Star Wars: The High Republic - The Eye of Darkness by George Mann

 After finishing this book, there was a brief two day period in which I was finally caught up with the High Republic novels. But of course, the next one comes out today. Overall I enjoyed this one quite a bit. Maybe going through the whole series previously helped, but also it felt like the novel narrowed its focus to the actions of just a handful of major characters. Maybe it also helped that so many of the other Jedi got killed off in the previous book. B+

Sci-Fi Book # 49 Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

 

Some 15 years ago I binged on all of the Ender books. By the end I was kind of tired of them and didn't keep up with the series. So I as a bit hesitant to have to re-read Speaker for the Dead. I enjoyed it again but part of me thinks that some of the ideas are ridiculous. If mankind started colonizing far away planets, would each colony really be keeping alive the culture of a small segment of Earth from 3000 years prior? And whenever a book devotes a lot of space to a philosophical debate in the middle of some life or death situation, I always roll my eyes. But regardless it was a good read. A-

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl

 

Someone told me a while back that Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator wasn't a great book. And yeah, it is a disappointment. I'm not even sure the book succeeds on any level except to make Roald Dahl some bucks. There isn't even a plot and Charlie is completely unnecessary to the entire thing. C+

Tales of Light and Life (Star Wars: The High Republic) by various

 Oh so slowly getting close to being caught up on The High Republic stuff. I didn't have high hopes for a collection of short stories, but I was surprised and rather enjoyed most of them. It was nice to get some stories that just focused on a single character. B+

Star Wars: The High Republic Midnight Horizon by Daniel José Older

 

I'm slowly getting caught up on these High Republic books. Oh so many. This one was okay, a B. Mostly I liked that they finally followed up a loose end from the High Republic Adventures comics that was bugging me. 

Sci-fi Book # 47 The Lost World by Michael Crichton

 Yeah, this book is bad. I was thinking I had read this way back in the 90's but none of it seemed familiar. But also, it is totally unmemorable. Basically it is just a re-hash of Jurassic Park minus the interesting parts. A complete waste of time. C-

Star Wars: The High Republic - Cataclysm by Lydia Kang

 

Cataclysm is probably one of the better High Republic novels so far. They really aren't afraid to kill off some Jedi in these books. The only weird thing is that you pretty much need to also read Path of Vengeance to get the whole story of what's happening. B+