Tickets and book reccs :D
First, because I finally feel like I'm not counting my chickens before they've hatched now that the payment has gone through--I booked my flight home for Christmas, YAY! The total price? $340 :DDDDD Oh the lovely power of frequent flyer miles! For anyone who's traveled to Japan at least once and collected 10-15,000 miles on that trip, I STRONGLY recommend looking into using FF miles on your next trip out! From now on I'll be able to continue using those miles plus miles I accumulate via travel to put my total ticket price at about $1000 each time :D (as opposed to the $15-1800 it would otherwise be). WOOHOO!
Now, with that out of the way, I feel like talking about some other things! Instead of studying for the JLPT like I OUGHT to be, I've instead been reading...more gay fantasy XD;; I'm going to be regretting it in one month, but for now, boys!
Flight by Nicki Bennett
Summary: Varan is a runaway slave stranded on a desert planet who's just broken free of his cruel masters and is now wandering, hoping to find freedom in the vast desert. One day, he comes across an injured man--very obviously an alien given the wings he comes equipped with. Though neither speaks the other's language, they band together to hide from the slavers searching for them and form a bond that becomes more.
Pros: ...I love wingfic XD And this was very well written and engaging. As it's told from Varan's point of view, you experience his own confusion and efforts to communicate, which is quite fun. The romance was also quite sweet.
Cons: It's short! Short short short. It's fairly inexpensive for such decent quality, but that's because there's so little of it! You could easily devour this entire tale in an hour, hour and a half tops. Still, it's good enough to make you go and read it all again :D The romance is also a bit rushed it feels, but that's an unfortunate product of being such a short story. Not a deal-breaker though :)
Shadow Hunt by L. M. Prieto
Summary: Peregrine is a rather powerful witch, which is nice, but also the bastard son of a king, which is not so nice--as it saddles him with enemies who seek to claim the throne over him after the old king is murdered. One such enemy summons a demon, Winter, to kill him and pave the way for a coup. Winter, however, isn't really doing this of his own volition and would far rather just return to him homeland than kill Peregrine, especially after he comes to feel a certain fondness for him while hunting him.
Pros: I love me some demons :3 And the "hunt" setup was quite intriguing. The magic used here was very intricate but well explained, not overwhelming like with more high fantasy fare. The writing was of course quite high quality as well, and while the romance wasn't as romantic as one might hope, it was very well handled.
Cons: It was also a bit on the short side (though far longer than the above "Flight"), and I'm a sucker for real romance, which this book was a little short on. Plenty of porn (and it actually had a REASON, as in it fit into the plot of the book, hot damn :D) but less of a schmoopy romance and more a...partnership with romantic overtones and sex and all that good stuff? XD Still enjoyable, just probably not going to hit the spot when you're looking for fluffy romance.
The Nameless God by Emily Veinglory
Summary: Fisk is a simple peasant charged with tending the hog pens on the little scrap of land where he works, until one day he is smacked in the face with a vision from a nameless god telling him that he must journey to a faraway city and save its people from certain destruction as this god's prophet, being the only human who has heard its call. Fisk is quite skeptical at first, but he is joined and aided along his journey by the handsome Protector Knight Levin (who, once assigned a charge, essentially are married to them, vowing to stay with them and protect them for life). Together they must complete the god's assigned tasks to try and save the citizens of the land while growing closer all the time.
Pros: Decent length, an interesting premise, a likeable main character and love interest, and good writing!
Cons: The romance developed a bit too quickly to be all that believable for me (but others may find no such issues), so it was a little hard for me to stay really hooked on the pair, even though they were quite endearing :D Also it ended kind of abruptly (and I'm wondering if there's some sequel I'm supposed to go off and read now?) but not extremely dissatisfyingly so.
And that's it for now! I'm just starting to read Bound (Kria) by Megan Derr which is apparently set in the same universe (but some time in the future) as a previous book she wrote which I suspect I'll want to go read after I finish it XD It's got MULTIPLE pairings (as in, follows 2 separate storylines that will eventually converge, with each line focusing on a different couple) so that's fun :D 2 pairings for the price of one! Also it looks quite long and will hopefully be an enjoyable read! The preview charmed me enough to purchase it, expensive for an e-book though it was.
Iiiiiiin other news, I've rewatched H2H several times now, each as depressing as the last, and am still subbing like a madwoman XD
I've realized that really, neither one of the endings makes me happy :P Both make me stupidly depressed, actually. Amber is sad because Hiiro's dead, Shimura's a psycho wreck, and not even Aoshima gets to be happy. Crystal is sad because Aoshima's dead, so Hiiro can't ever get with him, and Shimura doesn't even exist (if it was confusing, in Crystal, I'm FAIRLY sure the entire bit with Aoshima and Hiiro falling in love but not being able to admit it because of their positions was true, and Aoshima left to pursue other careers. He eventually wrote "Hard to Hold" [the play as we saw it, with the fictional characters of Shimura and Midorikawa and fictional Hiiro's death] and then died somehow [I think it was alcohol poisoning]. Hiiro is still alive and mourns his death at the end while speaking with the two college students). The canon SUCKS for giving a happy ending :P
Which is why I now want to write some sequel to the Crystal ending where Hiiro gets together with the Shimura-lookalike dude :3 Hiiro needs a happy ending somehow, and it's the closest thing that Shimura's going to get to one himself ;____;
I love this show so much, guh ;~;
Now, with that out of the way, I feel like talking about some other things! Instead of studying for the JLPT like I OUGHT to be, I've instead been reading...more gay fantasy XD;; I'm going to be regretting it in one month, but for now, boys!
Flight by Nicki Bennett
Summary: Varan is a runaway slave stranded on a desert planet who's just broken free of his cruel masters and is now wandering, hoping to find freedom in the vast desert. One day, he comes across an injured man--very obviously an alien given the wings he comes equipped with. Though neither speaks the other's language, they band together to hide from the slavers searching for them and form a bond that becomes more.
Pros: ...I love wingfic XD And this was very well written and engaging. As it's told from Varan's point of view, you experience his own confusion and efforts to communicate, which is quite fun. The romance was also quite sweet.
Cons: It's short! Short short short. It's fairly inexpensive for such decent quality, but that's because there's so little of it! You could easily devour this entire tale in an hour, hour and a half tops. Still, it's good enough to make you go and read it all again :D The romance is also a bit rushed it feels, but that's an unfortunate product of being such a short story. Not a deal-breaker though :)
Shadow Hunt by L. M. Prieto
Summary: Peregrine is a rather powerful witch, which is nice, but also the bastard son of a king, which is not so nice--as it saddles him with enemies who seek to claim the throne over him after the old king is murdered. One such enemy summons a demon, Winter, to kill him and pave the way for a coup. Winter, however, isn't really doing this of his own volition and would far rather just return to him homeland than kill Peregrine, especially after he comes to feel a certain fondness for him while hunting him.
Pros: I love me some demons :3 And the "hunt" setup was quite intriguing. The magic used here was very intricate but well explained, not overwhelming like with more high fantasy fare. The writing was of course quite high quality as well, and while the romance wasn't as romantic as one might hope, it was very well handled.
Cons: It was also a bit on the short side (though far longer than the above "Flight"), and I'm a sucker for real romance, which this book was a little short on. Plenty of porn (and it actually had a REASON, as in it fit into the plot of the book, hot damn :D) but less of a schmoopy romance and more a...partnership with romantic overtones and sex and all that good stuff? XD Still enjoyable, just probably not going to hit the spot when you're looking for fluffy romance.
The Nameless God by Emily Veinglory
Summary: Fisk is a simple peasant charged with tending the hog pens on the little scrap of land where he works, until one day he is smacked in the face with a vision from a nameless god telling him that he must journey to a faraway city and save its people from certain destruction as this god's prophet, being the only human who has heard its call. Fisk is quite skeptical at first, but he is joined and aided along his journey by the handsome Protector Knight Levin (who, once assigned a charge, essentially are married to them, vowing to stay with them and protect them for life). Together they must complete the god's assigned tasks to try and save the citizens of the land while growing closer all the time.
Pros: Decent length, an interesting premise, a likeable main character and love interest, and good writing!
Cons: The romance developed a bit too quickly to be all that believable for me (but others may find no such issues), so it was a little hard for me to stay really hooked on the pair, even though they were quite endearing :D Also it ended kind of abruptly (and I'm wondering if there's some sequel I'm supposed to go off and read now?) but not extremely dissatisfyingly so.
And that's it for now! I'm just starting to read Bound (Kria) by Megan Derr which is apparently set in the same universe (but some time in the future) as a previous book she wrote which I suspect I'll want to go read after I finish it XD It's got MULTIPLE pairings (as in, follows 2 separate storylines that will eventually converge, with each line focusing on a different couple) so that's fun :D 2 pairings for the price of one! Also it looks quite long and will hopefully be an enjoyable read! The preview charmed me enough to purchase it, expensive for an e-book though it was.
Iiiiiiin other news, I've rewatched H2H several times now, each as depressing as the last, and am still subbing like a madwoman XD
I've realized that really, neither one of the endings makes me happy :P Both make me stupidly depressed, actually. Amber is sad because Hiiro's dead, Shimura's a psycho wreck, and not even Aoshima gets to be happy. Crystal is sad because Aoshima's dead, so Hiiro can't ever get with him, and Shimura doesn't even exist (if it was confusing, in Crystal, I'm FAIRLY sure the entire bit with Aoshima and Hiiro falling in love but not being able to admit it because of their positions was true, and Aoshima left to pursue other careers. He eventually wrote "Hard to Hold" [the play as we saw it, with the fictional characters of Shimura and Midorikawa and fictional Hiiro's death] and then died somehow [I think it was alcohol poisoning]. Hiiro is still alive and mourns his death at the end while speaking with the two college students). The canon SUCKS for giving a happy ending :P
Which is why I now want to write some sequel to the Crystal ending where Hiiro gets together with the Shimura-lookalike dude :3 Hiiro needs a happy ending somehow, and it's the closest thing that Shimura's going to get to one himself ;____;
I love this show so much, guh ;~;