Emma

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

The first thing I liked about this book is that it is the third part of a series and you would never know it. As far as I can tell it doesn't make any references back to the previous books. In fact if it wasn't for the giant ‘3' on the spine you would think this was a standalone novel

I also liked the fact that there was mermaids in it. Now these are not the mermaids you would find in a Disney movie. These are proper lure men to their death mermaids. Or to be technical sirens as they are called in the book. It was nice reading about something you don't normally come across in fantasy novels. Or at least this is the first time I've read a fantasy book with mermaids in it.

The only thing that annoyed me with this book was the magic. I read on Wikipedia that this series was the author imagining what would happen if we had magic in a modern day setting. And I really wasn't keen on it. Now this can work brilliantly, for example in Harry Potter, but the magical world and non-magical parts were kept very separate. In this everything was mashed together, you have angels and mermaids and wizards but you also have electricity and superheroes and Top Gear. It felt weird all that being together.

Not to mention the characters looking for a magical ring who kept making references to Tolkien and talking about hobbits. It was all very strange.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

The Forever Watch is set on the generational ship “Noah” which is carrying the last surviving humans on a thousand year voyage to “Canaan”. People on board the ship have cybernetic implants in their brains which allow them direct access to the futuristic Nth web; their version of the internet. It also enhances their natural abilities turning them into telepaths, healers and almost animal like bruisers.

The main character “Hana” is the administrator of the city planning bureau. We first meet Hana just after she finishes Breeding Duty. A duty every female onboard ship must do; where they are placed in a coma for 9 months while their womb is used to grow a child. Shortly after she is asked by a friend to help on a case he is working on. As they investigate a murder they end up learning more about the ship and its mission than they ever expected to.

I've been trying to get my thoughts together on how I feel about this book and to be honest I can't. This is not a happy book. You definitely wouldn't want to let your kids read it. But it is fantastic. I really don't want to write too much about it because I don't want to give away any spoilers. The closest book I can compare it to is Across The Universe however this book is still nothing like Across The Universe and it is also infinitely better than it too.

There is one slight problem with this book. It is very technical. Technology plays a huge role in this book and with all the talk of compiling code, analysing networks and artificial intelligence you practically need a computer science degree to understand some of the language. But you can tell the author really knows what he is writing about. From knowing that software is not written from scratch and rather is mashed together from pre-written lines of code. To just knowing that software takes longer to test than is takes to be written. Seriously, I spent 3 years doing computing at college and 95% of that time was spend testing my code. The technology was one of the main reasons why I loved this book but I can understand how someone without any knowledge of computers might be confused by it.

Even though I loved this book I didn't give it 5 stars. I noticed a couple of small grammar errors which were slightly annoying. Some parts of the book I found implausible, the sheer size of the ship for example. And like I already mentioned I had a problem with some of the computer language. However overall I really enjoyed this book. It might not be for everyone but I liked it.

*I received a copy of this book from Hodder & Stoughton in exchange for an honest review.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

Twelve Kings was just okay. I think this is the problem with reading lots of fantasy books (or any genre). You find one amazing book and nothing else that you read can compare to it. Because it really wasn't too bad. I liked the main character, I liked the mythology. I liked that it had this whole thing where people have ships which allow them to sail on the desert sand very much like what you would do in water.

But I found myself getting bored, it dragged on in a few places. I couldn't quite figure out what the point of the story was and therefore couldn't tell if scenes were important or unnecessary. I mean it was an okay fantasy. But there are much better fantasies out there.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

The first thing I'm going to say is part of the reason why I was so surprised by this book is that I picked it entirely based on the cover. I had not heard of Ready Player One, I was just in Waterstones looking for something to read on a long train journey. Ready Player One just happened to be in the ‘buy one get one free' section, like literally the only reason I bought this book was because I would get it half price. I'm sure everyone knows that picking a book based on its cover is very hit or miss so I was amazed that not only was it better than I expected, it was about all the things I love.

I will fully admit that this is one of my all time favourite books, but it's really not the greatest story. Large parts of it are based on other games and movies, there is even a chapter when Wade (our main character) plays Matthew Broderick's role in Wargames. This is also a part of the reason why I think a movie adaption could be extremely difficult to make.

But I don't think it's good enough to say I like this book because it mentions nerdy stuff, I already liked that and would still like it if I hadn't read this book. I think I like the fact that it acknowledges nerd culture and acknowledges the fact that nerd culture is becoming mainstream. I mean it's now cool to like Star Trek and Doctor Who. I love the fact that people don't have to hide that part of themselves and this book celebrates it. Being a nerd and knowing lots of stuff about movies and games makes you cool.

I love the fact that a huge part of this is set in an MMO and even mentions some of the downsides of being a gamer (weight gain and living in your parents basement). Though I am not a child of the 80s and sometimes didn't know what Wade was referencing I still enjoyed those parts. I also really love how it comments on data privacy. Look if you're a nerd and you like science-fiction, gaming and the 80s you will probably like it.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

This was surprisingly enjoyable. I found it all strangely fascinating, you sort of get to see how the rich people live. Though most of the time it makes fun of the Oxbridge, art-collecting, well-read, lawyers and political types. It was a very easy book to read, the type of book you would want to take on holiday with you. I would definitely recommend if you are into art or modern day politics.