Review: Elantris

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I thought I'd like this book more than I did. I liked the world building, I liked the characters a lot, but for my taste there was way too much religion or at least way too much religion that tended to preach at the reader.

I finished it because I cared about the characters enough to keep going.

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Review: Trading in Danger

Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ky is tossed out of the Space Academy for embarrassing the service and returns home where her father gives her a small ship from his shipping company and sends her off on what is supposed to be a milk run to a few minor planets. Ky, smarting from her ouster, sees an opportunity to turn a boring run into something much better for herself, her ship and her family's company. And then suddenly she finds herself in the midst of a war.

I really enjoyed this book, It is a coming of age book, in that Ky is trying hard to be her own person and break out of assumptions everyone has made about her. She's intelligent, thinks, and considers her actions. But sometimes your choices are limiting and you have to choose the best of multiple bad choices.

Ky grows a lot during the course of the book, learns from her mistakes, and faces her demons.

Having been in the military myself, her training and her reactions to situations felt very real to me, so props for that especially. Looking forward to more of this series.

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Review: Fellowship of Fear

Fellowship of Fear by Aaron Elkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Back in the Cold War, a visiting professor gets caught up in the paranoia and craziness of Russian spies trying to get secrets from US bases in Europe.

Brought back lots of memories of my own about that sort of thing, not all of them pleasant.

The mystery was okay, but I liked the main character a lot.

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The Thousand Names by Django Wexler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A very interesting presentation of a magic that hardly anyone still exists. The buildup to the use of it was very well done. Good characterizations, interesting world-building, intriguing plot, with lots of characters to care about.

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Review: The Iron Tactician

The Iron Tactician by Reynolds Alastair
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Iron Tactician is par for Reynolds, one of the best current SF writers. The novella is nicely paced, and creates an intriguing world very quickly. Characterization is limited by the medium, but well done within the limits of a novella.

Looking forwward to learning more of this world.

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Neuromancer by William Gibson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Heralding the onset of the cyberpunk sub-genre, Neuromancer hits all the bells and whistles one expects. A dark and convoluted world where AI makes reality and the matrix (heh) brush shoulders so closely that one can't be sure where one ends and the other begins.

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Seveneves by Neal Stephenson


Will humankind survive if an unexpected 'natural' disaster renders Earth uninhabitable? Here is one version of that answer.

Lots of neat science, so if you are science averse probably not the book for you, but I loved it.

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