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Wow, I am so glad I read this book. I have always recommended Lucifer's Hammer to people looking for a good, relatively realistic post-apocalyptic novel. Alas, Babylon is just as good, if not better. I had never heard of this book or the author until I started researching the best apocalypse novels (I had an itch that only they could scratch). This novel is widely considered to be the best of its kind. I agree.

Boring. I hate the way it was written.

This is a strange book. John Scalzi is a strange author, too, so it all works out. Scalzi is tremendously popular, but he's sort of like the Dan Brown of science fiction: he doesn't try to impress anybody with his writing style, but goes straight for accessibility. Fuzzy Nation is an extremely enjoyable ride. However, as soon as you realize that Scalzi uses "said" after nearly every spoken sentence, it will become annoying. It is really an obstacle to fully enjoying any of Scalzi's books. Even so, all of his stuff is quite fun. The outcome of the story was never in doubt and it is primarily a courtroom sci-fi drama (yes, it's strange!), but I would easily recommend it to somebody who wants some light reading.

I listened to the audiobook, which was narrated by Wil Wheaton, by the way.

I will buy every Joseph Boyden book that he releases. They are all that good. It is hard to put my finger on exactly why his writing is so mesmerizing. Here are some thoughts: the characters are generally all quite realistic, the stories are believable (and don't follow the traditional "hero falls in love, hero fights bad guy, bad guy almost wins, hero emerges victorious" format of so many other books), the use of multiple perspectives which alternate with each chapter... what else? I think that Joseph Boyden has some of that "je ne sais quoi" that a reader doesn't encounter very often. I am crossing my fingers that The Orenda, his latest book, wins Canada Reads 2014 and Joseph Boyden becomes a household name in Canada. His writing is really that special and he deserves to be recognized as one of the best, unique, magical authors alive today.

If you are unsure where to start with Boyden, do not start with Through Black Spruce. If anything, you must read Three Day Road before this one, as it is a sequel of sorts. The Orenda is fantastic and can be enjoyed before or after these two. Born With a Tooth can similarly be read before or after the others.

Three Day Road joins Boyden's latest, The Orenda, in my top five or so favorite books that I have ever read. Boyden is incredibly talented. He just has a way of drawing the reader into the book's world. I could clearly see the characters, the war-torn First World War setting, and the events unfolding as if before my eyes. Boyden is excellent at providing real, flawed people and believable situations. His books do not follow the typical formula of most other literature: there will be no twist at the end, no defeating some villain, no happily wrapped-up situation. Instead, his books provide a series of slices in time that take the reader on a journey. His books are all relatively easy to read, since the reader is continuously faced with the thoughts and statements of the characters instead of a traditional narrator, so there is no room for flashy, over-the-top prose. The books are liberally sprinkled with violence, but it is very important to note that the violence is not there to shock the reader, as is often the case. Instead, the violence is an often (always?) unwanted part of the world in which the characters live. In this book, the raw, disturbing violence of the First World War is clearly presented to the reader. Boyden is not afraid to show the reality of terrible situations to his readers and glorifies absolutely nothing.

I really hope that Boyden's The Orenda wins Canada Reads 2014 and that he becomes what he deserves to be: a Classic Canadian author.

This really seems to be a case of a bandwagon gone insane. I was looking forward to this book after seeing very high recommendations from a lot of high-profile people: Veronica Belmont, John Scalzi (I think?), Felicia Day, NPR books, I know I am forgetting more... and nearly every review here is five stars. How could I not love this one? Well, recently, I have discovered that I am really not fitting in with the mainstream. I have had terrible luck lately with ridiculously popular books and Ancillary Justice is no exception.

I was excited to see Ann's treatment of gender due to the now famous use of "she" as the default pronoun in the book. Unfortunately, it doesn't work at all. What could have been a very interesting take on gender became a gimmick that just didn't fit. "She" in this case comes across as a mistranslation. It is a word that, in English, is very closely associated with the feminine. There are a few exceptions, like boats, guns, or cars, where people will refer to the genderless object as a she. If translating from a language or culture that doesn't recognize a difference between masculine and feminine, one would definitely not choose "she". Sure, it doesn't make for such clever marketing. However, before I get drowned out by cries of "misogynist!", one would not use "he", either. We already have a word for the neutral gender: "it". If that seems too impersonal, one could refer to "the person" throughout the book. It doesn't flow very well and definitely doesn't hold any gimmick value, so it is a lame choice, but it would still make more sense.

Now, aside from the gender issue, the book was a muddled mess. Ann apparently had terrible difficulty with descriptions, using "angry" or "anger" just about a hundred times by my count. She used the word "gesture" a hundred times, as well. There were gestures for everything: polite gestures, gestures of "ambiguity" - whatever they would be, apologetic gestures, negating gestures, more gestures of ambiguity, "abortive" gestures, gestures showing a lack of concern or helplessness. It really came across as what it was: an author's first time at bat.

The story seems to have been thrown together by the writer making angry gestures while holding a pen. Characters would be walking along, talking - and then falling, suddenly. Ok, so you needed to get the story going, but just a sudden fall down hundreds of meters? Maybe my copy was missing a few pages? The story focused on local, regional and galactic/universal politics. If that is your bag, give it a shot. In my mind, though, it read like Tom Cruise's movie Mission Impossible: convoluted story lines going everywhere but nowhere at the same time, characters that were undeveloped to the point where I was indifferent to their fates and actions, and a stupid plan that was the foundation of the whole plot.

Stupid plan? That isn't nice! Honestly, the whole idea of the book is that a guy has a terrible plan. Somebody wants to steal a gun and kill thousands of bad guys, yet she (see what I did there? Gimmick!) knows she may only successfully kill a small handful? To make it worse, there are mind-reading ships that can tell if you are stressed or sweating, which just may be significant if your goal is the assassination of one thousand clones of the galactic empire's supreme leader! Conveniently, though, these clones all seem to hang around common ships and hang onto the outside of escaping ships, trying to shoot their way in. Lazy. Wow. This is the last Ann Leckie book I am going to waste my time on. Sorry, Ann, I don't mean to hurt your feelings, but I am sure that my review certainly won't sink your next book or movie deal.

I have written low star reviews of popular books before and have received angry messages from fanboys intending to intimidate me into giving more stars (really!), so I feel it necessary to provide this explanation of what a book review site is: it is a collection of different opinions. If you don't like somebody's opinion of your favorite book, sending messages to that person to give a better review completely reduces the value of the review site as a whole. If every offended person here got everybody else to give a book give stars, every book would have five stars. How does that help you find your next book to read? Instead, there are a billion five star reviews for Ancillary Justice and a few low ones. If you agree with the tastes of the low star reviewers, maybe the book isn't for you. If you want to play the numbers game, read the book, you will probably love it.

I don't know what is wrong with me and my taste in books. It started not long ago with The Luminaries. Everybody loved it... except for me. Then it was The Hundred Year Old Man, which was universally adored (but I hated it). I was so pumped to see that The Golem And The Jinni was getting fantastic reviews and was so excited to dive in, but it did absolutely nothing for me. Now, I see that Patrick Rothfuss (yes, Patrick Frickin' Rothfuss!) gave a glowing review of Neil Gaiman's latest (Neil Frickin' Gaiman!!!). And the book was... what, exactly? I really don't know. Maybe I need to give it time to see of it will grow on me. It seemed sort of boring, missing all do the soul that was in Coraline and The Graveyard Book. This really seemed like it should have been a short story. It was just a swing and a miss for me. At least there are about 7 billion other people out there who loved the book. Don't let me stop you from reading it. Statistically speaking, you'll probably love it.

I don't even know that I really feel that three stars is fair for this, but I'd just feel dirty giving two stars to Neil Gaiman.

This is a fantastic example of what a fantasy novel should be. I read this shortly after reading The Hobbit (for the second time) and - I know it's blasphemous - I much prefer the Elfstones of Shannara. Neither book is a literary masterpiece. However, when I think of an idea fantasy story, I think of dangerous quests, imaginative creatures and blistering action sequences. The action in Elfstones was fantastic, with elves, dwarves and trolls fighting alongside one another. There were a lot of memorable creatures, from the wooden men to Genewen the Roc, and awesome fantasy characters like Stee Jans. Thankfully, there are a couple dozen more to go after this!

4.5 stars. It wasn't as well-written as the prequel, although King himself says that he is a different author now than he was. The Shining had some really special, memorable passages. It is also a classic in its genre, so it is very difficult to follow it up and keep the fans happy. I found myself trying to read slowly so I wouldn't get to the end. I am hoping that he may turn it into a trilogy at some point or at least write another novel in the same universe.

Lots of fun, great character, the Audible version has fantastic voice acting. I am a new John Ceepak fan! I will definitely be trying out the next in the series.

4.5 stars! It wasn't perfect, but laid the foundation for lots of others.

AMAZING. I wasn't into it for the first quarter or so, but by halfway through, I couldn't put it down. This is going to give Annabel some serious competition for Canada Reads 2014. It's the better book, but doesn't feel as "Canadian" - merely due to the setting and whatnot. Either way, one of my favorite books I've read this year.

Edit: just finishing up Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood. At this point, with only The Orenda left to read, Half Blood Blues is my favorite out of the Canada Reads finalists.

Edit 2: It has been a little while since I finished the book. It has really stuck with me, so I came back here to make sure that I gave it five stars instead of four. Yep, I have it five. It really deserves it.