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This was a page turner, a thriller, and perfect for the plane trip to a wintery Europe. The author has done some really interesting world building here - an AI that can predict crime and anti-social behavior, a future society with a "social" rating used for jobs and housing, and a Hawaii that was hit devastated by a tornado and about to be hit by another. The politics in this novel is also interesting - an insular US government only concerned with the continental US, a Chinese government that stepped in to eventually take over, and Islanders who are caught in the middle. The author is one of these Islanders in real life, and I bet her take on this is accurate.

This book is more near-future thriller than full science fiction. Nagata has written that also, a far-future series, and I look forward to reading another of her books soon.

I found this book SLOW and often anticlimactic. Ada was a strong main character, and much (or too much) of her growth is shown. Started as an audiobook, where it was even SLOWER (14 hours!).

A strong female main character and broad cast of other characters, all fairly different. Ada is connected to both techie adults and teens with teen problems (cliques, alcohol, etc.) - along with a mystery.

With all the ingredients of a good story, it could have been much better. It was slow. I TBR'd this for the blurb at the time, something along the lines of "teenage daughter's father disappears, and she must solve a mystery connected to a computer". Minor spoiler - the disappearance was due to Alzheimer's, and it was AS painful to read about it as it was to live through a parent having it - while being part of the plot, this did NOT need major billing. Maybe the author was working through her own experience here?

About 40% of the way through, the story suddenly jumps two decades into the future - but shortly after rolls back to continue the previous plotline. Interesting, but that didn't work for me either. I ended up abandoning the audio book a little past half-way and read the rest in under two hours, with very little skimmed. Yes, the audio book was that slow.

I liked elements of this novel, but I wouldn't recommend it.

This book has lots of action but falls short in description. I've read that this novelization of several comic books adds some subplots. While lots of characters entering and leaving the story works for the graphic form, it doesn't work as well in prose.

There are 2 or 3 stories here. The first is the story of Bane, then the story of a new Batman, and finally Bruce Wayne and Batman. While I've read some of the comics and graphic novels, I am not familiar with all the characters and villains. Abattoir? Various Robins? O'Neil is a long-time fixture in Batman comics and is clearly referencing other works, but the casual reader needs a little more than a name-drop.

I enjoyed the action, but a novel often has more description. The closest he comes is an 11th hour entrance to the Batcave - unknown to the reader and fairly well described. I also wonder if there is some legal reason he couldn't say Batmobile - it is referred to as the 'mobile several times. Like Batman - a bit unnerving. I liked the book, but it didn't blow me away. I enjoyed Greg Cox's [b:Batman: The Court of Owls|40046794|Batman The Court of Owls|Greg Cox|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1525600065l/40046794.SX50.jpg|62054597] far more.

Drawn to the book for the time-travel premise, hesitant of the romance novel reputation. Wait, that's my review for Outlander. Some things in common, some different - and this is slightly better.

Outlander has one time travel incident - this book has several. Outlander has one "world" for the protagonist - this book has several, as the main characters go skipping through time. So already this is the better "time travel" novel.

I didn't find the romance believable in either of the books - I am not the target audience.

Finally, the plot of Outlander is tied in with historical conflict and events. This book much less so - the time travelers here are essentially tourists, acting outside of history.

All tied up, let's deal with the story plot. This is a mystery, with a MacGuffin that shows up at the very end. The chases and convoluted politics make a sort of sense, even if they are a little hard to get into. Outlander has... hrmm, what was the plot there? Other than a lot of spanking. This book easily has the better plot, but ends abruptly (after nearly 500 pages) to make room for the second book, published a single year later (and likely written much sooner). Does this book stand on its own? No, not really.

I could be convinced to buddy-read the concluding sequel, but am unlikely to pick it up on my own.

Five hour podcast, or rather audio book. Picked it up as a physical book from the library, but the few pictures are not worth the paper in this case - better in audiobook form. Contains interviews and other audio clips from the principle characters, along with sound effects (mostly planes and ordnance).

I generally like Gladwell books - so why two stars? The first part focuses on a group with a doctrine of high altitude daylight precision bombing, just before World War II. It discusses the Norden bombsight, and also shows how the equipment was not up to the task at that time. This group pushed back against Churchill, because the indiscriminate bombing of civilians was not working to win the war.

In the second half, the tables are turned - the equipment still isn't up to the task, and LeMay switches to bombing of civilians (with napalm) and does win the war. No solid conclusions as to whether the stubbornness of the group helped or hindered in Europe. Some discussion of the ethics of firebombing Japanese cities, but no solid conclusion - just the oft repeated "Japan wouldn't have surrendered otherwise."

Finally, in the epilog, the time for the original idea has come. The equipment is up to the task of hitting a precision target, even one portion of a single building. The simple conclusion is that the bomber mafia was right, just ahead of their time. Did I want too much from this book? The history is good, but makes up less than half of the text. I'll settle with two stars, "it was okay" - and I'm very glad I didn't buy the book. Thanks local library!

Despite being named for a road, this is not a road-trip - it's a character-driven quest novel with an ensemble point-of-view. Contains more backstory than story, and didn't work for me.

I liked the setting - 1954 America. Descriptions of most locations are evocative, and the characters are all quite distinct. Only a few really change over the course of this large novel.

If you focus on the growth of one of those characters, the majority of the novel is superfluous at best, annoying at worst. Like many heist films, this was about interruptions to the plans - but not done as well in my opinion. One of the characters is told in the first-person, implying (in a way) that he is THE main character. Since he is also the most evil character, this makes for tougher reading. I had to put the book down with irritation at multiple points. When you factor in the length also, this is a novel which I found disappointing on my first read through.

I absolutely loved [b:A Gentleman in Moscow|34066798|A Gentleman in Moscow|Amor Towles|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1551480896l/34066798.SY75.jpg|45743836] (Towles' sophomore effort), and plan to read his first book soon.

This is the second novel by Canadian couple Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, the fifth or sixth of the larger "unnumbered" novels in the Pocket Books series. I liked it, but didn't love it - 4 of the 5 Star Trek novels I've read recently were better.

All of the main original characters are involved, dealing with a potential Prime Directive violation in their own way. This was interesting, and I liked the differing styles. My favorite was probably Scotty, who found his way around the letter of the law, as it were. While science fiction (or space opera), a sub-genre could be murder mystery, on a massive scale. I can't go further without spoiling it, but I found the ending a little unsatisfying.

Clearly the authors were watching (and or planning to write for) Star Trek: The Next Generation. Kirk muses about adding a bar to the ship, among other things that came to pass. The Kirk I remember wasn't that much of a visionary...

According to Memory-Alpha, the audio version is read by the late James Doohan, and must be abridged, at 2 hours 57 minutes. It would be awesome if somebody read the abridged parts between the narrations, editing it together. Most of the audio versions of Star Trek novels seem to be abridged - this would be a fair amount of work, but would preserve the original novels for that audience.

Continuing to stumble my way through Bujold's Vorkosigan saga, this book has none of the characters or locations - but I assure you, it will be related (eventually) :)

Very engineering focused, this book frequently falls back to reveal problem, figure and then reveal solution. Behind the scenes is a revolution, so in both threads it is comparable to [b:The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress|16690|The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress|Robert A. Heinlein|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348768309l/16690.SY75.jpg|1048525], one of my favorites. This is very well done, but not as good.

The focus is very much on engineer Leo Graf, and perhaps it falls down a little for that. I really wanted to hear more of the Quaddies' side - a thousand of them, but only slightly more than a handful have any lines. The opposition is beyond inept, and irritating besides. Legal aspects could have been interesting, but they were ignored. Anti-mutant feelings (the sci-fi authors straw man for racism and/or sexism) are mentioned, but mostly avoided.

It sounds like I have more complaints than compliments, but the balance is strong. This is a good engineering novel, and I liked it quite a bit. What's next in the series - will I get that book of short stories I mentioned earlier? Not sure - will see what next year brings.

This novel is set in a future of the human race, winding down and pacified by drugs. It focuses on two main characters who break free of that and discover reading, another lost art. The well-written plot has much symbolism also - great for book clubs :)

The author intended this as an anti-drug tale - he died a few years later of lung cancer, brought on by smoking. It is a short novel, and there isn't much to say without spoiling it. The plot has some episodic moments which bear further reflection also.

Walter Tevis has been recently dragged back into the limelight for his story The Queen's Gambit. He also wrote The Hustler and The Man Who Fell to Earth, both turned into films in his lifetime. The Color of Money was also made into a film shortly after his death.

I read the novel this year to meet a 12-book challenge for Robotics and AI novels. I enjoyed the writing and plan to read more from Tevis in the future.

Mammoth collection that took 3 months to finish - roughly a story every couple of days. Newer stories are overrepresented here - no Heinlein, no Poul Anderson, no Jack Finney, though their stories are in other, older Time Travel collections.

The stories were broken into "sections", with a little non-fiction around as well. This breakdown was tenuous at best - or maybe that's the months talking.

My favorites were "Triceratops Summer" by Michael Swanwick (2005), "Noble Mold" by Kage Baker (1999), and the classic "Yesterday was Monday" by Theodore Sturgeon. I didn't enjoy the creepy "Twenty-One, Counting Up" by Harry Turtledove (1999), and was a little irritated that they shoehorned an excerpt from The Time Machine in here.

This anthology and one other have made up half of my electronic reading this year, with this monster consuming more than 21 hours. Of the 12 books I've read this way so far, this is 3rd from the bottom in words per minute. It wasn't me contemplating the stories - there were only a few that really dragged me in, and a majority that did not. So it goes.

Well researched examination of Bond film music, including the famous songs. Covers Dr. No to Quantum of Solace, and also includes Never Say Never Again and 1967's Casino Royale. A good read.

An updated version with the last 3 films would be nice, but this book comes to a nice closure with the death of the legendary John Barry. His work on Bond films (and so many others) defines the era. Each film has pages of discussion into choosing or composing the title song, options for the singer and a few photos. My favorites were when the artist had a special song poster for their work. At the bottom of the page runs a separate section detailing all the music in the film, including the occasional in-jokes and sporadic bad choices (California Girls).

I read this over a month, taking time for each film. In many cases, I cued up the opening sequence to appreciate the title song anew. Somewhat difficult to find, but definitely worth reading.

Enjoyed the first book of this series, though it dragged at times. This book had all of the sophomoric humor and added an Egyptian background and many other things that don't make sense. The one plus was the narration of Fisher Stevens.

Yes, it was good to see the characters again. This book was released 9 years after the first. In one way, it brought the story to a better conclusion than the first book did. I can see where the author was trying to go with a plot, and even commentary on Buddhist rebirth - Christopher Moore has described himself as a Buddhist with Christian tendencies.

So where did it fail? The first half of the book is mostly people talking - very little action. The omnipresent sophomoric humor gets in the way of the narrative, the rebirth, and even the action at times. The powers of the characters change without explanation, convenient to the plot but confusing to the reader. And just how does the "Great Big Book of Death" rewrite itself all the time?

I rated the first book 3 stars, with the narration. I think it was fine without this book, and would advise against reading this. 1½ stars.

Police procedures, magic and gods - and a smidge too many London locations. The start of a series which is wildly popular, and I plan to read the next one.

It might be easier to list the things I didn't like. Main character Peter Grant is a little too accepting of the magic - it almost feels like it had to be for a Doctor Who episode, which this author has written. I didn't see the chemistry in the love interest either. Finally, Mr. Aaronovitch is awfully free with his London neighborhoods and tube stops. I've only been once, and an internet map was handy. I did purchase this book on the trip, a signed copy.

The rest is all good. This is a delightful book, set in a living and historical city. The magic works, the pacing is pretty good, and the ending was unexpected. Humor pops up as frequently as pop culture references. Nightingale makes for a great mentor/teacher. The villain I can't say much about without spoilers - but it's classic London stuff (and no, I don't mean the Ripper). Looking forward to the next book AND the next trip.