Zippy one-liners is about as much as I can do for a book review I'd never survive attempting to make a blog of  my thoughts, but todays world of information quanta spread thinly over multiple platforms, I might be OK.

Crib Sheets by Emily Oster (31)
A baby/parenting book. Emily Oster is an amazing writer and very good at portraying deep research in a digestible fashion. Very helpful. I highly recommend Oster to anyone looking for baby related books. There's tons of information, explanations of data and when it is/isn't good, plus she manages to be humors while doing it.

Caine Black Knife by Matthew Stover (27)
This is an amazing book. The best in the series, imo (and I waited to write this until I had finished Caine's Law so I would say that unequivocally). This book is fascinating given the rest of the series. A lot more self reflection for Caine, as well as some look back into his post-school, pre-fame, years. It is a much shorter book the Blade of Tyshall, mostly because it deals with a much shorter timeline. This small framework spends less time with Caine kicking everyone's ass, and more time with plot and character development - something I think this series needed. If you've invested the time into reading the first two books, with worth continuing.

Caine's Law by Matthew Stover (28)
This one is closer to business as usual, though it seems Stover continues his writing development. There is a deeper concern with philosophy in Caine's Law than previous books, and some entertaining discussions about temporality of Gods (and how that fucks with everything). Overall its a fun conclusion to Acts of Caine, though I suspect not the one most people were expecting. Worth the read.

Dragon's Flight (Pern 1) By Anne McCaffery (29)
I mostly read this one on a whim due to its previous popularity, and also dragons (who doesn't like scifi dragons?). It was ... just ok. Not bad, but plain. Not dull, but predictable. Also, there's an aspect of timetravel, which gets strange real quick, and coming from finishing Caine's Law it felt a bit absurd. The writing got better from start to end, which makes me have some hope that the series gets better, so maybe someday in the future I'll give it another shot. Probably its a fine book for someone looking for a simpler, feel good story about the good overcoming the bad.

Bakker uses font styling to great affect throughout. Its something that I think many authors just don't bother with and its one more reason why TSA are great books (and incidentally, why I think the audiobooks might generous be described as bad, if not terrible).

So for Final Page shenanigans - possible. I would suspect that it's something closer to a correspondence of cause and/or the world conspiring.

TTH is definitely Erikson in top form. 12 years seems about right for rereading a Malazan book - though its one of my favorite series its not something I see myself picking up anytime soon - but its only been 3 years.

And yeah, I agree with you on Donaldson. My personal guess is that back in the 70/80's (which is a time period that I dislike most of the books anyway) he stood out as unique, but his stuff really has not aged well (like many books from that period).

Found some cheap books for sale on audible, so I grabbed a few at random. Can't say I was overly impressed but it wasn't a total waste of time in most cases.

The Road by Cormic McCarthy
Not a fan of this bloke. Hated Blood Meridian, thought I'd give Road a go, and stopped about 15% in. Just not for me.

The Theft of Swords by Michael J Sullivan (17)
A pretty standard fantasy, which is to say that its entirely skippable. Generic plot and bland characters in a flat and uninspiring world.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (18)
Surprisingly good. Its a heist book, which can be pretty hit or miss, but Bardugo did a good job with the world and the characters. Bits of magic sprinkled throughout, and I'm not sure why this got labeled as YA - its dark, and one of the characters removes a guys eye with an oyster knife. If this is YA ... "kids these days".

The Vine Witch by Luanne G Smith (19)
Not sure what to call this. Maybe a fantasy romance? the "vine witches" are mages that live in france in the 1900s and are viticulturists. An interesting use of magic use to describe wine making, with some sub plot romance. It was a fun quick book.

Off to Be The Wizard by Scott Meyer (20)
A scifi/fantasy where a kid discovers he can change reality by editing a .txt file be found on some old server. Goes back in time for magical shenanigans. It was OK, definitely trying to be funny and mostly succeeding, though it was ultimately a very small book without any grand ideas.

Minimum Wage Magic Rachael Aaron (21)
Urban fantasy set in the future, where Detroit was blown up via magic and rebuilt by some deity. A clever little book following a magical crime scene cleaner. Another suprisingly interesting fantasy book, though I don't think I'll be reading any sequels.

Can anybody go through the available admin panels and look for the settings that control all that? It's likely that they are there, it sounds like something that should be customizable.

I'm working on combing the html, or whatever it is, to see if I can find something about character limits for posts/messages/etc. No luck so far.

Orconomics by J. Zachary Pike (12)
Kind of a silly book, but its a satire so I guess its fine. Not my first choice, but filled with allusions to other works which makes it pretty amusing if you're familiar. Also some basic exploration of economics in a fantasy setting, which is unique, and a nice take on some aliments that might affect heroes. Altogether it was a fine book if your looking for something short and simple with a lot of humor.

The Raven's Tower by Ann Leckie (13)
This was a great book. Split into two timelines which might be described as 'current' and 'past'. The Current timeline is a retelling of Hamlet, apparently, and done quite well. Very enjoyable. The Past is a story giving the history of the world and the life of a god. I enjoyed the prose and the setting, and the perspective of the God telling the story. Both parts of the story were interesting, and told woven together, painting a nice picture of everything as the story progressed. I recommend this one from Leckie, probably enjoyed it more than her scifi.


This is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (blue/red respectively)  (14)
A scifi epistolary novel. How about that. Unique, and a fantastic read, written as letter correspondence between two agents on opposing sides of a war fought through time and space. A unique premise, well executed, and full of references/allusions to everything from art to shakespear, scifi and opera. Another one I heartily recommend if you're looking for a quick read.


An Unkindness of Magicians by Kat Howard  (15)
This has been on my shelf since it came out a few years ago (received for free via Subterranean Press' email for being the first to respond). I'd have to say, it deserves the accolades it got and the advertisement that SP was doing for it. Kat Howard built a tidy little novel here. Urban fantasy, hidden wizard world (modern times), going through some kind of magical tournament to decide the ruler of the hidden world. While fairly generic sounding, the magic is done and described beautifully, and the novel is as long as it needs to be. It does drag on unnecessarily, it doesn't have sequels, and it ends before it gets stale. Everything is balanced nicely from prose to worldbuilding and characterization. Another good one to recommend.


To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers  (16)
Another amazing book. This is a hard scifi, ie no magic masquerading as technology (beyond a machine that can induce a coma and a spaceship engine that can travel between stars slowly), it details the journey of 4 scientists exploring exoplanets around other stars. Its a beautiful exposition of prose and description. Alien worlds being gently explored by very realistic feeling characters. Highly recommended.

Blade of Tyshalle by Matthew Stover (11)

This was a really good book. A bit strange right now to be reading a book set (partially) in Earth future where a pandemic directed the course of human history. Stover explores a lot of the same themes as Bakker throughout his books, and does a good job all around. The two worlds he has built (Future Earth and Overworld) are both well imagined. The intertwined histories are explored more in this sequel, and the woldbuilding for both is interesting. His writing is compelling, though I think  at this point in my reading career a lot of the "horror" elements kind of just pass by. Theres only so many times you can read descriptions of rotting corpses and dying men before they all kind of run together. The writing seemed to improve between the books, not that the first one was bad, so I'm definitely going to keep Stover near the top of my list. I'm looking forward to continuing this series and his other books, and highly recommend him to anyone looking for a good fantasy to read.