Again I’ve found a stack of reviews just waiting to be published and like with the previous I’ve compiled them all into a single post. No point in getting anyone’s hopes up.
Continue reading “The Memoirs of Lady Trent – Books 2-5 By Marie Brennan”Review
Magisterium – Books 2-5 – By Holly Black & Cassandra Clare
Most of these quick reviews were written two years ago and never got published. Instead of posting them individually I’ve combined them and then added my thoughts about what I can remember about the last book. This doesn’t mean I’m back, just doing some house cleaning.
Continue reading “Magisterium – Books 2-5 – By Holly Black & Cassandra Clare”DNF – A Sending Of Dragons by Jane Yolen
I can’t….I just can’t.
This book has only the most superficial connection to either of the previous books and it might not even be in the same genre anymore. I got maybe a third of the way in and I’m bored out of my mind. No clue where this could go and I just don’t care anymore.
Robert
The Murderbot Diaries – Book 2: Artificial Condition – By Martha Wells
Hey Jared
I really enjoyed the Lost Fleet series as well but never managed to finish the last couple of the Beyond the Frontier since they hadn’t come out then and I just forgot to check back.
Title: Artificial Condition
Series: The Murderbot Diaries; Book 2
Author: Martha Wells
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Adult
ROTS Setting: CU, Distant-Future, FTL (Wormholes), AI
Synopsis: It has a dark past – one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot”. But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more. Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A” stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue. What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks…
Recommendation: I recommend this book. Teens or older. (But the series isn’t what I liked about the first book.)
Continue reading “The Murderbot Diaries – Book 2: Artificial Condition – By Martha Wells”
The Lost Fleet Series – By Jack Campbell
Hello Robert,
So I did a dumb thing. I started reading the Lost Fleet Series. Then I couldn’t stop.
Book 1
Book 2
Book 3
Book 6
Book 5
Book 4
Series: The Lost Fleet
Author: Jack Campbell
Genre: Sci-Fi
Audience: Teen-adult
ROTS Setting: Future, FTL,
Synopsis: The Alliance has been fighting the Syndics for a century, and losing badly. Now its fleet is crippled and stranded in enemy territory. Their only hope is a man who has emerged from a century-long hibernation to find he has been heroically idealized beyond belief.
Captain John “Black Jack” Geary’s legendary exploits are known to every schoolchild. Revered for his heroic “last stand” in the early days of the war, he was presumed dead. But a century later, Geary miraculously returns from survival hibernation and reluctantly takes command of the Alliance fleet as it faces annihilation by the Syndics.
Appalled by the hero-worship around him, Geary is nevertheless a man who will do his duty. And he knows that bringing the stolen Syndic hypernet key safely home is the Alliance’s one chance to win the war. But to do that, Geary will have to live up to the impossibly heroic “Black Jack” legend.
Recommendation: I love this series.
Pit Dragon Chronicles – Book 2: Heart’s Blood – By Jane Yolen
Jared? Is that you? It’s just been so long I didn’t recognize you.
It’s a little weird to think that the thing that finally brings you out of hiding is a romance.
Title: Heart’s Blood
Series: Pit Dragon Chronicles; Book 2
Author: Jane Yolen
Genre: Fantasy/Science Fiction
Audience: Teen
ROTS Setting: CU, distant future, dragons, dragon fights
Synopsis: Jakkin risks everything — freedom, dragon Heart’s Blood, even his life — to rescue beloved Akki who vanished months ago in rebel cell on former prison planet Austar IV. He must become rebel spy Three for mysterious Senator Golden and carry an explosive satchel to the dragon pits. In this game he will lose no matter how well he plays.
Recommendation: This book is not recommended.
Continue reading “Pit Dragon Chronicles – Book 2: Heart’s Blood – By Jane Yolen”
The Don Tillman Series: Book 1 – The Rosie Project – By Graeme Simsion
Hey Robert,
Just a quick review of a “lad lit” novel I read on Saturday. Well I listened to it but same thing.
Title: The Rosie Project
Series: The Don Tillman Series; Book 1
Author: Graeme Simsion
Genre: Romance, Lad Lit
Audience: Adult
ROTS Setting: Austraila, modern, no-mag
Synopsis: A first-date dud, socially awkward, and overly fond of quick-dry clothes, genetics professor Don Tillman has given up on love, until a chance encounter gives him an idea.
He will design a questionnaire – a 16-page, scientifically researched questionnaire – to uncover the perfect partner. She will most definitely not be a barmaid, a smoker, a drinker or a late-arriver. Rosie is all these things. She is also fiery and intelligent, strangely beguiling, and looking for her biological father – a search that a DNA expert might just be able to help her with.
Recommendation: For some reason, this book made me really happy. I loved it. I
Continue reading “The Don Tillman Series: Book 1 – The Rosie Project – By Graeme Simsion”
Pit Dragon Chronicles – Book 1: Dragon’s Blood – By Jane Yolen
Hey Jared,
I read an abridged/short story version of this in school and had no clue there was a (slightly) bigger version out there for the longest time. Finding it has been nearly impossible but I figured it out eventually.
Title: Dragon’s Blood
Series: Pit Dragon Chronicles; Book 1
Author: Jane Yolen
Genre: Fantasy/Science Fiction
Audience: Youth
ROTS Setting: CU, distant future, dragons, dragon fights
Synopsis: Dragons are trained to fight to the death, and two determined teens help free them in this spellbinding saga. Training a dragon to be a fighting champion is the only way to freedom for fifteen-year-old Jakkin.
Recommendation: Highly recommended for pre- and early teens.
Continue reading “Pit Dragon Chronicles – Book 1: Dragon’s Blood – By Jane Yolen”
The Copernicus Legacy – Book 2: The Serpent’s Curse – By Tony Abbott
Hey Jared,
I hate it when a series starts out strong and then nosedives the first chance it gets….meaning the second book.
Title: The Serpent’s Curse
Series: The Copernicus Legacy; Book 2
Author: Tony Abbott
Genre: Fantasy/Science Fiction
Audience: Youth
ROTS Setting: CU, present day, astronomy
Synopsis: Wade, Lily, Darrell, and Becca may have found the Copernicus Legacy’s first relic—a beautiful blue stone named after the constellation Vela—but they have lost much more than they have gained. Darrell’s mother, Sara, has been kidnapped by Galina Krause, the conniving leader of the Teutonic Order, who hopes that the renowned academic will lead her and her minions to the next relic.
Recommendation: Not recommended. It’s still a decent read, and good for younger readers, but it’s generic and the quality tanked.
Continue reading “The Copernicus Legacy – Book 2: The Serpent’s Curse – By Tony Abbott”
Animorphs – Book 12: The Reaction – By K. A. Applegate
Hi Jared,
This was really entertaining and surprisingly deep.
Title: The Reaction
Series: Animorphs; Book 12
Author: K. A. Applegate
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Youth
ROTS Setting: CU, Modern, Aliens
Synopsis: Rachel’s got some pretty strange stuff happening. She can’t control her morphing. One minute, she’s doing homework. The next, she’s morphing a full-grown crocodile, and — without returning to human form — she becomes an elephant. That’s when the floor gives way and Rachel finds herself looking up at what used to be the kitchen ceiling.
Recommendation: Highly recommend this series.
Continue reading “Animorphs – Book 12: The Reaction – By K. A. Applegate”
Reading Over The Shoulder 