Alanson continues to improve as a writer, and I think each book improves a bit on the one before. In this one, he steps away from the 1st-Person perspective and lets some other characters take the lead in a few chapters. He also starts to delve a little in to “Skippy’s” origins… which don’t seem all that mysterious to me, but time will tell.
This audiobook was again narrated by RC Bray, who is excellent.
I’m probably going to pass on the fourth “book”, which is just a 5-hour novella. Audible is charging full price for it, and that’s too short to spend one of my precious credits on. Next week: the third book in the “I Am Legion; I am Bob” series comes out. That one gets my last credit for the month.
I just started The Night Boat by Robert McCammon, as I had forgotten about it but wanted to read it when I was a kid. I loved a lot of this guys books, so I’m curious to see if that’s still the case. So far, 20% into the book, it’s an engaging read.
I finally finished The New Geography of Jobs by Enrico Moretti. Very interesting reading about how the flow of jobs around the US is affected by innovation centers but also by the mobility of the workers. Still need to finish Joseph Stiglitz’s The Price of Inequality.
Also started West with the Night by Beryl Markham. So far it’s a great read.
Since I’ve been away for a while, has QT3 discussed either All Systems Red (Murderbot Diaries) or Kings of the Wyld? I read both recently and thought both were fantastic.
All Systems Red is by Martha Wells (who wrote the well-regarded fantasy Death of the Necromancer back in the 90s) and is a change of pace for her, with sci-fi, robots, etc. Basically a security bot in humanoid form slips its programming leashes and… well that would be telling. It was short but very good fun IMO.
Kings of the Wyld is the most fun I’ve had with a book in years. It starts out with “Slowhand” Clay Cooper, who is working as a town guard in a small town in a medieval fantasy world where the monsters are only kept in check by bands of mercenaries (adventurers). Slowhand is retired now but he was in one of the greatest bands of the day, “Saga”. Things kick off when the band’s also-retired frontman “Golden Gabe” shows up, in pretty bad straits as his daughter is stuck in a city besieged by monsters on the far side of the continent. So of course, Gabe and Slowhand have to get the band back together… Along the way they will have to deal with jealous younger bands, treacherous agents, old resentments, a thousand miles of monster-infested forest, an invincible monster Horde, and a pissed-off dragon. It’s just as cheesy as it sounds and also just as much fun. A pure mashup of D&D fantasy and 70s era Rock Mythology. I loved it.
The Nazi fascination with the occult is legendary, yet today it is often dismissed as Himmler’s personal obsession or wildly overstated for its novelty. Preposterous though it was, however, supernatural thinking was inextricable from the Nazi project. The regime enlisted astrology and the paranormal, paganism, Indo-Aryan mythology, witchcraft, miracle weapons, and the lost kingdom of Atlantis in reimagining German politics and society and recasting German science and religion. In this eye-opening history, Eric Kurlander reveals how the Third Reich’s relationship to the supernatural was far from straightforward. Even as popular occultism and superstition were intermittently rooted out, suppressed, and outlawed, the Nazis drew upon a wide variety of occult practices and esoteric sciences to gain power, shape propaganda and policy, and pursue their dreams of racial utopia and empire.
Bottom line: it’s good; too short; and kinda rushes the ending. This probably should have been combined with the second book in that the final two are together barely longer than the first one was by itself. It ties off most all of the loose threads from the second book nicely, but in places it’s just a little too tidy and suffers from the geek wish-fulfillment that permeates the first two books.
This book, like the second one, didn’t have the joy of discovery from the first one, and I never really got the feeling that the outcome of the central threat of the latter two books was anything but certain, despite a couple red herrings thrown in there. Likewise, although the first book largely failed to examine some of the philosophical and ethical issues that pop up in Bob’s unique existence, the second and third books just kind of brush them aside with no examination whatsoever… which is a pity because there are some interesting questions in there. I might be wrong, but I got the impression that the author was kind of just cranking this one out so that he could move on to a new project.
But all the negative things aside, the writing was every bit as breezily-enjoyable as the first one and it was still a good page-turner. If you liked the first book, you’ll want to read the second two.
I’m really looking forward to what Taylor comes out with next.
A little sorry that Becky Chambers didn’t win best novel, but happy with Jemisin all the same. Generally very pleased with the Hugo results this year. Though I didn’t read some of the stories I’m familiar at least with the recipients.
My only regret is that the scum Vox Day received even a single vote.
Unfortunately I’m a pretty slow reader, and usually only read at night before bed so I don’t get through a lot of books. On the bright side, more money for games!
I’m reading Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. I’m about 35% of the way in and I enjoy it so far. It’s my first book by this author. It’s an easy read, which is good for bedtime. It started getting weirder for the last 10% or so. I can feel the protagonists frustration for sure.
Just finished I am Missing by Tim Weaver a David Raker novel, number 8 in the series. I really enjoyed it but not his best. Rather than finding someone missing he has someone with amnesia and had to find them for themselves.
I don’t think the premise was enough for a full book and unusually for him Raker had a few of those he is going to die but somehow at the last minute survives by some outlandish means. Something he doesn’t usually use in his books. Still worth a read. I read the final 70% of it till 2am last night and the book as usual was really well written.
As much as I like these, a theme he keeps reusing, which annoys the Hell out of me, is Raker heading into dangerous situations without bothering to arm himself…
Finished The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski, the short story collection that started the series that inspired The Witcher. It was okay, interesting for the most part. I liked the twists on some of the standard fairy-tales, and some of the characters were interesting. Not sure if it was the translation, but much of the dialogue felt quite clunky. There was also too much space wasted on descriptions of combat maneuvers. I’ll probably read the rest of the series at some point.
At just over $5 for just over 5 hours of audiobook, it was a decent deal.
The stories ranged from pretty good (and hilariously funny) to pretty bad (and not too funny). If you like Scalzi’s humor, then the good outweighs the bad somewhat. As always with Scalzi, I find his ideas to be far more interesting than his actual writing, but worth the price of admission.
