Kate
This series was so engrossing that I found myself swearing “Tir's guts” when I accidentally hammered my finger. The main character, Paks, starts off as an ignorant yet smart and capable sheepfarmer's daughter who signs up for a mercenary company. The first book is heavy on military strategy and the details of campaigns and such, but the characters are strong, especially Paks. I really enjoyed seeing her gain skills and learn about her world.
I also loved that Paks was determined to be a soldier, and this doesn't make her any less of a woman. The muscles and scars from her training are simply a fact of life.
The second book begins to build the world a bit more, and we're introduced to the elves, dwarves, and others - probably the best version of these fantastical creatures that I've read so far.
I liked that Paks wasn't “the chosen one” or at least how that storyline usually goes. She isn't important because of her bloodline or fulfilling a prophecy of some sort but rather she has to work extremely hard to do what she does.
I highly recommend!
After finishing this, the author still sounds like kind of a terrible person, and book sounds like the product of his own get-rich scheme. “Read this detailed how-to book to find out to make MILLIONS by... selling detailed how-to books!”
That said, there were some helpful things:
First, by reading about how he manipulates other people (e.g. telling a long winded colleague that he (Ferriss) has a phone call in 5 minutes) you'll learn how to recognize it when it's done to you. Secondly, the details of how to organize an autonomous company and how to live abroad cheaply actually seemed like good information.
So, I would recommend starting half-way through where these details begin and to check out the book from your local library, lest you give Timothy Ferriss more of your money.
I'm not sure how this book is so split between excellent reviews and poor ones. The negative reviews often describe the author as arrogant and narcissistic; he's certainly introspective, as is appropriate in a memoir (I wonder what these same reviewers would say about Thoreau), but I don't see the arrogance. The author doesn't shy away from negative depictions of himself. Compared to his new Amish-style neighbors, he's weak, ignorant, and incompetent in his new lifestyle, but he seems to realize this.He doesn't say explicitly, “I was an idiot”, or “I'm full of regret about that.” One wonders whether the other reviewers are products of a laugh-track culture that can't figure out for themselves what's supposed to be funny or self-deprecating. For example, one tongue-in-cheek remark occurred when the author and his wife were having their first child and they went to a local store to buy baby supplies. The cash register rang up over $100, a large sum in their circumstances. He says, “Mary [his wife] looked at me. I looked at Mary. Didn't she know that the baby items were the mother's responsibility? ‘Can't you use your credit card?' I asked.” Do these reviewers actually think that he made his wife put it on their credit card, because it's the “mother's responsibility”? If that were really the case, he wouldn't think it was worth talking about. It's a joke, people, about them not having money. Perhaps a poor joke, but I'd hate to live in a world where every joke has to be explained in great detail, lest it offend.That said, I would have liked to hear more of Mary's perspective, of what it like being a woman in Amish country. The author does seem oddly incurious about this, as well as silent on what had originally attracted him to Mary. I can't help but compare this book to another experimental memoir which I really enjoyed, [b: The Dirty Life 7841677 The Dirty Life On Farming, Food, and Love Kristin Kimball https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1277929135s/7841677.jpg 10935145], in which a journalist from New York City marries a relatively new farmer and they start a CSA farm together from scratch. There, the romance between the two and their joint efforts on the farm get much more emotional attention, and poetic nature of that book seems more fitting. Still, there were some really interesting points made about the roles of men and women. Brende said at one point, “The word house-husband is redundant. Of course! This startling thought came to me as I reached for the hand pump. The ‘hus-‘ from ‘husband' is simply the Old English form of the word ‘house,' while ‘band' means ‘bound.' The man who stays at home to work is returning to a long-forgotten calling preserved in the language like a fossil. There is no linguistic need to add the extra ‘house.' “All in all, it's definitely worth reading, but I would suggest reading [b: The Dirty Life 7841677 The Dirty Life On Farming, Food, and Love Kristin Kimball https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1277929135s/7841677.jpg 10935145] and [b: The Unsettling of America 146191 The Unsettling of America Culture and Agriculture Wendell Berry https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1363657372s/146191.jpg 1984458] before this one.
This book was full of hate, liberally spread throughout the characters toward the opposite gender. I finished the book angry, but not sure where that anger should be directed.
Tepper's world is post-apocalyptic, after a world war which has caused society to revert back to village life. However, this society is different than the one we know - it's a matriarchy where the women are the scholars and leaders, and the men have the choice to either live as warriors outside the village walls excluded from society, or to live with the women subserviently.
It was really interesting to see the traditional roles of men and women reversed in the household. Some of the household men were just as intelligent, brave, and dedicated as some of the women. Some of the men and women were silly and useless. Yet, even the best men seemed to be... lesser. I have been trying to figure out why. Was it simply the flat characterization of those men? Was it the structure of society itself, and the assumption that women would lead? Was it something inherent in the “helper” role that the household men had?
As a thought experiment, the book does an excellent job. I didn't see the book as an accurate mirror of society however, and the level of animosity in the book seems unnecessary.
I could tell which text was the padding that pushed it just over 300 pages. Very little of the book made sense.
[mild spoilers] There were a lot of things I didn't like about this book, but it's well worth a read.
First, the main character starts to think through her own religion, complete with scripture verses. I had a hard time taking the verses seriously, since they were so broad as to be meaningless. Second, the romances seemed forced and awkward. Still, there's a ton to think about, especially in the meaning of community and its relevance today.
Seemed very interesting, but a major part of the book was explaining exactly why it is so hard to reform government software, and in the current climate, it made it too depressing to read. Maybe I'll revisit later.
I felt really detached from this book, like I didn't particularly care about the characters or their motivations.
Henry has this hyperbolic way of writing where everyone is as extreme as possible. It just seems lazy and produces flat characters. For instance, Peter: he has a huge house! his family is wealthy! he eats extremely healthy! etc etc. Do we ever really know what motivates Peter? Can we see someone we know in him? I don't think so, and that's just bad writing.
The story was cute but the actual reading was a slog.
