A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I prefer shorter fantasy books over the enormous epic fantasies that have become so typical for the genre—and for the most part, that is still true. However, my recent experiences with Louis L’Amour are prompting me to rethink some of that, or at least to recognize that …
Continue reading “When Longer is Better: The Novels of Louis L’Amour”
About midway through the third book in the Chronicles of Amber, I came to the realization that these books are the perfect length for me. They’re about as long and as fast-paced as a typical L’Amour novel, which is to say that they’re less than 200 pages and feel like they’re less than 100. If …
Continue reading “This is why I love shorter fantasy novels: Sign of the Unicorn by Roger Zelazny”
I have to be honest: before I discovered the Chronicles of Amber, I had all but given up on Zelazny as an author. All of his stuff that I’d previously attempted to read had won a bunch of major awards, and none of it appealed to me. I honestly couldn’t see what the big deal …
Continue reading “When to give an author another chance: The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny”
One of the first pieces of writing advice that I ever recieved, right alongside “never end a story with the words ‘it was all a dream’” and “never introduce the main character by having them look at themselves in a mirror” was “never write a story where the main character has amnesia.” Which struck me …
Continue reading “An Amnesia Story Done Right: Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny”
I have yet to read a bad Louis L’Amour book. Some of them are more forgettable than others, but they’re all at least pretty good. The best ones, though, are in a league of their own, and I think Last of the Breed may be his best work. It’s a Cold War thriller about an …
Continue reading “Man vs. Nature vs. Man in Last of the Breed by Louis L’Amour”
The Storm Testament is an older series, but it’s quite good. It follows the saga of the Storm family, starting with Dan Storm and his adventures during the Mormon pioneer era. The first two books were a lot of fun, and formed a sort of duology. The third book followed Dan’s son Sam’s romantic adventures, …
This is a pretty good book. It’s got a lot of interesting twists, and the post-apocalyptic world is both terrifying and fascinating. Also, it’s very well written. So why am I DNFing it? Mostly because I don’t have the stomach for this kind of story right now. It’s very depressing. The post-apocalyptic world of the …
The first four Murderbot books make a complete story arc, so this one in a lot of ways felt like a satisfying wrap up to the series, even though of course there are other books. I strongly suspect that Martha Wells wrote these with the intent of self-publishing them, but her traditional publisher gave her …
Continue reading “Joe Reviews: Exit Strategy by Martha Wells”
Some books that address controversial issues try to appeal to a broad audience, building bridges and trying to persuade others onto their side. Others are written to a narrow audience, to galvanize the true believers and give them strength and clarity as to the rightness of their side. Neither approach is bad necessarily, but it’s …
Continue reading “Joe Reviews: A Nefarious Plot by Steve Deace”
This is probably going to be the longest 3-star review that I’m ever going to write. Don’t get me wrong. This is a very important book, perhaps one of the most important books of our time. Anyone who wants to understand why our world has gone so crazy and where we can expect things to …
Continue reading “The Fourth Turning by William Strauss and Neil Howe”
