Reviews and Comments

dare

dare@kirja.casa

Joined 2 years, 10 months ago

Roolipelaaja, seikkailuharrastaja, spefi-kirjailija

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dare rated Terminal World: 2 stars

Alastair Reynolds: Terminal World (Paperback, 2010, Gollancz)

Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds

Duplicate of OL14907080W

dare reviewed iD (Machine Dynasty) by Madeline Ashby

Madeline Ashby: iD (Machine Dynasty) (2017, Angry Robot)

Not for me

2 stars

I think I was even more lukewarm towards this than the first one. What finally brought me down to two stars instead of three was just a tiny little thing: this book that I wasn't really into that much kept dropping references to other, better books I could be reading.

I don't know. The characters had certain charm and I still liked the basic conceit here, I just felt that it was handled in an uninteresting manner.

dare rated House of Suns: 4 stars

House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds

Six million years ago, at the dawn of the star-faring era, Abigail Gentian fractured herself into a thousand male and …

dare rated vN: The Machine Dynasty, Book I: 3 stars

Madeline Ashby: vN (Paperback, 2017, Angry Robot)

vN: The Machine Dynasty, Book I by Madeline Ashby

"Amy Peterson is a von Neumann machine--a self-replicating humanoid robot. For the past five years, she has been grown slowly …

dare rated Livesuit: 4 stars

James S.A. Corey: Livesuit (EBook, 2024, Orbit UK)

Livesuit by James S.A. Corey (The Captive's War, #1.5)

Humanity's war is eternal, spread across the galaxy and the ages. Humanity's best hope to end the endless slaughter is …

dare rated System Collapse: 3 stars

Martha Wells: System Collapse (Hardcover, 2023, Tordotcom)

System Collapse by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #7)

Am I making it worse? I think I'm making it worse.

Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation …

dare rated You Sexy Thing: 3 stars

Cat Rambo: You Sexy Thing (Hardcover, 2021)

You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo

Farscape meets The Great British Bake Off in this fantastic space opera You Sexy Thing from former SFWA President, Cat …

dare rated Primary Inversion Saga of the Skolian Empire: 3 stars

Catherine Asaro: Primary Inversion

Saga of the Skolian Empire (1996, Tor Books)

Primary Inversion Saga of the Skolian Empire by Catherine Asaro

dare rated Hidden Pictures: 4 stars

Jason Rekulak: Hidden Pictures (Hardcover)

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

A mystery about a woman working as a nanny for a young boy with strange and disturbing secrets.

dare reviewed High stakes by George R. R. Martin (A wild cards mosaic novel)

George R. R. Martin, Melinda Snodgrass, Stephen Leigh, Ian Tregillis, David Anthony Durham, John J. Miller, Caroline Spector: High stakes (2016, Tor Books)

Officer Francis, vigilante joker "The Infamous Black Tongue," and ace thief Tesseract are forced by …

Too much carnage

3 stars

Content warning Spoiler warning

Something I'd never thought I'd say: There's such a thing as too much carnage.

It's the end of another Wild Cards story arc, and our heroes end up battling a Lovecraftian cosmic horror. It kind of works... but the story is the size of an elephant, and at around 300 pages you start to become numb from all the terrible things going on. There's only so much blood, pus, gristle and insanity a reader can handle before they all start to melt together.

There were bright spots -- Mollie's insanity was truly horrifying, and Billy Ray keeps on being so very awesome. Still, I was ultimately kind of unmoved by it all. It's a shame, as I still love the world and the turns it's taken (been a fan since 1989 I think), but this one is probably not going to get a re-read.