Rob

It's a fine story with the typical Scalzi humor. It may be that later entries in this series (assuming it continues) will be a bit better without needing to take up so much time world building. The world building would have been fine for a longer story, but it felt like the story took too long to get started.

Audiobook: The audio is fantastic. Amber Benson does a fantastic job with a variety of voices. As this is currently the only way to consume this story, it's a nice benefit to get such excellent narration.

This is my first time reading Zelazny. I hadn't heard of this book before. The more popular pick seems to be Lord of Light.

Someone in my book club suggested doing a chapter/day starting on September 30th because each chapter is a day. This worked well for me because most of the chapters were short and could easily be consumed while doing a simple task around the house like making lunch. There are a few exceptions to this including the final chapter which was by far the longest.

My interest in the book was up and down, with some day's events keeping my attention more than others. I'm not a classic monster/horror/literature guy. So while I mostly followed who the various unnamed characters are (The Count, the Great Detective, etc) I'm sure there is a lot of stuff that I just didn't get.

Overall the story was fine, but didn't really grab me. I think if I had tried to just listen to this as my normal book and not doing 1 chapter/day I might have enjoyed it less.

I listened to the audiobook version of this because it was included with my audible subscription. I thought the narrator did a pretty good job with a variety of voices for the different characters.

Another fun entry in this series. I still don't enjoy it as much as his cradle series, but still a drop everything and read book for me. As someone who has watched a lot of Gundam over the years, I always enjoyed the Raion/giant mech subplot. As the title suggests, this book focuses heavily on him and Varic's relationship to him.

The audio is great. Travis Baldree does his usual excellent job with the narration

Pretty solid ending to a mostly fun series. After his reckoner series, I had decided I was done with any non-Cosmere books. However the first one in this series changed my mind and for the most part it's been a fun holiday road trip book series for me. When this one came out I was busy with other books and am only now getting around to it. I don't like it as much as the Cosmere books, but still worth the listen.

I first heard about this book thanks to an article on Ars Technica. What I found strange was it was the time I heard anything about this. Given the timing (2020-21) of the bulk of the story though, it's not too much of a surprise. I had other things on my mind back then.

I've read a lot of computer history and cybercrime books. I find the topic fascinating. This book is really more about more traditional crime (drugs, guns, money laundering) with a technical aspect (encrypted phones). From a technical perspective I didn't enjoy this as much as other books, but it's still a fascinating story.

It poses a lot of issues as technology and specifically encryption techniques continue to evolve how do you balance our right to privacy against the needs to prevent crimes? I don't have any answers and this book doesn't attempt to answer that question. What it does it instead is to tell a fascinating story that seems like it's right out of a movie.

I think this could turn into a great documentary or possible a movie, but it's probably not flashy enough for the latter. Staring at computer screens reading messages is not exactly big screen cinema. Overall though I found this a great read.

Executive Summary: A vast improvement over [b:Storm Front 47212 Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1) Jim Butcher http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345556917s/47212.jpg 1137060], though still pretty simplistic if plot and style.Audio book: Like the writing in the novel, the improvement in the audio reading by James Marsters is also evident. He still whispers too much, which can make hearing what he's saying hard, even with the volume cranked way up. I still don't find him to be an amazing reader, but he has added some voices to his repertoire, including using what I'll call his “Spike” voice for Bob.Full ReviewI was worried as I started this re-read that my previous ratings might not hold up. They still might not, as I'm a lot better read now than I was the first few times through these early books, but this book was as good as I remember it.The early books all suffer from being formulaic, and this one is no different. Mr. Butcher's writing however does show a vast improvement, and the book is a lot more fun than [b:Storm Front 47212 Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1) Jim Butcher http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345556917s/47212.jpg 1137060].As you might guess from the title, this book mostly deals with werewolves. In Harry Dresden's world, there aren't just one type of werewolf, there are several. I won't list them out as that's part of the fun, but I promise you none of them would be mistaken for a character from Twilight. Well, maybe the Alphas..but I'm still going to say no.These wolves are mean. Most of them don't really fit the characters of your typical werewolf, much as vampires in this series. Violent killings are happening in Chicago, and they seem to be happening around the full moon.Animal fur and paw prints are evident at some of the scenes. The FBI is called in to help and they believe it the work of a wolf-based cult or gang, but Lt. Murphy isn't convinced and calls in the local Wizard, one Harry Dresden to help.Harry is still broke, and his relationship with Murphy and the police is strained from the events of [b:Storm Front 47212 Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1) Jim Butcher http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345556917s/47212.jpg 1137060], but that won't stop him from doing whatever it takes to protect his city.I thought this book was much less predictable than the first entry, and gives a better feeling to Mr. Butcher's writing abilities. It's a quick read and one I find entertaining. I equate it to a popcorn flick. I'd say if don't enjoy this one, this series just may not be for you.

Executive Summary: Probably my favorite book of the series so far. It just keeps getting better.Audio book: Once again another great performance by Pete Bradbury, making this a great series to do in audio.Full ReviewSo in book two of a three book series, it's easy to suffer from “middle book syndrome”. So with this being the middle book of five book series, I wondered if that would be the case here. I'm happy to report that it's not. This book is easily my favorite so far.Once again Mr. Abraham sets the stage early on for where things are going. We also get a nod to more traditional fantasy with the addition of an “epic quest”...of a sort. [b:The King's Blood 12759057 The King's Blood (The Dagger and the Coin, #2) Daniel Abraham https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1356495172s/12759057.jpg 17901316] was a transition book of sorts and in this book we find the characters in different locations and situations, with different supporting casts making for a very different book.As in the last book, the character development really shines. In particular I enjoyed the development of Clara Kalliam, who might now be my favorite character, although I enjoy all of his characters. He's also written some great dialogue, especially as the characters are paired up with different people and put into different situations.Mr. Abraham does a great job of shades of grey. All of the characters do stupid things or frustrated me at one point or another. Characters who are noble and sympathetic one minute are horrible and unlikable the next.We get a bit more magic and action in this book than the previous two, but for the most part the focus is again on politics and economics. I think this is one of the reasons the character development shines.I really enjoyed this book, and can't wait until I have some time to jump into the fourth that just came out this month. I once again reiterate my recommendation for the series.

Executive Summary: Not nearly as enjoyable as the first book.Audio book: Joe Manganiello once again does a fine job without really adding or subtracting from the story.Full ReviewAfter finishing [b:Dragon Bones 123408 Dragon Bones (Hurog, #1) Patricia Briggs https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1275874277s/123408.jpg 118820] I was left with some lingering questions and looking forward to this book. For some reason this story wasn't as much fun. It's hard to put my finger on exactly why. My best guess is the pacing. For such a short book, it felt like the plot meandered too much on unimportant details. The beginning was strong. It pulled me right back in again, and I thought everything was good to go. But then it got slow in middle, and felt sort of rushed at the end. I was sort of underwhelmed by the final confrontation especially.I guess since I wasn't having as much fun with the story this go around and it made the quality of the writing more noticeable. I'm not one to spend much time commenting on the writing too much. I tend to leave that for English teachers/literary types.I care a lot more about story and character development than I do about how elegant the prose are. If you're entertaining me, I'm not going to notice bad sentence structure/dialogue.If I had to sum this book up with one sentence it would be “Hurog means Dragon.” Why you ask? Well because it's said at least once per chapter. Often more than once. Or at least that's how it felt. Eventually I groaned every time another character said it. I wonder if the writing was just as bad in the first book and I didn't notice. “Hurog means dragon” was said a few times in that book as well, but it didn't seem nearly so frequent. I didn't really find the dialogue or prose that bad.Glancing over other reviews it seems like I may be in the minority. It's quite possible that if you liked the first book, you may enjoy this as well, but I mostly found it to a disappointing sequel.

Executive Summary: I've enjoyed Mr. Kloos Frontline books, but they were starting to drag a bit. So I was excited to check out a new series from him. It did not disappoint. In fact I think I like it better so far. My only real gripe is I've left with so many questions.Audiobook: Luke Daniels remains one of my favorite narrators, and he brings his usual excellence to this book. You get a variety of voices that adds that little extra that I like in my audio books.Full ReviewMarko Kloos first showed up on my radar a few years ago when he bowed out of his nomination for the Hugo due to the nature in which it was nominated. His replacement was [b:The Three-Body Problem 20518872 The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth's Past #1) Liu Cixin https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1415428227l/20518872.SY75.jpg 25696480], which went on to win.I really respected his principles and was more inclined to check out his work. I enjoyed his Frontline books even though I tend to prefer space opera to military sci-fi. After several books however I was kind of hoping for the series to wrap up. That still hasn't happen, but it seems that he took a break to write something new.I think this is the best book he's written so far. It has a lot of the same elements that I liked about Frontlines, but seems to have a lot more depth to both the plot and the characters.There is a lot more politics in this book, although the military element still plays a prevalent role. The book is set 5 years after a major war reminiscent of the world wars, but between planets instead of countries.The first character we meet is a soldier on the wrong side of the war. It would be easy to hate him for what his planet did, but it's not that simple. Then there is the sergeant whose anger is understandable, but her prejudice is grating. However that's not all the defines her. I think I liked the young executive the best, but her life comes with a lot of baggage. It was refreshing to have a non-military POV.The characters are all pretty interesting, but it's the larger mystery that really got me hooked. Unfortunately, we get very few details about what is going on. I was hoping for a bit more from this first entry than we got.It's a bit on the short side, so I guess it's too be expected that we didn't get a ton of detail. What it did do was leave me eager to pick up the next book just as soon at it's out.

Executive Summary: More of the same really. Fun, but not the best written. Enjoyable enough that I plan to continue the series at some point in the future.

Audiobook: Nick Podehl once again does a fantastic job. The book still suffers a bit from being unabridged because reading out character sheets doesn't make for a compelling listen. I feel like this book had less than the first, probably because it takes longer between levels the higher up you get.

Despite my issues, I'll continue to do this series in audio. Nick Podehl is that good and the actual story works well in audio.

Full Review
Much like the first book, this book has me itching to level a new character in World of Warcraft, something I've started doing for the first time in long time after listening to the first book of this series.

Richter continues to be a bit of a dude-bro, but at least there seems to be consequences for it in this book. We also get female character who actually does some things, albeit still far less than her male counterparts. I'm hoping her part grows in the later books and that he adds more substantive female characters as well.

Overall there isn't a lot to say about the book without straight up discussing plot. It continues right where the last book left off, and leaves off at a reasonable place while making it apparent the story is far from complete.

I do feel like the writing was a bit better in this one that the first, so Mr. Kong is showing improvement in that regard. I also think he tells an interesting story, which is the most important part for me. I would be interested in playing a game similar to what he describes in this book. The idea of having and leveling a town as you level yourself is a pretty cool idea. There are likely games out there that let you do this already. It reminds me a little bit of the Garrison system WoW introduced a few years back, but with far fewer consequences.

These books have been enjoyable enough that I'll continue to pick them up when I have some more time.

Executive Summary: I enjoyed this one more than [b:The Broken Eye 12652457 The Broken Eye (Lightbringer, #3) Brent Weeks https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1376583941s/12652457.jpg 17766175], despite a slow start. Not quite as good as [b:The Blinding Knife 12499290 The Blinding Knife (Lightbringer, #2) Brent Weeks https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1338432693s/12499290.jpg 17484647] though. Still, I can't wait for the final book.Audiobook: Simon Vance is fantastic as always, though he can be quiet/hard to hear at times. He does a variety of voices that make the audio a must for me though, and I'm always more inclined to listen to any book he reads.Full ReviewI've often struggled with Brent Week's work. I like his ideas, but his execution at times can come across as juvenile to me. I've enjoyed a few of his books, and downright loathed a few others. The start of this book felt that way to me, and made it feel slow and had me concerned I wasn't going to like it.Thankfully things picked up pretty quickly and I was sucked back into it. One of my main issues with the first few books was Kip. He still has his moments, but thankfully his character has grown to a point where I enjoy his parts of the story apart from the initial bit. I think all four of the main POVs were interesting though, and there was never a feeling of disappointment when the POV would switch to someone else. Tia continues to be a favorite of mine, and Karis seems a lot more cunning than she has in previous books.We get a lot of great world building, both in terms of history and with regards to the excellent magic system that kept my interest despite my misgivings at time. The political intrigue is also quite well done. None of the antagonists feel like cartoon characters anymore and that makes for much better story telling in my opinion.As a side note the book came with a 15 minute recap of the first three books which I really appreciated. There were also some good refresher moments throughout that all helped to jog my memory and enjoy the book more.Overall I'd say this is probably the second best book of the series so far, and really set things up nicely for what will hopefully be the final book. I'm looking forward to seeing how things get wrapped up.

Executive Summary: After a slow start, I really enjoyed this book, and will be jumping right into the next one as it just sort of stops rather than coming to any sort of conclusion.

Audiobook: The audiobook is fantastic. I'm normally a bit leary of multiple narrators, but it works really well here. Each character's part is narrated by a different person and their parts when speaking together are the only times when you hear them talking at the same time. Highly recommended.

Full Review
Hyperion was one of the books that was read by Sword & Laser just before I found them/goodreads. It's been on my radar for awhile. I picked up the audiobook over 2 years ago, but never got to it for some reason. I wish I had been around for the group read as I really enjoyed it.

I found the start a bit slow. It could be bad timing though. I listened to the first quarter or so while traveling. I listened to parts of it standing in line for airport security hoping I wouldn't miss my flight. I listened to other parts wandering around Las Vegas for several hours waiting for my friends to arrive. It may not have had enough of my attention. It's really hard to say.

The other difference might be that instead of being a straight-forward novel, it's really a collection of stories. There is an overarching story of pilgrims on their way to a temple on a planet called Hyperion. However each person has their own backstory to share, and the style of each story tends to vary by quite a lot. I found some stories a lot more interesting than others.

I think my favorite would have to be the Poet's. I find that a bit strange because he was also the character I liked the least. A close second would be the scholar's. That was for entirely different reasons though. Overall I enjoyed all of the stories, but I found the priest's and soldier's the hardest to follow. I should probably go back and relisten as those were the parts I listened to while most distracted.

My only real gripe (if you can really call it that) is this book just sort of stops. I knew coming in it was part of a four book series, but this book could almost be called an extremely long prologue. Most of it is taken up by the backstories of all the characters. All that really means though is I'm jumping right into the next book. If I had to wait for that, I might actually be bothered by it.

Overall I enjoyed this one a lot, and I'm looking forward to finishing the series over the next few months or so.

Executive Summary: I found this book very uneven. There were parts I enjoyed, but many parts I didn't, and by the end I just wanted to be done with it. 2.5 stars.

Audio book: This is my first audio book read by Nick Podehl. I've heard mixed, though mostly positive things about him as a narrator, especially for the Kingkiller series.

I thought he was excellent here, and really helped me get through the unenjoyable parts of this book. I think if I was reading this rather than listening, I might have quit the book without finishing.

I look forward to listening to other books read by him in the future, just not the other books in this series.

Full Review
I prefer character driven stories, and this is definitely that. So why didn't I enjoy it? The answer for me at least is the characters. I found most of them unenjoyable. If I have no one to really root for, the story has to be that much better or I'll be bored.

Don't get me wrong, there are things to like about Alaron and Elena, but there is a lot not to like. I don't need perfect characters who fall into the chosen one trope, but something about their faults really just rubbed me the wrong way and I often found them frustrating and unlikable.

The best character in the book was Alaron's friend Ramon, who while he was basically a walking trope, was brought excellently to life by Mr. Podehl's narration and added some nice comic relief to the story.

Most of the other characters are flat, or too trope heavy. We have some mustache twirling bad guys, and the helpless Ramita who seems to merely be there to drive the plot as a goal/pawn for the other characters in the book.

The world building here was alright, but seems to borrow too heavily from actual cultures (in particular the Middle East, and religion of Islam) that it didn't feel much like being transported to another world apart from the magic.

And that was another issue I have. I guess Brandon Sanderson spoiled me for poorly developed magic systems, but it all felt just a bit too hand wavy to me.

Overall this book was just too uneven. There were some parts I really enjoyed, and there are questions I'd like to keep reading to get the answers too, but it's just not worth it for me. There is too many other things I'd rather be reading.

Executive Summary: This is a pretty good book, but it could have been a really good book if the first 20% of this book wasn't so slow. Nothing happened. For like 8 hours of audio. A sign of things to come. 3.5 stars rounded up for the much stronger 80%.

Audiobook: Another fantastic audio book by Micheal Kramer and Kate Reading. I doubt I could have gotten through the first 20% again if not for doing it in audio.

Full Review
My original review from my first read complained about a slow start. It was vastly understating that. My recollection had been this series didn't get slow until the the middle books. I think most of the first 20% could have been thrown away, or trimmed down to just a few chapters.

Once I got past it though, things picked up dramatically. A lot of this book focuses on Perrin. I found him and Faile super annoying in that first 20%, but much better as the story went on. His arc was really good. Eventually. Sensing a theme? I can remember now why he was my favorite of the series for so long though.

My favorite parts on this reread was Mat. I had been waiting for some of these events to happen, thinking they occurred in books 2 or 3. They were even better to experience on a reread because I know what a lot of the cryptic foreshadowing really means. I think I like Mat a lot earlier on in the series than I did originally. He only gets better as the series progresses too.

I was surprised to find myself enjoying Nynaeve so much in this book. I recall finding her very annoying until quite late in the series. However we get a lot of the stuff that I come to love about her later in this book. It's too bad Mr. Jordan had to make her so irritating for so long.

Egywene's story is pretty interesting too, but the best part are the wise ones. For as bad as Mr. Jordan seems to make the Aes Sedai, the Wise Ones are great. I think the Aiel women in general often save this series from itself in terms of the female characters.

Finally of course there is Rand himself. He's got more of a role in this book than the last one, but he still kind of takes a back seat to some of the other characters. I don't feel like we get a good sense about what he's feeling/planning. We're just as in the dark as everyone else.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, but that first 20% is really a sign of things to come, and why I went from telling everyone and their brother to read this series, to struggling to get through the middle to when things finally get good again.

I still really like this series, but feel like it could have used a better editing sometimes. I'm looking forward to continuing my audio reread, but I'm dreading some of those slow parts to come.

Executive Summary: A somewhat enjoyable end to the series, but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I did the last two books. 3.5 stars.Audio book: Much like the last 2 books, I enjoy Steven Brand as a narrator, save for the fact that he's so QUIET. Thankfully my audiobook app lets me increase the volume, or it would be incredibly frustrating. I wonder if the publishers listens to the book with noise canceling headphones only or something, or if even that would be sufficient.If you've done the previous two in audio, you should know what to expect. Hopefully like me you have a way to increase the volume so you can enjoy Mr. Brand's otherwise excellent narration.Full ReviewAfter how much I enjoyed the last two, it was almost going to be impossible for this book to live up to my expectations.Some of this is probably on me. I read [b:Blood Song 13569581 Blood Song (Raven's Shadow, #1) Anthony Ryan https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1421573407s/13569581.jpg 19148922] and [b:Tower Lord 18138189 Tower Lord (Raven's Shadow, #2) Anthony Ryan https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1382486392s/18138189.jpg 25481154] back to back. It's been about a year since then, and my memory on the details were fuzzy. I should have reread. I wish there was a wiki or something with plot points and character bios I could have used to refresh myself.I struggled at the start remembering many of the minor characters. I think all books in a series (and really all audio books in general) should have a list of the important characters with maybe a 1 sentence reminder of who they are. It would really help a lot. There are just too many books to reread previous books every time a new one comes out, even books I loved as much as the last two.Both of those books grabbed me early on and never let go. That never really happened here. I was always happy to pick it back up, but I wasn't making excuses to listen longer or counting down the time until I could get back to listening. So unfortunately I can't the whole series 5 stars.I also found myself wondering for much of the second half of the book if there would be enough time to resolve everything. For the most part I think he does a good job of converging the different story lines, but it required a fairly large info-dump near the end to do so.That said, I really love the world Mr. Ryan has built, and I'm especially fond of the characters. It's always great to read about them, and this book is no different. Much like [b:Tower Lord 18138189 Tower Lord (Raven's Shadow, #2) Anthony Ryan https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1382486392s/18138189.jpg 25481154], I think Frentis and Riva both sort of steal the show again. However Vaelin's chapters are pretty interesting as well. Lyrna's story was still enjoyable, just not as much as the others.Overall this has been one of the best series I've found in the last few years. I'd happily read another series set in this world, especially if we can visit again with some of the characters.This is definitely a series I'll revisit down the road on a reread. Maybe reading all 3 back to back I won't struggle as much as the start and enjoy it more the second time.Either way, I'll be looking forward to checking out what Mr. Ryan has in store for us next.

Executive Summary: I thought this was much better than [b:Control Point 11783484 Control Point (Shadow Ops, #1) Myke Cole https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309460843s/11783484.jpg 15964749], possibly because Colonel Bookbinder was FAR more likeable to me than Oscar Britton.Audiobook: Korey Jackson once again does a good job. He's well-spoken and easy to hear and understand. This isn't a must listen, but it's definitely a book that works well in audio.Full Review[b:Control Point 11783484 Control Point (Shadow Ops, #1) Myke Cole https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309460843s/11783484.jpg 15964749] was a pretty good debut, but it had its issues. You could tell it was Mr. Cole's first novel. It felt clunky in places. I also didn't like Oscar Britton very much. That last point might have been intentional by the author though.I was glad to discover that while this book continues the story of the first, it's largely told from a new viewpoint: Colonel Alan Bookbinder. He's VASTLY more likeable to me. That made a huge difference. It's hard for me to root for a character I don't like and it's hard for me to root against the protagonist.In addition both the writing and the plot seemed more polished. Many of the events of the first book were in shades of grey. I never knew what I was rooting for half the time. I like that sort of story in general, but the execution frustrated me at times.This one felt a lot more black and white. There was plenty of conflict Bookbinder had to deal with without him needing to be an asshole about everything. I think if Oscar Britton was more sympathetic to me, it might have worked better. In addition, Bookbinder is a character I can identify with better. While he is a military officer, he's an office worker and an administrator instead of coming from a combat background.The pace of this book was good. The world building is fairly light though. You get more character development and personal history than you do of an explanation for magic, the source or how the world reached the point it was at.For a middle book, I found this very enjoyable. Since I'm writing this review after having finished the next one, I can say that it's my favorite of the trilogy. That's pretty rare for me. In fact I can't recall another time where I enjoyed the middle book the most. It does suffer a bit from “middle book syndrome” though. It feels a bit transitional at times.That said, I really enjoyed Bookbinder and his journey from normal office worker to major player in the world of militarized magic. I enjoyed this one so much, I jumped immediately into the final one.

Executive Summary: I enjoyed it, though not as much as [b:Fool's Fate 45108 Fool's Fate (Tawny Man, #3) Robin Hobb https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388181998s/45108.jpg 2960725], and if anything it's heightened my sense of dread that this trilogy will ruin that book's ending.NOTE: I always strive to write spoiler free reviews, but this one may fall a little short. Since people may be used to that from me I wanted to give a little warning. Some of my comments about the book as a whole may be considered spoilery by those like me who are especially sensitive to them. I don't talk about plot at all, but some of my comments about the characters/book structure may affect your reading and I'd hate to do that to someone.Audio book: I never planned to do this one in audio. I've done the other 13 books in Ms. Hobb's Elderling series in text and pre-ordered the hardcover of this at least 6 months in advance. But I got offered to do the audio a week before the book came out and I had a hard time passing it up.I really didn't like Elliot Hill much at first. He grew on me by the end though. I don't normally hear characters speaking in my head as I read and haven't had any issue listening to books I had previously read and finding the voices wrong.I did here for some reason. Fitz just didn't sound right to me. Same thing with Molly. Bee seemed fine, but really she sounded almost like Molly. I liked his voice for Chade though.Mr. Hill does a few voices and accents and does a fine job of it. It just took me a very long time to get used to. By the end though I seemed to get over it. I likely won't do the audio again unless I get another review copy, but I'd guess many people won't have the same issues I did with it.Full ReviewWhen I first heard confirmation that the rumors of a new Fitz and Fool series were true, I was full of mixed emotions. I loved [b:Fool's Fate 45108 Fool's Fate (Tawny Man, #3) Robin Hobb https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388181998s/45108.jpg 2960725] (My Review). I've enjoyed all of Ms. Hobb's books but that's the only one I've given 5 stars too. I was just so satisfied with how it ended. Sure there were questions, but all the big things were resolved.So would this book ruin my favorite book? Well not yet, but it certainly hasn't alleviated my fears that the events of this trilogy won't tarnish things for me.Like many books by Ms. Hobb, things start out slow. I don't mean that in a negative way however. Somehow she is able to write in such a way that I don't mind the day to day life of her books. Despite my trepidation, it just felt nice to be back with characters I love. If you're looking for a lot of action or a flashy start, you'll be disappointed. I imagine that anyone picking up this book is already going to be a Robin Hobb fan and used to her style though.More than anything, Ms. Hobb's writing is able to evoke strong emotions in me as I read. Love, anger, happiness, frustration. Few other authors can make me despise a new character so quickly or completely. Similarly Fitz continues to frustrate me with the way he does things in a way that is just all too human. Often times the protagonist in a fantasy book faces external adversity and rises to the occasion. Meanwhile Fitz is frequently his own worst enemy. Poor Ms. Hobb loves putting him through the ringer too, and this book is no different.I had three issues with this book costing it that fifth. The first one I suspect many long-time Hobb fans will share. The other two may largely depend on the reader.The series is called Fitz & Fool. The book is called Fool's Assassin. So why did it take so long for us to see the Fool? Sure he's mentioned often enough, but I want to spend time with him just as I am spending time with Fitz. So far this series seems a lot more like Farseer than Tawny Man in that regard.The second thing was the addition of a POV besides Fitz. I guess I'm a very jealous reader. I originally hoped it was a one off thing early in the book, but when it turned out to be a regular thing it bothered me. I felt robbed of time I could be spending with Fitz. By the end of the book it grew on me and I came to look forward to those chapters nearly as much as I did the Fitz ones.The final issue I had was the ending. I know this is the first book of a trilogy, but I hate cliffhanger type endings, and this one seemed pretty bad to me. If you're the type of person who hates waiting for the next book, you may be better off waiting until the final book is either published or has a release date. It's going to a be a LONG wait for me until book 2.Overall I really liked, but didn't love this book. I'm still pretty nervous about what may happen next. I think that above all shows how great a writer Ms. Hobb is to fill me with both a sense of anticipation and dread for the next book in the series.

Executive Summary: A good, but not great start. 3.5 stars rounded down because I just can't seem to enjoy any Urban Fantasy as much as the Dresden Files.

Audio book: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith does a great job with this book. He seems like a perfect fit. No real memorable voices or anything, but he seemed to do a variety of English accents making different characters distinct from one another. I will definitely continue on in audio.

Full Review
When I first started reading Urban Fantasy, I really loved it and wanted to read more of it. Now whenever I try a new Urban Fantasy series I find myself wishing I was simply rereading the Dresden Files.

I always get people telling me, if you like Dresden you'll like insert series name here. They just never hold up. I usually find myself bored after one book or two.

This one wasn't amazing or anything, but I didn't find myself thinking too much about Dresden while I was listening to it. It somehow seemed to be it's own thing, and not just another Dresden clone, despite the fact that is is another detective magician series.

I suspect if I had the first clue about London, this book would easily be 4 stars. There are probably lots of subtleties that just went over my head. But Mr. Aaronvitch seems to not only bring the city of London alive, but makes it an integral part of the story itself.

The original title for this book is Rivers of London, and it's very fitting. I don't really get why they changed the title for the US. I guess I can see where the new title came from, but it seems far less appropriate than the original.

It's probably because I love the whole magic school/apprentice thing. Peter Grant isn't exactly a young boy who is clueless, but he has a lot to learn and I always find myself enjoying learning about a new world through the eyes of a student.

It also helped its cause with me by not being focused on Vampires, Werewolves or Zombies. I'm pretty sick of all those things. I don't mind them being in the mix, but I hope future books don't focus on them too much.

I'm most interested in the unique aspects of the world building. I want to learn more about the Rivers and how seemingly ordinary people can be come powerful enough to be worshiped like gods.

I hope he continues to focus on that with future books as well as adding in some other unique ideas to set this series apart from the overabundance of uninteresting Urban Fantasy that just doesn't seem to do anything for me. If he does, I may have finally found another Urban Fantasy series I enjoy.

Executive Summary: I really enjoyed the first 50% and the last 15% or so, but the third in between got kind of slow. 3.5 stars rounded rounded down for the lull.

Audio book: Simon Jones does an excellent job with the narration, and seems like a great fit.

Full Review
I used to love history. I used to watch the history channel for hours. I'm not sure why I never really got into historical fiction, or even nonfiction for that matter.

I don't remember much about Rome however. I looked up Cicero and Tiro after the fact, and they were both real people, who did some of the things described in this book. Along with many of the supporting characters. Of course their personalities and dialogue is all fiction or at least embellished/inferences on the author's part.

It's probably better I don't know the real history. It would probably just annoy me in some places where he takes too much artistic license.

The way this book started, I thought I was really going to love this book. But it slowed down somewhere around the 50% mark and didn't pick back up until the end. The writing was good, and for the most part the pacing was good. He also did a good job bringing long dead people to life. I just found things way too detailed at times. He kept talking about details of Roman politics I just don't care about.

The best parts of this book were when Cicero was outmaneuvering his rivals either with clever planning, or clever speeches. I like a good political story from time to time, and Roman politics seem to have been pretty brutal.

I will probably continue on with this series, but most likely wait until he finally puts the third book out, as this one ends in a stopping good place and I have no idea if the second one does the same.

Executive Summary: Another great entry in what's quickly become one of my favorite series. The change in format may frustrating fans of the first book however.Audio book: Stephen Brand is once again a great narrator that could stand to have his volume boosted. He does an excellent job with voices and inflections, but can be frustratingly quiet in places.Full ReviewHow do you follow up a debut novel that seems to be almost universally loved by those who have read it? By writing a book that may be even better in my opinion.My opinion may not be shared by everyone who loved [b:Blood Song 13569581 Blood Song (A Raven's Shadow, #1) Anthony Ryan https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1363126955s/13569581.jpg 19148922]. This is definitely a different book from that. Instead of a single narrative about Vaelin told in the form of a flashback, we are instead given three new point of view characters in addition to Vaelin and the interludes from the perspective of the chronicler.Two of the characters, Frentis and Lyrna will be instantly familiar from the first novel. The fourth, Riva, was probably my favorite. As a new character she probably got the most character development of the four. I think having two male POVs and two female ones gave the novel a good balance.I found Lyrna's story to start a bit slow, but I was quickly grabbed by the book as a whole and eventually sucked into her narrative as well. Much like [b:Blood Song 13569581 Blood Song (A Raven's Shadow, #1) Anthony Ryan https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1363126955s/13569581.jpg 19148922] this is one of those books that grabbed hold and didn't let go. I hated to put it down and loved to pick it back up.I'm glad for the format change as I think Mr. Ryan was able to tell a much larger story as a result. There were parts of the story where the various POV's overlapped, but there were also a lot of things that would have gone otherwise unmentioned if he stuck with just Vaelin's story.We are once again given some excellent action scenes, though probably fewer overall than the first. While the first book was more a hero's journey, this book is more epic fantasy with larger implications to the realm as a whole.We get answers to many of the big questions I had from the first novel too. Often times it seems like authors jealously guard all their book's secrets and wait until the last possible minute to reveal them. Not so with this series. I felt there were several big reveals in parts 2 and 3 that other authors might have held back.There is plenty of new questions to take the place of those that are answered that kept me wanting to keep listening and find out what would happen next.Mr. Ryan has put himself in a precarious position of writing two really excellent novels in what I believe is supposed to be a trilogy. Now the expectations are that much higher for the finale of what has quickly become one of my favorite series.If you haven't read this book yet, do yourself a favor and pick it up. And if you haven't read/heard of this series you should check out [b:Blood Song 13569581 Blood Song (A Raven's Shadow, #1) Anthony Ryan https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1363126955s/13569581.jpg 19148922] as soon as you can.

Executive Summary: This book combines the excellent military action of the first book with the political intrigue of the second book, making it the best book yet.Audio book: Richard Poe once again does an excellent job. He makes waiting the few extra days for Audible/Recorded Books to get their act together so I can buy it worth it. :)Full ReviewMy review for [b:The Shadow Throne 18657632 The Shadow Throne (The Shadow Campaigns, #2) Django Wexler https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1422248599s/18657632.jpg 26473563] is easily my best, and most popular. I'll likely never top it. Thankfully the same cannot be said for Mr. Wexler.I'm always stingy with 5 star ratings. Even more so for middle books in a series. This might be my favorite book of the year so far though, and that's saying a lot. Yet somehow it seems like no one is reading it. At least not in my circle of friends. I'm hoping it's simply the ridiculous number of July releases that have simply delayed people from starting.[b:The Thousand Names 15810910 The Thousand Names (The Shadow Campaigns, #1) Django Wexler https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355441268s/15810910.jpg 21536059] is a military action story with a touch of politics and magic. [b:The Shadow Throne 18657632 The Shadow Throne (The Shadow Campaigns, #2) Django Wexler https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1422248599s/18657632.jpg 26473563] is a political thriller with a touch of military and magic. In this volume however, Mr. Wexler found the perfect balance of military and politics and stepped up to magic to create his best novel to date.His characters are excellent. This is especially true for Winter, Janis and Raesinia. He seems to have more diverse and interesting female characters than just about anything else I'm reading these days, and that includes works by female authors. There are characters to love, characters to hate, and several you love to hate. Through three books, I still have no idea what Janis's motivations and goals truly are. I can't wait to find out!And if that weren't enough, the world building and magic is fascinating. The magic has been fairly downplayed in the first two books, mostly relegated to motivation for character action, with very little on-screen time. This still feels fairly low fantasy to me, but it's definitely stepped up from the last two.Flintlock Fantasy seems to be fairly popular lately, but most of the attention seems to be on [a:Brent Weeks 1370283 Brent Weeks https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1232012513p2/1370283.jpg]' Lightbringer series or [a:Brian McClellan 6524620 Brian McClellan https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1363389316p2/6524620.jpg]'s Powder mage. While I am enjoying both of those series, Mr. Wexler is quietly making his case as the best series of this particular subgenre.If you haven't given this series a try yet, I highly recommend it. Now to go back to waiting for what comes next..

Executive Summary: Another interesting book from Mr. Stephenson, that was somehow a bit too short for me despite its 32 hour duration. This one won't be for everyone, but I'd put it on par with many of his previous books.Audio book: This was my first time listening to a book narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal. She's really excellent. So excellent, that I was pretty disappointed when it changed to Will Damron for Part 3. I'm not sure why they did this. Was Ms. Kowal too busy to finish recording? Was it intentional?That isn't to say Mr. Damron is a bad narrator. I just didn't like him as much as Ms. Kowal, and the change in narration was jarring. If there was any place in the book it was appropriate to change, it was with Part 3, but I think it would have been better suited if they had just stuck with Ms. Kowal.Full ReviewI've been a fan of Mr. Stephenson ever since picking up [b:Snow Crash 830 Snow Crash Neal Stephenson https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1424472532s/830.jpg 493634] back in college. I haven't read all of his books, but I've enjoyed all but 1 of those that I have.I had no idea what this book was about when I volunteered to review it. Much like most of his work, it's long. The start is a bit slow, and as usual it goes off on tangents and into way more detail than is necessary on things. In some of his books, I've enjoyed those tangents and the excess of detail. In others, less so. This one was somewhere in the middle for me.This is the kind of thing that will turn many readers away early on. I was never bored myself, but I wasn't really engaged in the book until nearly halfway. In a book this long, that will be too much of a commitment for many. However, I suspect if you enjoy the detail and tangents, you'll be engaged much sooner.This book is split into three parts. The first part is essentially a present day disaster story. The second is largely a space opera, and the third is a bit of a post apocalyptic tale.Many authors might have focused on one aspect of this story. Instead of giving us bits of history that help shaped the world of part 3, we live many of the details in parts 1 and 2. For me personally, I would have liked part 1 to be shorter with more time spent on part 3. Part 2 was my favorite of the book, but that may be because I felt despite being a third of the book, part 3 ended too soon. I have questions still. A lot of them. Is Mr. Stephenson planning a sequel that will contain some of these answers? I hope so.This isn't a case of a long book that abruptly ends though. For me the issue is that Mr. Stephenson did such a good job with the world building that I want more. I felt like there wasn't enough. I would have happily sacrificed much of the present day (which I found slower anyways), for more time in the future story with the world he created.Mr. Stephenson doesn't spend all the time on world building either. He develops several interesting characters that are used to make most of the story character-driven. We have a largely female cast, and somewhat diverse background for most of them. Overall, while this isn't my favorite Neal Stephenson book, I really enjoyed it, and I hope we get another book set in the same world that he built in part 3.

Executive Summary: I enjoyed this book, though not as much as [b:Fool Moon 91477 Fool Moon (The Dresden Files, #2) Jim Butcher http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345556849s/91477.jpg 855288] or as I remember liking it for that matter. Probably because I'm much better read at this point.Audio book: Mr. Marsters continues to improve as a reader. Gone are most the odd saliva sounds and he seems to have found his voice for the characters. He still reads things too quietly in parts, though maybe it's simply that the overall volume of my copy is too low for my liking (too much loud music?).Full ReviewI debated about if I should keep my original 4 star rating, or bump it down to three. This story didn't grab me as much as [b:Fool Moon 91477 Fool Moon (The Dresden Files, #2) Jim Butcher http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345556849s/91477.jpg 855288]. It's certainly better than [b:Storm Front 47212 Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1) Jim Butcher http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345556917s/47212.jpg 1137060]. I'd probably give this a 3.5.This book continues the mostly formulaic structure the early books in this series suffer from. Dresden is approached by a mysterious client and mayhem ensues.This book deals with not only ghosts, but vampires. Some of them do sparkle, but that's only to lure you in and feed on your emotions. If they feed to long you won't be running off and living happily ever after.We learn there are not 1, but 3 kinds of vampires (Mr. Butcher seems to like variation as he did with werewolves), Black (think Bram Stoker), White (feed on emotions), and Red.We've actually met the Red Vampire Bianca in previous novels, but in this novel we learn a bit more about the other kinds and the vampire courts.The book opens up with Harry and one of my favorite characters, Micheal, the Fist of God on the trail of some ghost that is wreaking havoc on a hospital nursery. Ghosts are out of control and Harry has been relying more and more on Michael's help to sort them out.We are also introduced to Thomas of the White Court, who becomes another of my favorite characters.The main plot of this book doesn't do a lot for me, but as a re-reader, there is an awful lot I appreciate that has both short term (new baddies introduced) and long term (no spoilers) implications the series as a whole.The book has some truly awesome parts, and I found myself enjoying Harry's sense of humor a lot more. Like Mr. Butcher's writing skills, Harry's sense of humor apparently taken some time to develop.All and all is a quick and easy read.

Executive Summary: A fun political fantasy.

Audio book: Joe Manganiello is a fine reader, though nothing special. He neither adds nor detracts from the story at all.

Full Review
This is my first novel by Patricia Briggs. The name was familiar to me, but I wouldn't have been able to have named you any books or series by her.

I couldn't tell you if this is her usual style of book, but if it is, I'll definitely be interested in reading more. This doesn't seem to be as popular as some of her other series though. I found this a quick and enjoyable listen.

It's a play on the chosen one trope, but there is more of a focus on politics. Our protagonist has been playing stupid for years in an effort to reduce the chances his father finds him a threat and killing him.

Unfortunately for him, this means that his father also doesn't trust him to take over after he's gone and names his uncle to rule in his place, at least until his 21st birthday. So of course our hero sets out to make a name for himself and show his uncle that he's not really the fool he's been pretending all these years.

And of course he gets swept up into events bigger than himself and must rise to the occasion or see his friends, family and home suffer.

In a worlds where dragons are long extinct and magic is dwindling, this is more political than fantastical overall, but there is certainly enough in there to make it more than a historical fantasy.

This is book one of a duology, but I feel like it came to a pretty good stopping point where I don't feel I need to rush out right away to read the second book, or (given it's shorter length) like it was simply one book that was split in half.

Overall, I found this a fun and lighter book and I'm looking forward to listening to the conclusion soon.

Executive Summary: A good, but not great start to this series. I liked it enough to continue on.

Audiobook: Luke Daniels is a fantastic narrator as always, however I tend to associate him with lighter/fun type stories, so it took a bit to get used to him narrating a military sci-fi/more serious story.

Full Review
I picked this one up on a daily deal. I'm not a huge military fiction fan, but I like space opera and I was hoping to get some of that here.

Since those were my expectations coming in, I found the first two thirds a bit underwhelming. We start in a near future Earth. Things are bleak. The planet is in bad shape and we've begun colonizing other worlds. Spots on colony ships are hard to come by. Many people are living in welfare funded slums.

The protagonist joins the military in an attempt to escape his life. We get a pretty generic and mostly forgettable boot camp story arc. Then I think even more than our protagonist, I'm super disappointed that he's staying on earth. The middle arc is never really explained though it is at least more interesting than the first arc.

Finally in the third arc things start to pick up. It was here that the book really started to grab my interest. Now that we have the space opera type story I was hoping for when I first picked up this book, I was finally enjoying it.

The world building is pretty bleak. You can tell the author has a military background. It also seems to me he has a very low opinion of poor people, especially those on welfare. I found myself conflicted at times between the protagonist's plight and the supposed antagonists during the middle arc. None of it was very well explained though. Maybe if it had, I would have been less conflicted. The protagonist isn't always likable initially, but he grew on me as the story went on.

Overall I enjoyed this book, and it got better as it went on. This gives me hope the next book will be better, and I plan to check it out at some point in the near future.