The 100 Novel Review

3.5 out of 5 stars rounded up! This was a lot of fun!

The 100 is one of my favorite tv shows. I've seen it at least three or four times, and I just started a new rewatch because I was looking for some comfort and nostalgia. Honestly it's one of the best sci-fi shows out there. And I enjoyed the first season of the show much more than this book, but it was still fun seeing another take on these characters; like when your teacher in elementary school tells everyone to draw a monster or a tree, so you can see how everybody executes the same ideas differently.

The show and novel were both the idea of an editor at Alloy Entertainment, and each were developed separately, at the same time. It's the same general idea: 100 delinquents are sent to earth from a space station, and must survive the ground and learn its secrets, while back on their station, infrastructure breaks down and things become more and more desperate and menacing.

The novel has its own neat surprises though. I enjoy Luke and Glass who are clearly variants of Finn and Raven, respectively. Octavia is a drug addict in the book, a plot that went to Clarke's mother Abbey in season 6 of the show, and funny enough, in the show it's partially Octavia who helps snap her out of it (although everyone else helps, including Jackson, who doesn't exist in the book.)

The 'criminal delinquents' are much tamer in the book, while the show amps up the Lord of The Flies shit to, well, to 100.

That said, I enjoyed Wells having a much expanded role, the love triangle between Clarke, Wells, and Bellamy, (she only has a platonic relationship with them in the show) and the different vibes on the Ark, which here in the novel is just The Colony.

Easily the best part of the book is Kass Morgan's use of short chapters that end with a barb to keep you hooked. I really enjoyed the threads of tension and glimpses at the backstories of each character, especially Clarke. Glass's past and actions were the most interesting to me and I was always rushing to get to the Clarke and Glass chapters, even though I liked Bellamy and Well's narration enough as well.

I kind of can't wait to read the next one, but it will have to wait, since I have way too many books on the go. That said I'm definitely going to continue this series. I loved this and it felt like high-quality fanfiction. That cliffhanger will kill me until I read the second installment! 

The Impossible

I spent most of the morning rewatching The 100. I'm on episode five so far, but I never get tired of this show. It's distracting me from my brother and sister-in-law's crazy dog Otis who I am babysitting while they're on vacation, and who has way too much energy for me to cope with right now. I try to keep him entertained but he's honestly bored by me and only cares about our dad, who is not going to be home for hours. In the meantime I'm distracting myself by trying to build up some work ethic and get some writing done.

I came up with titles for the next few books in the Divinity series: I already knew books 2 and 3 would be called Atrocity and Calamity respectively, but today I came up with titles for the rest of them. I don't want to share them yet but they're perfect.

Some kind of animal trekked through our yard last night. It had to be something big judging by the size of the prints. I think it was a big cat, like a cougar or lynx. I hope it was a lynx because cougars scare me more. I also hope I never encounter it.

It ran in circles around the thicket outside my window, then went up our back hill into the woods. I really hope it doesn't veer back this way because I don't want it lurking around, but I followed the tracks like a dumb person in a horror movie (I took a metal shovel with me in case I had to take a swing at something, but still)... I have no idea how our ancestors hunted shit like that. No thanks, I'm all good on the killer kitty front.

I spent all day yesterday reading the new run of Buffy comics. It's 34 issues and it's really good. I honestly hope they put out more.

I've only seen a few seasons of Buffy, but I genuinely love it. I never thought Xander would be my favorite character when Buffy is right there, but God, he won me over. He's an amazing guy in this run, at least for most of it, and some of his storylines are heartbreaking. He was a devoted slayer (even though he's not an official slayer, 'cause they're always badass ladies, not gents.)

I also finished Fables. Finally. 151 issues, give or take. I might read the 'Fairest' spin-off soon too, but I want to read the Buffy spinoff 'Angel' first. His comic and Buffy's had a crossover event called Hellmouth that was pretty good, but it's really part of the main Buffy storyline.

If most of this seems like mundane, boring stuff, it's because I was trying to distract myself from the hellscape on the news. Between the pandemic, the war, and all the political stuff going on, I've been so stressed about everything and the constant stream of exposure to bad news hasn't helped, so burying myself in fiction for the last few days is a familiar old coping mechanism. Especially since it's hard to focus on work with my brother's crazy dog running around here anyway, let alone what's going on in the world.

I will say I'm incredibly impressed by folks in Ukraine fighting for their freedom and country, as well as the protestors in Russia standing up to that jackass Putin. Vladdy-boy really thought his warmongering propaganda would work, but I think we're seeing humanity rise to the occasion.

I suppose that's all I've got for now: the world is insane, my house is in disarray and this dog is drooling and shedding everywhere. And a monster is lurking in the woods outside my window. But it's all good, maybe, hopefully.

I'm gonna get back to doing little scraps of editing and outlining work and hope I can pull my shit together, and the world will pull its shit together.

Until then, back to watching The 100 and trying not to get eaten alive by a cougar. Or a lynx.

Procrastination Nation

 Things I did this week that were not writing or editing:

• Replayed Horizon Zero Dawn
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• Cleaned out my wood stove
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• Started 3-4 fires in said stove
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• Watched art vlogs (by ImAWonder and Caro Arevelo)
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• Listened to old music
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• Listened to new music
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• Cleaned my floors
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• Complained about writer's block in my journal
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• Complained about not journaling enough in my journal
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• Wrote this list

And now I'm going to try and actually do some work. I don't know why it's so hard to get things moving. But once they do they usually stay that way for a while, so that's something, right?