SCOTT

This guy should seek psychological help

Revisado: 04-18-25

I liked the Wool trilogy, but I have commented previously that the Molly Fide stories by Hugh Howey were more depressing and morbid than even Ernie Hemingway. (I was shocked to read something more depressing than EH) I picked this up because of the promise of some Wool related stories, but I stopped 'listening' half way into the third story. WTF Howey? The first is a guy destroying himself to climb a mountain. The second is about an guy in an immortal race obsessed with someone that keeps killing themself and ends with them all dying for good (and makes 'us' the bad guy for an extra kicker). I stopped part way through the third with a girl that has a psychologically abusive father who starts decimating her own body to get 'lighter' to be jockey. As if all that isn't bad enough, the point where I said - nuh-uh - is when Hugh decided to graphically describe the girl cutting off her own fingers with a pair of sheers. Seek help dude. You are morbid AF and it's not healthy.

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Wow, just wow - waste of a credit!

Revisado: 03-07-23

In the most recent book Roadkill, I noticed the author tossing in entirely irrelevant political rants in a couple of places. In this book he weaves his personal politics into the story line itself. As if that is not bad enough, the nature of the political viewpoint is laughable and scary.

Audible should classify this book as political fantasy rather than as science fiction. After about the midpoint, it switched to becoming a combination pro-socialist rant and anti-anything-old/white/right non-stop. Some of the dredged up stereotypes for any and all antagonist are over-the-top absurd. (any 'bad guy' to the outland students is older, white, out of shape, rapists or slave holders, racists or homophobes -- sometimes in combination)

It is interesting and perhaps ironic that the author mocks the religious (something justified) but then seems to celebrate political beliefs involving equally specious undefinable belief objects such as the 'common good'/''good of society' or 'the environment'. By the end of the book, it becomes apparent -- to anyone but Taylor -- that the society the Rivendale people voted in is a police state:

* majority direct democratic (mob) rule
* trigger happy armed 'guards' at polling places threatening arrest or being shot on sight if you don't 'behave'
* threat of exile to dead earth or a world of ravenous dinosaurs if you don't do what the 'committee' deems proper
* disqualification from running for office if you organize in any way against the people currently in power
* the only option if you oppose the current 'state' is exile

All this maintained under the all-too-typical "but it's an emergency" and "it's for the good of society".

If you like books that play out current far-left pipe dreams, buy this one. But if you don't like being condescended too and lectured while trying to read what was supposed to be 'science fiction', avoid this one. Dennis is no longer on my recommend list if this is the kind of pap he's going to be churning out in the future. I'll be asking for my money back.

And shame on Ray Porter for agreeing to read that kind of story.

* mind you, I don't like far right in books either. I stopped reading one-second-after because of it's right leaning and mock Robinson Crusoe for it's religious cluelessness. If I wanted idiotic leftie rhetoric, I'd watch John Stewart or Stephen Colbert. Not read science fiction.

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degrading quality, unnecessary politics

Revisado: 03-07-23

Compared to the Bobiverse, I didn't find this story nearly as interesting. And there were a couple of sections where the author seemed to throw in some of his own political views in a way that was entirely unnecessary and distracting to the main story. Stick to sci fi and leave the politics to some troll forum online.

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Best book in the series! (so far)

Revisado: 11-01-22

I suspected Bujold would do a lot with the way things were left at the end of the brothers in arms, but was delighted to see how differently she took it from even the variety of ideas I imagined.

It's hard to speak of this book without giving away spoilers, so consider this a spoiler alert now. But when I was reading some of the overall reviews and comments by the author after only the first few books, I saw a comment she made about wanting to write a story about Miles with 'Mirror' in the title and how this book ended up finally being that book. (apparently she was thinking as far back as Warrior's apprenctice of using 'mirror' in the title)

Hoping to try more writing of fiction someday myself, the scenario set up in brothers in arms combined with the already known dual juxtapositions of Miles (being physically fragile in a hyper-masculine society and dividing his own personality between two different versions of himself) then throwing into that a 'twin' with no identity of self who's entire screwed up life has been directed toward pretending to be Miles, the possibilities for a writer struck me as a fictioner's wet dream!

Then she spins the whole thing around not by focusing more on Miles, but taking him right out of the picture for the vast majority of the book, and instead diving deep into the morbid nature of Mark's existence (or lack thereof), throwing him into a hellish scenario bordering on torture porn (if not spilling over into it and beyond on occasion) and having him pull out of it even more self-confident than his would-be older brother! Damaged (more damaged) but self-repaired with the help of his own 'internal' army.
Then to re-introduce the latter not knowing he is in fact himself! Having him not knowing who he is, then upon learning who he is supposed to be, being faced with trying to figure out which of two false options is the truth. Wow! I figured things might get mess-with-your-head interesting, but got pulled in directions I never imagined I might go. Great premises that I could have never imagined!

Most of us have dealt with darker sides of our characters. Hopefully none of us ever end up in a situation so tormented and insane as to require the insanity of letting those darker sides literally 'take over' to come out of the insanity alive and (hopefully) sane ourselves.

I'll be curious to see if she ever re-visits Mark again in the future and what might still remain to be done after all that! I'm now working on 'Memory' and she's now taking up where she left off with Miles himself, but again with many unexpected twists! See y'all in the next review! This too is getting good!

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More fatalistic and depressing them Hemingway

Revisado: 10-10-22

I didn't think it was even possible, but Hugh Howey managed to write a series of books that turned out to be even more fatalistic and depressing than even Ernest Hemingway. I don't think there was a single point in the books where at least half of the regular characters were not suffering miserably in one way or another, thinking the others were dead or that they would never see them again, being tortured, having body parts cut off, enslaved, in fear for their lives or futures, etc. When I described some of the scenarios to a co-worker he just nodded and said 'Torture porn'. (is that a thing?)

As if that was not bad enough (spoiler alert) the entire series of all four books involves a girl who thought she was orphaned who learns her mother and father are quite likely still alive. She sets out specifically to try to find them. She quickly learns her mother's 'intellect' is in her ship's computer but her body is somewhere in stasis. She eventually finds her mother only to have to kill her body so it won't fall into the hands of the enemy. Her boyfriend then gets lost in some 'between' state of the universe but - good news - he finds her dad. They manage to escape, but she shows up 2 minutes after dad died! Yay! Mission accomplished. WTF?!??! But hey, she gets to use some sciency shit to talk to him in his 'almost dead' brain state for a few seconds before he's completely toast. But wait, the sadistic plot isn't over yet. After having to kill her own mother's body, and showing up just after her father dies, the ships computer asks her "hey, I know I'm the last part of your mother you have left - but I need you to KILL ME AGAIN!!!"

Meanwhile, some interludes are just off. The boyfriend stuck in the tween'er place visits an old woman sage that is really his and molly's future daughter. Oh she's blind now btw and stuck forever in this tween'er place. But she asks for help getting something off a shelf, and being a decent sort of guy, the young man grabs it. Later Howey tries to use the fact the young man can't imagine him doing anything else to show 'free will' is a myth. Forget the fact, the youngman "decided" long ago to be a decent guy and that decent guys carried out reasonable requests for nice old ladies. Nope, FU says Howey, no free will. Suck my bawwlzz. -- Hugh Misery *smh*

Are you f'in kidding me? I liked the Silo series so I thought I'd read more of his stuff. Similar fatalistic stuff existed in the Silo series, but in that it fit in more as it was a dystopian scenario. Only read this if you really hate yourself and want to waste weeks going through a multi-book series only to never have things improve and be shat upon at the end by the author with a seriously f'd up ending.

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Wrapped up better than expected

Revisado: 04-25-22

I got a little dragged down in the middle as the underlying plot seemed obvious to me and it was puking up more torture porn than even Hugh Howey's Bern Saga, but I kept reading. Knowing how the book would turn out made it a little sluggish, but he wrapped the whole story up a little better than I thought he might. While still a tad cliche, it overall made up for some of the parts where I was regretting reading.

I had finished reading Space Force and was still on the fence if that book was shallow gutter humor trying to be funny by breaking just about every rule of good writing, or brilliant satire parody of modern literature. Poe's law! But I don't regret buying Infinity 2 with the first book in one of the Audible 2-for-1 series sales now, and look forward to seeing where he goes with the premise next.

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In the words of Skippy, kinda 'meh'

Revisado: 07-16-21

I finished the trilogy and I don't know as I can recommend this series. (not nearly as much as I would recommend Richard Gleave's Rise Headless and Ride trilogy which this book almost seems a copy of as far as the tropes used)
It suffers many of the same problems I complained about in the first 7-8 books of the Expeditionary Force series. Repetitiveness galore, blatant plot indescrepencies, way too many unnecessary information dumps and tangents, and it feels like many parts are the author trying to fill 3 books for something he could have just as easily told in 2.
it was an enjoyable story overall with some creative ideas, but you had to wade through all that stuff I mentioned above to sloth through it. And many things you wanted to happen, either didn't or took way too long. I can often see what the author was trying to do, but don't think it worked as well as he thought and leaves the reader craving more or that things would happen faster or sooner in the progression of the story.
Example - and kind of a spoiler, but one I think people should hear:
while it is allegedly a book about a powerful young wizard, the boy doesn't even realize he's a wizard until close to the end of book 2 and doesn't use magic (outside of incredible aim with a bow, fast use of a sword and a couple accidental wards) until 1/3rd of the way through book 3. He doesn't use it again until almost the end and both are almost accidental for as he [way too repeatedly] says "I don't know" how he does it.
If a good editor got ahold of it and cut it down to two books or less, it could be a really good series. Especially if some of the contradictions were taken out. For example, 1) the kid is allegedly bright, knows people are lying to him, but is gullible enough to cling to the lies and not realize his own power until very late in the series. 2) wizards are supposed to have idetic memory and Coren demonstrates heightened awareness. He was made to transcribe many magic texts early in the story, but when he learns of his power, he allegedly 'knows nothing' about magic. c) many characters in the story come up with ingenious ideas and constantly pick up subtle clues, but completely miss a traitor in their midst that no one trusted to begin with.
If you're bored and want a good story with extra stuff to drag you through it, I can recommend it. Beyond that - not so much. In the words of Skippy the Magnificent, it's kinda 'meh'.

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Fun story, great nostalgia

Revisado: 03-18-19

This book should have been the 80s nerd-stalgia icon (not that 'player one' mess).

I've always liked regular-guy winds up waking up 100-200 years later type scenarios and this one adds the twist of regular-bob waking up as a self-replicating super computer. If you grew up in the 80s and spent many nights behind your 8-bit computer and watching re-runs on TV, you'll especially love this book.

Well worth the read.

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Good name for it

Revisado: 03-16-19

It's reasonably good story telling and the narrator does a good job. There are some interesting facts sewn in among the story here and there. But otherwise, I'm glad it was a freebie on my audible membership or I would have wanted my money back.

This book is yet another nihilist mix of gratuitous sex and violence bordering on torture porn that you struggle the whole way through remember what character is what because none of them are like-able and few of them do anything redeeming. If I'd bought it in paperback, I'd take a shit on it and throw it in the backyard so it could get covered in flies. I think the author would somehow like that and find it fitting.

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Wow, what a drawn-out mess!

Revisado: 12-01-17

Todd's writing style and taste for Pern seemed to be showing improvement after Dragonsblood and lost some of the endless depressing morbidity of the first and second plagues only to have it all regurgitated again and left to fester in Dragongirl.
Repetitive, depressing, trite, inane to the point of monotonous annoyance. The story seemed to start out well enough then stalled somewhere about chapter 8 and degraded into something resembling the diary of a moody teenage girl for the next 15 or so chapters, not going anywhere, redundantly having bad things happen or people worrying about bad things happen, people doing nothing about bad things happening other than sleeping with ever new partners and whining incessantly.
The whole thing was made worse in that the narrator apparently didn't bother to read any of the previous novels or listen to any of the prior narrators. Most of the names were pronounced differently to the point of distraction and even the name of HNO3 was hacked into Egg-enn-o-three. Seriously?!?! How long would it take to call the author to ask for clarification on how to pronounce a word or spend a few hours listening to prior narrators?

As mentioned, the middle 15 or so chapters sludge along relentlessly with redundant nothings about as interesting as the common 9th grader's meanderings. "I'm so special, I'm so sad. I used to chase tunnel snakes. I love you. You love me. We all love each other. We all make mistakes. So many dragons are dying. Pern is doomed. We apparently timed it. We need to do something. But let's just sit around and wine and exchange sexual partners and re-arrange weyrs and hug each other and discuss how sad we all are and how doomed the world is over and over and do nothing"

Then it hits the last chapter and Lorana starts running around obsessed with Weyr dust and only in the Epilogue do you get slapped with an information dump as complicated as a mound of linguini mixed with knotted old shoe laces and tangled christmas tree lights attempting to explain what happened.

I've been told that Dragon's time, while still depressing and complicated with endless timing is a slight improvement that improves further in Sky, plus I already purchased Time, so I'll trudge on, but if you dare try to read this one - take my advice.... around about chapter 10 or so if you get as frustrated and bored as I was, just jump ahead to chapter 23 or so knowing a lot of people die, a lot of people sleep around, a lot of people piss moan and whine and that's about all that you missed.

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