Chrono Trigger by Michael P. Williams

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is exactly what I hoped it would be. It is a deconstruction and reconstruction of the plot; it is an examination of what made the game so special. And it is a chunk of the author’s autobiography.

Unlike the author, and perhaps unlike most Chrono Trigger players, this was my first Square RPG. My brothers and I saw it in a used game sale bin at our local game rental shop. Attracted by Toriyama’s art more than anything else, we bought it for about $20 by combining all our allowances. It is no over exaggeration to say that purchase changed our lives. We had no idea such a game could exist.

Borg Like Me & Other Tales of Art, Eros, and Embedded Systems by Gareth Branwyn

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

(This ended up becoming almost more like a blog post than a review, but let’s call it new Books Journalism - a riff on new games journalism, which is really just Gonzo from the 70s repackaged for the children of the 80s and 90s)

According to the books I’ve put on Goodreads (which I’ve only been using for a few years), these are my all-time most read authors.

1. Terry Pratchett (40) 2. Isaac Asimov (7) 2. Michael Crichton (7) 4. Neal Stephenson (5) 4. Mark Waid (5) 4. Cory Doctorow (5) 4. Douglas Adams (5) 8. Alan Moore (4) 8. Brandon Graham (4) 10. Dean Koontz (3)

Just as with my music listening and how the top 15 artists usually are no more than 30% of the total listens for a quarter, I read a lot of one-off authors so the numbers very quickly tail off. Dean Koontz is #10 with 3 books and John Scalzi is #15 with 2.

Havana Nocturne by T.J. English

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I knew that one of the things Castro prided himself on was ridding Cuba of the influence of the American Mob, but I had no idea just how entwined they were with the Batista government. It was also incredible what long-range planners the mobsters were. If younger Americans know anything about these events, it’s from the events of The Godfather, but that movie (or is it part 2?) places the mobster meeting the same week as the revolution. In reality it was decades earlier. In fact, Al Capone had dreamed of Cuba being a Gangster’s Paradise.

Limbus, Inc. by Anne C. Petty

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The best way to describe what I just finished: a series of short stories in genres I may not have read as standalones but which combined into a highly enjoyable book. Not perfectly true as they all tended to have a bit of science fiction and a bit of detective fiction. But I do not think I would have sought many of these out.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is a little Enders Game, a little Battle Royale, and a little 1984 with a dash of Harry Potter.

I don’t usually write such short reviews, but in some ways, while a lot happens in this book, not very much happens. Which is to say that it’s the first book of a trilogy so nothing huge can get resolved. It’s a lot of setup in 3 parts, each with their own beginning, middle, and end. That’s what Pierce Brown does so well and which keeps me from being TOO upset at the fact that at the end of this book, things are only beginning for the main character. Yet we have already seen him have 3 arcs. He’s grown so much in the approximately 2 years in which the book takes place and yet he also reminds somewhat blinded in simplicity by his goal.

Mother Fucking Flowers by Tammy L. Witzens

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Let me begin by saying that I enjoyed this book. I won it as part of Goodreads’ FirstReads program. The title looked insane and so did the description; the subject of many an Internet joke and comic strip: if you could go back in time, should you kill Hitler? The Aeon Flux-looking woman on the cover was interesting as well. Unfortunately, I was delayed by a couple weeks in getting the package because I had a business trip. When I did get the book, I was amazed at how thin the package is. Other than, perhaps, The God Engines, this is shortest book I’ve read in a long time.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book deserves all the praise that has been heaped upon it. Brooks does an excellent job putting together a history of both how the zombie virus became an epidemic and how the human race came on top. He gives each character their own voice and style. I really felt as if it were a real documentation of history. I also enjoyed the meta-story told through both the names of the countries/provinces and the introductions to each section.

Jam by Yahtzee Croshaw

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had no idea what to expect when I started reading this book. All I knew was that I found Yahtzee Croshaw’s reviews at Zero Punctuation to be pretty funny. I’d acquired Mogworld and Jam via Humble ebook bundles. I’m not sure, but I think they were in two different bundles. I can’t remember. Anyway, after looking at all the descriptions, it appeared that Jam was just Croshaw’s next novel, not a sequel to Mogworld. So, since the description of Mogworld sounded a little too close to what I do for a living, I went with Jam. It is a standalone book. I ALMOST changed my mind when one of the characters in Jam turned out to be a Mogworld developer, but that was of no consequence. The character may or may not be in both books, but it appears they merely take place in the same universe without any part of Mogworld being necessary before reading jam.

A Midsummer Night’s Steampunk by Scott E. Tarbet

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It’s always tough when people redo Shakespeare. Sometimes it works really well and sometimes it’s just horrible. I absolutely loved the way Scott Tarbet resets a Midsummer Night’s Dream in a Steampunk Victorian England. He was able to use Steampunk to handle the existence of fairies in the original and he uses wordplay to deal with stuff like the ass. It was only the love potion that had to resort to hand-waving to work with the story. I didn’t mind it too much.