Bee
That was a hell of a read. Dark, compulsive, violent and real. Cam is a wonderfully complex character, and seeing him being taken by circumstances out of his control down a path he thinks he is following, only to be swept along to something else entirely was a great ride. Banks has shown many times that he has a feverish imagination, and deep insight into what makes us tick as complex and messy beings.
His charterers feel real in a way that I don't often get to feel. Cam is the result of a life full of unexpected and unprocessed events just like all of us, and is trying to deal with it in the same suppressed and often overlooked and ignored fashion we all do.
What an excellent book, I was on the edge of my seat for most of it.
4 Stars for world and plot
3 stars for SMUGNESS
I keep doing it to myself, i forget how much Scalzi annoys me, and ESP how much Wil Wheaton's narration annoys me, and I fall for the GR hype. This is 100% my opinion of course, but I get so annoyed at the smug characters that populate his books. Smug charmers who smugly solve every problem with a quip and disarming leer. Reminds me of what a friend once told me, “Charm is a verb”, it's a tool used by manipulators. It annoys me no end. Every now and then the smugness suites the story enough that it doesn't grate. But not consistently enough alas.
That being said the plot and story were engaging enough though, not sure if that says something about Scalzi or the original author the story was a remix of?
I think, mayhaps, this was the bet one in the series yet. Hard to say between children of Time and this, but I enjoyed it immensely. The scale as always is amazing.
Mild topical Spoilers ahead.
I loved the alternative terraforming. What a crazy concept. The Gods. Wow
And the Mira/Alice/Kato story was juts as much fun.
The biggest hing though is that it feels like Tchaikvosky has gotten SO much better as a writer since Children of Time. he was good then, he's great now. Since the Tyrant Philosophers series it feels like he's leveled up significantly. His prose is more lyrical and eloquent. And I'm here for it. There must have been 50 times i wish i was reading the book not listening so that i could mark down a particularly well written sentence. The Gods in particular had some incredible insights unto human nature.
One of the best things I've read this year. So much fun, so thought provoking. And pretty funny too. A great cast of wonderfully human beings on a trip to see the glitches in the matrix. I had forgotten how accomplished Gergory is as a writer. He brings together so many random elements, and fuses them into a cohesive human mess that just sit right. He is a great writer, and often has very lyrical and insightful turns of phrase. His characters explore a topic from a wide range of perspectives illuminating the whole through disparate observations. This was a wonderful read, and has gotten to go back and restart Afterparty. Will do the rest of his oeuvre too this year i think.
Another reviewer on here said: This is a book written by a man with care and it was wonderful and a balm to my heart.
And I can't agree more.
Great line I made a note of:
“Xiang Xiang had become used to Schizophrenic on public transportation in the city. Trains and busses in New York were essentially movable waiting rooms for hospitals that the most needy would never be admitted to”
I love th8is world, and I love this series, and i particularly love Thara Celehar, he is such a wonderful broken character. The moment her has something he needs doing, something in accordance with his calling as a Witness for the Dead, he just DOES it, no holds barred. No matter how awkward or difficult or dangerous, but the moment it's for him, he's an awkward wreck. Friendship, never! Accepting help with getting his coat mended, impossible, he'd rather die of shame. I can relate.
I just love this series, the language is so rich an beautiful, the world so well formed. I did struggle to remember all of the complexity though, which is a problem when listening to a book of this nature, but i mostly figured out what was what, but i wish i had gone back and re-listened to all of the rest again first. It would have been better.
The tale itself was a decent who-done it. And the witnessing for the dragons was rather fascinating. However i did find the first two a little more riveting. By now it's 5 stars merely for taking me back to a cozy place i love.
3.5 stars
I feel like this should or could have been excellent. But some how it never quite landed the setup . The language was often beautiful, complex metaphors abound. It was an emotional book, full of old trauma, skirting around the inability to love or be loved. The analogies with robots was never rubbed in your face, it was subtle and often quite lovely. But also cold and distant, like seeing the story unfold through lead glass, even when you were in someone's POV.
The disjointed new unified Korean was a really rich background to the whole story.
I read they might be making a series out of this, and i suspect (and hope) that might be able to pull the deeper story to light in a better way. Fingers crossed, because it was such a rich milieu for a complex story
2 stars for originality, 3 starts for effort
Pffft. Wow that was forgettable. Nothing wrong with it per say, it wasn't bad, it was just bland and forgettable. Not a single new idea or a particularly interesting character. It's all been said before so many times. I just don't get what the fuss is about Powell. I've yet to read a book of his that was memorable. I can't for the life of my understand why Peter F Hamilton got him to write his last books.
It was kinda fun sometimes, and pulled me in a few times, but in general i kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, for it to get tense or me to actually start caring about Ursula. But it just never got there.
Hard one to review. It was mostly good. But it lacked something. The space combat stuff should have been riveting, but i kept loosing interest. I only realized half way through that this was book 1 of a new series, and that might have dampened my enthusiasm somewhat because i could se it was not going to end anywhere near the end of the book.
Some good ideas, some interesting world building, but idk. I might try some more by the author.
I started reading Godfall on a recommendation from a Reddit post knowing almost nothing about it. At first it was a little clunky, and the characters weren't particularly fleshed out even by the end, but damn i enjoyed it. What a novel idea. The police procedural was fun, I did suspect the killer about half way though, but it was still a surprise to be right. But i loved the idea behind it, and it was dealt with pretty well. I didn't realize it was book one of three which is a little annoying as the rest are yet to be published. But the story didn't end of a cliffhanger, just hints at the larger story unfolding which was great. Good stuff! I'll be reading the rest one day.
Damn that was surprisngly good. Tis was not at all the sequel to Reamde i was expecting, in fact you can easily read this without ever having read Reamde. Where Reamde was a technotriller, this is sometime else entirely. Mild spoilers bout the concepts in the book ahead:
The idea of simulating the afterlife is fascinating. And damn but he did it well. The evolving mythos was just superb. It fitted together so well. It ws kind of perfect how the story you started reading was over shadowed by the ever more important and intriguing story of Dodge in Hell, of Egdod becoming mythology.
Damn. LOVED this book
M.R. Carey can write a pretty wide range of fiction, that's for sure., I really enjoyed Outlaw Planet. I cool mix of Western and far out Sci-Fi. But light enough to just be fun. Nice setting with animal analogues for humans, a cool adventurous Western tale, and some big concept twists. Not very deep, but a lot of fun.
I LOVED Wakeful Slim!
Ok I can see what all the hype is about. Sedaris is a funny guy. And his self deprecating humour can be somehow dark and touching at the same time. I laughed out loud often during this short book, but it also moved me every so often. His brother's wedding is one of the funniest things i've read in forever. I will certainly be sprinkling some more of his book through my year.
That was so much fun. It was written in a different time for sure, and needs to be read as much, but all told it was a really fun little romp. Abdullah's eloquent and profuse compliments were particularly enjoyable. I can see why this series got so many of us in the 90s into fantasy ad young people in the first place.
Ah this was great! I have somehow never watched the movie (I know I know!), it just passed me by many times. But I'm so keen now. This was a lovely story. And not at all what i expected. It was fun and exciting and novel and cozy and funny and a little cheesy, but in all the right ways. I'll be reading the rest soon.
Ah I'm so sad to be done with this magnificent series. This has in it's entirety been one of the best series I've ever read. MRK's ability to write rich and complex characters and deep and real interactions make for excellent reading. And her nerdy core makes for GREAT rocket science sci-fi. Her attention to detail is incredible, and adds a level of realism and plausibility that I've never encountered anywhere else.
This book was a bit of a slow burn at first, but once things got underway it was great. Tension and inner turmoil between real characters in impossible situations. Deeply satisfying. As I said, I am very sad to be finished with this series. It's been an incredible journey, which started for me in 2020 Lock down, and then a re-read with my partner was even more enjoyable, and finally being able to finish the series. What a great wrap up. I sincerely hope that this isn't the end!
What a fascinating tale. The discovery and upheaval caused by teh Burgess Shale was as great paleontological adventure. This book was definitely more technical than I usually read, and mot particularity well suited to audio given how many illustrations it refers to, which i had to mostly ignore while driving or working. But it held together well enough to convey the essential meaning. This has been a very edifying book. And has since sent me down numerous fascinating rabbit holes
I have to be honest, I did not actually finish the last half of hte3 book. The story of Walcott is interesting but I don't really need justification for his shoehorn, it's perfectly obvious and understandable. What was much more interesting were the creatures themselves. And the taxonomical revolution in the understanding of evolution. Utterly thought provoking.
What an incredible book. As good as Your Inner Fish, Shubin brings the science to life, focusing on the heroes of science who made the discoveries as much as teh often complex paths they took to get there. Our understanding of life has not come about in a neat and easily followed chain of events but by passionate people working without recognition until consensus was finally met. I love his storytelling style and conversational nature. This book has blown my mind numerous times
This series just gets better. It's amaizng how much the characters and world has developed. This one was particularly enjoyable. Maybe the most fun yet. So much travel and new places and new people. So many amazing scenes. So many interesting skills learned. And the larger over arching story is getting very intense. Between the Goblins and Wistram and the dread lord that's risen.
We just love this series. We've listened to months worth, and will listen to so much more. But first it's time for the Lady Astronaut series as a bit of a palate cleanser.
I love this world so much, it felt like putting on a comfortable old coat stepping into the world of the Pal. It follows the live of Angilly as she prepares to take up her role in the first book. So many wonderful scenes, and darkly funny moments. I am so glad that he's fleshing out this world. It feels like he enjoyed writing this world more than anyhting else.
Ahh I love this series and this world. Soft and cosy but full of awkward interactions. Sounds like a Sunday afternoon in my life. This one went in all sorts of directions i was not expecting, and most gratifyingly so. Wonderful characters, great interactions and exciting fights. Much emotional soul searching. Good stuff.
This was so much fun. A rambling adventure of kidnap and WOW like MMO shenanigans. Some great moments in this, i thoroughly enjoyed it. But it was a week and a book ago and my memory is a little vague right now. But all rough exciting, entertaining, informative, some great characters and all the things a good Stephenson novel has in abundance.
Another solid instalment int eh ongoing wandering tale of the Wandering Inn. It was a great story, but it lost one start after the 50th time the narrator says “This is the story of” during one part of the story, it drove us absolutely nuts. BUT other than that it was super entertaining as always. We are so damn invested. In fact we reinstated out Netflix account a month ago and still haven't watched a SINGLE thing because all we do is listen to the Wandering Inn.
I wish Greg Bear could get someone to write his amaizng stories. His ideas are so grand, but damn his writing keeps me underwhelmed no matter how exciting the scene is. It felt like three different books on different topics by differnt people, none of them particularly cohesive or well put together. The bits that weren't confusing were boring. Spoilers ahead: And the ending was just a hand wavey and explaining away the entire plot that came before it. This book could have been an article in Popular Mechanics and it would have been better for it.
This will probably be the last time i try a Greg Bear.