Pierce Burnette

An excellent short story about a Utopian City. Also an excellent thought experiment for readers about an extremely radical version of utilitarianism.

I loved this book. Perhaps it was a tad slow at times (for instance, he spends a long time in the hospital) but aside from that it's great.

Will it ever be over?

Brilliantly defined, as Aristotle is famous for

But it makes it an absolute slog to read. The third book is interesting, concerning itself mostly with styles of Rhetoric, but by the time I got to it I was ready to be done. Maybe I'll come back and give just Book III another chance, reviewing my notes for Books I and II

I think by universal standards of writing this book is a 5/5

I think by the standard set by The Fellowship of the Ring, this book is probably a 3.5/5. It has shining moments, of course, but they are strung together much less elegantly than The Fellowship of The Ring. The time spent with Aragorn and co. felt a lot less fantastical and magical (for lack of better terms) than the time spent with Frodo and the time with Frodo in this book wasn't quite as good as it was in Fellowship. Perhaps its because Frodo knows not much more than the reader on a first read, while the others know much more?

Again, amazing book by the standards of other works, but by the standard Tolkien set in Fellowship I was a bit let down. Hopefully I'll enjoy Return of the King more after I take a break to read some other stuff on my tbr

Thought about giving this 4 stars because it's unfinished. But the fact that it's unfinished didn't detract from my enjoyment... and I don't think it detracted from the meaning either. It was a near perfect book and the only thing I thought about it being unfinished after I read the last page was “I can only imagine how incredible this book would be had he finished it.”