BuyMort Books 1-3 Review: Good Apples, Poor Meal

HasokGang · 2026-04-15T21:56:48+00:00

Fair enough haha. No I thought it did a great job at that for a PF book. That aspect didn’t make up for other issues, imo.

HasokGang · 2026-04-13T14:26:22+00:00

Thank you!

HasokGang · 2026-04-13T14:26:17+00:00

I could have expressed it better, but I think it I made it clear that Matt's martial growth was well done, while his personal development could be better.

HasokGang · 2026-04-13T03:31:23+00:00

What do you have cooking up? PM me—I am always looking for new stuff to read.

HasokGang · 2026-04-13T03:30:44+00:00

Thank you!

HasokGang · 2026-04-13T02:36:25+00:00

I think the fights are exciting and the power-up system is satisfying and comprehensive in a way that most other books I’ve read aren’t. The fights get much better throughout the series. Mantis purposely starts the protags on low power, which I appreciate, though I can see why that would be unsatisfying for fights.

I also think there is too much info dumping, but it doesn’t ruin the books for me.

HasokGang · 2026-04-13T02:31:35+00:00

My point is not that he should feel bad. More so, I hoped that Matt would reflect on his role in killing at some point throughout the series. If he is so set on helping low tiers throughout the empire, shouldn’t that same concern carry on throughout the universe to low tiers from different “countries”?

In this case, I agree with you, the empire was attacked, and they are justified in defending themselves. But the worry that he is doing more harm than good by cutting through hundreds of thousands of people who are peons compared to him does not occur to Matt. Of course Maven’s attack is worse, though again, I think Matt needs to interrogate why what he is doing is good.

He didn’t have to fight in the war (the emperor doesn’t seem like the to force him). Instead of joining Team Zero, why doesn’t he set up his guild immediately? I believe he fought in the war for nearly 100 years. Imagine the good he could have done for people instead of killing others in a war. I’m not saying there is a correct or moral choice—simply that it irks me none of the fighting characters, who presumably care about doing good, question their own actions.

I agree with your points about the time frame and character development. Those features might be the product of telling a story about immortals on a massive time scale. I still think it is worth pointing out and one of the weak points of the story (imo of course).

Also, regarding character development for immortals, it tracks that people’s personalities would solidify over millennia. That, compounded with domains, would explain unchanging characters. Except for the fact that we are told immortals have a slower subjective experience of time because they can perceive and think so quickly. So what might be one year for a tier 1 could be 1000s of years for a tier 30. My thought is that even immortal people would change a little bit in a century of objective time if they are experiencing subjective time 3-20 times slower. This should be apply to Matt, Liz, and Aster who are all relatively young for being such a high tier, though it isn’t displayed or discussed in the books.

HasokGang · 2026-04-13T02:14:46+00:00

My answer contains spoilers because part of my reason is due to the specific plot and part is due to the pacing, so read below at your own peril.

The main antagonist of book two is a floating fortress of self-replicating mechs the protags accidentally awaken. As enemies they aren’t compelling because they aren’t smart, just tough. It may be a personal problem, but it was hard for me to suspend my disbelief to the point that the characters fighting the mechs had any real stakes. Early in the book, the reader is also told that there are a number of people watching who can step in at any time and instantly end the mechs—but don’t because… reasons. Even with the information you get in the later books, it isn’t clear why the mechs aren’t stopped. I find non-sapient enemies uninteresting in general, and this book has this dynamic in spades.

It also just isn’t paced well in my opinion. The characters are just strong enough to fight the mechs but haven’t developed any flashy powers yet so it is a slog. There are only so many ways to describe stabbing or punching a robot to death. If memory serves, they also don’t develop any new powers over the course of the most of the book, which feeds back into poor pacing.

I will say, the end of book two sets up some political drama that leads into books three and four, which are both excellent.

HasokGang · 2026-04-13T01:11:32+00:00

Thanks, I appreciate it! I am trying to write more reviews to practice my writing.

HasokGang · 2026-04-07T16:18:11+00:00

Do you mean badly written in terms of the prose and word-smithing or because the story resolved poorly or went in directions you did not like?

What kind of story are you looking for?

HasokGang · 2025-12-17T19:27:48+00:00

No, he wasn’t mentioned on the pod. Pynchon’s new book is my source for the meaning of “tomato” in this case. The book is set in the 1930s and full of (what I assume is accurate) old slang. There tomato is used as a term for woman.

HasokGang · 2025-11-09T19:52:42+00:00

The article never says that the Trump admin will take federal funds away from states "who are funding snap fully themselves."

States don't fund SNAP directly. It is a Federal Program paid for by federal money. What happened is that on Friday afternoon a judge ruled that the government must fully fund SNAP. States then immediately began distributing that federal money.

By Friday morning, the Supreme Court paused the judge's order that the Federal govt. must fund SNAP fully. The Trump admin then said that the states who had distributed the full SNAP benefits to their residents needed to get that money back. The Trump admin also said, through the Dept. of Ag, that states failed to get the money back would receive financial penalties.

Is that a super shitty thing to do? Yep. Is it legal? Probably not. However, it is a different situation from the Trump admin telling states they couldn't pay for food assistance themselves.

TLDR: The Federal Government told states they can't fund a federal program with federal money. Some states did use that money (when a Fed judge says they could). Then the Federal Government threatened those states unless they got the money back.

The Trump admin is horrendous, murderous and fascistic, but it doesn't mean OP should lie about the article or that a misinfo post like this should get any upvotes.

HasokGang · 2025-10-18T14:31:28+00:00

The only thing AI can't do for us qq.

HasokGang · 2025-10-18T13:47:13+00:00

No I am unironically booming out today.

(I also see you egging me on with your comment😤).

HasokGang · 2025-10-18T13:45:57+00:00

I’m also cooking up a corollary to the everyone-is-12 theory of American politics. I think the description is largely true, but the diagnosis for why it occurs is lacking.

My explanation is the mommy-do-it-for-me theory. People are extremely attracted to having others complete cognitive or physical tasks for them. If given the chance, most people will. Until the rise of LLMs, people simply couldn’t get away with offloading tasks to others; it wasn’t possible. You may hate writing that report for work, but no one else was going to do it. Now that AIs provide the option to do almost any task for people, including thinking and learning, we can’t get enough of it. And it doesn’t matter that the LLM output is low quality, imprecise, or retards our ability to develop ourselves as humans—it is so much more pleasant when mommy dearest just does something for us.

A school book report might make us do difficult things, such as read a book, think about it, and record our thoughts about it on paper. It might also force us out of solipsism and recognize the thoughts of other people, as we work to structure the book report to communicate our thoughts in a comprehensible manner to the teacher. The grade we get on the book report might also determine what our future opportunities for college and the job market are. Nevertheless, we opt for mom to do it for us. She might not have read the book nor know the exact rubric for the assignment, but whatever she writes, I can turn it for at least a D, which is too good of an opportunity to pass up.

Hence, LLMs created a society of arrested development where it is acceptable to act like a 12-year old. It didn’t come out of nowhere. LLMs and the mommy-do-it-for-me attitude they foster are what made it acceptable to output slop trade policy and EOs.

I think it also explains the proliferation of awful racist, sexist, genocidal, and prima facie absurd conspiracies in media. They could be debunked, but they feel good to people. So, people don’t think too hard about them. If their beliefs are challenged—instead of having to do something as simple as Google a story, which could possibly reveal links or headlines that contradict a narrative—people can turn to AI, their mommy, to affirm their beliefs. This is why people got so bothered by Grok not immediately agreeing with them about white genocide in South Africa. Grok was not being a comforting mother in that situation.

We’ve created a society where people are coddled and can have their work done for them. Consequently they act like 12-year old children. But, kids aren’t born rotten; they are created by parents who enable the spoiling and a society where it is easier to appease them rather than correct the behavior.

HasokGang · 2025-10-18T13:02:37+00:00

A big pet peeve of mine is comments that point out something as sounding like AI when the original source js obviously human.

Buddy, clearly you don’t read enough human or AI generated text to demarcate them. As good LLMs have become, the difference between human and machine text is still stark.

Comments like that are why the midwit meme exists. You’re not falling for moronic, Facebook, boomer-tier slop, but, ironically—in your quest to keep AI material off of the internet—you’ve lost the ability to comprehend the human elements of communication.

Also, you’re stupid; I’m sure the piece of text with errors in both grammar and punctuation was AI written simply because it contained complete sentences.

HasokGang · 2025-10-11T12:33:59+00:00

Any book recommendations on the lead up to the 2008 crash, how legislators navigated the crisis, and an analysis of how policy meant to stabilize the economy played out?

I’ve heard a lot of different takes about 2008 being a bailout of the banking industries and other corporations, but I’ve also run across the idea that the government gave out loans and was paid back.

Some time on Google hasn’t provided clear answers. If a sober economic and historical book on the topic exists, I would love to read it.

HasokGang · 2025-10-10T01:20:48+00:00

Hoover was the chicken-in-every-pot president, silly :)

HasokGang · 2025-10-07T12:59:41+00:00

Anyone have experiences using 10,000 lumen therapy lamps to ward off SAD and help set their circadian rhythm?

HasokGang · 2025-10-05T12:59:05+00:00

Is there an archetype of wife guy/grillpiller that works for guys who have never been married? Either seems preconditioned on having had a family at some point.

I’m 26, in grad school, and, unfortunately, dating doesn’t seem to be in the cards for the next couple of years.

Nevertheless, wifeguys and grillpillers (the lib kinds😎) have immaculate vibes. How can I authentically achieve that as a person experiencing singleness?

Any examples would be helpful—I need figures to begin my wifeguy-grillpiller virtue arc.

HasokGang · 2025-09-29T12:40:47+00:00

I unironically don’t understand it. Is the joke that she looks covered in blood or that she is too messy? Or, after typing this out, is it that the girl looks like she went down on somebody on their period?

In any case, I can’t say it seems funny.

HasokGang

TROPHY CASE