A fun post-apocalyptic short story. Nothing gorey or nasty, i would even say it’s suitable for children.
Originally only available to Joseph’s Patreon subscribers but now also in the collection Paradoxes and Dragons.
Category: Reviewed
Electric Jungle — James K. Pratt
A delightful little collection of short stories that i got for free in one of those BookFunnel promotions.
At the time of writing this — March 2020 — James was still giving this away in BookFunnel promotions, so if you want a copy then maybe email James and ask nicely. It’s definitely worth sending an email, just tell him you were reading this and i told you to. LOL
James’ Page
#scifi #jameskpratt
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom — Cory Doctorow
Published a year after Altered Carbon this book takes a lot of the re-sleeving ideas from Richard’s book and instead of placing them into the realm of super warriors, criminals, etc.; Cory puts them into a future Disney Land theme park in an alternative dystopian future.
Having very much enjoyed Altered Carbon, i was left quite disappointed by the sequels, especially Woken Furies, and so it was rather nice to find a story like Cory’s that took some of the best ideas of Altered Carbon and spun them into a new Earth-side future that we can all begin to relate to because we’ve all heard of these real places.
No, this isn’t the blood and gore fest that Altered Carbon was, and neither does it have the amazing future-sex-drugs thing — they’re still smoking crack from crack pipes FFS. 
But it does have the murder mystery and the loss of the intervening memories between back up and re-sleeving that Altered Carbon does, all wrapped around who gets to control various Disney Land attractions.
So yeah, if you’ve read any other Cory Doctorow books and enjoyed them then do give this a go, and also, if you enjoyed Altered Carbon, i’d bet a few pennies that you’ll enjoy this also, albeit a very much tamed down version.
There’s also a follow up novella: Truncat.
Cory’s Page
#scifi #cyberpunk #dystopian #corydoctorow
Pan — Christopher Ruz
Another Peter Pan spin off that’s rather similar to Lost Boy.
Pan was first published in January 2016 as a short story for Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine whereas Lost Boy was published in July 2017, which is curious: was Pan the catalyst for Lost Boy?
But, whatever, glad to have them both as they’re both definite must reads for all fans of Peter Pan and things Neverland, and Pan definitely deserves a place in the “Peter Pan and Neverland” hall of fame.
Christopher’s Page
#jmbarrie #peterpan #fantasy #christopherruz
The Travelling Cat Chronicles — Hiro Arikawa
So yeah, i love cats and i love most things Japanese, so eventually i had to get around to pulling this out of “The Pile” and reading it.
It’s one of those books that one just flies through, and i was always eager to dive back into it whenever i got a few moments spare.
Nana, a street cat, is our wonderful narrator, who gives us a delightful cat’s eye view of Satoru’s world as he drives around Japan visiting each of his childhood friends trying to get one of them to adopt Nana before he dies, but Nana has other ideas and is determined to stay with Satoru until the very end.
It’s through this cat’s eye view, and through each childhood friend we visit, that we get to learn, bit by bit, about Satoru’s life: a life of tragedy, loss and grief, and how these things shaped Satoru. I think i’d put it on the shelf with The Little Paris Bookshop, also a well written book about tragedy, loss and grief with some cats in it.
Yes folks, a definite must read for anyone who likes cats.
Warning: you may get a little soggy eyed at the end — cats can do that to you.
Hiro’s Page
#japan #hiroarikawa
The Monitor — Paul Heingarten
It was free, it wasn’t going to take up much of my time, so i thought i’d give it a read.
I wouldn’t call it bad in any way, but at the same time it doesn’t come across as good either. It’s just another one of those beige, average sci-fi short stories that you sometimes read to fill in an hour or so — a bit like a sudoku puzzle. Ergo — 3/5 stars.
Paul’s Page
#dystopian #paulheingarten
The Tea Master and the Detective — Aliette de Bodard
I 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
A 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
The 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
The Children of Hameln — Brothers Grimm
Not so much a fairy tale, more of a historic magazine article.
Worth a read though as it sets the stage for all later Pied Piper stories.
Click on picture for PDF file that’s a good sized font for reading on a Kindle.