Thoughts inspired by, cool things discovered in, or reviews of:
• Books I’ve read
• Movies I’ve seen
• TV I’ve watched
• Music I’ve listened to
• Games I’ve played
• Software I’ve used
Most of this is usually posts about science fiction & fantasy books & movies, though I also often enjoy history & historical fiction, and occasionally post about cool music, videos, geeky software or tech gadgets I’ve used.
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Gentleman Bastard series #2
View book info on GoodReads
My Rating: 
5 out of 5 stars
First Published: June 27th, 2006
Read from: June 16, 2015 to July 8, 2015
I liked this book quite a lot when I first started reading it. A little over half-way though that like became love.
Read My Full Review →
Shift by Hugh Howey
Silo series #2
View book info on GoodReads
My Rating: 
3 out of 5 star
First Published: January 28, 2013
Read from: May 27 to June 13, 2015
Shift is the second book in the Silo series, but is actually the chronological prequel to the Wool Omnibus, the first book in the series. But you should definetely read Wool first! Confused yet?
Read My Full Review →
Mistborn – The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn series #1
View book info on GoodReads
My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
First Published: July 25th, 2006
Read from: May 19 to May 27, 2015
Sea-Kings of Mars by Leigh Brackett
View book info on GoodReads
My Rating: 
2 out of 5 stars
First Published: June 1949
Read from: May10 to May 17, 2015
Also titled “The Sword of Rhiannon”, the novella “Sea-Kings of Mars” is from the 1940’s era of classic sci-fi / sword & sorcery pulp novels. I read this as a book club pick, and was looking forward to it as it sounded very similar to Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars books from 20 years or more earlier, which I’ve always loved. Unfortunately I was very underwhelmed by the whole thing. The author, Leigh Brackett, is famous for her screenplays, (westerns, noir, and a first take on Star Wars “The Empire Strikes Back”, strangely enough,) but this story can be summed up in one word: meh.
Read My Full Review →
The Last Colony by John Scalzi
Old Man’s War series #3
View book info on GoodReads
My Rating: 
4 out of 5 stars
First Published: April 17th, 2007
Read from: May 11 to May 13, 2015
Awards: 2008 Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel, 2010 Seiun Award for Best Foreign Novel
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Kingkiller Chronicle series #1
View book info on GoodReads
My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
First Published: March 27th, 2005
Read from: April 21 to May 10, 2015
Awards: 2008 ALA Alex Award, 2007 The Quill Award for Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror
Startide Rising by David Brin
The Uplift Saga #2
View book info on GoodReads
My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
First Published: 1983
Read from: January 26 to February 2, 2015
Awards: 1984 Hugo Award for Best Novel , 1983 Nebula Award for Best Novel, 1984 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
It’s not the first time I have discovered something similar, but this book (which won nearly every award a sci-fi novel could at the time,) pretty much sucked. Which is especially sad because I really liked the first in the series.
Read My Full Review →
Odd Apocalypse by Dean Koontz
Odd Thomas series #5
View book info on GoodReads
My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
First Published: July 31, 2012
Read from: February 19 to February 28, 2015
“We love a series hero, but a series villain quickly becomes silly as he strives so obviously to shock us. Virtue is imaginative, evil repetitive.” – Odd Apocalypse, Page 23
This quote from Dean Koont’s “Odd Apocalypse” seems very apropos: the story of our virtuous hero Odd Thomas saving the world by stopping evil villains from destroying the world (as we know it) is getting a little repetitive. I think I liked this book of the series the least of all that came before. Which is odd, because the serial “novella” that was released before this book as kind of an appetizer, “Odd Interlude”, was one of my favorites because of both it’s short action-packed pace and a couple of fun, interesting new characters. But this book…
Read My Full Review →
Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
Discworld series #13
View book info on GoodReads
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
First Published: 1992
Read from: March 1 to March 19, 2015
Yet another excellent book that deserves a full review, but I was either too lazy, busy or uninspired at the time.
As always with Pratchett’s work, this book while being funny and amusing, hit me in surprisingly “deep” places. I have literally PAGES of highlighted quotes from this book. Many because they were funny. But far more because they were so honest and True. True with a capital ‘T’.
Read My Full Review →
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
View book info on GoodReads
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
First Published: January 1963
Read from: February 19 to February 28, 2015
Awards: 1963 Hugo Award for Best Novel
