Jarrad Maiers

Finished my 2nd read through before the movie comes out later this month. I have loved this book for years, and it holds up on the repeat reading. It's certainly geared towards my exact interests and age group, but seeing how my interests of geek culture have started taking over so much of popular culture in the last few years, I think it'll appeal to more people than I may have thought at first. I'm not going to see the movie on opening night. Instead, I'm going to be going to Reno early next month to meet some friends and see it on the big IMAX screen. Looking forward to the vacation.

Turns out that I had read this book a few years ago on vacation, but I recall very little of it. This time I enjoyed it much more. It's not perfect, a lot of “telling” when I prefer “showing”. But knowing that this is the beginning of a large 16 book epic helps put it in perspective for me. This is more of a prologue of what is to come, an introduction to a character that I understand comes and goes throughout the entire series. One of the problems I have with it is that this is supposed to be a book about the origins and training of the main character, but the actual training part of the book was really skimmed over. Especially his combat training which was barely mentioned, but his training as both an assassin and a wizard were focused more on his relationships with his mentors than the actual details of what he is taught. To me, this has the effect that I know only vaguely of the main character's skills, but I actually have a lot more detailed knowledge of his motivations, which is not was I was expecting from the novel, but may be more beneficial to the series as a whole.

Really enjoyed this novel about the American Library in Paris during WWII. “After the darkness of war, the light of books” is the motto of the library, and looking for hope in times of hardship is one of the themes, as well as those of personal responsibility during hardship, and forgiveness and understanding of others, and regret years later. A low key book that was very well done.

I enjoyed this one much more than Reamde, and it was so much fun to visit some old friends again with some of the characters from Cryptonomicon. That the two worlds are connected was something that I hoped for when I read Reamde, but that I couldn't pick up on.

I loved the fate that they gave Enoch. I loved the world that they built together. But the time spent in Bit-World with Adam and Eve grew a bit long for my tastes. It's brilliant bit of world-building, but at times seems like it's more focused on the world building than on the characters themselves. The language seemed to mimic an almost biblical rhythm, which was completely appropriate for the circumstances, but had the effect of removing me from really wanting to be involved.

I was more interested in the modern world of earth, with the strange religions and the information stream editors than I was in the bit-world that they had created.

On my first read of this one, I loved it. I read it a second time right before the show came out, and even years later, I still think it's a great modern cyberpunk story. It hits the level of noir and gritty future reality just right. And the metaphorical writing is reminiscent of trying to be like Raymond Chandler, which fits the main character well. What I didn't remember from the first time, and what I found I really enjoyed during the second read, was all the political undertones and Quellist remarks made by various people. I suppose my interest in this has changed in the 12 years between 2006 and 2018, because I live in the United States, and in those years paying attention to revolutionary politics has suddenly become more important.

More and more I find that the most important books to me are the ones that show the nuance of emotion within the hidden narrative. Ondaatje is so damn good at this. This is a worthy successor to The English Patient, with perhaps The Cat's Table being part of the series as well.

I really enjoyed this book, and the conclusion that it came to. The coming of age story in a time of war, when things are not quite what they seem but as a teenager you don't have a view of the entire picture just quite yet. It takes time and perspective and work to put all the pieces together. At the time, it's seen through a dim light, and you can't make out all the details.

This book was beautiful.

Journalists have long been some of my biggest heroes. I once wanted to become one, but I wound up married to one instead.

In a time when we have elected a man sized toddler to lead the nation, it's good to read the reflections of a great journalist on how we may direct this nation back towards the road of rational thinking.

Overall, this wasn't my favorite in the series. The slog through Shadesmar just felt like it got a little old for me. But what I did like, I enjoyed immensely. I loved the exploration of Dalinar, and his path from tyrant to redemption. Also, I think the climactic main battle in this book has to be one of the best climaxes in all of epic fantasy novels. All the various elements going on in the book finally come together seamlessly. Look forward to the next one.

Fun debut. I love fantasy books about people being trained in their craft, especially martial combat. It's a genre of fantasy that I really enjoy, as its far more pleasant than reliving my own high school memories. Age of Assassins doesn't quite fit the genre because by the time the protagonist arrives in his training, he's already been trained as an assassin for years and is just pretending to be a squire-student, but it has the same feel.

The author has a great grasp of craft. And I'm really impressed with how much research she did into the various fields and interests of her main characters. There are some books where the author has a great premise and then fails to deliver on that premise. But in this case, the author delivers incredibly well. I was quite impressed, and look forward to her future work.

Meh.

I enjoyed the feminist version of fantasy literature, certainly better than most previous attempts that I've read. The world building is very strong. I love the way the empire is set up around the knightly virtues, but not always good.

My problem is that with the exception of Roos, I wasn't really a fan of any of the characters. Nothing specifically wrong with any of them, just that none of them really ever interested me or grabbed my attention. The book was worth finishing, but I don't know that I'll continue the series.

The author of this book is likely brilliant. She's a true craftswoman. It was easy to get lost in her prose, but in the end, it still left me feeling lost.

Impressionistic, and perhaps existentialist, but while skillfully done, it wasn't something that I found I really enjoyed reading either. Some really meaningful scenes, and some very humorous ones for anyone who has ever had problems at the post office trying to get a passport, and yet I put it down thankful that it was over and I could move on to different book.

I've been reading various anthologies by Gardner Dozois since I was about 9 years old. He has a well deserved reputation as one of the best editors in modern fantasy. I was thrilled with this collection of sword and sorcery stories.

I have to admit that I didn't read all of the stories in this collection. I'm holding off on the Robin Hobb story until I finally get around to reading her books.

My favorite stories in this collection are “The best man wins” by KJ Parker, “The Mocking Tower” by Daniel Abraham, and “The Smoke of Gold is Glory” by Scott Lynch. I'm a fan of rogues and mentors and trick endings.

It took me a while longer to get into this read than I had expected. I'd heard a lot of good things about the book and was looking forward to it. I found that for some reason the characters took a while to grab me. But towards the end, I was very happy to see where the book was going. I had planned on putting off the sequel for a while until I could give it another chance, but after finishing on the cliff hanger, I now want to know what happens next.

I've been reading fantasy books for decades. And never have I read a fantasy book that was used as such an allegory for the psychological trauma inflicted on a population from war and infidelity. A quiet, slow novel where everything is a little more than it seems. It is filled with the same mastery of nuance and innuendo that Ishiguro is known for. Brilliant. Like many fantasy novels there is magic and dragons and ancient armies. But unlike most of them, the epic battles are meditative and within each of the characters in their own small way. The best book I read last year was “The Remains of the Day”. I need to continue on this trend, and read more and more of Ishiguro's work.

Have you ever met someone and gotten a wrong first impression of them? That's what I did with this duology of books. It started out and I wasn't very impressed by the characters or the setting. Then I gradually developed a grudging respect for the world-building. Then I came to enjoy the characters more and more, and finally became fast friends with the series and learned to love it. Now that I've finished the second book, I'm onto the final phase in the relationship: I'm missing it. The heists were awesomely executed, and the character development was meaningful. Bardugo is a very skilled writer who has clearly spent a lot of time developing her universe. I place her books about fantasy con men and thieves on my shelf next to Scott Lynch and the “Gentleman Bastards”.