Category: Aa

All the Retros at the New Cotton Club — DeAnna Knippling

By 5t4n5

All the Retros at the New Cotton Club -- DeAnna KnipplingA free book that i received when i signed up to the Wonderland Press newsletter.   I think you get a different free book now so you’ll have to go to Amazon and buy it now.

This is my first book by DeAnna and i was delightfully impressed with it.   Although it’s just a short little novella, it does allow you to sit quietly for an hour or so and read the whole book, quite easily in one sitting, with a cup of coffee and slice of cake — or whatever your reading thing is.

If you’re into the AI/VR stuff with downloaded/uploaded human minds (a bit like what goes on in Altered Carbon) then you’ll most probably really enjoy this.

I do hope that DeAnna writes some more stuff in this sci-fi arena: the New Cotton Club seems like a wonderful playground for many more literary adventures.

Wonderful stuff for a freebee, but worth paying for as well.

DeAnna’s Page

#scifi #deannaknippling

Jeff Wayne’s The War of The Worlds — H. G. Wells

By 5t4n5

Jeff Wayne's The War of The Worlds -- H. G. WellsWooohooo….   finally, an audiobook gets to make an appearance on Kindleworm, whatever next?

If you go to Audible you get a 30 day free trial and you’re allowed to keep the audiobook you chose.   I chose this because i remember the original Jeff Wayne double album from years gone by; yeah, real vinyl played on a record player and all that — showing my age here.   Anyway, i got this because i thought it was like a super extended full story version of that.

It’s a bit of an annoyance as you can only listen to it using the “Audible App”, but you can still listen to your audio book after you cancel your free trial membership as long as you keep the app cluttering up your chosen device.

So onto the review:

As i said above, i got this because i really liked the original version from way back in the long ago and i genuinely thought that this was a super extended version of that, but it isn’t.

It’s a completely redone thing with different actors — sorry ladies, no David Essex on this one . . .

WTF!!!

And worse of all, there’s none of the original music.   No songs whatosever.   Just crappy remade, piecemeal versions of the original music playing in the background and foreground far too occasionally — and, worse of all, without any lyrics whatsoever.

Sadly, i’m very disappointed with the whole thing.   It’s basically a simple radio play of the book with some mood music thrown in.

It would have been superb if the original double album had been built up with the full story, but alas, it wasn’t to be.

So my first attempt at an audio book, after all these years of resistance, has ended in woe.

Final thoughts: if you enjoyed and loved the original version you’ll probably not like this at all — especially if you liked, loved, or had a schoolgirl/boy crush on, David Essex.

H. G. Wells’s Page

#scifi #hgwells

Halfax — Joseph R. Lallo

By 5t4n5

Halfax -- Joseph R. LalloAnother addition to The Book of Deacon series.

This novella takes up the story after the events of Jade when Myn has gotten a little older, and i admit that i did have hopes that we may have found some of the answers to the questions that Jade had left festering in my mind: alas it was not to be.

Answers aside though, it’s a well written novella set in one of my favourite series, so i’m not complaining too much about being kept in the dark.   I’m sure Joseph will get around to filling in all the blanks for us in some future books.

Joseph’s Page

#fantasy #josephrlallo

It Does Not Follow — Joseph R. Lallo

By 5t4n5

It Does Not Follow -- Joseph R. LalloA short story that is a conversation between a scientist and an AI — with an interesting twist in the tail.

For those who have read Joseph’s Big Sigma series, you’ll know how good he is writing AI’s into his books.

Originally only available to Joseph’s Patreon subscribers but now also in the collection Paradoxes and Dragons.

Joseph’s Page

#scifi #josephrlallo

Obsidian Worlds — Jason Werbeloff

By 5t4n5

Obsidian Worlds -- Jason WerbeloffI only recently discovered Jason’s writing and i have to say that i’m really enjoying it.

Obsidian Worlds is a whole book full of short stories about random sci-fi things which i chose to read as inbetweenies between chapters of How Emotions Are Made.   It worked out really well giving nice little breaks to allow Lisa’s cutting edge science to percolate through my synapses, although, unfortunately, there aren’t enough shorts in this collection to cover all the chapters in Lisa’s book.   Ho hum, i’ll just have to find some other shorts to read.

So yeah, Jason has a Phd in philosophy and i think that kinda adds a certain flavour to Jason’s sci-fi, and i do like philosophers who chose to write stories instead of academic papers — much more fun for all of us.

Other philosophers who write stories that i recommend would be Aldous Huxley and Pascal Mercier.

Your Averaged Joe
The Cryo Killer
Falling for Q46F
Visiting Grandpa’s Brain
The Photons in the Cheese Are Lost
The Time-Traveling Chicken Sexer
The Man with Two Legs
F**king Through the Apocalypse
Bleed Me Silicone
Dinner with Flexi
The Experience Machine

Jason’s Page

#scifi #cyberpunk #jasonwerbeloff

Gubbins and the ‘Munculus — Gaie Sebold

By 5t4n5

Gubbins and the 'Munculus -- Gaie SeboldA freebie over at the Fox Spirit website and a nice little taster of Gaie’s writing.

A really good twist on the sorcerer’s apprentice kind of theme, where instead of an apprentice we find that Gubbins is a slave.

“What’s a ‘Munculus?” you ask.

“Read it and find out,” i answer.

And then go and read Babylon Steel and Dangerous Gifts, coz Gaie is a damn good fantasy writer.

Gaie’s Page

#fantasy #gaiesebold

The Burning Wheel — Aldous Huxley

By 5t4n5

The Burning Wheel -- Aldous HuxleyAldous started out writing as a poet and this is his first ever book.

While there were a couple of poems in this that i could get my head around, for the most part it was all a bit too much above my 21st century head: mostly not my kind of poetry.   I would class Aldous’ early poetry as very much ringing the death knell of the Victorian upper classes.

For those of us who have been enamoured by Aldous’ later writing, it’s quite interesting to come back to the very beginning and do Aldous chronologically.

Final thoughts: not my cup of tea but you might enjoy it if you’re into pretentious poetry with lots of words that you have to look up.

Aldous’ Page

#poetry #aldoushuxley

The Camille — Colby R. Rice

By 5t4n5

The Camille -- Colby R. RiceThis novella is titled as ‘Til Dolls Do Us Part on Colby’s website and Colby says it is the first episode in what i hope will be a rather long series.

Set in 2054 when nano technology and AI has taken over most things and even the nano technology is intelligent.

As this is a novella don’t expect too much, but it’s certainly a great taster for what may be coming from Colby in the future.   That being said, it can also be read as a stand alone if you’re just wanting something quick to read.

Colby is a great writer and really keeps your attention once you start reading.   Do check out her other books.

Also available in the 2054 anthology.

Colby’s Page

#scifi #cyberpunk #colbyrrice

Shadow of the Colossus — Nicole Grotepas

By 5t4n5

Shadow of the Colossus -- Nicole GrotepasI had hopes that this final book in the series would redeem the waste of my time reading the previous three, but sadly, it didn’t.

The fight scene on Paradise: five gangsters who are supposed to be killing Holly and her crew turn up with just one pistol between them, and then the one with the gun decides to engage in an infantile name-calling match instead of shooting people while Odeon simply walks up to him and knocks him out with a stick.   The realism is woeful.

Utterly abysmal ending: Holly’s at a party at the club, dancing, and then suddenly she wakes up having been flown to a different moon after being mysteriously kidnapped from the club in front of all the guests and the rest of the gang.   Really?   And then, enter her kidnapper: Oh, so you’re the Heart?   Yes, you want to join me?   No, i’ll never join you.   Ok, bye then.   Finish.   The end.   WTF?

We get no explanation as to how Holly was kidnapped and appears the next day on a different moon.   Nicole just leaves a huge gap because it’s just so utterly implausible you couldn’t write anything remotely believable.

Pathetic.

We start these four books being lead to believe that the Shadow Coalition were the most fearful organised crime gang in the solar system, yet every time we encounter them they show themselves to be the most stupid, inept, idiots in the solar system.

The worse thing about all this is that the story and Holly’s crew had such potential to become something really good, but instead it all just petered off, book by book, until we’re left with an ending in this book that amounts to nothing but a writer demonstrating that they just couldn’t be bothered.

And, just to add insult to all the injury, there hasn’t been any steampunk whatsoever.   Why is Nicole advertising this as a steampunk space thing when there’s no steampunk?

I won’t be reading any more of Nicole’s books.

Nicole’s Page

#scifi #nicolegrotepas