Beau
Jesus Christ this book is long. It's a slog, a grind. I didn't hate it that much, but I definitely didn't like it that much.
I don't like to say it about a Hugo winning novel, but I wouldn't recommend this one. I certainly won't ever read it again.
Between the racism, sexism, and just plain awful human behaviour, I don't think this is a book for modern audiences.
I understand it's dystopian. I understand words used in the 1960s aren't acceptable these days. The dude made up words and usages to get around that. This wouldn't normally be something I complained about, or even mentioned. But it was constant. Every other sentence it seemed someone was disparaging black people, or talking down sex workers (who were always women, by the way).
I've realised I like my dystopian hellscape a little less racist. Conflict is good. This was not.
I struggled through, because there are some interesting sections. Donald Hogan and Norman House have parallel, yet vastly different, experiences as they try to essentially achieve the same result: a better world.
But there's a lot in this novel that seems to just take up space. There's a lot of superfluous bullshit I had to slog through to get to the better sections.
Anyway. I'm giving this one a 3 out of 5 stars. It lost points for being 576 fucking pages long and taking me over a god damn month to finish.
I listened to this one as an audiobook.
I think I enjoy these books more when I read them with my eyeballs. That's not to say I didn't like this one, I did. I just enjoy them more as books I think, as I can immerse myself in them. Listening as an audiobook is great, but since I'm also working my attention is split.
I'm glad I slowed down and paid more attention to the end.
I liked the inclusion of Three, still trying to learn how to fit in, how to act around humans - which is rich coming from Murderbot. Three might still be learning, but it's doing fine. And it's not going to be the same as MB, which is also fine.
Overall, I'm giving this one a 4 out of 5 stars. It gets .5 just for being a Murderbot book, because it feels like the weakest of the series so far, and would have only got a 3.5 if that wasn't the case.
I listened to this one as an audiobook.
Maybe it's because it's 2026, maybe because I listened to it instead of reading with my eyeballs, but this just didn't fill me with that existential dread I was looking for.
It's an interesting story. I had a good time. I'm glad I was able to borrow it from the library via Hoopla. But it wasn't what I'd hoped for.
3.5 out of 5 stars.
Heavy on the science, but still a very fun read.
Kind of like a “found footage” movie, with inclusions like newspaper articles, graphs of PH levels, computer printouts of various test results. Very interesting. It's an older vers on od Illuminae files.
The little “little did he know how wrong he was” asides were off-putting at first, but became amusing.
The ending was a little exciting for a very short time, but then just kind of... Nothing. Anticlimactic.
But overall, I had a good time with this one.
4 out of 5 stars.
Overall, this was quite a good collection. I had a good time with most of the stories. Really, only 1 was bad, in my opinion.
Favourites were:
Meteor by John Wyndham
Allamagoose by Eric Frank Russell
But Who Can Replace a Man? by Brian W. Aldiss.
Special mentions:
Life-Line by Robert A. Heinlein
Nothing Happens on the Moon by Paul Ernst.
A good, if brief, collection.
3.5 out of 5 stars.
This collection was quite good! There were some very engaging stories. Most were definitely sci-fi.
Overall, I had a good time. It was also quite quick at only 180 pages.
Favourites were:
An Ounce of Dissension by Martin Loran.
For Men Must Work by Frank Bryning.
There is a Crooked Man by Jack Wodhams.
Special mentions for Strong Attraction by Ron Smith and Final Flower by Stephen Cook.
4 out of 5 stars.
Overall, this collection was fairly mediocre. Middle of the road. Some could have easily not even BEEN sci-fi.
The best, for me, were:
Omnilingual by H. Beam Piper.
Business as Usual, During Alterations by Ralph Williams.
Sadly, I didn't particularly enjoy the Asimov story. His was the only name I recognised in this collection going in.
Turns out, H. Beam Piper is the author of a book already on my long lost of sci-fi recommendations. So, hopefully I enjoy that one when I eventually come to it.
Overall, 3.5 out of 5 stars.
I listened to this one as an audiobook.
To be honest, it was the postscript that made this book. Orson Scott Card's own words about writing the short story/novella and then the book, and then the screen play were more interesting than most of the book itself. Not to say the book was bad; I did enjoy it. The narrators were good too.
Card said himself that an audiobook is the best way to experience the novel.
I sometimes felt the dialogue wasn't realistic for the age of the characters, but these are intellectually advanced kids.
I was a little baffled by the ending, but once Card explained it made a little more sense.
3.5 out of 5 stars.
This was great fun!
I read most of this during a hospital stay getting IV treatments for cellulitis, so I had great big expanses of time to read.
This was like “28 Days Later” in space.
An illegal mining operation is attacked by a rival Corporation, and they unleash a bio-weapon, a virus called Phobos.
Our FMC, Kady, is a teenage hacker. Her entire existence is shattered by the attack on her homeworld, and she ends up having to use her computer skills to fix an AI on a spaceship (which has gone a little mad), while trying to avoid the infected personnel and civilians who are trying to slaughter anything that moves.
This was presented very uniquely, as a mix of “found footage,” including text messages, interview transcripts, narration of surveillance footage, and data dumps from the computer core of the crazy AI.
I'm for sure continuing the series.
4 out of 5 stars.
This was fun, sweet, wholesome, and satisfying, but also darker than the previous book.
We leave the Wayfarer and join Pepper, Sidra and Blue. Told from 2 POVs, a much older story entwines itself with the present narrative, ending with the two all mixed thoroughly together, happily.
It's a story as old as the universe: finding oneself amongst what might seem like scrap.
What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be me? How do I fit in? Pepper and Sidra found their answers, both together and separately.
I think I enjoyed the Pepper sections most. Her resilience, determination, and resourcefulness are inspiring.
4 out of 5 stars.
First time reading a magazine like this. There used to be so many, making short stories available, running series, and showcasing often new authors every month. What a time to have been alive and involved. This was fandoms.
This particular edition was alright. I liked about half of what I read. I DNFd one of the “fact” sections. The main story “Supernova” was good, but not quite what I expected from the title.
3.5 out of 5 stars.
I listened to this one as an audiobook.
I enjoyed the narrator. William Hope did good voices. Hardin sounded like Martin Sheen when he was in the West Wing, which I loved.
I was probably not really paying enough attention, but it seems Seldon was a little more upfront about his intentions than it's portrayed as in the TV show? And we really didn't get a whole lot of him on the pages.
Presumably this one is more of a prelude, a set up for the upcoming books. Or the TV show smushed some of the books together? They tend to do that.
I may not read the rest of the series as audiobooks. I think I'll need to pay attention to these
3.5 out of 5 stars.
I listened to this one as an audiobook.
Took a while to get through this one, simply because I didn't feel like listening to audiobooks for a while. Not sure why.
It wasn't because a favourite character died off screen. No, not that.
Had to get to know some new people. I do actually like Teresa and Elvi. Love Muskrat!
This kind of felt like the end. An end. The main group of characters don't have much left they can give, it feels like. Only their lives.
Did drag a bit in parts.
3.5 out of 5 stars.
This was a quick and fun read, something I definitely needed right now.
While we don't get in depth backstories for all the bots, we get enough to understand their motivations, and appreciate what they're going through. Everyone wants and needs to be accepted as they are, and supported in their choice of future.
I love the idea of this eclectic team of bots making noodles, decorating their restaurant in bright colours, and taking on a review bomber and their sock puppets.
4.5 out of 5 stars.
I enjoyed the majority of stories in this compilation!
A couple were a bit dry and, while short, still dragged. A little too heavy on the science explanations, or caught up in some minutiae that honestly didn't seem necessary or interesting.
Limiting Factor by Clifford D. Simak and Unhuman Sacrifice by Katherine MacLean were particularly good.
4 out of 5 stars.
I struggled with this one a little. It was very... Dry. Which I probably should have expected.
I enjoyed the religious conversations Ellie had with Palmer early on. But I was put off by their final talk, where Ellie seems to say apparently there's a god behind all there is anyway. A god in the numbers. Some alien so incredibly, indescribably, unfathomably old, who created the wormholes and put a message into pi.
And then there's the letter from her mother, which basically undermines Ellie's entire life. Why was that necessary? Why even include that? Did I miss the reasoning?
I'm going to watch the movie, to see what was changed. I've seen it before, but don't remember it very well.
I had a good enough time with this one. I am glad I read it.
3.5 out of 5 stars.
I was dismayed to discover there was a page torn out of this book, but then I realised it was just the “summary” by the editor, which I honestly can't be bothered to read. If it were part of the final story, I'd go try to download the ebook, but I don't need to read her rambling.
This books was... Not it. Too many of the stories were not “Sci-Fi” enough for what I was after.
The story I liked best was one I'd read before. I did find a couple of others I really enjoyed, and I'm going to find books by those authors:
The Dandelion Girl - Robert F Young. A nice time travel story
A Small Miracle of Fishhooks and Straight Pins - David R Bunch. A bit weird, a bit fantasy.
A Planet Named Shayol - Cordwainer Smith. Great Sci-Fi!
I'm kinda glad to be done with this one.
Overall, I'll give this a 3.5 out of 5 stars. Most of that is because of The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey.
I listened to this one as an audiobook with my partner.
This was pretty damn fantastic!
We enjoyed this one possibly more than the first!
There was an awful lot going on. I'm really intrigued by what's going on with Lucia Mar. I was distressed by the death of Miriam Dom. I love Prepotente. I also love Samantha! She's fucking hilarious 😂
5 out of 5 stars.
This was exactly what I wanted.
Each character is an individual with personality, quirks, foibles, heart.
We weren't concerned here with fixing the world, galaxy, universe. Here, it was the people who mattered. What did they think, feel, do, or not do? They listened to each other, and spoke for each other when words were too difficult.
I think I was crying for the last 20%. My partner thinks I'm weird that this was something I wanted to do.
5 out of 5 stars.
Overall, this was a 4 out of 5 stars for me.
There were some really good stories. A lot that didn't seem like Sci-Fi. A few I just didn't get.
The commentary by the editor was pretentious. She wanted to examine “what is Science Fiction.” I think she was trying to establish that “science fiction” isn't really a fitting term for this genre anymore? But she didn't put forward an alternative.
And she kept belittling another author/editor? Why? Why so petty?
Is this what these kinds of compilation/anthology books are about? Feeling superior because you know some author's name?
My favourites:
The Other Wife.
No, no, not Rogov!
Flowers for Algernon.
A Death in the House.
Mariana.
What the Left Hand was Doing.
What Now, Little Man?
Flowers for Algernon and What Now, Little Man were 5-star reads.
I listened to about 42% of this one as an audiobook, and finished it as an ebook.
Last book for the year! 🎉
This one was actually very sweet. There's some really nice storylines weaved throughout this one. Pratchett is ahead of his time.
I had a good time with the mystery of the poison, and the golems, and how they involved each other. I enjoyed the mythos of how golems function being a significant consideration.
4.5 out of 5 stars. Good way to end the year!
I listened to this one as an audiobook, with my partner.
Excellent! Better than book 2.
The! Screaming! GOAT! I love him. He must be protected 😭
Katia is getting better as we go along, which is great.
Definitely missed Mordi in this one, but the frog sounds got a little annoying, so kind of a win win in the end.
4.5 out of 5 stars.
