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diazona's reviews
82 reviews
Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Torture
Minor: Death, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, War
The Path of Daggers by Robert Jordan
adventurous
challenging
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Death, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Physical abuse, Slavery, Blood, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
One Poison Pie by Lynn Cahoon
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I'd heard good things about this book (and series) from a few people, so I had high hopes, but as it turned out it was really not the kind of book I wanted to find. It felt like a romance novel first with a murder mystery subplot bolted on, whereas I would have preferred the other way around. There are quite a few snippets of conversation and minor events that are entirely irrelevant to the mystery plot - most notably including the "kitchen magic" referenced in the series title, which has almost no meaningful effect on the story and is never really that well explained.
The book wasn't bad, and I'm sure there are a lot of other people who would like it much better, but it's not for me.
The book wasn't bad, and I'm sure there are a lot of other people who would like it much better, but it's not for me.
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Gun violence, Murder
A Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Minor: Confinement, Death, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual harassment, War
Blue Team Diaries by Mike Sheward
informative
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
I did not expect to read this book in one day, but once I started, I could barely put it down! Each of the five short stories contained in this book describes an information security incident with the intensity of an action thriller - even though they eschew the typical action tropes of spies, assassins, and international conspiracies in favor of network engineers and executive meetings. Props to the author for pulling that one off.
I will admit, though, I'm probably precisely in the target audience to enjoy this book: someone technical enough to be roughly familiar with how an information security team might operate, but not so deeply involved in it that I feel like I'm just reading about my job. It may be a bit of a niche audience that this book caters to. But that won't stop me from recommending it to anyone who's even the least bit curious about this stuff. It can be really fascinating to see what sorts of cybersecurity threats are out there and how the professionals respond to them.
As a side note, I noticed a few instances where the book could have used better proofreading, but it's nothing serious enough to take away from the enjoyment of the stories.
I will admit, though, I'm probably precisely in the target audience to enjoy this book: someone technical enough to be roughly familiar with how an information security team might operate, but not so deeply involved in it that I feel like I'm just reading about my job. It may be a bit of a niche audience that this book caters to. But that won't stop me from recommending it to anyone who's even the least bit curious about this stuff. It can be really fascinating to see what sorts of cybersecurity threats are out there and how the professionals respond to them.
As a side note, I noticed a few instances where the book could have used better proofreading, but it's nothing serious enough to take away from the enjoyment of the stories.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Misogyny, Pedophilia, Stalking
One of the stories centers around the discovery of some child pornography on a computer. There's a prominent warning about this printed in the book before the story starts. Of course, the story doesn't give any details about the pornographic content itself. But it does describe the traumatic effect that seeing it has on some of the characters.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
adventurous
funny
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
I thought this was a fantastic story that lives up to all the hype! It started off with a rather uncomfortable scene, but it was all uphill from there; it didn't take me long at all to get invested in the plot and start relating to the main character. The book made very effective use of frequent flashbacks, essentially setting up two parallel storylines, one in the present and one in the past; as a reader, you can feel some of the uncertainty that the main character is experiencing as he tries to recover his memories, and as he does so, you get the same flashes of excitement when you (as the reader) make connections between details in his flashbacks and things that were mentioned earlier in the book. I also really appreciated the attention to detail; even the measurements and calculations are almost entirely consistent with real-world physics.
I especially thought the part where the main character and his alien buddy are learning to communicate and work with each other was quite well thought out - not 100% realistic, I'm sure, but definitely much more plausible than how that topic is usually treated in scifi.
This is taking its place as one of my favorite scifi novels.
This is taking its place as one of my favorite scifi novels.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Confinement, Grief
The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
The continuing adventures of Rand, Mat, Perrin, and friends (or, "friends") start to get rather complicated in this book. It's the part of the fantasy epic where the party splits up and there are multiple storylines to follow; I think at one point it switches among six different point-of-view characters, each in a different part of the world. So it's certainly not the easiest story to follow.
But I think it's worth the effort, especially for a reader who likes richly detailed worldbuilding (as I do). For all the complexity, the different storylines do all tie in to the overall plot of the series, and it's not at all hard to get swept up in the grandeur of the quest that the protagonists are on. Plus, the different plot lines do all reference the common mythology, and they converge back together by the climax of the book. As long as you have some patience, it doesn't feel like you're being led off on irrelevant tangents.
Maybe I like this book more than I "should". But what can I say, it's exactly the sort of thing that appeals to me: a richly detailed and self-consistent world (within reason, it is fantasy after all) and a compelling plot. Ultimately what matters is that I'm happy to have read it and I'm excited to get cracking on the next book!
But I think it's worth the effort, especially for a reader who likes richly detailed worldbuilding (as I do). For all the complexity, the different storylines do all tie in to the overall plot of the series, and it's not at all hard to get swept up in the grandeur of the quest that the protagonists are on. Plus, the different plot lines do all reference the common mythology, and they converge back together by the climax of the book. As long as you have some patience, it doesn't feel like you're being led off on irrelevant tangents.
Maybe I like this book more than I "should". But what can I say, it's exactly the sort of thing that appeals to me: a richly detailed and self-consistent world (within reason, it is fantasy after all) and a compelling plot. Ultimately what matters is that I'm happy to have read it and I'm excited to get cracking on the next book!
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
The President Is Missing by Bill Clinton, James Patterson
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
The promise of this book is a well-crafted thriller with a compelling mystery, with the pedigree of probably the best-selling author of the genre (James Patterson), injected with insights and details about politics and the US government from an actual former president (Bill Clinton). And it more or less delivers on that. It's just a pretty standard example of the genre. The story is complex but internally consistent, so that as you read you feel like you can unravel the mystery along with the fictional President Duncan (the main character), and it keeps the action going all the way to the end. I enjoyed this book and I think it's a good read if you like these kinds of stories, but it's not going on my list of favorites.
I guess my main "complaint", if one can call it that, is that the plot is extremely compressed and pretty intense all the way through... which is completely typical of this genre of writing, to be fair, but more realistically I would expect events like the ones in the book to develop over a longer time. Having some downtime for the characters to dwell on the uncertainty without being able to do anything about it would enhance the story, in my opinion. The other thing is that some of the technical aspects of the plot don't quite make sense. I'm not sure if that only sticks out to me because I work in software; perhaps it won't be a concern for most readers, but for me it made the climactic scenes hard to take seriously.
I guess my main "complaint", if one can call it that, is that the plot is extremely compressed and pretty intense all the way through... which is completely typical of this genre of writing, to be fair, but more realistically I would expect events like the ones in the book to develop over a longer time. Having some downtime for the characters to dwell on the uncertainty without being able to do anything about it would enhance the story, in my opinion. The other thing is that some of the technical aspects of the plot don't quite make sense. I'm not sure if that only sticks out to me because I work in software; perhaps it won't be a concern for most readers, but for me it made the climactic scenes hard to take seriously.
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Grief, Car accident
The Computer Heist by Michael P. King
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I really wanted to like this book for about the first chapter and a half. Then I didn't anymore. As the story progressed, almost every character got connected to the web of manipulation and dishonest behavior that forms the central plot of the book, and I just lost all respect for them and stopped caring. I'm deliberately not saying "drawn in to the web" because these characters brought it on themselves. There's not a redeemable one in the bunch. (Okay that's not exactly true, but certainly nobody I felt inspired to root for.) By the end, some of them get some form of justice, some of them don't, and we never find out what happened to others; fortunately, that didn't bother me because of the aforementioned lack of caring.
On top of that, the writing style did not do anything to inspire an emotional response for me. It felt like reading a dry technical report. We know what kind of clothes everyone is wearing in every scene, we know what color the walls are and what the layout of the software company's office is, we know what kind of gemstones are in jewelry the women keep on top of their dressers. And I wouldn't necessarily mind all of that, but what I do mind is that we don't know what thoughts are going through their head or how they feel. There's a lot of danger and suspense in this story and it just doesn't come through in the writing.
I think the kind of person who likes gritty film noir might appreciate this book more, but that's not me.
On top of that, the writing style did not do anything to inspire an emotional response for me. It felt like reading a dry technical report. We know what kind of clothes everyone is wearing in every scene, we know what color the walls are and what the layout of the software company's office is, we know what kind of gemstones are in jewelry the women keep on top of their dressers. And I wouldn't necessarily mind all of that, but what I do mind is that we don't know what thoughts are going through their head or how they feel. There's a lot of danger and suspense in this story and it just doesn't come through in the writing.
I think the kind of person who likes gritty film noir might appreciate this book more, but that's not me.
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual content