Rob

Executive Summary: A truly fascinating listen that proves the life can be more unbelievable than fiction.

Audiobook: For non-fiction I prefer my narrators to basically be unmemorable. I want them to just give me the story without distracting me. Cassandra Campbell not only does a good job, but I really like how this audiobook was produced.

There are diagrams in the print version of this book and instead of trying to “read” or describe them to you, there is a pdf you can look at to see what they are talking about and Ms. Campbell simply says “see the insert” in the appropriate place.

Full Review
Elizebeth Smith-Friedman was a name I knew was associated with cryptography, but almost none of the details of her remarkable life.

Not only did she help break codes in World War 1, she also helped bust Rum Runners during prohibition and created a formidable team of code breakers for the Coast Guard in the process leading to some major success stories during World War 2 that were kept classified until very recently.

Part love story, part examination of sexism in the early/mid 1900s and part spy novel this book really has a lot incredible stories that kept me fascinated for the entire time.

Jason Fargone did an excellent job collecting all the details and laying out what has mostly been a hidden history of early cryptography.

Executive Summary: A strong start with an alright finish. I liked the book as is, but probably would have enjoyed it more as a Cyber thriller rather than a sci-fi book. 3.5 stars

Full Review
I picked this book up on a daily deal at some point and I had been planning to read it towards the Sword & Laser's Laser group challenge because I was behind on my pledge. Then they went and made it the November pick.

I've long held a fascination on the early days of computers, networks and the phone phreaks and hackers who found ways to manipulate them. I've read numerous nonfiction books on the subject, but very few fiction books. Most fictions books with hackers tend to become cyberpunk (which I also enjoy) but I'd like to see someone do a good take on modern day hacking akin to the first season of Mr. Robot.

Hacking has taken on a much more negative connotation these days, despite the idea of “White Hat”, “Gray Hat” or Hackavists, most people tend to automatically associate the term hacker with criminal. That isn't to say hackers aren't breaking laws, or that there are criminals who use computer savvy to commit crimes. The early hackers were more explorers and prankster than they were hardened criminal however.

One of the things I loved about this book is that Wendig covers pretty much all the common-day hackers. He's got an old guy from the earlier days of hacking, a hackivist, a carder, an internet troll, and a “script kiddie” among others.

They are all well flushed out too. It seems like Wendig knows his stuff when setting up the tech side. But this book isn't a cyber thriller. It's science fiction. That may not be apparent until pretty far into the book but it is.

While I enjoyed the second half of the book, I didn't like it as much as the first half. I think I might have liked it better if he had kept things a little more grounded in the science side of things.

That said, I may still pick up the second book in the series at some point because I'd like to see where he takes things next.

Executive Summary: As with most Scalzi books, this one is light and fun without a ton of depth. Audiobook: Wil Wheaton is always a good fit for John Scalzi, and here is no different. I do mean to try to the Amber Benson version of the books at some point, but for me Wil Wheaton will always be my first choice for a Scalzi book.Full ReviewAt this point I've read nearly all of John Scalzi's books and enjoyed most of them. [b:Lock In 21418013 Lock In (Lock In, #1) John Scalzi https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1438701397s/21418013.jpg 26115712] was no different. The idea of a disease leading to a new minority of people who trapped inside their own bodies makes for an interesting premise and some pretty creative world building.I wish more time was spent in the virtual world inhabited by many of the Haydn's, but since this is primarily a detective/murder story it's a bit hard to do so. Mr. Scalzi does ramp things up in the physical world with some pretty interesting new designs for Threeps (the electronic bodies that Haydn's can use to interact with the physical world).The premise of this one is built around a few Threeps that can have their heads taken off in a sort of blood sport (minus the actual blood). As a fan of both traditional sports and some esports, this feels like a little of both. I'm not sure I'd be interested enough to actually watch it myself however.It definitely added to the world building of the first book, and seems like the kind of thing that would emerge from the world that Mr. Scalzi created.The book is again told from the point of view an ambiguous protagonist. We still don't know whether Chris is male or female, and it doesn't matter (which I think is the main point). Chris is mostly competent at his job as they serves as junior investigator to his more seasoned partner who doesn't take shit from anyone.We get to meet some more of Chris's roommates in this book (at least I don't really remember any of them apart from Tony from the first one) but there isn't a ton of depth to most of the characters beyond the protagonist, his partner and maybe his parents. There really isn't a lot of time for much character development.This is the second book in a series, but I think Mr. Scalzi did a good job in making it read like a stand alone. I feel like you start here and not be too confused, then circle back to read the first book and/or the novella.This one was pretty short and I tore through it quickly but very much enjoyed it. I hope he writes a third one at some point, although I'd probably prefer it doesn't happen until he finishes his space opera series (The Interdependency) first.

Executive Summary: I thought this one started a bit slow, but once things got going it was really hard to stop listening. That makes it a pretty easy 5-star for me.Audiobook: Tim Gerard Reynolds is one of the main reasons I like Michael J. Sullivan so much. I love his narration so much that I pretty much don't want to read any of Mr. Sullivan's books simply because I like having Mr. Reynolds read them to me instead.Full ReviewI've been enjoying the First Empire books quite a lot. I miss Royce and Hadrian but this series has a huge cast of great characters that make it easy to love. I thought series started off with a bang in [b:Age of Myth 26863057 Age of Myth (The Legends of the First Empire, #1) Michael J. Sullivan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1507307691s/26863057.jpg 24657657] and had a solid continuation in [b:Age of Swords 32337902 Age of Swords (The Legends of the First Empire, #2) Michael J. Sullivan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1481987017s/32337902.jpg 25336186].I was initially set to put this book in same category as Age of Swords, but as it went on it sucked me in more and more. The best books always make it hard to put down. When you do as much audio as I do, that often results in staring at walls or sitting in your car longer than you should just to squeeze in some extra time.This book had me find an extra 90 minutes of time yesterday because I refused to stop for the day without knowing how it ended. That's a lot of wall staring!With so many great characters, it's hard to pick a favorite. I think that's one of things that endears this series to me so much. A lot of the characters are broken in one way or another, but they persevere because honestly they don't have much choice.I think my favorite part of this book was the interactions between Raith and Suri. Raith had some really great one-liners, and they usually came during a conversation with her.As someone whose loved/roleplayed Elves for a long time, I struggle at times with Mr. Sullivans interpretation. Most of them are downright awful. I miss the idea of more playful/wise elves. That isn't to say they are all unlikeable, but this book fits well into the idea of “don't meet your heroes”.The world building continues to be interesting. Despite being a prequel to Riyria it's so far in the past that we basically know almost nothing. There are some pretty big mysteries I want answer to, and so far we haven't gotten much. We did learn a lot more about one character in particular, but it was one of those things where now I have a whole bunch of new questions rather than satisfaction at what I discovered.Of course this is book 3 in a now 6 book series, so there are a lot of pages for me to get some answers. I'm ready for [b:Age of Legends 22819354 Age of Legends (The Legends of the First Empire #4) Michael J. Sullivan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1434746431s/22819354.jpg 42370596] right now. Especially since I know it's already been written (along with books 5 and 6). I know those all need additional editing/revision (and not to mention time for Mr. Reynolds to record the audio) but that doesn't make the waiting any easier. At least I can be happy knowing it won't be more than maybe a year until the next installment.

Executive Summary:A satisfying conclusion to the series, albeit with a somewhat rushed ending.Audiobook: Another good job by Ray Porter. He has good inflection and volume. He speaks clearly and does a few voices. He's definitely made this an enjoyable listen.Full ReviewI only discovered this series earlier this year thanks to a lot of buzz here on goodreads. It's just the most recent reason that makes me glad this site exists and I finally found it a few years ago.If you want to win me to your side, the easiest thing to do is have a protagonist who's a 30 something computer programmer into a lot of SFF and video games. This series isn't as heavy on the fan service as say [b:Ready Player One 9969571 Ready Player One Ernest Cline https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1500930947s/9969571.jpg 14863741], but there are some nice references dropped throughout as appropriate to make me geek out a bit as I was listening.I really love all the different Bob's we meet, and I was happy to see he didn't expand the number of POVs too much in this book. Especially given it's rather short length. At just 8 hours in audio, I seemed to be finished with this book in no time at all.In fact that's my only real complaint here. The ending felt a bit rushed. While many of the subplots were wrapped up pretty nicely, the main plot seemed to go from mostly background noise to overdrive in the last several chapters. I was expecting a bit more of a climax than we actually got.That isn't to say I was disappointed. This was a fun series, and it's been pretty faced paced all the way though. While I'm fine with how things leave off at the end, I wouldn't mind if Mr. Taylor decided to revisit the Bobs later on with some kind of sequel, ideally set hundreds (or maybe thousands?) of years after this one wraps up.Either way I'll have to keep an eye out for Mr. Taylor's next book and hope that it's as much fun as this series has been.

Executive Summary: This was a fun listen, but nothing spectacular. I like MMOs and I like popcorn fiction and this was a decent enough blend of the two.

Audiobook: Luke Daniels is one of my favorite narrators and does his usual excellent job here. However, since this is LitRPG, there are some downsides to the unabridged format. On paper you'd scan over the various stats, character sheets and item descriptions that Mr. Daniels must painstakingly read out to you.

Full Review
I'm still not sure what I feel about LitRPG. I've been playing WoW for nearly 15 years now and I've spent a lot of time out of the game reading about the game, strategies, stats, gear, etc. So the idea of reading a book about someone playing a game works well for me. I imagine it won't work as well for others who'd rather just play a game than listen to one.

However so far my experience with the genre is that it's not being written very well. I don't have a large sample size to base that one, so I could be wrong. Just two authors so far. My main gripe is the book could have used more editing. This book has a lot of repeated words/dialogue and some cringeworthy speeches.

It also suffers a bit too much from lack of diversity. I don't necessarily mean that in terms of race or gender, but that could be applied too. I thought all of the characters in the book were fine, but they felt too much alike. They are your fairly standard non-asshat dude gamer. They were all likeable, but not everyone who games is the same. Yes some people swear a lot (I'm guilty of this myself) but not everyone talks like that constantly.

Not to mention in a group of 6 players there is only one girl. He does add some more female players later in the book, but for a book that's supposed to be set in the future I find it hard to believe the ratio of men to women players is 5:1.

That said, I wasn't picking this up to be something deep or eloquently written. I wanted a fun book and that's what I (mostly) got. I really liked that this book while focused one character added a bunch of other players working together as well as in opposition to the protagonist rather than just a bunch of NPCs and quests. I also like the idea of a game where you can shape the growth of the world so much.

I'll probably pick up book two, but I'm torn on if I want to read the side story book first or not. For now, I'll probably hold off a bit until I get the itch for another light read.

Executive Summary: After a slow start it finished really strong but wasn't quite as enjoyable as the last two were for me. 4.5 Stars.

Audiobook: Jefferson Mays once again does a good job. He does a few voices, but mostly he's just a solid narrator who is easy to understand and reads with good volume and inflection.

Full Review
Well I had no idea there was going to be a 30 year time jump. I was initially upset about it, but as the book went on I see why they did it. In order to tell the story they wanted to without dragging things out, it was necessary. I do hope they decide to do some extra books/novellas that covers some of that time.

Bobbie is one of my favorite characters, so I was really happy she was one of the main POVs in this book. I didn't think it was possible to lover her more, but she proved me wrong with this book. I thought Singh made for an interesting antagonist, but was my least favorite POV. Drummer was mostly fine. There is one particular detail that made me enjoy her chapters more than I might have otherwise. Holden is still Holden.

I thought the start of this book was a bit slow. It's possible a lot of it was my shock at the time jump and wondering what might have happened to characters I loved in that time. It might just be that the two new POV characters didn't really pull me into their stories as much. As the book went on however things really picked up.

This book does a lot to set up the final two books. I think that combined with the slower start made this book not quite as good as the last two for me. It was still a really enjoyable book though, and now I have to eagerly wait for the next book to see what happens next.

Executive Summary: A slow start, but a strong finish. Not as fun as his Bobiverse books, but still pretty enjoyable. 3.5 Stars.

Audiobook: Ray Porter once again does a good job. Even though this isn't a Bobiverse book, it feels as though it could be, and that may partially be due to the same narrator returning. He does a few accents and generally is just the type of narrator that adds to the book.

Full Review
There were some similar themes and ideas in this book. Our protagonist is a Software Engineer for one thing. I feel like it could almost be a prequel for his Bobiverse books. However this book is really it's own thing.

I wasn't sucked in right away like his last books. I think it's because it really took awhile for things to get setup. Once the main plot finally got going (much later in the book than I'd have liked) it became a lot more enjoyable.

It's not as funny as his other book, but there is a sort of lightness to the book despite the high stakes of the plot that makes this one of those palate cleanser books when you need something after a particularly hard or heavy story.

So far I've enjoyed all of Mr. Taylor's books, and despite him not writing another Bob book, he's shown to me that he's likely going to be an author whose books I'll continue to enjoy.

Executive Summary: This book pissed me off. A lot. I'm not sure if it deserves the 4 stars I gave it or 2 stars. I suspect the author's intention was to piss me off though so my 4 star rating stands. For now.Audiobook: I love Tim Gerard Reynolds. I'm not really sure why they felt it necessary to hire 3 other narrators for the other POVs in this book. His chapters were the best. I don't know which reader did the others, but the guy who read for Lysander was far too quiet, especially in the early chapters. His volume got better as the book went on, but it was still a struggle.The reader for Lyria was the best after Mr. Reynolds. Having a female reader for a female POV at least makes sense to me and she did a good job. I'm not sure if she was doing an Irish accent or if that's just her normal reading voice, but she had good inflections and did a few other voices as well.I thought the narrator for Effron was also good/fine, but didn't feel like he added so much that it couldn't have just been narrated by Mr. Reynolds.Full ReviewMy understanding is/was that the first trilogy was considered YA. I sure hope this one isn't. It's incredibly dark. That isn't to say the last trilogy wasn't dark, but even for me I struggled at times with the book.I didn't come into this with the expectation of sunshine and puppies, but just when things seemed to be going bad, they got worse. Then worse still. I also struggled a lot with the new characters. I don't much care for Lysander and I came to pretty much despise Ephron by the middle of the book. I think I felt more sorry for Lyria than I did like her as a character.Then there is Darrow. He spent the entirety of this book pissing me me in a way he hasn't since [b:Red Rising 15839976 Red Rising (Red Rising, #1) Pierce Brown https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1461354651s/15839976.jpg 21580644].There wasn't much in the way of new world building from what we already got in the previous trilogy. This was very much a character-driven book. Normally this is something I like a lot, but in this case all the characters made me angry.I'm sure this review makes it sound like I hated this book, but the reality is I found it hard to put down. Maybe I'm as much of a sadist as Mr. Brown seems to be. It could just be that he did such a good job evoking such strong reactions from me about fictional characters. I'd like to hope it's the latter.With the last trilogy I recall having similar issues with the first book and liking books 2 and 3 far more. I'm hoping that happens with this trilogy as well.

Executive Summary: The world building was far far better than the actual plot, but I still found the book enjoyable. It's not as enjoyable as [b:The Martian 18007564 The Martian Andy Weir https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1413706054s/18007564.jpg 21825181] though.Audiobook: I was a bit torn on [a:Rosario Dawson 784633 Rosario Dawson https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] as a narrator. I'm not generally a fan of celebrity readers, even if they are talented actors. I felt like early on in the book she was a little bit “off” but as the book went on, I thought she did an excellent job with the narration. She added in a few voices to really give it an extra something when listening. I'd recommend the audio as a good option for this book, and I'd definitely listen to another book she narrated.Full ReviewI'll admit I bought this book without ever reading even the blurb. It was Andy Weir's new book and I loved [b:The Martian 18007564 The Martian Andy Weir https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1413706054s/18007564.jpg 21825181]. Its shadow looms large here. How do you follow up on something so successful? The answer for me is a bit mixed, but mostly positive.Artemis is awesome. Though I don't mean the book. I mean the place in the book. Andy Weir did a fantastic job creating it. Almost too good of a job. I kind of made the story he set in it a bit underwhelming. I really want to visit the place (though since I have trouble riding many amusement park rides, I don't see how I'd ever actually make it to the moon; Maybe they could knock me out first?).The main character is pretty well written. She's smart, capable, and quite a bit sneaky. The supporting characters are interesting and flushed out enough to feel well developed if we were to dig a bit deeper, even though we never do. I also liked the way we get the Jazz's backstory through a series of emails with someone back on earth.So if you've got an amazing setting and a pretty well written main character, why the mixed thoughts? Well the story itself wasn't all that interesting/unique. You could have (mostly) set this book on Earth and most of the plot points wouldn't have really changed.It just felt like this awesome world building he done was mostly wasted. Of course things would have to play out differently on Earth. You couldn't have moon walks or low gravity, but the “loveable criminal with her own set of morals” has been done to death.Overall I'm glad I picked this one up, and I'll totally buy Mr. Weir's next novel without reading the blurb again. I really enjoy the way he mixes in science without making the book feel “too hard sci-fi”. I kind of want a sequel (or maybe a prequel?) to this book where we just get more awesome stuff with Artemis. It really was the star of this book.

Executive Summary: A fun, quick read that fans of Doctor Who or classic Science Fiction will probably enjoy.

Audiobook: I was unfamiliar with Kevin T. Collins prior to listening to this book, but I'll be keeping an eye out for him in the future. He reads clearly at good volume and does a few voices as well. Tom lucked out with a good narrator who added a little something extra to the book.

Full Review
For what it's worth, I've been a member of Tom's online book club Sword & Laser for nearly 5 years, and helping to moderate the group for the last 2.5 years.

Tom might be better known for his work as a tech blogger and podcaster, but to me he's always been someone whose opinions on Science Fiction I've come to value. I picked this book up once I saw that I could get it in audio because I wanted to support Tom, but I seem to have very little time to read lately.

I know Tom has dabbled in writing on and off, especially during Nanowrimo, and that shows here. I haven't read any of his previous works, but this book is well written. Tom does a good job of showing and not telling, which is especially important to me in a book this short.

There are some big ideas about Time Travel, and he is consistent within his own rules for how it works, without spending too much time getting into the “science”. This is the kind of big idea, little detail story I tend to associate with older Science Fiction stories.

Oddly, I don't tend to enjoy much classic Science Fiction because I tend to prefer more detailed world building. However I felt this book does a good job in packing in world building as the story progresses. There is a lot of room for imagination, but you're provided enough detail for framing the story he's trying to tell.

The one place I felt was a bit lacking was the characters. There isn't a ton of character development with Pilot X, and apart from the ship Verity and maybe the Secretary, most of the characters feel thin/disposable. I would have liked to read more about the after math of Pilot X's decision than we got.

The book has a bit of a Doctor Who feel, which isn't surprising as Tom has discussed how his inspiration for this book stemmed from that show's own Time War. However Pilot X doesn't feel like the Doctor. Or at least not any of the Doctor's I'm familiar with.

This book does a good job at borrowing an idea from Doctor Who while being it's own thing. I'm glad that I picked it up, and figure that I'll be able to tell people I followed Tom Merritt before he became a successful writer.

Story
This volume is made up of 2 stories. The first is made up of 3 issues, and was the better of the two. It deals with a lot issues that are very close to home with hate, fear and discrimination. It was hard to read at times, and I was wondering just how dark the series was going to go. I don't want to spoil anything, but I will say I thought it was well done.

The second story felt like more of a transition. It brought back a character from earlier in the series whose details were a bit hazy to me. It's been a bit of a stretch since I read the last few volumes of this. Thankfully there was enough of a reminder built in without rehashing plot that I think I'm mostly good.

The story of these two issues was kind of bland, but the ending set up for some hopefully interesting issues ahead.

I'd give the first story a 4 and the second a 3, so overall I'm giving this volume a 3.5.

Artwork
Apparently there are 2 different artists. One for each arch. I honestly didn't really notice the difference. I'm not sure what happened with the original artist. I don't recall if he drew the last volume or what but the artwork throughout was solid.

Executive Summary: I found many parts of this book slow and uninteresting. The good parts were too short and the boring parts were too long. 2.5 stars.Full ReviewFor the past few years, epic fantasy has been my favorite genre. I couldn't get enough of it. Lately though, I've been wanting a change of pace. My plan for this year was to branch back out into other genres because I read far too much fantasy last year. So of course not only did I read this for Sword & Laser but I ended up doing a reread of [b:The Eye of the World 228665 The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time, #1) Robert Jordan https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1337818095s/228665.jpg 2008238] at the same time. Oops.This book has a lot of negativity around it. When it was announced the thread was full of people who seemed determined to convince the rest of us how bad it was. Most of their argument seemed to revolve around how derivative of Tolkien it was, and that part didn't bother me at all. I also found it not nearly as similar as people were saying. Maybe it were, I might have enjoyed it more.[b:The Eye of the World 228665 The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time, #1) Robert Jordan https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1337818095s/228665.jpg 2008238] is one of my favorite books, and probably the book that really made me love epic fantasy. So reading it at the same time, didn't really help this book's cause. Then again, I think I would have struggled with it regardless.My main issues are the pacing and the quality of the writing. The story itself was fine, though nothing particularly great. It seems as though this book was all about hurry up and wait. Pages and pages would go by where it felt like nothing was really happening. They were walking somewhere or talking about, well I can't remember what at this point, but it didn't feel important to the plot. Then something interesting would happen and it would be over really quickly. I wish he had spent more time on plot developments and less time moving his characters around.As to the writing, I'm not someone who needs brilliant prose to enjoy a book. Most of my favorite authors will never been awarded for their literary techniques. I'm even pretty forgiving to first time authors. The thing is, if you're writing is lacking, you need to make up for it with entertainment value. And this book just didn't. I found myself paying more attention to the words on the page than the story they were trying to tell. His constant repetition of descriptive phrases like “The Valeman”, “The borderman” and “The Northmen” became a huge annoyance as the book went on.The characters and the world building were nothing special either. I didn't really care about either. I've been mostly enjoying the Shannara TV show, which is apparently based on [b:The Elfstones of Shannara 189783 The Elfstones of Shannara (The Original Shannara Trilogy, #2) Terry Brooks https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1420148388s/189783.jpg 2121201]. The world building there seems more apparent and interesting here. We get maybe one small part where Allanon is info dumping about the past to give you any sense that this a post-apocalyptic version of our world (or one much like it) rather some standard fantasy world based on medieval Europe. What's strange is that Elfstones seems to feature female characters quite a bit, while this one makes them feel like an afterthought. How do people still exist without women? Oh they are there after all? Who knew? We go probably 500 pages before a women is even mentioned, let alone has lines. This is far from the only fantasy book with this issue, but it struck me odd after the show having several.Overall I think if this book had been 200-300 pages shorter and focused more on plot, world building or character development instead of moving characters around I'd have enjoyed it a lot more. I'm not sure if I'll try the next book or not. There is just too much to read, and not enough time and this one hasn't really motivated me to continue.

Executive Summary: I struggled a bit to get into this one at the start, but once I finally got my bearing back I enjoyed it a lot more. ★★★½☆.Audiobook: This one is a hard series for audio in my opinion. Nothing against Emily Woo Zeller who I think does a fine job narrating, it's just that there is so much going on, I find myself wishing I could go back and reread parts, something I find very hard to do in audio. Your mileage may vary, but this is definitely not for people newer to audiobooks in my opinion.Full ReviewI'm not much of a hard sci-fi person. I'm not sure this really qualifies, as the mathematics that drive everything are never really explained that much, but it does seem to add a layer of complexity to the narrative that I find hard to follow at times. That said, I find it makes for some incredibly unique world building. I read [b:Ninefox Gambit 26118426 Ninefox Gambit (The Machineries of Empire #1) Yoon Ha Lee https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1446557461s/26118426.jpg 46065520] earlier this year, but apparently that was too long ago that I seemed to have forgotten most of the details. It took a long time for this book to jog my memory. In general I prefer character driven stories, and this one definitely fits that mold. I do find most of the characters if not unlikeable then certainly not that appealing. Jedao is certainly an interesting character, but I didn't care much about his motivations. I mostly just wanted to see what happened next.In most character-driven stories, I'm rooting for/against a character. In this book though, I'm indifferent. I liked Kel Cheris in the previous book, but little else. In this book I felt like I had nothing to root for really.Yet despite all of that, the world building seems to be enough to keep my interest. At least most of the times. There were definitely some subplots in this book I found less interesting. I also found myself a bit confused at times, and wishing I could reread a part. I'll definitely be picking up the next book. I want to see where this goes next. I might switch from audio however. Then again owning two books in audio and the third in another format would probably drive me crazy :)

Executive Summary: Another light, quick, and fun read from Scott Meyer. 3.5 Stars.Audiobook: Angela Dawe was fine as a narrator, though nothing special. She spoke clearly at a good pace, but didn't really add much to the story itself. I think all of [a:Scott Meyer 7044164 Scott Meyer https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1366826945p2/7044164.jpg] other books have been narrated by [a:Luke Daniels 2978188 Luke Daniels https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1331514576p2/2978188.jpg] who is a favorite of mine.Unlike those books however, the protagonist in this is a female so having a female narrator makes a lot of sense. I think audio is a solid choice for this one, especially if you can catch a deal on it like I did.Full ReviewI stumbled on [a:Scott Meyer 7044164 Scott Meyer https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1366826945p2/7044164.jpg] a few years ago with his Magic 2.0 books and I enjoy those so much that I pretty much pick up anything he puts out now. I've found most of his non-Magic books to be not as good, and this one isn't different. However I think this is my favorite of his non-Magic 2.0 books.One of the things that first attracted me to his books was that I'm a computer programmer. This book hits on some of those same aspects for me. I just didn't find it as funny. I listened to 70% of this in one sitting while driving back from my cousin's wedding and it helped to pass the time quite nicely.The idea of artificial intelligence is both fascinating to me, and a little bit terrifying. And what's worse than an AI out of control? An AI with the mentality of a 6 year old child. But really this book isn't some kind of warning for a potential apocalypse of our own making. It's more of a commentary on our own insecurities and shortcomings. It's not as funny as his other stuff, but he does keep things pretty light throughout.Much like Martin, I found Hope a bit unlikeable at times. However unlike Martin (from Magic 2.0), she's not an idiot. She just could stand to think a bit more before she speaks sometimes. Something I know I can identify with. I found myself warming up to her far faster than I did with Martin.If you like some of his other books, and enjoy computer based humor, this one may be worth checking out. If you haven't read anything by Mr. Meyer however, I recommend you check out [b:Off to Be the Wizard 18616975 Off to Be the Wizard (Magic 2.0, #1) Scott Meyer https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1390179189s/18616975.jpg 24775619] instead.

Executive Summary: This series started out pretty solid, but this book got really really good. I read the first half over several days, but I read the second half in one sitting. For that reason it was a pretty easy 5 star for me.

Full Review
A friend of mine was recommending I read Will Wight for a long time, but there are just so many books/authors out there that I never got around to it. It took getting a free copy of the first book of this series to get me to finally give him a shot.

I keep coming back to Naruto not because this series is a knock-off of that, but because some of the notes it hits keep reminding me of my favorite parts of that series. I'd be really shocked if Wight isn't a fan/wasn't inspired by that or other Shonen fighting series.

This book starts off right where the last one left off, and Lindon is once again training to take on a challenge far beyond his power. It's not until he starts this trial (that reminded me slightly of the Chunin exams) that this book really gets good.

I was only going to read another 2-3 chapters and instead I stayed up an hour later than I intended just so I could finish. I also rushed right out to buy the next book.

This series has some really great characters. Lindon is likeable enough but he's kind of the typical protagonist for this kind of a story. I really love both Eithan and Yerin as well. Eithan is both mysterious and hilarious. The book also introduces another fantastic new character whose name I can't recall but he's a giant insane Dragon-Turtle so really what does it matter what his name is?

There were some pretty interesting developments with Lindon in this book and some pretty intriguing revelations about Eithan as well. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this series goes next.

I'm not sure how many people are reading Will Wight, but I'll be joining my friend in recommending him, at least to my friends who enjoy Shonen fighting series.

Executive Summary: I enjoyed this, but not as much as [b:American Gods 30165203 American Gods Neil Gaiman https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1462924585s/30165203.jpg 1970226]. I think the big difference was the main character.Audiobook: I'm generally not a huge fan of audiobooks read by the author, but [a:Neil Gaiman 1221698 Neil Gaiman https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1234150163p2/1221698.jpg] does a solid job here. He's a storyteller, so he's good at reading a story, especially one of his own. That said, I might have preferred an actual narrator with voices, etc. Still I'd say that audio's not a bad choice by any means.Full ReviewI've owned the ebook of this for awhile, but my reading time is very limited and I own hundreds of unread ebooks at this point. So when I got the audio as well, I finally got around to pick it up.Neil Gaiman seems to have a cult-like following on Goodreads. He's super popular. I've read a few of his books (I think this is maybe the 4th or 5th?), and I've enjoyed them but I haven't been rushing out to read all his stuff.This is a bit strange for me because I actually watched the TV miniseries (I think it was made in the 90s) as well as reading the “sequel” novella [b:How the Marquis Got His Coat Back 26699591 How the Marquis Got His Coat Back Neil Gaiman https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442860194s/26699591.jpg 42096629] in an anthology collection I read before reading the book. That's very unlike me. I'm usually a big book before TV/Film and chronological reading order person.So I knew what to expect coming in, although I had forgotten many of the plot points as it's been a few years since I watched the series. I found things a bit slow to get started. In particular because I don't like Richard that much. Many of the things he did/said made me anxious/agitated. His life was just so disorganized that I wanted to yell at him to get his shit together.I did warm up to him as the series went on. Thankfully all the supporting characters are pretty great/memorable. I also really loved the world building. I've read another series ([b:Something from the Nightside 155421 Something from the Nightside (Nightside, #1) Simon R. Green https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1354812342s/155421.jpg 150023]) about a secret/magical London underbelly and I think Gaiman probably does the better job.There are a lot of similarities for me to [b:American Gods 30165203 American Gods Neil Gaiman https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1462924585s/30165203.jpg 1970226], which remains my favorite of the Gaiman books I've read. I think Shadow is a far more likeable protagonist which helps. It probably also helps me that I'm more familiar with the American setting than I am with the London series.I believe there has been an announcement that Gaiman is working/will work on a proper sequel novel and if that proves to be true that might be the first book of his I pick up at release time. Otherwise his work remains something I'm interested in checking out when I have time but not really top of the pile.

Executive Summary: I still feel that that this book was very different from the rest of the series to me. I found it much more enjoyable on my reread than I did the first time, but I still consider it the weakest book in the series.Audiobook: So one of the things I worry about with digital media beyond DRM is that you don't really own things. Here is a good example. They re-recorded this book and instead of the Erik Davies version I originally listened to, I now have the Jefferson Mays version.Thankfully I'm happy about that, but I'm still concerned I didn't get a choice to swap versions. I worry the same thing will happen with [b:The Martian 18007564 The Martian Andy Weir https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1413706054l/18007564.SY75.jpg 21825181] where I like the original narration.In this case I think the Jefferson Mays version is far superior. I'm not sure why I didn't like him when I first did this series, but I think he's a pretty great narrator. It could also be that he's gotten better as he went along and now I just tend to lump all his performances together.If nothing else, it's nice to have all of the books narrated by the same person.Full ReviewSo for the first 3 books of the series I haven't been bothering to update my reviews. I think I enjoyed those books on first read, and reread simply confirmed my first impressions. This book however I like much more on my reread than the first time. There are a lot of factors at play here. 1) It's been 7 years and 1 global pandemic since I first read the book. 2) The book has been adapted into a TV show that I enjoyed 3) They re-recorded the book with the normal narrator.It's hard for me to decide which of those factors played the largest role, but I suspect the answer is some of all 3.I still found parts of this slow and I still found that some of the characters felt more like camera than actual characters I cared about or rooted for.But I was far more interested in how the events unfolded this time. And while I feel like Murtery was an over the top asshole, I've come to realize just how many Murtery's there are in the world.Elvi's lovesick subplot was still annoying, but didn't feel as pronounced as I remember it. I thought Havelock and Basia were both still pretty unlikeable early on, but I found more nuance in my second reading than I picked up on the first time.Overall I feel like this book is largely a side story that sets the stage for far bigger events in the next book. The epilogue is an excellent summary of the novel, and kind of feel like the bulk of the story could have been a novella instead. That said, I still enjoyed it, and thought it was a much better read the second time around.————–Original Review—————Executive Summary: This one felt very different from the rest of the series to me. Whether or not that is a good thing will largely depend on the reader I suspect.Audiobook: Erik Davies is OK. Originally I was pretty indifferent about the narrator change for this book. I was never particularly attached to Jefferson Mays. I had sort of of hoped that as this was the first book released in hardcover maybe the change was due to them getting a better reader. Turns out that wasn't the case. For the most part he's not worse than Mr. Mays, just different. However Mr. Mays at least did a few accents and Mr. Davies seemed to only have a Russian accent and spoke with no accent for Avasarala, which just seemed to really annoy me.If this wasn't a series that I thought made for an easy to follow audiobook, I'd probably consider switching to reading it for book 5. Who knows though, maybe he'll grow on me.Full ReviewThis is a hard review for me to write. I spent a good portion of it annoyed at the book. That would make it sound like I didn't like it, but that's not the case.I've always been more of a Star Trek fan than dystopian sci-fi fan. When it comes to Space Opera, I like politics and war at a higher level. Large factions feuding over planets and ideals.For me the first three books really sort of fell more into this. This book however felt much lower level. The politics of the first three books serve as the basis for things. There has always been discrimination between the belters and the inner planets, but never has it been so central to the conflict as in this book.That may appeal to some reasons, for me it mostly made me uncomfortable and mad. Not at the book or the authors, but the characters. I think most authors would be happy to evoke strong emotions in their readers, but for me personally I generally don't like to spend my recreation time angry.As seems to be par for the course, we get a bunch of brand new POV characters this go around, save for James Holden. Two of them are minor characters from previous novels. First there is Havelock, who was Miller's Earther partner in [b:Leviathan Wakes 8855321 Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse, #1) James S.A. Corey https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1411013134l/8855321.SY75.jpg 13730452], and Basia who was a friend of Prax on Ganymede in [b:Caliban's War 12591698 Caliban's War (The Expanse, #2) James S.A. Corey https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1407572377l/12591698.SY75.jpg 17606541]. This is rounded out by an Elvi, a human scientist.I didn't like any of them, especially Elvi. I think she is the weakest female character they've written yet. I still wish they'd bring back Bobbie and Avasarala (thankfully there looks to be potential for this in book 5). I loved them so much that everyone else seem to disappoint me. I felt Anna in [b:Abaddon's Gate 16131032 Abaddon's Gate (The Expanse, #3) James S.A. Corey https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1407572059l/16131032.SY75.jpg 17606564] was already a step down, but still likeable. Elvi was another step in the wrong direction for me as well.So you have a bunch of characters you don't really like in what to me felts like a side story for most of the book. They do stupid and hateful things to one another. I know the types of people portrayed in this book exist in the world. Maybe they once existed in greater numbers. Maybe I'm just sheltered or fortunate not to run into these kinds of people on a regular basis.The whole thing just made no sense to me. Everyone's actions were stupid. I was especially bothered that many of the Engineers were the worst. Most of the engineers I know are very logical and well thought out in their actions. Sure there are exceptions to that, but this seemed to flip that on their head.I despised Murtry, head of the Earther's security and all around asshole. I'm pretty sure that was the point. The problem was I didn't feel like I had anything to root for. I spent most of the book wishing Holden and his crew would just leave and go do something else that was related to the protomolecule and the developments from [b:Abaddon's Gate 16131032 Abaddon's Gate (The Expanse, #3) James S.A. Corey https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1407572059l/16131032.SY75.jpg 17606564].Overall this book seemed to focus on the worse things that humanity is capable of. Discrimination and pointless violence. Spending way too much time and energy trying to kill one another when there are far larger problems to worry about.Despite this, I ended up enjoying the book. I found it hard to turn off when it was time to stop listening. I'm still not sure how they pulled that off. Eventually I did find myself liking Havelock and Basia more though. Elvi still felt like she was there to serve at a 4th “camera” most of the time. She was important to the plot, but I just never grew attached to her I guess.I enjoyed the final quarter of the book a lot more than the first three. We eventually get some development of things with the protomolecule, though not as much as I would have preferred. I just really enjoy spending time with the crew of the Rocinante, no matter what's going on.With the announcement of 3 more books, I worry things will be drawn out too much. Personally I'd like the protomolecule story arc to get wrapped up by book 6, and have the three new books be a completely new story arc. Time will tell what happens. Either way I'll be eagerly picking up book 5 when it comes out.

Story
I found this one a bit on the slow side. I originally thought it was a flash-back of some kind before things were made clear. By the final chapter, the previous chapters felt more meaningful, but I spent much of the volume what was going on.

I hope the story will be wrapped up soon, and that things pick up again in the next volume.

Artwork
There wasn't a ton of action in this one, so it was mostly fine as usual. I did have trouble recognizing one of the characters, and I felt like some of the characters looked like others. But that may have been intentional.

Executive Summary: I have a pretty bad track record with classic Sci-Fi, and unfortunately this one wasn't any different. I found it well written, but it definitely wasn't for me.Audiobook: George Guidall is a good narrator, although I do have difficulty disconnecting him from Dark Tower in my head. I thought he was a fine fit here, and did his usual good job.Full ReviewI picked this one up on a daily deal not too long ago, but didn't get around to reading it until Sword & Laser made it the pick this month. We did a vote of four books, and this was the one I went for simply due to the fact that I owned it but hadn't read it.This is my second book by Ms. Le Guin, but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as [b:A Wizard of Earthsea 13642 A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle, #1) Ursula K. Le Guin https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1353424536s/13642.jpg 113603]. I found the beginning very slow/hard to get into. Once I did finally warm up to the characters and story, it felt mostly too late.This is one of those books that makes me feel like I'm missing the deeper meaning. I probably am. I mostly read for entertainment. I don't tend to do that well with books you need to analyze and discuss in detail. That doesn't mean you won't however.I know my own history with classic sci-fi, but I still wanted to read this anyways. I'm glad I did. Not every book needs to your new favorite, and it's always good to try things you may not have otherwise read. Sure time is limited and there are many other books to be read, but if you pigeonhole yourself to only those books you think you'll love, you may miss out on something that takes you by surprise.That wasn't the case for me this time, but it may be next time. I'm mostly likely to return Ms. Le Guin's writing with the next Earthsea book than I am with another book set in this universe, but I probably will read her again. She's a giant of SFF for a reason.

Executive Summary: This book finished stronger for me than it started. Another solid effort by Mr. Sullivan.Audiobook: I first discovered [a:Michael J. Sullivan 2063919 Michael J. Sullivan https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1433443335p2/2063919.jpg] thanks to an audible daily deal for [b:Theft of Swords 10790290 Theft of Swords (The Riyria Revelations, #1-2) Michael J. Sullivan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1307959785s/10790290.jpg 15702572]. [a:Tim Gerard Reynolds 4132657 Tim Gerard Reynolds https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1370714999p2/4132657.jpg] was excellent for that book. Ever since audio has been the only way to go for me. I'll never read a book when I could listen to him read it to me instead. Another great job here as expected.Full ReviewI've always enjoyed Mr. Sullivan's writing and this one was no different. I did find the start of this one a bit slow. If anything I'd expect to have had that happen with the first book in a series and not the second. I'm not entirely sure why I felt that way.This one picks up right where the last book left of, but it just felt like there was a bunch of stage setting for what turned out to be the main plot of this book. Once that got going however, it was quite enjoyable.The female characters continue to steal the show for me. Not just the “main” characters like Persephone and Suri, but the “minor” ones like Brin and especially Roan. On the men's side, I find most of them pretty unlikable, especially the elves. Raithe, who I found to be a pretty great character in the first book, annoyed me for much of this book. Thankfully that got better by the end of the book. The best male character continues to be Gifford, though he had a fairly small part for much of the book. I do like the addition of Tesh in this book, and hope he features more in future books.The most intriguing parts for me continue to be wondering what Malcolm's motivations are, and just who the hell is Trilos?This book adds the Dwarves in, and I don't want to spoil anything so I'll just say that they make things interesting. Anyone who's read Mr. Sullivan's Riyria books will probably have a good idea of his opinions on Dwarves however.Overall this was an enjoyable entry in the series, and I'm already looking forward to [b:Age of War 18052169 Age of War (The Legends of the First Empire, #3) Michael J. Sullivan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1500722524s/18052169.jpg 25336191].

Executive Summary: I'm torn on this book. This is a book I never want to read again, but I'm glad I read once. 3.5 rounded up, though I could just as easily round it down. I change my mind every time I think about it.

Full Review
This is a hard review to write. I don't know how to properly express my feelings about this book.

It's not exactly a sci-fi book. Except it is. There isn't a lot of technical detail, so it's certainly not hard sci-fi. It's a first contact story. But really it's a story people, relationships, and trauma. That's not a spoiler. Ms. Russell lays that out right at the beginning.

The book alternates between present day and flash back chapters. We know something awful happened, but we don't know what that is.

It's well written, and the characters are excellent. It's also depressing as hell. My favorite parts were the flash backs on earth with Anne and George. Some of the parts were hard to read though.

I thought the religion thing was pretty well done. It doesn't cover all the bases, but you've got some Jesuits, a Jew, and some atheists. This isn't a religious book. It's a book with people of faith in it. I'm not one who enjoys reading religious stuff, and I wasn't bothered by it. So if it's not your thing either, I wouldn't let the fact that protagonist is a Jesuit turn you away.

I can't really speak to how religious people view this book, but I don't think it's an anti-religion book either. It simply talks about the faith of it's characters in a pretty neutral manner.

Early on in the book, I had a good idea what had happened. I just didn't know the details. In some ways I didn't want to know the details. I would have preferred to read more about Emilio before his trip.

Being prepared for it didn't really help though. I think that makes this a book that some people will just love, while others will find hard to read. I'm glad I read it, but I'm also glad I borrowed it instead of buying it, because I know I won't read it again.

Executive Summary: An excellent start to a new trilogy in Brian McClellan's Power Mage series. This one is a lot more political than the previous series was, which may be why I think this may be his best book yet.Audiobook: I got [b:Promise of Blood 15790883 Promise of Blood (Powder Mage, #1) Brian McClellan http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1350337505s/15790883.jpg 21512438] in ebook for cheap, so I stuck to that format for the rest of the series. Now I wish I had gone audiobook instead. Christian Rodska is absolutely fantastic. He doesn't attempt to do any feminine voices, which is probably a smart move on his part, but his male voices are all fantastic. I especially like the voice he used for Ben Styke.Full ReviewI hesitated for about half a second on giving this 4.5 stars instead of 5, but then I remembered how I spent like 10 minutes staring at a wall to get in “just one more chapter”. The books you hate to put down and look forward to picking up, are always the deciding factor for me between 4 and 5 stars.If I had one complaint about the original Powder Mage series, it was that the rather intriguing female characters were mostly relegated to supporting cast. This was especially true for Vlora Flint.This book picks up about 10 years after the events of [b:The Autumn Republic 20883847 The Autumn Republic (Powder Mage, #3) Brian McClellan http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1393261950s/20883847.jpg 40224712], and finds Vlora and many of her countryman working as mercenaries for the nation of Fatrasta. I was really happy to see Olem again. He was one of my favorites of the original series.I haven't read any of the shorter works set in this world, but this book finally gave Vlora some character development I would have liked to see in the last series. In addition to Vlora we're introduced to two new characters who are both natives of Fatrasta. The first Michel Bravis works as a spy for the secret police. He did not start off very likable to me, though his story was always interesting.Ben Styke on the other hand was instantly a favorite, albeit a bit of a trope with the grizzled war hero/turned anti-hero. I thought all three stories started out immediately interesting and converged quite nicely by the end of this book.I personally don't enjoy military fiction as much as I do political fiction. There was certainly a lot of politics in the original series, but it definitely felt more like an action/military series more than anything. There was a ton of action with the occasional political intrigue mixed in to move the action along.This book seemed to be the opposite. Much of it was heavy on the politics of Fatrasta, and the role of our three POVs within it. But fear not, the excellent action/battle scenes of the previous series are still quite present, albeit to a lesser degree in the previous series.I'll be curious to see if that trend keeps up with the next book, or if he'll be ratcheting up the action once again. Either way, I'm very eager to get my hands on it. Brian McClellan has quickly become one of my favorite authors, and this book did not disappoint.

Executive Summary: I love Dragons. What fantasy fan doesn't? Yet somehow this book wasn't quite as good as some of the others. It's still pretty fun if you enjoy the series though. 3.5 Stars.Audiobook: Another excellent job by [a:Luke Daniels 2978188 Luke Daniels https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1331514576p2/2978188.jpg]. He really brings these books to life. For some reason Audible has a 6 month exclusive on the book, but I would have gotten this in audio anyways. If you haven't tried the audio, and don't want to wait until November, this may be a good time to give the audio a try.Full Review[b:An Unwelcome Quest 23249416 An Unwelcome Quest (Magic 2.0, #3) Scott Meyer https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1412456562s/23249416.jpg 42792043] is easily my favorite book of the series so far, so I was really itching for a 4th book. Instead Mr. Meyer took a break from the series and did a few other books ([b:Master of Formalities 24602307 Master of Formalities Scott Meyer https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1430403854s/24602307.jpg 44211513], [b:The Authorities™ 26850099 The Authorities™ Scott Meyer https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1443754942s/26850099.jpg 46886866]) instead. They were alright, but what I really wanted was the next book in this series.So here we are, a 4th book. And it's got Dragons! I enjoyed it, more than his two non-series books, but not quite as much as the other books in the series. Part of why I love this series is how it blends fantasy with computer programming and gaming. While the main premise is based on a coding mistake, most of the focus was on dealing with the problem, and there just felt like less of the computer/gaming stuff than previous volumes.This book focused more on some non-wizard characters too. Unfortunately I found those characters very annoying. Which is impressive given that many of the Wizards themselves (Martin, Jimmy, Gary) are quite annoying already. It did make for a nice change of pace, but I wish he had focused more on the Bishop and less on Honor.After reading [b:Assassin's Fate 30688013 Assassin's Fate (The Fitz and the Fool, #3) Robin Hobb https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1492869860s/30688013.jpg 44600531], this was a great book to help me recover from how emotionally draining that was. I do enjoy a nice light/low stakes book. The humor is always great too. I especially love Philip's snark.Overall, a decent, but not great addition to this fun series. I hope we'll get a 5th book eventually. Maybe one that has some more of the gaming/programming humor that originally pulled me into the series to begin with. Either way I'll be picking it up on release day again.