Tag: Eden Robinson

WWW Wednesday – August 6, 2025

Ryan1 Comment
www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Nothing at the moment! I’m briefly between books.

Recently Finished

Last week, I read through Tomorrows by Brittany Luckham, a book of free-verse poetry that came out earlier this year. The contents explore the author’s personal struggles with mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety, as well as the difficulties that come with being a person with undiagnosed autism. Further poems explore her love for creativity and storytelling. I picked up the book from the library because I’m actually somewhat acquainted with the author; we both frequently attend the same monthly book mixer. As I’ve said many times before, poetry is fairly outside my wheelhouse, but I quite liked this collection; nothing blew me away, but it was an enjoyable reading experience and I was happy to lend a modicum of support by checking it out.

Yesterday I finally finished reading Return of the Trickster by Eden Robinson, the third novel in the Trickster trilogy. I quite enjoyed how this book ramped up the supernatural aspects of the story while integrating them more with the mundane world rather than supplanting it. Despite inhabiting a place of continual fallout from the previous book, it did a good job of still taking its time to slow things down, letting characters catch their breath and try to restore a sense of normalcy to their lives and hold things together, despite the greater sense of imminent danger. The only thing I’m left feeling a little mixed on is the ending. While I enjoyed the climax very well, I wish we had been given a few chapters to debrief on how the characters are and where left off. Instead we are treated to a two-page epilogue that quickly runs down what people get up to long afterwards. It felt somewhat in keeping with some thematic ideas, but I can’t help feeling a little unsatisfied all the same.

Reading Next

Next, I’m going to take care of reading some more comics I got from the library. First up is Medea by Blandine Le Callet and Nancy Peña. Originally published in French, this graphic novel tells of the life of Medea, the notorious and legendary sorceress from Greek mythology. I’m a sucker for interesting-looking adaptations of Greek myth, and while there’s a laundry list of novels I want to check out in that vein that would take a while to get to, it’s decidedly easier to dive right into a graphic novel, so once I saw it on the shelf at the library I decided to take it home with me.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – July 30, 2025

RyanLeave a comment
www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

I’m still chipping away at Return of the Trickster by Eden Robinson, though I took a break from it last week, which I’ll get into. I’m just about 100 pages shy of finishing it, though, so with luck I’ll have it done very soon. I’m still enjoying this final book quite a bit, though it feels at a point of suspense at the moment. While there is a general unrest in Jared’s life due to recent events, it doesn’t feel as if anything is urgently a threat at the moment, yet I can’t help feeling like there’s going to be yet another explosive incident. I wish the stakes were a little more apparent than just waiting for the implication of a threat to become more obvious. Still, it’s an enjoyable period of relative quiet for the character while he tries to get a handle on things. I think I’m rather going to miss reading this trilogy once I’m done with it.

Recently Finished

Last week I decided to hell with my apprehension and started reading Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson in preparation for a monthly book mixer that occurred on Saturday. The theme this month was pirate books, so this was the perfect opportunity to read the pirate book. I almost didn’t make it, but I finished the book in six days, which I’m quite satisfied with. The language was a little antiquated, as expected, which made it a little more challenging, but it was ultimately a rather breezy read. I was surprised by how violent the book ended up being, as I’ve always heard it’s considered children’s literature, with even our child protagonist himself needing to shoot a man in the face in self-defense. The book includes the exact words “I’ll blow your brains out” too, and with how popular and influential it is, I’ve been wondering ever since if that’s the first time that phrase was ever written down.

Reading Next

I’ve got a good handful of library reads lined up, but I haven’t settled on one to start just yet. You’ll have to wait until next week, when I expect I’ll have finished at least one of them.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – July 16, 2025

RyanLeave a comment
www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Yikes, I’m only just realizing how I missed two whole weeks of these. Two weeks ago I just hadn’t felt I had enough to write about, and last week I was vacationing at a cottage. At any rate, there have been a lot of changes in that time. First and foremost, I’ve been reading Return of the Trickster by Eden Robinson, the third novel in the Trickster trilogy. Though I liked the previous book well, I am especially enjoying this one. Trickster Drift slowed things down a bit as Jared struggled with settling into a new place with unfamiliar family and his commitment to sobriety, so there was a subtle atmosphere of suspense, which erupted at the conclusion of that book. This book has continued the trajectory, and I’m really enjoying the domino effect as the fallout continues. I’m only about 120 pages in, which isn’t nothing, but I should be further along since it’s been a couple weeks, I’m just not very good at reading on vacation.

Recently Finished

Likely about three weeks ago now, I finished reading Curses by George Wylesol, a book collecting various surreal comic book works by the author from over the years. Many of them didn’t have much of a narrative to speak of and were very abstract, so my mileage varied a little. The final story involving ghostly possession, prophecy, and the end of the world in a deeply strange town was a lot of fun, though, and I really appreciate this author’s unique visual style that is really unlike anything else I see in comics right now, so I can’t help but be fond of this. I do want to track down another of his books that seems more singularly focused though, as I think I’ll like that more.

This week I read through Ew, It’s Beautiful, the new False Knees comic collection by Joshua Barkman. It’s not really a narrative thing, so I don’t have much to say except I was delighted as usual by the strips, both old and new, and continue to love the art, which is beautifully realistic but somehow just as evocative as a cartoon.

Reading Next

I haven’t quite decided what I’m going to read next. This month’s theme at a monthly book mixer I go to is pirates, so I was thinking of reading Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, but with the pace I’ve been going at this week I’m not sure I can actually get to it in time, as I don’t want to shelve Return of the Trickster to do it. We’ll see where things take me.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – June 25, 2025

RyanLeave a comment
www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Once again, I am between books. Work has been whooping my butt a bit this week so far too.

Recently Finished

Over the past week, finishing on Sunday, I read through all of The Complete Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman, a graphic novel I honestly should’ve read years ago, as it feels like one of the biggest pieces of required reading in the medium. The book details the author’s father’s experiences in Poland leading up to and during World War II and his persecution at the hands of the Nazis. The people are all drawn as anthropomorphic animals (Jewish people are mice, Germans are cats, Polish people are pigs, etc.) in a style reminiscent of newspaper comic strips, but in its abstraction of this heavy subject it manages to be both haunting and full of raw humanity, depicting the horrors of the Holocaust in a way impossible to ignore yet not so grisly as to be an unpalatable reading experience. The frame narrative, depicting Art’s conversations with his father about his experiences during the war, wonderfully complimented the core story as well, making the book not just about history but the rippling effects upon those who endure it.

Reading Next

I have a few things lined up that I want to read through soon. First is Curses by George Wylesol, a book I request for the library back in February that finally arrived recently. Though I still have a bit of time on my loan, somebody else has already reserved it after me, so I want to make sure I read it promptly. I also want to start reading Return of the Trickster by Eden Robinson soon too, but I think I’ll make sure I’m done with Curses first. Lastly, I just got a copy of Ew, It’s Beautiful by Joshua Barkman, the latest collection of False Knees comics, and I’d really like to give it a read-through in the near future as well, especially as I expect it won’t take me very long.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – April 2, 2025

RyanLeave a comment
www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

I’m really close to finishing Trickster Drift by Eden Robinson, the second book in her Trickster trilogy. In fact, I expect I’ll be finishing it later today when I make some time to read. I’ve really been enjoying this book, which hasn’t felt its length at all. Part of me wishes it was a little more plot-driven, but I’m really enjoying its continued focus on Jared figuring his life out and becoming part of a community with his extended family, as well as him embracing the supernatural forces that surround him, despite his best efforts to ignore them. Slowly but surely, they’ve become commonplace for him, despite his resistance, and I’m curious what that’ll mean for him going forward, as so often he is warned about such spirits, but they seem benign and even friendly, at least to him. Things have reached a fever pitch from more human threats where I left off, and I’m eager to see how it all concludes.

Recently Finished

The other day I read Frogcatchers by Jeff Lemire, a graphic novel about a man who wakes up trapped in a surreal hotel. Though I thought there were some really good creative choices made with the illustrations, utilizing colour and sketchy abstraction to signify the difference between reality and dreamlike spaces, I thought the story overall was fairly pedestrian. I certainly don’t regret reading it, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge how its depiction of catching frogs in a creek resonated with me and reminded me of my own childhood, but overall it felt like a sort of story I’ve read/seen many times before. Though it’s Lemire’s own spin on the idea, it all felt too stereotypical and lacked a little something more to elevate it beyond that.

Reading Next

I’ve received my reserved copy of A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers from the library finally, so I expect I’ll be starting that later this week.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – March 26, 2025

Ryan1 Comment
www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Making good on my intentions last week, I started reading Trickster Drift by Eden Robinson, the second novel in the author’s Trickster trilogy. I’m a little over 130 pages in at the moment. Despite it having been nearly three years since I read the first book, it has done a good job of easing me back into where Jared is at in life and the state of his relationships. All the same, I wish it was a little fresher in my mind. Though this is far more magical realism than a typical fantasy, I’m enjoying how this book continues to play with the fantasy trope of secretly having magical parents by having Jared realistically struggle with coming to grips with the otherworldly and sincerely just wanting to get his more mundane life on track. With him striking out on his own more in this book and connecting with extended family he’s never met, I’m curious to see what upheaval might be in store for him.

Recently Finished

Yesterday I read through Berserk Vol. 42 by Studio Gaga with Kōji Mori, the first volume in the series that has not been worked on by creator Kentaro Miura due to his unfortunate passing. Before resolving to wait for this volume, I had tried reading translations online and had worryingly found it to be quite bad. I maintained cautious optimism, however, and decided to just wait for an official publication. I’m happy to report that while it doesn’t feel precisely the same as Miura’s work, this volume was a very worthy continuation, especially in terms of the illustrations, which do not look dramatically different at all. I really liked how this volume finally puts Guts at odds with the reality of his adversary; the methods he’s always relied on simply will not work, at least not conventionally. I’m excited to see how this will develop and eagerly await the next volume. Who knows when that will come.

Reading Next

As it turns out, I have a few library books sitting in the wings waiting for me, so the next few reads will not be from my personal collection. For one, I decided to just go for it and requested Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers, which is currently on its way to my closest library. I’ve been wanting to read it for a while but have balked at the price of it compared to its length, so I think this is the better compromise all around. I also found a random graphic novel at the library which immediately caught my interest, Frogcatcthers by Jeff Lemire, which I will probably read by next week. I really liked Lemire’s graphic novel Essex County and look forward to something a little more surreal.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – March 19, 2025

Ryan1 Comment
www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Nothing at the moment! I am momentarily between books.

Recently Finished

Last week I finished reading Pandora’s Jar by Natalie Haynes, which I’m not surprised I loved until the very end. It really had been a long time since I read any books about Greek mythology, and this was the perfect book for getting back into it. Although I’m now really curious about reading the author’s fiction, another book in a similar vein to this one, Divine Might, recently came out and I really want to read that one now too. I should read A Thousand Ships first, though, since I have a copy. Unsurprisingly, a big takeaway for me has been a newfound appreciation for the roles that women play in Greek mythology, especially in how they are often integral to different heroes’ successes, something that feels often overlooked or downplayed in more modern retellings.

I also read through Godhusk: Rebirth by Plastiboo, another art book in the form of a game guide for a game that never existed. Unlike Vermis, this book takes more of a science fiction approach and presents a game that seems to be very much in the Metroid-style action/adventure genre. Though I love the author’s Vermis books a great deal, I came away from this one desperately wishing that the game it depicts was real. The visual style, clearly inspired by the work of H.R. Giger, made for a captivatingly bleak world full of biomechanical horrors, and the lore was utterly engrossing. Beyond that, the game mechanic of swapping out different limbs of the player character’s “vessel” to augment how the character plays and interacts with the world sounds really cool as an idea. I could vividly imagine how the game would feel playing, so it’s a bit of a bummer that it’s only a work of imagination.

Reading Next

I have decided that I will start reading Trickster Drift by Eden Robinson next, so that I can finally continue the Trickster trilogy after having read the first book nearly three years ago. I really need to stop leaving book series hanging like this.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

Top 5 Books I Read in 2022

Ryan1 Comment

Transitioning to a new year of reading has been going slowly, as it turns out. I’m still trying to finish up my final read from last year (a fact that will keep bothering me at least a little bit), so I haven’t even given myself the chance to start reading anything new for 2023. As my editing workload increased after the end of 2021, I managed to have less and less time to read throughout the year, so I actually read an even smaller number of books than I was expecting. Still, I did manage to finish a decent amount, and as I’ve done the last several years, I’d like to list my five favourite reads from the past year, in no particular order. As is always the case, these are not books that came out in 2022, simply the five books I enjoyed the most.Read More »

WWW Wednesday – July 6, 2022

Ryan2 Comments
www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

The Dictionary of Obscure SorrowsPardon the unusually late post this week, I’ve had a bit of a day. I’ve only made a small amount of progress in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig, but considering this past week as a whole, I’m seeing this as a positive. I’ve actually recorded a new word from what I’ve recently read as well, so I’m not just pulling from a backlog. This week’s word is moledro, “a feeling of resonant connection with an author or artist you’ll never meet, who may have lived centuries ago and thousands of miles away but can still get inside your head and leave behind morsels of their experience, like the little piles of stones left by hikers that mark a hidden path through unfamiliar territory.”

Recently Finished

Son of a TricksterI’m happy to report that I used may available free time more wisely this past weekend and finished reading the last hundred or so pages of Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson. I quite like this book, it has certainly gotten me interested in reading the whole trilogy, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I can’t help having mixed feelings about it. I guess I was expecting the magical elements to expand more meaningfully than they did, but the novel still does something interesting and different with the whole “teen discovers they have a connection to magic” type of story. The ending was actually rather bittersweet/poignant, I’m not sure which best describes how I feel, and it was tied mostly to very grounded, real-world problems. The magic is no longer a secret, but I do have to wonder what the future has in store for Jared, as he doesn’t suddenly have endless possibilities open to him.

Reading Next

Dark Lord of DerkholmRight off the bat, I want to read volume two of Animosity by Marguerite Bennett et al. soon so that I can figure out if I actually want to stick with this series or not. Hopefully I can read that by next week. I’ve also decided, right this moment, that I will read The Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones next. This is the first book in a pair that I have had my eyes on reading for a while, and it has been too long since I’ve read any of Jones’s work. It actually feels criminal how little of her fiction I’ve actually finished. It’s time to change that.

Until next week, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – June 29, 2022

RyanLeave a comment

www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Son of a TricksterStill chipping away at the same books. I feel like I’m so close to finish Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson, all I need is a good window of time to read it. Unfortunately, I have been especially busy since last Wednesday, which hasn’t allowed  me a lot of time for leisure reading, nor the drive to be honest. It has been quite exhausting. I did manage about 20–30 pages, but that isn’t a huge amount of progress in a week. With so little left in the book, seemingly, I must say that it isn’t what I was expecting from a story about a youth discovering a familial connection to a mythical figure. I’m eager to see how things wrap up, but I’m worried a lot of the story will end up amounting to wheel spinning. Perhaps that is the point.

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig has once again been neglected outright, but I do have another word saved for you all anyway; the word this week is manusia, “the ambient feeling of being a human being; a baseline mood that everyone feels intensely every moment of their lives, but can never pin down because they have nothing else to compare it to.”

Recently Finished

Animosity Vol. 1I actually made good on some plans I’ve been talking about all month and read Animosity, Vol. 1: The Wake by Marguerite Bennett et al. It was interesting, to say the least, though I’m afraid I’m not exactly hooked yet. The idea of “the wake” is that, seemingly inexplicably, every other animal on Earth has gained sapience and the ability to speak. As can be expected, a lot of chaos ensues, as many of them don’t appreciate how humanity has treated them. I feel like this first volume was in far too much of a hurry, however, not taking the time to plant its characters in the situation and just let in unfold. In a few spots the art is confusingly laid out too, where I found myself actively baffled by the events unfolding, such as a character within sight seemingly 20 feet away somehow not seeing a fight between to others. If the second volume doesn’t improve, I think that’s going to be it for me and this series.

Reading Next

Once again, I have still not made up my mind on anything new I might want to start. Too much to finish that has hung around all month. I can’t remember the last time I’ve felt this stuck in a rut with some books. Not that I dislike them, but the fact that I’ve genuinely finished neither of them this entire month troubles me. On top of that, I still have a Sleeping Giants review to finish. Ah, what a month.

Until next week, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.