Book review index

(How I rate books, explanation)

(For non-fiction, scroll down-down-down)

A

• Joe Abercrombie
  • The First Law series
    • The Blade Itself ***½
    • Before They Are Hanged ***½
    • Last Argument of Kings ****
  • The First Law standalones
    • Best Served Cold ****
    • The Heroes ****½
    • Red Country ***½
• Douglas Adams
  • The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series ****
• Katherine Addison
  • The Goblin Emperor ****
• Brian W. Aldiss
  • Hothouse *** ½
• Poul Anderson
  • Tau Zero ***
• Isaac Asimov
  • The Foundation series
    • Foundation ****
    • Foundation and Empire *** ½
    • Second Foundation *** ½
    • Foundation’s Edge *** ½
  • The Robot series
    • I, Robot ****
    • The Caves of Steel *** ½
• Margaret Atwood
  • The MaddAddam trilogy
    • Oryx and Crake ****½
    • The Year of the Flood ****

B

• R. Scott Bakker
  • The Aspect-Emperor series
    • The Judging Eye ****
    • The White-Luck Warrior *****
    • The Great Ordeal ****½
    • The Unholy Consult ****½
• Josiah Bancroft
  • The Books of Babel
    • Senlin Ascends ****½
    • Arm of the Sphinx ****
    • The Hod King *****
• Iain M. Banks
  • Against a Dark Background ***
• T.J. Bass
  • The Hive series
    • Half Past Human ***
    • The Godwhale ***
• Robert Jackson Bennett
  • The Divine Cities
    • City of Stairs ****
    • City of Blades ****
    • City of Miracles ****
• Dan Brown
  • Origin *½
• Steven Brust
  • The Book of Jhereg ***½

C

• James Branch Cabell
  • Jurgen, A Comedy Of Justice *****
• M.R. Carey
  • The Girl With All the Gifts ***
• B. Catling
  • The Vorrh Trilogy
    • The Vorrh *****
    • The Erstwhile ****
    • The Cloven *****
• Michael Chabon
  • The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay *****
  • The Yiddish Policemen’s Union ****½
• Becky Chambers
  • The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet ***
• Ted Chiang
  • Stories of Your Life and Others *****
  • Exhalation ****½
• Arthur C. Clarke
  • A Fall of Moondust ***
• Susanna Clarke
  • Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell *****
  • Piranesi *****
• Carlo Collodi
  • The Adventures of Pinocchio **
• James S.A. Corey
  • The Expanse
    • Leviathan Wakes ***½
    • Caliban’s War ***½
    • Abaddon’s Gate ***
• John Crowley
  • Engine Summer *****
  • Aegypt: The Solitudes ***
  • Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr ****½

D

• Philip K. Dick
  • The Penultimate Truth ***
  • A Maze of Death ****
  • A Scanner Darkly ***

E

• Nicholas Eames
  • Kings of the Wyld ***½
• E.R. Eddison
  • The Worm Ouroboros ****
• Greg Egan
  • Permutation City ***½
• Dave Eggers
  • The Circle **½
• Steven Erikson
  • The Malazan Book of the Fallen
    • Gardens of the Moon ****

F

• Charles G. Finney
  • The Circus of Dr. Lao ***
• Michael R. Fletcher
  • Beyond Redemption ***

G

• John Gardner
  • Grendel *****

H

• Peter F. Hamilton
  • The Commonwealth Saga
    • Pandora’s Star ***½
    • Judas Unchained ***½
• M. John Harrison
  • The Centauri Device ***
  • You Should Come With Me Now ****
  • The Kefahuchi Tract trilogy
    • Light *****
    • Nova Swing ****
• Scott Hawkins
  • The Library at Mount Char *****
• Frank Herbert
  • Dune series
    • Dune *****
    • Dune Messiah ****
    • Children of Dune ****½
      
    • God Emperor of Dune ****½
    • Heretics of Dune ***½
      
    • Chapterhouse: Dune ****
      
• Robert Holdstock
  • Mythago Wood ****
• Kameron Hurley
  • The Stars Are Legion ****
• Dave Hutchinson
  • Fractured Europe series
    • Europe in Autumn *****
    • Europe at Midnight ****½
    • Europe in Winter ****

I

• Kazuo Ishiguro
  • Never Let Me Go *****
  • The Buried Giant ***½

J

• Marlon James
  • Black Leopard, Red Wolf ****
• N.K. Jemisin
  • The Broken Earth Trilogy
    • The Fifth Season *****
    • The Obelisk Gate ****
    • The Stone Sky *****

K

• Marc-Uwe Kling
  • QualityLand **½

L

• Mark Lawrence
  • The Broken Empire trilogy
    • Prince of Thorns ****
    • King of Thorns ****½
    • Emperor of Thorns ****
  • The Red Queen’s War trilogy
    • Prince of Fools ***½
• Yoon Ha Lee
  • Ninefox Gambit ****
• Ursula K. LeGuin
  • The Earthsea Novels ****
• Stanislaw Lem
  • The Star Diaries ***
• David D. Levine
  • Arabella of Mars ***
• David Lindsay
  • A Voyage to Arcturus *****
• Cixin Liu
  • Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy
    • The Three-Body Problem ****
    • The Dark Forest ****
    • Death’s End ****½
• Ken Liu
  • The Grace of Kings ****
  • The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories ****
• H.P. Lovecraft
  • The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories ***½
  • The Thing at the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories ***½
• Scott Lynch
  • Gentleman Bastard series
    • The Lies of Locke Lamora ****
    • Red Seas Under Red Skies ****

M

• George R.R. Martin
  • Tuf Voyaging **
  • Songs of the Dying Earth (ed. with Gardner Dozois) ****
• A. Lee Martinez
  • Emperor Mollusk versus the Sinister Brain ***
• Cormac McCarthy
  • The Road *****
• Jack McDevitt
  • Priscilla Hutchins series
    • The Engines of God ***
    • Chindi ***
• Patricia A. McKillip
  • The Changeling Sea ****
  • Ombria in Shadow ****
• China Mieville
  • This Census-Taker ***
  • Three Moments of an Explosion: Stories ***½
  • The Last Days of New Paris ***½
• David Mitchell
  • The Bone Clocks ****
• Richard K. Morgan
  • Thin Air ***

N

• Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
  • The Mote in God’s Eye ****

P

• Ada Palmer
  • Terra Ignota series
    • Too Like the Lightning ****
    • Seven Surrenders *****
    • The Will To Battle ****
• Mervyn Peake
  • The Gormenghast Novels *****
• Terry Pratchett
  • Discworld series
    • The Truth ****
    • Thief of Time ****
    • The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents ***½
    • Night Watch ****
    • The Wee Free Men ***½
    • Monstrous Regiment ***½
    • A Hat Full of Sky ****

R

• Alastair Reynolds
  • Revelation Space Series
    • Revelation Space ****
    • Chasm City ***½
    • Redemption Ark ****
    • Absolution Gap ****
    • Galactic North ***½
  • Prefect Dreyfus Emergencies
    • Aurora Rising (The Prefect) ***½
    • Elysium Fire ***
  • Terminal World ***½
• Kim Stanley Robinson
  • 2312 **½
  • Aurora ***½

S

• Brandon Sanderson
  • The Stormlight Archive
    • The Way of Kings ***½
    • Words of Radiance ***½
    • Oathbringer ***
• Jose Saramago
  • The Elephant’s Journey ***
• Karl Schroeder
  • Lady of Mazes ****
• Tommy Siegel
  • I Hope This Helps **
• Clifford D. Simak
  • Way Station ****
• Dan Simmons
  • Ilium Series
    • Ilium *****
    • Olympos ****
• Cordwainer Smith
  • The Rediscovery of Man ****½
• E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith
  • Lensman series **
• Olaf Stapledon
  • Star Maker & The Last and First Men *****
• Neal Stephenson
  • Cryptonomicon *****
  • Seveneves ****½
  • The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. (with Nicole Galland) ***½
• Michael Swanwick
  • Stations of the Tide ****

T

• Adrian Tchaikovsky
  • Children of Time ****
• J.R.R. Tolkien
  • The Fall of Gondolin ***
• Dempow Torishima
  • Sisyphean ****

V

• Catherynne M. Valente
  • Radiance ****½
  • Space Opera ***
• Jack Vance
  • The Dying Earth novels ****½
  • Night Lamp ***
• Jeff VanderMeer
  • Borne ****
  • Ambergris Series
    • City of Saints and Madmen ***
    • Shriek: An Afterword ****
    • Finch ****
  • Southern Reach Series
    • Annihilation *****
    • Authority ****
    • Acceptance ****

W

• Peter Watts
  • Blindsight *****
  • The Freeze-Frame Revolution ****
• Oscar Wilde
  • The Picture of Dorian Gray ****½
• Gene Wolfe
  • The Book of the Long Sun ****
  • The Book of the Short Sun ****

Z

• Roger Zelazny
  • This Immortal ****
  • Jack of Shadows ***
  • The Chronicles of Amber (books 1-5) ****

—–

Non-fiction – History

• Bill Bryson – One Summer: America 1927
• Mike Dash – Tulipomania
• Norman Davies – Vanished Kingdoms
• Peter Frankopan – The Silk Roads
• Yuval Noah Harari – Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind
• Yuval Noah Harari – Homo Deus, A Brief History of Tomorrow
• Ian Mortimer – Human Race

Non-fiction – Other

• Tim Birkhead – Bird Sense
• Daniel C. Dennett – From Bacteria to Bach and Back
• Charles Foster – Being a Beast
• Stephen Fry – Mythos
• Eric Harvey – The Leadership Secrets of Santa Claus
• Benjamin Hoff – The Tao of Pooh
• Henry Kissinger – World Order
• Arthur Koestler – The Act of Creation
• Mark Manson – The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
• Michael Palin – New Europe
• Steven Pinker – Enlightenment Now
• Oliver Sacks – The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat
• Greg Sestero & Tom Bissell – The Disaster Artist
• Max Tegmark – Life 3.0
• Alan W. Watts – The Wisdom of Insecurity