Leviathan Falls (The Expanse #9), by James S.A. Corey — a book review

This is it. The final book in Corey’s The Expanse series. I’m going to attempt to write this review without spoilers for this book. However, I feel free to talk about anything that happened in the previous eight entries. I’m not sure why you would be reading this review if you haven’t read any of […]

Tiamat’s Wrath (The Expanse #8), by James S.A. Corey — a book review

You may already suspect that I am a fan of this amazing space opera series. It’s the eighth book in the series, the penultimate book in fact. And this is the eighth book review I’ve written for the series. You can also read my reviews of The Expanse television series here as well. I liked […]

Storm Front (Dresden Files #1), by Jim Butcher — a book review

Since Storm Front is nearly twenty-five years old as I type these words, this is hardly a timely review. There are already eighteen books in the series. I don’t think Jim Butcher’s success as a novelist hinges upon this review, which is probably a good thing. This is the first book in The Dresden Files […]

Babylon’s Ashes (The Expanse: Book #6), by James S.A. Corey — a review

Book #7 in James S.A. Corey’s The Expanse series is waiting for me in my library closet. Its title is Persepolis Rising, and it kicks off the final three-book story arc of the series. I could begin reading it today if I so desired. I’m an adult. A grown-ass man. In the regional vernacular of […]

Nemesis Games (The Expanse Book #5), by James S.A. Corey — a review

Season 5 of The Expanse series on Amazon Prime was based upon this novel. Until now, I’ve always thought that watching the streaming series prior to reading the book it was based upon actually enhanced my reading experience. It fed me visual images that helped bring the printed words to life for me, giving me […]

The Friends of Eddie Coyle, by George V. Higgins — a book review

This is more than merely a book review. I own one other novel written by George V. Higgins. It was his last, as it turns out. At End of the Day (which I guess was a prophetic title, now that I think about it) was published in the year 2000. Higgins died in November 1999, […]

Abaddon’s Gate (The Expanse #3), by James S.A. Corey — a book review

Abaddon’s Gate is the third novel in The Expanse series, written by James S.A. Corey (the pen name of Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck). These are the books that the Amazon Prime series (formerly a SyFy series) The Expanse is based upon, going into its fifth season next year. Some of the events of Season […]

Batman: No Man’s Land, by Greg Rucka — a comic book novelization review

I knew who Greg Rucka was before I purchased this novel. And, not for his work in superhero comics. No, Rucka was the author of a series of novels about a bodyguard named Atticus Kodiak. I read a couple of these about twenty years ago, and, as I recall, I liked them. Batman: No Man’s […]

10-List: Essential Books for Writers

Okay. Maybe the word “essential” is overused. But, this is a more efficient title than “Firewater’s Personal Recommendations of Books for Writers, Limited to 10 of His Nonfictional Favorites.” As with any list of things, your personal mileage may vary. Although I haven’t read every book about writing or every reference book ever published, I […]

Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse Book #1), by James S.A. Corey — a book review

So . . . Okay, this is a seven-year-old novel at this point, the first in The Expanse series. It was published in the summer of 2011, and went on to be nominated for the Hugo and Locus awards for Best Novel in 2012. It didn’t win, but to be nominated is an honor unto […]

Full Court Press, by Mike Lupica — a book review

I can’t fault Lupica’s Full Court Press for not being what I thought it was going to be. When I picked this book up from the bargain bin all those years ago—probably at Barnes & Noble—I thought it was a mystery novel set in the milieu of professional sports. There are a lot of those […]

Revival, by Stephen King — a book review

Concerning Stephen King . . . Up until about 1992, I read everything he wrote. Then, he continued to write, seemingly faster than I could read. I estimate that I’ve missed fifteen of his novels, unless he’s published another one in the past few minutes, which is always a possibility. Oh, I’ve read some of […]

LOTR: The Return of the King: Book V: The War of the Ring— a review

So, here we find ourselves at last, the Black Gate of Mordor has opened and the Final Battle has begun. Nine chapters to go before the end of this great, vast, complicated and textured novel that’s been around more than a decade than I have. Well. . .That’s at the end of Book V, […]

The Armageddon Rag, by George R. R. Martin: a book review

I knew that George R. R. Martin existed before he published A Game of Thrones and all of the sequels that followed. He was a producer on the 1985 revival of The Twilight Zone, and then he was one of the writers on the 1987 television series Beauty and the Beast, which starred Linda Hamilton […]

The Handyman, by Bentley Little: a book review

I read my first Bentley Little horror novel in 1997. It was The Ignored and that was the year it was released. I was in the process of changing jobs, moving from a retail outfit that operated in the American Northeast to one that operated on a national scale. I was training in Tennessee […]

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers: Book IV: The Journey of the Ringbearers – a review

During at least one iteration of J.R.R. Tolkien’s massive novel The Lord of the Rings the fourth book (and second half of the second volume) was known as “The Journey of the Ringbearers.” In case you had any doubts about Tolkien’s intentions, that is exactly what Book IV is about. We’ve had some excitement […]

LOTR: The Two Towers—Book III: a review

The Two Towers, the second volume of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, is comprised of two “books.” These are Books III and IV, of six books in total. At some point in the novel’s evolution, each of these books were also titled. Book III was “The Treason of Isengard.” This post is […]

LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring: a book review

I know that The Lord of the Rings is not a true trilogy. Any self-respecting nerd knows that. It is one long novel (very long, actually) that is typically separated into three volumes. My writing a review of the first volume, The Fellowship of the Ring, may be considered premature. You may think that I […]

Mass Effect Andromeda: Nexus Uprising, by Jason M. Hough and K.C. Alexander — a book review

The novel Mass Effect Andromeda: Nexus Uprising is quite good for what it is. It is, of course, a tie-in to the video game Mass Effect Andromeda. It’s a prequel to the story events of the game, providing some backstory to the arrival of the Nexus in Andromeda and the drama which immediately followed. […]

The Hobbit, a timely review

I am writing a review of an 80-year-old novel. It’s older than me. Odds are, it’s older than you. And yet, it’s still read, and it’s still revered around the world as one of the masterpieces of literature. I can’t disagree. This is my second reading of The Hobbit (or, There and Back Again). I […]

Ernest Cline’s Armada: a book review

If you’ve ever worked anywhere and had to sit through annual performance reviews, you know what I’m talking about. I’ve heard it called the “sandwich” approach, and it’s where the reviewer opens by saying good things about you, then tells you where you failed to meet expectations in the middle—the meat in this rather […]

Book Review: The Brass Cupcake, by John D. MacDonald

The Brass Cupcake was published in 1950, sixty-seven years ago as I write this review and before I was born. It is not on any current bestseller list. I think I picked up this hardcover edition a few years ago (in my language, “a few years” can be anything from five to twenty years) from […]

Foundation and Earth (or, the Asimov Crisis)

Here is my concise review of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation and Earth, his final book (chronologically speaking, anyway) in the Foundation series: I didn’t like it. Which is not to say I hated it. This was, after all, the second time I’ve read the book. The first time was sometime around 1986, when it was published. […]

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