Surprisingly good. Some parts of Sleepy's inner thoughts felt a bit awkward and stilted, especially the theological ones. But overall, an enjoyable book, a good set-up to the last book in the series, and I'm looking forward to finding out where it goes from here.

Another sci-fi classic that lived up to its reputation. Ah, the apprehension I felt when it was first hinted at how it'll end...

In a few places it really reminded me why I usually avoid realistic books full of human suffering, at least when reading for pleasure. But it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be, and more importantly, it simply is a good book. The way the protagonist was honest with himself (even while trying to project confidence) was endearing.

After finishing this book I realized I accidentally skipped the previous one in the series. I did wonder about the unusually high number of blanks the author left for the reader to fill in :D but the book still did make sense and I think I understood everything. So that's a definite plus for the book. There also were a few places where the mystery around the standard bearer were a little reminiscent of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, which was also a plus.

It feels like I went through a lot with these characters: in the first book, Croaker was a physician in a mercenary company, serving a distant Lady he could ony dream about. And so much has changed since then... That's been a really enjoyable aspect. But overall, I still think the book was too long and dragged out. And I missed Croaker a little.

At times I barely kept up with the pace, but it was fun. I also appreciate the punny name.

I wondered whether to give it 4 or 5 stars. There were parts where it was dragged out for way too long (e.g. the bit about masonry). But I guess I see what the author was doing there. Plus, the reminder of how much the previous regime sucked is also appreciated.

Not a bad fairytale. The subversion of the dragon trope - portraying them as vermin (and later saying they exist in all sizes) - was original and worked well to explain how the protagonist could train working with them while being poor and unimportant. On the other hand, this trope subversion was creative in a way similar to making vampires sparkle.

Yay for character development

This was almost flawless. Not only does it have a good story and great characters, but served as an interesting insight into cultural influence of a great empire onto small ones - from the PoV of someone from the small one. That rings relevant for many of us here in central Europe. The emphasis on language and custom as a way of shining light onto a clash of cultures was also very well done.

And Amy Landon's narration was unbelievably brilliant. Haven't heard its like in ages. I'll have to look up more books she narrated.

It was fun, but what the heck was with the ultimatum at the end?! 😅 Also it seems a bit of a shame that the book often feels that with minor changes and some more editing the prose could have been much nicer. (For example, there almost never is any foreshadowing. You learn any interesting world-building details in a short exposition dump at the moment it becomes relevant.)

Okay, I didn't expect a book this good from this series. The PoV change was interesting - we're no longer following Croaker. And I also like how the author went "remember the last book? Just you wait until you learn what was happening AROUND them, without them knowing!"

I liked the first book, but this one is even better. The characters seemed more like personable humans, and the various scams kept it varied and interesting.

I guess it was better than The Port of Shadows. Kinda liked it.

I may be in the minority here, but I went into this wanting to learn about music, not about the author - whom I knew nothing about. There was barely enough interesting info so the book earns the 3 stars. It was okay, I guess. But the parts where Byrne talked about places he went and people he met or worked with were absolutely uninteresting to me, and a bore to listen to.

The most interesting parts were right at the beginning: about how music influences the venues built for it, how the venues in turn influence musical compositions made with them in mind, how the changing social mores and easy access to technology shaped music, et cetera. The parts about various financing and distribution models were also somewhat interesting, though I don't think enough attention was paid to various issues with the contemporary streaming business models. (You can read some Doctorow if you're interested in that.)

A beautiful exploration of solitude - among the crowds and on an empty world. Very much recommended.

This is the right way to do a retelling: it is presented as an actual narrative, not an encyclopedia. Yet it doesn't try to re-interpret or change the source material. I liked Gaiman's retelling of the Norse myths for the same reasons.

In addition, Fry also sometimes steps away from the narrative to provide information or context for the reader - historical information, other interpretations or versions of the events, et cetera. He compellingly presents the narrative - but doesn't pretend his is the only valid interpretation.

This is an interesting twist on the usual LitRPG genre - this time the protagonist isn't an almighty hero running around being all smart and glorious; instead, he acts as a director, manager, trader, diplomat.

Don't get me wrong: it still kinda is a power fantasy. Except Charles' feel-good exploits are centered on capitalism, instead of a sword or a gun. (Interestingly, I don't think there were any 'exploits' in the traditional gaming sense of the word - using bugs or unintended feature interactions to get an advantage.)

The book was enjoyable enough; a typical "not great, not terrible, you get what it says on the tin" situation. But sometimes the prose was befouled by corpo-speak in unexpected places. For example, we are unironically presented a fantasy-medieval peasant woman saying things such as "You’re promoting people [and] you’re giving us the tools we need for success". 🙄

I guess I didn't like it all that much. 😕 The plot was all over the place and I really don't understand what the point of it all was.

I did like the other timeline set in the past. A mighty, not quite sane necromancer that is uninterested in domination and only yearns for a family and to continue his scientific pursuit is a breath of fresh air.

I'm not sure why I wanted to continue this series. It's been 5 years since I read the first one, and I only remembered small fragments. I gave it 4 stars back then. But somehow it nagged me, so I re-read it now and will continue the series. Let's see how it goes.

One thing is for sure: I got a bit better at reading books, so now I also caught parallels and trope twists that probably should have been obvious the first time around.

This was a fun little novella. It's a classic "US good, foreigner mafia bad" kind of story, but I guess that goes with the territory. It's also always fun to read older tech-heavy stories. The far future of 2010 never looked so enticing. 😁

It was fun, and I'm really looking forward to the next one. On the other hand, some parts felt like a slog, and the next book is three times as long as the first one was. I'll be taking a break before continuing the series.

In some places it seemed a bit too padded out. But the pace really picked up later, so all in all a fun read.

The second LitRPG author I've tried, and again a good one. I wonder if I'm choosing well, or if my previous skepticism about this genre was unwarranted.

Carl and Donut are endearing and funny. The premise of Earth being turned into a game dungeon by aliens as a money-grab to stave off bankruptcy also is interesting and creates interesting dynamics. It reminded me of the Hunger Games - but whereas there poor people were forced into a PvP battle by rich people, here all people are (killed or) forced into a PvE campaign by aliens, for realityshow and sponsorship money.

I'm not really sure why I liked this so much less than the previous one. At one point I felt quite put off by the protagonists' characters - but that makes little sense, because I knew from the past books that everyone here is a self-centered, callous ass. Maybe it was because here there were fewer extenuating circumstances to hide behind?

I will continue the series for sure - I want to see how the story pans out. But at this point I think there's no way it's gonna be a happy ending in any way, shape or form.

🍿

Hadn't I read this right after The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett maybe I would have liked it even more. Where The Long Tomorrow had a clarity of focus, a thesis it went on to thoroughly explore in the entire book, and an interesting conclusion (where neither of the conflicting viewpoints were presented as immediately better, and the reader can think for himself) - this aspect was lacking in The Day of the Triffids.

The original blinding calamity and its fallout were interestingly handled and also explored nicely. But the titular triffids just felt added to increase the tension very slightly, and they played almost no significant role for 90% of the book.

It still is a good book, and I'd recommend it. And I loved the british vocab.

I like when a book picks a thesis and sticks to thoroughly exploring it through a personal narrative. The premise of society mostly reverting to a rural one after a nuclear holocaust, with familial and societal roles returning to what they weres some 300 years ago, and the new status quo being enforced by changes to the US Constitution and local religions was both believable and well crafted.

I loved that we got to see the world through an inquisitive, smart protagonist; and that it was set 80 years after the catastrophe, so there still were people alive who remembered the comparative opulence of life before. We are presented a lot of questions that the protagonist poses to himself, explores and tries to come to terms with. Multiple times we see him come to a conclusion or a resolution, only to be thrown off again by new perspectives. But in the end, we don't get any definitive answers. He eventually understands that pretending we can stay in the past forever is futile; but trying to return to the previous state of affairs might end up in disaster again. Which of the two distasteful options do you choose? And will you choose by your gut feelings and desires, or by what you consider a correct extrapolation of potential future developments?

Also props to the author for pulling off a fantastic post-apo book without resorting to any sci-fi elements.

Fave quote:

The cities were sucking all the life of the country into themselves and destroying it. Men were no longer individuals, but units in a vast machine, all cut to one pattern, with the same tastes and ideas, the same mass-produced education that did not educate but only pasted a veneet of catchwords over ignorance. Why do you want to bring that back?”

Herci boli prevazne fajn, aj ked vacsina z nich sa ani len nepokusila o vyslovnost prilezitostneho anglickeho slova.
Obsahovo to bolo trocha otaznejsie - niektore naozaj potesili, niektore skor nic moc, ale niektore sa vobec nijako netykali titularnej temy. To mi pri tematickych zbierkach celkom vadi.
(Na dovazok, to iste platilo aj o ich zbierke Slovensko komicke. Znie to, ze bud nemaju dost autorov, alebo nie su schopni si to ustrazit takze neocakavam, ze by ostatne diely serie boli z editorskeho hladiska lepsie.)

A decent ending to the series. I had a 10-year pause after the 3rd instalment, not sure how or why that happened.
The author made sure to tie the entire series with a nice bow, and made sure all characters introduced so far were given enough space. It was a bit too lengthy at times. And of course, this is based on fairytales, and a YA, and a part of the Lunar Chronicles - enjoy the ride, don't scrutinize the the logic of all the things too much. 😁 (Though there was no idiot ball juggling this time, which is appreciated.)

Getting interesting.

Cozy and nice, a very pleasant read. The audio narration was also great.
There was only very little romance, but the right amount of romance for me in a book such as this is zero, so it felt like too much, anyway.

Seems like a pretty okay start to what looks like a litrpg. I'm reading this after watching a few episodes of the anime and I have to say I appreciated how that adaptation added a little more context before diving into what happens here.

A short story, but Brett manages to show us all the tricks that make his stories a delight to read: rich characters, suspense, interesting plot that fits into the overarching narrative. And we get to see how a humble messenger influenced the fate of the world simply by being kind to kids.

The change to Andrea's point of view for the entire story was welcome.

One of the classics that lives up to its reputation. It perfectly captures all the joys of Christmas. ♥️

Nice

I don't like idiot plots. And the sex bargaining thing was extremely lame.

Enjoyable, if a bit dragged out at times. Still good fun.

A nice, thorough exploration of the meta-narrative from the PoV of people either within it, or creating it from the outside.

I had a bit of a hard time getting into the book, but that may just have been because I'd recently finished two other isekai litrpg books by the same author. Eventually it got better and was quite fun; I'll continue the series, I think.

It sometimes felt a tad too dragged out. It was a completely bonkers book about the insanities of war.

The protagonist was a cute little crab! And he got a starfish friend, who was a ninja! It was adorable!

Unfortunately, it was also very wordy and kinda bloated. I kept getting back to the book because I've just finished Rimmel's Noobtown series and wanted more of the same, but sadly, this was nowhere near as good.

It really was cute, though; and the world was interesting. (It also clearly has deep worldbuilding behind it, which I tend to like; but maybe there was too much of it crammed into too little other stuff.)

The audiobook narrator, Johnathan McClain, is excellent. And multiple times during this book I had to pause, to give myself a bit of time to stop laughing. Then I rewound a bit, listened again, laughed some more.
When I was done with the book, I went over the bookmarked funny parts for another laugh.

Can't give a book that does this a bad rating, now can I.

The going gets tougher for Jim!
At first I thought this one will get a lower rating, but the ending was great.

Was curious what these look like.

I decided to try myself a LitRPG. I expected a short, fun, light-hearted romp, and that's what I got.

I initially wanted to subtract a star because, especially in the beginning, the re-iteration of the protagonist's character sheet was annoying; and it was wordy, so I listened to the audiobook at a much-increased pace. (Read: I probably wouldn't have the patience if I had to read it on paper.)

But on second thought: it was fun, I got what I asked for, and it did make me want to start the next one immediately. So as long as you go into it with expectations properly set, I'd recommend it. 👍🏻

The aspect of people killing each other for the entertaninment of others will surely remind you of Battle Royale or the Hunger Games; but unlike those, Chain-Gang All-Stars is set to pretty much the modern-day USA, with a sci-fi gadget or two thrown into the mix.

As with those other two books, it dissects what people are willing to accept with enough brainwashing and convincing that it's okay as long as it happens to other people. Especially if they're from an undesirable social class. All of the characters are well developed and interesting, on all sides of the conflict, and Adjei-Brenyah pulls no punches.

I'm not an expert on those topics, but I think the USA's societal issues this book touches on are handled well and do represent the views on all sides quite accurately.

A superhero story set into an alternate history; I loved how it unapologetically embraced all of the superhero/supervillain tropes. Both PoVs were great.

The villainous single-mindedness and conceit reminded me of Yahtzee's Dr Diablerie. 😁👍🏻

The audiobook, especially Paul Boehmer's performance, is a treat.

Fun novella-length explorations of four contemporary issues. I think I liked Unauthorized Bread and Masque of the Red Death the most.

It again was really dragged out. A lot less of interesting character exploration, a lot more travelling. And fighting.

Still, once I adjusted my expectations, it was a lot of fun. I'd give it one star more, were it not fort he ending. I don't expect every ending to be a happy one, every endeavor a success - but if you say that basically nothing in the book mattered, then what was the point?

If this were the first book in a series, I would not continue. Since there's only one left, I guess I'll finish it, but my expectations aren't high at this point.

The beginning was really dragged out. And the ending felt abrupt - it's not a satisfying, self-contained story by any stretch. But I liked the characters well enough to want to continue the series.

I don't understand why people claim that it's science fiction. Just because there are aliens in it? Come on!

It's a book about war. Specifically, World War II; more specifically, the firebombing of Dresden.

The author uses a disturbed protagonist who believes he was abducted by aliens to justify the book's unique non-linear structure that jumps around in time. It's largely an autobiographical work, spiced up with the narrative device of Tralfamadorian aliens.

My audio version had a bit of conversation between the author and (I think) his editor at the end. That was also great.

It's worth noting that I don't usually read "realistic, historical" books about wars because I have zero interest in reading unnecessarily detailed descriptions of people being thrown into the meat grinder of suffering. This book is not like that.

Just as rich and complex as one comes to expect from Stephenson. There were moments where I had to pause just to exclaim along the lines of "did you seriously just write that? Who let you do that?! That's hilarious and amazing!" 😁

The audiobook was excellent as well. It's one of those where there is music at the start of chapters. In this instance, I liked the music immediately; and got my mind blown when it turned out to be relevant to the plot.
(And the dictionary definitions at the beginnings of chapters were narrated by Stephenson himself, which I also appreciated.)

Haven't read a Discworld novel in quite a while. I've missed Pratchett's style. Though I think all the books I've read previously were set in the Discworld at large, not just a single, grimy city, so it was a tad more oppressive than what I'm used to.

This book starts off centered around side-characters from the previous books: Orbus, Sniper, and Vrell. And the plot doesn't even touch the planet of Spatterjay itself. I wouldn't mind that in itself; actually, the first parts of the book have shown interesting character development for Orbus. That's something this series really could use.

But by the halfway mark, all of that was forgotten... and also the book pivoted from a nice sci-fi to a sci-fantasy with elements I also disliked in Asher's book Dark Intelligence. It's not all bad; even though the descriptions of battles were long and drawn out, the rest of the plot was okay, and the ending was good. However:

Without going into spoilers, what basically happened was they resurrected the Sealed Evil in a Can, which immediately had random godlike powers and got to ignore all the rules of the series so far. As a narrative device to heighten the stakes, it failed for me utterly. If it were handled differently and had the character development not disappeared in the latter half of the book, this might have been the best book of the series. (Most especially, if the time scale the Jain thing happened on was longer; then it could have been written without what basically boils down to "suddenly the balrog got resurrected and did evil magic".)

As it is, it's the worst one by a wide margin.

I'd give this 3 stars; it was decent, but not amazing. But I'll add one because it was cute, positive and uplifting. 😊

I didn't expect it to be as good as the first book, but it still was a huge disappointment.

The first book had actual plot, where the protagonist was building his knowledge, putting in the work, building friendships, and eventually won through the Power of Determination and Friendship.

This has none of that.

Know what? I'll put it into a videogame simile, to keep with the theme of the book.
Reading the first book was like playing a complex game; a roguelike, or an MMO. There were failures, there was a lot of wiki-browsing and note-taking, a lot of exploration. Progress seemed earned.

Reading the second one was like watching someone speedrun a game, if that someone is just following a walkthrough, has no idea what's going on most of the time, and hands the controls off to someone else when he's too lost. It reads like a long list of outtakes from the first book - a ton of quest descriptions with no relevance or impact to the plot whatsoever. It could have been 50-60% shorter. I've only finished it because I had it in audio and could listen at almost 2x speed most of the time.

Yes, there were some decent moments, but overall, it's not worth it. And I didn't like the kind of bullshit about people's minds and bodies the book pushes as fact.

And that leads us to the last two important points. First: Wade, I think, was supposed to undergo an arc. In the beginning, he acts as a rich asshole; but then understands his errors and tries to mend things. He even acknowledges that he wasn't in the right regarding ONI, just as Samantha also acknowledges some points about it. BUT:

If you really accept the book' premise about the ONI principles (keeping it vague here to avoid spoilers): the protagonists very much commit unforgivable non-consensual violations against millions of innocent people. They do realize this. They just don't care. Their stance on the most important question on morals, volition, consent and basic bodily autonomy in their universe is "we'll figure it out later; we'll just do whatever we feel like, for now."

I think it was supposed to be a positive, upbeat ending; I found it sickening.

It was fun, and the world full of vividly colored "monsters" interesting to imagine. The characters were always deeper and more complex than they at first appeared.

Yet somehow, I'm not especially eager to read the rest of the series. Not completely sure why.

Some of the young-adult aspects were bringing it down a bit. But at least the romance wasn't botched.

And if you're wondering: no, you don't need to know anything about the 80s pop culture.

Quite good. Unnecessarily drawn out at times.
I also appreciate a detective story with no murders.

A good enough ending to the trilogy, even though I liked it less than the previous installments. It still was split into three separate sub-arcs, just like the previous books, and there were a few intersting twists. But alas, it was a lot longer than it needed to be. It felt drawn out and lost a lot of the impact it could have had.

I think Wong/Pargin is getting better. This was fun, and I like how the plot was resolved. I also really appreciate the mix of bad circumstances mixed with hopefulness; not just another "everything sucks forever".

Liked the way it was tied to the first book in the trilogy.

Based on the reviews here, I expected it to be a not-great sequel, but I've enjoyed it.
Maybe the themes presented weren't as strong as in the first book. But there were 4 PoV characters, and every time the narration switched from one to the other, I was excited to see what will happen with this one. That doesn't happen often, with books with this many PoVs.

I gave this four stars initially. Then I went to write down a few notes on the topics and themes in this book, and come to think of it, I'm changing it to five.

The book doesn't feel dramatically groundbreaking or exhilarating. Yet there's a lot going on, the protagonist is quite interesting, and especially the titular theme - pattern recognition - is explored in depth and from various angles. Yet it's done in a "Gibsonian" manner: it's never explicitly rammed down your throat with tedious explanations. Plot happens, characters think, it's up to you to catch on.

Questions about art, fandom, and commercialization, and the internet are woven through the story as well. (The book is set in 2002 and was published in 2003, so the internet back then was something completely different than it is now.)

Also, I think the only reason this is tagged 'cyberpunk' and 'sci-fi' is because it's Gibson and people tagged it without thinking.
It absolutely isn't cyberpunk in any way; and I say it isn't sci-fi, either. You could possibly argue it's one of those set in "Next Sunday AD", like for instance Doctorow's Little Brother, but I'd say even that doesn't hold water here.

A book dealing with some of my favorite topics, an interesting antihero, nice pacing, the sci-fi parts aged quite well - I've enjoyed this book a lot.

One thing that's funny in retrospect was the medical optimism. Understandable, since it was written in the fifties. But the 20th century definitely isn't remembered as the one where we defeated disease.

The horror elements here will give you a pleasant thrill, but nothing too hard core. So if you're wondering whether you'd handle it, you'll probably be okay.

I've mostly read older horror stories before, and I appreciate the newer perspective here. (The book is published in 2019.) The heroine reacts as a modern person - aware of the horror genre and not willing to take anything supernatural at face value - might. That, combined with plenty of humor, make for an amusing read.

On the other hand, I wish the author would cut down on the humor and witty commentary in the latter parts of the book, when the going gets tough. There it just takes you out of it. Yes, we get it, you realize how ridiculous this would sound if you told anyone. And that you can make jokes. Pls focus on the monster currently eating you, instead.

A great conclusion to a fun series.

While I didn't like the reveal at the end of the previous book at first, this one made good use of it. The world, the characters, and their actions were clearly thought through and executed well.

And the ending was satisfying, while managing to not cheapen all that has lead up to it.

The battles were fun, and I like how the author worked with the PoVs and their various perspectives.

However, the book's beginnings were quite drawn out and kinda boring, I didn't love all the reveals, and I'm not feeling especially generous with the stars today.
I will definitely read the last book in the series, though.

I think I have a new favorite. And once again I'm glad I went into this one blind. Exploring it was a joy.
A complex story with a satisfying conclusion. I don't think I've ever read a detective story quite like this one.

I liked it, even though the pacing was slower and more ponderous than my usual fare.

I've enjoyed Smilla herself, and how she was depicted as a flawed human, yearning for the company of others and yearning for community, even as she realized how much she treasures her solitary independence and freedom. How she did not offer love readily - but still gave it as best she could, when a strange child reached for it.

Liked the adaptation, disliked some aspects of the art style.

Bottwink was fun, and I also liked the butler.

It's been a long time since I last read a detective story, and it was interesting to note how it changed my perceptions. My sense of where in the story arc I am was all jumbled up; often in other genres, finding the murderer is a catalyst for further plot development, often accelerating the pace. I found myself wondering how come we're after the halfway mark and we're still just puttering about, slowly exploring the circumstances (and then of course going oh, right).

Another thing I seem to have forgotten about the detective genre: that I'm not supposed to be able to figure the resolution out logically from the presented facts, because some crucial information is always withheld until the very end. I suddenly recalled it always irked me; and I still don't like it. But it's not that big a deal, either.

The length felt just right.

Liked it less than the first one, but it's still great. Looking forward to the third installment.

Naozaj milučké. ☺️

Veľmi pekné spracovanie témy priblíženia smrti pre deti.

It seems that when a book ends considerably more abruptly than I expected, I need to take a while to consider if I'm satisfied.

The book was short enough for the gimmick not to get on my nerves. At first I liked it a lot; the last third, not so much.
The Lydia thing was also good.

ℹ if you're considering reading this book, here's a handy little PSA: The word the author chose for the symbiont, 'khui', means 'dick' in Russian (хуй). Just... keep that in mind as you read. It'll make the book a lot more fun.

Quite a bit different from the first one. It took me some time to really get into it, but I ended up liking it.

While it did have a lot of elements of Gibson's prose I generally like, it somehow felt weaker; it took me a lot of time to get into the story. The latter half was better.

Excellent; I just wish it were longer.

Moje ocakavania boli vyssie.

Ano, niektore boli super - od takej Sebechlebskej alebo Pavelkovej by som iné ani nečakal.

Some (audio)books you speed up because they're boring. I kept speeding this one up because I HAD TO KNOW what comes next. How it ends.
I have asked someone if it ends the way I wanted it to; but I should have asked for more details. Maybe then I wouldn't need to rush along so madly.

I knew it had to be different from the first book, because of how that one ended. But I did not expect it to be this bad. I have read a quarter and I'm dropping it. Maybe I'll try continuing later, after some time has passed, and maybe after reading a wiki summary or something.

Man, what a disappointment. :(

That was disappointing.

Eeeh, I dunno. It was fun enough, and I came into it expecting just goofy fun. I mostly got that. But I expected more of Wong's (or Pargin's, if you will) traditional brand of craziness.
While this did provide a menagerie of crazy images, it seemed a lot 'tamer' than his previous work. More in line with what a "normal book" should look like, I guess. If you prefer your books rather more sane then less, you might end up liking it a lot more.

That said, I did consider giving it one more star, and will be starting the next one soon.
The lampshaded play on supervillains was also nice.

The first ~half was dragged out almost to the point of tediousness. Actually considered dropping it. One thing that kept me going was the good depiction of Tau's thirst for revenge. I appreciate that while the protagonist's (or, if you prefer, anti-hero's) drive was completely built around revenge and hate, not once was it glorified. Instead, it was always portrayed as the dreary, unfulfilling thing it is.

The latter half of the book got better, but I still think the fact that the people Tau wanted to take revenge on for killing his father also happened to be the main villains of the story was a bit too 'convenient'. There is one person he wants to kill, and since there's no chance he would come out of the story as anything else than a monster if there was nothing more, that person also betrayed the queen. Tau is depicted as not giving a fck about helping the queen and only wanting to kill, so at least there was no face-heel turn.

I am still undecided how many stars I want to give it. Four ⭐⭐⭐⭐?

... nah, I guess I will go with three, because I was promised dragons and I didn't get enough of them. But I might read the next book in the series, eventually, which is not something I' expect, based on the first half of the book. Or - wait wait wait. Actually, four stars, because the world-building was decent (tight, even if not especially deep) and the characters were fine as well.

I think the previous book, This Book is Full of Spiders, sold its plot better. It was more focused; the suspense, the atmosphere, the stakes were built up better. However, I still liked this one, and had a lot of fun.

I'm... surprised to report I actually liked it?
I didn't think I'd continue reading this series, the first book being what it is. But I wanted something silly and fun, and was surprised that this actually had a plot? And a relationship between David and Amy? And plenty of the fun stuff from the first book.

Now I'm definitely going to read the next one as well. If you're on the fence about this series - skip the first book, start with this one.

Still following Sanderson's old formula of 'add a gimmick, explore it in a book'.

But I'm increasing the rating because of how the characters interacted in these past two books. We get to see living, friendly relationships full of love, that develop over time as they spend more time together.

Was fun. Great ending.

I think Sanderson might be better at making up worlds and stories than he is at writing them down. The prose is too wordy, unnecessarily dragged out.

I don't have a word for what he is doing, but these novels are like the fantasy version of popcorn in a way: you keep coming for more, but you can't expect any real nutrition.
On the other hand, I do think the complex, thoroughly explored mechanics and world building place them above standard pulp.
It makes no pretense of being highbrow, either: it's just some action, albeit complex, designed to impress you with epic moments and predicable, schematic humor.

This book won't inspire you to change your life or drive you to ponder the nature of the human condition; it might, however, make you want to immerse yourself in this well-oiled mechanism of Sanderson's making.

In the form of a venereal disease, the entrance to a malleable city of dreams slowly spreads throughout the world like a nightmare of Lovecraft's. Anyone it touches, it brings to depravity through their new craving for Palimpsest; a gift exchanged for an obsession.
Watch our heroes try to ascend even as their lives, and their very bodies, shatter.

There is a list of things that are of Palimpsest: seclusion among many, vivid prose (+⭐), fantastical cityscapes (+⭐), theatrical gestures, off-putting obscenities (-⭐), rings of bees, domains of November, unnecessary accents, a heart of ice.

I am pleasantly surprised how Yahtzee can repeatedly pull this off. His prose is always full of full of weird analogies and descriptions, yet I'm never annoyed by them. The characters are flat, but they're fun and I like them.

In Differently Morphous, I was fascinated how Yahtzee can use characters that basically are silly caricatures dialed up to 11, yet still use them for a complex, reasonably nuanced exploration of a topic through their interactions. There was less of it in this book, and it was a lot less interesting. This, combined with the fact that Dr Diablerie wasn't on the scene as much, is why it's not getting five stars.

Both books in the series are complete on their own, with small tidbits of a larger, overarching narrative. I do hope the next one comes along rather sooner than later.

And of course, hearing Yahtzee narrate his books is always a joy.

Goodreads has this tagged as magical realism, and I've also seen it referred to as urban fantasy. It is neither. Instead, it's historic fiction with a gothic feeling to it.

The entire plot revolves around the life of Daniel, and makes detours to shed light on the past of various other characters that come into his life. I found these detours a bit too long for my taste, even though I suspect that for people who enjoy this kind of book, it might not be that bad.

I also appreciated how several circles have closed by the end of the story's arc, and how the author worked with the "gothic" imagery, especially in the beginning with Lain Coubert and in the final confrontation. (Not sure if that 'gothic' is the correct term here, but I don't have a better one.)

All in all, I liked the book, even though the style doesn't quite suit me.

This was so much fun.
The bit of plot in the last quarter of the book is tempting me to subtract one star; but I'll be generous. It's the ideal book to read if you're feeling bombarded by the oppressiveness of reality, lately.

It takes plenty of tropes, most notably from the titular Kaiju genre, and unapologetically places them front and center. It's not serious; instead, it invites you to laugh along.
Even though I'm not sure if I have personally seen a single Kaiju movie, I know enough to enjoy this just by cultural osmosis. Which is to say - I don't think you have to be a fan of the genre to appreciate this book.
(There also are various other literary references, sometimes directly discussed between the characters. Fortunately, they never feel forced.)

Wil Wheaton's narration was also great - it was very clear that when the characters were having fun, so was he.

I hope you'll join us and enjoy this book with a goofy grin on your face.

The first half of the book was slow, peaceful and deliberative. I have enjoyed watching how Ofelia, in her seventies, went about her day. The book painted a picture of quiet joy and contentment I appreciate; of solitude and loneliness. It also showed how plenty of the societal expectations beaten into Ofelia during her lifetime keep influencing her even when there is no more society to enforce them, even as she realized how unnecessary that is. The close narrative distance was a big factor in making feel so vivid and personal.

It also is one of those books where I'm really glad I didn't know anything about them when I started, so I won't spoil anyone's surprise here. I'll just say that the pace picked up a bit in the latter half, and I loved that, too.

Both the books in the series made me think "wow, this sounds awesome, I'd like to go through that in a videogame." That feeling was even stronger with the second book, because exploring a strange island with strange fauna sounds great.

One point off because it wasn't as good as the first one; another point off because it was way too dragged out. Scott Brick is a good narrator, but the narration was very slow and needed a big speed boost.

Re-read. Still liked it

I expected a lot more action and a lot less talk about science. This was much better.

Ok, I really haven't expected I'd end up liking this as much as I did. (Especially considering I didn't like the first book that much.)
The plot lines were handled well, the ending satisfactory, the author obviously also paid a lot of attention to Russian history and mythology.

At first I thought I wouldn't like it much, because it again started quite slow. But the pace picked up sooner than it did in the first book, and I liked the plot better, so I guess it wasn't that bad after all. I'm actually looking forward to the third installment. I almost didn't continue the series, but now am glad I did. (Thanks for the impetus, Book club!)

A fitting ending to a fitting series. I'm feeling nostalgic for this world already. It also was one of those rare sci-fi/fantasy worlds where living in them might actually be nice (for the average non-protagonist).

I dunno. It's not nearly as charming as the first two were. But at least the Assembler plot line went to interesting places and the finale was good. Looking forward to the next one.