ronpayne's reviews
1220 reviews

Metal from Heaven by August Clarke

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner

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challenging dark funny reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: The Junior Novelization (Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves) by David Lewman

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adventurous funny lighthearted tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I actually really admire the skill it takes to write out the movie, beat for beat, line for line, in language digestible for kids, while keeping it entertaining. But for some reason the book just stops at the end of the second act! No more story for you, kids. Be sure to tell your parents to show you the rest on Netflix! Sad.
The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe, Gene Wolfe

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

A collection of three interconnected novellas set in the far future on a pair of binary worlds. The first about young man coming of age and learning his heredity, the second a story purportedly told to an anthropologist by aboriginals, and the third a set of documents about an expedition and the imprisonment of the same anthropologist. I enjoyed reading this but can’t say I really understood it, which means, as usual with Wolfe, I need to reread it.
The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates

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challenging informative inspiring fast-paced

5.0

A series of essays written in the form of a letters to an English class the author taught. They follow the author’s evolving relationship with journalistic ethics through the lens of his upbringing as a black man in America and experiences as a reporter, and fiction and nonfiction author. This book is really good at showing who gets to tell the stories we are told.
The Book of Witches by Jonathan Strahan

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

An anthology of short stories and poems featuring a wide variety of types of witches. I enjoyed the project of this book even though quite a few of the stories didn’t really work for me. The high points in here were very high, though. My favorites were The Liar by Darcie Little Badger, As Wayward Sisters, Hand in Hand by Indrapramit Das, The Unexpected Excursion of the Mystery Writing Witches by Garth Nix, and Night Riding by Usman T. Malik.
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present by David Treuer

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

A history of the Native People of the United States that tells their collective story from first contact with Europeans to the present. A book that seeks to, and succeeds at recontextualizing this as the story of modern peoples who have adapted and persisted in the face of pandemics, genocidal policies, land grabs, war, government corruption and mismanagement, to emerge poised to remain an important part of the future of the United States.
The Fireborne Blade by Charlotte Bond

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adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

A novella about a disgraced woman Knight who tries to mend her reputation by recovering a legendary sword from the cave of an infamous dragon. If you are looking for a story where knights do battle with dragons, this is the book for you. The story is told with a couple of timelines, and with in-world historical vignettes about knights encountering dragons that I liked better than the main story, which despite have a pretty good twist didn’t land for me.