Category: Books

Saw a few recommendations for this book on reddit in sci-fi posts. Then bought hard back as a gift for my father and he really liked it. So, picked it up for myself on Amazon Kindle. I liked it too. It is fun and dynamic, with quickly changing scenes, stories, has good pace and quite original ideas. So, will start with a few nitpicks. In the beginning you really like the style of inserting joke here and there, especially when talking about grim things. But, then you notice it never ends. Jokes, tones of jokes. Every character in this book is just some standup comedian with instant comebacks and puns. It becomes old. Ha, non pun intended, but i am leaving this in 🙂 And i understand that main characters are life hardened olds, but also to be honest, most olds are whining, nagging. Not hitting you with witty lines all the time. That’s another kind of nitpick or just a thought for discussion. The whole concept of sending old people, who don’t have anything going for them anymore, to do war (after let’s say “refreshing” them) sounds good on paper. But these are old minds, tired of life, accustomed to slow flowing of time. Even if you train them and rejuvenate them, they are still old in their souls. So, this thing was a bit less believable. Of course, they state that most of them still are used kind of like cannon fodder. Ghost brigades, briefly touched in this first book, probably make more sense. But then again. All this technology, just seems wasted. Probably would be more efficient to go the Star Wars way and clone your armies. Another thing that let me to some doubtful thoughts is that i would expect most of them to defect when they learn what they are getting into. I know that they chose to enlist and have contracts, but, they never really knew what they were going to do and go against of. Maybe there were lots of defectors, but book just didn’t touch on that. Of course, that would not make for exciting story. And stoty is interesting. With a twist about “rejuvenating” that i was not expecting. Reminded me a bit my favorite sci-fi “Cobra” (mostly about enhancing human body for war). And also Lord of Light, which is a more close connection. Going into a bit of spoiler category ***it was fascinating to try to imagine how it would be to experience your mind in two bodies simultaneously watching at each other, single mind in two locations at once***. There is enough of science in this book. And it even goes briefly into all the jazz about alternate universes and that it is not actually jumping through space that their drives do, but entering alternate reality. Which is a giant can of worms and can be worth a whole separate book. And there is romance. First somber, then sexy, then weird, but in the end romantic somehow. And it leaves on a note that hints more books. Which i already new when buying it on Amazon and seeing covers for the next 5 or so novels. I might read some of them later. It did hook me to read non stop instead of going to sleep, but not as much as to swallow the whole series. So, if i was doing fractions in ratings, i would give it 8.5. Not quite 9 or even 10. But good. Solid 8/10.

Looks like it was first best seller from this author that made it possible for him to leave work in police and become a writer. Also, this and many other of his books were turned into movies. Which is not surprising. This Man Is Dangerous feels like that of those black and white gangster movies. And like those movies the plot and style are very simple and light. It was not boring to read, but there is not enough of plot to make your brain work, no huge twists that makes you go “oh”. There is one twist, which you start to anticipate early into reading. And when it is revealed, it is kind of expected based on a few hints dropped throughout the book and based on how main character is behaving in some situations. At the end of the book there is a tad too much of backstabbing back and forth. I guess to make it more intriguing. It was unexpected though that main action, although started in US, was actually happening in UK. Well, we author was British, but it is strange that book about American gangsters happens in Europe. The style itself is not the one i particularly enjoy. Internal monologue of the main character or from his perspective and also with lots of witty words and expressions, which just makes it feel like a cheap movie. It is for sure not some dark or serious story, nothing feels realistic. Just and entertaining, short gangster flick. 6/10

This is probably biggest disappointment in a few years. And not because it is worse than something i have read recently (like second book in the Null-A trilogy, which i rated 5/10). But because The Little Lady of the Big House is by Jack London, whose books i usually love and one of my favorites is his “The Valley of the Moon”. It just didn’t resonate with me at all. Although it has some shared aspects with other books. Like very similar love triangle like in “Hearts of Three”, where main female character loves two men and can’t decide who is more important to her. But “Hearts of Three” is an adventure book in essence and the love story doesn’t bog it down and doesn’t feel very serious. It is just a side element. Depiction of how main character of this book establishes his business can be seen similar to how couple of Moon Valley are settling on a new territory. But in that book there is struggle for survival in the beginning, the travels and kind of adventures. This book is too bland and boring in comparison to above mentioned other works. I am not used to such London. All crazy adventures in this book are described as something that happened at some point in the past and are mentioned by characters  in passing during conversations. First, this book starts depicting our main male character, going back to his teenage years, showing his strong will and good eye for business from early days. It was somewhat interesting to read about how he established everything in his estate, although servants naming scheme was odd and probably wouldn’t fly today at all. But at some point i started to feel it is too much of all the technical information on how to breed these animals and sell them and grow these crops better, etc. After some point i couldn’t make myself continue to read this book. Then they briefly introduce his kind of eccentric and unique wife. And then a third man appears on the scene and i thought to myself “Really? A love triangle?”. It also developed in a very banal way, so it was not engaging or interesting to follow. Ending was tragic and got me a little bit. But now thinking back on it, was still banal and probably common for love novels. After writing this review i am thinking maybe it was on par with the worse book in recent time actually. Maybe i should have re-read The Valley of the Moon for the 5th time instead 🙂 5/10

If book’s quality would be measured by extremely late reading and not being able to put book down and by reading it in 9 days (same size book would usually take me 4-6 weeks), then for sure, this is 10/10. Haven’t read much this year, but so far it a contender for best book. No surprise. Michael Crichton is recognized for his suspenseful thrillers and sci-fi novels. It’s weird that i have only read one of his books before, very very long time ago. I think it was Lost World from his Jurassic Park series. I’ve read it before i have even see any movie about dinosaurs with his adapted screenplays. A year or so ago i have watched Andromeda Strain movie based on his book. Remember seeing this in my childhood and being terrified. It’s an old movie, but very good. And then i saw he also did Westworld movie (long before it became TV series). So, i was looking what to read next the other day and decided to give a try his yet another bestseller. Prey doesn’t disappoint. Although it starts from a far and is not even close to sci-fi in the beginning. Yet, you quickly become attached to mundane daily routine of out of work dad tending to his family while mom is making money. Somehow it is very likable, with annoying kids, teenager tantrums, picking what food. Crichton is very good with internal monologues which somehow very seamlessly develop into dialogs. Haven’t seen such technique, where first one person says something, then main protagonist starts thinking in his mind, but by the end of his internal speech it looks like he is actually relaying everything to the other person and they respond. This makes book even more dynamic without unnecessary repeating of what character already thought of. Then of course tons of scientific information. And this time it is not just biology, genetics, but also nanotechnology and even computer programming. It’s truly fascinating how author manages to combine all of this and present in believable manner. Although, at times it does look like main hero just cannot not know something about distributed agent programming and analogues in real animal world, sometimes too quick to find solutions and so on. But not that much over the top to start cringe. Book starts like a fascinating puzzle, but by the middle of the book horror and thriller elements start to creep in and then you are afraid to read and afraid to put it back. By two thirds of the book i started to kind of figure out main mystery, but had two ideas. In the end it was combination of two. Which is kind of satisfying that you have guessed and still different. The end as usual (i hate myself for repeating this) is a bit weaker than the main book. It seemed that at the end enemy was not as terrifying and strong like in the middle. Although author still managed to inject a little twist and aha moment which is not that convoluted for most readers to grasp. So, in the end, it was a great experience with a slightly weaker but still satisfying ending. And now i will get some sleep, finally 🙂 9/10

Heard a lot about this book and there were even a TV series based on this book almost 10 years ago. Have read something from this author many years ago and vaguely remember not being completely satisfied with his storytelling. This book is considered by many a masterpiece and it got some awards. I can agree that the idea is unique and fascinating. Alternative history, what would happen if. If Germany and Japan had won WWII and conquered USA and the rest of the world. As a backdrop of story it is a mind blowing premise. There is no exposition explaining everything. You slowly learn more and more with every page and chapter of this book as you follow story of a few characters. These people are very loosely related in the plot, some paths cross, some not. To make it even more fascinating, in this world exits a book written by some mysterious man, which depicts an alternate history (to the world in this book), when US and allies actually win the war. It is like opposite of the world we live in now, where allies won and people are wondering and writing about what the world would have been if Axis had won. The book is somewhat banned, but many and even Germans and Japanese are reading it. Learning more about this book and going further into plot some mystical undertones start to creep in little by little. Who actually wrote this book and what it is, why the world depicted in that book is so real? And.. there is no answer. The Man in the High Castle doesn’t provide one satisfying answer or conclusion or reveal. I see same sentiment in many reviews out where. The idea is brilliant, depicting of the world is great, but story and plot are not so much. Other than revealing some horrible Germany plans for world domination there is no grand finale, no mind blowing twist. Not that every book needs it. And i would be ok with no real end. But author makes effort to lead one of the characters to meet that person who wrote the alternate history book. And all of this just to learn that book wrote itself? With the help of some oracle (yet another book existing in this book, this is hard to write this review 🙂 ). And even then, reader can barely sense some sort of mystery behind all of this and the book abruptly ends. No wonder that first season of TV adaptation got so much praise and then everything went downhill with last two seasons. There was just no material or idea to work with further. Only buildup and no release. Overall, the book was fine, although i didn’t like most of the characters or cared about them, some plot lines were abandoned. Could have done with less of internal monologues. 6/10

Second book i have tried from this author and so far i am loving her style and plots. This time unlike “An Alient Light” the story happens not on an alien planet with weird factions and culture, but it is not less interesting. Book starts actually in not so distant past for us now (but book was written in 1993, so it was a future for that time). On Earth, with currently existing geopolitical and economic landscape. But there are a few scientific breakthroughs at that time. Like very efficient and practically free source of energy that makes US as patent holder a very rich country and advancements in DNA modifications to create children with improved abilities. This is where it gets especially interesting as scientists find way to remove necessity for sleep. Which also brings improved health and reduces rate of aging. This creates a cast of people with lots of time to be active, improved IQ, healthy, essentially immortal. And then, similar like in the first book i have read, it all starts revolving around various social effects of such biological advancements. As expected, tensions arise both from envy and fear of such “freaks” among common people. Non sleeping are blamed to take jobs from regular people, conspiracy theories pop up constantly about them planning to take over the world. Some even get killed. This can be compared to actual events in human history when certain groups or races of people were being discriminated or isolated. Although in this case it is actually more advanced type of people who get such treatment. Nancy Kress managed to make me glued to the book with various events unfolding, with jumps 10-50 years to the future following same characters and watching how landscape changes, country evolves, conflict between sleeping and non-sleeping goes to the next level. As in the last book we learn about main characters emotions, internal tensions. It is not just dry recounting of events. But not too much as i sometimes found in the last book. Just enough to get attached to key figures, understand some of their feelings and motives. The most fascinating aspect in Beggars in Spain was the fact that self-isolated cast of Non-sleeping people managed to create even more advanced Super-human race among them and then they became kind of discriminated in their own community for being too weird and freaky. No matter how righteous a group of people might feel, they can always devolve into the same mentality that they were fighting against. Because people are people. The ending was a bit muted and i was expecting a more devastating outcome of the conflict between US government and Non-sleeping colony. Also at the end some events were happening a bit too quickly, like Super mutants finding a cure to their stutter and it is just gone on the next page after reading their troubled speech for a chapter. But that’s a problem with most books. It gets very interesting by the middle, but it is hard to get a very exciting ending. So it ends in a bit melancholic, and mildly optimistic vein. But nonetheless the book kept me captivated for the whole read. Even thinking what if we were really able to avoid sleep, how our lives would be then, with years of continuously being conscious, being able to work 12-24 hours a day. 8/10

As an experiment this review will be in English.

Lord of Light is an interesting concept for a sci-fi book. Hinduism religion and mythology mixed with sci-fi elements. Although most of the time it feels more like a fantasy book with glimpses of technology based background. Which is ok, but based on the description i was expecting to learn more about how that human colony from dying Earth was established and evolved into such society like it is portrayed in the book and maybe learn more things about technological aspect of their tools and weapons. It seemed though that these people themselves started to believe they are gods, after being revived in new bodies thousands of times and being worshiped by others as divine beings. So, the book reads like some mesh of religious and fantasy mythos about gods clashing with each other, using regular people and indigenous creatures. Real events are intertwined with excerpts from religious texts. There are not that many arguments presented about opposing ideas. Most “gods” want to keep people (which are descendants and kids of their own) in medieval age, arguing that they want to protect regular people from a too fast technological progress. Which might have some merit, but i don’t remember any strong argument from that faction. So, it felt more like a selfish idea to keep people dark minded for easier control and keep them worshiping their gods eternally. The idea of technology allowing people to move their conciseness to a new younger body over and over again is not new, but when it is mixed with a religion that supports reincarnation, this is a very interesting mix. Structure of the book is also non linear. It starts with events near the end, then goes back and most of the book depicts that period and at the end it meets with the timeline from the beginning of the book. Again, interesting idea, but wasn’t something i have enjoyed. First part was too short and confusing. And later i was all the time afraid they will never go back to these events or that i have missed something. It wasn’t bad and i can see what effect it should have, but it didn’t feel that good or really necessary. It is often done in movies, but movies are a shorter media and it is easier to keep everything in mind. All in all, i liked the idea and some of the aspects of this book, but story itself wasn’t that engaging, i didn’t feel attached to any of the characters. And there were too much of magic/fantasy aspect than sci-fi to my liking. Could see how this old book influenced modern books, movies and other media. 7/10