Random

As with all short story collections, you're bound to enjoy some more than others. My favorites, which I consider to be 5(+) star reads, are Tower of Babylon, Story of Your Life, Seventy-Two Letters, and Hell is the Absence of God.

I did find one of the main character's reaction in Divide by Zero to be annoying enough to detract from what was otherwise a fascinating concept.

Even though, these are all excellent examples of why I love science fiction so much. Not only is there a lot of imagination, but every one of them causes you to think, to look at things from a different perspective, and you find yourself thinking back to the ideas and concepts long after you've finished.

Somewhat torn on this book. I feel for something which claims to focus on composition, it spends too much time talking about large amounts of expensive photography equipment.

While ISO, aperture, depth of field, etc have a part to play in photography, the author spends a lot of time on these subjects and not very much dealing with lines, form, color, texture, point of view, and other elements of true composition. And while these elements are spoken of, we often get a voodoo answer of “you just get it when you get it”. The book never really covers the exact elements of composition. They are alluded to, but we're never really told what they are. The author mentions that sometimes its ok to break the rules, but we're never really told what the rules are (other than don't stick the horizon in the middle of the picture) and other than a couple example pictures, we never really learn anything about when and why it is a good idea to break the rules.

I do have to add, the author did spend a good amount of time discussing point of view/position and how moving the camera, even just a little bit, can make a significant different in the quality of an image.

A pet peeve of mine on most books on photography, even the ones aimed at amateurs, is that everyone has access to not only a semi expensive DSLR, a myriad of expensive lenses, and often not just one but multiple bodies. In this specific case, composition is a subject that can be used and explored with any equipment, be it the simple camera of your phone to professional grade DSLRs.

Overall, this isn't a bad book, and many of the photographs are lovely, but I really came away with very little new knowledge. As an amateur, I should be able to walk away with more than I managed to get.

I may revise this rating after I've had more time to think about it.

I had entered to win this book through the giveaways on a bit of an impulse. The premise sounded interesting, though once I had won the book I want back through reviews and started to regret it.

I'm not one for action, I prefer things to be a little more intellectual, and the descriptions of action, gun fights, etc had turned me off. I'm glad I had waited to read the reviews until after I had won the book.

Sitting solidly in the cyberpunk/dystopian sub genres there is action and there are gun fights, but it is far from the core of the story. Things do move a little slowly at the start, but given this if the first book in a series, it is to be expected.

The world is interesting and grows on you as the story moves on. The same can also be said of the main character. My only real complaint is the frequency in which the main character states how tough and hard assed he needs to be in order to survive in the world. It breaks the rule of showing instead of telling and becomes a little too repetitious.

The last third of the book was quite gripping and overall I found I was enjoying myself. It ends in such a way that I'm very curious as to what is going to happen next. I will likely pickup the rest of the books in the series so I can satisfy that curiosity.

I don't know if you can say I am a fan or horror. Instead its more accurate to say I enjoy a specific spooky creepy type flavor that can be so difficult to find. If anyone can tell me what that flavor actually is and help me find a way to find more of it, I'd be eternally grateful.

So, the description of the book really drew me in. It sounded like it might be right up my alley. And the scene with the video mentioned in the book's description pretty much nailed it. Sadly, it was the only such scene in the book. However, plot wise, I was still quite drawn in.

Yes, the title character is a complete and utter self centered egotistical ass. And I was tempted to stop early on thinking an entire book of this guy was going to be too much. But again, the plot kept dragging me on. Overall it was a worthwhile read even though it wasn't exactly what I had hoped it would be.

minor non plot spoiler
Plus I am a sucker for unreliable narrators. Once we started getting the inserted text from others who had witnessed events, it started to become clear that what we were being told was a rather edited truth and I was also eager to see how the picture would eventually turn out.