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josiahdegraaf's reviews
1185 reviews
The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Timothy Keller
4.0
Keller does an amazing job of carefully building his arguments on lots of evidence, quoting at length several different philosophers and thinkers--both modern and classical. Keller does a great job in going straight for the real issue at hand, and showing multiple reasons for why different arguments against God don't really work in the end. I enjoyed his arguments, learned some new ones that I hadn't heard before, and while I didn't agree with all of them, definitely appreciated them. In particular, his argument for the necessity of the cross (based on the pain of forgiveness), while not the primary argument I would go to, revealed a very fascinating dimension of Christ's work that I hadn't considered before.
In addition, the application of his arguments is very much to the modern audience. While I do very much enjoy older apologetic works, such as Mere Christianity, Keller does an excellent job of relating it to the problems that modern readers might face. All of his quotes from people that he's personally talked to in his congregation make it feel all the more fresh and immediately applicable. Keller clearly feels very deeply about this topic and about trying to reach out to unbelievers in a way that would be as winsome and convincing as possible.
Finally, one of the greatest underlying themes in this book was the theme of how the Christian life is really all about God's grace. When addressing the complaint that the church today is corrupt, Keller pointed out that we shouldn't expect to find people always acting better in the Church than those outside of it. The reason is that, as Ephesians 2 says, we are saved by God's grace, not by any works that we have done. I hadn't thought about this line of reasoning much before, but it very clearly rings true as it's based off of Scripture. The Christian life is not about being the best person you can be, and so you shouldn't expect to find those sorts of people in the Church. As Keller persuasively points out, you ought to expect to find a group of broken people, in various stages of their spiritual walk, relying on God's grace as they press forward. As a Christian already convinced of Keller's thesis, this was likely the biggest thing I learned from this book and which I will seek to apply to my own life. The way of thinking that tells me that Christianity is about moral improvement needs to be taken down. The Christian life is all about God's grace extended toward us. And our goal is merely to walk in light of that truth.
4.5 stars.
In addition, the application of his arguments is very much to the modern audience. While I do very much enjoy older apologetic works, such as Mere Christianity, Keller does an excellent job of relating it to the problems that modern readers might face. All of his quotes from people that he's personally talked to in his congregation make it feel all the more fresh and immediately applicable. Keller clearly feels very deeply about this topic and about trying to reach out to unbelievers in a way that would be as winsome and convincing as possible.
Finally, one of the greatest underlying themes in this book was the theme of how the Christian life is really all about God's grace. When addressing the complaint that the church today is corrupt, Keller pointed out that we shouldn't expect to find people always acting better in the Church than those outside of it. The reason is that, as Ephesians 2 says, we are saved by God's grace, not by any works that we have done. I hadn't thought about this line of reasoning much before, but it very clearly rings true as it's based off of Scripture. The Christian life is not about being the best person you can be, and so you shouldn't expect to find those sorts of people in the Church. As Keller persuasively points out, you ought to expect to find a group of broken people, in various stages of their spiritual walk, relying on God's grace as they press forward. As a Christian already convinced of Keller's thesis, this was likely the biggest thing I learned from this book and which I will seek to apply to my own life. The way of thinking that tells me that Christianity is about moral improvement needs to be taken down. The Christian life is all about God's grace extended toward us. And our goal is merely to walk in light of that truth.
4.5 stars.
Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov
4.0
Foundation and Empire is a book that's hard to rate, given that half of it is pretty boring, while half of it is pretty good.
The General, with its numerous easy-to-confuse characters that aren't really that interesting, along with it's lack of suspense, is a pretty uninteresting story. The twist at the end isn't as memorable as the other stories before it in the Foundation series. Finally, the fact that the twist is a really bad idea for a story.
2-2.5 stars.
The Mule, on the other hand, is a much more interesting read. While there are still too many protagonists that are easily confused, the villain is able to unite all of them to become an interesting story. Combine a good villain with greater suspense as the Sheldon plan is on the brink of destruction (getting past the inevitable-win aspect of the plan that hurt the previous story), and we have a story that's, in my opinion, the best so far in the series. A cliff-hanger ending makes me that much more eager to read Second Foundation.
4-4.5 stars.
Overall: 4 stars.
The General, with its numerous easy-to-confuse characters that aren't really that interesting, along with it's lack of suspense, is a pretty uninteresting story. The twist at the end isn't as memorable as the other stories before it in the Foundation series. Finally, the fact that the twist
Spoiler
involves the characters doing nothing so that they would win no matter what2-2.5 stars.
The Mule, on the other hand, is a much more interesting read. While there are still too many protagonists that are easily confused, the villain is able to unite all of them to become an interesting story. Combine a good villain with greater suspense as the Sheldon plan is on the brink of destruction (getting past the inevitable-win aspect of the plan that hurt the previous story), and we have a story that's, in my opinion, the best so far in the series. A cliff-hanger ending makes me that much more eager to read Second Foundation.
4-4.5 stars.
Overall: 4 stars.
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
4.0
Foundation has a unique story format, probably mostly because it was originally a group of short stories. But it works. What's more impressive is that it continually changes out the main set of characters after every one or two stories, yet still maintains an intriguing main story-line. While Asimov is taking obvious cues from the Fall of the Roman Empire in much of the setup, the stories remain very unique and fascinating. There is a lot of imagination that went into this work, and a lot of thought as to what exactly makes a great empire fall--and what works when you're trying to rebuild such a massive empire. While I may not agree with Asimov's answers (much of his solution is based on the MCs manipulating everyone else, and he seems to suggest that religion is just a tool of manipulation), it was a fun ride to go on that also made me think.
4 stars.
4 stars.
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
4.0
I begun reading these stories thinking they were mostly about robots. And they were. But for stories about robots, they sure raise a lot of philosophical questions for humanity. The struggles of robots as they slowly evolve to balance priorities display clearly just how complex the human minds are. And the last story in particular is very intriguing because of how it can be viewed as either a utopia or a dystopia, depending on the reader's opinion. Great set of short stories that are very intriguing, and, while primarily focused on the mindset of robots as they evolve over one woman's lifetime, also has a fair bit to say about how humans work as well.
4-4.5 stars.
4-4.5 stars.
Kaleidocide by Dave Swavely
5.0
Pros:
Like I said in my review of book one, this world is incredibly well developed. Swavely has an excellent grasp on where the culture is right now, so that he seems to predict really well where it's going to be headed. Parts of the book just have paragraphs about the history in the time span; while this might normally be considered an info dump, it's so fascinating that I still want more by the book's end. He keeps the worldbuilding from book one while dramatically expanding on them. Excellent, excellent setup.
The plot of the book is excellent. The basic gist is that the leader of a rival state is attempting to murder the protagonist using a variety of methods. Like the last book, there are several clear twists so that you can't really be sure about what's happening until you finally get to the end of the book. Very engaging and with a very fast pace.
The book does a great job in picking up the unfinished character arcs from the last book and continuing to run with them. The protagonist has quite a few flaws, some of which are worked on, some of which are left unfinished by the book's end. I appreciate the fact that, like in the last book, Swavely doesn't feel the need to wrap up everything related to characters. While part of this is contingent on the assumption that he continues to expand on these lines in the next book, this book does a great job of continuing these lines.
Like the last book, Kaleidocide walks a fine line between exploring Christianity and preaching it. And, again, it passes the test and still seems very realistic by the book's end in many ways.
Cons:
The motivations of one female character didn't seem to ever be explained well. Given her importance to the MC's character arc, this was annoying, but is a fairly minor issue.
While I'm not completely sure whether or not this was a pro or con, I will mention that Swavely did a really good job in maintaining suspense, but often that was accomplished by a direct hint at the end of a chapter saying something like, "but if I had known what was going to happen next, I wouldn't have been so confident." While these definitely accomplished their task of keeping me reading, they also seemed a bit out of place and sometimes mildly spoiled what was about to happen.
Overall:
The book does a really good job in summarizing the last book (I tend to forget major events of previous books rather easily, so I appreciated it), to enough of an extent that you could possibly get away with just starting with this book. Silhouette is such a good book, though, that I do not recommend beginning with this one. Kaleidocide does everything a sequel is supposed to do--it expands the story and character arcs from the first book, heightens everything about them, and keeps it all in a self-contained plot. It was very difficult for me to put the book down. Swavely is an excellent new author, and I'm definitely looking forward to what stuff he has coming out next. Get the book.
4.5-5 stars
Like I said in my review of book one, this world is incredibly well developed. Swavely has an excellent grasp on where the culture is right now, so that he seems to predict really well where it's going to be headed. Parts of the book just have paragraphs about the history in the time span; while this might normally be considered an info dump, it's so fascinating that I still want more by the book's end. He keeps the worldbuilding from book one while dramatically expanding on them. Excellent, excellent setup.
The plot of the book is excellent. The basic gist is that the leader of a rival state is attempting to murder the protagonist using a variety of methods. Like the last book, there are several clear twists so that you can't really be sure about what's happening until you finally get to the end of the book. Very engaging and with a very fast pace.
The book does a great job in picking up the unfinished character arcs from the last book and continuing to run with them. The protagonist has quite a few flaws, some of which are worked on, some of which are left unfinished by the book's end. I appreciate the fact that, like in the last book, Swavely doesn't feel the need to wrap up everything related to characters. While part of this is contingent on the assumption that he continues to expand on these lines in the next book, this book does a great job of continuing these lines.
Like the last book, Kaleidocide walks a fine line between exploring Christianity and preaching it. And, again, it passes the test and still seems very realistic by the book's end in many ways.
Cons:
The motivations of one female character didn't seem to ever be explained well. Given her importance to the MC's character arc, this was annoying, but is a fairly minor issue.
While I'm not completely sure whether or not this was a pro or con, I will mention that Swavely did a really good job in maintaining suspense, but often that was accomplished by a direct hint at the end of a chapter saying something like, "but if I had known what was going to happen next, I wouldn't have been so confident." While these definitely accomplished their task of keeping me reading, they also seemed a bit out of place and sometimes mildly spoiled what was about to happen.
Overall:
The book does a really good job in summarizing the last book (I tend to forget major events of previous books rather easily, so I appreciated it), to enough of an extent that you could possibly get away with just starting with this book. Silhouette is such a good book, though, that I do not recommend beginning with this one. Kaleidocide does everything a sequel is supposed to do--it expands the story and character arcs from the first book, heightens everything about them, and keeps it all in a self-contained plot. It was very difficult for me to put the book down. Swavely is an excellent new author, and I'm definitely looking forward to what stuff he has coming out next. Get the book.
4.5-5 stars