A Trade of Blood, Robert Jackson Bennett

 

A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett

Started: September 3, 2026
Completed: September 11, 2026
Recommendation: Highly recommended
Recommended By: Nobody, just love the series
Media: Audio

Review:

It is impressive how Bennett drives a whole fantasy series on how an empire is fed.  This is not just an impressive feat in and of itself, but it is also revealing about our own society and our own world.  Really a great book in a great series.

Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay

 

Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay has been in my books to read for so long, I cannot remember why it is there.

Started: August 8, 2021
Completed: September 3, 2026
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Media: ebook/audio

Review:

This book took me forever.  It is a good book.  The beginning is slow and I often grab ebooks when I am sitting in line or just have a minute or two.  This book had a huge cast of characters and an epic story line.  It was just too much to do in dribs and drabs.  When I switched to the audio book, things progressed nicely.  It still wasn't fast because there was so much to remember that I found myself going back and relistening.  In the end, however, having this book on audio meant that I could actually spend time on the story instead of rereading.

Prophecy, Carissa Véliz

 

Prophecy: Prediction, power, and the fight for the future from ancient oracles to AI by Carissa Véliz

Started: July 23, 2026

Completed: August 31, 2026

Recommendation: Highly Recommended

Recommended By: Nobody

Media: Audio

Review:

This book is compelling making the strong argument that prediction is not telling the future it is about what the predictor wants to happen.  It is well written, artfully argued, and only a little repetative.  Anyone who references Thales of Miletus is OK in my book :).

Perdido Street Station, China Miéville

 

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville

Started: August 18, 2026
Completed: August 29, 2026
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody
Media: Audio

Review:

This was, in many ways, a book without any redeeming character.  The destruction of basically all of the characters in the book (not necessarily death) was unrelenting.  The prose, however, was excellent.  I just could not stomach the plot and it all unraveled at the end.  It seemed as though the characters which most deserved destruction did not get it, those who seemed to deserve enrichment did not get it and those in between fell either side of the line with little more than randomness.  In that sense it was realistic.  Well written, but hard to walk away thinking of anyone to whom I should provide a glowing recommendation.

The Time Ships, Stephen Baxter

 

The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter is a continuation of HG Wells' short story, The Time Machine.  I'm not thrilled about someone glomming on to someone else's work, but I was curious about this one.  This was authorized by the Wells estate.

Started: July 22, 2026
Completed: DNF
Recommendation: N/A
Recommended By: Nobody
Media: Paperback

Review:

Wells had a certain breathless observational mode.  This book captured that well, but, frankly it is unendurable.  150 pages into 510 and I just could not keep it up.  The book wore me out.

Languages of the Mind, Ray Jackendoff

 

Languages of the Mind:  Essays on mental representation by Ray Jackendoff

Started: August 20, 2026
Completed: DNF
Recommendation: N/A
Recommended By: Nobody
Media: Trade paperback

Review:

I thought this book would be about how the brain talks to itself.  It is not that.  I was instantly bogged down in technical material that I could not decipher.  It seems like this is a pheneticist thinking about the brain purely from the perspective of language.  And, treating the brain as a machine.  I just couldn't get through it.

Zeno of Elea, H.D.P. Lee

 

Zeno of Elea:  A text with translation and notes by Henry Desmond Pritchard Lee

Started: August 18, 2026
Completed: August 20, 2026
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Media: Paperback

Words for which I sought help:

otiose -- of no use; pointless or superfluous

puerile -- immature, especially in being silly or trivial; childish

Review:

There is very little reference to Zeno in existing works and no original works of Zeno have been found as of now.  I feel that Lee goes as far as possible with the small scraps he addresses.  I never thought of Zeno as the founder of the dialectic (I thought it was Socrates, but I was clearly wrong) and am glad to know more of him.