Jason Cox
While this isn't the official ending of the Ender saga, I think it serves as a pretty reasonable practical ending.
A couple of years ago, I re-read Ender's Game followed by Speaker for the Dead and then right on to Xenocide, all of which were pretty fantastic. I originally started CotM at that time, but just couldn't get into it, making it about 20% of the way in before setting it aside. This time I got the audiobook (first Ender book I've listened in audio format) and I think that really helped. TBH, I also “cheated” and read the summary on wikipedia. In the previous novels, Peter was always a very hated character for me, so him being featured prominently (though not really!) is what I think kept me from getting into it previously. That's where the summary helped me conceptually, because I was better oriented to what was going on.
That said, this is a pretty good story that resolves the main story line that occurs starting in SftD and continues in Xenocide, ending that book in something of a cliff-hanger
-At the end of Xenocide, the Starways Congress has decided the Descolada virus is such a threat to all of humanity that even quarantine isn't sufficient to mitigate the risk, so they order the star fleet to destroy the planet with the Mini-Doctor device. Simultaneously, they have discovered the existence of Jane and see her not as another sentient species, but as a malicious virus/threat infecting their systems, so they secretly enact a plan to shut down the ansible network upon which she exists as her neural network.This book covers:a. How the xenobiologists on Lusitania create an antidote to the descolada virus, which involves extreme manipulation of space/timeb. That has a side effect of allowing instantaneous interstellar travelc. It has another side effect that ends up in Ender being split into 3 bodies and a few other side effects as well.d. There are several missions relating to 2 major objectives: getting Starways Congress to rescind their order; finding habitable planets to evacuate the species and residents of Lusitaniae. Finally, there's a little side-shoot discussing how Jane might be saved.Personally, I felt it was a satisfying conclusion to this series. I don't feel a great desire to get into the 5th book and reviews on that one aren't stellar (pun-intended). However, I enjoy the series well enough to look into Bean's "Shadow" series, so that will likely be tackled before too long. I understand the 2 series "come together" in the 5th book, so maybe I'll tackle it then.
I just plain didn't enjoy this. Despite being pretty right-wing in general, very little about this book struck me as either useful, original, or interesting. And the writing style was just plain horrible. While I do think that was an intentional choice by the author, I reserve the right to not enjoy it at all.
Good prose is an enjoyable experience to a reader. There was nothing resembling that here.
This was a pretty fun read, which felt a lot like a Jack Reacher novel or something similar. Characters were OK with believable decision-making.
The story premise was interesting: it's the near future and certain genetic engineering has come of age, but has already had unintended consequences, with a gene mod intended to kill mosquitos leading to a worldwide famine and significant human die-off. The gene scientist who designed and released the fateful mod was the protagonist's mother and he bore the brunt of punishment for the incident but now works for an agency fighting against rogue genetic engineering groups to prevent future similar mistakes.
That's the set-up, and from there, it's essentially a thriller that is fun. but not overly deep.
William Gibson's ability to throw curve-balls and create unique, interesting near future worlds that resemble our own just enough to be plausible is clearly displayed in this fantastic story. It'll be interesting to see how Amazon did in turning this into a streaming series, but even more I'm looking forward to reading Agency soon. I will say, The Peripheral might require a rapid-re-read to digest properly.
Interesting story, though pretty standard fare in the “thriller” genre. The main protagonist is well characterized and the supporting cast are interesting and believable. There is a tiny bit of twist at the end to make the plot somewhat more interesting. Dugoni's prose is pretty solid. Overall, good book.
I had read these books back in my teenage years, but had completely forgotten the stories, plotlines, and characters. My only memory that remained was a sense of “oddness” that rang true in this reading. Overall a “Meh” from me, which may not be fair. TBH, Perelandra was superior to Out of the Silent Planet and from what I understand, the 3rd installment is the best of the series, but after reading the first two back-to-back and seeing the length of #3 (That Hideous Strength), I just didn't feel I could jump right in. Something about this series is reminiscent of the Madeleine L'Engle books, though for some reason I enjoyed those much more.
While the concept is interesting, it feels very dated. Not dated as in “1960's” SF. But rather more like 1860's SF would be. Like a retrofuturistic exploration of alienness that doesn't resonate with the way we think of things now. Kind of like an HG Wells book. Not that the writing or concept or characters were bad. Just not something I greatly enjoyed. Meh.
Having heard so many wonderful things about GK Chesterton for years now, I decided this would be the year I would explore some of his works. The question is “where do you start” and there is no clear answer to that. Personally, I would suggest starting here. Nicolle has created a good way to dip your toes into the waters of Chesterton's works in a way that will get you interested and help you understand what you're getting into. Glad I started here.
Solid full novel
I've really enjoyed the series as a whole. All of the familiar elements are present, but the additional length was used well by Ms. Wells to add new characters (vastly expanded cast compared to the novellas), deeper plot, and of course to further develop the cast of characters we've already come to know alongside our fabulous Murderbot.
The crux of this tome is the discussion of Jesus Christ as Lord. MacArthur lays out the argument that the idea of “easy believism salvation” where a person states they accept Christ as Saviour without also accepting Him as Lord is not consistent with the Bible and specifically with Jesus' own statements.
Obviously, if you aren't a Christian, this discussion doesn't apply to you. If you DO claim to be a Christian, it's a very good idea to consider what that means and what should be expected of a Christian. Given the widespread nature of progressive Christianity and other versions of “Christianity-lite” (not to mention cultural Christianity) wherein people maintain beliefs that are widely incompatible with actual Biblical Christianity, along with the large numbers of “pastors” who preach these very principles, you might find yourself in a church where things are taught that are not Biblical. Heck, there are polls that reveal significant percentages of people who call themselves “Christian” don't believe Jesus died, or that he wasn't resurrected, or that he didn't actually perform miracles, or that he didn't die to atone for our sins. These are all important things to consider, and the standard upon which we should turn to consider them is the Bible.
John MacArthur, as always, does an excellent job of taking the question to the Bible and getting to the very source of the matter. He shows what Jesus expected of his disciples and Apostles. And what the Apostles taught their churches based on Jesus' teaching. It's really quite clear: A Christian cannot claim faith in Christ without also turning over their EVERYTHING to the Lordship of Christ. You can cling to Christ, OR your sins, but not both. If you are doing the latter, you do not have the Holy Spirit within you. That doesn't mean we won't sin, but Christians will find themselves fighting against their sin nature.
Strong men make good times.
Good times make weak men.
Weak men make hard times.
Hard times make strong men.
Most of us have heard this saying at some point. But have you thought of the implications of this? Is there reason to believe this is even true?
The authors have taken the time to look into this and recognize there is a recurrent pattern through the history of Anglo-American civilization. Generations have characteristics based on where they are in the cycle (which turning). Cycles come in roughly 80 to 100-year periods (called saeculum). Our saeculum started with WW2.
This book was written in 1997 and is remarkably prescient and accurate on timing. As I've read through it, I've been amazed at the things they point out and predicted. It somewhat reminds me of Asimov's concept of psychohistory from the Foundation books. It's hard to predict what specifically will happen, but they do predict that something significant will happen in the early 2000's to end the 3rd turning and send us into the 4th turning and that in 2020-2025 there will be a major crisis.
We're right on time, folks. One of the most interesting sections of the book was the end where they talk about what actions we should consider taking these things into account. Sadly, it appears our world's leadership haven't read the book as they're not doing ANY of the things mentioned. Sadly, on a more local and individual level people aren't either. At least that can be attributed to ignorance. Now that you've read this review, don't let yourself fall into that category. I wish I had read this 10-15 years ago.
This series has been surprisingly good. Characters and situations are consistent and interesting with decisions that make sense. Plenty of intrigue, danger and suspense.
The way this one closed, though, it has to be the final book in the series. It's a satisfying conclusion, though, and if you've read the first few in the series, it's worthwhile sticking it out to the end.
Well done, Marko Kloos. Well done.
This 4th book in The Dresden Files is the best one to date. As usual, Harry Dresden is in the middle of a mess that is far bigger than him, but into which he is intimately embroiled. At risk: Not only his own life (which is forfeit from any number of directions), but also the balance of the entire realm of Fairy. Billy and the Wolf Gang are there to help along with a number of other, new, friends.
With every book I read in this series, I find myself more and more glad I got it started! Definitely worth the time. These books are fast and fun, very creative and impossible to put down.
The doctrine of Election is a difficult concept to contemplate for most Christians, including myself. For this reason, many completely ignore it. In so doing, there are a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings about Election and that can make for deeper errors of doctrine if one isn't careful.
I found this book by Sam Storms to be very informative and clarifying to me on this topic. It was rather dry, however, as topics go, so it's going to mostly be for those who have a high degree of interest in the topic covered and not just a light read in any shape or form.
These Cruciform Quick books are solid quick-hitters that go hard on a single idea. Aging Gracefully talks about the Christian life and uses the metaphor of building a house - every day all the things we do go into the “house” we are building that is our witness to others and which also affects our every day lives. He talks about the sorrows that come with age, as well as joys and responsibilities. The race that we run and the fruit of our labors and witness.
All very good things to keep in mind as we live our lives as professing Christians.
This book discusses the dangers of pragmatism in the Christian church. This is not a new phenomenon and the discussion is started with an explanation of Charles Spurgeon's downgrade controversy which occurred in the late 1800's. The pragmatic movement was strong in the US then, and remains strong now, despite changing names and methods. 2 Timothy 4:2-5 essentially sums it up and is a very good reminder of how we, as Christians, need to fight to maintain the purity of The Gospel as the focus in our churches and teachings today and tomorrow until He returns.
I enjoyed this novel. I've only read, to this point, a little bit of Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn, specifically) and see clearly that his writing is fantastic.
The characters were very reasonable and made decisions that made sense. Motivations were also in-line with reality. The magic system is novel and integral to the set up and plot. The political and religious aspects of the plot were well done and an overall positive aspect of the book.
This definitely makes me look forward to reading more Sanderson titles. Very well done.
The story is fast-paced and fairly original.
The problem is that I just didn't connect with any of the characters. Couldn't root for either side. The moral values of both sides were pretty atrocious. So much lying and deceit. Difficult to believe the motivation of the main character, after all that he went through. Very little, if any character growth. In the scheme of things, the bad guys were only very marginally “worse” than the “good” guys.
In the end, I really struggled to finish these, even on audio book. No way will I be picking up the next trilogy in the “series” as there are too many books with great potential out there.
A pretty in-depth review of the various physical properties of the universe that appear to be fine-tuned to allow for life. Interesting if you have an interest in cosmological sciences and physics. Ultimately, however, it's not going to “settle” any debates between those who are strictly naturalists and those who believe in a Creator. Most people are going to consider this to be a very, very “dry” read. If you've successfully tackled books by Stephen Hawking, Michio Kaku, Brian Greene and the like, you'll be better able to understand the physics presented and the information presented here will have more of a “Ah! Now I see!” kind of effect. (These are authors I've been reading for decades now and I've always been fascinated by string theory and cosmology separately.) If, on the other hand, you are looking at this book from a Christian apologetics standpoint, you aren't likely to gain much in order to have productive conversations with your strongly atheistic friends.
Ultra-short review: If you've read the other books in the Dragaera world by Brust, then this is an absolute must-read. It was a bit slow to start, but wow, the ending was SOOO good. I may come back for a more in-depth review later, but I ended up absolutely loving the characters and writing in this book.
Fall of Hyperion is a continuation of the story starting in Hyperion. Honestly, these two books seem more like one cohesive story than separate books or stories to me. That said, this does bring the story arc to a point where it feels like the first “book” is complete, but definitely sets up for wanting to know what happens next.
In Hollywood Heroes, Frank Turek and his son Zach take a look at a number of pop cultural icons and look at what makes them unique and appealing in the culture we are in. Characters/films covered include Captain America, Iron Man, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Batman and Wonder Woman.
If it were just that, it might be an interesting book for a lot of people. What they do next, however, is reveal how these characters reflect aspects of Christ and/or Christian values and how those of us who attempt to follow Christ can look at these characters and the films they are in and be strengthened in our faith and/or our walk, despite living in a culture which is increasingly anti-Christian.
It's an interesting concept for a book because there are SO many things that are “hidden in plain sight” which aspects of these characters reflect Christ. Yes, even in Harry Potter (which was almost shocking, honestly). Having been an avid watcher of all these franchises and a follower of Christ, it was great to see these aspects highlighted. They then take it to the next level in an apologetics sense for those people who might loosely consider themselves “Christian” without really knowing what that means.
In my opinion, this would be a great book for middle-school youth groups to read through over summer and then have discussions about. Also, for parents who are trying to instill Christian values, but who are wary of the Hollywood agenda, this might be a tool that is useful to have discussions with your kids. It's important because if you just ignore the culture and then send your kid out into it once they go off to college, so many of them will be confronted with their lack of understanding of Christ and be more susceptible to the culture they are going into. Having these discussions (or even just reading the book, I would imagine) should have an inoculating effect for them and make them better able to understand their own beliefs and maintain them through challenges.
The book is written in an engaging and conversational style that I think would be easy for anyone in their teenage years to read easily. That said, for the parents out there, like myself, there's quite a few nuggets throughout the book that make it worthwhile as well, especially if you don't have a deep apologetics background. It's also a great introduction for us regarding how we can engage with the culture we live in while maintaining our beliefs and faith without either giving up the war completely and turning our kids over to it, OR blindly ignoring it and thus putting ourselves and kids at risk due to our lack of preparation.
I do wish the Tureks would add in a revised version a chapter which creates a framework for looking at other pop culture properties that aren't covered. How does a Christian parent start the process so that we can get what is good out of these things? How do we go into it in such a way that we can then have these discussions with our kids that will put them in a better place with Christ and be stronger in their faith. What about some bad examples where things might look superficially good, but really undermine Christian faith or set us up for bad ideology?
