Scott - Book Invasion
It was interesting was cool concept but when the outcome is known and you???re being told the same type of story, rewinding through the build up each time it gets tiresome. With such a concept, it desires to be explored at a larger scale than what was contained.
Thanks to libro.fm for a review copy of the audiobook.
This was a total love letter to the D&D fanatics, the LARPers, the Ren Faire regulars, and the underdogs.
This is a story of a haphazard hero who gets the Men In Black treatment and recruited into a realm beyond his tabletop dreams. There is a realm beyond out own where strange happenings occur and sometimes blur into our ‘mundane' realm. You may think it's just a parade float of a Dragon, or it's just a storm rather than a Harpy, but the Knight Watch sees all and protects the silly humans from the evil forces that lie beyond.
Throughout the book it's questionable when out protagonist will actually get his courage and become the hero he's expected to be, but he continues to stumble his way though, lacking the confidence in himself, though surviving some pretty hefty battles. I was hoping for more of a transformation in the character or that he would fully embody his realized potential. The face off at the end shows him with some perseverance, though I was more intrigued to see the story from Chesa's perspective and dive into her becoming the ruler of her domain.
The story was fun with plenty of levity but also plenty of serious moments and high stakes action mixed in. It was an exciting introduction to Akers writing and while browsing his collection of miniatures on his instagram, you can kinda see where this story may get some of it's inspiration.
4.5 start
???In a forgotten time, in a forgotten world, deep within a forgotten chamber few have even seen, The Shadow Glass sees all.???
As one of my most anticipated reads of 2022 (and also being entirely new to this author) I was super excited to get into this super nostalgia trip. And what a trip it was!
I???m of the target age for this book 100%. I remember many days watching and re-watching The Neverending Story, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, even Fraggle Rock. I was so engrossed with these imaginary creatures and the surrounding world it really cracked open my imagination at a young age. But enough about me.
The Shadow Glass is the story of a lost man, jaded by life and estranged by his father, Jack Corman attempts to get out from under the looming shadow of his bad memories and into a ???new life???. Hes turned his back on the legacy that his father built and is done trying to reconcile his guilt for his fathers downfall. Though through the story Jack experiences the adoration of the fandom that his father had created and as the story progresses we see a bit more growth from Jack which was really well done.
The characters and creatures here are what really shines in the story. Sandwiched between the familial reconciliation of our protagonist Jack are fresh and exciting creature-characters that are not too far fetched and not too familiar. The world of Iri and it???s inhabitants ??? the Kettu, Wugs, Skalions, and the scene-stealing Lub- were the highlight of the story. I really wanted the book to spend more time in that world and really engross us in it???s lore. But viewing it from the outside combined with the sprinkles of the flashback snippets and original screenplay scenes in between chapters was a really great touch.
Josh Winning???s writing flourishes with nostalgia and references to the 80s puppet-fantasy fandom though never feels overdone. It???s also a story about re-capturing your imagination and inviting color back into a dull and de-saturated life. Winning has produced a fantastic contribution to the classic 80s puppet-fantasy fandom, and I???m here for it.
After reading and enjoying The Warehouse a couple years ago, I really enjoyed Hart???s take on the culture and future that we???re digging ourselves into. With The Paradox Hotel, a bit more suspension of disbelief is required of the reader.
The story takes place in the year ???twenty-goddamn-seventy-two??? following the hotel ???security??? guard January Cole. January has been around the hotel for quite a while and seen some shit. She embodies the no-nonsense, jaded, zero-F???s-gven, kind of attitude that results in hilarious exchanges with her all-knowing AI drone Ruby that floats over her shoulder. Also including a wide cast of characters from the rest of the hotel staff to the big-wigs and foreign diplomats wanting to put in their bid for ownership.
“He has wild hair and thick plastic-framed glasses, his paisley button-down tucked into a pair of mustard khakis. He???s the kind of person i would have taken seriously if not for the fact that he???s also wearing a bow tie. Some things are hard to forgive.”
The Paradox Hotel mixes up a stew of delicious concepts from time-travel, closed-room murder-mystery, spiraling psychosis, mistrust, raptors running-amok, and lost love. It then sprinkles on top some great humor and perspective from January which makes it go down smooth. The story was intriguing and engaging and there was constant question of the ???who??? and ???why???. The concept of January being ???unstuck??? in time, the flashbacks, and flash-forward really spun a solid web of intrigue and curiosity.
“This is a jigsaw puzzle someone dumped on the floor and then kicked a handful of he pieces under the couch. And they won???t show me the box, but they still want me to put it together. Quickly and in the dark.”
The complexity of this incredibly enjoyable story leaves readers guessing until the end, chuckling all the way through. I really enjoyed January???s character and the wit and humor throughout. I would recommend this for a light sci-fi fan who also enjoys a rich game of Clue.
Posted at: https://fanfiaddict.com/review-the-cartographers-by-peng-shepherd-audiobook/
Peng Shepherd, once again, perfectly blends reality and the fantastical into an engrossing page-turner that is guaranteed to satisfy.
The best fiction stories I???ve read are those that are steeped in truth. This is where Peng Shepherd shines. Her previous novel ???The Book of M??? was loosely based on a real event called ???Zero Shadow Day??? which happens when the sun reaches it???s zenith position twice a year for locations between +23.5 and -23.5 degrees of latitude and people ???lose??? their shadows. Her short story published on tor.com ???The Future Library??? is based on a real project where writers submit story to a trust that plants trees in Norway which they will use to publish those stories 100 years from now. The Cartographers is also is rooted in truth, but you???ll have to figure out how after you read the book.
Once i had caught wind of The Cartographers, the title alone peaked my interest. From my hobby of geocaching to perusing Google Maps with no particular destination, I???ve been fascinated with maps and the secrets they may hold. To this day I???m always curious to explore and often think of those remote places and who inhabits them. The Cartographers plays a sweet tune to the curiosity that there???s more out there that we just don???t see.
The story opens up with our main character Nell Young imagining her life as a map conservationist at the New York Public Library, touching up the ???T??? in ANTARTICVS in the lower right legend of the famous Frau Mauro (left image ??? I immediately hit the web and found this beautiful interactive version to tease your taste buds) but rather she just prints another duplication ??? opposite of what she was trained to do in a previous life. Nell had a former life working with her renowned cartographer father at the map division in the NYPL until an ???incident??? which caused them to break contact with each other for the past 7 years.
As the story progresses, Nell learns of her estranged fathers death and stumbles upon some secrets that he has been withholding from her from that fateful ???incident???. We follow Nell as she collect the pieces and clues only known to her fathers former colleagues (who had known Nell when she was a baby) about a ???project??? he was consumed in and potentially more about her mother who she also lost when she was young. The deeper she digs the more mysterious, and dangerous, things become.
Within each ???section??? of the book, as new key characters are introduced, we get a bit of a flashback as told from their perspective, telling Nell about their time in college with her parents. The audio narration here plays upon the multiple narrators, giving each character their own voice, though only during these flashback scenes. We learn more and more about what happened to Nell???s mother, her father???s secret ???project??? and the power of the maps surrounding the group.
There were a couple excellent character reveals here, edge-of-your-seat moments, and questions of trust and loyalty which all lead to a fantastic read.
BONUS: After reading, do a quick search about some of the things mentioned and you???ll never look at a map the same way.
What is the purpose of a map?
AUDIOBOOK REVIEW -
This was a very interesting and engaging story. Norman is an ex-Navy, stuck-in-his-ways, anti-automation kinda guy who was raised on ‘putting in the work'. A no-nonsense master of his own domain until he gets thrown into an alternate universe where he becomes a second-class citizen working slave labor for brutish humanoids. As we watch him struggle, new things come to light and his motivation becomes heartfelt and the stakes were high. The secondary characters were genuine and Brandon was hilarious. (though this opinion not likely to be shared by people younger than say, 35)
Norman's struggles seemed genuine and I felt invested in his journey. The alien world wasn't too crazy and the ending did not end up ‘riding off into the sunset' - which i appreciate.
The author-narration is always a plus and this did not disappoint. The Bomba language was a great touch in presentation and added great flair to the story.
In The Quick (2021) is Kate Hope Day???s second novel (If, Then was released in 2019) that immediately grabs you with that ???Martian???-esque cover, (and while a touch of a survival story for a tiny bit of the latter half, that???s where the similarities end.) It has also been hailed as ???Jane Eyre in space??? ??? though I haven???t read Jane Eyre, I???ll refrain from confirming or denying. (Also, I had listened to this on audio, though other reviews state that there are no quotation marks used in the dialog in the print version which may make it a bit difficult to follow.)
This is the story of a young girl who was raised in the shadow of her brilliant engineer uncle who developed the fuel cells . She???s developed a natural talent for picking apart household items to build robots to help her ailing aunt. Now that she???s heard the spacecraft Inquiry???s fuel cells have failed, she???s refused to believe that her uncle had made any mistakes in designing them and dedicates her time to reviewing his notes and memorizing the design. This part of the story builds her dedication and passion for engineering and her wish to travel to space. Though being as young as she is, there are not many around her life that share in that enthusiasm and we???re settled in to a pretty drab origin-story.
As time passes we follow June as attending the campus at Peter Reed, although gaining some reputation as the school founder???s daughter. She struggles to connect and stumbles her way into meeting some of her father???s previous students. We see some relationships develop and we???re stuck in a ???I know a better answer but no one will take me seriously and i don???t know how to explain it??? situation for the majority of the middle of the book.
Once a drastic move on June???s part pushes her into the ???candidate??? pool for the next mission, things get a bit interesting yet still there seems to be a cloud over the situation where June arbors hope and ideas that no one else wants to talk about.
Overall this book was a very straight-faced character-driven read scattered with hope and hardship. It was a steady flatline for me with minimal slopes and valleys. I didn???t feel a lot of emotion toward June and there were a lot of times where it seemed to shift focus and dove into non-relative details of June???s everyday tasks. While i suspected she would persevere obstacles with her ingenuity, getting there was a winding path. It was at some points predictable, and unsatisfying as to what was left off the page toward the end.
Your mileage may vary as this was a good story that would appeal to many non-scifi readers (and Jane Eyre fans) though I wouldn???t call this the ???female version of the Martian???. It is a story of perseverance and defying the odds but lacks moments that get your pulse racing and make you want to stand up and cheer for June.
Ashton channels a great mix of the ???fool??? protagonist, and the underdog story that pulls some pretty complex schemes to get the upper hand in some sticky situations. It goes in thinking, ???Let???s not just use a crash test dummy for experimentation, lets make the dummy into a character that can be cloned, completely expendable, and see how his relationships develop in an isolated space station!??? Mickey 7 was such a fun and light read. It was a mix of the fantastic Sam Rockwell film ???Moon??? and the Paul Rudd Netflix show ???Living with Yourself???. It leans more to the classic Scalzi side of humor and wit with a more modern Andy Weir kind of feel (with less science). I felt like Mickey had the perfect personality of being a schlubby pushover when it came to doing his duty, but evolves to be the mastermind of his own destiny as the book proceeds.
“At this point, you may be wondering what i did to get myself designated as an Expendable. Must have been something awful, right? Murdered a puppy, maybe? Pushed an old lady down a staircase?”
The story wrestles with the conflict of what makes you ???You??? if you were to be duplicated with all your previous memories. It asks ???are you really the same person????. When you???re brought face to face with yourself in a life or death situation, what would you do? Would you fight to live even though there???s another ???you??? already out there? Some of those questions I found pretty interesting and I think the book handled them really well. It???s about understanding yourself as well as understanding others. There???s also a layer of the believers in a fictional religion who declares clones as ???abominations???. Which puts another hurdle into Mickey???s ability to develop some relationships within the crew,
“Here???s a thought experiment for you: Imagine you found out that when you goto sleep at night, you don???t just go to sleep. You die. You die, and someone else wakes up in your place the next morning. He???s got all your memories. He???s got all your hopes and dreams and fears and wishes???
Ask yourself??? Would it make any practical difference in your life? Is there any way that you could even tell?”
The ???creepers??? in this story initially feel like the monstrous ???shoot first ??? they just want to eat us??? type and it takes the untrained naivete of a nobody like Mickey to haphazardly understand these creatures. I enjoyed how that concept evolved through the book as well. The supporting cast was also a great mix of personalities and every scene with the Marshall left my sides hurting with laughter. The audio narration for Marshall was fantastic ??? very ???Full Metal Jacket drill Sgt.??? and the moments in the book where there is dialog through his ocular, the audio transforms that into a walkie-talkie radio transmission, and he doesn???t identify the call signs every time which I thought was a nice touch and really helps it flow.
Mickey7 pulls off the impossible by flawlessly weaving gallows humor in a blanket of optimism and empathy. Ashton has found his voice and earns my ???Top Reads??? spotlight. I hope he continues to explore these kind of tropes and sprinkle in his authentic brand of humor.
This was a selected semi-finalist in the Self Published Science Fiction Competition!
With a gripping opening, this story evolves and subverts expectations while keeping the intigue at a high level throughout.
Humans have created a settlement on the Moon called Omega, where our protagonists Liam begrudginly is assigned to jobs working on the farm. While he's not busy with his tasks, he's become the top ‘player' in the Earth Sims - a VR game designed to recruit a crew to return to Earth, which (for all we know) is now inhabited with these subhuman (or ‘subs') flesh-eating monsters. Settling back on earth will not be an easy task. With an ailing mother and a caretaker sister, the story follows Liam as he's over-confident that he'll be selected for the mission to re-populate earth. But you can't always get what you want.
After an accident with the earth landing cuts out communication with the moon base, what takes place after that is bit like a survivalist tale exploring a dangerous ‘new' earth and attempting to re-unite with fellow survivors. Alliances are made, new threats are discovered, and abilities are tested.
The supporting cast as well as the villian here is really intriguing and well done. There's a touch of the Young Adult dynamic through those interactions, but the stakes are bumped up quite a bit when those in power feel the need to abuse it.
The wool starts to be peeled back through the narrative and I was eager to see what reveals may come on the next page.
I honestly didn???t know a lot going into this book (by preference) so right from the get go the story was very intriguing and engaging. This story plays with 2 different POVs and takes place in the 3200s where space elevators are common and trade ships frequent the galaxy. The major metropolis here is saturated with the poor living in shanty-towns bordered by the elite and upper-class.
The first POV is a soft spoken spaceship-born maintenance worker named Adem. Adem lives onboard the Hajj, his family???s trading vessel. The story opens up with Adem navigating through one of these shanty-towns (that used to be nice place 50 years prior) to meet a ???matchmaker??? to finalize the details to his arranged marriage. Here we learn that in this world, those who traverse space only age a year for every 24 that elapse on-planet. So prior to Adem???s next mission with his family aboard the Hajj, he arranges his marriage the parent???s of his unborn bride.
The next POV is that of the parents (briefly) and of the child Hisako, and while Adem is traversing the galaxy and investigating the ruins of a legendary ship, we watch at Hisako grows up from a child to a woman, and finally meeting her husband.
I enjoyed Adem???s family and their motives. His mother was a very interesting character and his sister Lucy also played a strong role. I really enjoyed the mission they were embarking on and the implications of what they find. It played really well to fill in more of the backstory of this world.
This story was rich in both space-faring excitement, and rich world-building in the town of Versailles City. We watch the coming-of-age of Hisako and how her life is impacted by this arranged marriage and the resentment she harbors for her parents. The author beautifully illustrates the hardships and unease that both parties feel while also providing a strong supporting cast in Adem???s family as well as Hisako???s rough life lessons in trust and friendship. We also get an homage to the classic music of earth as Adem becomes quite the viral music sensation by posting videos of him covering some Elvis, Johnny Cash, Elton John.
Greene puts together a satisfying storyline of wormholes and space travel all while placing dangers and emergencies through the book to keep the pace up. There are dynamic relationships both sexual and familial through the story as well, and while they???re only peppered in here and there, you never get too smothered with the details.
The Light Years a really solid sci-fi read all around; character driven with peppers of action and tense moments. It has the best of both worlds as far as the space-ship based intrigue, and domestic drama spread throughout. It will appeal to many audiences if you???re new to scifi or not.
::deep breath:: Alright, settle in. Lets see if this is even going to sound SOMEWHAT coherent. So I???ll start with some interest-catching buzzwords or phrases to get you into the headspace of this glitter-bomb of a science-fantasy adventure.
??? Dance Music
??? Dungeon Crawler
??? Transmutation
??? Morphemes
??? Interpunct
??? Logosphere
Did i lose you there a little at the end? Yeah, it gets weird.
First off, lets talk a little about the author of this ???multiversal??? dance party Mr Scotto Moore himself. Author of the novella YOUR FAVORITE BAND CANNOT SAVE YOU (which i loved!) Scotto Moore is not only an author but also a Seattle playwright who wrote and starred in the horror/comedy play H.P. LOVECRAFT: STAND-UP COMEDIAN! and written and produced 3 seasons of an online scifi/comedy web series ???The Coffee Table???. He had also wrote 2 other plays to note ???The Balcony??? and ???Duel of the Linguist Mages??? which produced the seeds of inspiration for this book. This is a Science-Fantasy prevent-the-destruction-of-the-world story.
Getting into the story itself was quite the experience. For the first third of the book I was absolutely loving it. Isobel was hilarious and the descriptions of the Sparkle Dungeon game was gold. Kicking ???feral rainbows??? always got a chuckle out of me. The slights to streaming music services and all things disco balls and weaponized EDM artifacts was also great.
Then things get turned up a little. We???re now traversing through 3 different worlds. The logosphere, the Sparkle Realm, and reality with a cast of characters that got a little muddy to follow. Alliances fell and then mended, we encounter aliens and apparitions and sentient NPC (OH MY!) all the while going deeper into the rabbit hole to defeat this impending threat of the ???unraveling??? that will destroy humanity. The only way to get enough power to defeat it is to suck the essence out of a few million people to power ???god mode???.
(side-note: I watched an interview where Moore cites ???The Library at Mount Char??? as a book that inspired his writing, and I feel like that???s a really good companion to this book because things get crazy.)
This is a book that looks light and fun on the surface, and keeps you smiling through the beginning. But I think it???s in the latter half that some readers will lose that ???spark??? (no pun intended) and fall off the wagon. You have to really swim through some multiverses and psychological coercion to get through to the end, though a satisfying end it was.
After finishing the read there are a lot of thoughts that start to bubble up and, upon reflection, there were pieces that were overly complex and I don???t feel were fully necessary. (I will not mention to avoid spoilers) But also, it???s that same complexity that makes this book admirable praise-worthy to some, though confusing to others.
All things considered, do not take this book at face-value. What looks like a fun ???Ready Player One??? sparkly video game book is actually a mental exercise in reality-bending concepts and world-ending stakes with a sharped-tongue main character who loves a good groove and hates capitalism. There are a couple plot holes and loose threads that left me with questions at the end, but, did I have a good time? Yes. Yes i did.
This was a great example and exploration of the power of stories and the abrupt delivery of punchlines. I kept glued to the page, hopping from one clever take to another, never knowing what would be next. Of course i would love for these ideas to be presented in full novel form but these teasers and snippets filled my appetite for a clever hook.
A gripping detective/futurepolice story that combines touches of Blade Runner and the Expanse in a world where the nation is divided, body counts are increasing and Conscious Transfer is the new norm. While the story was complex and rich it was a touch hard to follow on audio with some of the side characters and locales. All in all a solid page-turning dimly-lit cop-espionage kind of book.
This was an interesting and unique read. There were plenty of moments of social and political commentary about the downfall of personality and human sanity. I'm always up for a unique read and this one was pretty good. Maggor is tired of his job and heads to earth to spread discord and insanity amongst humans. He's intercepted by a team of hunters and a sly little ending leaves you with a smile.
This was a fun and humorous take on society, media, and human psychology in an unprecedented situation. What if the first colonial mission to Mars, made up of scientists and professionals were the stars of a reality television show, With all of the technological delays and non-exciting events, what happens when no one cares about the show anymore? The author dives into some behavior studies of varying personalities amongst the team. It was a fun ride and completely plausible almost. well written and well narrated, 3 stars.
This was a pretty fun haphazard space-romp. Chuck is the Luckily-unlucky ‘Earth Man' accidentally thrown into the bizarre world of ‘the rest of the universe'. As he ends up taking a courier job from the universe's most prolific mega-corps, his travels lead him to those most bizarre situations only an average-joe human can think their way out or.
There were plenty of chuckles and eye-roll jokes abound, but that was to be expected. (i mean, look at the title). So yes, if you're looking for that silly space romp with some action, aliens, anomalies, and evil greedy corporate heads, espionage and wit, there have at it!
This was a pretty fun ride that mixed a lot of your favorite elements of Ready Player One, Goonies, Ghostbusters, Stranger Things, and that Adam Sandler Movie PIXELS. Humorous over-age reluctant heroes trying to unlock their childhood memories of their past antics coming together again in an epic battle of apparitions and animated lawn decorations!
This was a great popcorn read. Just ‘eye candy' for the reader with references and battles and all kinds of fun stuff. all the while trying to hide it from their spouses! It was fun and i would recommend you check it out for that light ‘palette-cleansing' sci-fi read.
This was a solid slow-burn haunting. I enjoyed the rich atmosphere and the contrast between these highly educated law school students and the meddling-in-the-dark-arts shenanigans. The unease of Andrew surrounded by this other circle of friends was also quite interesting as you don't know if you should really trust their intentions.
The writing style was solid and the plot and the characters well well developed. The setting was dark, humid, and uneasy. The love triangle was a bit much but did add another layer of complication to the whole thing. Someone coming to terms with who they really are and understanding themselves was also a bit of an unexpected underlying theme through this darkness.
Audiobook review: this could have been the narrator though the way some of the dialog just didn???t gel very well. Jay was especially obnoxious and the tone for Min-wu was a bit too excitable. The story concept was pretty cool but I lost it among the different ???role??? names after they met up with the others (Supria, Corinne) and then the lore got a bit much. It turned into a litrpg or something. It was interesting but didn???t really hit on the character pieces.
Full Video Review to come!
This was a great and engaging debut from a new author. It had all the right creepy and deteriorating beats of something strange happening to the crew and I was really intrigued from the get-go. I really enjoyed the timelines and the video transcripts that added a really cool layer as well as the stream-of-consciousness writing style when in Park's head. I like the different discoveries made that kept the book going and really tough to disengage from. It was a thriller through and through with a wonderfully executed scifi feel.
3.5 stars rounded up. A very intriguing and roller coaster of a book! I did love the premise, a few twists, as well as the ‘organization' of villains which was really cool. It was solid throughout and I don't have anything negative to say, really. I would recommend you check it out if you really wanted something a little different, light-hearted, and a bit comedic at times.
Check the logs.