You - Austin Grossman

You is a fascinating look behind the scenes of videogame development in the 1990s. The story follows Russell as he joins the company of his highschool friends. During his new job at Black Arts he begins to unravel the mystery of why he didn't really stay friends with this group after highschool. As he works on the newest project he finds glitches in the old games that shouldn't be there. With the help of his memories of Simon, the new game and the four game characters he finds the source. Eliminating the glitch is another problem....

Upsides
Fascinating style jumps between past, present and imagination without notice
Believable characters - all the dated references are time appropriate (set 1990s written 2013)
It is just really good!

Downsides
Some of the jumps in narrative between past and imagination are hard to determine. I am still not sure if some things actually happened

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie

Dr. Sheppard begins the story establishing the village of King's Abbot. He then lays out the characters invovled in the murder of Roger Ackroyd. As the police work on solving the murder Dr. Sheppard realizes that his new neighbour is Hercule Poirot. Soon Poirot is soon asked to solve the case by the girlfriend of the main suspect. As usual Poirot says yes and promises to find the whole truth. As more and more information is revealed different people become the subject of investigation until the very end. Poriot asks all involved or suspected to meet together, he promises that he knows the truth, and if the guilty does not confess all will be told to the police. The truth is finally revealed and Dr. Sheppard finishes writing his account of the mystery.

Upsides

The ending! (The end is amazing, I have read another book with a similar ending but this one was much superiorly executed) I thought I had it figured out about halfway through but I was very wrong

The character development - I really like the butler


Downsides
Poirot has information the reader does not which allows him to solve the murder (with this information I may have suspected the truth, but no reader could be certain)
The regional setting is very confusing for someone not familiar with it



This is the best book I have read since "The Silmarillian"

Doctor Who: Engines of War - George Mann

Engines of War follows the Doctor through a period of the Time War. The War Doctor crashes on Moldox and meets Cinder. Cinder becomes his companion as she learns to hope and the Doctor looks for an end to the Daleks' plan without casualties. The story takes place on both Moldox and Gallifrey.

Upsides
The War Doctor on Gallifrey and his interactions with other Timelords
Cinder (a pity she is a single story companion)
The consistency in the WHO universe

Downsides
Since the War Doctor's TARDIS interior was not established on the show I had a hard time picturing it
He claims the name Doctor doesn't suit him now but offers no alternative
(how cool would it be if he said "I was called the Doctor but now I go by Greg" and Cinder tries to call him Greg while the Timelords call him Doctor)

The Gun Seller - Hugh Laurie

"The Gun Seller" is a spoof on the spy genre. It follows Thomas Lang and his complicated life. CIA, weapons dealers, terrorists, Ministry of Defence and love tangle up his life. He gets involved in a conspiracy with attempted murder in Britain and ends blowing up a helicopter in Africa.

Upsides
The little asides to the reader - it is first person and his thoughts are humorous
The settings are well established

Downsides
Slow start with character introductions
Not enough information is given about Solomon to understand his character

The Mystery of the Blue Train - Agatha Christie

"The Mystery of the Blue Train" was published in 1928 and features Hercule Poirot. The retired detective rides a train to the Riviera upon which a murder takes place. Poirot works along with the police to find the killer. The French police are sure it is a conman but Poirot suspects the husband. A famed diamond is found to be missing from the murdered woman's belongings which ads more motive to all suspects. It takes time but Poirot catches the murderer and the thief.

The detective stories I read most recently were Sherlock Holmes mysteries, so I found myself comparing the two. Holmes stories generally follow the detective and Dr. Watson as they are introduced to the mystery and work through until it is solved. This story introduced all the characters in detail before any mystery appeared. Poirot does not appear until a third of the way through the book. The protagonist of "The Mystery of the Blue Train" is Katherine Grey, a woman on her first trip to the Riviera and the last person to talk with the murder victim, not the detective.

Upsides
The character development - establishing the characters before the mystery allows the reader to concentrate on understanding the mystery and not be concerned about how the characters fit into the narrative. Most of the suspense comes from character revelation rather than new evidence.
Multiple points of view - the reader has access to many characters' reactions

Downsides
Hidden knowledge - Poirot has facts the reader doesn't have access to (Holmes stories do this too)

The Dueling Machine - Ben Bova

The Dueling Machine is a scifi story set in political tensions between three areas of settled planets. The Terran Alliance runs the space police force Star Watch. The Acquitaine Cluster and the Kerak worlds struggle for superiority. The Kerak dictator discovers a way to use the dueling machine to create political instability in the Acquitaine Cluster and make it easier to rearm the borders for war.

The machine itself is a type of virtual reality dreamscape in which two opponents duel to the death in a program created by the participants. These duels are used to end verbal disagreements before turning to physical confrontation in the real world.

Upside
Character descriptions
I found the distinction between ground cars and flying cars very interesting

Downside
The narrative changes perspectives, often without a chapter break to differentiate
The story seemed to be concluded but to clear up the political tensions another element was created to be resolved after the initial problem was resolved

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

First published in 1932 "Brave New World" depicts the realities of a future utopian society. The story is set in London and follows upper-caste members of society as they deal with societal expectations. They are conditioned to be comfortably numb to life's troubles and when they feel too much they can take a pill for that. It is a dark look at what a society loses when individuality is removed "Everyone belongs to everyone else".

Upside
The debate between a Leader and an Uncivilized person about art and God near the end of the book
Most of the reactions to the unknown are grounded in reality

Downside
It starts very technical which can be hard to follow
I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't this

The Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkien

"The Silmarillion" is the mythology behind "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings". It follows the time of the elves and the time before. The creation of Middle-earth and how it came to be the way it is in the time of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. It follows various important characters and their families as they live in Middle-earth.

Upside
Details on stories only referred to in Tolkien's other works
A better understanding of Elves and their cultures
Getting to know the land of Middle-earth and why places are named the way they are
Explanation of alliances based on families

Downside
Personally when characters have multiple names because of language translations I can get confused
Hobbits are barely mentioned
The creation of tree Ents is mentioned but I wanted to know more

Waldo - Robert A. Heinlein !Spoilers!

The short story "Waldo", follows James Stevens and the circumstances which lead to his meeting with Waldo.

Waldo is a reclusive genius who is contracted to discover why a piece of standard technology continues to fail. In his research he discovers that the source of magic is another dimension. Upon this discovery he repairs the technology, creates access to clean and free energy and heals his body of its genetic muscle weakness.

Upside
The descriptions of technology are very vivid, especially the waldoes and Freehold
The description of the science and the analogies used to describe it are easy to grasp

Downside
The beginning is confusing
For some reason I found it hard to keep the names straight for quite a while

Nightfall - Isaac Asimov & Robert Silverberg

"Nightfall" is based on a popular short story of the same name published in 1941. The novel is broken into three parts: Twilight, Nightfall, Daybreak.

Twilight begins introducing all the main characters separately and their individual discoveries. Slowly the characters begin to meet and share information at the University which leads them to believe that their world of Kalgash with six suns will experience darkness on a global scale. This understanding leads the characters to Nightfall a year later and together for the event that will change the planet's understanding of the world. Never having experienced night the planet had never seen stars. In the darkness people panicked but the appearance of stars brought the population to madness. Daybreak is the experience of the characters as they regain sanity and move about the planet in a new society governed by crazies.

Upside
The premise of a whole planet experiencing night for the first time together and discovering the existence of stars
Sheerin is just an enjoyable character
It is really fascinating Sci-Fi as there isn't any Science that doesn't already exist on Earth
The forward by Asimov and Silverberg explaining that it is an alien planet but the translated to English terms so it would be easier for the reader to understand

Downside
Nightfall section lost momentum when it jumped nearly a year in time
The names are so different it really took me a while to get the characters straight
The reveal about Mondior at the end didn't have as much punch as I am sure it was supposed to just based on the fact I have read other similar reveals recently