Liss

Not my usual genre but Booktube kept mentioning it and I liked the cover, so when I spotted it for cheap in my local supermarket I figured why not.

This book has the single most unlikeable MC that I've ever read. Not only a terrible Mary Sue but has no redeemable qualities about her. She does the absolute opposite of anything she's told and goes out of her way to make trouble and answer back on everything. She's supposed to be 19 but has the attitude of a spoiled 12 year old. The real fantasy part of this book is that a man would ever fall for someone who is constantly fighting him.

It definitely feels like it was written as a fanfic by a teen in 2004. But I weirdly find myself wanting to read the next one, even though I couldn't say I enjoyed this, and this first novel is a self contained story. So I don't neeeed to read the next one, but I still might.

Let me be clear when I say that my rating is for Lucien, the only character with any real depth.

A light, almost melancholic read about life and where it leads us. Is it okay to do what you want in life? Is it okay to not want to be part of the rat race and live at your own pace?

Follow the lives of the employees of Hyunam-Dong bookshop as they struggle with the rat race and their decision to leave it, which brings together people from different walks of life but who have all asked the same question - is it worth it?

Relationships are masterfully woven without excess romance or spice, but just the slow, gentle appreciation that one person can have for another. The acknowledgement that who we are today might not be who we are tomorrow, and changing our lives is not always a bad thing.

This was a great cosy read that left me questioning my decisions in life, and made me more motivated to get to where I actually want to be, instead of where I think I should be.

Having had time to think on this, I realised I had no real idea what was going on.

The book seems to be a commentary on what happens when we abandon our friends and ourselves in the desperation to 'fit in' with people we normally wouldn't. Sometimes choices are made and you can't take them back, and you may just lose everything you had before.

The MC appears to be another unlikable girl who thinks she knows everything but is easily led along by the stronger characters around her. This is to her detriment, and is a message a lot of us could have used in our younger years.

In the end I don't even know if everything was just some crazy drug trip. Maybe I would understand better on a second reading, but I likely won't give it the time.

My first read from Tchaikovsky and one that has cemented him as one of my new favourite authors. A fantastic entry into the SciFi genre for people who primarily stick to Fantasy. The systems are not overly explained, but it still contains some philosophical questions on what it is to be human.

The story centres around humanity and our quest to terraform other planets to make them hospitable to human life. In this particular case however, spiders have evolved to be the dominant species, not any kind of mammal or specifically ape that we were expecting.

The spiders however progress through the stages of development, even though it goes in slightly different stages to ours, and eventually are capable of space exploration. By this time however, the last surviving vestiges of humanity are desperate to land no matter the cost, and must face the spiders head-on.

The situation can be summed up as the Prisoners Dilemma, and the characters even discuss as much. But when the stakes are so high, there is only one inevitable outcome. Though the results of that outcome were very unexpected.

It should be noted, that for people who want 'strong independent women' characters, Isa Lain is that woman. She loved, she lost, she faced Gods and monsters, she sacrificed everything for the survival of humanity. This is the 'strong woman' we need to see more of in media, and it strikes me that Tchaikovsky is good at writing women because he treats us like people.

I look forward not only to reading the rest of this series, but the rest of his works, and have already pre-ordered his next book. (Shroud)

A bit of a slow start where it spends maybe too long explaining the relationships between the Permanents, focusing on all but one, who never really gets fleshed out at all.

The mystery builds and leaves you guessing the whole way through with twists and turns I never saw coming.

Unfortunately the end is some Deus Ex Machina situation where it swoops in, fixing everything before we move on to the aftermath and an opening for a sequel. It felt rushed and like the buildup through the whole book was pointless.

Probably not an author I'll pick up again, which is disappointing as I liked everything up to that point.