rikercoleman's Reviews (96)

Atom Land: A Guided Tour Through the Strange (and Impossibly Small) World of Particle Physics

4.0

funny informative lighthearted fast-paced

Very fun! The journey allegory gets a bit tiresome when it’s trotted out chapter after chapter, but the book as a whole is very informative and light hearted. It gets much deeper into high energy physics than I expected. Very impressed by how intuitive the explanations of the W and Z bosons, and the Higgs are. Particularly impressed by how it manages to finish in a fun, if predictable way. Even the tired exploration metaphor is a little bit more fun when calling modified gravity theorists “salty sea dogs.”

The City in the Middle of the Night

Charlie Jane Anders

5.0

adventurous

Middlesex

Jeffrey Eugenides

3.75

reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

Shards of Honor

Lois McMaster Bujold

2.75

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Kinda meh. I had high hopes after Falling Free, but this was kind of boring and strangely paced. Not really my favorite, but romance isn’t exactly my thing either.

Falling Free

Lois McMaster Bujold

4.25

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

Robert A. Heinlein

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Sucks. Only finished it because I’m reading all the winners of the Hugo for best novel. Never reading anything else by Heinlein again.

Content Warnings

Neuromancer

William Gibson

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The Man in the High Castle

Philip K. Dick

4.0

dark tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Follows the typical Philip K Dick pattern of a book with an intriguing premise and tense plot, then going completely off the rails in the last chapter. Imaginative and deeply weird.