Changes by Jim Butcher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Changes, the title promises us, and changes we do get. As I was reading the story, I told my wife, I think this is the close of another grand story arc. She’s at about book 6, which I considered the be the first arc where Butcher finally finishes introducing us to the key players in the story.

I half predicted the climactic plot twist, but I couldn’t have predicted where that would lead. I certainly did not predict the end of the book. That said, I wonder if Butcher did it because he’d painted himself into a corner with a previous book and wanted to rid Harry of a certain sword of Damocles hanging above his head.

Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 110, July 2019 by John Joseph Adams

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was wondering what happened to the novellas in the newer issues - editorial in this issue answers the question - they were taking longer short stories and felt the novella section was redundant.

Science Fiction
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The Null Space conundrum (Violet Allen) - reminds me a lot of the type of story that Charlie Jane Anders would write. Somewhat nonsensical with an irreverent narrator.

Turn Coat by Jim Butcher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book combines the two types of Dresden novels into one. It’s both a story concerned with the overarching Dresden plot and a typical detective case. As the back of the book blurb says, this time it’s Morgan (Dresden’s nemesis on the White Council) who “hires” Harry to clear him of murder charges. Doing so brings together plot points from previous books (going as far back as Summer Knight) and gets us to resolve the first climactic part of the story Butcher has been telling over these past 11 novels.

Small Favor by Jim Butcher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This entry in The Dresden Files was a real page-turner. I couldn’t stop myself from continually telling myself “just one more chapter”. Once the plot kicked off, it was kinetic the whole time. This one was once again departure from the case structure. Instead it’s like a lot of the previous books (except 9) where we’re just dealing with the consequences of all the prior books. We’ve got the fey, the knights of the cross, Marcone and his inner circle, and a couple others that would be a spoiler to mention.

White Night by Jim Butcher

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is my favorite Dresden in a while. While it’s still tied up in the overarching story, this one is more of a return to a typical detective story. Murders abound and Harry has to find the killer. Like a proper detective book there a red herrings and bad conclusions as Harry and friends work to try and figure things out. In typical Dresden fashion, there’s an explosive climax (I won’t say if it’s literal or metaphorical).

Threats: What Every Engineer Should Learn From Star Wars by Adam Shostack

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A reminder that I use the tooltips on GR and 3 stars is “I liked it”

This book doesn’t have nearly as much Star Wars as I was hoping for, but the Star Wars aspect still helps a lot. Let me illustrate what I was expecting and what I got. What I was expecting is for a book that would follow one or more Star Wars movies and discuss the security issues in each scene (if the scene had any); basically like the Star Wars and Philosophy books that the author mentions in the acknowledgments section. What Shostack does instead is use specific moments in Star Wars to illustrate concepts in a a book that reads like a more entertaining version of the CISSP certification study book. That is to say, it’s not dry, but it’s also WAY more technical than you might expect from the title itself. (Or the trailer for the book)

SCIENCE: Ruining Everything Since 1543 by Zach Weinersmith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’m a huge fan of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, a nerdy web comic (like XKCD, but not stick figures). What elevates this book beyond a simple collection of science-themed SMBC strips is the ending where Weinersmith creates strips from personal anecdotes of various scientists (and a Mythbusters host).

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Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book seemed to be more of a return to form in the sense that Harry has a lot of detective work to do here to figure out what’s going on. As usual, we have a bunch of seemingly disparate plots that come together in the end.

The series has explored ideas of faith quite a bit, especially when Michael is involved. This one spent a lot of time exploring it. I think Butcher has done a good job in the past, and continues to do a good job here, of finding ways to explain a world in which capital-G God exists and yet isn’t in direct opposition to the vampires and other horror creatures.

Uncanny Magazine Issue 19: November/December 2017 by Lynne M. Thomas

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“Making Us Monsters” (Sam J. Miller & Lara Elena Donnelly) - A story that takes place during WWI and the inter-war period. The main characters are gay and the story serves mostly to remind me of the horrible treatment given to Alan Turing. Turing was responsible for helping break the German code (along with a giant support staff - including lots of female “computers”) and was foundational in computer and information theory. But he was convicted of being gay and forced to endure punishment for that. The story was beautiful, but I found it to be a bit too long.

Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the hardest book to read of the entire series. There’s a content warning at the front of the book that explains why - but it is truly one of the cruelest. I think it’s also a book that needs to be ready by young adults and parents and anyone else who has to deal with the subject matter either as a victim or a potential helper.