Category: Books

  • Review: The Great Hunt

    The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book was quite a slow burn. (And I know some of the later books in this series are strongly disliked for keeping the story running in place) About a quarter of the way through the book I was certain this would be…

  • Review: A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking

    A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher My rating: 4 of 5 stars Well, that was quite an excellent book! My 9-year-old read it and then wanted to share it with me, so she asked me to read it to her before bed. I must say, this book was a lot more sophisticated…

  • Review: The Official Scratchjr Book: Help Your Kids Learn to Code

    The Official Scratchjr Book: Help Your Kids Learn to Code by Marina Umaschi Bers My rating: 4 of 5 stars Many of you may be familiar with Scratch if you’ve got kids about 15 or so years old or younger. It’s the hot language for the elementary and (in some places) middle school set to…

  • Review: Sourcery

    Sourcery by Terry Pratchett My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is my second time reading this book I believe this book marks the inflection point from the retconned books to the more continuity focused books. It appears that Equal Rites has already been retconned away by this book or else Rincewind is ignorant of…

  • Review: Mort

    Mort by Terry Pratchett My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is my second time reading Mort I dropped the rating from 5/5 to 4/5 because I’m using the tooltips for the ratings. I really enjoyed this book a lot. In my re-read this is the first tone I have enjoyed without any reservations. But…

  • Review: Equal Rites

    Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is my second time reading this book This is DEFINITELY a book of its times. I remember in the late 80s and early 90s there was a lot of fiction around whether women could really equal men in the workplace. Why then? I…

  • Review: The Light Fantastic

    The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is my second time reading this book This second time around I dropped the rating from 4 stars to 3 stars. The book is definitely an improvement over The Color of Magic. I think, perhaps, Pratchett was starting to consider that Discworld…

  • 2020 in Books

    2020 in Books

    This year continued last year’s trend of Sequels, Sanderson, and Science Fiction Magazines. Every series I mentioned last year was a series I continued reading this year – The Expanse, The Asylum Tales, Red Rising, The Dresden Files, The Mogoliad, Wild Cards, and the Illumination Paradox. (The only exception was Red Rising – I’m done…

  • Review: Twinmaker

    Twinmaker by Sean Williams My rating: 4 of 5 stars When I started out with this book, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it. It seemed to lean a bit heavily on the young adult plot with the love triangle aspect and the whole wanting to be Internet famous subplot. But it…

  • Review: The Color of Magic

    The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett My rating: 3 of 5 stars Dropping the rating from 4 stars (original) to 3 stars (second time through). This is my second time reading through this book. First time was somewhere between 10-15 years ago. Going through it again, I realized just how much Mr. Pratchett improved…

  • Review: Rhythm of War

    Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson My rating: 5 of 5 stars Another masterwork by Brandon Sanderson in his Cosmere. I will say that, at times, some of the story seemed to drag, particularly character growth of the main characters. But not only is this made up by the incredible payoff at the end (I…

  • Review: The Red Church

    The Red Church by Scott Nicholson My rating: 2 of 5 stars I got this book as part of a Humble Bundle years ago. It was my first occult horror, unless you count Dean Koontz books, which – now that I think about it – seems to share at least some genre space with this…

  • Review: Snow Crash

    Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is the second time I’ve read this book. This first time was something around 20 years ago and it was definitely a 5-star book to me at the time. I’d never read anything like it. Reading it in 2020 is very interseting. Some…

  • Review: Apex Magazine Promo Issue 2020

    Apex Magazine Promo Issue 2020 by Jason Sizemore My rating: 4 of 5 stars A mini issue to get folks ready for the relaunch of Apex Magazine. I truly enjoyed the stories in here and I can’t wait until the next real issue in January. Below is what I thought of each story: The Legacy…

  • Review: The Brisket Chronicles: How to Barbecue, Braise, Smoke, and Cure the World’s Most Versatile Cut of Meat

    The Brisket Chronicles: How to Barbecue, Braise, Smoke, and Cure the World’s Most Versatile Cut of Meat by Steven Raichlen My rating: 3 of 5 stars When I first heard about this book, I was slightly skeptical. An entire book on brisket? Really? Isn’t it just (maybe) two ways? Dalmation rub and spicy rub. Maybe…