Spell or High Water (Magic 2.0 #2), by Scott Meyer, 2014

Spell or High Water (Magic 2.0 #2), by Scott Meyer, 2014

What a fantastically entertaining story. It was full of humor from start to finish. Although classified for and said to appeal to fantasy/sci-fi gamer geeks, the comedy is sure to appeal to just about anyone.

In this installment, Martin Banks a Philip travel back even further in time to Atlantis and help solve an attempted murder mystery. We also get the resolution to Jimmy's story as left from the previous book. The Jimmy subplot was entertaining enough that I didn't mind that it was barely connected to the Brit-the-Younger/Brit-the-Elder plot twist at the end of the book.

While some may recommend reading the first book prior to reading this,  I don't find it necessary. Any character and their backstory carried over from the first book is quickly and succinctly explained as they make their opening in this book.

What I found to be a nice surprise was how much of the story was driven by time travel. It was also great to see Martin's character grown up a little more since the last book. The whole two Brits was just plain clever.

It would have been interesting to have read more about the new wizard Martin greeted in Leadchurch really didn't much story time. Also, giving Agents Miller and Agent Murphy a less abrupt ending would have been nice. We spend almost more than the first half of the book with them, and it feels like they just fizzled out of the story.

As with the first book, I loved the humor, and there were lots of laugh out loud moments and witty banter.  If you can avoid the time travel aspects of the story and just accept it for what it is, then you are bound for a great ride.

My rating: ★★★★★ (5 out of 5 stars)  It was amazing!

The Ringworld Throne (Ringworld #3), by Larry Niven, 1997

The Ringworld Throne (Ringworld #3)

by Larry Niven, 1997

This review will be my shortest review of any book to date. The one word I would use to describe this stinkbomb of a novel is… well, a stinkbomb.

I was expecting another fantastic novel from Larry Niven; explosive with turns of the twist and engaging from the get-go.  I finished the book thinking something great was going to happen and that the dredging of pages I had to endure to get to the end would be worth the while. Nope! Stinkbomb! Stinkbomb I tell you!

The novel felt like it was two different short stories very loosely woven together with the main thread finally coming together in the end. Not only were the cast of characters too abundant that a legend is provided, but they were also very uninteresting.

My rating: ★★☆☆☆ (2 out of 5 stars)