Scott

A quick read, somewhat fun and interesting. I found it hard to connect with any players involved with the stories. Could be just a bit of envy keeping me from investing. I have been on a bit of a poker strategy book bend as of late, so SIHB was a nice break from sample hand problems, and M vs Q scenarios.

Not a beginners book, but topics covered are useable by all levels of player. This is not a how-to play ABC poker type book, but rather a outline of how to get over your poker plateaus, and to become a better player. It's a coaches guideline, for developing your own poker training feedback loops.

I kinda felt the first few chapters which described two different arch-type (easy-going vs hyper-obsessive) poker players, and then made a sweeping judgement about which of the two would be better in the future (hint: hyper-obsessive), did not match up with later chapters that seemed to stress the balanced and even keeled way of approaching poker. I guess I could have mis-read / misunderstood the theme such that the hyper-obsessive WITH a structured plan of attack would be the better player in the future. This makes sense in looking back, but did not seem to be what was impressed upon me while reading. Either way, it was a quick read, and has actionable items any player can take from chapter 1 to get better at poker.

I will have to read this again after some practice.

I had forgotten how much the butcher's bill was from my first read.

First reading: After reading the previous two books to get back into the series, I was blown away at how much I liked this collaboration. I am now looking forward to the last two in the series, and not just looking to finish it off to have it done with.

Second reading: I found that I was really annoyed with Rand's story line, and was engrossed in Egwene's. Of course Mat is still my favorite.

As others have stated, not a lot of stuff happening, but was a nice refresher for me to get back into the series after near a decade since I read book 9. Was surprised about how much I had forgotten.

Fun read. Towards the end I found it easy to get lost in the story, not so much at the beginning, so give it a bit to grab you.

Interesting filler story, imagine it could be a nice frame work to build a novel from. The characters seemed to be just slices of other more fleshed out characters from the Enderverse. I will have to check out the longer version shortly.

Finished this a few days ago, and I can't get over the last few pages. I will refrain from talking about them in this review, however it did kinda pull me out of the story.

This book is six sub stories which tangentially touch and mesh with each other, wrapped up in a overall story which drives the plot forward. Each of the six sub stories seems to be written in different styles. classic sci-fi-eqsue, mystery-like, pseudo-military, etc etc. Switching between styles of writing broke up the book into easily digestible snack sizes.

I got the feeling that this book was mostly a precursor to the real story which I have yet to read. I will get to the others in the series some time in the near future, but I don't have an overwhelming need to open the next book.

This entire series was a fun ‘brain-candy' read, the characters did seem a bit “superman”-ish at times. I enjoyed the fight scenes.

Was an interesting (to me) bio book.

I read this back when it came out on K5 and have skimmed it a few times since. Even on the 4th time reading it keeps my attention and is a fast read.

Probably my last read (2024), the AGI and build up to the singularity were interesting, but think this time around the characters seemed shallow.

A person that lives to over a hundred in the Before World, and then another 600 years in cyberspace, should learn forgiveness.

I am amazed at how young all the characters feel, knowing how far they will progress over the rest of the books.

I thought I was just having a fun re-read of a quick novel of my youth. Now I have to question all my memories. I have been living a lie for the past two decades. I could have sworn I had read this in high-school, and was not too impressed. Must have been just a cognitive mishmash of 90's “Cyber” media frenzy piled over memories of “Johnny Mnemonic”. shrug

Still feels like the novel is aimed a target audience, which I am no longer a part of, but was a fun read. Will have to re-re-visit for real this time in a couple years to see how it might grow on me.


2025-re-re-visit. it got better.

My 5 star review is probably way over inflated since this book has a very special place in my past. The book is mostly just hard copy man pages with a smattering of advice. This book caught my eye before I knew “what to look for”, and I managed to read the entire book in a single cramming session for a job interview the night before. I got the job, and learned a lot about UNIX at the same time. I don't think that would be the best use of your time if you were in the same situation.

I have re-read this book at least 3 times in the past 8 years. It is part of my ritual of “getting back into go” when the desire hits me to play. This series and the graded go problems for beginners really help drill in the basics and get me ready to do deeper reading.

I liked this one more the 4th or 5th time I have read it. I can better tell how RJ was laying the ground work still.

Old Review:
Rand fumbles around with becoming a leader/Lord. Perrin is mostly quite in this tome. Mat eventually is my favorite character, but still seems too much of a whiner atm.

Some interesting and poignent prose, however did not draw me into the characters. The alternating short chapters do remind me of a game of Go, however the use of Go as a plot device, or a framing of the story is a bit thin. I might have to re-visit this book at a later day, to see if I change my mind. It was a quick read.

I have read this book more than a couple times now, and as I get older the various story lines hit differently.

Used to be Miro's story held my attention, and now the whole family dynamics seem more interesting. The characters do seem less fleshed out, singular in features.

I read this book in a single sitting, and it was an easy read. I played out all the 9x9 and 19x19 games on a board and noticed a few problems with the kifu /diagrams but nothing that lead me astray from the lesson. I mostly wanted to get a comparison of this book to the first two vols from the “Learn to Play Go” series by Janice Kim and Jeong Soo-hyun. Having just finished these two books I thought it would good to see how other intro books covered the topics.

For me I found this book is a bit harder to follow. It seemed terse at times and regularly makes references to diagrams which are on other pages than the text. That being said, I did enjoy the flow of the book, and the middle chapters which cover topics outside of the actual playing of the game were very interesting. Towards the end of the book there are a few full games with in-line analysis which I found helpful to drive home the points from earlier chapters.

Overall I think I might be too spoiled on how well the first two Vols of the “Learn to play Go” series have lead me along. I would lean towards the “Learn to play go” series if I had to choose between those books and this book, but my preference is mostly based on my need to be guided/prodded more.

Having read this a few times, the Battle of Dumai's Wells still hits.