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Finished reading Rivals

Added The Long Game to Read Books

Added Adulthood Is a Myth: A Sarah's Scribbles Collection to a list

Wants to read River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze

Added The Creator

Finished reading Happy Place

Wants to read Black Hole Heart and Other Stories

Finished reading Blackbirds (Miriam Black Book 1)

Wants to read The Enchanted Greenhouse

Rated The Spellshop 9/10

Rated Slaughterhouse-Five 8/10

I first heard of Slaughterhouse-Five back in Dutch high school where it was on the allowed-reading list for English class, and it took me four decades to finally get to it. 😅

I found it an interesting read. The absurd mixture of styles made Vonnegut's lived experience and the absurdities of war easier to take in.

Full review: https://puf.io/books/slaughterhouse-f...
All my reviews: https://puf.io/books/

Rated Columbus Day 6/10

Columbus Day mixes space opera pulp of the purest kind with splashes of Hitchhiker’s Guide-esque absurdism, and that’s not a bad thing.

The story is very readable, the plot moves fast, and the interaction between the characters is funny and functional. I enjoyed this book for what it is, but wonder how its lightweight nature and (so far) lack of character development hold up across the series.

Rated 3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years 6/10

I’m a sucker for science fiction short stories that change one or two aspects of reality and explore the consequences.

Scalzi does that well in this story, and the writing works for me. I especially liked how the different travelers allow the story to explore several scenarios.

The ending was less satisfying than I’d hoped for, though, so this lands at 3 stars for me.

Full review: https://puf.io/books/3-days,-9-months...

Rated The Subtle Knife 6/10

I enjoyed The Subtle Knife, but like The Golden Compass, it didn’t fully live up to my expectations.

The world-building didn’t interest me as much this time, but the plot moves along nicely and has some unexpected twists. It also ends on another big, but darker, cliffhanger.

I’m looking forward to seeing how the story wraps up in The Amber Spyglass.

My full review: https://puf.io/books/the-subtle-knife...

Rated Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling 8/10

I found the first third of *Hitman* hard to read, as it often felt more like a bullet-point summary than a personal memoir. Luckily, that changed as the book went on. Hundreds of wrestling personalities make an appearance, as Hart interacted with so many of them throughout his long and storied career.

Hart comes across as self-centered and bitter, always judging other people's actions while justifying his own. The book does not paint him as a very likable person, which is an interesting choice in an autobiography.

Luckily, the author doesn't have to be likable for this to be a fascinating, personal view of a long, eventful period of pro-wrestling history.

My full review: https://puf.io/books/hitman---bret-hart/
All my reviews: https://puf.io/books/

Rated De geschiedenis van de vooruitgang 6/10

I stumbled upon Bregman’s writing through Humankind, which I really liked for its optimistic view of history and then-current affairs.

I like the topic this book explores, and the examples of progress through the ages help put things into perspective. Bregman also spends a lot of time comparing the opinions of other writers, which is not my favorite style.

Rated Wyrd Sisters 6/10

The usual plot twists, jokes, and mockery of established practices and tropes are all here. But I found the plot of this book a bit less interesting than the standard set by Pratchett’s later books.

I listened to Indira Varma’s narration, and by now I’ve stopped missing Stephen Briggs’ voice. There isn’t a bad Discworld novel out there, but this wasn’t my favorite.

Full review: https://puf.io/books/wyrd-sisters---t...

Rated The Science of Discworld 6/10

I picked this up as part of my quest to listen to all Discworld audiobooks narrated by Stephen Briggs. It’s far from my favorite Pratchett, but it wasn’t bad either. The science parts were mostly readable, though some were a bit denser than I prefer. The fictional sections, on the other hand, were great - treating serious topics with the irreverence they deserve in a world powered by narrativium.

Full review: https://puf.io/books/the-science-of-d...

Rated The spellshop 9/10

Rated The Regicide Report 8/10

It is impressive how Stross pulled so many characters from the other books into this story. Each of them has fairly little to do, but it was still nice to have them back for the grand finale. Not a bad end to the series at all.

Rated The Golden Compass 6/10

A real page-turner! The story progresses quickly and constantly, with twists and turns every few chapters, making it a very easy read.

At times, though, I found it lacked depth. The witches, the aeronaut, and the college staff all seem fascinating, but we learn relatively little about them. Although we discover more about the backgrounds and motivations of some of the main characters, they mostly remain the same throughout the book.

It’s still a fun, fast-paced read though, and I’m eager to see what The Subtle Knife brings.

Full review: https://puf.io/books/the-golden-compa...

Added Aromantic (love) story. 1 to Read Books

Added Aromantic (love) story. 2 to Read Books

Added Aromantic (love) story. 4 to Read Books

Rated Babel 6/10

This had the makings of a four-star read for me. Kuang's talent for building wonderful alternate worlds and histories remains the thing that keeps bringing me back to her work.

What holds it back is also familiar: I find her characters incredibly one-dimensional, the story somewhat predictable, and the writing often too pedantic. I regularly find myself fascinated by the worlds Kuang creates while wishing somebody else would write the stories in them.

Full review: https://puf.io/books/babel---r.f.-kuang/