Steven

The only story in this that was worth the read was "The Lady Astronaut of Mars" by Mary Robinette Kowal. It was done in the style of Ray Bradbury and it was an EXCELLENT tribute to the author.

This book was described as being recommended by Neil Gaiman, narrated by John Hodgman, and was kind of a precursor to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I was upset at how dull this book was. The plot is pretty much Gulliver's Travels in space. It has MAJOR pacing issues and spends far too little time on certain things but then will spend entire chapters describing the most doldrum and mediocre issues. The main character fails to grab the reader. I didn't care about him at all because he didn't seem real. He doesn't spend anytime in any sort of awe at the situations around him. Not a good listen, will be asking for a refund. The only good thing I can say about it is that John Hodgman is a great narrator (as always).

However, if you were considering this book, I highly recommend Year Zero by Rob Reid (also narrarated by Hodgman).

I was unimpressed with the story, a lot of usual sci-fi fare, but I was really impressed by the descriptions of the aliens. Published in 1938, I can really see the influence on a lot of aliens in other franchises especially Mass Effect. I'll probably get around to the rest of the trilogy some time.

Really interesting anecdotes on American history, but not enough of the book is devoted to that. I was hoping for a book that was all of that. Stuff like "You learned that x but actually y" is what I wanted but the book only devotes about 1/4 of the time to that. The rest is devoted to telling you why you learned it the way you did which his conclusion is usually: racism. Anyway, it was alright, but like I said I wish there was something else.

This is classic Star Wars. If you miss the universe from before Lucas ruined things with the prequels, this is what you're looking for. I wish this series had been made into episodes VII, VIII, and IX as long as Lucas had kept his hands off it. This book is probably the weakest of the series but its still a solid 8/10 and only gets better after this.

This is classic Star Wars. If you miss the universe from before Lucas ruined things with the prequels, this is what you're looking for. I wish this series had been made into episodes VII, VIII, and IX as long as Lucas had kept his hands off it.

This is classic Star Wars. If you miss the universe from before Lucas ruined things with the prequels, this is what you're looking for. I wish this series had been made into episodes VII, VIII, and IX as long as Lucas had kept his hands off it.