DB Books and Reviews

We finally have liftoff... The  ASCENDER  series hasn't been as big of a smash hit as DESCENDER was for me. I've found the pacing to be really slow in spite of how many things are going on, but I've been curious to see how this whole saga ends, so I finally got to the third volume this month.   HOW I RATED IT  4/5 Things are finally starting to pick up with this series. This installment doesn't resolve everything (of course), but it does start to bring some pieces together for what will hopefully be a spectacular final volume.  NOTE:  While my goal is to avoid major spoilers for  ASCENDER VOL 3: THE DIGITAL MAGE , I would advise not reading this review unless you have first finished the first volume in this series as well as the preceding series, DESCENDER .  CHARACTERS Mila, Telsa, Driller, Bandit, Mizerd, and Helda finally manage to take flight and leave the planet Samson. Along the way, we get some insights into the true nature of magic in...

The fastest way to travel... I had such a good experience with the second novella with this series and also had a little time to spare before the release of WIND AND TRUTH , so I decided to dive right into the third entry in Scalzi's supernatural crime thriller procedural.  HOW I RATED IT  4/5  TRAVEL BY BULLET offers another fascinating and fast paced mystery that builds upon prior instalments brilliantly and finishes with a satisfying bang.  CONTENT We rejoin our favorite Dispatcher, Tony Valdez (a guy who kills people so that they don't actually die ... most of the time) who has been able to find legitimate work again at his local hospitals in Chicago. A lot has changed since we last saw him as it seems a pandemic has led to there being a much greater need for the Dispatcher profession. Coupled with that is a law that's been put into place which was supposed to grant families a means to compassionately treat their sick or dying loved ones, but in actuality can ca...

When there are other ways to kill... After being really impressed with the first novella in the series, I finally got around to the sequel when I found myself needing something quick in between other audiobooks.  HOW I RATED IT  4/5  This fast-paced follow up to THE DISPATCHER offers another thrilling ride through a world that has a very interesting dynamic with death.  CONTENT The story again stars Tony Valdez, a Dispatcher, which is a delicate way of saying that people pay him to kill people who are about to die so that they don't actually die. In this world, people can die of natural causes or suicide, but if they are intentionally killed by someone else, then 999 times out of 1000, they will poof out of existence and reappear somewhere they feel safe, albeit naked as the day they were born. The first novella in this series played with this concept in some interesting ways, but I honestly wasn't sure how much a sequel would be able to bring to the table. As the t...

Classic-style fantasy that moves... After hearing some really nice things about this book, I've been curious to try it. It's quite long though, so I've had it on the back burner for a while now, but the release of an Audiobook version allowed me to fit it in this past month.  HOW I RATED IT  3/5  I think that fans of classic-style fantasies are going to be obsessed with this more modern take on that style. For those who don't particularly get into the fantasy classics outside of maybe Tolkien's work, your experience might be a little mixed like mine was.  CHARACTERS This is probably the aspect of the book where I am going to be the harshest as I did not personally connect much with this cast. The story focuses on four young people. Kaiel and Darien are half brothers who find themselves swept up in powers they do not understand and must face an inheritance that they were not prepared to receive. They are joined by their childhood friends and tenuous love interests, M...

The Shaluay Starbinders... After being pleasantly surprised to find this novella included in the Audiobook for BLOOD OF THE SPEAR , I went ahead and listened to it immediately after wrapping up the novel. HOW I RATED IT  4/5  The prequel novella has a lot going on and it's not immediately evident where things are heading, but n the end it packs quite a bunch and adds a substantial amount to Timmony's series.  CONTENT This story is set before the events of BLOOD OF THE SPEAR and follows a young teenage girl named Reiana who is part of a nomadic people. We're quickly introduced to her, a boy who she shares a mutual attraction to, her surly and cynical grandmother, and her younger cousin. The story very quickly escalates from some quiet family drama to a full blown battle for survival as the caravan is assaulted from enemies all around. From this point forward, borderline chaos ensues. More characters enter the fold, including some non-human ones and Reiana's grandmother...

5% Skip Capacity... I was able to snag the Dragonsteel edition of this book a little while back and wanted to make sure I got to it before the fifth STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE book came out, so I decided November would be the perfect time to tackle it since I am otherwise caught up on The Cosmere.  HOW I RATED IT  4/5  This fast-paced action romp was a good deal of fun. It marks the end of Sanderson's SECRET PROJECT books, but perhaps the beginning of a much deeper exploration into his Cosmere. CHARACTERS Our main hero of this story is a man named Nomad who's a Worldhopper from Roshar, the world in which THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE is set. It became apparent early on that he is someone we've already met from that flagship series, but I could not figure out who he actually was and even started to wonder if maybe we just hadn't actually met him yet even though there were lots of references to suggest we had. If his true identity was meant to be a surprising, then I guess I'd fe...