Brandon's Updates

Brandon is on page 220 of 405 of Revival

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 19:19:13 -0700

Brandon is on page 220 of 405 of Revival.

Brandon is on page 155 of 405 of Revival

Sat, 31 May 2025 10:59:26 -0700

Brandon is on page 155 of 405 of Revival.

Brandon is currently reading 'Revival'

Tue, 27 May 2025 10:40:47 -0700

Brandon is currently reading Revival by Stephen King

Brandon added 'Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: Best of the Best'

Tue, 27 May 2025 01:21:05 -0700

Brandon gave 3 stars to Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: Best of the Best (Ms. Marvel 2006, #1) by Brian Reed
bookshelves: graphic-novels
This book adds an interesting twist to the usual superhero fare. Here we have Ms. Marvel hiring a publicist to boost her star status in the superhero universe. She is tired of being forgotten and unrecognized in a world dominated by Spiderman, Captain America etc. Unfortunately, this concept is soon pushed aside for a more traditional story involving a renegade magician hunting her down before ending with a lead-in to the Civil War storyline. Pity, because there seemed to be a lot of potential in that original idea. Instead, we're given storylines involving a vengeful villain and alien invasion, both of which are too short and come out of nowhere. The stories are fine and put Ms. Marvel in the underserved genre of Sci-fi/fantasy, but I wish they were longer. And the side story involving the publicity machine to improve her celebrity needed to be more developed. This book shows potential, but I'll probably leave the series because it leads into the Civil War event and I found that series to be too convoluted and fractured for my taste.

Brandon started reading 'Junk'

Tue, 27 May 2025 01:15:39 -0700

Brandon started reading Junk by Les Bohem

Brandon wants to read 'Never Flinch'

Tue, 27 May 2025 01:15:05 -0700

Brandon wants to read Never Flinch by Stephen King

Brandon wants to read 'Junk'

Tue, 27 May 2025 01:14:28 -0700

Brandon wants to read Junk by Les Bohem

Brandon wants to read 'Red Sonja & Vampirella Meeet Betty & Veronica Vol. 2'

Fri, 23 May 2025 11:37:24 -0700

Brandon wants to read Red Sonja & Vampirella Meeet Betty & Veronica Vol. 2 by Amy Chu

Brandon added 'The Road'

Mon, 19 May 2025 01:21:03 -0700

Brandon gave 5 stars to The Road (Paperback) by Cormac McCarthy
bookshelves: fiction-favorites, best-reads-2025
The use of a Road as a literary device is an old one. It is often used as a rite of passage and discovery where, at the end of the journey, the protagonist changes, learns something new and becomes a different person because of it. In this book, Cormac McCarthy has decided to ignore that well-trodden path and instead present the reader with an unnamed road full of danger and a faint glimmer of hope. This book is as bleak as it is harrowing, and has a haunting malaise hanging over every page. That is not to say that the book is a downer. Nor am I suggesting that it is enlightening. It may be both of those things to some readers or maybe just one of those things. But to me, it was something else. This is a book that, despite its sci-fi concept, is steeped deep in reality. When the whole world is dying - where do you go? What road do you take? What are you hoping to find when you reach its end? The truth is that as the world ends, survival is all you are concerned with. There is nothing else out there - no future to look to, and no past to put it all in context. You exist until your existence is no more.

The author counters this with a story about a father and son on the road to nowhere. Neither one is named - no characters are named - because names no longer matter. They travel the road heading south, speaking sparingly and scavenging what they can. I sensed a love between these two characters, but it was cold and distant. The dead Earth left little time for affection. The goal was to always keep moving in case the bad guys catch them. The reality was that if they stopped, they would die, and all they had was each other. The sparse writing and brief, impactful paragraphs all added to the sense of danger before them and enhanced the bleakness they faced. The untraditional writing style and stark narrative both added to the melancholy that pervades this novel.

This is a simple but powerful book that will probably affect people in many different ways. It is unique in its ability to describe a bleak world with only the faintest glint of hope, and how it provides villains and horrors with no hero to set things right. There is no longer good or bad or future or hope. There is only the here and now and all the troubles that wait on the road.

Brandon Sholund liked a review

Mon, 19 May 2025 01:14:26 -0700

Brandon liked Jan Philipzig's review of The Road:

"Unthinkable yet just around the corner: the scariest kind of sci-fi nightmare. Dark, gorgeous, understated, visionary, devastating. Sadly, one of my all-time favorites."