theravenkingx's Reviews (336)

there is a reason God limits our days.
- Why?
- to make each one precious.

A very simple and short book with a power to make you cry. It read like a middlegrade book with all those fantastical elements and references to fables. For some reason, it reminded me of "The Little Prince. " it's a nicely written book with a very important and profound message of  respecting the limited time we have on this earth.

The story revolves around three people. Dor, Sarah and Victor. Dor is the catalyst of all the chaos in the book. He creates the tools to measure time which in turn leads to an epidemic of obsession with time. As a punishment he is forced by the God to spend six thousand years in a cave, alone, listening to the voices of people from Earth begging and praying for more time. After he has served his time and learned his lesson, he is sent to Earth to help two people: one who needs too much time and one who needs too little.

Once we began to chime the hour we lose the ability to be satisfied.

Sarah Lemon after being dumbed by the guy she liked want nothing more than to disappear from the face of the world while Victor Delemonte, a rich businessman, who is dying of Cancer after living a nice and decent life, want nothing more than to extend his time on earth. These two, consumed by their obsession, have completely forgotten to LIVE and appreciate life and its little blessings, that they have in abundance. Dor is tasked to save these two from themselves.


I think we all need to pause and think about what we are doing with our alloted time. We need to ask ourselves if we will be able to say that we spent our time the right way when the angel of death visits us? Are we losing too much of ourselves in our day to day life? Is our obsession with time and our effort to squeeze more and more and do more and more in limited time making us miserable and hollow from inside?  These are the question that we should ask ourselves more often.

It's an important and thought provoking book that will make you question yourself and maybe even change for good.

I may have to re-read this book to properly review it. First half of the book contained personal and heartbreaking experiences of the author in a concentration camp while the second half was about the theory he developed upon returning from the camp. I enjoyed the first half. Second half was boring and read more like a text book. And since it's a translated version, the writing felt too complex and too dry for my taste.

Anyway, I want to Reread some parts of the book to fully grasp the message. I'll review it properly once I have done that.

Am I not quantifiably more benevolent than the various versions of God? I have never brought about a flood, or destroyed entire cities as punishment for their iniquity.

OMG! What a mind-gleaning book!!! It rendered me deadish then revived me to torcher some more. It was so well done. A great sequel to an outstanding first book.
 
I loved Citra in this book and Rowen became my favourite character. I loved how dark and gritty his arc was. My only problem with the book was its pacing. It's a bit slower compared to the first book, and some parts felt like they were being dragged for no reason, specially the part before the ending. I was way too deeply engrossed into the story when the plot took a backseat and touring of the island became the major theme of the book. It was irritating but everything else was just unique and one of a kind.

The main guy in this book is, obviously, the thunderhead. It's an AI that controls pretty much everything except the scythedom; It can't, by design, interfere in scythedom matters, even though it knows scythedom is enroute to a destructive Path. But because it's a benevolent force that wants to protect human beings at all costs, it finds a way to interfere, indirectly. It creates a domino effect that starts with a single person - Greyson Tolliver, and ends with a near collapse of scythedom.

The AI is given a persona of a God. It is an all seeing, all knowing force that is working, from the sideline, for the benefit of human beings. The religious parallels Neal shusterman has drawn are absolutely awe inspiring. I was wondering what the role of Tonists - a religious group that prefer the ways of old age - were for the past two books, it all came together in this book. 

Those who don't follow Thunderhead's laws are marked unsavoury, and they lose, among other things, their right to contact the AI. It's much like us - the sinners. We can't talk to God, right? Do you see the parallel with religion here?  Then there is this train of thoughts where thunderhead admits that with ability to travel through space and time he can truly become a God. This passage was so mind-boggling.

How ironic, then, and how poetic, that humankind may have created the Creator out of want for one. Man creates God, who then creates man. Is that not the perfect circle of life? But then, if that turns out to be the case, who is created in whose image?

⚠ Spoiler Alert ⚠

Greyson was sort of raised by the AI itself and in this regard he is portraying Jesus. When Greyson gets the unsavoury label, he tries to contact the AI and totally fails to notice the symbolic response the AI gives him. Isn't this what happens in real life too? We often ignore the signs and symbols that God lays out for us. I mean just wow.
And then in end thunderhead marks everyone unsavoury except for Greyson.  He sort of becomes a prophet - only person who can talk to the AI and spread his message. I am so looking forward to how this will turn out.

This book is a giant biblical reference.

Oh God! I am just gushing and  rambling non stop. It's going to be excruciating waiting for next book. 🙁

My review of scythe.

3.5 stars

This was my first Brandon Sanderson book and I am a little disappointed.

Skyward has great characters, engaging plot, shocking twists and everything you can ask for from a good Sci-fi book. I enjoyed it and I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who love sci-fi and fantasy books as both of these elements are present in the book.

However, i dont think it's the best book out there. It's a pretty ordinary tale of an overachieving girl with special abilities and a mysterious past on a path to self discovery. One of her parents, quite predictably, died when she was just a kid and now she is trying to figure out what happened, not knowing that the truth will lead her to question the world she lives in and the system that she so blindly trust. This plot has been done so many times before, It didn't feel like I was reading anything new. Maybe I was expecting too much, idk.

The best things about this book were the characters, world building and the way the story was told. I liked Spensa as a character but i thought the side characters were muchhh better specially Mbot and kimmalyn. Kimmalyn obsession with saints was hilarious. I loved her. The action scenes were EPIC and so well written. World building and character development was exceptionally done.

I can't really pin point why this book didn't work out for me. I felt like there was something missing and it failed to bring anything new to the table.

I have been meaning to read mistborn trilogies but after reading this book by Brandon Sanderson I am not so sure when I'll be picking them up.

3.5 stars

the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step

I don't know what I was thinking when I picked this book up. I don't usually like to read books that are dense with physics and cosmology, but I admire michio kaku so i had to give this one a try. I am not surprised to feel disappointed, however.

This book was pretty good on entertainment, and I understand why nerds would love it, but it did nothing for me, except maybe entertain a little. I couldn't take this book seriously as it was brimming with speculations about things that may or may not happen in next 5 billion years. I mean instead of worrying about what will happen in 5 billion years shouldn't we focus on saving our planet from all the man made chaos?

I enjoyed the science fiction elements and reading about how tenaciously scientists are trying to make science fiction a new reality for humanity. It was all very interesting to read. The book covered many topics like terraforming, multi-verse, robotics, transhumanism. All these heavy and dense topic were easier to grasp and understand thanks to michio kaku's writing style and movie references.

It feels like a new war is in order between the richest people of the world as they compete to colonize Mars and the universe itself. I think these rich people, Instead of spending billions of dollars on space exploration and planning to colonize other planets, should spend some of their foturne and influence to make this planet safe for everyone, Just saying.

When I was a kid I used to dream about meeting aliens, going on a mission to space and whatnot. My imaginations used to very elaborated,  I used to imagine alines and robots in a very fanciful way. Robots used to have chips inside of them that could shut them off, if they tried to take over the world. Then I grew up. However, reading this book made me realize that some people are incapable of growing up.

When self-aware robots do arrive, we must add a fail-safe chip that will shut them off if they have murderous thoughts.

I mean, first of all, no self aware robot is arriving anytime soon. Second of all, no self-aware robot will insert a chip inside of itself (I forgot to mention these robots are supposed to be self-replicating too.) Anyway, you get the idea this book is high on speculation and overflowing with head-scratching logic.

In 2017, a controversy arose between two billionaires, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, and Elon Musk of SpaceX and Tesla. Zuckerberg maintained that artificial intelligence was a great generator of wealth and prosperity that will enrich all of society. Musk, however, took a much darker view and stated that AI actually posed an existential risk to all of humanity, that one day our creations may turn on us.

Wow, this exactly what we needed to be discussing right now. 🙄 Zuckerbergs' first concern should be to be make Facebook safe and secure again, not this.

And then this book celebrate psychotic maniacs and call them heroes.

He confided to me that he takes several hundred pills a day, anticipating his own immortality

I guess, this book isn't meant to be taken seriously. It's just good to get inside the heads of scientists and learn how they operate and how they see the future. This book has imbued me with unnecessary knowledge that I don't know where and how to use. This knowledge is increasing my, already soaring, existential angst that wont rest until I use this knowledge somewhere.

Anyway, this book isn't bad. It just wasn't for me. I am sure nerds and Sci-fi fans will love it.

An okay thriller with some unnecessary plot twists

The thing I like about thrillers is how they unravel the story, slowly, piece by piece. I love how it begins from the worst possible point and keep one guessing about events that led our characters to such a low point. As the story unfolds, and we learn more about the events, we start to piece the puzzle together. However, we always want to be wrong. We like experiencing shock and the adrenaline rush that comes with it.

The wife between us, however, lacked that shocking factor.
The build-up, the unravelling was executed perfectly but the ending was underwhelming. Just after reading a few pages, you will have a pretty good idea about where the story is headed. Despite that you won't be able to put the book down. Part of you will wish to be wrong, to be shocked, but you will end up disappointed.

Its not a bad book by any means. I really enjoyed it. My only problem with the book was the ending and the unnecessary twist in the epilogue. It was uncalled for and to be honest stupid. There were also some parts in the book that added nothing to the story. They were just there to confuse the reader, to get them to look the other way, but it didn't work, unfortunately.

All in all it was entertaining but not the best thriller out there.

My review for Anonymous Girl

4.5 stars

People are motivated to break their moral compasses for a variety of primal reasons: survival, hate, love, envy, passion. And money.

Anonymous girl is a psychological thriller about a girl named Jessica who sneaks her way into a psychological study in the hopes of making some quick cash. Oh boy! Little did she know that she'd be in for a big messed up drama. She is made to answer a couple of questions on mortality and ethics in relationship. And as the study progress the questions become more and more personal and intrusive. For a while Jessica vacilitates between continuing and resigning from the study, but when she finds out that her father has been laid off from his job, she decides to continue for the money.

After several sessions, Jessica is asked to meet the doctor, conducting the study, personally for the next stage in her ongoing study. This stage involves placing the subjects in real life scenarios to test their moral and ethical values. Jessica doesn't know that she is the only subject selected for this phase. There is something unique about her that the doctor thinks make her special for the study.

What is so special about Jessica? Is there anything the doctor is not revealing about the study? Is Jessica honest with her answers or is she fabricating fake stories for money? Can we trust her?
Can we trust anyone?

Jessica is a typical naive girl sucked into a world of deceit, lies and drama. she may be naive but she isn't innocent. She has secrets that she wants to protect.

The doctor is smart, intelligent, highly strategic but she too carry a burden of secrets on her shoulder.  She is in true sense a falcon.

It’s his favorite bird. Their exceptional visual acuity enables them to identify the presence of prey through the slightest ripple of grass in a verdant landscape.

Definitely a great thriller. It totally sucked me in. It was menacing, it was suspenseful, it was clever. However, a little work on pacing and ending could have made this book a 5 star read. The predicament of our main character reaches to a peak from where the escape seem impossible but somehow she manages entangle herself from it, like one entagles a wireless earphone. It was way too easy. I was expecting a much more complicated ending.

However, it's pretty solid read. I liked this better than The wife Between us. the writers have really upped their game and am exciting to see what they will write next.


My review for Wife Between us.

I totally respect what this book stands for but I didn't enjoy it as much as i thought i would. It follows a very popular, but inaccurate, idea that all men are dogs. A very misogynistic approach to say the least.

What do you do when you realize you forgot to add salt in your food? You try to save it by adding some of it on the serving dish and hope that nobody will notice. The problem with this book is similar. It was supposed to be a high school drama where girls steal each other's boyfriends. However, after writing it author wasn't pleased so she decided to add some rape into the mix.

Almost all the characters were unlikeable and unrelatable. I didn't feel anything for anyone. Pacing was bad, writing was awful and multiple POVs were totally unnecessary. Alex was totally psychotic. Jack was only good for rambling about his feeling for Alex in all of his chapters. I liked peekay; She was bearable. However, the way she acted after a traumatic incident was totally unrealistic and unbelievable.
I was hoping it to be a thriller, but it was just a high school drama with some pretty dark elements embedded forced into it.

Author intended for the readers to feel bad for Alex, but her character was so flawed, it was really hard to feel even a pinch of sympathy for her. A murderer is a murder whether they kill innocent people or rapists, and whether they love animals or not.

I hated Branley too. She slept with literally everyone and cheated on her boyfriend but we were told again and again not to sult shame her. However, Adam, who left peekay to be with branley, didn't get the same treatment. He was called a cheater and worse.

This book had potential, but it wasn't executed properly. Better read Sadie it handled the issue way better than this half baked mess.

4.5 stars

My greatest wish for humanity is not for peace or comfort or joy. It is that we all still die a little inside every time we witness the death of another

This book was so good, it killed me (or should I say: Gleaned me?) It was a real page turner that shook me to the core with its ginormous amount of plot twists.

This book is set in a distance future where humanity has conquered all of its shortcomings and has reached the peak of technological advancements. Death is a thing of the past, diseases have been wiped out, and reviving technology has made accidental deaths a mere hindrance in day to day activities. AI has taken over the government and manages most of the economical issues. To keep overpopulation in check, scythedom has been created, which is, for better or worse, free from any scrutiny from the AI. Every couple of years, depending on the demand for gleaning, a few individuals are taken on as apprentice who are trained in the art of Gleaning. Citra and Rowen are two of the chosen ones, who, contrary to the rules, are being trained by the same scythe mentor - Faraday. The more these two get involved, the more they learn about the deadly secrets and dirty politics within the scythedom.

The best thing about this book is its pacing. It's a page turner and every page has something to keep you wanting more and more. However, this book is not perfect. There are some flaws in the way scythedom is structured. For example: i didn't understand the need to glean people in a painful way. Humanity that conquered death couldn't figure out a less painful way to glean people made no sense to me. Also, what sick person allowed the use of bombs and flamethrowers? I think it was pretty dumb on the writer's part. My second issue was with the romance between Citra and Rowen. It seemed forced and too instantaneous. I would have liked if more attention had been given into developing their relationship. There feelings for each other seemed unrealistic and unbelievable, and the sacrifices they were willing to make for each other didn't create the impact the author intended to create.

In the very beginning of the book We meet scythe Faraday who seem pretty evil until we meet other scythes who make Faraday look like an angel. I thought I'd hate Faraday but he became one of favourite characters in the book. Citra and Rowen were okay. I enjoyed the side characters more, like scythe curie and Volta. Volta was like a coconut: though on the outside, soft in this inside. I loved him. By the end of the book Rowen grew on me too. He did some badass questionable stuff and I loved him for that.

At least 30-40% of the book was pretty basic but after that it became a Rollercoaster ride. My heart skipped several beats over the course of this whole book. It was very well done and I am super excited to read the second book.

My review of thunderhead

4.5 stars

Very occasionally, I read a book that changes the way I view the world. | read quite a bit and am highly influenceable, but there are only a handful of books that have changed the filter through which
I see the world. Jonathan Haidt's book The Righteous Mind is one of  books.

Each one of us want to protect our families, care about our friends and want to make our country better but we seems to have different ideas on how to reach these goals. Why do some people's solutions seem unkind and oppressive to us? And why do we seem to be talking in different languages or sometimes having completely different conversations?

For example: The issue of immigrants. One side see them as a threat to their family, economy and welfare, the other see them as people need to be protected. How is that two groups can have such different opnion? And how can we reach a shared opnion when we are seeing things from two completely different perspectives?

The Righteous Mind attempts to  answer this question. It's an amazing and fascinating book that I highly recommend. It's a paradigm shifting book that will transform your perspective and help you understand the other side of the story. It has great examples, and is well argued and structured.

The first part of the book postulates a theory that reason is a servent of intuitions which goes on to prove that, when it comes to the matters of right or wrong, we take decisions based on our instincts and then we rationalize those decisions after the fact.  Haidt argues that our entire reasoning process evolved not to find truth, but to convince others that we are right. He uses the metaphor of an rider on an elephant. The elephant is our intuitive reasoning -that is the mostly subconscious automatic processes that drive most of our behavior. The rider is our reasoning and, basically, is just along for the ride. It is like a press secretary whose sole job is to defend the policies of a Prime Minister or a President no matter how bad they are.

There are times when we cant even think of any rational explanations, but we still stand by our intuitive choices -this is called moral dumbfounding and is quite common once you start looking for it. Apparently, the higher your IQ, the more arguments you can generate on the side your elephant is already leaning towards. But higher IQ doesn't necessarily mean you get any closer to the truth.  Another point that he makes in the chapter is that, contrary to popular belief, our morality isn't innate. We are born with a first draft version of morality and then our experiences and culture shapes that draft into its final form.

In the second part Haidt introduces us to a Model Foundation Theory. The important point here is that humans are predisposed to be either conservative or liberals, based on their personality. And most of our decisions and preferences are shaped by these personality traits. Haidt identified six cross-cultural moral foundations which he referred to as taste buds of a righteous mind. We all have them but we all assign different value to each on of them. For example: some people like sweets others don't. It doesn't mean that their taste buds are incapable of enjoying sweet flavor, it just mean that they give more value to something else.

These moral foundations are the basis of our different moral values. Out of six moral foundations, identified by Haidt, liberals only use three of them, while conservative use all six of them. However, Haidt doesn't go in detail as to who is right and who is wrong, he just explains why we have different moral values. Liberals, according to Haidt, are outliers whereas conservatives are more common and constitutes a larger part of the population.  Liberal are more common in WEIRD (western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic) countries where individualism is more common than collectivism.

The three values liberals use to make moral decisions include: care/harm, fairness/cheating and liberty/oppression. Conservatives also use these foundations in addition to three other foundations: loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversivenes and sanctity/degradation. These last three foundations are linked with collective altruism that help create and maintain tight cohesion within a group and help ensure that if a group faces an attack, it's members will be able to fend it off. 

In a nutshell, conservatives are more sensitive towards traditions and religion. They believe that loyalty should be rewarded and and disloyal people should be punished. They care less about individuality and focus more on the collective benefits.  Conservative politicians/Republicans understand moral foundation better and are able to trigger all six moral foundation in people. Democrats lack this level of manipulation.

In the last chapter Hadit compared humans with bees and chimpanzees. He says that we are 90% chimapnnzees - who are selfish and self-serving, and 10% bees - who work in teams. However, our loyalty lies with only our group. We don't see or understand the opposing groups.

This book elevated my understanding regarding morality and helped me understand why and how people think what they think. The good thing about moral foundtion concept is that you can apply it to any issue and it will help you understand how people come to a certain conclusion.

However, I think neither conservative or liberal can see the bigger picture. We need to develop cross-group bonding and need to work on understanding each other better. We don't have to be more like bees, we need to be better. There were certain things that were said about religion that I don't completely agree with. I know long battles have been fought in the name of religion (rivalry between Christian sects, forcing of Christian beliefs and so on) but I don't think modern atheism can solve all our issues and  bring peace. Almost all wars have been fought for just one thing - power. And we can't escape this vicious circle until we learn to create more cohesive in and out group bonding.