%rec: Book %key: Title %typedef: Positive range 0 5 %type: Rating Positive %type: Read date %sort: Read %mandatory: Title Author Rating Title: Cain's Jawbone Author: E. Powys Mathers Pages: 100 Rating: 3 Read: Fri, 08 Nov 2024 08:34:12 -0800 Review: I'm going middle-of-the-road on ratings here because, while I've finished reading it once, I understood nothing. I've just begun the journey of disassembly and puzzling. Maybe one day I'll swing the rating up or down. Hope so! Title: Black Leopard, Red Wolf (The Dark Star Trilogy, #1) Author: Marlon James Pages: 640 Rating: 1 Read: Fri, 08 Nov 2024 08:31:21 -0800 Review: I really don't think this is very good. It tricked me for a while, burying that fact below some prose that really seemed special. It was an illusion. The prose is a lot, and it doesn't help the story. It creates a facade of literary skill that hides graphic violence and obscenity turned up to eleven. It doesn't serve the story. There's really not much story to be served. Title: The Saint of Bright Doors Author: Vajra Chandrasekera Pages: 356 Rating: 4 Read: Fri, 08 Nov 2024 08:27:02 -0800 Review: This took a while to capture my attention, but once it did there was a really unique story to discover. The world building was so unique, the challenges so ethereal and yet so monumental. I hope I get the chance to read more things like this in the future now that I'm better primed. Title: The Thin Man Author: Dashiell Hammett Pages: 201 Rating: 5 Read: Fri, 08 Nov 2024 08:24:35 -0800 Review: Holy moly that's some good dialogue. Hammett writes with such a clear, funny voice that I can see this on screen without having seen it on screen. There's a fun story behind the curtain, but it's almost unnecessary. I'd have given 5 stars just to hang around Nick and Nora's apartment for a few days. Title: Task Force Hammer (Expeditionary Force, #17) Author: Craig Alanson Pages: 806 Rating: 4 Read: Fri, 08 Nov 2024 08:21:27 -0800 Review: Skippy and Joe are back at it in full action. It's light-hearted and fun, some plots getting me excited for the future, and then all hell breaks loose. That was a hell of an ending. Can't wait for #18. Title: Looking for Alaska Author: John Green Pages: 221 Rating: 3 Read: Fri, 08 Nov 2024 08:17:47 -0800 Review: There's something great and vulnerable here, but it feels best designed to connect with the young and passionate. There's plenty I can still relate to, but I think I read it all with a distance that didn't help the engagement. It's a good book. Title: Birding to Change the World: A Memoir Author: Trish O'Kane Pages: 368 Rating: 2 Read: Fri, 08 Nov 2024 08:13:20 -0800 Review: I was really hoping for a whole lot more birding and a whole lot less memoir. That's on me. This clearly states it's a memoir. I just figured that the birding hobby was going to be more vital to the story. Title: Neuromancer (Sprawl, #1) Author: William Gibson Pages: 288 Rating: 4 Read: Fri, 08 Nov 2024 08:10:37 -0800 Review: Title: Stopping Time, Part 1 (Wicked Lovely, #2.5 Part I) Author: Melissa Marr Pages: 24 Rating: 4 Read: Fri, 27 Sep 2024 17:01:50 -0700 Review: Wow, for such a short story (and only the first half of the action) I'm really impressed. I have no background on the book that came before this story but the characters instantly came to life and the world of the fae and Leslie's relation to the Dark Court came through quickly and without info-dump. In just a few pages we met 5 or 6 characters who all came to life, felt real, and had a strong sense of identity. Tensions were a web among the characters and by the time the immediate plot began we could feel how those threads would reverberate with the action. +I'm moving on to part 2 now and I think I may add Melissa Marr's longer works to my Want To Read list. She's got talent. +Merged review: +Wow, for such a short story (and only the first half of the action) I'm really impressed. I have no background on the book that came before this story but the characters instantly came to life and the world of the fae and Leslie's relation to the Dark Court came through quickly and without info-dump. In just a few pages we met 5 or 6 characters who all came to life, felt real, and had a strong sense of identity. Tensions were a web among the characters and by the time the immediate plot began we could feel how those threads would reverberate with the action. +I'm moving on to part 2 now and I think I may add Melissa Marr's longer works to my Want To Read list. She's got talent. Title: Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse, #1) Author: James S.A. Corey Pages: 592 Rating: 5 Read: Wed, 25 Sep 2024 17:15:50 -0700 Review: Fabulous series and powerful start. Title: Bookshops & Bonedust (Legends & Lattes, #0) Author: Travis Baldree Pages: 352 Rating: 3 Read: Wed, 25 Sep 2024 17:15:27 -0700 Review: A solid second book. I was disappointed this was a prequel though. I wanted more story of the coffee shop but this was nice too. Title: Stopping Time, Part 2 (Wicked Lovely, #2.5 Part II) Author: Melissa Marr Pages: 22 Rating: 2 Read: Mon, 23 Sep 2024 11:17:14 -0700 Review: Title: Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes, #1) Author: Travis Baldree Pages: 296 Rating: 3 Read: Wed, 11 Sep 2024 01:57:33 -0700 Review: Delivers on the cozy premise. There's a lovely assortment of characters, a tiny hint of romance, a bit of drama, and a giant cat. What's not to love? I'll tell you what! The page count. Gimme more. Title: Night Watch Author: Jayne Anne Phillips Pages: 276 Rating: 1 Read: Wed, 11 Sep 2024 01:53:51 -0700 Review: This was really disappointing. I saw this won the Pulitzer for fiction and got myself excited for something with real substance. Instead it feels like this won based on the theoretical merits of what it stood for more than the actual quality of execution. The craft of writing is the big missing component here. It's clearly well researched, but where story should be we get a sprawling exercise in language experimentation. The prose is trying very hard, possibly too hard, and saying very little. Title: A Heart Divided (Legends of the Condor Heroes, #4) Author: Jin Yong Pages: 593 Rating: 4 Read: Wed, 11 Sep 2024 01:51:15 -0700 Review: A great conclusion to the Legends of the Condor Heroes. I was frustrated for large portions of this book because of the heavy reliance on people jumping to conclusions and simple communication errors. Even more so when things would have been easy to clear up if only a character would bother to say the truth out loud. [spoilers removed] +Regardless, things came around and we had a pretty satisfying ending, and a clear set up for the next generation. Now to wait for those books to finish being translated! Title: Stitching through the Seasons: Evocative Patterns and Projects to Capture the Magic of Each Month Author: Yumiko Higuchi Pages: 96 Rating: 3 Read: Sat, 31 Aug 2024 12:14:04 -0700 Review: This book is absolutely gorgeous and inspiring. If you enjoy embroidery it's worth a quick read. I blew through this at the library, but this would have been nice to have kept at home for reference. There's some lovely embroidery stitching guides for specific stitches, and the pattern guides were begging to be cut out. Title: Stína og Ásta Author: Berglind Guðmundsdóttir Pages: 36 Rating: 2 Read: Sat, 31 Aug 2024 12:08:56 -0700 Review: This book is designed for beginning language practice, especially around words with the ST beginning. I read the first half of this pretty well, but then I encountered a lot of unfamiliar words on each page in the back half which made understanding difficult. +Regardless, good library find. I was happy to add this missing book to Goodreads. Title: Svarta kisa (Skemmtilegu smábarnabækurnar, #9) Author: Alice Williamson Pages: Rating: 3 Read: Fri, 30 Aug 2024 12:44:25 -0700 Review: The phrasing was repetitive, so that limited the opportunity to pick up new phrases a bit. There were a couple new vocabulary words regardless, including "moaned", and "fur". The language felt a bit stiff. Old timey maybe? Title: Stubbur Author: Bengt and Grete Janus Nielsen Pages: 39 Rating: 4 Read: Fri, 30 Aug 2024 08:29:53 -0700 Review: This book had a number of words I wasn't familiar with, but the illustrations helped keep me contextually aware and able to follow the story. I actually laughed twice, so it earned an extra star. My edition of this book is clearly from before 1973 as there were two words spelled with a Z, a letter which was removed from Icelandic at that time. Title: Bláa kannan (Skemmtilegu smábarnabækurnar, #1) Author: Alice Williamson Pages: 32 Rating: 3 Read: Tue, 27 Aug 2024 12:50:25 -0700 Review: I'm reading these children's books in Icelandic each night to force myself to practice my language skills. +This one had a couple unfamiliar words, but was very repetitive so it was quick to finish. I comprehended everything. Title: The Interstellar Slayer (Space Assassins, #1) Author: Scott Baron Pages: 128 Rating: 1 Read: Mon, 19 Aug 2024 05:14:36 -0700 Review: DNF. Holy exposition, Batman! This author spent a lot of time dreaming up their world-building and just decided to tell it to you rather than write a book. He's also totally infatuated with the main group he's created for the story. They are collectively wish fulfillment or Mary Sue or whatever you want to call it. I tried to push through and let the info-dump go for a while, but it just keeps happening. Title: The Book of Elsewhere Author: Keanu Reeves Pages: 352 Rating: 1 Read: Mon, 19 Aug 2024 05:02:00 -0700 Review: DNF. I'm really sad that this wasn't enjoyable. The writing was trying way too hard to be something masterful but forgot to actually say anything along the way. Style? It's completely disjointed. I can feel when China is writing and when we suddenly have Keanu's voice instead. There's no blending. The story itself? There was something interesting at the heart of it, but the main character is so foreign in nature that he's alien, and nobody else has any development worth noting. +I really wanted to like this. At times the prose felt like Dune, but then nothing really happened. I made it about 1/3rd of the way through before I stopped caring enough to continue. Perhaps it picks up later. Title: The Complete Guide to intuiti Creative Cards Author: Matteo di Pascale Pages: 207 Rating: 3 Read: Sun, 18 Aug 2024 13:42:41 -0700 Review: The cards are beautiful. They're inspired by but not exactly Tarot cards and that's exactly what I was looking for. I want to use them as Harrow cards in role-playing games. +The book is nice in how it creates a framework for use in inspiration and creativity. I'll have to try it out in a workshop setting to see how that aspect works. Title: Starcaster (Starcaster #1) Author: J.N. Chaney Pages: 328 Rating: 2 Read: Sun, 18 Aug 2024 13:39:31 -0700 Review: There was a hint of a fun story here, but I just kept getting glimpses. A special hero that can do what nobody else can, who apparently has had this mysterious power since he was a kid. It just never came up until his childhood pal digs him up from a dirty job at the end of a string of dirty jobs. "Want to join the military?" "Sure." +And with that thin excuse we're swept into a sort of boot camp story for wizards. Are wizards known to the universe? Maybe not, but also there's a bunch of powerful ones who are here training these recruits. Does anyone have any clear motivations for any of this? Nope. Does anyone have any real personality, or show signs of growth? Nope. Do the organizations make sense in their mission or structure? Nope. +There is an interesting bit of world-building hinted at. The mysterious enemy feels very borg-like. Their connection to magic is both exciting and threatening. It's just all the other stuff that makes a story that was missing. +In the end, it's finishable, but I feel like I read a first draft that really could have used a good round of story development. Title: Dragon Teeth Author: Michael Crichton Pages: 295 Rating: 1 Read: Sun, 18 Aug 2024 13:32:57 -0700 Review: I'm not sure there's much to say here. This book really didn't work. Unlike Crichton's usual works there was no sense of adventure at all. This felt almost like a school assignment where he was assigned to piece together a possible timeline from a bunch of historical scraps. No life is breathed into it. It really drags. Just read Jurassic Park instead. Title: Dark One: Forgotten Author: Brandon Sanderson Pages: 7 Rating: 4 Read: Sun, 18 Aug 2024 13:29:15 -0700 Review: Title: In Praise of Shadows Author: Jun'ichirō Tanizaki Pages: 56 Rating: 2 Read: Sun, 11 Aug 2024 10:32:52 -0700 Review: What an odd blend of poetic imagery and grumpy old-man syndrome. If you're inclined toward focusing on the beauty of old ways and old things then there's a lot to agree with here. Measured prose and evocative imagery paint the dark on light as is the author's theme, but it overlies a disdain for change. This disdain is a rot at the foundations of the premise. +Where the focus is on the sublime natural elements of rain or wood grain we charge along with nods, imagining ourselves in these peaceful moments and settings. That tranquility vanishes with comparison. Once modern life creeps its way into the work our tranquility vanishes, but not from the pen and western paper, but from the tonal change toward scorn. +And finally, this book is only about 50 pages, but it really manages to pack in a lot of racism and sexism in that space. Not much else to say there. It's a problem. +I kept finding myself saying, "Go back to musing on your special toilet, old man." Title: The Wonder Engine (Clocktaur War, #2) Author: T. Kingfisher Pages: 370 Rating: 4 Read: Sat, 10 Aug 2024 05:41:09 -0700 Review: The second half of the Clocktaur War (which really should have all been one book) was a solid pay-off. Action, adventure, quirky characters coming together, drama, sorrow, all the good stuff. I really love the strong voices each character brings to the table. It felt a bit like a show like Firefly in the irreverence to their situation, despite the seriousness. It ends well. Title: Dungeon Life: An Isekai LitRPG Author: Khenal Pages: 361 Rating: 3 Read: Sat, 10 Aug 2024 05:37:37 -0700 Review: Another isekai story of a person becoming a dungeon. I'm not exactly sure where these genre rules came from. Why do dungeons have cores? The extremely video-gamey rules for how they respawn are interesting too. I've always run dungeon settings in my RPGs just as locations that are inhabited, not living things on their own. +Anyway, this story was nice in that it wasn't just reading a tower defense being built. There were recurring characters, relationships, and the dungeon itself forming friendships. Neat angle. I may do more of these when they come out. Title: The Body Reader (Detective Jude Fontaine Mysteries, #1) Author: Anne Frasier Pages: 304 Rating: 2 Read: Sat, 10 Aug 2024 05:32:39 -0700 Review: This poor woman. Not only is she kidnapped and held prisoner for three years in a basement, but literally everyone she knows or has been in a relationship with is also somehow a serial killer. It very much jumped the shark in that respect. I struggled to suspend belief that she'd be let back into active duty after such a harrowing experience, but as things pressed further on into coincidence I lost my ability. It's pretty ridiculous. Title: Be Water, My Friend: The Teachings of Bruce Lee Author: Shannon Lee Pages: 240 Rating: 1 Read: Thu, 25 Jul 2024 07:08:12 -0700 Review: I wanted to like this more than I did. Shannon relied on the core philosophic teachings behind what Bruce wrote about to deliver rambling holistic wellness advice interspersed with anecdotes. There's really nothing new here. Title: Clockwork Boys (Clocktaur War, #1) Author: T. Kingfisher Pages: 230 Rating: 4 Read: Thu, 25 Jul 2024 05:28:52 -0700 Review: Oh, I really like this one. A thief, an assassin, a disgraced paladin, and a sexist scholar are off on a suicide mission. Great premise! The characters were fantastic. The interplay between them dynamic and changing. There's growth across the board in this short book. +My only complaint is that it's not a whole book. It ends on a cliffhanger that really should just be Act 3 of the same book. No matter. I'll pick that next one up soon. Title: City of Thorns (The Demon Queen Trials, #1) Author: C.N. Crawford Pages: 306 Rating: 1 Read: Thu, 25 Jul 2024 05:19:03 -0700 Review: I've not read many spicy books, and I felt awkward reading this one. Let that be my preface to this review. +I simply cannot fathom the way the main character operates. She seemed a whole being with a decent YA style motivation (find mom's demon killer) up until she encountered the first demon, at which point she stopped being her own character and felt like she was fulfilling a genre role. If the plot advanced an inch it was through four or five scenes that broke down into lustful stares and imagined sexual thoughts. The setting didn't seem to matter much. +And as for the sexuality of the book, there really wasn't any. It was all threat and promise and lusting without any actual payoff. I'm not sure if that makes it better or worse. What it did for me was bury the story. +I think this could be interesting if there were more to it, but I suspect if you remove the lusty bits the whole book is about 20 pages long. Title: The Crazy Kill (Harlem Cycle, #3) Author: Chester Himes Pages: 162 Rating: 3 Read: Thu, 25 Jul 2024 05:11:28 -0700 Review: Himes has a fantastic voice for character. Everyone pops, feels unique, and moves with their own motivations. He basically defined the genre, so it's no surprise that this is an exceptional example. That being said, this particular story left a lot to be desired in the plot. It's a bit ham-fisted and contrived, and the reveals lackluster. +My takeaway from looking at other of his Harlem Cycle books is that I picked the wrong one. The others all sound like they offer the quality of writing I got here, but in a better story. Title: Treasure Vault (Pathfinder, 2nd Edition) Author: Michael Sayre Pages: 224 Rating: 5 Read: Mon, 15 Jul 2024 15:46:51 -0700 Review: Fantastic resource for Pathfinder Second Edition. Not only does it add depth of options to the fantastic assortment of magical and non-magical gear in the game, but it's organized so well and with easy navigation that it's a great table reference while playing. +I want to especially call out the sections on crafting and story crafting in particular as valuable additions to the game that can really bring things to the next level. Title: Lake of Souls: The Collected Short Fiction Author: Ann Leckie Pages: 403 Rating: 4 Read: Mon, 15 Jul 2024 15:43:29 -0700 Review: There's too many stories in here to go into great detail. I'll just say that almost all of them hit it out of the park. I really love Ann Leckie's longer works and that's the feeling I was left wanting from many of these shorter ones. Some brilliant short story authors leave you feeling like that story form was perfect for the tale being told. Leckie's feel like I'm getting the introduction to a world I want to immerse myself within. Thank goodness for the series! Title: Monster Core (Pathfinder, 2nd Edition) Author: Logan Bonner Pages: 376 Rating: 5 Read: Mon, 15 Jul 2024 15:40:37 -0700 Review: I grabbed the mini version of this new bestiary for table reference. I've been using the Bestiary 1 & 2 cards to date, but having the full volume is great for when the party takes unexpected turns. There's great reference charts in the back index for finding things at level quickly. I really appreciate the XP budget encounter system for PF2E as well, as it allows me to use this on the spot really well. Title: Gravesong (The Singer of Terandria #1) Author: Pirateaba Pages: 560 Rating: 1 Read: Mon, 15 Jul 2024 15:37:20 -0700 Review: I nearly stopped reading this book 4 times. As much as the Wandering Inn stories continue to grab my attention, this one didn't at all. I just shared my thoughts on a Pathfinder story that leaned too heavily on the Gothic setting for my tastes and this is in the same category. Giant endless crypts and undead just aren't going to grab me. Necromancers have been explored in the main story more effectively. A land shrouded in darkness and leeched of color is, frankly, pretty dull. And to add a singer in the mix, to brighten things with inspiring lyrics and pop music sounds good on the surface, but what odd musical choices! It was severely meh. Title: Prince of Wolves (Pathfinder Tales) Author: Dave Gross Pages: 360 Rating: 2 Read: Mon, 15 Jul 2024 15:33:09 -0700 Review: Interesting characters, but the setting really bogged it down. +I'm reading these to expand my familiarity with Golarion, the setting of Pathfinder adventures. This area isn't a big one for me, despite playing a campaign that featured the Whispering Tyrant. I've decided it's not an area of the map I care much to explore. Too Ravenloft-y for me. Vampires and Werewolves aren't the fantasy fare I crave. +I know this Pathfinder Society duo shows up more in later books. Looking forward to those stories. Title: Assistant to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #1) Author: Hannah Nicole Maehrer Pages: 342 Rating: 1 Read: Mon, 15 Jul 2024 15:28:56 -0700 Review: DNF. Awful reader. Sounds like an AI. Pick this one up in print. Title: Wolf in White Van Author: John Darnielle Pages: 211 Rating: 1 Read: Sat, 06 Jul 2024 05:14:03 -0700 Review: Not for me. The reader isn't engaging (is it the author?) and the story's concept doesn't hold up well in a narrative sense. It's boring. The interesting bits are skimmed over and left hollow while we plod on and on in trivialities. I don't see how this was published, to be frank. It needs a lot of work. Title: Tales Of Pirx The Pilot Author: Stanisław Lem Pages: 206 Rating: 5 Read: Sat, 06 Jul 2024 05:10:02 -0700 Review: Older sci-fi stories are often difficult for me to get into because of their lack of character focus. Authors like Arthur C Clarke tend toward a focus on the science, or the big philosophical idea, rather than establishing a believable cast and seeing them explore these worlds. Lem is not like this. Pirx is alive. He's at times grumpy, excited, fearful, nervous, and bored in real ways that bring you into the story with him. +The format of the book is episodic. Many of the stories at this time were magazine publications brought together into a larger volume. I'm not sure if that's the case here, but it feels like it. In this sense, some stories work better than others. Terminus, the final in the book, is absolutely the strongest. It has so many aspects to explore, so many questions left lingering, and an absolutely devastating ending that will stick with me for a long time to come. +I'm looking forward to reading more Pirx stories soon. Title: The Wandering Inn: Book 12 - The Witch of Webs (The Wandering Inn, #6, Part 3) Author: Pirateaba Pages: 1703 Rating: 3 Read: Sat, 06 Jul 2024 05:04:36 -0700 Review: Not enough Erin for my liking. It was great spending time with Ryoka, but Durene and Lakin are pretty boring. I was honestly hoping the drakes wiped out Riverfarm. The witches were neat, but things got repetitive and mired in muck around them. The thing that kept me going was Ryoka's growth. +Back down in Liscor we had much more interesting things going on. The election drama was great. Mrsha POV also excellent. More more more. Title: Redemption (Infinity Blade, #2) Author: Brandon Sanderson Pages: 200 Rating: 2 Read: Sat, 06 Jul 2024 04:58:39 -0700 Review: Being a video game tie-in, this book relies much more on your knowledge of the games than the first. I had to do some time on Wikipedia to figure out where to ground the story. The world building beyond that was good, and the characters actually managed a bit of growth in this weird vignette space. Don't expect a resolution, though. This is a set up for the next game where you'll be playing out that action. All in all it was decent, but I'm glad Sanderson's grown enough as an author that he doesn't need to do this sort of story anymore. Title: Summer of '85 Author: Chris Morrow Pages: Rating: 3 Read: Sat, 06 Jul 2024 04:43:33 -0700 Review: A story about the MOVE bombing, Live Aid, and the awful history of yet another +atrocity from the United States. Everyone involved is awful. More awful than I +ever knew. It's heartbreaking. Title: Starship Troopers Author: Robert A. Heinlein Pages: 264 Rating: 2 Read: Wed, 26 Jun 2024 14:54:02 -0700 Review: Title: Hour of the Assassin Author: Matthew Quirk Pages: 336 Rating: 2 Read: Wed, 26 Jun 2024 05:22:23 -0700 Review: We started with an element of expert capability and competence and the action was pretty solid. It didn't really get beyond that, though. The twist wasn't really much of one and the competence theme throughout really made you question how the main character got into the situation to begin with. The biggest let down was in the missed opportunity for character development. Nobody has any depth. It's all caricatures and zippy action. It would probably make a decent thriller film, but it lacked the complexity that would make it a good book. Title: Sewer Skewers (Cooking with Disaster, #2) Author: Dakota Krout Pages: 392 Rating: 2 Read: Wed, 26 Jun 2024 05:13:38 -0700 Review: More of the same. There's not quite enough advancement for it to feel like that sort of story. There's some cooking, but a lot of the litrpg elements feel more about the math than the action. We had a bit of character work but without any tangible growth. Book 1's big saving grace was this element of Nacho's change from an assassin to a satiation player. This time around he just sort of limped along in the role. It just didn't feel like we had enough direction. Title: Hunting Game Author: Candice Fox Pages: Rating: 3 Read: Sat, 22 Jun 2024 13:39:29 -0700 Review: Well that was nerve wracking. Everything that could go wrong did so. There were a few well earned twists. The ending twist felt forced, though. It seemed bolted on. Still, it didn't take away from the rest of the story. +Great voice work from the whole cast. Title: Awakening (Infinity Blade, #1) Author: Brandon Sanderson Pages: 123 Rating: 3 Read: Wed, 19 Jun 2024 14:43:31 -0700 Review: This is a decent little story for a video game prelude. It sets up the story nicely but also gives us some characters with a bit of depth. Title: Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician Author: Anthony Everitt Pages: 364 Rating: 3 Read: Wed, 19 Jun 2024 07:55:54 -0700 Review: Title: The Game Master’s Handbook of Proactive Roleplaying: Guidelines and Strategies for Running PC-Driven Narratives in 5E Adventures Author: Jonah Fishel Pages: 237 Rating: 3 Read: Wed, 19 Jun 2024 07:54:08 -0700 Review: The premise here is that by developing and defining goals for player characters, we can extract from that information ways to craft our games to be proactive, avoid railroading, and stay engaging. From that premise the rest of the book explores strategies for those goals and ways to evolve those into your settings, NPCs, factions, and so on. It certainly favors use in homebrew games moreso than modules or adventure paths, but some element of goal setting can be helpful in these other forms as well. I see some ideas to pull into my own games. Title: The Long Game (The Far Reaches, #4) Author: Ann Leckie Pages: 31 Rating: 2 Read: Wed, 19 Jun 2024 07:49:30 -0700 Review: An interesting little short story about what we'd pay for a bit longer in this world, and what it really grants us. It didn't really grab me like Ann Leckie's long forms. Title: Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive, #4) Author: Brandon Sanderson Pages: 1232 Rating: 5 Read: Wed, 19 Jun 2024 07:46:34 -0700 Review: So much story progression! The whole conflict has grown so much more complicated and there's many more interests in play. I'm really happy to have guessed one or two developments but also thrilled at the number of surprises still coming. I can't wait for book five and the end of this arc. Title: Oathbringer (The Stormlight Archive, #3) Author: Brandon Sanderson Pages: 1243 Rating: 5 Read: Mon, 20 May 2024 14:33:56 -0700 Review: Re-read complete. Wow I missed some important stuff the first time around. Time for book 4. Whee. Title: Galatea Author: Madeline Miller Pages: 27 Rating: 3 Read: Sun, 19 May 2024 07:49:22 -0700 Review: Miller is correct that there's some incredibly problematic assumptions that must +be made in order to accept the fairy tale ending of Pygmalion. This short story +explores a new lens on the story in a wonderfully unique way. For a work that +has already seen so many adaptations it's refreshing to find a unique take. +I enjoyed the story being told, but in a rare instance i find the plotting +choice a bit of a let down. By choosing a short story format and focusing our +point of view into the final days of the story we glimpse some of the most real +depth of emotion and greatest potential only in brief memories. The plot is +quick to action and strikes its point home before the story sculpture has fully come +alive. Title: The Travels of Reverend Ólafur Egilsson: The Story of the Barbary Corsair Raid on Iceland in 1627 Author: Ólafur Egilsson Pages: 248 Rating: 4 Read: Wed, 01 May 2024 10:53:55 -0700 Review: This was better than I expected. It felt like every other page I was encountering things I had misconceptions about. Even in the beginning it was a shock when some of the captured Icelanders are released from captivity for various reasons. A man with a bad hand was freed because he wouldn't make a good slave. They didn't kill these people, and they weren't mistreated on the ship after they were underway. Even from this Reverend's point of view it's hard to see the raiders as entirely evil. There's a more complex story here. Title: Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, #2) Author: Brandon Sanderson Pages: 1088 Rating: 5 Read: Wed, 01 May 2024 10:48:27 -0700 Review: Title: The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1) Author: Brandon Sanderson Pages: 1007 Rating: 5 Read: Wed, 01 May 2024 10:48:16 -0700 Review: I absolutely loved this book. I can't wait for the next in the series. +I bought it in hardback instead of on my kindle because I'd heard there were lots of maps in the print that were unreadable in the digital versions. Well, I think that sentiment is completely right, but it's more than maps. Character journals, sketches, and all sorts of things are spread in the pages. It's great to flip back to the awesome maps in the beginning too. It's certainly possible to enjoy the book without all the pictures, or to look them up online for reference. The book is really big and cumbersome too, so there's that to worry about. I guess if the worst thing you have to worry about with this book is what version to buy, that says something in itself. +Re-read: Still awesome. Title: Slimy Things Did Crawl (Halfway to Better Book 1) Author: Susan Kaye Quinn Pages: 34 Rating: 3 Read: Tue, 30 Apr 2024 12:51:53 -0700 Review: Solid solarpunk story. Cleaning up the ocean floor of microplastics gets a little bit hairy. I was getting into it when it wrapped up. It would have been nice to spend a bit more time in that world and see what happens next. +These short stories are indeed very short, so I'll need to reset my expectations for the rest. Title: Malleus (Eisenhorn, #2) Author: Dan Abnett Pages: 288 Rating: 3 Read: Fri, 05 Apr 2024 20:47:23 -0700 Review: A strong second volume in the Eisenhorn chronicles. The rich history and universe-building of Warhammer is powerfully felt in every moment of this book. The intrigue of court crossed with the epic battles, arcane mysteries, and plain old sleuthing make for a dynamic read. Well performed in audio. Title: Shadow and Bone (The Shadow and Bone Trilogy, #1) Author: Leigh Bardugo Pages: 358 Rating: 2 Read: Fri, 05 Apr 2024 20:44:16 -0700 Review: This book reminds me of the Sword of Shanara in that everything is really in your face and on the nose. The guy who seems like he's definitely going to be the bad guy is in fact the bad guy. The light and dark aspects were pretty trite. The Grisha weren't interesting to me when they were background in Six of Crows, so now that I'm getting their mainstay series I'm equally unimpressed. I'm going to push onward regardless. Hoping the later books get more... anything. Title: Under Ashen Skies (Beneath the Dragoneye Moons, #10) Author: Selkie Myth Pages: 627 Rating: 3 Read: Fri, 05 Apr 2024 20:40:13 -0700 Review: Back to the fun again, but with surprisingly few stakes. There were a few fights but everything felt safe in this tenth installment. It was lovely seeing the leveling and new powers evolving. It was also great to see some old friends get together again. I just enjoyed spending time in the story again even if not much happened. Title: The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels (Dangerous Damsels, #1) Author: India Holton Pages: 336 Rating: 2 Read: Fri, 05 Apr 2024 20:38:03 -0700 Review: This series had a lot of ups and downs for me in the first installment. It had a certain humor that really worked well a lot of the time, but occasionally the anachronistic elements cut into the theme a bit too deep and took me out of the story rather than add color. The characters are vibrant and there's just the right level of ridiculous. This was an audio listen and I think it may have worked better for me in print. Title: Klara and the Sun Author: Kazuo Ishiguro Pages: 303 Rating: 4 Read: Fri, 05 Apr 2024 20:34:18 -0700 Review: This is a beautiful story filled with hope and pain and more hope. It made me turn to the sun several times. It's well worth the read. Title: Remarkably Bright Creatures Author: Shelby Van Pelt Pages: 368 Rating: 5 Read: Wed, 06 Mar 2024 08:10:08 -0800 Review: This was a fabulous read. At first I wasn't sure how the two storylines were connected, then I thought I knew, and then I had to learn something from an octopus. There's a lot of joy in this book and the ending was perfect. Title: Grilled Armageddon (Cooking with Disaster, #1) Author: Dakota Krout Pages: 460 Rating: 3 Read: Wed, 06 Mar 2024 07:47:16 -0800 Review: A resurrection litrpg? Well, it was also a bit cozy since it was focused on a friendship. I like the cooking angle and I can see hope for that continuing well in future stories. I'm on the fence about picking up #2. Title: Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi Author: John Scalzi Pages: 142 Rating: 4 Read: Tue, 20 Feb 2024 13:13:36 -0800 Review: Scalzi is a delight and this collection of his short works is as well. He packs in such humor with the essential questions of science fiction. Title: So Late in the Day Author: Claire Keegan Pages: 47 Rating: 4 Read: Tue, 20 Feb 2024 05:04:37 -0800 Review: Short stories do such a great job getting at it, don't they? This one certainly packed in a lot. Title: Domestication (Battle Mage Farmer #1) Author: Seth Ring Pages: 412 Rating: 1 Read: Mon, 19 Feb 2024 15:38:48 -0800 Review: I have two main complaints that led to a one-star review. One of these complaints is the fault of the audiobook narrator and the other the fault of the book author. +First, the audio narration contains two character voices: grizzled cowboy and annoying anime boy. Every character in the story is given one of these two treatments. It rarely works. +Second, the main character is invincible, omnipotent, and also a whiny bitch. He literally has max stats in everything. He has no actual motivation to do anything. And what does he do with his unlimited power? Very sketchily recreates modern plumbing, I guess. Goes on a pointless adventure with his enemies because he's bored. Fights some things with one hand tied behind his back so that the drama seems more realistic. I dunno. There really is no point at all. +I really don't get this overpowered main character thing that's going on recently. It's really boring and I would very much like it to stop. Title: Plain Bad Heroines Author: Emily M. Danforth Pages: 640 Rating: 2 Read: Sun, 18 Feb 2024 06:13:53 -0800 Review: It was longer than it needed to be and never really came together in that satisfying way it felt like it should. There was a lot to like, but it really did drag on when it should have been building more tension. The author can write the horror of a scene quite well but it was lacking from the book as a whole. Title: The Torch that Ignites the Stars (Arcane Ascension, #3) Author: Andrew Rowe Pages: 571 Rating: 3 Read: Wed, 14 Feb 2024 04:41:00 -0800 Review: I struggled less with book 3 than book 2. I think it's because the author really leaned into the crafting this time around and made it very clear that this story isn't trying to be too many things at once. The main character's motivations were more clear, his choices and those of his friends seemed in keeping with their character, and the encounters with overwhelming forces finally seemed to have some impact on them. +This is an interesting series. It really does go for the throat with game mechanics and high-science of fantasy elements, but it's not quite giving up on these other tropes. I think Mr Rowe could take the training wheels off, abandon the school, perhaps even abandon the dungeonesque spires entirely, and push forward with his budding political landscape, rich variety of magical systems, and find a stronger book for it. Title: A Symphony of Echoes (The Chronicles of St Mary's, #2) Author: Jodi Taylor Pages: 235 Rating: 1 Read: Wed, 14 Feb 2024 04:35:23 -0800 Review: Audiobook review. This series needs a new reader or at least some care in crafting the work. I can't distinguish between the reader's characters at all. They all have exactly the same voice quality and manner of speaking. I was constantly getting lost. +As for the book itself, I was really engaged early-on. The mythical quality of the monster and its relentlessness really struck a strong chord. We were deep in horror territory from the start and I was here for it. +Sadly I couldn't enjoy due the problems above and DNF. This book, and indeed the series, deserves another look in print. I suspect I'll really enjoy it. Title: Fox 8 Author: George Saunders Pages: 21 Rating: 4 Read: Wed, 14 Feb 2024 04:00:03 -0800 Review: Solid short story. The spelling helped convey the innocence of Fox 8. A true fable through and through. Title: On the Shoulders of Titans (Arcane Ascension, #2) Author: Andrew Rowe Pages: 742 Rating: 2 Read: Fri, 02 Feb 2024 08:32:33 -0800 Review: This one is really strange. On the one hand it still has all the fun bits from book 1, but I'm finding some new issues as the series continues. +First, the main character is strangely involved in epic workings with some of the most powerful beings on the planet, yet is barely finished his first year of schooling. He's underpowered, pretty much useless against anything, but somehow survives going toe-to-toe with multiple god-tier opponents. His close friends are super powerful, yet also somehow useless? It's a weird situation. +Why would they involve this annoying kid who has such strong demands on people yet no real contribution? Why are powerful creatures after him in the first place? +Oh and why can he stand up to god-beasts but not his own father? Worse, why do none of his close friends help him in that situation? +It's becoming harder so suspend disbelief, and the power dynamics are also becoming droll. When the third massively powerful creature squared off with him I sorta tuned it out knowing nothing would come of it. +I'll give the series one more book to see if it turns around or does something new based on how much I liked book 1. Title: Unruly: The Ridiculous History of England's Kings and Queens Author: David Mitchell Pages: 433 Rating: 3 Read: Wed, 31 Jan 2024 06:45:09 -0800 Review: Book club read: +I don't have much interest in the subject matter, so it was really nice that the tone and humor carried me along so well. This is a delightful read. Title: The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp (Miss Sharp Investigates, #1) Author: Leonie Swann Pages: 360 Rating: 2 Read: Wed, 31 Jan 2024 06:41:38 -0800 Review: Title: Being Arab Author: Samir Kassir Pages: 96 Rating: 2 Read: Sun, 21 Jan 2024 11:46:34 -0800 Review: This took me an unusually long amount of time to read for such a short work, and I think I got about 10% of what I should have out of it. I simply don't have enough background on the historical and political landscape of the region to know what Samir was talking about in much of this book. His observations were interesting, but also confusing for me. I suspect this is a fabulous read for someone more familiar with the topic. Title: A Snake Lies Waiting (Legends of the Condor Heroes, #3) Author: Jin Yong Pages: 429 Rating: 4 Read: Sun, 21 Jan 2024 11:44:05 -0800 Review: It's so frustrating when problems exist only because one character doesn't say something to another character. The amount of misconception based plots in this third chapter of Legends of the Condor Heroes was overwhelming. But perhaps more of interest to me was the cultural differences on display. +Two examples (spoilers): +[spoilers removed] Title: The First Tail (The Nine Tails of Alchemy #1) Author: Taniko K. Williams Pages: 534 Rating: 4 Read: Sat, 06 Jan 2024 14:54:54 -0800 Review: I wasn't sure if I was going to like this series at first. It's more litrpg, which is a weird genre for me. I generally dislike a lot of it unless it's really solid like The Wandering Inn. This had a good justification for a game world, and the connection back to the real world was a neat twist. Ultimately it's the attention to crafting detail and the passion the main character has for alchemy that makes this a success. I'll be continuing. Title: Aftermath (Expeditionary Force, #16) Author: Craig Alanson Pages: 697 Rating: 4 Read: Mon, 01 Jan 2024 15:00:31 -0800 Review: Welcome back, Skippy! I honestly thought the series was finished after the last book so I was pleasantly surprised to see this release. It was great to dive back into this universe and travel with Joe Bishop again. The story is strong and the ending sets us up for more to come. Hooray! Title: On Bullshit Author: Harry G. Frankfurt Pages: 67 Rating: 3 Read: Wed, 27 Dec 2023 14:11:30 -0800 Review: Two takeaways: 1) Wittgenstein may have been on the spectrum. 2) The lack of benevolence in bullshit is the most important quality of it, far more than the difference between it and lies. That's giving me something to think about. Title: The Witch of Duva (Grishaverse, #0.5) Author: Leigh Bardugo Pages: 48 Rating: 3 Read: Tue, 26 Dec 2023 12:38:16 -0800 Review: Title: Düngeonmeister: 75 Epic RPG Cocktail Recipes to Shake Up Your Campaign (Düngeonmeister Series) Author: Jef Aldrich Pages: 160 Rating: 3 Read: Tue, 26 Dec 2023 11:22:31 -0800 Review: A lot of these are actually cute and sound like they might be fun to try out on a game night. Title: Practical Machine Learning: Innovations in Recommendation Author: Ted Dunning Pages: 59 Rating: 1 Read: Tue, 26 Dec 2023 11:19:29 -0800 Review: All but useless high level info. Title: When a Child is Born (The Chronicles of St Mary's, #2.5) Author: Jodi Taylor Pages: 60 Rating: 3 Read: Tue, 26 Dec 2023 10:12:06 -0800 Review: Cute. I should come back to this series. It's quirky fun. Title: Long Chills and Case Dough Author: Brandon Sanderson Pages: 67 Rating: 3 Read: Tue, 26 Dec 2023 08:22:13 -0800 Review: Sanderson admitted this is an odd duck of a story in the introduction and it's true. It's cute and the characters are fun. I laughed out loud a few times. Ultimately it was a good length and enjoyable, but it wouldn't have worked in a longer work. Title: 25 Icelandic Ghost Stories Author: Jón R. Hjálmarsson Pages: 126 Rating: 2 Read: Tue, 26 Dec 2023 06:31:37 -0800 Review: This book of Icelandic ghost stories probably won't appeal to people who haven't spent time in Iceland. The stories are dry histories, often with extensive lists of names and relationships, but rarely with much narrative to them. Before each story is a brief section detailing the area, farm, or town where the story takes place. These blurbs help place the context for the stories. +I found the location grounding really helpful. I've been to many of these places and know several of the histories of the people in the stories. That helps me connect some dots and brings more overall enjoyment than would otherwise be found inside. Title: Chess Story Author: Stefan Zweig Pages: 104 Rating: 4 Read: Sun, 24 Dec 2023 12:38:07 -0800 Review: Really cool little story. I don't have any deep observations to add, but I really enjoyed it. Title: The Lost Cause Author: Cory Doctorow Pages: 368 Rating: 5 Read: Sat, 23 Dec 2023 18:52:55 -0800 Review: Finally, a novel I can point to and say, "this is it. this is solarpunk." +At times I felt like Doctorow must have been listening to my podcast because he hit all the notes perfectly. Community is the protagonist. Infrastructure is essential to the story. It is ultimately concerned with the human/environmental context. Just perfectly nailed it. +As far as the story goes and the characters we meet there's quite the gamut of personalities. We're taken on a trip between hope and rage and frustration at injustice, despair, hope again, and more. I'm singularly impressed by the way he managed to end the book in a way where we, the readers, can join the protagonists in their determined weariness. The future will be better because we must make it so. There is no alternative. +Kudos to Cory Doctorow. Now, everyone go read this immediately. Title: Beware of Chicken 3 (Beware of Chicken, #3) Author: CasualFarmer Pages: 785 Rating: 4 Read: Sat, 23 Dec 2023 06:17:33 -0800 Review: A great expansion on the story. Some things are revealed but it still has the peaceful vibe of the first. Title: The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human Author: Jonathan Gottschall Pages: 248 Rating: 1 Read: Sun, 17 Dec 2023 08:14:27 -0800 Review: This book is terrible. The topic is so interesting but the execution a disaster. +The author has some very particular prejudices that stood out like a red flag in the beginning, but the true disappointment is the lack of engagement with the subject matter. He flits from concept to concept, gives some opinion or description, a few passages and examples, but never dives into depth in scientific analysis or literary criticism. The book ends up being a lot of padding and rants without any substance. +I would recommend you not read this. Title: The Number One Ladies' Detective Agency Author: Alexander McCall Smith Pages: Rating: 3 Read: Sat, 16 Dec 2023 05:03:28 -0800 Review: What a fun start to this series. Delightful characters in a great setting (Botswana). It makes me want to try bush tea. Title: Kitty Cat Kill Sat: A Feline Space Adventure Author: Argus . Pages: 475 Rating: 2 Read: Fri, 15 Dec 2023 16:29:53 -0800 Review: This story takes it's time building up into a story. For the first half of the book it feels more like episodes or vingettes of Lily's life. Once the bigger plot comes along it feels like an afterthought and rushes to the end. Title: Nothing But Blackened Teeth Author: Cassandra Khaw Pages: 125 Rating: 1 Read: Tue, 12 Dec 2023 17:36:42 -0800 Review: Yikes. This really needed an editor. +A group of people who all hate one another but call each other friends travels to a haunted mansion in Japan so that the author can demonstrate a sufficient knowledge of Japanese folklore while telling a self-are ghost story. The real horror here is the analogy work. It tries to hard and too often to turn a phrase into art. The examples are too numerous to share, but some of the worst are when the author demonstrates they don't actually know what the words they're using even mean. Ambergris isn't a color, after all. +And what about the story? Are we to take it on face value or ask questions about the alcohol? What role did the ghost play vs their own nature. Frankly, the story didn't do a sufficient job prompting me to question. It rolled in the filth of setting and berated me with vibes, and then it was done. Title: The Strange Library Author: Haruki Murakami Pages: 96 Rating: 2 Read: Thu, 07 Dec 2023 05:41:31 -0800 Review: This story immediately took me back to middle school where the reading is assumed to come with discussion and testing to follow. It felt almost pandering to that style, like Murakami was poking at me with a stick saying, "did you catch that symbolism? No? What does the Sheep-Man signify?" The tone, the choice of repetition, the allegorical stylings, the innocent and passive protagonist, it all adds up to a highly contrived type of fiction where the subtext is more important than the text. +Did I enjoy it, yeah. It was okay. It wasn't moving, nor do I feel a strong sense of moral or lesson because it felt like the underlying message of the story drifted by the end. +[spoilers removed] Title: Return of the Jedi: The Original Radio Drama Author: Brian Daley Pages: 4 Rating: 2 Read: Wed, 06 Dec 2023 20:36:32 -0800 Review: Not really as bad as the other two, which sort of makes this one an even bigger waste of time. Title: The Brightest Shadow (The Brightest Shadow, #1) Author: Sarah Lin Pages: 1057 Rating: 2 Read: Tue, 05 Dec 2023 12:32:11 -0800 Review: This started strong with some interesting world building and politics between various groups and factions. When "the hero" first showed up I thought we were in a turn for progress, but it became the exact opposite. The characters were all mired in the foggy reality of the hero's presence and stopped being the forces driving the plot. Quickly things became a slog. +I didn't have enough time with the main characters to develop a true empathy for them or their plight, and then the spent forever acting not like themselves. It was hard to know if I should care at all. In the end, I didn't. +This story has strong roots, as Mr Miyagi would say. The author has a good command of her craft as well. I think where this failed for me is in the places where a strong editor would have been helpful. It needed some big pacing revisions, perhaps a bit of chapter reordering, some condensing, or maybe some expanding to break up the long stretches. Ultimately I wanted to feel like the characters actions made the story progress. If it's not them making things happen we have the wrong POV and this story should be about someone else. Title: Icelandic Language: Texts in Icelandic Author: Baldur Hilmarsson Pages: 76 Rating: 2 Read: Sun, 03 Dec 2023 08:32:51 -0800 Review: This practice texts collection follows a different strategy than the last one I read. Rather than focusing on language at a certain level of difficulty and letting you decypher vocabulary meaning in context it tries to frame a bunch of new vocabulary by subject and introduce a text that utiziles it all. The result isn't great. The grammar is all over the map in complexity and these brand new words you're learning may show up in any number of declanations adding to the difficulty. If you're more advanced at learning and just looking for a vocab dump, maybe this will serve you better. Title: Short Stories in Icelandic for Beginners Author: Olly Richards Pages: 224 Rating: 4 Read: Sun, 03 Dec 2023 08:28:00 -0800 Review: These are fantastic and pushing the limits of my language skills perfectly. There's some opinionated instructions in the beginning that I've been trying to take to heart. If you're learning Icelandic this is a good buy.