The Unwritten, Vol. 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity The Unwritten #1

2022-06-20

Well that’s a start. A world where Tommy Taylor is a modern hidden world fantasy even bigger than Harry Potter… until the author disappears, leaving behind disillusioned son Tom Taylor. There are more than hints of a darker truth behind the story, hidden worlds within hidden worlds. And a section at the end establishing how far back in time the truth goes.

So far, a fascinating sort of story. Well written and illustrated. I’m willing to bet that I can guess a chunk of what’s to come, but I bet the getting there will be the best part.

Onward!

The Rage of Dragons The Burning #1

2022-06-17

African-inspired Bronze-age fantasy with piles of caste based tensions, crazy sword battles, interesting magic, demons, dragons, and the distinct feeling that the ‘good guys’ might not actually be that good after all.

I’m reminded a lot of Ender’s Game (which I love and need to re-read at some point) in that you have a surprisingly good soldier that manages to train harder and break the rules, breaking down society as he goes. It’s a lot darker though and Tau (said soldier) is motivated almost entirely by vengeance. It’s… a lot to read at times, but it fits. Man he’s stupid at times for it though.

It’s a great book and worth the read.

A Deadly Education The Scholomance #1

2022-04-13

Oh, that’s a joy of a book. Saying which I suppose–after you’ve read it–feels a bit ironic. It’s one part magic school, with your more or less typical teenage protagonists doing more or less typical teenage thing. In my opinion, Novik does this very well. Main character El (short for Galadriel) is so wonderfully snarky and done with it teenage girl that I could practically feel her angst coming off the page–and it’s all the better, because she really does have a good reason for it.

Paradise Lost

2022-04-12

Well that’s an odd sort of book. It’s basically the story of the Fall of Satan plus Genesis, wrapped up in some crazy flowery poetry, writ long. It’s been on my ‘why not’ list for a long time and hearing more about it in Daemon Voices bumped it up a fair bit.

Am I glad to have read it? Yes. Is it a good book? Maybe. The poetry is absolutely beautiful in some places, but the story is one you’ve probably heard before, if you’ve any sort of judeo-christian upbringing, although it does embelish in spots. And oy does it get long. It thought there were 7 books for some reason, so when I finished number 7 and we’re barely into Genesis…, well, I knew I was wrong about that.

In any case, the first few books with the fall of Satan are very cool and I’d say worth reading. The rest, hit or miss.

All Systems Red The Murderbot Diaries #1

2022-04-08

Okay, I get what all the hype is about. Take a heavily armed cyborg/clone, designed entirely as muscle to defend the more squishy ’traditional’ humans, have it turn off the software constraining it from killing everyone, add in a wonderfully snarky sense of humor… and see what happens.

I COULD HAVE BECOME a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably, I don’t know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed. As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.