drews

This is the 1st volume in a 3 volume set anthology of short science fiction stories. The Main reason I did not give it 5 stars is that some of the stories were just meh, ok vs stories I feel really deserve at hall of fame entry

That being said the 3 best stories in this book imho would be

1) Nightfall my Issac Asimov explores the question of how does a society deal with things complete alien to them, when a planet with multiple suns and 24/7 daylight, has a total eclipse plunging the world into total darkness, this happens only once every 2000 yrs. I love the concept of this story

2) Flowers for Algernon was great story about how society treats those different from us and what happens when we try to change the inherent nature of the individual. A man of low intellegence and mental capacity undergoes new treatment to enhance intellgence and the resulting new world he now has access to and resulting decline

and the 3rd story is

3) The Cold equations asks the reader to consider a moral and ethical dilmena. A young girl sto -away on a ship delivering life saving supplies to a colony on another world. Because of the added weight of this unexpected passenger the ship does not have enough fuel to deliver the supplies condeming the colonist to certain death, the law says stoaways must be spaced due to this reality, how does one choose to deliberalty send a young person to their death and look them in the eye as they do so vs saving colonist they have never met?

All in all however this is a good collection of scifi stories and a really enjoyable read

Thisi s the sequel to Caleb Carr book The Alieniest and to be honest I did not like it as much as the Alieniest

From almost the start we knew who the suspect was so this story was more of a process versus mystery not much different in that sense from the Alienist.

Personally I just found the whole court room drama thing kind of meh for the most part, and investigation methods were not exactly legal eithier lol,

not a whole lot to say but meh, the ending was just ok, and maybe its not being overly familiar with the time period but it was worth a read once, but that is about it.

The 5th book in the Stormlight Archive, Wind and Truth is the final conclusion to the 1st arc in the Storm Light Archive was almost perfect, but dont get me wrong still a great read all around and one of the best books I have read in a long time!

This book picks up right after the events in Rhytym of War after Dalinar has set the terms of the final conflict between himself and Odium, 10 days and each side picking a champion.

This one is unique in that the interludes are much shorter and the book is divided into 10 days following each one of our characters on their journeys to the final desolation or end of the world as we know it

I loved the twist that were unexpected that helped bring alot of tension to the story in unexpected ways and each of our characters story lines were just so much fun to follow. The power of the gods, the battle between good and evil, I find it difficult to write a review without spoilers as there is so much I want to say but spoilers would be the result lol

Througout the book for cosmere fans you will notice many references to other cosmere books and worlds, from taldain, to scadrial, to warbreaker and elantris. Every easter egg so to speak makes me say hey i know that, or i recognize that and honestly I love seeing these connections between worlds.

the ending did a great job of both wrapping up this 1st arc but also setting this up well for the 2nd arc leaving me begging for more. So much has changed for Roshar, so much left unanswered, and can't help but feel there is so much more to come and cannot wait for the start of stormlight 6 which as i understand will have a 10 yr time jump from the end of this book.

This book did not get a full 5 stars as there were some parts that maybe did not work the best within the story

the biggest things being LGBTQ issues between 2 characters while I applaud sanderson for trying, and including this aspect within the story, I did not feel it fit well in the greater context of the story or was even a natural fit, but rather kind of a side cameo so to speak in a effort to include this within the story. In a way you could feel the nervousness and insecurity of the characters involved come across in the writing of feeling a bit forced to included this

The 2nd aspect that maybe did not work as well was the therapy side of things, this was not terrible to be honest, and overall I think sanderson has done a overall decent job in representing mental health issues within this series and represented that well tbh, but when approaching this from a therapy side did not work so well imho, while not terribly bad not great eithier. but at the same time the character who is trying to provide said therapy is also trying to figure it out as well, so maybe in that sense it does work.

Kaladin and szeths side quest I think could have been removed almost entirely and been a seperate novel on its own, which would have shorten this one to maybe a more reasonable size, at 1300+ pages this is a big and long read, but overall well worth it.

Dragonsteel Prime is a curiosity as the subtitle suggest . This book is not cosmere cannon but rather what i might call a 1st draft of ideal that would evolve to become cannon within the cosmere.

Many of the ideas in this book we find for those who are cosmere fans, have made there way into the Stormlight Archive such as the shattered plains, bridge crews and the start of what would become the magic systems of Roshar but still highly undeveloped.

This is not the full prime story of dragon steel but rather just the 1st book which when the cannon version is release I fully expect it to be very different as much of the elements within this book made there way into the stormlight

I did find some inconsistency in the story, specifically with horses, while its stated numerous times that the horses are too weak to carry people, there are also numerous times when someone has been riding a horse. for example. But also in some ways predictable, likely because I have previoulsy read the stormlight so already had an idea of how some things would work on the shattered plains or at least a general idea of what would happen to our main character Jerik

This prime version of Dragonsteel you can really start to get a feel for the ideas behind the magic systems that would eventually make it into other Cosmere books, primarly what I found was the start of lightweaving and soulcasting, however still just more of exploring how this would work, vs being a fully developed magic system.

If you are a fan of the cosmere, I think you would likely know who TOPAZ is, and he pays a key role in this story as he begins to explore his powers as well.

Overall it was a good read, but not on par with the cannon works of the cosmere, but that is also not expected in a prime version of the as of yet unfinsihed story.

Another gold entry into the Dune universe by Frank Herbert. As a friend of mine, Epic Talez once said, everthing Frank Herbert touches is gold

The more I re-read Dune the more I am convinced that Herbert was a philosopher at heart. This book is no different, combining the philisophical discussions of religions, gods, tyranny, and Letos golden path with action, intrigue and our heritage and roots.

This entry is set 3500+yrs after the events in children of Dune, and Arrakis, aka Dune has been terraformed into a a whole new world, with only a small area of desert left on the world. Leto is the God Emperor and a religious cult following has sprung up around him.

The ultimate test of what it is to be human and Letos ongoing struggle with his humanity and his ancestory and the godhood overtaking him. Such a good story.

Philip K Dick is considered to be among the classics of scifi, this book which is a collection of short stories was a fun, weird and strange read to put it mildy for some.

Some of these storeis such as the minority report are classics and well knowns, others not so much such as oh to be a blobel, the mold of yancy and service call, at least not stories i had heard of before.

From the strange to time travelling repair people to blobous alien human hybrids. one common theme in these stories the solar system and beyond has been colonized, although the timelines are way out of wack and at this point very near future, in the 2040s or earlier but wtih tech that is far advanced from anything we are likely to have in the next 20 or so yrs.

Philip K Dick has a twisted, weird imagination often set in some kind of dystopian futuristic world with stories tha make you go huh?

Good read all around

I read this book as part of a collection of classic tales of scifi and fantasy

Like so many of the classics its a adventure narrative but the writing is not that exciting to be honest. Its really a premise mean to illustrated and idea more than anything and explorying this ideal of what a all woman society would look like from a male perspective.

The 3 men seem to represent 3 differnt extreme's of masculity, from toxic masculinity to middle of the road to anytihng or her type men while it seem to push the idea that motherhood was the most sacred and be all end of all being a woman.

while sometimes seems to illustrated the ideas well it was not overall a great read, just medicore middle of the road at best. and not all the exciting TBH

This is the 2nd book in the His dark materials series. I don't have a whole lot to say about this one.

I will say a few things however, this book really has the feeling of a set up book for the final book in the series the amber spyglass, with the majority of the plot/story taking place around the sublte knife but not actually involving the knife itself if that makes any sense.

We do get more of the set up for the anti-theist or reglion angle of the story, which I personally am enjoying myself (granted some acknowledged bias due to personal expierence i admit)

over all 3.5/5 for me

I have read a few "classics" in my time and TBH I have found many of these older classics to be dry in the writing style with lack of good characters and often while great ideas, not told in a really entertaining way.

War of the worlds stands apart from that, and I would argue this book has the feel of a cosmic horror. The unexpected arrival of aliens in london and the world is at war. The devastation, terror and destruction is told in a way that keeps you reading wanting to know how the world survives and ultimates "wins" this war of the worlds

I really enjoyed this read and its a scifi classic I would highly reccomend for any scifi fan

I read this as part of my cantenbury classics of science fiction and fantasy.

This book/story is essentially a type of time travel story where a man gets hypnotized in 1887 and falls asleep for 113yrs to wake up in the future in the year 2000

Aside from that, there is really nothing really scifi about this at all. The entire story is really nothing more than a conversation between 2 people about socialist utopia of 2000 and how great it is vs capitilist society of 1887 with little to no arguments or points in favor of capitalism to any great extent and as such is much more of a manifesto on socialism than a inherent and true scifi story of any interest.

Full disclaimer, I work in the Canadian Telecom industry so I will keep my comments brief rather than detailed to avoid any conflict of interest

For myself as this book is closely tied to my work it was a very interesting read and helped give me significant insight and anaylsis behind the headlines of one of the biggest mergers and aquitsitions in canadian history all while Rogers communications was going through significant changes to its top leadership over a 2-3 yr period in the wake of Ted Rogers death, the company patriarch and the one who started it all.

Its a good read if you are interested in corporate governance

This is a short story written in 1858 about a mad scientist that is obssessed with the micro world he discovers in his microscope

The story is narrated in the 1st person and tells the story of a man who is driven to obsession with what her discovers to the point of crimes of passion in his pursuit of learning.

I found this story to have a focus on the encentricities of a mad scientist and obsession. HIs reclusiveness and how he manages to entrap his self in the world he discovered whether in his own mind or a reality of the world of the story we shall let the reader determine

not much else I can say without spoiling the story but overall I found it to be good read and I found myself really wanting to follow the story and see where his obsession takes him.

The biggest drawback being that as a short story it has so much potential to evolve into a longer book of novel lenght, overall 3.5/5 stars for me

Long Chills and Case dough is a short story by Acclaimed writer Brandon Sanderson. This was surprise 5th story from the secret project kickstarter campaign that as far as I know no one was expecting. And for Sanderson it really is a short story at 68 pages long

Going in I knew this was a detective story, the cover of the book certainly gives that much away at least.

This short story gives the feel of a classic Dixon Hill setting (picards favorite detective holo program for the trekkies out there)

This was fun quirky and quick read about a Detective in 2151 investigating a crime with all the classic 1920s chicago mob private eye detective story. From the old building he works out of, to the lack of clients and the secretary who answers the phones and does some sluthing work for him. For a fun simple story the setting is just fine and no issues there, but that is where the good stops imho

I can see why this was not published in tradional or even self pub format. In the preface Sanderson states he wrote this story back in 2002 but did not publish it then or since as he has not found the right outlett to do so.

This book just does not, I guess age well in the modern Era. Derrins is a a extremley misogynistic and sexist character who has adopted the classic 1920s private detective way of speaking and culture. Often refering to his secretary as doll, skirt, etc.. and commenting that her job is to answer the phone and do her nails. At one point he is appears surprised that she is not just a secretary but a doll or skirt with brains.

Our main character is only called out once on his misogyny, and barley at that. It's just hard to believe that his mindset and way he thinks is acceptable in the setting of this book. There is nothing in this future world that suggesst that this is part of the overall culture of the society he is in.

I don't have a inherent problem with sexist characters in books, or racist of any other ist, When those characters are done well and it fits with the story in a effective way, but in this case Derrins sexisty misogyny is treated as no big deal, and the one time he is called out felt like nothing more than an attempt to call it out to say "see I called it bad"

If you are new to Sanderson do not read this book, at least not until you have read the rest of his works. This is not who Sanderson inherentley is as a writer, this is just a bad book or bad story overall, it only gets points for being a quirky fun little story but otherwise just not what I would call a good story

This is the final book in the main arc of the Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind. My personal rating is more a reflection of the series as a whole

This series was one of the first epic high fantasy series I had read and I fell in love with the series from the start of my 1st read through. I love the characters, the world building and the general ideas throughout this series of books. So much so that I named 2 of my kids after characters from this book series.

My reading tastes however have evolved over the years and I just finished my re-read of the series as a whole. Terry Goodkind has been known to be a somewhat of a controversial author in the fantasy community, something I did not know when I first read the series but on the re-read I have come to understand why that is.

It is no secret that Terry Goodkind was heavily inspired by Ayn Rand and libertarian ideals in the writing of this book series. These ideas of liberty self determination etc.. are repeating over and over and over and over and over again like a mantra to the point of becoming overly repetitive throughout the books from Wizards first rule to Confessor

The bad guys, Emperor Jagang and his imperial order we are reminded over and over again about how evil they are and how good and right Richard and his circle of freedom fighters are good. Good kind goes out of his way to paint the bad guys as so terribly and in a way that at times feels like he is beating you over the head with it, and then some and does the same thing in reverse with the good guys

This book series gets excessivley preachy at times with political philosophy and idealism which can get quite tiresome at times in the excess.

This gets tiring after a while to the point where we want scream OK WE GET IT ALREADY!

That being said the world building, the characters and the overall story and plot I still do really really love and enjoy. To be Honest I am torn, while I really struggle with the black and white objective good and bad guys and strong libertarian ideals to the point of political rheteoric I still can't help but love everything else about these books. The charcters, the world, the magic system so much good mixed with so much bad. 15 yrs ago I might have given near 5 star rating, but now with half good and half bad 2.5 stars for the series as a whole for me

This is probably my Favorite of Sanderson Secret Projects Novels

The premise is that Nomad is running from a mysterious group called the Night Brigade and he has been jumping from world to world in the cosmere trying to escape this group that is hunting him.

There is so much I want to say but don't want to spoil it for those who might read it at some point. What I can say is that if you are a cosmere fan or not I think you would enjoy this kind of sci/fan book. Its got its science fiction aspects as well as Cosmere magic system and investure within this book with several references to both Scardial from Mistborn and Roshar from Stormlight Archive

I love the connections, I love discovering more info about Wit/Hoid (cosmere fans know it, if you dont know it read more cosmere lol) and the shards of Andolnasium I am trying really hard not to spoil anything here and will be doing a video review on my channel

This is set on a unique world that is essentially melted and reformed daily from the intense energy and heat of its sun and the people of this world live on the run from the sun travelling the world trying to stay on the nightside of this world and imho this is a very unique setting for a cosmere world and one I really like reading about

not much more I can say about this without spoilers so I will leave it at that for now

Just finished my #reread of Naked Empire by Terry Goodkind

2/5 stars. It gets points for having characters I love but loses everywhere else for what felt like nothing more than a rant about failing to see evil and how horrible it is

Every step of the way it was another lecture on the right to life, liberty and freedom, and yet I can't help but still love these characters so I do want to finish my reread but after that never again

This was a re-read for me. I first read the series years ago, probably over 20yrs ago now and fell in low with these books. I loved the charactes, story etc.. mainly because it really aligned with my personal world view at the time

However over the yrs that has evolved, and I have started to understand why people dislike this series so much and to be honest this is probably the worst of the books.

This book introduces 2 new characters, Oba and Jensen Rahl, children of Darken Rahl that are supremely ungifted and the gifted are blind to them in the sense they cannot sense them with their gift and thus they are immune to magic

Both had very different upbringings resulting in very different character traits which this book constrast quite well very much expressing the idea of nature vs nurture.

However this book did not need 700+ pages to tell their story, and could have easily been done as a novella or short story. It just did not or should not have taken so much page time for essentially a side quest to explore these ideas. Many of the other charactes who are supporting or main roles in the overall story make virtually no appearence, and when they do some felt way out of place or even character from how they were established in the previous books of the series. Overall this is just not a good book overall. I give it 2.5 stars as I still like the series overall, if not as much as I used to

This book is full of ludicrous crazy ideas that do not comport with reality in anyway

That however is part of the fun of this book. It is for sure not character driven nor does it have any character development in any real way but it is full of adventure and a fun imaginitve ideas of what it is like in the center of the earth long before we knew anything about the actual make up of the earths crust or world

From underground oceans, to dinosaurs and prehistoric plants this book was honeslty entertaining.

That being said it is a bit dry in the writing style at times and the characters were a bit 2D, so it loses marks there but love the imagination behind this epic adventure, overall good, not great or amazing but good

This is the 3rd book in the Terry Goodkinds sword of truth series.

The storyline revolves aroud a group called the blood of the fold and the continued conflict between our main characters Richard, Kahlan and Zed and the Imperial order that is hellbent on taking over the world.

The blood of the fold is a extremist group that wants to abolish magic in the world and thus poses a threat to Dhara, and all those like Richard, Kahlan and Zed that use magic, Meanhile the Imperial Order lead by Emperor Jagang is determiend to dominate the world.

Jagang is a dreamwalker able to take control of your mind in your dreams and bend you to his will

Overall I did enjoy this book, but there were some drawbacks, specifically in one part where we see some anti LGBTQ ideology present. The character involved tries to rationlize but does not work very well.

With regard to overall story line and plot I did enjoy seeing continue world building and introduction of new characters and magics to the world that has been built and created. I like how Terry Goodkind has arranged for the Prophecies to be fulfilled and using plot or narratives to make it appear as if the prophecies will be fullfilled by means other than how they are done.

good read overall, not great but not terrible 3.5 stars for me

This is Brandon Sanderson 1st of 4 secret novels

This book is set in the greater Cosmere of Brandon Sanderson but on a new world which we have not yet visited until this book.

This story is told in hoids voice and has a much more YA feel that other cosmere books and as Sanderson has said was inspired by Princess Bride and it certainly has that feel.

This books magic system is certainly different based around these spore seas but feels more like the natural biology of the world more than magic but still having that magical feel to it, its kind of hard to explaine lol. A very magical feeling world without alot of magic

Throughout this book there are numerous cosmere referneces to other worlds, lifeforms, magic systems and technology. I would argue that this is a great introduction to the cosmere, Fans will recognized the references and new readers to the cosmere don't need to know the references

Overall I really enjoyed this book and loved it but falls short of a 5 star review for me personally

only a few complains really. Mainly that there a few references to things that just would not be in the Cosmere including things from Earth, a non cosmere world but also HP Lovecraft references which while cool and awesome as I do like HP Lovecraft, Lovecraft does not fit in with the cosmere. And I don't think Hoid our narrator would know HP Lovecraft

Full reivew coming soon to my youtube channel, will updated review with link when that goes live

I first read this book yrs ago and actually ended up naming 2 of my kids after characters from this book series. Kahlan and Cara. I loved it then and still really like the book now, however my views and reading preferences have certainly evolved since then

While I did not know it at the time Terry Goodkind was very much influences by Ayn Rand and it does come through alot in this series and book in general. This is not to say that it is a bad book by any means I sitll love it it. But it also has a very black and white objective right and wrong philosphy, Richard, Kahlan, Zed are inherently good guys while our big bad Darken Rahl and his minions are inherently Bad guys

That being said it is epic fantasy to a high degree, big world, big ideas and big book over 800 pages. The magic, division of the world and powerful magic of life and death is epic in scope and generally a enjoyable read for that epic fantasy fan.

I still enjoy this book and series and look forward to continuing my read of it and while I am giving it 3 stars it is still among my most loved book series that I have read. Richard and Kahlan among my favorite fantasy couples

I loved this little novella. It is honestly hilarious. I see it as a cross between Dirk gently holistic detective agency and dr who

From interdimensional space dogs, to 7 foot tall summarais and illegal sex toy factories this book is laughs all the way through

I am not much of a comic book reader so take my review with a grain of salt.

Overall I enjoyed this first issue and found it to be a good set up for a larger story arc.

I did find it to have a superman vibe to it with a coming of age type story arc .

The artwork is good imho but then as I don't read comics typically I don't know how it compares to others overall.

Warning Mature subject matter. This is not a book or review for those that may be triggered by subject matter concerning sexual abuse and rape

Opening prologue really helps set the tone for the whole book. We are introduced to Deliaha, a mentally unstable woman who suffers from severe depression, self doubt,extremely low self esteen, anxiety and possibly a schizophrenic who seems to suffer from hallucinations of pink eared bunnies, glass turtle ashtray and green doors stemming From trauma from her choldhood.

She constantly tells herself she is the unwanted, unloved, the rejected and because of this she puts up walls and pushes people away and when people reach out to her and face this rejection and respond by leaving her she views this as proof that re-enforces this feeling

The story is about Deliaha trying to cope with the loss of a mother who seems to not remember her in any meaningful way and relationships issues with her husband. These problems seems to stem from a lack of any kind of sex life. Her turns to porn to try to get this need met for himself

In Chapter 9 we have a vivid scene that can only be describbed as rape. She blames herself for what happened and has a religious guilt feelings the God cannot forgive her. Also a lot of resentment for her rapist who seem to be able to continue with his life without guilt which only seems to re-enforce her idea it was her fault.

All comes to a head at the end. First she comits the savage crime of murder while the story was she is a victim, then she really is a victm and kills in self defense.

A well written intensely depressing book that really did a great job creating a character that I can empathize with. Especally as I have also suffered from debilitating depression in my own life, as well as issues of religious guilt.

From space aliens to rides with corpses in coffins and battle of the bands this book is a fun read.

As usual Nicky Blue's writing style makes for a fun and entertaining read.

I enjoyed it overall while I would not call it an amazing book still worthwhile for a good read simple and entertaining read