John Hamm

An excellent follow up to The Poppy War. I will leave out a synopsis of the story as it might spoil the first one. Kuang gave more detail to the characters from the original as well as introducing a whole new set of people that were a nice metaphor towards the real world. I know she mirrored The Poppy War to China during WWII and after realizing that it enhanced this series quite a bit. I can't wait to read the final installment. I would highly recommend this series and R.F. Kuang as an author to anyone!

Holly Gibney returns to solve another compelling crime. Holly is a remarkable character but just doesn’t carry the book for me. The main plot point is far fetched for a crime novel. The horror aspects are unsettling at times but aren’t very haunting.

A decent book but not one of King’s best.

An informative and rather quick way to get up to speed on the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict and even covers up to 'The Deal of the Century'. There are a string of 'The Shortest History...' books and would like to dive into those as well.

A great deep dive into some of the lore of Earthsea with delightful stories.

Pros:
Enticing novellas/novelettes that comprise the book.
A nice description of history and culture at the beginning/end.
Awesome themes and lessons throughout this collection of tales.

Cons:
One maybe two stories weren't the best.

Great world building book. Very well written with a satisfying story.