Fantasy

** Aliens should be weird. ** Interesting concepts of how a superior biotech race could manipulate and control humans, even while trying to maintain a respectful distance. With the right levers, a light touch can be powerfully convincing. More interesting is the way in which Butler focuses on human desires, as distinct from human emotion. The debilitating effects of social isolation, innate nausea, or deep desire to to believe in fictions all play important roles in the plot. ...

A book about the culture. How it is created, the meaning we give it, the supposed truths that such culture creates. There is definitely meat on the bones here, just gotta think some more about what that meat really is. Much better than I expected, glad I read the unabridged version.

Fantasy Heist genre with characters interesting enough to keep turning the pages. Read it out of order, but the characters were interesting enough to encourage me to go back and finish it. 3.5 stars.

World? Fascinating. Characters? Meh. Plot? Everything interesting happens in the epilogue. Readability? Off the charts. Could read while singing and juggling.

Sanderson fantasy is what Audible 3.5x was invented for. 3.5 stars.

Too much of a page turner. The premise – the capital under siege by 3 competing armies after a successful rebellion – is probably the best premise for a fantasy page turner that I’ve yet encountered. But this is the literary equivalent of a summer blockbuster, all action, little substance. ** 3 stars **

Certainly a page turner, although the parallels to to Stormlight Archives are clear. It’s like Sanderson has found a set of chords that will attract readers and he’s going to keep riffing on that theme as long as the readers keep coming. ** 3.5 stars **

Sucked me in, probably hurting my productivity at work. Jade City is a drama with real family dynamics and characters that make imperfect decisions and live or die by the consequences. Seems simple, but only 1/20 fantasy books manages to pull this off. On to the next book in the series.

Surprised it took me so long to get to this. Dead gods and a strong flavor of colonialism are good themes for fantasy. Good characters to explore the world, though I feel like the author assumes the population is a bit more miracle adverse than what would actually happen.

Amazing that I like this series so much but am not a fan of Bujold’s other series. I enjoyed the main character, the different setting, and the reason-based mechanics of magic in this world. Will read more from this author.