Humanity has colonized the solar system—Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond—but the stars …
Review of 'Leviathan Wakes' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Easily my favorite space opera series and the first book hooked this Earther. The detail and world building are outstanding and the characters and their adventures are addictive.
I'm going to skim the first six books so I can re-read Persepolis Rising and then finally read Tiamat's Wrath to prep for the last book coming out at the end of this year.
"As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."
In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, …
Review of 'All Systems Red' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Awkward and indifferent robot that just wants to watch the entertainment feed, especially its favorite show Sanctuary Moon was exactly what I wanted to read. Fun and pretty hilarious. I definitely laughed aloud.
"Thea dreams. Not of a better life, but of revenge on the clan that ruined …
Review of 'Extremity' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Daniel Warren Johnson's art is so full of movement, tension, and brutality. I'm not one that goes out of my way to read revenge tales but this was definitely fun and sad. I found myself angry with some characters and rooting for others and that tells me enough about enjoyment. DWJ is someone to watch.
Environmental devastation and economic chaos have turned America into a land of depravity. Taking advantage …
Review of 'Parable of the Talents' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
While reading this it felt like a 4-star "really like it" book but considering I finished this book in 3 days I should just admit that "it was amazing" and give it the 5-stars it deserves. That 4-star feeling was my fault anyway.
One things that stood out to me in this second book of the series is just how fallible the protagonist, Olamina, is. She is incredibly strong, loving, smart, and thoughtful, but at times full of herself and doesn't shy away from manipulating people for her causes. Her obsessions brought both safety and harm to those around her. This all made for a very rich character that I loved.
Another thing I really enjoyed was just how mundane but powerful the sci-fi tech was and how the "super power" was depicted and used to explore humanity and its cruelties and strengths. I liked that the tech was not …
While reading this it felt like a 4-star "really like it" book but considering I finished this book in 3 days I should just admit that "it was amazing" and give it the 5-stars it deserves. That 4-star feeling was my fault anyway.
One things that stood out to me in this second book of the series is just how fallible the protagonist, Olamina, is. She is incredibly strong, loving, smart, and thoughtful, but at times full of herself and doesn't shy away from manipulating people for her causes. Her obsessions brought both safety and harm to those around her. This all made for a very rich character that I loved.
Another thing I really enjoyed was just how mundane but powerful the sci-fi tech was and how the "super power" was depicted and used to explore humanity and its cruelties and strengths. I liked that the tech was not a huge part of the story but you could feel the insidious outcomes while still exploring tech as a force of change and sometimes even good.
I probably should have made this the last book I read in 2020 instead of the first in 2021, but you know this year is going to suck too, right? Butler's well known prescience tells us that the 2020s are going be really really hard. Just because Andrew Jarrett was voted out of the White house doesn't mean we won't meet in 2027 a few miles north of the state parks "filled with huge redwood trees and hoards of squatters" as we make our way to the great state of Alaska.
