Alex
Half of this book seems is endless battle descriptions and the rest seems to be trying to itself up as a bridge to whatever comes next in the series re: a new generation of characters. I couldn't be less interested.
For me, this series can be broken into a few distinct sub-series:
* Books 1-3: The Change and Immediate Aftermath - These are by far the most interesting/thought-provoking of the series. Imagine modern technology suddenly disappears? How do people cope? What institutions and norms emerge and how do they appear to our better/more base natures?
* Books 4-9: The Changelings Take Control - Rudi, Matti, and co. explore North America and discover a whole new world. The conflict simplifies to an alliance of Good vs. a literal demonic Evil, which is fun but a bit basic.
This last book sets us up for whatever comes next but I just don't care. The duality of Good vs. Evil has slowly gotten simpler and less nuanced over the course of the CUT arc to the point that I am just not interested anymore. Devil = bad... Sure, whatever. Maybe I'll continue on at some point but for now, I'm done with the world of the Emberverse.
I think we're back on track with this latest installment in the saga of Montival, though I was surprised to so enjoy a book with almost no Rudi MacKenzie in it. This book is primarily focused on Tiphaine D'Ath, the military leader and former assassin of the Portland Protective Association and I am SO glad that Stirling decided to do this.
In addition to the change in focus, this book is also written in a series of flashbacks that build up the character of the Grand Constable in way that makes one of my favorite characters even richer and more compelling. The supernatural/magical pivot of the series is now in full force and The Adversary is well and truly come to post-Change North America. Let's go!!
“Inception meets True Detective” is a great tagline, and captures the promise of this thrilling awful gem of a book perfectly. It's grisly and dark, but full of that spark of “what if” that always powers the best of sci-fi. For anyone intrigued or even excited about that brief summary, I recommend this book heartily. For people turned off by it, you should read something else.
The story gets more epic, more supernatural, and a little less easy for me to care about. I still enjoyed this one and certainly plan to continue my marathon binge of it but I would very much like to go back to Clan Mackenzie and their druidic neoceltic utopia for a while and focus less on this grand battle of Good vs Evil.
The adventure continues! I never how to review these sorts of books in a series that I just plow through one after another. Clearly I am enjoying these books but there's nothing particularly to note about this book by itself. I suppose one thing that's interesting about this and the previous one is how Rudi and his crew have been moving across the US and ended up in the very north of New England bordering on Quebec (and the savage “Bekwah” people).
There's also a bit more magic and supernatural mystery to the series now and it feels like it's going to continue, which I am ambivalent about.
I don't know where I picked up the recommendation for this, but I kept at it little by little over the course of an entire year. After all of that work, I still don't know whether it was worth it.
This is an academic book meant for people who know and study Ancient Greek literature, and I know almost nothing about the field. That made much of this book very dense and difficult to navigate, but I enjoyed getting to read something so different from my usual fare. In this essay/book, Carson brings up some interesting points about desire and how it has been explored and celebrated in Western canon for thousands of years. It will stick with me, but I won't be looking for more like it.
More pseudo-Medieval adventuring from our Oregonian heroes! This didn't stand out as particularly noteworthy within the series but I enjoyed listening to it.
I like how the crew's Eastward quest is giving us an opportunity to explore how other communities in North America dealt with/adapted to The Change. If you take the starting premise for granted, these all seem like realistic-ish takes on what might happen if all modern technology suddenly disappeared. The revival of slavery (in various forms) seems almost guaranteed to happen and I like the Church of the Universal Triumphant as a supreme enemy. Classic bad guy!
This was one of the more recommended books in a Reddit thread asking for more books like [b:Spin 910863 Spin (Spin, #1) Robert Charles Wilson https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1406383726l/910863.SY75.jpg 47562], which included many of my favourites. I added a few to my “to-read” list and checked this one out from my library. Holy wowzers, this is SO good! It's the kind of book that makes me wish for a 6-star rating option because this scratches all the cyberpunk itches in just the right way.Before I go further, I'd like to point out that this book was published in 1994 and I'm reading it 31 years later! Not only does it hold up well, reading it from this point of remove has me wondering if perhaps Egan was a time traveler because it gets so much right about our future (present) and the challenges that have become even more central to our story.The “big idea” this book wrestles with is what will happen when we are finally able to upload ourselves to a convincing enough simulation of life that we can be said to be reborn – to be made a Copy. It's not a new premise, but unlike so many of my favourite books that hand wave their way through this (I'm looking at you [b:Bobiverse 32109569 We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse, #1) Dennis E. Taylor https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1474344826l/32109569.SY75.jpg 52752877]), Egan takes us DEEP into the ramifications of this concept. Some of the questions he asks:* What rights will these Copies have and how do those live in tension with the biological humans remaining?* Exactly what kinds of legal/corporate structures could be used for Copies to exert influence and power in the physical world?* Is there some undefinable “real existence” beyond our sensory inputs and, if so, in what ways is a simulation somehow lesser?* If we could somehow “edit” our preferences, personalities, or memories, does that harm our humanity? Think of this as the Ship of Theseus, but in virtual reality.* How central is our “clock rate” or rate of perception to how we experience the world? Copies can raise or lower their perception of time speed relative to the outside world, which plays a huge role in how they view historical events.* If you make a Copy of a Copy, what does it mean to have two separate people who share the exact same memories? What happens as they drift apart?* What is the difference between a virtualization of life (like the Copies) and true artificial life that evolves from root level software over time? This feels like a very salient idea to explore as we seem to be at the very beginning phase of creating artificial intelligence ourselves.
What started as an interesting sci-fi premise (what if modern technology stopped working!?) is now just a comfortable and intriguing epic adventure story. This is the first of the Emberverse novels to almost exclusively focus on characters who grew up after “the change” and the way they have adapted to the new world is well wrought.
This is a history book. It is an utterly fascinating dive into the history of the British East India Company (EIC) and its 250 year journey from a faltering startup to the engine of the British Empire and de facto ruler over hundreds of millions of people.
There's so much to say about the brutal violence that was/is corporate colonialism and how the EIC created a model of Western exploitation that still rocks our world today. But this isn't that book. Instead, it proceeds in great detail to explain exactly what happened and how the various players slowly built one of the most tragic stories in modern history.
Some interesting things I learned:
* The joint stock company was a concept invented in the late 1500's. Elizabeth I issued a royal charter which would allow people to invest in a venture and keep the profits together for further use. Up until this “innovation” investors would need to create new joint ventures for each new voyage and split the gains/losses every time. It might not be too much of a stretch to say that this idea might have been one of the most important and impactful of the 2nd millennium and man, I wish I could go back in time and make some changes.
* The EIC was maybe only the 5th of these joint stock companies in England. Previous ones had granted monopolies to trading with smaller regions (like the Levent) but because India was so far away and poorly understood, the EIC charter effectively granted them a monopoly on trade to all of Asia. This might have been the single biggest gift ever given by a monarch or country to a company.
* When the EIC was founded, it was not well funded. Investors were more interested in investing in the American colonial companies (Virginia Company, etc.) because those granted land, and initial trade with India was risky and not very profitable. In fact, when it started, the Dutch had a competing company called the VOC that was much more well funded and “should have” won out in the long run.
* Before the EIC arrived in India, the rulers over most of that area were the Mughals, who were themselves Muslim conquerors ruling over a largely Hindu population. By co-opting this ruling class, the EIC was able to leverage their existing ruling infrastructure.
* In 1765, when the EIC became the de facto rulers of most of the Indian subcontinent, the company had only about 300 employees in London ruling over 200 million people.
* There are these moments in history where a military advantage can shift power quickly. The Mongol horse archers of Genghis Khan enabled a relatively small nomadic group of herders to take over most of Asia. And “modern infantry” and pike squares seem to have done the same for the Europeans (French and English) in India. During this brief period where they simply had the superior military technology and tactics, they used that differential to beat everyone.
Emotionally stunted man-child trust fund vanity author spends time in remote village musing self-importantly about fate. This book is the absolute worst of entitled male gaze bullshit. I could barely get through it and even then the only reason I kept going was to see if, at some point, it would get better. Reader, it did not.
The main character of this novel is unlikeable to his core. He is a novelist who doesn't seem to write, but likens the role of writer to God, which is clearly how he sees himself. His “inspiration” dried up, he descends upon this remote mafia-dominated town and has emotionally distant sex with three different women who all seem to adore him (most of the time) for what thankfully is only lightly described consensually violent sexual prowess that leaves at least one with visible bruising that she proudly wears as a talisman of her conquered state.
Ick.
I almost gave up on this sequel but about 1/5 of the way in, it hooked me (almost) as much as the first book. The world of Iron Widow is fascinating, and at times feels far away/fantastical and then abruptly modern. I recommend this as a great feminist sci-fi adventure that somehow balances giant mech-like action sequences with socialist commentary.
What if you took the obsequious teenage longing of Sarah J. Maas's [b:A Court of Thorns and Roses 50659467 A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1) Sarah J. Maas https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1620324329l/50659467.SY75.jpg 21905102] and added the sassy nerdery of Matt Dinniman's [b:Dungeon Crawler Carl 56791389 Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #1) Matt Dinniman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1734203042l/56791389.SY75.jpg 76027608]? The answer seems to be the eminently readable but somewhat forgettable Assistant to the Villain.A precocious Belle-type heroine finds herself with a seductive Beast and much giggling and hilarity ensues. He's scary and evil, but not really! There's a reason this formula works and in this case it's well executed. I listened to the whole thing in just a few days but I wouldn't necessarily say I enjoyed it enough to recommend it to anyone.
The premise of this short novel is simple. A boy crash lands in the wilderness and must survive. But the way in which Paulsen tells the story, laying bare Brian's trauma and resilience is masterful and a good reminder that classics are classics for a reason.
Like most Americans my age (40 as of this writing), I read this book for the first and only time when I was in middle school. I recall thinking it was good but like so many required reading books, I didn't think much about it after the test and it was time to start on something else.
My 10 year old son suggested we read this together after we found it in a Little Free Library box in our neighborhood and I told him about the plot. I'm so glad he did! Paulsen writes in such a visceral way that really brings you into the body of his main character that there were plenty of nights when all three of us were leaning forward while we read, fully absorbed in this story.
In short, this holds up and is well worth a re-read, or a first read if you've never had the pleasure.
So so so sooo good! I marathoned this Harry Potter fan fiction for a solid month or two but tragically there's no more to read at the moment since the author has put the project on pause. Still, it's been a joyous couple thousand pages following the rightful hero of the Potterverse–Hermione Granger–as she navigates wizarding politics, ancient ritual magic, and pureblood elitism.
The only reason I would recommend someone not read this fic is because it isn't finished, and realistically it may never be finished. At the time of my writing this review, it's been ~6 months since the last update but Good Lord and Lady, this is worth it even in its current incomplete state. The characters are so much better than Rowling ever did and the richness of the expanded world portrayed here is rewarding beyond measure. I sincerely and earnestly hope that artemisgirl will continue this epic story but even she never does, I'm grateful for she did.
“Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone” offers an intriguing Aussie twist on the classic remote setting murder mystery, brimming with deep character dynamics, hidden depths, and the tantalizing promise that everyone's a killer. However, the author's persistent, overly cute fourth-wall breaks feel like a wink that quickly loses its charm, ultimately hindering the immersive potential of this otherwise solid whodunit.
I read the first book in this series this morning when my 8 year old son ran up and said “you HAVE to read this!” It was funny enough and then we happened to see the sequel later in the day whilst shopping at Target so I just read it standing in the aisle. This one is just as funny as the first and worth the time.
From the Goodreads description, this is meant to be a “deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy.” As much as I see why someone might think that, it just wasn't for me.
I spent the first 90% of this book wishing that Furlong would do something to change his fortunes—seeing myself reflected in his middle age despair. He is doing OK, but longs for something more. Who among us in our 40s don't feel that way?
The big issue I have with this story is the way it ends, which is in some ways where it should really begin. The “quiet heroism” of the ending is one that is only hinted at, leaving the reader to imagine what happens next. That's fine, but in this case “what happens next” is the entire point of the book?! When someone finally breaks out of the pattern of their lives to take a chance - to do what's right - what happens then? Where is the release... the POINT of it all?
After reading the too-long [b:Wind and Truth 203578847 Wind and Truth (The Stormlight Archive, #5) Brandon Sanderson https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1724944713l/203578847.SY75.jpg 23840276], I was hungry to read something short and found a list of short novels/novellas that looked interesting. This is the first of those, and I enjoyed it immensely.Channeling the best of [a:Becky Chambers 22659598 Becky Chambers https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] and [a:Emily St. John Mandel 2786093 Emily St. John Mandel https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1576606299p2/2786093.jpg], Lina Rather's Sisters of the Vast Black uses the emptiness of space to explore themes of redemption, belonging, conflicted callings, and freedom. It's a clever conceit (nuns in space) but as easy as it would be for it to feel weird or contrived, it just doesn't. The world she constructs feels true and simply gets out of the way for us as readers to connect with the characters.In fewer than two hundred pages, it's hard for an author to get us to understand and care about a single person but Rather somehow does it easily, and I found myself intrigued and yearning to spend more time with each of the primary sisters. The world she has created is one that brims with possibility and yet also feels complete, which is a rare feat for a science fiction author.
My 10-year old's review: Slow at first, but it got better over time. I really liked how they switched perspectives a lot, and the way that the author told one story within another story. I preferred the first book ([b:The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe 132080146 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia) C.S. Lewis https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1697079942l/132080146.SY75.jpg 4790821]) because it introduced you, but this book was good in a different way. It shows what happens when humans come to a civilization or a species that is weaker than them. The humans take over and the world loses it's magic. In that way, Prince Caspian is more realistic than the previous one.
