John

An enjoyable read in a novel high fantasy setting, but not a very satisfying ending. I did enjoy the parallel stories, depicting events in two different timelines with many of the same characters, one telling the story of how they met, which the other tells of their adventures in the present. There were queer relationships throughout the book, but they were present and unremarkable, which was both nice and unusual. It was also fascinating that while the main character jumped into several bodies through the story, several of them female, the main character maintains a male perspective without really commenting much on the physical aspects of the body he is inhabiting (which makes sense after one learns of his true form). Ultimately, though, this read like an introductory book, setting up the first part of the bigger story. I sure hope there are more books featuring these characters yet to come, since I did enjoy their company during my reading.

I enjoyed the story, but I did not feel it was one of Scalzi’s better books. While the world building was imaginative and at times amusing, the main character was nearly entirely a puppet throughout the narrative. Things happened to him, he was never really in control of his situation. And it’s sad because I often felt he was on the edge of making his own way in the really messed up world he was trust into, and was disappointed with how he ended up. I honestly don’t understand how this made the Hugo finalists list.

I just finished “The Kuiper Belt Job” by David D. Levine. Quite satisfying! It's a Space Opera wrapped around a puzzle box of heists and capers, with a mystery that kept me guessing till near the very end. Each section of the novel was narrated by a different member of the crew, adding their insights, suspicions, and past experiences to the narrative, and was very well executed. I enjoyed it quite a lot.

I found the book to be a quite enjoyable sci-fi political action space opera yarn full of twists and surprises. Just what I needed to push the Covid blahs away for a while. My only gripe is that the end of the book doesn't really wrap up anything. Rather, it pretty much ends setting up book 2. That said, major thumbs up!

An enjoyable cozy mystery set in a quaint Irish village. There were some stretches of imagination (the sleuth has 4 school-age siblings who work in the family bistro and never attend school?), but overall well written. Enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing, and an answer that is obvious only in hindsight. I look forward to reading more books in the series.