Paul

Such a great and engaging series of lectures! I feel like my head is bursting with cool facts and new perspectives. The lecturer's enthusiasm for the subject is obvious and he actually manages to work humour and stories into the lessons quite a lot, so it doesn't feel like you are just being bombarded with facts along a timeline.
He'll occasionally share famous poems, plays or tales from the time to give the listener a peek into the culture of the time, and with controversial historical figures such as Brutus in Rome or Theodora of Constantinople, he makes sure to offer competing perspectives in an unbiased manner.
The lectures are all half hour chunks making them perfect for listening to on a stroll or while working through a pile of dishes, and although it might feel like to much info to casually digest, there is a very thorough PDF accompaniment to refer back to at any time.
Highly recommended to anyone looking to round out their knowledge of history and ancient cultures.

This is my first time reading Robinson, and I was instantly floored by this man's skills as a writer. I have told my peers that if he didn't write genre fiction, he'd probably have a prestigious literary award to his name. His descriptions of the settings this story travel to alone are worth the read. At points, it felt like I was taking a guided tour of the solar system: riding the rings of Saturn, jogging along Mercury to stay ahead of the coming dawn, and my favourite part, public transit by way of hollowed out asteroids with man-made climates built inside. Just imagine the next time you travel being asked “on your way, would you like to experience the environment of an ice age expidition, safari, rain forest or rural France?”
The characters, philosophies and basically everything about this book is brilliant. In short, (cliche warning) it's a tour de force.
This book is about 15% plot, and the rest is concept, setting, and character, and that's the way I like it. But I hold back on 5 stars only because the lack of plot combined with the size of the book, and the long bouts of descriptive writing meant I had a hard time keeping momentum. When a side character's story came back to the fold, I would realize I'd forgotten what that character's part of the story was, and would get kind of lost. Maybe this is a 2020 problem as much as any (I was reading this when the second wave of COVID hit and the American election happened, and my attention was obviously strained) so maybe this is an unfair criticism. But such was my reading experience.
I recommend highly to any reader not afraid of a little detail, but not really for people who need a “page turner”.

This was exactly what I needed at this time: A gorgeous escapist tale full of imagination and adventure! This is something of a love story, where the love interest is Fantasy stories and books.
That said, it does not shirk from the realities of the real world. It has villains who believe they are the hero, the role of status, and its fluid nature. While the story is steeped in classic themes, the perspective is still unique.
Speaking of perspective, this is one of the best uses of first-person narration I have read. It's a fantastic story, beautifully told. Steeped in emotion and completely fulfilling, this is a must-read for fantasy lovers and book lovers in general!

The first volume was very promising, but this issue seals the deal. Mikasa is one of the best female characters in the genre (certainly my favourite), and this volume is all Mikasa! It's almost too bad that Eren comes back. This series would have been so groundbreaking if the first issue's classic ambitious, foolhardy young male protagonist ends up being eaten, and the series instead ends up being an action series starring an unstoppable young woman who sees titans as just a more obvious type of monster.
In this issue the world of the titans and the complexity of the characters' situation really opens up, and you start to see the depth of what this series can be. I watched some of the show before reading this series, so I know the twists are coming up, but it's really fun the second time around and just as gripping.

The writing and art was pretty cool, and the premise seemed really promising: a post-apocalyptic hellscape, where supervillains have taken control and Logan is just trying to live a normal life. That proves impossible of course, but then the story takes a sudden and unexpected turn. Logan finds himself back in the present day, but in an alternate history to his own, packed with slightly altered versions of classic Avengers.
This is what drives me crazy about Marvel. Why the constant need to integrate the staple Marvel characters into every series? Why the need to recycle stories and characters in “alternate universes”? And why does it take a smart guy like Logan sooo long to figure out that he is obviously in a different universe? Instead of staying in a unique world with unique characters, the story falls back on a revenge plot packed with psuedo-Avengers. The epilogue though goes back to the post-apocalyptic story, and like the intro, it is visceral, dark and gripping. I also really like the epilogue's artist.
So basically, half the story was great, but the other half was a little too generic, and sadly it seems like the generic half is the main story, so I'm not going to stick with the series. For those who like the classic Marvel characters and storylines, this might be a fun mix of classic avengers and dark originality, but the classic Marvel stuff just made me groan, personally.

A gripping portrait of the tragedy that inspired Moby Dick. I love these tails of being stuck in the middle of nowhere, and as far as the middle of nowhere goes, it doesn't get more bleak than 97 days in a boat in the dead zone of the Pacific Ocean! It's an incredible story told incredibly well.

I only hold back on the 5 star rating because I didn't really connect with the characters. Choosing to steer away from islands because they were scared to be eaten by scary natives, only to end up eating each other. And then eating the black people first (though probably not because of prejudice, the author points out) It all lessened my sympathy for their plight, but not in a fun love-to-hate way. Their plight was horrible, but I wasn't really rooting for them. The author does a good job of painting their career as a way of life, and their ignorance and poor choices as a result of culture and inexperience, but it didn't sell me.
Overall though, it was really interesting and entertaining. I'd say fun except a lot of people died horrible deaths...

The first of this series was equal parts original, thought provoking and thrilling. This one was a little heavier on the thrill and lighter on the rest, continuing but not really expanding on a fascinating alternative world of alchemically enslaved robots. It was a little heavy on war for my taste, though it was fitting with the story, and while I thoroughly enjoyed Daniel's story and the Talyrand's story, the pieces fit together a little too well. I might still listen to the third one, despite this being a little less than expected. I often find second books in a trilogy to be a little weak, so hopefully that's all it is.

These stories really stick with you. What a treasure of a collection! “Story of your Life” will definitely stick with me forever in a way the movie (also amazing) simply will not. This collection was actually not as hardcore sci-fi as I thought. Much of it was a meditation on the power of language, with science fiction being the tool he uses to discuss these ideas in. I highly recommend this collection to any lover of fiction, genre aside.
Except the math ones. The math ones are very mathy. I liked them, but they are probably not as universally appreciated as ones like Tower of Babylon or the others.

I read the prologue of this book and knew I was in for a treat. It was just a council meeting on a far flung space station, but it had all the promise of a giant complex world full of intrigue, action and imagination. And it delivered!
The bulk of the story follows an ambassador from that station navigating her way through the strange culture and politics of a massive empire that controls the space around them. She has two missions: don't let her station get annexed, and find out what happened to the last ambassador we sent. Oh, and protect the secret technology in her brain, obviously. Once I got a handle on the kind of world I was in, the plot moves fast. There's mysteries, lies, a 3-way battle for control of the empire, and in a completely unfamiliar world, no one she feels she can trust.
What really made the story for me though was the uniqueness of the world the author built. The empire is beautiful. Its culture is rich. Some of their traditions seem ancient despite their futuristic technology and dominance over the solar system. Other aspects of the culture simply imagine a world run differently. The main character is constantly torn between idolizing the Empire she's in, and resenting it for the power it wields and its increasing influence on her own world. It's a powerful concept that rings true throughout history and civilization, and because of how well this world is imagined, the reader can intrinsically understand how she feels.
Beyond making powerful statements about history, culture and civilization, the story also comments on technology's role on societies, and on relationships within a world of power imbalances. That sounds like a lot, but somehow the book does all this without feeling too heavy. In fact, when all was said and done, I really wanted more. The world is just so big and amazing, and written so well, I can't wait to see what the sequels will have in store!

What at first feels like an exposé of Silicon Valley's slimy underbelly quickly becomes a much more nuanced story about the role of the individual in a world driven, not just by data, but by manufactured ideals of the Good Life.
The author's voice is stark and honest. She has more than her fair share of stories to tell, but maintains a very true sense of being a semi-entitled, fairly well read normal person with no direction, trying to “make it” and always feeling like she's failing, mostly because she's not sure what succeeding is supposed to look like for her.
Her stories about sexism are shocking, her inside knowledge of data harvesting and disturbing content are every bit as juicy as you want them to be, but even though that's what I was hoping to find in this story, it all plays second fiddle to her internal struggles regarding trying to find purpose, and understand all the hypocrisies in modern society. It really helped me look at the world, and want to ask some fresh questions, like “why are the brightest minds in our time all just trying to optimize ad-tech?”
You should read this book.

I absolutely loved the first book in this series, and while I continue to love the protagonist and its development, I felt a bit let down by the book as a whole.
For such a short book, it took a while to get going, and overall, I just didn't care for the storyline much. The world building was also a bit confusing. I found it difficult to know what was and was not possible for characters to do. The ship's artificial intelligence (ART) was a fantastic character, but its abilities bordered on omniscient, and I couldn't really wrap my head around it. Murderbot could also instantly hack and alter pretty much everything she interacted with, and the playful way it's all explained doesn't actually clarify much.
The first book didn't do much explaining either, but the setting was much more controlled, so I didn't mind the lack of detail at all. Now though, Murderbot is traveling into new parts of a bigger world with more diverse tech, but can still somehow instantly hack everything. It just left me feeling a little adrift.
The strength of All Systems Red may get me to read the third book, but I'm less sure I want to continue the series now. I want to keep reading about Murderbot, but I'm just not sure one kick ass character can carry four novellas and a novel.

This was a pretty fantastic concept book, but I struggled with the level of detail given to the development of the cultures in this story. I generally have no problem with big detailed books, but multiple times I found myself wondering why I was supposed to care about, for example, the gender politics of giant spiders. Yes, there are parallels to our society, yes, it was a very good thought experiment, and yes, it all came together in a way that made most of the seemingly unnecessary details necessary, but it caused the story to drag and feel drawn out in my opinion.
The same could be said for the human component of the book. I was a bit more connected to them, compared with the spiders because the characters were consistent. Also, it was fun to always be “woken up” in the same ship only to find out a whole new culture and world had developed. Even with them though, I found half the chapters to be kind of irrelevant.
When the book was over, I thought it was a cool way to bring an original story together, and very clever through and through, but the journey of reading this book was a little trying, and I actually switched from reading to listening so that I could just power-listen through the chapters I didn't care about. I found myself waiting impatiently for more to happen, and when stuff finally did happen, it was all at the end and shockingly sudden. I wanted to know how the two civilizations meshed, and that ended up being just one chapter, which disappointed me a little.
So good story, cool idea, but not what I hoped, and I feel that the hype around this book is somewhat misplaced.

Very poetic and beautifully written. I particularly liked the Red character. Due to its style, it lacks momentum, but I don't hold that against it. I actually found it somewhat meditative.

This woman's creativity knows no bounds! This collection has so many fantastic stories, and I personally hope that she writes some long-form sci-fi some day because her sci-fi shorts knocked me out. They were unlike any futuristic stories I read before and just perfectly on point on so many levels!
This is one of those collections I know I'll keep going back to. And give to my daughters when they're old enough to get it. Thanks to the author for sharing her creative gifts to the world.

Another fantastic addition to this amazing series! The creativity of this writing team seems to know no bounds, as they create yet another intriguing and detailed world with fascinating characters.
There's the duty bound representative of the “bad guys” who seems to be a really good guy, almost Ned Starkian in his sense of honour; a wife who is driven by a need for scientific success becoming a vigilante in an effort to overcome corruption; and a great antihero who has made a few small appearances in the cannon but who hopefully will have a bigger role in the final novel.
You don't know who to root for and the whole time, the question of what is right and what is wrong is a total unknown, making this a very fun little story to follow along.

I was a big fan of the concept and the story kept me going. After all, Martin sure knows how to weave an intriguing murder mystery, and he's a hell of a world builder. But the end fell flat for me, and I wasn't a big fan of the art. The fantastical scenes looked cool but the people all seemed overly cartoonish and the facial expressions all looked the same, so as a graphic novel fan, I was pretty let down.
I was looking for something light hearted and it fulfilled that need, and I'd maybe read more of this since I liked the world, but a bunch of little things bugged me, so I probably wouldn't prioritize it.

All Filler, No Thriller

The whole book is pretty much setting up the next part of the series. Very little actually happens in this one, which I find very upsetting.
I have always liked not loved this series, mostly because it is light on concept and originality, but heavy on cool characters and excitement. This one had little character development and practically no excitement, so it was a huge let down.

I don't think I'm going to keep reading this series because what seemed like a fresh pre-civilization concept is falling into an old trope about elves, men, dwarves, with some people who can do magic and they have wars. Been there done that, and if you're going to just stretch the crap out of the story so you can keep putting out books every year, I'm out.

I was so shocked when this book ended because I thought we were just about to get to the interesting part, but my audiobook just stopped and ran the credits, and I was left thinking “Seriously? That's it?!” This book could have been written in three chapters, so if you're more committed to this story than I am, maybe wait for the next book and read a summary of this one.

4.5
Incredibly powerful and impactful

“Nora said, ‘That's why I picked you... Because you'll understand. It was a ghost town. Some of those boys were dear friends.'”
This is one of those books that is way more than it initially seems while you're reading it. In fact, if I didn't stop once in a while to reflect on the story, I wouldn't have liked it as much. There are parts of the book that made me wonder why it was even included in the story, particularly in the 2015 chapters, but also the details of Yale's art dealings in the 80s. (The book's chapters flip from the 1980s to 2015)
But this is because despite what one might get from the blurb, this isn't simply about the AIDS epidemic in Chicago's gay community, it is also about how we as individuals and societies reckon with unspeakable atrocities. The book is peppered with major world events besides AIDS, and while the characters around it all stop to feel really horrible about it, their own issues quickly take over as being more important. Of course this is natural, and even one of the main characters admits in 2015 that that “Deep down, she didn't care quite on the same visceral level about the ongoing AIDS crisis in Africa”.
Understanding this, the book also contains a side story about a woman's time in post-WWI France, and shows striking similarities between what the war did to a generation of young men in Europe and culture more broadly, and what AIDS did to a generation of young men and culture in America. The book then begs the question of whether the AIDS crisis should be remembered in the same light as the Challenger explosion - of something that happened in the 80s that was really sad - or in the same light as a great war - a key point in our culture's history in which many thousands of innocent young men died far too young - and makes a strong argument for the latter perspective.
Quote from near the end of the book: "I keep thinking of Nora's stories about the guys who just shut down after the war. This is a war, it is. It's like you've been in the trenches for seven years. And no one's gonna understand that. No one's gonna give you a Purple Heart."
Of course, in popular culture, the story of AIDS in America is treated more like simply a sad thing that happened, and there was a quilt and a concert, and now we can talk about something else. And after reading how these gay characters talked about their situation in light of the politics and the stigma of that time, one can't help but think that we treat it as lesser because our culture still sees LGBTQ people and culture as something separate from the rest of our culture, and so AIDS is a sad thing that happened to them and their society, and somehow even though we know better than to treat it as a “gay cancer” now, it still isn't treated like something that happened to all of us. The massive loss of life is all of our loss, like the great wars, and we should treat it that way.
The 2015 parts of the book also have a lot going for them, along the same themes of what matters most to us, and what should matter most, and how we prioritize how and who we love. But I feel I'm rambling, and that part impacted me less viscerally, so I'll avoid going on about other themes I kind of liked, and just encourage you to read the book.

This is the best one yet, hands down! At this point, the story could ride on the laurels of the character depth and storyline that has been laid down by previous books, but the intensity and creativity just keep getting better, and the story is more epic than ever.
I have no idea how they are going to wrap this story up in the next novel, facing off against the most unimaginable enemy yet, but I'm sure I'll love every second of it. Then there will be a black hole in my yearly reading where the Expanse novels once were...

An emotionally turbulent story, and a force of moral philosophical ideas. Hugo's writing in this book shows why he is not just among the 19th century's greatest writers but one of its greatest minds over all.
I may not agree with all of his philosophies, but I commend him for how eloquently he addresses the big questions. What does it mean to be a good person? What is it to be miserable, and how can we find joy in a world so full of misery? All this is addressed completely all while telling a heart-wrenching tale.
And if you think you know the story because you watched the musical or the movie, no. You don't. Some of the most central characters in the book get maybe a line or two if that in the movie, and the way all the characters intermingle is genius.

All that said, I would highly recommend reading a quality abridgement. You can cut out massive chunks of this book without any loss of quality to the story or even the philosophies within this book. For example, there are about 8 chapters about the history of Paris' sewage system, and 5 chapters about why it's ok to write in slang. If you skip over those entirely, you would lose nothing.

I highly recommend this to anyone with an interest in the history of France or an interest in moral philosophy. For just the touching story though, abridge.

The book starts off from the perspective of an ant, which was certainly neat but it went on endlessly and after a while I just found it irritating. This turned out to predicate how I would feel about the rest of the book in general.
We then learn a strange new fact about the aliens: they cannot lie or deceive nor do they even understand the concept of deception. This tidbit becomes the crux of the book: how can you use deception to defeat the incoming aliens and their superior technology. Again, neat but ultimately irritating.

For mostly inexplicable reasons, the UN decides to give infinite resources to four people to deceive the aliens who are watching them, giving the hope of humanity to these people without ever knowing what they're up to. Oh and they can live for 400 years through cryotech that apparently exists now. Also, for equally logical reasons, thinking about leaving the planet is against the law. Also the entire book is 600 pages and only 4 chapters.
I enjoy a challenging read as much as anyone (maybe more), but the only thing this challenged was my patience.

The book leaves plotlines dangling all over the place, takes tangents such as 20 pages about a guy's imaginary girlfriend, and takes leaps of logic that are frankly ridiculous.

After the first book, this was an enormous disappointment. The unique combination of cutting edge science, revolutionary history and philosophy in the first book hooked me, despite some issues I had with characters and plot direction. This book has none of that, but instead inflates all the author's shortcomings by focusing on the author's Socialogical ideas and theories of what an apocalypse would look like. They are not good.
According to the author, there seems to be only two types of people in the world: nihilistic geniuses and idiots. That shallow philosophy should not be 600 pages long.
I gave up after 130 pages, and that's really upsetting because I thought this would be my next favourite sci-fi series. Oh well, better books await...

This series is a combination of little stories, where each chapter is basically a different story, longer stories that take up a full volume, and of course the overlying story of the Sandman's development in his world and with his family. In my opinion, the shorter the stories, the better.
This volume really plays with the stories within a story style of this series, by going what I would call “full Inception style”. This whole volume takes place in an inn full of curious characters, making it sort of a continuous story. However, each chapter is a different character telling a story, making it feel more like a collection of little stories. Then it goes further when a bunch of the chapters are about characters who hear unusual stories. Next thing you know, you're reading a story within a story within a story, and in one chapter, there's another level of stories, which results in just getting lost in an ocean of little stories. Then in the last chapter, you get pulled right out of the ocean of stories to remind the reader that this is all in the world of the story of the Endless.
This was an incredibly unique little volume full of great stories and fantastic art: each character's story had its own artist, which was conceptually brilliant. If someone asked me “What's so special about The Sandman?” I'd probably hand them this volume.
I'm holding back on 5 stars, because as with other volumes, there were parts of the larger story that felt dissonant, like there was a number of ideas Gaiman wanted to portray, and a few didn't quite hit the mark. For example, one of the characters points out that there's no relevant feminine perspective in any of the stories, but then when given a chance to tell her story she just talked about being uninteresting and lonely. Was that the feminine story? It wasn't even a story. It was like Gaiman noticed he had no good female perspective, then decided to point it out himself so that people can't criticize him about it. An odd tactic to address gender inequality in his series, and one that in my opinion didn't work.
Still though, I liked most of what is going on here, and with the last chapter, I'm eager to see what's next.

3.5
Reading this book made two things very clear for me:
1. This is a landmark novel wherein LeCarre elevated what a spy thriller can be
2. No matter how brilliant a spy thriller is, they are just not my thing

I borrowed this from a friend because I mentioned a recent interest cold war history and wanted to read a classic cold war story, and when he offered this book, it seemed right on the mark. I recognized LeCarre's name, and reading the introduction, I learned that he was himself a British spy during the cold war, so it was definitely a good recommendation.
I don't think it's an exaggeration to say he's the Tolkien of spy thrillers. If you've ever seen an unusually good spy movie, chances are it was based on one of his books. This book is probably the best book of this kind that I've ever read. The twist at the end doesn't just surprise you (and because this style has been mimicked for 60 years, it might not surprise you at all) but it also makes you think. It makes a powerful statement about perspectives of good and evil, and questions the concepts of whether ends can justify means.
It was a great read and very cool.
Why am I rating it less than 4 Stars then? Because on a personal level, I just get uninterested in descriptions of espionage. Reading what's essentially transcripts of a fictional interrogation, interview and/or court proceeding never appealed to me as a reader. I find some of the games of guessing the whodunnit or the hidden scheme to be amusing, but I never feel engaged imaginatively or emotionally like I do with other genres.
It's an objective 5 Star book, and I really enjoyed it, but it's just not my style.

Call me crazy but I'm just not overly fond of the family dynamic of the Endless, and this series, which surrounds Delirium's quest to find their estranged brother Destruction, solidified that feeling in a way. That said, the last two chapters do bring the rest of the story together quite well, and redeemed the previous chapters for me.
There's just certain inconsistencies that don't make sense for me, like why do all the Endless have a realm. When people dream they enter that realm, and that also makes sense with death and maybe delirium, but people do not enter the realm of destruction when they destroy, for example. Basically the role of these characters and their realms seems inconsistent, and it kind of bugs me. This volume addresses aspects of that towards the end, as Destruction points out that there is no need for him to direct or interfere in the destructive changes of the universe, but it still seems like these characters are created more for the lyricism and alliteration than for any deep purpose of the aspects' role in life.
This was a classic journey tale, well told and full of wisdom with meditations on change and the role of reason in our lives. It is beautifully drawn. It is a vital work of literature, but considering this series' legendary status, I felt this volume a little trying.

This book has all the grand visions of science and philosophy that the best classic sci-fi stories had, but with a far grimmer and more brutal perspective, making this a very unique and cool read. The science in this book is cutting-edge and complex, but applied to the story in an undeniably cool way. Another telling old-school trait is the focus on concepts over characters; all the characters are uber-competent professionals lacking any notable personalities . I have mixed feelings over the author's choice not to make the characters relatable, because though I respect the focus on the grander ideas within the book, I don't think giving the characters a bit more depth would have hurt the story.

Speaking of scale, I absolutely love the way the author integrated the work of philosophers and scholars from Eastern and Western history. I gushed at the way some of my favourite historical figures came to life, and became very curious about the ones I didn't know. Using these characters in the “game” portions of the book, in combination with the cutting edge science of the modern era, this book covers old science in unique and fun ways, and at the same time, comes up with incredibly unique ideas for how current theoretical science in applied ways, all while not feeling overwhelming or overly academic.

Finally, there is the cultural colouring of having the story take place around revolutionary and post-revolutionary China. This definitely created a dark and somewhat nihilistic tone over what could easily have been a story of triumph and hope. While an impending apocalypse is typically met with resistance, many characters in this story welcome it with open arms. My instinct was to think that as an unrealistic reaction, but when you think back to the brutality of the revolution portrayed in the opening chapters and scattered throughout, it starts to make more sense than I would like it to.

UPDATE: I originally omitted mentioning another less than admirable old school trait in this book: his female characters are notoriously shallow and in the case of the main character's wife, straight up cringe-worthy. I thought that since there was at least a respectable spread of smart female characters, harping on this when really all his characters are somewhat two dimensional was overkill.
But this problem gets much worse in the sequel, as does his more odd sociological ideas.
Consider this a warning. If, like me, you loved the scientific theories, and cool takes on history and historical figures, then leave the series now, because the sequels had none of that as far as I read. It's all about tricking the aliens and their sophons. So if you like the author's odder philosophies and the concept of sophons, read on, otherwise, stop now!