Reviews and Comments

This was a great concluding chapter to the Spellwright series. It has a bit of everything in it with a plot that moves at a good pace with plenty of surprises. It has both new and recognizable characters and an intricate setting with a tropical island nation. Overall, this was a pretty good trilogy and something I can recommend others to read.

For a full review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2024/09/book-review-spellbreaker-by-blake.html

An exciting continuation of the Spellwright saga with even more magical text to learn about. Despite the time jump, it doesn't feel too removed from the prior novel and we still benefit from getting new characters. The plot and characters are improved and the setting is interesting. The only thing that I think may drag it down is some forays into political intrigue that feel half-baked.

For a full review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2024/08/book-review-spellbound-by-blake-charlton.html

This was quite an interesting novel. It takes some familiar elements of fantasy, like druids, demons, dragons, etc but spins them around an intriguing magic known as spellwriting. The plot is fairly basic, but with some twists and turns and the characters are decent enough. The main selling point is the amount of detail spent into describing how the magic works and how it ties into everything that's going on.

For a full review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2024/08/book-review-spellwright-by-blake.html

This was a fun book and opens up some interesting possibilities for more potential adventures in this universe. However, in my opinion its the weakest of the three books thus far. While parts of it are very cool, the big mystery of Imir is a bit too dense and drags on without a clear resolution until the very end of the book. Once it does, it's fine and very clever, it just takes too long to get there. I do look forward to seeing how the series continues, with the hope that some of the formula gets shaken up a bit.

For a full review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2024/07/book-review-children-of-memory-by.html

This was a fascinating book, probably even better than it's predecessor, Children of Time. There is a lot going on plot-wise, and we do need a few sections of exposition, but otherwise it paints an intriguing tale of contact between civilizations. These new aliens are even more alien than the uplifted spiders and it's very interesting to see the characters struggle through to communicate with them.

For a full review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2024/06/book-review-children-of-ruin-by-adrian.html

This was a great book and I see why it has won awards and is generally regarded in a positive light. While the characters are basic, they are nonetheless interesting and the plot is straightforward enough to keep the focus on the setting. The setting is excellent and the way the two societies, one human, one spider, is explored is clever. I enjoyed both viewpoints and wish we had gotten more time after they merged together, but maybe that is a story for the second novel? I look forward to reading the other novels in this series and finding out.

For a full review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2024/06/book-review-children-of-time-by-adrian.html

Overall this was a fun read. The world itself is quite dystopian, but the OASIS is incredible. It feels like a very natural evolution of today's online society, for better or worse. Some of the plot can feel a little sluggish with the exposition and the slowdown in the second arc of the book, but it has a good payoff at the end. The characters are OK, but not developed as well as the focus is almost solely on the main character Parzival and his obsession with the 80s, the hunt, and Art3mis. I think the concept behind this (and the nostalgia) was pretty good, though the narrative could have been better, both in terms of characters and plot.

For a full review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2024/05/book-review-ready-player-one-by-ernest.html

The final book of the Long Price Quartet. In hindsight, it makes perfect sense the direction this book took, but at the end of the 3rd one I wasn't sure what could come next. Overall a fitting conclusion to the series.

For a spoiler-free review of the full series, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2024/04/book-review-long-price-quartet-series.html

The 3rd of the 4 books in the Long Price Quartet and my favorite thus far. Lots of complex character interactions going on and the culmination of a lot of plot threads that have been teased in the prior two books. I honestly don't know what the 4th one could be about, if it's not a long epilogue...

This is the second book in the Long Price Quartet and a worthy successor to the first. I'll be holding out for my complete review until I finish the four books, but this was enjoyable on its own. I was surprised by the large time jump between the first and the second, but pleased that many of the same characters reappear. Some similar themes are explored in this one, primarily the nature of relationships and family, though absent are the themes of humanity and slavery. There is a bit more intrigue and politics in this one, something is shaking up and I wonder what the next two books will focus on.

Read this on my international trip and enjoyed it a lot. I got the other books in the series during my trip, in case I had more time, but haven't started them yet. I also haven't done a full review, but that may come later or I may group the entire series under one review. For now, I found this to be an enjoyable story with a decent plot and some pretty good characters. I look forward to seeing how the world develops.

This was a fun book and a great way to end the series. It had an explosive finish and managed to tie up pretty much all the major plotlines going through (though as a young adult novel it was fairly straightforward). The characters were interesting and the plot very fast paced. Overall, an enjoyable science fiction/fantasy series. Apparently there is more to continue in this universe which sounds exciting to me!

For a full review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2024/01/defiant-by-brandon-sanderson.html

Re-read this in prep for the 4th book in the series. There is so much foreshadowing that I caught this time!

Overall, this was a fun book, albeit a bit shorter than it's predecessor. It's still a fun ride with the usual cast of characters we've come to enjoy. A relatively simple plot with plenty of action and high-stakes moments and a recognizable setting with hints of more complexity in Murderbot's psyche. I recommend it for folks that are already reading the Muderbot Diaries at it continues its story.

For a full spoiler-free review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2023/12/book-review-system-collapse-by-martha.html

Overall, the book was a very fast read and very fun. Once all the pieces click together it's more waiting to see how much the main character will take it and how his unique personality will play into the narrative. At the end, I was left wondering about some details. There are some subtle hints that make me wonder if Sanderson will revisit this universe.

For a longer review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2023/06/book-review-frugal-wizards-handbook-for.html