Mer Barr

I was Very surprised to find this was pretty much a different story than the movie. I was happy to have some gaps in the movie's world building, filled in; especially regarding animals and the origami.

Still not sure what the title has to do with the plot, sounds like a throw of word magnets at a fridge door.

I just loved Chrisjen Avasarala for her no holds barred speaking and the fact that the author had her telling you exactly what political intrigue was about to happen. I HATE when the author has folks sneaking around in the background generating trouble. I think, they think they're creating anticipation but all they do is make me want to stop reading their work.

Pacing was even better than [book:Leviathan Wakes|8855321] and I was at first disheartened to see my favorite character from it was gone but I took a keen interest in Bobbie Draper.

I'll be reading the next in the series.

Another whale-sized book, another read-through-the-night plot, more interesting characters and surprising twists. It's getting darker and sadder.

And the aliens' goings-on are taking up more of the pages. These my eyes glaze over, there are too many groups and members of those groups, too many mythologies, gods, demi gods, inferior gods that are sisters and wives of the same junior god. So confusing! I just slide over it and hope it doesn't trip me up somehow, later.

I'm caught up now. I think the latest book has just been released so I'll probably have to wait several years before the San Francisco library will let it out of there hands. I find it shocking that the nearest library that has this book in any format is on the other coastline from me!

A fun read, lots of action and movement [what I like in a story], who was who was a mystery til almost the end [I like this too]. The characters had good depth and personality, and I liked that objects of nature have manifestations.

If you like this book and don't mind a bit of leaning towards sci-fi, you may enjoy [book:The Atrocity Archives|101869] by [author:Charles Stross|8794]. London today, supernatural, and managing the chaos that ensues.

Amazingly, for being the 5th book in the series and for being a heavy beast at 700 pages, a great read that I picked up every opportunity I got.

I don't understand why this series isn't on more bookshelves, digital or physical? I still have to rely on interlibrary loans to get this series; this time all the way across the country!

The book is fairly old at the time of my reading; I wonder how much has changed? Can someone still do this type of stopping just anywhere for the night? Have a good conversation without concerns for safety?

It reminds me of something I read decades ago, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, which I didn't like at the time. Maybe I didn't appreciate the wandering, and appreciation of the moment and who we might meet or what we might learn, at any moment.

At the time of my reading, Goodreads and Hardcover don't have the Known Space set of books sequenced chronologically. This book falls between the original discovery of Ringworld [I've not yet come across that book] and the original book in the series, Ringworld.

Some interesting concepts to contemplate while reading like dismembering individuals for various reasons [usually members of the lower class], keeping their body parts for the elites only, and psychic abilities.

This particular book does a good job of bringing a reader into the Known Space timeline very well but like the Planck, the storyline drops off the cliff into parts unknown. Are there books between the 'Protector' and this one? What book might come after this one? What actually happens to the Planck and its 'crew'?

The release of the story is quite old now but not too outdated in how its told. Still good storytelling, no veering off onto tangents [which I don't like at all] or bogging down the movement with unnecessary information [something else I don't like].

I stopped at about 3 hours. That SHOULD be long enough to get a sense of where a book is going and if it draws you in and yet the author was still describing his main characters [in 3 different storylines no less].

Also the author would tangent now and again to topics that had no relevance, in my opinion, to moving a storyline forward.

Just too verbose of an author for my taste.

Sorry author! I scanned the title and didn't catch that the word 'life' intended a memoir aspect. I was looking more for a biography of the sea creatures.

However, what I did read was a lovely merging of biography of the sea creatures and your memoir, like watching kelp forests swaying back-n-forth.

Say it with me 'feral goldfish'.

I think the author does a great job of building the world but I'm always interested in the storyline and the people.

At the 25% mark, there isn't a storyline with progression, it's like watching several 1-act plays where a set of people are interacting in a location. There were several different groups but I had no clue as to why they were all mentioned in this book; no storyline or progression.

And some of the characters were interesting but there's no mention of why one person is the main character of a particular 1-act play.

I had to work hard to remember how this was related, if at all, to the first book and I eventually remembered enough.

The story is slow at the start, more world and character building, then the pace begins to pick up. I had a hard time keeping track of who was who towards the end.

Overall a story with interesting, unique to me, elements.

99% world building for the first 25% of the book, which is when I gave up because I prefer storyline progress and character building.

The last 1% was character building, mainly for the main character, with alot of unusual characters that come into and quickly leave the story. No deep character building or long-term interactions.

I just couldn't get interested in the subject, which is strange because I love books and nonfiction. I'll put it down to alot of Latin words and Italian names and getting lost in who the subject of the book actually was.

It seems to be well-rounded on subjects related to anyone and anything to do with the books and people of the time period.

Great book for understanding the Civil War battles held in Georgia, up to and a bit beyond the Battle of Atlanta. A mix of high level information about the battle going on for the page, some personal recollections from both sides by individuals in the current battle, some artifacts and photos, and some really great drawings of which brigades/armies were where for the current battle.

A bit confusing because both sides were called the Army of Tennessee, thankfully the editor / author distinguishes the sides either by Federal, C.S, or Confederate so you don't get too lost in the details.

It doesn't do a good job on the battles IN Atlanta at all which, based on the title one would assume would be here. Barely 2 pages! Most of the book is up to the battle called the Battle of Atlanta and the battles just following the city bombing itself. Nor is there a map showing where the fortifications around Atlanta would be so I can compare to a modern city map. A better title to summarize is The Battle for POSSESSION of Atlanta.

What's not here is also the infamous 'March to the Sea' and scorched earth policy of Sherman but the goal for taking Atlanta had already been accomplished so its exclusion makes sense.

This series is nonexistent in the library systems I have access to, I had to request this and the 3rd book in the series via interlibrary loan. I received this book after the 3rd.

I didn't enjoy this floor as much as I did those in the 1st and 3rd books. The story took place in just 1 town and there weren't as many battles, I don't think. Which is strange because the hardcopy is incredibly thick and not alot of white space on the pages. There should be a really long story here but there's not.

The characters continue to be interesting in all 3 books, however Mordecai is a bit weird in this 1. Either I missed something in the 1st book or there was a drastic change in how the character related to this floor, with some settling in by the 3rd book.

There's still a lot of technical and political information mentioned and I just zoned out on most of that, choosing to "go with the flow" rather than try to memorize something I'd forget by the next book.

None of my library systems seem to know about this series, I had to resort to interlibrary loan which means a hardcopy. This sucker was over 400 pages big!

Normally it's a month or so to finish a hardcopy book of this size but this was SOOO good it took me 6 days. And I didn't receive the 2nd book in the series before this one but that wasn't really an issue. Yes, there probably were references to things that went on in the 2nd book but considering the complexity of this floor and the warning made by the author up front, I was already level set to just 'go with it'.

Let's see how easy it is to get the 2nd and 4th now.

I skipped the first several chapters, too much detail on the abuse of women for my taste and in hindsight didn't really add to the storyline other than providing 'See how much better her life is now, compared to the start?'

For most of the first half of the book I kept seeing hints at veering off to a focus on young adult trials and tribulations but was pleasantly surprised to see the plot didn't go too far down those roads.

Good action, interesting characters, some interesting concepts to stretch my view, overall an enjoyable read.