Emma

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com

This particular book is the second in a series of short stories written by Watts called the Sunflower Cycle. The other short stories have been written over the last 10 years and can be found for free on Watt's website. The correct reading order for the series is Hotshot, The Freeze-Frame Revolution, The Island and Giants. However you could quite easily jump in at this second book and not miss anything.

The conflict in The Freeze-Frame Revolution mainly comes from the differing politics between the humans and AI. The humans spend most of their time in stasis, waking every thousand years if the CHIMP needs help creating a wormhole gate. This is a job they have been doing for millions of years, and will seemingly continue on to the heat death of the universe. Unless they are given some sort of sign telling them to stop. Even though they have already been working long past the mission's original end time.

If you would like a modern comparison think of Curiosity, alone, exploring the surface of Mars. NASA engineer's thought it would have broken down long ago, but it continues to run, meaning it continues to send back data. This is similar to the crew of the Eriophora. However so much time has now passed that it may be impossible for humans, or whatever humans have evolved into, to send a signal ending their mission. However the AI doesn't quite see these things the same way.

Peter Watts has done a brilliant job of making this book feel dark. Time is an important factor to the plot and Watts makes you feel like time is passing, this isn't an easy task, especially when nothing on the ship is really changing. Sunday has a regular job, except when she sleeps 1000 years go by. But Watts puts it into perspective by comparing the time that has passed to how far into the past that represents. A few hundred years, a few thousand and then long before the time of the dinosaurs.

I think there is an element of horror to this book, and it's not because the plot. It comes from putting time in perspective. The big bang was a very long time ago, Sunday spends even more time on the Eriophora, millions and millions of years, and they aren't even half way to the heat death of the universe. Time is long and human lives are short.

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This third part of the Wayfarers series focuses on the Exodan Fleet. This has been mentioned a few times in Long Way to A Small Angry Planet and A Closed And Common Orbit. But this third book is set on the Exodan fleet and is about the group of people living on it.

The Exodan fleet is the last of the humans who left Earth because it was dying. They built huge generational ships for humanity to live on and set off into the stars. This book is set around 70 years after the Exodan Fleet joined the Galactic Commons – this universe's version of the Federation. They have been given new technology and even a star to orbit. But it seems the Exodan Fleet are still searching for a proper place to live.

I think the thing I love most about this whole series is how humanity is portrayed. In a lot of science fiction books, humans are the strongest, smartest, they run the galaxy. The humans of Wayfarers are vastly different. To aliens they smell, they are too exuberant. They live in clunky old ships and are still searching for something. The way it's put in the book is that the other alien species have had the time to adapt to space travel. But the humans are still trying to figure that part out, where they fit into the universe.

Before starting Record Of A Spaceborn Few I had seen one complaint that it wasn't very science-fiction-like. And I guess that's true to an extent. This whole series is more speculative science fiction. But this book, in particular, is very character driven. Unlike the first two books in the Wayfarers series, this has a large cast of characters. They all seem separate at first but as the story goes on you become invested as their stories intertwine.

I love that this series is normalising gender neutral language and LGBT pairings in science-fiction. In the past sci-fi was a man's genre. All the authors were men and the stories all had that white, male perspective. Aliens were all vaguely human-shaped, women were mostly just there for sex. I really like the fact sci-fi authors are beginning to realise alien species would be totally different from our norm and so you can't write them with our human biases.

Murderbot has absolutely no right being that relatable.

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.

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Melissa Anelli is regarded as an important person in the Harry Potter fandom. However I was never in the Harry Potter fan community so to me Melissa Anelli is just the owner of a rather popular fansite. And to be honest the only reason I wanted to read this book is because it was about Harry Potter. So when I read a review which said this book is basically Melissa Anelli “scrabbling at her fifteen minutes of fame” I was expecting to not like this book.

While part of this book is Melissa Anelli's autobiography it is also a fascinating account of how Harry Potter was published, the growth of the online fan community, fanfiction, the shipping wars and Harry and the Potters. Basically if you are a huge Harry Potter fan you should read this book. There was also one piece of trivia in this book which I found really interesting: It was an intentional decision by Warner Bros to keep the Harry Potter movies and books as separate as possible which means there has never been a movie edition of a Harry Potter book. I am embarrassed to admit I have been reading Harry Potter for 16 years and never noticed this before now.

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is a science fiction novella set in Walt Disney World. It tells the story of Jules, who has finally realised his life long dream of living in the Magic Kingdom.

Disney World, the greatest achievement of the twentieth century is now under the care of a network of volunteer “ad-hocs” who keep the attractions running as they always have, with only small high-tech enhancements. However there is a small groups of ad-hocs who want to bring Disney World into the modern era with new technology. Jules and his friends oppose this because they want to keep the park the way it was in the 20th century, technology, story lines, and all. For Jules this is an attack on the artistic purity of Disney World itself. But what can he do?

This book is a fascinating portrayal of how our social interactions might change in a digital world. When most commodities can be replicated at no cost, scarce resources like reputation and skill acquire new value. This economy of regard has already taken hold in some parts of the internet and Doctorow has extended this structure to society at large and shows how an individuals fortune can rise and tumble with the whims of the crowd.

I will admit this book has a few problems. The story was very rushed at some points which made it difficult to understand, the last 20 pages in particular. However even though I was a tad confused in some places I really enjoyed this book. I mean seriously, how many books do you come across that are set in Walt Disney World.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com

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I think this is the sort of book where it is better going into it not knowing what it is about. My sister told me what the book was about as she has no concept of spoilers and I was surprised. Because just from the cover and the title you wouldn't think it was this sort of book. But its good, its really good. Its one of the best books I have read in this genre.

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I think the best way to describe this book is it's about an artificial intelligence having an existential crisis. It's about much more than that too. It's about learning how to be a person and learning how to be tolerant of other species. But it's mostly about an artificial intelligence having an existential crisis. And let's be real here. If you were an AI thrown into a body and told to act like a human you would have some problems too.

I should really start at the beginning. A Closed And Common Orbit is the sort of sequel to The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet. I say sort of because though you don't have to read Small, Angry Planet it does set up the universe these books are set in and Orbit does mention some of the things that happened in Planet so it may be helpful to read the first book before going into this.

I think my favourite thing about this whole series is the universe it's set in. The whole point of these whole books is the characters learning to be tolerant of other species (something we desperately need nowadays). But it's also interesting because Humans aren't the dominant species in this universe. Which means they don't have some of the privileges others may have. They are more like the Bolians of this universe. Or the Ferengi. Something like that.

But it's also really clever how Becky Chambers has set up extremely different species, you don't have any alien of the week here where the only difference from human is a strangely shaped forehead. Everything is different about each species. From their physiology to politics to language and even to the way they rear children. It's nice having a sci-fi book with so much diversity in it.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

I really enjoyed this book. Sarah Leipciger did a fantastic job of telling this haunting story. Most of the book takes place around British Columbia and the imagery is so fantastic that you feel like you are there in the mountains with Tom.

Its the sort of book where you want to take your time reading it to really enjoy the story. Not much happens in this, its really just the story of one ordinary man dealing with the things life throws his way.

I'm going to say it again, I really enjoyed this book. It was very realistic though a little depressing at times. My only problem with this book was the last few chapters. The book was fantastic but it almost felt like the author gave up at the end. I'm not saying the final chapters were bad, they were just not as good as the rest of the book.

My sister gave me this as a birthday present then got angry every time I compared it to 50 First Dates (the movie). Turns out its nothing like 50 First Dates. But still an enjoyable read.

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).

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This book is a little like Game of Thrones, McDonald has created a plot that weaves and intercrosses each other. The power struggle between the Dragons is full of political scheming, each double crossing the other. The alliances between the character are just as full of intrigue, I think thats what makes this series so enjoyable to read. The characters feel fully formed, each having their own triumphs and flaws.

I think the thing I liked most about this book was the sense of scale. Everything feels epic. From the descriptions of the underground cities, to events like a massive foundry explosion and satellites raining down on the Moon. Then you have the more abstract things like a character born on the moon going to Earth despite this being technically impossible and describing what it's like to stand on another planet and look up at their home. That was cool.

I found it annoying that the first half of Luna: Wolf Moon is spent catching up with the main characters. Finding out what has happened in the two years since Luna: New Moon. It felt like the plot took a long time to get going. But I would still highly recommend this book. Also you should definitely start out with Luna: New Moon if you haven't read it yet.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

I can't quite decide if this book is mocking all those aliens invade type science-fiction movies or if it took them and tried to make this new weird thing. Basically Ernest Cline is either a genius or a maniac and I can't quite decide which one it is. So heres the thing, I enjoyed this book but I also had some massive problems with it. Problems which I don't want to talk about because I will give away many many spoilers. But despite that I did actually really like this.

Its an Ernest Cline book so you go into it knowing that there are going to be references to Star Trek and Star Wars and a bunch of other things. But I like that it also has these really subtle pop culture references. I like that he mentions the Kobayashi Maru without any other references to Star Trek, I like that he gave a little explanation of what it is for people who haven't watched Star Trek while people who have watched Star Trek will fully understand what he is talking about. I like all the references to internet memes, even Leeroy Jenkins. I am a nerd and I like that there is a book with all of these things, where it acknowledges and celebrates the nerds of the world.

However I did feel that all the pop culture references got a little over the top in some parts, especially when Cline was trying to make certain points of the book very serious and it just didn't work because of the references to Galaxy Quest.

I love that the main character actually feels like a real kid. He would rather play video games than go to school, he doesn't want to think about the future, he has no idea what he wants to do after he graduates and when he finds out that aliens are real he reacts in a realistic way. And by that I mean he shouts and screams and has a panic attack.

But it did kind of feel that Ernest Cline had copied Ready Player One. In both books we have a main character who becomes obsessed with this one person, they learn everything they can about them and go as far as to watch the movies and read the books and play the games they liked. In both we also have these huge computer games that basically everyone all over the world play. It felt like Ernest Cline had found this winning plot in Ready Player One and instead of creating something new for Armada just rehashed that same plot again with a few changes

I will admit that Armada has some problems however its very good for what it is, which is basically an adventure book for nerds, if you want to read something without thinking too much about the plot this is great. It's really not meant to be taken very seriously. Basically if you are a nerd, or enjoy science-fiction and gaming, you will probably enjoy this.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

You know how sometimes you read a book that gives you all the feels but then it takes those feels and jumps on them and mashes them into tiny pieces. That was The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet. To say I enjoyed this book is an understatement. Its a mash up of all the things I love about Star Trek, its about modern problems, race, class, gender, violence but told through a futuristic setting.

The story is told the eyes of a girl called Rosemary who has never been off Mars before and gets a job on a spacecraft with other alien species. Most of the story deals with Rosemary adjusting to living with these people and getting used to the fact that the human way of life and normal gender roles don't apply to aliens and even just assuming that they would apply can be seen as offensive. I suppose it's an idea that we should see more in science-fiction (it can't really apply to real life since as far as we know aliens don't exist). Just because we have male and female sexual organs doesn't mean that an alien species will have the same or even something that compares to it.

The characters are so fascinating, we have 4 humans, Rosemary is from what you would call the upperclass, these humans left Earth to start a new life on Mars but in doing so left the others behind to die. The other three are spacers which basically means they have lived in space all their life. But one of them also has dwarfism so you have this really interesting thing where they could be cured of their dwarfism – we even see how people having their genes changed is a normal thing – but they choose not to because even though they are small, they feel normal like that.

We have Sizzix, who is very similar to a lizard, though calling her, or any of her race a lizard is akin to speciesism. Just because the closest thing she can be compared to is a lizard doesn't mean it's okay to make that comparison. But we also get to see how the family dynamics in her species differs from humans (and that's really fascinating). We have the doctor/ chef who is also a member of an alien race, I don't want to say too much but he has a really fascinating back story.

And then we have Ohan who is the Navigator but also a navigator. The closest thing I can compare Ohan to is the Trill in Star Trek. Ohan is the member of a species called the Sianat, this race is infected with a virus while young, this virus gives them the ability to understand what is going on in the sublayer of space, an extremely important thing for a Navigator. However this virus makes them more than one person. Sort of like that episode of Voyager where a transporter accident turns Tuvok and Neelix into one person. But this virus ends up causing some interesting moral dilemmas.

I really loved this book. It feels like an episode of Star Trek. You have this organisation – very similar to the Federation – who have realised that they can do better than fight, so try to find a way to cooperate in peace. But it's really this little story about the people living together on a ship and the fascinating characters they meet. The only complaint I have about this book is that there is no sequel. Basically if you like Star Trek read this book. If you don't like Star Trek read it anyway.

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The best way to describe Too Like The Lightning is very confusing. Ada Palmer is a historian which explains the strange way this book has been written. It's almost as if the main character is telling you what happened. In fact that is exactly what it is like. At some points the character is talking to the reader like they are the one who wrote this book not Ada Palmer. This does mean it's almost written in a style that you could imagine came from the 24th century. It's not flowery but you have to take time and really pay attention. In fact I only read two chapters of this at a time. It's the sort of book that you need to go away and think about. Not because it is especially deep. It's just that sort of book.

Too Like The Lightning is the sort of book you really need to read yourself. My experience reading it was more similar to reading something from the 18th century rather than science fiction. Which I suppose makes sense really because I'm sure Ada Palmer took inspiration from 18th century writers. I know I've only given this 3 stars but personally I feel it's the sort of book I have to go back and read again just because it's so dense. I'm going to need to do that soon however because the next book comes out in March.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

The first thing I should say about this book is there are a number of graphic sex scenes. So if that isn't your thing then you may want to avoid this book. But apart from that I enjoyed it. It was one of those Snow Crash, The Forever Watch type books. Basically its a futuristic murder mystery.

Throughout the book the main character is trying to get over a disaster in which he lost his wife. I would have liked to know more about exactly what happened but its really not that important to the story (well the disaster is important but spoilers). I actually enjoyed this book and I will definitely be looking for more books like it.

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.

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I have to start out by saying I didn't really want to read Europe At Midnight. The only reason I bought it is because it was nominated for the Arthur C Clarke award this year and I decided to review the whole shortlist. I didn't want to read this because that I wasn't a fan of Europe In Autumn, but I think it's partly my own fault that I didn't like it. I went into that book expecting a sci-fi story (I mean you would expect that if a book has been nominated for a sci-fi award right?) and what I actually found was a very well written spy novel with a little bit of science-fiction bolted on at the end. And I think that shock at not getting what I expected was a large part of the reason I didn't like that book, to the point where I want to go read it again knowing it's really more of a spy novel.

Anyway that's enough about the first book. Europe At Midnight is the sequel to Europe In Autumn and is partially set in one of the pocket universes you are introduced to at the end of the first book. This particular universe is essentially a large university campus and our main character is a type of detective who lives there. Look I'm going to be totally honest. I read this and I still don't fully understand the whole plot, you're better off reading the blurb than reading my attempt at summarising it.

I suppose that may also give you an idea of how I feel about this book (you may also like to know I finished it and immediately put it on my to-be-donated pile). Basically this book was just okay. I really liked the spy aspect of it but the rest was kind of boring. The characters were fine, you have two main characters and because of the way it was written I found it really difficult telling who's point of view the story was being told from. The beginning wasn't so bad for this because the characters were in two separate places but by the end I had no idea what character was talking.

The ending was very meh. It didn't have any real conclusion, it sort of just stopped. In fact I vaguely remember having this same problem with Europe In Autumn. The only good thing I can tell you about this book is you don't need to read the first to understand what is going on in this one (and I can say that with complete certainty because I remember very little of what happened in the first book). Basically it was just okay. But if you want a good spy novel go read something by John Le Carre instead.

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.

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.

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.

This book was really fantastic at portraying depression in a real way. It was so accurate that I actually became frustrated with the characters. In the past I have had low moments and though about death and I came to the realisation that I would much rather be alive than dead. Having experience with depression I know I should have sympathised with the characters but I couldn't help but be frustrated at Aysel because she couldn't see that she still had so much to live for.

Jasmine Werga told me that she hopes this book would “start a dialog about the realities of depression” and I think it has done that. Especially after Robin Williams' suicide it was great to have a book which shows that just because someone appears to be happy on the outside doesn't mean they are happy inside. Even though this is a young adult setting I think that anyone who has experience with depression could read this and relate to the characters. I know it has made me want to write about my own experience and I hope that it encourages others to write about it too.

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.

I didn't think I was going to enjoy this as much as I did. Its basically a romance and I don't typically like romance novels, and yet I loved this. First of all it's set in Scotland, and I might be a bit biased here, but Scotland is a lovely place and as a setting for a book you won't find anywhere nicer. Next it's set around Loch Ness and though I did just say that Scotland is pretty nice, some bits of it are nicer than other. Loch Ness is one of those nicer bits, if grass, sheep and really tall mountains are your kind of thing.

But then its about a bunch of Americans coming to Scotland looking for the Loch Ness Monster, and it's so wonderful because you get to see that culture shock of a bunch of posh pampered Americans, used to being waited on hand and foot coming to Scotland thinking everything is going to be done for them. And then Sara Gruen has brilliantly captured the personality of the Scottish people, especially when these Americans arrive thinking everything will be done for them, it's hilarious how the locals don't beat around the bush and will say straight out “fuck off, do it yourself” to these pampered Americans (okay so they didn't say that exactly but you get the idea).

Its also set during World War 2 and I really loved how the war is going on in the background. Its not hugely important to the plot. But you really get a sense of how these people in the Highlands were living during WW2. Gruen must have spent a lot of time doing her research. Though one slight thing I noticed was that a number of characters had a habit of slipping into Gaelic, now I may be wrong here but I'm pretty sure it's more folk on the west coast of Scotland who speak Gaelic, though that could have been different 70 years ago.

I feel like I'm rambling here but this book was really great. Its a weird mix of romance during WW2 with a side of Scottish history and a little bit of magic, but all together it works brilliantly. I loved it and you should read it. Meanwhile I'm off to find a copy of Water for Elephants.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com

This is a really great collection of short science fiction stories. Stories of Your Life is an enjoyable read on its own. It's really interesting seeing how it has been adapted into a full motion picture. But then there are another heap of short stories, some more interesting than others. Though I enjoyed enough of them to make this book purchase worthwhile. Towers of Babylon was particularly good.