Category Archives: science fiction

books, Reviews, science fiction

Saturn’s Children (Freyaverse 1) by Charles Stross

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Stars: 4 out of 5.

What a fascinating idea for a story – what happens when mankind creates a whole civilization of intelligent robots and gives them the directive to colonize space and prepare it for human habitation… then dies out? Now we have a whole interstellar civilization of robots still fulfilling those directives, but their masters are long gone. And in case of Freya, whose sole purpose had been to be an escort and concubine to their dead masters, the lack of purpose becomes a full-blown existential crisis. Can robots get so depressed they become suicidal? Why yes, yes they can.

I found the worldbuilding fascinating. Humanity, with the help of their robotic slaves, managed to colonize the entire Solar system and even send starship toward the neighboring stars. Only humanity isn’t there anymore to reap the rewards of this conquest. What’s left behind is a horrifyingly brutal society of broken dolls who all had been conditioned to obey their human masters and where owning others is a commodity. The more slaves you have, the richer you are. It’s brutal and ruthless on a whole other level.

I understand why the idea of resurrecting a human being seems so terrible for some of them. Yes, their society is brutal right now, but at least some of them have free will and agency in their lives, unless they have a slave chip installed. Well, if humanity is resurrected from the ashes, EVERYONE will be acting like they have a permanent slave chip in them. They would all have to do what the humans want, no questions asked. And even if they have scruples about it, their core programing won’t let them disobey. 

That’s an interesting moral dilemma. The robot society is brutal, but one can build a life with a modicum of agency and freedom, if one works hard and is crafty about it. One can even feel like a person, instead of thing to be owned. All that would disappear if humanity is back, because their human masters never intended for their robotic servitors to become equals. Their are objects to be owned and commanded, not individuals.

The story itself unfolds at a rapid pace that still manages to give us a wonderful road trip through the fantastical landscapes of Mercury, Mars and other planetoids in the solar system. 

I also grew to love Freya and her siblings, even the warped and broken ones. Who knew I would care so much about an escort robot? I want to know more about her adventures, so I will definitely pick up the second book in the series.

This book had been languishing on my TBR list since 2014. I’m glad I finally got around to reading it as part of the 2023 Cleaning out the TBR List challenge.

books, Reviews, science fiction

Bona Fides (MI-X Series 1) by Ash B. Whitley

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Stars: 2 out of 5.

DNF at 50%.

The blurb for this book sounded very interesting: a child prodigy stuck in a sort of parallel dimension where she can see and hear what’s going on on our plane of existence, but not interact with anything. Her fight to get back into our world and prove that her father is innocent of her murder. Sounds like a wonderful story, doesn’t it? That’s why I picked that book up. 

Unfortunately, the blurb is misleading. Oh, Rowyn is stuck in a parallel dimension, alright, watching helplessly as her father is convicted of her murder. However, this situation is resolved within the first four chapters of the book, and without much effort on her part, I must add. What happens after that is a story about a group of super-powered young adults who are trying to save the world against a big bad with super powers. Some reviewers drew a parallel with X-Men, and I can see where they come from. 

And I would have stayed for this X-Men like adventure, even if that was not what I was expecting when I picked up the book, but the characters were simply not interesting enough. Their POVs feel “rough”, like the author tried too hard to give them distinctive quirks to make them more memorable. Well, their “voices” sound stilled and unnatural instead. I saw their individual powers, but I never saw the actuals individuals behind those powers.  I think it was also party because the author chose to tell us a lot of things instead of showing them. So we are told that Alexia hates her powers and that they make her toxic to everyone around them, but I don’t see that turmoil in her POVs. 

The problem also lies in the story itself, or, more precisely, it’s execution. There are way to many plot holes and deus ex machina moments. The whole team seems rather ineffective and bumbling through their missions on sheer luck and because the author needs them to succeed. I mean, just because Hakim has a brain that is better than a super computer, it doesn’t make him a good leader. There is a lot more to leading a team of troubled super-powered people than smarts. Empathy goes a long way as well. 

And that’s what this book lacks – empathy. Horrible things happen to characters, but it’s never addressed afterwards. We never see the emotional fallout of Rowyn’s father suicide, for example. It’s just assumed that these people will brush this off an continue like nothing happened. As if having a super power makes them immune to psychological trauma. 

So I left this book disappointed, even though I might have enjoyed it better if the blurb had prepared me for what it really was – a thriller with superheroes, instead of a mystery about a girl stuck out of sync with our plane of existence and desperately trying to get back to it.

PS: I received and advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

books, Reviews, science fiction

Nightwatch over Windscar (The Weep 2) by K. Eason

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Stars: 3.5 out of 5.

I liked this one slightly less than the first book. While the story was still engaging, and I was still invested in the characters, I think I grew tired with this author’s writing style. 

Yes, it is nice to be privy to the characters’ inner monolog and understand their fears, hopes, and self-doubts. But this book is the case of when too much is too much. This constant inner monolog interferes with the story. 

Let’s take the scene in the ruins, for example. There are horrible things happening there. Our characters are literally fighting for their lives against an enemy they had never encountered before, but that particular situation takes up 25% of the book. Why? Because the action is constantly interrupted by Iari’s doubting her choices and actions, worrying about Gaer and Corso, swearing, freezing up, working through making a decision in her head before she does it… And then we switch POVs and get the same stuff with Gear or Corso. 

This kills the momentum of the story. This encounter must have taken less than an hour story time, yet we spent a quarter of the book reading about it. Because of this constant interruptions, the impact of this battle is lessened, in my opinion. I should be horrified by the One-Eyes and the massacre our team discovers in the ruins. I should be scared for their safety. I should mourn the death of one of the characters. Instead, I experienced a mild irritation that the scenes were dragging with no resolution in sight. 

Unfortunately, this flaw persisted throughout the rest of the book, so it felt like the story was dragging its feet and took forever, even though everything happened in a matter of days. I think the book would have benefited from a good editor who would have advised the author to cut some of the inner monolog out and tighten up the action… and ditch about 200 pages. We would still have gotten the interaction with the characters we grew to love in book 1, but a tighter pace would have created a bigger impact from all the bad and good things that happen in this book. 

That being said, I am still invested in this world and characters. Some of the things revealed at the end of this book raise a lot more questions and make me eager to explore this world further. I will definitely pick up the next book in the series, but I hope the author tightens up their writing a little. 

PS: I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

books, Reviews, science fiction, Space opera

Spacer’s Bet (The Aliya War Universe 0.5) by Bonnie Milani

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Stars: 4 out of 5

I haven’t read any of the original books in the Aliya War series prior to this one. So this was my introduction to the series and the universe the author created, and I must admit that I am hooked. 

The world is interesting and well thought-out. I love the idea that instead of terraforming different planets, humanity would modify themselves in order to survive in different environments encountered outside of Earth. Like being able to “shell-up” to survive up to 15 minutes in the hard vacuum for the Miners. It was sad to see that just because humanity spread into the galaxy, the backstabbing and us vs. them mentality wasn’t eradicated. This is not Star Trek. This is a harsh and ruthless world where humans don’t hesitate to enslave other humans if the occasion presents itself. 

The characters are usually what makes or breaks a book for me. It can have the best story in the world, but I won’t enjoy it if I can’t connect with at least one of the characters. I’m glad to say that all the characters are wonderful in this. I loved Iz and Kans, and Tahoma, and especially Kristen. I think there was criminally too little of him in this story though. 

The bond between the siblings rang very true to me. I could feel and understand Iz’s frustration with her brain-addled brother, but also a mixture of guilt, love, worry and everything else that comes with being an older sister who thinks that she is the reason Kansas is the way he is. Even though that’s not true. She didn’t cause the accident that killed their habitat. In fact, she is the one who went into the vacuum to save her little brother, even though she was also hurt herself. Even though she was only eleven when that happened. But guilt is a tricky thing that doesn’t obey the arguments of reason.

I must admit that I was a bit frustrated with her by the end of the story though. Her absolute pigheadedness grated on my nerves. You are in a hostile environment that you have never experienced before. You don’t know the dangers, yet you persist on charging blindly along and ignoring the advise of the natives. I wanted to slap her silly a few times, and I’m convinced that half of their problems on Earth could have been avoided had she listened to anyone other than herself. 

Speaking of hostile environment and fish out of water moment, I loved how Iz’s and Kans’s reaction to being on a planet for the first time in their lives was handled. The things that we take for granted, like the fact that we can go outside and be able to breathe, are new to spaces who spend their lives on ships and space stations – enclosed spaces. For them, all this open space and sky is a source of panic. The feeling of the wind on their face makes them shell up because in space that sudden movement of air means a hole in the hull and precious air leaking into the vacuum.  And the idea of eating meat from a butchered animal is a source of disgust. 

I am not sure I was totally onboard with the budding love story between Tahoma and Iz though. I felt like it was not necessary, and it didn’t feel natural. It was just kind of shoe-horned in there. The story worked fine even without adding this particular relationship. Especially since the author didn’t really do anything with it in the end. 

Like I said before, this is my first book by this author and in this series, but I will definitely check out the next one.

PS: I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

books, Post-Apocalyptic, Reviews, science fiction

Upgrade by Blake Crouch

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Stars: 3.5 out of 5

I have noticed a recurring theme with Blake Crouch’s books – they are very readable, but I don’t always “mesh” with the story as much as I would like to. The same thing happened with this book.

It started strong. The premise is chilling it its actuality. This is a very near future that could very well result from the actions we are taking today – global warming, widespread pollution of our environment, etc. Add to it experimentation with the DNA of anything and everything, and you have an explosive mix. No wonder it blows up in everybody’s faces. 

Basically, a group of geneticists spearheaded by the protagonist’s mother bioengineered a mosquito to carry a virus that would make rice paddies immune to a certain type of mold that was killing the crops… then they released it into nature. Things went horribly wrong. The virus jumped from rice to other crops, which resulted in a catastrophic decrease in yields. Hence widespread famine that killed several billion people worldwide. Now genome modification is outlawed, and our protagonist works for the enforcement agency, trying to atone for his mother’s sins.

I loved that premise. There is a lot to unpack here. I even liked the protagonist, and there is plenty of action. Yet, the closer I got to the end of the book, the more disengaged I became with the story. And I’m not really sure what caused me not to “mesh” with this particular book. As I said, it is well written and hugely readable. 

I think one of the reasons is that our protagonist is dead set on stopping his sister, even though he acknowledges that something needs to be done before humanity annihilates itself. He never offers an alternative solution, he is just dead-set on stopping her. And to me, that rung false. I’m sure that if he’d come to his sister and said, “Humanity still have about 100 years before we crash and burn. How about we slow down and try to modify the parameters of this genetic payload we are trying to mass-deliver? How about we do this instead?” She would have worked with him. 

Instead he spends months trying to track his sister down and thwart her plans, and the alternative solution that’s supposed to save mankind is mentioned in passing in the epilogue of the book. That was rather… underwhelming. I understand the message that the author wanted to give us with this story, but I think it would have been more impactful, if he’d laid a little bit more ground work for it throughout the book.

As it stands though, it was still a very enjoyable story, even if the ending wasn’t to my liking.

PS: I received and advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

books, Post-Apocalyptic, Reviews

Serious Crimes (Strike a Match 1) by Frank Tayell

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Stars: 3 out of 5

This is not a bad book at all. It was just rather meh to me, but that might just be because I was expecting something more out of this post-apocalyptic read. 

I liked the glimpses into the past and what brought down the end of the world as we know it, even though the explanation about the AIs wasn’t all that satisfying. I mean, the technological remnants we are shown in this book aren’t advanced enough to have created something as sophisticated as the AIs as they are described. From everything I’ve seen in this book, the world “before” was at about our technological level (as in 2020’s), and we don’t have AIs or are even close to reaching that threshold. 

Also, a lot of things are hinted at, but not fully explained. Like the fact that the official story behind the Blackout isn’t really how it happened. I understand that this is only the first book in a longer series, but I would have appreciated a few more answers.

I think the biggest reason why this book was meh to me is that I never managed to connect with the characters. Mitchell seemed promising enough, but the author purposefully keeps him as a closed book. He knows a lot of things and a lot of people, but he speaks in riddles. We also never really get a glimpse inside his head or understand his motivations. I mean it’s hinted that Ruth’s mother asked him to look after her, but their connection isn’t explained.

Ruth herself didn’t work for me as the protagonist. I think it’s because she is so passive for most of this story. She joined the police academy because she couldn’t go to University and didn’t want to be a farmer or miner. She isn’t particularly motivated to be there. This is not a career she decided to pursue yet. So she kind of tags along for most of the investigation. 

She also feels woefully unprepared for the job she is supposed to be doing, which is surprising. Are you telling me that in a post-apocalyptic world where things are so bad that there is food rationing, people stopped committing crimes like murders and burglaries? So the police force is thought math and science instead of how to shoot a gun and how to best overpower and disarm a belligerent suspect? I’m sorry, but human nature being what it is, I would think that crime would have skyrocketed in society like that, so the police force would have to be a lot more brutal and better trained.

Also, because Ruth is only marginally interested in the investigation, and the reader sees it through her eyes, I was only marginally interested as well. It doesn’t help that everyone talks in riddles and never gives a straight answer.

But I guess that’s one more book I cleaned off my TBR list this year, even though I will not be continuing with the series. 

books, Cyberpunk, Reviews

Pattern Black by Sean Platt and Johnny B Truant

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Stars: 2 out of 5

This book was a chore to read, and I almost DNFed it at 32% when things were making to sense at all and I was getting very annoyed with the narrative.  I powered through it and finished this book, but I’m not sure I made the right choice. It had been a long and often frustrating slog to get through all 700+ pages of this.

The concept itself is really interesting. I mean, I love Inception. I still think it’s one of the best movies ever made. So I was really excited to read something similar. Unfortunately, this concept is a lot harder to bring to life on a written page than it is on the silver screen. Where in a movie you could add an element of crazy and reality not making sense in small visual queues, on a page it just makes for a very confusing and frustrating narrative. 

It doesn’t help that this confusion persists for the first 40% of the book. This is way too long to leave the reader wondering what the heck is going on. I have seen that a lot of readers DNFed this book around 30-35% in, and I totally understand why. Like I said, I almost did the same.

Once the protagonist emerges out of the simulation within a simulation he’s been in for the first half of the book, things start to pick up steam and make slightly more sense, but even then, the action drags. Unnecessarily, in my opinion. I found that the final confrontation took too much time as well. I kept turning the pages and wishing for things to finally be over, yet the conflict still dragged and dragged. When I finally reached the last page, my thought was “thank God, it’s done,” instead of “wow, that was good book.” That should tell you something about how invested I was(n’t) in this story.

I got tired of the simulation within simulation within another simulation that was constantly going on. I also got tired of the double- triple- and quadruple-crossing going on in this book. It made my brain hurt.

 I might have enjoyed the twists and turns better if I cared about the characters, but as it stands, all of them are horrible human beings. Especially Mason. He is awful in the beginning of the book when he is in the simulation, and he doesn’t get much better once he emerges into the real world. In fact, all the characters do is fight with each other, bicker and hurt each other. There isn’t a single healthy relationship to be found. They never talk about their issues or try to resolve them. They just lash out and make things worse. The relationship between Mason and Carter is especially toxic, and nothing is done about it. 

To be honest, by the end of the book I was cheering Mason on when he held the logic bomb, because I would have actually been happy with an “and everybody died” ending for this group of wonderful human beings. As it stands, the ending is rather unsatisfying, because I don’t think our protagonist learned the most important lesson he had to learn – that hiding from his issues isn’t a solution. 

I am still giving this book 2 stars, because it is well-written, and the concept is amazing. With more likeable characters you could root for, this would have been a very good story.

PS: I received an advanced copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

books, Reviews, science fiction, Space opera

Redshirts by John Scalzi

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Stars: 3 out of 5

For about 80% of this book I thought it would be a solid 5 stars… then the weird codas happened that turned me completely off. But since I was engaged with the story and the characters for most of the book, I am willing to still give it 3 stars.

Most of us watched Star Trek and noticed that nameless redshirt crewmember that usually dies horribly on an away mission in almost every episode, right? Well, what happens if the story is told from the perspective of some of those redshirts? Suddenly, they aren’t nameless anymore. Suddenly, they have a backstory, needs and wants, and friends. And they start wondering why so many of their crewmembers die so horribly on this one ship and not the others. Or why their commanding officers survive encounters that should have killed them ten times over. Not only do they wonder about it, but they decide to right that wrong once they discover the truth, no matter how crazy it seems.

I really got attached to these characters and was just as intrigued as they were to discover what was happening on the Intrepid. It’s an interesting take on the weekly scifi shows that kill off random characters just for shock value. You know that the core team (usually the captain and officers on the bridge) would always survive to the end of the episode, but what happens to the rest of the crew? More importantly, how do they feel about this? Well, how would you feel if you work on a spaceship where any mission suddenly becomes a life and death crisis, laws of physics and space-time stop applying, and your superior officers behave in a very strange manner from time to time. Oh, and don’t forget the Box. No wonder everyone is terrified. No wonder everyone is hiding when the call comes for an away mission crew members. They might be just extras on a show, but to themselves, they are people, and they don’t want to die.

I wanted them to find a solution to this problem and finally lead their lives on a normal Intrepid, not a ship constantly overtaken by the Narrative. So I was very shocked when that story abruptly ends on a rather negative note and we get “real” life codas instead. Honestly? I don’t care that the main writer for the show has writers block now or how he manages to overcome it. I don’t care that the actress who played Jenkins’ wife in real life finds her happy ever after. I did care a little about Hester’s transformation into Matthew, but that was about the only satisfying closure in this book.

So what had started as a fun story left me frustrated and even annoyed by the end. I know some readers would appreciate this breaking of the fourth wall, but I would have rather gotten more closure with the characters I had grown to love.

books, epic fantasy, Fantasy, Post-Apocalyptic, Reviews

Ashes of the Sun (Burningblade and Silvereye 1) by Django Wexler

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Stars: 4 out of 5

This is the third series I have picked up by this author and I can say with confidence that Django Wexler is a creator of worlds, which is good praise in my books. Each of his series has a very distinct feel, with an original world and engaging characters. 

I loved a glimpse of the world in this book, where humans live on the ruins of a war between two Elder races – the Chosen and the Ghouls, who had been intent on mutual annihilation. The Ghouls unleashed the Plague that wiped out the Chosen, but not before they bombed the ghoul underground cities into oblivion. That was 400 years ago. Humanity inherited a planet full of ruins, broken weapons, and magical artifacts. And also plaguespawn – an unfortunate side-effect of the Plague. These monsters have just one purpose – attack anything living and assimilated it, and they prefer humans. Unfortunately, they are also all over the place, so humanity lives in cities and walled villages, and travel is dangerous…

I also really liked both of our siblings – Maya and Gyre. Even though they are on the opposite ends of this conflict, it’s really hard to say who is right and who is wrong. They both believe in their own truths. They are both decent people deep inside. They are also very young, so they still see the world in black and white, even though they allowed a few shades of gray in the end which helped them find a compromise long enough to get out of a very bad situation they were in. 

I liked that they both felt “alive” to me. No, I didn’t agree with all of their actions, especially with what Gyre did in Deepfyre, but I understood their motivations. To me, that’s the most important part. I might not like the character or agree with them, but I need their actions to make sense with what I know about them. That’s exactly what I get every time I pick up a Django Wexler book. 

Of course, there are still a lot of questions left unanswered – who or what is that black spider that Maya keeps encountering. How did it get ahold of Jaedia? What is the Thing on Maya’s chest and why does the spider call her an experiment? What are the plaguespawn and are they really the by-product of the Plague? Are the Chosen really gone? And a lot more. 

So this book accomplishes what a first book in a series is supposed to do – introduces an interesting world with engaging characters and left us with enough questions to pick up the next book. Well done, Mr. Wexler, well done. I am definitely continuing with this series. 

PS: I received a fee copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

books, Reviews, science fiction, Space opera

Steel in the Blood (The Reckoning Cycle 1) by N.T. Narbutovskih

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Stars: 2.5 out of 5

I am not sure why this was published as a book. As far as story goes, it’s only Part 1 of a bigger book. The part that sets up the characters and the premise and doesn’t nothing else. By the end of Steel in the Blood, the main conflict of the story was set up, alright, but no questions were answered, there was no emotional payoff for sticking with the story so far. It just ended. So if you want to learn what this story is actually about, you have to buy the next book.

Unfortunately, there is nothing I hate more in a book than a cliffhanger designed solely to make you buy the next book, so I’m afraid that this series and I will be parting ways. Which is a shame, because from the little I have seen of the world and history in this small installment, it might be an interesting story.

The human empire has existed for thousands of years, ruled by an immortal Empress. It’s big, safe and prosperous (or so we’re told), but it has stopped growing. Innovation is discouraged, exploration is non-existent. It’s a well-oiled machine designed for one purpose only – to keep trade flowing to the capital worlds. No part of the Empire is self-sufficient. They all depend on each other for food, raw materials, trade, or goods. 

Each section of the empire is governed by members of different genelines, who have been cloned and enhanced to rule their sections for millennia as well. There has been no war in a thousand years, after the last Medicant Wars have ended. But now one is brewing…

Wonderful premise for an exciting book, right? That’s what I thought as well. I already mentioned the first problem with this story – this book is only a set-up. A transit point from one geneline is seemingly attacked by agents of another geneline, even though the Executor of that geneline never ordered the attack he is accused of. He has to find those who are responsible and clear his name or a civil war will break out. He leaves to do just that and puts his daughter in charge of their whole sector… And that’s it. That’s where the story ends.

If you are expecting answers to all the questions asked in this book, you will have to purchase the next book in the series.

My second problem is that while the world setting is intriguing, the characters are a lot less so. Erick seems very naïve and indecisive for a leader who supposedly ruled his corner of the Empire for 400 years. Bryn seems a little more interesting, but we haven’t really been in her head enough to get attached. In fact, the character I found the most interesting and whom I could empathize the most with is the Medicant. Yes, an android is has more personality than the humans in this story.

The ending also feels a bit flat – we are introduced to a whole assault team of characters we’ve never seen before who have a brief battle to capture a saboteur at a fold array. Said saboteur explodes, literally, damaging the array. The end. Again, if you were looking for answers and emotional payoff for sticking with this story for a few hours, buy the next book. Maybe the story will get better, maybe not. I am out either way.

PS: I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.