Category: Reviewed

The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway — Una McCormack

By 5t4n5

The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway -- Una McCormackI’ve been looking forward to reading this for quite some time now but just haven’t gotten around to it until now.   And i’m glad i finally did.

Admittedly, this book will only be for those of us who totally loved Star Trek Voyager and it’s brilliant captain and crew.   If you do fall into this niche market and you haven’t yet read this book, then please do so, i can’t imaging anyone who loved the series would be disappointed with this lovely book.

My only gripe, is that we had to wait for so long for it to be written and published.   I would have loved to have read this before, during and after the series, it would have been a wonderful companion for every viewer.

But, it is what it is, and it was wonderful to be taken back in time to relive a few memories of the series, and also to find out lots more about Kathryn and her life before and after.

And i just found The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard, and it certainly won’t be long before i read that.

Una’s Page

#autobiography #scifi #startrek #unamccormack

Mother of the Year — Rachel Aaron

By 5t4n5

Mother of the Year -- Rachel AaronAs usual i check the loc points when i open a book on my Kindle.   This one said 800, so was obviously a short, but i was rather disappointed when it suddenly ended after 242 loc points and i find the rest is just a marketing exercise for a future book in the series.   It’s a very short, short masquerading as a normal short.

But, ho hum, it was free for signing up to the mailing list so maybe i shouldn’t moan too much.   But just as you’re getting into Bethesda’s character and you’re really looking forward to the other 3/4’s of the 800 loc points being filled with even more revealing stuff, you realise you’re not getting what you hoped so much for.

So what’s the 242 loc points about?   Bethesda gets interviewed on another dragon’s chat show.

Sadly, only a little bit of background into Bethesda’s character, and her attitude towards her children, before moving onto the rest of the series: i so wished there was more.

Rachel’s Page

#fantasy #rachelaaron

Nice Dragons Finish Last — Rachel Aaron

By 5t4n5

Nice Dragons Finish Last -- Rachel AaronAll mostly very enjoyable.   My only moan is that some passages are a bit tedious: it’s like you just really want the pace to keep going but instead it slows right down to tell you what someone is thinking, or some long winded conversation, right in the middle of a load of fast moving chaos that you want to be enjoying in a fast pace way.   I admit that i only felt like that a few times, so it’s not like the book is like that all the way through, and that’s probably why those few passages stand out so much as the rest of it is really on a good pace throughout.

So, yeah, that’s my only moan.   Other than that, i really enjoyed it and i’m looking forward to more, and there’s certainly plenty more books in this series.   Rachel really has done something wonderful with dragons in this dragon centric story, placing them in a dystopian capitalist environment as totally psychopathic creatures, essentially, the ultimate capitalists.   And the dragon clans’ internal and external politics that get explored are really good.

Basically, everything you wanted to know about dragons but were too afraid to ask.   Now doesn’t that sound like fun?

Rachel’s Page

#fantasy #rachelaaron

Tales from the Cafe — Toshikazu Kawaguchi

By 5t4n5

Tales from the Cafe -- Toshikazu KawaguchiI soooo enjoyed Before the Coffee Gets Cold so i was really looking forward to some more tales.

And i wasn’t disappointed.

One thing that really stood out in this book was that all the niggly little questions that the first book raised got answered along the way: i won’t say what as it may spoil things.   So it was rather good that as i started the book and i had questions in my mind that as i went along all the questions got dealt with.   I imagine that Toshikazu had quite a few people asking these questions after reading the first book and it’s good to see that they all got answered.

Other than that, it’s pretty much more of the same as the first book whereby we have four people wanting to travel in time to make something right with someone.   We also get to know the cafe staff and regulars a lot more along the way.

So yeah, great sequel and i really hope that Toshikazu thinks up a few more in the future and keeps the cafe going: it really is a good stage within which to fit stories into.

I continue to add my gripe from the first book, in that, there’s a cat on the cover but no cat in the book whatsoever.   Toshikazu, if you ever read this, please put a cat in the next book.

Toshikazu’s Page

#scifi #japan #toshikazukawaguchi

The Constantine Affliction — T. Aaron Payton

By 5t4n5

The Constantine Affliction -- T. Aaron PaytonI was hoping for some really good old fashioned Steampunk, but it’s certainly not the usual kind of Steampunk that one is used to.   It’s alright though, i read it to the end and don’t feel disappointed.

One caveat: this is most certainly not for children, so don’t go giving them a copy or you may be answering some rather awkward questions.

So yeah, an alcoholic private-detective meets his soul mate, a cis-woman, but he’s already married to a trans-woman who has been changed by the Constantine Affliction; then there’s a Frankenstein monster scientist looking for his soul mate, or rather trying to create her from corpses; a mad crazy megalomaniac inventor, Queen Victoria, dark and dingy Victorian London streets and tunnels, criminals and monsters, to name but a few: all designed to keep you thoroughly entertained.

So yeah, have at it.

Aaron’s Page

#steampunk #taaronpayton

How To Rule An Empire and Get Away With It — K. J. Parker

By 5t4n5

How To Rule An Empire and Get Away With It -- K. J. ParkerThe follow-up to Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City: which is a really good book.   If you haven’t read that already then you really should before embarking upon this quest as this follows immediately on from that story.

And, seriously, once you’ve read and totally enjoyed Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City you’ll be very pleased to know that this is just as good as that was.   K.J. is as brilliantly absurd in his story telling in this as the previous book.

Yes, the siege is still going on and nothing much has changed but, instead of our story being told by a disgruntled military engineer, we’re now treated to a story told by a disgruntled playwright who does some acting on the side — who is obviously much better at telling stories and also pretending to be people who he isn’t: now what could be better than that, eh?

So if you haven’t tried K.J.’s writing yet, these two books are a great place to begin.   You’d have to be a proper grump not to enjoy them.

K. J. Parker’s Page Tom Holt’s Page

#fantasy #kjparker

Night Shift Dragons — Rachel Aaron

By 5t4n5

Night Shift Dragons -- Rachel AaronWhat a thoroughly good ending to a thoroughly good trilogy.   It’s been well paced enjoyment all the way through, written/edited really well, great characters and a really great location.

Rachel does hint at the end of the book that she’ll be bringing us more stories from the DFZ at sometime, and i for one can’t wait.   This trilogy certainly leaves a need for us to head back there at some point just to find out how Opal and Nik got on in their happily ever after.

And while i’m waiting for more DFZ books, i’ve got lots of other books by Rachel that i haven’t read yet, so i’m looking forward to clearing them out of my to-read-pile fairly soon.

Keep well, folks.

Rachel’s Page

#fantasy #rachelaaron

Minimum Wage Magic — Rachel Aaron

By 5t4n5

Minimum Wage Magic -- Rachel AaronThe first book in the follow up trilogy to Heartstrikers.   It does say at the beginning of this book that you don’t need to have read Heartstrikers to enjoy this trilogy, but there’s so much in this book that is predicated on what happened in Heartstrikers and i really think you’d be missing out on a whole lot of background and enjoyment if you didn’t read Heartstrikers first.

Plus the fact, Heartstrikers, although tedious in places, is a really good yarn and just worth reading for it’s own sake.

So, anyway, this trilogy begins a few years after the events of Heartstrikers and the DFZ is now relatively calmed down after all those shenanigans.   Part of the being relatively calm is that the spirit of the DFZ has become rather strict on her tenants and anyone a month late in their rent gets their place cleaned out by “cleaners” and taken back by the DFZ to rent to someone else.

Basically, there are auctions twice a day for places to clean, and the cleaners go and bid for them.   Whatever is in a place then becomes the property of the cleaner who wins the auction for it.   The cleaner also has one month to get the place to the standards the DFZ sets to rent it out again.   If it’s not fit for re-rental in that month the cleaner has to pay that month’s rent.

A bit like those people who buy storage units, but with magic traps and all kinds of other weird stuff lurking around.

This book is about one of those cleaners.   A cleaner who owes a lot of money and who keeps winning auctions on places that fail to turn a profit.

But maybe, this one day, her luck is about to change and she can pay off her debts and be free.   Or maybe not, you’ll just have to read and see.

It’s really good.   And all those tedious bits i kept moaning about in the Heartstrikers books, the ones that kept slowing the pace down, well they aren’t in this book.   And those tedious bits were my only complaint about Rachel’s writing before.   So yeah, super good stuff and i dived straight into book 2, Part Time Gods.

Rachel’s Page

#fantasy #rachelaaron

Part-Time Gods — Rachel Aaron

By 5t4n5

Part-Time Gods -- Rachel AaronIf you enjoyed the first book in this trilogy then you’ll enjoy this one just as much.

Once again, Rachel keeps the action moving along at a good pace with none of those annoying delays we had in Heartstrikers.

I’m enjoying it so much that i’m diving straight into book three, Night Shift Dragons, only pausing briefly to write this review.

Super good stuff.

Rachel’s Page

#fantasy #rachelaaron

Nasty: My Family And Other Glamorous Varmints — Simon Doonan

By 5t4n5

Nasty: My Family And Other Glamorous Varmints -- Simon DoonanThe book that spawned the TV sit com Beautiful People.   I don’t watch hardly any TV shows as 99% are utter crap: Beautiful People was well in the 1%.

So how did the book compare to the TV show?

Superbly.

I would definitely suggest to anyone thinking about reading this book to watch the TV show first, as i can’t see it being as good watching it afterwards.   The book has so much more of Simon’s life in it and there are so many more characters and escapades from his childhood that were left out of the TV show and if you read the book first you’ll probably end up getting grumpy that some of the characters and escapades in the book aren’t in the TV show.

That’s not to say the TV show is bad, it’s not, it’s superb, but in order to make a good sit-com out of this book there had to be a few characters left out and certain characters that were left in have been changed somewhat.

Anyways, enough of that, just go watch the TV show and have a good laugh knowing you’ve got a lot more to read about afterwards for desert.

My first Simon Doonan book, and it certainly won’t be my last.   He’s a really good writer.   Thanks for the giggles and laughs, Simon.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Shortly after i wrote the above review i received James Clear’s The 3-2-1 Newsletter which had the following quote in it:

Psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler Ross on how beautiful people are made:

The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths.   These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern.   Beautiful people do not just happen.

Source: Death: The Final Stage of Growth

PS.   Do consider signing up for The 3-2-1 Newsletter — it’s really good — and don’t forget to read James’ book, Atomic Habits.

Simon’s Page

#lgbtq #simondoonan