Hello

@MB- I absolutely LOVE that book. Don’t know if other people would want it though. We need a good book, that’s mostly for all ages that everyone can agree on.

the giver is a good book even though I never read it
but I did watch the movie

We could do the Giver. Here, let me make a voting model real quick . . .

We could do Animal Farm. That’s what I started reading! 😂

Here’s the voting.

@Wiz- Sorry, just saw your post, I’ll add it to the voting list. 😉

I've mentioned Bryan Davis before... one of my favourite authors of all time, etc, etc.

Recently, I actually finished a "video" review for Reapers, one of his best works so far.
IF YOU DON'T HAVE HEADPHONES PLEASE MUTE.
My voice really isn't good enough to play on speakers, please.
There is a written version below if you don't have headphones.

[youtube]542hTIv1h9s[/youtube]

Captured My Soul | Reapers Review
Dystopia. It has long captured our imaginations no matter what form it takes – sometimes a little too personally. Serving primarily as a warning to what the world can become, dystopia is instantly a highly important art form. Combine that with the thematic powers of fantasy, and you get one of the most powerful forms of fiction imaginable. All this and more are achieved by Bryan Davis in his book Reapers, combining masterful characters with incredible writing to create a truly unforgettable experience.
The central fact of life in the world of Reapers is that souls of the dead are unable to exit the land of the living – at least, not without help. Reapers such as our protagonist Phoenix collect the trapped souls and pass them on to the Eternal Gateway. There, the centuries-old and allegedly benevolent Gatekeeper rules the world with an iron fist, ignoring his subjects who are dying from disease and radiation poisoning. Despite this evil, every Reaper obeys without question – even Phoenix, who has compassion for the dying rather than callously harvesting their souls to meet his quota. The narrative comes as more and more of his friends and loved ones are betrayed, imprisoned, and murdered, forcing Phoenix to confront the evil in the world in a bittersweet crisis filled with desperation, jeopardy, and sacrifice.
Typical tropes and standard subversions are destroyed by Bryan Davis, breathing life into this novel. For example, the heroes and villains rarely try and keep major motivations a secret from each other. The Death Enforcement Officer explains she is simply using brute force and manipulation to ensure Phoenix participates in a massive reaping. Phoenix responds stating that he wants to rescue his friends when he ultimately accepts her “offer” and uses it to barter for less observation. This, of course, is simultaneously genius and obvious. Think about it. Say your best friend was captured as a hostage so that a terrorist can make you to kill a bunch of prisoners. There are no authorities that can help you, you’re on your own. Do you just go along with everything the terrorist says, secretly planning to rescue your friend? Perhaps, but clearly explaining that you have zero motivation to kill for him without a chance to rescue your friend and arguing for less observation is easily a hundred times smarter. Simply astounding character work all around.
Bryan Davis writes the most believable heroes and villains I have ever witnessed. Every motivation is clear, everyone acts their age, and, in a unique moment I have never experienced either before or after, I read a character’s lines in her native accent completely by accident. Every piece of dialogue is realistic, every scrap of skill earned, every fraction of character fought for! No other author fashions characters that are so honest and authentic. But, in today’s world, perhaps the most impressive thing that Bryan Davis has achieved is compelling female characters. Singapore, Shanghai, Alex, Misty, Molly – all completely unique, genuine and their utter strength as characters comes from their flaws.
Honestly, I wish I could talk about Reapers for hours. The plot and characters are just that intriguing. But I’ll leave you with this. If you feel that, collectively, storytelling has long since scraped the bottom of the barrel and is now mining underneath it for the grubs of story in the offhand chance of a No Way Home, you must give Reapers a try. This was not the first book that came to mind when I sat down to write a review on one of Bryan Davis’ thirty titles, but Reapers just utterly captured my soul. Let it seize your heart as well.

Author purchase link (probably only worthwhile if you live in the US, unfortunately - otherwise Amazon will be cheaper):
https://www.theauthorschair.com/shopping/product/1-reapers

VOICE REVEAL! (If this is the first time you’ve done this…)

Edit: 1800 posts!!

Yup.
And, as always, I hate my recorded voice.

TBH, I think you have a nice voice! (Everybody, including me, hates their recorded voice for some reason… But it’s never that bad. 😁)
I only watched about 30 seconds of the video, since I don’t read Sanderson’s books, but I love how you included the Twitter logo in the middle of a speech about dystopia. 😂

I still get confused every time I speak into a microphone and hear a voice that CANNOT be mine. Also, I really want to read Reapers now. I'll have to make that a summer read.

Well Reapers was awesome!
I'm going to have to give the sequel and previous series a shot!

The Oculus Gate series is set in the same story world, a post-apocalyptic war-type story from as far as I can tell.

Author Purchase link (again, probably only worthwhile if you live in North America): https://www.theauthorschair.com/shopping/product/heaven-came-down/

🎉 ## 100TH POST IN THE FORUM!!! 🎉

Nice 😄

EDIT:
New page

have y'all ever read the lion of war series if you have not its a historical fiction about the mighty men of David and I advise you all to read it

I'm reading The Sound and the Fury. Now I have little time to read fiction, as I am busy preparing to enter medical school. I decided to turn to specialists and do a medical residency personal statement editing https://residencypersonalstatements.net/ to make sure that my personal statement is written as well as possible.

One more video review.
As usual, written version below, followed by the author purchase link and cover art.
[youtube]6G6pylsnThc[/youtube]
Search for the Astral Dragon
Science Fiction has long been dominated by the big FRANCHISES. But, for readers 8-13 at least, The Astral Alliance series will be a new voice in this sphere. The first book, The Search for the Astral Dragon, was released May 2022, and, as usual for Bryan Davis, characterization is on point, and annoying tropes of the genre are acknowledged and subverted.

Set in a futuristic universe, The Search for the Astral Dragon follows 13-year-old Megan Willis as she struggles to avoid capital punishment for her pirate heritage. The neck shackle she wears uses a failsafe that could kill her at any moment – as well as the usual method of remote execution. While she manages to escape her imminent death and crash-lands on a rural planet, her long-term goal is to find her parents. However, her dire situation is further compounded when she is kidnapped into a ring of enslaved children, mining for a mysterious resource. Should she rescue them or leave them to their fate? Throughout the course of the book, surviving another crash and many strenuous encounters with the antagonists, she gains friends, builds confidence, and learns valuable lessons about justice, mercy, and sacrifice.

Megan is quite the compelling protagonist (hard though it may be for me to identify with a 13yo girl). Her perseverance, wit, and resourcefulness forge her actions perfectly, especially as she struggles to piece together what’s happened before, what her next steps are, and the morality of the conflict between her parents and the government. Meanwhile, there is quite a diverse number of interesting antagonists. The slavers, mine-owner, space navy, and even nature provide challenging obstacles that force Megan to figure out what she believes and act on it. The side characters here are also given deep and complex backgrounds, as well as abilities that complement each other to create a powerful team. Every single character here could stand several books without exhausting the potential for development. 

Although the similitudes here are less overt, fans of Firefly will instantly recognize the historical motifs – like the aforementioned slave trade, or the struggles of living on the edge of civilization. My favourite subversion of classic sci-fi tropes is the way Davis handles both technology and languages. Reminiscent of Roman times, there are two primary human languages understood across the galaxy, Humaniversal and Alpha One. Of course, local communities have their own languages as well, and it is rare for someone on the frontier to know both – or even to speak one. And even though technological ear translators exist, learning the local languages is shown to be much more advantageous in the long run. Meanwhile the technology feels like a natural progression – AI that can assist but not dominate, spacesuits that have magnet boots, and other such common sense features.

In the end, what can I say? Bryan Davis has done it again. His prose vividly paints the picture of a thrilling space adventure, his characters act with perfect believability, and his take on troubling tropes not only subverts expectations, but indeed plays a major role in the story. A perfect gift for a child, The Search for the Astral Dragon may be easily read aloud or alone. If you’ve been looking for a good sci-fi adventure, but can’t quite trust the big franchises to focus on story above all, look no further.

Author Purchase link:
https://www.theauthorschair.com/shopping/product/search-for-the-astral-dragon/