So I've been talking a lot about books recently, and I mentioned that I was blogging about my 2015 reading challenge that I didn't complete, but I still have the list from it so I'm gonna talk about it now.
So the goal was 52 books in 52 weeks. I did not accomplish that because I stopped reading my list about half way through the year. But, I'm going to list what the prompt was and the book I had picked for said prompt as well as if I read it or not.
1. Book with more than 500 pages. I had picked Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule. The first book in the Sword of Truth series, and also the book that the short TV series Legend of the Seeker was based on which is what interested me in that book. It was also a book that my brother had so I was able to read it.
2. Classic romance. Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. I don't remember much about this book. But I read it!
3. That became a movie. I had picked Kami Garcia's Beautiful Creatures, but is still on my to-read list. I will get to it...eventually.
4. Published this year. Yeah, I never picked one.......................
5. With a number in the title. Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five was the choice and I did read it. I read it in one day, but only gave it 1 star on GoodReads.
6. Written by someone under 30. Pierce Brown's Red Rising. Which I thought was horrible. Yeah.
7. With nonhuman characters. Silvana De Mari's The Last Dragon, which I didn't get to.
8. A funny book. Apparently Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief was a funny book, but I don't remember much other than I did read it. So....
9. By a female author. Diana Wynne Jones's Howl's Moving Castle was picked but not read.
10. Mystery/thriller. Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was picked but not read.
11. With a one-word title. Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf was picked but not read.
12. Book of short stories. James Finn Garner's Politically Correct Bedtime Stories was picked but not read.
13. Set in a different country. Nicole Hadaway's Release was picked but not read.
14. Nonfiction book. Erik Lawson's The Devil in the White City. When I picked this one, I thought it sounded so interesting but it was dreadful. Just awful and dull and boring and yeah.
15. Popular author's first book. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet was picked but not read.
16. From author you love but haven't read yet. Jodi Picoult's The Storyteller was picked but not read. And I still have not read it.
17. A friend recommended. Rachel Hartman's Seraphina was picked but not read. I don't even remember who recommended it.
18. Pulitzer prize-winning. Jeffrey Eugindes's Middlesex was picked but not read.
19. Based on a true story. Beatrice Sparks's Go Ask Alice was picked but not read.
20. At the bottom of your to-read list. Tina Folsom's Cain's Identity which is book 9 of the Scanguards Vampire Series. Which I'm pretty sure I rearranged my to-read list shortly after but who really cares. It was also one of the first ones I read that year.
21. Your mom loves. I never picked one, mainly because my mom is no longer with us, but I remember some book series that she enjoyed but I never got that far.
22. That scares you. Dan Simmons's The Terror. And I don't know if it scared me or not because it was picked but not read.
23. More than 100 years old. Jack London's White Fang was picked but not read.
24. Based entirely on cover. Nothing was ever picked.
25. Supposed to read in school but didn't. Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita which I did a paper on in college and did pretty well on for not reading it all the way through. Didn't get around to reading it this time either.
26. A memoir. Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love was picked but not read.
27. You can finish in one day. Because I read Old Man and the Sea in one day, I theorized that I could also read Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises in a day. Which I did.
28. With antonyms in the title. Jaime Ford's Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet was picked but not read. I had to google this prompt and that was the only one that sounded interesting.
29. Set somewhere you've always wanted to visit. Again with the Hemingway: A Farewell to Arms however this one was picked but not read.
30. Published the year you were born. Andrzej Sapkowski's The Last Wish, which is the first in the "Witcher" series that the video game is set after. I don't remember much about it.
31. With bad reviews. Believe it or not, but Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray had bad reviews. I enjoyed it but you know, there is always one person who complains about anything.
32. a Trilogy. JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings series was picked but not read. This is why even though there is only 50 prompts, there were 52 books to read.
33. From your childhood. Bruce Coville's Dark Whispers from the Unicorn Chronicles filled this prompt. Since I didn't want to count re-reads, and a lot of the books series from my childhood I had actually finished or couldn't remember where I left off, I went with this one.
34. With a love triangle. Richelle Mead's Storm Born was picked but not read. Since I enjoyed her Vampire Academy series, which also had a love triangle, I figured I would enjoy this one too, but still haven't gotten around to reading it.
35. Set in the future. Veronica Roth's Allegiant filled this prompt. Considering I had read Divergent and Insurgent in 2013, I figured I should finish the series.
36. Set in high school. Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why was picked but not read.
37. With a color in the title. Richelle Mead's The Indigo Spell was picked but not read. I had read the previous two books in the Bloodlines series, but for some reason didn't read this one. I still haven't but I plan on it.
38. That made you cry. Markus Zusak's The Book Thief was picked, but I'm not sure if it made me cry.
39. With magic. L.E. Modesitt, Jr.'s Ordermaster was picked, however I still haven't gotten to it. Oops.
40. Graphic novel. Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis was picked but not read.
41. By an author you've never read before. Rachel Vincent's My Soul to Take was picked but not read.
42. You own but have never read. Nothing was picked for this one. I now have an ample supply of ones I own but have never read.
43. That takes place in your hometown. Coreen Callahan's Fury of Fire (go Seattle!). I did accomplish this one... but haven't read any of the rest of the series. I plan on it. Just haven't yet.
44. Originally written in different language. I took this one a step further and read Antoine de Saint-Exuréy's Le Petit Prince IN FRENCH. I had started reading it Senior year of high school but hadn't finished it and it was one of the first kindle purchases I made but never got around to it until 2015.
45. Set during Christmas. David Baldacci's The Christmas Train was picked but not read.
46. Written by author with your initials. A.D. Miller's Snowdrops was what I picked and if I remember correctly I actually enjoyed this one. However, now that it is three years later I realized that Ann M. Martin, the author of the Baby-Sitters Club series, would have been exact. I counted first and last because not a lot of authors include either their middle name or initial.
47. A play. Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night Dream was picked but not read.
48. Banned book. Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 was picked but not read.
49. Based on or turned into a tv show*. Melissa de la Cruz's Witches of East End, which aired on Lifetime under the same name, was picked but not read. Oops.
50. You started but never finished. Dram Stoker's Dracula was picked but is still not finished.
*I did however, read Bitten and Stolen by Kelley Armstrong which are the first two books in the Women of the Otherworld series, which was turned into the SyFy show Bitten that aired for 3 years. So technically this prompt was filled, but not by what I had picked and was done after I basically called it quits on the reading challenge.
Some of these I am still interested in reading, but as I mentioned previously (at least I think I did), I want to get the books that are physically on my to-read list on GoodReads done before I get to ones that aren't on that list/ before I add more. Some, like the two by Mead and the ones by Modesitt and Goodkind are on my list so I'll get to them at some point.
Monday, November 5, 2018
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Reading Challenge Has Been Completed
So.
Technically, I have read more than the 25 books I set out to read as my Reading Challenge this year, but I do not count rereads towards my number.
I want to break something down for you (if you care; if not: ignore). I'm writing these in the order that they were read, just so you know. The number count is important. Just an FYI.
The first book that I read this year (that counts to my 25 books) is Ice by Skye Jones and is the first in the Dragon Clan book series. It contained 142 pages, and was a kindle freebie. I read this basically in a day, starting it on January 17th and finishing it the 18th. Unless the succeeding books become freebies, may not read.
Kiss of a Dragon by Alisa Woods and is the first in the Fallen Immortals series was another kindle freebie that I actually managed to finish in less than 24 hours on February 17th. 280 pages. Unless the succeeding books become freebies, may not read.
Written in Blood by Anne Bishop and the first in The Others series. This was a borrow from my local library, and was 433 pages. I honestly don't remember what attracted me to this book, but I read it decently fast, starting on February 21st and finishing on the 22nd. This is the series I mentioned previous that I read but was not on my to read list on GoodReads.
Murder of Crows by Anne Bishop and book 2. Same as predecessor, library borrow of 413 pages. Read from February 24th to the 25th. This series has a very naive main character, which can be a bit of a turn off to the more mature audience, but I stuck with it.
The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas, and is the precursor for the Throne of Glass series. It is broken into 5 separate "baby stories" that are set before the Throne of Glass (title of both first book and series) that give stories behind events that are mentioned throughout the series itself. This was a kindle purchase (because Maas is a literary genius), and a 465 page delight. Started on February 25th and finished February 26th.
Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop and book 3. Same as series predecessors, page count of 493. At this point I started having trouble focusing long enough to read books, so it took a little longer. February 27th to March 1st.
Marked in Flesh by Anne Bishop and book 4. Same as series predecessors, page count of 399. Despite a lower page count, took 6 days to read. March 2nd to the 8th.
Etched in Bone by Anne Bishop and book 5. Same as series predecessors, page count of 397. I had made a note in my review when I was done that "that first 40%.....damn. It seemed to crawl slower than a sloth". From March 9th to March 27th I read this book. Obviously I read small chunks at a time, but not even 400 pages and it took me that long? Yeesh. However, there is a 6th book that was released a few months back and while I do plan on reading it, I want to get through some of the books that have been on my to read list longer than a couple of months (considering the 6th isn't even on my list yet).
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard and is book 1 in the series of the same name. I'm pretty sure this was a library borrow, sporting 383 pages. Read from March 28th to April 7th, I noted in my review that to me it seemed to be a cross of Suzanne Collin's Hunger Games series and Pierce Brown's Red Rising series. The former I enjoyed and the latter I did not. This book I placed between the two and (when I finished) removed the second book from my to read list. This book just was not for me, and I actually almost stopped reading it because it seemed to just take too long.
Bound by Blood by Cynthia Eden was a 95 page kindle freebie. It is the first in the series crowned Bound, but unless the succeeding books are freebies as well, I will most likely not read them. Read in less than a day on May 5th, but it was not even 100 pages so I would have been worried with myself if I hadn't. I did however, read this because I got home from work to a power outage and so I read this by candlelight...
Blades of Magic by Terah Edun and is the first book in the Crown Service series. Also a kindle freebie, a 304 page count. Now I had obtained this book around January 21st, but didn't get very far into actually reading it, like less than 10% done. So I restarted it, but didn't mark that date so it says I was reading this one longer than I actually did. Finished on May 5th. Unless the succeeding books become freebies, may not read.
A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas and is considered book 3.1 of the A Court of Thorns and Roses or ACoTaR (because that is a lot of words and also the title of the first book, which I read last year!) series. This is considered a novella, and that's why it's not book 4 of the series. The hardcover version had 229, the kindle had 272 but either way it took less than a day to read, May 8th being the day this time. The actual fourth book in the series is set to be released in 2020 and does not have a title as of yet.
Blood Song by Anthony Ryan and is book one of the Raven's Shadow. I saw the third book in a store, thought it looked/sounded interesting and thought I'd give it a try. I then forgot about it and was pretty excited when I found out my library had all three books. From May 9th to June 24th I was reading this 575 page book. Which had a strong beginning and a strong end but a terribly slow middle. I noted that I will read the following books, but want to read others first if it took me over a month to finish this one.
A Touch of Midnight by Lara Adrian and is considered book 0.5 of the Midnight Breed series. I read a good chunk of the series between 2012 and 2016 (I'm not sure of exact dates). This book is set before the first in the series, but was published after Edge of Dawn which is book 11, and contains 182 pages. A kindle borrow read in one day, June 24th to be exact. I figured since it took place before the events in the book that was technically next in order, I read this one first. I would also like to note that I re-read some of the previous books so that I could remember basic events of the series (because it's similar to another series that I have been reading too).
A Taste of Midnight by Lara Adrian and is considered book 9.5 of the Midnight Breed series, taking place between Deeper Than Midnight which is where I had left off and Darker After Midnight which was next to read. Also a kindle borrow, this one only 70 pages (geez, what's with the short novellas!) Read in one day, June 26th.
Darker After Midnight by Lara Adrian and is book 10 of the Midnight Breed series. A kindle borrow of 384 pages. This one was read from June 27th to June 29th. This one centered on a character I didn't really like, so I'm claiming that as the reason why I didn't read it lickity-split.
Edge of Dawn by Lara Adrian and is book 11 of the Midnight Breed series. Another kindle borrow of 313 pages, I got this late (if I remember correctly) on June 29th, which is when I started it, and finished on June 30th. I didn't immediately read the next in the series because it was loaned to someone else, but I will eventually get to it. In fact I recently re-ordered my to read list and it is higher up on the chain of order than previously.
Scepters by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. and is book 3 of the Corean Chronicles which I have mentioned in previous posts. I would like to mention that I re-read Legacies and Darknesses which are books 1 and 2 of the series so that I remembered what the series was about because I technically started this book in March of 2013. So because I re-read the previous 2 books, I restarted this one too, and was something like 100 pages into it. So I don't have the actual start date but I finished this on August 27th. Because this is a book I'm borrowing from my brother, it wasn't really pressing to read it in a certain amount of time. It did have 738 pages, but you'll see why that is no excuse in a bit. As I mentioned in a previous post, at this time I have no intention of reading the following books but I may change my mind again later.
Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris and is book 13 (and the final) of the Sookie Stackhouse series. A library borrow of 338 pages, I was trying to read Alector's Choice (book 4 of Corean Chronicles) but hardly made a dent so I stopped and picked this one because it was the final book of its series. Now I had watched the show that was a product of this book series first, but I did read the books. The only problem is that I watched/ read the books years ago. Surprisingly, I didn't have trouble following along with everything despite the years long gap and was read in a single day. September 25th.
The Last Hunt by Bruce Coville and is the 4th and final book of the Unicorn Chronicles series. This series is geared more towards middle school ages, which is when I found this series and I read books 1 and 2. I found out that my local library had both 3 and 4 (and 1 and 2, but I didn't really need those...) so when I did the 2015 reading challenge, I read book 3. I basically came to the same decision as with Dead Ever After, that it was the last in the series so it made sense to just get it over and done with. This was a 605 page endeavor, and I really have no excuse as to why it took as long as it did to read, from September 27th to October 9th, other than it kept switching perspective which I'm usually not a fan of it unless it's done well. Also, Cara was my favorite character (for obvious reasons when when you first read the series and you were about the same age as the protagonist) and there was a lot where she isn't in the scene.
Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong and is book 3 of the Women of the Otherworld series. Books 1 and 2 (Bitten and Stolen) were read in 2015 after getting into the tv show that held the same name as the first book. Bitten, if I remember correctly was a freebie purchase (oxymoron right there) and I had some cash to spare so I bought Stolen shortly after. Then life happened and I didn't get any of the following books. This was a kindle borrow, as is the following books in the series. 448 pages and despite not following Elena's perspective, but Paige's (who I didn't like in the show) this one took about a week, October 9th to the 15th. Usually when a series deviates from the original perspective I have trouble especially if the original perspective (read: narrator) was one I adored. However, Armstrong did a much better job with Paige's character than the show so it wasn't too bad.
Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong and is book 4 of the Women of the Otherworld series. 560 pages make up this book, still in the perspective of Paige. This took from October 15th to the 20th to read, some of that was because I had spent almost all day on the 20th out with my brother because he was in town because my birthday was the 17th. Again, I enjoyed this book pretty well, Armstrong doing an amazing job with characterization and execution of the story.
Day Shift by Charlaine Harris and is book 2 of the Midnight, Texas series. Again, I found the show first, which airs on the NBC network. I read the preceding book sometime last year and figured that since the library bought the 3rd book (Night Shift) for kindle loan which I had set up to automatically put me on a waiting list for the book that I should read this one before I received notice that the third book was available for borrowing. Now despite the fact that the show airs on NBC and not HBO like True Blood did, the show was racier than the books (that is to say, I'm enjoying the show more). This 308 page book took from October 20th to October 24th.
Haunted by Kelley Armstrong and is book 6 of the Women of the Otherworld series. This one changes perspective again, shifting to Eve. I'm not going to bore you with how every one is related to everyone, but this 528 page book was done in 4 days. October 24th to the 28th (I had borrowed Day Shift and this one at the same time, it gives you 21 days to read, and since I had both in my borrowed possession before Kingdom of Ash was released, that was my incentive to read them quickly). Which lead me to the big kahuna.
Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas and is book 7 of the Throne of Glass series. This is also the final book. I'm not going to give all the details in case anyone reading my posts are reading this series but haven't gotten to this book yet. Technically, I read this 992 page book in 2 days, October 28th to October 30th. But I worked on the 27th, 28th and 29th, so I wasn't pushing myself to read it because I knew that if I really wanted to, I could have read it in one sitting, but that wouldn't be fair on my coworker because I wouldn't have gotten any sleep from the 27th/28th and I was by myself on the 29th so that would have been a bad idea all around. However, once I got home on the 29th, I sat down and read for about 4.5 to 5 hours to finish the book. I finished this book at around 4:40am, and holy shit. If I hadn't previously though Maas was a literary genius, I would have coined her a literary God. I may still do that, because she wrapped up the story so beautifully. It didn't end how I expected based on foreshadowing she had set up in the previous books, and while there was still sad parts, it had an overall happy ending, for everyone you grew to love. (Maas also did promise that Fleetfoot, Aelin's dog, would survive the series, "the only guaranteed survivor" so she also gets points for that). I did however, cry like 10 times (or more).... but there were also moments that made you laugh so there was at least a semblance of balance between the two emotions.
Ok. So if you took the actual amount of time it took me to read this almost 1000 page book, I read it in about 12/13 hours. Of course I'm estimating, and could be off in either direction, but I can guarantee that if I had the day off of work when I first started reading this book, it would have been done in a day. That is why I mentioned above to notice page numbers. I found the Throne of Glass series in 2016, and pretty much read them as quickly as I could. I'm pretty sure I found them because Throne of Glass had been a freebie because Empire of Storms (book 5) had been recently released. Tower of Dawn (book 6) had been released in November of 2016. I was a little hesitant to read book 6 because it changed perspective and you were tortured with the knowledge of how 5 ended, knowing that 6 ran pretty much concurrently to the events of 5 (the beginning of both 5 and 6 start where 4 leaves off, merging at the end of 5 and 6 respectively, and lead into 7). But I read it, and I am hailing this series as the Best Young Adult Sci-Fi/Fantasy series ever. I don't care what others say.
So now, there are 62 days of the year left, and I'm not going to stop. My actual goal was to read as many books off my to read list as possible, but I set a reasonable goal of 25 books as something to shoot for, because often times if I don't have a set goal in mind I fail to follow through on things.
I started reading Broken which is book 7 in the Women of the Otherworld series this morning (perspective because I haven't gone to bed yet, so October 30th) after I went to bed at like 5am and slept till noon. I am about 54% done and have already borrowed the following book for when I finish this one. At the rate I'm going, I can easily finish this series at least, with six more books in the series (there is a total of 13 books).
I also have, as I mentioned above, Night Shift which is book three of Midnight, Texas series on a wait list (which I'm now #15 of 33 on 4 copies) but I also placed Crave the Night from the Midnight Breed series on hold and I'm #1 of 1 on 2 copies.
I'm not counting my current reading material here, but I have a page count of 9820 for this year, and I'm not even done reading for my "unofficial" official reading challenge. Kingdom of Ash is the biggest book that I've read by far, at least that I remember, beating out Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by 122 pages. I do have some books on my to read list that are longer (books 3, 4, and 5 of A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, the series Game of Thrones is based on) but I haven't read them yet (duh) so they don't count (yet). I do have one that is bigger than HP and the OotP: Stone of Tears which is book two of Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series at 979 pages but that is only a couple pages shorter than KoA.
LET THE READING GAMES, CONTINUE!!!!!!!!!!
Technically, I have read more than the 25 books I set out to read as my Reading Challenge this year, but I do not count rereads towards my number.
I want to break something down for you (if you care; if not: ignore). I'm writing these in the order that they were read, just so you know. The number count is important. Just an FYI.
The first book that I read this year (that counts to my 25 books) is Ice by Skye Jones and is the first in the Dragon Clan book series. It contained 142 pages, and was a kindle freebie. I read this basically in a day, starting it on January 17th and finishing it the 18th. Unless the succeeding books become freebies, may not read.
Kiss of a Dragon by Alisa Woods and is the first in the Fallen Immortals series was another kindle freebie that I actually managed to finish in less than 24 hours on February 17th. 280 pages. Unless the succeeding books become freebies, may not read.
Written in Blood by Anne Bishop and the first in The Others series. This was a borrow from my local library, and was 433 pages. I honestly don't remember what attracted me to this book, but I read it decently fast, starting on February 21st and finishing on the 22nd. This is the series I mentioned previous that I read but was not on my to read list on GoodReads.
Murder of Crows by Anne Bishop and book 2. Same as predecessor, library borrow of 413 pages. Read from February 24th to the 25th. This series has a very naive main character, which can be a bit of a turn off to the more mature audience, but I stuck with it.
The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas, and is the precursor for the Throne of Glass series. It is broken into 5 separate "baby stories" that are set before the Throne of Glass (title of both first book and series) that give stories behind events that are mentioned throughout the series itself. This was a kindle purchase (because Maas is a literary genius), and a 465 page delight. Started on February 25th and finished February 26th.
Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop and book 3. Same as series predecessors, page count of 493. At this point I started having trouble focusing long enough to read books, so it took a little longer. February 27th to March 1st.
Marked in Flesh by Anne Bishop and book 4. Same as series predecessors, page count of 399. Despite a lower page count, took 6 days to read. March 2nd to the 8th.
Etched in Bone by Anne Bishop and book 5. Same as series predecessors, page count of 397. I had made a note in my review when I was done that "that first 40%.....damn. It seemed to crawl slower than a sloth". From March 9th to March 27th I read this book. Obviously I read small chunks at a time, but not even 400 pages and it took me that long? Yeesh. However, there is a 6th book that was released a few months back and while I do plan on reading it, I want to get through some of the books that have been on my to read list longer than a couple of months (considering the 6th isn't even on my list yet).
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard and is book 1 in the series of the same name. I'm pretty sure this was a library borrow, sporting 383 pages. Read from March 28th to April 7th, I noted in my review that to me it seemed to be a cross of Suzanne Collin's Hunger Games series and Pierce Brown's Red Rising series. The former I enjoyed and the latter I did not. This book I placed between the two and (when I finished) removed the second book from my to read list. This book just was not for me, and I actually almost stopped reading it because it seemed to just take too long.
Bound by Blood by Cynthia Eden was a 95 page kindle freebie. It is the first in the series crowned Bound, but unless the succeeding books are freebies as well, I will most likely not read them. Read in less than a day on May 5th, but it was not even 100 pages so I would have been worried with myself if I hadn't. I did however, read this because I got home from work to a power outage and so I read this by candlelight...
Blades of Magic by Terah Edun and is the first book in the Crown Service series. Also a kindle freebie, a 304 page count. Now I had obtained this book around January 21st, but didn't get very far into actually reading it, like less than 10% done. So I restarted it, but didn't mark that date so it says I was reading this one longer than I actually did. Finished on May 5th. Unless the succeeding books become freebies, may not read.
A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas and is considered book 3.1 of the A Court of Thorns and Roses or ACoTaR (because that is a lot of words and also the title of the first book, which I read last year!) series. This is considered a novella, and that's why it's not book 4 of the series. The hardcover version had 229, the kindle had 272 but either way it took less than a day to read, May 8th being the day this time. The actual fourth book in the series is set to be released in 2020 and does not have a title as of yet.
Blood Song by Anthony Ryan and is book one of the Raven's Shadow. I saw the third book in a store, thought it looked/sounded interesting and thought I'd give it a try. I then forgot about it and was pretty excited when I found out my library had all three books. From May 9th to June 24th I was reading this 575 page book. Which had a strong beginning and a strong end but a terribly slow middle. I noted that I will read the following books, but want to read others first if it took me over a month to finish this one.
A Touch of Midnight by Lara Adrian and is considered book 0.5 of the Midnight Breed series. I read a good chunk of the series between 2012 and 2016 (I'm not sure of exact dates). This book is set before the first in the series, but was published after Edge of Dawn which is book 11, and contains 182 pages. A kindle borrow read in one day, June 24th to be exact. I figured since it took place before the events in the book that was technically next in order, I read this one first. I would also like to note that I re-read some of the previous books so that I could remember basic events of the series (because it's similar to another series that I have been reading too).
A Taste of Midnight by Lara Adrian and is considered book 9.5 of the Midnight Breed series, taking place between Deeper Than Midnight which is where I had left off and Darker After Midnight which was next to read. Also a kindle borrow, this one only 70 pages (geez, what's with the short novellas!) Read in one day, June 26th.
Darker After Midnight by Lara Adrian and is book 10 of the Midnight Breed series. A kindle borrow of 384 pages. This one was read from June 27th to June 29th. This one centered on a character I didn't really like, so I'm claiming that as the reason why I didn't read it lickity-split.
Edge of Dawn by Lara Adrian and is book 11 of the Midnight Breed series. Another kindle borrow of 313 pages, I got this late (if I remember correctly) on June 29th, which is when I started it, and finished on June 30th. I didn't immediately read the next in the series because it was loaned to someone else, but I will eventually get to it. In fact I recently re-ordered my to read list and it is higher up on the chain of order than previously.
Scepters by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. and is book 3 of the Corean Chronicles which I have mentioned in previous posts. I would like to mention that I re-read Legacies and Darknesses which are books 1 and 2 of the series so that I remembered what the series was about because I technically started this book in March of 2013. So because I re-read the previous 2 books, I restarted this one too, and was something like 100 pages into it. So I don't have the actual start date but I finished this on August 27th. Because this is a book I'm borrowing from my brother, it wasn't really pressing to read it in a certain amount of time. It did have 738 pages, but you'll see why that is no excuse in a bit. As I mentioned in a previous post, at this time I have no intention of reading the following books but I may change my mind again later.
Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris and is book 13 (and the final) of the Sookie Stackhouse series. A library borrow of 338 pages, I was trying to read Alector's Choice (book 4 of Corean Chronicles) but hardly made a dent so I stopped and picked this one because it was the final book of its series. Now I had watched the show that was a product of this book series first, but I did read the books. The only problem is that I watched/ read the books years ago. Surprisingly, I didn't have trouble following along with everything despite the years long gap and was read in a single day. September 25th.
The Last Hunt by Bruce Coville and is the 4th and final book of the Unicorn Chronicles series. This series is geared more towards middle school ages, which is when I found this series and I read books 1 and 2. I found out that my local library had both 3 and 4 (and 1 and 2, but I didn't really need those...) so when I did the 2015 reading challenge, I read book 3. I basically came to the same decision as with Dead Ever After, that it was the last in the series so it made sense to just get it over and done with. This was a 605 page endeavor, and I really have no excuse as to why it took as long as it did to read, from September 27th to October 9th, other than it kept switching perspective which I'm usually not a fan of it unless it's done well. Also, Cara was my favorite character (for obvious reasons when when you first read the series and you were about the same age as the protagonist) and there was a lot where she isn't in the scene.
Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong and is book 3 of the Women of the Otherworld series. Books 1 and 2 (Bitten and Stolen) were read in 2015 after getting into the tv show that held the same name as the first book. Bitten, if I remember correctly was a freebie purchase (oxymoron right there) and I had some cash to spare so I bought Stolen shortly after. Then life happened and I didn't get any of the following books. This was a kindle borrow, as is the following books in the series. 448 pages and despite not following Elena's perspective, but Paige's (who I didn't like in the show) this one took about a week, October 9th to the 15th. Usually when a series deviates from the original perspective I have trouble especially if the original perspective (read: narrator) was one I adored. However, Armstrong did a much better job with Paige's character than the show so it wasn't too bad.
Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong and is book 4 of the Women of the Otherworld series. 560 pages make up this book, still in the perspective of Paige. This took from October 15th to the 20th to read, some of that was because I had spent almost all day on the 20th out with my brother because he was in town because my birthday was the 17th. Again, I enjoyed this book pretty well, Armstrong doing an amazing job with characterization and execution of the story.
Day Shift by Charlaine Harris and is book 2 of the Midnight, Texas series. Again, I found the show first, which airs on the NBC network. I read the preceding book sometime last year and figured that since the library bought the 3rd book (Night Shift) for kindle loan which I had set up to automatically put me on a waiting list for the book that I should read this one before I received notice that the third book was available for borrowing. Now despite the fact that the show airs on NBC and not HBO like True Blood did, the show was racier than the books (that is to say, I'm enjoying the show more). This 308 page book took from October 20th to October 24th.
Haunted by Kelley Armstrong and is book 6 of the Women of the Otherworld series. This one changes perspective again, shifting to Eve. I'm not going to bore you with how every one is related to everyone, but this 528 page book was done in 4 days. October 24th to the 28th (I had borrowed Day Shift and this one at the same time, it gives you 21 days to read, and since I had both in my borrowed possession before Kingdom of Ash was released, that was my incentive to read them quickly). Which lead me to the big kahuna.
Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas and is book 7 of the Throne of Glass series. This is also the final book. I'm not going to give all the details in case anyone reading my posts are reading this series but haven't gotten to this book yet. Technically, I read this 992 page book in 2 days, October 28th to October 30th. But I worked on the 27th, 28th and 29th, so I wasn't pushing myself to read it because I knew that if I really wanted to, I could have read it in one sitting, but that wouldn't be fair on my coworker because I wouldn't have gotten any sleep from the 27th/28th and I was by myself on the 29th so that would have been a bad idea all around. However, once I got home on the 29th, I sat down and read for about 4.5 to 5 hours to finish the book. I finished this book at around 4:40am, and holy shit. If I hadn't previously though Maas was a literary genius, I would have coined her a literary God. I may still do that, because she wrapped up the story so beautifully. It didn't end how I expected based on foreshadowing she had set up in the previous books, and while there was still sad parts, it had an overall happy ending, for everyone you grew to love. (Maas also did promise that Fleetfoot, Aelin's dog, would survive the series, "the only guaranteed survivor" so she also gets points for that). I did however, cry like 10 times (or more).... but there were also moments that made you laugh so there was at least a semblance of balance between the two emotions.
Ok. So if you took the actual amount of time it took me to read this almost 1000 page book, I read it in about 12/13 hours. Of course I'm estimating, and could be off in either direction, but I can guarantee that if I had the day off of work when I first started reading this book, it would have been done in a day. That is why I mentioned above to notice page numbers. I found the Throne of Glass series in 2016, and pretty much read them as quickly as I could. I'm pretty sure I found them because Throne of Glass had been a freebie because Empire of Storms (book 5) had been recently released. Tower of Dawn (book 6) had been released in November of 2016. I was a little hesitant to read book 6 because it changed perspective and you were tortured with the knowledge of how 5 ended, knowing that 6 ran pretty much concurrently to the events of 5 (the beginning of both 5 and 6 start where 4 leaves off, merging at the end of 5 and 6 respectively, and lead into 7). But I read it, and I am hailing this series as the Best Young Adult Sci-Fi/Fantasy series ever. I don't care what others say.
So now, there are 62 days of the year left, and I'm not going to stop. My actual goal was to read as many books off my to read list as possible, but I set a reasonable goal of 25 books as something to shoot for, because often times if I don't have a set goal in mind I fail to follow through on things.
I started reading Broken which is book 7 in the Women of the Otherworld series this morning (perspective because I haven't gone to bed yet, so October 30th) after I went to bed at like 5am and slept till noon. I am about 54% done and have already borrowed the following book for when I finish this one. At the rate I'm going, I can easily finish this series at least, with six more books in the series (there is a total of 13 books).
I also have, as I mentioned above, Night Shift which is book three of Midnight, Texas series on a wait list (which I'm now #15 of 33 on 4 copies) but I also placed Crave the Night from the Midnight Breed series on hold and I'm #1 of 1 on 2 copies.
I'm not counting my current reading material here, but I have a page count of 9820 for this year, and I'm not even done reading for my "unofficial" official reading challenge. Kingdom of Ash is the biggest book that I've read by far, at least that I remember, beating out Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by 122 pages. I do have some books on my to read list that are longer (books 3, 4, and 5 of A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, the series Game of Thrones is based on) but I haven't read them yet (duh) so they don't count (yet). I do have one that is bigger than HP and the OotP: Stone of Tears which is book two of Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series at 979 pages but that is only a couple pages shorter than KoA.
LET THE READING GAMES, CONTINUE!!!!!!!!!!
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Is this the real life? Just Fantasy?
So something that has become more popular lately is tv shows or movies that were originally books or books series or comics. Prime examples would be anything released by Marvel or DC. But there are some that are smaller scale (perspective in some cases) like Game of Thrones or Harry Potter. So I want to talk a little about books that became a media franchise.
Now the thing with transferring mediums like books to screen is that there is a lot of material to work with and utilize. One of the things as a show writer they have to consider is where to cut content. You will not always be able to completely transfer information and make it work. A scene in the book may take up an entire chapter (which can be anywhere from 2 to I've seen chapters that are 30-some pages long) may only take up about 4 minutes when done for the show or movie. Ultimately, depending on where the writers for the show/movie want that medium to go, they can either scrap the idea as unnecessary or say that it would contradict what they aim to head towards. This is seen more in movies, where they really have to condense the material down into anywhere between an hour and a half to 2.5 hours, because for some reason a 3+ hour long movie is too damn long. With shows there is a little bit more leeway, because you can stretch the arc for a few episodes or even the season if that is the way the writers choose.
The first literary series that became a media franchise (that I'm gonna talk about at least) would be The Vampire Diaries. Originally a book series that the first set, which were books 1 through 4, were released between September of 1991 and 1992. Which means this series is older than I am. Books 5 through 13 were published later, from February 2009 through May 2014. I'm not sure the exact work around, but the CW network got the green light to take this series (by author L.J. Smith) to make into a show. The show, which was franchised under the same name aired its pilot episode on September 10, 2009 and aired its finale on March 10, 2017 after 8 seasons. I read the first four books of the series before then. I'm not sure exactly when, probably around 2007 or 2008, but before the show was set to release. I never got to reading the later books, and I don't intend to, but from what I can remember the early seasons of the show stuck pretty close to the books.
I enjoyed the show when I finally got into it, around 2012-ish, up until the actress playing Elena decided to leave the show. For me, the story revolved around Elena, so without Elena the show was not what I wanted. I could be completely wrong about how true to the books they were, considering I haven't re-read the books and have become more familiar with the show.
The next series I want to talk about is The Southern Vampire Mysteries or The Sookie Stackhouse Novels by Charlaine Harris. The books were released from 2001 to 2013, with a total of 13 books. In 2008, HBO released a show titled True Blood (based on component in the books) that ran until 2014. After the airing of the show, the book series was revamped (see what I did there?) as the True Blood Series to connect the two back. Now having watched the show first, there were moments when I read the book that I had to keep reminding myself that they change stuff when adapting a novel into a movie or a show. Having the show air on HBO meant that they could get away with a bit of a darker edge to the story, because the books where pretty clean in comparison. Like sex scenes. Racy sex scenes. I have read all the books and have seen every episode and will say this: neither is better than the other. They both had their positives and negatives, and in the end the show differed pretty greatly from the books.
I have many examples that I can talk about, I actually pulled information about a lot of them so I could talk about them (I'll list them below) but now I want to switch gears slightly otherwise this post is going to be unbearably long. Not all adaptions are great.
Take The Vampire Academy for example. This book series was released from 2007 to 2010 as a young adult paranormal book. I've read the books, and they actually are pretty good. There is two series that are tangent to them, and I'm working on reading them. In 2014 a movie was released under the same name (with a secondary title of Blood Sisters) that was a box office flop. And I mean that literally. It had a box office profit of $15.4 million which was nowhere close to the budget of $30 million. They did not attempt to make a second movie. I have not watched the movie so I cannot say if they did a good job on it or not, but I have no interest in seeing it....
Another book series that didn't do well as a movie was The Mortal Instruments. The book series written by Cassandra Clare from 2007 to 2014 was turned into a movie in 2013. Named The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (which is the first book of the series) it did slightly better than Vampire Academy. Box office profit of $91 million against a $60 million budget meant that it did make a profit, but not enough to warrant a second movie. However, in 2015 ABC family gained the rights to make the book into a show, which was called Shadowhunters. It has done pretty well, but as per a previous post, when Netflix pulled funding for the show it was cancelled. It still has 12 episodes to air next year (2019) so there is that.
Another book series turn movie turn tv show is A Series of Unfortunate Events. Book series by Lemony Snicket from 1999 to 2006. A total of 13 books that the content doesn't span a large amount of time. The movie, under the same name, was released in 2004 which was an adaption of the first three books. It was successful, but ultimately they didn't continue. However, in 2017 Netflix released the show version of it, with a from the get go a three season order. Season one encompasses books 1 through 4, season 2 encompasses books 5 through 9 and season 3 (which has yet to be released, looking at 2019) which will encompass 10 through 13. This one has been considered very successful, however it is pretty difficult to measure success on something from Netflix, just because of the nature of the streaming service.
Ok. I'm gonna stop there otherwise I'm going to be writing for hours. So the list that I mentioned above:
Harry Potter series (JK Rowling): books from 1997 to 2007; films (under same name as books) from 2001 to 2011.
A Song of Ice and Fire (George RR Martin): books started in 1996, but six and seven are still forthcoming/ no official release date; HBO's Game of Thrones released in 2011 and will end next year.
Midnight, Texas (Charlaine Harris): books released 2014 to 2016; tv show on NBC under same name with second season set to air tomorrow.
The Sword of Truth (Terry Goodkind); first book released in 1994 with the most recent released this year, it made it sound like there was more in the works. A short 2 season show on ABC aired from 2008 to 2010 under the name of Legend of the Seeker.
Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins): book trilogy released 2008 through 2010 was split into four moives (the third book split into two movies) that were released 2012 through 2015.
There were obviously more, but those are ones that I enjoyed, either reading or watching or both. And that is where I'm leaving this post.
Now the thing with transferring mediums like books to screen is that there is a lot of material to work with and utilize. One of the things as a show writer they have to consider is where to cut content. You will not always be able to completely transfer information and make it work. A scene in the book may take up an entire chapter (which can be anywhere from 2 to I've seen chapters that are 30-some pages long) may only take up about 4 minutes when done for the show or movie. Ultimately, depending on where the writers for the show/movie want that medium to go, they can either scrap the idea as unnecessary or say that it would contradict what they aim to head towards. This is seen more in movies, where they really have to condense the material down into anywhere between an hour and a half to 2.5 hours, because for some reason a 3+ hour long movie is too damn long. With shows there is a little bit more leeway, because you can stretch the arc for a few episodes or even the season if that is the way the writers choose.
The first literary series that became a media franchise (that I'm gonna talk about at least) would be The Vampire Diaries. Originally a book series that the first set, which were books 1 through 4, were released between September of 1991 and 1992. Which means this series is older than I am. Books 5 through 13 were published later, from February 2009 through May 2014. I'm not sure the exact work around, but the CW network got the green light to take this series (by author L.J. Smith) to make into a show. The show, which was franchised under the same name aired its pilot episode on September 10, 2009 and aired its finale on March 10, 2017 after 8 seasons. I read the first four books of the series before then. I'm not sure exactly when, probably around 2007 or 2008, but before the show was set to release. I never got to reading the later books, and I don't intend to, but from what I can remember the early seasons of the show stuck pretty close to the books.
I enjoyed the show when I finally got into it, around 2012-ish, up until the actress playing Elena decided to leave the show. For me, the story revolved around Elena, so without Elena the show was not what I wanted. I could be completely wrong about how true to the books they were, considering I haven't re-read the books and have become more familiar with the show.
The next series I want to talk about is The Southern Vampire Mysteries or The Sookie Stackhouse Novels by Charlaine Harris. The books were released from 2001 to 2013, with a total of 13 books. In 2008, HBO released a show titled True Blood (based on component in the books) that ran until 2014. After the airing of the show, the book series was revamped (see what I did there?) as the True Blood Series to connect the two back. Now having watched the show first, there were moments when I read the book that I had to keep reminding myself that they change stuff when adapting a novel into a movie or a show. Having the show air on HBO meant that they could get away with a bit of a darker edge to the story, because the books where pretty clean in comparison. Like sex scenes. Racy sex scenes. I have read all the books and have seen every episode and will say this: neither is better than the other. They both had their positives and negatives, and in the end the show differed pretty greatly from the books.
I have many examples that I can talk about, I actually pulled information about a lot of them so I could talk about them (I'll list them below) but now I want to switch gears slightly otherwise this post is going to be unbearably long. Not all adaptions are great.
Take The Vampire Academy for example. This book series was released from 2007 to 2010 as a young adult paranormal book. I've read the books, and they actually are pretty good. There is two series that are tangent to them, and I'm working on reading them. In 2014 a movie was released under the same name (with a secondary title of Blood Sisters) that was a box office flop. And I mean that literally. It had a box office profit of $15.4 million which was nowhere close to the budget of $30 million. They did not attempt to make a second movie. I have not watched the movie so I cannot say if they did a good job on it or not, but I have no interest in seeing it....
Another book series that didn't do well as a movie was The Mortal Instruments. The book series written by Cassandra Clare from 2007 to 2014 was turned into a movie in 2013. Named The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (which is the first book of the series) it did slightly better than Vampire Academy. Box office profit of $91 million against a $60 million budget meant that it did make a profit, but not enough to warrant a second movie. However, in 2015 ABC family gained the rights to make the book into a show, which was called Shadowhunters. It has done pretty well, but as per a previous post, when Netflix pulled funding for the show it was cancelled. It still has 12 episodes to air next year (2019) so there is that.
Another book series turn movie turn tv show is A Series of Unfortunate Events. Book series by Lemony Snicket from 1999 to 2006. A total of 13 books that the content doesn't span a large amount of time. The movie, under the same name, was released in 2004 which was an adaption of the first three books. It was successful, but ultimately they didn't continue. However, in 2017 Netflix released the show version of it, with a from the get go a three season order. Season one encompasses books 1 through 4, season 2 encompasses books 5 through 9 and season 3 (which has yet to be released, looking at 2019) which will encompass 10 through 13. This one has been considered very successful, however it is pretty difficult to measure success on something from Netflix, just because of the nature of the streaming service.
Ok. I'm gonna stop there otherwise I'm going to be writing for hours. So the list that I mentioned above:
Harry Potter series (JK Rowling): books from 1997 to 2007; films (under same name as books) from 2001 to 2011.
A Song of Ice and Fire (George RR Martin): books started in 1996, but six and seven are still forthcoming/ no official release date; HBO's Game of Thrones released in 2011 and will end next year.
Midnight, Texas (Charlaine Harris): books released 2014 to 2016; tv show on NBC under same name with second season set to air tomorrow.
The Sword of Truth (Terry Goodkind); first book released in 1994 with the most recent released this year, it made it sound like there was more in the works. A short 2 season show on ABC aired from 2008 to 2010 under the name of Legend of the Seeker.
Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins): book trilogy released 2008 through 2010 was split into four moives (the third book split into two movies) that were released 2012 through 2015.
There were obviously more, but those are ones that I enjoyed, either reading or watching or both. And that is where I'm leaving this post.
Monday, October 22, 2018
Reading Challenge.
Early this year, like around February, I noticed that because I had signed up for two email alerts for reduced priced or even free e-books, I had accumulated a collection of books that were often the beginning of a series. Which isn't a problem, one could say that it was the opposite of a problem. But when you have a GoodReads to-read list that reaches almost 100 books, many of which are parts of a series, and those aren't counting the ones I was getting as freebies. So I decided that I would challenge myself to read as many books as I could this year so that I could reduce the number of books on my to-read list. I set a reasonable goal of 25 with the intention to read as many as possible.
I mentioned in the last post about the Corean Chronicles, how I couldn't even get 100 pages into the fourth book, so I let it go for the moment. I deleted the fourth and the four following books from my list. In the time it took me to read the 80 some pages of that book, I have read Dead Ever After (which is book 13 of 13 of the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris), The Last Hunt (Book 4 of 4 in Bruce Coville's Unicorn Chronicles), and Dime Store Magic and Industrial Magic (Book 3 and 4 of 13 in Women of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong) and have started a fifth book: Day Shift which is book 2 in the Midnight, Texas series (also by Charlaine Harris). I'm a little under halfway done with Day Shift, but about 4.5 books in the time it takes to read 80 pages? Yeah, the book was the issue.
Now, I have read 22 of the 25 books for the goal I set, but even with deleting 5 books from the list, I still have 91 books on my two read list. And I still haven't added the freebie books I've accumulated. It also didn't help that I started a books series that wasn't on the to-read list, with another book in the series that got released recently that I haven't read yet.
I have two e-books on loan right now from my library, the already mentioned Day Shift and Haunted which is book 5 in Women of the Otherworld. I have Sarah J. Maas's Kingdom of Ash of the Throne of Glass series on pre-order which gets released tomorrow (writing this on October 22nd). I have Night Shift which is book 3 of the Midnight, Texas series on a waiting list to borrow since it was recently bought by the library for e-book lending (I'm #18 of 36 with a total of four copies) and I figured I should read book 2 before I'm next in line for 3. So I have the two loans till November 9th, Kingdom of Ash gets released tomorrow, and I'll get Night Shift sometimes soon. So that will concludes the 25 book goal. Book 6 in Women of the Otherworld, and the remainder of the series will help lower the to-read list.
I mentioned in the last post about the Corean Chronicles, how I couldn't even get 100 pages into the fourth book, so I let it go for the moment. I deleted the fourth and the four following books from my list. In the time it took me to read the 80 some pages of that book, I have read Dead Ever After (which is book 13 of 13 of the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris), The Last Hunt (Book 4 of 4 in Bruce Coville's Unicorn Chronicles), and Dime Store Magic and Industrial Magic (Book 3 and 4 of 13 in Women of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong) and have started a fifth book: Day Shift which is book 2 in the Midnight, Texas series (also by Charlaine Harris). I'm a little under halfway done with Day Shift, but about 4.5 books in the time it takes to read 80 pages? Yeah, the book was the issue.
Now, I have read 22 of the 25 books for the goal I set, but even with deleting 5 books from the list, I still have 91 books on my two read list. And I still haven't added the freebie books I've accumulated. It also didn't help that I started a books series that wasn't on the to-read list, with another book in the series that got released recently that I haven't read yet.
I have two e-books on loan right now from my library, the already mentioned Day Shift and Haunted which is book 5 in Women of the Otherworld. I have Sarah J. Maas's Kingdom of Ash of the Throne of Glass series on pre-order which gets released tomorrow (writing this on October 22nd). I have Night Shift which is book 3 of the Midnight, Texas series on a waiting list to borrow since it was recently bought by the library for e-book lending (I'm #18 of 36 with a total of four copies) and I figured I should read book 2 before I'm next in line for 3. So I have the two loans till November 9th, Kingdom of Ash gets released tomorrow, and I'll get Night Shift sometimes soon. So that will concludes the 25 book goal. Book 6 in Women of the Otherworld, and the remainder of the series will help lower the to-read list.
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
Things Change.
So two posts ago I said I was gonna do a thing and I've decided after doing it for three weeks, that I really don't want to do the thing. So I deleted the posts pertaining to that idea and I don't plan on doing it going forward. If it interested you (which from what I'm seeing, no one was; I'm talking mainly to myself at this point), sorry.
D.I.F.F.E.R.E.N.T. T.O.P.I.C.
So when my brother still lived with us before moving up near Grand Rapids, I would quite frequently borrow books from him that he had to read. Among those were The Deverry Cycle by Katherine Kerr; The Wayfarer Redemption and The Troy Games by Sara Douglass; The Saga of Recluce, The Corean Chronicles and The Imager Portfolio by L.E. Modesitt Jr.
One good thing about siblings and having similar tastes is you can read their books. Bad news is when they move away you don't have access anymore. For the Corean Chronicles, that was not a problem, because my local library has them. But they don't have the rest of the books except The Wayfarer Redemption series and just book one of another series Douglass wrote.
It had been ages since I had read the first and second books of the Corean Chronicles, so this year I re-read them so that I could familiarize myself with the world in the story (I've had the third book held "hostage" since my brother had moved out). So I borrowed the first two books from the library and read them, then moved onto book three. No big deal. I got through it, took me about a month to do so, but I did it. And then the issue arose. Book four takes you to a time before the first three. It takes you to basically the beginning of the history of the world. I had grown attached to the characters established in the first three books, and so with the sudden reverse, I had the book for a month and a half and hadn't even reached page 80. Modesitt does something similar in The Saga of Recluce but I knew that going in and he did such a wonderful job in that series that it didn't cause a problem. Although he really just jumps around in the history of the world, hence the SAGA OF RECLUCE. Recluce being the world in the story. (I still have to read book 13 of something close to 20 but that's another issue for another day).
I finally returned the book and said that I would try to read it another time, when the character that I had grown to adore wasn't so fresh in my mind. Because I have noticed that I sometimes have trouble continuing a series when it jumps perspectives from someone I've become attached to to someone different. It normally doesn't cause this much trouble, however, for this series it did. I'll talk about one apparent exception later, at some point, if I don't forget.
So for now, ta!
D.I.F.F.E.R.E.N.T. T.O.P.I.C.
So when my brother still lived with us before moving up near Grand Rapids, I would quite frequently borrow books from him that he had to read. Among those were The Deverry Cycle by Katherine Kerr; The Wayfarer Redemption and The Troy Games by Sara Douglass; The Saga of Recluce, The Corean Chronicles and The Imager Portfolio by L.E. Modesitt Jr.
One good thing about siblings and having similar tastes is you can read their books. Bad news is when they move away you don't have access anymore. For the Corean Chronicles, that was not a problem, because my local library has them. But they don't have the rest of the books except The Wayfarer Redemption series and just book one of another series Douglass wrote.
It had been ages since I had read the first and second books of the Corean Chronicles, so this year I re-read them so that I could familiarize myself with the world in the story (I've had the third book held "hostage" since my brother had moved out). So I borrowed the first two books from the library and read them, then moved onto book three. No big deal. I got through it, took me about a month to do so, but I did it. And then the issue arose. Book four takes you to a time before the first three. It takes you to basically the beginning of the history of the world. I had grown attached to the characters established in the first three books, and so with the sudden reverse, I had the book for a month and a half and hadn't even reached page 80. Modesitt does something similar in The Saga of Recluce but I knew that going in and he did such a wonderful job in that series that it didn't cause a problem. Although he really just jumps around in the history of the world, hence the SAGA OF RECLUCE. Recluce being the world in the story. (I still have to read book 13 of something close to 20 but that's another issue for another day).
I finally returned the book and said that I would try to read it another time, when the character that I had grown to adore wasn't so fresh in my mind. Because I have noticed that I sometimes have trouble continuing a series when it jumps perspectives from someone I've become attached to to someone different. It normally doesn't cause this much trouble, however, for this series it did. I'll talk about one apparent exception later, at some point, if I don't forget.
So for now, ta!
Sunday, September 23, 2018
Word Vomit, A Redux.
Alrighty.
Some updates: Wynonna Earp has been renewed for a fourth season on August 21st, and has two more episodes to air of the current season. Game of Thrones had a season 8 premiere set for April 21th, 2019 (I believe that's what it was) but now they are back to saying early 2019. Killjoys just concluded it's fourth season Friday, and will be airing it's series finale season 5 next summer.
Tomorrow, September 24th, sees the return of Fox Network show The Resident which I'm excited for, as well as NBC newbie Manifest (I've also seen it titled as The Manifest but the commercials for it say Manifest).
Onto the Word Vomit, A Redux.
So I've mentioned it here very briefly about shows that have gone on for a while and are losing their potency, in passing about certain shows and how I feel about them. I'm going to expand on that idea a little further before I start doing the thingy I talked about in my last post.
So... Some of the longest running tv shows are as follows (I'm counting ones that have aired during my lifetime, just an FYI):
The Simpsons, Fox Network has aired for 30 seasons, starting in 1989 and still currently airing. I almost didn't include this one because it's an animated show, but it's a good grounding point.
Law & Order (the original one!) started airing in 1990 and ran for 20 seasons, ending in 2010 on NBC.
It's spin-off, Law & Order: SVU (also NBC) has been airing for 20 seasons, starting in 1999 and the 20th season is actually to air soon.
NCIS (CBS) has technically been on the air since 2002, with a two episode back door pilot on the 10 season JAG (CBS), but began officially airing in 2003. Season 16 is set to air soon.
Criminal Minds (CBS) has been on the air since 2005 and will be airing it's 14th season this week, I believe (I'm behind on this show so I haven't been paying attention to air dates, I just started season 9 a few weeks back)
Supernatural, a show I currently watch (CW Network), has also been on the air since 2005 and the 14th season is set to air October 12th.
Why did I feel it necessary to mention those?
1. I have watched a least a few episodes of each of those shows (with the exception of The Simpsons)
2. So I have some points of reference when I continue the line of thought for this post
3. Yeah, that's all I got.
Crime dramas, like both Law & Order series, Criminal Minds, NCIS and it's two spin-offs, they have a longevity due to the nature of the show. Crime is something that will probably go on until the end of the world. Therefore it can be replicated into a tv show super easy, and therefore they will always have new material to work with. Plus as there are real life developments in science and forensics, those shows can adapt and boom, more new material.
However, supernatural element shows, like Supernatural, Charmed (both the original and the reboot), any show that can be classified as Science Fiction (SciFi), they have a more limited pool to pull ideas from. It will get to the point where there is overlap between shows and you'll find they pull mythologies in different directions.
Let's take vampire folklore for example. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, vampires can not stand direct sunlight (although they can be outside in shade and not be affected, but certain times they show them being exhausted by it), but in The Vampire Diaries they have something called Daylight rings that allows them to walk in the sunlight. In True Blood, they don't have Daylight rings, but if they drink Faerie blood they are able to walk in sunlight as long as that blood is in their system. In all three of these, vampires are not seen as brainless beings, like in Van Helsing, but intelligent beings capable of human interaction. In some vampires are known to the public (True Blood), while in others they hide their existence (Buffy and The Vampire Diaries). In The Vampire Diaries as long as the vampire has blood in their system they can stomach human food, in True Blood it will make them violently sick, and in Buffy it just isn't a thing; they avoid situations that would cause the fact that they don't eat to be noticed (although smoking is apparently a different thing).
And that's just with one mythical creature. Fairies (also Faerie, Fae), werewolves, wendigos, witches, zombies, demons, for every mythology that there is out there, there are versions for the creatures that the show can utilize how they see fit. It creates a lot of confusion when you watch multiple shows and have to keep straight how one reacts in each scenario. In one, werewolves may have sensitivity to silver, in others nothing.
But it's not even just the ones that rely on supernatural elements for the story. Superhero shows also have a limited pool to pull their storylines from.
So. Reason I'm bringing up this very long winded post:
Supernatural, Arrow, and The Flash (all CW shows) I feel have long past stayed their welcome. For Supernatural, after fourteen seasons, they just can't keep coming up with a bigger bad that is worse than the previous season big bad. I'll be honest, after the devil, who in most theologies is the worse being to walk the earth, there shouldn't be a bigger bad guy than Lucifer himself! Yet that was the big bad in season 5! The writers have managed to go around that a bit by having a world ending crisis in loo of a big bad, but they are still trying to one-up previous seasons. I honestly feel (and I've mentioned this previously) that they are grasping for straws so the network can milk the show for all it can before they cancel it. There will get to a point where they either contradiction previous season so horribly, or they will have to kill off the main characters (FOR GOOD THIS TIME) and do a soft reboot like ABC's Once Upon a Time did and hope it holds. I'm not holding out for the second because they tried to do a spin-off (Wayward Sisters) that held no traction.
In Arrow, like I mentioned previously, they wrapped up the Lian Yu storyline which was a major factor in the first four seasons. They did flashbacks to show the "missing" time for Oliver before his return to Starling City (later Star City) and as explanations for why this playboy who had no sense of responsibility suddenly can shoot a bow and arrow, can disarm bombs (I think he disarms a bomb at one point...) and fight like a master. But then they stopped doing flashbacks (because you can only stretch 5 years so far and make it realistic) and started focusing on the next step, but there is only so far you can go beyond that with something of this nature.
In The Flash, there is just a remarkable about of "Rinse, Repeat". The first season: Barry Allen is the fastest man alive, but wait a minute! No he isn't. He works on it, reclaims that title and beats the bad guy for the season. Season two: Barry Allen is the fastest man alive, but gotcha! No he isn't . He works on it, reclaims that title and beats the bad guy for the season. Season three: Barry Allen is the fastest man alive, but hold on! No he isn't. He.................do I really have to continue? They have followed the same story line for the past four seasons. Season 5 is set to air October 9th and I have my fingers crossed that they don't repeat the same thing, again. Yes, Barry Allen learns new things about his powers in the process, they do have some plot points for "secondary, supporting characters" but again, there is only so much you can do with this. Because at some point the character is going to deal with shit that causes them not to be able to continue down the path they are: a life-threatening illness or injury, no one being stupid enough to go up against some one who has saved the city countless times (regardless of how long it took them to defeat the bad guy). I read somewhere for starting writers that the main character shouldn't always be able to defeat the bad guy, that they should struggle and have things that they can't come back from. And The Flash writers are not following that advice. I would, personally, also like to see more from Caitlin Snow and Cisco Ramon. The writers kinda shot Iris West-Allen (she marries Barry in the fourth season) in the foot by making her very unlikable.
So very long story short (and also not what I wanted to talk about but I got sidetracked and ranted): is that sometimes long running shows don't deserve the long running status. They should be allowed to live a short life and be cancelled before large portions of the fans start to detest the show. The fans should be able to say that they were happy with where the story went and how it ended, not that it should have ended at this point and not five, six, seven seasons later.
Some updates: Wynonna Earp has been renewed for a fourth season on August 21st, and has two more episodes to air of the current season. Game of Thrones had a season 8 premiere set for April 21th, 2019 (I believe that's what it was) but now they are back to saying early 2019. Killjoys just concluded it's fourth season Friday, and will be airing it's series finale season 5 next summer.
Tomorrow, September 24th, sees the return of Fox Network show The Resident which I'm excited for, as well as NBC newbie Manifest (I've also seen it titled as The Manifest but the commercials for it say Manifest).
Onto the Word Vomit, A Redux.
So I've mentioned it here very briefly about shows that have gone on for a while and are losing their potency, in passing about certain shows and how I feel about them. I'm going to expand on that idea a little further before I start doing the thingy I talked about in my last post.
So... Some of the longest running tv shows are as follows (I'm counting ones that have aired during my lifetime, just an FYI):
The Simpsons, Fox Network has aired for 30 seasons, starting in 1989 and still currently airing. I almost didn't include this one because it's an animated show, but it's a good grounding point.
Law & Order (the original one!) started airing in 1990 and ran for 20 seasons, ending in 2010 on NBC.
It's spin-off, Law & Order: SVU (also NBC) has been airing for 20 seasons, starting in 1999 and the 20th season is actually to air soon.
NCIS (CBS) has technically been on the air since 2002, with a two episode back door pilot on the 10 season JAG (CBS), but began officially airing in 2003. Season 16 is set to air soon.
Criminal Minds (CBS) has been on the air since 2005 and will be airing it's 14th season this week, I believe (I'm behind on this show so I haven't been paying attention to air dates, I just started season 9 a few weeks back)
Supernatural, a show I currently watch (CW Network), has also been on the air since 2005 and the 14th season is set to air October 12th.
Why did I feel it necessary to mention those?
1. I have watched a least a few episodes of each of those shows (with the exception of The Simpsons)
2. So I have some points of reference when I continue the line of thought for this post
3. Yeah, that's all I got.
Crime dramas, like both Law & Order series, Criminal Minds, NCIS and it's two spin-offs, they have a longevity due to the nature of the show. Crime is something that will probably go on until the end of the world. Therefore it can be replicated into a tv show super easy, and therefore they will always have new material to work with. Plus as there are real life developments in science and forensics, those shows can adapt and boom, more new material.
However, supernatural element shows, like Supernatural, Charmed (both the original and the reboot), any show that can be classified as Science Fiction (SciFi), they have a more limited pool to pull ideas from. It will get to the point where there is overlap between shows and you'll find they pull mythologies in different directions.
Let's take vampire folklore for example. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, vampires can not stand direct sunlight (although they can be outside in shade and not be affected, but certain times they show them being exhausted by it), but in The Vampire Diaries they have something called Daylight rings that allows them to walk in the sunlight. In True Blood, they don't have Daylight rings, but if they drink Faerie blood they are able to walk in sunlight as long as that blood is in their system. In all three of these, vampires are not seen as brainless beings, like in Van Helsing, but intelligent beings capable of human interaction. In some vampires are known to the public (True Blood), while in others they hide their existence (Buffy and The Vampire Diaries). In The Vampire Diaries as long as the vampire has blood in their system they can stomach human food, in True Blood it will make them violently sick, and in Buffy it just isn't a thing; they avoid situations that would cause the fact that they don't eat to be noticed (although smoking is apparently a different thing).
And that's just with one mythical creature. Fairies (also Faerie, Fae), werewolves, wendigos, witches, zombies, demons, for every mythology that there is out there, there are versions for the creatures that the show can utilize how they see fit. It creates a lot of confusion when you watch multiple shows and have to keep straight how one reacts in each scenario. In one, werewolves may have sensitivity to silver, in others nothing.
But it's not even just the ones that rely on supernatural elements for the story. Superhero shows also have a limited pool to pull their storylines from.
So. Reason I'm bringing up this very long winded post:
Supernatural, Arrow, and The Flash (all CW shows) I feel have long past stayed their welcome. For Supernatural, after fourteen seasons, they just can't keep coming up with a bigger bad that is worse than the previous season big bad. I'll be honest, after the devil, who in most theologies is the worse being to walk the earth, there shouldn't be a bigger bad guy than Lucifer himself! Yet that was the big bad in season 5! The writers have managed to go around that a bit by having a world ending crisis in loo of a big bad, but they are still trying to one-up previous seasons. I honestly feel (and I've mentioned this previously) that they are grasping for straws so the network can milk the show for all it can before they cancel it. There will get to a point where they either contradiction previous season so horribly, or they will have to kill off the main characters (FOR GOOD THIS TIME) and do a soft reboot like ABC's Once Upon a Time did and hope it holds. I'm not holding out for the second because they tried to do a spin-off (Wayward Sisters) that held no traction.
In Arrow, like I mentioned previously, they wrapped up the Lian Yu storyline which was a major factor in the first four seasons. They did flashbacks to show the "missing" time for Oliver before his return to Starling City (later Star City) and as explanations for why this playboy who had no sense of responsibility suddenly can shoot a bow and arrow, can disarm bombs (I think he disarms a bomb at one point...) and fight like a master. But then they stopped doing flashbacks (because you can only stretch 5 years so far and make it realistic) and started focusing on the next step, but there is only so far you can go beyond that with something of this nature.
In The Flash, there is just a remarkable about of "Rinse, Repeat". The first season: Barry Allen is the fastest man alive, but wait a minute! No he isn't. He works on it, reclaims that title and beats the bad guy for the season. Season two: Barry Allen is the fastest man alive, but gotcha! No he isn't . He works on it, reclaims that title and beats the bad guy for the season. Season three: Barry Allen is the fastest man alive, but hold on! No he isn't. He.................do I really have to continue? They have followed the same story line for the past four seasons. Season 5 is set to air October 9th and I have my fingers crossed that they don't repeat the same thing, again. Yes, Barry Allen learns new things about his powers in the process, they do have some plot points for "secondary, supporting characters" but again, there is only so much you can do with this. Because at some point the character is going to deal with shit that causes them not to be able to continue down the path they are: a life-threatening illness or injury, no one being stupid enough to go up against some one who has saved the city countless times (regardless of how long it took them to defeat the bad guy). I read somewhere for starting writers that the main character shouldn't always be able to defeat the bad guy, that they should struggle and have things that they can't come back from. And The Flash writers are not following that advice. I would, personally, also like to see more from Caitlin Snow and Cisco Ramon. The writers kinda shot Iris West-Allen (she marries Barry in the fourth season) in the foot by making her very unlikable.
So very long story short (and also not what I wanted to talk about but I got sidetracked and ranted): is that sometimes long running shows don't deserve the long running status. They should be allowed to live a short life and be cancelled before large portions of the fans start to detest the show. The fans should be able to say that they were happy with where the story went and how it ended, not that it should have ended at this point and not five, six, seven seasons later.
Sunday, September 2, 2018
Plan of Attack....
So. Because I really have nothing better to do, this fall I plan on (and will attempt to follow through with, we'll see how this goes) writing a weekly post about the shows that I watch and a reaction to the episode, without giving any spoilers. I may do it differently, but I will attempt to at least post once a week (if I follow that idea it will be on Saturdays).
To give you an idea of what I will be posting about (and so you don't have to look at my older posts (not that there are many at this point) I will list for you the ones that will be airing during the Fall 2018 season, many of which will be continuing through to what is considered the Winter 2019 season (usually April or May 2019). I already know that some are going to have shorter seasons and therefore most likely will not continue past December, and I have two shows in particular that won't start until the New Year, but I will make a note of those when appropriate.
Without further ado, the Fall 2018 season shows that I will be watching.
Sunday
Staying at the 8 o'clock hour but moving to Sundays, Supergirl (CW network) makes it's season four debut October 14th. I felt that this show held it's own for it's third season, but like the other shows that air on the CW, it may tank this season or may be stronger than previous.
Monday
Since Supergirl moved to Sunday, the CW show Arrow will be taking the 8 o'clock spot. The season seven debut is October 15th. I felt that this show was losing it's potential, and pretty quickly. The writers wrapped up the whole Lian Yu story line a few seasons ago, and the story to me just fell flat. It has gotten to be repetitive and quite frankly: boring. I will try to stick with this one, but this show may just join a short list of shows that I've abandoned because it just wasn't enjoyable any more.
Airing concurrently to that, on the Fox network is returning show The Resident. While the first season was short--only 13 episodes-- I have not seen how many this second season, set to debut September 24th, is expected to have. All I know is that they have a lot of potential coming off a strong first season, this medical drama has amazing actors in the spotlight and a lot of room for growth.
In the 9pm slot is another CW hit Legends of Tomorrow. Season four debuts October 22nd, so quite a bit later than the other CW shows, this show is expected to only have 16 episodes, dropping 2 from last season. It could be an indication of a couple of things (in my opinion): a) that the show isn't going to be around much longer or b)that they are keeping the seasons short so they have more flexibility with the story writing. Or c) they just like making this short so they have more air time for other shows.
New to air in the 10pm slot on NBC is Manifest. Set to debut also on September 24th, this new drama is about a flight that disappeared, only to reappear five years later to everyone but those on the plane. To those on the flight, it was only the time of the flight. It is bringing Josh Dallas from Once Upon a Time (ABC, which ended it's final season back in April), so I'm pretty excited about that, but also the premise behind it just sounds interesting. We'll see on this one!
(In case you haven't noticed, Monday is going to be pretty packed.)
Tuesday
Airing at 8pm is the CW show The Flash. Returning for its season five on October 9th, I'm not really sure that this will be one that I continue. Much like Arrow, which this show is a branch off of, I just feel like the story line is repetitive and that there is not much that they can do differently. It's gotten to the point were you can easily guess what is going to happen. And to a degree that's a good thing. But when you can guess pretty much what is going to happen when you weren't really paying attention.... yeah.
Also airing at 8pm, but not until sometime in 2019, is the Freeform supershow Shadowhunters. Which sadly will be airing the final 12 episodes of the third season, which was deemed the final season because Netflix pulled it's funding of the show (which I am still very bitter about). They released sometime in the past two days the titles for the final two episodes, which are "Alliance" and "All Good Things..." and I may have teared up a bit upon reading that. Freeform however, has not released exact dates for when the final episodes will air, but I will update that info when I happen upon it. I also fully expect to cry when the finale actually airs.
Wednesday
I do have one show airing at 9pm on Wednesday, The Magicians on the SyFy network, but again this one will not air until sometime in 2019. If it follows suit with the third season, it will air from January to April with 13 episodes, but even the number of episodes hasn't been confirmed to the public yet (at least that I've seen). So more on that when I have more information.
Thursday
Airing at 8pm on the CW, is returning Supernatural. Once my favorite show, this milk cow of a show is airing its fourteenth (FOURTEENTH) season starting October 11th. Recapping previous posts of mine, this show has been airing since 2005, and I feel like they've done all they can with the show, but because they can market the crap out of it, they keep renewing the show even though the initial brain behind the story felt the natural end to it was season 5. This one may also join the short list of shows that I've stopped watching if they continue on the way they have.
Airing at 9pm on the SyFy network is returning show Van Helsing. However, this show does not have a definitive start date as of the time I'm writing this (which is 11pm on Sept. 2nd). It was confirmed however, that the third season will contain 13 episodes. I will keep you updated as I find out more.
Friday
Airing at 8pm on NBC is returning champ Blindspot. Its fourth season debut is scheduled for October 12th, but they haven't released much information about it that I can find (not that I'm looking very hard but still...). I felt that the third season had a bit of a rocky start, but they recovered well and I look forward to the upcoming season.
Airing at 9pm also on NBC is sophomore show Midnight, Texas. Based on a book series by Charlaine Harris (the brain behind the Sookie Stackhouse novels, which HBO's True Blood was based on), this show originally aired during the Summer of 2017 but was moved to the Fall schedule with a debut of October 26th. So I'm hoping that means the season will be longer than the 10 episode first season, but I haven't found anything that gives an expected episode count for the second season.
That is it for those types of shows. If you recall from earlier posts, there were two more shows that I was on the lookout for, TNT drama Good Behavior and WGN's Bellevue. Both of which were neither confirmed for a renewal or for cancellation. However, unless I hear something about either one, they are most likely going to be swept under the rug by their respective networks.
I do have two Netflix shows that I will be looking out for, Marvel's Jessica Jones and A Series of Unfortunate Events. However both of those will most likely not be out until sometime next year.
ABC's Marvel's Agents of SHIELD will not return until July 2019 for a shorter season, but I will update on that as I learn more about it.
So until then, TA!
Edit on 9/16/18:
The SyFy network finally announced that Van Helsing will air on Friday nights at 10pm starting October 5th. However, they have not released the episode title or anything else as of 9/16.
To give you an idea of what I will be posting about (and so you don't have to look at my older posts (not that there are many at this point) I will list for you the ones that will be airing during the Fall 2018 season, many of which will be continuing through to what is considered the Winter 2019 season (usually April or May 2019). I already know that some are going to have shorter seasons and therefore most likely will not continue past December, and I have two shows in particular that won't start until the New Year, but I will make a note of those when appropriate.
Without further ado, the Fall 2018 season shows that I will be watching.
Sunday
Staying at the 8 o'clock hour but moving to Sundays, Supergirl (CW network) makes it's season four debut October 14th. I felt that this show held it's own for it's third season, but like the other shows that air on the CW, it may tank this season or may be stronger than previous.
Monday
Since Supergirl moved to Sunday, the CW show Arrow will be taking the 8 o'clock spot. The season seven debut is October 15th. I felt that this show was losing it's potential, and pretty quickly. The writers wrapped up the whole Lian Yu story line a few seasons ago, and the story to me just fell flat. It has gotten to be repetitive and quite frankly: boring. I will try to stick with this one, but this show may just join a short list of shows that I've abandoned because it just wasn't enjoyable any more.
Airing concurrently to that, on the Fox network is returning show The Resident. While the first season was short--only 13 episodes-- I have not seen how many this second season, set to debut September 24th, is expected to have. All I know is that they have a lot of potential coming off a strong first season, this medical drama has amazing actors in the spotlight and a lot of room for growth.
In the 9pm slot is another CW hit Legends of Tomorrow. Season four debuts October 22nd, so quite a bit later than the other CW shows, this show is expected to only have 16 episodes, dropping 2 from last season. It could be an indication of a couple of things (in my opinion): a) that the show isn't going to be around much longer or b)that they are keeping the seasons short so they have more flexibility with the story writing. Or c) they just like making this short so they have more air time for other shows.
New to air in the 10pm slot on NBC is Manifest. Set to debut also on September 24th, this new drama is about a flight that disappeared, only to reappear five years later to everyone but those on the plane. To those on the flight, it was only the time of the flight. It is bringing Josh Dallas from Once Upon a Time (ABC, which ended it's final season back in April), so I'm pretty excited about that, but also the premise behind it just sounds interesting. We'll see on this one!
(In case you haven't noticed, Monday is going to be pretty packed.)
Tuesday
Airing at 8pm is the CW show The Flash. Returning for its season five on October 9th, I'm not really sure that this will be one that I continue. Much like Arrow, which this show is a branch off of, I just feel like the story line is repetitive and that there is not much that they can do differently. It's gotten to the point were you can easily guess what is going to happen. And to a degree that's a good thing. But when you can guess pretty much what is going to happen when you weren't really paying attention.... yeah.
Also airing at 8pm, but not until sometime in 2019, is the Freeform supershow Shadowhunters. Which sadly will be airing the final 12 episodes of the third season, which was deemed the final season because Netflix pulled it's funding of the show (which I am still very bitter about). They released sometime in the past two days the titles for the final two episodes, which are "Alliance" and "All Good Things..." and I may have teared up a bit upon reading that. Freeform however, has not released exact dates for when the final episodes will air, but I will update that info when I happen upon it. I also fully expect to cry when the finale actually airs.
Wednesday
I do have one show airing at 9pm on Wednesday, The Magicians on the SyFy network, but again this one will not air until sometime in 2019. If it follows suit with the third season, it will air from January to April with 13 episodes, but even the number of episodes hasn't been confirmed to the public yet (at least that I've seen). So more on that when I have more information.
Thursday
Airing at 8pm on the CW, is returning Supernatural. Once my favorite show, this milk cow of a show is airing its fourteenth (FOURTEENTH) season starting October 11th. Recapping previous posts of mine, this show has been airing since 2005, and I feel like they've done all they can with the show, but because they can market the crap out of it, they keep renewing the show even though the initial brain behind the story felt the natural end to it was season 5. This one may also join the short list of shows that I've stopped watching if they continue on the way they have.
Airing at 9pm on the SyFy network is returning show Van Helsing. However, this show does not have a definitive start date as of the time I'm writing this (which is 11pm on Sept. 2nd). It was confirmed however, that the third season will contain 13 episodes. I will keep you updated as I find out more.
Friday
Airing at 8pm on NBC is returning champ Blindspot. Its fourth season debut is scheduled for October 12th, but they haven't released much information about it that I can find (not that I'm looking very hard but still...). I felt that the third season had a bit of a rocky start, but they recovered well and I look forward to the upcoming season.
Airing at 9pm also on NBC is sophomore show Midnight, Texas. Based on a book series by Charlaine Harris (the brain behind the Sookie Stackhouse novels, which HBO's True Blood was based on), this show originally aired during the Summer of 2017 but was moved to the Fall schedule with a debut of October 26th. So I'm hoping that means the season will be longer than the 10 episode first season, but I haven't found anything that gives an expected episode count for the second season.
That is it for those types of shows. If you recall from earlier posts, there were two more shows that I was on the lookout for, TNT drama Good Behavior and WGN's Bellevue. Both of which were neither confirmed for a renewal or for cancellation. However, unless I hear something about either one, they are most likely going to be swept under the rug by their respective networks.
I do have two Netflix shows that I will be looking out for, Marvel's Jessica Jones and A Series of Unfortunate Events. However both of those will most likely not be out until sometime next year.
ABC's Marvel's Agents of SHIELD will not return until July 2019 for a shorter season, but I will update on that as I learn more about it.
So until then, TA!
Edit on 9/16/18:
The SyFy network finally announced that Van Helsing will air on Friday nights at 10pm starting October 5th. However, they have not released the episode title or anything else as of 9/16.
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