Rave Master, Vol. 04 by Hiro Mashima My rating: 3 of 5 stars Part of me wonders – is this just meant to be a comedic manga hero’s journey or is it a straight up parody? I can’t tell from this volume. Story-wise it concludes the story from the previous volume about the town where…

Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 138 by Neil Clarke My rating: 4 of 5 stars An issue in which I enjoyed pretty much every story. I didn’t detect the theme as easily in this issue as I usually do. The novella that anchors this issue, The Persistence of Blood, is really well-written. Here are my per-story thoughts:…

The Princess in Black by Shannon Hale My rating: 4 of 5 stars If you have little girls or little boys who love princesses and a little mischief, this book is a great first chapter book. I read this to my four year old twins and they really loved it and immediately asked for the…

Rave Master Vol. 3 by Hiro Mashima My rating: 3 of 5 stars All the manga tropes continue piling up. This book has the “pervert who wants to watch the girl in the hot springs” trope. Compared to the last two books this one is just wrapping up the last storyline and then ramping up…

The Bob’s Burgers Burger Book: Real Recipes for Joke Burgers by Loren Bouchard My rating: 4 of 5 stars There are a lot of crazy burgers in here. What did you expect from a book inspired by a blog inspired by burger puns in a cartoon voiced by H. John Benjamin? And yet… the authors…

Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 137 by Neil Clarke My rating: 5 of 5 stars This issue was full of longer piece, but also pieces I loved so much. I was cracking up so much with Solderin’. I felt pretty emotional with Umbernight, especially as I am getting older like the protagonist and slowly being replaced by…

Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 136 by Neil Clarke My rating: 4 of 5 stars This one was a tough choice between three stars and four stars. The stories I didn’t like: “Say it Low, Say it Loud” and “Her Smoke Rose Up Forever” I REALLY didn’t like. But from the stories I liked, some of them…

Rave Master Vol. 2 by Hiro Mashima My rating: 3 of 5 stars Nobody does comics storytelling like the Japanese. Some 400 pages in we’re still meeting new characters and we haven’t really gone anywhere story-wise. Plotwise it’s a pretty standard journey plot a la Journey to the West, Dragonball, or even Pokemon. Haru, our…

The Philosopher Kings by Jo Walton My rating: 4 of 5 stars I had no idea how the story could continue after The Just City. It seemed to have such a finality to it. Yet Ms Jo Walton has really shone with this sequel. It finds a way to build on just about everything from…

Rave Master, Vol. 01 by Hiro Mashima My rating: 3 of 5 stars I think this is the first manga I’ve read since DeathNote. I’m having a little trouble getting into this, but maybe it’s just one of those stories that starts off a little strange and then finally builds up to a plot? It…

Summer Knight by Jim Butcher My rating: 4 of 5 stars Things continue to evolve in Dresden’s Chicago. By this point it’s become obvious to me that the main series (as opposed to short stories) requires the reader to read them all in order rather than just jumping in to any particular case. Like a…

Stronger Than a Bronze Dragon by Mary Fan My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is the second book I added to my to-read list after meeting Ms. Fan at Farpoint 2019. Even though both Starswept and this one are rated 4 stars, that’s more a consequence of only have 5 stars to choose from,…

Soleil by Jacqueline Garlick My rating: 1 of 5 stars It is a real bummer for me to give this book 1 star. I really enjoyed the first book in the trilogy. The second book was fun. But this book… kind of just felt like perhaps this series should have been a duology instead of…

Serious Python: Black-Belt Advice on Deployment, Scalability, Testing, and More by Julien Danjou My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is an AWESOME book that has completely transformed the way I code in Python. That might sound like the opening to a parody review, but I’m being sincere. One of the best things about Python…

Over the Wine-Dark Sea by H.N. Turteltaub My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is the second time I’ve read this book, the first time being nearly 20 years ago when it first came out. A few key bits had stuck with me, like Menedemos’ womanizing and a battle at sea. But after 20 years,…