QuiteBrief

@quitebrief

Apparently I am a used bookstore's worth of reviews and the odd technical comment. May occasionally behave like a Cookie Monster. "All solutions are easy when you don't understand the problem."

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QuiteBrief@quitebrief· 24d

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚔️ Fan of: - Body hopping - Winning the peace - War heroes - Magic systems - Tricks up your sleeve - Mysteries Try @marthawells.com's Witch King www.marthawells.com/witchking.htm A demon has to rescue their companions while figuring out who keeps trying to get them out of the way.

Cover of Martha Wells' Witch King.
A man with black eyes (like, totally black) and long hair dressed in silken robes reminiscent of something out of The Arabian Nights twists away from the viewer.

Cover text reads:
"A wildly original and complex fantasy."
-N. K. Jemisin

Martha
Wells
From the New York TImes Bestselling Author of The Murderbot Diaries
Witch
King

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· 27d

Moose says hi.

A tuxedo cat pokes his nose over the edge of the cardboard box he is sitting in.

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Jun 11

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 Fan of: - The singularity - Moving from problem to problem - Trade-ins & upgrades! - Robots finding their way in the world Try @edashtonwriting.bsky.social's Mal Goes To War www.edwardashton.com A stranded body-hopping AI has to learn about people while trying to escape a war zone.

Cover of Edward Ashton's Mal Goes To War
Cover is tones of blue green at the top darkening to purple at the bottom.
The head of a bald statue is superimposed on the cover. It is translucent with lit up circuit traces over it's left side. Through it we see silhouette of a child holding the hand of an adult, walking away from the viewer down a street with destroyed buildings on other side.
Cover text reads
Edward Ashton
Mal
Goes
To
War
A Novel
(With a medallion that reads:)
From the author of Mickey 7, The inspiration for the major motion picture Mickey 17

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Jun 7

A lot of good points in this thread about why this guy is wrong. I'll add another one backing up the you-have-to-see-it-for-yourself crowd. Online fact: Antonio Gaudi knew what he was doing when he put windows in the Sagrada Familia. Vs being there:

White walls inside the Sagrada Familia are lit in reds yellows and oranges as the afternoon sun comes through stained glass.

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· May 31

💼4📚 📚💙 📚🪐 Fan of: - Revenge! - Dark Tower & Die Hard references - Rampant AIs - Loopholes & Donut Holes - Wargaming - Gods getting...dis-membered ;) Try book 7: This Inevitable Ruin mattdinniman.com/books/this-i... MD resolves some _long_ running plot threads & ups the stakes for Carl & Donut.

Cover of This Inevitable Ruin, by Matt Dinniman - (Dungeon Crawler Carl book 7)

The cover art is done in mint green, black and purple. A show cat atop a crenelated tower, wearing a cape, tiara and 70's style oversized sunglases shoots beams of energy out of her eyes while a man with shoulder length hair, a gauntlet, cape, spiked knee pads in his boxer shorts (adorned with hearts, of course) climbs the tower towards her, barefoot.
Seven yellow skulls line the lower right side of the book, and a skull provides the hole in the A of the author's name.
The text and author's name wrap the tower, readiing:
New York Times Bestseller
This Inevitable
Ruin
A Novel
Matt
Dinniman

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· May 3

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🩸 Fan of: - The Stand - The vampire apocalypse - Unethical research - Unexpected side effects - Chonky books Try: Justin Cronin's The Passage justincroninbooks.com/the-passage-... A town of survivors find a special girl who may be the key to saving them and rebuilding civilization.

Cover of Justin Cronin's The Passage
A forest at dusk shows a starry sky in the background through sparsely spaced trees while the edge of the forest in the background is in light.
Cover text reads
New York Times Bestseller
Justin
Cronin
A Novel
The
Passage
"Magnificent" - Time

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Apr 5

Obligatory tourist view from Coit Tower to stay on topic :)

View from Coit Tower in San Francisco at sunset.
The setting sun is blocked by a tall building in the distance.
Blocks of houses about 3 stories high are laid out in grids. The Golden Gate bridge is visible in the top right, and some of San Francisco Bay is visible.

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Mar 30

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚔️ Fan of: - D&D - Adventuring start ups - Redemption! - Economic satire - Funny & clever writing. Try: @jzacharypike.bsky.social's Orconomics jzacharypike.com/pages/orcono... A disgraced dwarf leads a team of misfits on a quest with low odds of success that is more than it seems.

Cover of J. Zachary Pike's Orconomics

A background that looks like a banded treasure chest with borders and a shield with crossed swords where the keyhole would be has a burning five Giltin note on top of it.
(And George Sellas deserves an award for this cover because there are so many clever references in it to both book events and actual currency that it really reflects the spirit of the book, as well as being awesome in it's own right)
The note looks like a United States 5 dollar bill, where all the elements have been replaced with look alike images and text.
There's
The Bearded orc portrait (Orc-raham Lincoln?)
the Five Gitlin across the bottom
ORCONOMICS printed as the bill's serial number
The Freedlands in top right
The watermark of the dragon holding a spellbook in it's right rear claw and a sword in it's left rear claw while holding a shield with a star on it and grasping a banner with Latin written on it in it's mouth.
it's stamped with a medallion that is Great Seal of The Heroes guild with a sword piercing something.
The signature is Weaver Ortson
Cover text reads
J. Zachary Pike
"One of my favorite fantasy
trilogies of all time."
-Nicholas Eames, author of
Kings of The Wyld
Orconomics
A Satire
Book 1
The Dark
Profit
Saga

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Mar 22

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚔️ Fan of: - Grimdark - Smartasses - All-wizard parties - MCs trying to do better - Holy wars Try @decastell.bsky.social's The Malevolent Seven decastell.com/book/the-mal... An MC with a history has to get a team of mercenary wizards together for a job that definitely has a catch.

Cover of Sebastien de Castell's The Malevolent Seven

Cover is drawn in shades of black and blue, with seven figures walking towards the reader, casting shadows as they are lit by a lightning storm behind them.
Left to right:
-A woman in a dress with shoulder length hair has her palms up as if about to cast a spell.
- A tall bald man with bracelets on his arms wearing a tight shirt, pants and boots
- A woman with shoulder length hair, blouse, leather pants and boots. Oh, and torso length bat wings.
- A man with a short beard, dress coat pants and boots
- A woman in an 18th century dress with long hair, raising both hands in front of her.
- A man wearing a shirt, vest, pants, boots and gloves carrying a longsword in his left hand.
- A jackal.

Cover text reads
The
Maleveolent
Seven
Think you know wizards? Think again.
Sebastien
de Castell

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Mar 21

💼4📚 I'd last read this 30ish years ago and it has absolutely held up. TP's solid storytelling, clever asides, wry observations, & the adroit turns of phrase that make his writing a delight to read are on full display here. It's a great example of why his books are so popular. (Full cover art below)

Bonus image
Josh Kirby's artwork for the front and back cover of Terry Pratchett's Pyramids

An assassin in black wearing a pointy hat with a dagger in his teeth desperately tries to stay on a disgruntled camel (that is spitting at a seagull) racing over dunes while a scantily clad, bejeweled, dressed for the harem woman hangs on to the camel as well.
To the right a sphinx on an outcropping stands over a horde of mummies breaking forth.
In the background stone blocks float toward a pyramid under construction
Bottom left has an alarmed turtle dodging an arrow.
Top left has a figure floating towards the pyramid as what looks like electrical discharge is shooting off of it.
Greek warriors poke out from the side of an annoyed looking Trojan horse on wheels.
We can see toga'd Greeks wearing laurel leaves shooting arrows at the turtle.
Bottom left has a hook nosed Egyptian-high-priest looking dude pointing a staff with entwined snakes at the camel.

(and really, this doesn't do justice to the insane colors and details in the painting, but that's the gist.)

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Mar 21

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚔️ Fan of: - Punchline logic - British humor - Egyptology - Silent Ps - Temporal anomalies Try: Terry Pratchett's Pyramids www.terrypratchettbooks.com/books/pyrami... A prince/assassin has to rule & build his father's tomb while dealing with a head priest who is way too assertive.

Cover of Terry Pratchett's Pyramids, drawn by Josh Kirby.

An assassin in black wearing a pointy hat with a dagger in his teeth desperately tries to stay on a disgruntled camel (that is spitting at a seagull) racing over dunes while a scantily clad, bejeweled, dressed for the harem woman hangs on to the camel as well.
To the right a sphinx on an outcropping stands over a horde of mummies breaking forth.
In the background stone blocks float toward a pyramid under construction
Bottom left has an alarmed turtle dodging an arrow.
(and really, this doesn't do justice to the insane colors and details in the painting, but that's the gist.)
Cover text (on a white background that blocks out most of the pyramid)

Pyramids
A Discworld novel
Terry Pratchett

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Mar 15

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 Fan of: - Must read military SF classics - Figuring out what's going on here. - The war not going well. Try @kameronhurley.com's The Light Brigade www.kameronhurley.com/writing/ligh... A new recruit discovers that the transporters they're using have some unexpected side effects.

Cover of Kameron Hurley's The Light Brigade
Color tones are blues whites and greens. A slim figure in tight fitting combat armor wearing a visored helmet stands sideways, looking to the viewer's left. Their right arm is upraised, barely visible in the glare of a vertical bright light that shines behind them, creating the impression of a doorway that illuminates the darkness they are standing in.
Cover text reads:
Kameron
Hurley
"Passionately brutal, fierce and furious in voice and pace." --The New York Times.
The
Light
"This is the real thing." - James S. A. Corey Author of the bestselling Expanse series.
Brigade

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Mar 14

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚔️ Fan of: - Classic rock - Comebacks! - D&D - Owlbear? - Adventurers treated like rock stars - That f'n minotaur! Try: @nicholaseames.bsky.social's Kings of the Wyld nicholaseames.com A past-their-prime team of adventurers has to get the band back together for a rescue mission.

Cover of Nicholas Eames' Kings of the Wyld.
A band of adventurers is roughly painted in dark tones, bringing the mood of viking raiders.
One on the left wears a cloak, scale armor and holds two daggers.
Behind him is a man with a two handed sword over his shoulder
Front and center a man in plate armor from the waist up, holds a round shield and a sword pointed down in his left hand.
Behind him the only clean shaven man in lighter armor holds a double headed axe across his shoulders.
To the right of him a man with a chest length beard and white hair in light armor holds a long pole in his right hand horizontally.

Cover text reads
The boys are back in town
Kings of the Wyld
"Absolutely awesome.
Full of heroes, humor, and
heart." - Jon Hollins
Nicholas Eames

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Mar 10

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚🩸 Fan of: - Working with negative space - Debugging - Amnesiators - Always being your best - Second first days - Weaponized hard drives Try: @qntm.org's There Is No Antimemetics Division qntm.org/antimemetics A secret agency tracks deadly things that don't want to be remembered.

Cover of Qntm's There Is no Antimemetics Division.
A skyscraper sized rectangular column of black brick dwarfs the misty hills and forests around it as the sun sets.

Cover text reads
There
Is No
Anti
Memetics
Division
A novel by QNTM

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Mar 8

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 Fan of: - A particular Blue Öyster Cult song - Big-ass monsters! - Large animal vets Try @scalzi.com's The Kaiju Preservation Society whatever.scalzi.com/2022/03/15/t... A literature major gets a job working for a secret agency dedicated to the study of city destroying monsters.

The cover of John Scalzi's The Kaiju Preservation Society.

A white plastic tag on a lanyard lies on the ground.
It's dirty, with blood smeared in the top right corner.
The title is on the badge, with the gap in the Kaiju A being an arrow shaped tail, and the A in Scalzi being a mushroom cloud.

Cover text reads:
New York Times Bestseller
The Kaiju
Preservation
Society John
Scalzi
A novel
"A great romp all the way through"
- The Wall Street Journal

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Mar 7

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🩸 Fan of: - 📺 American Pickers - MCs who know horror movies - Antiques! - Family businesses Try @cheriepriest.com's The Family Plot bookshop.org/p/books/the-... It's a salvage crew VS. Haunted House. Bringing this energy: "Second, we quit pretending this house isn't haunted as f***"

Cover of Cherie Priest's The Family Plot
Cover is a photograph of a path down hedgerows with trees over them. The hedges are in shadow while the trees are lit by a recently set sun.
Floating in the middle of the path is an ethereal looking woman wearing a white sleeveless dress, facing to the left of cover with her head down and long hair covering her face.

Cover text reads:
"Cherie Priest is our new queen of darkness...
Time to kneel before her, lest she take our heads."
-Chuck Wendig, bestselling author of Blackbirds
The
Family
Plot
Cherrie Priest

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Mar 1

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🤳📚💡 Fan of: - Books that became movies - The 80's - Gen X - Documentaries Try Cameron Crowe's Fast Times At Ridgemont High www.theuncool.com/books/fast-t... A journalist goes undercover as a student at a southern California high school in 1978 to get a snapshot of teenage life.

Cover of Cameron Crowe's Fast Times At Ridgemont High: A True Story

A fashionably dressed teenage girl with bangs and chest length hair from the early 1990s faces the viewer, hip cocked, wearing blue flats, yellow shorts and a blue and red striped sleeveless shirt with a wide plastic belt around her waist.
The title is next to her and the cover text reads
Fast
Times At
Ridgemont
High
A True Story
by Cameron Crowe

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Mar 1

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 Fan of: - 🎬 Groundhog day - 🎬 Highlander 1986 - Frenemies Try: Claire North's The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August www.clairenorth.com/titles/clair... An immortal that continuously relives his life through the 20th century has to fix a crisis in a future he'll never live to see

Cover of Claire North's The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August.
A sepia toned photo of a boy dressed in early 20th century workmans pants and jacket holds a picture frame. The picture frame shows a succession of receding images (a hall of mirrors effect ) that are him holding the picture frame, with the 4th image being the book title.

Cover text reads
The First
Fifteen
Lives of
Harry August
"Beautiful and gripping"
Guardian
"Fantastic"
Simon Mayo
BBC Radio 2
Claire North

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Feb 22

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚔️ Fan of: - Dendrology - Biohacking - Insurrection - Woods that are lovely dark & deep - Reluctant heroes Try @rjbarker.bsky.social's Gods of the Wyrdwood www.rjbarker.com/the-forsaken... A warrior monk gets pulled out of hiding when the life he was done with isn't done with him.

R J Barker's Gods of the Wyrdwood
Cover is a white background with a gold shield and a sword pointing down, placed in the middle of it . Behind it spiny branches spread out in both directions, creating the image of an Ent-like face with the shield in the forehead.
Cover text reads:
"A singular sensational new voice in epic fantasy." - Nicholas Eames
R J Barker
Gods
of
the
Wyrd
Wood

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Feb 16

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚔️ 📚⏳ Fan of: - Joan of Arc? - Hieronymus Bosch. Try: @buehlmeister.bsky.social's Between Two Fires christopherbuehlmanauthor.com/book/between... A disgraced knight protects a (divine?) girl in plague-ridden medieval France where Hell must be empty because the devils are all there.

Cover of Christopher Buehlman's Between Two Fires
A drawing of a skeleton in black medieval armor stands with it's palms pressed together on a red background.
Cover text reads
The USA Today Bestseller
With A New Forward
By Joe Hill
Between
Two
Fires
An Epic Tale of Medieval Horror
Christopher Buehlman
Bestselling Author of Blacktongue Thief

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Feb 14

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚔️ Fan of: - Paladins - Hammertime! - Not choosing violence (when you're _really_ good at it) - Superheroes - Teambuilding Try: @soundingline.bsky.social's Ordination www.danielmford.com/books A knight gets the attention of a goddess & gains unexpected friends and enemies as well.

Cover of Daniel M. Ford's Ordination: Book One of the Paladin Trilogy.
A knight in European armor kneels in a forest with his right hand on a long two handed war hammer positioned upright while a glowing nude woman kneels across from him with her left hand on the war hammer.

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Feb 7

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚🤏 Fan of: - Alternate WWII history - Knowing where all that NASA money went - Asking: where is everybody? - Endings that stick with you Try @davidbrin.bsky.social's The River of Time www.davidbrin.com/riveroftime.... Short SF stories with commentary from the award winning author.

Cover of the 1987 edition of David Brin's The River of Time.
Set in a grassy field with rolling green hills, a woman in a tailored purple jumpsuit with blue piping* looks sternly to left of cover with her hands on her hips.
Behind her a golden egg shaped pod, with metal protrusions on top maybe large enough to fit one person, floats behind her with a section open to what looks like a spacecraft control panel.
Cover text reads
David Brin
Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Author of Startide Rising
and The Postman
The River
of Time

*the cheeky description is that she's not at all happy about having to sing backup for The Human League, but a gig is a gig.

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Feb 6

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚🤏 Fan of: - Obsession - Bad directions - Pool cleaning - Very high tech - Revelation Space Try Alastair Reynolds' Beyond the Aquila Rift: The Best of Alastair Reynolds www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/... Short SF stories from a master that you'll be thinking about long after you're done.

Cover of Alastair Reynolds' Beyond The Aquila Rift: The Best of Alastair Reynolds
Cover is a red desert planet viewed from space, lit from above while a knife shaped twin engine aerodynamic spaceship (that looks flies right to left leaving a blue ion trail from its engines.

Cover text reads
Beyond The
Aquila Rift
The Best Of
alastair reynolds
'A galaxy sized imagination allied
to real story-telling"
Bernard Cornwell

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Feb 2

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🩸📚🏺 Fan of: - Japanese culture and history - Yōkai - Urban legends - Cooking a yamamba - Literally cheating Death - Keeping kappa off your butt Try @kyotako.bsky.social's Horror Tales of Japan kyotako.myportfolio.com A selection of cautionary tales paired with their cultural context.

Cover of Kyota Ko's Horror Tales of Japan
Cover is a Japanese print of a house by a river.
A black vertical rectangle covers most of the cover, and has white text on it.
Cover text reads:
Horror Tales
of
Japan
21 Japanese folktales not to be read to children
coupled with (mostly) uplifting cultural commentary.
Kyota Ko
A Metro-classic Japanese book

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Feb 2

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🤳 Fan of: - Fire Department Chronicles on YouTube - Memoirs - Speeding - 1st Responder Pro Tips - Grossing out - Things to NOT do Try: Kevin Hazzard's: A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic's Wild Ride to the Edge and Back. www.kevinhazzard.com/unfit-for-pu... Title says it all.

Cover of Kevin Hazzard's A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic's Wild Ride to the Edge and Back
Cover is a black background, white text and a red cartoon drawing of an ambulance with speed lines behind it driving from left to right.
A medallion on the cover reads:
Updated With A New Afterword
Cover text reads:
"A thrilling, captivating, and sometimes grisly glimpse into what it takes...morbidly funny." -Booklist
A Thousand
Naked
Strangers
A Paramedic's
Wild Ride
to the Edge
and Back.

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Feb 1

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🤳 Fan of: - Forensics! - Memoirs - Patients that can't get worse - Grossing out Try: @drjudymelinek.bsky.social and @workingstiff.bsky.social's Working Stiff drworkingstiff.com/product/work... Judy Melinek recounts what she learned about humans and the human body as a coroner in NYC.

Cover of Judy Melinek and T. J. Mitchell's Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the making of a Medical Examiner.
Cover is a picture of a white tiled wall with a red strip at the bottom.
A plastic gloved left hand holding a scalpel hovers with the blade above the title.
A gold/brown circle says: A New York Times Bestseller
Cover text reads:
"Far from the magic we see on TV, Working Stiff describes
forensic pathology in the real world. The book is a
compelling and absorbing read." - Kathy Reichs,
author of the Temperance Brennan Bones series.
Judy Melinek, M.D.
and
T. J. Mitchell
working
Stiff
Two Years, 262 Bodies
And The Making Of A
Medical Examiner

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Jan 31

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 Fan of: - Generation ships - 70s New Wave SF - Rampant AIs Try: @matociquala.bsky.social's Dust (or UK title: Pinion) bookshop.org/p/books/dust... A castle servant caring for an augmented knight taken prisoner discovers that they both have roles to play in an impending disaster.

Cover of Elizabeth Bear's Dust (US title. The UK title is: Pinion)
A nude woman with wings is seen from the side, clutching her chest as she sits on a chair with her knees tucked up.
She fits perfectly in to a hollow in a collection of silver machine parts that take up the entire cover, leaving her nowhere to move.
Its reminiscent of a cross section drawing of a baby in a womb.
Cover text reads:
Dust
Can a broken angel
save a fallen
world?
"A Talent
To
Watch"
-David
Brin
Elizabeth Bear
Author of Undertow

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Jan 29

#bookreview 📚💙 📚💡📚🏺 Fan of: - Nazis on drugs! - Putting the blitz in blitzkrieg - Applied organic chemistry - History from a different angle - A&E when it was the Adolf & Entertainment channel. Try Norman Ohler's Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich www.normanohler.de/blitzed The title says it all.

Cover of Norman Ohler's Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich
A yellow cover with black text and the top half of (presumably) Hitler's head in the bottom. The text on the left side has a staggered red and green color, reproducing the effect one would get from old style 3D glasses.
Cover text reads
Blitzed
Drugs in the
Third Reich
Norman Ohler
New York Times Bestseller

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Jan 27

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🩸📚🤣 Fan of: - Dirty Jobs - B movie horror/comedy - Carnies/Troupers - Looking before you sit Try @scribeofhades.bsky.social's Shitshow sobelobooks.com/shop/p/shits... A Sanitary Tech is sucked in to a series of toilet related disappearances that are straight from the bowels of Hell.

Cover of Chris Panatier's Shitshow
A glowing porta potty in a grassy field in purple twilight, with menacing clouds behind it. The partially open door reveals an upside down picture of a glowing pink neon carnival with a Ferris wheel.
Cover text reads:
"A fun fair for all lovers of the horror genre
and as quick and easy to devour as a corndog."
Wendy N Wagner, author of Girl In The Creek.
Shitshow
Chris Panatier.

QuiteBrief@quitebrief· Jan 25

#bookreview 📚💙 📚💡📚🏺 Fan of: - Sailing the high seas - Unintended consequences - Sticking it to the man - Disruptive tech - Lossy compression Try Stephen Witt's How Music Got Free stephenwitt.info How the invention of the MP3 format changed crime, the music industry, and how we listen to music.