Book review: Road to Ruin

Sep. 25th, 2025 04:19 pm
rocky41_7: (Default)
[personal profile] rocky41_7 posting in [community profile] booknook
Title: Road to Ruin (Magebike Courier duology #1)
Author: Hana Lee
Genre: Fiction, fantasy, dystopia, post-apocalyptic 

I have a job again! \^o^/ This means I am back on the audiobook train and today I wrapped up Road to Ruin by Hana Lee, book 1 of the Magebike Courier duology. This is a low fantasy dystopian novel located in a place called the Mana Wastes, where protagonist Jin works as a courier transporting goods between protected cities. Jin runs a lot of odd jobs for various clients, but her most lucrative by far are Prince Kadrin and Princess Yi-Nereen. Jin has been ferrying love letters between them for three years--while hiding the fact that she's fallen in love with both of them. But everything changes when Yi-Nereen decides to run away and asks Jin to help her.

First, don't let the hokey title put you off. I started this one a bit warily, but it turned out to be quite a lot of fun! The worldbuilding is pretty light, but the novel seems aware of that and doesn't overpromise on that front. What is there serves its purpose well. It's not anything particularly novel, but not every book needs to be.

Jin, Yi-Nereen, and Kadrin are all wonderful protagonists; each of them has a distinct personality, perspective, and motivations, and I really enjoyed all of them. I was rooting for them the whole book and it was great to watch their various interpersonal dynamics unfold. If you're a fan of stories about mutual pining, this one is definitely worth checking out. However, if that's not really your speed, I didn't feel like the book spent too much time harping on about feelings we all suspect or know are requited. The romance element is definitely there, and it's a significant motivator for all three of them, but there's plenty else going on in the book too. 

The book avoids falling prey either to the Charybdis of black-and-white morality where everyone who stands in the way of the protagonists is evil, or to the Scylla of "everyone is friends if we just talk things out," which is a relief after some recent reads. There's definitely a sliding scale of antagonism here, with some characters who are obstacles but not necessarily bad people, and others who run much darker. 

I also enjoyed the presence of the "Road Builders." Jin and her peers inhabit the Mana Wastes, a treacherous desert wasteland where little survives and almost none of it without human intervention. They sustain themselves with "talent"--magical abilities common among humans, but becoming less common by the day--and travel along ravaged roads built by some culture who came before, about which Jin and her peers know very little. These are the "Road Builders" and are, I believe, strongly hinted at to be us. Lee keeps them a pleasant mystery humming in the background of everything else going on.

There were a couple contrivances near the end to aid a dramatic conclusion, but nothing so egregious I wasn't willing to continue to play ball with the book. Similarly, I'm on the fence about where this book leaves the relationship between the main trio, because it feels a little too much like Lee felt it was a necessary hook into book 2, but I'll reserve judgement until I've actually read book 2. And perhaps it's better that everything doesn't wrap up too neatly here. 

On the whole, I had a lot of fun with this book and I will definitely read the next one.

Do the Happy Dance with us!!!

Sep. 25th, 2025 03:49 pm
susandennis: (Default)
[personal profile] susandennis
Holy shit! HE POOPED IT OUT!!!!!!!!!

Read more... )

I can hardly believe it, I'm so relieved.

celebrity20in20 Round 17

Sep. 25th, 2025 04:45 pm
reeby10: Zachary Quinto and Christ Pine standing next to each other with "xoxox" at the bottom (pinto)
[personal profile] reeby10 posting in [site community profile] dw_community_promo


Link: Round 17 Sign Ups | Round 17 Themes

Description: [community profile] celebrity20in20 is a 20in20 community dedicated to making icons of actors and actresses. You have 20 days to make 20 icons about a celebrity of your choice, based on a set of themes for the round.

Schedule: Round 17 sign ups are open NOW. Icons are due October 13, 2025.

What a weird day

Sep. 24th, 2025 01:47 pm
susandennis: (Default)
[personal profile] susandennis
Biggie is not making this easy. He's eaten his regular meals and peed. And driven me crazy. Lethargic, he is not! I finally took him for a walk down to the elbow. Joan left her door open* when she went out and he kept trying to get in there so finally I convinced him to come home, where he ate more. I canceled the vet appointment. I mean I got no evidence at this point. He hasn't pooped but they did empty out his stomach yesterday and he's not an every day pooper anyway. He's now sitting in the bedroom watching me.

*She leaves it open so she can get back in with her motorized chair.

When he finished eating, he went into the litter box. When he finished, I went in to investigate - no poop - and just then Bonny came in and needed more help and then, when we opened the door to go back to the black box (which she couldn't get open again), there was Hazel who needed notarized signatures.

Bonny had the email address of the guy who has the spreadsheet I am supposed to fill in. I sent him and email telling him I'm ready and now everything is calm again. For a minute anyway.

Holy moly, it's one thing after another.

Check-In Post - Sept 25th 2025

Sep. 25th, 2025 08:20 pm
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[personal profile] badly_knitted posting in [community profile] get_knitted

Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.


This Week's Question (courtesy of [personal profile] ysabetwordsmith): For those of us who do yarn crafts, what kinds of yarn do you prefer working with and why?


If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!



(no subject)

Sep. 25th, 2025 12:45 pm
maju: Clean my kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] maju
Yesterday evening I started looking for a hotel not too far from here to stay in for my final week or so, after the movers have taken everything and I'm cleaning out the house (or getting it cleaned out actually). My daughter won't be arriving until 2nd or 3rd November (she's going to a wedding in Tennessee on 1st November) so I've got a few days after the movers have been before I leave. This is good because it means I can have a move-out clean done while I'm still in the area.

Anyway, even though I know how much hotels cost here ($200 + per night), I was horrified at the prices because in addition to the room charge, it costs $30 per day to park in their lot, no breakfast is included, and in some cases, you have to pay extra to get wifi in your room. And although they might give you a mini fridge, they don't supply a microwave, just a coffee maker. I didn't book anything, and this morning I decided to look for an AirBnB instead and I found one just a couple of miles away which has two bedrooms (so my daughter can join me when she arrives), a full kitchen (so I can feed myself for much less than it would cost to eat out for every meal), wifi, a washer and dryer, and free parking on the premises, all for a total of about $1000. A hotel with associated extra costs would be almost twice that. (I booked it.)

Before I booked the AirBnB I was feeling very anxious, but I started to calm down somewhat after I'd made the booking. I calmed down even more when I'd started packing up my knitting/sewing/crafty stuff. I haven't finished packing up the sewing stuff yet, but I'm well on the way.

One thing that was worrying me was, what if I have to add more things to the inventory I filled out for the movers yesterday? I've remembered a couple more things I should have added but didn't (nothing major, luckily). However, they sent me an email with moving FAQs and somewhere in that email they said it's ok to add things or remove them from your inventory up to three days before the move. I did tell the guy on the phone that my estimate of how many boxes I will have will probably not be completely accurate because I won't know how many I've got until I've packed them, but he says that's ok.

I keep waking up too early which is very annoying. This morning I was awake before 4:30 am I think; more than half an hour before my alarm. I guess one day I'll start sleeping better again!

It had been raining overnight, but when I got up it wasn't raining so around 6:30 am I went for a run. About halfway through it started to drizzle and it wasn't long before it was raining quite persistently. Not fun; I don't like running in the rain. I could have cut my run short when the drizzle started, but I chose to continue to my full planned 6 km/4 miles. At least it wasn't cold, however; the temperature was around 21°C/70°F with about 100% humidity. I ended up dripping my way back into the house when I got home.

Biggie update

Sep. 25th, 2025 08:49 am
susandennis: (Default)
[personal profile] susandennis
Bottom line, still don't know.

He's peed in the litter box. He enthusiastically ate dinner last night and breakfast this morning.

He's usual Biggie, energy wise.

BUT he has not hopped up to get his usual second breakfast. AND he heard when I got the Temptations out and did NOT come running. He finally ate some but not like he usually does.

Now he's chilling in the window. If I had to guess, I'd say he's destined for another surgery. I'm just hoping he shows clear signs before the afternoon gets too long. Or tomorrow morning. Some time when we can get the vet here to do the work.

2025_09_25_08_58_31_0

Flame flickers a soft light

Sep. 25th, 2025 04:11 pm
dolorosa_12: (garden autumn)
[personal profile] dolorosa_12
I had some unclaimed leave that I had to use or lose by the end of September (our annual leave year runs from 1 October-30 September, vaguely in line with the academic calendar), and I elected to use it to give myself two four-day weekends as September drew to a close. I've been doing this job long enough to know that October and November are an absolutely draining slog, and those September four-day weekends are the perfect way in which to gather strength to cope with the new academic year onslaught.

That said, today has mostly been all work, as tends to happen with me when I have a long weekend — I try to front-load all the housework and tedious life admin, so that as the weekend carries on, I have fewer and fewer demands on my time.

However, I did have a small sliver of time, after I got back from swimming at the pool, but before I started making hummus by hand in the food processor for lunch, when I just sat outside on the deck under the yellowing cherry tree, and drank coffee, and ate a slice of spiced pumpkin cake (made by one of my colleagues and transported home yesterday for the occasion), and read my book, and listened to the wind in the silver birch trees next door, and let life stand still for a moment. It was blissful.

Further Adventures and Home...

Sep. 25th, 2025 07:39 am
lydamorehouse: (Default)
[personal profile] lydamorehouse
 I don't know what it is about traveling, but it wears me out.

I've been home since Tuesday (a.k.a. failed rapture day), but today is the first day that I sort of vaguely feel human again. I'm up early, so it seems like a good time to recount the last days in DC for you all. 

Speaking of up early, [personal profile] naomikritzer rarely is. To be fair to her and all the other crepuscular folks out there, I am an unusually early riser. Every day of the convention I popped out of bed without an alarm somewhere around 6:30 am CT/7:30 am ET.  The fact that it was an hour later in DC than at home worked to my advantage because by 7:30 am a lot of coffee shops are actually open. So, just like every day of the convention, I wandered across Rockville Pike to get us both a nice espresso drink. But, on Monday, I was in no hurry to get back because I very wisely made us no plans until noon. 

First of all, I figured that after GoHing at a convention, Naomi would appreciate a slow morning. Secondly, both she and I walked a little too far the night before and woke up feeling it. On occassion, I plan fantasy trips for myself and I'm now going to be giving any directions that include "a twenty minute walk" a bit of a side-eye. I can walk for 20 minutes, but I do start to drag if there are lots of those! I mean, it does kind of matter whether or not the view is interesting. Some 20 minute walks feel faster than others. I had, at least, taped up my arches. My arches have been giving me trouble lately (I've been seeing a PT) so I was prepared and had been doing my exercises, but, man.

DC is funny because a lot of touristy stuff in it is both really centrally located AND really spread out. As that ad reminded us last night, the  Smithsonian Mall is big!

My plan for us that morning was to check out the DC fish market.  Maine Avenue Fish Market is the oldest continually-operating open air fish market in the United States. It was founded almost two decades earlier than the one in New York City, believe it or not. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine_Avenue_Fish_Market).  I will say? It doesn't look like much. 

Maine Avenue Fish Market
Image: fish market, with a haze of... my fingers? Not sure. Pretend it's an old-timey photo, since this was the best one I took.

The market is just off the L'Enfant Plaza metro stop (also on the red line!)  Enough people were headed to the market for lunch that we just sort of followed the crowd down to the wharf area. It is, in fact, little more than you see in the picture (minus my fingers). There's this set of stalls and another set of equal size directly behind. It's one of those places, though, where you can buy your fish or seafood on one side and bring it in a bucket over to the other and they will cook it for you fresh. Naomi bought a handful of shrimp for us to have this way and they were amazing. I ended up wanting something more like a full lunch, so I stopped at the little shop at the end which had prepared (but fresh!) sandwiches. 

crab cake and sweet potato fries
Image: crab cake with sweet potato fries.

I got the crab cake because crab cake is something I used to try to make at home without ever having experienced the "real thing." This was really very good and I will admit that I fed the pigeons, seagulls, and little brown ones (sparrows) bits of fries and hamburger bun. 

We could see the tip of the Washington Monument from the market and so Naomi convinced me (only slightly against my better judgement) that it was an easy "20 minute walk" (now my code word for any walk that I later come to regret) to the Smithsonian Mall. It wasn't bad, really. Washington, DC has a whole lot of really lovely parks along the river. This one had clearly been planted with a ton of cherry trees, many of which had been trained to droop and arch their branches over the walkway. I bet that in the spring, during cherry blossom season, the walk we took would have been absolutely stunning. In late September, it was a little muggy and kind of hot. 

We once again ran into a clot of Naitonal Guard, whom Naomi asked where they were from. Once again, it was West Virginia. She also asked them all what they did when they weren't serving in the Guard and it ranged from "just out of college" to "IT manager." Again, the group was largely white, though at least one person could have qualified as a PoC in my estimation. We wished them a good day, which, I know, was probably a wasted opportunity to yell at them about the current presidential administration, but, frankly, I don't see how being deployed here is their choice. For all I know, the whole lot of them voted for Kamala Harris. I kind of have to wonder at the fact that we rarely saw National Guard anywhere but touristy places (and subway/metro stops) if this wasn't a kind of quiet quitting on their or their commander's part. Like, they weren't actually marching in the streets. They were just boredly wandering the Mall or chatting amongst themselves at metro stops. 

I dunno. I will say, they were carrying guns, so just standing around did also feel threatening? If they were in Minneapolis/St. Paul doing this, I might feel really differently, that's for sure.

These days a lot of the popular Smithsonian museums require that you sign up for timed entrances. Naomi and I debated a lot the night before about how long we thought it would take to get from here to there, and what time would be most conveinent so that we could connect up with our friend [personal profile] mrissa .  We had settled on 3:00 PM for the National Musuem of Africian Amerian History & Culture, which nearly worked out? With our slow wander up from the wharf, it was close to 2:00 PM when we got to the Smithsonian.  We sat for a while in the shade, having bought cold water from the gift shop near the Washington Monument. Even though it was a crap shoot as to whether or not we'd've needed timed tickets, I convinced Naomi to consider wandering the National Museum of Asian Arts as it was directly across the mall, or thereabouts. We lucked out and were able to waste a bit of time in air-conditioning wandering the exhibits. I feel like the National Museum of Asian Arts is one of those museums that could be called "stuff a rich guy brought back from Asia in the late 1800s/early 1900s." Not unlike the Walker's Asian Arts section, honestly? But, it was nice not to have to be sitting in the surprisingly bright sun.  

My feet, at this point, were kind of killing me, but I had a secret plan to solve that once we were inside the Africian American History & Culture museum. Neither Naomi and Marissa like to sit and watch movies at museums, but my plan was to sit through all of them in the back row and massage life back into my feet. Which, once we got in, I totally did. 

I actually came out of that museum feeling almost kind of human again, though when another "20 minute walk" was proposed to get us to the restaurant, I will admit, I baulked and ended up hailing us a taxi cab. 

But, I get ahead of myself. 

The museum is huge. One of the reasons, of course, that the three of us wanted to go (or at least, I wanted to go) is because it is my darkest suspicion that if Trump gets a chance, he will destroy the collection as much as possible. I noticed a lot of people--mostly Black--actually filming everything they saw on their phones. I wonder if there is some kind of community or grassroots effort to collect and preserve the exhibit, particularly the history of enslavement, given just how many people I saw filming.  The musuem as it is set up now has its lower levels devoted to history. Very cleverly, you literally rise up out of slavery, as the story of kdinapping and enslavement starts at the lowest level, C, and you work your way up through the Civil War and Emancipation, B, and end in the Civil Rights to present level, A. Luckily for me and my feet, there was a nice 10 minute movie at the crux of each level (you go up these long ramps to move between eras) and so I watched each of those. 

I suspect I was supposed to do the opposite with the culture sections, ie, start at the top and work my way down? Because the top floor has a lot of physical art, like painting and such; the next level down has what I'd call the art of revolution--so like a lot of art that came out of the sixties and the Civil Rights movement, like this....

famous black power moment at Olympics
Image: statue of the famous moment at the 1968 Olympics when medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in the symbol for Black Power during the National Anthem.

...and then the next level down encouraged people to interact with art by doing a dance-dance revolution type thing to hip hop, etc. It didn't diminish my experience to do it the "wrong" way, but, because the museum closed at 5:30 pm, I sort of wish I'd had more time to explore the art at the very top. Ah well. 

I will say, it was one of the better museums I've been to in a long time. No surprise, I suppose, given that it is a Smithsonian, but I really could have spent the whole day there exploring. 

Marissa wanted to return to a place she'd had dinner at the night before, Oyamel. There is apparently also one of these in New York, but, obviously, we were at the DC location. I was not feeling nearly as adventurous as I normally am, and so I ended up just having a lovely chicken tamale. I absolutely ADORED the atmosphere of the place, however. The three of us sat outside and the evening was fully magical in terms of temperature, the company, and that sense you get when you're traveling that you are having An Experience, you know? 10/10 would again and the next time I would order the cricket tacos. 

The metro was quite close, so we all hopped on and returned to our hotel. 

All and all, it didn't necessarily feel like we did All The Things, but I think we did enough of the things. Oh, and I got to use my superpower of being able to summon a taxi in a world filled with Uber and Lyft in order to get the three of us to the restaurant. It is a superpower that is normally very useless, given that I live in a town where taxis must be called on the phone and appointments made. But, I have rarely failed to catch a taxi any time I'm visiting a large enough city. I've hailed them in Chicago, Los Angeles, and DC. (I was too young to use this superpower when I was last in NYC.) And by hail? I mean, literally, I will be in a street and an available taxi will come by and I will stick my hand out and yell, "TAXI!" and they stop for us. 

Naomi thinks I had a past life as a New Yorker. Because this skill is clearly fairly useless in the modern era. But it is the reason I do not have a Lyft or Uber app on my phone.

So, yeah, there's very little to say about Tuesday other than Naomi and I did discuss the possiblity our pilot getting raptured. Luckily, that did not happen. 

Now, I'm home, returned to the "real world" where dishes must be washed and food prepared. Alas, down to earth once again.

Community Recs Post!

Sep. 25th, 2025 09:55 am
glitteryv: (Default)
[personal profile] glitteryv posting in [community profile] recthething
Every Thursday, we have a community post, just like this one, where you can drop a rec or five in the comments.

This works great if you only have one rec and don't want to make a whole post for it, or if you don't have a DW account, or if you're shy. ;)

(But don't forget: you can deffo make posts of your own seven days a week. ;D!)

So what cool fanart/fics/fancrafts/fanvids/podfics/other kinds of fanworks have we discovered this week? Drop it in the comments below. Anon comment is enabled.

BTW, AI fanworks are not eligible for reccing at recthething. If you aware that a fanwork is AI-generated, please do not rec it here.

Just One Thing (25 September 2025)

Sep. 25th, 2025 01:52 pm
nanila: me (Default)
[personal profile] nanila posting in [community profile] awesomeers
It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!

Community Thursday

Sep. 25th, 2025 05:33 am
vriddy: Studious, smiling Eri (studious)
[personal profile] vriddy
Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.

Over the last week...

Posted & commented on [community profile] getyourwordsout.
mistressofmuses: Image of nebulae in the colors of the bi pride flag: pink, purple, and blue (Default)
[personal profile] mistressofmuses


Moth and moons. Wanted something celestial, because we went out to see stars one night.

This was a pretty good week. We went to a lantern festival (have not gotten around to pictures yet) that was a definite high point. While the week should have been pretty good, it felt a little meh. That may have largely been just state of the world stuff getting to me. I did have some frustration around how difficult I found it to get things done - I had an extra day off, yet just seemed to fall farther behind on things. I did force through and get some things done, but my reading and writing took a hit.

Goals for the week:

  • Friday was Taylor's birthday! <3
  • I did catch up on DW posts
  • I did catch up on DW comments
  • I started to catch up on DW posting
  • I cleaned up the katydid cages
  • I read more of Tidal Creatures
  • I did not work on my reading page
  • I did not work on my WIP
  • We did get a bit of outdoor time
  • I got a very little bit of cleaning in the living room done
  • I did reply to emails
  • I made necessary (annoying, didn't-resolve-it) phone calls
  • I bought us tickets to the lantern festival
  • We went to the lantern festival!
  • I cleaned up the small frog habitat
  • I put my laundry away

Tracked habits:

  • Work - 4/7 - I took Sunday off
  • Household Maintenance - 4/7
  • Physical Activity - 2/7
  • Wrote 500/1000+ Words - 0/7
  • Wrote on 2nd+ Draft - 0/7
  • Meta Work - 3/7
  • Personal Writing - 4/7
  • Other Creative Things - 3/7
  • Reading - 7/7 - Mostly I was reading Tidal Creatures, though I also read a short story called "Swelter", kept up with Dracula Daily, and Alex and I read more Duma Key
  • Attention to Media - 6/7 - Sunday I caught up on some Re: Dracula; Monday we watched a paranormal video; Tuesday we went to see The Long Walk, which I thought was quite good, and had some storm chase in the background; Wednesday we watched a very lousy horror movie called American Horror House, and I listened to a long ep of Re: Dracula; Friday we watched Great British Bake Off and the first three eps of Adolescence; Saturday watched a paranormal video and then news in the background, and I listened to more Re: Dracula.
  • Video Games - 0/7
  • Social Interaction - 4/7

Total words written: 0

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