Baseball analogies in fantasy? NOPE

I feel for the main characters, but I still want to punch all the adults, so I'm bailing on the series for my own calm. Which stinks because I really wanted to like this.

I'm about a quarter of the way through, and I want to punch all of the adults. I suspect this is actually a selling point for the target age group.

Different narrator than Magyk. They're both fine, but voice some characters very differently. In Marcia's case this is a very good thing - I'm not sure how much more of her I could have handled.

Not bad. Kindof annoying being able to easily identify the inspirations for several characters. I'm interested enough to keep checking these out from the library, but probably wouldn't buy them.

I have the distinct feeling I'm going to be devouring this entire series.

Fortunately, it looks like my library has the whole thing. Mwahahahah

This was a delightful piece of candy reading. I expect I shall shortly devour the rest of the series.

Side note: agree with others that this isn't for the squeamish. I may never look at fast food the same again.

The plot is one that has been recycled many times since. But here it gets the usual Heinlein treatment of emphasizing tolerance towards diverse groups, and utter and complete failure if the protagonist wasn't backed up by a brilliant and talented woman (but with her support he not only rises to the occasion, but does better than anyone, least of all he, could expect).

Also, darn good narrator.

This was really awkward to read as many of the events overlapped with Fleet of Worlds, which wouldn't be so bad by itself if all the POVs were different characters, but since we still get Nessus POV it is disorienting.

It eventually manages to go past Fleet of Worlds and bring the story forward, and it is good to learn about things referenced.

Other than the weird timeline, good continuation of the story.

This one grabbed me and wouldn't let me go. Loved the protagonist, loved the setting, narrator did a wonderful job, and I'm now hungry for żurek.

After seeing comments about the ending I braced myself, but found that was unnecessary. I thought it was nicely wrapped up while leaving the door open for further adventures/fanfic, and was happier than I expect of Slavic tales.

I may have had a hard time falling asleep last night because I *really* wanted to know what happened next and I couldn't just let the story wash over me.

That's what I get for letting myself listen to something I haven't read before at bedtime...

Now that I'm a bit better read than when I first read this, I got way more of the references! Yay!

I had totally forgotten these particular self-referential bits! Or maybe I honestly didn't know them because I hadn't read enough of the rest of his work at the time? It isn't like I read things in anything resembling a proper order, given I was just grabbing what I could from second-hand book shops.

Listening to Gaiman narrate this is like sitting at the feet of a favorite storytelling uncle. He tells the myths in such a manner that you can retell them - he acts out the characters, instead of giving you dry histories.

I get the feeling that *this* is what the bardic tradition was about.

Read this some years ago. Now that I've read some Burroughs it is making much more sense.

Also: right. *This* is why some people think of Heinlein as being misogynistic. I disagree, but see where they're coming from.

Re-listened to this now that I know a sequel is coming. I didn't know the thing about the protagonist on my first listen, so I really put effort into figuring out my biases (shaped by which version Audible threw at me before I knew there were multiple) and found that Scalzi really did a good job of making it all about your biases.

The novella at the end is pretty neat, too.

This was a very good effort at making Buddhism relatable - more about how you approach life than how you execute ceremonies.

I think the part that will stick with me the most is the bit at the end, about the tea and the teacup. That really matches my feelings about different religions/practices.

Short, sweet, humorous, and gets the point across brilliantly.

I came to this book after it being mentioned in a conference talk. I am quite glad I did. Like, I should probably grab a print version to better use as reference and mark up and stuff, because referencing audiobooks sucks.

Oh. This is why everyone I trust recommends this series.

Narrator isn't thrilling, but is perfectly good. You can stream it free right now if you have Audible and Amazon :)

More candy reading!

The familial connections... that was a serious gut punch.

I definitely would not mind spending some more time with these characters, but this wrapped up everything neatly enough that I won't be upset if I can't.

Yes, let me just read a few chapters before going to bed. I'm sure I can totally put this down and go to bed on time, unlike what happened with the first book in the series...

...she says before coming up for air 12 chapters later...

More excellent candy reading. And I really appreciate the effort in getting the effects of her service correct.

So very highly recommend this. Explains soooo much, good and bad, about how we got where we are as a society. Including the mentality shift needed.

I really enjoyed the amount of detail on the mechanics of things - not everything in 'steampunk' can actually be steam-powered after all; sometimes it is springs, or gears. That was pretty neat.

The pace of things felt a little weird - wasn't sure why it wasn't until they did that anyone tried to clean up the mess. But, overall, easy to read story.

Well, already finished it. Delightful piece of UF candy. Characters I love, feel for, and totally understand. Lex being exactly what she ends up being has a bit of a 'chosen one' feel, but not enough to ruin the mood.

Mostly, I just want to find out what happens next!

Let me just read the first chapter or two...

*8 chapters later* ...oops. Well, this bodes well for the quality of this book?

A few of the military references are just wrong enough to make me twitchy, but at least not wrong enough to completely bounce me out.

OMG OMG OMG now I understand why people I trust have been raving about this book!

We've got a protagonist who ain't educated, ain't concerned with quality of language, and kicks butt for a living. And then things get weird.

I was convinced to give this a try when protag was described as being not girly enough to be one of the girls, but not a guy, so not one of the guys, and I thought "it me!" So glad I read this, and hope for more.

*so* much shade being thrown at Baby Boomers. But explaining why! And the whole difference between leadership and management discussion... highly relevant right now.

I am super-loving this book.

Special note for audiobook: the narrator is *really* easy to fall asleep to. He's perfectly good, just not exciting.

There was a forward that talked about Clarke not being big on character development. Yep. The people are most def just there to walk you through the big sweeping questions of the book. Which were really interesting! But... not *exciting*.

With those caveats, this is a great piece of SF.

The ending. Oh man. What a way to be subversive.

It may have been a side effect of the fact that the narrator didn't thrill me (he was good, just not terribly engaging) but I really got a sense of the protagonist never really planning, but just moving from crisis to crisis. Which worked, but I wasn't nuts about.

Sooo, I didn't know this existed until I saw some bits of the in-progress (at the time) sequel on Lilith's Patreon. So I had to go dig this up. And promptly devoured it in a day. Oops?

Love the fact that the protagonist is complete in herself, but still has room to grow. As do many of us.

Ah, now I see why everyone was raving about this book! A delightfully silly, dark, fun ride.

The only quibble I have (and I'm not sure if this is editorial oversight or supposed to show this isn't our world): the Titanic went the other direction. This wasn't a major plot point, but it was a large enough thing to bounce me out of the story for a bit.

The tropes just keep coming. Asher is clearly trying to flip many of them, but you're smacked upside the head with them instead of being organically part of the plot.

Throughout this series there have been some interesting plot points, and I *do* want to know what happens... but the writing feels a bit amateurish. Which is sad, because I really want to like this!

I finally had to bail on this. I've never really practiced any religion, and even I want to smack the characters for not realizing what they're doing. I just bear to watch this train wreck in slow motion.

Of *course* Damian hooks up with the fairy girl who likes wearing next to nothing. How obvious can it be this was written by a man? Really brings the fact that Sam went for balding, pot-bellied Frank into contrast.

Other'n that, more fairly unremarkable UF.

Not bad. Reasonable fluff. Narrator's pretty good.

There was a point where the two male characters were worried about how it would reflect on her to bring a female with them on a road trip. She replies that there is no helping the reputation of a woman that lives by herself - *everyone* of all genders thinks she must be doing wrong.

It is incredibly frustrating that this hasn't changed much.

Collection of several shorter works. It's your basic Heinlein, examining what it is to be human, to be superhuman, and to take care of humanity in a time of looming darkness.

So, your basic Heinlein. Some of the portrayal of gender can be frustrating, but he was still pretty progressive given the time he lived in. And some things just haven't changed (more to follow).

So much truth!

Yes, outhouses at -30 *sucks* (okay, so I've never used an outhouse at that temp. I just had to use the woods).

Just got through the chapter on failure. This is really applicable outside of writing as well. Actually, much of this is applicable outside of writing.

Amazing book, classic, has many lessons we apparently have yet to learn...

The audiobook is weird. It has a cast, but they're not always used. So you sometimes get the individual, but you sometimes get the narrator's interpretation of the character, which often has a completely different accent. Very weird.

Just got to one of the pre-chapter bits about how Paul was largely able to adapt so quickly because he had learned how to learn. Which starts with believing you *can* learn.

Whoah. So true. I've seen so many people who don't even try to learn something new because they think they can't. But once that is overcome, they quickly excel.

Once again, conveying truth without worrying about pesky facts is the strength of fiction.

I've read this before in dead tree, but went with audio this time. Narrator was good, but not really exciting.

In Heinlein fashion, the underlying physics makes a lot of sense, but this isn't a story about physics; it is about the people. And you really start caring for the people. Especially when tragedy strikes.

The ending comes off as Deus ex machina- something to quickly wrap up the plot in a nice, neat package. Feels chopped off.

I did this in audio version. The narrated was not exciting, but perfectly adequate. Did a good job of capturing the unsophisticated nature of the characters.

Very interesting setup (though I'm mildly annoyed the summary gives it away instead of letting you discover what's going on).

The way the plot resolved feels a bit like a cautionary tale for today - that people in power will ignore inconvenient scientific truths.

Like many others, I picked this up while it was free on Audible.

The story is *excellent*. The narration is pretty darn good (there's a couple spots where I had a hard time telling what voice was being used, but they were few). And the examination of "right" in certain citations was interesting without getting preachy.

Aaaaaand a perfectly satisfying end to the series. Really not much more I can say at this point.

Oh man, that has to be one of the more dramatic "serving divorce papers" scenes ever written. *snickers*

Tavi's Carne name... bwahahahaahah!

Audio editing issues aside, another great volume. I'm sooo ready to see where this ends up, but don't really want it to end.

On to the final chapter!

There are some definite editing issues with the audio - I'm not sure if I'm missing things or not. :/

I may have been cackling during "the talk". Kitai is *awesome*.

Really, if you've gotten this far in the series there isn't too much for me to say. Other than that the politics feels a little too real right now.