FoCoBuzz

Nice backstory but not overly compelling

Reviewed: 10-30-23

This short story gives a nice bit of "historical" context to Epstein drive and its development. However, it is long on fairly surface considerations of the founder and his social life and, unless there is additional content in books in the series past book 2 (as far as I have gotten at this writing), it's not the kind of story that seems necessary to engage with the broader series.

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Good story with fantastic narration by the author!

Reviewed: 10-06-23

If I am honest, some of Le Carre's books can get a bit tedious. I think some of them simply make better films. But this one was a good listen. The story was engaging throughout with minimal lulls. This is not the James Bond type of espionage, but an intellectual and realistic (I suppose) espionage which I greatly prefer. And there was a special treat: narration by the late John le Carre! I loved his reading more than many of the narrators of some of his older books. It is a shame that we will never have any additional opportunities to have him read to us.

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"Page Turner"

Reviewed: 10-06-23

A good book, that kept me engaged and wanting more. In the upper half of Coben books in the last 10 years.

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Would have been better without the climate agenda

Reviewed: 05-07-23

NOTE: Spoilers ahead.

Upgrade is a very good book. However, unlike Dark Matter< and Recursion it is not a great book. It lacks the degree of a mind-bending reality that those books have. The advanced genetic engineering of this book is very impressive and certainly beyond what we can do now, but it does not blow your mind like the multiverse or the ability to manipulate time. Crouch's efforts to transform reality in this book are part of what drags this book down.

Crouch goes all in with the climate change agenda. While there are certainly other catastrophic threats to mankind and the planet in the plot, climate "crisis" hysteria is really pushed. But it is done so in a way that leaves you feeling that it's more about pushing a political agenda than highlighting concern about our future world. For example, mankind can effectively genetically engineer superheroes but can't figure out how to build a 10-foot wall to keep the sea from flooding Lower Manhattan. Of course, if our genius descendants took such a common sense endeavor - which would be presumably feasible in a world where the hyperloop is real, buildings are 1 km tall, and planes fly supersonic at 95k feet - pushing fear about the climate would have no point.

Besides the climate agenda, the conclusion is frustrating. The argument that superintelligence won't necessarily ensure we can address our problems is compelling. However, despite what the author implies in the closing pages, super emotion and compassion absent intelligent application bode poorly as well.

This is a very good read, but, as is usually the case when an author goes all in on agenda, it could have been much better if his climate future was congruent with the rest of the world that he imagined.

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1 person found this helpful

Best Grisham since 2018 if not longer

Reviewed: 04-13-23

Best Grisham in at least four years and maybe a little better than the novel from fall 2018. My passing familiarity with Biloxi doesn’t hurt. Grisham is at his best when the legal maneuvering is at the center of the plot and not just a supporting cast member like some of his recent efforts. I also like the epic arch over decades, which Grisham does well.

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First Herron book, but I hope to listen to more!

Reviewed: 03-06-23

I was not familiar with Mick Herron until I watched the Slow Horses series on Apple TV+. The book adheres pretty close to the show, but I haven’t quite decided if I would have liked the book to the same extend if I didn’t love the show and Gary Oldman’s performance of Jackson Lamb. Regardless, this is a very solid spy book, though it focuses more domestically than do John Le Carré books. I find this book was not as hard to follow as some of Le Carré’s work can be. I do plan to continue this series.

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A fairly surface review of the Enron scandal

Reviewed: 10-13-22

Generally, this book is a fairly high-level review of the Enron saga and feels a little surface and lacking depth compared to a book like The Smartest Guys in the Room. The one area that it excels, likely due to the area of expertise of Sherron Watkins, is digging into the details of the off-balance vehicles at the heart of the Enron scandal. While those vehicles were extremely complex and still hard to understand after listening to this book, I came away with a better understanding of their structure than I did from reading Smartest Guys.

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Mind-blowing plot that propels you to the finish

Reviewed: 10-04-22

This is the second book by Blake Crouch I have read and I loved this one as much as I did Recursion. Amazing author. This book dives deep into the implications of quantum mechanics with a mind-blowing, relentless plot that remains accessible. Crouch has a talent for keeping accessible concepts that could be so complex and convoluted that they could distract from the story. As the plot raced to the finale, a final twist occurred that I was in no way expecting. Just a fantastic book from a gifted author.

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Good plot but too predictable to be a great read

Reviewed: 10-04-22

The plot of The Plot - pun intended - was good, though not great, primarily because it was incredibly predictable. Suffice it to say I saw the twist coming maybe halfway in, though I had not yet figured out every detail. Despite the predictability, some of the details keep the last third interesting.

The biggest thing I disliked about this book was there was far too much fluff about being a writer. I have made a mental note about being careful about future books about writers since this author went off on many discussions and promotions of her profession.

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Why did I take so long to finally read this book!

Reviewed: 03-01-22

I had this book on my reading since it was originally published and now I am energized to continue in The Expanse series! This is is really good science fiction: it is a plausible extrapolation of the future of mankind along a trajectory that does not make a fantasy of the laws of physics as do warp drives, hyperspace, and transporters. The story is part mystery, part war story, and part space opera. I was not 100% crazy about the ending but, so as not to add any spoilers, I will leave it at that. If you like solid science fiction check out this book.

As for the narration, the voice acting was solid but just a little too subtle, hence only four stars. I would have liked to have had a little bit more differentiation in the voices for each character.

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