Review: The Final Empire

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ok, but nothing I find compelling about it.

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Review: Engaging the Enemy

Engaging the Enemy by Elizabeth Moon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rating: Ky is determined, and a bit crazy and fun as heck.

“We could just do something stupid again, wait for them to pounce, and then surprise them by suddenly becoming brilliant,” Martin said. That got a chuckle.

I love the characters and the tangled familial emotions and ties and obligations. The story is interesting and I enjoy the space battles and tactics.


Between Ky and Aunt Grace, the pirates and bad guys better run.

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Review: Daughter of the Forest

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

emotionally difficult, but interesting story.

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Review: Morning Star

Morning Star by Pierce Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rating: Major wow factor. Satisfying and twisty ending.

I listened to the audiobooks read by Tim Gerard Reynolds. And he did a fabulous job throughout the trilogy.

Revolution! Red Rising, based loosely on the Irish Rebellion, tells the tale of Darrow, born a Red, a downtrodden section of a heavily structured society, is brought into a rebellion. He's transformed and sculpted into a Gold, a member of the ruling class. This book is the last of the trilogy that follows his attempts to lead his fellow Reds and other downtrodden colors against the ruling Golds.

Lots of action, space battles, treachery, loyalty, more and more secrets opened to all. Darrow and his friends are finally ready to move against their oppressors. Can they actually succeed? And who can they trust?

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Review: The Bernini Bust

The Bernini Bust by Iain Pears
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rating: Art, heists, murder, museum misbehaving, millionaires shown up, what's not to love!

I enjoy this series a lot. the Characters, Flavia and Jonathan are both a hoot, the art is interesting, and the murders are often quite well plotted. And generally they are running around Italy however this time they take their act to L.A. which suffers as a consequence. FTW!

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Review: Range of Ghosts

Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I never really got into this book. I listened to the audio version and it might have been partly I didn't much like the person doing the audio.

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Review: The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man

The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man by Mark Hodder
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thought the plot a bit muddled, but as usual the world is quite amusing. Good steampunk worldbuilding.

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Review: Marque and Reprisal

Marque and Reprisal by Elizabeth Moon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

82. [Marque and Reprisal] - Elizabeth Moon - Vatta's War 2 - ROOT


Rating: Fun and couldn't putdownable.

'The whole trick in moving on a hull without safety lines, the instructor had said, is not to do it in the first place.' But of course Ky ended up doing just that.

Kylara Vata, thrown out of her planet's military academy, had just endured her first exposure to being a trading captain in her family's trading company. It hadn't gone that well, not entirely because of her, but it certainly had given her experience.

This time out, she's on an old tug of a ship, slow, old, desperately in need of an upgrade, when she learns that her family is being targeted and that Vatta ships across the known worlds are being targeted.

So, her new mission: the hell with trading. Survive.

So much fun. She's a hoot, her friends are as well, and she goes from one crisis to another barely holding it together. And, secretly, loving every dangerous moment of this life.


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Review: Six Wakes

Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rating: Impressive!

Ostensibly, this is a locked-room murder mystery. In reality it is a pretty deep dive into philosophy - of life, of what life is, of what is really important, and of what you choose to do with that life.

It's the story of a generation ship, where the only crew awake are six clones. The story begins as the clones are awoken amidst carnage. Their previous clones have all been murdered. Blood and other fluids are floating all over the room. All over the ship. And the clones have no memories of what happened, who killed them, why it happened, and not much of an idea what to do about it all. Their AI computer has been hacked and is inaccessible.

Although there is a lot of action, there is also a lot of pretty deep thought on the implications of cloning, of AIs, of betrayal, revenge and finding a way to live with past actions you cannot undo, no matter how much you might wish to do so.

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Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Finally got around to this one. I was surprised at how closely the English movie kept to the book.

The setting really helped to set the mood, true for the Nordic mystery genre, I guess. The plot was complex and the characters were well-drawn with depth and an obvious care.

As an aside, I want to bitch about the use of 'GIRL' in titles. I hates it. Hates it! It infantilizes women, even while it sexualizes girls. Publishing industry: stop it!

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Review: Six of Crows

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disappointed by cliffhangers, but otherwise a fun read. Interesting characters, and a massive heist with complex plan for that heist.

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Review: The Quiller Memorandum

The Quiller Memorandum by Adam Hall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

old school spy drama situated in Berlin as Nazis (back when they were the enemy) and the Communists (ditto) were plotting an attack on the US forces in Berlin.

Ah, the good old days.

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Review: The Severed Streets

The Severed Streets by Paul Cornell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Good entry into the Shadow Police series but I confess I found it a bit confusing at times.

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Review: The Diabolical Miss Hyde

The Diabolical Miss Hyde by Viola Carr
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A bit predictable, which was worse in the first half of the book. The last third or so was better. A little too romance-y for me too.

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Review: The Spider's War

The Spider's War by Daniel Abraham
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rating: Pretty impressive wrapup to an really interesting series.

Hmm. What to say. I loved: Yardam. The fact that banking is used as a weapon. Pirates! "Your soul is a circle." Conversations between Yardam and Michael Weston. Kit. The players. The fact that the Big Bad is presented as a human being with immense flaws but is still loved by some despite them.

For an epic fantasy series, Sword and Magic series, it is remarkably complex in its presentation of war and what war does to people, nations, hope, and the amount of misery caused by the decisions of only a few. I also liked the take on religion as seen as justification for endless, mindless war. Ignore everything but the belief you are told to accept, reject your own mind, intelligence and experience. Listen to my voice.

Highly recommended.

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Review: The Widow's House

The Widow's House by Daniel Abraham
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

The chessmen move across the board attempting to find a way to end what seems to be unending warfare. A dragon seems to be the last best hope. But then things seldom go as expected in this complex series. Last book next!

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Review: The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches

The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Flavia, who's mother died on a mountain, experiences the unsettling return of her mother's body.

Flavia is such a unique character and the family is so very English in their oddness and tolerance for strange behavior and beliefs.

Can't wait to read the next in the series.

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Review: The Tyrant's Law

The Tyrant's Law by Daniel Abraham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rating: Wow.

What I love about this series, is that the monster of the series, isn't a monster at all. He's likeable, other than the fact that he's a tyrant, who murders people with hardly a thought. Yet, personally, he's flawed and unsure of himself, and doubts himself. And yet he enslaves and murders people without a thought.

I've always hated bad guys who are bad in every way because that just doesn't seem realistic. Someone loved them once, after all. They love someone, surely.

Also, that ending! It's killing me to stop reading the series given how this one ends, but, well, I am going to take a slight break and then read the last two books of the series soon.

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Review: The King's Blood

The King's Blood by Daniel Abraham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Okay, on a roll. Continuing on immediately to Book 3 which really tells you all you need to know...

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Review: The Dragon's Path

The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rating: Sword and Sorcery done well.

Intricate plot with intriguing characters. Dragons gone, but a mysterious goddess seems to be on overwatch duty as the various races of Antea struggle for power, money and conquest.

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Review: Magic Bites

Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rating: Complex world-building, who-dunnit plot, and interesting characters.

It took me awhile to grow to appreciate this book. At first I kept negatively comparing it to Urban Shaman but finally decided it was different enough that the comparison wasn't entirely valid.

The world-building is quite complex and imaginative. The plot was pretty convoluted and had me guessing wrong several times. And altho it was a bit more violent and bloody than I generally like, the story grew on me, especially as I met some characters I really came to care about.

I'll probably read at least the next in the series, and decide if I'm going to read the rest after that.

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Review: A Darker Shade of Magic

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rating: Really fun read with characters you can't help but cheer for.

What with a hurricane barreling down on us, and the better half out of town, I just kept reading, laughing and enjoying this book.

Our hero, Kell, is a magician who can travel between dimensions. Multiple Londons, differing situations in each, yet all tied together somehow. Kell manages to run afoul of a thief, Delilah, who more or less overwhelms him with stubbornness and logic and ends up traveling across dimensions along with him. Between the two of them, they manage to create mayhem wherever they go. And along the way, attempt to foil several evil plots.

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Review: The Heart of Matter

The Heart of Matter by Evan Currie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rating: Interesting thought experiment on tactics in space battles with aliens

If you like tactics, and like the idea of extrapolating it into space, this book is for you. Otherwise, probably not. I found it pretty interesting. The aliens are suitably opaque with their motives known but not much else. The why of their attacks still not understood.

I also enjoy the idea that we have lost colonies out in space, well, humanity does.

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Review: Triggers

Triggers by Robert J. Sawyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rating: As is usual with Sawyer, the ideas are complex and intriguing.

When a memory experiment goes wrong, and the President of the US is involved, the Secret Service races to find out just who it is who is suddenly 'linked' to the President's memories, and has access to every secret of the US government.

A wide cast of characters, an attempted assassination, possible treason, and the question of just who can be trusted complicate the plot. I'll be thinking about the implications for awhile yet.

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Review: The Family Trade

The Family Trade by Charles Stross
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rating: Fun take on what little girls dream of.

Adopted woman discovers she's a princess. Ah, but far from a Disney princess. Imaginative, smart-ass heroine, who grew up in NYC with an adoptive Jewish mother. She's not taking much lying down.

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Review: The Greyfriar

The Greyfriar by Clay Griffith
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Rating: Pretty good for a vampire book.

I'm not really big on vampire books, but since this one was also steampunk I thought it would be fun, and it was. Set on an alt Earth where vampires defeated humans and drove them down to the equatorial lands and now control the rest of the planet. Interesting world, some different sort of tweaks on the vampires, and the action pretty constant. A tad too much romance for me, but at least it didn't get too annoying until near the end.

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Review: Promise of Blood

Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rating: Exciting and unpredictable. Interesting world/magic building

First book in the Powder Mage trilogy, a Flintlock Fantasy outing, with lots of action, and well-drawn characters. The magic is complex and interesting, the action and plots drawing you in. Just who the good guys are can sometimes be unclear, which is all to the good.

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Review: Steal the Sky

Steal the Sky by Megan E. O'Keefe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Fireflyish steampunk fun.

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Review: Urban Shaman

Urban Shaman by C.E. Murphy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Joanne should have guessed something was weird when she watched a bunch of hounds and a man on a horse chasing down a woman through the streets of Seattle. That was weird enough, but the fact she was watching this from an airplane on approach to land made it even weirder.

But Joanne had been on a fight for hours, her contacts were glued to her eyes and she was so exhausted she barely registered where she was.

Thus begins The Walker Papers, Urban Shaman the first book of the series.

I liked the character, enjoyed her growing awareness of powers and her problematic and skeptical attitude toward the whole thing. But since suddenly that rider was after her, too, well, she didn't have much choice about buying in to what was happening to her.

One of the better urban fantasies I've read for quite awhile.

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Review: The Hangman's Daughter

The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well written, well researched, but depressing as hell, what with torture and misery all around. I need something far more upbeat these days.

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Review: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The world is going to end next Saturday, but there are a few problems--the Antichrist has been misplaced, the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse ride motorcycles, and the representatives from heaven and hell decide that they like the human race.

Irreverent, cheeky, and imaginative. Who'd have thought the end of the world could have been planned quite this badly...

This will be a great role for David Tennant :)

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Review: The Serpent of Venice

The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Christopher Moore plays with Shakespeare in a mashup of The Merchant of Venice and Otello. As told by the Fool, Pocket of Dog Snogging. Oh, and there's a dragon!

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Review: The Titian Committee

The Titian Committee by Iain Pears
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rating: Enjoyable and fun

I really enjoy Iain Pears, how he writes, what he writes. His titular hero Jonathan Argyll is a slightly distractible, mild art historian who tends to lose the thread periodically, not to mention manage to fall into a lagoon. The heroine of the series, Flavia, is a lovely Italian woman who is far more focused and determined to solve art related crimes, and who rather intimidates Jonathan who clearly doesn't see himself in her class. So they are friends, and part-time colleagues. And her boss is a hoot.

The mysteries themselves generally ramble, much like Jonathan, but the hints are there if you can pick them out from the distractions a bit quicker than can Jonathan.

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Review: Rosemary and Rue

Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

Rating: Lots more action than character building.

Well, she didn't leave the reader much time to ponder what the heck her character was up to as said character staggered from one disaster to the next right up to the end. I tend to like protags who actually use her brain rather than just let events control her. So.. It was okay, but not at all sure I want to continue with the series.

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Review: The Atrocity Archives

The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a terrifically fun read. Snarky, Imaginative, with lots of action, and unexpected twists and turns.

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Review: War for the Oaks

War for the Oaks by Emma Bull
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rating: Music as Magic was great.

I had a few issues with this book, mainly I lost interest when we were delving into roadie lingo. But it certainly had it's fair share of surprises and unexpected twists and turns.

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Review: Forge of Darkness

Forge of Darkness by Steven Erikson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Just as well written and epic as the original Malazan series, this book begins a trilogy prequel. My only complaint: not enough Anomander!

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Review: Dawn

Dawn by Octavia E. Butler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rating: Interesting, well written

I'd have liked this take on alien abduction far better if the ending had actually been an ending, instead it seemed abrupt and unsatisfying, rather just a chapter ending to the next book.

The aliens were sufficiently different and hard to understand so there was definitely that strength. The protagonist was torn between willingness to cooperate and wish to be free of the manipulation. And what was truth and what was not was a decided addition to the whole plot line.

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Review: Children of Time

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rating: Wow, really really liked it!

Generation ships, uplift, global wars, aliens (?)

What an imaginative and deeply thought and well-executed look at the far future. I can't say much more to spoil it, but read it!

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Review: A Sorcerer's Treason

A Sorcerer's Treason by Sarah Zettel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Rating: Interesting in parts, but it never really captured my interest enough to read it faster.

The setting is imaginative, as is the magical system. The main character is certainly complex and worthy of caring about, yet this book took me nearly a month to read because I never really felt compelled to get back to it until the last quarter of the book when the threads finally began to come together.

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Review: The Cuckoo's Calling

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this mystery quite a bit. Interesting characterization, complex plotting, lots of twists and turns.

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Review: Black Sun Rising

Black Sun Rising by C.S. Friedman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Did Not Finish. I really disliked the main character. On top of that I was listening to the audio version and didn't like the narrator. Got about 2/3 of the way through and decided I really didn't much care what happened.

I decided I really didn't care enough about the righteous prig of a main character to continue on. Maybe he'd eventually grow out of it, but I got tired of waiting for that.

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Review: Saucer State

Saucer State by Paul Cornell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I'm still not a comic book fan.

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Review: Golden Son

Golden Son by Pierce Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've been listening to the audio version of the series, and I have to say the reader is excellent.

The story itself is compelling and heart-breaking and discouraging all at once. Darrow is complex and driven and torn asunder from his own conflicting wants/needs/hopes.

Rating: Highly recommended

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Review: The Hanging Tree

The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Yet another impressive entry to the series. Peter and Nightingale continue to entertain.

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Review: Ninefox Gambit

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A very different sort of military sci fi. A difficult read, because.... math!

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Review: Aftermath

Aftermath by Chuck Wendig
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The audio was a bit overheated but the story was pretty good.

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Review: Snow Crash

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Cyberpunk, dated but still interesting.

My main complaint was way too much exposition especially in the second half.

Not my favorite Neal Stephenson, but NS can certainly create an intriguing world and likes a lot of action.

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Review: The Magicians' Guild

The Magicians' Guild by Trudi Canavan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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Review: Uprooted

Uprooted by Naomi Novik
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Girl meets Dragon. No, not that kind of dragon. This one is a magical fellow who regularly carts off a young girl from a nearby village to keep her in his tower for ten years, and then releases her.

Only this time the girl turns out to have magic of her own. As such, she draws the attention of the sinister Wood, which has been trying its best to kill any human it can get its hands on.

The dragon and the girl end up fighting off the Wood, and some folks who seem to have been taken over by the Wood.

Interesting set up, the Wood is suitably sinister, the Dragon suitably opaque and threatening in his own way.

The story takes quite a few twists and turns along the way and what appears to be happening is not at all what it seems.

I enjoyed it very much! The audio version was very well done!

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