Rob

On to the second book in the Game Changers series.

So I found the pacing much better in this book than in the first one, and the use of dates and times to show how long it takes Ilya and Shane to finally get together. Their relationship seems much more grounded and real vs. what Scott and Kip went through in Game Changers.

This is the ongoing story of Kodiak and Ambrose from The Darkness Outside Us. We jump forward 16 years to find them living and loving on the exoplanet Minerva and what their lives look like after crash landing in this "new Eden".

I have to say, I didn't enjoy this nearly as much as The Darkness Outside Us. While it is still well written and the characters are their own individual selves, the story seemed just off. Not in any measurable way, but I think it had to do with the existential questions that Ambrose, Kodiak, and others have to wrestle with as they find their Eden beset by problems.

Having the characters time jump 30k years into the past may also have something to do with it, but I did like the backstory there.

There is also a plot twist that, while you can see it coming, is still devastating when it arrives.

The Darkness Outside Us is the story of Ambrose and Kodiak. Two young men who are selected and trained to go on a months-long mission to Saturn's moon Titan to save Ambrose's sister Minerva.

I found this book utterly charming and intense. Ambrose is funny and smart while Kodiak is brooding and may be smarter than Ambrose, though Ambrose won't admit it. I picked it up after hearing about it on the Talking About Dragons and S*!t podcast and I am so glad I did.

Son of the Storm brings us into the world of Danso, a man whose life is set before him. In training to become a jali, Danso's life is orderly and boring. He must find time for his studies, his intended Eschme, his father, uncles, and all the demands of his life. Everything is upset when a strange figure snatches him from the dark and shows him a magic that is more fantasy than legend. Once shown this folk tale made flesh, however, Danso's life cannot be boring again.

First things first, Bruce just doesn't spill the tea, he dumps it from a 55-gallon drum. Granted, most of this gossip is decades old at this point, but it is fun to hear it from a voice that was in the room when it happened. He covers TV, movies, Broadway, and everything in between. In a storied career such as his, Bruce has gallons of tea left to go.