drews
This is the 3rd book in Larry Nivens Ringworld series, also known as the known space series
As a award winning book I was hoping this series overall was going to be something I would have enjoyed, after all I am a science fiction and fantasy fan however this series thus far has disappointed me
I found this book hard to get into, with characters that I just struggle to really care about. the plot seems to be a bit disorganized, the flow being somewhat lacking. Perhaps it was the fact that it failed to keep my interest that I just did not care to much to pay attention to what I was reading
The concepts of the book and series as a whole are really good, The idea of a mysterious ring world built around a star, inhabited by many different species of hominids as a backdrop to explore different ideas concerning humanity and evolution etc... however it just failed to really do anything for me
The plot basically follows Vallavirgillin who is gathering a group of hominids to fight the vampires, meanwhile Louis and the hind most, aka puppeteer seek to save the ringworld from what is supposed to be some kind of invading force from outside but I did not feel that materialized well. Much of the plot around Louis was all about the protectors and what they are doing trying to control and rule the ring world.
by biggest problem with this book is the way it changed subjects almost add style, one minute we are talking about the vampire threat, then suddenly its to rithshara (aka sex) then back to the protectors back to sex, then back to outside threat back to sex,
There seems to be a obsession with sex between different species, you meet someone the first thing you ask is “how do you have sex can you have sex?” I just found that this really broke the story flow and you could take every mention of sex or “rithshara” out of it and not change a single thing about the story in any way.
I guess in the end Larry Niven writing style just does not work for me and I find I am not enjoying it but you may very well enjoy, 2 stars simply because i did not like it, not that i would tell you not to read it
Loved it!
World building was amazing. I love the magic system of this world that draws its power from the world itself using the natural energy of tectonic plates to and heat energy to fuel its magic
The book follow a single character who changed identity through out her life at each major turning point.
Well written and enjoyable read I would highly reccomend it to any fantasy fan.
Be sure to visit my YouTube channel Drew's book reviews for more detailed review!
This book has been praised and given awards as a classic in science fiction writing. I had heard a lot about it and because of that I wanted to give it a try.
The basic premise is that 2 aliens, Nessus who is called a puppeteer, Talks with animals who is a member of a warrior species and 2 humans. 1 man and 1 woman embark on a voyage to investigate a mysterious ring world around a star. Crashing on the surface they embark on a exploration to try to not only survive but find a way to repair their ship and return back home.
First off I love the premise, I think its a really good idea and that has a lot of potential. Having people from 3 very different cultures work together to survive, often at odds with on another is in itself a great foundation for any story.
However I feel that I am being generous with a 3 star rating mainly because I did not think it was terrible story but it was not that great, I found the characters to be a bit flat and did not care all that much for them. It really was a plot driven story not not much for characters or character development.
The one female character Teela only purpose was for sex and good luck. The idea of luck being bred for in the human race was not only ridiculous but non sensical in a story that is supposed to be a serious scifi story and just did not do it for me.
overall I enjoyed the concept, the general plot was good but the story execution was not, so generous 3/5 stars for me
I am going to read the other books because I have them and hopefully it gets better
Wow!! Just wow. I learned so much reading this book. From start to finish it was a educational mind opening read.
From the origins of crispr, the power of the technology to the moral, ethical questions raised when it comes to human genome editing.
The authors highlight well the moral dilemmas they had to face once they realized the implications and potential uses of the technology both good and bad.
Just a fantastic read and well worth your time!!
The last wish. This is the book I have heard and been told I should start the Witcher series with so thats is exactly what I did.
The Witcher is a magically altered human who hunts monsters for a living.
This book is essentially a collection of short stories of the Witcher, Geralt, and his monster slaying adventures.
Many of the stories are derived from fairy tales such as beauty and the beast, sleeping beauty, rapunzel but with a darker themed story telling.
Witches, vampires, beasts, devils, elves etc.. it for me at least was a fun read and I look forward to reading the rest of the witcher books.
Action packed from start to finish this is a great installment in the legacy of the force star wars book series.
Jedi embark on a 3 fold mission. Ending jacen solos reign, rescue of alana solo and destruction of the dreaded centrepoint station.
Everyone is filled with fury as this book is aptly named and well done. I really enjoyed it
Contains spoilers
I used to love Orson Scott Cards writing but at this point I don't know if I have outgrown him as a reader or if he has just gotten worse as a writer. Maybe a bit of both.
Ezekiel is a 14 yr old boy with a micro power to find lost things and return them to their owners. The premise may be the best thing about this book. The local police enlist his help to find a kidnapped girl who was kidnapped by a child porn ring
My biggest problems with this book is despite its short length less than 300 pages Card basically tells the same story twice. First a little girl is kidnapped and ezekiel finds her then his friend Beth is kidnapped by the same people and guess what he finds her. This book could have easily been split into 2 short stories and it would not have made a difference.
The micropower group Ezekiel gets invovled with had really stupid powers like odor removal or making people yawn, that served no benefit to the story or even seemed remotley relevant to the story or plot. While I can see this group helping him explore his powers the book completely failed to to really capitlize on that in any meaningful way.
This group even goes with him to find beth but he abandons them and his micro power group is not invovled in anyway so what was the point of that?
The characters i didnt care for. They were boring and cliche in so many ways. The angry teenager rebelling against authority. The small loner kid that no one wants to hang out with. Despite the tragedy these characters have in their life Card really failed to make me care about them in any meaningful way.
It really felt like Card was going for the most evil thing he could think of, a child porn sex trafficing ring as the villian but then completely failed to really explore the impact and trauma this caused on our characters. We spent virtually no time with the victims during their captivity and all our time with ezekiel and those looking for the victims leaving the story flat, bland and boring.
If we just had some POV chapters from the victims expierence it might have made a huge difference to the outcome of the book and quality of the writing.
All in all this was just a bad book. Did not like it at all
Contains spoilers
This is the 4th and final book of the Hyperion Cantos series. I definitely enjoyed it more than Endymion as a lot of unexplained things from Endymion are explained in this final book of the cantos and I have very little if any critiques.
The book follows our 2 main character, Anea and Raul (Endymion) as they return from old earth which had been taken away and hidden in another galaxy by the “lions tigers and bears”
Raul tells his story from his shroedengers prison in orbit around a empty world. This is his prison for 13 or so months. He is in complete isolation in a small orbital box which is set to release poison in his air if the right quantum particle is detected. Telling his story is the only way he can remain sane.
Anea has basically been set up as Jesus Christ figure with Endymion as her diciple/lover.
Anea is tasked with basically redeeming mankind by introducing death and mortality and destroying the Catholic church and the pax control over humanity. She is a fusion of the AI ultimate intellegence aka god and humanity and the carrier of a genetic nano virus that is contained in her blood. This nano virus seeks out and destroys the cruciform which acts as a tool of ressurection and growing the techno cores control over humanity via the church.
Essentially this book is a time travelling jesus preaching the gospel gaining diciples. Allegorical in nature and a kind of twisted dark anit-christ type alternate version. This one bringing death instead of life and rather than the cross or cruciform being a symbol of faith the destruction and rejection of it being the symbol of faith.
The sacrement of the wine mixed with her literal blood to bring about this viral change in her followers and eventual self sacrifice by the authorities of the day but they ultimatley fail to stop the spread of Anea's message.
All throughout her mission she speaks of the void which binds powered by the force of love. Love being that powerful force which gives us the means to thrive in the one life we have.
I loved the anti-christ-christ sort of a dark christ story telling that can almost be viewed as a scathing rebuke of the religious ideology and mind set. Almost to suggest that rejection of religion is what brings love, compassion and care for all.
Overall I loved this book!! The angle from which it tells this clearly relious story is really intriguing read and capture my imagination at least! 5 stars for me easily.
I love quantum theory and Niels Bohr and Max Planck are giants in the field. These 2 essentially revolutionized physics and fundelmentally changed our understanding. Because of quantum theory we have modern tech and micro processors
While I love the subject matter and recognize the contribution of these 2 great minds of science this book was really not written for the layman and is geared towards the scientific community.
Perhaps it is my own very basic understanding of quantum theory but I had a hard time following and understanding this book. That is the only reason I am giving it 2 stars.
I would give thus 3.7 stars if I could but of course that is not an option on good reads so rounded up to 5 stars.
I liked this one more than tower of swallows for sure. Paticularily Ciri's story line and her jumping through time and worlds which for me was a really awesome aspect of the story.
Andrzej sapowski is good and creating characters you care about for our primary characters anyway. Ciri, Yennifer and Geralt. Secondary characters such as Dandelion, Vilgefortz, Triss etc... I found were people That just were not that interesting as characters. They were not bad characters I am just nuetral on them.
This book could have dropped the entire last chapter and I dont feel it would have made much of a difference to the overall story arc of the book. Just having Ciri, Yennifer, and Geralt be re-united in the end without all the extra stuff would have been more than enough for me.
Overall however a good read and the witcher book series as a whole is pritty decent. Good story. The writing style is ok.
Endymion by Dan simmons. I just finished this one today and gave this one 3/5 stars
Some aspects of it I didn't like or the book failed to really explain in a way that makes any sense
Like why do the farcaster portals only activate for Aenea when the network was, at least in theory, destroyed.
If the AI techno core is connected to her and activating it for her, and have this ability why have they left the farcasters dormant for nearly 300 yrs
A planet with a frozen atmosphere, and on the top of said atmosphere its a near vacumme which my impressiom was like the moon, which has a near true vacume (as even space is not a perfect vacumme and has some particles of matter and the solar wind) has a wind one can feel blowing
The constant death and ressurrection cycles becomes redundant etc... but at the same time raised the stakes for Aenea, Endymion and Android bettik as they are mortal and not “of the cross” while their enemy can just keep being ressurrected
Its not all bad. The catholic church taking over the galaxy with the cruciform parasite was a interesting development that I enjoyed.
Contains spoilers
For a star wars book it was ok. I want to give it 2.5 stars but since I cant pick half a star we will leave it at 3 stars
Jacen continues to slide to the “dark side” of the force and memories of the old with lord's surface with the force choke used for the first time in this particular star wars book series.
Family loyalties continue to be tested between luke, mara and Ben as well as han, leia and jacen.
One little thing that seemed to be kind useless and pointless was when Ben decided he needed to arrest han and leia. He decides this in the middle of a battle when they are trying to survive. I mean why wait till mid battle if they were all aboard the falcon why wouldn't he have decided to do this before? It just made no sense for the timing and seemed a rather pointless thing to insert into the story at that time.
Overall it was ok. Not terrible but not great
Contains spoilers
This is the final book in the Witcher book Series by Andrzej Sapowski. The Witcher TV Series on netflix and the games are based on this series of books.
The series follows The Witcher Geralt as he goes around the world seeking out monsters to kill for hire. A magically enhanced human that is also feared, hated, and mistrusted by the common folk despite the fact that he kills the monsters that are killing their friends and families.
Season of Storms starts out with a good old fashion monster killing from the start of the story only for our Witcher, Geralt to find him self being arrested on trumped up charges all so that a group of the worlds sorcerers could blackmail him effectively into hunting down one of their own.
During his captivity in prison Geralt discovers his famed swords have been stolen and must find a way to get them back, all the while hunting down a powerful sorcerer without his most trusted weapons.
Overall I really enjoyed this book. From start to finish there was action, adventure and fun through out. A classic Witcher story all around.
I found this books plot and story line easier to follow than others in the Witcher series and for that reason I found I enjoyed it much more than other in the series. There was not a lot of jumping between view points and characters in the other books.
I do find it interesting to note that despite its 1100-1300 era setting religion itself does not seem to play much of a role in this world. Many of the characters talk with a secular scientific mind set which I found refreshing for a book that is set in a world modeled after our own worlds history.
However some things within the book just didn't make sense to me. Near the end of the book there is a scene where a sudden storm comes upon our characters almost without warning (there is some mention of a storm coming) and with such high ferocity it's power nearly destroyed and entire town. Then just as quickly it ended in barely any time at all.
This happened with no explanation, no suggestion of magic and seems to almost come out of no where with no explanation and ended just a quickly, There seemed to be no point to this scene as I did not feel it contributed to the overall story arc in any way.
Of note, Ciri of Cintra does not make an appearance in this book, while she is present is all the other books. Ciri being one of my favorite characters from this series, it was disappointing that she was not included in this story somehow.
Overall 3.8 stars, rounded to 4 stars since I can't do partial star
Terry goodkind as usual writes a fast paced story with plenty of excitement going on, however he can still have a very black and white character's that are clearly good guys or bad guys.
He does have some controversial ideas within his writings such as men getting raped by women and the politics of imperialism to bring liberty and freedom to the world at sword point. Sometimes pushing the boundaries and wading into controversial ideas can make for good writing regardless of which side you are on.
But overall I still enjoyed it and will continue to read his books
Marvin, ex-hitman is forced to come out of retirement to protect his family
I really enjoyed this book overall and recommend it if you like high stakes, action adventure hitman style stories, and while I am more a sci-fi fantasy reader mostly I did enjoy this one over all
The characters are believable, and the writing keeps you interested to see how things will get resolved. And the ending sets up book 3 really well!
well worth the read
To be honest I am a bit split on how I feel about this book.
The cover does not seem to really portray the story which seem to be more focused on #cirillaofcintra than #GeraltOfRivia who while had some part in the story was really more of a backdrop to the story than any main plot or story.
The writing at times was good but at other times kind of boring and found my attention wavering. Some of the politcal plot lines I found really didn't add much of anything of value.
However the story of Ciri's capture by bounty hunters, her eventual escape, finding of shelter, and eventual finding of the tower of swallows was certainly a good read, but really could of done without the rest.
3/5 stars on good reads. Didnt love it but didnt hate it. Will be posting a video review tomorrow
Contains spoilers
This is the sequel to the Handmaids Tale and is 5 stars in my books. PRAISED BE!! indeed
The book is written in 1st person narrative from the view point of 3 different characters.
Infamous Aunt lydia who, before Gilead was a family court judge. She ingratiates herself to the new goverment to become a founding member of the Aunts. Using her position she becomes in effect a double agent helping the underground and mayday organization.
Agnes. June's (aka Offred) daughter that was taken from her when she became a handmaid and raised by a foster family. The story chronicles her journey of self discovery, expirences and eventual joining of the Aunts to escape an arranged marriage. She learns the truth of her true parentage
Baby Nicole who was rescued from Gilead and sent to canada by her mother June (aka offred) and raised by foster parents under a false identity. She has become a symbol and rallying call for Gilead as a symbol of injustice and the rest of the world as a symbol of opression, tyranny and all that is wrong with Gilead. Nicole herself was raised with no knowledge of her true identity till her foster parents are killed in a car bomb and she becomes Gileads only hope.
These 3 stories intersect in a poweful way to bring the story to a incredible conclusion 35 yrs in the making.
An amazing and incredible read. 5 stars
What a wild ride through space time and the fabric of the cosmos.
Once again Brian Greene has given us a fascinating read into the nature of reality as we ride the waves of space time history.
This books takes us through the history of quantum mechanics and development of string theory and is a must read for the science enthusiast
Contains spoilers
Dream riders.
Imagine being able to enter a persons mind while they dream? Then not just watching their dream but activley being able to manipulate and control what a person dreams?
That is the awesome power that Corey and Marci have and it attracts some unwanted attention. Not just from encentric unstable millionaires but from the very demons that haunt our worse nightmares.
I love the concept of this book and story and it has a lot of potential to be expanded into a multi book series. The dreamworld is a place where reality ceases to exist and our minds can delve into the impossible and non sensical. The possiblities are limitless and I think Taylor Kole has tapped into a very intriguing idea here.
One thing however that I think could have made the story better is spending more time establishing the Dream Riding business as our main characters Corey and Marci seem to get into their trouble after essentially 1 client. This seemed to be a bit too quick for me and establishing dream riding and how it works a bit more, at least for me, would have made the story better. But then I like getting into in depth details of how things work within a story. Thats just my personal preference and by no means a reflection on the writers style.
Now for the characters.
Corey tends to see things in a more spiritual supernatural view point believing the demons to be reality and apart from the minds of the dreamers. This makes him fearful and I think irrational in his desire to avoid dream riding with those who seem to have these demons.
This seems to stem from his background in philosphy dealing with the intangible ideas
Marci by contrast is the more scientfically minded and views these demons as nothing more than essentailly figments of the dreamers mind. She is more focused on the money and success that can come from dream riding which blinds her to the danger they are facing till its too late.
Walter. A maniacle rich lunatic. He discovers the power of dreamriding and wants to control it for himself. He is a man with a massive ego and takes rejection as a personal assault. His self interest motivated desire over rules his reason leading to his eventual demise.
Overall the characterization was Ok. They were not terrible but they also werent in depth, this in no way makes them bad or poorly written characters neccessarily. The behaved exactly as I would expect them to.
When their daughter was kidnapped they were naturally worried and angry but aside from the reading being told thats how they felt their was not alot within to book showing thats how they felt. Perhaps some emotional tear filled scenes between marci and corey, sleepless nights or a few scenes of their own nightmares about their daughter. Maybe with the demon from walts dreams present.
A few scenes from their daughters perspective and what she was going through, crying for her parents etc... would for me certainly enhance the story. Or maybe a scene where Corey and Marci get into their daughters dream from distance using the parental bond as some kind of bridge without physical cotnact etc..
I think this sort of thing would have gone a long way to improving the story and help the reader more effectively empathize with the characters and what they were going through.
But in the end I don't think the story needed extensive characterization and in depth backgrounds neccessarily. I feel like this book sets the stage for further dream riding stories and with that further character development. This is a good starting point. And I feel like there is a lot of potential behind this concept and this book as a launching point for a series.
If more Dreamriding books are written I look forward to seeing Marci and Corey develop as characters and how dream riding influences that developement.
Overall 3 stars. Great story. Excellent concept. Lots of potential.
Contains spoilers
Rogue sith/jedi clone hybrids going mad with the force.
Alien space stations hell bent on killing you and general mayhem. Overall a good read with lots of action.
Typical star wars book with the good vs. Evil dynamic. For a full review visit my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkUMtTLktLQ9BrbI0LRJVdg