Tag: Order

Isaac Asimov – Nightfall One | Review

Title: Nightfall One

Author: Isaac Asimov

Type: Fiction

Page Count: 176

Rating: 3.5/5

This book was unfortunately a little bit of a letdown, which itself is quite surprising. This book is pretty odd because it was published alongside Nightfall Two in paperback, while the hardback just combined the lot of them. I think that might have been the best way to read it.

Perhaps part of the problem here is that the stories are all listed in chronological order, and so Asimov got older as the collections went on. That means that his older stuff comes later, and I personally feel as though he developed as a writer over the years. Not everyone agrees with me.

It’s still worth reading though, if only because everything Asimov wrote is worth reading. I just didn’t get quite as much out of it as I was expecting. Another reason could be that these stories were longer than those in the other book, and Asimov’s great at ideas. Shorter stories means more ideas to consider.

Learn more about Nightfall One.


Terry Deary – Rotten Rulers | Review

Title: Rotten Rulers

Author: Terry Deary

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count: 176

Rating: 4/5

I actually learned a surprising amount from this book. For example, in the AD 900s, the grand vizier of Persia travelled with a library of 117,000 books carried by camels that were trained to walk in alphabetical order. Although he also said that the earth is flat, which I’m hoping was a joke but which either way is a dangerous one to make, especially when educating kids.

So basically, the main vibe that I was left with here was that there were a lot of cool facts and information that would definitely keep a kid entertained, but at the same time I’m not too sure how much we can trust it. It’s a shame, because I’ve always found the information to be spot on in Horrible History books before.

Mostly, though, it’s just a timely reminder that power corrupts and that people are terrible. After all, there are quite a few rotten rulers still knocking around today. Sinister.

Learn more about Rotten Rulers.