Children

74th book of 2019. Not disappointing. Picking up a beloved childhood series as an adult can be a gamble. It’s like rewatching films in high definition, and flaws that were buffed out in the haze of memory become glaringly apparent, while sometimes the author, out of ideas, ends up recycling the b-side plots into endless books of dwindling quality. Exhibit A: the Ender’s Game series. It was a compelling first book, and even first series, but once Card started to get into geopolitics, a lot of questionable racism came out, discrediting the entire series in my mind. ...

68th book of 2019 When I’m bored and on a plane, sometimes I write book reviews (i.e. right now). Other times I watch marvel movies. This book fits squarely with the Marvel movies. Welcome to the helicarriers… I mean Rife’s Raft… I mean Endura: the floating city of cliche scythe plots and Chekov’s guns locations. Despite the fact that GRR Martin can’t seem to put out more than one book a decade, plots like this remind me why a decade is worth the wait. ...

67th book of 2019. Scythe – an interesting, somewhat meditative YA scifi novel on death. The premise was fun, and I appreciate how the author went to pains to tell a utopian story. In some ways it’s a trick on us, being able to find enough misery in such a utopia to fill the pages of a novel. But I digress. The characters were ok but nothing special. The plot moved along though I felt like the author tipped off upcoming twists a bit too clearly, such that none of them ended up a surprise. Maybe that means I’ve just been reading too much Scifi. ...

A great American novel I missed when too busy reading Dragonlance growing up, now it’s time to catch up. For the first 2/3 of the book, I wasn’t sure what made this book special, as the plot, characters, and setting all felt mundane. I can see, however, why teachers and parents would recommend it as a must read for American students, as this felt like me the sort of story that affluent parents would want to tell themselves and convince their kids about their own interactions with children and society. ...

Worst grrm book I’ve read.

Did you ever wonder, after seeing the episode 7 trailer, how a star destroyer could crash into a planet without disintegrating mid flight? Turns out the story behind that star destroyer wreckage better than any of the movies. This book is a young adult mass market novel based on a rewriting the story spinoff of Pop-scifi movies yet still manages to be unique and relevant. This book combined the classic young adult stories around elite academies, except that the academy was on the wrong side of the history of the new republic. Then it tackled patriotism, morality, loyalty, honor, and love for the next few hundred pages. It tied nicely into episodes 4-6, and made the new Star Wars universe feel a little more like an actual universe. ...

As good as everyone says it is. Don’t let the weird looking cover put you off. Go read it now. If you don’t believe me, go watch the trailer for the movie, then read the book.

Fun, but squarely in the uncanny valley between fiction and non fiction. Taken as a collection of short vignettes, it was entertaining. However, the characters felt like soapboxes, the plot only barely hung together, and I didn’t like the protagonist. It felt like a simplified preachy version of order of the phoenix, with encryption rather than magic and the dhs rather than voldermort.

Yes I read this book - don’t judge me. OK judge me. I read it 6 months ago and I’m really having a hard time remembering anything interesting or worthwhile. Guy tries to hide superpowers, fails, fights bad people, has high school problems. It’s like anamorphs but worse.

还行吧。我觉得这本书的语言水平适合我，但是我们为什么需要等到最后一部才看饥饿游戏的事件呢？