Katabasis

Book 5 of the Mongoliad: Better than book 4.  Worth reading to find out what happens to the characters we love from earlier books; I am losing interest in this series, 3/5 stars.​

Siege Perilous

Another book in the Mongoliad series started by Neal Stephenson: this one continues the adventures of the surviving heroes from the previous book.  The writing is getting worse and I did not care about the characters or the history, 2/5 stars.  Meh.
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11/22/63 by Stephen King

Stephen King creates the best prose of any writer alive today.  I, personally dislike the horror genre and I don't usually read much of what King writes, despite my love for his style.  This book is horror at its core, does a typically bad job of enabling the reader to suspend disbelief for time travel and the paradoxes associated with it, and has a terrible ending.  None-the-less the immersion in the history of that time and the perspectives of the protagonist about the pros and cons of the 1950's / 1960's era are fantastic.  3/5 stars.  Highly entertaining and absorbing.
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Albert's Bridge by Tom Stoppard, Radio Play

Tom Stoppard wrote a bunch of radio plays for BBC and they are great! 4/5 stars.​

The Valhalla Call by Evan Currie

I love this series.  I look forward to the next one 5/5 stars.
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Revenger by Alastair Reynolds

The story line is gritty, dark, and unpredictable and the characters are very well developed and powerful but the social setting is much too violent and evil for my taste.  4/5 stars.  I find now, in general, authors and tv/film directors are moving to "Game of Thrones" treachery and darkness instead of optimistic utopian imaginative "awe and wonder" that I prefer. 
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Elysium Fire

Fantastic!  5/5 stars.  I missed Alastair Reynolds' space operas.
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Last Stand by William Weber

The story lines started out ok but the science was quite terrible and the political premises were bizarre.  The squad and battalion tactics were interesting.  I learned a little about primitive tech, self-sufficiency, and modern military tactics 3/5 stars. ​

Urlaubsverbrechen

This story, though well-acted and well-presented  was extremely contrived, even for an Agatha Christie murder mystery. There were too many motivations and silly, unmotivated melodrama.  2/5 stars.  Don't waste your time.
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Kreutz Eder und der Dschihad

This radio play was interesting. There were a few scenes where I could barely understand the slurred Bavarian accents the actors used and the sound effects were not great.  The story and dialogue were thought-provoking.  It is a great commentary on the massive migration of Muslims into Germany; It's worth a listen if you like German radio dramas, 3/5 stars.
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