Grațian

TL;DR

I did not enjoy this book as much as the others, I felt like nothing happened at all. We are so far ahead into the future and for some reason we are focused on this boring stale timeperiod of all that happened between Children of Dune and now. Many people say this is their favorite Dune book so I came pretty excited into it, unfortunately it was such a big dissapointment.

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: Extremely boring, nothing happens it's just philosophy talk galore, every conversation is about a philosophical topic. It's just so boring.

X - Side Stories (if it applies): I don't even remember if there were side stories all I know is that this book is boring.

X - Characters: All my favorite characters are gone, literally the only ones left are my least favorite ones from previous books, Leto II and Duncan Idaho. This to me is not Dune, you can be on Arrakis and have spice and all that but this is not Dune. Also Fremen are a joke who wear fake stilsuits and fake weapons, pathetic. The new characters are garbage too, none of them hold a candle to any one of the characters from the previous entries.

X - Setting/Ambiance: Garbage planet, we went from one of the most interesting ones, a desert planet with sandworms to a paradise with trees and grass. Basically just like any other boring habitable planet out there, great...

X - Ending: Terrible ending, all I can say. Didn't like it.

Extensive Review

So we keep hearing stories about what happened before we time jumped, about fights and conquests and such. So I would assume we would get more information on this, sadly this was not the case.

How about seeing how Leto II created his Fish Speakers (female soldiers completely devoted to him) and started conquering all the worlds along these three thousand and five hundred years, soldiers must have fought back when they heard they were being relagated to farmers and wouldn't be able to fight anymore before eventually submitting to him?

No.

Oh okay.

How about the part where Leto II during all these years managed to turn the Fremen, pround desert warriors who always fought back against their oppressors go from that to husks who wear plastic replicas of their weapons, fake stillsuits and pretty much forgot their ways?

No.

Oh...

How about the Landsraad and all the other houses, the Spacing Guild, the Bene Gesserit fighting againsts Leto II once they saw he was becoming a tyrant? Sure he controlled the spice, but some of them must have faught back and tried before giving up hope and submitting to him, no?

No.

...

Instead we are at a point where he controls everything and everyone, sure a few skirmishes happen here and there, some rebels but this is nothing. I felt like as a reader I've arrived too late in the story, everyone is beat into submission and has no hope to even try to go against Leto II.

Okay so the story is a letdown. No worries we've got the characters to pick it up...right?

I don't think I've liked a single character is this book, except the Bene Gesserit sisters. No matter when they appear or what they're doing I always really liked them because they're always scheeming and probing, it's their nature. You have to really do a terrible job to put in a Bene Gesserit sister and for me to not like her as a character.

But I wasn't interested in the rest and I hate that because how many good characters we had from the previous books? oh, so many memorable ones but that's the problem with jumping three thousand and five hundred years in the future. I'm not kidding when I say that some of the least important characters in previous books like say Harah is a better character than any one present here except for Leto II and Hwi. And once you start to talk about big names like Jessica, Alia, Ghanima, The Baron, Stilgar... it's not even a fair competition. You might say that it's because those characters had time to develop over the course of three books but just pick a single book, say Dune Messiah. Duncan as a ghola mentat arguably a new character, Alia not a child anymore so a new character, Irulan. Who even comes close to these in this book?

Duncan in this book, this guy just won't die, just let the poor man die for the love of Shai-Hulud. Killed while taking down 17 sardaukar helping Jessica and Paul escape?, amazing! Then he gets revived and I was like "uhhh I don't know...", but he's a mentat now so that was a cool new addition. Then he dies again and now he's just Duncan, getting manipulated by everyone because he's just so loyal to the Atreides. As long as you talk in Paul's voice and say something he said to him he will do anything you want. "Duncan, hello?" Just because Leto II has all the memories of Paul and can recite them at will doesn't mean he's Paul. I don't get why that's such a hard concept to understand even though Leto II constantly tries to convince us by saying he's the entire Atreides family as one. No, if you let Paul take over you and become an abomination then yes, he's Paul. Using his voice and talking of past experiences is like me having some recording of my grandfather, playing it and saying I'm him because I posses that.

I don't get this admiration every one inside the story has with Duncan, he's a good soldier who's good with the ladies. Gourney has some problems but I liked him way more than Duncan, even Duncan himself said that Gourney would beat him six out of ten times. Leto II doesn't have that strong connection with Duncan as Paul did. Even if I buy the "Leto II is Paul" thing, by that logic he could literally have used any other character from the previous books to keep reviving. I'm sure he could procure the body of whoever he wanted and give it to the Tleilaxu. There is a scene where Duncan visits a village and he sees some one who looks exactly like some one who was very important to him in his past life, I don't think that was a coincidence, so my point is that we could have had anyone better than Duncan as a recuring character from previous books, let this man die, please.

Another thing I got disappointed by Duncan is in a scene where fifty face dancers attack Leto II and his Fish Speakers, as they fight the face dancers all change into Duncan. At this moment I was like "yeah!, here we go. They killed the original one and one of them switched with him, brilliant. Finally things will get interesting, how will he manage to evade Leto II and blend in correctly." Then I kept reading and reading and reading... "Okay he's waiting for the perfect moment, he only has one shot he's got to make it count. Or maybe he's secretly sending info to the Tleilaxu about Leto II?, oh the possibilities." Then I reached the ending of the book and no, all that skirmish was for nothing and Duncan was the real one all along, "great..."

Moneo is a yes man who fears Leto II because he knows when he gets in a bad mood he could kill you involuntarily. Just barks orders around and I guess he's strong because he evaded an attack from Duncan with ease but we never see him do anything else. His conversations with Leto II are, "Yes, Lord", "No, Lord", "I'm sorry, Lord"...

Siona is boring and doesn't bring anything to the table. Any female character from past books is more interesting than her.

The Fish Speakers were cool, an army of devoted fanatic females is a nice idea, I liked that. Unfortunately we don't get to see them very much. They're just there awaiting orders and obeying. We don't get to see them in their free time. Or the relationships they have between them or any of that.

Sad to say but I did not enjoy reading this book.

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

There are 9 stories in this book. It hooked my in because the first and second stories are amazing. The problem is that after that all the rest are some of the most boring things I've ever read. It was very weird seeing how strong the first two are. The 6th story the parts with the missionary are good, the journalist one is boring. The other stories are very bad. I would not recommend this book seeing how 3/9 stories are worth reading.

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: There is no main story.

X - Side Stories (if it applies): The stories 1,2 and 6 are the only good stories worth reading.

X - Characters: No character stands out in any of the stories.

✓ - Setting/Ambiance: I liked the world of the second story, it was really creative and nice to imagine.

X - Ending: There is no main ending.

Extensive Review

The only stories worth reading are the first, second and sixth. The rest in my opinion were very bland and uninteresting. I was skimming though them and it was very frustrating seeing how the good stories are 40/50 pages long and then the boring one are 140+. People keep talking about how a story from this book inspired the movie Arrival. Well it's not worth it, if you want some nice short science fiction stories, we have to look elsewhere.

TL;DR

I really enjoyed this book, definitely recommend to read it if you want a horror/thriller scifi story. There wasn't anything that annoyed or bothered me about it. Story was great, characters were interesting, the alien object was amazing. I have nothing bad to say about this book, go read it!

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 idea of this mysterious space object that we encounter, almost the entire story is inside this thing so that's great because it's the best part of the book.

✓ - Side Stories (if it applies): A little bit of backstory with out main protagonist but nothing to bothersome. Not super interesing either.

✓ - Characters: Great characters all around, enjoyed all of them. There wasn't anyone who I found annoying or rolled my eyes when they were talking.

✓ - Setting/Ambiance: The tension and feeling of being inside the object was amazing and terrifying. I really liked the ambiance and it's a very strong point of the book.

✓ - Ending: Good ending as well to round up the entire book, I'm glad it didn't flop it.

Extensive Review

Okay here is where I usually start to talk about things that annoyed me or didn't make sense. For this book this section is going to be very short because I haven't found anything to put here. Maybe that at some points of the book it was hard to understand who was talking because it jumps from one character to another abruptly and I had to go back a few lines and read it again a bit more slowly to understand who's inner mind are we listening to now.

I liked all the characters in this story, I'm surprised because there is always one that is just annoying or one that you hate for various reasons. In this story I thought they were great. Even when they do some extreme things, since you hear their thoughts you understand why they did it and it can be understandable.

The science to me seemed well researched, I was looking up things that I didn't understand and it was on point to what the characters were saying or explaining. Maybe some one who more of an expert can detect some mistakes but to what little knowledge I have it made sense.

I'm not talking about the alien object because I think it's better to know nothing about it and just experience it while reading, it was my favorite part of the book and I'd say is pretty much 80% of where the story happens which is good. The other 20% is the backstory of our main protagonist and the travel to get to the alien object.

This was my first "first contact" type of story and I will be reading more of them now. The score might go down as I will compare it to other works but as of right now I will give it five stars because I really enjoyed it and I will recommend it to anyone who wants to read a scifi story.

TL;DR

I think I was going into the book thinking it would be something else. This is a girl who has a very advanced suit that can do a lot of things climbing inside a cave talking to another person who gives her information and suggestions. Doesn't really feel like a science fiction book but it wasn't a bad read. If you like climbing then you will appreciate it more.

If what you want is the atmosphere of being trapped in darkness like the cave part of this book but with way more science fiction I would highly recommend The Last Astronaut. I thought this book would be similar but it wasn't.

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 like the idea but not much the execution, as I said I thought this was going to be a different book. Not a bad story just didn't have much to do with science fiction to be honest.

X - Side Stories (if it applies): Eeh, the side stuff with both our characters is pretty uninteresting, thankfully it's not the major part of the book.

✓ - Characters: There are only two and thankfully I liked both of them, their banter was the best part of the book.

✓ - Setting/Ambiance: The idea of being trapped inside a cave is a nice idea, also not knowing if there is someone or something else down there is scary.

✓ - Ending: Regular ending, nothing too surprising happened but it wasn't terrible.

Extensive Review

The strong point and my favorite part was the interaction between our main protagonist (Gyre) and her handler (Emogene) I really liked that and thankfully it's the majority of the book. I enjoyed reading every time they talked.

The worst part for me is the climbing. I never did this sport but to me it was very boring just reading pages and pages on how she put her leg here, the arm there. Put a bolt in the rock here a rope there... I really disliked that. Even just traversing down from a slope, since this is a science fiction book I was expecting her suit to have some nano technology that let's her just adhere to the stone, or some advance suspensions on her legs to witstand high falls, or maybe some kind of device that leaves a pad that you can safely fall on. No, instead we get to read about how she went into her backpack and took out the rope and some bolts to hold it. Used the drill to place the bolt, run the rope inside, check the stability to see if it's secure, use the rope to slowly descend onto the rock. Leave it there and move on to the next obstacle. I'm sorry but in my opinion this is very boring.

The story and the idea of being trapped in the darkness of a cave was okay. Too bad that her suit has the ability to kind of simulate very clearly how the cave looks without needing light or anything so she's not in the darkness unless she turns that off, both our protagonist and her handler have different reasons for going into the cave and don't trust eachother. The ending was serviceable, nothing unexpected happened or some crazy twist, but it wasn't terrible.

TL;DR

I really liked this book, in my opinion it's way better than the first one. I still miss the old characters but ART made up for it, him and Murderbot's interactions, working together solving problems was the best part of the book. The story is a bit more interesting as well. Highly 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: I like this one better than the previous one, more infiltration and action. Enjoyable story.

X - Side Stories (if it applies):

✓ - Characters: I like all the characters, there wasn't anyone who I thought was annoying. ART was the best part of the book by far. The new humans are also interesting.

✓ - Setting/Ambiance: The space station they spend the mayority of the time is pretty standard in my opinion. Much more interesting than a bland planet.

✓ - Ending: Normal ending, nothing spectacular but not terrible either.

Extensive Review

Murderbot's interactions with ART were the hightlights of the book. The other group of characters were nice but I really like the cooperation of Murderbot with ART, these two are an unstopable force. Don't have much to say, I really liked this book and I can't wait to read the next one in the series.

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

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

Another great addition, this is the one I like the most out of the three. I like the story and the claustrophobic ambiance in the dark space station where it takes place. Miki was okay, not on ARTs level but he was enjoyable to read every time he interacted with Murderbot. The new set of characters were also good. I had a great time reading 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: I really liked this story, mainly because it has a bit of horror in it. It's more scary than the rest which I like.

X - Side Stories (if it applies):

✓ - Characters: I like all the characters, there wasn't anyone who I thought was annoying. ART is gone which is sad but the new humans are really nice and the new AI was interesting to see how he interacted with Murderbot.

✓ - Setting/Ambiance: The new forgotten station was nice and scary. I like how murderbot had to use the shadows and dark places to sneak around.

✓ - Ending: Best ending of the series so far.

Extensive Review

The place where it takes place and the actions scenes were the highlights of this book, I enjoyed the actions scenes and Muerderbot's planning. His interactions with the rest of the crew were also great. Don't have much to say the series is getting better and better. Can't wait to read the next entry.

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

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 really enjoyed this book, a great science fiction horror in my opinion. I was constantly saying to myself, just another chapter, just one more...until I had to force myself to put it down in order to get some rest for work. Great atmosphere, great story (for the most part) and good characters.

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 up until the end where things are revealed, it's not a bad reveal but after that it isn't scary anymore.

X - Side Stories (if it applies): The side stuff with our main protagonist and what's going through her mind isn't as interesting as the current mission. It's not too much filler and it's just sprinkled in every now and then but still, not that interesting.

✓ - Characters: I like all characters except one, Kate. The rest of the crew were really interesting and I liked their personalities.

✓ - Setting/Ambiance: The best part of the book, the ambience of being in a old forgotten that housed five hundred passengers ship that supposedly exploded. It's scary and the book makes sure you feel it.

X - Ending: Weakest part of the book in my opinion, mainly because it's spoiled in the first few paragraphs of chapter one. You see that our main protagonist made it out alive. Did not like that approach.

Extensive Review

I find the premise of this book amazing, a crew of five people are on the edge of the communication hub, as far and remote as you can be when the navigator suddenly sees that an S.O.S signal is being broadcasted from further out of their location, on a very old frequency. After debating on what action to take, they decide to check it out. They come across a very old luxury cruiser that supposedly dissapeared twenty years ago in an explosion...or so the news said.

That alone has potential and I'm happy to say it didn't let me down. The beginning of the book is strong, once they board the ship and try to find out what is going on and what happened to it and it's passengers is filled with tension and atmosphere, I really liked the first few days on the ship and seeing the characters go through that experience.

The characters were really good and enjoyable I like all of them except one. Kane is the most boring thing ever put to paper, he's just perfect, always doing the right thing, always caring for everyone. Keeping the peace and making sure everyone is okay...get him the hell out of my ship. Compare him to Voller who's the complete opposite and that's what makes him great, he's openly confrontational and disrespectful to the main protagonist who is his captain. Doesn't like her and he let's her know it but at the end of the day he will do what the captain says which is why I respect him. The other are also great, each with their own personality and complementing eachother. The whole crew just felt natural and I enjoyed their banter.

Things I did not like:

- Once you learn about what truly happened to the ship the mystery is gone. It's not a bad reveal and it makes sense it's just that it isn't scary anymore and at that point the book becomes a thriller.

- There is a romantic relationship going on between the main protagonist and a crew member, I didn't care for it at all, thankfully it's not very intrusive and I didn't bother me that much.

- Probably the biggest one, (Spoiler? but it's literally the first thing your eyes read on the first chapter) the book starts with an interview of the main character being acused of killing her crewmates and making it out alive of the mysterious ship. That just spoils the fact that she made it out okay and her crew didn't. I hate this trope of starting from the present, telling the story of the past.

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 haven't read Death's End but I've seen many reviews saying that this is the best book in the series. Now after reading it I can confidently say that all of those people are delusional and shouldn't be taken seriously. The only good part about this book is the ending, the last 40/50 pages is where everything important happens. I will explain more in the extensive review but I hope the last entry is better than this.

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: The actual story in this book is good when I get to read about it that is.

X - Side Stories (if it applies): Absolute trash and a complete waste of time, none are interesing and don't lead anywhere, please take my suggestion and skip everything in this book that doesn't have to do with the main story.

X - Characters: The only good character is Da Shi, out of the 20 characters we meet and interact with this is not good.

X - Setting/Ambiance: Seeing the world change from normal day to the future wasn't as interesting as I thought. Didn't like where people live in the future either.

✓ - Ending: Easily best part of the book the only saving grace. The last 40/50 pages were really interesing, the idea and implications proposed are amazing.

Extensive Review

Okay I'm not going to be gently about it, The Three-Body Problem has it's problems as well but at least the 500 pages of that book is about 400 pages the main story and 100 pages of side stuff. Here I'm not joking out of the 500 pages I would say that the important stuff having to do with the Trisolarians, their coming and what is humanity doing to prepare for it is about 200 pages if I'm being generous. Almost everything in this book is about inconsequential stuff that doesn't lead anywhere or isn't important to the main story and it's very frustrating.

To put this into perspective there are literal aliens invaders on their way to earth right now at full speed. Meanwhile all I'm reading about is:

- Three old neighbors talking about current events going on in the world and one of them getting scammed..."what?"

- One of our "main" protagonists remembering a memory about him trying to write a book and falling in love with his fictional character..."what?". This one goes a bit further because he actually thinks that's real deep love and breaks up with his current girlfriend over it. Deranged behaviour and absolute degeneracy by our so called "scientist", goes to a psychiatrist and he tell him that's normal and nothing to worry about. "What is this world?".

- One of our "main" protagonists is given a huge ammount of power to solve this crisis and since he didn't want that power he just uses it for his own gain to live comfortably..."what?". On top of being one of the most annoying tropes out there it's not even interesing, he just lives in a house watching TVs and buying random stuff that he sees.

Then we have the biggest side story than has more written about it that the actual main story so I'm not even sure it's a side story anymore, enter Zhang Beihai. EASILY top three biggest dumbass in all the books I've read. When his story concluded I could not believe it, I'm not going to spoil anything but just know that when you're reading about him know that you're wasting your time because it will not pay off in the end.

My sugestion is every time you see any mention of the three old guys, the memories of the fictional girlfriend or Zhang Beihai is to just skim over the pages but don't waste any time on them, skim through them to see if it's finally back to the main problem and read that.

Impossible challenge to complete, every time you read the word "Defeatism" or "Escapism" take a shot. You will die before reaching the end. I can't tell you how boring it is to constantly be reading the exact same thing over and over and over without anything new added in. Every single character in this book talks about those two things and it's always the same.

The main problems from the first book are still here, when you read interactions between characters you know it's just two fictional characters saying words to eachother, it's not two people having a conversation. But I gave my opinion on my The Three-Body Problem review. The writting did not improve at all, and Cixin Lui's ability to streth basic descriptions for over four pages is quite outstanding. Important stuff like a space elevator gets a one paragraph explanation while the building for the UN gets like four pages, talking about how the contour of the statues on the front are and forms that the building has..."who cares? it's just a building where corrupt politicians gather stop wasting time on that."

As I said the only good thing about this book is Da Shi and the ending. When you're reading about the actual Trisolarians and what is being done to prepare for them the book is quite interesting. Too bad those are just sprinkled in between the massive garbage side stories that lead nowhere. Yes, the ending of this book and the idea of our "main" protagonist is very terrifying and amazing at the same time. Endings are important to me but it cannot save it this time.

If this book were 300 pages long, cut all the side stuff and just be about this lunatic scientist who's in love with his fictional girlfriend and Da Shi protecting him from ETO while they're trying to prepare for the Trisolarians then I would believe those people saying this is the best book in the series.

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 didn't enjoy this book. Slow start, it started to get good and interesting towards the end but then it's ending is horrendous. Garbage main character, story with zero answers by the end and atrocious ending.

If you want a similar premise of a group of people boarding a mysterious ship to find out what's going on that are actually a good read The Last Astronaut or Dead Silence.

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: Sounds interesting and it gets you hooked but if you knew from the beginning that none of your questions will be answered it would be a different experience.

X - Side Stories (if it applies): I don't remember if there were any side stories, I don't think so but even if they were if I can't remember them it means they weren't good to begin with.

X - Characters: Horrible main protagonist, there are a few minor characters that were enjoyable but the mayority are terrible.

✓ - Setting/Ambiance: The main ship is interesting I liked the different parts of it and the mysterious ship they board is also interesting. The ambience was good.

X - Ending: Atrocious ending, zero questions answered and that decision by own main protagonist...wow.

Extensive Review

Our main character is a piece of shit, without spoiling stuff he's pretty much the reason why everything bad happens and at the end he's like "sorry, peace out homies!". I couldn't believe when he made that decision at the end, what a garbage human being with zero honor and principles.

There are a few good characters that I liked but it doesn't matter in the end, again I don't want to spoil stuff but trust me, they didn't deserve what got handed to them.

For a brief few pages the story got really interesting and I was getting excited because we were maybe starting to get some answers. But no, nothing gets answered. From the moment you learn there is a mysterious alien ship found to the end of the book you learn NOTHING at all. Origin, what is is, why it's there, is it alone?... you get nothing at all. So if you plan on reading this book I want you to know what you're getting yourself into:

- Very slow start with weird things shown to us that never gets talked about again...

- A dozen of characters given their full name and a few lines of what our main character thinks about them that we don't care at all because they just vote on stuff when there's a meeting. They literally don't do anything else. There are maybe six charaters that do stuff but we get introduced to at least twelve for no reason...

- Our main character has zero chemistry with anyone, there are characters that expresses their heart and feelings in a few paragraphs and then he chimes in with "Yeah...", "No I don't...". You can say that's just how he is but then I would say why is he the main character? There are three people I can think of in this story that would be better if they were the main character. No excuses, terrible protagonist.

- Nothing happens in the story, you only get questions and more questions nothing gets answered.

- The ending is really bad.

After all those points if I made you curious and you wanna check it out, don't. There are other "boarding mysterious ship" kind of stories out there that are good and worth the read, like the two I've mentioned in my TL;DR.

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 very much enjoyed reading this book. Great concept and it was well written. I would definitely recommend it. Though when you hear people say this is a first contact story I don't agree with it since the only time the two civilizations meet is at the end of the book (they do have a brief interaction around the middle part of the story but point still stands)

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: The are two stories going on at the same time, one from the humans side and the other from a different species. I would consider the other species story as the main one since I like it far more than the human ones. I was really nice seeing them grow and

X - Side Stories (if it applies): The humans story was boring, I didn't like it and was trying to get though it as fast as I could to get back to the other species. The only time I was interested was when the humans interacted with Doctor Avrana Kern. When they were talking between them and solving problems with their ship I was tuned out.

✓ - Characters: The human characters were pretty boring in my opinion. I didn't care much for them at all. The other species steal the show by far. Portia, Bianca and Fabian were the stars. I loved all three of them, seeing them starting as "cavemen" and over the generations growing into more complex characters and how different they become compared to their ancestors. Every chapter that involved them were great and fun to read. Great written characters.

✓ - Setting/Ambiance: The human ship is just a hunk of metal, nothing to say about that. The green planet of the other species was interesting and it was interesting to see how they built upon it and created their settlements and cities. Later on the humans visit a different planet that also was pretty interesting to imagine how it would have looked based on it's description.

✓ - Ending: I was nice to see the two species interact with each other even if it was just a brief moment at the end of the book. The ending wasn't bad but nothing amazing. It sets up the next book and I think I will keep reading this series to see where it goes.

Extensive Review

Nothing much to say here, great book for the most part. The human story didn't connect with me. Reading the story of the other species was amazing, I didn't think I was going to enjoy it as much as I did, it was really a great surprise.

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 didn't enjoy this book very much because it doesn't have a main story. It feels like it's a normal workday in the life of the people on this spaceship. You see them work on the ship, go to a planet to get supplies, eat, argue with each other... I prefer when there's a main story clearly defined.

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: Almost non existent, it's a mission to create a tunnel from place A to place B. Nothing more so it's no interesting and it's definitely no the focus of the book.

X - Side Stories (if it applies): They weren't that interesting and most of them lead to nothing. Like Rosemary, her backstory doesn't mean anything because it's brushed off and never had an impact on her crew or the main story.

✓ - Characters: They were all nice, every one felt like their own distinct individual. Can't say anything bad about them because they written in a way where you don't dislike them at all.

✓ - Setting/Ambiance: I liked the ship, and all the different planets and stations they visit. They were all descriptive and cool to imagine.

X - Ending: Like I said since there's no main story there isn't an ending per se, the mission ends and there's that.

Extensive Review

There is a "main story" but it's so insignificant that it's not even worth mentioning. They have to create a tunnel from point A to point B. And by the end of the book nothing changed, the mission is over but the galaxy is the same. It felt like everything they did was a waste of time. I can understand people who like this book because of the characters and that cozy feeling it can create. The book is not bad it's just that I prefer story focused ones better I think.

TL;DR

This is one of the classics science fiction stories and I can see how it inspired other books. I liked a lot about this book. The only negative I have is that at the end you're left with a lot of questions. I felt a bit unsatisfied with it but I do believe that if this were to happen in real life it would go down like this and we would all have the same feeling.

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: You don't need to know much because it's better to go in blindly. Know that while the story is good and it's well written, I think it will leave you unsatisfied because we don't get much answers.

X - Side Stories (if it applies):

✓ - Characters: I liked every crew member of the ship, they were all how I expect a crew of astronauts on a special mission to be. Methodical, calculating, calm under pressure, not doing dumb mistakes that probably cost them the life of other. Great job on the writing for them to the author.

✓ - Setting/Ambiance: The inside of Rama was amazing, I can't wait for Denis Villeneuve's vision of how Rama will look because the way I imagined it was breath taking. The author did a phenomenal job at describing it. Don't want to talk specifics so that you go into it blindly but know that it will be great.

✓ - Ending: At first I didn't like it but after a few days have passed and I kept thinking about it I think I like it more and more. I don't want to talk more about it to not spoil it but I think that if we had a first encounter with extraterrestrial beings it would probably go down like this ending. We're not the center of the universe as much as we humans like to think so.

Extensive Review

Even though it ticked all the boxes I can't give it a 5 star rating because...I don't want to spoil it but we're left with a lot of questions and I think that's exactly what the author wanted. I believe it's exactly how it would go down in real life if it happened. But this is not real life, it's a book and I like to feel some sort of fulfillment at the end of a story. It is frustrating because you constantly keep discovering new things about this object, more and more and you're thinking soon you will get the reveal but it doesn't happen. It did answer one of the biggest questions of humanity though, we're not alone in the universe.

One of my favorite books "The Last Astronaut" is literally this story but with a bit more answers, I didn't know it at the time but I'm thankful for this book to have inspired that one and probably many more that I haven't read yet. Great book if you into it knowing you probably won't get your questions answered, many people don't like that myself included but it was still a good story.