Books I read on vacation (March 2023)
The Witchwood Crown 2/5
Empire of Grass 3/5
Into the Underdark 4/5
I'm not convinced these books need to be so long. My favourite plotlines included Unver's ascension to Shah, Tzoja's multiple career changes, and Morgan's treetop adventures with Reeree. And not having read the original trilogy I can totally believe Simon and Miriamele as former swashbucklers. However I did not sign up for the Nezeru/Morgan hookup, the fake deaths in books 2 and 3 happened too closely together (and to the same two characters), and the plot, though interesting, takes altogether too long to emerge. Now that it has, I'll definitely read the fourth book, because it's guaranteed to get to the point and be good. I'm a sucker for things entitled The Last X, and I'm deeply, deeply worried for the survival of the royal family. So thanks, Tad Williams, for stoking that anxiety and also for including a synopsis of the story thus far at the beginning of each book.
Old Man's War 5/5
The Ghost Brigades 2/5
The Last Colony 3/5
John Scalzi is an incredibly expedient writer, which is generally a good thing, except when the genre works against him. The first book was fantastic: Starship Troopers, but what if they're all retirees, and the protagonist names his brain implant/personal assistant "Asshole?" I never thought I'd ever read the phrase "Activate Asshole" and am grateful to Old Man's War for bestowing that gift upon me. The second gave me a bit of whiplash, because I really missed John Perry's viewpoint and Jane Sagan was only a minor presence. The Last Colony reunites the two, but with an entirely different genre. And that's where I think he could've slowed down a little. I like a complicated political gambit as much as anyone else, but I think he could've dwelled a little bit more on the colonists in between moves.
The Collapsing Empire 5/5
The Consuming Fire 4/5
The Last Emperox 2/5
Ditto here. I thought the Collapsing Empire did a great job laying out the premise, and coming fresh (ish) off the Expanse, I could immediately grasp the stakes at hand. Scalzi's gambits work better on a smaller scale when dealing with a prison escape, a kidnap attempt, or a bomb threat. But everything falls apart in Book 3. Did the Flow Theories end up right? Did the empire collapse neatly? And how, how, could anyone think that the emperox turning into a supercomputer is a good plot ending? It's a literal deus IN machina and feels like it undermines the entire point of the first and second books. The Expanse did this better in its last half-dozen chapters.
Blackout 3/5
All Clear 4/5
All Clear is brilliant but I don't think the entirety of Blackout was necessary to set it up, since the first of this duology involves a lot of people trying to blend in, not disrupt the pillars of causality, and make their very important appointments. Even though, the atmosphere of WW2-era Britain was THICK. I loved seeing people from all walks of life in the war. Sir Godfrey's last conversation with Polly was the best thing I read on vacation. I didn't even mind all the fake deaths.
Palimpsest 1/5
What the hell?
Alright. It wasn't bad. It's poetry, good poetry. I just was not in the mood to read poetry where people fuck to enter a city of dreams. It was beautiful but also self indulgent, filled with cool stuff for the sake of being cool. And succeeding consistently, but to what end? I don't think I'm ever in the mood for that kind of book.
Uprooted 2/5
The antagonist, an entire forest, was compelling, creepy, and consistently several steps ahead of the protagonists. So I liked that. But I didn't like the main character, or the unexplained magic system, or the romance that robs the mentor character of all the mystique he had at the beginning of the book. Also, ew, the romance. Spinning Silver was ten times better than Uprooted.
Empire of Grass 3/5
Into the Underdark 4/5
I'm not convinced these books need to be so long. My favourite plotlines included Unver's ascension to Shah, Tzoja's multiple career changes, and Morgan's treetop adventures with Reeree. And not having read the original trilogy I can totally believe Simon and Miriamele as former swashbucklers. However I did not sign up for the Nezeru/Morgan hookup, the fake deaths in books 2 and 3 happened too closely together (and to the same two characters), and the plot, though interesting, takes altogether too long to emerge. Now that it has, I'll definitely read the fourth book, because it's guaranteed to get to the point and be good. I'm a sucker for things entitled The Last X, and I'm deeply, deeply worried for the survival of the royal family. So thanks, Tad Williams, for stoking that anxiety and also for including a synopsis of the story thus far at the beginning of each book.
Old Man's War 5/5
The Ghost Brigades 2/5
The Last Colony 3/5
John Scalzi is an incredibly expedient writer, which is generally a good thing, except when the genre works against him. The first book was fantastic: Starship Troopers, but what if they're all retirees, and the protagonist names his brain implant/personal assistant "Asshole?" I never thought I'd ever read the phrase "Activate Asshole" and am grateful to Old Man's War for bestowing that gift upon me. The second gave me a bit of whiplash, because I really missed John Perry's viewpoint and Jane Sagan was only a minor presence. The Last Colony reunites the two, but with an entirely different genre. And that's where I think he could've slowed down a little. I like a complicated political gambit as much as anyone else, but I think he could've dwelled a little bit more on the colonists in between moves.
The Collapsing Empire 5/5
The Consuming Fire 4/5
The Last Emperox 2/5
Ditto here. I thought the Collapsing Empire did a great job laying out the premise, and coming fresh (ish) off the Expanse, I could immediately grasp the stakes at hand. Scalzi's gambits work better on a smaller scale when dealing with a prison escape, a kidnap attempt, or a bomb threat. But everything falls apart in Book 3. Did the Flow Theories end up right? Did the empire collapse neatly? And how, how, could anyone think that the emperox turning into a supercomputer is a good plot ending? It's a literal deus IN machina and feels like it undermines the entire point of the first and second books. The Expanse did this better in its last half-dozen chapters.
Blackout 3/5
All Clear 4/5
All Clear is brilliant but I don't think the entirety of Blackout was necessary to set it up, since the first of this duology involves a lot of people trying to blend in, not disrupt the pillars of causality, and make their very important appointments. Even though, the atmosphere of WW2-era Britain was THICK. I loved seeing people from all walks of life in the war. Sir Godfrey's last conversation with Polly was the best thing I read on vacation. I didn't even mind all the fake deaths.
Palimpsest 1/5
What the hell?
Alright. It wasn't bad. It's poetry, good poetry. I just was not in the mood to read poetry where people fuck to enter a city of dreams. It was beautiful but also self indulgent, filled with cool stuff for the sake of being cool. And succeeding consistently, but to what end? I don't think I'm ever in the mood for that kind of book.
Uprooted 2/5
The antagonist, an entire forest, was compelling, creepy, and consistently several steps ahead of the protagonists. So I liked that. But I didn't like the main character, or the unexplained magic system, or the romance that robs the mentor character of all the mystique he had at the beginning of the book. Also, ew, the romance. Spinning Silver was ten times better than Uprooted.
