Dan

This book is a timeless classic.

Revisado: 09-21-19

Way back in the early 90s, I was forced to read 3 books for class. The first was A Wrinkle In Time, which I loved and have re-read several times since. Another was Jurassic Park, which I thought was interesting. It was also my first time watching a movie after having first read the book. The third book I read was "Anne of Green Gables", which I absolutely hated. I don't remember ever actually finishing it and believe I simply accepted some low marks on that particular test. Looking back, I thought maybe I was a bit harsh. Perhaps my revulsion was simply having the content about a character I had little in common forced on me. I'm glad I gave this book another try.

Anne (with an "e", as she frequently points out) is an 11 year-old Canadian orphan. She is small, skinny, and has striking red hair. She was adopted by Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert. And my, they got themselves in to some trouble. At least their house is not dull.

Anne is full of fiery passion. Her highs are supreme. Her lows are crippling despair. She can talk non-stop about nothing for hours if you allow her. She loves fully and holds long grudges resentfully. There is no middle ground. This book was published over 100 years ago. If Anne was alive today, we'd probably classify her as bipolar and she'd be a prime candidate for Ritalin. This being 1908, Marilla must make do talking Anne down to a humble equilibrium. She has mild success and secretly admits she prefers Anne's zany ways.

There are so many sublime examples of Anne embracing life so fully. Diana, the young girl next door about Anne's age, Anne immediately declares her a bosom friend, and swears her undying love forever within 3 min of meeting her. Diana obliges. Then they actually are best friends forever.

Some of the most touching moments are with Matthew, Anne's adopted father. He is very quiet and perfectly happy letting Anne handle both sides of the conversation, which Anne is also content to do. An hour later, both sides are satisfied with the heavily lopsided conversation. Matthew is a wonderful "kindred spirit" says Anne. He is so fully smitten with Anne that he just does not know what to do. His quest to buy Anne a nice dress was tearfully quaint.

There are a few difficult passages due to century-old vocabulary, but it is worth working through them. I can see why this book is a classic. Anne's ability to find wonders in most trivial things mixed with her tendency to speak her mind are characteristics that are always interesting.

I have no desire to read the numerous sequels. This book completely ran out of steam as Anne got older and starts dealing with the trials of life. For those of you who are long, long time fans.... apparently, a long-lost "Anne" book was found and released as late as 2009. I hope my work still has interest half a century after my death.

I am pleased I gave "Anne of Green Gables" another chance. The story is so much better when one can simply experience it and not worry about writing book reports or taking a test on it. I believe Anne Shirley would agree with that statement.

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No answer went beyond a quick web search.

Revisado: 09-21-19

How does one go to the loo in space? Is space scary? How do you eat in space? How does one become an astronaut? Can you drink a cup of tea in space? What surprised you the most? What is the best part? What is the worst part?

Those questions and more are answered at a 5th-grade level in Tim Peake's "Ask an Astronaut".

This book may have been useful 10 years ago when endless space knowledge was not at my fingertips. Basically, Tim took a FAQ and turned it in to a short book written for middle schoolers fascinated by space (and who wasn't excited at that age? Or still fascinated, really).

Probably, the real value in this book is Tim organizing the list for me. Sometimes, one does not know what question to ask. A particular gem that I did not think about is, "Does space smell?" According to Tim, it actually does have a smell. He went through a list of comparisons. Afterwards, I visualized the odor burnt gadgets give off.

Details about re-entry was interesting. I did not know about the 3-piece approach and the shuttle is actually quite accurate in finding its landing place. Also, the shuttle is built to take a rough collision to land. I also did not realize just how important Russia is to space these days.

If you are interested in space (and who isn't?) but not sure what questions to ask, this book is for you. I imagine everybody will find some nugget of info. Whether that nugget is worth a whole book versus a web search, I am not sure.

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Different yet enjoyable style of Star Trek

Revisado: 06-30-19

I dove in to this book thinking it'd be about the the underlings taking over the Enterprise. I was wrong. Very wrong.

There are plenty of stories where the characters are "trapped in a story". However, this one had quite an interesting take on it. It took a few turns with each iteration getting more interesting. The self-reflecting commentary was nice.

At the end there was a series of essays. This was the worst part of the book. I was actually pleading the book to end because each successive essay was decreasing my enjoyment and overall opinion of the book.

My recommendation: It is a good book. Worth reading. Abandon ship once the real story ends and the essays begin.

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There are better Khan books

Revisado: 06-30-19

How did an illiterate boy from a poor shunned family eventually conquer the known the world? And what were the effects of his rule? Sounds like a great story. That's what I bought the book.

I won't go in to much detail about the content of the book. If you would like to learn what is inside the book, feel free to read the Wikipedia. Boom. You now know, though the audiobook method allows you to also drive and learn.

It covers all the conquests and little nuggets of knowledge. However, some things I did not consider were the logistics:

-How did Genghis Khan keep the troops on task when everybody was illiterate?

-Why were the Steppe warriors so effective?

-What was his style of rule?

The book overall was interesting read. However, I do not feel like I learned any more than I already knew. If you are brand new to Genghis Khan, I think you would enjoy this book a lot more.

The part I was looking forward to the most was the "and the Making of the Modern World" portion of the book. For example, how did the world change thanks to his conquests and rule?

Sadly, not much time was spent there. The stories stop after a few generations, and there is little mention of the trajectory of a nation before being conquered.

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May be Sanderson's Best

Revisado: 06-30-19

Brandon Sanderson seems to have a way of crafting interesting yet intuitive sci-fi mechanics, and this book is no exception. The one that governs this book actually has a science taste backing it. Each reveal lead me to nodding "yeah, that kind of makes sense", despite is being pure fantasy.

If I had to nitpick at a couple things, it is that the book had a bit of predictability. Lightsong is full of humor and acts like he does not have a care in the world. What do you think is going to happen? So what will happen to Miss Holier-than-thou Vivenna?

There are a handful of unexpected twists, but if you can forgive a touch of predictability in the overarching themes, this is an expertly-crafted fantasy novel that is enjoyable start to finish.

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Quite enjoyable filler book

Revisado: 06-30-19

Book 1 Spoilers Warning!

We leave book 1 with the flow stream vector from End to Hub having collapsed (or so the theory goes). As other flow streams continue to collapse, the church, the guild houses, and the ruling family all jockey for positions of power.

Book 2 is basically Book 1 with some content filling out things. Like a typical Book 2 of a series, absolutely nothing particularly important happens -except perhaps the ending, which was decently satisfying. However, I now need Book 3 to learn the fallout. That's pretty annoying. I need to stop reading incomplete series.

Empress Grayland talks to more emperors in her memory room. She spends most of her time talking to the first emperor, despite there being over 80 captured in the room. I suppose I'd have a lot of chats with George Washington over the other presidents if I could. Still... did the other emperors not do *anything* interesting over the past millennia? She also talks with her predecessor, her father, a few times.

Lord Claremont returns to talk more Flow Theory. As these important trade pathways collapse, we learn predicting collapses has a touch of art as well as science. Intermittent streams may momentarily appear as they fail. This makes for a side story that I thought was filled with oddities. As the story moves along, a relationship with Claremont and Grayland develops that was easy to predict.

The real star of the book is Kiva Lagos. She has a very prominent role in Book 2. Her don't-care attitude and knack for cracking skulls (figuratively and literally) makes for some enjoyable reading.

This book entertained me and left me desiring Book 3. I would have preferred to pick this book up when Book 3 was also ready to consume (still not ready as I write this review) since this story is a bit complicated.

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Dense. Complicated. Though Good.

Revisado: 06-30-19

This book is dense. Very dense. It has political maneuvering. It has fighting. It has death. It has foul language. It has royal families. It has interplanetary travels. And it is all woven in to a very complicated story.

The book makes you appreciate the importance of trade routes. Much of our own history centers around towns becoming important by simply being in the center of trade crossroads. This book takes that theme and multiplies it by a million.

I would classify this story as Star Trek: The Next Generation except written for adults (due to foul language, brutal situations, and adult situations). Think of TNG if it aired on HBO. You'll get a decent idea.

It is a very complicated story. Lots of threads running, and the threads reference things that happened a while back. It starts to get difficult to follow all the names. I personally am willing to accept getting lost a few times when I read sci-fi/fantasy. I still would have appreciated dropping a thread.

The book did close the bulk of the story arcs, but the story is certainly not over yet. The author left himself quite an opening. I went searching for the next book as I was deciding if I wanted to continue, and I was disappointed that as of early 2018, book 2 does not exist yet. Fortunately, it exists now, and i was able to pick up book 2 over a year later, which I enjoyed more.

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More of a Murder/Mystery

Revisado: 06-30-19 El oyente recibió este título gratis

The premise is a bit unbelievable. A family with 4 Ward children daughters move in next door to a family of 4 Yarden children sons who all happen to be around the same age. The childhood friends each grow up and fall in love with a respective sibling. I mean, I guess this could happen, but it is all quite convenient. Everybody all just loves and care for each and there is no rivalry or anything?

Fast-forward 12 years, a Ward daughter is shot and killed, and a Yarden son will never walk again. The paralyzed Yarden son (or young man now) just happens to be the one with the most promising athletic career (because, you know, that makes the story a touch more tragic). The rest of the entire Ward family suddenly vanishes.

Chase Yarden is on the case to track them down. I thought the adventures of Chase tracking them down was enjoyable provided I ignore the fact he seems to have an endless supply of money for a multi-year mission of traveling. The book waves that away saying he has "a lot of savings". Yet, he decides to get a job a bakery.

I'm ending the narrative here because mysteries are more enjoyable as each thread unravels. The book was called "Pysch Ward". However, there is no psychology here. The only "Ward" is the Ward family of sisters. The book is more murder/mystery with some action thrown in after Chase finally makes some discoveries. I feel like the title tricked me, but fortunately the overall story was decently entertaining, so I was not upset.

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An assassin that doesn't assassinate.

Revisado: 05-20-19

Celaena Sardothien is the world's most renown assassin. However, one wouldn't know with this book.

The book constantly tells us how amazing she is, but throughout book, all she talks about is boys, books, and her newfound BFF. I would expect her to be a bit more grizzled after supposedly spending a year being whipped in a hard labor camp. Oh yeah, and she is really good at the piano.

As the book was progressing towards the end, I finally realized why the book constantly refers to Celaena as "The Assassin" -- otherwise, we'd forget she is a killer. She performs absolutely no assassinations throughout the entire book. Basically, she just trains really hard, sneaks in to parties, gets involved in a romantic triangle between 2 high-ranking officials, and stays up late reading books in the library.

I really wanted to like this book. I was hoping for another highly-talented fighter like Vin from Mistborn, except darker since she is supposedly a hardened assassin. That is not what I got. I got a young girl going out of her way to adopt a discarded puppy. I got a young girl staying up late to read books. Or having late-in-to-the-night talks with a handsome prince.

Who exactly was this book written for? It certainly isn't for fans of Mistborn or Hunger Games. If I set aside the "assassin" premise and put this story in to the murder-mystery category, then I would not be as upset. Duelists dropping like flies is the main story arc, and investigating that is decent content.

This book would be better if all the fantasy elements were removed (the dream-sequences were not well done) and the whodunit portions was expanded.

Score 3/5. Despite the flaws, it was decently entertaining, and that is a book's main goal for me.

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An enjoyable psychological thriller.

Revisado: 05-20-19

Lucy and her friend were cruising down the San Francisco Bay Bridge jamming to some tunes until they got stuck in a traffic jam. While waiting, Lucy's friend, never before suicidal, suddenly screamed, got out, and jumped to her death. Frost, the detective on the scene, starts investigating. Lucy's friend's suicide seems oddly connected to others, and Frost does not believe in coincidences. The leads him to Francesca "Frankie" Stein, a psychiatrist specializing in a difficult-to-believe mind therapy.

...Thus ends my little summary...

The star of the book is your friendly neighborhood cop, Frost Eastman. He is talkative, caring, etc. All around, I personally found him boring. He has zero character flaws. His cat is more interesting. Brian Freeman amusingly decided to give the cat a backstory (triggered by Lucy asking Frost where he got him). It's cute. I enjoyed it, and so will you if you decide to read this book.

Lucy is a small-town-girl overwhelmed by the big city, and she played that role a bit too strong. She is a like a child in a 25-year-old body. Fortunately, the book agreed with me. Frost rejects her advances because he feels nothing romantic towards her. So I guess the book gets a point deducted for Lucy's character but then gets it back for being consistent.

Frankie is easily the best character. There is an old joke about people becoming a psychiatrist so they can figure out what is wrong with themselves. Frankie certainly fits that, and the book actually makes that joke. She built a very successful career on top of a morally dubious technique. She has no shortage of family issues. As the book progresses, her life and career starts to crumble. Frankie's character makes up for Frost's dullness.

The story follows an entertaining crime novel story arc with some nice twists. It moves very fast, which I appreciate, but it is too fast to be believable. I think the entire book timeline is less than a week. After Frost's 2nd investigative breaking-and-entering, I actually stopped the book and verbally yelled: "Do you not care about warrants!??!" His preferred location for important evidence is his coat pocket, and he has no problem with non-officers tagging along to dangerous locations.

I enjoyed this book and it easily gets a 4/5. There are more Frost Eastman books, but he is just not interesting enough to carry me to book 2.

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