Rob
There's nothing worse about this than any of the other books in this series, but after a while they get so same-y that I've never managed to actually finish book 3. Book 4 remains wholly untapped for me.
The only Stephenson worth reading, and even so its desperate attempts to be hip will irritate you the whole way through. Some good stuff buried underneath it, though.
Books 1-5 are awesome. Books 6-10 are... less awesome. The series kind of goes off the rails after the first half.
I read this a while ago. Realized I only had digital stuff on my Goodreads shelves.
Astro City is kind of a “what if superheroes, but day to day” comic. I'm not much of a comics guy and even less of a superhero guy, but this one hits me just right. Not every issue is about the superheroes; some are about the people who live in the same world as they do.
There are almost as many superhero genre deconstructions as there are superhero series these days, but this is one of the gems.
Pretty standard Sedaris, and whether I enjoy that or not is a matter of mood. Like all of his books, it's in turn funny and upsetting.
Very weird series that gets weirder and more difficult to read as it goes on. Does depart some from most fantasy – instead of standard “low status guy ends up high status,” this one starts with a high status character.
Where cyberpunk got started. Even knowing that, you'll be shocked by how much other cyberpunk steals wholesale from Gibson.
Fun, pretty pulp. Don't think this deserves the hype it gets. Its central conceit isn't especially interesting if you're well-read in science fiction.
This is such a weird series. The prose is mediocre, the mechanics are trite and the plot is slow. But it is an amazing series that explores some unique ideas I've never seen addressed anywhere else, and it's worth reading at least once.
I am also a sucker for stories with epic histories and epic-sounding names, and “The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever and White Gold Wielder” does it for me.
