Kavinay
You can see the turn of the screw coming but that doesn't make this story any less satisfying. I'm both dreading and anticipating the next book concluding the series. Hopefully, they still find time to publish these wonderful little glimpses at post-earth/post-solar humans struggling to deal with each other.
So many books about the experience of racialized people are written essentially for a white audience. What a delight that Reni Eddo-Lodge speaks directly to the constant frustration of having to explain and defend the banal ubiquity of structural racism to a majority that reflexively shirks from the idea.
If you are a person of colour, read this book. It doesn't purport to solve racism or provide whiteness 101 training. Rather, it's likely the first time you will see your thoughts and frustrations at living within the bounds of white supremacy articulated so clearly and passionately by a superb writer.
A series of pastoral walks through Cybertron.
It was always going to be tough following Barber and Roberts run at IDW, but the pacing on this book is exceptionally slow. There's promise, Ruckley seems to have a plan and the art and colours remain superb. But hopefully the book starts to move faster as it develops further.
I worry about how much Epstein's writing appeals to me since it often feels like confirming biases and suspicions I already harbour. But if you've ever spent any time invested deeply in long-term development (sports, kids, yourself), so many of the topics covered in Range are likely real issues you've encountered. Do I specialize early, am I missing out by not committing down one path, should I even bother with some interest that isn't directly applicable to my work or field of study? There's a lot of pop psych about head-start approaches to development but not much which validates what you come to realize with age is still a valid and useful path to success: breadth and experimentation.
The next time some coach or trainer tells you how imperative early specialization is, this is the book that will help you feel more comfortable at dealing with a culture hellbent on being first rather than growing into skill and talent.
Ghost writer Andrew Holmes does a spectacular job at capturing Adrian Newey's cheekiness in both life and on the drawing board.
Honestly, I only wanted the nerdy behind the scenes technical details of Newey's career. That's here with extravagant detail and explanations that give context for the last three decades of F1 car design. Yet what surprised me was how engaging the personal details of Newey's story were. It's interesting that Newey never shies away from admitting workaholic commitment to his profession and yet from youth to present day, so much of this book conveys a witty and competitive spirit animating his entire life.
A great book for F1 fans and especially for anyone interested in the evolution of design process and thinking in pursuit of lap time.
Thrawn is very interesting. Unfortunately, it seems hard to place him in a story where he's challenged or forced to develop. Instead, everyone around him is a bit of an idiot or an eventual follower who comes to appreciate his deductive genius. It gets boring, especially the third time around.
There is a moment early in the book, Thrawn's Imperials encountering the Chiss, when it looks like Zahn is setting up a genuinely engaging conflict. Instead, both sides are just following the same forgettable third-party threat.
It's a waste. This could easily have setup up a true crucible for Thrawn by placing him opposite a Chiss threat to the Death Star. A plot actually worthy of the book's title. Surprisingly little of note happens despite this being the third novel attempting to develop Thrawn in the new EU. What's weird is that Zahn is capable of a more engaging plot. Perhaps this area of canon is still too constrained by new movies and TV to allow for a more meaningful story?
It makes perfect sense when you reflect on it, but Groopman's description of the Bayesian indoctrination of doctor training provides a lot of insight into the common conflicts or deficits of medical interaction. The takeaways aren't simplistic so much as simply reinforcing that patients and peers should remember that doctors are human. Cognitive errors are common, no matter how elite and trained a professional is. Patient advocacy and a deeper engagement with a specialist's rationale is not easy to appreciate or apply until you realize just how often common medical conventions prevent them from even being considered.
Ross Brawn's thoughts on F1 are golden. It's profoundly entertaining to get his take on the development cycle and the politics of modern racing.
Adam Parr's attempts to make this “Sun Tzu with wheels” unfortunately often falls flat. It's just a bit of reach to constantly compare the team principal to Napoleon, etc.
There's probably a perfect age to read this book and find it fun and novel. My guess is around 16. Otherwise... it just gets a bit dull. The Drow are a neat idea, but Menzoberranzan comes across more as a module setting with the constant exposition. Drizzt's treatment as a Saturday morning cartoon hero doesn't really help much either.
Hopefully it gets better. The Underdark is such a well-loved setting that it would be nice to discover what makes it so popular.
Shockingly good. It's amazing how much better 40k gets with a touch of Discworld-ish wryness mixed into the grimdark.
Ever since Rogue Trader, 40k books and fluff have subtly been buying into their own emo-seriousness to the point you now wonder if the creators actually get how ridiculously the Imperium's fascism contributes to the dystopian aspect of the setting. Abnett is one of the few Black Library authors that can spin a good turn of fluff and inject some vibrancy of 40ks origins back into the universe.
“Void habitats of Uranus...“
Honestly, I'm far to immature to not enjoy Primarchs talking about Uranus, let alone an entire book with that planet as the naval perimeter of action.
It's a good book though, much more driven than the meandering end of the Horus Heresy novels. Hopefully the rest of the series follows this book's pace.
On the other hand, bolter porn is pretty boring. I don't know if any of it matters besides trying to carve some scenes for Sigismund. Boring action for a boring character.
The stories range from mediocre, Holden, to quite good, Amos, yet the art is just really poor. The weird thing is that Danlan seems like a capable artist but it's as if the the whole book just went from pencils to colour seperations without any inking. It makes for these bizarrely thin and lifeless sketches that jar you out of the narrative.
While Priestley is an able writer and this is an entertaining read, there's not really that much “secret” in this book for F1 fans.
Pit crew antics and all aren't all that fascinating. The nuts and bolts insight of testing, improvement and strategy of the mechanical side of F1 are not really touched on at all. If you're interested in the analytical and technical side of the sport, this is probably not the book you're looking for.
Jack Warner, Chuck Blazer, Michel Platini, Sepp Blatter. All giants of global football administration and now all banned from the sport.
What Conn takes his time to lay out–but what ultimately makes the book quite profound–is the idea that “European standards of governance” are every bit as troubling as the corruption accepted as a cultural flaw of the non-European members of FIFA.
In many ways, this book is a dirge for FIFA's posturing as a humanitarian institution. Yet, Conn still keeps it engaging for lovers of the game by highlighting how little of the decision making within FIFA had any relevance to the interests of sport relative to the enrichment of powerbrokers.
So much of sports journalism is hagiography of utter bastards and Conn doesn't get sucked in. The one truly redeeming moment of the whole telling is the revelation that a crowd of French fans resoundingly booed Platini's image as the national team was poised to win the Euros on home soil.
So Prince Lotor decides to conquer a world with a token force of marines to showoff to the Emperor...
It's not a horrible story, but it takes a long time to resolve some relatively petty political maneuvering. In the end, it really doesn't tell us much about Fulgrim besides he's exactly what you thought he was before cracking open this book.