Reviews and Comments

I greatly enjoyed this book. A who done-it with interesting characters

Not much better at writing reviews either. But I quite liked this different view of magicians.

Another very enjoyable Leaphorn and Chee adventure.

Edit: I should add that Leaphorn has an interesting path through this story that I really appreciated. And there's other thoughts that just don't seem to want be articulated on paper. td

I'm not sure how many times I've read the book over the years. So it must be time to start it again. The first two, Life-Line and The Roads Must Roll are from 1939 and 1940. The language and style are certainly from then. Think old black and white movie. Or remember that Star Trek episode where they went back in time to somewhere with gangsters and had to speak that lingo? This is it. I enjoyed both again and they speak to today as much as then.

A sequel to the previous book Hope. Set a generation beyond Hope this is just as or more Grimm. The characters are interesting and not just one dimensional except when they really are. Corporations and govt and greed and humans being human. Sometimes hard to read . But again very well done and worth your time.

I really disliked this book along the way of reading it. Had to put it down for a bit a few times. Not because it was bad, it’s not at all. But because it’s so chilling in describing a near future. Well Done

The cover art was just released today on. whatever.scalzi.com/2023/05/08/cover-reveal-starter-villain/
I look forward to this as I have with most other books by Mr Scalzi. And the cover is just plain cool.

I really liked this. Imagine a 67 year old main character! With an old rock star tour bus. Who's an accountant. Lots of money, blocks, chains and keys floating around. And retirement.

I finished it. But. won't go looking for the next in the series. The two main characters are not ones I warmed p to. I think this is more a YA book which I didn't see or pay attention to before reading. I had liked the authors Paper Magician books so thought I'd try this. Oh well.

A fairly quick read. Much more a “who-dun-it” than sf. But that’s ok it’s enjoyable. I am a fan of the author , I just like his writing

Interesting start of a series with a mix of kind of magic” like stuff but mostly two school friends working through the rembernces of school and its lasting effects. I’m not doing this justice so go read it.

Was just reading about the follow up book to this in John Scalzi's Big Idea section of his website. Looks like I better add and read this first.

I like it sometimes when I don't remember why I wanted to read a book. This was one. It can make it a bit difficult at first. Either the author was being sparse of I was being more dense than usual.
By mid point or so I was all in. And really enjoyed it. a couple tears may have been shed at the end. Wonderful.

Rating this 4 stars partly due to fond feeling for something I initially read 50ish years ago.
Originally published in 1958 its a story of a group of people that were different. And you can guess what happens at least in general. It's a fairly short story that's part of The Future Histories stories and introduces Lazarus Long. Certainly this writing and dialog is 1950's and there is a fair amount of hand waving to move the story along. But I liked it.