Reviews and Comments

The main problem with this novel is that is assumes far too much familiarity with the world of the Pathfinder roleplaying game. While this is to be expected to some extent, it does make it a bit of a challenge, initially, to understand what is going on.

This is not helped by the author alternating between the two protagonists.

This is proving to be very slow going so far. In terms of tone, it feels like Williams is trying to achieve a Gormenghast vibe but not quite managing.

Any collection of short stories is always a hit and miss affair, but for me this one had a lot more misses than hits. Having reached the end of the collection, nothing really stands out and many of the stories felt more like an exercise in style over narrative.

If anything Hive Monkey, the second book in this trilogy is even madder than the first.

Pulp heroes, airships, a borg-like cult and a monkey in search of a troupe. As with the previous novel, this is a really fun read which also has a few serious points to make.

And the sheer believability of the world Gareth L. Powell really is quite incredible.

I've just finished the first novel in this collection and it's very different to what I was expecting. And much, much better.

The book is a fantastic collision of genres -- from WWII pulp action to techno-thriller, set in an alternate history with a heavy dose of cyberpunk, and a lot to say about vivisection, identity and individual freedoms.

And it all comes together superbly.

I'm really not the audience for this

Not what I expected, but this is proving to be very easy to read so far.

I very nearly gave up on this series after the third book, but this one is quite an improvement. The world building is coming together quite well and the main characters -- especially Perrin -- are becoming less annoying and more interesting.

Overall, The Wheel of Time is proving to be good enough, but it really doesn't live up to its reputation.

Thinking about thinking is a subject that I often find interesting. With The Scout Mindset, Julia Galef does a good job of both summarising what we know and providing a framework for looking at how we think, and how we can improve our thinking.

This is a very solid book and one that is well worth reading.

A promising, if ultimately disappointing, slice of folk horror. There is a lot to like in this book but it lets itself down somewhat with a very homogeneous collection of characters that remain very difficult to care about.

I suspect that I would have enjoyed this a lot more if I'd read it 30 years ago. Reading it now, the cyberpunk stylings all feel incredibly dated and are unable to paper over the many problems with this novel. Starting with the characters, who amount to a collection of one-dimensional stereotypes about which it is impossible to care.

The plot doesn't feel like it's going anywhere for much of the time and when Stephenson starts talking about technology, everything starts to become increasingly ludicrous. This book really hasn't aged well.