Category: Aa

The Tea Master and the Detective — Aliette de Bodard

By 5t4n5

The Tea Master and the Detective -- Aliette de BodardI liked the cover, i liked the title, i liked the synopsis, i liked that it was 99p, and …

… i rather liked the story as well.

The “Tea Master” is actually a mindship, which isn’t really explained fully in the story, but you kind of get the idea that some sentient being has been implanted into the heart of some kind of space ship.   There’s a real enigmatic element flowing through this story, and i think a lot of it is because this is a standalone from a much wider story line, that of Xuya, and i’m fairly sure if i go and read lots of stories from the Xuya Universe i’ll soon find out all about mindships and such like.

But for this book, not being fully up to speed on the hard facts of everything really doesn’t detract.   In fact, i quite like the brushing over of the science and just getting down to the real bones of the story: that of a damaged mindship turned tea maker because they can’t face deep space any more, and that of a detective, who also comes across as fairly damaged herself.   The two have to somehow get over their issues and investigate the death of a child and hopefully prevent more deaths.

Nebula Award winner and Hugo Award finalist for best novella, a sci-fi book doesn’t come with much better credentials.

After reading this i just had to go and read more from The Universe of Xuya, and so i gave this book a second reading when it was due in the series.   It’s much better read with the full Xuya background, and you can find that second review to The Tea Master and the Detective by clicking on it.

Aliette’s Page

#scifi #aliettedebodard

The Pied Piper of Hamelin — Robert Browning

By 5t4n5

The Pied Piper of Hamelin -- Robert BrowningA delightful, long poem telling the full story of the Pied Piper.   Great for reading out loud to children.   And much, much better than the Brothers Grimm version.

Best of all, it’s free.   So why not download and give it a read today.

Fairy Tales and Folklore Robert’s Page

#viclit #poetry #fairytale #fantasy #robertbrowning

Recursion — Blake Crouch

By 5t4n5

Recursion -- Blake CrouchThe description on Amazon states that Recursion is the follow up to Dark Matter, which, for those of you living under a rock, is another absolutely, definitely, must read, Blake Crouch book.

So, i admit, i was a little dubious as to how this book would hold up when compared against its predecessor.   Dark Matter is, most certainly, a very, very hard act to follow.

But it did hold up, and without a doubt Recursion is very much a worthy book to be proclaimed as Dark Matter’s follow up.

Blake has one incredible imagination.   Genius.   How a writer can conjure up novels like Dark Matter and then follow it up with Recursion is outstanding.   Awesome mind-bending sci-fi that Blake somehow manages to make complete sense out of for all of us readers to enjoy having our minds bent by.

If you haven’t read these two books yet, then stop reading this and go and read them instead.

Blake’s Page

#scifi #blakecrouch

Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City — K. J. Parker

By 5t4n5

Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City -- K. J. ParkerThis is another one of those books that i judged by its cover and title, and the fact that it was 99p in a Kindle deal certainly didn’t do it any harm in getting me to purchase it.   Was it worth it?   Oh yeah, very much worth every single one of those 99 pennies — and then some.

Although listed as fantasy, don’t be expecting any wizards, elves or things magical, it isn’t that kind of fantasy.   It’s the kind of fantasy of a completely different place with big walled cities that keep those in power nice and secure and those not in power kept well out of it, well away and firmly under the boot heel.   Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City is very much the story of the downtrodden of this world, a world ruled by people with dark blue skin, the Robur, where people with lighter skin are oppressed.

Telling this story is the colonel in charge of the Robur army’s engineers, Orhan, who, much to the chagrin of the Robur, just happens to be one of those light skinned “Milkface” types who only got the job through pure luck and because he’s very good at building bridges and fiddling the regimental accounts.

And this is the story of how Orhan suddenly finds himself in charge of defending a walled city against hoards of other pale skinned, Milkface savages on behalf of his Robur rulers.

From the very beginning one can’t help but really like Orhan.   He has a very amusing, sarastic world view fuelled by an intelligence fitting with being a military engineer, and is certainly one of the most enjoyable narrators of any story i can think of from recent memory.

As an ex army engineer myself i really got into Orhan’s attitude to it all: shouldn’t the real soldiers be doing all this horrible nasty fighting and killing stuff while we just fix and build things?

This was my first K. J. Parker/Tom Holt book and i’m certainly going to be reading more books from him.   Great style, great editing, great characters, great all round writing.

And i just found there’s a follow-up to this wonderful yarn: How To Rule An Empire and Get Away With It

K. J. Parker’s Page Tom Holt’s Page

#fantasy #kjparker

Through Time and Space — Julia Crane

By 5t4n5

Through Time and Space -- Julia CraneA fun, little re-make of Little Red Riding Hood with all the usual protagonists portrayed as Venusians being banished to Earth.

This is my first story from the anthology, Once Upon A Star, which, apparently, is all fairy tales re-told in sci-fi settings.   However, i would put Through Time and Space squarely in the fantasy genre as moving by magic from one planet is fantasy, not sci-fi.   One certainly wouldn’t put Raymond E Feist in the sci-fi category and he has plenty of rift gate planet hopping going on in his books.

I read this so i could add it to my Little Red Riding Hood collection, and, genre disputes aside, it’s a nice little addition to my fairy tale collection and worth a read for all fairy tale fans.

Julia’ Page

#fantasy #fairytale #juliacrane

Rendezvous With Rama — Arthur C. Clarke

By 5t4n5

Rendezvous With Rama -- Arthur C. ClarkeWhat’s there to say: proper, good, classic sci-fi.   As with Childhood’s End, it is well deserving of it’s place in the “SF Masterworks” series.

This time, instead of actual aliens coming to Earth and a prophecy of how humanity will eventually evolve, in Rendezvous With Rama we have a large alien vessel entering the solar system on a path that will take it inside the orbit of Mercury, around the Sun, and then, is anyone’s guess.   Will it adjust it’s trajectory, pull a breaking manouvre and find a stable orbit in the solar system, or will it use the Sun and sling shot elsewhere?   Where did it come from, who sent it, who or what is inside, what is it’s purpose?

Set in a time when humans have colonised several planets and moons in the solar system and space flight is quite normal, we have one space ship — the Endeavour, captained by a big fan of James Cook — that is able to get some fuel and rendezvous with this vessel and investigate it.   However, once the vessel has passed inside the orbit of Mercury, the Mercurians decide to take matters into their own hands and ignore what the rest of humanity has to say on the matter.

As i say, this is a proper old school sci-fi first contact story at its best and well deserving of its place as a “SF Masterworks”.

Arthur’s Page

#scifi #sfmasterworks #arthurcclarke

Finale — Stephanie Garber

By 5t4n5

Finale -- Stephanie GarberThis book is utterly intolerable.   I managed to get to 41% before i simply couldn’t take it any more.

After Legendary lead me to believe that there was hope for these two sisters, that they have grown up a bit and learned something from their previous experiences, in Finale it’s like we’ve gone back to the childish romantic stupidity of the first book, but this time it’s both sisters who are just being utterly ridiculous.

While i can accept that there are plenty of people in the world who act like these two sisters do, continuously allowing their immature, undeveloped emotions to get the better of them, they wouldn’t be able to survive in an environment like the one in these books.   No one who makes such ridiculous, pathetic, nonsensical decisions in such an environment would survive for more than 10 minutes.   So the idea that the immortal greats of the universe would fall in love with such pathetic creatures is as utterly ridiculous as these sisters are, as utterly ridiculous as Stephanie’s writing has become.

I’m not sure what audience this trilogy is aimed at, certainly not anyone who has had any life experience, certainly not anyone who enjoys good fantasy and certainly not anyone who thinks Night Circus is good.   If you enjoyed Night Circus, if you like good fantasy, or if you’ve had any life experience at all, stay away from the Caraval trilogy, it’s woeful.

I’m certainly glad i only paid 99p for each book in Kindle deals: i’d be rather grumpy if i’d paid the full asking price for these.

It’s so bad i simply don’t care how this all ends as i simply can’t read any more of this rubbish.   I’ll be deleting all three books from my Kindle and my Amazon account as i certainly won’t be finishing this one or reading the other two ever again.

Deleted

Stephanie’s Page

#fantasy #stephaniegarber #whataloadofcrap

Legendary — Stephanie Garber

By 5t4n5

Legendary -- Stephanie GarberWell this book is definitely much better than Caraval, mostly due to the fact that Scarlett gets a back seat in this book while her sister, Tella, gets to play the game.

But is it a game, or is it real this time.   The line between fact and fiction begin to blur until Tella isn’t sure what’s real or who to trust any more.   And the reader experiences this through Tella’s mind, leaving the reader guessing as well.

Even now the book’s ended i still wouldn’t like to say what’s really going on or who or what is real or not.

And so i shall dive straight into book 3, Finale, to hopefully find out what the true ending is — or maybe not.

Please see my review for Finale as i have now moved all three books to “The Deleted” and removed them all from my Amazon account.

Stephanie’s Page

#fantasy #stephaniegarber #whataloadofcrap

Caraval — Stephanie Garber

By 5t4n5

Caraval -- Stephanie GarberThis book has to have one of the most annoying protagonists that i’ve ever come across: Scarlett comes across as a totally spoiled brat in so many ways.   All her life she’s wanted to go to Caraval and when she gets the chance she doesn’t want to, instead, she’d rather marry a complete stranger that she’s never met and force her sister to go with her to wherever it is she doesn’t know she’ll be going when she eventually weds this complete stranger.

And so we have to put up with Scarlett’s whining for most of the book as she’s kidnapped and forced to play Caraval in order to get her sister back who’s also been kidnapped.   One would think that if she cared so much about her sister she’d stop all the moaning and complaining and get on with the game in order to get her sister back, but no, not Scarlett, let’s have never ending tantrums instead.

But one shouldn’t allow one character to define a whole book, even if she is the main protagonist.   Plenty of books have the most cringeworthy of characters yet are still brilliant.   At the end of the story, other than Scarlett’s incessant whining, complaining and spoiled brat tantrums, this is a very good book and a great story that one can’t help but continue reading through to the very end — which i won’t spoil.

I’d probably put this book on a shelf between The Night Circus and Ready Player One, as the game Scarlett is forced to play is quite similar to the game in Ready Player One but instead of the virtual on-line thing it’s more like the environment in The Night Circus with the travelling magical carnival style thing.

Undoubtedly, Stephanie is a very good writer and keeps the story moving along at an enjoyably good pace all the way through, and when you get to the end you’ll be left wanting to dive straight into Legendary for more: at least i was.   Although i do admit, i’m hoping that Scarlett has learned to stop all the whining and complaining.

So yeah, i would have given it 5/5 but because Scarlett was so bloody annoying i’m left giving it 4/5 just because of her.   The rest of the story is very enjoyable.

Please see my review for Finale as i have now moved all three books to “The Deleted” and removed them all from my Amazon account.

Stephanie’s Page

#fantasy #stephaniegarber #whataloadofcrap