drews

I used to love Orson Scott Cards writing but at this point I don't know if I have outgrown him as a reader or if he has just gotten worse as a writer. Maybe a bit of both.

Ezekiel is a 14 yr old boy with a micro power to find lost things and return them to their owners. The premise may be the best thing about this book. The local police enlist his help to find a kidnapped girl who was kidnapped by a child porn ring

My biggest problems with this book is despite its short length less than 300 pages Card basically tells the same story twice. First a little girl is kidnapped and ezekiel finds her then his friend Beth is kidnapped by the same people and guess what he finds her. This book could have easily been split into 2 short stories and it would not have made a difference.

The micropower group Ezekiel gets invovled with had really stupid powers like odor removal or making people yawn, that served no benefit to the story or even seemed remotley relevant to the story or plot. While I can see this group helping him explore his powers the book completely failed to to really capitlize on that in any meaningful way.

This group even goes with him to find beth but he abandons them and his micro power group is not invovled in anyway so what was the point of that?

The characters i didnt care for. They were boring and cliche in so many ways. The angry teenager rebelling against authority. The small loner kid that no one wants to hang out with. Despite the tragedy these characters have in their life Card really failed to make me care about them in any meaningful way.

It really felt like Card was going for the most evil thing he could think of, a child porn sex trafficing ring as the villian but then completely failed to really explore the impact and trauma this caused on our characters. We spent virtually no time with the victims during their captivity and all our time with ezekiel and those looking for the victims leaving the story flat, bland and boring.

If we just had some POV chapters from the victims expierence it might have made a huge difference to the outcome of the book and quality of the writing.

All in all this was just a bad book. Did not like it at all

This was a different type of urban fantasy. A world set in a island nations wtih cities ruled by mafia families, powered by mystical Jade only found on the island nation of Kekon,

for sure a unique approach to urban fantasy at least different from the other urban fantasy I have read.

the characters overall I did not findmyself really being in love with but still enjoyed seeing how their stories played out, this book really sets up for the next few in the series which I will get to eventually lol, 60/40 split between plot vs character driven story, 60% plot 40% character i found

This is the sequel to the Handmaids Tale and is 5 stars in my books. PRAISED BE!! indeed

The book is written in 1st person narrative from the view point of 3 different characters.

Infamous Aunt lydia who, before Gilead was a family court judge. She ingratiates herself to the new goverment to become a founding member of the Aunts. Using her position she becomes in effect a double agent helping the underground and mayday organization.

Agnes. June's (aka Offred) daughter that was taken from her when she became a handmaid and raised by a foster family. The story chronicles her journey of self discovery, expirences and eventual joining of the Aunts to escape an arranged marriage. She learns the truth of her true parentage

Baby Nicole who was rescued from Gilead and sent to canada by her mother June (aka offred) and raised by foster parents under a false identity. She has become a symbol and rallying call for Gilead as a symbol of injustice and the rest of the world as a symbol of opression, tyranny and all that is wrong with Gilead. Nicole herself was raised with no knowledge of her true identity till her foster parents are killed in a car bomb and she becomes Gileads only hope.

These 3 stories intersect in a poweful way to bring the story to a incredible conclusion 35 yrs in the making.

An amazing and incredible read. 5 stars

You can check out my video review on youtube

https://youtu.be/MT7BmKqCn6o

This is the second book in the skyward series and I love it!

Spensa is a cytonic who can see into the nowhere, an alternate dimension or realm where the delvers live. Space travel and communications via the dimension of nowhere calls out to the delvers and puts all life in the known universe at risk

This really is a fun, fast paced action packed series. Spensa is a strong character faced with impossible odds and is ovrrall just a great read. See my full review on youtube

This is the 2nd book in the Faithful and the Fallen, for sure a good improvement over the 1st book. I felt it had a bit more character focus than book 1, but did at times find my mind wandering and not keeping my attention

I did enjoy however the fighting pits, battles, characters etc.. overall a good read and enjoyable series

The last wish. This is the book I have heard and been told I should start the Witcher series with so thats is exactly what I did.

The Witcher is a magically altered human who hunts monsters for a living.

This book is essentially a collection of short stories of the Witcher, Geralt, and his monster slaying adventures.

Many of the stories are derived from fairy tales such as beauty and the beast, sleeping beauty, rapunzel but with a darker themed story telling.

Witches, vampires, beasts, devils, elves etc.. it for me at least was a fun read and I look forward to reading the rest of the witcher books.

Endymion by Dan simmons. I just finished this one today and gave this one 3/5 stars

Some aspects of it I didn't like or the book failed to really explain in a way that makes any sense

Like why do the farcaster portals only activate for Aenea when the network was, at least in theory, destroyed.

If the AI techno core is connected to her and activating it for her, and have this ability why have they left the farcasters dormant for nearly 300 yrs

A planet with a frozen atmosphere, and on the top of said atmosphere its a near vacumme which my impressiom was like the moon, which has a near true vacume (as even space is not a perfect vacumme and has some particles of matter and the solar wind) has a wind one can feel blowing

The constant death and ressurrection cycles becomes redundant etc... but at the same time raised the stakes for Aenea, Endymion and Android bettik as they are mortal and not “of the cross” while their enemy can just keep being ressurrected

Its not all bad. The catholic church taking over the galaxy with the cruciform parasite was a interesting development that I enjoyed.

Terry goodkind as usual writes a fast paced story with plenty of excitement going on, however he can still have a very black and white character's that are clearly good guys or bad guys.

He does have some controversial ideas within his writings such as men getting raped by women and the politics of imperialism to bring liberty and freedom to the world at sword point. Sometimes pushing the boundaries and wading into controversial ideas can make for good writing regardless of which side you are on.

But overall I still enjoyed it and will continue to read his books

I loved this book. Space opera where you know the end from the begining but that is not an issues because this story is not about how it ends, but how we got there.

This book is really more about Hardrian and his desperate effort to escape his family and bring peace and understanding to a galaxy at war with a alien race no one understands and its just getting started, as this is book 1 in the suneater series.

I loved this book, and so far am loving Hadrian as a character. Just a good read all around

This is the final book in the Witcher book Series by Andrzej Sapowski. The Witcher TV Series on netflix and the games are based on this series of books.

The series follows The Witcher Geralt as he goes around the world seeking out monsters to kill for hire. A magically enhanced human that is also feared, hated, and mistrusted by the common folk despite the fact that he kills the monsters that are killing their friends and families.

Season of Storms starts out with a good old fashion monster killing from the start of the story only for our Witcher, Geralt to find him self being arrested on trumped up charges all so that a group of the worlds sorcerers could blackmail him effectively into hunting down one of their own.

During his captivity in prison Geralt discovers his famed swords have been stolen and must find a way to get them back, all the while hunting down a powerful sorcerer without his most trusted weapons.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. From start to finish there was action, adventure and fun through out. A classic Witcher story all around.

I found this books plot and story line easier to follow than others in the Witcher series and for that reason I found I enjoyed it much more than other in the series. There was not a lot of jumping between view points and characters in the other books.

I do find it interesting to note that despite its 1100-1300 era setting religion itself does not seem to play much of a role in this world. Many of the characters talk with a secular scientific mind set which I found refreshing for a book that is set in a world modeled after our own worlds history.

However some things within the book just didn't make sense to me. Near the end of the book there is a scene where a sudden storm comes upon our characters almost without warning (there is some mention of a storm coming) and with such high ferocity it's power nearly destroyed and entire town. Then just as quickly it ended in barely any time at all.

This happened with no explanation, no suggestion of magic and seems to almost come out of no where with no explanation and ended just a quickly, There seemed to be no point to this scene as I did not feel it contributed to the overall story arc in any way.

Of note, Ciri of Cintra does not make an appearance in this book, while she is present is all the other books. Ciri being one of my favorite characters from this series, it was disappointing that she was not included in this story somehow.

Overall 3.8 stars, rounded to 4 stars since I can't do partial star

This book is well named.

The second book in the legacy of the force star wars series deals with 3 families. The solos, the Skywalker's and the fetts.

All 3 families in turmoil as the battle lines get drawn. And at the heart of it all Jacen solo.


Jacen continued exploration of the dark side of the force I felt makes for a interesting storyline as he is slowly seduced by the dark side, however like others have pointed out the idea that he must sacrifice someone he loves for the greater good of the galaxy seems a bit ludicrous and serves no purpose

While others disagree I did enjoy fett's story line. I dont think being a clone detracts from his individuality because even clones are not identical, while genetically the same their own unique experiences makes them individuals. I enjoyed learning more about his backstory and what happenned after geonosis

All around good book and I did enjoy it.

I have to say I love this book, what a great way to end the yr of reading!. I love the idea of power and magical foces being obtain via drugs. and overall just such a good read

I think I can honestly say this is my favorite of the Legacy of the force star wars books.

One of the things that has bothered me about this series is the idea of sacrifice put forth in that Jacen must kill someone help loves to become sith. As in he must actively seek out a opportunity to kill this person. It has seemed a rather pointless way to sacrifice for the sake of sacrifice.

I am happy to say this book solves this for me in a very satisfying way that meets all expectations and resolves this issue in a great way.

I really enjoyed Ben Skywalker's story as well as we get more into his inner conflict between right and wrong, good and bad etc...

Just overall a really good book!

Harry Dresden has become one of my favorite urban fantasy characters.

This book finds Harry trying to prevent a civil war among the white council of wizards after Harry's “favorite” warden is accussed of murder.

Not my favorite Dresden book (I think that might be deadbeat) but still a good read.

Vampires, succubusses, werewolves and skin walkers combined with one wizard determined to do whats right the consequences be damned.

Lots of action and excitement well worth the read

Book 4 of the Codex Alera was IMHO the best entry so far. Tavi heritage is revealed and enemies gained and lost, allies created in unexpected ways, battle, war, politics this was a very enjoyable read.

Tavi's character growth as he learns to discover his Furies and come into his power sets him up to be the leader he was born to be, I am loving this series.

Hollywood has been invented. Magic mayhem and adventute await

This is a hilarious entry into the discworld universe and as usual terry pratchett brings the laughs as he pokes fun at hollywood and fame

Enjoyed this one all the way from start to finish

This book was a typical Robert Langdon symboligist story filled with fast paced action packed adventure shall we say.

As much fun as I had reading this book, its hard to give it a great rating mainly because I found the plot predictable and the shocking reveals were quite frankly not that shocking. Where did we come from, Where are we going?

These question and the big revelations surrounding them were not all that shocking at all and easily predictable I found even for those who don't have a strong foundation in scientfic way of thinking.

While the book was not terrible, it was fast paced, full of actions and a fun ride, its predictability of who did what and when just makes it hard for me to give a glowing review

I would give thus 3.7 stars if I could but of course that is not an option on good reads so rounded up to 5 stars.

I liked this one more than tower of swallows for sure. Paticularily Ciri's story line and her jumping through time and worlds which for me was a really awesome aspect of the story.

Andrzej sapowski is good and creating characters you care about for our primary characters anyway. Ciri, Yennifer and Geralt. Secondary characters such as Dandelion, Vilgefortz, Triss etc... I found were people That just were not that interesting as characters. They were not bad characters I am just nuetral on them.

This book could have dropped the entire last chapter and I dont feel it would have made much of a difference to the overall story arc of the book. Just having Ciri, Yennifer, and Geralt be re-united in the end without all the extra stuff would have been more than enough for me.

Overall however a good read and the witcher book series as a whole is pritty decent. Good story. The writing style is ok.

Good ending to a great story. Bringing the moon back and ending the war with “evil earth”

Our characters must make some tremendous sacrifices for the greater good of humanity.

I loved how the book goes back into the past, exploring the origins of orogenes and stone eaters so we can learn about the culture and people who created the obelisks in an attempt to harness the energies and magics of the earth.

The book really sends a message of the consequences of exploitation of earth's resources and resulting environmental disasters that result. The earth is in turmoil and fighting back against the slavery and exploitation of its resources and won't be stabilized again until those who did so restore the earth back to it's natural state.

Good read and enjoyable all around.

Wow!! Just wow. I learned so much reading this book. From start to finish it was a educational mind opening read.

From the origins of crispr, the power of the technology to the moral, ethical questions raised when it comes to human genome editing.

The authors highlight well the moral dilemmas they had to face once they realized the implications and potential uses of the technology both good and bad.

Just a fantastic read and well worth your time!!

Like typical Riordan this book is hilarious mix of adventure and Norse mythology in a engaging and entertaining story

I especially liked the trans character Alex. It's so refreshing to have characters from the GSRM community included in the story without a direct in your face about it.

Rick Riorodan effectively weaves the characters sexuality and gender identity with the prejudices of others and the challenges Alex must deal with in a way that does not impact the primary plot and story arc.

An Ember in the Ashes is what I would describe as a grimdark fantasy. Slavery, violence, brutality, betrayal. An Empire with a stranglehold on the populace and a brutal military school sets the stage for a a dark, tense and rather enjoyable read

So many of the scenes and descriptions of what some of these characters have to endure brings out so much in the way of feelings of empathy. I found myself really caring about the characters and hoping to see them succeed.

If you are a fan of grimdark I feel like you will enjoy this one

Like many of the star wars books I have read this one was really enjoyable.

This is the star of jacen solos path to becoming a sith. The theme of betrayal is covered from a few different aspects of the story and is not all connected to Jacen

Good read

Another good break from the broken earth trilogy.

I especially liked nassun's story line and really enjoyed the parallels that NK Jemisin draws between orogenes and the gender sexual and romantic minority community and their struggle for aacceptance.

Great read all around and highly recommend it.

My youtube channel Drew's book reviews has a more detailed review so check it out

This is the 1st Tchaikovsky book I have read and I got to admit I am impressed. I have been wanting to read alot more scifi and very happy I picked this one up

This book takes place over period of several hundred yrs. Filled with the last remenant of humanity searching desperatley for a new home in the depths of space, alien monsters, ancient protective sattelites and mad scientists

Trying not to put any spoilers here but the ideas and concepts explored in this book are honestly quite facinating to read about and explore. What would highly evolved different type of life look like, how would they evolve and what would happen when they come in contact us.

How would a generation ship society evolve over hundreds of yrs, and growing factions and differing ideas on what needs to be done to survive knowing nothing is left but those who have been borned, lived and died in space.

My favorite Character would have to be Portia. Following her story of overcoming the challenges facing her people in their fight for survival I found myself anxious to get back to Portia's story. But honeslty everyones story line kept me hooked through the whole book.

The imagination of Tchaikovsky envisioning what the world would look like through the eyes of alien life but also in ways similar to life we find on earth was, imho, one of the best methods of story telling I have come across in scifi in a long time. Read the book and I hope you will understand.

This was and is I think one of my favorite reads of this yr and I know I will likely go back and re-read at some point in the future.