Category: Reviewed

The Girl who Leapt Through Time — Yasutaka Tsutsui

By 5t4n5

The Girl who Leapt Through Time -- Yasutaka TsutsuiThere’s two short stories in this book and i’ll review each of them separately below.

The Girl who Leapt Through Time

A short while ago i read The Maid, which was my first trip into the writing of Yasutaka, and i thoroughly enjoyed it: so much that i decided to collect every book of his i could find and read them in published order.   And so i began with The Girl who Leapt Through Time from 1967.

What doesn’t get a mention when approaching this book is that it’s a children’s book, i would perhaps place it around 11-12 year old level, so that’s something to bear in mind if you do decide to read it.

So it’s very simple writing and a rather simple story about some children having a bit of a crazy time with time travel and teleportation.   I felt the best thing about this was it’s simplicity in it’s writing because as an adult you don’t have to think about anything and can just breeze along with the story itself, and it’s quite a good little story.

So yeah, i’m more than happy to have come back to Yasutaka’s earliest book that’s so far been translated into English.   Definitely worth a read if you’re a fan of his writing, or if you just want a quick and easy read of some temporal sci-fi.

The Stuff that Nightmares Are Made of

This is quite a different story to the previous one.   Once again, it’s another children’s book, but this time dealing with the theme of repressed trauma manifesting as unexplained fears.

Although it’s a book for children, i do feel that there’s a few things for most adults to learn here as well, especially parents, whose words and actions can create all kinds of unintended consequences for children.

And that’s me done with this book.   The Maid was next in the original publishing time line of Yasutaka’s translated books, but i already read that, so next up will be Paprika, which i hope to get around to reading some time soon as i’m really enjoying Yasutaka’s writing.

Yasutaka’s Page

#japan #scifi #yasutakatsutsui

A Change of Heart — Gaie Sebold

By 5t4n5

A Change of Heart -- Gaie SeboldIn the anthology, Wicked Women.

A quick trip to visit Babylon Steel, yeah, you remember her.

Sadly it’s just a short, but us Babylon Steel fans will take any words we can get from Gaie on this wonderful character.

This time Babylon takes on a necromancer, or two.

Super good, but just so wish Gaie would write a few more Babylon Steel novels.

Gaie’s Page

#fantasy #gaiesebold

Beyond the Aquila Rift — Alastair Reynolds

By 5t4n5

Beyond the Aquila Rift -- Alastair ReynoldsAvailable in the collections, Beyond the Aquila Rift, Zima Blue and Other Stories and the anthology, Love, Death + Robots: Volume One.

Another one of Alastairs moments playing with life suspension while in space flight.   For those who have read all of the Revelation Space series you’ll know that this can cause really fucked up dreams and states of mind when you’re coming back out of suspension.   Mix this state of mind with a spacers’ rumour that one day you’ll go so far you’ll end up beyond the Aquila Rift and you can really get a good head fuck going: with a nice twist at the end as well.

And the next book in Alastair’s publishing order will be Zima Blue.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

Skin Magic — P. Djèlí Clark

By 5t4n5

Skin Magic -- P. Djèlí ClarkYou can find this in the anthology, Griots: Sword and Soul.

I was hoping for more of the similar and i wasn’t disappointed.

Once again we’re thrown right into North-African/Middle-Eastern folk lore kind of stuff with Djèlí’s incredible writing that just keeps dragging you along without a pause.

Djèlí’s writing is so refreshing, and i’m so looking forward to reading many more of his stories in the future.

Next up in the Djèlí timeline is Ghost Marriage.

P. Djèlí Clark’s Page

#fantasy #pdjeliclark

Troika — Alastair Reynolds

By 5t4n5

Troika -- Alastair ReynoldsOriginally published in Godlike Machines, and also available in the collection, Beyond the Aquila Rift.

The story starts with an escapee from a mental hospital in Siberia desperately trying to reach the local town.

The escapee was one of three cosmonauts sent to investigate an alien vessel that had appeared in the solar system years before.

The story bounces back and forth between the escapee trying to reach someone in town and when he was a cosmonaut at the alien vessel.

Quite a good twist in the tail of this one as well.

Another good novella from Alastair, a master of short fiction as well as the super long stuff too.

Next up on Alastair’s timeline will be Sleepover.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

Terminal World — Alastair Reynolds

By 5t4n5

Terminal World -- Alastair ReynoldsA rather strange mix of steampunk and sci-fi with a hint of fantasy thrown in.   All in all, a rather good mix.

This is another one of Alastair’s trilogy in a single novel book, so if you aren’t in for a long haul then don’t bother.   But if you don’t mind a thousand Kindle Loc points of reading to get through this’ll keep you going.

While i didn’t find it anything like the normal page turners that Alastair generally puts out, i did keep coming back to it twice a day for a little read and soon got through it.

So, while not the greatest thing that Alastair has ever written, and personally wishing he’d just stick to the sci-fi that he’s so brilliant at, it’s still a fairly good read.

Next book in Alastair’s timeline is Troika.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

Inhibitor Phase — Alastair Reynolds

By 5t4n5

Inhibitor Phase -- Alastair ReynoldsIt had been a bit of a wait since Galactic North but now that Inhibitor Phase has arrived, was it worth the wait?

Well, ok, i’m gonna get my rant out of the way before i go any further.

To begin, we find ourselves on one of the few remaining human colonies that the Inhibitors haven’t got to, that of Sun Hollow.   We’re lead to believe that the people of Sun Hollow live inside a star scoured planet where resources are incredibly tight and the struggle to survive is always right on the edge.

Ok, that’s fair enough.

So why, oh why, oh why the fuck, does Alastair have to put sheep farming into this already over-stretched and under-resourced ecosystem?   This is the most imbecilic thing that is possible to write into this situation.   Where, for a start, do the sheep get their feed from?   Surely, if there are resources enough to keep a viable gene pool of sheep going just so these idiots can taste mutton every day then Sun Hollow must be a paradise to live with resources and space aplenty.

I put the question to anyone who disagrees with me: how many calories of plant foods does it take to make a calorie of mutton?

And as there is absolutely no nutritional need for Homo sapiens, or any other monkey/ape to eat dead animals, why would the people of Sun Hollow be throwing good plant food (that humans do need to eat) away like this?

Yes, Alastair, you screwed up royally on this one.

Anyway, rant over.

The rest of the book is good though, picking up after the events upon Hela that we left off in Absolution Gap, we get to meet Scorpio and Aura again with a new bunch of interesting characters thrown into the mix.

And best of all is that the ending certainly leaves things well and truly open for further books in the series: which i do look forward to as long as Alastair realises that there is no place for animal agriculture in the future of humanity because Homo sapiens have no nutritional needs that can be met by eating dead animals, and animal agriculture is the biggest contributor to environmental destruction on the planet Earth so it certainly won’t be part of any future space colonies that we set up, unless we want them to fail miserably.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds