verumsolum's reviews
2699 reviews

I am much relieved to be finished this book: simply because of its length. Everything there should be there, but I also found it tiring to think of how long it would be before I could start a new book in place of this one. 

This is only my first or second issue ever reading this and… it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I enjoyed almost all of it, but… I found there were more pieces that didn't resonate with me personally than I usually find for magazines and anthologies I choose

I hate to rate this book as low as a 4.5 out of 5, but… the ending turned a great book into a good one. Maybe that's on me for wanting pat answers to problems without easy solutions, but to read of all this

struggle for liberation from the empire

, only to have it end with

the protagonist's death

felt like I'd done all that reading, and nothing much about the world its in changed. And, reading this in early 2025, in the first weeks of the American president's second term in office (four years after his first term ended), I think I was hoping for inspiration and not grim realism. And the ending pushed the effect of this book towards the latter, for me.

This volume seems to have my interest again, probably because (if I’m not mistaken) the end was in sight. The action has moved the story along and the story is on its way to wrapping up

This isn’t a bad book … but I was frustrated by not having a good sense of what was fiction and what was true (and in what ways). I think the editors/publishers of this book should make clearer to readers what the book is. Especially since my assumption appears to have been mistaken. 

A really good story, The first in this series. 

Another strong book, as I continue to read Pratchett’s Discworld books. This one feels like it has a firmer hand on the plot than the first two I read.