User Profile

Disclaimer: I am unreasonably fond of this series because part 1 ([b:Ninth House|43263680|Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1)|Leigh Bardugo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1553102141l/43263680.SY75.jpg|53348200]) pulled me out of a years-long reading slump, and holds a special place in my heart. Do not expect rational criticism.

The plot moves at a breathtaking speed, every chapter turned out to be a page-turner for me. Characters and plot lines are interwoven just the way I like it with seemingly negligible events popping up later, turning out to be relevant. It made the whole novel feel pleasantly dense, like perceiving a whole world, while we actually only follow a small handful of characters for some time.

Were some bits of "Hell Bent" slightly predictable? Did I not understand every aspect of the magic system at every point of the plot? Maybe. Do I care enough to subtract a star from my rating of this book? Definitely not.

There is a lot going on, and much of it builds on the first book of the series, which you should absolutely read before starting "Hell Bent". For me it had been a while since I read "Ninth House", so I found a summary of it before I started this book... I recommend it, because there was a lot going on in that first book, too.

By now I should know better than to start books with expectations that are too high.

I wanted to know how societies are transformed when women and girls develop strange powers that make them more, well, powerful then men. And that does play a role -- it is just presented in a way I did not enjoy.

The individual parts of this novel take place years apart and seemed disjointed to me. Some chapters consist mainly of dialogues between the protagonists, other are more action-filled, some read like reports. In some cases this could make a book feel more diverse; in this case I found it somehwat tedious to read.

Few of the characters are likable. That may be acceptable, but I also found myself not really caring too much what would happen to them. Ironically, the exception was a male protagonist, which may tell us more about me than about his book.

All in all a fascinating premise, whose execution unfortunately did not speak to me.

What a treat, this timeless classic - a sole alien envoy on a foreign planet, interstellar politics and diplomacy, survival in hostile environments both literal and figurative. What intrigued me most about this book is the gender structure of the planet we find ourselves on: The locals are ambisexual; they are genderless most of the time and for a few days of each month, they temporarily assume male or female characteristics, and only then engage in any kind of sexual behavior including procreation.

So I expected a wild ride through the sociology and politology of this planet that is different and similar to our Earth at the same time. What I got was an interesting book, certainly, but much slower-paced than I had anticipated, with much less discovery of the gender relations than I hoped. Lots of the interesting things happen "between the lines" of dialog between our protagonists, the alien envoy and his local contact/friend/counterpart. This was a bit too subtle for my mood at the time of reading, and I kept wanting more.

Another thing that bugged me was the consistent use of "he" as a pronoun for the usually genderless people of this planet - this threw me off every time it came up, and sort of ruined the whole premise for me. Fortunately this very fact is discussed in the prefaces of my edition of the book and I understand the reasoning behind it - nevertheless, decades after the book came out, I am of a different opinion.

Read this book for its qualities as a maybe not-so-timeless classic - you won't regret it.

This fun Star Trek parody with a twist was super entertaining! John Scalzi's trademark humor carries the plot even in those moments when it's not top notch, the characters are likeable and felt, to me, more refined than in [b:The Kaiju Preservation Society|57693406|The Kaiju Preservation Society|John Scalzi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1624897234l/57693406.SY75.jpg|90049719], the only other Scalzi book I had read before this one.
The solution to the problem of the mysteriously dying crew members wasn't exactly the most creative, I have to admit, but it was interesting to follow nevertheless. The second half of the book was, surprisingly, somewhat less captivating than the first.

My edition contained a foreword in which this book was praised as "almost philosophical" and overall much more intellectual than I had the impression it actually was - not sure if I missed something, or if the author of that foreword just felt fancy. It's a good book, I just didn't find it very deep.

Three short chapters make up a very interesting "epilogue" - a nice conclusion to this entertaining science fiction nerd festival of a book.

A moving story of a gay Vietnamese-American boy, this book has surely touched me. Lots of things happen (at least it felt like it), and the narration style really made me feel like I was witnessing things first hand.

However, while the very poetic language is intriguing at first, and interesting for a long time, it did distract me from what was being said in the first place. I felt like I had to assess and treasure every sentence - while I just wanted to read that book.

This book brings up a wide range of interesting topics from different parts of society, and the world in fact. Sadly, for me, this felt like lots of things were missing in the end because many themes just weren’t developed enough for my preference.

Oftentimes the narrator jumps back and forth between events and locations - certainly a decision for artistic reasons. In this book, this added to the feeling I am constantly missing something.

Overall - an intriguing book that I recommend to lovers of poetic language and a good coming-of-age story, just not quite my cup of tea.

Gripping from beginning to end, this little book took me by surprise. An old man tells us about significant events in his life, above all about that fateful day decades ago when his best friend left and his wife... yeah, whatever happened to the wife? We'll find out soon enough.

It was fascinating to dive into Austria-Hungary around and after the turn of the century, and to witness the characters' lives, strictly from the perspective of one of them. His way of telling the story makes this a personal experience, and at each step along the way I couldn't wait to see what would happen next. What is real, and what is just his version of the story? Who knew what, when?

I have a hard time putting my enthusiasm for this book into words - I recommend you pick up "Embers" ASAP to take a dive this world. I didn't regret a minute of it.

Who doesn't find octopodes intriguing? I was excited to start reading this book so I would learn more about the skills of these fascinating animals. If the focus is on their cognitive and "psychological" properties - even better.

Unfortunately, the books didn't do much for me. Besides some interesting stories and anecdotes about, well, octopodes, there are VERY long passages about diving trips, the aquarium the author visited to research, and things like the author's diving instructor's childhood, and an aquarium employee's wife's medical history. Sure, these things may be mildly interesting and have surely contributed to the author's experience - to me, in this book, they were completely unnecessary; I even found myself skipping paragraphs and pages out of boredom.

Also, if I'd had to read ONE MORE description of what it feels like when an octopus touches your arm with its tentacles, I would have cried. This must come up twenty times in the book - I'm sure it is fascinating and life-changing, but I really don't need to read about it so often.

All in all, another example of an interesting topic where a non-fiction book unfortunately didn't catch me. A magazine article would have sufficed.

A chance find at a used booksale, the cover (and discounted price) convinced me to buy this little-known graphic novel.

ART AND DRAWINGS:
Just mesmerizing, well-rounded and a joy to look at, the pictures tell a story of their own. What I liked best is that every chapter is tinted in a color of its own - violet, blue, orange, red, etc. What a great idea to show the same characters and settings in such different ways - a totally new approach to me, I loved the idea and execution.

PLOT:
Ugh, just no. Disjointed and with little cohesion, I didn't understand why things happened the way they did. Isaac Newton comes up in the beginning, but why? Drastic life changes take place without the protagonist so much as batting an eye, the supernatural coming out of the blue, and an ending that didn't convince me. Unfortunately not a match for my taste.

All in all a different rating for me, so I'll go for the middle ground of three stars. If you come across this work, don't hesitate to pick it up and enjoy the visual style. And who knows, maybe you'll enjoy the story more than I did.

More often than not, long non-fiction books tend to bore me after a bit - yes, I am very interested in the topic, but not for hundreds of pages of text. So a graphic novel version of this bestseller sounds promising - and it delivered!

The style is as conversational as I had hoped from reviews of "Sapiens" (the text version). The drawings are cute and imaginative, work well with the text without overwhelming it (or me).

Reading this volume took me longer than I had expected, but I had a great time doing it. It is worth to keep in mind that the author's hypothesis about key steps in human evolution and anthropology are all but uncontested: Maybe he is wrong. I found it more difficult to question his statements because they are so convincingly presented.

Regardless - this is a great read for anyone interested in humankind as a whole, and those who appreciate looking at pictures while reading text.