Lee Hunts

I just finished reading The Trouble with Peace, which is the second book in the Age of Madness Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. This book picks up right where A Little Hatred left off, in the aftermath of the war and uprising that took place in the aftermath of the previous book. The book, as the name suggests, is about the peacetime, and also the problems that surface which drive us right back to war. The directions that the characters go are unpredictable and exciting, and the climax of the story makes the set up well worth it. I have not read any of his stand alone novels, but based on what I remember of the original trilogy and the first of this trilogy, I think this is my favorite Abercrombie novel that I have read to date. The character work is amazing, as ever, and there was a strong plot that drove the story forward from beginning to end. Overall (No Spoilers) The final climactic confrontation is by far my favorite part of the story. But, the nature of the sequence prevents me from ...

I just finished reading A Little Hatred, which is the first novel in The Age of Madness Trilogy, by Joe Abercrombie. Abercrombie has also written The First Law Trilogy, which I rather enjoyed. This book is a continuation of that story thirty or so years later, with that gap bridged with three standalone novels that I have not read yet. This new trilogy has a new cast of characters to replace the old, though many of the older characters are mentioned or even appear as side characters. The backdrop of this series is the advent of the industrial revolution, where big business is thriving. And in true grimdark fashion, the advent of the factories led to rampant abuse of commonfolk, with overpopulation and consequent low wages and widespread unemployment. Overall (No Spoilers) Overall, I enjoyed the book. At the same time, after reading many reviews and seeing other people's thoughts, I stopped to reevaluate things and I do have a number of problems that I are not major enough to ruin t...

I just finished reading Then She Was Gone, by Lisa Jewel. This book is a psychological thriller about a mother whose fifteen-year-old daughter disappeared unexpectedly, without explanation. A decade later, she starts dating this man who has a daughter who looks and acts fairly similar to her long lost daughter, Ellie. What follows is a rather creepy character study, as the mother, Laurel, begins to question what she knows. The read was rather quick, and I was drawn to the characters and the mystery, but in retrospect, I think the story could have had less predictable plot points and less instances of lazy execution. I'm not sure I can say much about the story without spoilers, so I will simply review the story with spoilers. Anyhow, these are the types of books you just pick off the shelf due to author recognition or because they are mystery alone. The best approach is to just go in blind. So, go read the story and then come back. Strides (Spoilers) What I liked most about the stor...

I just finished reading The Stand, by Stephen King (finally). I split this one up into chunks, due to the length of the novel, and only read a third at a time. I reviewed the first third, giving it a glowing review (indeed, it is the only 10/10 I have given up to this point). I didn't get around to reviewing the second part when I finished it, but now that I have finished the whole novel, I will now give a review of the latter two parts. The Stand is a massive novel, the longest that I have ever read, almost 500,000 words, and in its pages, it recounts a pandemic that wipes out the entire population of the world save for a small segment. And in the aftermath, the survivors in America split into two budding civilizations, one built under Mother Abigail, and the other built by the Dark Man, Randall Flagg. The first third deals with the pandemic and the collapse of civilization. The second third deals with the struggles of establishing a civilization as it follows Mother Abigail's...

I just finished reading The Crucible, by Arthur Miller. This is a play that I have read before, but I wanted to revisit it because I remember enjoying it quite a bit. Plays are not my favorite format—especially, but not exclusively—because I am just reading it. That said, for obvious reasons, I am not looking to short the story because of this fact. The Crucible is a story about the Salem Witch Trials, where a small town was caught in a craze of people hunting down witches supposedly hidden among its people. Miller write this in the time of the Red scare, led by Joseph McCarthy, as he hunted down communists that were hidden amongst America's celebrities. While Communists did and do exist, and while no one was being killed (thankfully), Miller thought there were parallels in the fanaticism and how the tribunals were executed. Basically, people were prompted to give up names in order to exonerate themselves, and since people were looking to protect their careers, they would follow th...