Evru

I honestly did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did. I suppose I'd grown a bit cynical about Rothfuss' writing and now I'm feeling a bit silly for having done so. This story reminded me why I fell in love with The Name of the Wind in the first place. Yes, the way he crafts words is excellent, but more than that its just a truly heartfelt story. I can't think of a single thing I would change about it.

Great for fans who want to learn more about Bast, but also is a great standalone short story that doesn't rely on any foreknowledge of the world.

On the one hand, I love a good alien that is truly, deeply alien to humans. On the other, I do believe this is the single most hopeless take on humanity's future that I've ever read. (Even out of all of the Tchaikovsky I've read, including Cage of Souls.) Very good, very interesting, very depressing. I think I'll skip rereading this one in favor of retaining some hope for the future.

I was very skeptical going into this book, as it's not my usual fare. However Hunt's thoughtful insights turn a potentially dry book into a wonderful exploration of humanity and our relationship with the worlds beneath our feet. An extremely well done book that I push on anyone within earshot.

Enjoyable and a generally cozy mystery. If you enjoyed the preceding Alex Benedict novels you'll provably enjoy this one, too.

That being said it's also bizarrely unimaginative. My feeling at the end was "Oh, okay. Huh. That's... fine, I guess." A few key plot points felt forced for the convenience of the author rather than making sense for the characters. Overall not one of McDevitt's best works.

Very well written. I quite enjoyed the ending, even though I almost gave up on the book once or twice.

Honestly, its mostly a book about miserable people being miserable to each other. Area X spends most of the book as a backdrop to the petty scheming in the dysfunctional government agency of the Southern Reach.

Bob et al are back in the groove. Book 4 felt a bit clunky in terms of restarting plot lines. Not Till We Are Lost feels like we're back on track with all the antics the various Bobs are up to. Another great adventure awaits!

This feels more like “alternate universe Castle and Beckett” than “a book written by Castle.” Avoiding spoilers, I can't imagine the character of Richard Castle actually writing this book.

That being said, its still an enjoyable read.

Its fine. Its not the funniest book you'll ever read, nor the most exciting, the most intriguing, the most insightful, or most interesting. But its fine.\n I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend this book to anyone, bjt I also wouldn't go out of my way to dissuade anyone from reading it.

Its a fast, easy read, and pretty accessible for non-sci-fi focused readers.\n The most interesting character is a supporting role that gets a pretty short amount of page time. Everyone else is pretty flat / cookie cutter.\n I don't regret my time reading it, but I also don't feel like it would be worth my time to continue the series.\nIts fine.

The author does a lot of “telling” and not a lot of “showing”. For as hefty a tome as this is, it still feels over-scoped. There's just too much the author wants to get through so he spends too little time on any of it.

Unfortunately incredibly boring. Stuck with it until the main character met an alien and treated it with the same level of interest as they did using a zero-gee toilet.

Less a gothic novel about libraries and witches and vampires and more just a slightly steamy romance novel. Cool if you're into that sort of thing I guess but not really my cup of tea. There's also daemons which... I guess are just artsy people? Super under-explained.

Hoping for a basic introduction to the tenets and ideas of Buddhism, this “Beginner's Guide” assumes you've already decided to become Buddhist and are looking for tips on how to choose a temple and lama to study under. Very little actual info on what Buddhism is about, just how to deal with the admin of practicing.

Yeesh. Really wanted this to be better. The premise sounds so good and the result is so lame. Space incel unbound by the first law of thermodynamics makes shitty, stupid choices and then re-enacts Total Recall. That's pretty much the summary. Gave up when he “totally didn't actually go into the simulation” and the coming plot twist was blatantly obvious.