The signal stayed alive.

Mr. Washington is an excellent writer. His story, told in his own words, was inspirational, riveting and captivating. One of the things that stood out for me was his iron determination to reach his goals. He knew what he wanted to do and you can feel his determination to reach them rather then get derailed by the world. His writing was so comfortable and easy to read that I felt he was sitting across from me and telling me his story. That is the power of an amazing writer, the ability to talk to someone across years or centuries and make their story come alive and be relevant long after they have passed. Not only did he lead an amazing life, but he made a difference in thousands of lives of the students who attended Tuskegee University, and those the student affected.

I fell in love with PERN decades ago and read some of them to my son when he was a teenager. Now and adult, he and I both enjoy talking about the wonderful world that McCaffrey created. I was surprised in this one to see that after several hundred years they had not adapted their teaching to match the challenges that they faced but were still teaching history and skills from the old world (earth). As I thought about it, I realized that they had been slowly running out of the technology the original settlers brought with them. Then it made sense that it would take such a long time to make the transition.

The main bulk of the books was getting ready of the next Pass. It was eerie how they had people in their time who denied thread, even though they had lots of evidence. I guess they exist everywhere. Seeing them deal with the politics and the preparations was very exciting.

This was a very realistic story. I felt very much like I was there watching the battles. He has interwoven several interesting tactical ideas into his battles that I really liked. Having so many people with different opinions in the book about how the world is makes it very realistic. It almost feels like the way our world is today with people seeing the same thing but interpreting it very differently.

Spoilers!

I really liked the way Anne brings her characters to life and in a way that highlights either their good/empathetic nature or the darker side of human nature. One of two main characters is Kindan, a young man who looses his family in a mining accident and find himself alone. He is set upon a journey to become a harper, being tutored by the town harper after his families death. He does what he feels he must to help the people of the town, even when those actions are not what he really wants. The other main character is Nuella. Her father, ashamed that his daughter is blind hides her for fear that he will be rejected by the town if they find out. Nuella shines in this story, overcoming all obstacles before her and becomes the town hero in the end which allows Kindan to return to doing what he would rather do. It was a great story.

This was an exciting book. he brought many of the threads we have been holding onto these past 5 books to a close. So much so that I assumed, for a short time, that he was done with the Stormlight Archive. In his comments at the end of the book he says he is working on books 6-10. I was delighted and excited.

There were definitely some surprises that caught me completely off guard, good surprises. I was quite i0pressed how he writes stories with multiple main characters.

He wrestles with a lot of great topics. For example, Kaladin has had self esteem issues since book one and while I have read people who are frustrated with that part of his personality, I found it to be very realistic. Some people are depressed and watching him deal with it has been very insightful.

I think most of his characters are broken in some way or another which makes them very real and more three dimensional. He even tackles what is means to be a god and what would happen if people became a god. Could they solve the problems on Roshar? I would love to sit down and talk about his view of life as an author may hold one view on life for themselves but portray another in their novels.

Anne has a deep understanding of the true nature of people. She portrays them in her characters in a very convincing way. Not only does she show the very best of humanity, but she shows the dark side of people as well; their greed, pettiness and insecurities. I really dislike bullies in real life. So much so that I have deep emotional feelings about characters written as bullies. In most of her books she portrays one or more characters as bullies and it makes me wait for them to get what they deserve. That would be too easy too predictable and too petty for Anne. She usually focuses on people overcoming a bully by being their best rather than by attacking the bully head on. There are several in this book and she allows the bullied but become the best they can be in order to usurp those who would use their power to put others down.

It pains me to give this book only 3 stars. I found it very hard to read. It was a bit disjointed and lacked character development. There was just too much knowledge that was assumed rather than developed. It seems like a radical departure from the previous four books in the series. I spent most of the book trying to understand what the plot was and what was going on. They did explain things in the last few pages of the book but by then I had really checked out.

This was an excellent, albeit sad story. The characters were very realistic, as is the usual case for McCaffery's characters. I was pulled into the story and felt an emotional connections to the people in the book. Our main character is Kinden a novice in the Harper Hall. Throughout the book, Kinden demonstrates that he is an exceptional individual and goes way beyond what anyone else in the books is shown to do. He is always getting the short end of the stick, so so speak. I was a little disappointed at the end of the story where others get more accolades, for doing less, than Kinden. His actions, intelligence and stamina save many lives and do not seem to be adequately rewarded. Which also adds to the authenticity of the characters.

Maddow did an excellent job laying out the story of Fascism in America during the 30's, 40's and 50's. I wrote a photo-essay in 2004 based on a visit I took at a German concentration camp. I spent a lot of time trying to understand how the Germanys could allow this to happen and to reconcile what they did and did not do being of German decent. What surprised me the most about Prequel, was how many groups and how many Americans were not just ambivalent but supportive of an authoritarian fascist form of government replacing democracy. Maddow explains the tremendous effort on behave of the German government , US Congressman and want to be dictators in our country, that went into a propaganda campaign to keep America out of WWII.

She did not speak about current events, even though the book was written in 2023. It is called Prequel, because it was just the opening act of an ongoing conflict between Democracy and Fascism. We did not eradicate Fascism during WWII. The war did not end. What we called a War was really just one battle in an ongoing war that stretches back more than 100 years.

I have come to peace with being a descendent of Germans. It was not that they were bad people. It was that they were expertly deceived by the use of propaganda aimed at advancing fascist ideal. We have been, in America, the recipient of a barrage of Propaganda over the past few decades. I see the need to do something now before it is too late, but don't really know what to do. I imagine the Germans during WWII must have felt much the same way. This is a fight we must win. It does not appear it will go away any time soon.

I really appreciated the clarity of the situation that Maddow's book brought to my mind. This isn't a fair fight and our enemies are decidedly not fighting fairly. In order to win we must be ever diligent.

**spoiler alert** This was a great story that centered around Fiona, the daughter of a Lord holder who becomes a dragon rider of a gold queen dragon. When Thread falls, riders and dragons are hurt. There is a dragon plague like the human plague from the last book. Fiona, the weirlings and the hurt are sent back in time to recover.

This really showed a great deal of growth for Fiona. She was the Weirwoman during the three years when they returned in time to recover. She was diligent, compassionate and resourceful. They were in a tough situation and you felt as though you were there or wanted to be there to help out.

There are two storylines in this book. The major one is of a captain who must take her ship to West 250,000,000. The other is a smaller group who go to the gap (a place where an earth should be but is missing) and travel to Mars. On Mars they discover that it too is a long planet and travel to other Mars looking for technology left by an advanced society.

One of the themes in the book is the search for sentient life, specifically advanced societies. They also introduce a human mutation that results in a super intelligent human, perhaps a new species. They military send the captain of the Twain, back from the outer worlds know as the high megas, to decide if she should destroy the home town of the new humans or let them live. One choice might be murder, the other might lead to the inhalation or enslavement of all mankind, or so they believe.

I like character with depth and also this kind of moral issue that they must explore. I think you will enjoy the book, especially if you liked books one and two.

I really enjoyed how our main character Fiona grew through the story. She was very young when she impressed and Then was thrown into a very difficult situation leading a group of young new riders and a bunch of injured seasoned riders in a time travel jump to the past. Not only was this story about personal growth but also dealing with a sickness that was affecting the dragons. Highly recommend.

I was very disappointed in this book. The main reason was the background sound. It was so loud and ever present that it drowned out the voices. And they modulated the demons voices which made it all but unintelligible. I also did not like that they had a god/demigod mixed in with the justice league. How do you have gods and supermen in the same scenario. It would be like having NBA players mixed in with JHS kids. And the stories, because they were not chapters, seemed connected somehow but could not figure out the connecting thread. It come across very disjointed.

There were a few of the stories that I liked, but the overall impression was very negative. This is hard to say because I have read many of Neil Gagman's works and I really like his writing and storytelling. I guess we just can't like everything we read/listen to.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable read. The books mantra? - You can't break time, but you can sometimes cheat it. This books was all about time traveling dragons. It was a lot of fun. In the end, she answered most of the questions that have been lingering throughout the last few books about Feona and Lorana. Again and again she talked about overcoming hardship. It had quite a few sad moments but just as many happy one. Great read, highly recommend it.

There are some genres that just make you feel comfortable, like you have come home. I spent most of 2020 in hiding during the pandemic reading another zombie series. Most people thought I was crazy but I found it relaxing. When I picked up book 2 of Zombie Fallout, I was at home again. This is definitely not high literature. If you are looking for that, you will be disappointed. Just knowing there are references to Monty Python, should tell you all you need to know.

The light hearted banter keeps you from becoming overwhelmed with an apocalyptical tale of horror and suspense. I loved and hated that Tufo chose to put both traditional zombies (deaders) and fast zombies (runners) in his story. I always hated the fast zombies, too much like spiders. To add insult to injury, there are also vampires in this story. And she is pissed at the main character, Michael Talbot.

This was a fast paced story, not much time for in depth character development. Michael is an interesting character. He is self centered, sexists and a bigot. He is ex-military and has a very childish sense of humor. Outwardly he tries to do whatever he can to protect his family. Inwardly he is a bundle of nerves and psychosis unsure why others keep looking to him to lead the group.

I enjoyed this book so much, that I jumped right into book three. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The Talbot family just can't catch a break. Every time they get clobbered by another impossible scenario and miraculously escape, they find the odds stacked against them. Having gathered a group from their town in Colorado, they divide into two groups. One group heading toward family in the south, and the other, with the Talbots, heading toward Maine and Mikes family.

There are heartbreaking moments, terror induced situations, and adolescent humor smattered around for fun. Many have criticized this series, and specifically the main character, as being not politically correct, to which I must agree. Mike, uses adolescent humor to deflect and deal with overwhelming trauma. The biggest criticism is how self centered he is. The reader must remember the book is couched as readings from his personal journal. Tufo reminds us of this several times in the story. So, it is not surprising that the story revolves around Mike. I found his mix of people to be realistic. If nothing in the past decade we have learned how many of our family, friends and neighbors are not the perfect people we want them to be.

The story is quite straight forward. The Talbots are trying to get to Tracy's moms house to see if her aging mom has made it through. Then they decide they must continue on to Maine to check on Mike's family. Why must they do this? Well there is a vengeful vampire who want Tommy (the Walmart greeter) and wants to kill Mike. She will stop at nothing to get what she wants and that drives the family forward at every stop.

Although it is a completely different genre, I find the pacing and use of humor to talk about an otherwise horrific scenario, vaguely reminiscent of the way Kurt Vonnegut used a light heated story line to talk about death and the horrors of war. I really liked this book and look forward to more of the Talbots adventures in the future.

What a crazy idea to have these giant dragons living in trees. I loved it!

One of the things that stood out to me about this book was the idea that we should not lean into our own biases. There were many times where someone was asked to do something that they did not believe because of how they perceived the world. This lesson happened so many times, it was apparent that the authors were trying to tell us something. I don't think they wanted us to believe without evidence, what they seemed to want is that we should listen to people and consider their words without just dismissing them because of our personal bias.

This was a fun story and I enjoyed it very much. I am going to miss pass 3.

I really liked this story because it filled in a back story that we did not know about. Not only did it tell us how the zombie apocalypses start, but it took us back a hundred years to tell us how intertwined the story lines were. It was a very short story, a novella. Just perfect to set up the next book. I hope you enjoy it was much as I did.

As much as I have been enjoying all of the pervious books, there is a danger in keeping characters static. They face the same or similar obstacles and the story becomes repetitive. In order to avoid that your character has to grow become larger than they are or have been. But to become larger comes at a cost. TANSTAAFL (There ain't no such thing as a free lunch). In this story, we see the culmination of many of the stories that have been told in the previous books. We see courage and emotion and despair as well as hope. We see the hero of the book, as flawed and broken as any human being, sacrifice himself for the greater good. He gives up or sells a part of himself in order to save those he cares about. The cost of doing so if great, many would say too great. From the point of view of the story, it opens up possibilities that would not be there if he had not made the decision that he did. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to the next one.

Wonderful story! Moreta is a fantastic individual. I really enjoyed this story. The McCaffrey's have and interesting way of portraying their hero's. They seem to like the tragic hero most of all and this book is no exception. Moreta is on top of it and helps out with the horses and the Dragons and anywhere she is needed. She is also criticized by those around her which is true of every here they have presented.

One of the other things they highlight are bullies. They have them in every book. Those who abuse and harass those who cannot easily defend themselves. This book was a little different in that it brought in a whole class of individuals as bullies', the aristocracy. They refer to those not in their group as drudges. I was taught to treat the janitor the same way I treat the CEO. This usually pisses off the CEO's, which has never bothered me. How you treat people and any of your actions tells the world exactly who you are. If you want to be respected you need to earn it.

Anyway, awesome book. Very enjoyable.

This is one of my favorite books in the PERN series. I absolutely love the story of Robinton. He is such a dynamic character, kind, brilliant, tenacious, determined, fair, and so many more character that make him such a likable character. We see his life from birth through his middle age. He has such a sad and hard life as a youngster having to deal with a disconnected and cold father. And having a child who he longs for who, because of an accident at birth, will never be the child that he hopes for but whom loves him and he will love. Fighting for justice when a ruthless and authoritarian individual begins taking over holds across the continent. Yes, because of the way the story is told, we feel we have grown up with Robinton and feel a strong connection with him. He is easily my favorite character in the entire series.

While this is the first book that people traditionally read, and my introduction to PERN years ago, I have chosen to read it as the 17th book in the series as I am reading them in chronological order. There are themes in these books that keep coming back. For example, the holders don't see the need for dragons or their rider and see them as a leach on the planet. That is until thread falls. The worst case of this is during the 9th pass. There is usually a 200 year gap between passes but sometimes it it longer if the red planet does not come close enough to drop thread. Such is the case here. After 400 years few people believe in the fall of thread and so there are not enough dragons to face the treat. Lessa, a badass dragon rider, an impulsive and impetuous woman does the unthinkable and tries to go back in time 400 years to find a way to save PERN.

It is a delightful story that pulled me in and made me feel a part of the story.

How impossibly annoying it can be when you are trying to get something done, to help yourself and those around you and there are people who want to be obstructionists. That is the situation that F'lar finds himself in. The old timers, as they have become know, don't like the changes they see in a PERN that is 400 years more advanced than they are. They cause problems and bully the holder and don't work toward a common good. It is up to F'lar to fix this problem. In addition he has the same problem with the holders. They don't believe things they are told even when they are shown evidence. If you see grubs eating thread an then claim not to believe they can eat thread, you are being willfully ignorant. Why not just go to the red star and destroy all the thread at the source. Is it possible to go there? Is it possible to destroy all the thread? I thoroughly enjoyed this story and think you will too.

I never expected to get another novel in the series. I thought the last book ended the series. I am delighted with this one. It is by far the darkest story of the series. Gus makes a moral decision and gets into an argument with Uncle Jack, which is to say himself. What do you do with people so bad, so evil who do such vial things that there is no hope of changing them, especially when they are a threat to all living people? You can impression them, exile them or kill them. If you kill them, do you risk becoming the very thing you despise? These are the moral questions Gus must grapple with, when someone or something is not actively trying to kill him.

Do we get a happily ever after ending. The ending took me by surprise. You will love it

This was such a wonderful story I wish I could give it 6 stars. The time frame is the same as the previous book, but told as a side story. A young girl, Menolly, who is very talented in music lives at a hold called half circle. Her father is in charge of the hold and is a rigid and narrow minded individual. She is berated by her family for playing music when their harper dies. They call it tuning. She teaches the youngsters until a new harper can be sent. But her father beats her for playing music. She cuts her had while cleaning fish and is told by her mother that she will never be able to play music again. She becomes distraught with her life and runs away from the hold. While away she impresses, accidentally, nine fire dragons. She spends the rest of the story playing cat and mouse with the master harper of PERN who is looking for the former harpers apprentice who wrote the amazing music that he sent to Robinton before he died.

The narrator, Sally Darling, is amazing. She has a slow reading cadence that brought a peaceful feeling to the whole story. And her speech patterns reminded me of Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz. It fit so perfectly for Menolly. She is a shy and naive young girl and Sally did a wonderful job portraying her.

This was a great story but I felt that it was more a collection of short stories than a story with a strong over arching theme. That theme was to blacken the eye of Eliza. The part of the story that covered that was very short. What was more relevant was character development of Mikes best childhood friend Paul, his brother in law, BT, and the ever so wicked Mrs. Devorux. We also learn more about the back story of Tommy and Eliza. Some of our favorite characters don't survive, others are harmed in unsettling ways.

The end of the book has us at a cliffhanger to win all cliff hangers. I cannot wait for the next book to find out what happens next.

We are once again at the Harper Hall with Menolly. This book takes place shortly after Dragonsong and in this book we see her first few weeks at the Hall. We must remember she is about 15 years old. Some people are very happy to see her, some are jealous and others are just grumpy. She goes through a great deal of doubt about whether she really belongs at the hall. She performs for various masters and begins lessons. She is told to do what she was once forbidden to do when she was at the sea hold.

While she struggles in this book, she also shines. We see her strength and resolve and her love for music. She stands up for herself in the face of some very powerful people who do not like her and who are willing to lie to hurt her.

This was a very endearing story to read and I hope you will read it and enjoy it as much as I have.

Every once in a while we totally misunderstand a book. I had this book as a standalone book in my library, waiting to be read. I was very confused about who all these factions were and what they were and what was going on. It was not until after I had finished the book that I discovered I had just jumped into the middle of a series (Book 5 in fact) without any context.

Having experienced that, I almost stopped several times but continued until the end. I felt the story was told in a excellent and engaging way, but that I was lost only because I should not have been reading this book yet.

The world is well developed, the characters are clear and easy to identify with. I thought is was an interesting story, I just felt lost. None of this is the fault of the author or the book. I think I would have enjoyed it immensely if I had read the first four books. Live and learn.

This is the third book in the Harper series. The first two centered around Menolly while this one is all about Pimar. The story takes place about 3 years after Menolly gets to the Harper Hall. In this story, Piemar, who has been a great friend to Menolly and is a great singer, goes through the change and his voice cracks. He is out of singging for a few months at least and Master Harper Robinton, puts him with the drummers to keep him safe. It turns out that is not such a safe place to be. Prank turn out to be very aggressive and Piemar gets a concussion. When he recovers, the Master Harper has a mission for him and Sebell. They are trying to find out why so many fire lizards are showing up at at one of the holds.

While on this mission, Piemar steals a queen fire lizard egg from the Lord Holder and while trying to escape get transported via dragon to the southern continent. This was a very fun story and I enjoyed it very much.

This was a very short story. It goes back a few years to a books called Fugitive Telemetry. Since it has been a while since I read that it is hard to recall all the things that happened. This story is a bit of a debrief of those events. It would be best read right after reading that so things are fresh in your mind. The seem to all be grappling with Murderbots breaking his program and saving all their lives. They live in a super-corporate world where everything is owned by someone and people don't really count as much as assets.

Most of the PERN books take place during the 9th pass. So there are lots of interactions between characters we know. This story centers around Jacksom, the future Lord Holder of Ruatha Hold. His father was the Holder whoo broke with tradition and tried to take over many holds. He was killed by one of the dragon riders and Lytol was put in change as a regent until Jacksom came of age. As Jacksom grew up he impressed/saved a dragon which very much complicated things for PERN. In this story we see him go from an impetuous teenager to a Lord Holder. We see his fist love wane and him find his true love and future bride.

We also see many changes in PERN. Master Robinton has a heart attack and must retire. His apprentice becomes the Master of Harper and they discover the site of first landing. It was a very exciting story and was told in a riveting way.

This is the best book to read just before Halloween. It tells the story of 11 boys in a small town on Halloween night as they try to find their missing friend and learn the real meaning of the costumes they wear. They visit a spooky house and meet Mr. Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud. He takes them on a 4000 year adventure where they learn about Halloween tradions through time and around the world. Our family loves this story and we watch the animated movie each year and read the book. I think you will love it

This story finished with a solid bang! I felt he story started a bit slow but I soon got into the grove of the story and enjoyed it thoroughly. The ending was so solid, so impactful, that I had to smile. Butcher is developing his characters and his world in such an amazing way. I look forward to all his book in this series and in any others he engages in, with great anticipation.

I feel the ending is so impactful, because he has his characters show you what they are made of, what they value and who they are at their cores. This is not a causal demonstration but one that leaves you knowing who they are and what you can expect from them in difficult situations.

This was a great story. Very short but lots of fun. A repeating theme in her books is misogyny and also bullying. We see in this story how afraid the family is and how they expect everyone to be mad at them. This story throws us back in time to the early books in this turn. It recalls a time when Fax had taken many holds and was hurting many of the holders. This family fled and was on their own, trying to survive. The main character is a young girl named Aramina who can not only hear dragons but they can hear her as well. It was a nice story and showed the kinder side of people on PERN.

This was an excellent end to a story arc. Mike and his stoner friend made their way North while the remains of the Talbot group returned thinking that Mike was dead. There were some excellent adventures with twists and turns that you just could not anticipate. They finally arrive in Maine behind Eliza for the showdown. It was spectacular.

Beyond the story was the Epilog. It really framed what the whole six book story was about. In a fever dream, Mike returns to the past and relives Eliza's life. He see how her father treated her, raped her. How everyone (except Thomas) abused her and used her. It was her society and the poor way, vicious, violent and inhumane way, that she was treated that created the monster we came to know as Eliza.

I thought this was an amazing commentary on humanity. Beyond the story, it was a lesson that explained that our actions, and how we treat others, has real world consequences. This is what I love so much about Sci-Fi and Fantasy, they show us the best and worst about ourselves.

I thought this was an inventive way of telling stories, or rather an inventive way of tying a bunch of small stories together. One of the things that she did in this book was to retell stories or scenes from other books from a different point of view. For example we saw the meeting of Piemur and Sharra from Piemur point of view in The Girl who Heard Dragon (I think). In this book we relive the same scene from Sharras point of view. This happened three or four times in the book and I found it very interesting.

I really developed a deep dislike for Thella. She was mean, blood thirsty, cruel and not just a little insane. We get to see how her story ends.

I also like to see the end of the story (or at least the next part of ) Aramina, the girl who heard dragons. It was a bit disorienting that she was called Aramina, Ara and Mina by different people. Although that is probably a realistic thing to happen in a persons life.

This is a three part anthology. I liked the way the three authors tied their stories together. I have never heard of using chees in divination, but it was an interesting take on it. The Iron Druid portion was called A Prelude to War. It showed us how Atticus ended up in the events of the books we have read so far by going back 50 years to a character, Mekera, who helped him find Oberon originally and set a lot of the things we have read about in motion.

The other two stories were a bit odd. Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys by Delilah Dawson is about a Blud world filled with vampires. It takes place in a traveling carnival and while it was interesting, I did not know about the world and found it to be very violent and gory.

Story three was Interlude: Swallow by Chuck Wendig and despite it being written by a man, it seemed to be very anti-men. It came across as being written by an angry feminist. It was also needlessly sexual and vulgar. It don't mind either except when their inclusion in the story is out of place as it felt here.

This was a very exciting story. Finally, after 2500 years, there is a chance for things to improve on PERN. They have been stuck in medieval times forever and now they have an AI that can tell them about their past and teach them about knowledge that has been lost to them. This is to be a kind of renaissance for the planet. Except for the detractors. There are always detractors. Those who want to destroy that which they do not understand, even while they enjoy the benefits of having that technology.

I was delighted to see them work together as a planet to try and destroy thread. It took all the Weyrs, all the holds and all the craftsman to enact the plan of the AI. It reminded me of the space race when I was a child when we worked together as a country to actually put a man on the moon. I hope we get back to working together.

This was the first of Oberon's meaty mysteries and I must admit I am a fan. It is not as serious as the main Iron Druid books, but it is definitely not for young adults. Oberon tells the story of a bunch of prized dogs who are being stolen and have disappeared. Then the story shifts as one of the owners is found dead and we have a murder mystery on our hands and it is delicious. They make friends (?) with a female detective and I could not help but think about Butchers Dresden novels. I look forward to more from this perspective.

Another meaty mystery. This time Atticus and the three dogs are in Portland when a squirrel runs off and starts a chase that ends when they run into that same detective standing over a dead body that looks a lot like Atticus. They get involved in helping the police solve the murder and Atticus stumbles across an old acquaintance that may lead to a new business deal. There are also sausages.