Rob

Executive Summary: A good, but not great start. 3.5 stars rounded down because I just can't seem to enjoy any Urban Fantasy as much as the Dresden Files.

Audio book: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith does a great job with this book. He seems like a perfect fit. No real memorable voices or anything, but he seemed to do a variety of English accents making different characters distinct from one another. I will definitely continue on in audio.

Full Review
When I first started reading Urban Fantasy, I really loved it and wanted to read more of it. Now whenever I try a new Urban Fantasy series I find myself wishing I was simply rereading the Dresden Files.

I always get people telling me, if you like Dresden you'll like insert series name here. They just never hold up. I usually find myself bored after one book or two.

This one wasn't amazing or anything, but I didn't find myself thinking too much about Dresden while I was listening to it. It somehow seemed to be it's own thing, and not just another Dresden clone, despite the fact that is is another detective magician series.

I suspect if I had the first clue about London, this book would easily be 4 stars. There are probably lots of subtleties that just went over my head. But Mr. Aaronvitch seems to not only bring the city of London alive, but makes it an integral part of the story itself.

The original title for this book is Rivers of London, and it's very fitting. I don't really get why they changed the title for the US. I guess I can see where the new title came from, but it seems far less appropriate than the original.

It's probably because I love the whole magic school/apprentice thing. Peter Grant isn't exactly a young boy who is clueless, but he has a lot to learn and I always find myself enjoying learning about a new world through the eyes of a student.

It also helped its cause with me by not being focused on Vampires, Werewolves or Zombies. I'm pretty sick of all those things. I don't mind them being in the mix, but I hope future books don't focus on them too much.

I'm most interested in the unique aspects of the world building. I want to learn more about the Rivers and how seemingly ordinary people can be come powerful enough to be worshiped like gods.

I hope he continues to focus on that with future books as well as adding in some other unique ideas to set this series apart from the overabundance of uninteresting Urban Fantasy that just doesn't seem to do anything for me. If he does, I may have finally found another Urban Fantasy series I enjoy.

Executive Summary: I really enjoyed the first 50% and the last 15% or so, but the third in between got kind of slow. 3.5 stars rounded rounded down for the lull.

Audio book: Simon Jones does an excellent job with the narration, and seems like a great fit.

Full Review
I used to love history. I used to watch the history channel for hours. I'm not sure why I never really got into historical fiction, or even nonfiction for that matter.

I don't remember much about Rome however. I looked up Cicero and Tiro after the fact, and they were both real people, who did some of the things described in this book. Along with many of the supporting characters. Of course their personalities and dialogue is all fiction or at least embellished/inferences on the author's part.

It's probably better I don't know the real history. It would probably just annoy me in some places where he takes too much artistic license.

The way this book started, I thought I was really going to love this book. But it slowed down somewhere around the 50% mark and didn't pick back up until the end. The writing was good, and for the most part the pacing was good. He also did a good job bringing long dead people to life. I just found things way too detailed at times. He kept talking about details of Roman politics I just don't care about.

The best parts of this book were when Cicero was outmaneuvering his rivals either with clever planning, or clever speeches. I like a good political story from time to time, and Roman politics seem to have been pretty brutal.

I will probably continue on with this series, but most likely wait until he finally puts the third book out, as this one ends in a stopping good place and I have no idea if the second one does the same.

Executive Summary: Another great entry in what's quickly become one of my favorite series. The change in format may frustrating fans of the first book however.Audio book: Stephen Brand is once again a great narrator that could stand to have his volume boosted. He does an excellent job with voices and inflections, but can be frustratingly quiet in places.Full ReviewHow do you follow up a debut novel that seems to be almost universally loved by those who have read it? By writing a book that may be even better in my opinion.My opinion may not be shared by everyone who loved [b:Blood Song 13569581 Blood Song (A Raven's Shadow, #1) Anthony Ryan https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1363126955s/13569581.jpg 19148922]. This is definitely a different book from that. Instead of a single narrative about Vaelin told in the form of a flashback, we are instead given three new point of view characters in addition to Vaelin and the interludes from the perspective of the chronicler.Two of the characters, Frentis and Lyrna will be instantly familiar from the first novel. The fourth, Riva, was probably my favorite. As a new character she probably got the most character development of the four. I think having two male POVs and two female ones gave the novel a good balance.I found Lyrna's story to start a bit slow, but I was quickly grabbed by the book as a whole and eventually sucked into her narrative as well. Much like [b:Blood Song 13569581 Blood Song (A Raven's Shadow, #1) Anthony Ryan https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1363126955s/13569581.jpg 19148922] this is one of those books that grabbed hold and didn't let go. I hated to put it down and loved to pick it back up.I'm glad for the format change as I think Mr. Ryan was able to tell a much larger story as a result. There were parts of the story where the various POV's overlapped, but there were also a lot of things that would have gone otherwise unmentioned if he stuck with just Vaelin's story.We are once again given some excellent action scenes, though probably fewer overall than the first. While the first book was more a hero's journey, this book is more epic fantasy with larger implications to the realm as a whole.We get answers to many of the big questions I had from the first novel too. Often times it seems like authors jealously guard all their book's secrets and wait until the last possible minute to reveal them. Not so with this series. I felt there were several big reveals in parts 2 and 3 that other authors might have held back.There is plenty of new questions to take the place of those that are answered that kept me wanting to keep listening and find out what would happen next.Mr. Ryan has put himself in a precarious position of writing two really excellent novels in what I believe is supposed to be a trilogy. Now the expectations are that much higher for the finale of what has quickly become one of my favorite series.If you haven't read this book yet, do yourself a favor and pick it up. And if you haven't read/heard of this series you should check out [b:Blood Song 13569581 Blood Song (A Raven's Shadow, #1) Anthony Ryan https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1363126955s/13569581.jpg 19148922] as soon as you can.

Executive Summary: This book combines the excellent military action of the first book with the political intrigue of the second book, making it the best book yet.Audio book: Richard Poe once again does an excellent job. He makes waiting the few extra days for Audible/Recorded Books to get their act together so I can buy it worth it. :)Full ReviewMy review for [b:The Shadow Throne 18657632 The Shadow Throne (The Shadow Campaigns, #2) Django Wexler https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1422248599s/18657632.jpg 26473563] is easily my best, and most popular. I'll likely never top it. Thankfully the same cannot be said for Mr. Wexler.I'm always stingy with 5 star ratings. Even more so for middle books in a series. This might be my favorite book of the year so far though, and that's saying a lot. Yet somehow it seems like no one is reading it. At least not in my circle of friends. I'm hoping it's simply the ridiculous number of July releases that have simply delayed people from starting.[b:The Thousand Names 15810910 The Thousand Names (The Shadow Campaigns, #1) Django Wexler https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355441268s/15810910.jpg 21536059] is a military action story with a touch of politics and magic. [b:The Shadow Throne 18657632 The Shadow Throne (The Shadow Campaigns, #2) Django Wexler https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1422248599s/18657632.jpg 26473563] is a political thriller with a touch of military and magic. In this volume however, Mr. Wexler found the perfect balance of military and politics and stepped up to magic to create his best novel to date.His characters are excellent. This is especially true for Winter, Janis and Raesinia. He seems to have more diverse and interesting female characters than just about anything else I'm reading these days, and that includes works by female authors. There are characters to love, characters to hate, and several you love to hate. Through three books, I still have no idea what Janis's motivations and goals truly are. I can't wait to find out!And if that weren't enough, the world building and magic is fascinating. The magic has been fairly downplayed in the first two books, mostly relegated to motivation for character action, with very little on-screen time. This still feels fairly low fantasy to me, but it's definitely stepped up from the last two.Flintlock Fantasy seems to be fairly popular lately, but most of the attention seems to be on [a:Brent Weeks 1370283 Brent Weeks https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1232012513p2/1370283.jpg]' Lightbringer series or [a:Brian McClellan 6524620 Brian McClellan https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1363389316p2/6524620.jpg]'s Powder mage. While I am enjoying both of those series, Mr. Wexler is quietly making his case as the best series of this particular subgenre.If you haven't given this series a try yet, I highly recommend it. Now to go back to waiting for what comes next..

Executive Summary: Another interesting book from Mr. Stephenson, that was somehow a bit too short for me despite its 32 hour duration. This one won't be for everyone, but I'd put it on par with many of his previous books.Audio book: This was my first time listening to a book narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal. She's really excellent. So excellent, that I was pretty disappointed when it changed to Will Damron for Part 3. I'm not sure why they did this. Was Ms. Kowal too busy to finish recording? Was it intentional?That isn't to say Mr. Damron is a bad narrator. I just didn't like him as much as Ms. Kowal, and the change in narration was jarring. If there was any place in the book it was appropriate to change, it was with Part 3, but I think it would have been better suited if they had just stuck with Ms. Kowal.Full ReviewI've been a fan of Mr. Stephenson ever since picking up [b:Snow Crash 830 Snow Crash Neal Stephenson https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1424472532s/830.jpg 493634] back in college. I haven't read all of his books, but I've enjoyed all but 1 of those that I have.I had no idea what this book was about when I volunteered to review it. Much like most of his work, it's long. The start is a bit slow, and as usual it goes off on tangents and into way more detail than is necessary on things. In some of his books, I've enjoyed those tangents and the excess of detail. In others, less so. This one was somewhere in the middle for me.This is the kind of thing that will turn many readers away early on. I was never bored myself, but I wasn't really engaged in the book until nearly halfway. In a book this long, that will be too much of a commitment for many. However, I suspect if you enjoy the detail and tangents, you'll be engaged much sooner.This book is split into three parts. The first part is essentially a present day disaster story. The second is largely a space opera, and the third is a bit of a post apocalyptic tale.Many authors might have focused on one aspect of this story. Instead of giving us bits of history that help shaped the world of part 3, we live many of the details in parts 1 and 2. For me personally, I would have liked part 1 to be shorter with more time spent on part 3. Part 2 was my favorite of the book, but that may be because I felt despite being a third of the book, part 3 ended too soon. I have questions still. A lot of them. Is Mr. Stephenson planning a sequel that will contain some of these answers? I hope so.This isn't a case of a long book that abruptly ends though. For me the issue is that Mr. Stephenson did such a good job with the world building that I want more. I felt like there wasn't enough. I would have happily sacrificed much of the present day (which I found slower anyways), for more time in the future story with the world he created.Mr. Stephenson doesn't spend all the time on world building either. He develops several interesting characters that are used to make most of the story character-driven. We have a largely female cast, and somewhat diverse background for most of them. Overall, while this isn't my favorite Neal Stephenson book, I really enjoyed it, and I hope we get another book set in the same world that he built in part 3.

Executive Summary: I enjoyed this book, though not as much as [b:Fool Moon 91477 Fool Moon (The Dresden Files, #2) Jim Butcher http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345556849s/91477.jpg 855288] or as I remember liking it for that matter. Probably because I'm much better read at this point.Audio book: Mr. Marsters continues to improve as a reader. Gone are most the odd saliva sounds and he seems to have found his voice for the characters. He still reads things too quietly in parts, though maybe it's simply that the overall volume of my copy is too low for my liking (too much loud music?).Full ReviewI debated about if I should keep my original 4 star rating, or bump it down to three. This story didn't grab me as much as [b:Fool Moon 91477 Fool Moon (The Dresden Files, #2) Jim Butcher http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345556849s/91477.jpg 855288]. It's certainly better than [b:Storm Front 47212 Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1) Jim Butcher http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345556917s/47212.jpg 1137060]. I'd probably give this a 3.5.This book continues the mostly formulaic structure the early books in this series suffer from. Dresden is approached by a mysterious client and mayhem ensues.This book deals with not only ghosts, but vampires. Some of them do sparkle, but that's only to lure you in and feed on your emotions. If they feed to long you won't be running off and living happily ever after.We learn there are not 1, but 3 kinds of vampires (Mr. Butcher seems to like variation as he did with werewolves), Black (think Bram Stoker), White (feed on emotions), and Red.We've actually met the Red Vampire Bianca in previous novels, but in this novel we learn a bit more about the other kinds and the vampire courts.The book opens up with Harry and one of my favorite characters, Micheal, the Fist of God on the trail of some ghost that is wreaking havoc on a hospital nursery. Ghosts are out of control and Harry has been relying more and more on Michael's help to sort them out.We are also introduced to Thomas of the White Court, who becomes another of my favorite characters.The main plot of this book doesn't do a lot for me, but as a re-reader, there is an awful lot I appreciate that has both short term (new baddies introduced) and long term (no spoilers) implications the series as a whole.The book has some truly awesome parts, and I found myself enjoying Harry's sense of humor a lot more. Like Mr. Butcher's writing skills, Harry's sense of humor apparently taken some time to develop.All and all is a quick and easy read.

Executive Summary: A fun political fantasy.

Audio book: Joe Manganiello is a fine reader, though nothing special. He neither adds nor detracts from the story at all.

Full Review
This is my first novel by Patricia Briggs. The name was familiar to me, but I wouldn't have been able to have named you any books or series by her.

I couldn't tell you if this is her usual style of book, but if it is, I'll definitely be interested in reading more. This doesn't seem to be as popular as some of her other series though. I found this a quick and enjoyable listen.

It's a play on the chosen one trope, but there is more of a focus on politics. Our protagonist has been playing stupid for years in an effort to reduce the chances his father finds him a threat and killing him.

Unfortunately for him, this means that his father also doesn't trust him to take over after he's gone and names his uncle to rule in his place, at least until his 21st birthday. So of course our hero sets out to make a name for himself and show his uncle that he's not really the fool he's been pretending all these years.

And of course he gets swept up into events bigger than himself and must rise to the occasion or see his friends, family and home suffer.

In a worlds where dragons are long extinct and magic is dwindling, this is more political than fantastical overall, but there is certainly enough in there to make it more than a historical fantasy.

This is book one of a duology, but I feel like it came to a pretty good stopping point where I don't feel I need to rush out right away to read the second book, or (given it's shorter length) like it was simply one book that was split in half.

Overall, I found this a fun and lighter book and I'm looking forward to listening to the conclusion soon.

Executive Summary: A good, but not great start to this series. I liked it enough to continue on.

Audiobook: Luke Daniels is a fantastic narrator as always, however I tend to associate him with lighter/fun type stories, so it took a bit to get used to him narrating a military sci-fi/more serious story.

Full Review
I picked this one up on a daily deal. I'm not a huge military fiction fan, but I like space opera and I was hoping to get some of that here.

Since those were my expectations coming in, I found the first two thirds a bit underwhelming. We start in a near future Earth. Things are bleak. The planet is in bad shape and we've begun colonizing other worlds. Spots on colony ships are hard to come by. Many people are living in welfare funded slums.

The protagonist joins the military in an attempt to escape his life. We get a pretty generic and mostly forgettable boot camp story arc. Then I think even more than our protagonist, I'm super disappointed that he's staying on earth. The middle arc is never really explained though it is at least more interesting than the first arc.

Finally in the third arc things start to pick up. It was here that the book really started to grab my interest. Now that we have the space opera type story I was hoping for when I first picked up this book, I was finally enjoying it.

The world building is pretty bleak. You can tell the author has a military background. It also seems to me he has a very low opinion of poor people, especially those on welfare. I found myself conflicted at times between the protagonist's plight and the supposed antagonists during the middle arc. None of it was very well explained though. Maybe if it had, I would have been less conflicted. The protagonist isn't always likable initially, but he grew on me as the story went on.

Overall I enjoyed this book, and it got better as it went on. This gives me hope the next book will be better, and I plan to check it out at some point in the near future.

Executive Summary: I loved this book. It's everything I had hoped [b:Fool's Assassin 19288321 Fool's Assassin (The Fitz and the Fool, #1) Robin Hobb https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1393886110s/19288321.jpg 26474462] would have been. There are a things I didn't like, that will understandably be much more off putting for some than they were for me however.Audio book: Elliot Hill once again does an excellent job. He does a variety of voices and inflections that make doing this book in audio a good option.Full ReviewI absolutely loved [b:Fool's Fate 45108 Fool's Fate (Tawny Man, #3) Robin Hobb https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388181998s/45108.jpg 2960725]. I'd have been perfectly content if the series ended there. Last year's [b:Fool's Assassin 19288321 Fool's Assassin (The Fitz and the Fool, #1) Robin Hobb https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1393886110s/19288321.jpg 26474462] was enjoyable, but not as much as I'd have liked. It left me apprehensive for this book. I shouldn't have been. That isn't to say bad things don't happen to our beloved Fitz. Any fan of the Ederling books won't be surprised by that. Ms. Hobb sure loves to torment Fitz, though probably not as much as he torments himself.This book grabbed me from the start, and never let me go. I hated every time I had to stop listening. In fact once my hardcover copy arrived, I augmented my audio time by reading as well.For reasons I can't fathom, many people seem to skip the excellent Liveship Traders series and more have skipped the quite enjoyable Rainwild Chronicles. While I wouldn't call it a prerequisites for this book, I would highly recommend reading those books first. There are so many great rewards in the book for people who have. If you haven't, I doubt you'll be lost, but you won't get the same enjoyment in my opinion.It's pretty much impossible for me to get into why I loved this book more than the last one without massive spoilers. I suspect most longtime fans will share my excitement however.That said, despite getting one of my rare 5 star ratings (this is only the second book by Ms. Hobb I've given that too), there are some complaints. Or maybe not complaints so much as things I wish weren't in this book. I found them very upsetting. I'd have preferred some kind of alternative reason used to drive the plot forward. I suspect some people may be more upset than I was, and others may be more indifferent.Overall though, those were very minor things to me in an absolutely fantastic book. I will warn that if you hate cliffhangers, you may wish to avoid reading this book until we're much closer to the release of the next book. It is a pretty big one. With it being the second book of a trilogy, and how the first book ended, I can't say I'm very surprised.Much like the last one, I am both nervous and excited to read the next one and see what Ms. Hobb has in store.

Executive Summary: I thought this was another decent entry to this series where I care more about the world building than the main character and his story.Audiobook: James Clamp does a good job. He reads with good volume and pace. He also does some voices, that adds a little extra that makes audio a great options for this book.Full ReviewThis series has a very unlikeable protagonist. I don't dislike him as much as many do. Mostly I find myself a bit uninterested, which is probably worse. Love him or hate him, the author is doing his job and making you feel something. Don't really care? That's less good.There are times when it appears that Jorg is completely awful only that have it dragged back, or turns out to be his reputation preceding him. Don't get me wrong, he's an awful person. He's just not maybe always as awful as his reputation. Sometimes he's worse.I found it kind of amusing the presumed antagonist for this book is essentially your typical fantasy hero. He's got good intentions, everyone loves him, and he's destined to save the world. So of course Jorg has to oppose him.Much like the first book, I cared more about the world building than anything else. We get some detail on the “magic” but far too hand wavy for my tastes. I am fascinated to know what happened to the builders and I always get excited when there is some old tech found/used.Overall this book was fine, and I moved right onto the third and final one, but I still think his new series (starting with [b:Red Sister 25895524 Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor, #1) Mark Lawrence https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1481038440s/25895524.jpg 45777900]) absolutely blows this one out of the water and would recommend that instead.

Executive Summary: Not as good as [b:The Heroes 9300768 The Heroes Joe Abercrombie https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1375671200s/9300768.jpg 12879765], but still quite enjoyable.Audio book: So in the US Steven Pacey reads the original First Law trilogy, but not the first two stand alone novels. Since I read the trilogy, this is the first time I've had him as a narrator. Now I wish I had listened to the trilogy. Mr. Pacey is excellent. I wish he was the narrator for The Heroes as well. I will definitely be on the look out for other books he narrates in the future.Full ReviewSo this book is almost impossible to review without spoilers, but I'm going to try. It's probably going to be a bit on the short side as a result.This book (like all of his in this world) has excellent characters. That's what makes Mr. Abercrombie's novels so enjoyable. They aren't necessarily likable characters, but they are definitely memorable.This book like the last two stand alone novels has a great mix of new characters with appearances of some old “favorites”. I'll refrain from naming which characters show up, and simply talk about the new ones a bit.Shy is pretty enjoyable character. I actually ran into her before in a short story in [b:Dangerous Women 17279560 Dangerous Women George R.R. Martin https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1370759802s/17279560.jpg 19236677]. Lamb is pretty awesome, especially later in the book. Meanwhile I went back and forth on Temple. I found him very annoying early on, and less so later on.For anyone whose watched Yojimbo (or more likely its unlicensed western remake: A Fistful of Dollars), there is a bit of that feel here. Thankfully this is not a retelling of that story, but likely a nod from Mr. Abercrombie.I found the book a little slow in places. But it was also really awesome in other places that made up for it well.Anyone who was a fan of the series so far, should enjoy this one as well.

Executive Summary: A strong start and a pretty strong finish, but I found a lot of the last quarter or so on the slow side. This is a pretty solid 3.5 stars that could be rounded up or down depending on my mood at the time.Audiobook: Apparently this book had been released in audio before, but for some reason Brilliance Audio seems to be (re)releasing a bunch of his books recently. Scott Brick does his usual quality job. Whenever you see Mr. Brick's name on an audiobook, you know you're going to get a good reading. Full ReviewI came into this book thinking it was a reread. I did a handful of books by Mr. Crichton when I was in high school, and I thought this was among them. As I got further into the book, I became convinced otherwise.I found the beginning very interesting. A psychologist is brought in to help with a crash that turns out to be a spaceship on the bottom of the ocean. I liked the mystery and investigation aspect of the story, more than the viewpoint of the main character itself though.As the plot develops and we learn more about not only the ship, but the sphere it contains, I found my mind starting to wander. I didn't get attached to any of the characters. I found myself annoyed by most of the scientists. Several of them seemed to be more concerned about being published and/or their place in history than the actual investigation itself. I've always been more of an engineer than a scientist, but I don't know why anyone would want to deal with that.As with the other Michael Crichton books I've read, this one takes science and posits some plausible seeming possibilities. He always seemed to have a knack for the techno-thriller in a way that doesn't feel cheesy and over the top.I'm not sure if I was disappointed with the truth of the Sphere, or if my detatchment from the characters just got to me, but by about the 50% mark, I found my mind starting to wander a bit. The ending was pretty strong though, and probably saved it from me rounding down to a three.I've been wanting to take a break from SFF this year, and while this is definitely still in the Sci-Fi wheelhouse, it's more of a thriller with a sci-fi premise than a pure science fiction book. I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as [b:Timeline 7669 Timeline Michael Crichton https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1405420745s/7669.jpg 1525987] or [b:Jurassic Park 6424171 Jurassic Park Michael Crichton https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344371661s/6424171.jpg 3376836], but I'm glad I finally read it.

Executive Summary: It almost felt like two different books, but I generally enjoyed both of them. I can understand why a lot of people don't however.

Audio book: Mark Bramhall is excellent. This is my first time encountering him, but he's definitely on my short list of great narrators. He does voices and has great inflections when he reads, making me really glad I opted to go the audiobook route despite also owning the ebook.

Full Review
I love the magic school trope. I can't seem to get enough of it. About all I knew coming in was this book had to do with a magic college, and that many people didn't like the protagonist.

I guess I should have read the description. I tend to avoid it though because too many of them seem to provide too much detail about the plot. Really this could be two books.

The first half is totally the magic school trope I was hoping for. The second half is more “traditional” fantasy. I would definitely have liked more of the school. More detail about the magic, the school, etc. What there was I enjoyed however.

Then the book took a turn. The protagonist I was kind of indifferent towards, but was far from hating suddenly became extremely unlikable. And so did the plot. It really makes me wonder a bit about Mr. Grossman. Maybe he could use a hug?

Things got REALLY depressing. If I wasn't doing this in audio, I might have put it down. I'm glad I didn't though. Thankfully this sort middle transition period was fairly short and the second half picked up.

The second half feels like an homage to The Chronicles of Narnia. I know I read some of them when I was a kid, but I was never enamored with them the way Quentin is with Fillory.

I found this second half good, though not as much as the first half. Part of that was how generally unlikable Quentin becomes. I still don't really get why Mr. Grossman felt the need to do do that. Some sense or reality? The popularity of dark fantasy?

I don't need everything to be shiny and happy, but it wasn't even like Quinton is someone you love to hate, or some kind of lovable anti-hero. Really he just depressed me a lot. This book could really stand to be a whole hell of a lot less depressing.

There is a great story here, but it gets bogged down in places that will likely turn many people away from it. For me it was enough to jump right into the second book, which seems to be largely better received than this one is.

Executive Summary: I found this book good at times, and tedious at others. It rounded out to be a so-so thriller overall.

Audiobook: Much like the other Clancy books he's narrated, Michael Prichard does a fine job, but nothing spectacular. He speaks clearly and with good volume. He doesn't add anything extra to the story nor does he detract from it. Audio is a decent option here.

Full Review
This book is largely split into two parts: Military/CIA thriller, and domestic vigilante action crime drama. I much preferred the former to the latter.

The beginning of this book was a drag. I guess it was meant to give you sympathy to John Clark's one-man crusade, but I mostly just found it soured me on the whole subplot. I guess it's important to explaining how John Kelly became John Clark, but if anything it made me less interested in his origin story.

The parts of this book I enjoyed most were the parts where John was acting as John Clark. The planning and execution of a dangerous and daring mission where his expertise is the make or break point for success or failure. That was what I picked this book up for.

Part of my issue may be the timing. I had just finished another Tom Clancy book not that long ago, and probably wasn't ready for a second so soon, but my hold came in from the library so I decided to go ahead anyways.

At this point, I'll be taking a break from Clancy for awhile. We'll see if I'm the mood again in a few months.

Executive Summary: There is not much I can say about this book without getting into spoilers, or making statements that may lead people to guess at their meaning. What I can say is much like Ms. Hobb's previous works, this book made me feel. A lot. Audiobook: Elliot Hill is a pretty good narrator. He can be a bit soft spoken however. And he's not great at female voices. I rather wish he didn't try. Still it's more good than bad, and I do think he adds something to the narration that makes the audio worthwhile. If you liked him in the previous books, you should like him here.Full ReviewThis book was difficult for me to rate. I don't give out 5 stars easily, and normally when I do it's a no-brainer. This one not so much. The book has some pacing issues, especially early on. I have no idea of the final page count, but in audio it's nearly 40 hours long. Ms. Hobb's books have always been on the slower side, but there were points in this book where it was a bit too much. That's only a minor gripe though.FitzChivarly Farseer is one of the most real character I ever read. When this series was announced I was both excited and nervous to get to spend more time with him. What terrible things would Ms. Hobb do to him this time? She has really put him through the ringer over the years. However my desire to spend time with him again outweighed my fear.When the series started, I was not happy about the addition of Bee's chapters. At its conclusion, I'm still a bit torn on them, but I think the story could not have been told otherwise. I think part of me was just irritated to have to spend any time in the book away from Fitz. In addition to Fitz, it was really great to see some old friends again, some of whom I never expected to see.This book like [b:Fool's Quest 23157777 Fool's Quest (The Fitz and The Fool, #2) Robin Hobb https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1420496252s/23157777.jpg 42704733] before it, rewards those who have read the entire Elderlings series, not just the Fitz books. If you haven't read Liveship Traders and Rainwild Chronicles, I highly recommend you do so first. There is so much that'll you be missing if you don't.There isn't much else I can say without getting into spoilers beyond this: Ms. Hobb has an incredible ability to make feel strong emotions for fictional characters. Joy, anger, love, hate, cheer, sorrow. I feel so much that I'm drained. Few books do that to me, but hers seem to do it all the time, especially the Fitz books. It is for this reason I decided to give this 5 stars instead of 4.Prepare yourself for an emotional journey. I hope you'll find it as worth it as I did.

Executive Summary: This book just isn't for me I guess.

Audiobook: John Lee is great. I've enjoyed him for several Sci-Fi books. He's probably the main thing that kept me going. If I was reading this instead of listening, I'm not sure I would have made it to the end.

Full Review
I've seen several adaptations of this book in movie or TV form. I recall enjoying those. Maybe I'm wrong? I thought this would be a fun break from SFF books.

Boy was I wrong. There is probably a decent story in here, it's just bogged down by lots of boring dialogue, unlikeable characters and awful pacing.

I found d'Artagnan and the musketeers downright despicable much of the time. They think of themselves as noble, all while aspiring to seduce other men's wives and spend their money. Milady and the Cardinal both felt cartoonish as villains.

I've honestly already spent more time on this book than I'd like, so I'm going to end my review here. Needless to say, this book just wasn't for me.

Executive Summary: This book was pretty enjoyable, but there were parts I found slow. Overall it felt like a pretty balanced biography offering both pro and anti Musk opinions on his success and failures.

Audiobook: Fred Sanders does a good job here. Unlike a fiction book, my main thing from the narrator I want is clearly spoken and good inflection. It can be very easy for the narrator to get in the way of a nonfiction book, and thankfully Mr. Sanders doesn't do that here. Audio is definitely a decent option for this book.

Full Review
I've always been interesting in knowing more about Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX. This book proved to be a good resource for that. It's grown a little dated now, especially on the SpaceX front as things are getting very interesting for SpaceX since its publication. I'd love to see an update on both companies in another 3-5 years time.

The similarities of Musk and Steve Jobs are quite startling to me. The author discusses it, and outlines why he feels they are quite different, but I'm not sure I agree.

Musk seems a bit more likeable, but it could simply be that he cares more about his public image than Jobs did. Both seems to be polarizing in that some love them and many hate them. The amount of credit they get also seems to be higher than each deserved too. However I feel that you can't argue that their respective companies wouldn't have been nearly as successful without them.

Even if you don't think Musk offered anything on the technical side of things, his belief in both companies and his willingness to stake so much of his own money on both pushed them through the time periods where either company would have easily failed if owned by someone else.

I was less interested in Mr. Musk's personal life and upbringing, so I found those parts a bit slow. However I think their inclusion is important to the book to get a better understanding of who Elon Musk is, and what drives him.

Overall I thought this was a pretty good book. I've been following both Tesla and SpaceX for a few years, and I'll continue to do so for the foreseeable future. I hope both companies continue to be successful, because I feel like science has always been one of the strengths of America, and it's been something we seem to be taking for granted lately.

Executive Summary: Another great entry in this series. Can't wait for [b:Apex 20424928 Apex (Nexus, #3) Ramez Naam https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1422812013s/20424928.jpg 30020583]!Audio book: I'm was bummed that [a:Luke Daniels 2978188 Luke Daniels https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1331514576p2/2978188.jpg] didn't read this one. But that's not meant as a slight against Mikael Naramore. What it really means is that Mr. Naramore had extra work to do in order for me to be happy. I'm pleased to report he does a good job. Fairly early on, I was over the fact of the narrator change. In fact if he had been the narrator for the first book, I'd have no reason to complain. It's my first time listening to a book read by him. He does a good job with voices and inflection to make the audio book a good option to do this book in my opinion.Full ReviewI wish there were more books like this. I'm not a big sci-fi reader, but this sort of near-future plausible technology books. The only other author I know writing this sort of thing is [a:Daniel Suarez 1956402 Daniel Suarez https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1265394868p2/1956402.jpg], and his last few books Much like the first book, for me the large part of my enjoyment stems from thinking about the ideas presented here. It's one of those rare books that I keep thinking about even when I'm not reading it.This book does a pretty good job further exploring the ideas introduced in the first book and setting the stage for the final book while managing not to suffer from “middle book syndrome”.The characters are once again interesting and conflicted. The ideas presented here are not black and white. That's largely the reason I think this book sticks with you even after you put it down.I like that despite the fact that there are some pretty scary things that could occur if such a thing were possible, Mr. Naam makes it a point to explore some of the positive as well. That more the feasibility of the technology makes this book feel more realistic. There are good people out there. I'd like to hope more good than bad. People would use this technology for the betterment of humanity just as they would use it as a means to gain power, wealth or any other thing they might desire.Much like the last book, my main complaint is that the negative side effects of the drug seemed to be mostly ignored in favor of abuses it allows humanity to do to one another. He does explore the addiction aspect a little bit. However that seems to be something that the drug/technology enables you to do, rather than an effect of its use.Overall this is as enjoyable as the first. I hate to use a term like “more of the same” because that has a negative connotation to it. Personally I'd love a lot more of this type of story and eagerly look forward to reading [b:Apex 20424928 Apex (Nexus, #3) Ramez Naam https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1422812013s/20424928.jpg 30020583] this week. I'm so eager to read it in fact, that I'll be foregoing my preferred audio format in favor of the eBook due to the complete lack of information on it's release.

Executive Summary: Overall I enjoyed this stand-alone novel more than the First Law books themselves, despite the lack of likable characters. It's Kill Bill meets Ocean's 11 in a medieval setting.

Audio book: I believe this is the first audio book I've listened to narrated by Michael Page. I think he does a pretty good job. He is clear and easy to understand. He does a variety of accents and voices. I would definitely listen to another book read by him.

Full Review
I enjoy Mr. Abercrombie's writing quite a bit. But it's rather bleak. This book has only despicable characters.

First, we have the protagonist, a former mercenary bent of revenge.

Then we're got her assortment of “friends”:

- A ‘master' poisoner and his assistant

- A Northern Barbarian whose best skill is killing.

- A serial killer with an obsession for numbers. Rain Man he's not.

- Another mercenary whose loyalties are fluid based on whose paying the most.

- And a “retired” torturer

You know it's a bad sign when the most likable character is probably the serial killer.

That doesn't mean the characters are badly written. They are certainly quite entertaining too. Nicomo Cosca is especially amusing. But with no one really being likable to me, I wasn't sure what/who I was routing for by the end.

That sort of makes it a weird book to me. Typically even if the main character is “bad” they have some redeeming qualities or something to make them into a sort of anti-hero.

Monzcarro Murcatto may have had some redeeming qualities once, but now she is bitter and angry and won't let anything stand in the way of her revenge.

I think Mr. Abercrombie does do a good job in taking some minor characters from the first series and promoting them to larger roles in this stand alone novel. I think this also ties thing together nicely with the First Law trilogy without really spoiling things much.

I'd highly recommend reading First Law BEFORE tackling this book. Sure it's stand alone, but there is a lot of context and references you'll miss if you haven't read that first.

As a fantasy book, this was pretty light on the fantasy. It could almost have been an alternate history book if it weren't set in Mr. Abercrombie's First Law universe.

At its heart this is a revenge story. Monzo is determined to make the ones who wronged her pay. It makes for a fun romp full of unexpected consequences and lots of action.

Overall I really enjoyed it. Plus considering I wasn't sure what outcome I was rooting for, I ended up really liking the ending.

Executive Summary: I'm torn on this. It has many of the elements that first interested me in the story, but the main character is so off-putting that I'm not sure I want to continue anymore. I'd probably give this a 2.5 stars. I've rounded down. I may decide to round up later, but probably not.

Audiobook: Nick Podehl does an excellent job as always, however the audiobook is not without its flaws despite that. This series spends a ton of time on the game stats aspect of the main character.

This results in a lot of repetitive dialog. I found this is made worse by the inclusion of sound effects. I think some listeners may enjoy those additions, as it gives the audio a bit more of a video game feel. For me personally however, I find myself more annoyed than anything at them.

If I was reading the book instead of listening, I'd probably skim all of those sections. If you're big on the details of the gaming, you may feel differently.

Full Review
I'd categorize this series as guilty pleasure reading. I know it's not exactly the best written or offers deep characters. That said I've enjoyed each book less than the previous.

Richter is a total dude-bro. I've been encountering these kind of gamers for as long as I can remember. I don't like playing with them, so I really don't want to follow the adventure of one in what might otherwise be a pretty interesting world/game. For the last two books the world building/gameplay aspects of the story has been enough to keep me enjoying it.

This book may have hit my threshold for it. I often found every time I was settling in and just enjoying the story, Richter would say something obnoxious. Sometimes it was just lame jokes, but more often than not he's making some stupid sexist comment. I can't tell if this is meant to be satire/commentary on people Mr. Kong has gamed with, or if he truly thinks Richter is “cool”. I suspect it's the latter.

At this point, I'm torn on the series. Part of me wants to know what happens next with the village in the mist and the world its part of, but I'm not sure I can stand Richter enough to continue on. Maybe I'll change my mind the next time I'm looking for a guilty pleasure read. We'll see.

I'm not a Cubs fan, or much of a baseball fan for that matter. I was only vaguely familiar with the “Billy Goat Curse” that is the premise for this story.As a pre [b:Changes 6585201 Changes (The Dresden Files, #12) Jim Butcher https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1304027244s/6585201.jpg 6778696] story, things feel a bit more of “the old” Dresden. Dresden gets a case, and digs deeper into things. There is almost no action in this one though.Overall it's a decent, but unremarkable story. There are several other Dredsen short stories I think are much better. Hopefully Mr. Butcher will release a [b:Side Jobs 7779059 Side Jobs Stories From the Dresden Files (The Dresden Files, #12.5) Jim Butcher https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1269115846s/7779059.jpg 10351697] 2 that will include this and several other short stories he's written since then. Otherwise I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to read this story unless you can borrow [b:Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy (Riverside Series) 9727729 Naked City Tales of Urban Fantasy (Riverside Series) (The Dresden Files #10.9) Ellen Datlow https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1312232941s/9727729.jpg 14616573] from somewhere easily.

Executive Summary: Another excellent book by Mr. McClellan. The first trilogy was good, but this one is so much better so far.Audiobook: Christian Rodska does another excellent job with this book. He does a variety of voices and accents that really give the audio version that extra something that makes this series a must listen for me.Full ReviewWhen I reviewed [b:Sins of Empire 28811016 Sins of Empire (Gods of Blood and Powder, #1) Brian McClellan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1472056794s/28811016.jpg 49026464] last year, I called it Brian McClellan's best book to date. If this book isn't better than that one, it's a very close tie. We're talking too close to call. Either way it was another easy 5 star rating for me.Much like the last book it's split up into three subplots following Vlora, Ben and Mikael. There were times when I was annoyed to leave one story for another, but then I got sucked into that subplot and I was just as annoyed at leaving that story as well.If had to choose however, I'd probably give the slight edge to Mikael. I'm a sucker for the spy stories. Ben is a very close second though, in particular because I think he's had the most interesting character development of the series thus far. Vlora's story was also quite good, just slightly behind the other two.I don't feel like this book suffers at all from middle book syndrome either. I'm very eager to get my hands on the third book, but I felt like he got each story to a good stopping point while setting things up nicely for the ending.There were some more fantastic world building, a few really great surprises, plenty of actions and a bunch of interesting characters that got me finding reasons to keep listening just a little bit longer each day.I'm hard-pressed to recommend this series if you haven't read his original Powder Mage trilogy first, but I think it is written in such a way that you could. You'd miss out on a lot of backstory and detail that way.Either way I'll continue to recommend Brian McClellan while eagerly awaiting the final book of this series to see if he can pull off a 5-star conclusion. Given the last two books, I suspect that he will.

Executive Summary: While not quite as good as the last two books, Mr. Wexler finished this series quite well. It's easily one of the best fantasy series of the last several years. I highly recommend you pick it up.Audiobook: Richard Poe once again does a good job here. The issues with his volume I've had in the past seem to be resolved. I'm not sure if that's his doing, or just improvements to the recording process or both. He's still a bit on the quiet side, but nothing like I remember from the earlier books. Audio is definitely a good option here.Full ReviewFor the last few years, the new books in this series have been coming out every summer. And every year when I look at my top reads, the most recent entry has been near the top. Last year we were deprived of another entry, but that just starts out 2018 on a strong note.I thought the first book ([b:The Thousand Names 15810910 The Thousand Names (The Shadow Campaigns, #1) Django Wexler https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1355441268s/15810910.jpg 21536059] in this series was good, but a bit heavy on the military action (and rather light on the magic). I enjoyed book 2 more than the first, but it was a bit overly heavy on the politics. Of course that didn't stop me from writing possibly my all time favorite (and one of my best liked)reviews.However it was [b:The Price of Valor 23435269 The Price of Valor (The Shadow Campaigns, #3) Django Wexler https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1423008261s/23435269.jpg 42905071] where this series really started to shine for me. Mr. Wexler found what I feel was the perfect balance of military battles, political intrigue and an interesting magical system that made it one of my top reads of 2015. I don't give 5 star ratings to books likely, so that fact that the final 3 books of this 5-book series have gotten one should tell you how much I liked it.The characters are fantastic. This is especially true of Winter. I think the main reason I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as the last two, was that her story felt like it took a little longer to get going. Luckily Marcus and Recinia's chapters more than made up for it. I found myself listening a bit longer each day just so I could squeeze in an extra chapter here or there.I'm not a huge military fan, but the way Mr. Wexler writes these battles make it more than apparent how much he is. I'm not going to rush out and start reading books about the Napoleonic wars, but maybe if they demons granting magical abilities, I just might have.Overall I thought this was a fantastic series, and I'm glad a friend got my little side reads group to pick up the first one 5 years ago. It's a shame that Mr. Wexler isn't better known at this point, but I think he's been writing some of the best fantasy books of the last few years. If you haven't given this series a look yet, I highly recommend you do.

Executive Summary: I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as [b:Red Sister 25895524 Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor, #1) Mark Lawrence https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1481038440s/25895524.jpg 45777900], but it was still really goodAudiobook: Heather O'Neill does another fantastic job. I love her voices. She reads with good inflections and volume. She definitely makes this series a must listen for me.Full ReviewI finally took the plunge with Mark Lawrence with [b:Red Sister 25895524 Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor, #1) Mark Lawrence https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1481038440s/25895524.jpg 45777900] back in February and this is now the 5th Mark Lawrence book I've read this year. It's the first I got on release day, and won't be the last. In fact I'm ready for [b:Holy Sister 38099642 Holy Sister (Book of the Ancestor, #3) Mark Lawrence https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png 59773612] to come out tomorrow :)I love the idea of a warrior nun. Not only is Nona Grey a fantastic protagonist, most of the other Nuns are Novices are fantastic as well. It probably helps that I love a good fantasy school trope, but Mr. Lawrence's spin on it is pretty unique compared to all the others I've read.The world building is really intriguing, but not explored as much as I'd like. I want to know more about the ancient people and their technology. I was also hoping we got some more information on the magic system in this book, so I was a bit disappointed in that regard.My main gripe was that the primary antagonist felt a bit too much like your standard spoiled rich kid who hates the protagonist simply for being poor. I know those people exist in reality, but it just feels a bit overused, especially in the fantasy school trope. It would have been nice if there was more depth to her character.That aside, I'm really eager to see where things go in what I believe is the final book. I think I read that Mr. Lawrence has already finished writing it, so hopefully it will be out early next year. I've seen comments about this ending on a cliffhanger, but I thought compared to the first book this one ends in a much better place. Do I want to know what happens next? Of course I do. I want all of the next book right now in fact, not just the next few scenes.I'll likely sustain myself by reading The Red Queen's War trilogy. Some of my friends say it's better than this one. All that I know is that this series is great, and I think it's a far better place to start with his work than [b:Prince of Thorns 9579634 Prince of Thorns (The Broken Empire, #1) Mark Lawrence https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327917754s/9579634.jpg 14466531].

Executive Summary: This one started slow but finished pretty strong. One of the more enjoyable novellas of the series so far.Audiobook: Jefferson Mays does his usual good, but not great job. I like him, but he's never been a narrator that I seek out either. Full ReviewMuch like some of the others I thought this started a bit slow, but it picked up a lot faster than [b:The Vital Abyss 26170028 The Vital Abyss (The Expanse, #5.5) James S.A. Corey https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1440610192l/26170028.SX50.jpg 45335194] which I read earlier in the week.This ties into the later books, in particular [b:Tiamat's Wrath 28335698 Tiamat's Wrath (The Expanse, #8) James S.A. Corey https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1522779721l/28335698.SY75.jpg 48382890], so I was able to better remember some of the characters and events that tie back to this better than I did with some of the others.That may be why I enjoyed it a bit more. It's not as good as the Churn, but given some of the events in [b:Tiamat's Wrath 28335698 Tiamat's Wrath (The Expanse, #8) James S.A. Corey https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1522779721l/28335698.SY75.jpg 48382890] I thought it added enough to make it worth picking up.