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Three short stories in one

Watermelons and Vodka
Susie wakes up hung over the day after the apocalypse was meant to have ended everything.

Another Slice of Watermelon
Susie and Sasha head out of Jerusalem to see what else has survived.

Chalutzim
Reuven and Na’ima join one of the first permanent missions to Mars.

DNF. I love the idea of this book. But unfortunately the 30+ words per sentence writing style just does not play well with my ADHD brain.

This book comprises five stories. I read the first, ‘The Test’.

Someone else wrote that this book will leave you thinking, ‘yeah, that’s probably how space travel will work’ — and not in a good way. And from the one story I read, that’s an absolutely accurate description.

Ava and Jules have just broken up. Ava's been careful to rearrange her work schedule so they won't have to see one another while things are so fresh and awkward. But when she gets called in on her day off, those carefully arranged plans go out the window. Things go from bad to worse when a portal to another universe opens up and someone's granny wanders in. Tricia – who's about the Karen-est manager ever – assigns Ava and Jules to go after her.

This story confronts the realities of Capitalism Gone Wild and navigates the murky waters of life outside heteronormative Sameland.

It's a little bit Discworld meets Suburban Everytown, USA.

Mops and her crew of space-janitors are dealing with a sanitation emergency aboard the starship Pufferfish when something takes out the entire rest of the crew. As the sole survivors of the attack (sort of), they must find out who attacked their ship, why, and what the grand plan is.

Science fiction too often ignores the so-called lower decks: the little guys there to do a day's work for a day's pay. But aren't their stories just as valid as the bridge crews'?

John Scalzi's Redshirts meets Tanya Huff's Confederation series in this light-hearted take on military science fiction.

4.5 stars as it did lag a bit in the middle.

In the beginning there was science fiction. And there was comedy. But never the twain shall, erm, met.

But that all changed when, in the 1970s, an ape descendant called Douglas Adams got very, very drunk and passed out in a field in Austria and found himself assaulted by an idea.

Terribly ordinary Englishman, Arthur Dent, and his slightly less-ordinary friend, Ford Prefect, hitch a ride off Earth mere moments before the aforementioned planet is destroyed to make way for Progress. And then things get weird.

Expect the beige hood of inanity to be lifted off the gooey and absurd innards of reality. And some unreality. And some other stuff too.

Bob is a civil servant, working in IT support. He has a horrible boss who's a stickler for timesheets, rules, protocols. Because this is London, Bob has three housemates: a pair he calls Pinky and the Brain and a horrible woman who sometimes sleeps with him out of spite. But the government agency Bob works for is a secret one. The Laundry deals in – not magic, exactly, but not not magic either. Like super high-tech magic. Then Bob gets sucked into (not literally, but with the Laundry that could happen) field work.

I read this years ago and I didn't really enjoy it the first time through. Which is ridiculous, because this is very, very good. Engaging, funny, interesting.

This book is Marmite. Or Vegemite. You’ll love it or hate it. I wanted to love this book. I really did. I mean, I loved the idea of it. But it was just not for me.

I didn’t understand what was happening. I kept finding reasons to do something over than read … which is just not what I want in a book.

I checked the other reviews in the hopes of finding people saying it was hard-going in the first few chapters and then it suddenly clicked out something like that. If that has been the case, I’d have stuck with it. Alas, no.

Based on the reviews, this is it. It starts like this; it stays like this. A lot of people love it. I wish I were one of of them.

I still adore Edie Bannister. And Bastion, too.

About a third of the way through, time jumps forwards by several decades and the whole human cast changes.

I’m so glad I read Calculating Stars before the story that started it all.

Elma and Nathaniel live on Mars. They should be enjoying their golden years — but instead Nathaniel’s dying and Elma’s dreaming of the stars.

I got to know both Elma and Nathaniel well in the books. The pair we meet here are pale shadows of them.

This story is very good, but not as good as the books.

I've started listening to audio versions of books I've already read while I work. So this isn't the first time I've read this book. But it's been a while.

Fifteen years after graduating, the students of St Michael's in Auchenlea (Glasgow) are invited to a reunion on a floating luxury resort in the North Atlantic. Simone is trapped in a loveless marriage to Gavin, the horrible owner of the horrible resort. Matt is … well … Billy Connolly. Davey is a reformed criminal. They expect an evening filled with metaphorical murders and fireworks – not literal ones.

I've adored Brookmyre's writing since 2000, when I bought Boiling a Frog from the Sleuth of Baker Street in Toronto because I liked the cover.