This is the story of a serial killer. A stolen child. Revenge. Death. And an …
Excellent
5 stars
Fantastic plot. Well written. Emotionally moving. I strongly recommend reading it. 4.5 rounded up to 5.
Reviews and Comments
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Brett Hodnett reviewed Hum by Helen Phillips
From the National Book Award–longlisted author of The Need comes an extraordinary novel about a …
Great Book
5 stars
4.5 rounded up to 5. A near future dystopia that is not much different to the world we are already living in. Sadly it seems to be the world that we are intentionally working to achieve. A tech bro utopia perhaps.
Brett Hodnett reviewed Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
On the island of Sicily amid the Peloponnesian War, the Syracusans have figured out what …
Glorious!
5 stars
4.5 rounded to 5
Brett Hodnett reviewed Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up or Peter and Wendy, often known …
Not what I expected but enjoyable
4 stars
Caution. Spoilers ahead
A young, magical, narcissistic sociopath named Peter meets a well-grounded kind girl, named Wendy, and her two brothers. Peter brings them to the magical land of stereotypes, where he rules over a murderous group of young boys whose membership is based upon the agreement that they will never grow up. This is ruthlessly enforced by Peter, who kills anyone who tries.
Wendy is quite enamoured by this cheery young despot, and he makes her the mother of the boys. They live in a kind of domestic bliss in Peter’s underground hideout, while venturing out and having many crazy adventures, mostly revolving around their rivalry with one of the stereotype gangs.
Although Peter does what he can to stop them, eventually Wendy and her brothers manage to return home to their parents, bringing all the young boys in the gang with them. Wendy can then happily grow up, …
Caution. Spoilers ahead
A young, magical, narcissistic sociopath named Peter meets a well-grounded kind girl, named Wendy, and her two brothers. Peter brings them to the magical land of stereotypes, where he rules over a murderous group of young boys whose membership is based upon the agreement that they will never grow up. This is ruthlessly enforced by Peter, who kills anyone who tries.
Wendy is quite enamoured by this cheery young despot, and he makes her the mother of the boys. They live in a kind of domestic bliss in Peter’s underground hideout, while venturing out and having many crazy adventures, mostly revolving around their rivalry with one of the stereotype gangs.
Although Peter does what he can to stop them, eventually Wendy and her brothers manage to return home to their parents, bringing all the young boys in the gang with them. Wendy can then happily grow up, while the young boys grudgingly do so. Only Peter remains a child in the magical land, periodically visiting Wendy when his selfish moods move him too. Over time they fall into a pattern of annual visits where Peter takes Wendy’s children, and then grandchildren, and on through the generations to the magical land of stereotypes, but for no longer than one week.
If there is a moral to this story, perhaps it is that children really should grow up because they’re selfish little tyrants, and though it may be a joyful way of being in short doses, perhaps it’s not so great long term.
I really quite liked this book. It’s well written and entertaining, and the author’s way of normalizing the absurdly unreal is almost magical in itself.
Children of Ruin is a 2019 science fiction novel by author Adrian Tchaikovsky, the second …
Solid science fiction
4 stars
Like Children of Time, Children of Ruin is one of the best, most solidly science fiction books out there. The first half of Children of Ruin was just as good as Children of Time, however, as it got into the second half I found it less convincing, and not quite as compelling. Still a great read.
Great book.
5 stars
People and relationships are complicated.
Brett Hodnett reviewed Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Children of Time, #1)
Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a …
Best Science Fiction book I've read
5 stars
Brett Hodnett rated Children of Time: 5 stars
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Children of Time, #1)
Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find …
Brett Hodnett reviewed Ferryman by Justin Cronin
Great book
5 stars
The first half or so is like a better written version of 1984. Then it gets interesting...
Brett Hodnett reviewed Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis
Enjoyed it.
4 stars
A seemingly simple story that touches on so many issues that we are facing in these times. Makes you wonder how we psychologically manage to live on this earth.
Brett Hodnett reviewed An Immense World by Ed Yong
The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and …
Fabulous
5 stars
Will change the way you see the world, and can't help but make you appreciate just how magnificent all the species who share the world with us are.
What a fabulous book. Everyone should read it.
Brett Hodnett reviewed An Immense World by Ed Yong
The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and …
Fabulous Book
5 stars
Will change the way you see the world, and can't help but make you appreciate just how magnificent all the species who share the world with us are.
Brett Hodnett reviewed Two Cheers for Anarchism by James C. Scott
James Scott taught us what’s wrong with seeing like a state. Now, in his most …
Interesting book
Interesting and engaging book. His examples and "fragments" of an anarchist way of thinking will resonate with most people I think, but they all seem pretty marginal, and they can, and do take place within existing governments.
As an inspiration to question state and corporate overreach, and the tendency of states to simplify and codify messy and complex community interaction, this book makes a good contribution. The author doesn't suggest he's trying to do more than that, but if you are looking for justification of the basic anarchist premise that states should be abolished, you'll find no reason in these pages.
Brett Hodnett reviewed Thing in the Snow by Sean Adams
Intelligente SciFi, spannend, überraschend, kritisch, mit einem guten Schuss trockenen Humor
Enjoyable and Odd
4 stars
Brett Hodnett reviewed The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber
For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike--either free and equal …
Dishonest
2 stars
Despite the fact that I'd like their premise to be true, and that it seems there is truth to the idea that "primitive" societies in the past were more complex and interactive than we once thought, the authors have cherry picked data and built a variety of straw men to dismantle in order to recklessly extrapolate and generalize to make an argument about what they would like society to be like.
Read this book with a lot of caution, and do some other reading of both the specific examples they discuss, and also of the general context and premises that they put forward. They present a lot of information and it is easy to take them at their word if you have no knowledge of these or related fields.