Reviews and Comments

This is part of the now non-canon series of novels; I hadn't read a Star Wars novel for some time, but written by Tomithy Zahn and including Mara Jade, it seemed like a decent read for a long flight.

This was a pretty nice read, taking place between episodes IV and V, we have a still wide-eyed Luke, a Han trying to figure out his place, if any, in the Rebel Alliance, and Leia just generally being a bad ass because now she's back among her people and fully in charge.

The story wasn't grossly obvious, like so many of the pulp Star Wars novels can be, so that kept it pretty interesting from a plotline perspective. This is pretty obviously a follow-on from some other novel, with references to previous actions by some of the characters. Not having known of or read that book, I didn't find it to be a problem. There's also an interesting group of ex-stormtroopers that really appear to be a model for the Clone Wars' Bad Batch.

I got a new Kobo eReader and needed something to break it in. What better than test of a new palmpad than to read something from the Laundry Files collection?

This is the first in the series and a lot of fun to read. If you measure fun the same way as stepping into an abyss that's darker than black yet you can feel an otherness in it. Wonderful stuff really!

Unlike me, I have gone at this series very a-linearly. I'm usually a "start at 1, move forward sequentially" kind of person, but my book club read one of the later books about 6 years ago, and every once in a while, I dip my toe back into the seeping ichor, pick one at random and go for it, cluthcing my HoG the entire way. I'm trying to remember, but I think this is heavier on some of the IT humor. I did some amount of system administration back when this book was set, so I particularly love derogatory references to things like DLT drives.

This novel and its author are new to me, but they came highly recommended by a good friend that knows The Thin Man is my favorite movie I try to watch every year around the holidays. This book is by no means a retelling of that classic, but it does draw some inspiration while updatring with touchs like characters introducing themselves with their pronouns, the protagonist having a disability that's a daily reality, and it takes place in SPACE!

Next, as I do witrh most recommendations, I looked to borrow it from the library. However, I noticed that the ebook was DRM-free, so I immediately headed to ebooks.com and grabbed a copy The surest way to get me to buy a book is to offer it without DRM.

And then I realized that this book is a two-for-one! It is both a novel and a cocktail recipe book. Each chapter is named after a classic cocktail (except the few the author made up herself) and is then preceded by the recipe for that cocktail. Both the print and ebook editions provide a quick reference for some excellent cocktails, which I plan to work through in the next year. Warning to the intrepid reader: the chapters are short and beg to be read quickly, so it would be unwise to attempt to drink each chapter's namesake as one proceeds through the book.

The Spare Man gets a lot closer to the protagonist than Dashiell Hammett's Thin Man. We really get a sense of what Tesla feels as she interacts with the other characters in the story, creating a real connection for the reader. Also, the book exhibits a great element of good, readable science fiction in that the Sci-Fi is hardly noticeable. There are places where it is a serious part of the setting and plot, however, the general story could stand anytime on its own.

Overall a fun, quick read and highly recommended for people that like some combination of noir, sci-fi, mystery, and cocktails.