Category: Books

  • Bringing HIYLJ Back To Life

    Bringing HIYLJ Back To Life

    A long time ago, I wrote on this blog (and one other covering the Buffalo Sabres) a LOT. I formed some great friendships in the blogosphere, got to do some cool stuff, it was great. As blogs fell off in popularity – and life got even busier – I stopped writing. I’ve popped back in…

  • Book Review – Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett

    Book Review – Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett

    Foundryside is the latest book from Robert Jackson Bennett, who previously wrote the “Divine Cities” trilogy.  I mostly knew him from the shenanigans he, Sam Sykes, Chuck Wendig and others get up to on Twitter.  Checking out new authors that way hasn’t steered me wrong yet. Sancia is a thief, who operates out of Foundryside,…

  • Book Review – Artemis by Andy Weir

    Book Review – Artemis by Andy Weir

    Artemis, by Andy Weir, starts out as a bit of a heist book.  Set in the first city on the Moon, Artemis follows Jasmine “Jazz” Bashara as she navigates her life as a porter, her sideline as a smuggler of contraband, and her disapproving father.  One of Jazz’s smuggling clients offers her a sabotage job…

  • Book Review – Terminal Alliance by Jim C. Hines

    Terminal Alliance (Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse), by Jim C. Hines, takes a futuristic zombie-esque apocalypse and wonders – what happens if someone comes along and fixes it?  Humanity was turned into mindless, shambling monsters, but the Krakau (a squidlike alien race) decides to help fix us.  Eh, more or less. The story follows a human…

  • Book Review – The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

    Book Review – The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

    The First Law Trilogy is another series I’m late to, but I enjoyed The Blade Itself quite a bit!  This is not my first Joe Abercrombie, having checked out Half a King previously.  Abercrombie’s books tend to the ‘grimdark’ side of epic fantasy, and this is no exception. The cast of characters Much like A…

  • Book Review – Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

    Book Review – Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

    Red Sister is the start of the latest series by Mark Lawrence, who I was previously aware of but hadn’t yet read.  When I saw this was book one of a series and available on Netgalley, I went for it.  What I found was a bloody story of revenge, bathed in the mysticism of a…

  • Book Review – Fallout (Lois Lane) by Gwenda Bond

    Book Review – Fallout (Lois Lane) by Gwenda Bond

    Now that Amazon has a selection of books available to read for free for Prime members, I’ve been going through the categories that interest me to find new material.  Obviously, a book about Lois Lane would do that.  In this case, Fallout is about a teenage Lois in high school, though her nosy reporter skills are…

  • Book Review – The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes

    Book Review – The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes

    The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes (writer for Bioware on both the Dragon Age and Mass Effect franchises) is a somewhat shallow but action-packed novel set in a magical fantasy world.  Loch and Kail are former Scouts for the Republic who are planning to steal a priceless Elven manuscript back from the man who framed…

  • Book Review – The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

    Book Review – The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

    I got my latest read, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet as a gift, and had a great time reading it.  The first novel from Becky Chambers, it follows a young woman named Rosemary as she joins the crew of a tunneling ship (basically they make shortcuts through space) as they get a…

  • Book Review – Martians Abroad by Carrie Vaughn

    Book Review – Martians Abroad by Carrie Vaughn

    I’ve heard a lot of good things about Carrie Vaughn from friends who read her Kitty Norville series, so when NetGalley had a copy of her new book, Martians Abroad, available to read, I jumped at it.  I’m glad I did, though the book is not without it’s faults. The story takes place in a…

  • Book Review – The Girl With All The Gifts

    Book Review – The Girl With All The Gifts

    I am not normally a zombie guy, but I had heard great things about comic writer Mike Carey’s (styled M. R. Carey here) novel The Girl with All the Gifts and when it went on sale, I gave it a shot.  I’m glad I did, as it’s an enjoyable spin on the nature of zombies and…

  • Book Review – Black Widow: Forever Red

    Book Review – Black Widow: Forever Red

    Before you start this book, know that while it’s got Black Widow in the name, it’s both about her, and not exactly about her.  If it might bother you to discover the story is told mostly through the viewpoint of a teenaged girl that has an…interesting connection to Natasha, as some other reviewers seem to,…