Aron

I mostly liked this, but the ending was a let down. The first 75% of the book was really strong, I love a story that tells sub stories. The last quarter felt rushed and a bit wishy washy in how certain plot devices worked. I get that endings are hard, but considering that this was such a short book I would have expected the end to be a bit more satisfying. I have only read Hamiltons works and I could feel his influence here, not sure of the other author.

I thought I was going to read about robots, instead I read about robots and a treatise on purpose, western liberalism, and justice.

This is probably my favorite book series I have read in a very long time. The prose and plot really captivated me. A story about telling stories is one of my favorite literary devices.

All this is shadowed by how devastated I am upon learning that the third book will likely never come out. Like a punch to the gut. 

I did not know this was a collection of short stories, it was a joyously entertaining moment when I realized there was no connection at all between them.

This was not what I had expected to read, but it was quite enjoyable regardless.

Audiobook version. It was both very well written and performed by the author. Was it good? Yes, but it was sad and I would not listen again. A sad tale of abuse and someone that needed help but did not get it when she needed it.

A profoundly interesting and thought provoking read. It was a really entertaining experience to slowly start to understand what is going on as you work through the way the book is structured. It's one of those books I wish I could forget reading just so that I could read it again for the first time. 

The first 3/4ths of this book were really solid and interesting, the last quarter lost quite a bit of steam. That being said, the universe and history described in the book was fascinating and enjoyable to read.
The ship names were excellent.

While the story itself is somewhat simple, the method of storytelling in this book was absolutely unique and clever, each iteration of the plot provides you a bit more detail and context as to what is going on. Is it time travel, parallel universes, did you accidentally skip backwards in the book? Who can say. I really enjoyed this book. 

I enjoyed this book alot. The different timelines kept things exciting, and it had a nice near-future supply of sci-fi tech and ideas. 

I thought the police storyline dragged a bit and I'm not sure if it was being critical of or praising some of the tactics they used.

It very much felt like a Hamilton sci-fi book so if you like his other stuff, you will like this too.

This does have the common Hamilton tropes though, both good and bad.
Super cringy sex scenes.
Themes on transhumanism.
Portals.
Planet endangering threats.
Did I mention cringy sex?
Superhero-like anime action sequences.
Overuse of common local phrases/lingo (Aye PET, sure PET, good job PET) 
Excellent portrayels of future technologies. 
Relying on somehow benevolent ultra rich people to save the day.
Themes on environmentalism. 

I give it a 5/5 stars though, it was a really entertaining read. 

Based on the plot description alone, I did not think I would enjoy this one. That being said, Hamilton's writing style really shines and this was alot of fun to read. His normal themes/issues are present...rich people/corporations know better than governments, hot sex craved woman that like the main character, great themes related to transhumanism advanced technology, super humans, a bit of what can only be called smut.
This is not Hamilton's best, but it's definitely not his worst. Totally worth a read if you are into his stuff. 

It was amusing, but far too long. If it was 100 pages shorter I would give it a 5/5

Lots of fantastic parts, lots of parts that don't quite fit. Battle of Hogwarts still rules though.

Probably my favorite in this reread of the series so far. The world opens up and it seems to mature a bit, though there are still ridiculous plot elements that don't make much sense even in this world of magic. Giving the power of time travel to a 13 year old girl so she can take more classes is a bit much, but if you don't think about it too much it's a fun plot point. I don't really know how fair it is (or not) to hand wave away the nonsensical stuff by saying the book is for young adults.

Fred and George are the best characters of course, and I did not remember that Cho shows up so early in the series. I feel like this is the first book where the author actually put in bits that she plans to grow in the following books. Books 1 and 2 didn't seem to have any of that and requires a bit of retconing if we are to believe there was a master plan at that time.

This book was a real pleasure to read. The world building is fantastic, the characters and their relationships felt deep and filled with history, and the plot never really has a dull moment.

It is mind-blowing to me that this was written by the same author as the dark(and scary?) Revelation Space Trilogy. It's really great to see an author create huge universes that are so different from each other.

The scale of time is a major part of this book that seemed a little far fetched to me, but once you get past the initial confusion, it starts to make sense as you read more about how things came to be. Even humans with essentially the powers of gods have pitfalls.

I am a sucker for the idea that humans are explorers at heart and this book plays to that theme masterfully.

This was a great one-off space opera that was a joy to read.

This book almost makes you like spiders...almost. While horror is not the focus of this book, the encounters with the main antagonist were horrifying in a way that I've never encountered before in fiction. I've been thinking about those scenes on and off it's just downright terrifying.

The various plot lines/timelines are woven together masterfully and none of it felt boring or was a slog to get through.
This is my 2nd Tchaikovsky book and this author manages to create worlds and cultures that are both very alien, yet totally believable at the same time.

I think that ultimately, I prefer the build up of the Portids from the first book more than the build-up of the new species. This book felt a bit fuzzier in that regard. Not really a critique, just that this book seemed to focus on interaction between the groups as the main theme rather than the build-up of a new species as the main theme.

I'm probably going to read a bunch more Tchaikovsky now, because I want to see what else he has created!

A truly fitting and satisfying end to this set of books. The Crimson Guard's Vow and the origins of Fisher, our favorite bard, are both mysteries that have been floating around for awhile now, and we finally get some clarity. This was probably my favorite of the Esslemont series. The plot was relatively straightforward and things you read about...10-15 books ago finally come to fruition. It can be hard for books to give you a “holy s**t” moment, but a reveal near the end certainly did that for me. This book is filled to the brim with great characters, Shimmer, K'Azz, Fisher, Kyle, and a few new ones.

Sometimes you either get a good destination or a good journey, this book gave me both.

I feel like this could have been shorter, but overall I enjoyed seeing a totally new segment of the world along with more lore and cultures.

I would have liked to learn more about the Thaumaturgs(and their enemy faction). That entire plot line felt like a teaser for something that will not ever be fleshed out. And frankly, while interesting, I'm not sure why that entire plot line existed in the first place. I was very confused regarding the conclusion so perhaps, I just didn't pay close enough attention to appreciate the relevance of the Thaumaturgs and what their leadership tried to do at the end. Probably need to take a trip to the wiki to get some more context.

Notably better than the first two books of this series. You can start to see the precursors to the ideas and technology that shows up in his other works.

I am realizing that alot of Hamilton's work involves highly trained military professionals who are good dependable men, women who CRAVE sex, and benevolent billionaires that are actually the solution to earth's many woes.

I am admittedly not a fan of mystery novels, and the sci-fi is not good enough in this series to overcome my dislike of the mystery genre.

The story was fine, but the gimmick behind why the main character can do what he can do still seems too magic-y to me. I'm mostly just going to finish the series because Hamilton wrote some of my absolute favorite sci-fi books and I want to read through his other works.

If I had a dime for every time the main character says “no messing” I'd be rich.

Probably my favorite of the Malazan Esslemont books I have read so far. Up front I though Darujhistan would be a more boring and limited setting, but this book was really interesting and tied up a few loose ends established in the main series.

The end of a masterpiece of science fiction. What a wild and incredibly ride.

This is probably one of the best science fiction books that I have read in a long time. The ideas about humanity, human nature, and the state of the universe are interesting and well explained. This book contains everything I love about science fiction.

The plot pushes and pulls you between hope and despair, it's a real roller-coaster. It's also nice to see main characters who are so very human, they have both strengths and flaws.

Not sure if filled with real science or total B.S....but if it is B.S, it's enough BS that it just might work! It kept me engaged and I can't wait to read the next books!

A slow burn overall, but still enjoyable.