Book Review: Tau Ceti by Kevin J. Anderson and Steven Savile

Tau Ceti is part of a series of books where a senior author and a junior one are paired together to write a story. In Tau Ceti, we have Kevin J. Anderson and Steven Savile teaming up to tell a "hard" sci-fi story of a generation ship and its journey to the planet around the star Tau Ceti. I don't remember why I bought this, it may even have been free or bundled with something else. It was pretty low on my to-read list since I wasn't particularly interested in it, but my recent analysis of Goodreads reviews indicated I might enjoy it so I decided to give it a try.

See below for my full review.

Data Science: What Should I Read Next?

As I wrote about last week, I’ve spent a bit of time looking over my reviews on Goodreads to explore trends in what authors I read, how fast I read, and how I review books. In today’s post, we’ll tackle something a little more ambitious: given the data I can readily access from the Goodreads API, can I predict how I will rate books I haven’t yet read?

Let’s dive right in.

Data Science: My Goodreads Reviews

Followers of my blog will know that I read and review quite a few of books throughout the year. I track the books I read and those I want to read on Goodreads and recently came across their API. I decided to figure out how to access it and see what sort of information I could glean from my Goodreads reading history. This particular post explores trends in my reading and reviewing habits, as well as looking at what authors I've read. Next week’s post will discuss my attempt to create a model to predict the reviews I give a particular book. With that model in hand, I can decide what books to read based on my own interests.

Let’s jump right in.

Book Review: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin is the 2016 Hugo Award winning novel. I've read many of Jemisin's work and have enjoyed them greatly, but between life and travels had missed this one. I saw her promoting its sequel, The Obelisk Gate, on twitter; though, so when The Fifth Season won the Hugo, I knew I had to check it out. And I was not disappointed: this is certainly one of the best books I've read this year and certainly one of Jemisin's best.

Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall; 
Death is the fifth, and master of all.

See below for my full review. As always, I aim to be mostly spoiler-free.