Kane

While it was still and enjoyable book it felt very much like suddenly the author realised near the end that they were writing a trilogy and rushed to wrap up as many loose ends as possible. I feel many of the plotlines of this book could have taken another book to expand and explore more thoroughly and be written with more suspense.

Not my cup of tea but I can see the quality and knowledge that went into it. Which is why I am giving it a 4/5 while my enjoyment was more like a 2.5 .

I read it as a primer for walking the wall... It's not that book. It has so many minute details about the construction of the wall and comparatively little about life on the wall or Roman culture in Britain, which is what I was more interested in.

If you want to know everything about the wall then I doubt you will get better. If you just want a primer I would look at one of the more guidebook style books around (I used and appreciated the trailblazer version).

Note: I received this copy from Netgalley as an ARC. This has not impacted my review.

I really loved this book - breaking down gene editing into terms and concepts that could be read by laypersons. It's a thoroughly engaging topic that is yet to be truly explored in any books I have encountered previously. 

I know know infinitely more about CRISPR and the repercussions of gene editing on a society - including the premise of increasing our IQ and life expectancy in the near future and essentially “beating evolution”. 

I thoroughly recommend this title to anyone who is interested in gene editing but has always been too afraid to dive in due to its perceived complexity. 

Note: I received this as an ARC from NetGalley. This has not impacted my review. 

Reading this book in the midst of a pandemic was a weird and welcome experience. I know for some people it was very confronting but I found the concept of a pandemic book satisfying to escape our lived pandemic into a speculative one.  I really liked the concept of a society that was so deprived of touch that it lead to weird social norms and customs but I really did not feel the pacing or characters in this book. Ultimately I did not finish this during the pre-release window - I always intended to come back to it to finish and provide a complete and honest review but with so many great books on my TBR I just couldn't justify returning to a book I wasn't feeling. 

This was mostly a DNF. I sped through a bunch of it to find if it got any better but it didn't seem to.

I was quite excited to read about an alternate history of London being divided by an iron curtain but it was really just a geographical shift of the real history more than anything novel.

Mostly what ruined it for me was too much pining over unrequited love and not enough cool alternate soviet history.

I appreciated that [b:C-Mass: Calisthenics Mass: How to Maximize Muscle Growth Using Bodyweight-Only Training 22372777 C-Mass Calisthenics Mass How to Maximize Muscle Growth Using Bodyweight-Only Training Paul “Coach” Wade https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1401403639l/22372777.SX50.jpg 41785095] is one of the few calisthenics books to focus on the body building aspect of the craft and at trying to convey the differences between strength based training and bodybuilding based training it did quite well. There were numerous things that I didn't like so much about the book though, and why I didn't enjoy it or get as much out of it as I should have. - The casual and often somewhat sexist language was distracting for me, rather than relatable like some reviewers have noted. I don't need to be called names every paragraph. It's like the ancient persuasion trick of salespeople to say your name all the time to falsify some bond, but instead they have forgotten your name so just keep calling you buddy. - There was no references for any of the scientific claims made. The general construct involved saying “This technique or trick will make you big using calisthenics, and here is an old photo of someone who I claim to have used this technique”.- It referenced [b:Convict Conditioning 17846180 Convict Conditioning Ultimate Bodyweight Training Log Paul “Coach” Wade https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1366838697l/17846180.SX50.jpg 24977314] A LOT, and other DragonDoor authors A LOT. I know the book was derived from a blog post where this is more acceptable; but, in the book form it made it feel like I paid for an advertisement. Overall, this book left me a bit desiring. I felt the distinction between training for mass and strength could have been summarized in about a chapter and the rest was just filler from a bunch of other books, that “Coach” was trying to sell.If you still feel you need to read this, then it is currently free on kindle unlimited. You will not gain any benefit from owning this book, as unlike most calisthenics books it doesn't contain anything you will want to refer back to when developing your programs.

What happened to the end of my book? It literally just ended at the end of a random anecdote and shifted into notes. 

In fact the entire book was just a random selection of anecdotes. It just shifted between them with no consistent narrative nor any conclusions.

This book was so  disappointing. I am very passionate about the topic but this did nothing to help the cause or help me with my activism. As a background on the topic to read in combination with other books on the same topic it is probably okay, but as a standalone book it is not great. 

This was a good overview of Biden and his time in politics. It shows that as much as he is an improvement on the Trump era of politics - he was never going to be the liberal and progressive savior that we hope for. Definitely check out Bernie Sanders books on a more positive look at what US politics could be.
TL;DRPros

• Quality summary of Biden's beginnings in politics
• Explains his motivations, strengths and weaknesses

Cons

• Finishes just at the presidential race with a small and unsatisfying epilogue

It generally just felt like the author threw a bunch of scifi concepts at the wall and hoped something would stick. By the end it was just a bunch of concepts scattered around in an attempt to make something that was greater than the sum of its parts; but, ultimately it failed and I didnt care at all about what happened - largely because the characters were extremely flat and left no impression on me and because I didn't care about the characters I didn't care about the impact of the overarching plot.  The only character with any personaity was 大史 (Big Shi) who overall had a fairly minor part to play. 

I really don't understand the people who have said this changed their world view. Now I've actually read it I'm keen to dive into that deeper. 

I was excited to read this as its so well regarded .... but it was just average. 

Received this as an eARC on netgalley
Overall it's a masterclass by some of the current greats of SciFi in how to write speculative fiction. Some of these short stories were 5/5 blackmirror-esq masterpieces articulating a bleak but realistic picture of where the current AI obsession is taking us. There are a couple of the stories though they completely lost me on what they are trying to convey and didn't have nearly the witty point of the majority of the stories bringing this down to an overall 4.5. 

I'd recommend this as a read for anyone into sci-fi, speculative fiction or who works on or with AI. 

Ratings
Cover: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Initial Draw: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters: ⭐
Plot and Pacing: ⭐⭐⭐
Last Page Feeling: ⭐⭐⭐

Note: For transparency - I received this book as an eARC from NetGalley. This will not impact my review.

Synopsis
A young royal “musketress”, Lilith, lives an isolate life in a citadel with her family controlling an infinite source of resources, created by the gods as well as sole control of muskets/firearms giving them military might over other classes of citizen.

Reading and writing are forbidden acts in this world. “You shall not suffer a librarian to live”; but, one day a librarian shows up at the citadel and Lilith discovers her families secret which changes her perception of her family and the world forever.


Review

Cover

The cover is beautiful and represents the plot well with the frequently chanted slogan “You shall not suffer a librarian to live” emblazoned on the front.

 Initial Draw
The initial draw for me was the premise of a fantasy retelling of the true history of book burning and the suppression of knowledge transfer between classes keeping a status quo that keeps the powerful in charge and the poor under their foot.

Characters
The characters were simply... not interesting and not well described. I could not explain to you what anybody looks like or any of their characteristics except the guardians dress in green and the ruling class carry muskets around.

I ultimately didn't care about any of the characters and most of all found Lilith, the focus of the narrative, extremely dull. She had no growth across the entire book and instead just served to pull the plot along.

The twist of Lillith wanting to persue being a librarian at the end was really not a twist at all. You could tell from the very start that she was going to sympathise with the librarian and ultimately replace him or become his disciple or something of that type.The alliance with Kira at the 70% mark and the ultimate betrayal at 99% was also not at all surprising.

 Plot and Pacing
Firstly be warned it takes until almost exactly the 50% mark for anything to truly progress the plot.

You spend the first half of the book being introduced to Lillith, her teacher/guard captain Kira, and the Librarian. As mentioned in the character section though I don't think the book is any better off character development wise for such a long on ramp. At 50% Lillith finally reveals the big secret to Kira and that is where the plot finally leaves what is already covered in the official synopsis and jumps into new content.

The content from the 50% mark takes a fairly meandering path.

The rest of the book basically being a slow foot chase away from the archangel and it really dragged on and his “death” really didn't answer anything for me about the lore of the world.

 Last Page Feeling

Ultimately it was a quick and enjoyable enough read -  I just felt unfulfilled at the end. I assume this is lining up for a sequel as by the end I still didn't know the real answer behind the big questions like why literature/writing/reading is banned what the archangel was really about, what happens with the newfound knowledge that Lillith returns to Alexandra with etc.. I assumed towards the start there was going to be some kind of lore about this being a dystopian future of our reality or something but nothing of that kind or any in depth lore was ever discussed.

This book was a struggle to finish. The more I think about this book, the more enraged I get. How did this win so many awards?!?!?!? The only award can give this book is the fact it has created a new shelf on goodreads for me - books I have purchased but won't read because the prequel was so terrible.

Things I liked:
Manchee!! - The most relatable and likable character of the whole book. It gets an extra star just because of Manchee.

Things I didn't like:
Basically everything else.
SpoilerAfter the death of Manchee, the dog, I really didn't care how the story ended. Manchee was the only thing going for this book and I enjoyed picking it up to just see how he would react to various situations. “Todd?!”.
Todd himself was incredibly predictable, boring, and unlikable. Oh no, a challenging situation, I better hesitate until somebody else helps me out.
Aaron was stupidly over powered. It was like the author had just watched the terminator and figured that having an indestructible robot was a good plot line to include in their own story; but, then forgot to make them into a robot.
I liked Viola but her flipping between helpless captive and keeping Todd in line became predictable. I would be tempted to read the next book just to see if she survives but she would have to otherwise Todd would curl up into a ball and cry himself to death for the remainder of the series.


Regrettably I bought the entire series on special. I guess the library is getting a brand new trilogy!

No better book on the nitty gritty of calisthenics. 

There isn't really anything else to say about this book. It's the definitive (and weighty) tombe on calisthenics and bodyweight programming. If you have started something like the Reddit /r/bodyweightfitness recommended routine and are wondering why things are programmed the way they are, then this book is a great explanation of everything. 

A good second installment in the series and progressed the story well and introduces some more elements of the world and magic system. I doubt this is going to be anyone's favourite in the series but it was a strong addition.
Overall a hard one to review without spoiling elements of the series.

Characters and DevelopmentThe main characters are split up once again in this book. A large amount of time is spent with Rand and Loial and a seperate plot line follows Egwene and Nynaeve. I didn't feel Rand developed significantly as a character in this one overall, while the events probably permanently modified the girls' for the remainder of the story.

Plot
The beginning opens up a new and exciting plot line involving the girls while I feel Rand's plot line doesn't progress in a meaningful way until the very end. All the “filler” in the middle is still extremely high quality and enjoyable for a fan of the series but I don't feel most of it is strictly necessary for the story to progress (I'm sure some of the characters and themes reappear in future books though so I may have to come back and modify this).

SettingA new group is introduced with their own customs and a new world and way of travel is introduced. Not going to say much more here for spoiler reasons.



TL;DRPros

• Introduces more elements of the world and magic system
• Progresses the major plotline in a big way right at the end
• Begins a major plot line about Tar Valon and Aes Sedai

Cons

• Overall lots of it is probably not critical to the story except the very beginning and very end

Amazing! I don't know how I didn't read this earlier. I am huge fan of urban fantasy and this is certainly a genre defining classic in the genre.

Gaiman did a wonderful job of intertwining the city of London we all know and love with a part hidden from view. It was done in such a way that you are left wondering if maybe that beggar on the street, that empty tram cabin, or that scurrying rat are really signs of something more.

This book took me to space in a way that no other book has for a long time. You fall in love with the characters yes there is more than one and humor of the writing. Much like Pringles - once you pop you can't stop (turning pages).

Characters and DevelopmentPersonally I found this one of the weakest elements. The characters were good but they didn't develop in any meaningful way. They started off as well thought out characters and remained solid throughout; but, I didn't feel like they developed over the time we are with them or reach any drastic developments.

PlotSimple plot, in theory. Earth is in trouble and Ryland, a former discredited academic and current high school science teacher, is sent to space to find the solution. What happens while he is out there is unexpected (having not read some of the more spoiler synopsis), funny, and heartwarming. I feel like the less you know about the plot the better for this one.

Setting
The majority of the book is spent on a tiny ship but that didn't limit the enjoyment at all. If anything the environment allowed the focus on the plot and the simple but impactful story it tells.

TL;DR
Pros

• Funny and feelgood writing
• Scientific accuracy (as far as I can tell - not being an astrophysicist)
• Unputdownability (Con: lack of sleep)

Cons

• Character development is eh
• Ends on a bit of a cliffhanger