It's Just Textbook Stuff

Good morning friend. Day off here. I have some photos from yesterday, I thought you might like. You know the coffee I roasted a couple of days ago? This is what it looks like as espresso! Beautiful double shot in my opinion. And delicious! 

The fall colors are really coming on. Here's a tree outside of my apartment. Its beauty was so striking, I had to take a picture for you. 

I took the picture from my phone as I was heading to work in the morning yesterday. Beautiful sunrise. 

This morning I finished a book called The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancy. I read the first book in this series probably a year ago. That one was called The Fifth Wave. Great read, interesting story, ingenuitive way to talk about an alien attack, I really  enjoyed it. I'm worried that The Infinite Sea is just a slightly uninteresting way to bridge the events of The Fifth Wave and the last book in the series. It had engaging ideas and more creative alien attacking ideas. I think that fans of the first book will enjoy this one, but almost in the way someone enjoys fan fiction. Not quite as good as the real thing, but it'll sate a thirst. 

It's also much shorter, only about 2/3 the size of the fist book. Not that a good story can't be told in that time, it's just something I took note of. It feels a bit like the first book in terms of climaxes and rising excitement, all that. However, where the first book rises toward the final climax, this one just sort of ends. All of the story threads are wrapped up, but I think that's part of my problem. Aside from caring about the characters, there's nothing really grabbing my attention in anticipation for the third book. Sure, there's some excitement at the end of the book, but nothing near what I craved. I'm really hoping that it's just the author saving all of the good, tasty bits for the third book. 

I will give this to The Infinite Sea: it filled in a lot of the problems I had with the first book. For instance: why did the aliens bother with the five waves if they had the technology to send an EMP across the world in one fell swoop? It seemed like a whole lot of theatrics, and Rick really explores their motivation for the theatrics. He also adds a couple of cool alien devices that mix up the story, and add to the "humans are so screwed, but we still have hope" feeling that pervades the series. 

I really recommend the first book to anyone who enjoys basic sci-fi. It's a great introduction to sci-fi and post-apocalyptic writing. I might wait until the third book is released to pick up the series, however. Or, you could enjoy the first book on its own - it's well worth reading as a standalone novel. 

I'm also reading through a collection of H. P. Lovecraft's works. Last night I finished his short story, Dagon, which was a frightening read. Not the best thing to be reading at three in the morning when you're trying to sleep. However, it thrust into my mind vivid images of the horrific and strange landscape that the narrator traversed. A quick read, but well worth it. 

Well, I'm off. Until next time, my friend!