Patrick S.

A Knight's Tale

Revisado: 11-26-23

My traditional (twice so far) end-of-the-year novella read by the wonderful C.S. Johnson. The only thing bad about reading her novellas is usually I want them longer, but she has other great work to satisfy that need. The beginning is a nice little opening that you see what's coming down the road with a simple twist that gives us our character knight. It's a nice, little romantic jaunt that keeps just enough of the ye ol' knight symbolism without it becoming shmaltzy - in a bad way. Always a pleasure especially for the romantic in all of us men who want to be knights as well. Final Grade - B+

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Wow - ordered another copy

Revisado: 10-07-23

Wow, I was really impressed with this book and Noble's taking on these sensitive issues. This is not a self-help book nor is it a "let go and let God" book. It is not a "name it and claim it" nor is it a "put on sack clothes and ashes it's you're fault" book. What this book is is a needed reminder that life is hard, we can go through hard times and live in hard ways, but God is God who has made promises we can trust and one of those promises is that He loves His children. This is a book about looking at depression, mental illness, panic attacks, or just feeling down through that lens and taking it on with the balance Noble gives it. I was so impressed with the balance here.

Noble stands on the line of truth and understanding. He will caution against over-diagnosis but then caution against turning a blind eye to issues that one needs to find help. He tells painful truths like one needs to avoid reveling in the dower nature for the attention of others while also being lovingly kind to people who stay silent to not burden people who need to seek out help from others. The overall arch is that sometimes just doing one little thing, like getting out of bed, is a goal and then you find your next, right thing to do.

Noble hangs the truth on a couple of different truths. 1) Being made in the image of God shows like our life is precious, 2) God has made promises we should believe in and one of the ways we can believe them is to show by actively doing so, and 3) we can biblically love ourselves, not in the worldly, superficial way but in the 1 Corinthians 13 way.

This is a book that I finished and ordered a physical copy to mark up and lend out to others. I would call this book one of my "reverse highlight" books in that I would have made it through it quicker if I highlighted what I DIDN'T want to pay attention to on quick glance. Noble's care and love for those struggling is evident and not just as someone who puts forward the "I am one of you too" but in the "God is a God who keeps His promises and the ultimate goal is for us keep on living for His glory". I highly recommend this book (I ordered his other two as well because of this). Final Grade - A+

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A few issues but good

Revisado: 10-07-23

Having, at the time of this review, read half the Bobiverse series by Taylor, I've enjoyed his mix of science fiction and levity to bring joy into the genre. Sure, darkness and bleakness of the emptiness of space or alien invasion or corrupt governments (but I repeat myself) are enjoyable staples but sometimes I want to have fun in my sci-fi. So what better way than to start off our story about a plot of a secret alien invasion scheme than our main character running over an invisible alien?

Jack and his friends, Natalie and Patrick end up teaming up with an alien ship AI (Sheldon) to uncover the secret alien plot in line to something akin to They Live. Taylor again uses the need to exposition dump as a scientific method thinking process by our bright trio group. This similar style of thinking out the problem, hypothesis, experimentation, follow-up questions, analysis, and conclusion sometimes works and sometimes fails. It moves the plot forward while having this information move with the story. And here, the information learned is really good and plausible for alien species. There isn't a groundbreaking revelation of alien life but it follows a logical frameset that grounds the sci-fi.

Here's where I believe the story faulters - in two categories. Taylor's dry and fun sarcastic tone from the Bobiverse series is enjoyable and endears the characters to the reader. With Sheldon as our AI character, he's just your typical "stupid humans" for far too much of it without the moments of genuine humor or warm care that would endear him to the reader. He's helpful and intelligent but when his humor is more annoying, even to the characters in the story, it's hard to believe that our characters would grow so close to Sheldon. The second issue is that the book is almost too short to leave enough time to figure everything out along with attempting to thwart an alien invasion and having both successes and failures along the way. For example, there is a "conspiracy UFO nut" who is brought up and quickly discarded never to be seen again. Then from the time of uncovering the movers behind the conspiracy to the end is really quick that the drama tends to get lost and the action moves a lot quicker. This front-loads the book with our characters figuring things out at a slower rate than the rest of the story unfolding at the end.

However, I would not say that I didn't enjoy this book because I did. I still liked Taylor's writing and his normal, slightly above-intelligent characters who succeed and fail in their efforts to learn the new world around them and to react to the different plot points. It is also nice to know that you can have a book in this day and age be a one-shot novel rather than a 12-part expanded universe with two different threads and the author doesn't finish it or know how to. If you like Taylor's other writing you will most likely will like this. If this is where you want to start with Taylor's work, just start with the first Bobiverse novel first. If you're just wanting to check out the story because it's about an alien plot to take over the world discovered after accidentally having a way-to-close encounter with an alien and the hood of a truck - check it out. Final Grad - B-

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On the same shelf as World War Z

Revisado: 09-23-23

Finding a great book must be what chasing a good high is like. It was good but once it's done, you'd really like to find that same hit again. This is my feeling when it comes to apocalyptic sci-fi and World War Z as my gold standard. I won't sing its praises here but I am unable to be objective and not compare all apocalypses to it. This review also won't be a citation for similarities and contrasts to WWZ; it just is a big factor in my review.

Robopocalypse is a first-person(ish) perspective about the robot uprising against humanity and the survivors are telling the tale to give an overview of the before, during, and after moments of WWR. This format was popularized by The Good War by Studs Terkel about WWII and WWZ took inspiration from it. What this book does is that it gives a purpose for existing in the style and format that it is in right off the bat and it's in line with the story - just great.

The book does tend to follow about four to eight people throughout with several others added along the way. This doesn't cover stories from around the world but really only focuses on America, Europe, and Japan with the last two only offering a couple of side characters that advances the ending. This does allow for a diversification of stories and cultures but doesn't really give a big feel for different areas responding to the apocalypse differently.

The storyline is well done and interesting. However, there tends to be a loss of focus on just how big the apocalypse is. The military tech going AWOL is clear but other than a focus on smart cars and few helper bots running down people there isn't a lot of variety in the machine uprising. The horrors of the war are talked about but the descriptions of changes humanity undergoes is slightly lacking. There is a lot of details glanced over. In fact, most of the story coverage tends to focus on moments, both small and big, that drive humanity to reclaiming control and defeating the uprising. Other than the end of the story being upfront it seems to downplay just how dire the situation for humanity is. Most chapters tend to end with "and this event would be a catalyst that was important to humanity defeating the robots". Hope never really is in question here which leads the reader to not experience the downs enough and relish the up wins throughout the story.

There are a couple of missing plot points which include an explanation of the importance of a government robot policy and how the robot overlord thought he could use a politician's daughter to really influence whatever it is. The facts of supplies and reprogramming robots to serve in humanity's resistance tend to be underplayed and another brushed-over concept but important part in a total apocalypse. The end is also really missing a longer outlook wrap up including how life has changed, what steps humanity has taken to live again and prevent another uprising, and where the other characters are now.

The characters that are followed are interesting and have their arcs play out. Even a free robot turns out to be brought in a bit too late but could easily be a reader's favorite and wanting more of him. Wilson's Native American background plays a big part in the storytelling. It is neither a good or bad thing and, in fact, I would have liked more explanation of what made the reservation folks such a good resistance point for humanity other than the author wanted to include his background into saving humanity.

While it may seem like I have a number of negative points or critique points, this is familiar territory for me and I know what I'm looking for in a well-rounded story with all these elements. However, I really, really enjoyed my reading of this and will pick up whatever the next one in this series is about. Not going to be in my top 10 like World War Z slow dead walked into but it earns a place of what I'd recommend along with WWZ very easily. Final Grade - B+

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I Just Have To Realize I Don't Like Simmon's Write

Revisado: 05-23-23

This is my second attempt at reading a book by Dan Simmons. I read and hated Hyperion and after a recommendation from Nick Rekieta of this book, it is clear that I do not care for anything by Simmons and will stop trying.

I would not say that Simmons is without talent and it seems that a number of people enjoy his books. Simmon's pacing here is a slog. The story meanders and most of it feels like it's a high school teaching telling a bad story to get people interested in reading the Iliad. There is no character that is worth caring about. The main character barely seems like he would survive a fistfight let alone carry out the feats required of him in the story. For over three-quarters of the book, three different storylines crawl and switch enough times without any real revelations or reasons why one would care to continue that it is now three stories that crawl. It's not until the last quarter of the book that anything of actual value occurs and even then its a mixture of confusing reveals and plot points that I didn't know what really was going on or to what extent things mattered. Echoes of Hyperion loomed greatly here.

Simmons knows his history and his Iliad. However, what is two books could have been one and it's one that I will not be continuing as I fear it would lead to my own Odyssey. Final Grade - F

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A good novella

Revisado: 12-04-22

I have not read Ursula K. LeGuin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" but I know the basis of the story and the utopian/dystopian plot. Also, having read stories like "The Giver" series by Lois Lowry, I am primed for my first C.S. Johnson novella.

Johnson does a great job in a short amount of space setting up absolutely everything you need to know if you had no clue about LeGuin's parent book. You get to know the characters and who they are to their world and to the inner rebels they are. I'm not looking for soliloquies and existential pondering fleshed out fully in this short work of fiction. But there is enough meat to provide a great conversation on other stories in this world or even to pick up the original story. The young characters make an attempt of an idealic solution to the main drama of the story while also allowing the naivete young love allows for. The story gets you in and gets you out with good and proper storytelling - and like all good authors make you want more - even if that means tying up a kid for the good of all readers. I think that was the moral of the story, right?

Will definitely be checking out more of C.S. Johnson's work. Final Grade - A-

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Good but with a few missing parts

Revisado: 08-02-22

I usually don't like doing the comparing books trope anymore but I viewed this book to be in a similar style as World War Z but with a few big problems. Where WWZ told the story of a zombie apocalypse in interview style of first-person perspectives that unfolded the world and actions untaken by humanity in its dealing with Zeke - this story told first-person perspective vignette of people in a world where a mysterious, possibly paranormal virus begins infecting the world.

Like any collection like this you'll have the ones you like and the ones you didn't. The best one was the definitely not Mickey Mouse costumeer comedian who worked at an amusement park for kids who were sick and would have one last day of joy before taking a ride on a rollercoaster that would pull 10 Gs three different times and peacefully kill them. It was the most impactful of doing what should be done in these types of story structures - it offers you an intimate look at one facet of life that has changed as result of the greater thing happening in the world of the story. It's not going to provide you every detail you want but offer insight for you to build and piece together what the greater plot involves. The book does this fairly well. There are some details that are told to you in the way an interview would take place, but there are a few details you pick out that build the world as the story progresses over the story's timeline.

The weaker stories are fine but didn't offer as much impact as the one I did really like. There are three stories that didn't make much sense of having so little an impact which felt like big misses of opportunity to really build the world out. (No spoilers here) The first was the father of the first girl to die of the virus in Antarctica. The "other-worldly" nature of the origins of the virus was lost in this drull beginning and I had to get more detail from the back of the book than I did the story. Another was a story of those who were maybe dead or asleep or something paranormal. There really wasn't an explanation for what the deal with that was and the fact that it was still in first person form kind of took away from the interview-like motif the book seemed to be going for. The other missed opportunity was from the woman of the virus origin. It stops way too early in her story and while you could see why it was included there was no real reason to stop before the virus comes to the modern world.

There are a couple of things that stopped this story from being really good. I will refer to World War Z a few times because where that story worked because of these elements, this story wasn't as grounded. The first was the lack of individual accomplishments to the overall story. Where WWZ had many individuals who made massive strides that affected the fuller world, this story had no one. There are mentions and even focus of stories of individuals who are working to stop the virus but any reports from characters put the focus on governments or scientists or groups. For a story where your storytelling element is from individuals, this loses the realism of where developments of breakthroughs happen in the real world - by the individual.

The second part is ironic in that it fails to take on the bigger consequence of death on people. In WWZ, characters and stories show the worldwide cultural shift of having to deal with zombies. Kids don't swim in shallow water, people because more religious or less religious, death is dealt with in different ways since it's always a bite away. Yes, this story has those moments (like the amusement park of joy and death). However, it doesn't show how the world is impacted from a psychological and sociological level. Again, there are stories that give bigger hints than others - hotels designed to prep for death or robot dog repairs that preserve loved ones. But the story presents industries rising up to capitalize on the body count but it doesn't do so with a greater amount than what we already have now. Death is on the door at all times and people die every day - what happens when that's even closer and more consistently?

The biggest flaw of the book is the lack of religion and the lack of hope. There is your stereotypical and must-have lines about "the end is near!" preachers. But major and drastic changes to the entire world within the scope of the book. The absence of religion makes the book feel too divorced from reality. A mysterious girl frozen in ice that upends how humanity viewed its place in history and a major deadly disease infects the world and especially kids, science experiments that would affect how we view ourselves, the intersection of technology and memories, interstellar travel, etc. the silence of religion is the story is deafening. This isn't the case of "oh, they can't include everything" rings hallow as it would if the story failed to talk about the impact of death.

And on the same vein, the absence of hope devoids the realism of the science fiction. There are no individuals to look to, there is no religion to believe in, there is no life to live, and there is not even a spark of hope discussed. In a world where a virus is killing people and children that causes industries to almost become exclusively death-focused - there is no hope. Why keep going in life? Why seek out life on another world? Why have new children? Why continue to go to work? Where are the farmers? Where's the economic impact? Where's the one piece of metaphysical necessity that drives all great sci-fi? Where's the looking up instead of looking down that any story about death needs unless you end in a world like The Road (Cormac McCarthy) where even that bleak story had hope. In World War Z you had nations become theocracies, you had people put their trust in indiduals showing ways forward, you had people look to keep fighting because the stories offered a way out of the present darkness. The opposite happens here where one has to wonder why suicide isn't discussed at all. It's a missing puzzle piece that science fiction is based on. Christianity is absent but story elements that would be perfect for discussing the impact it would greatly have. Even if the author killed off religion and Christianity in particular it would treat the story in the realm of reality. Instead you get a takeaway of death is super sad and affects people but we get by with continuing on and advancing the species through some evolutionary process (which the book undermines in the end). You just can't have it both ways.

All that being said, I enjoyed the book and parts have stuck with me - which I look for in something of this nature. While the sci-fi futuristic elements tend to come out of nowhere it does a good job of presenting a variety of different stories for one to hold onto. Death is sad and has an impact in different ways on some. The missing elements are what limits this from being a great book. Comparing it to World War Z is never going to put it on the same level but it should feel grateful just to be nominated. Final Grade - B-

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Missed a lot of points

Revisado: 12-26-21 El oyente recibió este título gratis

Reading the synopsis really hit all the interest points for me: techno-thriller, espionage, hacking, detective, anarchism. It also starts the story off strong. Unfortunately, it is a very middle-of-the-road novel that doesn't really take any of those tasks through in an interesting way.

It doesn't show a Hackers/Kevin Mitnick knowledge of anything cyber-related. The espionage is a bad guy that doesn't really show until the last 10 pages of the book with no real motive and no real need to take the route he did. The detective story pretty much boils down to the suspect calling the detective and giving him all the details. As for anarchism - either right or left - I couldn't tell where the author was coming from. At certain points, it seems like some of the characters (and therefore the author) supports a left-center viewpoint but then there's a very big misstatement about Silk Road. Silk Road never had child photos or hitmen available as the founder had a non-aggression principle as the basis for it.

It's not all bad but it didn't really deliver on any one of the genre points. It was also difficult to tell who's POV the audience was suppose to follow and the flipping between past and present didn't really do much to endear any character in reading it. There is an interesting character with a more than photographic memory but then she disappears from the story towards the end; really a shame she wasn't fleshed out more. Final Grade - D

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Ok for a movie, not so much for a book

Revisado: 11-23-21

The story of The Ship is a confusing one as it is trying to be a lot of different things all at once. What is good here is the setup and the tone. Ominous and creepy settings stand out in the story. Where those settings fail is in the characters who only just freak out or befall the stereotypical weasley guy who's going to screw over everyone in the end.

The story involves time travel, alien/human hybrid monster zombies, flying saucers, future humanity, and of course "aliens". The confusing aspect is that I didn't see the plot laid down enough once you had storyline plot points revealed to make clear or to clarify over time what was going on. While the atmosphere lends to some ominous build-up, the characters either operate on freakout mode or yelling. For some characters that makes sense but the reason to have many different characters in your story is that you bring in different personality types to explore the world made for them. The conclusion of the story makes it hard to believe that the events leading up to what the antagonist(s) want would have occurred in the early part of the story.

If this were a novella or a shorter story, the repetitive occurrences with some of the main characters could have really been streamlined. As I was reading this I thought the action and characters read more like a screenplay for a movie. I checked the author's other credits and sure enough, he has a background in movies. I could see this story being a DVD direct movie. However, as a book, I didn't enjoy it as much. The very end of the story however offered an interesting twist that I would have liked to have had flushed out more.

Final Grade - D+

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Good

Revisado: 09-20-21

What this smaller-sized book does is provide a little bit of the life and times of Thomas Aquinas and some good coverage on the main contributions he made to philosophy. So if you're looking for more of a biography focus this one might not cover your need.

With respect to covering the philosophy, the author does a good job of laying out the main arguments to the Summa Theologiae. At the same time, it's not too heady as to have to pause and thumb through a philosophy dictionary but it's not so basic that it's worthless to cover. The one thing that could have been focused on a bit more is actually what people applaud Aquinas for. Many talk about the interesting aspect that Aquinas brought to the table was bring in thoughts from Aristotle but don't really go into what Aristotle had to offer and why it wasn't until Aquinas brought in the ideas that they came over.

So this book balances the length with the life and philosophy with a bit more emphasis on the philosophy work than the events surrounding his life.

Final Grade - B

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