Two things - I have no idea why I decided to read this right after Way Of Kings. I don't recommend reading two 1000+ page novels in a row unless you like to feeling that you'll never finish a book again. I read this right before Coronavirus started to become an emergency outside of China. I even tweeted about it which in retrospect seems like poor taste since I've been working from home for the…
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Okay, so I say this is the first book in the Stormlight Archives, but it's long enough to be the first three books. Now that being said, I never felt bored during this 1000 page adventure. Sure there were some story lines I was more interested in than others at times. And I wanted everyone to get on with their destiny. But what makes this book incredible is the amount of effort that goes into…
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If you read neuromancer and like it, then I think you're required to read this book? I don't know - I don't make the rules - but I'm pretty certain that one is a hard and fast law. This is the second book I've read of Stephenson's (the first being Seveneves) and his writing is great. He find a way of immersing you in a world. His characters are punchy and likable. In both books, however, you get…
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E.R. Eddison was a member of the famous group of English writers known as the inklings alongside C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. I guess they all had a thing for using initials. He wrote the Worm Ouroboros in 1922 after the first world war. It became a seminal piece in the fantasy genre. When the Tolkien first started publishing the Lord of the Rings, it was The Worm Ouroboros to which the series…
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I'm 26 now, which makes me about a decade late on when most people read this book. And maybe that is why I found it to be a fun, but not particularly interesting read. I did genuinely enjoy this book. I think the boys were interesting and even compelling characters. I think the descent into madness felt like the smooth and slippery slope it was meant to be. I felt the chaos of it all in the way…
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You know how every year you see a movie come out and you think to yourself "oh this is an award movie". I'm not saying that you think the movie is - you know - good. Sure you might also think it's good, but what you know is that it is a movie that was made to get an award. Well All the Light We Cannot See is like that. Now to clarify, I did enjoy this book and I see why it became so popular. The…
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Stranger in a Strange Land is one of Heinlein's most popular books. And it is ambitious in many ways. It attempts to tackles the questions of love, and humanity, and evil, and the nature of God. And I can't say it really answers any of them, but I won't fault Heinlein for that. No I'm not really sure what this book is to be honest. It's a piece from after Heinlein became a strong Libertarian, but…
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The Dune series continues on. There are two well known facts about the dune series. Dune (the original) is a central classic of the scifi genre Each book becomes steadily less readable With that being said - and with that being my expectation coming in - I have to say I was surprised by this book. I would certainly say I liked it. It might even be my favorite book in the series so far.; audible…
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Catch-22 is another book that falls squarely into the "classic for a reason" bucket. It's witty and clever and funny and depressing and crushing. And it is the grace with which it balances all these elements that makes the book stand out. What is a country? A country is a piece of land surrounded on all sides by boundaries, usually unnatural. Englishmen are dying for England, Americans are dying…
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This series was once voted the greatest series of all time. Yes, this was a real Hugo award given out in 1966. Foundation beat out the likes of The Lord of the Rings, and Hugo stopped giving a best series award out until 2017. I guess Foundation just broke system. So is it? The best series of all time? In short, it's good. The story is of the search for the elusive Second Foundation and its…
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This book won a slew of awards when it was published in 1984, and I can see why. The read itself is an adventure. It's a book that never lets you settle. You never feel like you are on familiar ground. And while it's not the only book that imagines a digital world people plug in to, it is the skill with which it paints the picture that is so incredible. Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination…
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