This is the third year running that I’ve met my goal of reading at least 50 books, and once again I offer here some thoughts on each of them. List from 2017 List from 2018 A few notes about this post: I’m a slow reader, so I exercise due diligence before choosing books to read.... Continue Reading →
The Presidential Traverse
By nature I am not an adventurous person. I live with an inexorable inertia pulling me inward toward the familiar, the comfortable. Uncertainty and danger do not tempt or exhilarate me; they turn me aside in exactly the way I am certain evolution means for them to do. Left to my own devices it’s not... Continue Reading →
Book Review – The Hod King, by Josiah Bancroft
This is the third book in Josiah Bancroft’s Books of Babel series. If you’d like, you can read my effusive reviews of the first two books, Senlin Ascends and Arm of the Sphinx. With those first two books, the author set a high bar, but with the The Hod King, he leapt over it with... Continue Reading →
Book Review – Kings of Paradise, by Richard Nell
Oh, goodness, this book. I’m going to say a few things about it, but lest this get lost in the weeds: Kings of Paradise is fantastic. It’s one of those self-published books that is just as good, and at least as powerful, as some of the best traditionally published fantasy novels out there. In brief, the book... Continue Reading →
Thoughts on Fifty (more) Books
For the second year in a row, I've miraculously met my goal of reading at least 50 books—56, in fact, in 2018. My selectivity and research has, happily, resulted in another year where I enjoyed everything I read. Not a DNF in the bunch, and nothing I had to force myself to continue. Perhaps I’m... Continue Reading →
Thoughts on Fifty Books
I’m a slow reader. Always have been. Historically I think I’ve been lucky to finish 20 books in a year. This January I set myself a goal to read 50 books in 2017, and I’ve managed to hit that mark exactly. Because of my creeping pace, I tend to be picky about what I read. ... Continue Reading →
Book Review – Paternus: Rise of Gods, by Dyrk Ashton
I’m not sure I’ve ever been as conflicted about a book as I am about Dyrk Ashton’s epic slugathon of deities, PATERNUS: RISE OF GODS. So here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to talk about a bunch of things I didn’t like, and then I’m going to rave a bit, give it 4... Continue Reading →
Book Review – The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch
The Lies of Locke Lamora (hereafter “TLoLL”) was pure entertainment, start to finish. Lynch managed to balance adroitly on two different tightropes: pacing/description, and tone/content. What do I mean by that? TLoLL barreled along at what felt like a brisk, exciting pace. I never felt like I was waiting around for something interesting to happen.... Continue Reading →
Book Review – Three Parts Dead, by Max Gladstone
Three Parts Dead, the first volume of Gladstone's Craft Sequence, is a good book, a clever book, a beautifully written book. On some occasions it rises to greatness. On other occasions I thought it had some problems. There’s more good than bad, and I would certainly recommend it, albeit with some very minor caveats. The main... Continue Reading →
Book Review – Best Served Cold, by Joe Abercrombie
Bear with me here. I’m going to start my review of Best Served Cold by talking very briefly about another of my favorite books, China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station. My favorite aspect of PSS was Mieville’s relentless use of language to impart an overwhelming feeling of grime. For all its cast of entertaining characters, for me the star of... Continue Reading →
