Executive Summary: Dark, yet somehow not bleak. This book is in easily in contention for one of my favorite reads of the year. Not to be missed.
Audio book: This was first time listening to a book narrated by Robin Miles. She does a fine job, and is a good fit for the story. She speaks clearly and was easy to hear.
I put her into the above average category, such that while she didn't really add to the story to make this a must listen she doesn't get in the way of the story either, such that listening to this book is a good option in my opinion, but not a must listen.
Full Review
This is now the third book of Ms. Jemisin I've gotten from a daily deal. I never got around to trying either of her previous two series, but after enjoying this one so much, they have definitely moved up in my queue.
All of my friends were raving about this book earlier this year, but if not for a daily deal, I might have overlooked it. I'm glad I didn't.
It will be hard to put into words exactly why I loved this book so much without massive spoilers to the plot. Suffice to say, this book was excellently written.
The book starts off rather dark and that gave me pause, yet somehow Ms. Jemisin sucked me into the narrative so completely that I was never really bothered by it. It's not all bleakness either. Much like life there are ups and downs, albeit maybe more downs than many people experience in a lifetime.
The stories of Damaya, Syenite, and Essun were all engaging, and intermixed in a perfect way that while you hated to step away from one story, you were always just as happy to return to another.
The world building is really fascinating to me too. I have a lot of questions lingering at the end, that I hope will be addressed in the later volumes. The magic is unique and interesting. That's getting harder and harder these days. Normally I like well explained and structured magic systems the best. In this case however the mystery of the magic system and sense of discovery as the book goes on worked really well for me.
This book is full of social commentary, that may turn some people away who just want a “fun” story. It's their loss. I think Ms. Jemisin does a great job of exploring issues relevant to our own world while telling an incredibly engaging and entertaining story. In fact some of the things were so well done, that I didn't notice them at first, or didn't really give the much thought until after stopping for the day.
This review doesn't do this excellent book justice. I rarely give books five stars though, so that should hopefully give some idea.
This is a refreshing book in an oversaturated fantasy market. I hope the next two can live up to bar set by this one. In the meantime I might have to make some time to check out some of Ms. Jemisin's previous work, especially since I own the first book of each of her last two series.
This ain't your father's comics.
I read this awhile back (sometime before the movie). It's dark and more realistic than typical comics, in that no one really has any super powers. That doesn't stop people from tossing on a mask and trying to be a super hero. The characters are far more flawed than the normal comic heroes that preceded this book.
I think this book changed comics forever.
Executive Summary: A fascinating and terrifying look at the darker underbelly of the internet and identity theft.Full ReviewI consider myself fairly knowledgeable about computers and the internet. Computer Security has never really been my thing though. Yet for whatever reason I find reading books about computer crime fascinating.This book is no different. Kevin Poulsen has turned himself from one-time hacker into a leader in covering computer security. I occasionally read some of his articles on Wired. I like getting the take of someone whose been there before on things. It seems like he's good about not just presenting the facts, but the reasons behind them. He really gets into Max Butler's head a little and presents a more complete picture than you might get from a different author.I had read a little here and there about carding over the years, and I had vague recollections about the Dark Market, but I never really knew any of the details behind that bust. When comparing law enforcement in this book to that of [b:The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage 18154 The Cuckoo's Egg Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage Clifford Stoll https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1399480676s/18154.jpg 19611] it's like night and day. Of course 20 years have passed, but they really had some clever approaches to tracking and eventually capturing some big players in the cyber crime world.It's scary to learn just how easy it was and continues to be for people to steal your credit card information, and that the credit industry in the US refuses to change magnetic strips simply because of the upfront cost to replace the machines is so high they prefer to deal with the cost associated with the theft instead. I don't know what it will take to finally force a change, but meanwhile innocent consumers continue to have their lives upended by it.I didn't find this book too technical, though given my background, I'm usually a bad judge of these things. I think anyone who understands the basics of the internet would be able to follow along. It's really more a character study of Max Butler and others than it is a detailed account of how he did it.Overall another fascinating read.
Executive Summary: This is definitely one of the weaker books in the series so far, and there are a large number of pages where it feels like very little happens. I'm still enjoying my reread, but I know that things will only get slower before they finally pick back up again.Audiobook: Doing this book in audio is pretty much a must for me now. I don't think I'd have managed to read it very quickly otherwise. Micheal Kramer and Kate Reading are fantastic as always.Full ReviewThis book should maybe be renamed The Path of Squabbles. There is so much pointless bickering at times, it really bogs part of the book down.There are a few very big plot developments here, one near the beginning, but most of them occur near the end. That leaves a lot of pages in between where I was left wondering what the point of some of these chapters were.And if that's not bad enough, Mat was completely missing. We got a lot of him in the last book, and he seems to like to take time away, much like he did with Perrin in [b:The Fires of Heaven 13895 The Fires of Heaven (Wheel of Time, #5) Robert Jordan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327866286s/13895.jpg 588034].My other problem is that I find myself starting to get annoyed by many of the characters. I think my affection for many of them at different parts of the series helps carry me through, but I feel like a lot of this could have been edited down.I'm still enjoying my reread, but I'm dreading the next two books a little bit. Of course the end of this book left me eager to pick up the next one soon, but that's often the case with this series, even in the weakest books.
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