(Illuminae 3) Obsidio

“Hey, if hostile battleship takeovers were easy, everybody would do it.”

“The die is cast. But today we will shake the table upon which it lands.”

) & full cast

(Illuminae 3) Obsidio by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Audibook Narrator(s): See List Below...
epub - 539 pages. Audiobook - 13:02:00 total

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My Rating:

HINT: This is book three of a trilogy. There are spoilers in this review. If you read the first two books in the trilogy, you'll be starving for this one.

Highly recommended 4.5 star science fiction novel. Obsidio is book three in the Illuminae series and here, at the end of the trilogy, we learn what Illuminae files are. But that's largely the conclusion of this book.

We start in a darker place. What started as a criminal hijacking of a criminal mining operation so far from the civilized galaxy that the nearest taco truck of a jump point station feels like it's a light year away - yet this bad actor company attacking another loose cannon company is now teetering on... not killing billions of people. No, not even trillions of people, but 2 entire universes. Billions of galaxies in each.

Generally: Spoilers certainly.
What? Two freaking UNIVERSES?

Yes, on a macro scale: This little SNAFU has developed some serious consequences. But this is a people story!

(Illuminae 2) Gemina

“It may comfort you to know that your death, while astonishingly violent, will likely be mercifully swift.”

“This tiny moment. In between the time you decide to pull a trigger and the time death arrives. There's just you and it and everything you're about to take away. It's too big. It goes forever.”

(Illuminae 2) Gemina by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Audiobook Narrator: Full Cast Listed below
Epub 646 pages, Audiobook 12:33:39 total

Title and Author links to where you may purchase the book. This is a rating primarily of the audiobook although I did read along in much of the ebook.... It easier to read the ebook in portrait, if your eyes are about 300% better than mine.

My Rating:

Highly recommended 5 star science fiction thriller novel, extraordinaire. If you don't want spoilers don't read the reviews of a second book in a trilogy? A review of a second book in a multi-book series is not possible without spoilers -- unless you say just about nothing, which I've grown weary of doing.

I will try NOT to be explicitly & blatantly spoiling but if you read even one sentence further, and you didn't want spoilers

... We both messed up. You read the blurbs, other reviews, and now this one.

Here we go...
We start again in media res. We are in the proceedings of the trial of Bei-Tech's massive crime which is pretty much all of what the previous book, Illuminae, is about. By now we know who is on trial, who they are related to, what atrocities they've wrought, and why Kady's boyfriend, per se, was ever at Kerenza to begin with. (Gives me Glenn Close quivers. Not sorry.)

A Memory Called Empire

 

(Teixcalaan 1) A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

Narrator: Amy Landon, Thank you for your excellent performance.

I pre-reviewed this having finished 70+% of it. I had issues but this novel being a Hugo winner I assumed things would really turn around. Today, less than a week later I'm mildly recommended this 2020 Hugo Award winning novel! A 3.5 star science fiction/thriller/suspense novel.

With this one... what threw me off were two things. My glowing "pre-reviews", which are all scrapped. And reviews which I routinely try to ignore were all glowing with praise, excitement, maybe even some worship. I do try to ignore other reviews, but really, let's be honest. When we grossly disagree, do we really want to stir to pot, so to speak?

The things I wish I did straight up in every review is say, "good/bad" this genre, (fantasy, gnomes & vampires), sci-fi epic expansionists, or so forth. I recommend or not, maybe something I thought cool or that sucked. That way in a sentence or two you can largely make up your mind, if you trust me, to add it to a list or scrap it for later. Then I try to be consistent with babble, but fail miserably.

First thing I messed up on this novel was thinking "Hugos" mean something. I recall thinking J. D. Powers meant something then read some article where they were selling me that McDonald's was the best restaurant in the USA.

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

I'm writing this review on 7/2/20. I finished reading Middlegame on May 31, 2020. This is relevant with regard to a fairy tale I will mention later.

I picked up this ebook & audiobook after reading an article on the 2020 Hugo award nominee finalists. Middlegame was among them and there-after I read a great deal of praise for Seanan McGuire.

I'd never heard of Seanan McGuire before that article. I read Middlegame. Now I own several Seanan McGuire books & audiobooks.


Lately, when reading, I tend to think, "This reminds me of…"

The Cure by Douglas E. Richards

It started slow, that's a valid gripe - or slow for Douglas E. Richards. He usually starts with something like pulling the rip cord and the parachute lines tangle. The jumper fails to cut away the tangled parachute and in a panic deploys the back up which only tangles things up further. Petty intense.

This one does start with some traumatically cringe-worthy psychopathic brutality and only one surviving child, who is our protagonist. So my slow argument doesn't really hold up very well. But that's just shoving you in the door. Once you're in the book, you're waiting for grandma to make the tea… there's the fuss about Earl Grey or Cinnamon Apple… boring... metaphorically. Then Erin, our traumatic surviving child has grown up. She has overcome the massive trauma and is now studying psychopathy. It's about that time you think you've figured out where Mr. Richards is going with "The Cure".

You'll be wrong. He does some writer "magic tricks."

While you're looking at the "cure psychopathy" presumption, he changes where you're not looking. When you turn the page you're rubbing your chin thinking, well..., ok..., didn't think it would go that way.

Amped by Douglas E. Richards

I recommend Amped which is another 4-5 star Sci-fi thriller by Douglas E. Richards that reads so fast its 350+ pages seem like a short story. Mystery has been one of the factors Mr. Richards loves to weave into his action, adventure, Sci-fi thrillers. In that way he reminds me much of Isaac Asimov and his way to "teaching" through the dialogue of his characters reminds me of Robert Heinlein.

——————————SPOILERS——————————
Mr. Richards returns to Wired series and delightful co-protagonists Kira Miller and David Desh. By now they have assembled a collection of folks committed to their cause. Kira has found a way to enhance human intelligence for brief periods of time and her collection of brilliant scientists take her drug under strict conditions and while "enhanced" realize discoveries that are far more advanced than current technology.

The Nowhere Man by Gregg Hurwitz

I liked The Nowhere Man by Gregg Hurwitz: 3 Stars. Recommend 👍.

I thought book #1, Orphan X, and book #3, Hellbent, were better. This book seemed to lag and become tedious several chapters before the climax.

The Nowhere Man is the 2nd "Orphan X" novel. The novels are "Secret Agent" type of action thrillers. In these novels orphans vanish into the "Orphan Program"-a CIA type of agency where these select orphans are trained from childhood to be invisible and extraordinarily dangerous. Orphans are one person Mission Impossible agents. Evan Smoke is Orphan X a designation similar to 007. For reasons established in the first book, he has gone rogue. As our protagonist he becomes a John Wick type of Ray Donovan except he fixes the nightmares of desperate folks who have nowhere to turn for help.

She stops sleeping. She starts plucking out her hair in patches. She cuts herself at school, hoping the pain will wake her from this nightmare.

Father of one of her classmates see the signs. He finds her sobbing in a 7-Eleven bathroom when she should be in homeroom. With a cane and fresh limp he goes and gives her a phone number: 1-855-2-NOWHERE. "He'll answer. He'll help," the injured friend's father says. She dials.

The Count of Monte Cristo

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Links may lead to spoilers

The story of The Count of Monte Cristo is a marvelous adventure that likely rates with Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Edmond Dantès is Dumas's protagonist. There are a number of antagonists and contagonists. Indeed, the number of significant characters in this volume challenges my ever more feeble memory.

Dantes is a young and talented sailor, but ignorant of politics. His primary concern is his aged father and his soon to be fiance, Mercedes. Nothing is of much importance to him beyond father, fiance, and perhaps the possibility that M. Morrel may promote him to Captain of the Pharaon, which would greatly enhance his future prospects for providing for his father and future wife. Unfortunately young is often naive. Additionally, happiness and success too often produce enemies unknown. Such as Dangler's, the supercargo on the ship Pharaon, which Dante's sails home to Marseilles after her Captain Leclere unexpectedly dies on their voyage to Smyrna, Trieste, and Naples.

One Word Kill

One Word Kill by Mark Lawrence

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

May 31, 2019: I've just re-read this review.  It is a pretty massive spoiler, I suspect.  Maybe not so much of you don't click, "read more".

One Word Kill might remind folks of the TV show Stranger Things as its primary characters are youngsters, perhaps who should have grown out of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), but haven't. So our co-protagonists are bonded together as a set of socially prosecuted people by their evil peers because they are, or nearly are, "geeks". At that age, 15ish, perhaps only thinking nerds who can understand complex math, philosophy, history and retain an imagination are the least likely to be evil to their "not-the-same-as-me" peers. -just a cultural observation.

Nicholas "Nick" Hayes is our leukemia riddled, Chemo soaked protagonist. His D&D character is Nicodemus, who studied the arcane; he's a trainee wizard, if you like. Our remaining D&D band of brothers is Elton, who may have seen the Avenue of the Baobabs as an infant. He is The Game Master. There's Simon who can easily paint miniatures with his fat fingers. He plays Finious the thief, but he'd never steal in real life. I think Simon's a functioning Asperger's with a savant gift of math skills, but that's barely implied in the book.

John is the "Fonz" of the group who would never admit to having geeky friends, but his debonair facade doesn't annoy his D&D pals. He's always on time for Saturday D&D, so his ego is ignored.

THEN ONE DAY Elton, The Game Master, brings the mysterious Mia to the sacred Saturday D&D session, destroying all decency and protocol. Mia is next seen in the novel with John the faux Fonz throwing pebbles at Nick's window around midnight the day of this first Chemo treatment.

The Kill List

The Kill List by David Archer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Spoiler Alert: This is Sam Prichard Mystery #5. Anything said may spoil Sam Prichard Mysteries 1-4. I think they are an endearing and entertaining set of mysteries that might be fun for anyone to read, so if you think you might enjoy these G rated books in the future, stop after the next two or three paragraphs until you've read books 1-4.

This review included the ebook and audiobook narrated by the most excellent Mikael Naramore who makes the audiobook exceptionally pleasing. I liked it. 3 stars. I recommend "The Kill List" and the previous 4 mysteries.

In a previous Sam Prichard review I called these novels "Gum Shoe Musicals". While this one retains this moniker, I may be changing the moniker to "Gum Shoe Country Musicals" or possibly - in the future to "Gum Shoe Gospel Musicals". Guessing the trend goes as I presume (possibly incorrectly).

I gave them this label as Sam Prichard is a private investigator, aka Gum Shoe, and David Archer has added links to his ebooks that play songs on his website. You can sing along with the lyrics in the ebook. If you have purchased the audiobook, there's nothing to click, where the lyrics are in the ebook, they actually play the song on the audiobook making it, at least in part, a "music audio file".

Framed

Framed by David Archer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm giving this pretzel plotted gumshoe musical 3.1415926535 stars and recommending it as if it is a 5 star blockbuster to lovers of mysteries or people who know what an Edgar award is.

It is a very fast paced private eye detective novel that feels a bit like Father Knows Best, Mayberry R.F.D, or The Brady Bunch. I don't know how to explain that comparison. Hanging out with Sam Prichard, Indie and Kenzie while investigating mysteries rife with danger and intrigue is like playing Monopoly with a few of your good friends. It's entertainment. It's fun. You may or may not lose sleep with it but only because you won't mind returning to be with your friends again tomorrow. Ok then…

*Warning* contains spoilers related to Sam Prichard novels 1-3. How can you not write a spoiler about book 4 in a series? I'll try not to ruin your enjoyment of the earlier books.

Public Folder our path for Reading Classics

Our Reading Classic Program & Original HTML Reviews

Sagely Fox has an alternate 'private' site where you may:

• Access my 2021 reviews as they were originally written in HTML.
• From that page you may access our Public Files Index.

The original purpose for this 'private' site was to store our 'Free Reading Classics Program' E-books and Audiobooks! But it has become slightly more over time.

The Reading Classics Program

There you can download epub e-books and audiobooks, usually the audio in zipped files containing the book's mp3 files. Some links are simply to where you may access the e-book and/or audiobook online for yourself. There are two ways to access The Reading Classics Program. You may either scroll down to the list of available downloads on the 'private' Index/Public Files page or you may click on The Reading Classics Program heading at the top of the Index/Public Files page to directly access the directories.

You're free to download any document or file in the Sagely Fox Public Files or share them with your friends. You'll not be doing anything illegal. They are all public domain files.

Learn More Here...

Love and War

Love and War by David Archer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Again, I really liked another Sam Prichard Mystery. This book. That would be four stars. I liked its writing, and Mikael Naramore's reading of it. I'm reviewing both the ebook and the audio-book.

In this book we open with Sam singing in the shower with joy of his upcoming nuptials. Which reminds me of a review of the previous Sam Pricharcd novel, “ Death Sung Softly”. I’m reminded because I mention the previous novel is a “musical”. This book is also a musical in the same ways. The audio-book sings, the ebook has the lyrics and links to the singing, but it isn’t as extensive a musical as “Death Sung Softly” where Sam became the lead singer of band who hired him as a private investigator to find their missing lead singer.

I digress.

The Goodreads blurb tells more spoiler info than I like to provide in order to encourage folks to read a book. My additions will, however, spoil it further, sorry.

Death Sung Softly - A Sam Prichard Mystery

Death Sung Softly by David Archer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Death Sung Softly by David Archer is my third Sam Prichard Mystery. I've really liked them. This one I give four stars and recommend it.

It is the first novel I've read that I actually stopped and thought, "This is a musical". Keep in mind that I am reviewing both the ebook and the audiobook. The lyrics are in the ebook, and they sing them in the audiobook. There's also a link in the ebook so you can click the link, go to David Archer's website, and listen to the song reproduced there.

To give you an idea how unique this is, I read over 130 Doc Savage Adventure Novels before I reached my teens and my actual reading love leans more to science fiction than adventures. So there's at least 5 more decades of ambitious reading since and this is the first I thought…. "This book is a musical." I suppose that is a comment on our time and our technology than anything else.

In this mystery Sam Prichard formally opens his Private Investigator business. On his first day of advertisement he gets a missing person job. The fellow is a musician and the rest the musicians want to find their missing lead singer.

The Grave Man by David Archer

The Grave Man by David Archer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really liked this book (four stars), its writing, and Mikael Naramore's reading of it. I'm reviewing both the ebook and the audio-book. As I mentioned only days ago, I'll always hear Sam Prichard in Mikael Maramore's voice.

Just days ago I said, "I am going to enjoy me some more Sam Prichard Mysteries in the future." In my mind I meant "Death Sung Softly". I ended up re-reading this book, "The Grave Man".

Since I had just read Fallback and recalled it is so closely related to "The Grave Man" I decided to put on the audio book while I did some chores that don't require much mental attention. I ended up listening until it was finished with the book, long after my boring chores were done.

Fallback, a Sam Prichard Mystery by David Archer.

Fallback by David Archer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked this book, its writing, and Mikael Naramore's reading of it a great deal. I'm reviewing strictly the audiobook so the fact is, I'll always hear Sam Prichard in Mikael Naramore's voice, but the casual writing style or voice of David Archer is an integral part of Sam Prichard, a character I will enjoy through several books thanks to David Archer's productivity.

This four star book is primarily Sam Prichard's back story. One reason I didn't go with five stars is there's really no relationship with the first several chapters to the story which finally grabs the reader. It's interesting enough to read, but the tragedy of Sam Prichard's late teens love life is not terribly relevant to the story David Archer finally gets around to telling. I presume since he wrote a prequel after publishing a book or two, it will be relevant in future books.

Delirium (Debt Collector 1)

Delirium by Susan Kaye Quinn

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Susan Kaye Quinn has come up with a unique idea for her Debt Collection books. Lirium is a "debt collector". We never learn how a character learns how to collect this kind of debt.

We start out in the hospital with Lirium coming to "collect" Mr. Henry's debt. His debt is the remainder of his life force.

I would assume this takes place in the future with single payer health care firmly in place and some bean counter has calculated that the amount of life force remaining in Mr. Henry exceeds the cost of his medical bills, and any other debt he may owe. He's reached a negative balance that the bean counters presume Mr. Henry could never repay. In this health care plan, someone better able to contribute to society gets Mr. Henry's life force debt.

A Criminal Defense

A Criminal Defense by William L. Myers Jr.

My rating:


Amazon ebook and Whispersync audiobook, read/listened in 2017 on 5/20 to page 238, and on 6/9 to the end. I loved it (4½ of 5) ?? and recommend it.

In addition to being a standard lawyer suspense novel, the type that first caught my attention when I binged on John Grisham's 1991 - The Firm, 1992 - The Pelican Brief, 1993 - The Client, it is also a mystery with more twists than a pretzel.


I'm certain the genre was around before John Grisham but, for me, he turned the genre from Graham Crackers into Hershey's Chocolate.

In March 2017 William L. Myers Jr.'s A Criminal Defense looked more appealing to me than the other Kindle First offerings that month. I'm glad I bumped this one to the top of a very long list of "to read" books.

Our author, Mr. Myers, gets us into the story quick enough. His protagonist, Mick McFarland is standing outside the home of a convicted murderer's mother who has begged him to appeal her only son's hopeless murder case. Mick took the case pro bono a and has lost two costly appeals already but his Hail Maryb legal maneuver was caught in the end zone, so now Justin Bauer will be getting a new trial. The mother has been so distraught she no longer answers the phone. So Mick is at her door to try to give her the good news. Great that Justin will get a new trial, nightmare that Mick's firm will be likely go broke from the trial.