July Books and RPGs
Yeah yeah, whatever.
The Golden Compass
by Phillip Pullman
It’s like all the standard fantasy clichés rolled into one: the young orphaned girl who lives in a monastery/school and is destined to be the one to fulfill the prophecy discovers she has amazing powers that set her apart, blah blah blah. But it’s still entertaining because of the interesting characters, the mix of modern world and magic, and things like giant armor-wearing sentient polar bears. Yet another book I’ve read recently that has been made into a movie as well. 3.5/5
The Prophet of Yonwood
by Jeanne DuPrau
Book 3 in the Ember series. This one was kind of a weird prequel that barely had anything to do with the rest of the series. There was a background undercurrent thing of what led up to the catastrophe, but the main story had nothing to with…anything really. I tore through it waiting for a connection, but she only tied it into Ember in literally the last two pages of the book. It wasn’t a bad read, just kind of strange in how it didn’t relate. 3/5
The Diamond of Darkhold
by Jeanne Duprau
Book 4 in the Ember series. This takes up where Book 2 left off. I’d say it was my 2nd favorite of the series behind the original title. It gets back to kind of a fun adventure and mystery sort of feel unlike the middle two books. 3.5/5
On Top of the World: Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, & 9/11
by Tom Barbash
Another book recommended by my favorite accounting professor, this is the story of Cantor Fitzgerald, the “NYSE of the bond market” that was nearly wiped out on 9/11. 658 out of about 1000 employees died, including whole divisions of the company. But the CEO (Lutnick) and several other key executives were still around and they managed to keep the company afloat and provide for the families that lost their breadwinners (they donated 25% of their profits after 9/11 to the families and provided 10 years worth of health care). On one hand it’s a pretty amazing story of human persistence and continuing on in the face of adversity. But it is a little hard to really empathize with them because these are the super-rich, super-elite banker types that make up the whole money and banking cartel that is destroying this country, so it’s a little difficult to really rally around them. Not that having a lot of money makes it easy to lose your husband or father, I’m not saying that at all. Just that it’s hard to relate or feel that much pity for them. 3/5
The Reckoning [audio book]
by Kelley Armstrong
The final part of The Darkest Powers trilogy. It wrapped up the story pretty well but still left thing open enough for another trilogy or another story. Which I would be happy to read. The final scene wasn’t quite as epic as it could have been, but it was pretty good. 4/5
100 Worst Bosses
by Jim Stovall
The irony of finding this book sitting on our HR person’s desk, at my company, on this particular day, is almost staggering. It’s a short (185 pages) quick read and I devoured it in one sitting, eagerly searching for my current boss. He didn’t appear until the end, but it was dead on. I mean, I could written a lot of that chapter myself. The book describes different types of bad bosses as various animals: snakes, rats, peacocks, etc. “Vulture” was right near the end and described my boss to a T. I was busting up laughing reading the descriptions and anecdotes submitted by people. The book itself wasn’t particularly useful or helpful in dealing with these people, but it was a pretty entertaining read. 3/5
The Subtle Knife
by Phillip Pullman
Eh, I don’t know if I’m going to bother finishing this series. I liked the first book well enough but the second one basically leaves all the characters, setting, and elements from the first book behind and introduces a bunch of convoluted, semi-religious, overwrought plot that isn’t really that interesting. Book 2 was all about bringing all these disparate elements together and “gathering the forces” for the final battle. It’s a pretty standard fantasy format: introduce the setting and background (Book 1), get all the players into position (Book 2), then have the big battle (Book 3, unless it’s Wheel of Time than it’s 4 books per stage). But I’m not sure I care enough to bother with the third book. Plus the third book is pretty huge, so that’s even less motivation. Edit: After reading reviews of the third book, it looks like everything I was complaining about in this book was just a warmup for the finale. Glad I skipped it. 2.5/5
The Associate [audio book]
by John Grisham
This is only my second Grisham book, but I think I’ll be reading some more. The other one I read was The Firm and this one starts with a very similar setup: young hotshot lawyer who just graduated from law school ends up at a firm with an ulterior motive. This one had a kind of strange anti-climatic ending but it was fine. Grisham definitely has a talent for creating interesting characters that you want to follow and learn more about. 4/5
Guadia Quest [Retro Game Challenge]
DS
This RPG is actually part of a longer game called Retro Game Challenge. The premise of that game is that you’ve been sent back in time to the 80’s and you have to beat all these various challenges to get back. There are a number of different 80’s style-games, and overall the game was pretty fun. One of them was a Dragon Quest clone called Guadia Quest. It was a homage in every way, including having to go to a menu and select a command just to talk to people or open a treasure chest. Other than the annoyingly high encounter rate (which I discovered right at the very end how to mitigate >_<) it was a fun little game. I like classic old-school RPGs and this was as old-school as it gets. It was pretty short, but that’s fine too. 3/5
Books for July: 8
Books for 2010: 30
RPGs for July: 1
RPGs for 2010: 8
The Golden Compass
by Phillip Pullman
It’s like all the standard fantasy clichés rolled into one: the young orphaned girl who lives in a monastery/school and is destined to be the one to fulfill the prophecy discovers she has amazing powers that set her apart, blah blah blah. But it’s still entertaining because of the interesting characters, the mix of modern world and magic, and things like giant armor-wearing sentient polar bears. Yet another book I’ve read recently that has been made into a movie as well. 3.5/5
The Prophet of Yonwood
by Jeanne DuPrau
Book 3 in the Ember series. This one was kind of a weird prequel that barely had anything to do with the rest of the series. There was a background undercurrent thing of what led up to the catastrophe, but the main story had nothing to with…anything really. I tore through it waiting for a connection, but she only tied it into Ember in literally the last two pages of the book. It wasn’t a bad read, just kind of strange in how it didn’t relate. 3/5
The Diamond of Darkhold
by Jeanne Duprau
Book 4 in the Ember series. This takes up where Book 2 left off. I’d say it was my 2nd favorite of the series behind the original title. It gets back to kind of a fun adventure and mystery sort of feel unlike the middle two books. 3.5/5
On Top of the World: Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, & 9/11
by Tom Barbash
Another book recommended by my favorite accounting professor, this is the story of Cantor Fitzgerald, the “NYSE of the bond market” that was nearly wiped out on 9/11. 658 out of about 1000 employees died, including whole divisions of the company. But the CEO (Lutnick) and several other key executives were still around and they managed to keep the company afloat and provide for the families that lost their breadwinners (they donated 25% of their profits after 9/11 to the families and provided 10 years worth of health care). On one hand it’s a pretty amazing story of human persistence and continuing on in the face of adversity. But it is a little hard to really empathize with them because these are the super-rich, super-elite banker types that make up the whole money and banking cartel that is destroying this country, so it’s a little difficult to really rally around them. Not that having a lot of money makes it easy to lose your husband or father, I’m not saying that at all. Just that it’s hard to relate or feel that much pity for them. 3/5
The Reckoning [audio book]
by Kelley Armstrong
The final part of The Darkest Powers trilogy. It wrapped up the story pretty well but still left thing open enough for another trilogy or another story. Which I would be happy to read. The final scene wasn’t quite as epic as it could have been, but it was pretty good. 4/5
100 Worst Bosses
by Jim Stovall
The irony of finding this book sitting on our HR person’s desk, at my company, on this particular day, is almost staggering. It’s a short (185 pages) quick read and I devoured it in one sitting, eagerly searching for my current boss. He didn’t appear until the end, but it was dead on. I mean, I could written a lot of that chapter myself. The book describes different types of bad bosses as various animals: snakes, rats, peacocks, etc. “Vulture” was right near the end and described my boss to a T. I was busting up laughing reading the descriptions and anecdotes submitted by people. The book itself wasn’t particularly useful or helpful in dealing with these people, but it was a pretty entertaining read. 3/5
The Subtle Knife
by Phillip Pullman
Eh, I don’t know if I’m going to bother finishing this series. I liked the first book well enough but the second one basically leaves all the characters, setting, and elements from the first book behind and introduces a bunch of convoluted, semi-religious, overwrought plot that isn’t really that interesting. Book 2 was all about bringing all these disparate elements together and “gathering the forces” for the final battle. It’s a pretty standard fantasy format: introduce the setting and background (Book 1), get all the players into position (Book 2), then have the big battle (Book 3, unless it’s Wheel of Time than it’s 4 books per stage). But I’m not sure I care enough to bother with the third book. Plus the third book is pretty huge, so that’s even less motivation. Edit: After reading reviews of the third book, it looks like everything I was complaining about in this book was just a warmup for the finale. Glad I skipped it. 2.5/5
The Associate [audio book]
by John Grisham
This is only my second Grisham book, but I think I’ll be reading some more. The other one I read was The Firm and this one starts with a very similar setup: young hotshot lawyer who just graduated from law school ends up at a firm with an ulterior motive. This one had a kind of strange anti-climatic ending but it was fine. Grisham definitely has a talent for creating interesting characters that you want to follow and learn more about. 4/5
Guadia Quest [Retro Game Challenge]
DS
This RPG is actually part of a longer game called Retro Game Challenge. The premise of that game is that you’ve been sent back in time to the 80’s and you have to beat all these various challenges to get back. There are a number of different 80’s style-games, and overall the game was pretty fun. One of them was a Dragon Quest clone called Guadia Quest. It was a homage in every way, including having to go to a menu and select a command just to talk to people or open a treasure chest. Other than the annoyingly high encounter rate (which I discovered right at the very end how to mitigate >_<) it was a fun little game. I like classic old-school RPGs and this was as old-school as it gets. It was pretty short, but that’s fine too. 3/5
Books for July: 8
Books for 2010: 30
RPGs for July: 1
RPGs for 2010: 8