Kevin Murray
Would have made it a five star had they directly credited the concept artists on each piece the way the Star Wars books have done. That said, the content is great and the book is beautiful.
I needed to put this book down at times because I was getting angry reading it. As a Canadian I'm sure this sort of thing happened here as well. At the very least, the Epilogue and the FAQ section should be read by most people.
A book that should be, to any rational human being, completely and utterly terrifying, posing very simple but such common sense questions. A must read if you really do give a damn about changing the future of the human race.
I... found myself rooting for the bears more often than not. The cast of characters are what you'd expect, and it was interesting to read of the experiences these folks have had with the growing bear population in their community.
That said, I found at times the story ran long. The book itself is broken into many many small chapters; while easy to read in bite-sized pieces it disrupts any kind of flow.
I suppose I'd had different expectations about the topic of the book. I expected it to be more about the workings of a libertarian town building up, and while it has that, the bears feature a lot more prominently overall.
When my boss gave the green light to start building a podcast, I didn't have much idea as to how to take the next steps. From clarifying the idea to defining the audience to promoting the show, Make Noise covers a lot of territory for anyone looking to start a podcast. Eric's got the experience so you know he isn't blowing smoke. The read is engaging and filled with plenty of real world examples to help illustrate what he's teaching.
The end section about leading creatives is super relevant and valuable and should be a read for anyone managing people in any discipline, let alone creative endeavours.
I loaned this from the library and I'll be buying it shortly to mark up a copy for my own future reference as well.
If you enjoyed The Martian, you'll appreciate this. I saw another review that said it reads like you're watching a movie, which is fairly accurate. Are there implausibly fantastical situations? Sure. The whole book is predicated on an implausibly fantastic situation, but it doesn't take away from just how much fun it is to read.
It's a terrifying read, especially if you have young children. But in order to confront the challenges of climate change, we need to know what the likely outcomes are. This isn't a book about solutions, but it does a superb job of looking into the near future based on current climate trends.
An interesting idea stretched a bit longer than maybe it needed to be, the ending comes about rather quickly and suddenly. That's not to say that what comes before isn't enjoyable, I had a difficult time putting it down, but it all wraps in the last 120 pages awfully quickly.
I've thought about how this would work as a linear narrative, without the narrative jumping around in time, but I think it would be a lesser novel that way. While for some it might feel a bit preachy at the end, I enjoyed it.
Fun premise, harkens back to some earlier Stephen King stories. Reads like a narrative that you'd lay out for a limited series on HBO. Drags a little in the middle, but taking anything out would leave enough plot holes. I haven't read a lot of his stuff, but picked up in a couple Easter eggs, which were fun. Enjoyable read. Recommend checking it out.
As I would expect from Lewis, the book has a quick and engaging narrative flow that makes it very easy to get deep into the book. That the content is still relevant 17 months into a pandemic also helps. It's infuriating to know the tools have been in the toolbox for 15 years, and the speed of government lead to a lot of really unnecessary consequences for hundreds of thousands of people. It's like an insiders view to the start of the pandemic without all the controversy around the measures that would come and go afterwards. The book doesn't pull a lot of punches in its criticisms of bureaucracy and institutional ego that so often, rightly, take the blame when things go horribly wrong. If you think you can read it without getting stressed about the content, I highly recommend checking it out.
There are some fairly obvious grammatical and proofing errors in the hardcover version I have.
Actually 3.5 stars. It's a fun read, it's paced quite well. A different take on an approaching post-human world. The ending, while predictable, still satisfies. There are a couple points where I lost the flow because of the way a paragraph was structured, but overall it read quite easily. The descriptions of Eden put a pretty good image in your mind. It's like taking a stroll through that old tv show Life After People, before the people are gone.
The biggest reason for my rating this a 3-star is that this one seems to completely ignore or re-write the ending of book three. Never really seen that before. The last hundred pages are pretty riveting, Slater has a knack for picking up the pace pretty well towards the end. Overall it feels like there was a lot that may have been cut from the book in the editing process, but it's an enjoyable read nonetheless.
It's dense with a broad cast of subjects, but clearly gives you an idea of how dirty the entire system has become and how corrupt the halls of power, both East and West, really are.
If you work in a creative industry and haven't had any business education this will serve as a really good primer. After you're finished reading it, keep it handy for reference and be surprised at how logical it all sounds, and wonder how you didn't realize any of it before.