I love seeing how each book increases the scope and the stakes.

Urban management and meaningful twists and love and a bunch of cunning.

Heck yeah.

I had a long pause after finishing the first trilogy and before starting this one, because I was not looking forward to the jump in time and change of protagonists.

So this was basically a fresh start. I enjoyed it even more than the previous book in the series. It was a lot more vague on the details of how the imaging magic works, but then again we were following a protagonist who did not know that much about it himself. So it ended up working fine within the book, but having prior knowledge from the previous books felt like a nice benefit.

Latest Book club read. Checked out both the text, and the BBC radio production. Short and enjoyable.

A gentle, touching love story line that openly acknowledges its inspiration by Romeo and Juliet.

I discovered it when a friend said it's her favorite manga so far. I don't like reading books from displays, but I bought her a dead-tree copy and read it before I had the chance to gift it to her.

I'm glad that I did, because I really liked it. I'm also not that glad, because I probably won't be getting my hands on any other parts of the series in paper, so I won't get the chance to continue any time soon.

I encountered a recommendation of this book in many discussions on hard sci-fi; and now I understand why.
It wasn't perfect, but it did many interesting things, did them well, and the ending was very good.

So thrilling it made me anxious. 😀 An excellent book. I got it from a friend years ago, but it fell behind some other books and I forgot about it - now it's almost as if she gifted it to me twice! 😄

It ended up being a little better than originally expected. Good enough I guess, but I'm not sure if I wanna continue the series. I picked it up pretty randomly, because I had some download credits on Audiolibrix and wanted to try some contemporary slovak genre fiction.

This was a proper sci-fi in the sense that the author took an idea - in this case, "what if we could send information via microscopic wormholes" - and extrapolated from there. I have to admire the sheer number of ideas and thoughts in this book; when one avenue of wormhole use was described and its impacts on our protagonists and the world as a whole was established, an upgrade to the wormhole tech is introduced and the process repeats.

But some of the tangents were way too tangential, and the ending was way too 'out there' to be satisfactory. I guees most of the book felt 'believable' at some level - not in the sense that it could happen, but that people would (or at least could) react in the ways that they did. Compared to that, the ending felt way off. (It was similar to the ending of a different book of Clark's (I don't wanna spoil it here), but there it felt more appropriate.)

I guess if the book ended halfway through, it would get five stars. As it is, I can't decide between three and four, which is a bummer, because I really did like it.

I really loved the world and the setting. The vibe I got from the first few chapters was similar to (the game) Against the Storm, for some reason. Dark, wet, alive, dangerous.

I do have some nitpicks (e.g. I could have done without anything amorous all, and I really hate the name of the book for some reason), but they're all minor.

I'm definitely going to read the next book as well.

A good conclusion to the story arc. Some parts were unexpectedly touching.
The very last scene really didn't need to be there, though.

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.

Right off the bat, it's annoying that the largest caption on the cover is the name of someone who had absolutely nothing to do with the book at all.

I do think it's a fun continuation, and it does try to stick to the original narrative structure as well. However, it felt a little too much 'out there' for my liking. I dunno. It was fun, and maybe a little more "dynamic" than the Andromeda Strain, but I still liked it less.

But it definitely wasn't bad - if you're wondering whether or not to read it, I'd say go for it. Just temper your expectations.

Long and convoluted, but in a good way! Thrilling and funny and all the rest as usual.

I'm not sure how to rate it; but I feel I enjoyed it a bit less than the previous ones.

On the other hand, it did resolve many plot threads building up to this point (the ninth floor).

So I'm not sure. Might change the rating later. We'll see.

Turns out I like the 'trouble on a generation ship' trope. There was a bunch of interesting thing this book did, but the first part was a bit too dragged out and the last one a bit too sexist for me to fully enjoy.

A good ending to the series.

That was intense. Feels like this was the last one, but I wouldn't mind a new one. 😄

Oh, I like where this is going. Though after that ending, I'd be dismayed if the next one weren't readily available.

What a fun series. I may have given it 3 stars, but I'm adding one more because of how much better it is than Fourth Wing.

The prose was so dragged out and hornily repetitive.
I guess in this genres some sex scenes were to be expected, but I had no idea they'd be this long and this boooorinnnnggg.

I considered continuing the sieries, but when I learned the second book is a lot longer I just dropped the series.

I read me a Kate Daniels (Magic Shifts) instead - and realized that while the relationships and other elements in there are similar to Fourth Wing, they're much better written.

I really appreciate the way Kloos structures the series. As a friend pointed out, he doesn't insist on pacing all books evenly; the previous one was relatively calm, then this one was all combat almost all the time. It makes for a more natural narration and I think it suits the series well.

I also really appreciate that he didn't use That One Last Thing At The End for a stupid cliffhanger, but made it into a satisfying resolution instead. That earned Kloos even more points in my book.

I like where the series is gonig so far. 🙂

As expected of this series - may not be too deep, but it's a lot of fun. I almost feel bad for giving it the same amount of stars as Solo Leveling, because this has much better characters and the prose is on a completely different level. But I guess the 3-star category simply has to be quite broad.

I wanted to listen to this again in the GA version. It's good, but I feel like the effects were better in the previous book.

What a disappointment. 😟

Only the first fifth of the book is taken up by the resolution of the actual plot, and the rest is "epilogue", but basically in the form of alt-universe fan fiction.

The ending of the actual plot was so stupid it felt like the author just wanted to set up a reason for the subsequent fanfic and didn't care that it makes no sense in context.

I thought I might give it 3 stars either way, because some of the fanfic stories were fun; but the last one was so bad that I changed my mind.

What a shame. I don't think I will be recommending Solo Leveling to anyone anymore.

We're learning more about the events driving the plot the whole time. Interesting! I want to see where this goes. 🍿

I'm glad I continued the series - this time, there really were additional details that didn't fit in the other adaptations, which I enjoyed. On the other hand, the redundancy of prose is still grating, and the spelled out "sound effects" still don't work well in an audiobook. Especially if the narrator reads out "cough, cough" instead of, you know, actually coughing...

But whatever. It's fast-paced, fun, and since I already know the plot, I don't have to focus too much while listening.

I've read a few volumes of the comics version of Solo Leveling, I've seen both seasons of the anime, so I thought I might as well compare with the "light novel" version, and the audiobook. I'm not sure if I ever read a light novel before. 🤔

I was also hoping to learn a bit more backstory. But there wasn't much of that, unfortunately.

The audiobook narration was good; the writing itself, however, often felt redundant, and the author often resorted to the old method best called "show AND tell AND then explain again for the dumb ones in the back". And the narration of sound effects was a bit jarring at times.

I might try the next one, anyway. We'll see.

This was so much worse than Halting State. :(

I liked the characters and the plot; it was pleasantly reminiscent of Reamde.

I didn't expect this to be so weirdly... touching? I enjoyed it a lot. Makes me want to look up more from the series, and from the author.

Update: darn, only after finishing did I realize I had an abridged version of the audiobook.

(Known as My Brilliant Friend in English)
This was a bit outside my usual comfort zone. It was one of those books that I'd probably never finish on paper, because the pacing is a bit slow and the prose verbose; but I can listen to audio on a faster speed than I can read, so it balances out a little bit.

So that's the reason I'm not giving it 4 stars. But I like how the books explores its themes; of friendly rivalry and of talents squandered or nurtured. And the ending was excellent. I think I will be continuing with the series.

Bought this because of the funny cover. I guess that's enough of this series for me.

Started out well...

One could say that the real protagonist here was the speed of light, and the characters were there to struggle with it and deal with its implications.
I really liked the first half of the book; then it dragged a bit; but then it got good again near the end. I did not see that ending coming.

And this was one of those books where I kept wondering how much my enjoyment of it is predicated on prior knowledge of the topics discussed. This is a hard sci-fi, and while the author does a good job of explaining everything, I still wonder whether it makes a big difference or not.

This is what a modern fairytale should look like. It works very well, because one of the two protagonists is a physicist in over his head in an unknown land. There's plenty of seemingly arbitrary "fairytale logic" solutions to problems; but he's always there to act as a foil and ask the question - the reader is thinking: How on Earth does that make any sense?

Because of that, it reminded me of Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale. If you had to choose just one, read Winter's Tale - it was better and had beautiful prose as well.

But I don't want to disparage the Water Moon - it's a new fave and I can heartily recommend it.

I enjoyed it somewhat less than the previous instalment, but it's still good. I enjoyed seeing how Rhenntyl moved from a publicly exposed position to working behind the scenes to influence events in Solidar.

What an excellent book! There's high intrigue, there's scheming and plotting, there's violence. But above all, there is compassion an companionship and a sense of togetherness. Rhenn finds a stalwart ally in his girl and her family. The depth and evolution of his relationships to the people around him were probably the best part of the book.

☹️

An old character, but a new PoV. This one was way better than Lucky Thirteen.

It was okay. The change of PoV was nice.

Well, at first I thought this is a decent mil sci-fi - enjoyable, but not ground-breaking. And quite varied, considering the protagonist's career changes. But the twist about three quarters in made me bump the rating up. I might want to read more in the series.

That was my original review. After a re-read 7 years later, I've bumped it up to 5 stars. And this time I'm actually going to read the rest of the series, too.

Ah, I keep changing the rating between 3 and 4 stars. Can't decide.

I think I liked Used Record and The Long Dream the most.

And I've enjoyed not only the author's commentary, but the included first draft pages as well. Great to see how much the stories changed since their first inception.

Exactly what a sci-fi novella should be: a concise expiration of an interesting premise.

It's not every day that I find a book with a good plot and written so well, that I'm always looking forward to the next scene. Maybe it'll be a lot of action, maybe a dialogue, a romantic scene, or anything else - but not a dull moment to be found.

Didn't like it much

If the excellent Pride and Prejudice was "just a bunch of people visiting each others' houses", and Middlemarch was "the same thing, but a bit too long", then this is "the same thing, but every character is a self-obsessed cretin".

It was a bit of a mixed bag. I don't generally like books that are mostly about people making other people suffer needlesly. In the beginning there were a few places where we got a wink and a nudge from the author, hinting that she knows exactly how pathological the characters are, and wants you to take it as such; but most of the second half was really horrid for me.

SPOILER: The ending helped it a bit, though I do think it's hilarious that "every main character died" counts as a happy-end here. 😀

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...

I've read this book #6 out of order, after #7; having the extra context was appreciated. Chronologically, this was supposed to be the first book from the PoV of Murgen. The previous one was told by Lady and that was an interesting change of pace. This was nice as well.

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.

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.

I wanted to listen to this again in the GA version. It's good, but I feel like the effects were better in the previous book.