Jason Cox
Alan Dean Foster's Flinx and Pip series has been one I've been reading for going on 40 years now, maybe longer, though I still haven't finished it completely.
This is one of my favorites, though. Flinx continues his quest to discover more about his origins including the Meliorare society and his family. At the same time, he remains on the run from various groups who are trying to hunt him down.
In this installment, Flinx travels back to old Earth and finds a “lead” that leads him on something of a wild goose chase and several different planets in another system controlled by the hostile Aan. I won't spoil the “reunion” of the title, but will say that several events from previous books are recalled. It honestly makes me want to go back and re-read the earlier books in the series.
At any rate, I thought this was a good and fun read. If you've read the earlier books in the series, you'll likely enjoy this one, too. This is just a fun space opera with interesting travels and characters.
Interesting comparison of the Jouvenelian model vs the Liberal model in our current political world order.
This isn't a book to start with if you don't have the prerequisites of having read Bertrand de Jouvenel or at least having read summaries or other content to understand where C.A. Bond is coming from. But if you do have that background, then this work really helps you see how power structures work. This edition shows how almost all current Western political trends are towards centralization of power and ties together so many things, including foundations, various “marginalized people movements,” political science as a science, international organizations, etc.
The first of the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett, The Color of Magic isn't necessarily the best place to start the series.
This novel is a fair introduction, though and centers around the two main characters - Rincewind, a failed wizard and Twofeathers, the Discworld's first tourist. Twofeathers hires Rincewind to be his travel guide. Then they find themselves venturing to the very edge of the world... and beyond.
I'm glad I started the series with Guards Guards because those characters are much more interesting and I think Pratchett's writing was better by the time he wrote that. But The Color of Magic is still a worthwhile and entertaining read. Rincewind and Twofeathers are just kind of blah characters (so far). My hope is that they'll get more interesting as the plot advances in future books.
In brief, this is a spy novel set in West Berlin in the early 60's just after the Berlin Wall was constructed by the Soviets.
Centering on a group of spies operating out of a station called the Cabin, Dan Wells does a good job of integrating the importance and regular use of cryptography in this high-stress time of the Cold War. The main character is a cryptographer who gets a little too deeply involved in operations as his boss suspects a mole in their group.
This was quick and fun. Well worth the read!
Sowell's books are uniformly interesting.
This one focuses on the policies and political strategies surrounding Obama's first 4 years. This makes it a bit dated, though it clearly shows how correct Mr. Sowell was in his prediction of how things would turn out.
Though I'm giving this one 3 stars, it really deserves more because he's accurate throughout. It just deserved to be read in 2010-12.
Harry's troubles with the various courts of Vampires continue, with him battling against Black, Red, and White courts at various points throughout this fun read.
The key to this novel is you learn more about his family and mentor in ways that I expect will have long-running impact in upcoming novels.
This book is fantastic. The fact that it was written & published in 1995 makes it even more prescient.
The Killing Star starts with a bang - literally - with distant outposts of humanity making first witness of aliens entering the solar system by lighting their deceleration thrusters simultaneously in the outer region of the solar system. Shortly thereafter, multiple precision strikes by relativistic bomb strike all of the obvious human settlements on various solar system bodies. After this, any sign of communication by stragglers is attacked ruthlessly, leaving only a few straggling and isolated groups of humans.
The rest of the story centers various storylines on these groups as they fight for survival.
This is a super example of hard SF. There are so many topics that are touched on to influence the plotlines. Discussion of genetic engineering. Antimatter drives. Relativistic bombs. Interstellar travel. Artificial intelligence. Nanobots. So much, and all pretty well used, though not super deep.
There is first contact and interaction.
Then there are some principles of alien contact that really explore the “Dark Forest” theory of the Fermi Paradox. And honestly, it is an extremely persuasive argument.
If you enjoyed the 3 Body Problem, this is a must read. Finished it in a day (which is a real rarity for me these days)
The 5th installment of the Bobiverse is a total banger!
With the threat of the Others behind them, there are new risks and challenges coming from every direction, even from within the Bob like itself. One set of Bobs discovers a wormhole network that leads them to discover an existential threat so large that it literally changes everything. Meanwhile replicative drift causes the Skippies to go off on their own and they create a new enemy from within that is a threat of almost the same level.
Hard not to give spoilers by going any further. Let's just say that if you're a fan of the Bobiverse books, it's unlikely you'll be disappointed in book 5. I enjoyed it more than Heaven's River.
This is a fantastic exposition on how the “culture” is waging war against Christians, Christian values and pretty much everything we stand for.
Well worth a read if you are a Christian, especially if you have children. It exposes the differences between the Christian Worldview and the cultural worldview and how they conflict.
Do yourself a favor and get prepared for this battle. Keeping your head in the sand is effectively throwing your children and your values to the wolves. Too many believers have been doing this for far too long and now it's time to realize the fight we are in.
I feel like in the 3rd volume of Malazan, I'm finally starting to get to know some of the characters. The cast as a whole is still huge and unlike most anything else I've read (other than WoT). I did utilize the Malazan wiki, though, which really helped.
There's too much going on in this book to go through things in any detail, so I'll be really general. I have started to enjoy the writing style. The characters are quite interesting and very diverse in style (too many authors have essentially the same character or trope everywhere... there's little of that here). And this book has some fantastic battle scenes and those are very well written.
3 books into the series, and knowing there are a total of 10 of these... this is going to be a multi-year slog.
This was a very well done short piece by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Enjoyed it thoroughly.
Tells the tale of a 4th daughter who seeks the assistance of an ancient ally, a sorcerer in a distant tower, in order to save her kingdom from a demonic threat approaching in kingdoms nearby.
The twist is that the “sorcerer” is actually an anthropologist who is supposed to be simply monitoring these people, who are descendants of colonists from Earth many generations past. He's not supposed to intervene or help. He's already broken his strict creed before, so why is he getting involved again?
Good story with a good ending.
Interesting non-fiction book about the human dopamine system and how it drives us to do the things we do. With some discussion of the norepinephrine neurotropics as well.
Seems pretty neutral in tone and both interesting and enlightening. Could probably use a chapter on how we can manipulate our own systems to achieve better outcomes, but overall still a worthy read.
The third installment of the Elric saga continues the story with Elric leading a navy from the Young Kingdoms to return to his city in an attempt to rescue Cymoril from her brother, the usurper of Elric's throne. Unfortunately, the story turns tragic, as seemed to be his fate.
All-in-all, a very good read. Michael Moorcock's writing style is fantastic and these books stand as the foundation of quite a bit of the genre of fantasy. Well worth the read.
This book appears to start just after the events of Elric of Melnibone. In looking for the best reading order... there doesn't really appear to be one, and Moorcock's writing seems to stand up to an asynchronous read from any proposed reading order anyway.
In The Fortress of the Pearl, Elric has set out on a journey to the young kingdoms in order to discover a better way to rule the people of Melnibone. He quickly makes friends and just as quickly makes enemies and finds himself blackmailed into going on an epic quest. This was a fantastic and fun read.
Again, I'm sad I didn't read these much earlier in life!
It's hard to believe it's taken me this long to get to the Elric saga, but I'm so glad I did! It is immediately evident how much influence this series has had on the whole genre. And with classic fantasy, you get very quick stories, as well. The series includes quite a few books, but at 200 pages or less, it goes quickly and seems to force the author to concentrate their concepts, characterizations, and prose. Extremely “refreshing” in this day/age of series of 17 800+ page books.
One of my favorite series all-time is the Vlad Taltos series by Steven Brust and there is clearly huge influence here. Love it! Already starting book two after devouring the first in a day.
This book is a bit of a whirlwind with main characters that shift and weave through the book, while always remaining interesting. The SF concepts are extremely interesting and one of the major themes of the book is immortality. Specifically, how long would you have to live and how much good would you have to do to overcome some amount of evil you did early in your life.
The author does a great job of changing your perception on the characters in the second half of the book, which may be jarring for some. I can't say much more about that without major spoilers. But it is done well and actually in a plausible way, given the constraints of his universe. Speaking of which, his universe is very broad and well thought-out. There are aliens who are very nearly incomprehensible, but still quite interesting. Relativistic space travel is also considered throughout the book with generation ships featuring throughout.
In the end, I highly recommend this book. I wish I had read it before Revelation space and will need to go back and re-read that one now to see if it is more digestible on the 2nd time around.
After finishing Blindsight, I didn't think I'd go forward with reading the “sequel” until i discovered I had already bought the audiobook version. Why not go ahead and get this one done while I still remembered some of Blindsight.
This book is very similar in a number of ways. Very similar prose (not a strength, in my opinion, but it may be intentionally written to be confusing to us “normies.”) Actually occurs in a concurrent timeframe to Blindsight. Similar themes. And also carries a cast of characters with serious mental issues that the author attempts to portray as strengths.
While I don't find myself agreeing with many of the ideology that is clearly forwarded by the author, it still made for an interesting read. For some reason, I actually enjoyed this one more than the first. It may be that the main character being essentially a “normie” makes him more identifiable as a protagonist. Thrown into a situation more or less against his will. Those are things we can understand and enjoy. I will say that the “universe” that Watts creates is very interesting and well done - worth exploring. The situations are a bit bizarre, but most of the characters' actions make sense in light of their circumstances. This is one area that Blindsight suffered (again, that may have been intentional from the author).
Overall, I'd give this one 3.5 stars. It does make me wonder if there were a 3rd novel in the universe, would I pick it up? Maybe.
Re-reading this for the first time in 20+ years. It was great! Brin has a fantastic way of weaving anthropology into his science fiction in a way that makes for super interesting characters and situations you just don't see elsewhere.
The Uplift War takes place in the timeframe immediately after Startide Rising and details a conflict between (mostly) the Neo-Chimpanzees (and a few individual humans and Tymbrimi) and the Gubru who have laid siege to the planet Garth, which is a new Chimpanzee lease world with a huge recovery effort necessary to redeem it from previous mismanagement and ecologic disaster.
Over the past 50 years (roughly my lifetime) Western civilization has gone from an overwhelmingly Christian-morality-based culture to one which is actively anti-Christian with the promotion of hate towards people who walk in the Christian faith. Many will say this sentiment is far overblown, but that is the typical take of those who support “the current thing.” Time will tell.
In the meantime, what can those of us who hold to historic Christianity and Biblical truth? This book is a good discussion of that, though far from exhaustive. It's really more of an “introduction” to the concept, but one that most Christians should read. As a group, we have a tendency to avoid getting involved. To make statements like “the pendulum always swings back eventually.” But the time for that type of passive thinking is past and if something isn't done, your rights as an American to live your faith may well be seriously impacted.
This book gets a lot of raves, and I did enjoy it. But it wasn't all that amazing compared to the hype it gets. I think this will be an especially powerful book if you are significantly neurodivergent, which is “all the rage” with readers these days. I swear everyone thinks of themselves as neurodivergent. Whatever.
As it comes to the story... the characters are interesting. They could literally all be fleshed out better. The circumstances the crew find themselves in is a bit hard to follow at times and I think that part could be more clearly written.
3.5 stars.
Not sure if I'll follow up with the next in series.
Get ready to dive (pun intended) into the captivating world of David Brin's Startide Rising, a sci-fi adventure that stands the test of time! Even after a couple of decades, this book still manages to deliver a thrilling and thought-provoking experience. Brin's writing style is as straightforward as it gets, cutting through the fluff and getting right to the heart of the story.
In this series, Earth has become a member of the Galactic Civilization, but it's far from a peaceful coexistence. The story unfolds primarily on the spaceship Streaker, crewed by a diverse mix of humans and uplifted dolphins, as they find themselves in possession of a secret that could shift the balance of power among the galaxy's many races. You discover early in the novel that the crew has landed on a water world with some compatibility for the Terran crew, especially the dolphins. This was necessary due to the crew's discovery of a previously unknown race, with implication that they may be related to the mythical “progenitors.” Many predatory galactic races chase the single mostly-dolphin-crewed ship to forcibly take the prize of this discovery before the information can be claimed by the human-coalition.
The characters in Startide Rising are just as direct as Brin's prose, but don't let that fool you. There's plenty of intrigue to be found, especially when it comes to the villains. And here's the kicker: not all of them are alien! Brin keeps you guessing, wondering who's friend and who's foe in this interstellar tale.
But what really makes this series shine is the fascinating exploration of the relationships between humans and other species, both those from Earth and those from distant galaxies. Brin's anthropology background is on full display here, and it's impossible not to get caught up in the complex dynamics between the various races. The interactions are so well-crafted that you'll find yourself pondering the implications long after you've turned the final page.
So, if you're in the mood for a fun, thought-provoking read that will keep you entertained from start to finish, give Startide Rising a go. It was definitely as good as I remember it being.
The vastness of this epic is really becoming clear in this 2nd installment of Malazan Book of the Fallen. There is so much going on, yet you get the feeling there is still an element of prelude to whatever is being set up to come. Enjoyed it immensely and looking forward to book 3.
So far, my favorite characters are Kalam, Crokus, Apsalar, and Duiker. One nice thing about this series is that I'm finding each thread pretty equally enjoyable from an attention-standpoint. In most series that switch from thread to thread on a per-chapter basis, there are some threads that I cannot wait to end so I can get to the one(s) I'm enjoying. In Malazan, thus far, they've all been really good. I hope that trend continues. If the author succeeds in this over the course of a 10-book series, it would be a near-miraculous feat.
