User Profile

Eric Wagoner 📚

eric@books.kestrelsnest.social

Joined 3 years ago

Eclectic and (sometimes aspirationally) avid reader. Currently on a sci-fi kick. Tolkien is my first literary love.

I'm a software developer and whimsical costume maker in Athens, GA. he/him

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Eric Wagoner 📚's books

Currently Reading

Stopped Reading

Jason Pargin: I'm Starting to Worry about This Black Box of Doom (2024, St. Martin's Press)

An interesting start with a third person POV that's almost in real time setting up the scene and motivations and occasionally directly addressing the reader with notes on what to keep an eye on and flashes of scenes to come.

Dan Moren: The Armageddon Protocol (Paperback, 2024, Angry Robot)

The fourth and final book in The Galactic Cold War series sees Simon Kovalic and …

A Fitting End to this Wonderful Series

Dan Moren is one of my favorite new writers from the last few years. His "Galactic Cold War" series brought the science fiction spy craft stories I didn't know I needed, but need them I did.

Dan left many a hint that this would be the last book, and through most of the nail-biting action and cat-and-mouse intrigue I honestly could not tell if this would be a victory lap or a "Rogue One" style sendoff, and honestly I was ready for it either way. It was a quick read, perfectly paced with multiple points of view and intertwined storylines, and it brought a satisfying conclusion.

I love the setting Dan has created, and I'm hopeful he feels there are more stories to tell within it. Whether his next book takes place here, or is more urban fantasy like his excellent "All Souls Lost", or something brand new, …

Timothy Snyder: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (EBook, Tim Duggan Books)

In previous books, Holocaust historian Timothy Snyder dissected the events and values that enabled the …

Important and Timely

I was in the middle of reading The Armageddon Protocol, the latest science fiction thriller from Dan Moren. He’s my favorite newish author, with six novels out now, each better than the last (and the first one was excellent). More people should know about his books.

Anyway, I set that aside to begin reading a 2017 book by Yale historian Timothy Snyder. It offers ““twenty lessons from the twentieth century, adapted to the circumstances of today” and is the source of many quotes and memes going around the last few days. It’s a quick easy read. If you voted for the guy and think the current panic is hyperbole, I recommend reading this book if only to reassure yourself that it is hyperbole and to see what to watch for to ensure you’re on the right side of history if the bottom ever were to fall out. And for …

Leigh Brackett: The Long Tomorrow

Fantastic Post-Apocalyptic Classic I'd Missed

My to-read pile is basically a jumble of several hundred ebooks in my reader app. Just finished Scalzi’s “Kaiju Preservation Society” (a satisfying pop song of a book) and reached into my stack and randomly grabbed the next one.

It’s the 1955 classic “The Long Tomorrow” by groundbreaking author Leigh Brackett. I’ve already stayed up an hour past my bedtime reading it. Don’t know how it got by me this whole time.

  • Several Days Later*

“The Long Tomorrow” was fantastic! That Leigh Brackett could really write. Of course, everyone who has watched The Empire Strikes Back already knows that. Yeah, that was her script. She died before it went into production, but much of what she wrote made it into the film.

Travis Baldree: Bookshops & Bonedust (EBook, 2023, Tor Books)

Viv's career with the notorious mercenary company Rackam's Ravens isn't going as planned.

Wounded …

So cozy but still with big personal stakes

A sequel every good as the first without being a repeat or derivative. A prequel that stands on its own. This was such a joy to read, and I hope there is more to come!