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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Fergus Ferguson is a fun protagonist, but in this third volume in the series, his alien friends get to shine. This series is lots of fun.
I would love to have lots more, but the marketing for the next book, Ghostdrift, says it's the "final book" of the Finder Chronicles.
After years of seeing her sisters suffer at the hands of an abusive prince, Marra—the …
I loved this book especially how everything came together. Kingfisher really knows what she's doing. I especially liked what she did with the godmothers and the "gifts" they give to newborn children.
And bonus points for an Authors Note at the end that was worth reading.
From a Hugo Award-winning author comes the second book in this action-packed sci-fi caper, starring …
A terrific sequel that builds well on the first story but takes us to a completely different environment and type of problem to be solved.
I have loved all of the Old Kingdom books and hope we'll get more. This one fits chronologically before others because these two were Sabriel's parents. I suspect that means we won't get a sequel with more of Terciel and Elinor, which is a shame because I'd really like to spend more time with them.
Interlibrary Loan is the brilliant follow-up to A Borrowed Man a new science fiction novel …
This is apparently the last book Gene Wolfe wrote and it feels like he didn't get to finish it. But I'm still glad I read it. It was great to see how things were going with this version of Ern Smithe after the events of A Borrowed Man.
Smithe is a reclone in a world where he is treated as a thing that can be damaged or destroyed with little to no repercussions. I found it refreshing that Wolfe tells how Smithe copes with this instead of making this a story of the massive revolution that would be required to correct this injustice.
A thrillingly reimagined fairy tale from the truly magical combination of author Neil Gaiman and …
This was a delightful fairy tale - excellent variation on Sleeping Beauty, Snow White themes.
The hilarious story of an unlikely group of Indigenous dancers who find themselves thrown together …
This was a fun story, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say it was a series of fun stories.
Although some of the things that happened strained believability, the characters were entirely believable and I'd love to read any future stories or novels that feature any of them.
Cal Sounder is a detective working for the police on certain very sensitive cases. So …
Titanium Noir lives up to the "noir" in the title.
I'm stuck in the read-everything-Mick-Herron-has-written-especially-if-it-is-linked-to-Slough-House trap. If you're also in this trap, you'll read this no matter what I say. So all I'll say is that is as well written as Herron's other stuff and adds to the overall story.
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.
The astonishing sequel to Children of Time, the award-winning novel of humanity's battle for survival …
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!
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.
Mick Herron, author of the Slough House novels, is on his way to becoming one …
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>
Termination Shock takes readers on a thrilling, chilling visit to our not-too-distant future – a …
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 watched the TV series before I read this. They are different enough that the book fully engaged me.
