I gave up on this as soon as I saw that the temperatures were given in Fahrenheit, and only in Fahrenheit. I'm not wasting my time converting everything.
This started off promising, but it ended up dragging by the end. It took me a full week to finish this short novel!
I liked John Wyndham but Haas was a completely irredeemable Holmes and I didn't enjoy reading about her at all. She was selfish in a way that I just couldn't care reading about. Too bad John couldn't go off and have his own adventures. In Holmes pastiches, there's usually a certain ambiguity about why the Holmes characters keeps Watson around, but I think this was the most extreme case I'd seen. The mystery aspect wasn't helped by the fact that one of my (outlandish) theories about the letters turned out to be true... and in a way I didn't like.
But hey, if this works for you, don't let me rain on your enjoyment!
I liked John Wyndham but Haas was a completely irredeemable Holmes and I didn't enjoy reading about her at all. She was selfish in a way that I just couldn't care reading about. Too bad John couldn't go off and have his own adventures. In Holmes pastiches, there's usually a certain ambiguity about why the Holmes characters keeps Watson around, but I think this was the most extreme case I'd seen. The mystery aspect wasn't helped by the fact that one of my (outlandish) theories about the letters turned out to be true... and in a way I didn't like.
But hey, if this works for you, don't let me rain on your enjoyment!
It's a good thing this isn't classified as science fiction, because it would make terrible sci fi.
This book basically has necromantic wizard lawyers dealing with contract law with gods. So Tara Abernathy, a junior associate from Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao whose whole professional future depends on success, gets called in to help with the resurrection of Kos, a recently-deceased god. There is no doubt that Kos will be resurrected (mostly), but how much of His old self He gets to keep depends on how well the Craftsman representing His creditors argues in their favour with respect to the power owed to them against how well Kos’s defence Craftswomen (Tara and her boss, Ms. Kevarian) represent His interests and His blamelessness in His own demise.
So, all in all, it was a kind of fun, kind of weird world that I found interesting. I liked the book, but for some reason my attention kept wandering while I was actually trying to read it. I liked the very final scene: finishing the book off that way helped bump it back up to 3 stars from 2.5 for me. What had dragged the book down to that murky 2.5-star region was the tendency to outright drop a couple pages of mostly unnecessary background information on top of the clumsy way information was parcelled out between the characters in dialogue. And then there were the climatic explanation scenes where our heroes and villains basically explained what had actually happened earlier in the book. You know that kind of explanatory stand-off scene? Yeah.
In spite of some of the clumsiness, I’ll probably check out the sequels eventually show more to see if they turn out any better. It also looks like they feature different characters, so they’re not strict sequels. Plus I kind of want to get to the third one because I like the title [b:Full Fathom Five|16148208|Full Fathom Five (Craft Sequence #3)|Max Gladstone|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1385068358s/16148208.jpg|21982690].
I did like the thing with the cigarette. show less
So, all in all, it was a kind of fun, kind of weird world that I found interesting. I liked the book, but for some reason my attention kept wandering while I was actually trying to read it. I liked the very final scene: finishing the book off that way helped bump it back up to 3 stars from 2.5 for me. What had dragged the book down to that murky 2.5-star region was the tendency to outright drop a couple pages of mostly unnecessary background information on top of the clumsy way information was parcelled out between the characters in dialogue. And then there were the climatic explanation scenes where our heroes and villains basically explained what had actually happened earlier in the book. You know that kind of explanatory stand-off scene? Yeah.
In spite of some of the clumsiness, I’ll probably check out the sequels eventually show more to see if they turn out any better. It also looks like they feature different characters, so they’re not strict sequels. Plus I kind of want to get to the third one because I like the title [b:Full Fathom Five|16148208|Full Fathom Five (Craft Sequence #3)|Max Gladstone|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1385068358s/16148208.jpg|21982690].
I did like the thing with the cigarette. show less
4.5 stars
I didn’t know what to expect from this novella, and I picked it up more or less on a whim, so I was understandably impressed.
We have Linh, a former magistrate from a provincial planet in this future Dai Viet empire, arriving on Prosper Station as a refugee to take advantage of family ties she has with the station’s administrative family. She’s also running from potential charges against the empire though, so things have the potential to get interesting.
There’s some low-key but intense family drama alongside a faltering AI that runs the station and Linh gets mixed up in all of it. It was raw but it also felt real. I was very satisfied with the ending, so I’m thinking I’ll go with a verdict of “very cool.”
I didn’t know what to expect from this novella, and I picked it up more or less on a whim, so I was understandably impressed.
We have Linh, a former magistrate from a provincial planet in this future Dai Viet empire, arriving on Prosper Station as a refugee to take advantage of family ties she has with the station’s administrative family. She’s also running from potential charges against the empire though, so things have the potential to get interesting.
There’s some low-key but intense family drama alongside a faltering AI that runs the station and Linh gets mixed up in all of it. It was raw but it also felt real. I was very satisfied with the ending, so I’m thinking I’ll go with a verdict of “very cool.”
There was way too much of a Big Brother (the show) with psychic vampires vibe for my taste. Plus I wasn't interested in any of the characters.
Octavia E. Butler seems to be hit or miss with me, and all of these short stories were a miss for me. Maybe I just don't like her short fiction. Several of them were just an idea without much of a story. Two of the stories were rereads and I can't say that I had quite as strong a reaction when I read them previously.
3.5 stars
I really enjoyed Temeraire, the young dragon's character, but the air warfare scenes didn't work all that well for me. The descriptions of the air battles just didn't draw me in. Also, the idea of using dragons as airships is neat but having living airships wounded and killed is not a great thing to experience. I think I'll continue with the series but I won't be in any rush to do so.
I really enjoyed Temeraire, the young dragon's character, but the air warfare scenes didn't work all that well for me. The descriptions of the air battles just didn't draw me in. Also, the idea of using dragons as airships is neat but having living airships wounded and killed is not a great thing to experience. I think I'll continue with the series but I won't be in any rush to do so.
I'm not sure what it says about me that I can reread a book five years afterward and remember so little that I'm surprised by the ending. I do wish the vicar hadn't been so critical of his wife, however. It made the start of the book very frustrating.
4.5 stars
It's rare that I like a second book more than the first, but perhaps I'd like it more if I revisited it. This installment of Fergus's adventures was pretty awesome.
It's rare that I like a second book more than the first, but perhaps I'd like it more if I revisited it. This installment of Fergus's adventures was pretty awesome.
0.5 stars
I'll decided if it's worth my time to rant about this later. This was not a well-executed novel.
I'll decided if it's worth my time to rant about this later. This was not a well-executed novel.
The person who called this book a quick read lied. It took me a week!
I haven't seen the television series, but the book reads like it would work better in that medium.
I haven't seen the television series, but the book reads like it would work better in that medium.
This was hard to rate. The story was very slow, but I still liked it overall. I'm not on board with the romance, but I can make up my own ending to that.
3.5 stars
This was fun but if I started thinking about some of the physics too hard all I had were questions.
This was fun but if I started thinking about some of the physics too hard all I had were questions.
