The Mind Gut Connection by Emeran Mayer

Extremely disappointing, 2/5 stars.  Bad science, medical correlations with weak evidence, bizarre spiritualism.  Another attempt to resurrect debunked 19th century psychology, yuck.

Salvage Rat by Larry N Martin

Good characters and interesting story but the tech, science, and economics are all bad and the plot had too many bad excuses for fighting / violence.  3/5 stars.

Aurora by Ryk Brown

Not bad, not great.  Bad science, good story.  I may read the next one. 3/5 stars.

When Einstein walked with Gödel: Excursions to the Edge of Thought by Jim Holt

One of the three best books I have read this year, 5/5 stars.  Fantastic!

Firestar by Michael Flynn

The beginning and end are great.  The middle wanders a little and some of the libertarian objectivisist pontification gets tedious.  I like Flynn's writing style, though 4/5 stars.

The Mind Pool by Charles Sheffield

I did not enjoy this one at all.  I did not like the universe, the characters, the motivations, the aliens, or the deep dark background mystery.  The story itself was good.  2/5 stars.

Georgia on My Mind and other places by Charles Sheffield

Some of the stories were fun and interesting but others were weak. The title story was quite good, 3/5 stars.

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mfw@wyle.org | 1.425.249.3936

One Man's Universe by Charles Sheffield

Eight chronicles and a long "hard science" commentary about one of Sheffield's alter ego characters, told from the perspective of his girlfriend, the swashbuckling spaceship captain.  A little too dated now and some of the tropes are hackneyed. 3/5 stars, meh.

Dachbodenfund Krimi Hoerspiel

A murder mystery where all the characters are eBay buyers & sellers (except the detective) and the story line plays out in the form of an eBay auction.  Fun B-story plot line.  5/5 stars.

Two Parsecs from the Goldilocks Zone by Peter Watts

I like this author and enjoyed this story.  I found a great collection of podcasts and award winning science fiction stories here. The stories are great.  This one was 5/5 stars.  Some of the podcasts and interviews are not so great.