wdlopez's reviews
193 reviews

This is a pretty straight up auto-biography of a non-writer, though better of many that are out there. Story of Tito's life, plain and simple. He is a pretty polarizing MMA character, so its good to get his side of the story. he did alot for the sport, so he says, and Dana contradicts. Read the book and you can better decide for yourself. Also interesting because he discusses the beginnings of his relationship with Jenna Jameson.

Sheridan is a magazine writer, and I think that shows here. This is an EXCELLENT collection of short stories about MMA, but I didnt feel he had a coherent 'journey' from the beginning to end. Still, it was excellently written, and the fact that it focuses on fighting, not just MMA,is a plus.

First, my book has a different cover that shows an androgynous child with an eerie grin... this cover is MUCH more appropriate. Second, this was a good book about a child born as a hermaphrodite and how both the child and her father cope with her fluid gender identity. I enjoyed the book, but I thought that it was part a critique of a gender dichotomy, part a story about a father dealing with his loss of a
"son," and part a book about a child dealing with society's confusion of who and what she is. My problem with it is that neither of three themes gained ENOUGH traction. The father was a great character, but developed minimally in the first half of the book, while we didnt get nearly the depth of emotion of the main character that we could have given Winter's excellent settings.

However, the world Winter created was palpably dark and lonely at times, and hopeful like a breath of fresh air in the forest at others. The rich lyricism of the book was excellent as well.

I have to give this one five stars, even though I understand that 5 stars should be reserved for great works of timeless art, like (IMO) The Book Thief. However, Abnet did phenomenal job of playing off of a well-established world and story line, but explaining enough to build depth in the characters, and, more impressively, build sympathy for individual military chapters. His universe is one in which the characters have limited emotional range and in which the priorities of those in this world do not necessarily mirror 'real life' priorities. For example, The Astartes, the main 'race' (i know they are not a race; i know i just offended someone) are not normal humans, and do not feel sympathy, fear, intimidation, etc. They serve unflinchingly their military commander at the expense of all lives in their way. We mostly cant relate to this thinking, and there is not really any character that provides a lens for the reader to do so. But, we feel sympathy for and relate to the Astartes precicely because they are in a similar boat: they dont understand how we think either. They pity us, as we pity them, and this makes for an excellent dialogue on what it means to be human, to follow orders, to prioritize life. I look forward to reading the rest of this series.

Word of warning, I know a good amount about the Warhammer universe but some chapters I still had to read twice. If you are new to this universe, be prepared to read it slowly.