Tag: #scifi

Laisrathera — M. C. A. Hogarth

By 5t4n5

Laisrathera -- M. C. A. HogarthThis is a super good book and builds on the first two books perfectly: yeah, you guessed it, it all kicks off with the Eldritch.

It appears that when you get to book 4, A Rose Point Holiday, that it fits in just before the Epilogue at the end of Laisrathera, so you may wish to pause this book at that point and read the fourth book and then come back to the Epilogue: your choice, as always.

All said and read: great writing, great pacing, great characters, just all round good sci-fi with a nice hint of fantasy tropes courtesy of the Eldritch.

And as with the first two books, i’m going to dive straight into the next book, A Rose Point Holiday.   I think it says a lot for a book series when you just pile straight through all the books without any inbetweenie reads.

M. C. A. Hogarth’s Page

#scifi #mcahogarth

Rose Point — M. C. A. Hogarth

By 5t4n5

Rose Point -- M. C. A. HogarthI dived straight into this after Earthrise and just like Earthrise, i really enjoyed it.

This time we go off around the galaxy with our intrepid crew starting with a strange planet that breeds horses where Hirianthial is kidnapped (again) and because of complications from that we then have to go to the world of the Eldritch where we begin to find out what they’re all about and why they’re so secretive.   Yes folks, lots of secrets, Queens, castles, nefarious plots and everything needed to spice it all up.   It seems the Queen has big plans for Reese, but are Reese and the crew ready for the world of the Eldritch and is the world of the Eldritch ready for Reese and the crew?

All good stuff.   These are big long books that really give value for money and, without pause, i’m diving straight into Laisrathera.

M. C. A. Hogarth’s Page

#scifi #mcahogarth

Earthrise — M. C. A. Hogarth

By 5t4n5

Earthrise -- M. C. A. HogarthSuper duper stuff.

If you enjoyed Firefly then this should be quite up your alley.   However, unlike Firefly we don’t just have humans, we are set in a far distant future where humans have made genetically modified people mixed with cats and other creatures.   So now we have cat people who can’t stop wanting to have sex with any humanoid that comes within sight, griffins, centaurs, advanced mind reading Elven types and other things besides — all on spaceships and stuff.

And there’s pirates and slavers and some nice police/military types that actually help normal people (it’s a strange future when the police/military types are actually helping the good guys).

A very good start to this tetralogy and i’m now off into the second book, Rose Point, for more fun adventures with our bizarre and wonderfully strange mix of crew mates.

M. C. A. Hogarth’s Page

#scifi #mcahogarth

Before the Coffee Gets Cold — Toshikazu Kawaguchi

By 5t4n5

Before the Coffee Gets Cold -- Toshikazu KawaguchiSomewhere in Tokyo there’s a tiny basement cafe with no windows, three clocks telling different times, Mocha coffee, and has a special seat with a ghost that sits in it reading a book while drinking said coffee.   Once a day the ghost needs to go to the toilet and while she’s away from the seat anyone who sits in it can be served a coffee and travel back in time: but there are rules.

Rule 1: nothing you do in the past will ever change the present.
Rule 2: you cannot leave the seat.
Rule 3: you can only meet people who were in the cafe at the time you go back to.
Rule 4: you only get to use the seat once, no second chances.
Rule 5: you must finish the coffee before it gets cold.

If you don’t drink the coffee before it gets cold you become a ghost.   It doesn’t say whether you replace the existing ghost or if that’s how the existing ghost came to be, just best not let the coffee get cold.

The book is divided into 4 chapters, each with it’s own time travel escapade.   The character list is quite small as it only involves the staff and customers of the cafe — which is a very small cafe — this gives us a much more intimate relationship with each of them and their problems.

As the book builds so does the emotional level of each journey, getting deeper and deeper until the very last journey which i found to be quite a damper of ones eyeballs.

The main point of these stories seems to be that if you could go through time to meet someone but meeting them wouldn’t change a thing in the present what exactly would be the point?   This is where most temporal sci-fi falls flat on its face because we always get to the paradox of you wouldn’t have gone back in time if you changed the reason for going back in the first place: this book doesn’t make those temporal mistakes.

All in all, very enjoyable and emotionally moving.

My only gripe: why’s there a cat on the cover when there isn’t a cat in the book?

And the journeys don’t end in this book, there’s a sequel, Tales from the Cafe, which has another 4 characters and their respective journeys in time: maybe the cat gets a mention in this.   I’ll be sure to write a review when i get around to reading it.

Toshikazu’s Page

#scifi #japan #toshikazukawaguchi

Guinea Pig Apocalypse — De Kenyon

By 5t4n5

Guinea Pig Apocalypse -- De KenyonDe Kenyon is the name DeAnna Knippling publishes her children’s books under and Deanna sent out a free copy of this in her newsletter.   Normally i wouldn’t bother with some random children’s book, but i’ve enjoyed DeAnna’s grown up books and the title of this intrigued me.   When i read the synopsis and found out that it was about squirrels taking over the world, i just had to give it a go.

To begin, if you’re a grown up and wanting something grown up to read then move along, this ain’t for you.   But if you’re like me and occasionally like a bit of silly sci-fi-ish stuff to keep us young at heart then this may be just what you’re looking for.   Note: when i say silly i mean good, fun silly, not stupid silly.

Basically, it’s about a young boy, Galileo, whose parents are mad scientists who make a replicator that makes guinea pigs out of sewage.   What they don’t realise is that it’s all part of the squirrels’ big bad plan to take over the world by using said guinea pigs to wipe out all the humans — because, as we all known, squirrels are the most evil creatures on the planet.

I have absolutely no idea if this book is suitable for a child near you, you’ll have to read it yourself first: go on, you know you want to.

I would probably aim it at around 10-11 year old but don’t quote me on that cause i’m useless at guessing these things.

All in all, i quite enjoyed it, but then i enjoy some good, fun silly now and again.

De’s Page

#scifi #dekenyon