A Green Mushroom

I liked the Cosmere Collection a lot, but it's not going to be for most people.  The Cosmere is the greater interconnected universe that Brandon Sanderson has slowly been building in the background of a lot of his novels and novellas.  He's mentioned that they're all connected and only recently have some of the connections been mentioned in the text of his work. This is a short story collection all about that.  It's a series of short stories and novellas from his various worlds in the Cosmere. Some of them are brand new for this collection and some of them I've read before as stand-alones.  But, they're all good. If you've read the majority of Sanderson's work then you owe it to yourself to pick up this Cosmere Collection.  If you haven't read any of his work or only a few books then definitely skip this one for the moment and keep it in mind for later. But for the Sanderson fans out there, this one is great!

I don't have a ton to say about the novelization of Rogue One, but I did read it. Like most Star Wars movie novelizations it's essentially the movie in book form.  While books adapted to movies often work well it typically isn't as interesting the other way around.  But, I always read the Star Wars ones anyway just to get the bonus content and context to the universe. The Rogue One novelization has a few scenes that either were never in the movie or were cut from it.  It also fleshes out a lot of characters' internal thinking about events, which is something you almost never get in a movie. My favorite part is probably the admin documents used to break up the story randomly.  They give looks inside the building of the Death Star and inside the Rebellion.  It's just tiny vignettes but they're great! I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who isn't Star Wars obsessed in the same way I am.  But, I'm glad to have read it.  I always like lea...

Red Rising is a book I've owned for awhile but didn't pick up until very recently.  I probably bought it on sale because I've consistently seen it come up on lists of really good sci-fi.  Now I see why. The world of Red Rising is in a caste driven future where humanity has expanded to all around our Solar System.  The main character is a "Red", basically the lowest caste in the whole class system.  He's a helldiver on Mars that mines for minerals required to terraform planets.  His caste is being oppressed by the leader caste, the Golds.  You can see where this is going, right? I thought I could... and the first quarter of the book was predictable yet interesting.  But after that things get really shaken up.  So, if I've sold you on my slight info and two thumbs up alone... go buy it now and stop reading.  If not, I'm going to drop some spoilers to get you more interested. It turns out that Mars is already terraformed and so are mos...

The Alcatraz series is the only writing of Brandon Sanderson's that I hadn't checked out.  I finally remedied that. Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians is about a kid named Alcatraz who suddenly finds out he has magic.  It's very Young Adult.  I like Young Adult books when they're closer to the higher part of the Young Adult age range.  Alcatraz is near the lower end. I felt like this was a book that my kids are almost ready for, not one meant for me.  Although I bet I would have loved it if I was 11-13. I wouldn't recommend this one for adults but if you have kids just hitting the Young Adult reading age this one would be a great book to pick up.

After failing to get into the Drizzt series I decided to pick up an old series I hadn't read in awhile.  Since I had recently re-read Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone I thought I would just dig back into the series. Between reading in my kindle app and listening via audible I've already flown through Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban.  Neither is quite as good as I remember from when I read them as a kid, but both hold up pretty well. If memory serves, then the series really picks up with Goblet of Fire and stays interesting all the way through the end.  I'll soon find out since the next book I have queued up is that one! It's been really interesting revisiting Harry Potter as an adult.  I first read these books as a teenager and enjoyed them a lot.  As an adult I can find more plot holes in them and pick them apart more critically but I'm still able to have fun with them and enjoy them for what they are.

I finished up the second Drizzt book and already it's starting to feel like so many other generic fantasy stories that I've read. I thought that the Drizzt books might be a good place to sink my teeth into the greater world of Dungeons and Dragons lore but I'm starting to realize that these books would appeal to a fourteen year old me much more than they appeal to me now.  They don't seem like they're doing anything new or interesting. Being a completionist I will probably finish out this first trilogy of Drizzt books before setting them down.  I'm already two thirds of the way there so why not? This book, Exile, in particular finds Drizzt after he has rejected his heritage as an evil Dark Elf (Drow) and has gone a little bit feral in the underdark on his own.  He ends up making his first real friends and then spends most of the novel running away from the part of the Drow that are hunting him.  It's a direct continuation of the first book and ties...

After slogging through The Three Body problem I thought I would try to find a sci-fi book that would grab my attention.  I looked at my list of books to check out and saw that Ancillary Justice was super highly rated on Amazon so I got it. I could not get into Ancillary Justice at all. The book starts with disconnected events, none of which are interesting, and a main character that doesn't actually have personality because it's a computer in host bodies. I really tried to get into it.  I even did my typical second attempt at a highly rated book I'm having trouble getting into... I listened to the audiobook instead.  Generally this will give me a better sense of characters once I hear them voiced and it lets me get through parts of books that are a slog since I can have the audiobook playing while I'm doing other things too (like playing a game). But since the main character is a computer the narrator speaks very monotone and very computer-like.  I unders...

The Three Body Problem is a book I heard rave reviews for.  What I found was not what I was expecting. The novel is about first contact with aliens, but it takes forever  to get to the point.  Instead you spend the first quarter of the book reading about the cultural revolution in China then you spend almost the entire rest of the book following characters who are trying to put together clues to a mystery (alien first contact... it's obvious the entire time) while never actually being interesting. No one ever puts the pieces together or accomplishes anything.  Instead they need it spelled out for them by the person who made first contact. There's no drama, no good story arc, never a character you can relate to.  And to top it all off there are huge sections of the book that are written as dry as possible. What I expected was a groundbreaking Sci-Fi novel since that's what it was sold to me as.  What I found was the longest preamble to a premise ...

Calamity is the third book, and the conclusion of, The Reckoners trilogy.  It wraps everything up very nicely and overall it's a really good book. The Reckoners has become one of my favorite series written by Brandon Sanderson.  The basic premise is that a star showed up in the sky and suddenly a bunch of humans all gained superpowers at the same time.  Unfortunately, anyone who uses their powers gets corrupt and turns evil.  So, it's a superpower world with no heroes. The Reckoners are a group of humans who set out to take down the superpowered "epics" by learning their weaknesses and exploiting them. That's where the series starts but by this third book we know so much more about epics, their powers, how their weaknesses work, and that it's possible to fight through the evil to some extent. It's super hard to write about this book without getting into spoilers and I don't want to spoil it for anyone.  But, I highly recommend this series. ...

The Aeronaut's Windlass is the first book in a new series by Jim Butcher.  I've loved his writing in the Dresden Files and Codex Alera so I had to give this one a try. The setting is a world of magic with early industrial revolution levels of technology where all humans live in Spires that are essentially gigantic towers very far above the ground.  No one ever goes to the ground because... something.  It's not really explained. And that's how a lot of this book felt... not really explained.  By the end of it I liked the main characters and I'm curious to see where they go next but the big McGuffin they were chasing the entire book is never actually explained or revealed to be anything interesting.  It was a big letdown. But then I started thinking back to Jim Butcher's other series.  They both got really good, but neither of them started particularly strong.  I'm starting to think that, as a writer, he really needs a few books to get into the...

Bands of Mourning is the third book in the second set of the Mistborn series.  It follows Waxilliam six months after the events of Shadows of Self .  It directly deals with the fallout from that book and it picks up really quickly. I think Bands of Mourning was the best paced and most consistently interesting in this set of Mistborn books.  I'm sure that part of that is because it ties into the previous book so well and builds on it.  I didn't feel that way nearly as much between the first and second book. Bands of Mourning finds the main characters needing to leave the central city where they've spent the last book and go investigate what's happening in the wider world.  They're looking for a legendary item, the Bands of Mourning, because it could have a power that would change the world. While I still don't love this alternate history early 1900s type of setting at this point I really like the main characters and I want to know what happens to them. ...

Perfect State is a Brandon Sanderson novella.  As such it has a unique world and fantastic worldbuilding, just like all of his writing.  I really liked it. In Perfect State each person is in their own version of the matrix but they know about it.  The computer generated world adapts to them as they live their lives.  The worlds can be anything from a modern setting, to a fantasy realm with magic, or super futuristic high tech. In the end the human race is basically brains in jars.  They've generally come to terms with it. The really interesting parts occur when these humans interact with people from other "states".  Essentially people from other matrixes.  Someone who has lived their entire life in a realm of magic can suddenly find themselves dealing with future tech and robots.  It's a very interesting culture clash. Since it's a novella it's a quick read.  I listened to it on Audible and it was about a 3 hour listen. Perfect ...

This is another in the long line of Brandon Sanderson novels I've read.  Wow, he's good at staying productive and getting his books completed.  This is the latest in his Mistborn series. The Mistborn world has great worldbuilding (as does all Sanderson writing) and a really cool magic system.  Magic users are able to burn specific metals inside their body to produce very specific effects.  It ends up being weirdly precise and scientific while being awesome at the same time. The last book in this series, Alloy of Law, was a jump forward from the original trilogy.  The events of the first trilogy are mostly myths and legends now.  The world has advanced past the medieval setting and is made up of mostly western and early 1900s type settings.  Basically an entire set of new characters were introduced. This book, Shadows of Self, starts to bring the old and new series together.  Characters and events from the first trilogy begin interacting ...

This was an awesome book.  I don't often read or listen to non-fiction novels but I make exceptions for people or authors that I really like. I like a lot of Felicia Day's work and I'm always interested in seeing the next thing that she creates.  This was a good chance to find out more about her and the creative process she goes through.  It was very fascinating. I'm always interested in hearing about how people work and how creative work is accomplished.  This book gives a good feel for both in Felicia Day's work. I listened to this one as an Audiobook and it's definitely the way to go, because the author is also the narrator.  I love when that happens.  When the author is the narrator you can be sure that the correct tone is carried through in the reading of the piece of work. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in how creative work gets done, the beginnings of video web series in the infancy of Youtube, or if you're just a...

I was surprised to see that Blade Runner was actually a novel  from the 60s.  I've tried to watch the movie a bunch of times and it never grabbed my attention but I'd never given the novel a shot. Once I started reading it I very quickly ran into that 60s Sci-Fi feel.  I didn't know if I had enough drive to read a book like that at the moment so I got the Audible version instead. It's actually a pretty interesting book.  It's all about a bounty hunter in search of renegade androids on the loose in his territory.  It's post apocalyptic and the world is a radioactive wasteland where most life is dead.  There's an entire religion built up around the remaining living animals and it also influences how people feel about the artificial life of androids. It's not a book I would necessarily recommend to anyone, but I am glad that I've read it.  I know it's either based off of or another name for Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep which i...

Lost Stars is the greatest Star Wars novel I've ever read.  You need to understand how big of a statement this is from me.  Here's a partial look at what the old (now "Legends") timeline looked like: That's only a partial list of books and I've read almost all of them.  This book is better than those. The new timeline only has a few novels in it, and Lost Stars is the one I expected the least from.  It's the one that turned out the most amazing.  Last week I said that Aftermath is the best of the new books.  That's before I read this one.  Lost Stars is so much better. You see, Lost Stars is billed as a young adult romance story.  The other novels that have come out are more traditional for Star Wars books and they deal with either the main characters of the movies or slightly expanding the timeline beyond Return of the Jedi in an adult book fashion. Lost Stars is about how the events in the Star Wars universe look from the perspe...

Dark Disciple is the latest in the new Star Wars extended universe books.  They're slowly adding to the new extended universe after wiping out the old one and it's been interesting to see what they concentrate on. Dark Disciple takes place near the end of the Clone Wars and obviously draws it's inspiration from the Clone Wars TV show.  The two characters that are given the most focus are Ventress from the Clone Wars TV show and Jedi Master Voss, who is the main character for the majority of the book. I'm glad this book mostly stays away from characters from the movies since they obviously have plot immunity.  They are present, but they aren't the focus.  All the tension and character growth happens through Ventress and Voss. The book is all about grey force users.  I've always thought that grey force users are much more interesting than either Jedi or Sith.  Trying to ride the line between light and dark while giving in to neither is extremely fas...

My overall take-away from this book is that Armada is a fun read.  It was a fun page-turner and I'm glad I read it, but I don't think it's for everyone. The main thing this boils down to is that Ernest Cline's first novel, Ready Player One, was better.  It's more accessible and it's much more unpredictable (in a good way).  Armada was completely predictable all the way through.  I still had fun reading it, but it didn't have any surprises for me. But, Armada might be for you if..... You read Ready Player One and enjoyed it You are really into video games You like VR You're interested in drones and government conspiracy You're a teenage boy If any of those apply to you then there is something in Armada that will appeal to you. But in all honesty, if you haven't read either of these books I would definitely suggest picking up Ready Player One.  It's fantastic and feels much more accessible than Armada.  I think it's muc...

Nexus is a novel where I loved the premise but wasn't a huge fan of the way it was written. The premise is that there's a new recreational drug that basically allows you to connect your mind to other people.  Throughout expansion of the drug people start to connect to each other's minds and gain control of their own.  They even start running computer programs in their own heads. It's a really cool setup and I loved that part of the book, it just took a long time for things to actually happen. The pacing was not good.  There were some action scenes but they were divided by lots of scenes with characters just thinking about their actions in uninteresting ways. The worst part of the book was that there was no good conclusion.  I didn't realize this is the first part of a series.  It doesn't stand alone all that well and I'm not going to read through another book with that pacing.  So, I guess I'm done with Nexus and the follow ups. The premise...

I'm traveling a bunch this week.  I'm probably in the process of getting ready to leave right as this post goes up.  There's going to be lots of time in airports and on planes for the next few days. I'm trying to figure out what games to play.  I always go loaded for bear when it comes to electronics and traveling.  I'll have my 3DS, Vita, iPhone, Nexus Tablet, and Kindle. Should I revisit old favorites or dive into the games that remain untouched on my 3DS and Vita?  Should I download a bunch of iOS games to play try out?  Look through my forgotten folders of iOS that I like but never play?  Should I just give up and read a book on my Kindle?  Should I read comics on my Nexus? As of writing this post I'm really not sure what I'm going to end up doing. I ended up grabbing the Mario Edition of Puzzle and Dragons.  I also have Persona 4 Golden sitting untouched on my Vita.  Those two games are top of mind for me, but I know I have ...