Reviews and Comments

avatar for dare

dare

dare@kirja.casa

Joined 2 years, 5 months ago

Roolipelaaja, seikkailuharrastaja, spefi-kirjailija

Puran ahdistustani välillä fediversessä: kamu.social/@dare

Follow on Fediverse

This link opens in a pop-up window

reviewed A Succession of Bad Days by Graydon Saunders

Graydon Saunders: A Succession of Bad Days (2015)

Succession of bad sentences

I really liked The March North. However, this sort-of-sequel I really didn't.

The main problem was the undynamic plot. This is a book, where there's hardly any conflict; it is just about sorcerous apprentices working on various projects. The worldbuilding is kind of interesting, but it is so obtuse that often it was a chore to keep reading.

The lack of plot tied to the second problem: the stream-of-consciousness writing style. I couldn't help but hear the rambling back-and-forth style "it's this, not this, something else" mannerisms in the voice of Donald Trump in my head. I'm not sure if March North was written in the same style. Maybe it was, but I could ignore it because I was really interested in what was going on.

The very end was kind of interesting and the world is still really unique, and I approve of what the author is trying to …

reviewed Kirja tulee kirjan luo by Shimo Suntila

No cover

Shimo Suntila: Kirja tulee kirjan luo (Finnish language, 2018)

Mahtavaa!

Ei hyvää päivää millainen teos. Kaksisataasivuinen kirjamaailmaan sijoittuva farssi, jossa henkilöiden ja instituutioiden nimiä on muutettu juuri ja juuri riittävästi oikeusjuttujen väistämiseksi, jonka kieli on hengästyttävän pöhköä ja joka ei missään vaiheessa epäröi eskaloida asioita vielä vähän älyvapaampiin suuntiin. En tiedä, kuinka laajaan kohderyhmään tämä vetoaa, mutta eipä sillä hirveästi väliä, koska minuun se kyllä osui.

reviewed Stellaris: Infinite Frontiers by Steven Savile

No cover

Steven Savile: Stellaris: Infinite Frontiers (Swedish language, 2016)

Meh.

Video game novel adaptations and tie-ins - are there any good ones? I'm trying to find out.

Stellaris: Infinite Frontiers takes the setting of the game, and tells a very basic, bare-bones science fiction story with it. The epic scale and complicated clash of interstellar civilisations is nowhere to be found; the book only does the bare minimum to qualify as a tie-in. Essentially it's a rather pedestrian story of a very simple anomaly research mission in the early game.

The main characters are uninterestingly humans and no really fascinating aliens turn up either. As a Stellaris player I was rather disinterested, as a sci-fi fan I felt underserved. Rather meh.