David Scrimshaw reviewed Titanium Noir by Nick Harkaway
Cal Sounder is a detective working for the police on certain very sensitive cases. So …
The start of a new series?
5 stars
Titanium Noir lives up to the "noir" in the title.
Reviews and Comments
An avid sci-fi and fantasy reader who sometimes does historical fiction or even mainstream.
You might notice that most of my reviews are 5 stars. That's because if I start reading a book that doesn't engage me, I stop reading it. Life is too short. I've realized that it's not fair to review a book I haven't read and nobody really needs to hear why I didn't get into a book especially when they might like it.
My goals with reviews are to be brief and give other potential readers an idea of why they might like the book. I leave it to the marketing people and other reviewers to describe the plots.
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David Scrimshaw reviewed Book That Wouldn't Burn by Mark Lawrence
Writers seem to know that we readers like libraries
5 stars
It seems there are a lot of books out these days that involve libraries or book stores. This one has a library that is wildly different from all of them. Not as fast moving as some of the other stories from Mark Lawrence, but still compelling and I'm very interested in reading the next one when it comes out.
David Scrimshaw reviewed Leviathan Falls : Expanse Bk 9 by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse)
Review of 'Leviathan Falls : Expanse Bk 9' on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
If you're looking at reviews of this, the last book in the Expanse series to tell you if you should start the series, I'd say, yes. It is worth it.
If you're looking at reviews to see what other people think because if you've started the series, of course you're going to finish it, all I can say is that I'm sorry it's over. But really the part I liked the most was the early books and seeing what life was like in the Solar System - particularly the habitats in the Belt.
If you're looking at reviews of this, the last book in the Expanse series to tell you if you should start the series, I'd say, yes. It is worth it.
If you're looking at reviews to see what other people think because if you've started the series, of course you're going to finish it, all I can say is that I'm sorry it's over. But really the part I liked the most was the early books and seeing what life was like in the Solar System - particularly the habitats in the Belt.
If you're looking at reviews to see what other people think because if you've started the series, of course you're going to finish it, all I can say is that I'm sorry it's over. But really the part I liked the most was the early books and seeing what life was like in the Solar System - particularly the habitats in the Belt.
David Scrimshaw reviewed Codename Villanelle by Luke Jennings
Review of 'Codename Villanelle' on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
I watched the TV series before I read this. They are different enough that the book fully engaged me.
I watched the TV series before I read this. They are different enough that the book fully engaged me.
David Scrimshaw reviewed Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson
Termination Shock takes readers on a thrilling, chilling visit to our not-too-distant future – a …
Review of 'Termination Shock' on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
This was a fun read that focussed on a bunch of sub-plots with different characters who eventually, of course, all come together.
I particularly enjoyed the sub-plots about hunting feral hogs and the volunteer fighters at the Line of Actual Control between China and India.
This was a fun read that focussed on a bunch of sub-plots with different characters who eventually, of course, all come together.
I particularly enjoyed the sub-plots about hunting feral hogs and the volunteer fighters at the Line of Actual Control between China and India.
I particularly enjoyed the sub-plots about hunting feral hogs and the volunteer fighters at the Line of Actual Control between China and India.
David Scrimshaw reviewed Dolphin Junction by Mick Herron
Mick Herron, author of the Slough House novels, is on his way to becoming one …
Great (although sometimes disturbing) stories
5 stars
The one story featuring Jackson Lamb and Molly Doran make this a must-read for Slow Horses fans.
The great find for me were the stories with Zoe Boehm. I've now got a whole set of novels to track down and go through.
<spoiler>Mick Herron seems to prefer taking you somewhere that you weren't expecting to go</spoiler>
David Scrimshaw reviewed Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Children of Time, #2)
The astonishing sequel to Children of Time, the award-winning novel of humanity's battle for survival …
A wild ride!
5 stars
This is a terrific follow-up to Children of Time.
Adrian Tchaikovsky is great at writing characters that think differently from how you or I might think but who you can still grow attached to.
Like all of the other books of his I've read, In this one, he managed to find four or five major science fiction ideas I've never come across before.
And this book has octopuses!
A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie …
It's good to see scholarship applied to the Netherworld
5 stars
I thoroughly enjoyed this story of a rising academic's field studies of the high and low faeries on a remote Nordic island. Anyone pining for a follow-up to Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell will likely find this to be satisfying.
David Scrimshaw reviewed No Tomorrow by Luke Jennings
In a hotel room in Venice, where she's just completed a routine assassination, Villanelle receives …
Gripping
5 stars
This book widely diverges from the TV series, but it was still a good engaging read.
David Scrimshaw rated Children of Time: 5 stars
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Children of Time, #1)
A race for survival among the stars... Humanity's last survivors escaped earth's ruins to find a new home. But when …
David Scrimshaw rated The Expert System's Brother: 5 stars
The Expert System's Brother by Adrian Tchaikovsky
After an unfortunate accident, Handry is forced to wander a world he doesn't understand, searching for meaning. He soon discovers …
David Scrimshaw reviewed Providence by Max Barry
Review of 'Providence' on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
I think it's significant that this is the first book I have finished in a long time.
It's good, serious science fiction. With interesting thinking about where our algorithmically controlled social media future might be heading.
It's space war, but not like any space war story I've ever read. Definitely not "rah, rah, go humans!" stuff.
It's not one I'd recommend for every sci-fi fan. But if you're into Philip K. Dick or Harlan Ellison, this is worth a look.
David Scrimshaw reviewed An Orc on the Wild Side by Tom Holt
Mordak is really trying his best
5 stars
It seems to me that it's not so much that Mordak is decent and not evil, it's that he values effectiveness over being evil for the sake of being evil.
I might have a slight preference for Tom Holt's books written under the name "KJ Parker", but I still really enjoy spending time in the worlds Tom Holt has given us under his own name.
David Scrimshaw reviewed A borrowed man by Gene Wolfe
It's perhaps a hundred years in the future and E. A. Smithe is "a clone …
Review of 'A borrowed man' on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
The narrator and protagonist of this book is a "re-clone". He is the clone with memory prints of a mystery writer. Now he is a "thing" with no legal rights who resides in a library and his continued existence depends on people consulting him or checking him out from time to time.
With this sort of world-building, I would have expected some sort of sweeping tale where the hero starts a revolution so that people like him get legal rights.
But no. He just does the best he can with the situations that come his way in the constraints he has.
His limited worldview reminded me in a good way of Martha Wells Murderbot.