Mike Voss > Recent Status Updates

Setting this very frustrating book aside at 37%. I'm pretty certain my disappointment is not a mood thing, and while some reviews echo my exact concerns I'll come back to it later for a fresh look. Ironically, the best line in the book is a stellar alternative to the cliched smile that never meets the eyes. I guess every book has to have *one* good line hidden in it.

Almost from the beginning this book has demonstrated bits of wry and ironic humor. To some extent they remind me of Lois McMaster Bujold's writing. But there have also been, particularly in the last hundred pages, laugh out loud moments, ranging from appreciation of particularly well executed callbacks to earlier bits to simply funny observances or occurences, some reminiscent of Book of the Ancestor moments.

"So what's the system here?"

"That depends if it was designed by librarians," Livira said. "Or by sane people."

A few things become apparent by this juncture in Lawrence's latest narrative. The first is that TBTWB will earn a place near the top of my 2023 reads, perhaps the top slot itself. The next is that several clues point to TBTWB being set in the same universe as his previous works. Finally, that TBTWB's setting won't easily be placed in the space and time of that universe. All to this reader's absolute delight!

After reading the prologue I was a bit dubious about this one. Full of the kind of dialogue that seems copied from some tired trope and doesn't even try to approach the way people, even the loftiest of highborn epic heroes, would realistically speak. Thankfully this seems to have been a deliberate contrast to what follows, some of the most carefully crafted words I've seen in a self pubbed work. Big thumbs up so far!

Almost a third of the way in, this one's putting the "packed" in action-packed! Quickly shaping up to be my favorite Konkoly book and maybe series - and I *loved* parts of Black Flagged!

Lots of cool plot points coming together now. This one is shaping up to be on par with Black Flagged after all!

Konkoly's Ryan Decker series isn't as good as his recently completed Black Flagged series, but makes for a good break between my favored sf & fantasy - in this case between daily chunks of Malazan #8, Toll the Hounds. The Raid takes a couple of chapters to get to the mc's in order to set up the obligatory govt conspiracy that complicates things for Decker and company, but takes off nicely from there.

Almost 150pp in this has been hit and miss for me. Some scenes and sequences are 5* hot, nearly as many leave me cold. Admittedly, those with new or less familiar characters are proving hard to get into, so maybe it's just that I favor known characters and arcs. Could just be a mood thing, too, real life is intruding more than usual. Doing some reading in an old Tor readalong to stay focused, seems to help.

This is an excellent work of nonfiction detailing the exploration of the United States telephone system by hackers both curious and malicious, much as Steven Levy did for computers with his book HACKERS (which included the adventures of the so-called Phone Phreaks, in less detail). Not even halfway through and I've begun writing my review!

For some reason this was slow going for me initially. After a two-day hiatus to finish another book, and nearly 100 pp today, I'm fully invested and things are heating up in the odd city of Audec-Hal!

When I first took note of this, Django Wexler's first published novel, copies were prohibitively expensive. Same for his second, Shinigami. Fortunately, prices came down and I picked up both without burning a hole in my wallet. Happy I did, since Wexler indicated via an online Q&A that there are no firm plans to bring them back into print or as ebooks. As much as I'm enjoying this one, that seems a shame.