything is death, shooting and violence with next to no character development. Any development there is involves hurting people, insults, or other displays of machoism.

This is indeed that kind of book. There are only three women at the end of the book. The other disappear or die. The three left over are "fragile pretty" prize that Cormac gets at the end of the book. Mathilda which is the female sidekick that you get in video games that tells you your mission. Doesn't actually DO anything nor have any agency, she is just there to keep the plot moving. The last one is a humanoid robot named Michiko. She looks human, the only robot to look human and be gendered female. The rest of the robots are "brothers" and male.
All the black people are either dead or disappeared by the end of the book. They do not help the final push to save the world. Other POC fade off or are mostly killed off. The white edgelord bro gets his moment of glory before dying while the other are killed off in gory ways. There's even a scene where some Osage people leave a Cherokee kid in the middle of some woods swarming with robot to "make him a man". Note the author is a Cherokee citizen. The way the Nomura is portrayed is like a typical weeaboo would do. Japanese peppered through out his passages. "Akuma" which is akin to demon/devil, Senshi which is warrior/soldier, "Anata" which is darling and endearing term for "you". Then 'defense' is spelled exactly like how people who scream "waifu" would say it. "Defensu". It's English, you can make the note that it's English.
It's no wonder that Archos wanted to kill everyone. If this is what humans are going to do and how they write really, they deserve death. Humans are only capable of violence and death.
Also it should be mentioned that men are either called by their name or are called "human/the human". You can guess what women are referred to. "females/the female" . One woman gets a scar and is called "pretty" by the author. It's rather telling how little the women are given any agency past "the female". One senator dies the noble heroic death where she "runs out of stamina to climb a fence" and makes the sacrifice to save her children. Plenty of shitty scenes like that.
As for the book itself, it reads like a bad B movie with scenes of gore being described, guns, things blowing up people dying. You can probably pick any B movie and you'd get the same feel for the story.
Honestly that Ibis book I read had more nuance with the characters, even if all the women were just sad male sexual fantasies. The Izanami book even had a woman that *gasp* was a major player. This book is just sad and pitiful.

While I'm seriously behind on my reviews, my reading and listening did not suffer too much this month.  (I've been preparing an Open House for this weekend)  The titles with links have reviews, the ones without are still pending.

 

(Audiobook) Death and the Girl Next Door by Darynda Jones
Finish Date: 05/04
2.8/5 STARS

(eBook) Nil on Fire by Lynne Matson
Finish Date: 05/09
4/5 STARS

(Audiobook) Of Metal and Wishes by Sarah Fine
Finish Date: 05/10
4/5 STARS

(Audiobook) A Million Worlds with You by Claudia Gray
Finish Date: 05/17
4.2/5 STARS

(netgalley arc) The Clockwork Dynasty by Daniel H. Wilson
Finish Date: 05/19
3.8/5 STARS

(Audiobook) Fairest by Marissa Meyer 
Finish Date: 05/21
4.3/5 STARS

(eBook) Unrest by Wendy Higgins
Finish Date: 05/24
5/5 STARS


(Audiobook) Hunted by Meagan Spooner
Finish Date: 05/26
3.7/5 STARS

 

(netgalley arc) The Weight of Lies by Emily Carpenter

Finish Date:  05/29

4.8/5 STARS

 

(Audiobook) Jackaby by William Ritter

Finish Date:  05/31

2.8/5 STARS

 

10 Books Total for May (3,428 Pages Read)

6 Audiobooks, 2 eBooks, and 2 Netgalley ARC's

and 1 DNF.  (Of Beast and Beauty, (that one I still might try again, just ebook form instead, the hoopla audio for it was terrible.)