Later
I've tried writing this a few times, but it doesn't come out right. Fuck it, I don't care.
I don't like John Ringo. His views on just about everything seem to be in direct opposition to mine. He's welcome to them, but it gives me a knee-jerk reaction to anything associated with him.
Even with that I thought this was a fantastic book. Once I started it I couldn't focus on anything else until it was done.
There are a few problems though.
Halfway through to book I thought maybe the wife (Stacey) died in the first book because she hadn't made an appearance. There was only one reference to her too. I understand he's giving her her own chapter in the dead tree version. Maybe that will help some, or maybe it will feel shoehorned in.
The Faith (Shewolf) Smith character is a kind of Mary Sue, or maybe she is an actual Mary Sue (idealized representation of the author). Whatever she is, she's just unbelievable as a character. If the character was a little older, say 17 instead of 13, she would feel more real for me. From the first book to this one she's seemed unbelievably mature. Sophia (Seawolf) is actually a much more realistic character. I can more easily buy into her, although it would be better if she were a few years older too. Maybe there's someone out there that's met 13 and 15 year old girls that have that kind of maturity; anything's possible.
The biggest issue and the one thing that really kept this from being a 5-star book is the lack of any real climax. I'm sure that this is just the second in a long series, but that's not a good excuse. There were any number of places in this book that could have made for an effective climax, John just decided not to go there. So the “climax” we were given was effectively... a medal ceremony? Speaking of, how bored are the people stuck in the hole that they have time to design medals?
I wish I had quit this book halfway through when I wasn't feeling it. Instead, I persevered, and now I feel like I wasted a week reading something I didn't like. The concept of a Phoenix Wizard is interesting, but this story is not really about him, and he ends up being a forgettable character for someone that the book is named after. I really didn't find the main character, Tessa, all that interesting. The book was a combination of light urban fantasy and teen girl romance, and she didn't stand out as a character in either sense. She also displays some hacking and martial arts skills in the last 1/3rd of the book that were never even hinted at before. Very deus ex machina, and very annoying. Also, it feels horribly unfinished, like nothing at all was resolved. I finished, but I won't read the next book.
An interesting fairy tale story. I can't explain it, but I really don't like Seanan McGuire books as much as I like Mira Grant books. It makes no sense since it's the same person doing the writing.
Your mileage may vary, so keep that in mind before considering my comments.
I really didn't like this book, and it amazes me that I finished it. I put it down a couple of times because it was too tedious for me to continue. With “Mutineer” in the title you expect a mutiny to be a main part of the story. It's not. The main part of the story is watching a (space) navy ensign do ground work on a planet. The mutiny is at the very end and is over too fast and way too easy. Seriously, I went through the whole mutiny in maybe 15 minutes of reading. The way she pulled off her “mutiny” didn't resonate either. Had this book been about a mutiny and the fallout from that, it might have been more interesting. Instead it's about a dirtside rescue operation that's really not that interesting.
This review is for the EARC.
I have to say that this is ultimately an anti-climactic ending to this arc Honor Harrington's story. I don't believe for an instant that this is the last we'll see of Honor. In fact, I seem to remember reading somewhere that the fight with the Solarian League was supposed to be Raoul's and Katherine's story, and I have to believe that David Weber just shifted some plans so that they can be front and center in dealing with the Mesan Alignment.
Oh, yeah. Spoiler alert: The whole Mesan Alignment thing is not resolved by the end of this.
Some good things about this book. First, there are essentially two climaxes (well, two big ones and a little one). One happens about halfway through and is pretty awesome. The other happens about three-quarters the way through, and while it's gripping, it's pretty horrifying. Second, when Honor is in it, Honor is IN it. Third, the Solarian League finally learns what it means to piss off the Salamander.
That being said, there are also some things I didn't like. There's way too much talky-talky. I like the politics of the series, but there's just too much of it going on. For a book named after the main character of the series and for a mainline book of the series, the title character isn't in it very much. Frankly, she's not in either of the big climactic moments. She's the star of the third and final climax, but that one is way overshadowed by the other two. Oh, and big character death and un-death revelation fell kind of flat. Who didn't see that coming?
Ultimately, nothing I say here is going to make a difference in whether you read the book. If you've made it through 13 books in the Honor Harrington series, you're going read book 14. I just wouldn't expect to come out of this one completely satisfied. A bunch of storylines are wrapped up. A bunch of hints are dropped for the next series. I can't wait to find out more about Raoul, and he's not even two years old yet. But the nasty Mesan Alignment is still out there with whatever nefarious plan they have.
I'm always looking forward to more in this universe, and I don't see that changing. I just didn't love this one as much as I should love the ending of Honor's arc.
It took me a while to get into this one, but once I did it a race to find out what happened next. I loved the character development in Shallan. Kaladin was a bit frustrating to me until the end. In the next books we're supposed to get more than just an interlude of Szeth, and that can't come quick enough. At some point how this series and all the other Cosmere series tie together is going to make sense to me. I can't wait for that.
Murder at Hogwarts and a muggle PI comes to investigate?! I'm in. Unfortunately, it's a fine story that didn't live up to my expectations. I think the character, worldbuilding and plot are the key things in any story. The characters were not memorable or interesting. Ivy (the main) is fleshed out a little, but she was very one-dimensional. She's really the only one that got any kind of personality. The worldbuilding was minimal. It was pretty much “magic exists, but most of the kids use cell phones anyway.” The plot... that was a little interesting. I really did like the murder at the magic school and only the no-maj can figure it out. I, mostly, liked the resolution, and I really liked the reason. Ultimately, I won't warn anyone away from this book, but I won't be recommending it either.
It's not Ready Player One, but I didn't expect it to be. I'm not a reader that tries to figure out what's going to happen before it happens, but some of the main plot points were telegraphed a mile away. The ending was only ok, but I wasn't a fan of the obvious doors opening for a sequel.
Ready Player One is my go-to book for when I need a light-hearted read. I LOVE RP1. Armada isn't going to take over that place any time soon. I still enjoyed it, and I went through it pretty quickly. I loved the premise. I was afraid reading the summary that it was just going to be a Last Starfighter redo, but I should have had more faith. Yeah, there's some Last Starfighter elements to it, but there's also a nice Ender's Game-y feel. Some of the usernames Ernie came up with are fantastic. IronBeagle, RedJive, AtomicMom... Loved the interaction between IronBeagle and RedJive.
John Ringo has written another good yarn, and if I counted correctly he only went out of his way to insult liberals three times and one of those was pretty stealthy. I liked a lot about this book, starting with the zombies not being “undead” just being severely sick with something that causes them to lose their minds and bite people. Even the eating of people seems somewhat ancillary; they're just doing it because people are available food that they don't have to work too hard for. As usual, there's lots of gun porn with names and measurements that non-gun nuts won't understand or really care about. Fortunately, he does a good job of letting those of us with that affliction know when the ammo is supposed to rip you in half or just sting a little.
There was one scene that cost this review a whole star, and when it happened I put the book down for a minute and said “that's the stupidest thing ever written.” It might not be, but it's definitely the stupidest and most inconsistent plot point I've ever read. At the end of the first half of the book, when all of our main characters have been drawn off their cozy boat and into the middle of NYC in the beginning of the zombie apocalypse and all the grown-ups (and the kids too) know that it is just seconds away from hitting the fan, they decide to go to a concert in Central Park. Seriously, wtf? No reasonable adult that knows the truth of the situation is going to be persuaded to go into NYC to see a concert because one of their kids whines that she's never seen a concert before.
The other star was lost because there's no ending. There's a little bit of a crescendo of action, but nothing gets resolved. I know it's a trilogy, and the last words are “to be continued,” but there has to be some end to the story.
Other than those major quibbles, it's a fine fun story.
On a story by story basis:
1. By the Book - Charles Gannon: I have no idea what this has to do with the Honorverse. The only connections are Earth, space, and a postscript written by a Ph.D. on Haven. It's a reasonably good sci-fi story, but it's not really Honorverse.
2. A Call to Arms - Timothy Zahn: This is more like it. Early RMN story of some action you've never heard of. It's recognizable as as Honorverse and well written.
3. Beauty and the Beast - David Weber: The story of Alfred Harrington and Allison Chou. Great story. Provides a lot of depth to momma and daddy Harrington.
4. Best Laid Plans - David Weber: Probably the story we've all been waiting for: how Honor met Nimitz. Very nice.
5. Obligated Service - Joelle Presby: This one felt really gritty to me, and the main character is a little bleak. It definitely shows a little of the dark side of both Grayson and Manticoran officers.
A bit slow in the beginning, but it really starts to pick up about halfway through. Definitely a fun read as all of Jim's books are.
A VERY satisfying end to the series. I was skeptical that Brett could pull off everything he had to wrap up before the end, but he did it in dramatic fashion.
There's no such thing as a bad entry to the Mistborn series. This one has some fantastic action. The development of Wax, Wayne, and Marasi were all well done. I especially like Wayne. Nice little mystery included in the epilogue, which I'm sure will be at least partly explained in Bands of Mourning or The Lost Metal.
The first three-quarters of this book is amazing, then it kind of goes downhill. There's a romance in here. It's very obviously telegraphed and it reads a bit like bad fanfiction. There's a shift in the tone of the writing from a ‘tough-as-nails' heroine to a softer ‘girl-in-love' child. It's jarring. Unfortunately, when it starts heating up everything else is derived from it, and if you're not buying that romance you're probably not buying what's going on with the end.
The bad guy is a bit telegraphed too. I called that one immediately.
That being said, there are several things I really like about this book.
1. The world and technology: I love that it takes place in a not so distant future from our own with technology that we almost have now. And I like the few details we get about that technology. I'm definitely not a Neurologist, but I can totally buy the description of how Warcross works.
2. The ‘bad guy': He's not bad just because he's evil and has unfathomable motivations. He has motivations that we understand or can at least relate to.
3. The action: I'd read a book just about the action.
Overall, I enjoyed this book, although it took me 3 false starts before I could finally get more than a couple of chapters in. Unlike several books in these later stages of the series, I didn't notice any outright cutting and pasting from other Honorverse books; however, it's been a while since I've done a read-through. If there are complaints to be made (spoiler alert: there are), I have two major ones. First, I couldn't be more annoyed by some of the chapters if they had just been written entirely in Polish. Second, as much as I understand the need to set the scene, this book needed twice as much in the way of Manticoran or Havenite point of view and half as much from rebel leaders that we're probably never going to hear much from again.
I guess it never hurts to complain about the incomprehensible numbers being thrown around in the battle chapters. I skim those, but it still hurts my brain knowing they're there.
On the plus side, it's good to see that some characters are still kicking around. Loved that Scotty Tremaine was there captaining the RMS Alistair McKeon. Add in the others from the Saganami Island series, and you get a nice cast of familiar characters.
I don't know if I'll ever read this one again, but I'm glad I finally got through it.
It's good to see Anakin act like he cares about something. It adds a lot of depth to the man that will become Darth Vader. One thing that bugged me was the time involved. All of this happens over one or two days? The liberties taken with space travel were just too distracting
I want to live in the OASIS.
Any time I want a light easy read or need a pick-me-up I turn to Ready Player One. The words are always the same, but the adventures of Parzival, Art3mis, and Aech never disappoint me. I love all of it. The impossible odds, the love story, the puzzles. Every single bit is a piece of magic. The references to old video games, movies, television and everything else are like pieces of my past dripping off the page.
I cant' stress this enough. If you're wondering “should I read this book?” the answer is an emphatic YES! Everyone I've suggested it to has loved it.
The only complaint I have is that I know the answers to the puzzle as soon as I read the clue, but that's what happens when you read a book over and over.
If you want a special treat, check out the audiobook read by Wil Wheaton.
My Kindle, as much as I think it's the greatest device ever created, has done me a huge disservice. See, thanks to it I now know the structure of a book and end up reading most of them with little mental checkboxes ticking off as progress goes by. 25% complete - introduce all the main characters and set up “the situation”. 25-50% - expand on the situation and get the reader to like or identify with the characters. 50% - the real story starts. 75% - prepare for climax. 80-95% - the climax. 95-100% - aftermath.The thing I like most about this book is that it grabbed me from the first page and never had me checking those boxes.
Alex is a weird kid. He's legitimately a nerd, but that's ok because nerds are cool these days. His friendship with Mr. Peterson is unlikely, but it fits right in to the story. They're such an unlikely pair,and not in the way you might normally expect. Alex is the uptight one that is focused on rules and keeping clean; Mr. Peterson is a pot smoking, amnesty international fan with a killer library. The library is what brings the two of them together.
The climax was unexpected, and somewhat subdued. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It completely fit in with the story. Ultimately, it was sad but provided Alex with another growth opportunity.
I would be comfortable recommending this to someone that read and liked The Fault In Our Stars, and vice versa.
Similar enough to “World War Z” that you could call it “World War R”. In spite of that, it's a pretty fantastic book. I had to force myself to put it down and go to sleep one night and I wanted to get through it so much that I blew part of a work day finishing the last 25%.
Some great stories, some good stories, and some that I didn't like all that much. I did find a couple of authors that I'm interested in trying their work through this.
An excellent addition to the Demon War saga, but it might end in a cliffhanger. I think it's up in the air, but Peter V. Brett seems to think there's no cliffhanger. He's the author so he would know.
Thing I loved about this book: Inevera's storyline. She's got a lot of screen time, and she's a fantastic character.
Thing I HATED about this book: Arlen and Renna never use subjects when they're talking about themselves. It's all ‘Don't wanna go' and ‘Love you, Renna Tanner' and ‘Have to make the donuts'. Would it kill them to just add an “I” or a “You” in there? I loathe their dialect so much I want to kill it with fire.
Save your money and find it at your local library. There are too many plot twists and character changes for your suspension of disbelief to survive.
i have never laughed so hard reading a book. If the stories are half true, he's the biggest asshole to ever walk the earth.
There is no such thing as a bad honor Harrington book, even if they're short stories.