The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan

I really quite enjoyed the fifth book in The Wheel of Time series, which was something of a relief for me, because the fourth one felt like a significant step down in quality. Though there were still little bits here and there that made me role my eyes, overall, it was a much more engaging read.

One of my favourite things about it was how it explored the breaking of the White Tower as seen in the end of the last book. The newly stilled Siuan Sanche essentially becomes one of the new main characters, and the idea of this formerly extremely powerful figure (both magically, and politically) having to go on the run after being deposed is very cool, and her perspective is so different to that of Rand or any of the main characters, so I always enjoyed the chapters about her.

Of course, Siuan is just part of it. This novel also gives us a look at the Aes Sedai who refused to accept their new Amyrlin. They’re based within a obscure and quiet little village where they are trying to figure out exactly what they should do next. As the Aes Sedai had seemed to be an almost unstoppable force in earlier novels, I enjoyed seeing them in a completely new light. Seeing them broken into different factions like this helps make the world feel a lot more three dimensional.

One thing I didn’t like so much was how Aviendha was written in this one. With so many other female characters seemingly getting caught up in how much they love Rand, it was nice to have one who seems to regard him as an irritation that she’s been thrown together with by circumstance. Unfortunately, it seems that once again Robert Jordan was doing the “they seem to hate each other because they secretly love each other” trope, just like he did with Perrin and Faile (neither of whom are in this one). For me, this kind of thing is quite tiresome, and not good romance writing at all, but there’s not enough of it to spoil things this time.

Something else that I actually did like was the plot thread about Nynaeve and Elayne. As they make a long journey to try and return to the White Tower (having completed their mission) they end up joining a travelling circus, which I found very entertaining. The legendary hero Birigitte also plays a pretty important role in their part of the story, and I really enjoyed her becoming more of a main character.

All thing considered, I think anybody who has gotten this far in the series will be quite pleased with this book. While some of the novels can feel a bit meandering at times, this one was well paced and had a pretty explosive finale too (literally), even if part of it was a little too convenient.

Rating: 8.2/10

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Assassination Classroom, Volume 14 by Yusei Matsui

The fourteenth volume of Assassination Classroom picks up where the previous one ended – with Class-E holding a festival and selling food in competition against Class-A. This is a fairly fun, light-hearted storyline, with the most appealing part of it being that it brings back a number of characters from previous volumes. It’s a nice little treat for fans, and helps make things feel more closely tied together.

While that is an enjoyable storyline, the most interesting part about this volume is it’s focus on Principle Asano. Until now, he’s just been a fairly shady side character who doesn’t do a huge amount (other than be a pretty abusive father). In this one, he throws his hat in the ring and decides to try his own assassination attempt on Koro-sensei.

For the first time, the status quo for Class-E feels at stake. Koro-sensei is even given his walking papers. To me, this was the most tense the story had become since they went to the island, and it’s really cool to see Asano as a really competent foe for Koro-sensei. This volume even made me feel something for him, so it was good to see Asano used in an interesting way, at last.

Though it was a slightly more easygoing instalment compared to the previous volume on the whole, I think I enjoyed it just as much. There’s some good character development and the feeling that things are coming towards an ending continues to forebode.

Rating: 9.3/10

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Anti-Racist Ally by Sophie Williams

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If you’re someone who wants to learn more about racism and social justice, then this is the book for you. It provides a fantastic introduction to the subject, and offers advice on how to live as an ally, rather than simply just not being a racist person.

The author very rightly points out that not being racist is the least someone can do, and that there are too many people who feel that they deserve some kind of recognition for it, even though this is just a base level of morality. Being an ‘ally’ meanwhile, means taking the time to get to understand the issues caused by racism, learning about how it manifests in very subtle ways, then challenging it however you can.

She points out that the expression “people of colour” is a slightly problematic one for grouping so many people together due the simple fact that they are not white, and says that she doesn’t like using it. This was an interesting stance, and one I’d never even stopped to think of before – to be perfectly honest, I just found it being used by progressive people and ignorantly assumed it was a welcome new expression. I didn’t apply critical thinking there.

However, that’s kind of the only thing that I learned here. The rest, while useful and important information, isn’t going to be that insightful to anyone who is already quite conscious of racism – it is very much an introduction; designed for those who haven’t really looked into the subject before.

It talks about how white privilege helps white people to avoid problems faced by other ethnicities. It talks about the importance of listening to a diverse range of voices, explaining how social media can be an excellent tool for this. How you should challenge racism wherever you see it, rather than remaining silent and tacitly approving it. How racism isn’t just a thing of the past, and continues to effect people in insidious ways. Like I said, it’s all good stuff, just kind of base level.

If you don’t know much about the evils racism and want to learn more, this is a great book to start with. If you know someone who would benefit from broadening their perspectives and learning about racism-related problems, this is a great book to buy them. If you’re passionate about challenging racism and read up on the subject, you’ll find this an agreeable read, but one that doesn’t go into a huge amount of depth.

Rating: 7.6/10

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Star Wars: Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn

Before Disney bought the Star Wars franchise, Heir to the Empire was the original continuation from the end of the original trilogy of movies. For whatever reason, I put off reading this – part of me worried that it was going to be a pulpy cash-in, but when I finally read it, I thought it was pretty darn fantastic.

One of the biggest appeals of this novel is that it featured the debut of the iconic character, Grand Admiral Thrawn. He is fantastically written here, and it’s easy to see why fans took to him so much. He’s a cold, calculating villain who’s scheming away in the shadows, but who remains perfectly calm, even polite, throughout the whole thing. He comes across as a very threatening foe, and the insights into his mind help flesh him out in a way that Palpatine or Darth Vader never really get in the films.

The story is really all about Thrawn. A few years after the fall of the Empire, he’s flying around with the few remaining forces and making steps to regain power, but exactly how he plans to do so is unclear – but it involves collaborating with Joruus C’baoth, a mysterious dark Jedi Master. Luke, Han, Leia , and Chewbacca work in different ways to investigate this emerging threat, and end up visiting various planets in the process, including the Wookie home world.

Star Wars is typically a series that uses lots of big battles to keep things interesting. While I do enjoy the movies, I am someone who prefers more thoughtful storylines and that’s exactly what you get here. It looks at how the New Republic is struggling to solidify its power after the fall of the Empire, and how destroying the old regime was only really a small part of solving the problems of the galaxy. Of course, it also shows that one big defeat didn’t completely wipe out the imperials. These are all things which help make the setting feel a little more three dimensional.

I also appreciated the deeper level of development each of the characters had – most notably, I thought Luke was pretty interesting here, in a way that he never really was in the films. Controversially, I have always thought Luke Skywalker was too much of a generic hero without much substance (outside of The Last Jedi), but here you get a look into his mind, and how he’s feeling a bit listless with the Empire now defeated, even becoming kind of depressed and later, when he ends up working with a smuggler named Mara Jade, his positivity contrasted against her more aggressive demeanour is actually very endearing. It’s a really good story for him.

But, really, it’s a good story for all of the characters. The original ‘Episode VII’ is a really fun read and, in my mind, a much more interesting storyline than that of The Force Awakens (but each to their own). If you’re a Star Wars fan, I strongly recommend that you give this a read – it continues the story while helping to make you feel deeply immersed in its setting. I loved it.

Rating: 8.3/10

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I’m Afraid of Men by Vivek Shraya

Though a very short book, I’m Afraid of Men gives a very personal account of the author’s fear of men. She talks about a long string of distressing encounters with strangers who have gone out of their way to try and make her uncomfortable, either as a result of transphobia (as the other is a transwoman) or plain old fashioned misogyny.

Having lived and presented as a gay man for a large portion of her life, she shares insights from that period too. She talks about how many communities of gay men are hyper sexual and pay little regard for boundaries or consent, perhaps based on the perception that men are always interested in sexual activity. Though obviously not universal, she talks about how this problem fed into her fears and how there are many gay communities who need to address the issue. She does a fantastic job of highlighting the ways in which the casual of behaviour of men can make people feel unsafe without them having any idea they’re doing it.

What I liked the most about this book was that it gives an insight into the anxiety that women face every day – with the author facing extra prejudice because of the fact that she is trans and because she is not white. It’s important that everybody read accounts like this, because we all have a responsibility to understand these points of view so that we can do everything we can to ensure that they feel comfortable.

There were two bits I didn’t like so much though. At one point, the author talks about a man (a taxi driver, I believe) who told her something extremely sexual out of the blue and how it made her really uncomfortable. That’s a perfectly valid thing to call out and a reasonable response. However, at one point the author also shares the fact that, to this day, they masturbate over a man who was nasty to them years ago, in a fair amount of detail. It’s obviously not exactly the same, but it felt like an instance of needless over-sharing that was a little uncomfortable. I’m not against people talking about masturbation because it’s a healthy and normal part of life, but it was very unexpected to find that here and I’m not really sure why it was included.

Next, the author has a (completely understandable) pessimistic view on people and the world. They go on to talk about how we should stop expecting men to be “good men” because if you expect somebody to be “good” your expectations will be too high and you’ll generally end up disappointed in them. She tells the story of a “good man” that she once loved and how he betrayed her trust and she realised not to expect people to be “good men” because of that. To me, that’s just too pessimistic. There are good men, and to say that you shouldn’t expect anything better almost feels a little too much like a more negative way of saying “boys will be boys” – as if it’s in their nature to be bad and that’s that. Obviously, the author still thinks that men should be held to account for their bad behaviour, but still, I continue to believe in good men, despite the damage that misogyny does to the world. Maybe it’s easy for me to say that from a place of privilege, but nonetheless, I didn’t agree.

So all-in-all, while it was very short and there was a bit of (seemingly irrelevant) over-sharing, I think there’s a lot of value in this book and would recommending giving it a read.

Rating: 7/10

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Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible by Matthew Perry

I can remember watching Friends back when it was new and airing on British television for the first time. Since then, I have always been fond of it and it’s one of my comfort shows. While I see its flaws more as I get older, I always enjoy watching it, and I’m sure I always will. For this reason, I was quite interested in reading Matthew Perry’s autobiography – partly because I was interested to learn more about one of the people who were responsible for bringing it to life, and get a glimpse into the creative process behind it.

On the one hand, I was pretty fascinated by the story of a person leading a moderately ordinary life who ended up being enormously famous. The transition in his life was really interesting to read about, and, of course, he does not hide the ugly realities of fame. Meanwhile, it was fun to hear about some of the shows and movies he was involved with in the early days of his career – and it was fascinating to think that he came very close to not being Chandler Bing, especially considering how closely he and the character are entwined.

He also talks in depth about how difficult it is to live with addiction. I have always had complete respect for those living with addiction, and regarded it as the illness it is. In this, Matthew Perry goes into full detail about how horrible and debilitating it is. It’s bleak, but I am glad that he speaks so frankly about his experiences, because it’s important for everyone to understand what it’s like.

On the other hand, as much as I enjoyed learning about his experiences with fame, Friends, and addiction (or Friends, lovers, and the big terrible thing), I did find him to be horribly bitter sometimes – and I get it, he’s had a hard life and he has every right to feel bitterness about what he has endured. What I didn’t like was how he talks about other people, or how he seems to have treated those in his life.

For example (and there will be other points that I’ve forgotten, but these ones stood out as particularly negative and unpleasant): he mentions multiple times that he wishes Keanu Reeves was dead for seemingly no reason, he talks about how he had an old girlfriend who essentially became his carer during a really rough point in his battle with addiction, and then he just left her to sleep with loads of other women once he was feeling better, he seems to feel some resentment (to this day) that Jennifer Anniston didn’t want to sleep with him, he generally doesn’t seem to be able to see women as anything other than potential girlfriends or people to sleep with, he mentions a ‘poor’ friend that he has and how he’d happily switch lives with him because, though he knows he’s poor, he doesn’t believe the guy’s struggles could ever come close to what he’s been through.

I get that he’s been through a lot, but it sometimes feels like he thinks he’s suffered more than any other person in world and that’s really unfair. Yes, he has had a horrible time and I feel bad for him – I wish science could find a more effective way of treating addiction. However, he’s an extremely rich person who has access to the best health services and can afford to not work while he makes attempts to recover. There are many other people who don’t have that luxury, and many other pains that a person can deal with besides addiction – indeed, there are sure to be many people dealing with struggles and anxieties as a direct consequence of him having treated them badly. He’ll call himself an idiot for how he treated people, but he never seems to properly reflect on how badly he could have hurt them by behaving like that.

He does, at least, seem to resolve to do better by the end, but I found myself getting frustrated with him quite often throughout the book – which is sad. He, self-awarely, notes that Chandler Bing surpassed him in terms of emotional growth by the time Friends came to an end, and it shows. He seems like the kind of person who might be hard to like, but I admire him for sharing such a deep and candid look into the realities of living with anxiety, and the ugly side of fame.

Rating: 6.8/10

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How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates

This is a book that I have been curious about for a while, and also one I was a little cynical about. After all, you don’t really expect to get environmental messages from the world’s billionaires – especially as they’re the ones who are largely responsible for the extent of the crisis as it is. Having said that, I was very impressed by the book, and though he took the matter completely seriously, he did it with a level of optimism that you don’t often see when it comes to the climate crisis, which was refreshing.

However, though Bill Gates is optimistic, he is under no illusion that the changes needed are going to be easy to implement, or that there won’t be serious consequences if we fail to get to net zero carbon. He also acknowledges that it is people like him who have a greater responsibility to find and implement solutions, because they themselves played a much larger role in causing it. At the same time, he emphasises that everybody can play their part in solving the problem, even if it’s just in carefully thinking about how they vote in elections, or buying products which have been more ethically sourced.

Speaking of which, one aspect of the book that I found particularly interesting was when he talked about vegetarian and vegan diets being part of the solution. Methane from cows is a large contributor to worldwide carbon emissions, and he explains that transitioning to vegan alternatives, or even lab-grown meat, will be a good way of reducing some of the carbon. He explains that he is somebody who always enjoyed meat, and has been historically sceptical of fake meats, but that in recent times he has grown a lot fonder of them due to their increased quality. He does also stress, however, that while vegan options have the potential to be better for the environment, there are also times where they’re made unethically and in such cases can even be just as bad.

He goes over all of the different areas that contribute to the carbon in our atmosphere, and suggests how each and every one of them could be reduced, and what technologies and alternative fuels are available to replace them. He says a big part of them problem is that it is currently incredibly cheap to use oil, and explains that the reason for this is that so many governments have historically put systems in place to make it as affordable as possible. Originally, this was because it helped to improve quality of life for as many people as possible, but now that that is no longer the case, and even risks doing the exact opposite in the long run. Meanwhile, if steps were taken to charge a price for fossil fuels which accurately reflects the toll that they take, it would de-incentivise their use, especially among large businesses.

Outside of this, he also talks about drastic measures which can be taken to protect the human race in the event that climate change begins to accelerate a point beyond our control. One of which was releasing chemicals to create clouds which repel the suns rays and reduce the effects of global warming. It’s both comforting to think that there are plans for even the worst case scenarios, and also kind of bleak to think that such measures might have to be taken.

Overall, his message is that we need to invest more in alternative fuels and green technologies, discourage the use of fossil fuels as much as possible, and aim for zero carbon, not just a reduction. He admits, depressingly, that one of the most difficult hurdles to overcome is actually getting politicians to act in favour of the people, but as he is an expert on the subject, it is reassuring to read his very grounded solutions to the problems we are facing as a species – he admits he doesn’t have all the answers, but he sets forth some very agreeable ideas.

Rating: 9/10

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Assassination Classroom, Volume 13 by Yusei Matsui

Another volume of my favourite manga! Moving through, I sometimes wonder if volume by volume reviews are the right way to approach manga, because I don’t always feel like I have so much to say. Nonetheless, this was another fantastic instalment, and a step up from the 12th volume, I think (which was great anyway).

Starting out, it gives us a conclusion to the Grim Reaper storyline. As always, I’m not going to spoil what happens, but it’s good, high-stakes drama that gives fantastic moments for Karasuma, Jelavich, and Koro-Sensei. While the island storyline is probably my favourite part of the manga so far, this arc comes very close.

After all that more Shonen-esque drama, you also get a storyline about Nagisa’s mother trying to take him out of school. I like that the assassination-hijinks are contrasted against the much more down-to-Earth drama of Nagisa’s family life. His mother is a little over the top, but I thought this was a really good addition to his character, giving an explanation for why he behaves in certain ways.

In this volume, you also get a sense of things starting to come to a close – like the noose is slowly tightening around Koro-Sensei’s neck. The government are growing unhappy with the fact that Koro-Sensei is still at large, and so starts to consider more drastic measures. Though it ends with a more chilled out storyline about a school festival, it leaves a general sense of foreboding at the end of the volume – which, of course, left me hungry for more.

Rating: 9.3/10

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Dune by Frank Herbert

Dune is, of course, one of the best-selling sci-fi novels ever written, and considered by many to be one of the best ever written. I was, however, a little dubious about starting it, the reason being that I knew a few people who had read it, and they described it as a very dry and boring read. Of course, I couldn’t stay away from such a renowned novel as this, and now finally having read it, I can say that I didn’t find it too dry or boring at all – but I also don’t think that it quite lived up to its reputation.

The story follows a boy named Paul (of House Atreides) who moves to the planet Arrakis along with his family, which is a planet renowned as the source of “spice” a highly sought-after drug that generates enormous amounts of money – unfortunately, this move comes as the result of some political meddling from powerful forces, and his father worries that they’re in store for some rocky times – sure enough, they are.

This is one of those novels where you can tell that the author spent a great deal of time developing the setting. From the super intelligent and logical Mentats, to the history of the world(s), and it’s religions and politics, and even the iconic giant worms, it’s a setting I enjoyed reading about, and as soon as I started the book I thought “I’m interested by this universe and want to learn more.”

As the novel went on, I realised that Frank Herbert wasn’t so good at doing his world-building organically. There are certain chapters where he’s pretty much directly telling us about a lot of the minutia of his world. Like, it is all interesting, but some of the chapters, particularly those with a slightly more scientific focus, had me thinking “Can we just get on with the story, please?”

The other pitfall was that it really scrimps on the human-angle. I don’t mean that this is a novel that doesn’t feature many human beings (it has plenty of them), but it never really delves into anybody’s emotional responses to the things that happens. This is true for Paul in particular – he goes through some really horrific experiences, things which would take a lot of time to process and come to terms with… but which are brushed off with only a few lines about how he feels about it. The same goes for his mother (who was a pretty interesting character). She goes through so much, but it’s written more like a history book with a completely detached perspective, and that was kind of disappointing.

Dune is also guilty of using a number of cliched tropes. I can give it a bit of slack, because it’s quite an old piece of sci-fi, and these things might not have felt as noticeable back then. For me, the biggest thing was the fact that Paul’s story is very much along the lines of “He’s the chosen one, destined for greatness, who’ll change the world” and then that’s exactly what he does… it’s a pretty bland idea for something so central to the novel.

Nonetheless, reading Dune was definitely a positive experience for me. It’s a book that, perhaps, hasn’t aged so well, but it is set within a fascinating world. Arrakis is a world with almost no water, and I really enjoyed reading about the kind of culture that would grow around such a dry world. There are lots of interesting ideas and concepts, but they’re tied together with a fairly bland storyline, and it lacks much in the way of human emotion.

Rating: 6.3/10

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The Cost of Sexism by Linda Scott

This is probably the best feminist book I’ve ever read. Essentially, what Linda Scott does in it is look at sexism (or really misogyny) that’s happening all over the world, and then explain how it is that that negatively effects everyone. Of course, it’s obvious that misogynistic behaviours will be bad for women, but she looks at how they harm men too, and how everybody suffers because of it.

She gave a perfect example of something she had observed in African countries. In poorer families, the men would be put first and they’d have the lion’s share of the food. They’d always have enough to eat, while the women would have comparatively less. Because of this, the women don’t actually get enough, and are often malnourished. This even happens while they are pregnant, and then the unborn babies suffer in the womb, and are born prone to illnesses. With hundreds of cased of this happening, there’s a whole generation in poorer health.

She also talked about it being considered taboo for women to work in certain countries, where employers often wouldn’t even seriously consider female applicants for roles. She explains that if the attitude were to change, at large, these countries would essentially be able to double the size of their economies. The workforce would be twice as big, because there’d be twice as many people with their own income to spend on things, and twice as much money then going back into the economy. I’d never even considered this before, but it’s an amazing (if sad) perspective.

Meanwhile, speaking about the US and the UK, she talked about how men occupy many of the highest pay jobs, and the ones which have the largest impact on the way society is organised. She explained that many of these types of role (e.g. with economists) are built on highly misogynistic cultures rooted in the past. Women are frequently driven out by the awful behaviour of people working in these fields, and the overall perspectives are so deeply rooted in the past that new thoughts and ideas in general are not welcomed – this means that sexist ideals continue to play a huge role in decision-making progresses and often end up being seen as more valuable than they really are.

Ultimately, she makes the point that many problems would be solved if women were, A) given equal opportunities and pay in the workplace (especially in higher up, influential jobs), B) if childcare were free and available to everyone, C) if women across the world are given free and easy access to menstrual care. These are the main points, but Linda Scott has a lot to say, and I learned a lot from it (even as someone who tries to be aware of these types of social issues). I recommend everybody give this book a try.

Rating: 9.4/10

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