Kevin
Entertaining
It was a good fun action adventure, with a mild twist, though the romance element felt forced and didn't seem necessary for the story
Fun and entertaining sci-fi book. I enjoyed some of the shorter chapters that took a break from the main plot, where you got to connect with the characters a bit more.
The ending of the series answered and tied up a lot of loose ends but then added more unanswered questions. I wish the author wrote a fourth book or didn't have an open-ended ending.
Series was fine. Quick entertaining space opera thought turned into more romance toward the end. Axira/Em was an interesting character, would be cool to see her again.
This started as a book about a guy down on his luck and then everything shits the fan even more.
I feel like the Author was trying to do a lot with a little. The first half of the book was a bunch of side quests. Not until the flashback chapter did I finally feel like this book had something going for it, but then it was over in two chapters.
The story selection was lacking compared to the first one. A lot of these were boring and a real slog to get through. Over 25% of the book is stuck on Hoth. Thankfully the stories after Hoth get a bit better.
This book is peak Firefly. So much lore was revealed from Earth-That-Was to the Hands of Blue.
This is a crash grabbook with thinly veiled mindfulness quotes forced into random Star Wars quotes. I was expecting more but it doesn't even scratch the survive of Yoda's teachings and even worse the book isn't even written in Yoda's voice instead we get boring old proper English...
Murderbot might be one of my new favorite book characters. Unintentionally humorous, hates their job but takes pride in it, and all they want to do is watch TV. I can relate.
This anthology starts with yet another clumsy Gibson story... (sorry, I know he's a God to some people, but I find his writing style boring). Thankfully, the second story, “Snake-Eyes” by Tom Maddox, was very interesting and grabbed me in with its used-up war vet who got an AI stuck in his head.
Some of my other favorites were:
“Solstice” by James Patrick Kelly – I think this was my favorite of them all. Drugartist and a dude who is in love with himself.
“Freezone” by John Shirley – The main character reminded me of Johnny Silverhand from CP2077. I plan on reading the book series this was an excerpt from.
“Stone Lives” by Paul Di Filippo – The tech and the dystopian corpo world is always an excellent depressing time.
“Mozart in Mirrorshades” by Bruce Sterling/Lewis Shiner – I love a good alt-history story.
The rest were okay, and some didn't seem to be cyberpunk at all.
Rock On by Pat Cadigan — DNF
Tales of Houdini by Rudy Rucker - why was this story included...
400 Boys by Marc Laidlaw – Interesting enough. It felt more “punk” than cyber. I liked it though.
Petra by Greg Bear – I don't remember much from this one. Take that as you will
Till Human Voices Wake Us by Lewis Shiner – I thought this one was fairly humorous. It was enjoyable and kept my attention. Not very “punk” though.
Red Star, Winter Orbit by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling – Despite Gibson being involved, Sterling helps make this book interesting enough that I wanted to keep reading. However, Gibson's clumsiness does show off from time to time.
Do not read this book first. I read it after I read books 1 - 2.1. You'll have enough information to know what is happening in this prequel.
I really enjoyed the writing style and the bit more gritty/some what cyberpunk area this book takes place in. I would totally read a prequel series if it was written like this book.
The book's concept was fun, and the first 3/4s was actually fun. But it falls apart at the end. If you're a fan of Star Trek I believe it would be worth the read but if you're not pass on this.