Dave
The writing was good, the book was ok. I can appreciate Santiago's persistence and the stoic attitude he took towards his plight and persistence to make it back home with his prized catch. Still, the book was a bit hard to get motivated to read- not much happens the whole time. Not a page turner but not a bad book.
I liked this book, but if I had to suggest just one book for someone to read to become a better programmer I'd choose Clean Code instead. There are a lot of good tips in here, but there's also a lot of outdated information (I should have checked that I had the 2nd edition). Some of the stuff they recommend is no longer applicable because tools exist for that task.
In general though, a lot of the advice is timeless and useful, even if the perspective seems to be from a consulting standpoint and not as a member of a team working on software that's continuously being updated. Again, maybe a difference in the times (everything now is continuously shipped SaaS products).
I think a lot of the ideas in this book were probably revolutionary at the time this book was published, but are common knowledge now (or common sense). Still, its good to get reminders and I did find myself highlighting a number of passages as I went along.
I liked this book, and definitely got some useful tidbits out of it. However, there were some bits of advice that conflicted with advice from other parts of the book. Sometimes the author didn't specify which age group she was referring to, so it was hard to know what would be right for my child - I found myself often asking “wait, is this for an infant or for a 2 year old?”
The overall premises were good:
- S.W.A.P. (Sleep With Assistance Plan) - pacifiers, swaddling, rockers, and the like.
and if you can't do those:
- S.L.I.P. (Sleep Learning Independence Plan) - fuss it out, cry it out
Every once in a while she would throw in a term like “crap nap” that wasn't explained. This would leave me confused about our baby's napping - is it 30 minutes or less? Is it OK for a newborn to sleep this amount of time? Are crap naps defined differently for different child ages?
Overall, I liked this book, I thought it had a lot of useful tips, especially if you haven't read other advice on getting your child to sleep. It could use a little more refinement, and a little less “witty” banter as it gave advice. It's got to be a challenge to write an all-encompassing book for a topic that changes so rapidly in the first few years of life. For me personally, I think I'll return to review it a few times as my child grows, since it seems like everything changes every few months.
This is a really hard book for me to rate.
One one hand it was a real page turner once it got going, and I was excited to see what would happen next. I also enjoy the two storyline format (one in 2016 and one in 2060). The characters were well developed and the world was well built.
On the other hand, I felt that the end of the book was rushed. The first 80% of the book was great and I would have rated it 5 stars. The final 20% felt like the author went “I've got to wrap up all these story lines and I'm already up over 400 pages”.
I've marked this review as SPOILERS but just in case SPOILERS AHEAD
The final 20% was cringey to read and hits suddenly and without warning. Many things are not fully explained. I understand Supaari's motivations for selling Emilio, so he can become a Founder of a lineage, but I don't understand the hand mutilation, especially when none of the other slaves had their hands mutilated. And the character he was sold to was basically not described at all before he's literally forced into the story, he's just a horny alien ready to cause havoc. And then Askama coming to open the door to Emilio's cell? It just doesn't make sense - why wouldn't there be a guard escorting them down? It was just another way for the author to shoehorn in some more tragedy. It all felt really forced in order to get us to a final moral quandary about God.
Even with the massive tragedy this book became, had the author chosen to split it up over two books and really flesh out some more of the final 20% I probably would have given it 4 or 5 stars, but as it stands the best I can do is 3 stars, and I would not recommend it to a friend. I had planned to read the second book (Children of God, which has Emilio returning to Rakhat) but at this point I don't think it will be worth it - I don't want to be betrayed again by the author.
I loved this book! I had only heard of Naval Ravikant in passing before reading this book, I hadn't followed him in any manner via twitter, blog, podcast or otherwise. I found many useful tidbits in here both for life and for business. This is one of those books that gets you motivated to create (a business) and to live your life better.
It was a quick read, and I probably highlighted 30% of it to refer to later. Great job by the author to both (1) gather the information from all the sources and (2) pare it down into a manageable and coherent format! Definitely a book I will be revisiting in the future.
I liked Ubik by PKD. But again, it seemed like it barely got started before it was already over. Not only that, like so many books, it gave no closure. I guess Ubik is a metaphor for God (it's everywhere and fixes everything!) but as a guy reading a book I like to see a story take full arc and come to a close.
The book starts out interestingly enough - with Joe Chip and G.G. Ashwood finding a new “intertial” - someone who can negate the effects of a “psi” with powers like they've never seen. Seems like a great start to an epic adventure! But as you progress through the book, the girl they find is mostly quiet, and instead the story turns to the characters being trapped in a fantasy world that exists because of (what I assume to be) a psi boy who was killed and put into half-life prematurely. Some super villian.
Don't get me wrong, I loved the ride while I was taking it. I was just as anxious to turn the page as I have been in any story, wondering what it all meant and what the clues would lead to next. But by the end I was disappointed in both the main antagonist and the non-closure of the storyline.
List of unresolved plot points:
- What is the “rebirth” that Ella Runciter is going through?
- Why did Pat claim to be working for Hollis? If it was Jory pretending to be Pat, why did he claim to be working for Hollis?
- How can Jory “eat” minds and further sustain his own life? A lot of WTF here - what could this mean?
- If we can forever sustain ourselves in coldpac and also continue to speak with others in coldpac, why aren't they putting live people in coldpac instead of focusing on “almost dead” people?
- Why is 1939 the “FINAL DATE” that we can go back to? If we're in 1992 and Jory is in his teens shouldnt the earliest date be sometime around 1975?
- Why is everyone on Goodreads eating up Phillip K Dick? These Dick-lovers are insatiable! I've only tried Dick one other time, but it was paired with Isaac Asimov, so I'm not sure if it was the Dick or the 'sac that I was enjoying in that hardcopy.
Not a bad book, but it did have a tendency to beat a dead horse to make a point.
The authors sort everyone into two categories - either you're a PAW (prodigous accumulator of wealth) or a UAW (under accumulator of wealth). I tend to disagree with this binary categorization of people but can look past it for the point of the book. PAWs save money (play good offense, play good defense), UAWs are posers who want to look rich (play good offense, play terrible defense).
The book does present a neat and tidy formula:
(Income * 10%) * age = expected net worth
Actual Net Worth / Expected = % of scale
0 to 1 you're UAW
1 to 2 you're average
2+ you're a PAW
Sounds good, but as many people online have pointed out, it's really only good for people in their 50s+
The authors do seem to have some credibility, having performed most of the polling themselves, they are just a bit too number heavy in their presentation and it lead them to belabor the very simple point that if you live below your means and invest you'll accumulate wealth.
Another salient point the book seemed to beat home is that most millionaires are entrepreneurs and own their own business and play good defense, or are high wage earners (doctors, lawyers, etc) who play great defense with their money. Clearly for most people entrepreneurship is the way to go.
The book kind of meanders on, and spends way too much time on how millionaires shop for cars, how they provide too many gifts for their children, etc. It's pretty worthless information and just seemed to be trying to pad out the book.
Spend less than you make, live below your means, don't fall for high status symbols, and try to start a business.
Firstly, I'd like to say I enjoyed this book, but there were many points in the book that made me scratch my head and it starts with the premise.
Basically the whole book is just a revenge story from a perceived slight of the main character. Gully gets stranded on a floating wreck and then doesn't get picked up by a passing ship. That's enough to send him on this epic quest to exact complete and utter revenge?
I do like the underlying theme of the book: with enough willpower you too can become great. The book starts out describing Gully as an underachiever (something we can all relate to) but we watch him quickly become powerful due to the sheer strength of his willpower. I'm just not sure the perceived slight which set him off would really be that motivating for 99% of characters. The whole book I kept thinking “man, this sure is a lot of trouble and death defying in order to exact revenge”.
I love the universe in which this story takes place. I just wish it would have been explored more - honestly, I felt like the story got in the way of my desire to see more of the jaunting and telepathic world! That's another thing - I felt like the author kept adding these duex ex machina devices to level the playing field. First it was telepathy (fine, why not- people can teleport why not telepathy too?), then the whisper channel in the prison (why on earth would that be there, but OK some buildings in DC have that too), then the TIME ACCELERATION TEETH (really?), PyrE (an explosive that can only be blown up telepathically?), then finally time travel itself. It just felt hacky to me.
All in all, still a decent enough read. The main character is a bit more vicious and barbaric than I felt was warranted given his reason for revenge and the author took some liberties to finish out the story, but I still had a fun time reading it.
Very easy read and made me chuckle out loud on multiple occasions. The only other book I've ever read by a comedian is SeinLanguage by Jerry Seinfeld, which was mostly just a collection of thoughts he's had that I could see would eventually become his standup and TV show. This book is a little different as it reads a bit like an autobiography but it's mostly Jim's observations on being a dad, and in specific on being a dad in NYC. I'm not even a parent, but this book made me want to run out and buy copies for all the parents I know.
Continuing the saga of what is very little left of a recognizable Black Company. More company lore was revealed through the Books of the South, as the Lady is forced to pick up the pieces and rebuild after Croaker , well - croaks! I enjoyed reading the book of the Lady, but did find myself missing Croaker's point of view. The Lady is just too unrelateable, too crass, too harsh. Croaker has a personable feel to him, a human quality the Lady just can't match.
Keeping with tradition, the author keeps you guessing not by clever storytelling but my obfuscation that you have to fight through to figure out. In the end I was happy to get the story of each party in the book, but again spent the first half of the book trying to keep the characters and places straight. It doesn't help that the Shadowmasters are former taken and go by multiple names or that the Shadowmasters renamed places to “shadow” + something. Thusly, locations can get referenced by multiple names, depending on who is speaking (same with Shadowmasters). It can get frustrating quickly.
As usual, if you can fight through the first half of the book, the second half is great! Everything really came to a head by the time you're about 90% of the way through the book. I'm chomping at the bit to get into the next one, which I guess is probably the author's main objective!
Let's recap. Lady tries to rebuild after finding out Croaker's croaked. Gets in with some strangler cult (who's goddess probably does exist?). Soulcatcher is back, disguised as chaos, with intentions to mess with her sister (the Lady) - nurses Croaker back to health secretly. Mogaba (the new leader of what he considers the Black Company) has gone mad inside of Dejagore and has resorted to cannibalism. Yada yada yada. Lady's pregnant, the end! Now on to the epic tri-finale! Books of glittering stone, ahoy!
This installment of the Chronicles of the Black Company follows the rebuilding of the company as they head south to return the Annals to Khatovar. The tale jumps around, in typical fashion, between points of view of the antagonist and protagonist. Only in this case things are a bit more obfuscated for the big reveals later. It makes the book a little hard to follow.
The new characters comes fast and often in this book, as Croaker and the remaining “old guys” add members 2-3 at a time in each city they visit on their way south. By the time they've come to their battle at the end of the book it's hard to follow who's who. It would be great to know what skills each new character brings to the battle or where they came from or their allegiance/backstory - at least some kind of emotional investment like I had with Elmo or the Captain before their demises in previous books. People like Sindawe or Ochiba could croak tomorrow and I wouldn't blink much.
I enjoyed (not sure that's the right word - cringe-joyed?) watching the relationship between Croaker and Lady develop, although it was quite awkward. I'm still not quite buying the "love story" there - it's just not sold all that well. Not enough time spent developing it.
I just don't understand the Taken enough still. Apparently they are some sort of immortal, because they just keep popping back up. Even ones that we were sure were dead, like the Limper in the previous book. Croaker for sure killed him, but he came back. I figured the Lady reconstructed him, but it would appear that even when she has nothing to do with it the Taken can reconstruct themselves (or maybe they never were fully killed). Even in this book one is SURELY killed, but I'm only about 90% confident in that even. It makes the story a little choppy and feel a little cheap that antagonists can just POOF! reappear.
The book was still good, and a fast read (because I couldn't put it down), but suffers some of the same issues that have been plaguing the author from the beginning. Too many characters too fast with not enough backstory.
The books in this story keep getting better. This was another page-turner that I couldn't put down. A lot more of the world got explained as characters fleshed out as Croaker and the company went on the offensive against the Lady, and later, against the Dominator.
As before, the author does a good job of both hiding and revealing plots twists. A few I was able to figure out ahead of time, but one big one (Corbie) I didn't get until it dropped on my head. I really enjoyed reading the tale of Bomanz (the wizard who accidentally released the Lady, according to legend). The epic conclusion to the Lady vs the Dominator would work wonderfully as a movie, and I couldn't have been happier with the result of the struggle.
I'm excited to continue the narrative for the next set in the series - but worried, how can it live up to this grand conclusion!?
Really enjoyed the second book in the series. It was a very fast read, and I couldn't put it down. It further expanded on the tale of the struggle between the Black Company and the Lady, with the near return of the Dominator as well. This book covers the company's dealings after their victory at Charm, and mostly focuses on a new challenge (the Black Castle) in Juniper.
The author didn't do too much re-explaining of what things you should have recalled from the first book (I'm looking at you, Harry Potter series) and added a few new main characters (Shed and Asa) to the plot. The author does a wonderful job of hiding and revealing interesting plot twists.
Overall a very enjoyable read which stayed in line with where the first book was going. I enjoyed reading more about the struggle between the Lady and the Dominator, and watching the company itself evolve (or moreso get torn apart and have to deal with it).