Category: Media

Pages: 452
Purchased from: Kobo

An absolute delight of a fantasy novel with varied and vibrant characters in a unique world. The tension between Nasir and Zafira by itself really makes the book so much fun to read.

And this is the author’s debut book! I really enjoyed this one and I put the sequel in my wishlist.

Pages: 275
Purchased from: Kobo

The first non-fiction book for the packetcat Reads 2022 series! This one was a very interesting look at the development of the iPhone and Apple’s design process during the golden age of Steve Jobs. I especially found the story about the initial development of Safari particularly intriguing.

Pages: 533
Purchased from: Kobo

I see why this particular book won all the awards it did but for me by the time I was 3/4 through the book, it felt like the premise was dragging on for far too long. The writing wasn’t the issue, it was good all the way through but the writing can carry me only so far through a story I’m not enjoying.

This book had a similar problem to week 9’s book in that while I appreciate the writing on its technical merit, the particular narrative it was telling left me wishing the book was over 300 pages in.

I don’t regret reading this one but at the same time I am not planning on reading any of the author’s other books.

Pages: 411
Purchased from: Kobo

The word I would describe this book would be…anticlimactic. After reading the first book of the series last year I was looking forward to reading this second book so I had it preordered. I don’t think I disliked the experience of reading this book but my high expectations coming in left me mildly disappointed.

The book’s plot felt like it was meandering until the last quarter of the book or so. Most of it felt like setting up events for the next book in the series. Some of that set up was important character development but a lot of it felt extraneous.

Pages: 318
Purchased from: Kobo

This is the first time I’ve read a book by John Scalzi and I gotta say I’m a fan of his style already. Fast paced space opera that doesn’t meander with interesting characters had left me thirsting for more by the end of it. Also I gotta mention this, Scalzi has the highest amount of characters swearing in a book that I’ve seen in a good while. It never feels overdone however so it only serves to make the characters feel more human.

Definitely placed the sequel in the wishlist for later!