Book Review: Starfish


Starfish by Peter Watts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the second novel I have read by Peter Watts (the first being Blindsight), but I believe this was actually published first. This was another outstanding hard sci-fi book from Watts. I have loved the two books I have read form him so far as they really bring real science into the sci-fi in everything that he writes. He even includes his reference material in the books. It isn't just the science her that is so interesting. Watts is one of the few authors that I have read that has been able to take the science and have it disappear into the fantastical nature of the story. Some of the other hard sci-fi books I have attempted to read felt too much like textbooks.

Starfish brings a really claustrophobic and dark story right out of the gate with modified humans who are living and working on a continental shelf out in the Pacific Ocean. the story captures some of that dark narrative like what you saw in the Abyss film. It also brings plenty of discussion about "What is human" and touches on a lot of contemporary topics such as the use of AI (aka gels), climate change, and refugees.

Watts once again brings a cast of characters that are fundamentally broken by traditional societal standards, but have found their perfect niche in their world. My only real critique of the story is the plot device that triggers the final events in the book came out of nowhere for me. 2/3's of the book focused on the interpersonal relationships and inner struggles of the BeeBee crew. The tipping point for the story change came very quickly and was caused by an external factor. I felt that could have been integrated into some of the character development earlier into the story, such as having a gel present on BeeBee the whole time and the crew struggling to determine whether it was sentient or not.

Overall though a great read and an easy one in the world of hard sci-fi. I'm definitely going onto the second book.

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Book Review: The Stone Sky


The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an excellent conclusion to one of the more interesting novel series I have read. The second person narrative was so refreshing and different and it wasn't until the very end of this third book that I finally connected the dots on who/what the narrator was and how the story was being told. It was incredibly clever and has solidified N.K. Jemisin as one of my favorite authors.

This third book gave us a third narrative arc, looking back to the world before it fell and gave us some insight into the cause of the cataclysm. While it pulled everything together, I still found myself confused as to what exactly "magic" is in this world. It is different from orogeny, but I never quite understood where it was placed in the world. Orogeny seemed to have a well grounded explanation of what it was and where it came from, but magic, especially the use of that specific world just felt so out of place with everything else in the story. That truly is my only gripe though. This whole series was an amazing read and well worth having all three books in the series getting their Hugo awards.

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Reading: Trying Out Some Different Reading Platforms

I've been a Goodreads user for years, almost since the beginning of its inception, and before it was purchased by Amazon. As of late I have wanted to see what else is out there for social apps around reading. As good as Goodreads is, it really hasn't seen any sort of updates to it. The rise of "Booktok" has brought a whole new social aspect to reading that I sort of miss. I used to be part of several bookclubs on Goodreads and at work, but those have largely fallen by the wayside and died. 

I've dipped my toes into a couple of new apps over the past months to see what they are all about. Fable and Tome have seen heavy discussion on my internet circles. I've had Fable for about six months now and Tome for maybe two (it is quite new). 

My initial impressions are kinda lukewarm on both of them so far. They both feature a very modern interface compared to Goodreads, almost like Instagram or BlueSky/Mastodon for the endless scrolling. There is something though rather clean about Goodreads compared to the other two. There is a level of information density that I prefer. Now, part of that might be because I have 10+ years of friends on Goodreads and they are largely still active, but I look at the feeds on these apps and my Goodreads feed is mostly people's book updates. What they have read and what they are reading, whereas my feeds in Fable and Tome are around books, but are not really updates on the books themselves. I see less reviews, less thoughts on specific chapters, and more posts that are people's cozy pictures of them in their living room reading. That's fine I guess, but I kinda wanna have some discussions around a book itself. 

I'm gonna check out Storygraph, but at this point I think Goodreads is still the best game in town. The interface is clean, even with the ads it offers up and it still has the best density of friends and interesting people posting book information. If I'm being honest, I also think the ads are rather good and introduce me to some new books and authors. 



Book Review: The Fellowship of the Ring



The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a classic for reason. I won't go much into the details of the book. At this point, if you are reading this you likely already know this story. The one thing that stuck out to me on my re-read, which is the first time I have read this book in perhaps 30 years, is just how "cozy" it is. The first half of this book takes place almost entirely in the Shire and it comes across as a purely delightful place. Truly a bastion of purity and innocence in juxtaposition to the larger outside world.

Really, what I want to review here though is the Folio Society edition of this book. It is such a wonderfully bound special edition with a fantastic binding, really nice paper and a great typeset. Ink-block style illustrations highlight the start of each chapter and this is truly a fantastic printing. I did have a minor printing issue on two pages in my book, where the ink was slightly faded, but the than that, if you are a fan of this work, this is a highly recommended special edition worth picking up.

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Book Review: The Crippled God


The Crippled God by Steven Erikson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's been almost eight years since I first picked up Gardens of the Moon and began my journey with the Malazan Book of the Fallen.

This series has demonstrated to me that it is one of the most dense and complex narratives that perhaps will ever be written in this genre. The Crippled God follows in the general form of the predecessor books. The story is dense, with multiple storylines weaving back and forth. Erikson demonstrates once again his proficiency for writing a war epic and I found myself sobbing at the latter half of the book as the final stories of heroes and brothers and sisters all came together.

This book and this series stand as a testament to such an incredible narrative concept. Yes, the writing at times was long and verbose and the internal monologue of characters extends for pages at times, but the grand story of what is told over the course of ~10,000 pages is truly epic in all sense of the word. The world, the story, the events that occur here are grand beyond scale, while at the same time never losing sight of the personal stories of the soldiers and their comrades standing next to them in the trenches.

It's remarkable to sort of look back both on the series and where I am as a person. It's a chapter that is closed in many ways, finally finishing this series. I don't know if I'll ever go back for a second read, but the writing in this book has influenced me creatively perhaps in more ways than anything else I have ever read. These books have become tent-poles for my concepts on fantasy in much the same way that the Lord of the Rings has for so many others. The world, the races, the gods, the magic are all diverse and creative and it is bittersweet to close this final book out.


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Book Review: A Court of Wings and Ruin

I started reading the ACOTAR series a little of a year ago and the behest of my wife who had been reading these books for quite a while. It was only after seeing the continual clips on TikTok that I decided to give the the series ago, if only to see what the fuss was all about and to connect with my wife on what she was reading.

I liked the first book, but I didn’t love it. I could see the appeal, but as a pure fantasy novel, I wasn’t entirely taken by the story that was presented. I continued on reading the second book and I could see how the writing improved significantly. While working through the series it was interesting to observe my interpretations of the scenes and development compared to my wife. I saw things that she didn’t and vice versa.

By the end of the second book I was hooked. I was really drawn into the world and if I am being honest the love story between Rhys and Feyre was very well written. The overall story was just “OK” for me, but it was the personal moments and the family that she built that really had me invested in this story.

I love that the third book gave us the opportunity to really learn a bit more about the other kingdoms and get to know those characters. The war with Hyburn was a nice topping point to the whole series. In the end I only had a couple of minor quibbles with the final book, and most of those issues arose near the end. The first issue is the sudden reappearance of the Archeron sister’s father. For me it came out of nowhere with no context. I dont even believe Maas connected his coming to Lucien setting out to find the one human queen. The other major issue was that none of the major characters or other lords died at the end of the book. It made for a happy ending sure, but it seemed a bit improbable and removed some of the gravity of the situation.

I was also a bit confused when the other high lords who were able to change into a beast during the final battle. Rhys and Hellion I believe both did this. I though that was Tamlin’s specific power as the lord of the Spring Court? All of the other lords have distinct powers, but if they all can change into beasts what does that leave Tamlin with?

In the end though, this who series was about the relationship between Feyre and Rhys and it had me fully invested. It was touching and quite beautiful and I love how Maas showed how much they actually cared for each other.

I’m not sure if I will continue on to the other books in this series, but I think I am definitely a fan of Maas and her writing, and I will certainly check out some of her other series at some point.


Book Review: With Fire and Sword

With Fire and Sword by Henryk Sienkiewicz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is going to be a very hard book to review.
I very much enjoyed this book, but if I am being honest it was a VERY long read. Despite the length this is going into the list as one of my favorite books, and deserves to be up there with Romance of the Three Kingdoms as one of the all time classics.

I did a bit of Wikipedia research while reading it and as far as I can tell, the supporting characters were all real people during the events of the Cossack rebellion.

What I found so fascinating about this book is that it read both as a historical fiction, but also as a historical fantasy. There are multiple passages and scenes where the characters talk about their fear of witches, vampires, and other creatures of the night. At no point are any of these really portrayed as being real. They sort of exist as commonly held superstitions that remained persistent in both the character's and reader's peripheral vision. I found the inclusion of these superstitions both to raise the tension in a scene while acknowledging that weren't actually going to show up. Just their possibility added to a scene like MSG adds that "something" to a dish.

The book also reads easily despite its age. I read the Jeremiah Curtin translation from Standardebooks.org, which is also the Project Gutenberg version. It was very readable translation and a very nicely formatted book. I will caution though that despite the general ease in readability, the names are going to give most people some difficulty. The book does include a pronunciation guide in the back, but if you just roll with the pronunciations as you need to for your own head, you'll be just fine.

I would highly recommend this for anyone who likes historical fiction, military fiction. Even fans of fantasy will be able to get into this as the structure and writing could go right up there with any fantasy book you've read.

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Book Review: Redwall

Redwall by Brian Jacques
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I has been probably 30 years since I read this book last and I wanted to give it a go as an adult to see how it held up for me. If I am being honest, I had a hard time reading this one. I am not sure exactly why. It was well written overall, but perhaps the story felt a bit too simple relative to how long the book is?

The book is pretty long, clocking in at just around 400 pages (for the version I read) for what amounts to basically a fairytale or myth. The story is very simple where you have a young mouse setting out on his "hero's journey" to reclaim the lost sword (and shield!) of Martin the Warrior. Everything seems to happen though at a very surface level. Matthias is sent on quest after quest to find the next piece of his equipment, first getting a scabbard, then a shield, and then ultimately the sword itself. He meets plenty of people along the way and has to make friends, but he largely just sort of meets the characters and then bullies them into friendship.

The whole thing kinda felt like it could've been shortened up a bit from the fetch quest and instead brought to look at Matthias himself. He very quickly transitioned into a "warrior" without any sort of proper training and there aren't many personal challenges that he has to overcome in the story. There were hints of some sort of magic or mystical connection to the former hero Martin, but those come and go in a few sentences and are never fully explained or explored.

My second reading also had me quite surprised at how violent the book was. There were quite a number of fairly graphic death scenes. Nothing gory, but they definitely surprised me should this have been read by an 8-10 year old for example.

I'll be honest, rose colored glasses became a bit tarnished on this one.

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Book Review: A Court of Mist and Fury


If I could distill this book down into one word, it would be romantic. And you know, it isn't just because of the love scenes that occur in the latter third of the book. Maas does a wonderful job here of painting a picture of the city of Velaris, its people and its Court of Dreams. Rhys, Cassien, Morrigan and the rest all become real characters in this book that I really felt attached to. They became not only the friends, but also the family that Feyre was longing for.

We really got a deep dive into the mind and actions of Rhys as a character as well and he opens up to the reader in a very touching way, and I really felt connected to him and his motivations. I can see how it would be hard for Feyre or pretty much anyone who knows him, not to love him.

I really only have a couple of real critiques of this book. 

<--Warning Spoilers below-->

Book Review: The Last Dance

The Last Dance by Martin L. Shoemaker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Last Dance is a pretty solid hard sci-fi book, that takes a primary scientific concept and applies it to the story without bogging the narrative down too much with the technical details. The book takes place on the Earth to Mars orbital vessel known as the Aldrin. The premise of the story is focused around the concept of the Mars Cycler or Aldrin Cycler, which is a physics concept developed by Buzz Aldrin to allow a spacecraft to cycle around two gravitational objects (i.e. Earth and Mars) while utilizing almost no fuel. It's a fascinating concept and sets the premise and location of the entire story.

While the story does hinge on this concept and a pivotal event focused around this concept, the story that is being told is done in a interesting way. Almost the entire book is told through interviews conducted with the crew through flashbacks with Captain Aames. It is a fascinating way to set the tone of the crew and setting, and the character basis of the Captain.

The method of storytelling however is hard to digest though as the book progresses. While the concept was novel for the first couple of chapters it began to wear thin as the book progressed and it made it hard for me to grow attached to any particular character. Especially since the Captain is portrayed as a wholly unlikable character.

I personally struggled to stay with the book at times since I had no idea what the crime the Captain was charged with was until the last couple of chapters when the investigator finally interviewed the Captain himself.

I think the author was trying to setup a narrative arc where the Captain was supposed to be put in a nearly impossible position (view spoiler)[and then making a decision that brought him up for court-martial. (hide spoiler)]

I like that the flashbacks were supposed to lead the reader to a position of understanding why the Captain made that tough decision, but the setup didn't payoff if for the fact that the decision made by the Captain didn't seem to be all that controversial. I feel nearly any reader when presented with the decision and the even minor context provided through the First Mate's interview, would have sided with the Captain. The story's antagonist was plainly vilified and laid plain from the outset of the story that when the final reveal was made near the end of the book, there was no surprise.

That being said the book is worth the read if you like a solid sci-fi story. The storytelling structure is interesting with the flashbacks and does accomplish the goal of telling the reader who Captain Aames is.

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