Kyle Erickson

DNF @ 50%

This was so boring

So boring

So

7/10

I enjoyed this book, but wanted more. I had barely heard of Atalanta before and that was a chief motivator to read it. And I did find out more about her, and I liked how the author explored the role of women in antiquity and the reactions of the various men to Atalanta joining the Argonauts and her journey to be accepted by them and prove herself, as well as dealing with the prejudice of the wider world. All that was good. I also really liked the narrator, and the prose. It flowed really well.

I'd just say that outside of Atalanta, every character was bland. If I didnt already know about Jason and Hercules and Peleus, I'd barely be able to differentiate them. Because of that, the plot and character interactions just didn't do much for me.

This memoir had some good stuff going for it. I think Heath is good at setting up the horrible childhood she had and the way it impacted her. I really felt for her and her desire to have to her family be whole and not understanding what her dad's issue was. Unfortunately, this book is just too short. Most of it she is very young, and then it skips forward to her being an adult and then it ends, with barely any reflection or how her childhood impacted her. An extra 40-50 pages with some more depth would have gone a long way.

7/10

Okay, so I did not realize this was a romance book when I requested it on Netgalley. The blurb seemed interesting and I suspected there would be some romance, just based on the age and description of the character, but the rest sounded interesting enough to overlook it. And that's mostly what happened, because this is a good book. But it's also a romance book, and what I didn't know about romance books, because I don't read them, is that they're just cringey as hell (to me).

And so while there are aspects of this book that are excellent, I can't give it a full rating, because dammit, I detested the romance in this book. I'm not even talking about the sex scenes. There are only a couple. I just think saying things like “you have extremely touchable skin” is stupid in any context. If that works for someone else, power to them. But it was lines like that I couldn't deal with.

Anyways, on to the positives. First of all, Violet is a great main character. I rooted for her the entire time and her initial belief that she was too broken to be a dragon rider, and her gradual understanding that she was not defined by her illness and that she could be a dragon rider, was very well done. I liked most of the side characters, and her relationships with them. I also realized during this book that I expected her older, accomplished sister to inherently be a bitch to her because that's how these tropes tend to go, and so I appreciated that the bond with her sister was strong and that she was supportive. I liked the depiction of her overbearing best friend/potential love interest not understanding how coddling Violet was not helpful to her, and some of the best scenes were her standing up for herself to him.

I also really liked the dragons, which were probably my favorite part. Everything involving the dragons in this book was very fun, and some of the political and war machinations going on in the background of the book were very interesting, and make me wonder how much of this outside conflict that Yarros is planning to incorporate. The magic being tied to the dragons and manifesting unique powers was fun. In general, the plot of this book was very propulsive and I always wanted to know what happened next.


Which, not to harp on it, is why the romance overpowering the narrative at the 3/4s mark was just insufferable to me. I know I'm not the target audience. I know a lot of people will love this part. I don't dislike romance for the sake of it existing. But I think if it didn't suddenly take over every thought Violet has in any situation and she wasn't super horny every minute, I could have probably tolerated a slow-burn romance here. Alas. Take all this with a huge grain of salt.

Anyway, the book was very fun. I think it deserves the hype. I probably won't read the sequel, but hey, I survived a fantasy romance book! Am I on the road to becoming a Maas stan?

8/10

7/10

You know when you meet a stupid person? We've all met a stupid person. And sometimes, you don't know they're stupid right away. You give them the benefit of the doubt, because hey, assuming someone is stupid is rude. And occasionally, you'll be talking to this theoretical stupid person, and you'll be explaining something to them - physics, politics, math, where Denmark is- and you see in their eyes that they aren't home. As you were speaking, their chief brain cell let the other two brain cells take the rest of the day off and you are witnessing the mass exodus of every potentiality for them to have a thought, and it's just you explaining how probabilities work to an empty shell of a turtle who has moved on to a different, dumber shell. And what else can you do, but finish telling them what you were telling them, despite knowing that they are clinically dead, you might as well be speaking these words to an empty balloon, at least that way, you might get half a balloon.

That was me reading this. I am the stupid person. My brain doesn't work this way at all. I didn't get a single thing from this. Every line, I was just “

This was a really fun concept that I think I would have enjoyed more as an adult book, because the premise (“single teenager gets launched into space with the last of the whales”) is just ludacrious and I couldn't take it seriously, but I enjoyed the plot itself. The whales being psychic and able to talk to the MC; her isolation and loneliness, as well as her determination to solve problems on her own made the story connect and I was invested in what happened. There's a twist about halfway that I thought was so cool.

Then it does the typical YA-type thing and inserts an annoying romance where there is no need for one. Oh well.

I also enjoyed the ending a fair amount. I would hope the author wrote a sequel but made it a bit more adult.

6.5/10

9/10

This trilogy is kinda frustrating to me. I absolutely love the characters and some of the plot beats and the worldbuilding is good, the action is good. The prose, while not my favorite, is usually pretty good at conveying what it's trying to and is genuinely moving a lot of the time. But each book has a few things in it I really don't like, and that's extra frustrating because with very few adjustments, this could be one of my favorite series ever. As it is, it's still really good.

But I felt like Brown was sometimes trying to get one over on the reader and be shocking in lieu of trying to tell the best story, or do the thing that actually should happen. This is a weird preamble to a 4.5 star review, I know. But the thing I really didn't like was near the end of this one and was much more important to the climax than other things I didn't like. I feel like if Brown wanted the story to be that way, he needed to choose a different style of POV to begin with, or introduce some element of change, or suck it up and play it straight. This is taking up a large portion of a positive review for the book because it happens near the end, but the rest of the book was largely excellent.

I really felt like the way this played out was a mistake and shouldn't have gotten past the editing stage. However, I can't deny that this book made me feel a wide range of emotions, I binged most of it in a day because I wanted to know what happens, and it was an extremely compelling book for most of it. This trilogy was very good at writing characters and relationships that I cared deeply about and was invested in, and that is very hard to do, especially in relatively shorter books. I'm really excited to continue to the sequel series, hopefully it will be free from these temporary lapses and RR can enter my list of favorite series.

Live for more.

This book is an improvement on book one in every way, and I think a very impressive book. It becomes multi-POV and the second POV really enhanced things. Croaker's annuls POV managed to be more emotional, philosophical and thought provoking despite keeping the matter-of-fact, sparse style of a soldier. The last third of the book was really good and has me excited to pick up the next one.

I also wouldn't really classify this book as military fantasy, and it's very different from book one, so I would recommend people who were meh on book one to try this one atleast. I'd say Shadows Linger has a fair amount of spy, crime, mystery, and horror elements and is only military insofar as it is following a group of people who are soldiers.

My only negative for this series so far is the writing style. I like Cook's prose. He is very effective, and I think people meme the short sentences thing a bit too much (although he does like short sentences). But something about it sets my brain on fire after a few chapters. I had to read this short book in 20ish page bursts because after around that much, I just had to do something else. Maybe I will get more into the flow of it for book 3, but I could see that being the chief barrier to this becoming an all time favorite, because otherwise I think this book was gasoline.

This little story was good but definitely could have been longer and/or had more substance. It was before the big “retelling” craze so it gets points for that.

Also the audiobook has this weird demonic distortion thing going for the chorus and it is uniquely awful. I can't believe there was a person in a booth somewhere who obviously had to show this cacophony of noises to someone higher up in production and they both went, “yeah, people will listen to this, happily”. Both of those people should be charged with war crimes against humanity.

9.5/10

This book is exactly what I was told it was, which is a classic fantasy book but with really good characters and a fresh perspective. Nothing about it reinvents the wheel but that's fine, it has a lot of heart and all the characters were very well realized. The last third of the book was so good. I think the book takes the “modern voice” sentiment in a way that doesn't just mean “simple prose”, although I don't think the prose is dense. It's moreso how the way these tropes are changed slightly and given different contexts and routes that still feel familiar but also feel updated.

One thing I really liked about this that I tend to find missing in many other “classic fantasy” stories is that the characters pasts and actions actually feel like they are grappled with and that deaths and traumatic experiences affect people. It's my biggest pet peeve when series just have characters going to one big event to the next and being like “oh my best friend from the last 20 years just burned alive right in front of me, I need a whiskey and then I'll never think about this person again”.

The fellowship/found family aspect of this book was very well done and was probably my favorite aspect. I also liked the magical elements a lot, and the book isn't very combat heavy, but the fighting that was here was exciting. Apart from one stupid thing near the end, I don't really have any complaints for The Ember Blade. Excited to continue on.

Ugh can I make everyone listen to this

This memoir was pretty boring. It read exactly like listening to your dithering grandfather haphazardly telling you about his life. Begley isn't a gifted storyteller, he told most of the interesting things in his life in a very un-interesting manner. Found myself skimming the second half.

I used to think this was the least good of the three novellas but I really enjoyed it this time. The plot is basic, two lords fighting over a river, which I think is why I originally dismissed it. But the character development happening with Dunk and the background of what's happening in Westeros, plus the themes of what loyalty and honor mean to someone, is just excellent.

This book is about what I expected. I liked the story, but the writing was quite amateurish. But I like the idea of a band having a backstory in novel form. Really inventive idea. I also liked the beginning and the ending of this book quite a bit.

“Are you mad? This man attacked my son!”
“This man protected the weak, as all true knights must.”

Dunk the lunk, thick as a castle wall

“By all the gods that ever walked, I swear that you are the finest men I ever knew. And if I could have chosen the end of this tale, and peopled it with heroes of the past, I would not change a single thing. For no one could have given more than you have. And I thank you.”

This is the biggest surprise of the year for me. I expected to like this book. I LOVED this book. The fact that it was Gemmell's first book, and with the knowledge that the siege is meant to represent Gemmell and the invading horde his cancer, just made the book so much more poignant. Helm's Deep and the battle of blackwater being two of my favorite battles ever makes me think retroactively I should have prioritized this book way sooner.

Gemmell is very good at making simple lines of dialogue or simple sentiments come across very sincerely. There were many moments in this book where I was close to tears or I was fist-pumping because of how something was phrased. His prose is simple while being wholly immersive and effective. He was really excellent at this in the Troy trilogy too; I sense a new favorite author on the horizon.

He is also great at character. This book is peppered with a lot of “warrior dude who thinks honor is most important” and yet they all feel realistic and despite the overwhelming odds against the main characters, I felt every death. I think Gemmell makes little narrative choices that are irregular but kept me on my toes where I felt like the story would be predictable but he changes the formula just enough to leave me impressed. A quick example of this is a POV shift in the middle of a skirmish where we start following a random enemy soldier. You think you know where that's going to go but then it does something different. Or a POV cut to a random soldier's wife. In general, the omniscient narration was well done here and used to great effect.

“When I die, he thought, everyone will mourn for Druss the Legend. But who will mourn for me?”

And of course, the legend himself!!! It is really hard to write “legendary” characters. In general, the exploits people talk up about them are going to be more impressive than actually writing the character being an active participant. But Druss is an all-timer. Every line of dialogue, every action he takes, every moment where he thinks of his illustrious past is just incredible. I would be a little bitch in a siege, but I would stand a lot taller if Druss was there with me.


My one negative for this book would be some super quick insta-love at the beginning, but I did end up liking how the relationship was depicted. I just wish it developed at a more realistic pace.


“I have four armies like this - can I be stopped?”
“Stopping you is not important,” said the Earl. “It never was.”
“Then what are you doing?”
“We are trying to stop you.”

10/10, on the strength of this and the Troy trilogy, I think I will read all of Gemmell's work.

2/10

Okay so this book is clearly worse than Ready Player One. It's worse than catcher in the Rye, but my hatred for Catcher in the Rye is pure; unadulterated. Nothing can touch it. So that leaves Skullsworn and Ready Player Two. Both were more painful to read but they were also significantly shorter. It's tough... I'm going to say this is the fourth worst book I've ever read.

The saddest part is that I thought the beginning was okay, and I started to get a false hope that maybe, just maybe, my expectations were low enough to end up enjoying this. I will also admit the last 10% was decent. That leaves the middle 70% to be a rambling, incoherently, absurdly horny and downright weird reading experience that was tedious to the maximum. Most of the things happening were goofy ghost-alien shenanigans and when it wasn't that, it was just random characters rambling on and on and on about just...nothing. And then having sex. And then thinking about having sex again. And then rambling. And then ghost-aliens. And then sex. Repeat for 500 pages. This book should be required reading in Narcotics anonymous because reading this is the most effective deterrent to not do cocaine that I've ever seen. Just so many times I was like, “why? Why are we doing this? Why are a woman's breasts turning into a giant, megabreast? Did King do such a large coke binge during this that he locked his editor in a basement and released the book immediately?”


I do find it interesting that King used elements of this book elsewhere, after getting sober. It's basically Dreamcatchers, Needful Things, and Under the Dome merged into one uncomfortable experience. I didn't like Needful Things either, so maybe “a town gets taken over by a malevolent presence” is not a story from King I enjoy. Anyway...the worst is definitely behind me, and I would not recommend anybody read this, unless you're a King completionist like me or just like pain.

Sanderson is my favorite author but unfortunately this one didn't really work for me. It is initially pretty interesting and I liked the humor, but I just think the things Sanderson is best at - character, plot, reveals, worldbuilding, magic- are all severely lacking here. The humor got old fast in the face of rising stakes. The book is not bad by any means, but it's a bad Sanderson book to me. I appreciate him trying something new and I know some people will really enjoy what this is, but by the second half I was basically forcing myself to finish.

4/10

“game's the same, it just got more fierce.”

Reread update, April 2023 - damn this book still slaps. I said below it was my favorite book ever, but with time, A Storm of Swords still reigns supreme. Still, #2 ain't nothing to sneeze at. I even found this book funnier on reread! Who would have thought.



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I finished this book in November, five months ago. I knew it then, but I didnt review the book because at the time, I was just too beside myself to be coherent and I wanted to be sure when I said what I knew to be true the moment I closed this book. This is my favorite book of all time.

Everything fires at all cylinders in this book. The entire Stormlight Archive is amazing, but of the other three books, they each have SOMETHING that I didn't enjoy as much or didn't love. This book, though, is pure bliss. It is Harmony. The Sanderlache of this book is incredible. The scene where a character says “Honor is dead” is maybe my favorite action scene ever put to page.

If you're reading this and you haven't started this book, what are you waiting for??

7.5/10
A fun adventure romp with pirates and magical creatures that would be really enjoyable and then would dive into an annoying romance that really brought it down IMO. Will def read the sequels, really liked Amina, although a lot of the side characters blended together. The villain was nothing special, but I did like a lot of the magical elements in this story! The PotC inspiration was a little too blatant in some spots but didn't really impact my enjoyment.

There was a framing device in the story of present day Amina telling the story to a chronicler and I thought these sections were a bit cheesy and overdone, but they didn't show up too frequently.

I think if the sequel dialed up the grit by 25% and dialed down talking about demon's asses by 100%, it'll be a really awesome book.

Look, I read this like 5 books ago, in a mad dash rush to the end of the year, and I finished it New Years Eve. So it's been 10 days and yet, my hype for this series is still fresh like newly caught salmon at a fish market.

I fully expected to love the Green Bone Saga and I completely devoured this book. Jade City follows four siblings that are leaders in a crime family in the city of Janloon, where the magical substance Jade allows a select portion of the population enhanced capabilities. People commonly compare it to the Godfather, for obvious reasons. But for me.....it was like The Wire, my favorite show of all time. Only instead of being armed with the power of economics courses, Stringer Bell is armed with the power of Jade.

I could see some people thinking the book takes awhile to set up the dynamics of the book, but I was enthused from the get-go. I love these characters, and even the one I don't love, I understand. Lee writes such great sibling relationships, which is something that many people do not prioritize or do well in fantasy.

The magic is cool, and the world seems set to expand by the end of the book. The fight scenes are incredible, but this book is not a non-stop action book. It is primarily a political book, as rivalling crime families seek to avoid a war that has been brewing between them.

I give Jade City a 9.5/10 and I am super hyped to continue on with Jade War!

This book absolutely held up. I basically just wanted to listen to it straight until I finished. Definitely rising it higher in my list of favorite King books. Genuinely perplexed why it's not one of his higher rated books.

After really enjoying the first two of these books, this conclusion felt a little soulless. The writing is still good, and there are some great quotes. I really liked how the last chapter was written. But a lot of what is enjoyable in the first two is not really present here. Cicero doesn't have a lot of rousing speeches or petty barbs, he's not out there ruining his own life, there are no trials so he doesn't get any chances to really LWYRUP. The political machinations were happening so fast that they might as well have not been happening at all, insofar as Cicero, Tiro, and the reader have to do with it.

So much of this book was just narrating things that happen- things which I already know- that it became almost indistinguishable from narrative nonfiction at times. They went here, they did that, then this happened. At times, Tiro even uses Cicero's personal accounts after the fact because Tiro isn't present, increasing just how much this felt more like a biography and less like a novel. The previous villains of the series - Crassus, Pompey, Caesar, Clodius - are spending so much time dealing with each other that they don't even realize Cicero's there.

There are times when this isn't the case. Tiro himself gets more space to have his own life here, which I appreciate. In fact, this is probably Tiro's best book in terms of being a three dimensional character, but it is in exchange for him having practically zero impact on the proceedings of the novel, so it's a suspect trade off. Cicero also has some really nice moments with Tullia and Attacus. But it never felt like I was reading a conclusion to a trilogy. It felt like real life, where sometimes people's most important events are earlier and then they spend their old age watching the warring young boys and yelling at clouds. I wonder, was Cicero a real person?

And therein lies the problem. A lot of this is not Harris's fault. The things that happen during this time period happen. Cicero is only involved tangentially. He spends his time cursing the people who led the Republic to its doom and his life is largely in the hands of others. Tiro even more so. Cicero's previous team - Attacus, Quintus, Hortensius, Terrentia, were not around him during this time. Meanwhile, there are SO many things happening that you have to work in somehow. Brutus is barely mentioned! His relationship with Caesar is never really mentioned. You can't change who dies when and how, lest you get the history nerds on your case. I get it.

However, Harris elected to write these books, and he decided to make it a trilogy, and so I am allowed to think it was a big task and he didn't land it well enough. Making this four books and letting it feel more like a personal narrative with Cicero etc would have given breathing time and more life to this whiplash of events. I actually even think that sticking to real history so closely became a bit of a negative in telling this particular story, which I'm sure many people will disagree with. I don't suddenly want Cicero to challenge Caesar to a duel. But I do think in telling a life in three parts, it is condonable to make some changes in order to tell a more cohesive, finished story. I don't know where the balance lies. Some will think sticking to reality is 100% the right course. Some will have wanted that duel with Caesar, I'm sure. But whatever the answer is, I don't think I was satisfied here.

As a final positive, the last two pages of this book are excellent, and a fitting send off.