Ben Saufley - Reading

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Snow Crash

by Neal Stephenson

Finished 2015-04-13
An Unwelcome Quest

by Scott Meyer

Finished 2015-02-22
Ready Player One

by Ernest Cline

Finished 2015-02-13

Pretty fun. Listened to most of it on audio. Something about the cover, and the way it had been presented, had led me to believe that this book was as bit more, I don’t know, literary? It’s not. It’s a fun science fiction adventure, and that’s about it. The language is plain, the characters are secondary to the adventure. It’s a nerd fantasy in the extreme, and sometimes that sort of takes you out of it a bit. But I am still a pretty big nerd. So I mostly enjoyed it, and now I’m moving on with my day.
The Dark Is Rising

by Susan Cooper

Finished 2015-02-01

I remember liking [b:Over Sea, Under Stone|11312|Over Sea, Under Stone (The Dark is Rising, #1)|Susan Cooper|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1166468889s/11312.jpg|742] a lot more than this one, but I finished that one years ago.

This felt a lot less like an adventure and a lot more like …a kid who had a bunch of stuff happen to him. And it wasn’t even, like, “kid gets swept up in major adventure.” More like “kid goes about his day, but every now and then weird stuff happens that he’s somehow an important part of… without his actually making any decisions about those things.”

That’s my major takeaway from the story. My impression, and my objection.

Really wanted to love this series. Not sure I want to invest more time in it, after this one. Maybe I will in a while.
Child 44

by Tom Rob Smith

Finished 2015-01-24
I Don't Care If My Best Friend's Mom is a Sasquatch, She's Hot and I'm Taking a Shower With Her

by Lacey Noonan

Finished 2015-01-24
Revenge of the Witch

by Joseph Delaney, Patrick Arrasmith

Finished 2015-01-15

Picked it up because a movie’s coming out and I figured I’d read it before I (potentially) watched it. Having read it, I’ll say it looks like the movie won’t even be vaguely similar to the book.

Anyway: it was fine. The antagonists were not characters for the most part - more just abstract bad guys. But I did like some of the spookier writing. Not really a genre I care about, but it did give me the creeps a few times. Pretty formulaic; not a ton of world building at all - by which I mean I know next to nothing about the world they lived in. But not bad. Very quick. May pick up a sequel at some point.
Spell or High Water

by Scott Meyer

Finished 2015-01-13
Off to Be the Wizard

by Scott Meyer

Finished 2014-12-22

Quick and entertaining. A simple and interesting premise. Pretty funny. Picked it up on a whim. Mostly listened to the audiobook, which was well-done. Bought the sequel immediately. I’d recommend it, for something light.
Allegiant

by Veronica Roth

Finished 2014-12-15
The Magician's Land

by Lev Grossman

Finished 2014-11-15
The Martian

by Andy Weir

Finished 2014-11-12

It’s between 3 and 4 stars. I enjoyed it pretty thoroughly. In the end, it was more of a fun experience than a great book, so I went with three. It’s kind of how I felt about the movie Gravity: the actual plot, and anything they tried to do with it, wasn’t great. But the way they made you experience it was still really fun. Maybe I’m trying to describe hollow fun? But I don’t think this was quite hollow. Just … it leaned toward glib, when its subject matter could’ve been a lot more thrilling. It favored procedure over storytelling (“here’s how I’ll construct this tool” rather than any of the potential fear/introspection/character work that could’ve happened). The glibness made it entertaining – I laughed a lot as I read it – but maybe detracted from the end product.

I don’t know, mixed feelings: I really did enjoy it, start-to-finish, and I’d recommend anyone read it . But once it was over it felt a little shallow for what it could have been.
Sabriel

by Garth Nix

Finished 2014-10-29
Directive 51

by John Barnes

Finished 2014-09-30

A lot of interesting ideas that then sort of wander and fizzle. I enjoyed it, but as a piece of fiction the structure and resolution (or even lack thereof) falls short.
The Sparrow

by Mary Doria Russell

Finished 2014-08-11

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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%); } Snow Crash

#frontCover { fill: currentColor; } #spine { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 45%, #000 55%); } #backCover { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 78%, #000 22%); } An Unwelcome Quest

#frontCover { fill: currentColor; } #spine { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 45%, #000 55%); } #backCover { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 78%, #000 22%); } Ready Player One

#frontCover { fill: currentColor; } #spine { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 45%, #000 55%); } #backCover { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 78%, #000 22%); } The Dark Is Rising

#frontCover { fill: currentColor; } #spine { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 45%, #000 55%); } #backCover { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 78%, #000 22%); } Child 44

#frontCover { fill: currentColor; } #spine { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 45%, #000 55%); } #backCover { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 78%, #000 22%); } I Don't Care If My Best Friend's Mom is a Sasquatch, She's Hot and I'm Taking a Shower With Her

#frontCover { fill: currentColor; } #spine { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 45%, #000 55%); } #backCover { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 78%, #000 22%); } Revenge of the Witch

#frontCover { fill: currentColor; } #spine { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 45%, #000 55%); } #backCover { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 78%, #000 22%); } Spell or High Water

#frontCover { fill: currentColor; } #spine { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 45%, #000 55%); } #backCover { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 78%, #000 22%); } Off to Be the Wizard

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

#frontCover { fill: currentColor; } #spine { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 45%, #000 55%); } #backCover { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 78%, #000 22%); } The Magician's Land

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

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

#frontCover { fill: currentColor; } #spine { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 45%, #000 55%); } #backCover { fill: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 78%, #000 22%); } Directive 51

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

Snow Crash

An Unwelcome Quest

Ready Player One

The Dark Is Rising

Child 44

I Don't Care If My Best Friend's Mom is a Sasquatch, She's Hot and I'm Taking a Shower With Her

Revenge of the Witch

Spell or High Water

Off to Be the Wizard

Allegiant

The Magician's Land

The Martian

Sabriel

Directive 51

The Sparrow