Tag: books

The Lady of the Lake by Andrzej Sapkowski

This is book 7 in the overall Witcher series and book 4 in the subset called “The Witcher Saga.” It’s the culmination of the storyline centered on Cirilla.

I think the story got away from the author. I think the Witcher was strongest when he was doing retellings of classic fairy tales. The “Saga” story line starts out strong, but I feel like the author didn’t figure out how to bring it all together into a satisfying ending. So things get a bit absurd and then it just kind of ends.

Perhaps I just didn’t “get it.” I think he was clearly trying to do something in the vein of stories of the knights of the round table which have elements of mysticism. Perhaps someone with a better background in that literature would “get it.”

The Witcher: Baptism of Fire by Andrzej Sapkowski

The saga of Geralt and Ciri continues. Geralt recovers in Brokolin and begins anew his search for Ciri. Ciri joins up with the Rats.

A lot of people die throughout.

The Witcher: The Tower of Swallows by Andrzej Sapkowski

Ciri is nursed back to health by Vysogota. Geralt searches for the druids in hopes they can provide information about Ciri. There’s a reformed vampire. Yennefer is seen again.

A lot of people die throughout.

Zero by Charles Seife

This was an interesting study on the history and impact of zero as a mathematical concept. I enjoyed it. It was quite a deep dive covering mathematics history up through quantum physics.

Having studied calculus and the basics of quantum physics I was familiar with much of the end results of the application of zero to these domains, but had not learned the finer points.

The Witcher: The Time of Contempt by Andrzej Sapkowski

The rest of the Witcher series went on sale a while back and I bought the books I hadn’t read yet and decided to start back in for a break from non fiction.

This book is a bit of an interlude as the table is set for the next set of events in the story. So a little less gripping. I’m expecting things will pick up in the next one.

Pandora’s Star by Peter F. Hamilton

This is the first book in the Commonwealth Saga. It has a lot going on. A murder-mystery storyline. A spy story. A first-contact story. And some action-adventure happening too.

Hamilton creates an interesting universe and spends many, many pages filling it in. Long, but I enjoyed it.

The Telescope in the Ice by Mark Bowen

After having been disappointed in the last few non-fiction books I read for being shallower than I was looking for, The Telescope in the Ice made up the difference.

A deep dive into the history of modern particle physics and what we now call the “standard model” with a focus on the neutrino. The book follows the global efforts to detect neutrino interactions culminating in the IceCube neutrino observatory at the South Pole.

I found it really interesting. The author gives the history, science, and engineering of the topic with first-person accounts providing details along the way.