Adam

I am a pretty big Orson Scott Card fan. I have read almost everything he has written, and he has written a lot over the last 35 or so years.

Any author that has written as much as Card has, has some uneven work.

The Shadow series, which is a complete series that is ancillary to the Ender series, has been particularly uneven. I love the characters of Bean and Petra. But the series as a whole has been far less satisfying than I would have liked. There have been plenty of books but they haven’t moved as much as I would have liked them too.

Shadows in Flight feels like a re-start to the series. Bean has left earth with his children. The story line that Card had to interact with because it covered ground that was mentioned in the Ender series is now over. Bean is in his early 20s, his children are 6. And Bean is near death. He has grown to about 25 ft tall and can only live in the cargo hold. His body is shutting down, but living at near zero G has helped him live a couple years past his life expectancy. He has tried, to the best of his ability, to raise his children well. Preparing them for life without them.

The children of course are as gifted as Bean is. They are brilliant far beyond their years, but they are still innocent, still children, and they do not know what they do not know.

I will not reveal the major plot point. But it seems appropriate and is handled well. And at the end of the book, I can see this going several books if Card has enough ideas. This felt more like a young adult book than any of the rest of the series, in fact more than any other book except Ender’s Game. I am not sure if that is because the main characters were 6 (albeit incredibly intelligent and gifted 6 year olds) or because of the length of the book.

What is a bit frustrating is that Card at the end of the book (I listened to it). He has a short section about how this book is just over half of the length of what his standard books are. I am all for authors telling a story, and expanding a book to meet a length usually kills the story. I think that this has been the problem with the Shadow series as a whole. Card should have edited down most of the books to about 2/3 of their published length.

But the length, according to Card, is not about better telling the story, it is about lowering the price point of the book. If he writes a shorter book, he can charge less for it. But the price of the Kindle book is $9.99 and $11.99 (there are two editions. One is an abridgment with 7 additional paragraphs for $11.99, and the other is the full book without the 7 additional paragraphs but it is a pre-order for Feb 2013 and is $9.99.) The Audiobook is a bit cheaper, but it is range of the price of some of his older books. The Hardcover is about the price of most hardcovers that have been out for about a year. So if his point was to produce a cheaper book, that didn’t make it to the ears of the publisher.

Digital publishing should make it easier for authors and publishers to experiment. Change the length, the style, the format, but make sure the story is worth reading or it does not really matter.

Also don’t piss off your readers. The Kindle Edition of this book is currently only available in the abridged form. The longer version is on pre-order. Amazon has the reviews all bundled so it is hard to tell what you are getting and more than a few people purchased the abridged book and felt cheated. Because it was a the price of a full book, but they only got a novella (around 140 pages). The description says 240 pages, but that is the full printed version of the book.

So my advice, if you are going to get this book, get the paper or audio versions.

Short Review: Gaffigan is funny. My kind of funny. Simple stories about his life and how hard it is. He loves his kids, wife, life and his laziness. I can relate to all of it. The only thing that keeps me from rating it higher is that if you have seen Gaffigan live or on his tv specials you probably have heard about 20-25 percent of the book already. If you don't know Gaffigan, then it is probably a 4 star book. If you are a fan, then then this is probably a 3 star book.

My full review is on my blog.

I have been wanting to read a full length Ann Patchett novel since listening to her short audible exclusive on marriage a year or so ago.

But all of the subjects of her books are so tragic that I keep putting it off. So I finally picked this one up and it was all I had hoped it would be. Beautiful language, perfect descriptions, tragic results.

If you like contemporary fiction, this is a very good example of solid literary fiction with very good narration and very good story line.

But I will wait a while until I pick up another one of these beautifully tragic books.

I thought it was ok. The narration was good, but the actual story suffers from the problem of historical fiction where all of the heros are more modern than all the bad guys (which are hopelessly stuck in the old ways of doing things.)

But I listened to it the whole way through and enjoyed it. But I probably will not be reading the rest of the series

This series was recommended to me about 3 years ago by a friend but I didn't start reading it until the beginning of last month. Since then I have finished four book in the series and already picked up the fifth.

The first three I read on kindle, but when I saw this was whispersync enabled (and that I can get both the kindle and the audible version for just a little more than the audio version on its own, I bought it that way.

I listened to most of this, but read a little bit. The audio narration is very good. In the series this is the first (and only) narrated by someone that is not a clergy member.

The series could be called Christian Fiction. But I am hesitant to use that label because I usually hate Christian fiction. This is not the overly sentimental, knock you over the head with the gospel and all turns out ok in the end once everyone becomes a Christian type of Christian fiction.

Instead this is a type of fiction that takes seriously a real faith in God, the reality of sin, the weakness of humanity and the redemption of sinners (even if the results of their sin can wreck the rest of their life.)

The whole series is a bit on the heady side. Often using a real or imagined work of theology to guide the story. In this case it is the real 1960s book Honest to God by Bishop Robinson (which is playing a fairly similar roll as Rob Bell's Love Wins).

This book picks up about 20 years later from the end of Ultimate Prizes with Neville (now calling himself Stephen). He has continued to take 'scandalous risks' and continued his drinking and now has started an emotional affair with his daughter's friend (and the daughter of one of his best friends). The story goes further but I will not reveal more.

For a series that is not given to sentimental happy endings, this is even more bleak than the previous three books. But it seems honest.

I would read the whole series, it is worth it.

This is the seventh book of le Carré's that I have read in the last six months or so, most on audiobook. And it is definatly in the top half. Not sure the exact position, but le Carré seems to get the right balance of telling the reading what we need to know, but keeping us just enough in the dark to keep the mystery present.

Smiley's People is better than the Honorable Schoolboy and I think a great conclusion to the Karla trilogy.

For those that are interested in Christian history and/or Christian understanding of wealth and economics this new book by Peter Brown is well worth paying attention to. It is long, but detailed look at the late Roman Empire. There are several places where Brown is going against the common understanding of that time period, but I think he well documents them.

The narration is fine, although there are so many foreign words (ancient Greek, Latin, Italian, etc) and some of them are not pronounced the way I think is right. I may be wrong, but it was a bit irritating. But the reading was good and the book was worth reading.

Historic novel about the 17th century persecution of Christianity in Japan and a meditation about the Silence of God - A perfect book to read on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. This is a deeply morally ambiguous novel. It properly de-romanticizes persecution and martyrdom and at the same time explores the role of Judas as a model (not sure that is the right word) for us all. This is a book well worth reading, but I can understand why many are hostile or ambulant about its message.

This is not a book that has an easy message (Christian or not). Where is God in the pain? What does it mean to follow Christ? Can we reject God and love him at the same time.

The audio has some issues that I am not sure are intentional or not. Several times that are audible breathing and sniffing sounds that might be appropriate for the book, but feel out of place. The reader is fine, I am just not sure about the editing.

This is the best bio of Lewis I have read and one that is well worth reading. It is a popular biography and McGrath says he is going to do a more academic biography later, which I look forward to. This one is highly readable and hits all of the right notes. McGrath had access to newly released letters and that seems to have made a big difference. There are some new details that have come out as a result of this biography and some may take issue with them, but McGrath seems to have documented them fairly well. I do wish there was more about Lewis' spiritual development. Other than the Inklings he does not seem to have had a Christian community around him, or at least it was not well discussed. I also wanted more about his interaction with his stepsons before and after their mother's death. And connected with the spiritual development I wish there had been more discussed about this theology.

In spite of the areas that were lacking this is still a 5 star biography.

My full review is on my blog.

I would like to give this a 2.5 star review because I think it has potential. But it needs a good story editor and it needs to figure out what it is trying to do. Conceptually the idea is good. What if the world biggest comic book fan was given super powers. Lots of good science fiction potential. I am not a huge fan of making the guy an idiot, but I can deal with that. There are some issues with story telling because a lot of the story feels like filler and some of the filler stories introduce problems into the plot (like how are there other superheros).

The biggest problem is probably not a problem for everyone. But as a Christian, I am not a fan of Christian fiction that knock you over the head with salvation and then all the problems go away. I don't think that is how the real world works. This story is a superhero story and then makes a hard right turn into a divorce story of the superhero because he is a dufus that hasn't actually paid any attention to his wife and family and refuses to talk about the fact that he is now a superhero. Of course she is going to leave him. And the anti-marriage divorce lawyer also just minimize the potential of real problems instead of making the story better.

I like the potential. I picked up the second book in the series and I think I will read it eventually. But it was not a great book.

My full review is on my blog.

I read a lot of books. And this has continued to be my favorite book of the last decade. I have read it twice in paper and twice on audiobook. I love the audiobook. The alternating voices of the two leads really adds to the book.

I have no idea what the previous reviewer is talking about. This book is not marxist or anti-Christian.