Graham

I have seen this book accused of being a story in which nothing really happens, but that is decidedly missing the point on this book. This story is about the ensemble, the misfit crew and the journey rather than the destination. It explores some interesting ideas of prejudice and humans place in the universe. Most sci-fi starts with the assumption that humans would be the dominant species in the galaxy. Wayfarers takes an interesting view where humans have petitioned to join a pre-existing galactic council and are very much a minority interest. In this story we have caused environmental collapse on Earth and divided into a rich faction able to live on a terraformed mars and the rest who escaped in colony ships and fled into the galaxy before petitioning the galactic council for aid. Whilst our main protagonist is human, and the majority of the crew of the ship are human, the galaxy decidedly isn't. And whilst the majority of the crew is human, key members are not - namely the dr/chef, the pilot and the navigator. The relationship between the crew forms the beating heart of this book. There is some prejudice, some interesting questions on the morality of various potential scientific advances, interspecies love and a general exploration of different cultures. The world building that gives these distinct cultures is phenomenal - each species feels different, and feels non-human.

Superficially the plot is about the journey to the Galactic center to build a new wormhole for future travel with a new and very alien race. The actual plot of the book is more about the crew interactions and the people and place the crew meet on the way

This book is infuriatingly unnecessary. I loved Ready Player One. Its clever geek references and easter eggs with a joyously silly plot made it a really fun read. The whole thing was beautifully self contained. One thing it did not need was a sequel, and certainly not this mess of a sequel.

There is nothing new or different in Ready Player Two. The whole plot is basically a rehash of Ready Player One, but sillier. We have new nonsense tech that makes even less sense than the previous story, we have another silly challenge, but this one has less of a feeling of peril associated with it as only the original winners can take part and we have our main character turning into a bit of whiny brat. Don't get me started about the random space ship stuff which just seems to be a weak homage to Elon Musk. Basically it takes everything in Ready Player One and makes it worse.

The book does pick up a bit into its second half where there is some danger forcefully inserted (albeit in a faintly ridiculous way - AI causing plane crashes?). The geek references are still there although particularly at the start are used in a ridiculous way again (the car collection?). The fall off in quality from the first book to the second is abysmal.

After talking so much smack about this why am I giving it 2 stars? Simply because I have still read worse. A lot of the disappointment here is from how badly this compares to it predecessor. If you take that away there is still some fun to be had with the silly adventure in cyberspace. The inner geek in me loves some of the references. Is this a book I am going to recommend to any one? Hell no. If you want this kind of geek adventure read the first book - there is no need to read this second one. Ultimately this whole thing is entirely unnecessary.

Yes! This is how you do a near future sci-fi!

The story follows the tale of an early set of space explorers conducting one of the first manned extra-solar missions to planets where life can be found. The sense of wonder and the possible is palpable throughout the story, with a constant challenge of what forms life could take, recognizing the nature of common ancestors has perhaps limited the variety on earth. The imagination is wild and the scenes produced believable.

The technology used by the astronauts has a root very much in current technology lending it an air of believability. The communication with earth takes years because with electromagnetic based communication like we currently have that is what it would take. The sense of detachment this generates is ultimately central to the plot.

I loved this book, it was extremely well written, offering just the right amount of hope whilst recognizing the frequent failings of our current civilization

Vampires are one of those tropes that refuse to go out of fashion. Fortunately, they find ways of reinventing themselves to create that evolution of the monster itself. Kristoff's vampires are evil, violent, pitiless and much more in the classical mold than some of the recent iterations (this is most definitely not twilight). These are blood thirsty monsters who treat humans as chattel. They are very much at the top of the food chain.

There has been a trend in recent vampire stories to take a more urban fantasy approach. This necessitates a hiding in the shadows - the vampires of recent years have been somewhat pathetic creatures who cannot stand up to humanity. Transferring the story into a fantastical setting is a smart move in that sense - it allows the vampires to be omnipresent, visible and helps brings their monstrosity to the fore. The world we are in has been recently cursed into a kind of semidarkness allowing the vampires to roam 24 hours a day (although their power grows in the true night). The vampires are on the rise and apparently unstoppable. The one thing standing in their way is an order of half-breed vampires determined to stop them. Their vampire half allows them to counter the vampires with their own abilities. Their one vice - they need to smoke the blood of vampires to manage their own hunger for blood.

Empire of the Vampire is dark, cynical and bitter. The darkness is pervasive - the atmosphere, the sense of despair, the imbalance of power. This is not a happy read. Some of Kristoff's idioms do get a little abrasive at times - I am all for appropriate levels of swearing, but the use here is extremely gratuitous. I do love his dark humour though. The cynicism that pervades this is delicious

There is something very comforting about Brandon Sanderson's writing style. TotES takes that general coziness and dials it up to 11. This is definitely the most whimsical Cosmere book I have read before, and I know that was deliberate seeing as this was written specifically for his wife. And the whole thing wears its influences decidedly on its sleeve. The Princess Bride rides strongly through this both in theming and literary styling, with some of the extra Pratchett and Gaiman whimsy thrown in for good measure. Having the whole thing structured as a tale told by Hoid allows for that whimsy to work in the setting though.

Sanderson's big strength has always been his well realised worlds and Lumar, the setting for this novel, is no exception. Every Cosmere planet has its own unique expression and Lumar is its spore seas. Each sea has a different colour spore and each colour spore has a different property. The spores all react with water to cause certain effects - the verdant spores of the Emerald Sea violently sprout vines, azure spores violently explode on contact with water. A series of clever mechanical devices are able to use these properties to create different weapons and tools. Everything here works and makes sense. And the fact that water is the main catalyst creates a brilliant sense of danger - most living things excrete significant quantities of water!

The characters here are also excellent. The growth seen feels properly earnt. This is essentially a coming of age story so that growth is so important. The characters are just engaging, the ships crew have that excellent found family element and the self deprecation that Hoid uses helps balance out having a super powerful immortal hiding in the story.

Considering this story was written as a bonus secret thing for his wife this is hugely impressive and probably one of the best things to come out COVID... Extra bonus stories should not be allowed to be this good.