Book Review of "Last Argument of Kings - First Law Trilogy Book 3"

The fantastic First Law Trilogy ends with the "Last Argument of Kings" - it's been a good ride. The third book isn't exactly as "nasty" as the first two - but it has all the elements that made the first two books good - intriguing characters, fast paced action and an engaging story. I wouldn't call the First Law Trilogy one of the best fantasy books I have read, but they are definitely one of the entertaining ones. In fact, I wouldn't mind reading more about 'Sand Dan Glokta' and some of the other characters. This book gives a satisfying action packed conclusion and in my mind winds down all the important story arcs neatly. I don't necessarily like or agree with the way all those story arcs ended, but I'll say that's just me and not anything against the book - there aren't any obvious logical holes or odd u-turns. Overall, fun and interesting - 4/5. Got to admit, this genre of 'grimdark' is starting to grow on me :) 

Book Review of "Before They Are Hanged - First Law Trilogy Book 2"

They say the middle book of a trilogy could be a filler - you have the beginning and the end in your first and the third book respectively and the second one is there to "continues the story". There definitely is a kernel of truth to this generalization, but I have seen exceptions as well (case in point - the second book from the Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy). That being said, "Before They Are Hanged" unfortunately is not such an exception. IMO, it falls into the proverbial "middle book" fallacy. What works in its favor though (and hence the 4/5 rating from me), is the excellent characters and some of the sassiest character interactions in fantasy novels I have seen. The action sequences are painted superbly. The story arc of this book kind of feels flat. All in all, if you enjoyed the first book of the 'First law Trilogy', you'll enjoy this one, though not as much. For me, it's enough to keep me interested and go for the third book. I guess that's the main purpose of the middle books anyways! 

Book Review of "The Blade Itself - First Law Trilogy Book 1"

This one was an interesting read. 

Positives:

1. Excellent characters and character interactions: With the exception of a one obviously villainous character, all others are beautifully construed with a mix of black and white. You love them and yet you hate their guts - actually pretty good for a fantasy novel. The dialogues are funny & sarcastic with just the right amount of profanity. 

2. Vivid depiction of action sequences: simple man on man sword fights, fistfights & some magical fights throughout the book but they are painted vividly giving you a sense of urgency and actually having you second guess the results. 

Negatives:

1. The overall story arc: The entire book feels like a buildup to something and then it ends. I am hoping the next two books in the trilogy don't feel this way.

2. Unnecessary gratuitous violence is some places: Reminds you of a Tarantino movie - probably a bit less of graphic violence could have had a bigger impact IMO.

Overall, fun & interesting. 4/5.

Book Review of "The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer"

What is your definition of a superhero ? Its the small town lawyer who decides to fight against the medical insurance behemoths because they didn't cover his sister's breast cancer treatment, its a pair of driven scientists who spent months walking the corridors of a giant Pharmaceutical company to convince them to mass produce a cancer medicine even though it was for a small variant of cancer and might not earn the company a lot of money, its the clinical researchers who stood their ground against the tobacco companies to push awareness about lung cancer and finally its the countless surgeons, hematologists and geneticists who spent their literal lifetime against a formidable foe and by solving a small piece of the puzzle saved thousands of lives.

"The Emperor of All Maladies" by Siddhartha Mukherjee is a brilliant masterpiece. It is superbly written and extraordinarily insightful. The research that must have gone behind writing this book is astounding - almost every page of this roughly 600 pages book has at least two references. 

It covers the history of Cancer starting from its first recorded occurrence in the Egyptian texts some 2500 years ago all the way to today's Cancer Genome Atlas. It has riveting accounts of numerous wins and losses by researchers against Cancer and how our collective understanding of this disease has progressed. The book mostly talks about the data from the US and western European countries and the writer, Siddhartha Mukherjee, openly admits to that. But that being said, this book will leave you speechless. 

IMO, everyone should read this, period.

Book Review of "Recursion"

A SciFi book that is action packed, fast paced with just a little bit of philosophical touch - is my guilty pleasure. "Recursion" by Blake Crouch fared perfectly on all of these fronts. It has won the GoodReads SciFi book of the year award for 2019. This combined with the fact that I had really enjoyed Blake Crouch's previous book "Dark Matter", made it an obvious choice to go for "Recursion". It didn't disappoint. Its fun & fast. You are not expected to think too much about the science in the story and that's ok. "Recursion" weaves an entertaining story around memory, time travel & some cop drama with a few well rounded & crisply defined characters. A solid 4/5. Perfect read for the holidays.