Clemens

I really like this one. After I read the first book Raymond Chandler wrote, I was not sure if I would want to read any other one. Too many old clichés and it felt more like reading a really bad pulp story.

But this one changes it, this is a really great story, well written, well told.

[Doesn't change the fact that every body smokes, and there isn't a page where there is nobody smoking ;)]

The perfect popcorn sci-fi book. Page turner, no utterly unexpected events, perfect bantering, etc. Yeah, I can't deny that I really enjoyed reading that book and I wouldn't be surprised to see that as a mini tv series, it would really work well. Movie, not so, but as a mini tv show yes.

It didn't get give stars, because it is just too predictable. Certain things are written and you know exactly what will happen.

Still, a very nice read, recommended. Very nice, especially if you are not a hard core sci-fi fan.

I started to read this and immediately had to think about the video installation I saw a view days earlier from Fiona Tan called “Disorient” where a narrator reads excerpts from Marco Polos travel logs.

Then I read this and I was first surprised if this is like something similar, but no, this is different, this fascinating and this is a book after you read it once, you put it on your table and pick it up from time to time and then just read one chapter. And the more you read them, the more you will understand it.

This is a book with a capital B and one that doesn't stop giving.

The epic conclusion that derailed just a little bit. I still think those two book from the Hyperion cycle are very well written and great books. But the second book lost a bit of the magic that the first book transferred so very well.

In my opinion too much time was spent with the characters on Hyperion and too little with the rest of the universe.

Spoiler alert below:

While the idea of the AIs living in the Farecaster network are very good and actually the most realistic to be, I do not understand why there would be no immediate science done to re-invent them without AIs running them. If they work, why not make them work again?Also who is this "Fatline" base voice. It suddenly appears, says "no more fatline messages" and that is it?

There are those rare books that are not capital B books but are just as fascinating and enjoyable to read. This one is one of those books. The perfect space opera, where you can sink into the story and feel like this universe is actually real. Wonderful writing, great story. Not only this, but because the author avoids to go into too much useless technobable it is even more enjoyable. Highly recommended to anyone liking sci-fi and also to those who do not put this kind of literature on top of their reading list.

There are books and then there are Books with a capital B. This one is a Book. One where you really start to think about humanity and everything and beyond. It is rare that I highlight and want to remember passages from a book. This book is one where I did a lot of that. Often I caught myself drifting off thinking about what I just read.

A wonderful book, highly recommended.

Heinlein books are not easy to ready. If you read them as science fiction you will be disappointed, but if you read them as view on society then you will be utterly delighted.

This book is just fantastic, a very interesting view on our society, on politics, religion and so on.

After reading this with a different expectation than when I read “Moon is a harsh mistress” I thinking I need to read “Moon is a harsh mistress” again but this time not as a science fiction book, but as book that writes about our society in the bounds of science fiction. Similar like reading a Philip K. Dick novel.

Very disappointed. Only the ending saved it from getting only one star.

Let's even not think about the main point of this book where they use drugs to rape men. Steal their semen so they can sell it. This book is just a boring repetition of the same thing over and over again.

I expected some witty interesting funny story but this was just boring crap. Really boring.

Not recommended

This is my second book I read from Hermann Hesse. The first one was “Unterm Rad” (Under the wheel) which I had to read as a young teenager for school. I hated it, although remembering back, the story was really amazing.

Well, this time I am much older and finally can understand the writing of Hermann Hesse. And this book is especially good. Really great story about the meaning of life and what is important in ones life. Written in such an excellent way, this book is a big enjoyment to read. But be warned, this is not a light story, not an easy story and not written in an easy german either.

I highly recommend this book, especially in german to everyone who wants to read some very good short novel.

This was hard to rate because I really liked the story in itself, but on the other hand it read a little bit strange. Like whole language used was just an edge too much hip or comic book style.

Still it makes me want to read more from Stephenson.

Would recommend that book

A fascinating read about the time before the first western Europeans arrived in the Americas. Part of read more like an novel, others have a bit dry university in it. But overall really enjoyful.

Tom Robbins tries to write like Kurt Vonnegut and utterly fails. This is just an overly complex collection of sentences with pseudo funny comparison words that border line on beer tent humor.

It was not unreadable, as in a level where would have to put that book down and away, but it was at a level where I say, I read one book from him, no need to ever read another one.

I am positively surprised by this book. Finally something I can give four stars without feeling bad.

This is the third novel from the “Harry Hole” series I read and the second from the beginning. While the first one was kind of weak, this had enough Scandinavian bleak darkness to make it quite enjoyable. Really looking forward to reading the next one.

A surprising well written book and with a surprising well done story that actually makes sense and does not pull out stuff from a magic hat to fit its purpose.

Solid read with some very interesting parts in the middle. Better than I could have ever expected from a Star Trek Universe Novel.

A solid read, actually better than I expected from any novel in the Star Trek Universe. It keeps the mushy stuff to a bare minimum and gets on with the story line that is actually quite good.

What an enjoyable read. Perhaps a bit dry, but it is hard to write about these kind of topics without a little bit dry feeling. Still I learned more about the human history and why certain parts were more prone to move forward than others. Recommended.

Great book, great read, but I can't give it more than three stars. Not because it is bad, but because it just didn't connect with me all too much. I still recommend it because this one is like the essential private detective story if there is any.

In general I do not trust reviews because the taste of the reviewer might be completely different to mine. But because this book had quite a lot of positive reviews and I wanted to read something Science Fiction I read it.

Complex for the sake of complexity. Boring, utter boring. 90% of the book is pretty much useless writing. There is no story, no progress, just nothing.

The prologue is very interesting and I thought, well that will be a good read, but I was utter wrong. Once the main story starts it is just one long ride downhill. There is a middle part that moves some aspect of a story and the end has a bit if interest, but in general this book is utter boring crap.

If there is one thing I will take away from this book it is that in the future sex is something you do between tasks you need to do. Like getting home quickly, there is always time for a shag.

At the end I just link to this review which describes this book very well: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/96780273?book_show_action=true&page=1

Oh well, what a nice read. Nothing spectacular or anything, but still a very nice easy read. Just one thing I take away, back in the 1920 EVERYBODY smoked. Really, there isn't a page where one of the characters doesn't light up a fag. Women, men, everyone smokes. Oh an drinking. Drinking and driving. Wild times.

Utterly boring book with no clear story line or any line at all. All I take away from this book is he is a super randy guy that can only think of tits & pussy and permanently oils his sword that he permanently looses and then luckily finds again.

There are some minor parts that are quite interesting and well written and the whole concept and idea is quite nice, but the execution is horrible. I doubt I will read the last two books of this series.

To be honest, I am a bit disappointed by this one. It misses this gritty depressing feeling that the last one had. On the other hand, it is the first one from this series with the Harry Hole character. Still looking forward to the next one.

This book is really short, something that you can squeeze through on a weekend or even in a day.

While I liked the whole book, at the end it left me with a slight shale taste, like something is missing. The whole book felt like one good draft that needed some more polishing. Well, it shows that Michael Crichton was a good author already back then, but it also shows that at the beginning he was not 100% perfect.

A very enjoy full read. Gripping from the first page to the last, well written and even though it was written quite some time ago, it didn't loose any of it over the years.

The move is very close to this book and I can also recommend that one too.

Boring and outdated. If I would have read that book 20 years ago when the time was still with West vs Soviet and I would have been younger I probably would have loved this book. But times move by and some stuff just feels antiquated and wrong. Not as horrible as the first book I read from him, but I can't even go up to a meh reading.