Review: Nemesis

Nemesis by Robert Kroese
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a 3-star review, but 2.5 stars might be closer to my experience.

This series started out as highly inventive with a great mix of economics, politics, and technology.

This book really is a thinly veiled primer on economics mixed with a little bit of politics.

The world rapidly shifted into a "low trust" mode, but the outcome of the story relies on "high trust" behaviors. The odds of that outcome are low.

If you read and enjoyed the prior two entries, then reading this book is a good choice. You won't miss much by skipping it.

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Review: Cold Silver for Souls

Cold Silver for Souls by Tori Tecken
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a 3-star review. Maybe a weak 3.5 star experience.

This book combines the "wild west" with a gold rush with magic with land barons with company towns. And it is a fun and easy read. If anything about the author's/publisher's synopsis makes this book sound even remotely attractive, then go read it. A good experience awaits you.

So...why only 3 stars?

This fictional world has rules. Some of them are explained. Most are at best half explained. If there are rules, then I'd like to understand them.

There is a ton of backstory that is implied but never really explored within the book. This appears to be the first in a series that is enticing readers to hang around to get the "rest of the story".

I'm a fan of the first book in any series being self-contained. The reader should be able to walk away from book 1 with a solid experience and no expectation that the rest of the answers will come later in the series. If the reader elects to continue the series, then have all the cliffhangers you want. But book 1 should stand alone.

Peter V. Brett did a masterful job of that in The Warded Man.

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