Nick S
I liked it, but there's not too much to it. I read it after seeing James Nestor on Joe Rogan's podcast, because I wanted more information on the subject, but aside from a few additional anecdotes, there's not much there. But I appreciate James work and want to support it, so don't regret buying the book
heads-up, this is a DNF. Sometimes a 2-3 star book will be elevated by a fandom for having a plot line near and dear to that fandom. Booktok obsessed with this book for having a “fantastic” queer love story. Well, I have nothing to say to that. I read 100 pages of this 800 page mammoth and still had no idea where the plot was going(if it had any intention of going at all) or who the characters were(only that there were many of them). Only some descriptive world building and extremely predictable character introductions have occurred. Would not recommend.
I get it that the idea here is to leave some things to your imagination, but the description is so light here sometimes that you might as well just imagine reading the whole thing. Wanted to quit, but halfway through you get a semblance of plot and I didn't hate the style
Two and a half stars? I really disliked it. We follow a thoroughly unlikeable protagonist, who throughout the whole book doesn't seem to care about another human being as she fumbles through a murder investigation. As we follow her, we gain access to to her thought, which include such pearls as ‘colonialism- bad', ‘women can be police officers', and my favorite ‘poor people shouldn't have children'
Oh, and the last 50 pages is the author explaining the events of the book like 3 times
I really don't understand the rating
Great book. Every time you think you know where it's going it hits you over the head and drags you into a dark alley, and then, when you get comfortable it does it to you again. Ending was a little underwhelming, but not enough to deduct a star. Great writing style.
I want to read more Christian theology, so picked up this book based on the recommendations by some public figures I follow. This was like a boring sermon- nothing in it is wrong or annoying it's just very uninteresting and hard to get through. No new insight I guess? Anyway, I really had high expectations but it ended up being extremely uninteresting
I know I'm late to the party, like 40 years late but still. This book continues to generate chatter, being talked about by creators that I find interesting, so I decided to give it a read.
That was a mistake.
First problem- it is well written enough to get me deep enough so I couldn't just quit.
Second problem- all the inaccuracies. I happen to come from the region where this book takes place. I know that google was unavailable in the 80s but still, the mistakes are glaring. The Georgian military highway does not go through Ossetia, Ossetian is majority Christian, so a mosque would not be in the center of town. The Muslims of the north Caucasus don't wear turbans so it makes no sense to call them rag-heads. They would not speak Circassian in an Ossetian village, they would speak Ossetian, their own language. Also, whatever the Russians are speaking is not Russian, is a weird mixture of polish, Russian and something else? The vegetation described in the book is wrong for the region... I mean, it's fiction but this is very annoying to read
Third- the world building. Something this book is lauded for. The author doesn't bother to explain how a nation composed of the losers of the revolutionary war, the losers of the boer war and the losers of the civil war became a nation of winners of every war they take part in without changing their way. What drives technological progress in a feudal nation so much that they are more advanced than the Americans and Europeans combined.
Lastly, this is not a novel. It's fan-fiction. The worst kind of it- self insert fan fiction. The protagonist is just, smart, beautiful and can't lose. The nation wins just cos, has more industry and more technology just coz also.
It is telling that in a book with the Nazi as antagonists, you cheer for the protagonist to lose.
Fuck this book.
I've heard that the second book is shlocky erotica so I might give it a read.
Это лучшая книга на русском прочитанная мной в 2019году. Обожаю. Скорее всего, буду перечитывать.
Honestly, reads more like a blogpost than a book. Really light on facts and science, really heavy on anecdotes and opinions. And the science that gets mentioned is sometimes wrong, like the power pose study by Cuddy that has long been debunked.
Also, lots of typos.
Also also, if you are not in the US a lot of the info on the book doesn't apply.
If you're in the know, you probably won't get anything new out t of this book. Two books that communicate the same message but better and with more science are ‘do hard things' by Steve Magness and ‘the self driven child' by Johnson and Stixrud.
Having said that, the author's heart is in the right place and the advice given is generally good, if somewhat vague.
Maybe this book was overhyped? It's just a collection of anecdotes, some lesser known, some better, some altered to better fit the narrative. I can imagine if you are a gymbro who's never picked up a book before this one can feel like a true revelation.
I mean. As I was reading I was thinking that I had problems with world building, character, plot, even language. But halfway through the story swept me and I didn't care anymore. Not a perfect book, but it's a lot of fun. Good job Brendo-Sando
It was a 5 star book for me up until halfway/ two thirds in. This is where the book loses momentum and gets bogged down in tedium.
Otherwise it is exactly that- intense.