William P. > Recent Status Updates

So far, so "meh". This book, so far, is actually a detriment to the series as a whole thus far. It highlights Weber's flaws as a writer and has us sit through interminable rehashing and talking and Heinlein-ianly bad pillow talk, and just GET TO THE POINT. The man needs to stick to adventure and leave the drama to authors better suited to it.

Well, it certainly is a book about the Jam Apocalypse. It's fun thus far and If you like adventure with a side of silly, this might be your cup of tea.

I keep expecting there to be a plot in this book, and yet I never seem to find one. If it were and more vague and indirect, It'd probably disappear altogether.

You must be shitting me. I get here, 324, and then it skips back to page 261 and I don't have the end of the book. I may have to kill someone.

Vainamoinen! I squeed when he showed up, I admit it.

So, I've been reading this guy's blog for a while now because I'm interested in Buddhism in its many forms. Warner is a bit of a dick, but it's not entirely wrong for him to be a dick. He's also a very specific kind of dick and has very set boundaries about his dickishness. In the end, I wanted to read this book and so I'm reading it.

I figured "Why the #$@& not?" and got this book when it was on sale. We'll see if I learn anything.

Huh. A couple little twists I wasn't really expecting. I know why I wasn't expecting them: I read too much Dresden. Those books are FULL of little things that go back and forth through the story timeline across several (or all) the of books. A couple things that I assumed were long-term or even just color turned out to be Chekhov's Guns. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I like the direction they took.

I have to say, this book is infinitely better written than anything I could have hoped for. Lines like "Silly cops, I don't need your help. I have a werewolf on retainer." and... well, virtually everything to do with Oberon the wolfhound, make this one hell of a fun story. The narration isn't perfect, but it is excellent, which may be better.

I've been seeing this series around in stores and on Audible for a while now and I've been giving it that "Yeah, right." look each time. I gave in and bought it (it was on sale, I assure you). I like it! It's good stuff and I'm enjoying it a lot. Oberon the wolfhound is probably my favorite character in an audiobook for 2012. I'm willing to make that statement this early in the year.

Good lord a'mghty I'd forgotten just how much I love this series. I mean, I remembered that I liked it from years past, but not how much. Though the mystery is terribly obvious and I just want to thump the heroes.

Sleep now. Review later. But it was very good.

It should be no surprise to anyone that this is a book full of good writing. Though I've come up on something I've noticed elsewhere: the idea of the Phony. I've never been exactly clear on what make a Phony, and yet Thompson and other writers seem entirely confident of the term.

Okay, you know what? I'm 20 hours in and nothing of substance has happened. No one has advanced in any noticeable way since page one. Not only that, but the repeat stupidity on the part of main characters is getting really old. Most unfortunate, though, is that 90% of what we get as world development is told, not shown. It ends up feeling less like a real world and more like generic D&D. Not even Greyhawk here.

Good lord! The main character (not Chan) is so bloody thick you could use him for paving. And really? A tell-tale cigarette butt? I didn't think they still went in for those at this stage of writing.

"Hawaii's a little too much like Heaven to be altogether safe." God DAMN I love this stuff.

For those that have read the book before: I just passed scene of the ritual where Rahl goes to the Underworld. I think I was supposed to be more shocked by his actions than I was, but frankly I just wanted him to get the hell on with it. It was, however, an excellent example of a long, drawn-out, powerful sorcerous ritual. It's the sort of thing that's nearly impossible to show in any format other than a book.

Gods above I adore this stuff. I will continue my love affair with it for as long as I can manage.

By the way, "Mance Rayder"? For real? His name is a homonym for Manse Raider or perhaps we should simple call him Home Invader and be done with it.

I pretty much read this book for Tyrion. Everyone else is just scenery to me.

This is one dense book. It's good, maybe even great, but it could have done with some lower-level explanations for some of the more esoteric physics. The diagrams don't mean jack to me. Because the explanations are impenetrable, however, the book feels like an old school golden age novel like Lensmen where stuff just happens and screw physics, we have awesomeness.

So far I'm reminded of For Us The Living, with the book switching between lectures and frame story. The difference being that the frame story is interesting. It's a little strange, what with it being about aliens with morphic biology (I'm not even sure how to describe the semi-erotic sharing of an essay between two female characters that results from their strange biology) and inconsistent light speed. More soon.

... OK Mr. Koontz. You managed to keep my interested. I'd been getting kinda bored with the story, which is still very flawed, and while I was sure I was going to quit after the first file ended the story picked up and I'm interested. I'm not hooked, mind, but I will see Odd Thomas through to the end.

The over-riding sense I've had as I've been listening to this book has been "GET ON WITH IT." Seriously. Odd can spend twenty minutes jawing before he opens a damn door. I'm not kidding. Koontz spends so much time trying to lay on the tension that I'm getting bored. And it's like there are two different stories here: The story of A Day in the Life of Odd Thomas and the story of Odd Thomas Against the Fungus Man.

Holy balls is this book ever dense. There is an amazing amount of material and it's all pretty good or better thus far. The highlight, of course, was the Phillip Marlowe (retconned) story "Red Wind". I could spend the rest of my life tracking down more material by and about the authors thus far and I'm only about 1/10 of the way in. I like it.

I wasn't really sure what to expect with this one. I've seen Koontz over the years, I know of him and all that, but I've never read his work before. Listening to this one, I'm not sold yet. It's interesting and the narration is effective, but it's sloooow. Maybe that's the reading, but I'm not sure. Expositionitis is a real problem here.

It may be the nerd in me, but I'm more interested in the research-y bits than in the jungle exploration. It sounds pretty horrific in the Amazon area and I do not ever want to experience any of the hardships they went through down there.

Look. I know this is going to be awesome. I'm not listening to this as something new. I can't recall if I've ever actually read SSR, but I've read most of the other books in the series and I love Slippery Jim. I made sure I didn't hate the narrator (I really like him, in fact) and bought the audiobook on the cheap. There really wasn't a lot of thought going into the process.

At first I wasn't buying it. I wondered how on Earth the author was going to wring over 300 pages from the story he was telling in the way he seemed to be telling it. But, I will admit, that it has gotten very compelling. So far, I'm willing to give this at least four stars, maybe five.