A Guide To Living With & Training a Fearful Dog, Debbie Jacobs.
Happily, this guide is OBE: our hound was taken into professional training and is flourishing. 43% finished.
Nonfiction: 6/10 (3 stars)
Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War, G.F.R. Henderson
A fawning, revisionist look at Jackson, an admirable tactician who got his politics utterly wrong and fought for what’s now largely viewed as one of the more wretched causes in American history. If I had a deep enough interest in the Civil War, expertise in Stonewall’s career, or was researching the “lost cause” this might be worth looking at for an off-kilter view. I don’t, though, and the cloying tone got to me 7% of the way in, with Henderson discussing the Mexican War as a social networking opportunity for the future cavalry commander.
Nonfiction: 2/10 (1 star)
The Punic Wars, Captivating History
Fascinating story, not a captivating book. Under other circumstances, this would be fascinating, and even set off a batch of related reading through Roman military history. It never quite gelled, though. Salted the earth around the ruins at 21% through.
Nonfiction: 2/10 (1 star)
The Histories, Herodotus
Goodreads says this was first published January 1, 451. Another book I felt I should read, but that turned out to be immensely hard to get into. 13%.
Nonfiction: 2/10 (1 star)
War Mage Redux Complete Boxed Series, Martha Carr and Michael Anderle (2022)
This is a hefty series (2213 pgs) which has been consistently well-reviewed (4.78 stars on Goodreads.) The content and style skew very heavily towards the YA end of the scale. It’s probably excellent for a younger readership set, but not at all what I was looking for. This isn’t the author’s fault: I just read too much Grimdark for “charming” and “inoffensive” to be major selling points. Returned it to Prime Reading at the end of Volume 1, Chapter 1 or about 1% in.
Smirk factor: Overdone: 0 pts (A whopping 244 “smirks.”)
Immersion factor: Damp: 0.5 pts
Writing quality: Average: 1 pt
Character/plot development: Average: 1 pt
Innovative/interesting: Average: 1 pt
Total: 3.5/10 (1.75 stars)
Battle Ring Earth: The Complete Series: A Military Sci-Fi Box Set, Jon Frater (2022)
The hero of this series, Technical Specialist Simon Brooks is a human Swiss army knife: supply clerk, writer of data compression algorithms, and…ace space fighter pilot? And that’s all in the first nine chapters. Like Brooks, unfortunately, this story is trying to do too much, too quickly. I saw nothing terrible here, just not enough to engage me and make me want to read 891 more pages. Parked it at 12% done.
Smirk factor: Acceptable: 1 pt (9 smirks)
Immersion factor: Shallow: 1 pt
Writing quality: Average: 1 pt
Character/plot development: Average: 1 pt
Innovative/interesting: Average: 1 pt
Total: 5/10 (2.5 stars)
Horizon Protocol Box Set, Brandon Ellis and Max Wolfe (2022)
My first unkind thought about this series was that the protagonists, Jackson Stone and Alabama Wren, both have porn star names. It also doesn’t help her credibility that the blurb describes Wren as a “femme fatale.” At any rate, they are elite special secret agents employed by a shadowy organization called Polaris, tracking down “anomalies”–you can probably guess where this goes. This has lots of potential, but needed wire brushing to get the writing, flow and plot/character development tightened down a bit further. Made it to 21% done.
Smirk factor: Overdone: 0 pts (19 “smirks” in 1107 pages.)
Immersion factor: Shallow: 1 pt
Writing quality: Average: 1 pt
Character/plot development: Average: 1 pt
Innovative/interesting: Average: 1 pt
Total: 4/10 (2 stars)
The Sleeping Legion Deluxe Box Set, J.R. Handley (December 2021)
This started off pretty strongly. Lance Scipio (note the Roman allusion) is a human Janissary serving brutal alien overlords whose approach to workforce development would give Charles Darwin nightmares. This is embedded in a larger sequence of stories, but at over 300 pages in I was still trying to figure out what was happening and where, how or if the disparate threads came together. This would have worked better if it had been simplified and tried to do a little less all at once. Put on ice 21% through.
Smirk factor: Overdone: 0 pts (20 smirks
Immersion factor: Chest-high: 1.5 pts
Writing quality: Average: 1 pt
Character/plot development: Average: 1 pt (Very ambitious, but underperforms.)
Innovative/interesting: Average: 1 pt
Total: 4.5/10 (2.25 stars)
The Earthling (Soldiers of Earthrise #1), Daniel Arenson (2019)
In most respects, this should have been something I liked. Mil SF, premise that sounds interesting, potential for basic human values to triumph in the face of adversity. Unfortunately, it is another one that never jelled quite right. The opening scenes, introducing us to Maria, the guerillas, and the dead pilot, felt a bit forced and the plot never really got my attention. Turned it off 16% of the way through.
Smirk factor: Acceptable: 1 pt (10 “smirks” in 380 pages)
Immersion factor: Damp: 0.5 pts
Writing quality: Average: 1 pt
Character/plot development: Average: 1 pt
Innovative/interesting: Average: 1 pt
Total: 4.5/10 (2.25 stars)
The Splendid City, Karen Heuler (2022)
“A genre-blending story of modern witchcraft, a police state and WTF characters, for fans of Alice Hoffman and Madeline Miller.” Genres indeed get bent in this story and the characters, the cat particularly, are indeed “WTF”–interpret that as narrowly or broadly as you’d like. Heuler writes strongly, much better than many authors I’ve finished, and I can’t fault the words as such for putting this down. It’s more the combination of themes/genres, as I’m not a big urban fantasy reader. Also, the cat is insufferable. Put it down 16% through.
Smirk factor: All clear: 2 pts (5 “smirks” in 275 pages.)
Immersion factor: Damp: 0.5 pts
Writing quality: Above-average: 1.5 pts
Character/plot development: Below-average: 0.5 pts
Innovative/interesting: Average: 1 pt
Total: 5.5/10 (2.75 stars, rounded up to 3)
Defiance: The Complete Series: A Post-Apocalyptic Box Set, Devon C. Ford (2022)
This is sort of V for Vendetta meets 1984 with a touch of the serious parts of Brazil. Very heavy on the dystopia and atmospherics, at the expense of crafting relatable characters. There was a whiff of that in the air at the time I stopped reading. At Chapter 4 of the second book a whiff is too little, too late, though. The villains are Seriously Bad People, if a bit over the top. I’d read other things from Ford, though, who crafted a trilogy that is otherwise pretty reasonable. Abandoned ship 36% of the way through.
Smirk factor: Overdone: 0 pts (17 “smirks” in 880 pages.)
Immersion factor: Shallow: 1 pt
Writing quality: Above-average: 1.5 pts
Character/plot development: Average: 1 pt
Innovative/interesting: Above-average: 1.5 pts
Total: 5/10 (2.5 stars)
Once Upon An Apocalypse, Baileigh Higgins, ed. (2022)
The oddest book in this bunch, this is billed as a compilation of stories, articles, competitions and book promotions, united by the Christmasy side of various apocalyptic scenarios. The quality of the included work I thought varied too widely to make it really an attractive or cohesive read–I think with efforts like this to some extent the editor has to rule with maybe a bit more of an iron hand. Higgins is a prolific author in her own right, and I’ll throw some of her work into the hopper to look at.
Smirk factor: All clear: 2 pts (Only four “smirks.” Well done.)
Immersion factor: Shallow: 1 pt
Writing quality: Average: 1 pt
Character/plot development: Average: 1 pt
Innovative/interesting: Average: 1 pt
Total: 6/10 (3 stars)
Yesterday’s Kin Trilogy, Nancy Kress (2019)
A big-publishing product (Tor) unlike a lot of what I don’t finish. Clearly a polished and professional product, I found this hard science fiction story was very slow to develop. I was good with Tomorrow’s Kin for about 80% of the way through. I kept with things into the second volume, If Tomorrow Comes, hoping there’d be a dramatic breakthrough. The premise was interesting, but this will reward a reader looking for a somewhat subtle story who is prepared to be patient. Made it to 41%.
Smirk factor: All clear: 2 pts (1 smirk in 875 pages. Bravo!)
Immersion factor: Shallow: 1 pt
Writing quality: Above average: 1.5 pts
Character/plot development: Average: 1 pt
Innovative/interesting: Average: 1 pt
Total: 6.5/10 (3.25 stars)
Jackson Quick: The Complete Series: A Technothriller Box Set, Tom Abrahams (2022)
A bit of an excursion outside my normal comfort-reading zone, this is a contemporary “techno-thriller” involving a nefarious plot to break up the United States, garnished with a self-published space opera level of colons in the title (Why? Not asking Abrahams specifically, but in general: why? Is this really necessary?) Abrahams has assembled a generally competent series, but one that didn’t particularly delight. As with a lot of similarly-long SFF–this is 1184 pages–my sense was that it would have been better as a series of shorter, tighter stories. 17% done before un-downloading it.
Smirk factor: Overdone: 0 pts (34 “smirks” and so forth. Just way, way too many.)
Immersion factor: Shallow: 1 pt
Writing quality: Average: 1 pt
Character/plot development: Average: 1 pt
Innovative/interesting: Average: 1 pt
Total: 4/10 (2 Stars)
Throne of Glass (E-Book Bundle), Sarah J. Maas (2020)
Weighing in at 8 volumes and 4,855 pages, this is the white whale of assassin/epic fantasy YA lit. Like Ahab, I chased it for what felt like ages, only for it to do me in. I actually somewhat liked this; just not enough to overcome the enormous length. My oldest daughter on the other hand, has devoured the entire thing. Maas is good at what she does, and I totally get why this was so popular. I entirely recommend this to anyone looking for a well-crafted advanced YA series. It was unfortunately both too much volume and not complex enough to keep me going.
Smirk factor: Overdone: 0 pts (Even at its monster length, 140 “smirk” variations is too many.)
Immersion factor: Damp: 0.5 pts
Writing quality: Average: 1 pt
Character/plot development: Average: 1 pt (Celaena is a bit dense. Seriously.)
Innovative/interesting: Above average: 1.5 pts
Total: 4/10 (2 stars)