War on Jonathan McKay

The Lexus and the Olive Tree

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I thought that this book would be a good piece of airplane reading- interesting anecdotes describing one of the most important phenomona of the world

Pretender (Foreigner, #8)

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Re-org-er Want to see how al-Sharaa drove to Damascus in victory, or how Satya Nadella reclaimed a stalled culture transformation? Skip the nonfiction

Destroyer (Foreigner, #7)

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Layover-er Destroyer is almost all plot, if logistics count as plot. Here they do. The novel reads like deployment orders disguised as fiction

The Short Victorious War (Honor Harrington, #3)

Sun, 19 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Short Microcosm War The Short Victorious War isn’t the best Honor Harrington novel, but it’s the most representative—an attempt at Clausewitz in

A Rising Thunder (Honor Harrington, #13)

Sun, 05 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Exposition Ascendant With a lower overall rating than previous and subsequent entries, Rising Thunder seemed like a throwaway installment. It isn’t. By

Mission of Honor (Honor Harrington, #12)

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Finally Worth the War A good book should distract from real life even when you’re not reading it. After eleven entries, David Weber’s Honor Harrington

At All Costs (Honor Harrington, #11)

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Domestic Drudgery, Galactic Glory At All Costs is Weber at his most uneven. Much of the book bogs down in domestic drama and organizational grind—material

War of Honor (Honor Harrington, #10)

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Diplomacy, Budgets, and Blasters At the beginning of War of Honor I was wondering if I should settle for the mediocrity of this series. Ten books in, this

Flag in Exile (Honor Harrington, #5)

Sun, 29 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Deus Ex Honor I understand the now Honor Harrington books run on a clear formula: Honor does the right thing, ruffles lesser egos, then redeems herself in

Last Argument of Kings (The First Law, #3)

Fri, 04 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Unforgiving Realism I didn’t realize The Last Argument of Kings was considered grimdark fantasy until exploring reviews. To me, it's just realism. The

Assassin's Quest (Farseer Trilogy, #3)

Tue, 30 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Some books that wander are lost After returning from the dead, our hero, Fitz, goes wandering. ... and wandering. ... and wandering. He checks voicemail

The Best and the Brightest

Wed, 12 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

TBW

The Korean War

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

2nd Sino-American War The US Army has not accepted the simple fact that its performance in the Korean War was lousy. This year I’ve endeavored to

The Guns of August

Sat, 14 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Tidy Narrative Few books can make any claim to have stopped nuclear war. But as JFK famously read Tuchman’s Guns of August, his understanding of the real

Mercy Kill (Star Wars: X-Wing, #10)

Thu, 15 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Star Wars: Mission Impossible Mercy Kill follows the story of remaining members of Wraith squadron, which is the remaining members of Rogue squadron

Heaven's River (Bobiverse, #4)

Wed, 08 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

2.5 stars. Similar but not nearly as good as a fire upon the deep. The entire star fleet plot seemed useless. Still worked as a distraction for a few

A Master of Djinn (Dead Djinn Universe, #1)

Sat, 07 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

3.5 stars, great setting, solid writing. Somewhat disappointing characters and a predictable plot.

She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, #1)

Wed, 23 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

surprisingly good, game of thrones + mulan + traitor baru thrown into one. Good setting.

Paladin of Souls (World of the Five Gods, #2)

Wed, 05 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

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

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1)

Sun, 26 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Snackable ‘misfits in space’ book with a more modern take on gender and sex but the rest of sci-fi tropes intact. I’ve just read this story one too many

Starship Troopers

Fri, 24 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This is your dads sci-fi. Best read paired with forever war, links to enders game are clear. An only slightly post-fascist fascist work. Not painful like

The Calculating Stars (Lady Astronaut Universe, #1)

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Mathletes v. Machos I used to be good at math. Not 'A student' good, I mean win the competitions, calculate faster than friends with a calculator good. As

Wrath of Empire (Gods of Blood and Powder, #2)

Sat, 09 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Defeat is More Interesting One of the most satisfying elements of a fantasy or sci-fi sequel is the opportunity to explore the consequences of the

On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington, #1)

Tue, 04 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

46th book of 2021: On Wish-Fulfillment Station On Basilisk Station promises to take an exceedingly competent protagonist through harrowing circumstances

A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan, #2)

Mon, 12 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

36th book of 2021: Body Politic Everybody had politics, even if only some people had sex. Narratives of collective action and dissonance are so often

Rendezvous with Rama (Rama, #1)

Thu, 05 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

72nd book of 2020 - Nice Escape. It’s November 3rd, as the American republic follows perilously close to last days of the Roman republic: a contested

Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?

Thu, 10 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

54th book of 2020. tl;dr: Read the cover, read the appendix, skip the rest. ‘Destined for War’ introduces the Thucydides trap, named after Thucydides’

Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)

Tue, 02 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

27th book of 2020. You would think that the narrative of a grumpy antisocial robot who just wants to get back to watching TV serials would get boring

Oathbringer (The Stormlight Archive, #3)

Thu, 28 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Not as compelling as the second book, mainly because a lot of the plot reveals were telegraphed so clearly in the first two books, it felt like I already

A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan, #1)

Sun, 01 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

54th book of 2019 -- I enjoyed it. It felt like a sci-fi version of bureaucratic fiction (i.e. 驻京办主任) where the grinding gears of tradition and succession

A Deepness in the Sky (Zones of Thought, #2)

Thu, 16 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The plot is completely unrelated to its predecessor, 'A fire upon the deep'. However, the themes of the book are similar about first contact between

Tiamat's Wrath (The Expanse, #8)

Wed, 27 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This book hijacked my brain, I ended up reading it through in two sessions. Tiamat's Wrath rewards you for being a fan. It brings up so much from the

A Fire Upon the Deep (Zones of Thought, #1)

Fri, 15 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Redwall mixed with Foundation. Apparently the original title for the book was 'Among the Tines' but the editor rejected it. For being a space opera, a

The High Ground (Imperials, #1)

Sat, 02 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Entertaining. Very similar to Red Rising, with the lower class chip-on-his-shoulder male protagonist and royal princess classmate. Enough to convince me

Aftermath (Star Wars: Aftermath, #1)

Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I should have waited and read the other reviews first.

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

Thu, 15 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Started out slow, but by about 3/4 of the way through I couldn’t put it down. Definitely conveys many opinions about the authors politics, but not so bad

The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth #1)

Wed, 27 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Fit together nicely. Different perspectives, enjoyable fantasy.

The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth, #2)

Wed, 27 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Very much a direct continuation of the first book, didn't expand the world as much as I expected, but also didn't feel like the first half of a story

The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth, #3)

Wed, 27 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Satisfying conclusion, pulled some of the same tricks as the original on a grander scale, but ended the series on a good note. Worth reading this series

SpecOps (Expeditionary Force, #2)

Sat, 28 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The conceit got repetitive. It's pretty rare that I get 90% through a book and am not motivated to finish.

Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1)

Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I probably blasted through this too fast, but enjoyed it. I'll be reading the series. I appreciated the commentary on translation, the first person AI

Too Like the Lightning (Terra Ignota, #1)

Fri, 19 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I didn't really enjoy this book. There's so much going on, but nothing had depth, and even the plot didn't make it far. The politics felt shallow, written

Embassytown

Thu, 28 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Mystifying in the way good scifi should be. More fun to think about than it was to read, but so many good ideas! Also, the closest you'll come to reading

The Man in the High Castle

Sat, 26 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

2.5 stars. The Amazon series is better. I didn't like any of the characters, the mysticism seemed pointless, and didn't like pkd's style of writing. Still

Lost Stars (Star Wars)

Thu, 15 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

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

Old Man's War (Old Man's War, #1)

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Competent, but not nearly as interesting as [b:All You Need Is Kill|6255949|All You Need Is Kill|Hiroshi

Bloodline (Star Wars)

Wed, 01 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

It was probably competent, but I didn't enjoy it. Lots of politics, it felt too much like an allegory of American politics in the 21st century. One thing

A Brief History of Time

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000

This book definitely has a target audience - somebody who hasn't read anything about theoretical physics, doesn't want to think about it too hard, but at

Neuromancer (Sprawl #1)

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Throughout Neuromancer, I found it difficult not to be reminded of Snow Crash. It is clear that Neuromancer influenced Snow Crash- and I together they