Knowing Mary Roach’s work very well from her amazing first publication, Stiff, (side note, if you haven’t read Stiff, you need to. Now. Immediately! I’ve even put a handy link here! Stiff) I was excited to jump into the world of rockets and space food to find out what gets us out into the deep void, and I was not disappointed! In her usual no-holds-barred style, Roach takes us on a journey through all the nuances (particularly the ones no one wants to talk about) […]
Swashbuckling Bastards!
After two books, I think the thing I find most fun and exciting about Lynch’s stories is that he doesn’t have extra-ordinary characters. None of his characters, (aside from the bondsmagi) possess latent super-powers or even an unnatural bend towards some kind of skill. They’re just ordinary humans who get where they are by hard work and tenacity. And even when they’ve done their best, they still face very real and dangerous failure, and it’s that possible failure and its consequence that keeps me picking […]
Because Survival Is Insufficient
Oh God, this book….this wonderful, wonderful book. The present-day world is crumbling as a deadly flu pandemic spreads like wild-fire and kills its victims in under 48 hours. Within weeks the entirety of modern civilization has been reduced to buildings full of corpses and eternal traffic jams of driverless cars. Air travel is history, satellites go down, the internet disappears, lights go out, and the world is plunged into the literal dark ages. So why is this wonderful? Mandel takes what could be just another […]
A Gentleman Bastard Is Still A Bastard
In a nutshell this is a fantastic, fun ride. It has all the elements of a great modern fantasy: excellent characters, awesome world-building, and a fast-paced, well timed plot that keeps you interested. A lot of Amazon reviewers are comparing Scott Lynch to Mark Lawrence and Patrick Rothfuss, and as a reader of all 3 authors, I feel that Lynch’s Locke and Company are NOTHING like Jorg or Kvothe. While Jorg is a downright bastard (see Kaykay’s Cannonball 6 review) and Kvothe is cocky (see […]