Tag: sci-fi

February 2021 Wrap Up

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Well, this was a very successful month for me. I didn’t read as many books as last month but I really enjoyed the ones I did read. I also read my first 5 star novel this month which was amazing.

  • I read 5 books this month.
  • I continued with all my challenges.
  • Genre: I read 2 classic murder mysteries, 1 sci-fi and 2 fantasy.
  • Gender of authors: 4 by women and 1 was by a variety of authors.
  • Race of authors: 2 white, 2 asian and 1 was by a variety of authors.
  • Age range: I read 4 adult and 1 I was not sure of the age range.
  • Format: I read 2 paperbacks, 1 ebooks and 1 manga.

Death Going Down – Maria Angelica Bosco (2.5 stars)

So, this was my first step into Argentinian Literature, I read this novel as part of the ONTD Reading Challenge. I found it to be a really easy read. The novel didn’t blow me away but I still enjoyed reading it and I would consider reading more of Bosco’s novels.

Lord Edgware Dies – Agatha Christie (4 stars)

This was a solid addition to her series. While it wasn’t as good as some of her other work I still had a great time reading it. I read this book as part of my sequels challenge and I do hope to read the next book in her series before the end of the year. I found that I enjoyed Hastings the most in this book out of all the others books he’s been in. He felt like a great sidekick to Poirot where in other books he’s been a liability to him.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Manga – Akira Himekawa (4 stars)

I have read some mangas before but they had all be apart of the same series. So, this was the first time I had tried a completely different author. I felt that this was a solid adaptation from a video game which had so much content and I really enjoyed the art style. I did wish that some of the dungeons are expanded upon in the manga and I found that some of the pages were too busy but it didn’t ruin my enjoyment.

Star Wars: From A Certain Point of View – Various Authors (3 stars)

I don’t read many short story anthologies but I was really interested in reading these stories set in the Star Wars universe. I decided to rate each story out of 5 and then average out the scores for my overall rating. Overall, I loved how creative and imaginative the authors were and how they could get me invested in this new characters in just a handful of pages!!!

The Poppy War – R.F. Kuang – (5 stars)

This was the book I was most anxious for! I had seen such great things from this trilogy and I desperately wanted to enjoy as much as everyone else did. Thankfully, I loved it! Such amazing world-building, I was super invested in the main character Rin and I was just so connected to the story. I believe this book to be a must read if you want to read more fantasy!

The Phlebotomist Review

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In a near future where citizens are subject to the mandatory blood draw, government phlebotomist Willa Wallace witnesses an event that makes her question her whole world. To recover from a cataclysmic war, the Harvest was created to pass blood to those affected by radiation. But this charitable act has led to a society segregated entirely by blood type. Patriot thanks and rewards your generous gift based on the compatibility of your donation, meaning that whoever can give to the most, gets the most back. While working as a reaper for the draw, Willa chances upon an idea to resurrect an obsolete collection technique that could rebalance the city. But in her quest to put this in motion, she instead uncovers a secret that threatens her entire foundations…

Station Eleven Review

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Set in the days of civilization’s collapse, Station Eleven tells the story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity. One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve. Moving back and forth in time—from the actor’s early days as a film star to fifteen years in the future, when a theater troupe known as the Traveling Symphony roams the wasteland of what remains—this suspenseful, elegiac, spellbinding novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people: the actor, the man who tried to save him, the actor’s first wife, his oldest friend, and a young actress with the Traveling Symphony, caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet.

The Last Review

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Jon Keller was on a trip to Switzerland when the world ended. More than anything he wishes he hadn’t ignored his wife Nadia’s last message. Twenty people remain in Jon’s hotel. Far from the nearest city, they wait, they survive. Then one day, the body of a girl is found. It’s clear she has been murdered. Which means that someone in the hotel is a killer… As paranoia descends, Jon decides to investigate. But how far is he willing to go in pursuit of justice? And what happens if the killer doesn’t want to be found?

Have I Read? NPR’s Top 100 Fantasy and Sci-fi

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So this post was completely inspired by MeltingPage’s post of the same name. I just really loved the idea, I thought it would be fun!

So there is a bit of a key to this task.

  • Bold titles means I have read the book.
  • Titles in italics denotes book/series I am currently reading.
  • Underlined titles denotes books I would like to read eventually but don’t own.
  • A single asterix (*) denotes books I own and plan to read.

So, let’s get into it. I will give a bit of info along the way.

  1. The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R Tolkien
    Got to be honest here. I read The Hobbit and absoutley loved it. I also read The Fellowship of the Ring and wasn’t as fussed about it, I struggled with the pacing a lot. Finally, I read The Two Towers but I couldn’t finish it. The pacing was so slow and even the action sequences couldn’t get me into the story.
  2. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
  3. Ender’s Games – Orson Scott Card
  4. The Dune Chronicles – Frank Herbert
  5. A Song of Ice and Fire series – George R.R. Martin
  6. 1984 – George Orwell
  7. Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
  8. The Foundation Trilogy – Isaac Asimov
  9. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
  10. American Gods – Neil Gaiman*
  11. The Princess Bride – William Goldman
    I read this book due to the movie. I plan on re-reading this book next year as I unintentionally DNFed it. I didn’t consciously decide to DNF it but I was reading multiple books at that time and I left it for too long. So I want to re-read it and a bunch of other DNF’s.
  12. The Wheel of Time Series – Robert Jordan
    I am currently reading The Eye of the World and I am loving it. It is taking more time than I anticipated, due to my Netgalley reads, but I am still loving it. I am also listening to the Wheel Weaves podcast which is a great spoiler-free companion podcast.
  13. Animal Farm – George Orwell
    I read this for school and enjoyed it. Wasn’t my favourite story but still enjoyable.
  14. Neuromancer – William Gibson
  15. Watchmen – Alan Moore
  16. I, Robot – Isaac Asimov
  17. Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert A. Heinlein
  18. The Kingkiller Chronicles – Patrick Rothfuss
  19. Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut
  20. Frankenstein – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
  21. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Phillip K. Dick
  22. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
  23. The Dark Tower series – Stephen King
  24. 2001: An Space Odyssey – Arthur C. Clarke
  25. The Stand – Stephen King
  26. Snow Crash – Neal Stephenson
  27. The Martian Chronicles – Ray Bradbury
  28. Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut
  29. The Sandman Series – Neil Gaiman
  30. A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
  31. Starship Troopers – Robert A. Heinlein
  32. Watership Down – Richard Adams
  33. Dragonflight – Anne McCaffery
  34. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress – Robert A. Heinlein
  35. A Canticle for Leibowitz – Walter M. Miller Jr.
  36. The Time Machine – H.G. Wells
  37. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – Jules Verne
  38. Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes
  39. The War of the Worlds – H.G Wells
  40. The Amber Chronicles – Roger Zelazny
  41. The Belgariad – David Eddings
  42. The Mists of Avalon – Marion Zimmer Bradley
  43. The Mistborn Trilogy – Brandon Sanderson
    So I put this title in italics and underlined. It’s in italics as I am currently reading the series. I read The Final Empire earlier this year and loved it. But it’s underlined as I don’t own the next two books.
  44. Ringworld – Larry Niven
  45. The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. Le Guin
  46. The Silmarillion – J.K.K Tolkien
  47. The Once and Future King – T.H White
  48. Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman
  49. Childhood’s End – Arthur C. Clarke
  50. Contact – Carl Sagan
  51. The Hyperion Cantos – Dan Simmons
  52. Stardust – Neil Gaiman
    Very similar situation to The Princess Bride, an unintentional DNF. I also read this book after watching the movie. I read this at the beginning of the year and I did not enjoy it.
  53. Cryptonomicon – Neal Stehenson
  54. World War Z – Max Brooks
  55. The Last Unicorn – Peter S. Beagle
  56. The Forever War – Joe Haldeman
  57. Small Gods – Terry Pratchett
    Very similar to the Mistborn series. I am currently reading the series only on book 5. But I don’t own any of the unread books.
  58. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever – Stephen R. Donaldson
  59. The Vorkosigan Saga – Lois McMaster Bujold
  60. Going Postal – Terry Pratchett
  61. The Mote in the God’s Eye – Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
  62. The Sword of Truth series – Terry Goodkind
  63. The Road – Cormac McCarthy
  64. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell – Susanna Clarke
  65. I Am Legend – Richard Matheson
  66. The Riftwar Saga – Raymond E. Feist
  67. The Sword of Shannara Trilogy – Terry Brooks
  68. The Conan the Barbarian series – Robert E. Howard and Mark Schultz
  69. The Farseer Trilogy – Robin Hobb
  70. The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
  71. The Way of Kings – Brandon Sanderson
  72. Journey to the Centre of the Earth – Jules Verne
  73. The Legend of Drizzt series – R.A. Salvatore
  74. Old Man’s War – John Scalzi
  75. The Diamond Age – Neal Stephenson
  76. Rendevous with Rama – Arthur C. Clarke
  77. The Kushiel’s Legacy Series – Jacqueline Grey
  78. The Dispossessed – Ursula K. LeGuin
  79. Something Wicked This Way Comes – Ray Bradbury
  80. Wicked – Gregory Maguire
    I DNFed this one. I wasn’t a fan of the writing style and the pacing was very slow.
  81. Malazan Book of the Fallen Series – Steven Erikson
  82. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
  83. The Culture series by Ian Banks
  84. The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart
  85. Anathem by Neal Stephenson
  86. The Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher
  87. The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
  88. The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn
  89. The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon
  90. The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock
  91. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
  92. Sunshine by Robin McKinley
  93. A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
  94. The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
  95. The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson
  96. Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
  97. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
  98. Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
  99. The Xanth Series by Piers Anthony
  100. The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis

Just a small post for the weekend 🙂

The House of Night and Chain Review

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In a bleak corner of the city of Valgaast, the House of Malveil awaits. A place of darkness, its halls throb with a sinister history. Its rooms are filled with malice. Its walls echo with pain. Now it stirs eagerly with the approach of an old heir. Colonel Maeson Strock of the Astra Militarum has returned home to his ancestral mansion. He is a man broken, both by the horrors of war and by personal loss, and has come home to take up the mantle of Planetary Governor. He hopes he can purge his home world of political corruption and reforge connections with his estranged children. He hopes he can rebuild his life. Malveil will feast on these dreams. Strock believes he has seen the worst of the galaxy’s horrors. Malveil will show him how wrong he is.

A brillaint horror story set in the world of Warhammer 40,000. Click the title to read more.

Requiem Infernal Review

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On a distant world, an obscure order of the Adepta Sororitas study their founder’s visions. They live in solitude… which is about to be broken as danger approaches. The Adepta Sororitas of the Last Candle have stood vigil over their sanctuary world for centuries, striving to decipher their founder’s tormented visions. Outsiders are unwelcome… yet still they come. Decimated by an encounter with a lethal xenos entity, the survivors of an elite Astra Militarum company have journeyed to the Candleworld in search of healing, escorted by a woman who is no stranger there – Sister Hospitaller Asenath Hyades, who turned her back on the order decades ago. As the seekers near the sect’s bastion, malign forces begin to stir among the planet’s storm-wracked spires, but the most insidious shadows lie in their own souls.

My very first Warhammer 40k novel, this is making me wnat to read more!

Mortal Engines Review

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  • Author: Phillip Reeve
  • Series: Mortal Engines Quartet #1
  • Genre: Sci-fi/Dystopian
  • No. of pages: 336
  • Dates read: 29.05.19 – 10.06.19
  • Rating: 4 stars

I didn’t know much about this story going into it, I had watched the trailer for the movie and that was about it. I am so happy that I have found this series!

Plot: London is a city on wheels – a future city like you’ve never known before. In the terrible aftermath of the Sixty Minute War, cities which survived the apocalypse became predators, chasing and feeding on smaller towns. Now London is hunting down its prey, getting ready to feed. But as the chase begins, Tom uncovers a secret – a secret full of deadly consequences. Soon he is plunged into a world of unkillable enemies, threatened by a weapon that will tear his life apart.

First of all, the setting was unlike anything I have read before. I loved the world-building of the city of London with its many cogs, levels and pipes. It had a massive steampunk feel to it, the city felt like it was just patched together with what was available. Reeve did an amazing job in painting a picture for you of London and all the other places that we visit. I just fell in love with this messed up world.

The characters in this book were incredibly varied. I loved seeing Tom turn from coward to hero, becoming the hero he dreamed of being. I loved Hester’s character the most, she was a woman with a goal and was unwavering! (Ignore the fact her goal is to murder someone.) Katherine was such a beautiful and hopeful character and you just want to see her succeed. The female characters especially lift quite a lot of the male characters up in this story which was great to see!

One thing I didn’t love, there is probably a reason behind this, was the emphasis on Hester’s “ugliness”. She has a scar which haunts her everywhere she goes and I felt slightly uncomfortable whenever she was referenced as ugly or disgusting by all the male characters she comes into contact with, it’s a sign of trauma in her life and it’s something that should be dismissed as ugly and unworthy of someone’s time. But there is probably a deeper meaning to this but I had to say it.

I loved the different POV’s we got throughout the story, we were watching many different sides to this big narrative! We got Katherine’s journey of discovery, Tom’s journey of survival and Hester’s journey of revenge. All very different journey’s so it made for an incredibly interesting read and very dynamic plot!

The romance that brewed in this novel worked well for me. It wasn’t too over-empowering but also developed enough so you didn’t think it came out of the blue.

I loved the theme of loss that flows its way through the story. While I can’t say too much due to spoilers, nearly every character has experienced, prior to the story or during the story, some element of losing something and now has to deal with that loss. It was a theme that follows you from page to page.

My final point would be that it felt very much like a standalone novel, someone the actions and plot points felt very final to me rather than the pathway to a second novel. So, I am interested to see where Reeve goes with the series, as it’s quite unclear to me.

The next book I will be reviewing is The Wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell. A more light-hearted and fun novel. I am still re-reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as I am typing this but there will be a blog post about that book as well.

A Long Way To A Small Angry Planet Review

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  • Author: Becky Chambers
  • Series: Wayfarers #1
  • Genre: Sci-fi
  • No of pages: 404
  • Dates read: 12.04.19 – 16.04.19
  • Ratings: 5 stars (Favourite)

WOW! I am doing well in April, I have loved every book I have read so far but this book might be my new favourite!

There are so many things about this book that I love!

Overall, the ensemble cast was the best thing about this story. These are a group of individuals that you just so badly want to be friends with. They are all so unique not just in their biology but their personality, their morals, their beliefs. They are incredibly layered characters that are so likeable and well thought out. I tended to prefer the chapters that were just about the crew and their time on the ship to the actual over-arching plot. I loved the developing friendships, relationships and even the moments of anguish. It was such a refreshing story to read.

The main themes of this book include family, friendship but mainly acceptance. I found the theme of acceptance in this book weaved through each chapter. Whether it was about interspecies relationships, LGBT characters, religion etc. All the characters strived for respect and acceptance, not judging a book by its cover. It just put a smile of my face to see LGBT characters accepted whole-heartedly and the characters just moving on but so what, it’s not a big deal. 

War is another huge theme in this book and it is done really well! Probably the best way I have seen war written! Everyone is the victim of war as war leaves no stone unturned and no one person unaffected. Some more than others. CHaracters in this book accept the mistakes and horrors committed by people they know or members of their planet and the focus was on how can we better ourselves and make sure this doesn’t happen again. 

I loved the variety of species and planets. The description of each character and the world building was amazingly detailed. You could truly picture each individual and each location perfectly.

My only criticism is that with their being so many species and planets not enough explanation was given to their history or culture so I got a bit confused on who they were and what they are about which was a bit frustrating but it was only a personal preference that I found at the beginning of the novel. Maybe I was being a bit too impatient.