Ben Saufley - Reading

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Black Nowhere

by Reece Hirsch

Finished 2020-05-19

Honestly from a pure entertainment standpoint, I enjoyed this just fine. It’s like average pop music—it hits a lot of familiar notes and wraps up quickly. And that’s really a lot of what I look for in a book like this, so I was preparing to give this a three or a four.

But it’s apparently some kind of love letter to libertarianism by the end?

This is Lisa Tanchik book one, but it’s Nate Fallon’s book and despite Lisa having lost a sister to drugs, it spends zero time examining Fallon’s bullshit justifications, and ends with a little Rand-ian soliloquy offering one final justification for his actions. It’s a bummer because it’s a moderately fun cyber-thriller that could have had something interesting to say without much effort.

Fallon didn’t have to be a cartoon villain; taking apart the things that at first made the character sympathetic would’ve been more interesting than simply making him bad, but the book opts for neither.

Obviously, there are moments that the book realizes (and quickly sweeps aside) the real, negative consequences of his actions. And at times I think the author intended to go further there? A few conversations he has weakly imply a deeper criticism. But it never goes anywhere, and on the balance, the book appears to be more reverent than anything.

And also Lisa Tanchik is in this book for some length of time, I guess?

I read this book because Charlie Jane Anders, whose work I’ve really enjoyed, recommended its sequel. And to be truthful, I still might pick that up at some point. But I’m kind of surprised at the recommendation, in retrospect.
The Name of All Things

by Jenn Lyons

Finished 2020-05-15
Come Tumbling Down

by Seanan McGuire

Finished 2020-04-30
The Red Hunter

by Lisa Unger

Finished 2020-04-24

Pretty predictable at a certain point, but overall enjoyable.
Children of Ruin

by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Mel Hudson

Finished 2020-04-20
Agent Running in the Field

by John Le Carre

Finished 2020-04-09

I was really enjoying this book and then it ended before it resolved. What? A whole lot of loose threads at the end of this one that I wasn’t prepared for because the book was overall so meticulous.
An Unwanted Guest

by Shari Lapena

Finished 2020-04-01

Entertaining enough. Structured like a Poirot kind of “bottle” mystery but Spoilernot solveable with the clues presented—the eventual culprit was revealed to have motives etc that were not presented to the reader in any way ahead of time
Wanderers

by Chuck Wendig

Finished 2020-03-26

Pretty timely, obviously. Pandemic, white supremacist demagogue, etc. I enjoyed it.
Leviathan Wakes

by James S.A. Corey

Finished 2020-03-09

It’s a decently entertaining sci-fi read but it’s pretty bad with women and that only becomes more apparent as the book goes on. Three men of varying degrees of gruffness race to save the universe and also obsess over women who have no real agency except as motivators and plot devices.
An Echo of Things to Come

by James Islington

Finished 2020-03-02
Upright Women Wanted

by Sarah Gailey

Finished 2020-02-19
The Sentence is Death

by Anthony Horowitz

Finished 2020-02-17
A Closed and Common Orbit

by Becky Chambers

Finished 2020-02-14
Rebel of the Sands

by Alwyn Hamilton

Finished 2020-02-12
Planetside

by Michael Mammay

Finished 2020-02-09

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#frontCover { fill: currentColor; } #spine { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 45%, #000 55%); } #backCover { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 78%, #000 22%); } The Name of All Things

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Black Nowhere

The Name of All Things

Come Tumbling Down

The Red Hunter

Children of Ruin

Agent Running in the Field

An Unwanted Guest

Wanderers

Leviathan Wakes

An Echo of Things to Come

Upright Women Wanted

The Sentence is Death

A Closed and Common Orbit

Rebel of the Sands

Planetside