Steven Petersen

Enjoyable characters and imaginative magic kung fu

Revisado: 05-10-23

I love this series for its memorable characters, mix of humor and intense action, and an elaborate system of magic kung fu with many different paths and techniques. The narrator is also great. Can’t wait for the next one.

Minor complaint about lack of editing. The author often chooses redundant wording within sentences, which could use some cleanup for smoother, more interesting descriptions. Like a character venting “a stream of air into the air” or “he glared at so and so who wilted beneath his glare.” Paraphrasing from memory, but you get the idea. A little distracting to me throughout the series and something easily fixed with light editing. Other than that - keep them coming!

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Preposterous premise perpetuates plot

Revisado: 04-30-22

Many good and fun ideas in this book from corporate entities mostly replacing governments to the multiverse to daredevil couriers on smart-wheeled skateboards surfing the highways. The author just goes a bit far with the basic idea of viral ideas and spends a lot of time with increasingly far fetched explanations of what is behind the plot to the point where I could no longer suspend disbelief. But if you can get through some of this exposition, the technology and action are entertaining.

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Enjoyable space adventure

Revisado: 05-31-21

Lots of trademark Andy Weir science and engineering to solve impossible life or death problems. Quite enjoyable. Maybe a hand wavy, just quickly throw something complex together and have it work moment or two, but just sit back and enjoy the adventure.

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One of most enjoyable listens in the last year!

Revisado: 03-14-21

Recommended. Time travel and alternative histories are part of the plot (and I do like time travel sci-fi). But the character development and plotting related to relationships and how we grow as human beings gives it a strong backbone. Highly enjoyable.

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Endless battle scenes... But extra star for the bonus Christmas short story

Revisado: 02-22-21

I would have liked more story line that did not involve blow by blow accounts of monsters battling each other. The non-battle narratives were more interesting. And I did add on a star for the cute Christmas short story tacked on at the end. But I think we’ll be seeing more of Harry in the future...

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A fair reintroduction to Dresden after all these years

Revisado: 02-06-21

Clearly this is a story designed to give a whirlwind reintroduction to all of our favorite Dresden characters, as Harry makes the rounds. Perhaps an overly blunt plot device to force the action forward, but it gets the job done, and we are all set for the grand finale, which was clearly always going to happen in the next, already released novel. I’m in!

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Great intro to philosophical thinking

Revisado: 12-29-20

Well worth the time! Clarified what is philosophy, how to think about hard problems and how we can gain true knowledge. Covers many topics in half hour chunks. I left and came back to it a couple times before reaching the end, which was fine, though he does refer back to earlier lectures, so don’t stay away too long :-) Got me fired up to learn more about certain topics, so now I have a reading list.

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All cerebral, no action, but interesting concepts explored

Revisado: 11-13-20

With this collection you have to know going in that it is almost all thoughtful narrative with very little action. The author loves to take a what-if concept and see where it leads. That works great and is interesting in the majority of these stories. Sometimes I wished characters or the narrator would stop discussing the concept and do something - mainly in the last two stories, though even those had interesting payoffs along the way.

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Action packed trilogy ends in narration

Revisado: 09-21-20

The first half is action packed, but the second half relies too much on the narrator just telling us what happened in a second hand sort of way. Not an all bad ending, but a more definite, action driven ending would have been more satisfying. Still, I had to see how it ends!

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Interesting historical overview of distilled spirits

Revisado: 06-19-20

Well narrated and full of interesting facts on the history of alcohol and distilling, leading up to the present day golden age of bourbon.

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