Ben Saufley - Reading

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Autonomous

by Annalee Newitz

Finished 2018-01-11

I bought this immediately when I read that Neal Stephenson said, “Autonomous is to biotech and AI what Neuromancer was to the Internet.”

That may have jacked up my expectations too high.

It felt a lot like a lot of other books I’ve read in the genre. The contemplations of autonomy were really pretty interesting but far from the focus of the book, which was entertaining enough and had pretty standard implications regarding capitalism and tech, but didn’t really hold much emotional weight or any particularly new and compelling information. I’d have liked more examination of any one single theme the book had.
The Paper Magician

by Charlie N. Holmberg

Finished 2017-12-20
The Lying Game

by Ruth Ware

Finished 2017-12-18
Murder on the Orient Express

by Agatha Christie

Finished 2017-11-25
Creating Character Arcs

by K.M. Weiland

Finished 2017-11-05
Magpie Murders

by Anthony Horowitz

Finished 2017-10-29
The Mists of Avalon

by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Finished 2017-10-18
One of Us Is Lying

by Karen M. McManus

Finished 2017-10-02

Entertaining. Just about everything I expected from it. My wife and I had the mystery roughly figured out from maybe the midway point, maybe a bit before that, but I can say we were never confident that we were correct, which is just about all you can ask of this type of thing.

We were listening to it on Audible, which has four different voice actors for the four main characters, and we constantly had to pause to sort out which character was which. It was a while into the book before I realized I was confusing two or three of the dudes, and for a while I was forgetting which one had said which earlier on. I think that’s just… high school drama, right? The names all blend together when you’re hearing it secondhand.
The Gunslinger

by Stephen King

Finished 2017-09-14

Man, I was really interested in reading this book and I did not enjoy it. It reads like a fever dream, and not in any sort of compelling or intriguing way. The heavy, invented colloquial speech is distracting. The plot is not … really a plot, it’s more of a montage of scenes. I found myself moderately interested in the flashbacks to Roland’s childhood, because things actually happened there and there was a bit of an understanding of the world he lived in, and there were real secondary characters. Just about everything in the present was hazy and disjointed, void of character or place, and building up to a climax that really wasn’t. This is only my second King book (the first was [b:11/22/63|10644930|11/22/63|Stephen King|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327876792s/10644930.jpg|15553789], which I really enjoyed even if I felt the ending got away from him), but my experience with this one was wildly different from the last. I think this book was written much earlier in his career and was maybe more experimental for him?

The good news is that this is one series that I don’t find myself compelled to finish. I have too many series to read already.
The Blood Mirror

by Brent Weeks

Finished 2017-09-07

I still really like the world Weeks has built, but I had several issues with this book:

The most glaring is that there was no real overarching plot – it’s just a book to, presumably, get you from book three to the final conflict in book five. A lot of stuff happened, but as a book on its own it had no real arc. I don’t hate just spending some time in this world, but when it was all over, I was left feeling a bit disappointed.

The other thing that bugged me was the overwhelming horniness of the first two thirds. You’d get a chapter of plot and then a chapter of male desire. I understand that some of this stuff served the plot to a limited extent, but the amount of breasts discussed, and the volume of women throwing themselves at men just became tiresome. It made me think of that meme about “men writing female characters” (Google it). And it was disappointing because much of the rest of the book was really fun and interesting.

The plot has still got me hooked, though, and there’s one book left. I’ll definitely pick it up when it drops.
The Broken Eye

by Brent Weeks

Finished 2017-08-30

The series for the most part gets better as it goes. Excited to start the next (but I’m trying not to just binge - there’s still one book yet to be released and I try to break up the authors I read)
Red Queen

by Victoria Aveyard

Finished 2017-08-22
Everybody Lies

by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

Finished 2017-08-16
Greenwitch

by Susan Cooper

Finished 2017-08-09

I kind of want to give more stars because this isn’t really bad but it’s really … it’s not a full book. It’s one thing that happens, and more than that it’s a thing that happens to the children and basically requires no participation. This is a feeling I’ve had about the series for a while: the mythology and prophecy are really interesting but then the kids just experience it. They just watch great uncle Merry be cool, and they basically don’t do anything. They’re more passive even than many other kids in a genre full of kids mostly experiencing adventures rather than participating in them. Combine that with the fact that this feels like a short more than a full story, and I can’t really give it a particularly good rating. I’m still going to read the next one, though.
We Are Legion (We Are Bob)

by Dennis E. Taylor

Finished 2017-08-05

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Autonomous

The Paper Magician

The Lying Game

Murder on the Orient Express

Creating Character Arcs

Magpie Murders

The Mists of Avalon

One of Us Is Lying

The Gunslinger

The Blood Mirror

The Broken Eye

Red Queen

Everybody Lies

Greenwitch

We Are Legion (We Are Bob)