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Psy-Q

psy-q@bookwyrm.social

Joined 11 months, 2 weeks ago

Just a run-of-the-mill nerd, both in the book sense and in the tech sense.

It's probably boring to people growing up in an anglophone country, but my first read was The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and that was practically unknown here. Still is. I had to stick some money in an envelope and mail it to a foreign address, but that paid off nicely.

I've been trying to find the same thrill ever since. With most books that hasn't been working. Probably also because as we get older, what we enjoyed growing up now reads like so much drivel. Hence Goodreads, to help me avoid the traps and find the... uh... good reads.

I don't review much on here unless I have a very strong opinion either good or bad. Also, I think I haven't read enough books to be entitled to opinions.

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Psy-Q's books

To Read (View all 88)

Tamsyn Muir: Gideon the Ninth (Hardcover, 2019, Tordotcom)
Premee Mohamed: The Annual Migration of Clouds (2021, ECW Press)
Ray Bradbury: Dandelion Wine (Earthlight) (Paperback, 2000, Simon & Schuster Ltd)

Currently Reading

No cover

Brad Warner: It came from beyond Zen! (2017)
Adrian Tchaikovsky: Children of Memory (2022, Macmillan Publishers Limited)

Read (View all 82)

William Gibson (unspecified): Mona Lisa Overdrive (Paperback, German language, 2000, Heyne)
William F. Gibson, William Gibson: Count Zero (2006, Ace Books)
Adrian Tchaikovsky: Children of Time (Hardcover, 2015, Tor)

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reviewed Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Adrian Tchaikovsky: Children of Ruin (Paperback, 2020, Pan Macmillan) 4 stars

The astonishing sequel to Children of Time, the award-winning novel of humanity’s battle for survival …

Review of 'Children of Ruin' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I expected a straightforward continuation of what started in Children of Time and I would've been content with just that. But this time, the story took on a darker tone with even some elements of horror. There's still some levity but mostly at the beginning and the end, which fits those parts well.

If there's anything I can criticize it's the pacing; the book starts at breakneck speeds but the middle part is plodding. The finale, while extremely satisfying, compresses a lot of plot onto just a few pages that could easily have been their own chapters when filling in all the details. I would have gladly swapped two of the slow chapters for two more chapters of finale.

But I'm guessing a lot of these details are revealed in the third part of the series, so I'm looking forward to that.

reviewed The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross (Laundry Files, #1)

Charles Stross: The Atrocity Archives (Paperback, 2006, Ace Books) 4 stars

Bob Howard is a computer-hacker desk jockey, who has more than enough trouble keeping up …

Review of 'The Atrocity Archives' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

I tried enjoying this but it reads too much like Edgy Slashdot Comments: The Book. I wouldn't be surprised to find a genuine vintage "Natalie Portman, naked and petrified" somewhere in there.

If none of that means anything to you, you're probably not old enough to be in the book's target demographic anyway.

The protagonist is an aloof nerd, the pre-dotcom bubble kind when "nerd" was still used only in a derogatory way. Every page has at least one or two bits of technobabble sprinkled on it for no good reason. At least no immediately plot-relevant reason, maybe it's fan service, maybe it's just fluff. The spy thriller parts seem altogether too cliché, but the book is self-aware enough to point that out so you don't have to do the thinking.

On that topic, it does it's darndest to make sure you understand THE MEANING OF WHAT YOU ARE READING. …