An avid sci-fi and fantasy reader who sometimes does historical fiction or even mainstream.
You might notice that most of my reviews are 5 stars. That's because if I start reading a book that doesn't engage me, I stop reading it. Life is too short. I've realized that it's not fair to review a book I haven't read and nobody really needs to hear why I didn't get into a book especially when they might like it.
My goals with reviews are to be brief and give other potential readers an idea of why they might like the book. I leave it to the marketing people and other reviewers to describe the plots.
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This collection was a good way to sample a bunch of fantasy series.
Spoiler Alert: Fantasy characters don't seem to have much luck having relaxing, fun vacations.
Bonus: One character spends much of the story as a talking dog.
“Khat, a member of a humanoid race created by the Ancients to survive in the …
I've liked the Martha Wells Murderbot books so much that I thought it would be a good idea to try one of her older books.
It turned out to be a good decision, and also a surprise. Because City of Bones is nothing like the Murderbot books.
You know in Calvin and Hobbes when the image would switch from the simple line drawings of the regular cartoon to incredibly detailed painting like images, so you'd realize that Waterson could draw any picture he wanted to? This is like that. Murderbot although incredibly powerful is sweet and naive and the adventures are like something in a comic book.
City of Bones has a Byzantine culture and the main character is a jaded outsider who has mostly learned how to navigate his way to survive. I found it entirely satisfying.
Martha Wells can clearly write any kind of story she wants to.
These guys are certainly not just coasting. I'm looking forward to #8
A book by A. Lee Martinez is guaranteed to be fun and have characters you like.
This one has a bunch of gods and the main one is a luck god who mostly manifests as a talking raccoon.
And a talking raccoon is at least as good as a talking cat.
Until I looked this up on Goodreads and saw "The Tales of Pell #1" I didn't know there would be more books in this series. That there will be at least one more is excellent news.
If you like kind-of-goofy fantasy stories that aren't all dark and gloomy where characters have a remarkably modern sensibility, this is for you.
Warning: There are puns. But not too many for me, and I'm known for not liking puns. I think I'm okay with them here because it's the characters who say them, not the narrator, and it's not like when you're talking to someone who is only listening for words you say that they can make puns on and don't really care about what you're actually talking about.
Bonus: There is a talking goat. And he's a lot of fun. Easily as much fun as a talking cat. Perhaps not as much …
Until I looked this up on Goodreads and saw "The Tales of Pell #1" I didn't know there would be more books in this series. That there will be at least one more is excellent news.
If you like kind-of-goofy fantasy stories that aren't all dark and gloomy where characters have a remarkably modern sensibility, this is for you.
Warning: There are puns. But not too many for me, and I'm known for not liking puns. I think I'm okay with them here because it's the characters who say them, not the narrator, and it's not like when you're talking to someone who is only listening for words you say that they can make puns on and don't really care about what you're actually talking about.
Bonus: There is a talking goat. And he's a lot of fun. Easily as much fun as a talking cat. Perhaps not as much fun as a talking rodent, but he's good. This talking goat, Gustave, has a personality that is consistent with the personality of goats that I met in my youth.
Until I looked this up on Goodreads and saw "The Tales of Pell #1" I didn't know there would be more books in this series. That there will be at least one more is excellent news.
If you like kind-of-goofy fantasy stories that aren't all dark and gloomy where characters have a remarkably modern sensibility, this is for you.
Warning: There are puns. But not too many for me, and I'm known for not liking puns. I think I'm okay with them here because it's the characters who say them, not the narrator, and it's not like when you're talking to someone who is only listening for words you say that they can make puns on and don't really care about what you're actually talking about.
Bonus: There is a talking goat. And he's a lot of fun. Easily as much fun as a talking cat. Perhaps not as much …
Until I looked this up on Goodreads and saw "The Tales of Pell #1" I didn't know there would be more books in this series. That there will be at least one more is excellent news.
If you like kind-of-goofy fantasy stories that aren't all dark and gloomy where characters have a remarkably modern sensibility, this is for you.
Warning: There are puns. But not too many for me, and I'm known for not liking puns. I think I'm okay with them here because it's the characters who say them, not the narrator, and it's not like when you're talking to someone who is only listening for words you say that they can make puns on and don't really care about what you're actually talking about.
Bonus: There is a talking goat. And he's a lot of fun. Easily as much fun as a talking cat. Perhaps not as much fun as a talking rodent, but he's good. This talking goat, Gustave, has a personality that is consistent with the personality of goats that I met in my youth.
This is hard science fiction in the believable space ship sense.
It's also social science fiction in how it deals with politics and political movements.
It's also, and this is the main thing for me, a story about people that I found myself caring about right from the beginning.
I really like how in Robinson's recent fiction he shows how systems could change to make things better.
"As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."
In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, …
This is a charming series and I loved spending time with Murderbot.
I think this might be a good series for people who want to try science fiction because they like things like Star Trek, but don't like most sci-fi they have tried.
The stories are pretty short. Not too short for a full story to be told, but too short for someone who wants to spend a lot of time with the delightful Murderbot. (Spoiler Alert: Murderbot isn't actually a murderer. It's more a life-saver.)
Murderbot wasn’t programmed to care. So, its decision to help the only human who ever …
When this book arrived on my e-reader from the library it was a real good news, bad news things.
Good news, because I'd get to spend more time with Murderbot. Who it is a delight to spend time with.
Bad news, because this maybe means I won't have any Murderbot time to look forward to.
This deepened my understanding of modern genocides, but it didn't help overcome the feeling of hopelessness I get about them.
This isn't fantasy or science fiction, so I wasn't inclined to read it, but Manon told me I'd like it.
She was right.
Even though I've followed the music of many of Tom Wilson's contemporaries, I've never followed his music.
But he has a fascinating story and he tells it beautifully.
These were well written stories, but they were bleak. And lately, I'm not in the mood for bleak stories.
Sci-fi’s favorite antisocial A.I. is back on a mission. The case against the too-big-to-fail GrayCris …
Murderbot is a delight.
Hyper competent at dealing with danger.
Hopeless at interpersonal dealings.
Set in the same empire as the "Thorns" books, but a completely different protagonist, this time, one who was inspired by Harry Flashman of [b:Flashman|142458|Flashman (The Flashman Papers, #1)|George MacDonald Fraser|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320656064s/142458.jpg|1137467].
Now, I read all the Flashman books back in the 80s, and I'll admit, I got a bit tired of him, but I never tired of Prince Jalan.
Plus he travels with the bravest and strongest Viking you could imagine, and who doesn't love a good Viking?
It's fun reading about a character who seems to have all sorts of amazing experts living in his head. It was particularly cool how he considered what others thought was a mental illness to be an asset.
