drews

Quiet a while ago I watched the move based on this book. I can say this book is very different than the movie.

In this book is where we get Assimovs famous 3 laws of robotics and is the start of Assivmoves foundation univerise. Each chapter reads like a short story and chronicles the Evolution of Robots and AI to their eventual domination of humanity. From the start of "dumb robots" who can't speak but just do as programmed to the humanoid AI advance robot who manuevers themselves into positions of power over all of our affairs

This was a good read and I would reccommend it to anyone as a classic of science ficiton

This is the 1st Neal Asher book I have read and am glad its a stand alone, which works better a intro to his works.

Weaponized is a scifi story with big ideas. Those big ideas are however nothing new or orginal which is why I did not rate it higher. memory wipes, genetic engineering, AI controlling society, human augmentation etc... nothing that has not been explored in scifi before.

That being said it does exlpore the question of at what point do we cease to be human. When does Genetic engineer and bio tech augmentation cross the line into something beyond or not human any more. Certainly a good question and one that I beleive philosphers will struggle with for yrs to come.

Ursula is our main character who struggles with that exact question as she leads a colony in a fight for survival against 2 enemies determine to destroy her and end her mission.

I dont have alot to say but I did enjoy the book, the ideas and the characters were ok, I didnt feel much in the way of connection with the characters as it was more the plot that kept me reading and I enjoyed it enough that I will probably check out more of Neal Ashers books in his polity universe or otherwise.

Overall a really good read and I can't wait to get into the rest of the series

My only complaint is the time spent in the Aching God's temple was way too short relative to the build up to the temple itself but otherwise great read

Khraen is a man who has no idea who he is. pulled across the world in search of the pieces of his broken heart literally. He has lost everything and seeks to regain what he has lost and to learn about who he is and where he came from.

This is a story full of demons, dark occult sacrifice, wizards and undead nercormancers in a compelling dark occult world. Khraen's story in the 1st 10 pages had me hooked and it was hard to to put down. This is the 1st in a series and I will for sure get the rest at some point

great read all around

I 1st heard of this series on Andrew's Wizardly Reads book tube channel several yrs ago and am just now getting around to reading it.

A world where everyone seems to have these special magical abilities except Lindon, while he can use some rudimentry magic he lacks the ability for talent and progression in any one area leaving him unsouled. He is a outcast, reject, and seen a someone of no value and worthless.

Despite his challenges he has a domineering spirit and drive to prove his own self worth. Lindon is a character I am cheering for through every challenge and classic unlikely hero who has his call to adventure and path of self discovery for who he truly is.

The world of Cradle is just one of many in this universe Will Wight has set up and this 1st volume sets the stage well with gods manipulating events, time, and reality in the background making for a entertaining read and adventure worthy to be included in every fantasy fans library.

The only real critism I have is when these godlike beings are filing their reports it felt quite dry and explainitive vs narrative if that makes any sense. It lacked character and felt flat imho but otherwise great read highly reccomended

A fun timetravel down memory lane quantum reality thriller

Arthur C clark is widely considered one of the greatest scifi writers of the past century. And like many classic scifi it deals in big ideas and Childhood's End is no exception to that rule

This book asks the idea of "what if" humanity were forced into a utopia by superior aliens who posses advance intellgence and technology and does so in a compelling way that paints humanity as children on the verge of growing up into adulthood. LIke many utopias in writing this utopia is not as pefect as it would seem on the surface.

The story itself spans over a century in as short 212 page read and I honestly found myself but hopeful for humanity and saddened byt the plight of the overlords.

I dont want to say much more as i dont want to get into spoilers but overall its bittersweet, hopefull yet pessimistic story that was well worth the read

Full Disclosure, this book was written by a friend of mine, so I am trying to keep any potential bias out of this review lol

Annyway Talindors Guest is at its heart a short story collection but with a set up and premise that I must admit I really enjoyed and liked. A Travller finds himself in a cave trapped with a Dragon name Talindor. This is not a ordinary Dragon (nor is the travller a normal traveller but wont spoil it lol), but this dragon is literally a Book Dragon, lying on a massive hoard of books. Talindor wants to eat this traveller but is also out of new stories to read as he has read everythign in his pile of books and so the Traveller to buy time and save his life tells the Dragon stories of the many places and people he has visited

Stories filled with magic, magical creatures and mystery await your adventure in this one. My personal Favorite I think is Uninvited guest beacause its so relatable to a typical office work life's routine and a bit humurous at the same time which made me lol a bit due to his relateability for myself

while some stories are better than others, the short story form and writing did not IMHO leave to alot of character development within each story itself and I found that some of the characters seem to just go with things a bit too easily without question, honestly that is just my own personal opinion on what makes a good story,

Overall however it was a enjoyable read and loved the format and worth reading,

This is the 2nd book series I have read by Django Wexler and honestly, I think I like this one more than the shadow campaings which were also quite god imho

This book has the feel of a post apocalyptic world with clear division of power between those with access to magic and those without that pitches brother against sister who find themselves on opposite sides of a brewing global conflict with potential to completley remake the word as they know it.

The characters really kept me invested in the narrative and the clear tension and struggle between Gyre and his Sister Maya to come to terms with who they have become and what each is fighting for while being on opposite side of the conflict.

Gyres backstory established in the prologue creates a massive sense of empahty for him while giving some good reasons for why he is fighting so hard for his cause, while Maya's backstore while not as detailed the subtly of which is is explained also makes me feel for her with empathy and understanding.

This book is clearly showing a past tech that by our standards would be scifi and advanced, weaponry that vaporizes cities, plauges that, by implication if not directly stated were bio engineered to caused widspread devastation, sky ships blasters shootings bolts of energy et... for me at least helped establish a post apocalyptic world.

the only reason I am not giving this a 5 star read is that so much of this seems to be taken right of out wheel of time and even star wars. The chosen of ancient times weilding great powers, the Deiat being the power of creation gives the feel of the force from starwars along with their light swords, blasters, arches that act as portals to travel to distant locations remind me of the way gates from wheel of time etc.....

Overall however great start to this trilogy and a good read!

This book is written by Celebrated Canadia Astronaut Chris Hadfield who brings some real world Space adventure inspired by and pulled from real events (except the murder part that is fiction lol) but much of the characters, and events referenced are from actual history. Mr Hadfield uses his knowledge and expertise in his personal expierence being in space to write a realisitic story that takes place in orbit and the moon and gives a For All Mankind vibe if you have seen the apple tv show

all that in mind, it was good. worth reading once and was i found very narrative focused with not much in the way of charater development at all. Some action packed scenes enough pacing to keep me reading and not feeling like I was pushing my way through just to finish the book.

Overall 3 stars, good wroth reading once. But not making me want to read other books by him.

The Never Ending Story is a movie that has much nostalgia for me and for a long time I have thought I should get around to reading the book the movie was adapted from and I am so glad that I did.

This book will easily go down as one of my fav reads of all time and for sure top read of 2026 and this book for me at least is about far more than the simply the Story of Atreyu, Artax, Falcor and Bastian. but serves much more as a allegory for us all. We are the creators of our own stories and worlds. Our stories are Nevending and we have the power to create our own worlds

There are essentialy 2 story arcs, the 1st half being about Atreyu quest to find a cure for the childlike empress, and the 2nd half about Basitan's story and how power currupts him leading him to forget who he is and what is really important. Serves as a allegory and warning that while we control our own stories we cannot let that lead us to forgetting out roots and losing sight of what is really important.

I found myself caring deeply for bastian and what he was dealing with and anxious to find out what happens next, while each chapter or segement of the book itself was short, almost to the point the writing style itself allowed for so much to happen in a short period of time while still maintaing a simple easy to follow writing style.

I found this book to be engaging, captivating, entrancing and found myself hoping, wishing to be in Fantastica and joining in the adventures of Atreyu, Falcor and Bastian. Following Bastians personal journey of learning who he is and what is truly important to him was such a great wild ride. This story is truly Never Ending and one that will never be forgotten and this book will go down as one of my all time favorite books

This book was given to me a few yrs ago and only now got around to it. This is essentially a Vampire/werewolve romance war story type deal and tries to also be scifi but the book overall just did not work for me, so while I didnt like it maybe someone else will

What I found was that this book tries too hard to be things it does not feel like it is, ie scifi, set in 3800s future earth. Some of the tech of the future was just explained and rationalized away to justify its existence. I prefer to be shown via world building than to just be told, and it felt like the scifi elements were just dropped in to try and be scifi in a way that just did not work for me.

Our main character Anna felt inplausible in that she only learns about vampires and werewolves and its like no big deal as if they are just a normal part of life, sure they can be a threat, but there seemed to be no shock, surprise or even feare at the 1st meeting of our lead mikah vampire which seems odd, out of place with what we would expect.

the characters felt like they were written to work as together as well as they did for plot convience no really development or challenges in relationship building

oh well, guess they cant all be good

Big Ideas scifi while not perfect leaves me wanting more in this series.

Mysterious Aliens with unknown motives destroying and carving up worlds in a unknown human future. Filled with aliens, battles, pyschic powers and mystery makes for a engaging adventure.

Sanderson is essentially a Auto buy for me. This book and collection of short stories is no different. One thing I like about short story format is its a great way to explore concepts and ideas without needing a fully fleshed out narrative, characters or world building. A good short story will feel complete but leaving you asking what if?

Sanderson acomplishes this with these short stories within this book. While some are simply conceptual tales others like moment zero have more thought out plot and narrative to them.

Some like I hate Dragons are just funny really with quirky magic like the ability to hear grammar in speach. IE hearing the difference between their, there, they're

Pritty much every story here falls in the realm of scifi, from matrix style vr to time travel, aliens and zombie apocalpyse these stories are all around fun times which I enjoyed.

Five Little Indians is the story of 5 first nations kids who survived the residential schools in Canada. While it is a historical fiction, the stories of these kids and what happenned to them is a matter of historical record at this point regarding the abuse 1st nations families suffered at the hands of the catholic church and government of canada during this long dark time in canadian history

Its not for the faint of heart, and the trauma these kids endured and how it affected their lives long after escaping or being released from the residential schools lives on in the words of this book.

The 5 little indians while fictional characters represents 1000s of kids who endured these schools and it is a must read for those seeking better understanding, compasssion and respect for this dark part of canadian history and I really enjoyed it

I had heard alot about these books on booktube. While I dont think it live up to the hype it was still a good read.

My impressions are its kind of the anti robin hood. Locke is a thief who steels from the rich but does not give to the poor. While a thief he has his own sense of honor.

There are references to magic in this world which play a small part in this story, which I hope gets expanded on in future books in this series.

Dragons den discord linked

I have heard so much good about this book and most of the praise is earned imho.

For me this book really reads as a allegory of our climb from the bottom to top and how most people just become complacent and deluded into our own world views and find ourselves stuck and really only a few have the drive and motivation to ascend to "better" lives

However not all is as it seems and this book also has a cynical world view of what it takes to survive and our main character Senlin must seek to overcome the challenges he meets to bring himself to a higher level and ultimately achieve his goal.

Senlin is a very optimistic character who is quick to trust and make friends, but not quick to learn from his mistakes and often has rose colored glasses, this both annoyed me and gave me hope that his optimism would win out in the end. But as he travels through the tower it seems that perhaps despite his best efforts the tower is still changing him, for better or worse remains to be seen.

This was a fun adventourist read with a unique concept and setting for the overall plot representing society on many levels. I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the 2nd and 3rd books in this series

I have never seen the movie or read the book. Given my expierences with books that are supposed to be classics have been very hit and miss so was not honestly expecting much of this one.

Set in WW1 on the western front from the view point of a german solider. Fresh out of training at only 18 fighting in the trenches and his expierences there.

I overall enjoyed this book, but am not giving a 5 star review mainly because I honestly was not that interested in the main character personally as this could have just as easily been any other character in the book. What was really good for me was understanding the expierence of a soldier on the front lines.

However that being said the vivid descriptions of the expiernce, thoughts, feelings of what its like to be a soldier on the front lines really drew me into the story and gives a viceral sense of the horror of what these soldiers were going through.

overall a good read, enjoyable and worth the read

Overall a fun read that I really enjoyed mostly.

That being said this book gives too much of mistborn era 4 world info for my tastes as that series has not been written yet

There is also imho too much of cosmere connections in very not subtle ways which would have been better to be much more subtle vs the "ya these guys are from scadrial and this guy from roshar" kind of thing

However i really did like sixth of the dusk novella flashbacks being part of this book, which was great both for those who have read and not read that novella.

This is the 1st Tchaikovsky book I have read and I got to admit I am impressed. I have been wanting to read alot more scifi and very happy I picked this one up

This book takes place over period of several hundred yrs. Filled with the last remenant of humanity searching desperatley for a new home in the depths of space, alien monsters, ancient protective sattelites and mad scientists

Trying not to put any spoilers here but the ideas and concepts explored in this book are honestly quite facinating to read about and explore. What would highly evolved different type of life look like, how would they evolve and what would happen when they come in contact us.

How would a generation ship society evolve over hundreds of yrs, and growing factions and differing ideas on what needs to be done to survive knowing nothing is left but those who have been borned, lived and died in space.

My favorite Character would have to be Portia. Following her story of overcoming the challenges facing her people in their fight for survival I found myself anxious to get back to Portia's story. But honeslty everyones story line kept me hooked through the whole book.

The imagination of Tchaikovsky envisioning what the world would look like through the eyes of alien life but also in ways similar to life we find on earth was, imho, one of the best methods of story telling I have come across in scifi in a long time. Read the book and I hope you will understand.

This was and is I think one of my favorite reads of this yr and I know I will likely go back and re-read at some point in the future.

Of the schools of Dune books this I think is my fav, that being said its been a while since I read sisterhood of Dune

While this book does focus on the Mentats of dune, kind of there is alot of stuff going on around mentats in general. The spice trade, sisterhood and empire and the butlerian movement lead by halfmand torondo

If you are a Dune fan, then you already know how Gilbertus Albans the founder of the mentat school is. He is trying to balance by relgious fanatics on one side and anti relgious fanatatics on the other and how these 2 groups vying for power affect the mentat school

I have always been a fan of political games, treachory and fanatical extremisn in story telling and I felt that this book portrayed that well, not every aspect of the overall plot was needed in this book imho, paticularly around the freement recrutis of venkee enterprises, I feel like that could have been just something in the background rather than creating a narrative plot around the story

overall however a good read and decent edition to the dune universe

I love this book. Andy weir has a way of combing humor with life and death and hard scifi. this book had me laughing at so many places i maybe should not have been laughing at, and realyl in situations i would be terrified to find myself in perosnally

What happens when you combine star eating microscopic life with aliens and the eventual death of humanity, well this book is that story and was a fantastic read and highly recommended

I don't normally read msytery crime fiction etc... but decided to try this one out. I was pleasantly surprised that I liked it as much as I did, and it seems it is part larger oveall series.

This is at its heart a crime/murder mystery but we know from the start at leats who the accussed are. As the story gets established we soon come to realize the accussed may not be guilty of the crime they are accussed of but for them it is too late and its now up to their long lost daugther, Olivia to solve this decades old crime

Olivia is thrown into a world of papparazzi and mystery after learning who she is and that her parents are accused serial killers.

This story takes us through a unusal world of occult signs and superstition with characters of mysterious past in small town usa but a town that on the surface seems peaceful but underneath is filled with people with mysterious and in some cases dark pasts.

This book is not takes you down a path of intrigue and mystery that for me was really quite enjoyable, and pleasant surprise from my normal genre of reading.

However I would have liked to see more mystery in the investigation of the crimes, and more in depth occult connections within the overall plot. It would have been nice to explore the people of the town of cainsville more. overall 4/5 stars.

Its been a long time since I had read any Piers Anthony and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I was expecting just a meh ok scifi read but it turned out better than expected

I found the personification of death in this book was one of the best I have read, as our Primary character is forced to confront death as a person and himself

The way this story approached the questions of what is death, what makes a soul good or evil, the ideas of being born in sin, euthanasia etc.. was so enjoyable and well done

4/5 stars for me.

Thisi s the sequel to Caleb Carr book The Alieniest and to be honest I did not like it as much as the Alieniest

From almost the start we knew who the suspect was so this story was more of a process versus mystery not much different in that sense from the Alienist.

Personally I just found the whole court room drama thing kind of meh for the most part, and investigation methods were not exactly legal eithier lol,

not a whole lot to say but meh, the ending was just ok, and maybe its not being overly familiar with the time period but it was worth a read once, but that is about it.