Reviews and Comments

The first half of the book felt a little like a loose tale spliced into a taxonomic exploration of the world's flora and fauna, readable but not engrossing. In the second half the story picks up and the themes of the first half make more sense, and by the end I felt like it was a complete story and the encyclopedic nature of the definitions and plant descriptions make sense as part of the journey of the protagonist. The book describes a fascinating world, and you can sense the depth of consideration and thought the author has put into it. The story does leave some unresolved questions about the nature of some things, but these loose ends feel like evocative possibilities, things to ponder upon, rather than gaps in the narrative.

A series of short scenarios from an alternate earth history in which matter transportation is invented in the 50's ish. It presents an interesting framework to explore ideas about technology, society interaction and opportunities of control by monopoly corporations. It's a simply written book which I read within a week. Lots of the literary tools are left very exposed in the book. I think this makes it bad writing as this stuff is expected to be more subtle. But I kind of like it being visible and being able to spot it easily amd may itself be a stylistic choice.

I do love a self published book and this one really looks like the author has poured love and attention into the world.

My mother bought me this when she met the author at a book shop event. She said the author reminded her of me. She was very excited that the Authors surname is my middle name.

Really nice read, loved the last few chapters of resolution at the end.

An unusual post apocalyptic novel with some AI thrown in. It has an ending that I did not expect which makes you question things that happen earlier. Certainly makes you consider what you would do in the same situation.

Wow, that was the quickest book I've read this year. Compelling and an easy read. Nice message well delivered.

Enjoyable narrative that serves an interesting treatise on anarchism and human nature. I started reading it as I thought it would be more about the invention of the ansible, but that was really a side aspect that served as a small part of the motivation of the protagonist. I certainly wanted to stay in the world at the end of the book and gld that there's more books in the series to revisit.

I've read Ender's Game and always considered reading more of the saga. My mother gave me this, and I'm very intrigued by the idea of seeing the events of Ender's Game from another perspective and written by a more developed author in a different time period.

A fine book that got more compelling as it went on. Its full of nice complex ideas that don't seem to get explored.

I knw about Monkey only from the TV show, that I only ever caught glimpses of. I picked up this book as I thought it woudl give an interesting insight into a story that I expected to be ancient and difficult to read as a modern reader. I found this translation to be surprisingly fun and easy to read. The characters are enjoyable and the world feel expansive, but also restricted. The introduction that explains it as partially a satire on Chinese bureaucracy helps you spot and enjoy the humour. After feeling like I was pushing myself through the last few books I read this was a breath of fresh air.

Another in the line of reading all the classic childrens books

Have tried to start reading this before but lost interest. Time to give it another go.