Grațian
TL;DR
Creepy and digusting in a good way, I really liked this book for how short it was. Kept me at the edge of my seat reading through it, all the places we go though and the depictions are pretty amazing and scary. I really liked the final part of the book, definitely it's strong point and since it's short you don't have to wait long to get to it. If you want a short creepy and scary story I would recommend you give this one a try. Check the price and see if you can get a discount at some stores becuase it is a fifty page book, I've seen some stores selling it for a pretty high price and at that point I think it's not worth it when you can get other horror books that have way more story than this one.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: I liked it, interesting, intriguing and terrifying.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
X - Characters: Too many characters for such a short story, they're all pretty much a one line description but the banter between them was nice and enjoyable.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: I really liked the setting, the dark forests of central Europe are nice.
✓ - Ending: Great ending, this was probably the best part of the book.
Extensive Review
Okay the problem with this book in my opinion is that there are like twelve characters, for a book of fifty pages I think that is pretty overkill. Right at the beginning you get bombarded with names and quick summaries of their character left and right. I get that our protagonist is a mercenary leader and has followers but maybe let's not spend time on each and every one of them when our story is fifty pages long. I don't know the process of writting short stories and it must be hard but if I had to pick something that I didn't like about this book it has to be the number of characters.
We spend too much time getting to know them a bit before we get to the good part right at the end. If the book spent it's entire time on the last part and just expanded on it I think it would have been better, but then again not knowing anything about the characters in your story makes it hard to care about them. Short stories are hard to write, overall this one succeeded and I enjoyed it very much.
TL;DR
Creepy and digusting in a good way, I really liked this book for how short it was. Kept me at the edge of my seat reading through it, all the places we go though and the depictions are pretty amazing and scary. I really liked the final part of the book, definitely it's strong point and since it's short you don't have to wait long to get to it. If you want a short creepy and scary story I would recommend you give this one a try. Check the price and see if you can get a discount at some stores becuase it is a fifty page book, I've seen some stores selling it for a pretty high price and at that point I think it's not worth it when you can get other horror books that have way more story than this one.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: I liked it, interesting, intriguing and terrifying.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
X - Characters: Too many characters for such a short story, they're all pretty much a one line description but the banter between them was nice and enjoyable.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: I really liked the setting, the dark forests of central Europe are nice.
✓ - Ending: Great ending, this was probably the best part of the book.
Extensive Review
Okay the problem with this book in my opinion is that there are like twelve characters, for a book of fifty pages I think that is pretty overkill. Right at the beginning you get bombarded with names and quick summaries of their character left and right. I get that our protagonist is a mercenary leader and has followers but maybe let's not spend time on each and every one of them when our story is fifty pages long. I don't know the process of writting short stories and it must be hard but if I had to pick something that I didn't like about this book it has to be the number of characters.
We spend too much time getting to know them a bit before we get to the good part right at the end. If the book spent it's entire time on the last part and just expanded on it I think it would have been better, but then again not knowing anything about the characters in your story makes it hard to care about them. Short stories are hard to write, overall this one succeeded and I enjoyed it very much.
TL;DR
I liked this book, my only problem is that is too short. I would have liked a bit more to the story. Everything happens fairly quickly and by the time you keep turning the pages it's over (I guess that's a good thing?). I bought all the rest in the series because I want to know more.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: Pretty short but it was enjoyable, I liked the interaction between Murderbot and the humans.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: I like all the characters, there wasn't anyone who I thought was annoying.
X - Setting/Ambiance: The planet they're on is pretty standard, nothing over the top. Just a bland planet.
✓ - Ending: Normal ending, nothing spectacular but not terrible either.
Extensive Review
Didn't like the inner monologue of Murderbot in the beginning because I thought he was an AI. With that in mind when he talked like a human I was like "uhh why is he thinking that?", but he's like half AI half human so the way he thinks makes sense then. I really like the characters and the interactions between them. Even if we don't get to know them on a deeper level I still enjoyed the time we had with them. I'm going to read the entire series and see what's in store next.
TL;DR
I liked this book, my only problem is that is too short. I would have liked a bit more to the story. Everything happens fairly quickly and by the time you keep turning the pages it's over (I guess that's a good thing?). I bought all the rest in the series because I want to know more.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: Pretty short but it was enjoyable, I liked the interaction between Murderbot and the humans.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: I like all the characters, there wasn't anyone who I thought was annoying.
X - Setting/Ambiance: The planet they're on is pretty standard, nothing over the top. Just a bland planet.
✓ - Ending: Normal ending, nothing spectacular but not terrible either.
Extensive Review
Didn't like the inner monologue of Murderbot in the beginning because I thought he was an AI. With that in mind when he talked like a human I was like "uhh why is he thinking that?", but he's like half AI half human so the way he thinks makes sense then. I really like the characters and the interactions between them. Even if we don't get to know them on a deeper level I still enjoyed the time we had with them. I'm going to read the entire series and see what's in store next.
TL;DR
I liked this book, my only problem is that is too short. I would have liked a bit more to the story. Everything happens fairly quickly and by the time you keep turning the pages it's over (I guess that's a good thing?). I bought all the rest in the series because I want to know more.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: Pretty short but it was enjoyable, I liked the interaction between Murderbot and the humans.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: I like all the characters, there wasn't anyone who I thought was annoying.
X - Setting/Ambiance: The planet they're on is pretty standard, nothing over the top. Just a bland planet.
✓ - Ending: Normal ending, nothing spectacular but not terrible either.
Extensive Review
Didn't like the inner monologue of Murderbot in the beginning because I thought he was an AI. With that in mind when he talked like a human I was like "uhh why is he thinking that?", but he's like half AI half human so the way he thinks makes sense then. I really like the characters and the interactions between them. Even if we don't get to know them on a deeper level I still enjoyed the time we had with them. I'm going to read the entire series and see what's in store next.
TL;DR
I liked this book, my only problem is that is too short. I would have liked a bit more to the story. Everything happens fairly quickly and by the time you keep turning the pages it's over (I guess that's a good thing?). I bought all the rest in the series because I want to know more.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: Pretty short but it was enjoyable, I liked the interaction between Murderbot and the humans.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: I like all the characters, there wasn't anyone who I thought was annoying.
X - Setting/Ambiance: The planet they're on is pretty standard, nothing over the top. Just a bland planet.
✓ - Ending: Normal ending, nothing spectacular but not terrible either.
Extensive Review
Didn't like the inner monologue of Murderbot in the beginning because I thought he was an AI. With that in mind when he talked like a human I was like "uhh why is he thinking that?", but he's like half AI half human so the way he thinks makes sense then. I really like the characters and the interactions between them. Even if we don't get to know them on a deeper level I still enjoyed the time we had with them. I'm going to read the entire series and see what's in store next.
TL;DR
Doesn't beat the third book in my opinion but still interesting. Getting to see some old characters back was nice but now cool new ones, specially not another AI like in the previous entries. I do feel like we're getting to the point where it's almost the same story being repeated. I hope the next entries bring something new to the table.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: Not as good as the previous book but I really like this story as well. Murderbot interacting with Dr Mensah is one of my favorite parts of the book.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: Great to see the original characters back into play, I like them the most out of all the humans we've met. Dr. Mensah is my second favorite behind ART so it was nice to see her again.
X - Setting/Ambiance: We're back to the station again so it's not as interesting and the previous location.
✓ - Ending: Good ending, not as good and the previous books but was nice.
Extensive Review
By this point I hope you bought the entire series as bundle because buying them individually isn't worth the price. They are really short stories that are getting a bit stale. We will see how the rest of the series turns out but I hope it doesn't keep going like this.
TL;DR
Doesn't beat the third book in my opinion but still interesting. Getting to see some old characters back was nice but now cool new ones, specially not another AI like in the previous entries. I do feel like we're getting to the point where it's almost the same story being repeated. I hope the next entries bring something new to the table.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: Not as good as the previous book but I really like this story as well. Murderbot interacting with Dr Mensah is one of my favorite parts of the book.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: Great to see the original characters back into play, I like them the most out of all the humans we've met. Dr. Mensah is my second favorite behind ART so it was nice to see her again.
X - Setting/Ambiance: We're back to the station again so it's not as interesting and the previous location.
✓ - Ending: Good ending, not as good and the previous books but was nice.
Extensive Review
By this point I hope you bought the entire series as bundle because buying them individually isn't worth the price. They are really short stories that are getting a bit stale. We will see how the rest of the series turns out but I hope it doesn't keep going like this.
TL;DR
Doesn't beat the third book in my opinion but still interesting. Getting to see some old characters back was nice but now cool new ones, specially not another AI like in the previous entries. I do feel like we're getting to the point where it's almost the same story being repeated. I hope the next entries bring something new to the table.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: Not as good as the previous book but I really like this story as well. Murderbot interacting with Dr Mensah is one of my favorite parts of the book.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: Great to see the original characters back into play, I like them the most out of all the humans we've met. Dr. Mensah is my second favorite behind ART so it was nice to see her again.
X - Setting/Ambiance: We're back to the station again so it's not as interesting and the previous location.
✓ - Ending: Good ending, not as good and the previous books but was nice.
Extensive Review
By this point I hope you bought the entire series as bundle because buying them individually isn't worth the price. They are really short stories that are getting a bit stale. We will see how the rest of the series turns out but I hope it doesn't keep going like this.
TL;DR
Doesn't beat the third book in my opinion but still interesting. Getting to see some old characters back was nice but now cool new ones, specially not another AI like in the previous entries. I do feel like we're getting to the point where it's almost the same story being repeated. I hope the next entries bring something new to the table.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: Not as good as the previous book but I really like this story as well. Murderbot interacting with Dr Mensah is one of my favorite parts of the book.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: Great to see the original characters back into play, I like them the most out of all the humans we've met. Dr. Mensah is my second favorite behind ART so it was nice to see her again.
X - Setting/Ambiance: We're back to the station again so it's not as interesting and the previous location.
✓ - Ending: Good ending, not as good and the previous books but was nice.
Extensive Review
By this point I hope you bought the entire series as bundle because buying them individually isn't worth the price. They are really short stories that are getting a bit stale. We will see how the rest of the series turns out but I hope it doesn't keep going like this.
TL;DR
Doesn't beat the third book in my opinion but still interesting. Getting to see some old characters back was nice but now cool new ones, specially not another AI like in the previous entries. I do feel like we're getting to the point where it's almost the same story being repeated. I hope the next entries bring something new to the table.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: Not as good as the previous book but I really like this story as well. Murderbot interacting with Dr Mensah is one of my favorite parts of the book.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: Great to see the original characters back into play, I like them the most out of all the humans we've met. Dr. Mensah is my second favorite behind ART so it was nice to see her again.
X - Setting/Ambiance: We're back to the station again so it's not as interesting and the previous location.
✓ - Ending: Good ending, not as good and the previous books but was nice.
Extensive Review
By this point I hope you bought the entire series as bundle because buying them individually isn't worth the price. They are really short stories that are getting a bit stale. We will see how the rest of the series turns out but I hope it doesn't keep going like this.
TL;DR
Doesn't beat the third book in my opinion but still interesting. Getting to see some old characters back was nice but now cool new ones, specially not another AI like in the previous entries. I do feel like we're getting to the point where it's almost the same story being repeated. I hope the next entries bring something new to the table.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: Not as good as the previous book but I really like this story as well. Murderbot interacting with Dr Mensah is one of my favorite parts of the book.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: Great to see the original characters back into play, I like them the most out of all the humans we've met. Dr. Mensah is my second favorite behind ART so it was nice to see her again.
X - Setting/Ambiance: We're back to the station again so it's not as interesting and the previous location.
✓ - Ending: Good ending, not as good and the previous books but was nice.
Extensive Review
By this point I hope you bought the entire series as bundle because buying them individually isn't worth the price. They are really short stories that are getting a bit stale. We will see how the rest of the series turns out but I hope it doesn't keep going like this.
TL;DR
Doesn't beat the third book in my opinion but still interesting. Getting to see some old characters back was nice but now cool new ones, specially not another AI like in the previous entries. I do feel like we're getting to the point where it's almost the same story being repeated. I hope the next entries bring something new to the table.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: Not as good as the previous book but I really like this story as well. Murderbot interacting with Dr Mensah is one of my favorite parts of the book.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: Great to see the original characters back into play, I like them the most out of all the humans we've met. Dr. Mensah is my second favorite behind ART so it was nice to see her again.
X - Setting/Ambiance: We're back to the station again so it's not as interesting and the previous location.
✓ - Ending: Good ending, not as good and the previous books but was nice.
Extensive Review
By this point I hope you bought the entire series as bundle because buying them individually isn't worth the price. They are really short stories that are getting a bit stale. We will see how the rest of the series turns out but I hope it doesn't keep going like this.
TL;DR
Doesn't beat the third book in my opinion but still interesting. Getting to see some old characters back was nice but now cool new ones, specially not another AI like in the previous entries. I do feel like we're getting to the point where it's almost the same story being repeated. I hope the next entries bring something new to the table.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: Not as good as the previous book but I really like this story as well. Murderbot interacting with Dr Mensah is one of my favorite parts of the book.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: Great to see the original characters back into play, I like them the most out of all the humans we've met. Dr. Mensah is my second favorite behind ART so it was nice to see her again.
X - Setting/Ambiance: We're back to the station again so it's not as interesting and the previous location.
✓ - Ending: Good ending, not as good and the previous books but was nice.
Extensive Review
By this point I hope you bought the entire series as bundle because buying them individually isn't worth the price. They are really short stories that are getting a bit stale. We will see how the rest of the series turns out but I hope it doesn't keep going like this.
TL;DR
Finally we get a chunky story, with more depth, more action and more characters than in previous entries. Really liked this one, mainly because of one returning character. My favorite is still Rogue Protocol but that's because that one has a bit of horror in it. This one is more action oriented. Still a very enjoyable read.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: Biggest story so far in the series, I liked it, both the original characters, my favorite one and some cool new ones are present this time. Also lots of action in this one.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: Great to see the original characters back into play, my favorite one back in the picture was a big bonus as well. The new characters are also nice and likeable.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: A familiar ship and a new planet. This time the planet is a lot more interesting than the in the first book.
X - Ending: Good ending, not as good and the previous books but was nice.
Extensive Review
At this point you know if you want to keep reading more of Murderbot or not. This time we get a bigger story with a lot of returning characters as well as new ones and all of them are likeable so that's good. There are three things I'm kinda getting annoyed at:
- Murderbot's feelings: Every time someone is nice to him or gives him a compliment or just wants to touch him he just shuts off and dismisses it, letting us know how much he hates feelings and tries to immediately run away from the interaction, being incredibly awkward. I know that's his thing but I would have hoped that by this point having interacted so much with humans and people not treating him as a machine would make him think "huh, I guess it's not so bad to be around some people" but no. He constantly let us know how better he got at hacking and writting code from his previous experiences yet probably the most important thing which is how he perceives humans and interacts with them is still exactly like the first interaction in the first book we read. Very minor spoiler <spoiler>(We encounter another SecUnit that is free and we get to see his POV for a few chapters, well...seeing how he interacts with everyone and what is he thinking made me wish he was the protagonist).</spoiler> It's getting annoying every time time a trusted person says "Are you ok?" him thinking "fuck off, I hate feelings, I just want to watch my dumbass series and not bother with anything". And then saying "Yes, I'm fine." then he does everything in his power to exit the conversation.
- Action Scenes: Whenever an action happens it's quite hard to follow, because there are CentralSystem, SecSystem, CombatSystem, Target1, Target2, Drone1, Drone2 all of them doing something while Murderbot tries to attack and plan and it just gets so messy. Every action scene is quite hard to keep track of and in my opinion it didn't flow at all. I didn't mention it in previous books because it was mainly Murderbot with his drones and a target or two so it was managable but here it's starting to be a problem.
- Summary: Multiple times in this book and in the previous ones goes like this. Something happens and there is a meeting to talk about a plan to action, everyone gives their input and we hear it all, we also hear Murderbot's thinking so we know everything. Then Murderbot says:
So what happened was:
1) We were surverying the planet when something attacked us.
2) We manged to survive and escape.
3) We figured out a plan and everyone has their part to do.
4) Did I mention this plan was terrible?, if not then yea it's terrible. (Alywas has to have that dumbass quirky remark that's also stating to get quite annoying. Don't understand how people think this is endearing but sadly this is 90% of Murderbot's "personality")
I don't undertand this, most of the time the summary is literally what happened in this chapter. I guess it's so explain how AI likes to organize things and stuff?, well it's stupid and annoying to have to read something worded a bit differently of what you just read four pages ago.
Aside from those three problems this is another great entry in the series, again, mainly because of a returning character that I really like plus a few other ones (definitely not because of Murderbot, starting to get annoying with him as I said in my previous point). I want to see what happens next and hopefully see some changes in Murderbot's personality, though if it didn't happen by book #5, I don't have high hopes so I'll just deal with Murderbot and his annoying awkwardness of it's feelings and rolling my eyes every time a character I like tries to connect with him only for it to dissmiss them immediately.
TL;DR
Finally we get a chunky story, with more depth, more action and more characters than in previous entries. Really liked this one, mainly because of one returning character. My favorite is still Rogue Protocol but that's because that one has a bit of horror in it. This one is more action oriented. Still a very enjoyable read.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: Biggest story so far in the series, I liked it, both the original characters, my favorite one and some cool new ones are present this time. Also lots of action in this one.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: Great to see the original characters back into play, my favorite one back in the picture was a big bonus as well. The new characters are also nice and likeable.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: A familiar ship and a new planet. This time the planet is a lot more interesting than the in the first book.
X - Ending: Good ending, not as good and the previous books but was nice.
Extensive Review
At this point you know if you want to keep reading more of Murderbot or not. This time we get a bigger story with a lot of returning characters as well as new ones and all of them are likeable so that's good. There are three things I'm kinda getting annoyed at:
- Murderbot's feelings: Every time someone is nice to him or gives him a compliment or just wants to touch him he just shuts off and dismisses it, letting us know how much he hates feelings and tries to immediately run away from the interaction, being incredibly awkward. I know that's his thing but I would have hoped that by this point having interacted so much with humans and people not treating him as a machine would make him think "huh, I guess it's not so bad to be around some people" but no. He constantly let us know how better he got at hacking and writting code from his previous experiences yet probably the most important thing which is how he perceives humans and interacts with them is still exactly like the first interaction in the first book we read. Very minor spoiler <spoiler>(We encounter another SecUnit that is free and we get to see his POV for a few chapters, well...seeing how he interacts with everyone and what is he thinking made me wish he was the protagonist).</spoiler> It's getting annoying every time time a trusted person says "Are you ok?" him thinking "fuck off, I hate feelings, I just want to watch my dumbass series and not bother with anything". And then saying "Yes, I'm fine." then he does everything in his power to exit the conversation.
- Action Scenes: Whenever an action happens it's quite hard to follow, because there are CentralSystem, SecSystem, CombatSystem, Target1, Target2, Drone1, Drone2 all of them doing something while Murderbot tries to attack and plan and it just gets so messy. Every action scene is quite hard to keep track of and in my opinion it didn't flow at all. I didn't mention it in previous books because it was mainly Murderbot with his drones and a target or two so it was managable but here it's starting to be a problem.
- Summary: Multiple times in this book and in the previous ones goes like this. Something happens and there is a meeting to talk about a plan to action, everyone gives their input and we hear it all, we also hear Murderbot's thinking so we know everything. Then Murderbot says:
So what happened was:
1) We were surverying the planet when something attacked us.
2) We manged to survive and escape.
3) We figured out a plan and everyone has their part to do.
4) Did I mention this plan was terrible?, if not then yea it's terrible. (Alywas has to have that dumbass quirky remark that's also stating to get quite annoying. Don't understand how people think this is endearing but sadly this is 90% of Murderbot's "personality")
I don't undertand this, most of the time the summary is literally what happened in this chapter. I guess it's so explain how AI likes to organize things and stuff?, well it's stupid and annoying to have to read something worded a bit differently of what you just read four pages ago.
Aside from those three problems this is another great entry in the series, again, mainly because of a returning character that I really like plus a few other ones (definitely not because of Murderbot, starting to get annoying with him as I said in my previous point). I want to see what happens next and hopefully see some changes in Murderbot's personality, though if it didn't happen by book #5, I don't have high hopes so I'll just deal with Murderbot and his annoying awkwardness of it's feelings and rolling my eyes every time a character I like tries to connect with him only for it to dissmiss them immediately.
TL;DR
Finally we get a chunky story, with more depth, more action and more characters than in previous entries. Really liked this one, mainly because of one returning character. My favorite is still Rogue Protocol but that's because that one has a bit of horror in it. This one is more action oriented. Still a very enjoyable read.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: Biggest story so far in the series, I liked it, both the original characters, my favorite one and some cool new ones are present this time. Also lots of action in this one.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: Great to see the original characters back into play, my favorite one back in the picture was a big bonus as well. The new characters are also nice and likeable.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: A familiar ship and a new planet. This time the planet is a lot more interesting than the in the first book.
X - Ending: Good ending, not as good and the previous books but was nice.
Extensive Review
At this point you know if you want to keep reading more of Murderbot or not. This time we get a bigger story with a lot of returning characters as well as new ones and all of them are likeable so that's good. There are three things I'm kinda getting annoyed at:
- Murderbot's feelings: Every time someone is nice to him or gives him a compliment or just wants to touch him he just shuts off and dismisses it, letting us know how much he hates feelings and tries to immediately run away from the interaction, being incredibly awkward. I know that's his thing but I would have hoped that by this point having interacted so much with humans and people not treating him as a machine would make him think "huh, I guess it's not so bad to be around some people" but no. He constantly let us know how better he got at hacking and writting code from his previous experiences yet probably the most important thing which is how he perceives humans and interacts with them is still exactly like the first interaction in the first book we read. Very minor spoiler <spoiler>(We encounter another SecUnit that is free and we get to see his POV for a few chapters, well...seeing how he interacts with everyone and what is he thinking made me wish he was the protagonist).</spoiler> It's getting annoying every time time a trusted person says "Are you ok?" him thinking "fuck off, I hate feelings, I just want to watch my dumbass series and not bother with anything". And then saying "Yes, I'm fine." then he does everything in his power to exit the conversation.
- Action Scenes: Whenever an action happens it's quite hard to follow, because there are CentralSystem, SecSystem, CombatSystem, Target1, Target2, Drone1, Drone2 all of them doing something while Murderbot tries to attack and plan and it just gets so messy. Every action scene is quite hard to keep track of and in my opinion it didn't flow at all. I didn't mention it in previous books because it was mainly Murderbot with his drones and a target or two so it was managable but here it's starting to be a problem.
- Summary: Multiple times in this book and in the previous ones goes like this. Something happens and there is a meeting to talk about a plan to action, everyone gives their input and we hear it all, we also hear Murderbot's thinking so we know everything. Then Murderbot says:
So what happened was:
1) We were surverying the planet when something attacked us.
2) We manged to survive and escape.
3) We figured out a plan and everyone has their part to do.
4) Did I mention this plan was terrible?, if not then yea it's terrible. (Alywas has to have that dumbass quirky remark that's also stating to get quite annoying. Don't understand how people think this is endearing but sadly this is 90% of Murderbot's "personality")
I don't undertand this, most of the time the summary is literally what happened in this chapter. I guess it's so explain how AI likes to organize things and stuff?, well it's stupid and annoying to have to read something worded a bit differently of what you just read four pages ago.
Aside from those three problems this is another great entry in the series, again, mainly because of a returning character that I really like plus a few other ones (definitely not because of Murderbot, starting to get annoying with him as I said in my previous point). I want to see what happens next and hopefully see some changes in Murderbot's personality, though if it didn't happen by book #5, I don't have high hopes so I'll just deal with Murderbot and his annoying awkwardness of it's feelings and rolling my eyes every time a character I like tries to connect with him only for it to dissmiss them immediately.
TL;DR
Finally we get a chunky story, with more depth, more action and more characters than in previous entries. Really liked this one, mainly because of one returning character. My favorite is still Rogue Protocol but that's because that one has a bit of horror in it. This one is more action oriented. Still a very enjoyable read.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: Biggest story so far in the series, I liked it, both the original characters, my favorite one and some cool new ones are present this time. Also lots of action in this one.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: Great to see the original characters back into play, my favorite one back in the picture was a big bonus as well. The new characters are also nice and likeable.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: A familiar ship and a new planet. This time the planet is a lot more interesting than the in the first book.
X - Ending: Good ending, not as good and the previous books but was nice.
Extensive Review
At this point you know if you want to keep reading more of Murderbot or not. This time we get a bigger story with a lot of returning characters as well as new ones and all of them are likeable so that's good. There are three things I'm kinda getting annoyed at:
- Murderbot's feelings: Every time someone is nice to him or gives him a compliment or just wants to touch him he just shuts off and dismisses it, letting us know how much he hates feelings and tries to immediately run away from the interaction, being incredibly awkward. I know that's his thing but I would have hoped that by this point having interacted so much with humans and people not treating him as a machine would make him think "huh, I guess it's not so bad to be around some people" but no. He constantly let us know how better he got at hacking and writting code from his previous experiences yet probably the most important thing which is how he perceives humans and interacts with them is still exactly like the first interaction in the first book we read. Very minor spoiler <spoiler>(We encounter another SecUnit that is free and we get to see his POV for a few chapters, well...seeing how he interacts with everyone and what is he thinking made me wish he was the protagonist).</spoiler> It's getting annoying every time time a trusted person says "Are you ok?" him thinking "fuck off, I hate feelings, I just want to watch my dumbass series and not bother with anything". And then saying "Yes, I'm fine." then he does everything in his power to exit the conversation.
- Action Scenes: Whenever an action happens it's quite hard to follow, because there are CentralSystem, SecSystem, CombatSystem, Target1, Target2, Drone1, Drone2 all of them doing something while Murderbot tries to attack and plan and it just gets so messy. Every action scene is quite hard to keep track of and in my opinion it didn't flow at all. I didn't mention it in previous books because it was mainly Murderbot with his drones and a target or two so it was managable but here it's starting to be a problem.
- Summary: Multiple times in this book and in the previous ones goes like this. Something happens and there is a meeting to talk about a plan to action, everyone gives their input and we hear it all, we also hear Murderbot's thinking so we know everything. Then Murderbot says:
So what happened was:
1) We were surverying the planet when something attacked us.
2) We manged to survive and escape.
3) We figured out a plan and everyone has their part to do.
4) Did I mention this plan was terrible?, if not then yea it's terrible. (Alywas has to have that dumbass quirky remark that's also stating to get quite annoying. Don't understand how people think this is endearing but sadly this is 90% of Murderbot's "personality")
I don't undertand this, most of the time the summary is literally what happened in this chapter. I guess it's so explain how AI likes to organize things and stuff?, well it's stupid and annoying to have to read something worded a bit differently of what you just read four pages ago.
Aside from those three problems this is another great entry in the series, again, mainly because of a returning character that I really like plus a few other ones (definitely not because of Murderbot, starting to get annoying with him as I said in my previous point). I want to see what happens next and hopefully see some changes in Murderbot's personality, though if it didn't happen by book #5, I don't have high hopes so I'll just deal with Murderbot and his annoying awkwardness of it's feelings and rolling my eyes every time a character I like tries to connect with him only for it to dissmiss them immediately.
TL;DR
Average, I really liked the setting, a small city on the moon was very interesting. While reading it really gave me Bioshock vibes if you ever played that video game. Story was not as interesting, it's a simple plot that resolves around messing with the wrong people and when there's money involved it always leads to drastic measures. Thankfully the side characters were likeable, unfortunately our main protagonist is not.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
X - Main Story: It was kind of bland if I'm honest, apart from the location there wasn't anything super interesting. Same goes with the main plot, all about money as always.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: Every character except our main protagonist is great, I really liked all of them.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: This small city on the moon really gave me Bioshock vibes if you ever played that video game. I liked it, I liked how every bubble had it's own people and main purpose and how different they are from eachother.
✓ - Ending: Best part of the book, the final action sequence was really thrilling and I really enjoyed it.
Extensive Review
Great setting, not so interesting main story, good side characters all of that is nice but let's talk about the biggest problem of this book in my opinion. The main protagonist.
My eyes really hurt at the amount of times I rolled them while reading this book. I've read the reviews and saw people say how much she talks about sex but my god this is something else. The amount of sexual inuendos from our main protagonist's inner monologue is very annoying. Every single thought she has always ends with a "get your mind out of the gutter/don't get excited/it's not what you think..." at the end. She constantly gets mentioned on how she could do anything she wanted and how smart she is, while having the maturity level of a sixteen year old horny teenager. I don't believe it. She's literally risking her life doing something very dangerous like having to blow up two machines at the same time and she says "Don't take that out of context" it's so jarring and and frustrating, all you can do is roll your eyes and hope it doesn't happen again, unfotutunately, it does, a lot...
This is a personal thing but I hate unnecessary cursing, I hate how much our main protagonist curses, it's not like I just broke my leg and I yell "Fuck", she's in the middle of a conversation where the person asks her "Why not?" and her response is "Because fuck you" it's that kind of cursing where is really stupid and if you try to defend it saying that's just her personality then her personality is garbage and should be written better. Also it's very ironic considering she's muslim. This made me really dislike her and it's very frustrating because when she's focused on doing something dangerous or planning she's really smart and focused but the second her life is not in danger anymore it's back to her horny teenager personality where everthing is sexual and she curses at everything and everyone.
She's constantly making stupid decisions followed up by "it probably wasn't a good idea but we've established that I make poor life decisions". Consciously knowing you're making bad decision but not changing just because that's who you are doesn't make you funny, endearing or quirky. It makes you very stupid. Again not believeble since she's really smart and comes up with good plans on the fly when she's in danger.
It's very sad that the main problem with the book is the main protagonist but that's how I felt. Decent story with great setting, good side characters and an awful main protagonist with some sprinkles of how good she can be in certain situations before she's back to her usual self.
TL;DR
Average, I really liked the setting, a small city on the moon was very interesting. While reading it really gave me Bioshock vibes if you ever played that video game. Story was not as interesting, it's a simple plot that resolves around messing with the wrong people and when there's money involved it always leads to drastic measures. Thankfully the side characters were likeable, unfortunately our main protagonist is not.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
X - Main Story: It was kind of bland if I'm honest, apart from the location there wasn't anything super interesting. Same goes with the main plot, all about money as always.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: Every character except our main protagonist is great, I really liked all of them.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: This small city on the moon really gave me Bioshock vibes if you ever played that video game. I liked it, I liked how every bubble had it's own people and main purpose and how different they are from eachother.
✓ - Ending: Best part of the book, the final action sequence was really thrilling and I really enjoyed it.
Extensive Review
Great setting, not so interesting main story, good side characters all of that is nice but let's talk about the biggest problem of this book in my opinion. The main protagonist.
My eyes really hurt at the amount of times I rolled them while reading this book. I've read the reviews and saw people say how much she talks about sex but my god this is something else. The amount of sexual inuendos from our main protagonist's inner monologue is very annoying. Every single thought she has always ends with a "get your mind out of the gutter/don't get excited/it's not what you think..." at the end. She constantly gets mentioned on how she could do anything she wanted and how smart she is, while having the maturity level of a sixteen year old horny teenager. I don't believe it. She's literally risking her life doing something very dangerous like having to blow up two machines at the same time and she says "Don't take that out of context" it's so jarring and and frustrating, all you can do is roll your eyes and hope it doesn't happen again, unfotutunately, it does, a lot...
This is a personal thing but I hate unnecessary cursing, I hate how much our main protagonist curses, it's not like I just broke my leg and I yell "Fuck", she's in the middle of a conversation where the person asks her "Why not?" and her response is "Because fuck you" it's that kind of cursing where is really stupid and if you try to defend it saying that's just her personality then her personality is garbage and should be written better. Also it's very ironic considering she's muslim. This made me really dislike her and it's very frustrating because when she's focused on doing something dangerous or planning she's really smart and focused but the second her life is not in danger anymore it's back to her horny teenager personality where everthing is sexual and she curses at everything and everyone.
She's constantly making stupid decisions followed up by "it probably wasn't a good idea but we've established that I make poor life decisions". Consciously knowing you're making bad decision but not changing just because that's who you are doesn't make you funny, endearing or quirky. It makes you very stupid. Again not believeble since she's really smart and comes up with good plans on the fly when she's in danger.
It's very sad that the main problem with the book is the main protagonist but that's how I felt. Decent story with great setting, good side characters and an awful main protagonist with some sprinkles of how good she can be in certain situations before she's back to her usual self.
TL;DR
Average, I really liked the setting, a small city on the moon was very interesting. While reading it really gave me Bioshock vibes if you ever played that video game. Story was not as interesting, it's a simple plot that resolves around messing with the wrong people and when there's money involved it always leads to drastic measures. Thankfully the side characters were likeable, unfortunately our main protagonist is not.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
X - Main Story: It was kind of bland if I'm honest, apart from the location there wasn't anything super interesting. Same goes with the main plot, all about money as always.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: Every character except our main protagonist is great, I really liked all of them.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: This small city on the moon really gave me Bioshock vibes if you ever played that video game. I liked it, I liked how every bubble had it's own people and main purpose and how different they are from eachother.
✓ - Ending: Best part of the book, the final action sequence was really thrilling and I really enjoyed it.
Extensive Review
Great setting, not so interesting main story, good side characters all of that is nice but let's talk about the biggest problem of this book in my opinion. The main protagonist.
My eyes really hurt at the amount of times I rolled them while reading this book. I've read the reviews and saw people say how much she talks about sex but my god this is something else. The amount of sexual inuendos from our main protagonist's inner monologue is very annoying. Every single thought she has always ends with a "get your mind out of the gutter/don't get excited/it's not what you think..." at the end. She constantly gets mentioned on how she could do anything she wanted and how smart she is, while having the maturity level of a sixteen year old horny teenager. I don't believe it. She's literally risking her life doing something very dangerous like having to blow up two machines at the same time and she says "Don't take that out of context" it's so jarring and and frustrating, all you can do is roll your eyes and hope it doesn't happen again, unfotutunately, it does, a lot...
This is a personal thing but I hate unnecessary cursing, I hate how much our main protagonist curses, it's not like I just broke my leg and I yell "Fuck", she's in the middle of a conversation where the person asks her "Why not?" and her response is "Because fuck you" it's that kind of cursing where is really stupid and if you try to defend it saying that's just her personality then her personality is garbage and should be written better. Also it's very ironic considering she's muslim. This made me really dislike her and it's very frustrating because when she's focused on doing something dangerous or planning she's really smart and focused but the second her life is not in danger anymore it's back to her horny teenager personality where everthing is sexual and she curses at everything and everyone.
She's constantly making stupid decisions followed up by "it probably wasn't a good idea but we've established that I make poor life decisions". Consciously knowing you're making bad decision but not changing just because that's who you are doesn't make you funny, endearing or quirky. It makes you very stupid. Again not believeble since she's really smart and comes up with good plans on the fly when she's in danger.
It's very sad that the main problem with the book is the main protagonist but that's how I felt. Decent story with great setting, good side characters and an awful main protagonist with some sprinkles of how good she can be in certain situations before she's back to her usual self.
TL;DR
Average, I really liked the setting, a small city on the moon was very interesting. While reading it really gave me Bioshock vibes if you ever played that video game. Story was not as interesting, it's a simple plot that resolves around messing with the wrong people and when there's money involved it always leads to drastic measures. Thankfully the side characters were likeable, unfortunately our main protagonist is not.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
X - Main Story: It was kind of bland if I'm honest, apart from the location there wasn't anything super interesting. Same goes with the main plot, all about money as always.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: Every character except our main protagonist is great, I really liked all of them.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: This small city on the moon really gave me Bioshock vibes if you ever played that video game. I liked it, I liked how every bubble had it's own people and main purpose and how different they are from eachother.
✓ - Ending: Best part of the book, the final action sequence was really thrilling and I really enjoyed it.
Extensive Review
Great setting, not so interesting main story, good side characters all of that is nice but let's talk about the biggest problem of this book in my opinion. The main protagonist.
My eyes really hurt at the amount of times I rolled them while reading this book. I've read the reviews and saw people say how much she talks about sex but my god this is something else. The amount of sexual inuendos from our main protagonist's inner monologue is very annoying. Every single thought she has always ends with a "get your mind out of the gutter/don't get excited/it's not what you think..." at the end. She constantly gets mentioned on how she could do anything she wanted and how smart she is, while having the maturity level of a sixteen year old horny teenager. I don't believe it. She's literally risking her life doing something very dangerous like having to blow up two machines at the same time and she says "Don't take that out of context" it's so jarring and and frustrating, all you can do is roll your eyes and hope it doesn't happen again, unfotutunately, it does, a lot...
This is a personal thing but I hate unnecessary cursing, I hate how much our main protagonist curses, it's not like I just broke my leg and I yell "Fuck", she's in the middle of a conversation where the person asks her "Why not?" and her response is "Because fuck you" it's that kind of cursing where is really stupid and if you try to defend it saying that's just her personality then her personality is garbage and should be written better. Also it's very ironic considering she's muslim. This made me really dislike her and it's very frustrating because when she's focused on doing something dangerous or planning she's really smart and focused but the second her life is not in danger anymore it's back to her horny teenager personality where everthing is sexual and she curses at everything and everyone.
She's constantly making stupid decisions followed up by "it probably wasn't a good idea but we've established that I make poor life decisions". Consciously knowing you're making bad decision but not changing just because that's who you are doesn't make you funny, endearing or quirky. It makes you very stupid. Again not believeble since she's really smart and comes up with good plans on the fly when she's in danger.
It's very sad that the main problem with the book is the main protagonist but that's how I felt. Decent story with great setting, good side characters and an awful main protagonist with some sprinkles of how good she can be in certain situations before she's back to her usual self.
Cold Welcome
TL;DR
I really liked this book, it's a great science fiction survival adventure with a rich world, great characters and good writting. I definitely recommend this book I had a blast reading through it. The only thing I didn't like was the ending but everything else is great.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: I didn't think it would be a stranded survival story but I was not dissapointed with it, it was a great story even if the main question isn't answered by the end.
✓ - Side Stories (if it applies): I liked all the side stories, where we jump from Ky's cousin, to her aunt, to her lover. All great and interesting parallel stories that are all trying to save Ky.
✓ - Characters: Every character except Ky's second in command (Jen) was great. I loved all the different crew members, Ky's family and her lover were all a joy to read through. There are a lot of characters and only one to be annoying and not likeable is impresive. My favorite were Rafe, Grace and Teague.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: Interesting setting, a barren land that's supposedly not suitable for terraforming yet there is this mysterious base weirdly well equipped for everything. I liked it.
X - Ending: This is the worst part of the book, very anticlimactic. It just ends which was very weird to me. A bit dissapointed but the all the other aspects of the books are strong.
Extensive Review
I wasn't expecting this to be a stranded survival story but was pleasently surprised at how good it turned out to be. I really liked how there is already a world created and built up. You constantly hear about Ky's past and how she's a hero and saved a lot of people. I would have liked if there was more of that though.
It's great that our main protagonist is smart and makes good decisions I really liked her. The rest of the crew were also interesting and enjoyable to read when they interacted with one another. Another great part of the book are the side stories going on, Ky's lover, her aunt and cousin trying to find out if she's still alive and saving her. I don't have anything bad to say about them, great writting with interesting personalities. I didn't mind at all going from Ky's survival story to Rafe and Grace trying to figure out how to get to Ky and save her.
The ending was a let down at how abruptly it ends without answering much of that happened. The ending is very important to me which is why I can't give this book a perfect score. I will be reading the next book and see how that one goes but I have high hopes seeing how good this one was.
Edit: Okay so I said that this feels like a world already well established, I just realized there's a whole series called Vatta's War that I think pretty much goes into how she turned out to be a hero and got to this place. I will have to read those as well.
TL;DR
I really liked this book, it's a great science fiction survival adventure with a rich world, great characters and good writting. I definitely recommend this book I had a blast reading through it. The only thing I didn't like was the ending but everything else is great.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: I didn't think it would be a stranded survival story but I was not dissapointed with it, it was a great story even if the main question isn't answered by the end.
✓ - Side Stories (if it applies): I liked all the side stories, where we jump from Ky's cousin, to her aunt, to her lover. All great and interesting parallel stories that are all trying to save Ky.
✓ - Characters: Every character except Ky's second in command (Jen) was great. I loved all the different crew members, Ky's family and her lover were all a joy to read through. There are a lot of characters and only one to be annoying and not likeable is impresive. My favorite were Rafe, Grace and Teague.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: Interesting setting, a barren land that's supposedly not suitable for terraforming yet there is this mysterious base weirdly well equipped for everything. I liked it.
X - Ending: This is the worst part of the book, very anticlimactic. It just ends which was very weird to me. A bit dissapointed but the all the other aspects of the books are strong.
Extensive Review
I wasn't expecting this to be a stranded survival story but was pleasently surprised at how good it turned out to be. I really liked how there is already a world created and built up. You constantly hear about Ky's past and how she's a hero and saved a lot of people. I would have liked if there was more of that though.
It's great that our main protagonist is smart and makes good decisions I really liked her. The rest of the crew were also interesting and enjoyable to read when they interacted with one another. Another great part of the book are the side stories going on, Ky's lover, her aunt and cousin trying to find out if she's still alive and saving her. I don't have anything bad to say about them, great writting with interesting personalities. I didn't mind at all going from Ky's survival story to Rafe and Grace trying to figure out how to get to Ky and save her.
The ending was a let down at how abruptly it ends without answering much of that happened. The ending is very important to me which is why I can't give this book a perfect score. I will be reading the next book and see how that one goes but I have high hopes seeing how good this one was.
Edit: Okay so I said that this feels like a world already well established, I just realized there's a whole series called Vatta's War that I think pretty much goes into how she turned out to be a hero and got to this place. I will have to read those as well.
Cold Welcome
TL;DR
I really liked this book, it's a great science fiction survival adventure with a rich world, great characters and good writting. I definitely recommend this book I had a blast reading through it. The only thing I didn't like was the ending but everything else is great.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: I didn't think it would be a stranded survival story but I was not dissapointed with it, it was a great story even if the main question isn't answered by the end.
✓ - Side Stories (if it applies): I liked all the side stories, where we jump from Ky's cousin, to her aunt, to her lover. All great and interesting parallel stories that are all trying to save Ky.
✓ - Characters: Every character except Ky's second in command (Jen) was great. I loved all the different crew members, Ky's family and her lover were all a joy to read through. There are a lot of characters and only one to be annoying and not likeable is impresive. My favorite were Rafe, Grace and Teague.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: Interesting setting, a barren land that's supposedly not suitable for terraforming yet there is this mysterious base weirdly well equipped for everything. I liked it.
X - Ending: This is the worst part of the book, very anticlimactic. It just ends which was very weird to me. A bit dissapointed but the all the other aspects of the books are strong.
Extensive Review
I wasn't expecting this to be a stranded survival story but was pleasently surprised at how good it turned out to be. I really liked how there is already a world created and built up. You constantly hear about Ky's past and how she's a hero and saved a lot of people. I would have liked if there was more of that though.
It's great that our main protagonist is smart and makes good decisions I really liked her. The rest of the crew were also interesting and enjoyable to read when they interacted with one another. Another great part of the book are the side stories going on, Ky's lover, her aunt and cousin trying to find out if she's still alive and saving her. I don't have anything bad to say about them, great writting with interesting personalities. I didn't mind at all going from Ky's survival story to Rafe and Grace trying to figure out how to get to Ky and save her.
The ending was a let down at how abruptly it ends without answering much of that happened. The ending is very important to me which is why I can't give this book a perfect score. I will be reading the next book and see how that one goes but I have high hopes seeing how good this one was.
Edit: Okay so I said that this feels like a world already well established, I just realized there's a whole series called Vatta's War that I think pretty much goes into how she turned out to be a hero and got to this place. I will have to read those as well.
TL;DR
I really liked this book, it's a great science fiction survival adventure with a rich world, great characters and good writting. I definitely recommend this book I had a blast reading through it. The only thing I didn't like was the ending but everything else is great.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: I didn't think it would be a stranded survival story but I was not dissapointed with it, it was a great story even if the main question isn't answered by the end.
✓ - Side Stories (if it applies): I liked all the side stories, where we jump from Ky's cousin, to her aunt, to her lover. All great and interesting parallel stories that are all trying to save Ky.
✓ - Characters: Every character except Ky's second in command (Jen) was great. I loved all the different crew members, Ky's family and her lover were all a joy to read through. There are a lot of characters and only one to be annoying and not likeable is impresive. My favorite were Rafe, Grace and Teague.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: Interesting setting, a barren land that's supposedly not suitable for terraforming yet there is this mysterious base weirdly well equipped for everything. I liked it.
X - Ending: This is the worst part of the book, very anticlimactic. It just ends which was very weird to me. A bit dissapointed but the all the other aspects of the books are strong.
Extensive Review
I wasn't expecting this to be a stranded survival story but was pleasently surprised at how good it turned out to be. I really liked how there is already a world created and built up. You constantly hear about Ky's past and how she's a hero and saved a lot of people. I would have liked if there was more of that though.
It's great that our main protagonist is smart and makes good decisions I really liked her. The rest of the crew were also interesting and enjoyable to read when they interacted with one another. Another great part of the book are the side stories going on, Ky's lover, her aunt and cousin trying to find out if she's still alive and saving her. I don't have anything bad to say about them, great writting with interesting personalities. I didn't mind at all going from Ky's survival story to Rafe and Grace trying to figure out how to get to Ky and save her.
The ending was a let down at how abruptly it ends without answering much of that happened. The ending is very important to me which is why I can't give this book a perfect score. I will be reading the next book and see how that one goes but I have high hopes seeing how good this one was.
Edit: Okay so I said that this feels like a world already well established, I just realized there's a whole series called Vatta's War that I think pretty much goes into how she turned out to be a hero and got to this place. I will have to read those as well.
TL;DR
Very short story of Murderbot before meeting his crew. I liked it, it's also free so there's that.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: Murderbot helping out humans as he always does.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: Not much explanation about the characters, just a few names.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: Not much explanation about our suroundings, just that we're in a mine.
✓ - Ending: Just another day for Murderbot.
Extensive Review
You can read the story here for free:
https://www.wired.com/story/future-of-work-compulsory-martha-wells/
TL;DR
Very short story of Murderbot before meeting his crew. I liked it, it's also free so there's that.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: Murderbot helping out humans as he always does.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: Not much explanation about the characters, just a few names.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: Not much explanation about our suroundings, just that we're in a mine.
✓ - Ending: Just another day for Murderbot.
Extensive Review
You can read the story here for free:
https://www.wired.com/story/future-of-work-compulsory-martha-wells/
TL;DR
I did not like this book, main protagonist is an idiot and the story is boring. The only good things about this book are the ideas, Schrödinger's box and the little time we spend with Amanda. Everything else is not worth the read.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
X - Main Story: I disliked it a lot, creating such a great idea of a machine capable to move between all the infinite realities currently going on and wasting it on just trying to find you wife is so boring it's not even funny. Thankfully the book is short.
✓ - Side Stories (if it applies): The other universes we visit was pretty cool, I liked some of them and they were interesting but mainly because of Amanda if we were just following the main protagonist I'm sure it would be much boring.
X - Characters: Main protagonist is an idiot and his focus on getting back to his wife is not interesting. The only good character is Amanda for the short time she was with us I like it and was sad to see her go away but she made the right decision to abandon our protagonist, which is why I liked her. She's definitely smart for doing that.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: Schrödinger's box is the highlight of the book, the rest is just Chicago so nothing interesting there, but the different worlds they travelled to were good and interesting. Which only makes me more sad that we weren't focusing on those intead of the boring one we got.
X - Ending: Terrible ending, but was glad it happen so I can put this book to rest.
Extensive Review
This story is about a guy who invented the posibility to move between all other realities just to be with his wife. It's just as boring as it sounds, with all the cool and interesting things we can do with this and we're just focusing on this insignificant thing when you think about the implications of what can be achieved with such a discovery. The only good part I like is when we meet Amanda and they're both trying to figure things out. I was expecting for him to just get over his wife and go on some cool adventures with Amanda but no he keeps trying to find his universe in a sea of billions of them. When Amanda left the story my interest went with her, hope she found herself a nice good universe to live in. Wish we could have followed her instead of the story we got.
The amount of dumb decision our super smart main protagonist makes is infuriating. When Amanda leaves him just proves my assumptions that she was smart and dodged a bullet by getting as far away from our protagonist as possible. Good for her and hope she went on to go on some nice adventure, she has after all, the ability to visit any world she can imagine out of the infinite possibilites there are. She probably didn't go back to boring ass Chicago to her mundane life trying to get back to her lover. Like out main guy did.
Great idea and the possibilities it could have been just makes me sad when we're just focusing on these mundane things of two peoples love life. You're telling me you have the possibility to switch between realities and go to any number of them from the infinite pool and you just want to get back to your mundane life being a teacher? Just because you love your family so much? Yes that makes sense but it does not make for an interesing story at all.
TL;DR
I did not like this book, main protagonist is an idiot and the story is boring. The only good things about this book are the ideas, Schrödinger's box and the little time we spend with Amanda. Everything else is not worth the read.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
X - Main Story: I disliked it a lot, creating such a great idea of a machine capable to move between all the infinite realities currently going on and wasting it on just trying to find you wife is so boring it's not even funny. Thankfully the book is short.
✓ - Side Stories (if it applies): The other universes we visit was pretty cool, I liked some of them and they were interesting but mainly because of Amanda if we were just following the main protagonist I'm sure it would be much boring.
X - Characters: Main protagonist is an idiot and his focus on getting back to his wife is not interesting. The only good character is Amanda for the short time she was with us I like it and was sad to see her go away but she made the right decision to abandon our protagonist, which is why I liked her. She's definitely smart for doing that.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: Schrödinger's box is the highlight of the book, the rest is just Chicago so nothing interesting there, but the different worlds they travelled to were good and interesting. Which only makes me more sad that we weren't focusing on those intead of the boring one we got.
X - Ending: Terrible ending, but was glad it happen so I can put this book to rest.
Extensive Review
This story is about a guy who invented the posibility to move between all other realities just to be with his wife. It's just as boring as it sounds, with all the cool and interesting things we can do with this and we're just focusing on this insignificant thing when you think about the implications of what can be achieved with such a discovery. The only good part I like is when we meet Amanda and they're both trying to figure things out. I was expecting for him to just get over his wife and go on some cool adventures with Amanda but no he keeps trying to find his universe in a sea of billions of them. When Amanda left the story my interest went with her, hope she found herself a nice good universe to live in. Wish we could have followed her instead of the story we got.
The amount of dumb decision our super smart main protagonist makes is infuriating. When Amanda leaves him just proves my assumptions that she was smart and dodged a bullet by getting as far away from our protagonist as possible. Good for her and hope she went on to go on some nice adventure, she has after all, the ability to visit any world she can imagine out of the infinite possibilites there are. She probably didn't go back to boring ass Chicago to her mundane life trying to get back to her lover. Like out main guy did.
Great idea and the possibilities it could have been just makes me sad when we're just focusing on these mundane things of two peoples love life. You're telling me you have the possibility to switch between realities and go to any number of them from the infinite pool and you just want to get back to your mundane life being a teacher? Just because you love your family so much? Yes that makes sense but it does not make for an interesing story at all.
TL;DR
Good entry in the series, a murder mystery with some help from two new characters. I liked both of them, they are pretty cool and I liked their interactions with Murderbot.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: I liked the murder mystery story on this one, very engaging and interesting.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: I liked Indah and Aylen, even if Aylen is just gone suddenly towards the end, I thought she would more involved in the story and be there for the ending.
X - Setting/Ambiance: It's the preservation station again, nothing new there.
✓ - Ending: Not an amazing ending but it wasn't terrible. A normal ending, and that's not bad.
Extensive Review
Another good entry in the series but there are still a few things that I disliked:
- There's a character called Tural, he's okay as a character, the problem is that he's refer to as "They". Get this stupid garbage inclusive pronouns out of here.
- The cursing, Murderbot is at it again with the unnecessary cursing and it's still as annoying as the first time I noticed it. Again he's not in dangerous situations and something bad happened that would warrant that. He's in conversation and randomly curses because "he's annoyed".
There is also a good thing, there were almost no mentions of his stupid media series in this entire story, maybe twice he mentioned that he wanted to watch them. I was very pleased with this, being in the middle of some dangerous situation and having Murderbot saying "I would rather watch The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon episode 365" is very frustrating. Thankfully there was barely any mentions of his media series.
TL;DR
Good entry in the series, a murder mystery with some help from two new characters. I liked both of them, they are pretty cool and I liked their interactions with Murderbot.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: I liked the murder mystery story on this one, very engaging and interesting.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: I liked Indah and Aylen, even if Aylen is just gone suddenly towards the end, I thought she would more involved in the story and be there for the ending.
X - Setting/Ambiance: It's the preservation station again, nothing new there.
✓ - Ending: Not an amazing ending but it wasn't terrible. A normal ending, and that's not bad.
Extensive Review
Another good entry in the series but there are still a few things that I disliked:
- There's a character called Tural, he's okay as a character, the problem is that he's refer to as "They". Get this stupid garbage inclusive pronouns out of here.
- The cursing, Murderbot is at it again with the unnecessary cursing and it's still as annoying as the first time I noticed it. Again he's not in dangerous situations and something bad happened that would warrant that. He's in conversation and randomly curses because "he's annoyed".
There is also a good thing, there were almost no mentions of his stupid media series in this entire story, maybe twice he mentioned that he wanted to watch them. I was very pleased with this, being in the middle of some dangerous situation and having Murderbot saying "I would rather watch The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon episode 365" is very frustrating. Thankfully there was barely any mentions of his media series.
TL;DR
Good entry in the series, a murder mystery with some help from two new characters. I liked both of them, they are pretty cool and I liked their interactions with Murderbot.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: I liked the murder mystery story on this one, very engaging and interesting.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: I liked Indah and Aylen, even if Aylen is just gone suddenly towards the end, I thought she would more involved in the story and be there for the ending.
X - Setting/Ambiance: It's the preservation station again, nothing new there.
✓ - Ending: Not an amazing ending but it wasn't terrible. A normal ending, and that's not bad.
Extensive Review
Another good entry in the series but there are still a few things that I disliked:
- There's a character called Tural, he's okay as a character, the problem is that he's refer to as "They". Get this stupid garbage inclusive pronouns out of here.
- The cursing, Murderbot is at it again with the unnecessary cursing and it's still as annoying as the first time I noticed it. Again he's not in dangerous situations and something bad happened that would warrant that. He's in conversation and randomly curses because "he's annoyed".
There is also a good thing, there were almost no mentions of his stupid media series in this entire story, maybe twice he mentioned that he wanted to watch them. I was very pleased with this, being in the middle of some dangerous situation and having Murderbot saying "I would rather watch The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon episode 365" is very frustrating. Thankfully there was barely any mentions of his media series.
TL;DR
Good entry in the series, a murder mystery with some help from two new characters. I liked both of them, they are pretty cool and I liked their interactions with Murderbot.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: I liked the murder mystery story on this one, very engaging and interesting.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: I liked Indah and Aylen, even if Aylen is just gone suddenly towards the end, I thought she would more involved in the story and be there for the ending.
X - Setting/Ambiance: It's the preservation station again, nothing new there.
✓ - Ending: Not an amazing ending but it wasn't terrible. A normal ending, and that's not bad.
Extensive Review
Another good entry in the series but there are still a few things that I disliked:
- There's a character called Tural, he's okay as a character, the problem is that he's refer to as "They". Get this stupid garbage inclusive pronouns out of here.
- The cursing, Murderbot is at it again with the unnecessary cursing and it's still as annoying as the first time I noticed it. Again he's not in dangerous situations and something bad happened that would warrant that. He's in conversation and randomly curses because "he's annoyed".
There is also a good thing, there were almost no mentions of his stupid media series in this entire story, maybe twice he mentioned that he wanted to watch them. I was very pleased with this, being in the middle of some dangerous situation and having Murderbot saying "I would rather watch The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon episode 365" is very frustrating. Thankfully there was barely any mentions of his media series.
TL;DR
I started liking this book but by the end I had to force myself to finish it. I's so weird, it's starts out okay, gets interesting and then drops to be so boring it was hard to finish it. I did not like this book but the idea and how it tells us the effect it has on people and the world is why I would recommend this book.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: As with [book:Dark Matter|27833670] the idea is amazing and even though the execution is far better I still didn't like it. But the idea is so great it has to be given credit.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: Halena and Slade are the stars of the show, Barry is uninteresting. A guy who constantly cries at everything, had me rolling my eyes a lot when I was reading his point of view. He's probably the worst character in the book so it's unfortunate that he's one of the main protagonists.
X - Setting/Ambiance: It's just America, even if we are playing with alternate realities nothing impressive happens.
X - Ending: Not an amazing ending but it wasn't terrible. The lead up to it was horrible though.
Extensive Review
A bit better than Dark Matter, while on that book we had an incredible idea that wasn't used properly, here we get an incredible idea that shows us the consequences of using it. The beginning is pretty boring, then we get to the mid section and it's interesting and then towards the end it gets so boring that I couldn't believe I was reading the same book. Let's get off the easy stuff out of the way first.
- Slade and Halena were good characters, I really liked both of them. Always happy to read the chapters with them involved, sadly Slade only appears for about half the book.
- The idea of this book is amazing and how it tells us the effect of these alternate realities is perfect. Nothing bad to say about that just like Dark Matter, Blake Crouch's ideas are amazing. I don't want to spoil anything but if I had to rate this book based solely on the idea it presents it would be a 5/5 stars.
Now to the bad stuff:
- There's a running theme in this book, where people when they get these memories from alternate realities suddenly go crazy and commit suicide. I just can't believe it, I don't believe that you can be okay one day, you suddenly get these memories and a few days later you kill yourself because "you don't know what is real anymore". They all keep asking "is this real?" and I just have to roll my eyes, doesn't anyone in this book know what reality is? Reality is what our brain perceives so you're always in reality.
- Barry as a character is pretty boring, I hate how he constantly cries at everything. Yeah I get it he's been through some very grieving moments but seriously, every chapter with him I was reading he was crying about something.
- Minor thing but I hate when it happens in books. Towards the end of the story someone will tell someone that they can do something, they will have to work hard at it and it will be the hardest thing they will achieve in their life. Literally a few paragraphs later that someone does it first try without any problems or difficuly like it's just another Monday at work.
- At some point this book turns into Minory Report, while the book itself acknowledges it. And it's nowhere near as interesting as the movie.
- Before the ending of the book, the last fifty pages are so boring I couldn't believe I was reading the same book. It's boring because nothing new happens it's just the same thing over and over without any progress bring made. I guess the author's intention was to put us in the helplesness of the characters that they can't escape this loop? Well it was very boring and made it so hard to finish this book.
- Meghan is a piece of shit, she doesn't just commit suicide which is already a coward thing to do she sets a fire on her building killing three other innocent people, great job dumbass (it was an accident but she left her stove on when she knew she would kill herself so it's still her fault). I get that she wasn't a big character in the book but still a garbage character for what she did.
- MASSIVE ENDING SPOILER I don't get the implications of the ending. Slade killed Halena to avoid her finding out what she created. Barry kills Slade so Halena will eventually create the chair again. She has the same driven mindset as Slade so I have no doubt that eventually she will try to kill someone to get them to release DMT and figure out how the memory mapping works. Maybe if Barry tells her what happen in his previous timelines she will stop but I'm not sure...
I wish I could enjoy the book like the rest of people who rated it four/five stars but one of the main characters beeing so boring and a crying constantly, the Minority Report section and the lead up to the ending were so boring it destroyed my enjoyment.
TL;DR
I started liking this book but by the end I had to force myself to finish it. I's so weird, it's starts out okay, gets interesting and then drops to be so boring it was hard to finish it. I did not like this book but the idea and how it tells us the effect it has on people and the world is why I would recommend this book.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: As with [book:Dark Matter|27833670] the idea is amazing and even though the execution is far better I still didn't like it. But the idea is so great it has to be given credit.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: Halena and Slade are the stars of the show, Barry is uninteresting. A guy who constantly cries at everything, had me rolling my eyes a lot when I was reading his point of view. He's probably the worst character in the book so it's unfortunate that he's one of the main protagonists.
X - Setting/Ambiance: It's just America, even if we are playing with alternate realities nothing impressive happens.
X - Ending: Not an amazing ending but it wasn't terrible. The lead up to it was horrible though.
Extensive Review
A bit better than Dark Matter, while on that book we had an incredible idea that wasn't used properly, here we get an incredible idea that shows us the consequences of using it. The beginning is pretty boring, then we get to the mid section and it's interesting and then towards the end it gets so boring that I couldn't believe I was reading the same book. Let's get off the easy stuff out of the way first.
- Slade and Halena were good characters, I really liked both of them. Always happy to read the chapters with them involved, sadly Slade only appears for about half the book.
- The idea of this book is amazing and how it tells us the effect of these alternate realities is perfect. Nothing bad to say about that just like Dark Matter, Blake Crouch's ideas are amazing. I don't want to spoil anything but if I had to rate this book based solely on the idea it presents it would be a 5/5 stars.
Now to the bad stuff:
- There's a running theme in this book, where people when they get these memories from alternate realities suddenly go crazy and commit suicide. I just can't believe it, I don't believe that you can be okay one day, you suddenly get these memories and a few days later you kill yourself because "you don't know what is real anymore". They all keep asking "is this real?" and I just have to roll my eyes, doesn't anyone in this book know what reality is? Reality is what our brain perceives so you're always in reality.
- Barry as a character is pretty boring, I hate how he constantly cries at everything. Yeah I get it he's been through some very grieving moments but seriously, every chapter with him I was reading he was crying about something.
- Minor thing but I hate when it happens in books. Towards the end of the story someone will tell someone that they can do something, they will have to work hard at it and it will be the hardest thing they will achieve in their life. Literally a few paragraphs later that someone does it first try without any problems or difficuly like it's just another Monday at work.
- At some point this book turns into Minory Report, while the book itself acknowledges it. And it's nowhere near as interesting as the movie.
- Before the ending of the book, the last fifty pages are so boring I couldn't believe I was reading the same book. It's boring because nothing new happens it's just the same thing over and over without any progress bring made. I guess the author's intention was to put us in the helplesness of the characters that they can't escape this loop? Well it was very boring and made it so hard to finish this book.
- Meghan is a piece of shit, she doesn't just commit suicide which is already a coward thing to do she sets a fire on her building killing three other innocent people, great job dumbass (it was an accident but she left her stove on when she knew she would kill herself so it's still her fault). I get that she wasn't a big character in the book but still a garbage character for what she did.
- MASSIVE ENDING SPOILER I don't get the implications of the ending. Slade killed Halena to avoid her finding out what she created. Barry kills Slade so Halena will eventually create the chair again. She has the same driven mindset as Slade so I have no doubt that eventually she will try to kill someone to get them to release DMT and figure out how the memory mapping works. Maybe if Barry tells her what happen in his previous timelines she will stop but I'm not sure...
I wish I could enjoy the book like the rest of people who rated it four/five stars but one of the main characters beeing so boring and a crying constantly, the Minority Report section and the lead up to the ending were so boring it destroyed my enjoyment.
TL;DR
I started liking this book but by the end I had to force myself to finish it. I's so weird, it's starts out okay, gets interesting and then drops to be so boring it was hard to finish it. I did not like this book but the idea and how it tells us the effect it has on people and the world is why I would recommend this book.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: As with [book:Dark Matter|27833670] the idea is amazing and even though the execution is far better I still didn't like it. But the idea is so great it has to be given credit.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: Halena and Slade are the stars of the show, Barry is uninteresting. A guy who constantly cries at everything, had me rolling my eyes a lot when I was reading his point of view. He's probably the worst character in the book so it's unfortunate that he's one of the main protagonists.
X - Setting/Ambiance: It's just America, even if we are playing with alternate realities nothing impressive happens.
X - Ending: Not an amazing ending but it wasn't terrible. The lead up to it was horrible though.
Extensive Review
A bit better than Dark Matter, while on that book we had an incredible idea that wasn't used properly, here we get an incredible idea that shows us the consequences of using it. The beginning is pretty boring, then we get to the mid section and it's interesting and then towards the end it gets so boring that I couldn't believe I was reading the same book. Let's get off the easy stuff out of the way first.
- Slade and Halena were good characters, I really liked both of them. Always happy to read the chapters with them involved, sadly Slade only appears for about half the book.
- The idea of this book is amazing and how it tells us the effect of these alternate realities is perfect. Nothing bad to say about that just like Dark Matter, Blake Crouch's ideas are amazing. I don't want to spoil anything but if I had to rate this book based solely on the idea it presents it would be a 5/5 stars.
Now to the bad stuff:
- There's a running theme in this book, where people when they get these memories from alternate realities suddenly go crazy and commit suicide. I just can't believe it, I don't believe that you can be okay one day, you suddenly get these memories and a few days later you kill yourself because "you don't know what is real anymore". They all keep asking "is this real?" and I just have to roll my eyes, doesn't anyone in this book know what reality is? Reality is what our brain perceives so you're always in reality.
- Barry as a character is pretty boring, I hate how he constantly cries at everything. Yeah I get it he's been through some very grieving moments but seriously, every chapter with him I was reading he was crying about something.
- Minor thing but I hate when it happens in books. Towards the end of the story someone will tell someone that they can do something, they will have to work hard at it and it will be the hardest thing they will achieve in their life. Literally a few paragraphs later that someone does it first try without any problems or difficuly like it's just another Monday at work.
- At some point this book turns into Minory Report, while the book itself acknowledges it. And it's nowhere near as interesting as the movie.
- Before the ending of the book, the last fifty pages are so boring I couldn't believe I was reading the same book. It's boring because nothing new happens it's just the same thing over and over without any progress bring made. I guess the author's intention was to put us in the helplesness of the characters that they can't escape this loop? Well it was very boring and made it so hard to finish this book.
- Meghan is a piece of shit, she doesn't just commit suicide which is already a coward thing to do she sets a fire on her building killing three other innocent people, great job dumbass (it was an accident but she left her stove on when she knew she would kill herself so it's still her fault). I get that she wasn't a big character in the book but still a garbage character for what she did.
- MASSIVE ENDING SPOILER I don't get the implications of the ending. Slade killed Halena to avoid her finding out what she created. Barry kills Slade so Halena will eventually create the chair again. She has the same driven mindset as Slade so I have no doubt that eventually she will try to kill someone to get them to release DMT and figure out how the memory mapping works. Maybe if Barry tells her what happen in his previous timelines she will stop but I'm not sure...
I wish I could enjoy the book like the rest of people who rated it four/five stars but one of the main characters beeing so boring and a crying constantly, the Minority Report section and the lead up to the ending were so boring it destroyed my enjoyment.
TL;DR
I started liking this book but by the end I had to force myself to finish it. I's so weird, it's starts out okay, gets interesting and then drops to be so boring it was hard to finish it. I did not like this book but the idea and how it tells us the effect it has on people and the world is why I would recommend this book.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: As with [book:Dark Matter|27833670] the idea is amazing and even though the execution is far better I still didn't like it. But the idea is so great it has to be given credit.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: Halena and Slade are the stars of the show, Barry is uninteresting. A guy who constantly cries at everything, had me rolling my eyes a lot when I was reading his point of view. He's probably the worst character in the book so it's unfortunate that he's one of the main protagonists.
X - Setting/Ambiance: It's just America, even if we are playing with alternate realities nothing impressive happens.
X - Ending: Not an amazing ending but it wasn't terrible. The lead up to it was horrible though.
Extensive Review
A bit better than Dark Matter, while on that book we had an incredible idea that wasn't used properly, here we get an incredible idea that shows us the consequences of using it. The beginning is pretty boring, then we get to the mid section and it's interesting and then towards the end it gets so boring that I couldn't believe I was reading the same book. Let's get off the easy stuff out of the way first.
- Slade and Halena were good characters, I really liked both of them. Always happy to read the chapters with them involved, sadly Slade only appears for about half the book.
- The idea of this book is amazing and how it tells us the effect of these alternate realities is perfect. Nothing bad to say about that just like Dark Matter, Blake Crouch's ideas are amazing. I don't want to spoil anything but if I had to rate this book based solely on the idea it presents it would be a 5/5 stars.
Now to the bad stuff:
- There's a running theme in this book, where people when they get these memories from alternate realities suddenly go crazy and commit suicide. I just can't believe it, I don't believe that you can be okay one day, you suddenly get these memories and a few days later you kill yourself because "you don't know what is real anymore". They all keep asking "is this real?" and I just have to roll my eyes, doesn't anyone in this book know what reality is? Reality is what our brain perceives so you're always in reality.
- Barry as a character is pretty boring, I hate how he constantly cries at everything. Yeah I get it he's been through some very grieving moments but seriously, every chapter with him I was reading he was crying about something.
- Minor thing but I hate when it happens in books. Towards the end of the story someone will tell someone that they can do something, they will have to work hard at it and it will be the hardest thing they will achieve in their life. Literally a few paragraphs later that someone does it first try without any problems or difficuly like it's just another Monday at work.
- At some point this book turns into Minory Report, while the book itself acknowledges it. And it's nowhere near as interesting as the movie.
- Before the ending of the book, the last fifty pages are so boring I couldn't believe I was reading the same book. It's boring because nothing new happens it's just the same thing over and over without any progress bring made. I guess the author's intention was to put us in the helplesness of the characters that they can't escape this loop? Well it was very boring and made it so hard to finish this book.
- Meghan is a piece of shit, she doesn't just commit suicide which is already a coward thing to do she sets a fire on her building killing three other innocent people, great job dumbass (it was an accident but she left her stove on when she knew she would kill herself so it's still her fault). I get that she wasn't a big character in the book but still a garbage character for what she did.
- MASSIVE ENDING SPOILER I don't get the implications of the ending. Slade killed Halena to avoid her finding out what she created. Barry kills Slade so Halena will eventually create the chair again. She has the same driven mindset as Slade so I have no doubt that eventually she will try to kill someone to get them to release DMT and figure out how the memory mapping works. Maybe if Barry tells her what happen in his previous timelines she will stop but I'm not sure...
I wish I could enjoy the book like the rest of people who rated it four/five stars but one of the main characters beeing so boring and a crying constantly, the Minority Report section and the lead up to the ending were so boring it destroyed my enjoyment.
TL;DR
Another great entry in the series, this is a right after Network Effect and the story is not as interesting as that one but still okay. Love ART's crew, we get more development from them and they're great. Also this entry solved some of my gripes from every entry, the unnecessary cursing and the constant reference to Murderbot's stupid media series.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: ART's and Murderbot's crew team up to try and save the colonist of the planet, it's not as interesting as it sounds. I still prefer when Murderbot was alone in a cave mine roleplaying as a security consultant and trying to do something he wanted while helping out random humans along the way. I feel that's when Murderbot shines, him being on a full team doesn't work because he just doesn't open to them and it's always distant.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: I really liked ART's crew and the we still have some of the good ones from Murderbot's crew aswell. Still ART was by far the most interesting one.
X - Setting/Ambiance: Still on alien contaminated planet, a bit more interesting than the space stations but not that much since the alien contamination is not present at all.
X - Ending: Just like most entries the ending is not bad but also not super memorable. Just an okay ending.
Extensive Review
Not much to say, another great entry and I'm glad that the cursing and mentioning of the series is tone down where it didn't bother me at all. That's a step in the right direction in my opinion. The only negative I have is yet another mention of some stupid pronoun that makes no sense and serves no purpose but to just make the reading more confusing. There's this character named Corian and instead of using the only two ways to refer to a person (he/she) the pronoun is "vi" so then you get stupid sentences like this:
Vi dropped to the floor and curled vir legs up
Or
Vi patted vir chest
Aside from that atrocity there's nothing bad about this book, I had a good time reading it.
TL;DR
Another great entry in the series, this is a right after Network Effect and the story is not as interesting as that one but still okay. Love ART's crew, we get more development from them and they're great. Also this entry solved some of my gripes from every entry, the unnecessary cursing and the constant reference to Murderbot's stupid media series.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: ART's and Murderbot's crew team up to try and save the colonist of the planet, it's not as interesting as it sounds. I still prefer when Murderbot was alone in a cave mine roleplaying as a security consultant and trying to do something he wanted while helping out random humans along the way. I feel that's when Murderbot shines, him being on a full team doesn't work because he just doesn't open to them and it's always distant.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: I really liked ART's crew and the we still have some of the good ones from Murderbot's crew aswell. Still ART was by far the most interesting one.
X - Setting/Ambiance: Still on alien contaminated planet, a bit more interesting than the space stations but not that much since the alien contamination is not present at all.
X - Ending: Just like most entries the ending is not bad but also not super memorable. Just an okay ending.
Extensive Review
Not much to say, another great entry and I'm glad that the cursing and mentioning of the series is tone down where it didn't bother me at all. That's a step in the right direction in my opinion. The only negative I have is yet another mention of some stupid pronoun that makes no sense and serves no purpose but to just make the reading more confusing. There's this character named Corian and instead of using the only two ways to refer to a person (he/she) the pronoun is "vi" so then you get stupid sentences like this:
Vi dropped to the floor and curled vir legs up
Or
Vi patted vir chest
Aside from that atrocity there's nothing bad about this book, I had a good time reading it.
TL;DR
I really liked Cold Welcome so I bought this one because I liked Elizabeth Moon's writting and the characters. The first half of the book is really good where Ky tries to save the survivors. But just like the last book where the only bad thing I could find was how abrupt and anticlimactic the ending was it happens here as well when the survivors situation gets solved. It simply ends and then we get to a pretty boring last half of the book where Ky is back in the military.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: Great first half, boring second half.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: For the first half they're great, really liked Stella in this one. She's a badass. Second half of the book they're all gone.
X - Setting/Ambiance: Nothing interesting it's just the Vatta's house most of the time.
X - Ending: I didn't care about it that much since I lost interest in the second half of the book.
Extensive Review
Before Ky gets in a higher position of power the book is great, I loved everything about it. It has planning, a rescue mission, banter between all the favorite characters (Rafe, Teague, Stella, Grace...) also some new ones wich were really cool. After the main thing happens then it's just Ky and the military which frankly I don't care at all. Every page is a new colonel introduced that Ky interacts with and again I don't care about them, I want to see more of my favorite characters. You will see how good the book is during the survivors situation and when it ends you will see a steep decline after that. I think the entire book should have been saving the survivors, it would have been way better in my opinion.
TL;DR
I really liked Cold Welcome so I bought this one because I liked Elizabeth Moon's writting and the characters. The first half of the book is really good where Ky tries to save the survivors. But just like the last book where the only bad thing I could find was how abrupt and anticlimactic the ending was it happens here as well when the survivors situation gets solved. It simply ends and then we get to a pretty boring last half of the book where Ky is back in the military.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: Great first half, boring second half.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: For the first half they're great, really liked Stella in this one. She's a badass. Second half of the book they're all gone.
X - Setting/Ambiance: Nothing interesting it's just the Vatta's house most of the time.
X - Ending: I didn't care about it that much since I lost interest in the second half of the book.
Extensive Review
Before Ky gets in a higher position of power the book is great, I loved everything about it. It has planning, a rescue mission, banter between all the favorite characters (Rafe, Teague, Stella, Grace...) also some new ones wich were really cool. After the main thing happens then it's just Ky and the military which frankly I don't care at all. Every page is a new colonel introduced that Ky interacts with and again I don't care about them, I want to see more of my favorite characters. You will see how good the book is during the survivors situation and when it ends you will see a steep decline after that. I think the entire book should have been saving the survivors, it would have been way better in my opinion.
Gone Cold
TL;DR
I'm sitting at my desk, my figure casting a long shadow over the table from the barely opened blind. I need to write a review for Gone Cold, I feel a chill down my spine and my heart skips a beat at the thought. I decide to get up and open the blind more, exposing myself to the dawn sun. My heart skips a beat at the golden hour rays that make me squint as my eyes try to adjust at the abrupt contrast in lighting. I open the window and the cold breeze sends a chill down my spine. As I turn back I see my entire body casting a long shadow over the room now. Typing steadily on my keyboard, each word a grim reminder of the story and it's characters, without warning I get chills over my spine as I try to push those thoughts away. Reading the epilogue and seeing how the author has more than twenty other books is enough to send a chill down my spine and my heart skips a beat imagining myself reading more of these stories. While reviewing what I typed I see my long shadow that was cast on the wall noding in unison with me, agreeing with my thoughts. We looked at eachother, staring silently as the birds outside are in constant battle with eachother chirping away their feelings. I see the shadow going away slowly fading with each second more and more as if saying he's had enough and cannot be with me anymore. All I can do is watch and let him go, I cannot stop him for I have no more control over him as he has over me. The moment he's completely gone a chill ran down my spine, as if I just lost a brother. The long shadow that was cast on my room is no longer there, was this a response from reading the book or am I loosing my sanity? A chill ran down my spine as I look back at the window. Ah today's going to be cloudy.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
X - Main Story: Pretty boring, there were constant "we need to do x, it might helps us see the bigger picture". Where I was "wait, where are you getting that from?" or "Okay, that's a little far fetched there.". It's hard to describe but while reading this book I knew I was reading a crime story that was written by someone.
X - Side Stories (if it applies): The trauma of our main protagonist I didn't believe it, she just lived in a cult for her first nine years and she keeps talking about it like she suffered her whole life and had to "deprogram" from that cult's teachings. I don't think teaching a child of nine years of age to think differently is such a behemoth of a task honestly.
X - Characters: Boring as well I did not believe Becca's trauma as she's constantly having nightmare and everything she sees reminds her of her previous life. The constant "it's over now, that life is gone" while still being trapped in the past and uneble to let go or move on is frustrating.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: Nothing stands out, cool open forests and scenery though.
X - Ending: Nothing unexpected happened, no "Ohhh he's the one?". No, the criminal is just some random who never had any connection or seen the main protagonist. So when it got resolved I was left unsatisfied.
Extensive Review
My TL;DR was not a joke, I'm just getting into reading and I mainly read science fiction but in my 30 books read I've never seen this happening. This book has twenty-seven chapters, by chapter three I was already telling myself "Okay, what is going on with the "Casting a long shadow over..." and "Becca's heart skipped a beat" and "felt a chill down her spine"?". It's so annoying that I could not get to enjoy the story which is already pretty boring but I cannot tell you how many times I rolled my eyes reading one of those three sentences over and over and over and over. There's a part where it says "chill ran down her spine" and literally two paragraphs down it says it again.
I don't have crazy standards but I swear I've never had this problem with any other book I've read which makes me assume that this was a poorly written book. The story was not interesting, we all know that your protagonist is just as good as your villain, and when your villain is just some random being evil for the sake of it, it makes your protagonist boring as well. The villain had no connectiong with our protagonist never even seen her so when they finally meet it's nothing special.
The banter between the main protagonists was fine, when the author didn't get a chance to describe casting shadows or chills running down spines or skipping heartbeats I was enjoying reading it. They felt like two people in a conversation not just two imaginary characters talking to eachtother.
I don't want to be mean or hurt the author but seeing how she's written so many books I will assume she's gotten better in her later books so this review shouldn't matter that much. This is honestly how I felt. I don't want to read a book I don't enjoy and I'm sure the author doesn't want that either.
To those "reviews" that I saw at the end of the book getting quoted did not read the same book as I. They're talking about how this book has amazing twists which it has none, saying "I never guessed who the murdered was" yeah that's becasue he's some random without any connection to anyone so of course you can't guess him.
TL;DR
I'm sitting at my desk, my figure casting a long shadow over the table from the barely opened blind. I need to write a review for Gone Cold, I feel a chill down my spine and my heart skips a beat at the thought. I decide to get up and open the blind more, exposing myself to the dawn sun. My heart skips a beat at the golden hour rays that make me squint as my eyes try to adjust at the abrupt contrast in lighting. I open the window and the cold breeze sends a chill down my spine. As I turn back I see my entire body casting a long shadow over the room now. Typing steadily on my keyboard, each word a grim reminder of the story and it's characters, without warning I get chills over my spine as I try to push those thoughts away. Reading the epilogue and seeing how the author has more than twenty other books is enough to send a chill down my spine and my heart skips a beat imagining myself reading more of these stories. While reviewing what I typed I see my long shadow that was cast on the wall noding in unison with me, agreeing with my thoughts. We looked at eachother, staring silently as the birds outside are in constant battle with eachother chirping away their feelings. I see the shadow going away slowly fading with each second more and more as if saying he's had enough and cannot be with me anymore. All I can do is watch and let him go, I cannot stop him for I have no more control over him as he has over me. The moment he's completely gone a chill ran down my spine, as if I just lost a brother. The long shadow that was cast on my room is no longer there, was this a response from reading the book or am I loosing my sanity? A chill ran down my spine as I look back at the window. Ah today's going to be cloudy.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
X - Main Story: Pretty boring, there were constant "we need to do x, it might helps us see the bigger picture". Where I was "wait, where are you getting that from?" or "Okay, that's a little far fetched there.". It's hard to describe but while reading this book I knew I was reading a crime story that was written by someone.
X - Side Stories (if it applies): The trauma of our main protagonist I didn't believe it, she just lived in a cult for her first nine years and she keeps talking about it like she suffered her whole life and had to "deprogram" from that cult's teachings. I don't think teaching a child of nine years of age to think differently is such a behemoth of a task honestly.
X - Characters: Boring as well I did not believe Becca's trauma as she's constantly having nightmare and everything she sees reminds her of her previous life. The constant "it's over now, that life is gone" while still being trapped in the past and uneble to let go or move on is frustrating.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: Nothing stands out, cool open forests and scenery though.
X - Ending: Nothing unexpected happened, no "Ohhh he's the one?". No, the criminal is just some random who never had any connection or seen the main protagonist. So when it got resolved I was left unsatisfied.
Extensive Review
My TL;DR was not a joke, I'm just getting into reading and I mainly read science fiction but in my 30 books read I've never seen this happening. This book has twenty-seven chapters, by chapter three I was already telling myself "Okay, what is going on with the "Casting a long shadow over..." and "Becca's heart skipped a beat" and "felt a chill down her spine"?". It's so annoying that I could not get to enjoy the story which is already pretty boring but I cannot tell you how many times I rolled my eyes reading one of those three sentences over and over and over and over. There's a part where it says "chill ran down her spine" and literally two paragraphs down it says it again.
I don't have crazy standards but I swear I've never had this problem with any other book I've read which makes me assume that this was a poorly written book. The story was not interesting, we all know that your protagonist is just as good as your villain, and when your villain is just some random being evil for the sake of it, it makes your protagonist boring as well. The villain had no connectiong with our protagonist never even seen her so when they finally meet it's nothing special.
The banter between the main protagonists was fine, when the author didn't get a chance to describe casting shadows or chills running down spines or skipping heartbeats I was enjoying reading it. They felt like two people in a conversation not just two imaginary characters talking to eachtother.
I don't want to be mean or hurt the author but seeing how she's written so many books I will assume she's gotten better in her later books so this review shouldn't matter that much. This is honestly how I felt. I don't want to read a book I don't enjoy and I'm sure the author doesn't want that either.
To those "reviews" that I saw at the end of the book getting quoted did not read the same book as I. They're talking about how this book has amazing twists which it has none, saying "I never guessed who the murdered was" yeah that's becasue he's some random without any connection to anyone so of course you can't guess him.
TL;DR
Average in my opinion, the last part of the book is definitely the star of the show, when you learn some pretty big things about the universe and if we are alone or not in it. Up until then it was very boring, I don't think that our main protagonist is very interesting to follow him for most of the story. The science is pretty heavy on this one, I'm not a smart guy but I do like to check out and research a bit on every new thing that I've never heard or understand and I was googling constantly in this book. Some people may not like it but I like when it makes sense and it's not some magic thing invented by the author.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: Boring until the second half of the book.
✓ - Side Stories (if it applies): Boring stuff with the cultural revolution, not interested in it at all. The part with the Trisolarians is interesing and their story and plan is amazing. The VR game part is trash, didn't like that at all.
X - Characters: The only good one is Da Shi and out of the 10 people we meet and interact with that's not good.
X - Setting/Ambiance: It's just normal day China, boring.
✓ - Ending: I liked it, was really enjoyable to read and I like where this is going.
Extensive Review
This has to be a cultural thing but I've read a few Asian authors so far and they all have a distinct way or writing dialogue that always seems off to me. I don't know how to explain it but if you give me a book without telling me anything about it I can tell if it was written by an Asian author. I don't like it at all. It has to be cultural becasue the same happens when I watch an Asian movie. The dialogue to me always seems like they're never genuine and they're always putting up a facade. It doesn't help that the characters are pretty bland to be honest.
So poor dialogue and a lot of infodumps, Cixin Lui is not very interested in showing you stuff, he's way more into telling you about it and in very exact detail stretch over whole pages to just talking about inconsequential stuff that isn't important.
The only good character is Da Shi, I liked every scene where he was involved in. Unfortunately he doens't show much in the story, towards the final part he gets more involved though.
There are some very cool scenes with some nanofiber our main protagonist invented that was amazing to read.
TL;DR
Average in my opinion, the last part of the book is definitely the star of the show, when you learn some pretty big things about the universe and if we are alone or not in it. Up until then it was very boring, I don't think that our main protagonist is very interesting to follow him for most of the story. The science is pretty heavy on this one, I'm not a smart guy but I do like to check out and research a bit on every new thing that I've never heard or understand and I was googling constantly in this book. Some people may not like it but I like when it makes sense and it's not some magic thing invented by the author.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: Boring until the second half of the book.
✓ - Side Stories (if it applies): Boring stuff with the cultural revolution, not interested in it at all. The part with the Trisolarians is interesing and their story and plan is amazing. The VR game part is trash, didn't like that at all.
X - Characters: The only good one is Da Shi and out of the 10 people we meet and interact with that's not good.
X - Setting/Ambiance: It's just normal day China, boring.
✓ - Ending: I liked it, was really enjoyable to read and I like where this is going.
Extensive Review
This has to be a cultural thing but I've read a few Asian authors so far and they all have a distinct way or writing dialogue that always seems off to me. I don't know how to explain it but if you give me a book without telling me anything about it I can tell if it was written by an Asian author. I don't like it at all. It has to be cultural becasue the same happens when I watch an Asian movie. The dialogue to me always seems like they're never genuine and they're always putting up a facade. It doesn't help that the characters are pretty bland to be honest.
So poor dialogue and a lot of infodumps, Cixin Lui is not very interested in showing you stuff, he's way more into telling you about it and in very exact detail stretch over whole pages to just talking about inconsequential stuff that isn't important.
The only good character is Da Shi, I liked every scene where he was involved in. Unfortunately he doens't show much in the story, towards the final part he gets more involved though.
There are some very cool scenes with some nanofiber our main protagonist invented that was amazing to read.
TL;DR
I didn't grow up with this book like many people had. I recently just started reading and was recommended this book. I don't know if it's because I don't have much experience in the science fiction genre to compare it to but this book is amazing. I really liked everything about it, the story, the world building, the characters, the environments, the history... If you want to read a good science fiction story that even though it's a series can be read as a standalone perfectly fine. It has a good and satisfying ending. Go read this book!
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: Great story, I like the way this story is told and how it was written. I don't have any mayor gripes with it. Good stuff.
✓ - Side Stories (if it applies): I liked all the side stuff, the Baron's plan, the Fremen's plan all the stories were great. I really enjoyed reading them.
✓ - Characters: Amazing characters, from the "good" ones to the evil ones are all amazing. I didn't dislike any of them.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: Arrakis is always an amazing place, a desert planet filled with sandworms. I reall like the desert theme.
✓ - Ending: I liked the ending, you can stop here and it's a perfectly good spot.
Extensive Review
Not much to add here since this is the section where I say what annoyed or bothered me about the book. I pretty much liked everything about it, again, this might be due to me having just started reading science fiction and not having many pieces to compare it to but I really liked this book.
The characters were well written, my favorite, Jessica is amazing. Every chapter with her which is pretty much the whole story thankfully was a blast to see how she thinks, reacts and takes action. The bene gesserit as a whole I really like, the idea of a group of very powerfull females that select which genes gets to pass on is interesting. Then we have the Baron, such a cool villain I was looking forward to every chapter with him in it. The fremen were also cool, every faction is great in this book.
TL;DR
I didn't grow up with this book like many people had. I recently just started reading and was recommended this book. I don't know if it's because I don't have much experience in the science fiction genre to compare it to but this book is amazing. I really liked everything about it, the story, the world building, the characters, the environments, the history... If you want to read a good science fiction story that even though it's a series can be read as a standalone perfectly fine. It has a good and satisfying ending. Go read this book!
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: Great story, I like the way this story is told and how it was written. I don't have any mayor gripes with it. Good stuff.
✓ - Side Stories (if it applies): I liked all the side stuff, the Baron's plan, the Fremen's plan all the stories were great. I really enjoyed reading them.
✓ - Characters: Amazing characters, from the "good" ones to the evil ones are all amazing. I didn't dislike any of them.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: Arrakis is always an amazing place, a desert planet filled with sandworms. I reall like the desert theme.
✓ - Ending: I liked the ending, you can stop here and it's a perfectly good spot.
Extensive Review
Not much to add here since this is the section where I say what annoyed or bothered me about the book. I pretty much liked everything about it, again, this might be due to me having just started reading science fiction and not having many pieces to compare it to but I really liked this book.
The characters were well written, my favorite, Jessica is amazing. Every chapter with her which is pretty much the whole story thankfully was a blast to see how she thinks, reacts and takes action. The bene gesserit as a whole I really like, the idea of a group of very powerfull females that select which genes gets to pass on is interesting. Then we have the Baron, such a cool villain I was looking forward to every chapter with him in it. The fremen were also cool, every faction is great in this book.
TL;DR
Average in my opinion. It would be pretty hard to surpass Dune so this one is taking a step back and doesn't have that much action. Many people like to say buzzwords like "political intrigue" but what they really want to say it's that this one is boring. Political intrigue would be if we get to see the other houses plotting againts each other, creating traps or assasinations to weaken the rest and such. No, the story of this book resolves around four randoms (to avoid spoilers) trying to take down Paul. So if you come in with the hype of the first book you will be sorely dissapointed. The problem is that to keep reading the series you need to get though this one, the good thing is that it's not that long but it is boring.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
X - Main Story: Boring with little happening, stop saying this book is more focused on political intrigue when it's just four people trying to kill Paul. None of the other houses are involved in any political intrigue.
X - Side Stories (if it applies): There's no main story here, Paul's doing his thing while four people are trying to murder him. I cannot believe we didn't get to see this jihad that was so hyped in the previous book, no we get to a point where everything is conquered. Wow amazing...
✓ - Characters: My favorite character Jessica is gone, chilling in Caledan so that's nice. At least we get Alia who I really love but we get one of the worst ones too, I'm just gna call him the Ghola, you will see when you read this book but I really hate him.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: At least we're still on Arrakis, I really love the desert planet, nothing to say here.
✓ - Ending: If you want Paul's story could end here and it's a nice ending. I just kept reading because I saw that in the next book Jessica is back but if you want to stop here you can.
Extensive Review
Not much to add, Jessica my favorite character is out of the picture, same with Gourney, instead we focus on Alia, Paul's sister. I liked her, she is a good character and very capable. To avoid spoilers here is the start of a thing that will persist even to the fourth book which is where I stopped reading this series. A character returns and I do not like it at all.
Also remember that famous jihad that Paul was so afraid and trying to stop at all costs? Yeah well it happend and we never get to see it. Only hear that they've conquered everything. Instead we get to see how Paul and Chani are trying to conceive. Great, that's exactly what I wanted to read...
This book is pretty dissapointing comparing it to Dune, on it's own is average at best.
TL;DR
Average in my opinion. It would be pretty hard to surpass Dune so this one is taking a step back and doesn't have that much action. Many people like to say buzzwords like "political intrigue" but what they really want to say it's that this one is boring. Political intrigue would be if we get to see the other houses plotting againts each other, creating traps or assasinations to weaken the rest and such. No, the story of this book resolves around four randoms (to avoid spoilers) trying to take down Paul. So if you come in with the hype of the first book you will be sorely dissapointed. The problem is that to keep reading the series you need to get though this one, the good thing is that it's not that long but it is boring.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
X - Main Story: Boring with little happening, stop saying this book is more focused on political intrigue when it's just four people trying to kill Paul. None of the other houses are involved in any political intrigue.
X - Side Stories (if it applies): There's no main story here, Paul's doing his thing while four people are trying to murder him. I cannot believe we didn't get to see this jihad that was so hyped in the previous book, no we get to a point where everything is conquered. Wow amazing...
✓ - Characters: My favorite character Jessica is gone, chilling in Caledan so that's nice. At least we get Alia who I really love but we get one of the worst ones too, I'm just gna call him the Ghola, you will see when you read this book but I really hate him.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: At least we're still on Arrakis, I really love the desert planet, nothing to say here.
✓ - Ending: If you want Paul's story could end here and it's a nice ending. I just kept reading because I saw that in the next book Jessica is back but if you want to stop here you can.
Extensive Review
Not much to add, Jessica my favorite character is out of the picture, same with Gourney, instead we focus on Alia, Paul's sister. I liked her, she is a good character and very capable. To avoid spoilers here is the start of a thing that will persist even to the fourth book which is where I stopped reading this series. A character returns and I do not like it at all.
Also remember that famous jihad that Paul was so afraid and trying to stop at all costs? Yeah well it happend and we never get to see it. Only hear that they've conquered everything. Instead we get to see how Paul and Chani are trying to conceive. Great, that's exactly what I wanted to read...
This book is pretty dissapointing comparing it to Dune, on it's own is average at best.