Trey
I was keen on this book until the hero manifested magical teleportation powers in order to move the story to its climax. It felt too pat, too deus ex machina.
Kind of like Dresden Files or the Iron Druid series. Very fast read, straight forward plot, colorful characters.
I think what I like best about this series so far (I started book 2 almost immediately after finishing this one) is that the magic is pretty weak and commonplace. There isn't a lot of fire and elemental forces being flung around willy-nilly.
Fun.
Horror like this isn't really my thing, but I feel like this is a very solid follow up to Shirley Jackson... and it makes a bit more sense.
Great – and very emotional – story of what happened to Henrietta Lacks and her family, how it changed the course of medicine, and how medical research STILL needs some work on ethics.
Very fun read. I have some general complaints about the way the “mystery” unfolds, but for it being the first detective novel, I'll keep them to myself.
Narrated by Hoid. I dislike Hoid. But I like everything else about this book. It's just SO MUCH Hoid.
It's tough to read this through the constant political statements, although there's a sort of logic to that. The worst part is the abrupt resolution to the conflict.
Really debated over whether to give this three or four stars. Three because it's so long and so dark and depressing. But four because the mastery of the craft — particularly voice and perspective — is incredible.
Not my typical cup of tea.
This is very much a book of its time in style and core concept.
The story is about a guy whose dreams change reality and his psychiatrist who wants to try to use that ability to improve the world and give himself more and more power.
Thematically, it puts taoism against utilitarianism. I won't spoil for you how that plays out, but you can probably guess.
Couldn't get into this one. The thing that pushed me over the edge was when Misery says, “my heart was doing the most in my chest.” The contemporary slang landed very badly in my ear.
This is one of those thought experiment sort of novels where something fantastic happens and the story explores how different people and society at large responds to the change. See also The Power.
As with too many Liberal/Progressive writers he fails to make much effort at understanding, let alone steelmanning, the views of his conservative or libertarian opposition. And while there are several interesting ideas and a ton of compelling anecdotes and data, it's overshadowed by his own partisan views.
I initially loved this book. The magic system is interesting. I actually liked the footnotes. I liked the underlying tension.
And then the preaching started.
At 62%, I knew I couldn't give it more than 3 stars.
Now that I've completed it, I hate it. It has huge potential, but it's ruined by the author's urge to lecture. If you hated Atlas Shrugged for the speeches, this is didactic like that, but lacks the clarity or hope.
And, of course, there's all the little r racism. Lack of power doesn't excuse the moral corruption.
I don't know if this ties into actual mythology, but this is one of those stories where the myth is told from some else's perspective.
Medieval history isn't usually my thing, but someone must have recommended this book to me because it's been on my “to read” list for a loooong time. I am so glad I did make time for this!
It's fascinating and the closest thing to a narrative that you could probably get from a time so long ago when written records are so unreliable.
Also, the audiobook made for food listening while I was moving house.
This book is very long and very dense, but I'm inclined to say that it should become a text book for middle schoolers who are learning how to do research and write papers on what they learn.
I discovered that there's a lot here that I learned to do haphazardly and instinctively, but it would have been helpful in school to have more of a method to the approach.
This is a fun series and the final books really pay off. #10 and #11 are my favorites and made reading all the reason worth it.
Made it 19% and DNF
I should have read more descriptions of the book because I expected a medical science thriller, but this is actually about a man's battle with a shady insurance company, which is... not thrilling to me.
