jroberts3456's reviews
438 reviews

A rollicking good time and a jolly good read. License to Quill is an often ingenious blend of Shakespeare and Bond, written with wit to spare. Very well researched and sourced, it frequently feels like something that might have actually been possible. A great weekend read.

A decent first effort, Playing Dead is often too meandering for me to have really enjoyed. Still, the subject is meticulously reported and despite some disagreements with Greenwood’s style, it’s an overall interesting book with some delightful revelations on the topic at hand. A solid weekend read, though not particularly memorable.

A decent yarn that stretched too long to ever be anything besides just okay. For fans of myth and Celtic culture, it’s a fun read that’s ultimately not very memorable.

Wonderful for fans of Sedaris’s work, but not a great place to start for newbies. Fans will find plenty to ponder as David evolves into the David Sedaris we know and love over the years, documented by a diary only a man like he could keep. His musings are random and haphazard, but always contain that eye for detail and that we love about him and his work. Good to gain a better understanding of his oeuvre but definitely not for everyone.

One of the most stunning books I have read in ages. El Akkad is a masterful world building, telling us so much by hinting at the wider world outside his story without letting it draw away from his tragic, deeply affecting tale. A thought provoked for the ages, American War is haunting, poetic, and beautiful. An absolute must.

Easily among the top five of King’s oeuvre, I never though vampires could be scary but somehow the master pulled it off. Fraught with tension and terror, Salem’s Lot is a must for fans of King or horror in general (though, really, what’s the difference). A wonderful, fast paced novel that will keep you awake at night for more than one reason...

Reading any of Fletcher’s Manifest Delusions books is like reading the realities imagined by a thousand metal albums. If you giggle uncontrollably at ridiculous arpeggios, if you never heard a double kick you didn’t love, if every spent a moment trying to convince your friends of the fundamental similarities between Mozart and Opeth, this is the series for you. (Anyone else probably would [probably should] hate it.)

Swarm and Steel is a separate story from the story of Beyond Redemption and The Mirror’s Truth, but it finds Fletcher playing in the most actualized version of the sandbox he created in those first two novels. His insane world has never felt as real as it felt here, and the stories he weaved as never been as fun. Sick. Disgusting. Repugnant. Immoral. Blasphemous. I loved every twisted page.

I sincerely hope he keeps this sandbox open after he finishes the Beyond Redemption trilogy. As he proved here, Fletcher can play in this world in just about any way he can imagine.

An absolutely enthralling work of speculative fiction that ties together huge ideas in a manageable chunk. A wonderful examination on humanity, rights, gender, and politics. A stunning novel.

There are some fantastic essays here and some not so fantastic; enlightening and boring. Quammen’s shorter works pack a heavier punch while he longer works tend to drone on and on. A solid enough read with accessible information to the layman.