Emma
Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com
I wouldn't say that Moonseed was a good book, but I enjoyed reading it. In a way, it's similar to Armageddon or Deep Impact. The story starts out with Venus exploding, that was all I knew about the plot before starting Moonseed so I assumed it was going to be like Seveneves. However, the plot went off in a way I didn't expect. I like these sorts of hard science fiction books because the story is based on real science. I think to an extent Stephen Baxter did try that, but the plot went off in a direction I wasn't expecting. It's kind of like a Dan Brown book, it's fun to read but you're not in it for the historical accuracy.
The main character in Moonseed was a scientist called Henry Meacher, at first he came across as quite whiny and annoying. Henry moves from the US to study a moon rock at the University of Edinburgh. According to Henry everything in the UK is backwards and definitely not up to the standard he's used to in the US. It made him quite unlikable.
Stephen Baxter also spends a lot of time describing the geology around Edinburgh, I guess this is relevant to an extent. The Moonseed carried on Henry's rock from the Moon eats bedrock. So geology is quite important to the plot. But there is only so much geology talk I can take before getting bored.
I think the way the story is told is the real downfall of the book. Moonseed begins with introducing a huge cast of characters, the story is told through their point of view so this is understandable. But it felt like some of these characters were only in the story to narrate what is happening during the disasters which occur all over the planet.
It got to the point where I was expecting the story to end with all the main characters dying. Similar to Cloverfield. It becomes quite depressing when most of the book is one character dying after the other. When stories focus on huge natural disasters you need some small element of hope that everything will be fine in the end. I didn't get that with Moonseed.
In fact, the way Baxter wrote the story he made this problem worse. At one point Henry decides NASA has to go back to the Moon. This is imperative because the Moonseed came to Earth from the Moon. But it wasn't clear exactly what going to the Moon would do, how it would fix what was happening on Earth. In the end, it turned out Henry did have a plan all along. This just wasn't communicated to the reader so it would create a twist in the final part of the book.
Speculative fiction works because it changes the rules slightly. The idea behind this novel is what would happen if NASA was slightly different. It brings back a particle which eats bedrock. That's fine if the plot just continued with that it would be believable. If it was based on real science just a slightly different setting.
But then it turns out this Moonseed particle was left by aliens, and it's creating a solar sail. In fact, the aliens are trying to help humans. Imagining science being a bit different is fine, so is aliens. But I felt that having both in the same story was too far. It would have worked exactly the same if this Moonseed wasn't an alien, it was just something new. Adding the alien aspect didn't make any difference to the story. It was just there to explain why the Moonseed was on the Moon.
It's like in Seveneves, you can speculate that the Moon blew up because of aliens, but that is just speculation, it's mentioned once then never again. The story focused on what happens because the Moon blew up, not why it blows up.
The story feels frustrating in the way it has been told. I almost feel it would have worked better as a film than a book. It's easier that way to show what is happening without having to make a connection with a specific character. I think it would have been preferable to being introduced to a character just for them to be killed off.
Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.
I have to start this review by saying sorry, if at any point I write Voyager instead of Voyage during this review, it's because I have Voyager on the brain and literally can't stop myself from writing that final ‘y'. I'm not even joking, it's like it's automatic now. So yeah my apologies.
Voyage is one of those books that take a while to get into. I didn't truly start enjoying it till nearly 200 pages in. But when I did finally get it, it was like one of those moments where you realise you are in love with a book and it just takes a while for your brain to catch it. It actually got to the point where I wanted to take my time and just enjoy the experience. I think we're now at the point where this is my favourite book of the year.
Voyage is an alternate history, to be more specific it asks what might have happened to NASA if Kennedy survived the assassination attempt in 1963. In fact you could almost read Voyage as a sequel to 22/11/63 by Stephen King (I will admit I haven't finished that book yet but I'm assuming it ends with Kennedy not dying). The result of Kennedy not dying is he encourages NASA to continue on after landing a man on the moon and send a mission to Mars.
The thing I love about this is that sending a crew to Mars isn't easy, and Baxter makes it quite clear how not easy this is. And I don't mean just the science and technological advancements that need to be made. I mean the whole politics and stuff that happens back on Earth. In fact I would say that the parts of the story which take place on Earth is more fascinating than the parts in space. Because you get to see all the behind the scenes details of what it's like to work at NASA.
I love that Baxter went into the tiniest details of what would have changed because NASA went to Mars. Even even noted at one point how Gene Roddenberry was working on The Next Generation and decided to go in a whole new direction because of what was happening at NASA (hey any authors reading this, one sure fire way for me to love your book is to mention Star Trek, just saying).
But I think the best thing about this book is the main character. It is a female Geologist who joins NASA to become an astronaut. And this is important because it sort of blew my mind when I realised this book (and it only took my 95% of the book to realise this) is really about all the changes that had to happen as NASA for a female astronaut to become the first human on Mars.
I have read a lot of science-fiction and even now sci-fi is really a male dominated genre and the books are mostly about male protagonists and it was so refreshing to finally find a book about a female scientist. And not just that but it details all the misogyny that she had to overcome to be allowed on that mission. And it wasn't even like she was put on the mission because she was a female, in fact at one point she is told she won't be on it specifically because she is a female, but eventually through hard work she gets it and yeah. I liked that.
I want to point out this isn't a spoiler, in fact you find out very early on that York is put on the mission. The book is just written in a very strange order (and this is one of the things I didn't like about it), where the story from leaving earth to standing on mars is told at the same time as going from landing on the moon to setting out to Mars. It gets really confusing at some points especially because there are no true chapters which means the story feels like it jumps around quite a bit. It's still enjoyable but you really need to pay attention. My other complaint about this book is the large number of characters and yet again that may be my fault rather than the books (I'm not good with names).
Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.
My one and only problem with Central Station is that there didn't seem to be a point to it. It didn't have an overall story arc. It was more like a series of short stories set in the same world featuring the same characters. It got to the point around 75% of the way through where I still didn't know what the end game was. The book didn't feel like it was leading up to something. It was just a series of stories.
But even then each chapter didn't feel like an individual short story. It was more like a little information about the character, maybe a little backstory and whatever else was going on. But I have to say the characters were interesting. You have one who is basically a Trill from Star Trek. You have a number of robots left begging for parts after the war they were built for ended. And you have what is basically a vampire. Who was infected with a virus which was created as a weapon for said war and makes them want to drink blood and take memories. I really liked the “vampires” in this book, I liked that there was a reason for them being there and it wasn't just “oh yeah there are vampire in this version of the future”. I would have been happy if the whole book was just about the vampires.
I will say this, the world building was fantastic, it felt like a properly fleshed out world. It's set in a futuristic Tel Aviv where at some point a spaceport was built allowing travel to Mars and further out into the solar system. The characters you met felt real, they felt like they belonged in the spaceport. But the actual story was boring. And the story is kind of important when it comes to books.
This is the only non-fiction book I've read where I've finished it and been genuinely sad because the person who this book is about died. Which really isn't too much of a surprise considering these events took place 70 years ago. But I was still sad. If you enjoyed the King's Speech movie definitely read this as you get to see how the King and Logue's friendship continued throughout the war and after.
Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.
Peter F Hamilton described this book as “smart” and after reading it I can only agree with him. The premise of this book is that part of the human race think that humans should be the only beings in the universe. They end up in conflict with other humans who are trying to expand to other worlds and in combination with a virus that speeds up the intelligence in animals, are seeding these planets with chimpanzees that hopefully will become smart enough to be slaves for the humans. The book starts with this conflict finally getting to a breaking point and the next 580 pages are the results of that war.
But on the planet where this book takes place, the seeding doesn't go to plan. The virus gets to the surface but the chimpanzees don't. Which means the virus starts acting on the other life on the planet. And this results in my favourite thing about this book: smart spiders. I feel this would be a good point to mention if you don't like insects or have arachnophobia, this book probably isn't for you. The clever thing the author has done with this book is he has taken the nature of spiders and extrapolated what they would do if they were able to evolve to the point of thinking for themselves. He has also pointed out some problems that come with this and it actually is relevant to our modern day.
Okay so female spiders eat the males. So in this book it has got to the point where the females are strong and the males are almost a weaker race. The males have virtually no rights and are basically just there to please the females. At any point they could be killed and it's not against any type of law the spiders have. It even gets to the point (and I bookmarked this page because I loved it so much), that the elder female spiders justify the younger ones hunting and killing males because “girls will be girls”. The whole thing is our modern day problems but turned on it's head and I love it so much.
And then we have the humans, the whole way through you have this overwhelming sense of doom when it comes to the humans. They are literally the last of their race fighting to find a planet where they can start again. Of course they come across the planet full of spiders and as you can imagine it doesn't go well for the humans. Now the really clever thing is the humans have got to the point where they have the technology to put people in stasis for long periods of time. So over the course of the book, which takes around 2500 years. You have the same human characters and they get to see (along with the reader) how the spiders go from tiny little normal spiders into a spacefaring race.
I really don't want to say too much about the end, but it was fantastic because it did not end the way I expected it to and yet considering the nature of the spiders it made total sense that it would the way it did. And if I still haven't convinced you to read this book I don't think anything else will. Unless you're scared of spiders in which case don't read it.
Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.
For the last three months I have been taking part in the Monster Goddess Book Club run by The Bookie Monsters and The Book Goddess. This months pick was a favourite book from your childhood. Originally I was going to read Holes by Louis Sachar because I loved that book but ended up changing to Stormbreaker after finding out (thanks to Tasha!) that the series had continued after what I had thought was the last book.
It was actually a little strange going back to this because I loved it so much as a kid. Like I literally read this book to death. When everyone else was getting all annoyed over Dumbledore dying at the end of Half Blood Prince I was more worried about the fact that Alex Rider had possibly been killed off at the end of one of the later books. True story.
And now, my opinion on Stormbreaker now that I'm all grown up. I'm very surprised to say I enjoyed it. It holds up to rereading as an adult. Admittedly it does feel a little bit childish, the plot isn't the greatest and at the end the baddie inexplicably turns up to save the day. But it could be worse. It's basically a kids version of James Bond. In fact it would be a very good way to introduce a kid to James Bond. I liked it. It wasn't good but it was still decent enough for me to want to continue the series.
Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.
I have said many times that I don't like romance in YA and I have to take that statement back because I loved this book and it's a YA love story set in the Star Wars universe. Actually this is more like a Romeo and Juliette story. You have two kids from the same planet who aren't supposed to be friends because of reasons. They end up being friends anyway and both go to Coruscant to join the Imperial Academy.
The thing I really loved about this book is that you get to see the original movies from a different perspective. You see how even the Imperials are shocked when Alderaan is destroyed. And when the rebels are celebrating their victory at Yavin 5 you see the Imperials mourning for the friends they lost on the Death Star.
My favourite thing was seeing the rebellion side of the story and how everyone is confused by this Calrissian guy who has been made general for no apparent reason. You also get to see what they think of that Luke Skywalker guy who seems to think he is big deal.
Of course our main characters have their own story which I don't want to give away. I will say however that it's nice to see that their story has nothing to do with the original movies but there are moments where the two converge quite nicely. Basically out of all the Star Wars books that have been released recently this is a must read. Especially if you're curious about the downed Star Destroyer on Jakku at the start of The Force Awakens.
I really enjoyed this. It's about farming in the Lake District and it's surprisingly interesting. One thing that did annoy me however is certain parts are almost an autobiography, and considering this book is supposed to be about sheep farming they feel unnecessary. I don't want to sound mean or anything but I'm reading this for the farming aspect not because I want to learn about the author's life.
Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.
This book is essentially a memoir written by someone with cancer. But to say it's just a memoir devalues what this really is. This book is one person's attempt to examine death – maybe even accept it. This book was written by a person who didn't want to die, but like all of us, doesn't get a choice in the matter. This is his attempt to help himself and others come to terms with their own mortality.
Paul Kalanithi was a writer who went on to become a doctor because he was fascinated with the brain. He wanted to discover where biology, philosophy and literature intersect. At the age of 36 just as he was to graduate medical school he was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. Suddenly he went from being the doctor to being a patient.
After his diagnosis Paul decided to continue his project, this book being the final result. However that's part of the reason this book is so heartbreaking because Paul never managed to finish his book – his project. His final words are not some insight into death, but advice for his young daughter who he would never see grow up. In a way this book reminds me of that John Green quote. “You die in the middle of your life, in the middle of a sentence”.
You go into this book knowing Paul is going to die and if anything it makes you realise how unfair life truly is. Here is a person, a husband, a father, a scientist. Just about to graduate. At the top of his game. He could quite possibly have become one of the best neurosurgeons in the US. Struck down just as his life begins. There is nothing more unfair than that, and it's what makes this book so beautiful and poignant.
Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.
A thing I want to just mention before I start this review is that I already knew the Animal Farm story before reading this. Sort of... I watched the cartoon as a kid not realising that it was Animal Farm. So for the longest time I've had this image of a horse dying burned into my memory and only just recently learned it was from the Animal Farm cartoon made in the 80s.
It's actually really difficult to review Animal Farm because it is a classic and loved by so many people. The one thing I've found with all of George Orwell's books (not just Animal Farm) is that they feel very modern. It's almost eerie in a way, how he managed to write a book 60 years ago that still feels relevant to modern day.
I mean really all I can say about this is it's a George Orwell. It's very good. It's definitely worth a read (it's really short too so you should be able to finish it in one sitting). It's the kind of book I would have enjoyed learning about in school (and I am a little surprised to be saying that). But it's a book I would love to learn more about.
It's actually really interesting now seeing how many times Animal Farm is referenced in modern culture. And please tell me I'm not the only one who noticed the similarities between this and Babe. Though I suppose it would be that Babe was based on Animal Farm? But it was still interesting to see the “evil” pigs in Animal Farm and how Babe turned that idea upside down. Also I can't help but notice both had dumb sheep who repeat a single sentence (I'm not trying to make a point with that I just thought it was funny).
One last thing to mention, there is a moment in Animal Farm close to the beginning where Old Major talks about the animals being taken away to abattoirs when they are of no use to the farmer anymore. And I'm being totally serious when I say that it made me seriously think about becoming a vegetarian. I know that if I want a cheeseburger a cow had to die for that, I'm not naive or anything, but I suppose I never really thought about it before. So Animal Farm might have turned me into a vegetarian. I'm sure that was not George Orwell's aim with this book but yeah. It happened.
I'm not sure if it was just the translation that made this book feel strange but it felt more like a stream of consciousness rather than a proper story. This is the type of book you need to put aside time for and read in one sitting. It's set over a period of 24 hours and you see how a boy dies in a car crash and you follow the story of his heart as it's transplanted into another person. But it was pretty interesting, not the best, but I'm still glad I read it.
The basic premise for this is the goddess Athene tries to create the perfect city Plato wrote about in The Republic. It also does this really interesting thing where it's almost a sci-fi but it doesn't feel like a typical sci-fi. And yet it features robots and has an interesting idea that getting robots to work for humans is basically slavery. I enjoyed it and it made me want to read The Republic.
This is an interesting one because it's basically The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry but from Queenie Hennessey's point of view. I have actually put off reading this book for so long because I loved Harold Fry and I was scared that this might ruin that book. Fortunately it did not and I really enjoyed it.
I basically stopped reading fantasy books for a while because it got to the point where I felt like I was reading the same story by a bunch of different authors. But this is different, it's a heist story set in a fantasy world. And it was really fantastic. I loved it and I need to make time to read it again. Also this book is a great example of a main character with a disability without that disability becoming the whole story.
This is set about 10 years after Return of the Sith and it's really fascinating because you get to see the relationship between Darth Vader and the Emperor. Because the Emperor is constantly expecting Darth to kill him and Vader is basically “yeah I will, but not right now”. Apparently that sort of thing is expected among the Sith. Also you get to see a little bit of Vader being all sad about Padme which is interesting.
Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.
I was really surprised by this. It's a very good alien invasion type book. Despite being YA and having some romance in it, it doesn't focus on the romance (something that has annoyed me in other books (I'm talking about you Across The Universe grumble grumble)). Also it has a bunch of references to Star Wars and Star Trek which was nice. For example: “And there was his face against the smudged glass and his smile as he rocketed across a galaxy far, far away in his yellow X-wing starfighter, jumping to warp speed, until the dusty yellow space-ship was swallowed by dust.”
Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.
Despite being called ‘The Rise of Darth Vader‘ he isn't actually in this all that much. However the little insights you do get are very interesting. This takes place 2 weeks after the events in Return of the Sith and it's interesting to see the amount of conflict going on in Anakin's mind because even after the events on Mustafar he isn't totally Darth Vader yet. In this you see him fully turn to the dark side (and part of the reason why he doesn't go back to Tatooine). It's also really interesting to find out more about his suit and how the Emperor is possibly punishing him by making him reliant on it. Basically you should read this if you want to feel sorry for Darth Vader.
Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. It draws you in from the very first page and tells a heartbreaking story of a family with an autistic son. One thing I found really interesting what that though this story is about a child with autism, it's really more about the father and how he copes with a child who is unable to talk and look after himself.
This book is an emotional rollercoaster from the very beginning and it's a rollercoaster you won't want to get off. Once you're introduced to Jonah you become fascinated with this life he lives and you won't want to put the book down till the story is over.
However my one tiny complaint about this book would be that the ending dragged on quite a bit. I assumed that the story would conclude with the results of Jonah's tribunal, but it did not. The father still had some issues to work through (because it really is the father's story). But I did feel that it had been tacked on at the end life an afterthought after what felt like the natural conclusion to the story.
But this still managed to be a very enjoyable read. I've seen it compared to The Storied Life of AJ Fikry and The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time (though I haven't read either of those so can't verify those claims). Either way this is a story that is definitely worth a read.
Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.
I really enjoyed Aurora, it's one of those books set on a generational ship. I've found that most books like this usually occur about halfway through the journey and almost always have some sort of plot twist. Aurora is different because it does not have a plot twist and deals with what happens when the ship gets to it's destination.
One thing I found great about it is that the main character is mentally stunted, it's never properly explained what her problems are, though we learn that it may be caused by living on the ship. The thing I love about this is that her disability is not the whole point of the story, it's just something she has and despite having it, is still able to get on with her life just like everyone else on board.
Now this book is a hard sci-fi, I love hard sci-fi and I really enjoyed all the science-y bits in this, but I found some parts were just a little too technical. I ended up skipping pages because I didn't understand the physics. I still enjoyed the book despite this but it was annoying that I had to skip bits.
My only problem with this book was the final section. I'll try to not give away any spoilers but I basically thought it didn't do a very good job of wrapping up the story. It almost felt like this final section should have been cut during the edit. It left me with more questions than answers. The actual last part of this book wasn't even a proper end, it sort of just stopped. I don't know if that means Kim Stanley Robinson is going to write a sequel or what. But yes, apart from the ending (which was a bit of a let down) I did enjoy this book.
Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.
This book is fantastic however it is best going in knowing as little as possible. If you actually plan on buying this book, don't read my review.
I've read a number of Man Booker nominated books over the past year and the thing I've found is that most of them are boring and try too hard at being some amazing work of literary fiction. I went into We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves thinking it would be another boring Man Booker nominated book, I was so wrong.
I actually went into this thinking it was science-fiction (not sure where I read that), it is not though science and biology play an important role. This book makes a very good argument for why wild animals should not be kept as pets.The basic plot of this is a girl (Rosemary), who is now in college, tries to work out why her sister disappeared at the age of five. I love that you don't find out that Rosemary's sister is in fact a chimpanzee till nearly a third of the way through the book. Karen Joy Fowler spends most of the first 70 pages making Fern feel like a real person so when the twist comes and you find out Fern is in fact a chimpanzee its a huge shock.I am a self-confessed animal lover. I have spent years watching TV shows like Monkey Life and Monkey Business. I know that chimpanzees don't make good pets and I know the reasons why. The thing I loved about this book is that it was not a book about a chimp living with a family. This was very much Rosemary's story about how she had to adapt to living without her sister.This was a fantastic look at why wild animals should not be kept as pets and had some extremely important things to say about the inhumane way that animals are used to test products for humans. This book is a must read but also a warning, it might make you change what make-up products you purchase, it might change how you view zoos, it might even make you become a vegetarian.
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.