It's self-selected. Those who tend to read those tend to like those, and those who like those tend to review them.
I've taken to review and rate every book I read, no matter how bad or good, to avoid the second bias. But I do it on goodreads rather than amazon (since my reviews on amazon.fr would usually be wasted). Over this year, I have:
5star: 28
4star: 54
3star: 55
2star: 6
1star: 7
As you can see, even though about 2/3 of my reads are indy self-published, I still don't get too many low-star reviews because I tend to pick books that look interesting. The drek are usually spottable at the book preview.
His claim during trial was he was one of several admins of the site, which is probably true because he didnt know fuck all about coding / web building. He was in it for the political / libertarian economic philosophy, and was not the DPR account user who the feds entrapped with murder for hire. AFAIK the only 'proof' was he logged into the shared admin account.
The bigger issue with that whole case was how they found him. Likely using clandestine resources to clone the backend server that the site was hosted on. Which was specifically in a country with grey area rules on the whole thing. The planned murder or whatever was exceptionally retarded.
When his lawyers questioned how the server was obtained the courts told them, "not allowed. It's evidence and that's all you need to know."
Read Skyward by THE Brandon Sanderson. Did it all in one sitting but thinking back on it I couldnt really recall anything outstanding. Writing was good but just feel the story is kinda meh I guess. Should make Doomslug the main character in book two.
I've been going through Craig Alanson, all on Audible. Haven't actually read any of it, so results may vary there. His Narrators are fucking top notch. The Expedition Force series is grade A Sci-fi, with some really good comic relief. I also finished his Trilogy (at least I believe it's staying at that? Haven't done research to verify) that is Fantasy, not sure what the series is called. Ascendant, Transcendant, Deceptions are the 3 books. I really like the series, had a LoTR feel to some extent. The ending was a let down though, just kind of abrupt. Kind of feels like he got tired of that series and wanted to end it, feels like something that should have been a lot longer.
His claim during trial was he was one of several admins of the site, which is probably true because he didnt know fuck all about coding / web building. He was in it for the political / libertarian economic philosophy, and was not the DPR account user who the feds entrapped with murder for hire. AFAIK the only 'proof' was he logged into the shared admin account.
Read Skyward by THE Brandon Sanderson. Did it all in one sitting but thinking back on it I couldnt really recall anything outstanding. Writing was good but just feel the story is kinda meh I guess. Should make Doomslug the main character in book two.
I've read a few of the ones in discussion recently, so may as well do another roundup.
Skyward - Brandon Sanderson
I really enjoyed this one - story is about the beaten down remnants of humanity hiding in caves on the crumbling remains of a heavy industry world, fighting a losing battle against suspiciously conveniently behaved alien invaders. A teenage girl tries to live her dream of becoming a fighter pilot and fighting against the alien menace, despite the difficulties of having a infamous coward for a father. Being Sanderson, the suspiciously convenient things are mostly plot points rather than bad writing.
Unusually for YA stuff, the main character is not the only one who knows anything, only held back by the hilariously stupid and unreasonable adults. It seems to be going that way to start but I was amused thinking back on it after finishing that
The admiral was right about literally everything
The Labyrinth Index - Charles Stross
The American Black Chamber has been taken over by Cthulhu worshippers and they've staged a coup, causing everyone in America to forget the existence of the president. The elder god currently running the UK sends a special ops team in to rescue the president and defeat the black chamber.
This one was ok - it had good bits, but I found it a bit uneven without a good flow. Also I didn't like Mhari as the pov character. The autistic elven vampire sorceress was great though ;p
Admiral - Sean Danker
The main character wakes up from a malfunctioning cryosleep chamber on a derelict enemy freighter, dazed and confused, not least by why there's a collection of bewildered freshly graduated junior officers calling him Admiral, and asking for his orders. This book is a bit hard to describe - it's kind of a mystery, but unusually it's from the point of view of the suspicious character whose sketchy background story doesn't quite add up.
I thought this one was great, and had difficulty putting it down. I picked up and read the sequel after reading it, and it was almost as good - it's gets minus points though and a middle finger to the author for ending on a cliffhanger.
Mirage - Somaiya Daud
Girl gets pressed into service as a body double for the princess of the people that had conquered her planet. The princess is unpopular enough that the body double is more to soak up assassination attempts. This started strong, but wandered into depressingly predictable territory. The world building was also pretty unconvincing, pretty much 1800s with far future stickers stuck on it.
Otherbound - Corinne Duyvis
Teenage boy in our world who, since he was a small child, is linked in some way to a girl in a fantasy universe - whenever he closes his eyes, he sees through her eyes, and feels what she feels. This has pretty much fucked up his life, doctors see it as a rare form of epilepsy, and his parent's are struggling to pay for medication that doesn't work. The girl, Amara, has a worse life though - she's a mage, but also a slave. She is on the run with a princess who is the sole survivor of a violent coup. The princess is cursed, whenever she bleeds the curse animates nearby items to try and kill her - Amara's job is to spill enough of her own blood that the curse becomes confused about it's target and tries to kill her instead. Unlike the princess, Amara's magic will heal her.. eventually.
I really liked this one, good characters, unusual situations, different takes on familiar things and story that was deeper and more unpredictable than it first seemed.
The Singularity Trap - Dennis E. Taylor
Hapless newbie asteroid miner accidentally triggers a swarm of alien nanites that 'helpfully' fix his various medical problems ( such as being an organic lifeform ). Luckily they are here to save* humanity.
* For certain values of save ;p
This was good fun, if somewhat more serious than his Bobiverse books. The cover blurb made it sound a lot more like it was a rehash of the first Bob book, but it's actually quite a different kind of story. This one is a standalone as far as I can tell.
Ex-Purgatory - Peter Clines
College maintenance man is living his somewhat boring life, when he encounters a freshman girl who tells him that he's actually a superhero and that the world ended in a zombie apocalypse decades ago. This is obviously nonsense, but there are a surprisingly large number of weird things happening recently...
This one was good, amusing I didn't realise until after finishing it that it is actually the fourth book in a series. It worked pretty well as a standalone due to the nature of the story, I will definitely read the earlier ones.
The Land: Founding - Aleron Kong
This one had a pretty funny backstory - the Prince of Hell* modernizes his operation, finding that it's a hell of a lot easier to get someone to agree to a list of terms and conditions they never read, than it is to get them to sign a contract in blood. With this in mind, he launches an MMO and begins raking in the souls.
Unfortunately the backstory is just the setup for a very literal litrpg with an unfortunate level of editing and prose.
Still, the story had some charm, and I liked the generally constructive behavior of the main character - will probably read more of these at some point, and probably worth checking out if you are a fan of this kind of story I think.
* I'm not saying that explains Bobby Kotick, but, well...
Columbus Day - Craig Alanson
Army corporal on leave gets caught up in an alien invasion. After the invasion is driven off at the last minute by an opposing alien faction, he volunteers to join the United Nations Expeditionary Force, which heads out with the second group of aliens to get some payback. Things do not go according to plan...
The first half of this book was surprisingly grounded for the concept - I'm no expert, but I'd suspect the author has some military experience. It gets more fantastical/space opera in the second half after the main character runs into the computer equivalent of Deadpool but remains good in a different way.
I really liked this one, and will definitely read the rest of the series.
The Singularity Trap - Dennis E. Taylor
Hapless newbie asteroid miner accidentally triggers a swarm of alien nanites that 'helpfully' fix his various medical problems ( such as being an organic lifeform ). Luckily they are here to save* humanity.
* For certain values of save ;p
This was good fun, if somewhat more serious than his Bobiverse books. The cover blurb made it sound a lot more like it was a rehash of the first Bob book, but it's actually quite a different kind of story. This one is a standalone as far as I can tell.
Yeah, I can't recommend Columbus day by Craig Alanson enough. The series is really good, and pretty funny. I might be a little biased because his military perspective is pretty spot on
I just finished Kill All Normies. It's about chan culture, toxic elements of the internet, and the alt-right.
And it's fucking hilarious. The audiobook is like having the narrator from The Second Renaissance -
explain 4chan and all the vile shit connected to it. It's not too long and is a mostly fair depiction with some good things to say about post-modernism, irony, and transgression.
I just finished Kill All Normies. It's about chan culture, toxic elements of the internet, and the alt-right.
And it's fucking hilarious. The audiobook is like having the narrator from The Second Renaissance -
explain 4chan and all the vile shit connected to it. It's not too long and is a mostly fair depiction with some good things to say about post-modernism, irony, and transgression.
a Canadian tough guy starts a motorcycle club called Satan's Choice, which eventually gets absorbed into the Hells Angels. His life is consumed with parties and jail time. This is a story of loyalty and sacrifice in the name of brotherhood.
Yeah, I can't recommend Columbus day by Craig Alanson enough. The series is really good, and pretty funny. I might be a little biased because his military perspective is pretty spot on
I read the first book and it had a decent overall plot, but ultimately stopped reading at almost the end of the second book. The interactions between skippy and Joe got really fucking old, like multiple pages of pointless dialogue that does nothing to progress the conversation every few pages.
I need to cash in my 3 free audiobooks through prime before my sub expires, and I need some suggestions on what to get.
I'm looking for books that will make for good sporadic listens, similar to World War Z (Already checked that one out previously) where it won't be easy to lose the plot, and stand out as strong audiobooks specifically. Would also prefer ones that aren't too short.
I need to cash in my 3 free audiobooks through prime before my sub expires, and I need some suggestions on what to get.
I'm looking for books that will make for good sporadic listens, similar to World War Z (Already checked that one out previously) where it won't be easy to lose the plot, and stand out as strong audiobooks specifically. Would also prefer ones that aren't too short.
I need to cash in my 3 free audiobooks through prime before my sub expires, and I need some suggestions on what to get.
I'm looking for books that will make for good sporadic listens, similar to World War Z (Already checked that one out previously) where it won't be easy to lose the plot, and stand out as strong audiobooks specifically. Would also prefer ones that aren't too short.
I'm currently reading Anthony Cumia's book, Permanently Suspended. He talks about his life before O&A, the O&A days... getting fired and brought onto XM, then getting fired from Sirius and starting his own platform. Pretty interesting stuff. I've known 99% of it from listening over the years, but still enjoy reading it anyway.
