Ode to the Half-Broken by Suzanne Palmer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've been a pretty big fan of Suzanne Palmer's Finder series but it should be noted that she also wrote a Hugo nommed story about robots in space.

And this novel is definitely in that universe, although fixed right on Earth after the robot apocalypse.

A lot of people will see a connection with the Murderbot series (I don't think so, too much) or with Becky Chambers (only a bit), but for me, I see all kinds of shades of Cargill's Sea of Rust and Roderick and Adrian Tchaikovsky's Service Model here.

Sure, robots, definitely more along the line of hate and healing, revenge and true justice--all while taking the guise of an old warrior wanting nothing but peace and finding it with a found family--while not ending it there.

I rather enjoyed it. No less because it had something a bit deeper to say, too. Something pertinent today. I won't spoil it. But this is definitely a good read.

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SUBMERGED: A hacker thriller by John Wilander
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Most books I read about hackers rather skim over the ways and means, assuming the reader either doesn't care or has a twitter attention span. I'm glad this one doesn't. It has that in common with the first book in the series.

And in case I'm not clear on this, I LOVE the fact that it geeks out on real hacking with all the ways and means. It's very informative, even if I can't confirm or deny that it's real. It FEELS real, and that's kinda the point.

But that isn't the real point of this particular novel. This is a true technological thriller. A crack team doing a more realistic mission impossible, complete with real consequences, massively researched Russian locales, and a quite plausible--and indeed likely--look at the real scope of cyber-warfare between nations.

Updated to today. Which is, as you know, messed up. As in, totally out of control. Misinformation central. But hey, being lied to has now become normal.

My only slight immersion break was the whole submarine part, but despite the cover, it's only a small portion of the goodies. No matter how it might bill itself as a mission impossible, it felt just a bit too mission impossible when dealing with the nitty gritty realism that the book does so well everywhere else.

But then, that may be just me. I really enjoyed the book, otherwise.

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Providence by TurtleMe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Okay. This book is kinda a hot mess. And while it DOES have enough good stuff to keep it afloat and cool and definitely worth reading, the bad stuff is still truly annoying.

Like the broken, broken again, broken yet again magic ass-pulls. This makes me think we're going back to the truly mysterious magic system days where it's all built on "if you just believe hard enough, you'll get it", but without faith. Just the plain old somehow Palpatine came back, but for magic rules. Like Cecilia. Or rather, all Cecilia. And while the whole fate mastery bit was cool on the surface and a bit deeper, it's still TOTALLY an ass-pull.

So yeah, between that and just a tad too many PoVs that I didn't care about--sorry, Nate--I just kept hoping to get through the main plot for the sake of just MOVING ON at last.

But fortunately, we do. And it was pretty cool, despite all the annoying bits. And so I'm not QUITE done with this series since there's another one coming out. :)

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Retribution by TurtleMe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Bigger scale conflict on the horizon, dragons versus the end of the world. Or rather, our favorite dragons causing it. And all the Lessers are going to have to step up, train, and break their choke-hold once and for all.

Good thing our hero is so damn OP for the normal troops.

But now, it's training time for everyone else. Yay!

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Reckoning by TurtleMe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a great comeback, or rather follow-up comeback that includes #8 and #9, but more importantly, we really get to know the enemy--by being the enemy.

Of course, it's kinda sly doing it this way, getting in good with some nobles, wiping out some others, and most importantly--BECOMING A TEACHER for young brats.

Just gotta make sure nobody finds out what you REALLY are. Right?

Right?

Muahahahahahaha this stuff can sometimes be so damn delicious.

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Ascension by TurtleMe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book changed the entire direction of the series, but I have to admit that was a good thing.

A reset of sorts. Of course, that's something that happens fairly often in these, be it Isekai or LitRPG or Progression. Sometimes there has to be a major setback after being utterly broken to break through to a new power plateau.

And that's exactly what we get here. Thrown across the world, core broken, a new awakening and a new friend, lost in a deadly dungeon.

It is pretty classic. And I enjoyed it quite a bit. I always like new skills in these kinds of books.

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Divergence by TurtleMe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So here I am, flying through these books and still wanting to continue on as hard as before, but I'm now reading it out of a sense of hopelessness and dread. Or rubbernecking an accident.

Sure, war is horrible, but this just goes all out of its way to show all the betrayal and stupidity and yet more betrayal it can.

It's pretty hard to stomach. I can't say this will ever be anything but the worst book in the series, but is it because of the storytelling or what happens?

Probably the latter.

Alas. At this point, I just have to hope it gets better.


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