Also @Chaos_99@fosstodon.org at Mastodon
Reads mostly SciFy or Fantasy, nonfiction about technology (electronics and programming), enjoys the occasional biography. Holds Terry Pratchett very dear, currently tries to keep up with a Mr. Sanderson.
This link opens in a pop-up window
1 New York Times Bestselling author Brandon Sanderson meshes Jason Bourne and epic fantasy in …
A vacation-purchase read half already. Fun, but a bit of in-between tones.
Shadows of Self shows Mistborn’s society evolving as technology and magic mix, the economy grows, …
It's hard to write a review that is not a comparison to either the first book of the series or to the other Sanderson series. But as I haven't written reviews to those, that's not an option.
So as a stand-alone book, this one tones down the fantasy elements a bit. Mind you, there are still present and very much in the foreground, but the magic/alchemy system has grown so complex by now that the book wisely choses to not depend on a deep understanding or even base it's story to much on discovering more unknown details about it. It rather just treats some characters as having super hero-like abilities to fancy up the action scenes and more than one time offer an easy way out (narrative-wise) to otherwise pretty dead-end situations. The thriller part can't really decide if it wants to be serial-killer hunt or whodoneit. It introduces some …
It's hard to write a review that is not a comparison to either the first book of the series or to the other Sanderson series. But as I haven't written reviews to those, that's not an option.
So as a stand-alone book, this one tones down the fantasy elements a bit. Mind you, there are still present and very much in the foreground, but the magic/alchemy system has grown so complex by now that the book wisely choses to not depend on a deep understanding or even base it's story to much on discovering more unknown details about it. It rather just treats some characters as having super hero-like abilities to fancy up the action scenes and more than one time offer an easy way out (narrative-wise) to otherwise pretty dead-end situations. The thriller part can't really decide if it wants to be serial-killer hunt or whodoneit. It introduces some distracting characters to finally return back to the central cast for the resolution, which in hindsight wasn't that elegant. I'm personally a big fan of the magic system and the 'discovering long-lost knowledge and abilities' concept so this book let me down a little. I treat it as a bridge to the third which hopefully returns to old form.
Started reading and couldn't turn it away for half the book. (At which point I had too, not the books fault.) It's rather complicated to follow all the timelines it tries to tell you from which it switches constantly between. There are subtly color-coded, but it's still something you need to keep you concentration on. Tragic world-war(s) family history and classic video game development backstory isn't something you see often mixed, but it surely hits my nerve. Will surely continue to read ...