books – Page 2 – Finious's Folly

Review: Zoe’s Tale

Zoë’s Tale by John Scalzi
Old Man’s War series #4
View book info on GoodReads

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
First Published: Jan. 30, 2016
Read from: Feb. 18, 2016

Ok… to Good… to Really, Really Good!

When I started this I didn’t realize it was basically a retelling of the previous book in the The Old Man’s War series, “The Last Colony”, only from the perspective of Zoë, the teenage daughter of the protagonist of most of the books. So I started off disappointed with this book. I checked some other people’s reviews just to make sure I wasn’t losing my mind and that, yes, I had indeed read this story before. There I discovered that besides the different perspective on the previous story there were some new things, and that much of it was… well, patching some of the parts of “The Last Colony” that had issues. So I took my time reading this, as I was not really “in” to it. I expected my disappointment would continue, and I considered giving the book the boot early on.

I’m REALLY glad I stuck with it. Read the Full Review

2 Reviews: Slaughterhouse-Five and Peace in Amber

A classic sci-fi-“ish” novel and the post 9/11 short story it inspired.

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
View book info on GoodReads

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
First Published: 1969
Read from: Jan. 24 to Jan. 28, 2016

I read Kurt Vonnegut‘s Slaughterhouse-Five at least once a long time ago. I remember that I liked it, but that it effected me in a negative way and left me of two minds on the experience: I liked the book but hated what it described and made me feel. It not so much described, as allowed you to experience and feel some thing that by nature we resist discussing, describing and by all means feeling if we can avoid it.

I reread the book this time around as there was a short story, Peace in Amber: The World of Kurt Vonnegut by Hugh Howey, that I wanted to read that was basically Howey’s tribute to, commentary on, and his literary attempt at describing and moving past some of the same issues exposed in Slaughterhouse-Five. Knowing this I wanted Vonnegut’s work to be fresh in my ever-more-forgetful mind. I’m glad I did, as the novel and short-story compliment each other. And I discovered in the middle of Howey’s story, he described his experience with reading Slaughterhouse-Five and in doing so described far better than I could what Vonnegut’s book did to me. Read the Reviews

Review: The Republic of Thieves

The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch
Gentleman Bastard series #3
View book info on GoodReads

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
First Published: Oct 8th, 2013
Read from: Dec. 29, 2015 to Jan. 9, 2016

The Best Yet in a Series of Bests!

The Republic of Thieves is the 3rd book in Scott Lynch’s “Gentleman Bastard” series. I loved the previous books in this series but did not review them properly. I gave the first, The Lies of Locke Lamora, a very late, and very basic review. The second, Red Seas Under Red Skies, I reviewed not at all.

The reason for this was there was simply so much I wanted to say about both books. And every attempt I made to say any of it did not do the books justice in my mind. But I tried to show just how much these books entertained and moved me. I rated them both 5 out 5 stars.

Now that I have read the third book, I wish I had rated the earlier ones less, or that I could some how rate this one MORE than 5 stars. If I could I think the The Republic of Thieves would be 8 out of 5 stars. If not more! If I could scale the books in order of great to awesome it would be “Red Seas”, “Lies”, and at the top of this very excellent pile would be “Republic”. Read the Full Review

My 2015 Year in Books

I’ve used GoodReads.com for a few years now to keep track of the books I want to read, am currently reading, and have read. Occasionally I’ll review books there and I usually post those reviews on this blog. For the most part I really like the site.

One of the things GoodReads does that I kind of like is a yearly “Reader Challenge”. Basically you record the number of books you think you’ll read for a year, and then as long as you are recording when you have finished a book, it shows you how far along you are to reaching your “goal”. Continue reading My 2015 Year in Books

Review: The Man in the High Castle

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
View book info on GoodReads

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
First Published: Jan 1, 1962
Read from: Nov. 14 to Nov. 24, 2015
Awards: 1963 Hugo Award for Best Novel

Intense, disturbing, and sad; yet full of beauty hidden behind ugliness.

Life in the 1960’s in a United States that lost World War II and has been split between Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan

I’ve been wanting to read this for a long time. I watched the first episode of the Amazon series and decided it was past time for me to read this and compare the two. Like the show, this book is pretty dark and disturbing. Partly because you can SEE how easily the American society could adapt. I happened to be reading this during the ISIS attacks in Paris and the deep religious and racist backlash that occurred in the press and social media was all the more disturbing combined with reading this dark alternate history of a US that lost World War II.
Read the Full Review

Review: The Hero of Ages

The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn series #3
View book info on GoodReads

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
First Published: October 14th, 2008
Read from: Sept. 17, 2015 to Oct. 30, 2015

Awesome Ending… If You Can Make It There

My reaction to The Hero of Ages, the last book in the Mistborn trilogy, is VERY mixed. A LOT of stuff takes place in this novel. Plot-wise what Sanderson did with the entire series is fully revealed in this book, and it is an amazing piece of work. There is some pretty good action, some characters evolve in interesting and ultimately exciting ways, and it has an awesome climax… BUT it just didn’t grab me like the previous books in the series.
Read the Full Review

Review: The Well of Ascension

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn series #2
View book info on GoodReads

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
First Published: July 25th, 2006
Read from: Sept. 3, 2015 to Sept. 17, 2015

Both Better and Worse Than the First, But a MUST Read!

Read the Full Review

Review: The Martian

The Martian by Andy Weir
View book info on GoodReads

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
First Published: 2011
Read from: August 4, 2014 to August 6, 2015
Awards: 2015 Seiun Award for Best Novel, 2015 John W. Campbell Memorial Award Nominee for Best Novel, 2015 ALA Alex Award

Legitimate science, edge of your seat action & suspense, and great humor; no wonder a movie is in the works.

I finished The Martian in very little time. The first 25% I read at a fairly normal pace and liked enough that it really grabbed my interest. Shortly there after it went from damn good, to… *AWESOME*!… I read the last 75% or so in one continuous reading, as I simply could NOT put it down. That ought to tell you something right there.
Read My Full Review →

Review: The Lies of Locke Lamora

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

LOVED. This. Book.

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 →

Tag: books