Into Africa - Martin Dugard

Bantam, 2004, 410 pages

Original copyright 2003

ISBN: 978-0-553-41447-7

Read: January 2025, age 46

 

This book is basically the lead-up to the 'Dr. Livingstone, I presume' line - the story of D. David Livingstone, and Henry Morton Stanley's exploration of central Africa.  It was super-interesting at the start, but got a little long and repetitive as things played out.  I'm glad I read it.

 

Rating: 4-

Monster Hunter: Siege - Larry Correia

Baen, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-4814-8255-4

Read: February 2025, age 46

 

Monster Hunter International, book 6

 

Fun, violent, generally pretty good for a shoot-em-up thriller.  I prefer this one, having Owen as the POV character, as opposed to the last two.

 

Rating: 4

Hogfather - Terry Pratchett

Harper Torch, 1999, 421 pages

Read: January 2025, age 46 

Discworld, book 20

 

This was yet another fantastically quotable book,  funny, and deeper than it had any right to be.  Prime Pratchett, in other words.  

 

My only real quibble is that in the ebook format, the footnotes were unlinked end-notes, and that didn't work very well for me.  Reading them all at the end just isn't the same.

Rating: 5

Into the Wild - Jack Krakauer

Anchor, 2009, 228 pages

Read: December 2024, age 46

 

Basically a long-form journalism report on the death of a kid who underestimated what it would take to survive on his own in Alaska, it was more compelling than it had any right to be, and I quite enjoyed it. 

 

Rating: 4

NPCs - Drew Hayes (Audiobook)

Tantor Audio, 2014, 7.8 hours

Read by: Roger Wayne

Listened to: January 2025, age 46

 

Spells, Swords, & Stealth, book 1 

A fun story that got derailed by a weak narrator.  His voices were generally good, but the 'narrator' voice was really bad, hesitant, pausing at inopportune times, and felt like he was struggling to read at times.  There were other times when the voices were contradicted by the text - "'lines in a quiet rasp', he bellowed" - things like that.

 

Rating: 3

The Element of Fire - Martha Wells (Audiobook)

Tantor, 2013, 14.1 hours

Read by: Derek Perkins

Listened to:  September 2024, age 46

 

Ile-Rien, book 1 

I suspect that I'd prefer this book in print.  The narration didn't add to the experience - the tone and expression didn't always match the words and descriptors.  I think the story was really quite good, but the overall product wasn't was I was hoping for.  

 

Also, the book may be more complex than half-a-brain-while-driving deserves.  So, good, but I think there's an excellent print book in there.

 

Rating: 3

The Goblin Horde - Ivan Kal (Audiobook)

Tantor Audio, 2019, 8.4 hours

Read by: Ryan Burke

Listened to: November 2024, age 46

 

Tower of Power, book 2 

...yup.  Still bad.  There's unrealized potential for a good story - the visuals are good, and the setting is interesting enough.  The dialogue and the characters are very weak.  Kind of fun, though. 

 

Rating: 2+