A couple of short stories taking place in Earthsea. I enjoyed how all of them showed some characters we knew already (sometimes just in passing), but through the eyes of people who would count as "insignificant" in most stories.
A very cool end to the series! I liked how after the human and the regular construct experience we now got the ooloi construct view of the world. To me, many things we were shown in the earlier two books grew clearer, even if this books story in itself wasn't groundbreaking. 3.5-4
The second volume is a bit less on the 18th century France presumptiousness spree (but adds in some more Greek history to make up for it). Very wow, including how Jehovah/JEDD and Bridger meet, Bridger's choice, the Major's identity and so many little things we learn about Mycroft (♥), the hives, and individuals. Also, Utopians forever.
I definitely liked this one more than World of Rocannon. It shows us two alien cultures as seen by the other culture, and their interactions. It's short and simple, and its narrative arch is not very impressive, but it's okay or even good scifi, hands down.
3.5 stars, weird one. Greg continues to play with the rules of perception and what perceiving a thing implies, only this time we go on a trippy trip to parallel universe central, launching of parallel universes as we go, dropping through thousands of years and more, and "failing" (in one universe, and what's one universe) in the end because the aliens we created have a more solid and cohesive perception of reality than we do. I just felt the whole time that Greg made all the rules fairly arbitrarily and could change them whatever way he wanted at any time. Which may have been due to me not understanding the premise deeply enough (and is a feeling shared by Maria, one of the two protagonists, at least).
A good end to the series. The different roles and characters were great, and the explanations of humans vs dragons explained previous plots.
I'm sure the movie is much better than this, but the book just feels like a cheap version of Ender's Game.
This whole series continues its spree of positive surprises. This time we get a new Lucifer, and we get various conversations with God. Well well well.
This book gives a good overview over the way online culture gravitates towards outrage and shaming. We get to meet some of the people impacted by this, and industries surrounding it, as well as contextualisation, both historical and with the justice system. While there is little actionable advice here – I appreciated it. It read like a very long, thorough reportage and I enjoyed reading it.
I have absolutely no idea how to rate this book. For a while it felt like a two-star urban fantasy pulp novel with lots of shoot-em-up situations and, well, urban fantasy pulp banter. And then it turns around and has some really good plot twists, and even some seriously good settings and dialogues. I'll give it three stars, but in reality it's more like chunks of two-star stuff and four-star stuff mashed together.
(I mean, we get to know the protagonist's father, a new girlfriend who kicks ass, is a porn star by choice and still gets painted very much as her own person, and the protagonist is offered a job as Lucifer … by Lucifer … because Lucy goes back to heaven after the zombie apocalypse. Right.)