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PeterB

peterb@bookrastinating.com

Joined 2 years, 5 months ago

Reading mostly in Dutch, but reviewing in English

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reviewed Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse, #2)

James S.A. Corey: Caliban's War (EBook, 2012, Orbit Books)

We are not alone.

On Ganymede, breadbasket of the outer planets, a Martian marine …

Review of "Caliban's War" on 'Goodreads'

As you can see by my score, this was a great book. If you've read the first book in the series, you absolutely must read this one. It's better!

The story continues where Leviathan Wakes concluded. Something alien has crashed onto Venus and Earth, Mars and the belt are ready for war among themselves. In this confusing and chaotic time, people are trying to take advantage of the situation and risking the entirety of mankind for monetary gain.

Of course, James Holden and his crew are ready and willing to save us all.

With Miller gone, the book introduces us to a few new characters. The main one being Avasarala, a powerful politician that, as it turns out, doesn't have as much power as she thought she had.

Chuck Wendig: Aftermath : Star Wars : Journey to Star Wars (2015, Random House Publishing Group)

Review of 'Aftermath : Star Wars : Journey to Star Wars' on 'Goodreads'

Aftermath's story is set in the years after the destruction of the second death star. The empire has fallen and the rebels are forming the new republic.

The empire tries to regroup in the outer rim, while a group of accidental by-passers tries to intervene. Of course, this group is an interesting collection of a bounty hunter, a rebel fighter pilot, an ex-imperial loyalty officer and a rebellious son. And it wouldn't be a Star Wars story if there wasn't a funny but deadly droid.

While this might not sound like an interesting premise, I think it fits perfectly in the Star Wars universe. The story itself was engaging and exciting.

I can understand some of the criticism for the book, yet I strongly believe that any Star Wars fan will very much enjoy this book.

TIm Curran: Leviathan Wakes (Paperback, 2011, Orbit)

Humanity has colonized the solar system—Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond—but the stars …

Review of 'Leviathan Wakes' on 'Goodreads'

Mankind has colonized the solar system. And just like the colonies of old, those colonies and the people living and working there are being abused to extract the resources there. Within this world of growing tension, an unknown party is willingly exploiting and aggravating that tension.

Leviathan Wakes is both a mystery novel and a grand space opera. It's an engaging and well written read. A real "just one more page" book. With all the talk about going to Mars, it's also still a very relevant "near-future" story with science that's fiction, but still, it could happen.

If you've seen the television series based on the books, the books are still very much worth a read. The story and characters are slightly different, which makes both interesting enough to experience on their own.

Napoleon Hill: Think and Grow Rich

Think and Grow Rich is a book written by Napoleon Hill in 1937 and promoted …

Review of 'Think and Grow Rich' on 'Goodreads'

“Think and grow rich” is about the mindset you need for becoming rich. It’s mostly about financial riches, but applies to other types of richness.

I picked this book because it appears in many entrepreneurial top 10 reading lists, but I feel it does not deserve a place in there.

The book has some highs, but also many lows, some very low. It starts of with the most terrible snake oil sale’s pitch known to man. “If you don’t like or understand this book, it’s because you’re not ready for its wisdom.” Ugh, I almost stopped reading there and than.

The book does get better after that first chapter and, in places, it’s really motivating and worth a read.

By the end, the book starts to go in all directions and completely derails when the benefits of telepathy with the “big intelligence above” are explained.

If you like this kind …

Sylvain Neuvel: Sleeping Giants (Themis Files, #1) (Hardcover, 2016, Del Rey)

A girl named Rose is riding her new bike near home in Deadwood, South Dakota, …

Review of 'Sleeping Giants (Themis Files, #1)' on 'Goodreads'

Sleeping Giants starts when a giant hand is found. The material from which it is crafted is unknown, but it is known that it must be thousands years old. The hand turns out to be part of something a lot bigger than any one expected.

Sleeping Giants is (mostly) written in interview style. One person interviews the main actors and that's how you piece together the story. I'm not really a fan of this, but the technique worked. I rushed through the pages, wondering what would happen next.

I greatly preferred the mystery of the hand in the first section of the book over the worldwide politics in the latter section, but overall this is a great story and should probably be read by and SF fan.

Richard Dawkins: The God Delusion (2006)

A preeminent scientist—and the world's most prominent atheist—asserts the irrationality of belief in God and …

Review of 'The God Delusion' on 'Goodreads'

The God delusion is all about the (non-)existence of an almighty God.

Although this book is not my usual fair, I read it because I noticed it in quite a few top 10 lists of people I respect.

The book is an interesting read with a good analysis of some of the points people have for and against religion. Mister Dawkins knows how to make fairly dull matter interesting with anecdotes and facts.

I did feel that some points could have been made in half the number of pages, but in general it didn’t bother me too much.

Nathan Van Coops: The Chronothon (Paperback, 2015, Skylighter Press)

Review of 'The Chronothon' on 'Goodreads'

Chronothon tells the story of Ben Travers who is, against his wishes, stuck in a Chronothon. A speed run of sorts across ages. As a timetraveler, he has to visit certain time periods and perform tasks. It's all good fun until it turns out the Chronothon is a little more than what was advertised.

This is the second book of the series. I was not aware of that, so I didn't read the first one (yet). Although I missed some references to the first book, it's not that big of a problem and you can read this book pretty much standalone.

The "In Times Like These" series takes time travel to a whole new level. A lot of thought was put into how it could potentially work and time travel is used for some surprising goals.

Chronothon is a great enjoyable adventure with a very likable main character. It's an …

Raymond Kurzweil: Danielle: Chronicles of a Superheroine (2019, WordFire Press)

Review of 'Danielle: Chronicles of a Superheroine' on 'Goodreads'

Danielle is a book about Danielle. Danielle is a true child prodigy. Curing cancer at age 4 and bringing peace to the middle east only a few years later, are just some of her accomplishments. She is indeed a true superheroine.

The story itself is just a way for mister Kurzweil to explain his ideas on how children should be taught and what they can do to improve the world.

This is a difficult review to write. I adore the ideas in the book, but I am absolutely not a fan of the way they are represented.

Although Danielle is a superheroine, the story is just too incredible to believe. And the chapters are too short to really connect with the characters. The China story was the exception and was quite interesting and engaging to read.

The "complete" edition that I read also features a printed version of the resources …

Rob hart: The Warehouse (2019, Crown)

Cloud isn’t just a place to work. It’s a place to live. And when you’re …

Review of 'The Warehouse' on 'Goodreads'

The Warehouse is a near-future science fiction story about what could happen if the warehouses of Amazon got out of control and Jeff Bezos made some odd and far-reaching decisions.

The book is written from the point of view of 3 people. Each chapter takes us into the life of one of them. The writing style is really enjoyable and some interesting techniques are used that really gave the right impressions of what it could be to live in the titular warehouse. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was a real pageturner.

The story itself is interesting but not terribly original. I have a feeling the future is going to be stranger than what Rob Hart is predicting. However, it is really exciting and you do want to continue and read that next chapter to see what the other character thinks of the situation and what happens with them.

Frank Herbert: Heretics of Dune (2019, Ace)

Review of 'Heretics of Dune' on 'Goodreads'

Heretics of Dune continues the story a few millennia after Leto 2 has died. Mankind has spread out across the galaxy after the old empire has fallen. Now, people are starting to return from the outskirts and bringing with them all kinds of new technology and new ideas.

The book mostly follows the Bene Geserit and their plans for the future of men. The quickly get into conflict with the forces returning from the farthest reaches of the galaxy.

Although the book has no clear plot or clear outcome, I really enjoyed it. There's a lot of interesting action going on and Gammu is an incredibly interesting world.

It's a must read for every Dune fan. It may be a bit hard to get into the book if you didn't read at least the previous book (God Emperor)

Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner: Super Freakonomics (2009)

SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance is the …

Review of 'Super Freakonomics' on 'Goodreads'

SuperFreakonomics is, as you'd expect, a very similar book to Freakonomics.

It's an easy read, it has a lot of interesting tidbits and facts. It's definitely worth your time.

The main premise of this book and the previous one, is that you should be really careful when "the news" starts to talk about scientific studies. With statistics and the proper reading and interpretation of facts, you can prove about anything.

Yet, after reading the book, you can help but think: "Why would SuperFreakonomics be any better at this than many other news sources?"

J.D. Moyer: The Sky Woman (Hardcover, 2018, FLAME TREE PRESS)

Review of 'The Sky Woman' on 'Goodreads'

The Sky Woman is a "near-future" science fiction book about the best case scenario of what could happen if current events continue as they do (global warming, corporations, etc.)

The population on earth has been reduced to about half a billion and people have forgotten most of the technology that was ever invented. Technology has survived on the space stations, but the people there have turned their back on their home planet.

Until now.

The book is really 3 intermixed stories. One about the Viking-like lifestyle that has survived on earth. One about the space stations and another one that's a bit of a surprise.

I think there's one story too much for the amount of pages that the book has. The viking part is explained in detail, but I'd love to learn much much more about the other two.

Overall, I think the book covers a lot of very …

reviewed Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie (Imperial Radch, #3)

Ann Leckie: Ancillary Mercy (Paperback, 2015, Orbit)

For just a moment, things seem to be under control for the soldier known as …

Review of 'Ancillary Mercy' on 'Goodreads'

This is the final part in the Radch trilogy. I read the Dutch translation, which was again spot on.

The story stays with Brecq who is now trying her best to protect the Athoek station. This gets quite complicated when the war between the Radch leader arrives in the solar system.

This is an exiting conclusion to the trilogy and a must read if you have read the previous two books. There's a lot more happening than in the 2nd book which I really enjoyed.

Similar to previous books in the trilogy, the story is also used to discuss some of the choices that the human race has made or will need to make in the future and some possible outcomes.

Unlike in Ancillary Sword, the choices in this final book seemed much more far-reaching and important. Much more like you would expect in a truly great work of science-fiction.

Review of 'Reset : How to Restart Your Life and Get F. U. Money' on 'Goodreads'

Although Reset is aimed at "midlife careerists", the advice to take control of your life and plan ahead is valuable for every one.

Before we continue: I got this book for free. In return here's an an honest review.

First and foremost, David is a great writer. His writing is engaging, funny, easy to read and from the heart. I loved it.

The book itself is a combination of ideas of starting an online business, becoming financially independent and simply leading a happy life. As you may imagine from that description, it covers a lot of subjects.

For some books, this can be a good thing. For this book, I felt being torn from one subject to the next. I think there are multiple books in here to really get to the bottom of everything.

Overall, this felt more like a good introduction to the subjects covered. And did I …

Frank Herbert: God Emperor of Dune (Paperback, 2003, Gollancz)

Review of 'God Emperor of Dune (Dune Chronicles #4)' on 'Goodreads'

Another awesome episode in the Dune universe.

This time, we travel 2000+ years into the future after Leto2 became the emperor and god of the known universe. This book deals with how his reign ends and why he wanted to be god.

Although the book does not contain that much action and felt somewhat similar in mood to the second book in the first trilogy (Dune Messiah), it never was as boring as that book. For an almost 40 year old book, it still touches on a number of themes and issues that are relevant to this day, although some feel dated (like the LGB section that was crinchworthy)

Overall, this is a worth book in this series.