Book #40 of 2018: The Warrior’s Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan Saga #3) I’m told that Miles Vorkosigan is the real main character of this series, and after two books about his parents navigating military and political power struggles, he finally takes center stage here. I like our hero: he’s physically weak but tactically …
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Book #19 of 2018: Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan Saga #2) I still feel like this is a series I could happily walk away from and not miss, but this Hugo-winning second novel — actually the seventh in publication order — is a definite improvement over the first. (I’m also told that the baby …
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Book #17 of 2018: Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray (Constellation #1) There’s a bit of a rocky start to this novel, but it’s not long before the story kicks off into a careening sci-fi adventure. It’s got so many things I love about the genre: an exploration of the souls of advanced robots, people …
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Book #16 of 2018: Morning Star by Pierce Brown (Red Rising #3) When I first read this book in 2016, I wrote the following review: “A thrilling end to a spectacular trilogy. I do think this book was a minor step down from the first two Red Rising volumes, which had more cohesive plot structures …
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Book #5 of 2018: Golden Son by Pierce Brown (Red Rising #2) This is my second time reading this novel — although the first time as an audiobook — and I think my original review from 2016 mostly stands: “Given their common themes of dystopian wargames and rebellion against a corrupt government, The Hunger Games …
Book #259 of 2017: Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan Saga #1) This space opera skewed a little close to a romance novel, which is not really my genre of choice. (Two enemy soldiers essentially fall in love at first sight, with the protagonist feeling overcome by her counterpart’s rugged manliness.) If you …
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Book #56 of 2017: A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (Zones of Thought #1) A neat space opera, overflowing with intelligent alien lifeforms at various stages of development – think Star Trek or Mass Effect for a rough idea of the setting, but with the added wrinkle that approaching the galactic center makes …
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Book #41 of 2016: Morning Star by Pierce Brown (Red Rising #3) A thrilling end to a spectacular trilogy. I do think this book was a minor step down from the first two Red Rising volumes, which had more cohesive plot structures than this one. Morning Star sometimes felt more like a sequence of discrete …
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Book #34 of 2016: Golden Son by Pierce Brown (Red Rising #2) Given their common themes of dystopian wargames and rebellion against a corrupt government, The Hunger Games remains the go-to comparison for the Red Rising series of books. But this second novel of the series deepens the plot outside of the arena far more …
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