Rob

Story
At first this had a bit of a Stranger Things vibe. A group of 4 preteens riding around on bikes in the eighties. However once the story got going, the similarities ended there.

So far the premise has been pretty good. I'm really curious what is going on and why. I'm glad I can jump right into the second volume, because I have a TON of questions.

Artwork
I think the artwork on this is pretty good. It's not as good as Saga, but still pretty well done. The colors are a bit confusing at times. Everything has a sort of blue or pink overtone to it. It's good, but different from most comics I've read.

Executive Summary: A strong start with an alright finish. I liked the book as is, but probably would have enjoyed it more as a Cyber thriller rather than a sci-fi book. 3.5 stars

Full Review
I picked this book up on a daily deal at some point and I had been planning to read it towards the Sword & Laser's Laser group challenge because I was behind on my pledge. Then they went and made it the November pick.

I've long held a fascination on the early days of computers, networks and the phone phreaks and hackers who found ways to manipulate them. I've read numerous nonfiction books on the subject, but very few fiction books. Most fictions books with hackers tend to become cyberpunk (which I also enjoy) but I'd like to see someone do a good take on modern day hacking akin to the first season of Mr. Robot.

Hacking has taken on a much more negative connotation these days, despite the idea of “White Hat”, “Gray Hat” or Hackavists, most people tend to automatically associate the term hacker with criminal. That isn't to say hackers aren't breaking laws, or that there are criminals who use computer savvy to commit crimes. The early hackers were more explorers and prankster than they were hardened criminal however.

One of the things I loved about this book is that Wendig covers pretty much all the common-day hackers. He's got an old guy from the earlier days of hacking, a hackivist, a carder, an internet troll, and a “script kiddie” among others.

They are all well flushed out too. It seems like Wendig knows his stuff when setting up the tech side. But this book isn't a cyber thriller. It's science fiction. That may not be apparent until pretty far into the book but it is.

While I enjoyed the second half of the book, I didn't like it as much as the first half. I think I might have liked it better if he had kept things a little more grounded in the science side of things.

That said, I may still pick up the second book in the series at some point because I'd like to see where he takes things next.

Executive Summary: An interesting story, but probably not the one I'd have preferred about Pixar. I also could have done without the last few chapters. 3.5 Stars.

Audiobook: This isn't the first book I've listened to that's been narrated by Bronson Pinchot, but I still always think of him as the wacky guy from Perfect Strangers. He really is an excellent narrator however. He reads with a good voice and doesn't get in the way of the book, which is what I always want most when listening to non-fiction.

Full Review
I got this book in a Humble Bundle titled: “Hackers, Gamers and Geeks”, so naturally I assumed it was going to be about the technology behind Pixar. I had no idea who Lawrence Levy was, and for good reason. I turns out his was Pixar's CFO.

That said, I still found the book to be well written and interesting. It mostly focuses on the financial side of things, including how Levy helped save the Pixar by helping Steve Jobs to its IPO, working to renegotiate a terrible deal Pixar had signed with Disney, and the eventual sale of the company to them.

There are a lot of interesting inside stories and some behind the scenes stuff on the early films, in particular Toy Story. There is very little on the creative aspect of the company however and even less on the technology side.

I probably wouldn't have bought this book on my own, especially if I knew it was about the financial side of Pixar's success, but I'm glad I read it. My only real complaint is he tries to tie everything together with the post Pixar career involving some kind of spiritualism or something. I don't know, I was only half paying attention by that point. It felt totally unrelated to the book, even though he said the philosophy is part of what made Pixar so successful. He would know better than I do, I just didn't find it very interesting.

Overall this was a good, but not great look at Pixar's rise to success. It has be revisiting some of my favorite Pixar films, and itching to find a book that covers the technology, or possibly the creative side of Pixar at some point in the future.

Executive Summary: A slow start, but a strong finish. Not as fun as his Bobiverse books, but still pretty enjoyable. 3.5 Stars.

Audiobook: Ray Porter once again does a good job. Even though this isn't a Bobiverse book, it feels as though it could be, and that may partially be due to the same narrator returning. He does a few accents and generally is just the type of narrator that adds to the book.

Full Review
There were some similar themes and ideas in this book. Our protagonist is a Software Engineer for one thing. I feel like it could almost be a prequel for his Bobiverse books. However this book is really it's own thing.

I wasn't sucked in right away like his last books. I think it's because it really took awhile for things to get setup. Once the main plot finally got going (much later in the book than I'd have liked) it became a lot more enjoyable.

It's not as funny as his other book, but there is a sort of lightness to the book despite the high stakes of the plot that makes this one of those palate cleanser books when you need something after a particularly hard or heavy story.

So far I've enjoyed all of Mr. Taylor's books, and despite him not writing another Bob book, he's shown to me that he's likely going to be an author whose books I'll continue to enjoy.

Executive Summary: This book is kind of all over the place at times, but it was really enjoyable and pretty funny. Part memoir, part advice book and part random thoughts.

Audiobook: This audiobook is fantastic. Not only does Amy Poehler do a great job narrating her own book, but the guest stars are excellent as well. I particularly enjoyed the chapter narrated by Seth Meyers and the chapter co-narrated by Michael Schur.

If you're going to read this book, I highly recommend going with the audio version.

Full Review
I've owned this book for awhile but I saw some mixed reviews because it wasn't a “humor” book, so I never rushed out to listen to it. I was in the mood for some non-fiction and finally decided to give it a try.

While I'd agree it's not a humor book, it is written by one of the funniest women on the planet so it's still pretty funny throughout. I loved Ms. Poehler on SNL and (although I was very late to the party) on Parks & Recreation.

There are some good stories about both shows in here, along with stuff on Upright Citizens Brigade and various other stops along the way. She talks a lot about her family and her kids, and offers her insights into how things work in hollywood and stand-up comedy. I enjoyed her chapters on P&R and SNL the best. There is also a chapter written by Seth Meyers which I enjoyed a lot.

She has a tendency to jump around in time, including interrupting one story to tell another, which could be a bit jarring at first, but I got used to it. The book is at times serious and other silly, but Ms. Poehler's personality comes through in each chapter.

Overall I found this an enjoyable book, and it makes me miss Parks & Recreation.

Executive Summary: This book finished a lot stronger than it started for me, but I struggled to finish it quickly despite its short length. 3.5 stars.

Full Review
I really like Myke Cole. I've liked him ever since he did an interview with Sword & Laser in 2013. I follow him on twitter. I really want to support his work.

I've actually listened to 4 of his books and thought most were just ok. When this series was announced I thought it'd be more of my liking, because it's more traditional fantasy and not the modern military fantasy of his previous work.

I still find myself struggling with these books at times. Both have finished much stronger than they start. Both are really well written. I'd say the easily the best books his written to date in terms of the quality of his prose, etc.

I used to read a lot of dark fantasy, but these days the appeal of that has dwindled to almost nothing. The world is dark enough most days, I'm not sure I need to spend my free time reading about horrible things happening to fictitious characters.

I like Heloise. I like the concept of the powered armor, and magic that summons demons if used too much/incorrectly. I don't like all the horrible people being horrible to each other almost nonstop. There are moments where you can catch your breath a little, but they are short lived.

Despite its short length, this book took me a month to read. There were days when I could read, and simply chose not to. Things really picked towards the end however and I finished the end in only a few days.

I like the direction this book took things, and I'm curious to see where it goes from here, but I may wait until I'm in the right mood to pick it up rather than getting it on release day.

Executive Summary: This book started out pretty strong and started to lose me towards the end before sticking the landing. I can see why so many of my friends have rated it 5 stars, but it fell a bit short of that for me.

Audiobook: Mel Hudson does a fine job with the audio. I'm most of the way through my next book and I don't really remember their performance much in a good or bad way. I can't recall if they did anything extra, but audio is a decent option.

Full Review
I've heard mention of this book over the years as really good, but for whatever reason I never went out of my way to pick it up until it was on sale recently. I had no idea it was about genetically engineered spiders, so maybe I should have read the description/some reviews first?

I did about half of this book in a single sitting due to a 7+ hour car ride. I was really engaged early on/for the entire trip, but started to lose steam after I got home and back to my normal audio routine. In particular I found myself less interested in the spider parts than I was earlier on.

While the human story deals mostly with the same few characters and a variety of extras, the spider story has mostly different characters for each part. The author re-used a handful of names and for the most part those spiders kept the same characteristics as previous ones, but there were times when I found some of them more or less likeable than previous incarnations.

In general I found myself rooting for the spiders than the humans, which I think is the main commentary of this book. People are awful to each other. We always have been, and most days it feels like we always will be. Even when we're facing a crisis, some people care more about their own place than the good of the group.

I'm not sure what spider society would be like if they had the level of intelligence portrayed in this book, but I feel like Mr. Tchaikovsky did a good job with it. They felt very spider-like throughout yet relatable most of the time as well.

I thought the ending was really good and wrapped things up pretty nicely after part of the story where I was starting to become increasingly distracted while listening.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and I'm glad I finally got to it, even if I didn't seem to like it quite as much as my friend did.

Executive Summary: I feel like I'm starting to lose a bit of steam with this series. I enjoyed it, but not as much as some of the previous book. 3.5 Stars

Audiobook: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith is fantastic. Again. Full Stop. Do this in audio. That is all.

Full Review
After the end of the previous book I was really looking forward to this one. Unfortunately Mr. Aaronovitch decided to mostly ignore everything he set up in that book and tell a mostly stand alone story set in the same world.

I listened to most of this book in one sitting during a 7 hour car ride, and it took me many miles to warm up to it. I think if I had other things going on, I'd have been a lot more distracted.

Like previous books it got a lot better as it went on, but I feel like things were dragging out too much. It's starting to feel like the series has no real overall plot and is just going to be as many wizard detective stories as he can crank out before fans get tired of it.

Maybe I'm being a bit overly critical. It's not as if I didn't like the book overall, but I tend to struggle with Urban Fantasy in general and I think all the things that made this series stand out were mostly missing from this entry. If this was book 1 and not book 5, I'd probably not have continued on with the series.

As it stands, I'll probably hold off on picking up the next volume for awhile until I need another light read.

Executive Summary: I liked this book more than [b:The Calculating Stars 33080122 The Calculating Stars (Lady Astronaut, #1) Mary Robinette Kowal https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1539850192s/33080122.jpg 53735352] in some ways, and less in others. Audiobook: Ms. Kowal once again does a great job narrating her own book. She does all the little things that adds that element that makes doing the audio worth it.Full ReviewI liked [b:The Calculating Stars 33080122 The Calculating Stars (Lady Astronaut, #1) Mary Robinette Kowal https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1539850192s/33080122.jpg 53735352] so much that I bought this book even before I had finished listening to that one.This one gets more in the fiction part of the sci-fi and feels much less like historical fiction than its predecessor. It's for that reason that I enjoyed the space elements a bit more.It also ramps up the social commentary a little and to me that felt forced at times compared to the last book. In particular the opening scene felt a bit over the top. Then again that is maybe the action being over the top rather than the social issues aspect. The first book felt a lot more “slice of life” amid a global crisis (with cool science). This book felt a little more “let's add some good action sequences for the inevitable movie adaptation” (with cool science).Without getting into spoiler territory I will say this is simply more of what we got in [b:The Calculating Stars 33080122 The Calculating Stars (Lady Astronaut, #1) Mary Robinette Kowal https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1539850192s/33080122.jpg 53735352] with higher stakes. I don't mean that in a bad way. I really liked that book and was happy to get more. Overall, it was still a very enjoyable sequel and I'm already looking forward to the next one.

Executive Summary: Less Sci-Fi and more Historical Fiction, but really enjoyable. I'd pitch it as a cross between [b:The Martian 18007564 The Martian Andy Weir https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1413706054s/18007564.jpg 21825181] and [b:Hidden Figures 30840370 Hidden Figures The Untold True Story of Four African-American Women Who Helped Launch Our Nation into Space Margot Lee Shetterly https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1474752658s/30840370.jpg 55627110]Audiobook: Normally I'm not a fan of authors reading their own work, but I've listened to Ms. Kowal as a narrator for other books before and she is good. She does a few voices and accents that add that little extra something to the audio version.Full ReviewI've been wanting to read a book by Ms. Kowal for a few years, but the blurbs for her previous books just never really appealed to me. This one however was right up my alley.I'm not sure how much research she did, but it seems like a lot. The fiction part of this book is mostly setting up a reason to accelerate the US space program by about a decade and then continue to push it forward from that point in a way we never really did. It sort of posits: “What would our space exploration look like if we made it the main focus and not just a Cold War arms race?”.I really like Elma. I can relate a lot to her and her social anxiety. I love the way she counts numbers in her head when she's feeling anxious. Maybe I should give that a try. All of the characters are pretty great though, even those I don't like at all (I'm looking at you Parker).I'm not really a fan of romance stories, which I think is one of the things that has kept me away from Ms. Kowal's previous works. There is definitely a romance subplot here, but it's not the focus. I will say there is A LOT of sexual innuendo/double entrades. I mostly found it funny, but if that kind of thing bothers you, you could get tired of it.Even though this book is set in the 1950s, there is a lot of commentary relevant today. I'm not sure how much of that is clever writing and how much is just the sad fact of how little progress has been made since that time. I thought it was well done without being heavy handed. It was important to the plot, but not the point of the plot if that makes any sense.Overall I really enjoyed this book a lot and immediately jumped right into the second one. I'm glad I was finally able to pick up a book by Ms. Kowal and that I liked it as much as I did.

Story
This volume is made up of 2 stories. The first is made up of 3 issues, and was the better of the two. It deals with a lot issues that are very close to home with hate, fear and discrimination. It was hard to read at times, and I was wondering just how dark the series was going to go. I don't want to spoil anything, but I will say I thought it was well done.

The second story felt like more of a transition. It brought back a character from earlier in the series whose details were a bit hazy to me. It's been a bit of a stretch since I read the last few volumes of this. Thankfully there was enough of a reminder built in without rehashing plot that I think I'm mostly good.

The story of these two issues was kind of bland, but the ending set up for some hopefully interesting issues ahead.

I'd give the first story a 4 and the second a 3, so overall I'm giving this volume a 3.5.

Artwork
Apparently there are 2 different artists. One for each arch. I honestly didn't really notice the difference. I'm not sure what happened with the original artist. I don't recall if he drew the last volume or what but the artwork throughout was solid.

Executive Summary: I'm a sucker for the magic school trope, and this version seemed to hit everything just right for me. I only have a few minor complaints or this might have been a 5 star read. 4.5 stars.

Audiobook: Nick Podehl is great as always. He does a variety of voices that really makes this a must listen. The second book is out in ebook, but not audio yet. I'll be waiting for the audio even though I really wanted to continue right into the second book.

Full Review
You'd think there would be no way to write the magic school trope without it feeling like a rehash of the countless other books/series that have done it before, but somehow I keep finding and enjoying new variations on the idea.

Mr. Rowe's take is no different. In particular I really enjoyed the magic system he created to server as the foundation of his school. Learning magic is part escape room, part D&D (or well I guess maybe all D&D).

There is also a good mystery element to this book that drives the main plot beyond our protagonist attending magic school and learning how to harness his newfound magic powers. The school wasn't the focus here so much as the setting. There looks to be a lot of interesting aspects to the world beyond its walls.

I thought the characters were all pretty good. Their is a decent variety of both male and female characters and all of them get their chance to shine, not just the protagonist. I appreciate a lot of the quirks/social anxiety of Corin. I'm not as bad as he is, but I can understand where he's coming from.

I'm terrible at names, so I can't remember anyone else whose name isn't included in the blurb. Corin's friends are made up of a summoner, and elementalist (I think?), a guardian and someone who refuses to divulge their attunement, but runs around with guns. I thought they all had something interesting to add to the story beyond being just a means of flushing out the magic system.

My only real complaint is the writing is a bit clunky at times. I'm not someone who thinks too much about the prose of books I read, so long as I'm being entertained. This book was very entertaining, but there were a few times when the dialogue or repetition of words pulled me out of the story, albeit very briefly.

Overall I found this book a lot of fun and plan to continue just as soon as the second book comes out in audio. As this is indie published, that's always a crap shoot. It does appear the author got word it was being recorded earlier this month, so hopefully that means it will be out sometime soon. I'll be eagerly awaiting its release.

Executive Summary: Another fun book by Mr. Scalzi, although I wish it had been a bit longer.

Audiobook: Once again, John Scalzi and Wil Wheaton make a perfect fit. John Scalzi books are always full of snark, and Wil Wheaton is great at delivering it. He also does a few voices along the way that makes this a definite audio choice for me.

Full Review
I found the start of this book a little slow. I'm bad at names, so maybe I missed the significance later in the book, but I don't really get the point of the prologue. Once the story got back to the main characters of the first book however, I found it really enjoyable.

This series is the kind of character-driven space opera that I enjoy the most. There is just enough science there to make things interesting, but really it's all about the people and politics from a scientific crisis than about the science behind it.

Kiva continues to be my favorite character that Mr. Scalzi has written to date. Her chapters were again the ones I enjoyed the most in this book. She's still not a person that I'd probably get along with, but one I certainly find entertaining to read about.

I think Cardenia is now a close second. She's really coming into her own in this book. I really look forward to seeing where things go next. I don't want to get into specifics but people will continue to underestimate her at their own peril.

I liked Marce a lot more in this book than the previous one. His storyline was not at all what I was expecting and led to some very interesting developments that I wish were explored more in this book.

I always enjoy John Scalzi books, and this series so far has been one of my favorites. I am a bit concerned at how short this book was and how much their seems to be to wrap this series up in only one more book. He really expanded the plot a lot in this book. While this set things up nicely for the next book, I have concerns there will be a lot of loose ends to tie up.

Overall, another fun book in this series, and I'm eagerly looking forward to the next one.

Executive Summary: I liked this book a lot more than I expected to, especially given that it's horror, which is not really my genre of choice.Audiobook: I love Kate Mulgrew as Captain Janeway. In fact I happened to stop listening one day and turn on the TV and Voyager was on, which made for a very surreal experience.I didn't know she narrated audiobooks, but she has a great voice for it. Not only that, but she does a variety of voices that really add that extra something that makes it worth doing this in audio rather than reading with your eyeballs.Full ReviewI first ran across Joe Hill with his excellent [b:Locke & Key 26225895 Locke & Key Joe Hill https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1441385552s/26225895.jpg 46920430] series. That is also supposed to be horror too, but for me the fantastical elements made it really enjoyable for me. This book is in a similar vein.I know Joe Hill changed his last name to try to distance himself from his much more famous father, but this book felt like it could easily have been written by his dad. There were a few easter eggs that seemed to nod to his father, including a mention of Mid World, which I thought was interesting because one of my first thoughts about this book was that Randall Flagg would be very interested in capturing some of these people to use as breakers.I love the idea of traveling hidden ways and discovering secrets that was the core of the fantastical elements of this book. It reminded me a lot of [b:The Talisman 59219 The Talisman (The Talisman, #1) Stephen King https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1170530286s/59219.jpg 3324421]. I feel bad comparing this so much to his father, but in this case I think that's a good thing, because he is one of the few horror writers I seem to like.That said, this is definitely its own thing, even if it might happen to take place on another level of the Dark Tower. This book is the kind of horror that is more about the kind of things people do to each other and themselves than a book about a monster or killer doing awful things.Don't get me wrong, this book has those things, but not all the worst parts of this book are perpetrated by the villain, but the protagonists. I think that's another reason why it reminded me of a Stephen King book. I thought Vic McQueen was a great character who is incredibly flawed and terribly damaged.I'm sure it's hard for Joe Hill not to have been influenced by his parents, and he talks a bit about growing up in a family of writers in his author's note at the end. I'm certainly much more inclined to pick up another book of his now after how much I enjoyed this one. I'm also really looking forward to seeing how the TV adaptation of this comes out.

Executive Summary: I'm not really a big fan of horror, but I enjoyed this book. It's the type of horror I do tend to enjoy. The blend of historic fiction and the supernatural really worked for me.

Full Review
A lot of the early comments I saw about this book said how the characters in this book and the observations on life under Jim Crow were the best part, but the supernatural elements were a detriment to the book.

While I can agree to the first point, I disagree about the second. It just goes to show not every book works for everyone in the same ways. This book reminds me a bit of Get Out, in that the real horror doesn't come from the supernatural elements, but the awful way that people treat each other.

I thought all the characters were fantastic. I'm hard pressed to decide who I liked the best. The female characters were the most enjoyable. I think I liked Hippolyta the best. I enjoyed her parts of the story a lot.

However I thought the two sisters Letitia and Ruby also had great parts. And on the male side I liked Hippolyta's husband George and their son Horace a lot as well.

But I also really liked the world building. I've always been a fan of the secret history trope. Secret societies with magical power and influence over everything is not exactly new, but it takes on an even more sinister aspect in this book.

I should mention the story kind of jumps all over the place at times. There are a lot of sub plots going on, but they all tie-back in to each other by the end, and I actually liked the format of this.

Overall, I thought this was a really good book and I'm glad I picked it up. I liked it a lot better than I expected, especially after seeing so many neutral to negative reactions to the book from most of the early reactions I saw to our book club read for this.

I suspect this book won't be for everyone, but if you liked Get Out, this seems like a story in a similar vein. I'm looking forward to checking out the TV adaptation, especially since Jordan Peele is attached to the project.

Executive Summary: Another strong entry in this series. It started a bit slow, but got really good by the end and now I'm stuck waiting for the next book to come out.

Full Review
I made the mistake of starting this book right before Battle for Azeroth came out. That was unfair to this book. It sat unread for basically 2 months because my reading time was sacrificed to my WoW addiction.

Once things finally settled down, I jumped back into this book and really enjoyed it. I wasn't sure how I felt about the pocket world of Ghostwater. It felt like a side story. However by the end I came to see that it's likely going to have some very implications on series moving forward.

I continue to enjoy the way Lindon approaches things, and this book didn't disappoint on that front. The supporting cast continues to be great. I didn't like nearly Skysworn as much as Blackflame, but I loved the addition of Mercy. She continues to be fantastic in this book. I'm really hoping that Mr. Wight has some more great stuff for her in store.

And that's adding to an already great cast in Yerin, Eithan and especially Orthos. Plus this book added another new character I have about a million questions about in Ziel. I hope he continues to play a role moving forward as well.

Overall this series continues to be a delight. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys Shonen.

I'm forgoing my usual format because I don't have a lot to say on this book. I've long since known that most classic sci-fi just isn't for me, and sadly this one was no different.

I found this book had a few interesting ideas, but little else to hold my interest. I felt the characters were very thin and uninteresting and the plot seemed disjointed at times. Overall, just not really my type of story.

Story
This series continues to delite. Sasquatches playing roller derby is not a thing I ever thought I needed to read about, but apparently I did, and it was fantastic.

Artwork
I think they switched artists again. I can't be sure anymore at this point. Thankfully through all the changes I continue to enjoy the artwork.

Executive Summary: Another excellent book by Robert Jackson Bennett. He's up there with [a:Django Wexler 639491 Django Wexler https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1357865518p2/639491.jpg] for best fantasy author you're probably not reading but should be.Audiobook: Tara Sands does a fine job, making the audio a decent option. Her normal reading voice seems like a good fit for the protagonist and does some additional voices that adds that little extra something to the book.Full ReviewI'm typically a big fan of thief protagonists, and heist stories, so it's no surprise that I was excited to see how RJB tackled the genre. I really loved his Divine City books, especially the first two and I was looking forward to read a story in a different setting.Sancia is a pretty good protagonist, although I didn't connect to her right away. Once things finally got going with the magic key however, things picked up quite a bit for me.The story in this book was enjoyable, but for me the best part was the excellent magic system. I'm a sucker for a well thought out and detailed magic system. I'm a software engineer by trade. The details of how scriving works reminds me a lot of how software is built. You start with a foundation of lower level language and build higher level languages on top of that.I loved, loved LOVED this system, and I'm hoping we continue to get some more interesting details about it as the series progresses.Overall this was a pretty solid start to a new series that only got better as the book went along. I'm really looking forward to seeing where he takes things next. If you haven't read anything by Robert Jackson Bennett, I highly recommend it. His Divine cities books are excellent, and this one is right up there with them.

Executive Summary: Started slow and ended too fast (impressive for such a long book) with some good parts in between the periodic lulls to the plot.

Audiobook: Ralph Lister did a pretty good job. He does a few voices. This book is massive, and the audio reflects that at a whopping 53.5 hours. It's by far the longest audiobook I've listened to (and I've listened to all of Wheel of Time).

I think doing this in audio helped me make it through the slower parts, but I wouldn't call it a must listen. It's a decent option though. If I were to do it over again, I'd probably have listened at 1.25 speed (something I almost never do) to cut down on the sheer length.

Full Review
I've long been a fan of Japan, Samurai and Bushido. Most of what I know of it comes from anime and Kurosowa films though. This is considered historical fiction I believe, so I imagine it's a little more accurate than those other things I've watched. Certainly the anime (Ninja Scroll I'm looking at you).

This book has been on my radar for awhile, and has been recommended to me by a few friends. I didn't finally get around to picking it up until it was on sale earlier this year.

I thought this book started really slow. I don't like any of Blackthorne's crew and for me the story didn't start to pick up until he was away from them.

I loved the deep dive into feudal Japan, but I found my focus drifting every few sessions. The underlying story of the power struggle between the various Daimos to fill the power vacuum left by the previous shogun was excellent. I just felt there were too many lulls along the way.

I'm not a huge fan of romance subplots, but I thought the one in this book was pretty good. For me that's saying something. Fans of romance may have a differing opinion.

My biggest disappointment with the book wasn't the slow start or the lulls. It was that after so many hours invested listening, the ending felt rushed. I know there are other books, but I feel like a lot could have been cut out to spend more time on Toronaga's plotting.

Overall I'm glad I finally picked this book up. I liked it, but didn't love it as much as I was hoping. I probably won't be continuing on with the rest of the series, which appears as though it doesn't continue the lingering threads of this book anyways.

Executive Summary: Another enjoyable entry in this series, albeit not as good as [b:Blackflame 35023786 Blackflame (Cradle, #3) Will Wight https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1493626673s/35023786.jpg 56310116].Full ReviewIt's been a month since I read this and I got caught up in other things and apparently never wrote a review. Oops.I really enjoyed [b:Blackflame 35023786 Blackflame (Cradle, #3) Will Wight https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1493626673s/35023786.jpg 56310116] and rushed right into this one. I enjoyed it, but not as much as that last book.This book felt like a transition/setup book. I'm not exactly sure what he's setting up for next, although I have a few ideas.The characters continue to be enjoyable, especially Eithan. We also got the fight that's been building up since [b:Soulsmith 32283608 Soulsmith (Cradle, #2) Will Wight https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1474963120s/32283608.jpg 52911130]. I will say that ended up being a bit underwhelming.The world building and magic system continues to be excellent too. We learn a lot more about the Skysworn (hence the title of the book) that were briefly introduced at the end of the last book. Their flying city is pretty amazing.That said, I didn't feel like as much happened in this book as in the last too. That's why I felt like it was a setup book.Overall though this was a good entry and I rushed right off into [b:Ghostwater 40280403 Ghostwater (Cradle, #5) Will Wight https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1527845246s/40280403.jpg 62568044], which is the last one to be published so far. I'm not sure what I'll read after that, but I plan to check out some of Wight's other series at some point in the near future.

Executive Summary: This series started out pretty solid, but this book got really really good. I read the first half over several days, but I read the second half in one sitting. For that reason it was a pretty easy 5 star for me.

Full Review
A friend of mine was recommending I read Will Wight for a long time, but there are just so many books/authors out there that I never got around to it. It took getting a free copy of the first book of this series to get me to finally give him a shot.

I keep coming back to Naruto not because this series is a knock-off of that, but because some of the notes it hits keep reminding me of my favorite parts of that series. I'd be really shocked if Wight isn't a fan/wasn't inspired by that or other Shonen fighting series.

This book starts off right where the last one left off, and Lindon is once again training to take on a challenge far beyond his power. It's not until he starts this trial (that reminded me slightly of the Chunin exams) that this book really gets good.

I was only going to read another 2-3 chapters and instead I stayed up an hour later than I intended just so I could finish. I also rushed right out to buy the next book.

This series has some really great characters. Lindon is likeable enough but he's kind of the typical protagonist for this kind of a story. I really love both Eithan and Yerin as well. Eithan is both mysterious and hilarious. The book also introduces another fantastic new character whose name I can't recall but he's a giant insane Dragon-Turtle so really what does it matter what his name is?

There were some pretty interesting developments with Lindon in this book and some pretty intriguing revelations about Eithan as well. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this series goes next.

I'm not sure how many people are reading Will Wight, but I'll be joining my friend in recommending him, at least to my friends who enjoy Shonen fighting series.

Executive Summary: Another solid Thrawn book, but not as good [b:Thrawn 31140332 Thrawn (Star Wars Thrawn, #1) Timothy Zahn https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1468787895s/31140332.jpg 51766424] in my opinion. There was also far less Darth Vader in this book than the cover seemed to imply.Audiobook: Another fantastic job as always by Marc Thompson. I don't read a lot of Star Wars books, but I'm always more inclined to listen to the ones he narrates. I don't like music/sound effects in audio books typically because I find they make it harder to focus on the story/hear the narration in most.These books however do a great job with it making it at times feel more like a radio drama than an audiobook. I will say that his voice for Padme sounds a lot like his voice for Leia, but given the fact that he's a male and Leia's parentage I was OK with this. All of his other voices sound exactly like the characters from the movies/TV series to me.Full ReviewSo I said in my summary that there is far less Darth Vader than I expected. That's because there is a lot more Anakin Skywalker. It turns out most of this novel is a flashback to the first time Thrawn encountered/interacted with the Republic/Empire. The stories are mostly told in parallel, but much of the story takes place in the past.I didn't care much for Anakin after watching the movies, but the Clone Wars show really changed my opinion on the character. I thought they did a far better job there (and had a far better actor playing him). And while I think Natalie Portman does a good job as Padme in the movies the writing of her character is also much better on the show. Thankfully Mr. Zahn bases his portrayal of Padme on the show.I've never been a huge Darth Vader fan. He's fine as an antagonist, and James Earl Jones has a fantastic voice but I just never found him that interesting. Thrawn on the other hand I think is probably the best antagonist the series has had, and I was glad to see him returned to cannon both on the page and in the Rebels TV show. I'd love to see him make his big screen debut at some point down the road.The pairing of the two was interesting because their talents complement each other pretty well. Anakin tends to act before he thinks, while Thrawn is always planning things several moves in advance.The story told here was entertaining enough but didn't do nearly as much to flush out Thrawn as the previous book did. There were a few little tidbits that have me intrigued, but as much of the book was a flashback we didn't get very much of the storyline from the previous book as I was hoping for. I think he's contracted to write a third book, so I'm hoping that book focuses more on those aspects.Overall, this was an enjoyable book and if you're a casual Star Wars book reader like me this is one worth picking up, especially in audio.

Executive Summary: I enjoyed this, but not as much as [b:American Gods 30165203 American Gods Neil Gaiman https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1462924585s/30165203.jpg 1970226]. I think the big difference was the main character.Audiobook: I'm generally not a huge fan of audiobooks read by the author, but [a:Neil Gaiman 1221698 Neil Gaiman https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1234150163p2/1221698.jpg] does a solid job here. He's a storyteller, so he's good at reading a story, especially one of his own. That said, I might have preferred an actual narrator with voices, etc. Still I'd say that audio's not a bad choice by any means.Full ReviewI've owned the ebook of this for awhile, but my reading time is very limited and I own hundreds of unread ebooks at this point. So when I got the audio as well, I finally got around to pick it up.Neil Gaiman seems to have a cult-like following on Goodreads. He's super popular. I've read a few of his books (I think this is maybe the 4th or 5th?), and I've enjoyed them but I haven't been rushing out to read all his stuff.This is a bit strange for me because I actually watched the TV miniseries (I think it was made in the 90s) as well as reading the “sequel” novella [b:How the Marquis Got His Coat Back 26699591 How the Marquis Got His Coat Back Neil Gaiman https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442860194s/26699591.jpg 42096629] in an anthology collection I read before reading the book. That's very unlike me. I'm usually a big book before TV/Film and chronological reading order person.So I knew what to expect coming in, although I had forgotten many of the plot points as it's been a few years since I watched the series. I found things a bit slow to get started. In particular because I don't like Richard that much. Many of the things he did/said made me anxious/agitated. His life was just so disorganized that I wanted to yell at him to get his shit together.I did warm up to him as the series went on. Thankfully all the supporting characters are pretty great/memorable. I also really loved the world building. I've read another series ([b:Something from the Nightside 155421 Something from the Nightside (Nightside, #1) Simon R. Green https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1354812342s/155421.jpg 150023]) about a secret/magical London underbelly and I think Gaiman probably does the better job.There are a lot of similarities for me to [b:American Gods 30165203 American Gods Neil Gaiman https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1462924585s/30165203.jpg 1970226], which remains my favorite of the Gaiman books I've read. I think Shadow is a far more likeable protagonist which helps. It probably also helps me that I'm more familiar with the American setting than I am with the London series.I believe there has been an announcement that Gaiman is working/will work on a proper sequel novel and if that proves to be true that might be the first book of his I pick up at release time. Otherwise his work remains something I'm interested in checking out when I have time but not really top of the pile.

Executive Summary: Another solid book. I thought this was a much better ending to this series than [b:Queen of Fire 18405221 Queen of Fire (Raven's Shadow, #3) Anthony Ryan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1417350958s/18405221.jpg 26039753] was to his previous series.Audiobook: Steve West once again does a great job. I wish they would have just used him for the whole series rather than switching after one book. He does a variety of voices that adds that little something extra to the audio to make it worth listening over reading in my opinion.Full ReviewI absolutely loved [b:Blood Song 13569581 Blood Song (Raven's Shadow, #1) Anthony Ryan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1421573407s/13569581.jpg 19148922], which seems to be a fairly popular consensus among my friends on Goodreads. I also loved [b:Tower Lord 18138189 Tower Lord (Raven's Shadow, #2) Anthony Ryan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1382486392s/18138189.jpg 25481154] which was much less of a consensus. However most seemed to agree that [b:Queen of Fire 18405221 Queen of Fire (Raven's Shadow, #3) Anthony Ryan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1417350958s/18405221.jpg 26039753] was not a great ending to what I thought was an otherwise amazing series.I was initially reluctant to pick this series up as a result. Getting a free review copy made me give it a chance and I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't enjoy it as much as his first series but it was an improvement over [b:Queen of Fire 18405221 Queen of Fire (Raven's Shadow, #3) Anthony Ryan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1417350958s/18405221.jpg 26039753].I keep referring back to that book because it loomed large in my mind as I went into this book. The last two books were good, but could he stick the landing this time? To me the answer is yes. I didn't love this book like [b:Blood Song 13569581 Blood Song (Raven's Shadow, #1) Anthony Ryan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1421573407s/13569581.jpg 19148922]/[b:Tower Lord 18138189 Tower Lord (Raven's Shadow, #2) Anthony Ryan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1382486392s/18138189.jpg 25481154], but it wasn't a drop off in quality from the previous books in this series that I felt [b:Queen of Fire 18405221 Queen of Fire (Raven's Shadow, #3) Anthony Ryan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1417350958s/18405221.jpg 26039753] was.Once again my favorite story belongs to Lizanne, or as I like to call her “Jane Bond”. I loved the idea of a secret agent with magic powers and cool gadgets that let her harness her magic powers in fun ways. With regards to the others POVs, they were good enough. I was originally not a big fan of Clay, but his story got much better as the series went on. Hilemore felt completely disconnected at the start of the series but became relevant by the end of the first book. His POV felt a bit redundant/unnecessary at the start of this book, but was important again later on.I did find some parts of this book slow, but it was always entertaining. I'm a big fan of dragons, so that helped carry me through some of the slower parts.It sounds like Anthony Ryan will be returning to the world of his Raven's Shadow series next (which I'm cautiously optimistic about), but I'd happily read another book set in the Draconis Memoria world if he decides to make one down the road.