Leo > Recent Status Updates

Oh thank goodness, Hearne is back to form with storytelling and characters. After the Plague of Giants thing, I have been dragging my feet starting another one of his books. I come to Kevin for an urban magical fun lighthearted distraction from the world, PoG was not that, but thankfully this is.

Holy crap is this book dog slow to get to the point. Also, how does a Russian gangster that's involved in identity theft not know about Ransomware? Peter is one of the worst PenTester, and corporation 8675309 are filled with too many sycophants, and how is a game platform that allowed a ransomware virus to propagate through it profitable?
On the fence about finishing this book...

For a Stephenson book, it's remarkably boring this far

Oh God, I just can't. Calling it quits.

Not sure what to think of this book. There's some interesting ideas, and then there's a whole LOT of family drama. Then there's the odd behavior of government agencies. This book was published 2017, but the way characters act, it might as well have been written during COVID and the disastrous way the then "president" dealt with it. I'm going to give it another chapter or two before abandoning it; it's that boring.

Ah, so they are both in the simulation.

Is Wesley the one in the simulation?

OK, seriously. These characters are in some augmented reality. From early on in the book. Characters were having false memories of things they swore existed, but other characters around them said it didn't. Then the meta Crack Mirror play within a play. And now a company specializing in augmented reality. So the question then becomes, who is real, Penny or Johnny or neither. If this isn't a simulation, then IDK...

Are Johnny and Penny a computer simulation?

I’m not sure what I’m reading here. Chapter 1 is a long drawn out speech about how wonderful things are maintained in order, Chapter 2 is mostly about a self-centered AI that is able to project himself into 3D space via a tie clip, and project +100dB sounds over 100feet on a speaker the size of phone speaker. Yet despite all of this advance technology, the agency still got hacked.

Another lecture series for my commute.

For the love of Pete. This professor just loves himself some Dashiell Hammet. Over 5 hours into the lectures, and I’ve heard multiple ways in which David Schmid swoons over Hammet, with nearly every lecture so far referring back to the Maltese Falcon specifically, or other works by Hammet. Black detective stories, Hammet did first. Femme fatales, Bridgette from Maltese is to die for, and so on.
Hmmm…

Another lecture series for my +1 hour daily commute.

2 out of 3 completed.

Fun, light reading to start off 2025.

Another Audible selection to kill the time during my commute.

Bit concern on this one, seeing that it ends in a cliff hanger. Curious to see if story/character development has improved since book 1 in the series.

Kinda on a detective/mystery kick these days. Reading a good Craig Johnson book does that.

Fun distraction on my daily commute. Definitely a lot better than radio.

Another suggestion from the algorithms.

Who is this for? So far, there's nothing revelatory in the book, just quotes from the other works as references and call backs/forwards to other chapters. I just finish Part 1, and I lost count how many times the author mentions "See chapter # for more details." And he's been doing this since Chapter 1. Odd way to write a book.
Finding the book to be a bore, and might call it quits.

I'm throwing in the towel. Not a fan of the Bard Tales format and frankly lost track of a lot of information about who is who and where they are as it relates to the story.

Needed a break from sci-fi.

Wow, out of all the Chaney books I read so far, this is the first one I was not able to finish. The premise of the story is interesting, nothing new, but still interesting, but the storytelling was just awful. I struggled to get through the first couple of chapters, but gave up after bully Alex and his +1 broke out of the underground facility and onto the surface. Throwing the towel, just too dull of a book.

Never thought I would like this style of books, but Chaney and friends have entertained me with Backyard Spaceship. So, I figure let's see what else is out there, and there's quite a bit, most of it revolving around the Renegade Universe. A couple web links later, and I have a rough outline of all the books in the universe and in chronological order.
So, here goes.

Where's Amos when you need him? Someone needs to space JT.

Chapter 14, and we're finally back in space. Good grief, that took a while.

Man, the dialogue in this book is rough and with little plot movement, it's been a rough start. I hope things improve soon.

Holy Tangent Batman.