Dave

Good concepts, way too much fluff in the book. Half of the examples could be dropped, and the pitches for the authors company could be dropped. This would be a 5 star book if it were heavily edited down to its base concepts.

DNF after 31%. Love Tom Segura the comedian, pass on TS the author. This book was basically just an autobiography- cool I guess but not for me.

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!?

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!

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).

This was an interesting read, especially for anyone looking to make a breakthrough in their career, business, or social life. The author goes through a lot of real-world examples of when failure brought about success. He goes back to previous examples a lot so don't skip around the book.

One of the enlightening parts of this book was the way Donald Rumsfeld handled the intelligence he was receiving during the Iraq war. I never knew a lot of that, and it's made me want to know more.

The author takes a lot of views on success coming out of failure, and tries to postulate which direction the success came from - or how we can optimize it so that in our own lives we can get there faster. Sometimes you just have to try something many times before you get one that works - but sometimes there are steps you can take to increase your chance of hitting a peak instead of a valley.

The author speaks of times when success was found from the top-down but the majority of the time, success comes from the bottom up.

There are a lot of examples of failure in this book, and sometimes the spectacular success that comes out of it. All you have to do is take the risk sometimes.

Good book, recommended - a little shorter than I thought it would be - 40% of the book was acknowledgements and notes, but I guess you need good citations.

Can not recommend this book enough, I wish I would have read it 10 years ago (had it been available). It will change the way you approach the world.

Saw the movie years ago. Finally got around to reading the book (audiobook). The movie was very faithful to the book. Good listen, even if it can be a bit rough around the edges at time.

I loved it, I was hooked on the writing from the very beginning. I can't wait to continue the story in the second book and I lament the fact that there may not be a third and final book.

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.

Good book, reminded me a lot of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Author talks a lot about building assets which bring in passive income. However, his primary focus is my decreasing liabilities, or things that cost you money.

The author talks about becoming a “Renaissance Man”, and not paying experts to do things for you all the time. If you can't fix it yourself - ask yourself if it's really worth owning.

The author makes it a point in this book to talk about recycling, re-using, and sustainability. Many times these goals can be in line with the goals of saving money as well - such as making your own laundry detergent.

The author spends about the first half of the book talking about our modern day society and becoming a renaissance man. It's a good analysis, but a little heavy handed. Basically the first half of the book was about this.

Good book, primarily focusing on reducing debts/liabilities and footprint.

Loved it. Just finished the book and couldn't be happier. I didn't know it was going to be a “documentary” style, but I really enjoyed the format. I had previously been a little worried that I'd be scared to read it but the format made it nearly impossible to be shocked by anything. Great story mostly about the human elements and how people interacted with each other in the face of a horrific tragedy than about the zombies themselves. Of course, the geek in me loved reading about the zombies as well. Definitely would recommend it to a wide variety of folks, not just those interested in zombies.

I barely saw Geralt in this book. And he barely fought any monsters. It was mostly politics and other gang/army fighting.

Truly a 3.5 star book. It's better than average but I wouldn't buy a hard copy to keep or give away. Some of the behavioral flaws these leaders he's describing are over the top. There are some good nuggets of wisdom in this book but overall I wouldn't recommend it to an aspiring leader.

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.

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.

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.

I thought it was good, and found myself highlighting a lot of sections especially near the end. However a lot of the book was focused on the technical details of the brain, which was interesting but not that useful for raising a child.

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.

Really liked this bromance novel - Biff and “Josh” getting into trouble and traveling around the Eastern world. It felt a bit rushed as they returned home and gathered apostles quickly but overall a fun read.

Found this book series off of a suggestion from Reddit. I wanted to get into a book series with an epic tale. I put it on my Kindle and promptly forgot about it, until about two weeks ago.

The first half of the book was confusing as could be. It's a first person narrative, from the viewpoint of the physician/annalist of a band a mercenaries for hire called the Black Company. Actually, the book itself is you actually reading the annals of the Black Company. Cool concept. However, the names of people and places just fly at you like crazy. It's hard to remember who was who and where they fit into the narrative. In addition, this is a fantasy novel, so there are some magic elements at play as well. There are non-human (or perhaps just very powerful wizards?) called The Taken, and their existence/role in the world is barely explained - you kind of just have to figure it out. It all started to click for me about halfway through the book about who they were and what their role was.

The second half of the book was vastly superior, thank god. An actual plot started to form, so I was rewarded for suffering through the first half. I might go back and re-read the first part again just so I can make more sense of it. By the end of the book I was really enjoying following the narrator around the world in his service to “The Lady” (get used to names like this, that's all the book uses).

One more thing - when you use names like “The Lady” and “Croaker”, “Whisper”, “Soulcatcher” (who is also the same person as “Catcher”), it's easy to think “The Rebel” is also a person. It's only later that you find out “The Rebel” is a batch name for an army of people fighting “The Lady”. Seriously, introduce your characters better.

Overall, the book has a lot of potential - I just wish the first half could be revised to be a little more friendly on introductions to people and places. I enjoyed reading the story of a company who is very loyal to the contract from their employer, but not necessarily to their employer's ideals.

Giving the book 3 stars - 1 star for the first half of the book, and 4 stars for the second half of the book (can't give half stars, so 3 it is!). Continuing the read the remainder of the series because I think it has potential and it is highly thought of by redditors!

EDIT 10-30-2014: Summary of the book - it sets the scene and who the Black Company is, along with introducing the key members of the Black Company that will be important in the series. You follow the narrative through the big battle at Charm, working as mercenaries for the Lady.

Fun, light-hearted. Not laugh out loud funny but it made me smile here and there. The storyline was good, but it took a while to acclimate to all of the characters.

Great book, but very focused on product management as if every reader is a PM. Still I got a lot of value out of it and will revisit again.