Queku

The book was divided into two main parts, which I both found at the beginning interesting, but somehow felt they were dragging out at the end.
The Academia part was very interesting, we got to understand how the magic system works and we got some tastes of the etiological mechanisms at play. But just before the trip it became repetitive and a chore to read.
That's why the change of setting due ti the trip and the more importance of Hermes was very refreshing. I was very excited for the future of Hermes. But it just got depressing and boring at the end with the siege.
Yes this book caries some very strong and important messages, but most of them flew past me because reading became more of a chore than a pleasure.

I'm sure this book could be the favorite of some people, just not me. Too depressing for my personal enjoyment.

This novel is simply the best sci-fi novel I've read till the moment. it got me empathizing with the main character getting excited and sad as he did. The story is simply beautiful it got me hooked in every moment, making me finish this book in under 5 days...
The execution is brilliant. I love how Andy Weir explains all the science experiment in a descriptive way, but not overweomingly detail to the point it gets boring. it is a perfect balance. This book introduced me to Andy Weir and it won't be the last one. I've all ready ordered the next one :)
The speaker is another great point of the narrative. Throughout the story we get to know many, many characters and the speaker does a wonderful job to give each characters dialogue an unique personality, so you can know who is speaking even if it is not said.
all in all 10/10 a must read sci-fi novel

An awesome story and a better world.

WORLDBUILDING
Brandon Sanderson is an amazing writer. His world-building is incredible and the progressive exposure to new information makes for a light reading experience while getting the full richness of the world he has created.
At the end of the story, the reader feels like it understands how the world works, as it would be it's own.
The hard magic system presented is very satisfactory, since every bit of magic is justified and inbound by the presented rules. It is not like some stories where magic is invented on the way as the hero needs it, which feels improvised and unsatisfactory. But it is slowly introduced to the reader until it is familiar with the rules and then the problem resolution results are more satisfactory.

STORY
The story is a fun heist story with greater political repercussions than expected from a heist.
It is a very enjoyable story built around the fun magic system.

It only gets 4 stars because sadly the 4th part got for me a little dragged out which made me struggle to continue reading. But it is worth continuing reading, at the last chapter of part 4 it gets back on track and awesome again.

A handy book to make a change in your life.

This book leads you through the steps and tricks you can use to make the most of your life. In essence, it teaches you how to create small habits that together make a significant influence.

Even though I think this book is so useful I have given it only 3 stars because the process of reading is tedious and very repetitive, which made me read even slower and procrastinate reading the book.

An awesome critic of society.

Orwel is an awesome writer for social critics and 1984 is no exception. We are set in a world where the government has a absolute power over the life's of the people. With power over the media and even language.

The book is divided into 3 parts.
The first is an exposition where we are presented this government and all its power over day to day life from the view point of an insider.
The second one is the story on it self. Heavily inspired by romeo and Juliet and the concept of prohibited love.
And the last part is a reflexion about the consequences of such a government. It is a very scary part, primarily because it is a very plausible state. This is personally my favorite part since it got me thinking, something not many books have accomplished...

All in all it is an awesome book. But it does not get a perfect score because some chapters are too long and may turn some readers down. Don't be scared of the long chapters, it is worth.

Star Wars at its full potential.
This novel ticks everything that I like from star wars. Reading this novel got me back excited by the wonderful World of Star Wars. In a world of mediocre adaptations and TV shows I could not care less for this book was a breath of fresh air.

1. This book is fully dedicated to exploring the Sith philosophy and how did we get here in the first place. I've always found the Sith a lot more interesting than the Jedi. The Jedi are the vanilla white heroes, where they are wright because they got blue swords... They actually never explored what makes the Sith evil, and this book fulfills that itch I've had so many years. Now I understand why the Sith are evil and they should be stopped.

2. Reading this novel has answered so many questions and expanded on the world building from the movies. If Darth Vader's signature move is the force choke, why didn't he use it in any of the fights against the Jedi? Even further, why don't Jedi and Sith fight at a distance using the force? Well turns out that during battle force users deploy a force shield impeding any force attacks to the user, that's why they have light sabers... It just makes sense, but it was never explained to me until this book. The force shield is just an example of answers we get in this novel of why are the thing like they are. i won't go into further detail since other revelations would be considered spoilers.

3. The Battles are just incredible. During the story we are faced with some lights saber duels and they are just amazing. We Star Wars fans haven't got a good light saber fight adapted to the screen in a long time, but the battles here are just simply beautiful and a joy to read through.

All in all, if you liked the old star wars and feel underwhelmed by what Disney is releasing, you should read this book. I will most certainly continue reading in the Star wars EU (or legends how is now called...) in order to find great stories from the franchise of my childhood.

Amazing character work, but mid story

This book tells the story of a sociopathic teen (John) obsessed with serial killers. We get to know the inner workings of his mind when a serial killer strikes the small town where he lives. John is conflicted between admiration and years of systems ensuring that he acts normally. It also has a supernatural twist around the midpoint of the novel.

I find the story itself is pretty mid, with a midway twist and climactic ending, but there isn't a lot more to the story. This may be due to who is the narrator (a sociopathic teen who lacks empathy and any emotion). I personally would have taken the supernatural part out to let the story more grounded and probably scarier. John felt already scary, but if it had happened in a more realistic context I would have shat my pants XD.

But the story is not the selling point of this book. The main point of reading this book is getting to know the main character John. The character work done by Dan Wells is amazing, on several points in the book I actually feared John and his thoughts. I don't have any experience interacting with people diagnosed with sociopathic tendencies, but somehow this book felt real.
I found really interesting to crawl into John's mind since his mind is so different than mine, a truly amazing experience.

All in all, this is a great book, just for John's character, and it is not very long and can be read in a few sittings. That's why I would recommend it.

Edit:
In retrospect the supernatural twist halfway through wasn't so bad, It actually makes the final climax scarier. Just wasn't expecting that direction and it pulled me away, but it wasen't as bad as I thought.

A good story, but not Andy's best one.

Andy Weir is known for his realistic science-fiction novels. This one is no exception, but I felt the science was left behind on this one.
The novel is set in Artemis, the first lunar colony, where we follow Jaz a low-rank smuggler. She imports many contraband goods, but this is not enough to cover her expenses, so the book turns into a heist story when she is presented with a life changing job. Which I thought was a great idea, but it turned the book into a science-fiction heist novel. In the other book, Mr. Wear has realized the main character has a great knowledge of science and applies it to solve the presented problem. But this time the only idea Jaz comes up with is blowing things up.

I am also not convinced about the ending of the book. In my opinion, was the last chapter a little unnecessary and I would have ended the book with the one action (if you have read the book you know what I am talking about, but just in case I will make my review spoiler free). It is true that the last chapter gives us closer to the open threads, but I would have done it differently.

The review up until now has not been as positive as my score... that lies in the fact that the story is great, but it is not a great Andy Wier novel.

All in all, it is a great book, and would recommend it to everybody, this book is clearly more compatible with the general audience than the other book that Andy Weir has written. But if you liked this book, please check the other book by Mr. Weir, you will love them.

A fun novel about one of my Favorit characters in the Stormlight archive. I loved this I don't give a f*** attitude that lift showed on her interlude in words of radiance and this novel is even more than that.
Nonetheless I found that the main problem got resolved too fast and too easy. After reading the authors note at the end I understand that the role of this book was to show the change of mind of a character between books 2 and 3. But I still have the feeling that this change of mind was too sudden. Yes seeing the Everstorm with your own eyes could change your mind... but even Seth was reluctant when first seeing it, and he wanted to believe it...
Therefore my main concern with this novella is that it is too short. Give us more lift and more time for the characters to assimilate the Everstorm.

It was okay.
I really liked the murder bot character, as this quirky and introvert AI, but I have the feeling that in this short format I could not care about the other main character and or the stakes of the situation. This series has potential. I just hope it doesn't turn into episodic stories where I am unable to care for the stakes at play.

It was okay...

I found the first half of the book pretty good, I was very invested during Bob's training and the resulting debate about humanity when resurrected as a computer program, but once the story got into space it got dull and boring very quickly.

From the several branching stories in space, I only got invested in the Delta system, which also became boring really fast. Once Bob started interacting with the residents of that system they completely lost me. I find interesting this idea to be the start of religion in society, but I don't believe that Bob could invent a translator in so little time.

The story in Sol was annoying because humans are so selfish, that they didn't deserve to be rescued. In that regard, I liked the contrast between the Delta system and Earth, where the cavemen were more civilized than the technology advance society.

The other stories were so vague that I couldn't get invested, and the technological progress done by Bill was so handwavy that it gave me movie magic feelings.

From the first half of the book, I got the feeling of this book is a hard sci-fi story exploring the technology and ethical problems that are encountered during space exploration.
But instead, I got half a book where that's the case and half a book where they ignore the first part and it becomes a comedy that doesn't take itself seriously enough.

WHAT AN AWESOME ENDING FOR THE TRILOGY!!!!!

I really loved this ending. All my questions about the world were answered successfully and with no bs answers that are invented at the moment just to resolve the current problem. We even get explained the subtle clues leading to each reveal, even referencing scenes in the first book I just overlooked. This makes a very satisfying ending because you feel that you could have predicted the twists, making them believable and justified. Even when you can foresee a plot twist, it is fulfilling to see it unfold, because there will be always something you did not expect.
Nothing new... Brandon Sanderson is just an amazing writer.

My only complaint about the book, is regarding a Scene towards the end, not gonna spoil anything... but I had the feeling it was too much bs and over the top, but somehow Sanderson brings it back down and makes it justified. That's why gave it 5 stars instead of 4.

The book on its own is Great. Once again it takes a page from the second entry in this trilogy (the well of ascension) and focuses more on the side characters and their development. This book gives us a new perspective from Spook, the quiet boy from the first book, who was overlooked by everybody including the readers.
This has led me to like the side characters more than the main ones... But everybody gets its time to shine, and somehow everybody becomes in the end a main character.
As mentioned above this book is also the most meta of the trilogy, since we get a look into the world and learn how everything works, making it more satisfying.

All in all a great book and an awesome trilogy. Go read it.

(Edit)
P.S.
This series has also a very interesting perspective on religion. This trilogy explores on the side what is religion and why people believe in it. Me being an atheist have found very interesting points, making me understand why people believe in religions. Don't think this is some kind of religious propaganda, quite the opposite. Each entry explores a perspective of religion, with its virtues and flaws. For example, the first book explores religion as a tool for control. The second one explores the logical flaws of Religion and finally the third explains why people believe in religion even with its flaws. Just an interesting take it took from this book. It still can be enjoyed without thinking about religion and believe.

I am continuing my quest of reading the Harry Potter books for the first time.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. I must say the book is pretty slow passed and I had the feeling that 3/4 of the book was filling. But that last 25% was worth it. I believe the book is worthwhile and great just for the ending, I was on the edge of my seat in the final chapters, where there were revelations and plot twists one after the other.
I am still enjoying this book series and will continue reading it, I am excited to know what Harry's gang gets up to in the next book.


Slight rant about a plot part ahead... SPOILER ALERT

In my opinion, the use of the time turner is a little cheap, but mainly because I don't like when stories start messing with time. Although I must say that this time it was used very well, by not allowing the characters to change anything but just giving the audience a different perspective of the facts.
What I did not like about the time turner was the sudden appearance of the artifact. We are currently in a huge mess luckily I had this whole time a time machine in my pocket... It just doesn't feel right. It is true that it is kind of hinted at with Hermione's tight schedule, but at one point in the book, Hermione doesn't attend her classes because she overslept and it makes her upset, with the existence of the time turner she could just go back and attend those classes, not a big deal...
I just would have liked a little more foreshadowing such that at the moment where this device plays a role in the main story it doesn't feel like it is a plot convenience just placed there to solve the current problem.
In summary, I believe from a world-building point of view, the time-turner is a solid artifact with clear and reasonable rules that won't break the tension for future adventures. My problem comes from a narrative point of view where the artifact should have been introduced or at least hinted at before its main use. But it isn't a big deal, at the end of the day this book is for kids, not my 20-year-old ass haha.

Great start but a weak ending.

I've finally decided to tip my toes into the WOT, and what a great start. I was told this book was one of the weaker ones with some poor pacing issues. Well if this is one of the weaker ones I can't wait to see more.

I found myself fully invested into the world and our main characters from the very beginning and I did not find it had poor pacing. You basically always had a few chapters of chill chapters followed from some high intensity chapters. So you could rest with some world building between chase scene and chase scene.
The only problem I had was actually the climax. I found it rushed and confusing, but I'll have to reread the ending eventually.

The character cast was a varied one and you will find at least one character to root for (Egwene and Perrin are awesome) and if not at the beginning you will eventually do, as the characters are developed more and more. Just be aware that the beginning is very Rand centric.

I was also told that this is a transition novel from the classical Tolkien esc fantasy to the more modern fantasy we get today and could not agree more with that statement. It does give me a lot of LOTR vibes but IN MY OPINION this book is a lot more readable than LOTR.

I am very excited for this series and can not wait to check the second book.

Leí en su momento este libro para clase y como un acto de nostalgia he decidido volverlo a leer.
Esta bien el libro. La historia de Caín y el plottwist con Jacob están chulos, no obstante tuve la sensación durante la lectura de que los personajes son muy planos. No se sienten como personas reales, ni actúan como ellas.
Por ejemplo en la conclusión de la historia el sacrificio de Roland se siente vacío. El decide sacrificarse por una chica que conoce desde hace una semana. Si, han experimentado un evento traumático que los podría haber unido. Pero yo diría que los sucesos pasan de extrañas coincidencias a trauma en la secuencia final con la tormenta, lo cual no le deja tiempo para conectar de verdad. La relación entre los dos pasa de un lío de verano a un amor incondicional muy rápido.
Los padres también se sienten muy falsos. Entiendo que para la historia desarrollarse así los padres tenían que dejar a los niños solos. Pero se sigue sintiendo raro que desaparezcan y dejen a los dos niños en casa. Podría perfectamente haberse quedado uno en la casa con los niños sin necesidad de cambiar la historia. Todos los eventos suceden fuera de la casa.
Tengo la sensación de que se intenta hacer toda la caracterización de los personajes en los primeros capítulos y el resto de la novela centrarse en los sucesos, pero justo por ello se sienten tan vacíos, no hay evolución. Los protagonistas se sienten en el primer y último capítulo igual, a pesar de haber vivido muchas cosas que los deberían de haber cambiado.
Eso si la escena de la hermana pequeña en las escaleras me encanto.

Great setup and great ending, but it lost me in the second third of the novel.

I found the initial setup with all the unknowns of the situation very interesting. I was reading in order to find out what was actually happening. I gave me the vibe of a science murder mystery.
But once the this mystery was unveiled it devolved into a pseudo science fiction, which is okay in its own, but the start was so strong and “scientifically based” that the contrast was annoying. But when I made the switch into reading a more fantastical approach to science fiction I enjoyed. It was just the initial shock.

I believe that first contact stories are very interesting and fun to theorize. But I believe the first contact part was treated a bit poorly... How should the aliens decipher a human language from a short message? They're supper computers translated it, but in order to translate a language you require knowledge of that language and that is impossible with a short text and no further context. But who know, maybe is human language not so complicated as we thought.

The science of the Trisolarian civilization is what pulled me out, because it entered the speculative and borderline pseudo science territory. But as mentioned above once I made the mental switch I actually enjoined the speculation part, but the proton super computer is still a bit too much. I don't know what the author was smoking when he came up with that idea.

Even though it is a pessimistic approach to the first contact story it hasn't fallen into the trap of having a pessimistic ending.
I believe the chapter Bugs does a great job to lift you spirit up after the Trisolarian “proton super computer” bs. Once you accept a foreign civilization has those That level of knowledge it becomes a bit depressing the possibility of contact.
Nonetheless I left the book with High spirits.

Fun read if you don't overthink it to much as I did.

Fantastic book, I loved it.

This story follows Matt Watney an Astronaut stranded on mars after an unexpected event during a mars mission. He has to work his way through science ingeniously to survive on an inhabitable Planet.
Andy Wier is a great Science-Science-Fiction Autor, since he presents us with stories that could only work in science fiction, but explains to us how everything that was done could actually be done. But if science is not your interest, do not fear this is a story and science is in the background. Nonetheless a great touch for us who enjoy science. And this is not just some clever storytelling to convince us that it would work. Actual Nasa scientists have praised this novel for its accuracy.

The story itself was also great, Matt Watney is such a great character with a great sense of humor. I was rooting for him from the beginning. And since a great part of the book is written as “Diary” entries (actually log entries, but are comparable) where at the end of the day Matt sums us up what he did and how Mars fucked with him. He raised himself through adversities and conquered every challenge that is associated with living on an inhabitable planet.

After the film adaptation, one can not compare the book to the motion picture, but I actually enjoyed the book even more. Starting with a different ending which was more satisfying (at least to me). And Watneys humor is in the book more rough and uncensored, which leads to much more laughter.

All in all an Excellent book, a must-read. I will be gifting it this Christmas season.