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Persepolis rising by James s a Corey. Book 7 of the expanse. Started slowly and I didn't find it engaging. However it really got going and the last quarter was tremendous. More enjoyable than the recent books
 
Quantum - Patricia Cornwell 3/10
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Free as part of the Amazon Prime First Reads offer. The quality of these free books has been getting worse and whilst I'd never read Patricia Cornwell before, she is a 'respected' author so thought I'd give it a go.
A cop, who is also has time for coordinating complex space missions and is training to be an astronaut along with her identical twin sister, investigates a crime.
Apparently the author researched this for two years and it shows. She dumps random pointless facts in with masses of tedious detail that adds nothing to the story. Not that I'm 100% sure what the story was, it certainly didn't appear to reach a conclusion.
Annoying writing style, annoying characters, confusing plot. Apparently it has some special animation if you read it on a Kindle Fire but as an experiment, it feels like it was written by a computer.
When I downloaded it, it had no reviews which is normally the way with the First Reads. Expected to be annoyed by loads of reviews praising it when I checked this morning but it seems to have been universally slated.
 
Outsider by Stephen King

Read a load of Stephen King when I was a teen and I return to him now and again. This started off well, I wasn’t impressed with where it was heading at one point, but in the end overall it was OK.
 
Outsider by Stephen King

Read a load of Stephen King when I was a teen and I return to him now and again. This started off well, I wasn’t impressed with where it was heading at one point, but in the end overall it was OK.
I thought it was utter trash and the final straw with me for Stephen King. He's completely lost the spark yet still pumps out subpar shite. He seems to think he's a crime writer these days, too, for some reason.
 
I thought it was utter trash and the final straw with me for Stephen King. He's completely lost the spark yet still pumps out subpar shite. He seems to think he's a crime writer these days, too, for some reason.

I can understand that point of view when you compare it with his best stuff. He set the bar so high...can you consistently reach that level. No basically. However as a quick not heavy read i felt it was OK.
 
Persepolis rising by James s a Corey. Book 7 of the expanse. Started slowly and I didn't find it engaging. However it really got going and the last quarter was tremendous. More enjoyable than the recent books
What recent books?

love the expanse series. They usually start pretty slowly but as you say ramp up at the end.
 
I thought it was utter trash and the final straw with me for Stephen King. He's completely lost the spark yet still pumps out subpar shite. He seems to think he's a crime writer these days, too, for some reason.

The spark went out of Stephen King, the day that minivan hit him like. Absolutely no coincidence that he hasn't bashed out a decent book since that day...
 
Butcher's Crossing by John Williams 9/10
From the author of Stoner. This, for me, is an even better book. A Harvard dropout goes to the Wild West to find himself. Ends up funding a hunting expedition in search of one of the last great herds of buffalo. Strong parallels with Cormac McCarthy.

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I'd read that. Stoner was just superb.

I'm reading and thoroughly enjoying Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. The second of his I've read after Remains of the Day, which is outstanding.
 

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