Category: Books

I bought this audiobook from Audible.com and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

I am not sure why I purchased this book, on the surface it sounds like a book I would enjoy, I guess…

I think if I had read it as a paperback I picked up from somewhere I may have enjoyed it much more, but as an audio book it just didn’t work for me.

The narration by MacLeod Andrews is full of character, maybe too much character. I found his speech patterns and accent distracting and interesting at the same time. It just never clicked for me, I was distracted enough that I never got into the story.

The story itself is pretty good, the plot is anyways, the details are kind of boring though…

From the publisher:

When he was 19, James Stark was considered to be one of the greatest natural magicians, a reputation that got him demon-snatched and sent downtown – to Hell – where he survived as a gladiator, a sideshow freak entertaining Satan’s fallen angels.

That was 11 years ago. Now, the hitman who goes only by Stark has escaped and is back in L.A. Armed with a fortune-telling coin, a black bone knife, and an infernal key, Stark is determined to destroy the magic circle – led by the conniving and powerful Mason Faim – that stole his life.

Though nearly everything has changed, one constant remains: his friend Vidocq, a 200-year-old Frenchman who has been keeping vigil for the young magician’s return. But when Stark’s first stop saddles him with an abusive talking head that belongs to the first of the circle, a sleazy video store owner named Kasabian, Stark discovers that the road to absolution and revenge is much longer than he counted on, and both Heaven and Hell have their own ideas for his future.

©2009 Richard Kadrey; (P)2009 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

I rate this book a 5 out of 10 and recommend it only to those who have run out of other books to read.

I bought this audiobook from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone, but it looks like Audible is no longer selling it.

METAtropolis is a collection of stories from multiple authors set in the same universe that they agreed upon before writing. It is a fine idea, but most of the stories are kind of a bore.

John Scalzi and Michael Hogan were the big draw for me, I love those guys, and they both did a fine job for their part, but the book as a whole does not pay off.

My favorite story is John Scalzi’s "Utere Nihil non Extra Quiritationem Suis" which means something like "Everything but the Squeal" which is about being a slacker and a pig farmer. The rest of the stories spend way to much time explaining everything, sometime in painful and useless detail.

From the publisher:

Five original tales set in a shared urban future—from some of the hottest young writers in modern SF

A strange man comes to an even stranger encampment…a bouncer becomes the linchpin of an unexpected urban movement…a courier on the run has to decide who to trust in a dangerous city…a slacker in a "zero-footprint" town gets a most unusual new job…and a weapons investigator uses his skills to discover a metropolis hidden right in front of his eyes.

Welcome to the future of cities. Welcome to Metatropolis.

More than an anthology, Metatropolis is the brainchild of five of science fiction’s hottest writers—Elizabeth Bear, Tobias Buckell, Jay Lake, Karl Schroeder, and project editor John Scalzi—-who combined their talents to build a new urban future, and then wrote their own stories in this collectively-constructed world. The results are individual glimpses of a shared vision, and a reading experience unlike any you’ve had before.

I rate this book a 4 out of 10 while the one story, John Scalzi’s "Utere Nihil non Extra Quiritationem Suis", is a 9 out of 10. I recommend only if you have run out of other things to read.

I bought this hardcover book used from the Book Nook in Marietta Georgia.

I loved Dirty Jobs so much that I keep hoping that Christopher Moore’s other books would be as good, but sadly the ones I have read are not. Don’t get me wrong, this book is OK, I enjoyed it overall, although some of the narration in supposed gothy-teenage slang really got on my nerves, the story itself is solid.

But it just didn’t have the zing or depth of Dirty Jobs.

From the publisher:

The city of San Francisco is being stalked by a huge shaved vampyre cat named Chet, and only I, Abby Normal, and my manga-haired love monkey stand between the ravenous monster and a bloody massacre of the general public.

Whoa. And this is a love story?

Yup. ‘Cept there’s no whining. But there is everybody’s favorite undead couple, Tommy and Jody, who’ve just escaped from imprisonment in a bronze statue. And now that they’re out they’ve joined forces with Abby, her boyfriend Steve, the frozen-turkey-bowling Safeway crew, the Emperor of San Francisco and his trusty dogs Lazarus and Bummer, gay Goth guy Jared, and SF’s finest Cavuto and Rivera to hunt big cat and save the city. Really.

I rate this book a 6 out of 10 and recommend it to Christopher Moore fans.

I bought this book from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

So this is the last Paolo Bacigalupi book I will be reading/listening to for a long while. I liked Windup Girl but everything else has not excited me, and this book is no exception.

If you have read Windup Girl you have already read one of the best stories in this book, go read Windup Girl instead of this one.

From the publisher:

Paolo Bacigalupi’s debut collection demonstrates the power and reach of the science-fiction short story. Social criticism, political parable, and environmental advocacy lie at the center of Paolo’s work. Each of the stories herein is at once a warning and a celebration of the tragic comedy of the human experience.

The 11 stories in Pump Six represent the best of Paolo’s work, including the Hugo nominee "Yellow Card Man", the Nebula-and Hugo-nominated story "The People of Sand and Slag", and the Sturgeon Award-winning story "The Calorie Man". The title story is original to this collection.

With this book, Paolo Bacigalupi takes his place alongside SF short-fiction masters Ted Chiang, Kelly Link and others, as an important young writer that directly and unabashedly tackles today’s most important issues.

©2010 Paolo Bacigalupi (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

I rate this book a 5 out of 10 and only recommend it to Bacigalupi fans.

I bought this audiobook on a sale at Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

Dutch is an angry story about an angry young black man from an angry place. Not being an angry young black man myself this book misses the mark for me. It does not speak to me and was not meant to.

This is not a mainstream story targeted at a widespread audience, but is targeted squarely at an urban teen African American audience, whether that was the author’s intention or not. As a movie it would probably have wider appeal.

It is well written and if you like stories about angry young black men getting over on the system at the cost of other people’s lives, usually the lives of other young black men, then you will enjoy this story.

The performance by Ezra Knight is very good, I hope to hear more from him.

From the publisher:

Teri Woods has built a considerable literary legacy thanks to her compelling urban novels. The first volume of a trilogy, Dutch follows the criminal career of street hood James Bernard Jr., a.k.a. Dutch.

Even while stealing cars, Dutch knew he was destined for more, and it wasn’t long before he saw his chance to seize power in New Jersey. Now a Jersey kingpin, Dutch is coming under fire from an upstart DA—but it won’t be easy to take down this streetwise criminal.

&copy2003, 2009 Teri Woods (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC

My rating is a 5 out of 10 and think African American teens would rate it much higher.

I bought this audiobook from Audible and listened to it on my iPhone using the Audible app.

I absolutely love Neil Gaiman and can’t get enough of his stories, not only did he write this one but he also narrates it. I really enjoy hearing stories as read by their author. The author is able to put more inflection and emotion into the characters than any other narrator could and Neil Gaiman is a fantastic narrator.

While listening to this book I went out of my way to find opportunities to listen to it. I don’t think I can give any audiobook a higher compliment.

From the publisher:

Sussex, England: A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. He is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock. He hasn’t thought of Lettie in decades, and yet sitting by the pond (a pond that she’d claimed was an ocean), the unremembered past comes flooding back. Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie – magical, comforting, wise beyond her years – promised to protect him, no matter what.

A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. A stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly’s wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.

©2013 Neil Gaiman (P)2013 HarperCollinsPublishers

I rate this book a 9 out of 10 and recommend it to anyone!

I bought this audiobook from Audible and listened to it on my iPhone using the Audible app.

This is book 2 in the Shipbreaker series, the first being "Shipbreaker".

I did not really get into Shipbreaker, but I did like some of the characters enough to give the second book a try. The half-man Tool was my favorite character in the first book and it was great getting so much time with him in Drowned Cities.

But again, this story didn’t really draw me in. Mahlia and Mouse are very good characters, and their stories are compelling, but… I don’t know, just not for me I guess.

Joshua Swanson delivers another wonderful performance bringing the characters to life. I can’t point at the narration for my feelings about this book.

From the publisher:

Soldier boys emerged from the darkness. Guns gleamed dully. Bullet bandoliers and scars draped their bare chests. Ugly brands scored their faces. She knew why these soldier boys had come. She knew what they sought, and she knew, too, that if they found it, her best friend would surely die.
In a dark future America where violence, terror, and grief touch everyone, young refugees Mahlia and Mouse have managed to leave behind the war-torn lands of the Drowned Cities by escaping into the jungle outskirts. But when they discover a wounded half-man – a bioengineered war beast named Tool – who is being hunted by a vengeful band of soldiers, their fragile existence quickly collapses. One is taken prisoner by merciless soldier boys, and the other is faced with an impossible decision: Risk everything to save a friend, or flee to a place where freedom might finally be possible.

This thrilling companion to Paolo Bacigalupi’s highly acclaimed Ship Breaker is a haunting and powerful story of loyalty, survival, and heart-pounding adventure.
Apocalypse now: also listen to Ship Breaker.

©2012 Paolo Bacigalupi (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

I rate this book a 6 out of 10 and recommend it to fans of Paolo Bacigalupi.

I bought this audiobook from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

I really enjoyed Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi and decided to give his other books a try.

This book is a solid story. The pacing is good; the characters have clear motivations and believable emotions. But meh…

I’m not sure why but this book just didn’t reach me. It is very post-cyberpunk, I should like it a lot, but I don’t. I like it some, just not a lot.

Joshua Swanson does a great job narrating the story, he does bring the characters to life and does a great job conveying their emotions.

From the publisher:

In America’s Gulf Coast region, where grounded oil tankers are being broken down for parts, Nailer, a teenage boy, works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make quota – and hopefully live to see another day. But when, by luck or chance, he discovers an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, Nailer faces the most important decision of his life: Strip the ship for all it’s worth or rescue its lone survivor, a beautiful and wealthy girl who could lead him to a better life.

In this powerful novel, award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi delivers a thrilling, fast-paced adventure set in a vivid and raw, uncertain future.
©2010 Paolo Bacigalupi (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

I rate this book a 6 out of 10 and only recommend to fans of Paolo Bacigalupi.

I bought this signed hardback from Powell’s Book Store in Portland Oregon.

I have been hearing a lot about this book from every direction. Audible, Amazon, and a lot of friends have pushed it at me. But I wasn’t impressed by any of them; most of the time when a writer is unable to get a story published it is for a good reason. Wool is an exception, at least the story as a whole is, I am not sure I would have made it much past the first section of the book if I had to wait for the next section to come out. I want to say a big thanks to all of the people that encouraged Hugh Howey to keep writing.

I enjoyed reading Wool, enough so that I stayed up all night reading it.

The entire time I was reading Wool I couldn’t stop thinking about the "Fallout" series of video games. In Fallout the player begins in a "Vault" which is like the Silo in Wool, the similarity is impossible to ignore if you have played the game.

It was not a book that blew me away. I really enjoyed it, but it didn’t have a lot of "WOW" factor. Nothing that got me really excited.

From the publisher:

In a ruined and toxic landscape, a community exists in a giant silo underground, hundreds of stories deep. There, men and women live in a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them. Sheriff Holston, who has unwaveringly upheld the silo’s rules for years, unexpectedly breaks the greatest taboo of all: He asks to go outside.

His fateful decision unleashes a drastic series of events. An unlikely candidate is appointed to replace him: Juliette, a mechanic with no training in law, whose special knack is fixing machines. Now Juliette is about to be entrusted with fixing her silo, and she will soon learn just how badly her world is broken. The silo is about to confront what its history has only hinted about and its inhabitants have never dared to whisper. Uprising.

I rate this book an 8 out of 10 and recommend it to anyone looking for a solid science-fiction apocalypse story.

I am not sure where I bought this hardback book, probably Amazon or Barnes & Noble. I read it here and there over a couple of months, it took awhile between everything else that has been going on.

Wetworld features 2 of my favorite characters, David Tennant as the 10th Doctor and Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones.

The story itself is really cookie-cutter. The companion wants to go some where/some when, the Doctor agrees while totally misinterpreting the where and when, and the TARDIS takes them to someplace that neither one of them expects. Something is wrong endangering the locals of where they land. The companion gets in trouble, the Doctor runs around acting manic, and with the help of the locals everything gets straightened out.

But I still enjoy reading these stories, especially the Dave Tennant stories. If you like Doctor Who novels, this one will not disappoint.

From the publisher:

When the TARDIS makes a disastrous landing in the swamps of the planet Sunday, the Doctor has no choice but to abandon Martha and try to find help. But the tranquillity of Sunday’s swamps is deceptive, and even the TARDIS can’t protect Martha forever.

The human pioneers of Sunday have their own dangers to face: homeless and alone, they’re only just starting to realise that Sunday’s wildlife isn’t as harmless as it first seems. Why are the native otters behaving so strangely, and what is the creature in the swamps that is so interested in the humans, and the new arrivals?

The Doctor and Martha must fight to ensure that human intelligence doesn’t become the greatest danger of all.

Featuring the Tenth Doctor and Martha as played by David Tennant and Freema Agyeman in the hit Doctor Who series from BBC Television.

I rate this book an 8 out of 10 and recommend it to any fans of Doctor Who.

I bought this audiobook from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

With such high ratings and the endorsement from Neil Gaiman, how could I pass this one up.

I am not sure why, but this book just didn’t work for me. It started out with many small technical problems with the audio, small chirps and crackling, that really distracted me. But even after those issues went away later in the book I still just couldn’t get into it.

The lead character, Tom Carmody, never appealed to me… The book just feels pretentious to me with all the armchair philosophy, puns, and forced wordplay. I can see how this book would be viewed as a precursor to Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker series, but Mr. Adams was able to do it without pretension, he did it in a way that made it feel natural in a way I do not feel like this book does.

John Hodgman does a good job narrating the book, but it is hard for me to judge as I never could get really involved with the storyline.

I really respect Neil Gaiman and Audible for making audiobooks like this one of stories and authors that many of us have never heard of and look forward to many more of them.

From the publisher:

Award-winning author, narrator, and screenwriter Neil Gaiman personally selected this book, and, using the tools of the Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX), produced this work for his audiobook label, Neil Gaiman Presents.

A few words from Neil on Dimension of Miracles: “Dimension of Miracles is probably not [Sheckley’s] most famous book…. but I think it’s probably his best-loved book. It’s about the joys and tribulations (mostly the tribulations) of winning the lottery—the galactic lottery—accidentally. And wrongly. Tom Carmody is awarded a remarkable prize, is taken half way across the universe to collect it, finds himself hopelessly lost, and needs to find his way home again to Earth…to this Earth, not an alternate, weirdo Earth. He’s got to get back. And the price is high.

In its style of humor—and even in some of the jokes—Dimension of Miracles is very obviously a precursor of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Douglas actually hadn’t read Dimension of Miracles until very shortly after Hitchhiker came out, when people pointed him to it, and he told me that he found the experience almost shocking—it was like reading himself. He was a huge admirer of Bob Sheckley and a huge admirer of this book, and in later life, I had the privilege of introducing both of them.

Now the challenge for me with a book this funny, this strange, this perceptive was to try and find a narrator who was as iconic, somebody who could deliver the goods, somebody who could give you a book like this as it deserved to be given. And the first, and the last, and actually the only person to come to mind was John Hodgman. So I asked John, and he said yes! And he did it; he pulled it off. Listening to John—not just the suave, sensible, sane narrator of this book, but all the peculiar accents and incarnations that he is forced to adopt through here—he does it delightfully, he does it brilliantly, he’s really, really funny. And so is this book. Enjoy your journey through a Dimension of Miracles.”

Dimension of Miracles is a satirical science fiction novel first published by Dell in 1968. It’s about Tom Carmody, a New Yorker who, thanks to a computer error, wins the main prize in the Intergalactic Sweepstakes. Tom claims his prize before the error is discovered and is allowed to keep it. However, since Tom is a human from Earth without galactic status and no space traveling experience, he has no homing instinct that can guide him back to Earth once his odyssey begins – and the galactic lottery organizers cannot transport him home. Meanwhile, his removal from Earth has caused a predatory entity to spring into existence – one that pursues and aims to destroy him. Carmody is on the run, and he ends up transporting from Earth to Earth – different phases and realities of the planet, which of course is not the time or condition he expects.

&copy1968 Robert Sheckley (P)2013 Robert Sheckley

I rate this book a 5 out 10, it just didn’t work for me.