Ninett

Not bad. At first I was annoyed because I thought the plot was just going to be a repeat of the first book, and it kind of still is, but at least there is a twist in the appearance of an AI bad guy . I did find myself annoyed that at times I was just essentially reading a tldr of a twitch stream rather than an actual story. 
Still entertaining, but also it's hard to write a continuation story about an underdog character who is no longer an underdog. 

Excellent writing for a science book. Lots of evidence-backed information and an engaging narrative throughout. I found myself adding unprecedented quantities of new words to my vocabulary bin, and really enjoyed the shake-up of traditional exercise advice and the evolutionary perspective. As a sedentary person in a job best described as a complete sinecure, I have certainly been inspired to exercise, but can I keep it going and turn it into a habit? 

Hard to rate the middle book of a series separately from the others. This instalment was just as fast-paced and complex as the first. The story does not skip ahead much, and is a direct continuation of where the previous one left off, seamless. I love the intricacies of the political system and economy in Scalzi's universe. They leave a lot of room for plotting and scheming, lots of differing perspectives and motivations to emerge.

I really enjoyed the clever ending for this series. I think Grayland becoming an AI in the end was a masterstroke, and I loved to see her enemies shamed and outdone. I am glad that the relationship that she had with Marce did not stop the author giving her a ruthless death.

The writing can be a bit filthy in more ways than one, which I don't always enjoy, but at least there is a realism there that reminds us that Scalzi writes about humans and not just about concepts and plot points.

Quite good. I don't even mind the swearing, but the liberal application of sex kind of bothers me, although I am not averse to reading it when it furthers the plot. The world-building is great, and there are lots of unique elements to this story which make it fresh. Scalzi's writing style is engaging and does not bear around the bush, making this a fast-paced story that does not assume the reader is an idiot.

I've read a lot of books recently that have not been up to par. This one lands squarely in that category. I don't even know where to begin. The premise drew me in instantly - so much could have been done with such a strong premise! Instead, what I read was a janky story about an idiot at the end of days. Allow me to elaborate, I spent a long time brewing this review.

The main character, Artyom, is a complete automaton. A slave to the plot in every way, he exists only to serve the storyline and never to drive it. He is entirely characterless and entirely pointless. Devoid of a single characteristic whatsoever, excrutiatingly boring, I cannot stress enough how poorly written he is, and this becomes a pattern with every other character.

It's hard to rank the awful things about this book, because at varying points they all bothered me equally in turn, but the lack of female characters in the book is bizarre enough to merit second place. Are you telling me that this man has schelpped through the entire metro system and failed to encounter a SINGLE woman other than a (1) prostitute that he then considers paying for? The only three lines of dialogue spoken by a woman in the entire 450 page sinkhole of a book are spoken by a comrade's wife chiding her child and then by one trying to hock her child. Absolute piss, Dmitry. Get a grip.

Sexism aside, we also have some abhorrent descriptions of some races in this book as well - hardly a surprise given the track record.

The structure is true to Russian style - enormous walls of text, even the rare dialogue threatens to turn into a chapter-long philosophical monologue and you are lucky when it doesn't. Some of the chapters are used as a thinly veiled opportunity for the author to proselytise to the reader.

Every single side character is a plot device contrived to deliver our passive idiot of a main character to his next destination safely, and then to die immediately after while the moron lives. Each one of these characters would have been a better candidate for the mission our hero is on than he is.

Now for the plot.

Hunter comes to Artyom's home station and asks him to risk his safety and life to get a message to a far flung station. Our main immediately agrees and sets off because he is an automaton. Then, in a long series of episodes that are not linked in any way save by coming one after the other chronologically, the main character goes through lots of trials and tribulations that do not lead to any personal development. By the time we reach the end of the book (a mere few weeks in book time), the trip that took him days in the outset now takes him an hour or so going back the way, and the dangers along that same path are conveniently gone.

The reason I gave it that half star is that the premise is great, and the ending was actually surprisingly good. The rant is over but I could throttle the author.

I wasn't sure what to expect going in, and I read the copy in which China Mieville wrote an introduction as a prelude to the introduction written by the author herself. I think for me, I couldn't find the feminism in the story, which was promised in Mieville's introduction. Maybe it is because I am reading this in 2024, which Mieville hints at when he says we may not perceive it as ground-breaking in light of what came after its publication, and I think this must be the case with me. The use of male pronouns also made it challenging to view the characters as anything other than male, despite the author???s intentions . 
Aside from that, it's creative and innovative in its storyline, and I understand entirely why it is such a pillar of this genre. It is hard to write a believable, realistic sci-fi, and I think the focus being on the characters rather than worldbuilding (not that it lacks that, either) is what lends the whole thing so much credence. 

This is an interesting piece of writing. In some bizarre way, it reminds me of a meticulously curated pen and pencil library I made when I was a child. Each writing utensil had a serial number, and there was a ledger in which I kept detailed records about each item in the library. 
The story was good, the illustrations were beautifully drawn and the typesetting around them was lovely. 

Maybe this rating is unfair because I did just read two Ken Follett tomes almost back-to-back, and I was able to predict the outcomes of the story from extrapolation based on what ‘usually' happens in a Ken Follett book. Regardless, an enjoyable read, and would certainly be perceived as more complex and frustrating (in a good way) if I hadn't just read a very similar story from the same author. 
I haven't read another book set in this specific time period, so by that token I am pleased, as I have managed to understand a lot about the age (hopefully true things) - especially the everyday lives of those who lived through the first industrial revolution. Some of the themes in this novel have a lot of bearing on us today as well, with the advent of AI and its ability to replace a lot of ‘clicking' type tasks.

A very average Ken Follett book. Good, with some tense bits, and some loathe-worthy characters and heros to root for. The writing is quite formulaic if you read more than one book from Follett in a row, so I would advise waiting a few months between books. I enjoyed the 10th century setting, it's not often that fiction goes back that far.

Science and action : excellent
Religious dogma and gender cliches: pass??

I kind of hated it. I don't mean to be a pearl clutcher here, but I did feel it was in bad taste to make the suffering and subsequent death of a little boy (albeit a boy looooong dead) into such a weirdly perverse story. It's grotesque to me. I nearly gave up on it at page 30 because I had no clue still what was going on and the narrative style never grew on me. I get that the afflictions of the bardo dwellers are symbolic of the personal limbos they faced, but I still just didn't connect with it. 

I love Bardugo's plotting. She weaves a great story every time. It was paced well, and there were twists and turns, leaving me guessing the whole way through. When the end came about, I was surprised by the events.

The reason for the relatively lower score despite excellent plotting is that I just didn't connect with the world, the magic system, or the main character. It was lacking in some way that I just can't put my finger on. I don't really care about the characters or the world enough to really go and read the next novel in the series (but I will anyway to satisfy my completionist tendencies).

An alright instalment. Entertaining, as usual, but the usual gripe with believability within the world itself - our main guy surely is undergoing the most rapid advancement of anyone, ever, in this universe.

I am pleased that we are no longer outside of civilisation, and I enjoyed the city from dragon bones idea and setting. I love Orthos. One thing I will say though, which is still a longstanding grievance I have with this series, is that Lindon is a bit insufferable because he succeeds ceaselessly. I understand that this is like a microcosm and we are following this guy because he is the chosen one, and I know this is kinda like some kind of book version of the anthropic principle - you'd never write a book about someone who just isn't a main character. BUT it's maddening. Best iron body, fastest progression, most prepared, wins against higher ranks who should demolish him, most creative, inventor of techniques, charming, tall, handsome, smart.... endless list of stand-out qualities and not a single flaw other than being unsouled (quickly overcome in the first book). Anyway, the read at least is enjoyable and if you don't mind the above mentioned, which I myself have grown used to, then it will certainly be fun to read.

I really liked the book! The magic system is fresh because it has infinite variety - something that I suspect is more realistic in our analogue world as compared to the strict binary/tertiary/etc. magic systems in other books.  The worldbuilding isn't as extensive as other fantasy novels, though, and a downside is that every trick our main character attempts, he wins! He defeats everyone he fights and always succeeds in all his plans. This makes a lot of the outcomes predictable. Regardless, the book is immersive enough to have kept me reading. There is a largely unexplored aspect of the book that I suspect will open up more in later installments. The book cannot be read as a complete story - there is no real ending and it was written with sequels in mind.

Good novel. My boyfriend bought it for me because he thought it was a nonfiction book about chemistry (I feel there's irony there, with the subject matter of the book being what it is), and it turned out to be a novel instead. Not a genre I'd choose for myself to read, with it straddling the line between romance, tragedy and drama, none being genres I generally read. 
I liked Elizabeth because I identify with her in many ways. The cooking show theme of the book is an interesting invention from the author, but I found it to be quite left-field. I suspect this was the central idea around which the book was built. 

This book was actually fantastic as an introduction. That said, the problem I have with books written about scientific topics but not written by scientists is that they often don't delve deep enough for my liking. I realise this may be a tall order given that this is a whistle-stop tour of the human body and not a thesis, but I nevertheless did feel like I was reading a collection of semi-popular facts at times. There were a few chapters from which I made no notes (with my note-taking policy being only write down things you didn't know previously). 
The tone and language were excellent, however, and I did still manage to take away some newfound knowledge.
P.S: What about the lymphatic system?!

The writing was enjoyable, and the magic system a kind of spin on the very classic format of 'utter a spell and wave hands', so it was a very traditional-feeling novel in the fantasy writing domain. I enjoyed the elements of Eastern European lore and folk culture that were included, and I'm pleased that the author has family ties to that place (sorry Grishaverse).

Now for the part that took it down a few pegs for me: the Dragon is an absolutely awful man. He doesn't make up for his abhorrent behaviour and he is a fundamentally unkind character. This would be fine, if his relationship with Agnieszka weren't shown in a positive light. I can't understand when writers make the female character fall in love with an abusive man and portray the relationship in a complementary way, as is the case here - and then I am not even mentioning the age gap. The story was good but not memorable.

I love a good dark and whimsical piece of writing. Even if it's technically probably for kids. This was a rare instance in which I was genuinely sad the book ended because the characters grew on me so much: I felt the gut wrenching sadness of being left behind with the Owenses when Bod and Silas left at the end. I resented that the crew was scattered in the wind with no promise to ever again reunite. And the death of miss Lupescu- absolutely tragic.
All in all engrossing and I guess even though the Jacks' motivation felt like an afterthought it still held my interest all the way through. 

So in depth. I would never have thought that salt was such an important catalyst for trade and the movement of people. I did find it hard going to read in some sections, because the writing can be very bland. The author takes no pains to make a series of facts into an engaging narrative.

Still, I liked learning about how closely intertwined human societies have always been with an innocuous mineral.

I just didn't get it. I thought it was unbearable in its dull, neverending descriptions of the most boring elements of peoples' lives. Maybe I should try again. I have a beautiful vintage copy.

Immune was a big job for me to read, for two reasons.

Firstly, I take notes on all popsci nonfiction I read, noting down things I didn't know before, and I knew nothing about immunology, so I took many notes. This is a good thing, because I learned a lot from the book!

The second reason is a bad one, unfortunately: I hated the authorial tone in this. The vibe is that of a teacher who tries very hard to be down with the kids and makes liberal use of slang that's just a touch out of date. I really did not jive with this, it took away from the topic and made me mistrust the authority of the writer on the subject. It was certainly done to be more accessible, but it comes across as cheesy and condescending.

The illustrations were of a very high quality, and they added so much to the narrative, always presented at exactly the right time, spread evenly throughout. This brings the rating up to three stars.

Overall quite good, easy to understand and well written, especially like the summary table. My main trouble is that I read The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and found this to be 80% a repeat of that book. I can't really rate it down for that (but I kind of did anyway), but it also didn't really bring much news to the table. Sound, actionable advice, and I did manage to get something out of it ultimately, but I just found the book by Duhigg (which is mentioned in atomic habits as an inspiration) more well written if a bit less directly actionable. 

The author is very playful with the information she withholds from both her characters and from her readers, which creates a fun dynamic between reader and character. I loved that the story was light and full of absurdity.

I found it especially silly that the book is essentially about a time-travelling cat causing chaos, yet it is named with a reference to Cyril instead, who doesn't drive any of the plot, making the title extremely apt. I hated Tossie, even her name is distasteful to me, and her mother was an even more detestable figure. I did manage to guess Tossie's ending about 2/3 of the way through after more than one mention of the Butler Did It trope.

Overall I found this to be clever, well written, and lighthearted. My only qualm was that maybe the pacing was a bit too slow for the content.