yeah this series just isn't for me. It's just goofy with everything happening by accident but not enough comedy and satire to make it all make sense. no real conflict, just daily life with half fishing and some odd relationships between a dude and some animals and their food. This reads like the story before the actual story, and I don't enjoy it. If the system actually worked and made it work like real progression fantasy instead of half way I may like it more, but as it is, it just isn't for me.

This book seems to have potential, but it is missing everything that makes lit rpg and progression fantasy enjoyable for me. I love fishing, I love cooking, but a book that is only about random semi-fishing scenes and weird cooking and eating scenes just doesn't do it. Without any real combat or conflict it just falls flat. There's comedy and some enjoyable characters, but it just seems hollow, like an idea that isn't fully worked out.

Overall I like the idea, but not the execution, it needs more to keep me going. Maybe I'll pick up book 2 but maybe not, I don't know yet.

This book starts out really good. I like the magic and the political system and it's powers given to the main character. I wouldn't want to live in that world, but it gives the story a lot more room to entertain us the readers.

With the main character being a hand, or hand in training it allows him to have full access to everything he wants, and a power he can use to his advantage. The downfall here is though he has a lot of power, it doesn't work if someone is a trader. This seems to lead the author to make bad things happen just to prove this, and I don't like that. I'm never a fan of an author introducing characters and making the reader like them just to take them away, even if it is the easiest way to accomplish something. That automatically makes me not trust the author, and that takes away a lot of enjoyment from what would otherwise be a really great book.

A whole lot happens in this book really fast. By chapter 20 you feel like there has been enough happen for an entire book. Thankfully this isn't an author who will stretch out 20 chapters into 40 like so many others. At the half way point you are left wondering where else this will go, but the plot gets a second wind and takes off all over again.

The second half of the book is just as good, only with a somewhat different character set. Aside from the one hick up in the first half I really liked this. It is a solid 4.5 out of 5, but since that isn't possible here I suppose it deserves a 5 out of 5. I did enjoy this one a lot more than the first book in the starship's mage series. I'm really looking forward to the Voice of Mars which I'm starting right now.

This book picks up right after the second with hints of the plot line that has tied everything together so far. Damien is in action right away, but this seems to be used just to get us flowing in the story and acquainted with his powers. From there he is sent to stop a civil war from breaking out between two systems.

Of course not everything is what it seems, and that is the fun in the story. To add some extra fun, he finds out his old girlfriend is the military leader of one of the systems. This book is a good landscape of politics and military action. Though some of the decisions are angering, they are understandable. There isn't much worse than a book where the characters take actions the reader can't logically follow along with. I run into this problem all the time, but not in this book. They can be frustrating, but you can completely understand more.

The only question I'm always left wondering is why the ship captains don't just grab some extra jump mage's when the fit hits the shan. I'm sure there could be a reason for it, but that reason isn't ever fully explained to my satisfaction. That isn't hardly enough to take away from the story, and I really like this one.

We are left with a lot of questions unanswered involving the series plot, but the door is finally wide open now. I'm sure a lot of them are going to be brought up in the next book and I'm charging forward right into that one.

I ended up liking it and moved on to the second book in the series. If truth be told I finished this one a while ago, and this is just a housekeeping review to get it off of my reading shelf. It is a nice light urban fantasy though, nothing too deep, just a light fun read. The narrator really grew on me too. If you ever want a quick urban fantasy read, this is a good choice.

This series really pulled me in. For those who like John Ringo this is spot on his style and everything you could want in a Ringo book. The characters are so unique, and to those who say too unbelievable...well don't listen to them. I don't really have anything bad to say except that I'd like to see the end tied up more if this is the last book following this character group. I know the other two books in the series follow Tom Smith, but I don't know if they will eventually tie into the first four books. If so I'm more than happy, if not I'm just normal happy.

I've started the 5th book, The Valley of Shadows, and I'll admit it is harder to get into since it covers a lot of stuff already covered in book 1, but I'm fully expecting it to pick up like every Ringo book does. If you like bad ass Ringo military books then this is a great read. I don't like the whole Zombie genre but this is done very well and I really enjoyed it.

There isn't much to say about this book. If you have ever read one single Sanderson book than you already know this will be good and you should go read Skyward then Starsight. I really liked the complete change of scenery and completely different type of plot. Once the book hooked me it really hooked me. I ran through this in under a day.

It is an amazingly good book in every way except for the ending, but that is my personal preference. Sanderson juggles a lot of different series, and with how this book ends it will be rough waiting for the next one. I would be a lot happier if there was more known at the end, but anyone who hasn't read it yet will understand afterwards.

This is a top recommended book for sure, if you haven't read this series what are you waiting for? Even with being upset at the ending, it is well worth a read. Sadly this just gives more fuel to those who wait for a series to be completed to start book 1.

A nice light comical book with really interesting characters. This was my first Yahtzee Croshaw book, and I like his satire on the politically correct world we live in, all the more so since he did it with aliens. There were some points where the book seemed to drag in the middle, but the characters kept me listening. I didn't see the twist coming at the end either and that just added to my enjoyment. It is easy to make a book heavy with satire without a decent plot, but this does both. A solid read if you want something light, comical, and you aren't one of the social justice warriors he makes fun of.

I really wanted to like this book. I've been on a kick lately of apocalyptic rebuilding books. This was billed as that, but it really isn't...not even a little bit. I still don't know why I finished it, normally it takes a lot to get me to stop a book part way through. This brought me to that point multiple times but I forced myself to push through it. A lot of that issue was the pacing and the overly long writing. This could have easily been edited down to 2/3 of what it was, that without even really trying. There is just so much nothing happening helped along by main characters who are required by the plot to act stupid. All it does is stretch the book way beyond what it should be. I'm normally one who enjoys a novel in this length, but this one really felt like it was longer than it already was.

So the elephant in the room...yeah that was intentional.

You cannot escape the relentless whoke shouting in your face in every chapter. I don't even agree or disagree with all the politics in this book, but it is over the top and completely unnecessary. in a way this was done very smart. The story is based in a good idea but poorly executed. To make up for this he is heavy handed with left wing ideals. His fans who follow him on social media have already been culled to exclude anyone who doesn't already agree with his political ideals. This then ensures he has a large following of people who agree with him politically. Then in something like wanderers he can just put in all the major talking points and people will love the book because it reaffirms what they believe. My guess is a lot of people who really enjoyed this aren't basing it on the plot, pacing, characters or lack of any part, but rather on the politics which is the true cornerstone of this book.

Wendig's politics are not hidden, he doesn't hide them anywhere. It is completely another matter to call everyone who lives in the middle of the United States a bigoted hateful racist white supremacist. It is quite literally as if he did a google search for a red blue map of the United States. Then wrote scenes to take place in these states where every person in said scenes was a gun waving redneck white supremacist. This is my first and last book I'll ever read of his, this shouting in my face in every chapter is not what I find enjoyable in a book. I'm also not mindless enough to like a book just because he says some things I agree with. If you are very left of center and want to read something you can get titillated over then this is definitely the book for you.

The plot and general idea isn't a bad one, it is just so poorly done and so riddled with the bigoted useless politics of the author. The whole book speaks to the straw man that every conservative is a racist, and everyone liberal is an angel. As is the nature of a straw man, once it is built it is very easy to knock over. The thing he doesn't realize. He is doing the exact same thing himself. He groups all those he finds to be wrong in one character type in the book and paints them as evil bad people simply because they disagree with him. This is exactly what makes the "evil republicans" in the book evil. Something tells me that would fall on deaf ears though.

Aside from the unnecessary politics, there are all sorts of things that are just never answered in the book. Major points of the plot that just are ignored, or things that are shoved into the book to fill a gap. It doesn't seem to matter if they fit or not.

love interest that is random, forced, and out of the blue.

mastermind programmer who made the worlds smartest quantum computer AI, but she doesn't actually seem to know anything about programming.

the worlds smartest computer that can only answer in yes and no? This quite literally makes none of the sense.

if the thing controlling all of this has selected the people for a reason why isn't it interested in keeping them from being killed?

Why wasn't it a bigger deal when the doctors realized the people couldn't be cut or poked with a needle? That is a pretty damn big revelation which the smartest doctors in the land just shrug about and ignore.

why do people blow up, this was never answered and it makes no sense. It is a clumsy way of forcing the plot to work.

A lot of words that tell a story that could have taken up 2/3 of the length, maybe even less.

The scene at the golden bears bridge doesn't do anything for the plot. It is quite pointless. we already know there are bad "republicans" trying to kill everyone blah blah.

most people who die in the book are just being killed because they can be. It doesn't serve the plot to kill them. It just makes the author untrustworthy.

Where did all these white supremacists come from? Sure they exist, but this book makes you think there are millions and millions of them. Of course all in the middle of the country.

Horrible gun research. People don't only take head shots, revolvers actually do function the same as a semi-automatic, it gets old.

An ending that is just nonsense.

things I learned from the book.

ALL cops evil and bad.

ALL military evil and bad.

ALL people in the mid-west evil, racist, and bad.

ALL religion evil and bad.

ALL republicans are super evil and bad.

ALL gun owners are evil and bad.

Overall I really wanted to like this book, but I couldn't even get behind a single character. It was a really good idea, but it was ruined by the clear motivation to push the politics of the author. Whether you agree with all of it, some of it, or none of it; I still feel it is completely unnecessary. It is the only crutch to hold this book up for readers who agree with the author's world view. It really should be titled Whoke Ramblings.

I wanted to give this 2 stars just because the idea was so interesting. Then I finished the book and realized I was wrong. The book is just bad, really nothing else to say. It's just bad, the ending is the straw that broke the camel's back.

This book really gets right into it, No slow build up necessary. Right from page one you are in action with a pirate attack, and it doesn't seem to slow down. The main character Brad is recovered on the edge of death, and wakes up with most of his memory lost. From there we learn who he is while he does the same.

I do enjoy how we aren't given any info dumps to wade through. Everything we need to know about the world is given in little bits as the story progresses. Not enough authors do this, Glynn Stewart does a great job. This book really has a western feel to it, and I really enjoy that. Some books are deep and meaningful, more often than not they sacrifice the story to accomplish that. Above anything I just like a good story, this is a good story. Some things are unlikely, but that doesn't matter to me if it is consistent like it is here.

It can get a bit repetitive with Brad "letting a little bit of his anger show", but overall it is nice to have a main character deal with an internal conflict, and use it to their advantage instead of falling victim to it at every turn. It gives him a nice bit of attitude when it is necessary.

Some of the dialog is a bit forced, but other than that this is a nice light military science fiction book. It isn't the best I've read, but I'm always a sucker for stories like this. Someone who loses it all and rebuilds from scratch into something meaningful. More than anything it is a good story without any extra crap forced on the readers. I wish more authors would let their politics and social opinions take a back seat to telling a good story.