If you ever read this, tell others. Don’t come here. Don’t come here.
The problem with this book, I feel, is it is just a tad too cheesy and ridicu
If you ever read this, tell others. Don’t come here. Don’t come here.
The problem with this book, I feel, is it is just a tad too cheesy and ridiculous for speculative fiction. I found it more palatable when I told myself it was horror.
Ascension definitely works better as a horror-- monstrous creatures in the night, minds being taken over by mystical forces, religious themes, campy twists --but I came in expecting something akin to Sylvain Neuvel's Sleeping Giants so I was disappointed.
Also, the epistolary format is usually one I enjoy, but it did not work for me here. I couldn't quite buy into Harold sitting down to write these exceptionally detailed letters in between being pursued by various mountain horrors. And it bothered me that he was addressing his young niece in them-- would he really include all the "fucks" and references to making love to his wife? It was one more thing that ruined my suspension of disbelief.
Then there were the extensive flashbacks, which bored me. I'm sure they were there to break up the monotony of mountain trek, run from the monsters, trek trek, run from the monsters, but I really didn't care that much.
I already mentioned the "campy twist" above, but I really feel the need to emphasise how much this made me cringe. When Harold realises the truth, it's made into a big sinister aha moment, but it was just sort of funny. (view spoiler)[Their companion Neil Amai's name spells I am alien backwards. (hide spoiler)]
None of this was helped by the fact that "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus came into my head at the start of the ascension and the more I read, the more the book seemed to parody the lyrics.
It doesn’t matter what the destination is, or what’s at the top; all that matters is that you keep climbing.
I find Marrs' near future sci-fi thrillers so addictive. Highly implausible, but impossible to put down.
The premise of this book, I feel, is his most I find Marrs' near future sci-fi thrillers so addictive. Highly implausible, but impossible to put down.
The premise of this book, I feel, is his most improbable yet. I can foresee governments taking away all kinds of freedoms, but forcing people into tax-incentivised marriages seems like an odd one. Even if they did, it seems far more likely that it would be to combat low birth rates and so would favour young het couples and care less for older people and gay marriages, no?
But anyway. The backdrop may be a tad ridiculous but many of the stories-- told through shifting viewpoints --have a degree of believability to them. And once I suspended disbelief, the nightmare of it all hit me.
People using the Smart Marriage terms to punish a spouse they no longer love, parents forced into marriage upgrades to secure their kids a better education, people forced into parroting robotic statements instead of having candid conversations with their spouse for fear of devices listening in. These situations, and more, play out over the course of the novel.
Roxi was very interesting to me. She was someone who would sacrifice integrity, her own personal beliefs and even the emotional wellbeing of her family for a shot at influencer fame. She had no problem throwing herself behind a cause, any cause, not necessarily one she believed in, if it got her attention and followers. Her behaviour was abhorrent, but I was shocked at how believable I found her to be.
Arthur's perspective was very sad, Corinne's made my blood boil, I felt sympathy for Anthony, and Jeffrey was... is it okay to say fun?
Each book in this series feels a bit like watching a wacky reality TV show, in which we move between the most outlandish sorts of people. Lots of come on, really? moments, but, hell, is it compelling....more
Ridiculous, trashy, fast-paced sci-fi thriller. I ate it up. Definitely more thrills than science, but that's alright with me.Ridiculous, trashy, fast-paced sci-fi thriller. I ate it up. Definitely more thrills than science, but that's alright with me....more
3 1/2 stars. A wildly implausible, impossible-to-put-down pageturner. I enjoyed the thrill ride of all the perspectives except one-- I could have done3 1/2 stars. A wildly implausible, impossible-to-put-down pageturner. I enjoyed the thrill ride of all the perspectives except one-- I could have done without the gay-for-you story....more
I blasted through this, just as I did with all the other Levin books I've read, but it is by far my least favourite (I am not reading Son of RosemaryI blasted through this, just as I did with all the other Levin books I've read, but it is by far my least favourite (I am not reading Son of Rosemary or Sliver so can't comment on those).
Rosemary's Baby, The Stepford Wives, The Boys from Brazil and A Kiss Before Dying were all great stories. Levin has this easy, informal way of spinning a yarn-- chapters that flow quickly into one another, good dialogue, and characters that capture your interest (both the protagonists and villains as horrendous as Josef Mengele.) I'd say this is the only one of the five that doesn't go down quite as easy.
It's partially the lack of a really great hero or villain to fear for or despise. This Perfect Day is set in a dystopian future where everyone is virtually the same-- looks similar, behaves in line with the society's rules, and doesn't do anything ludicrous like dream or imagine or make their own decisions. However, as with pretty much every dystopian ever, there is a secret resistance of those who have learned to avoid being dosed up with "treatments" and started to question the way things are.
It is the nature of this society for it to be cold, detached and uniform. No one stands out, including the protagonist, Chip. He spends a good portion of the book being a well-behaved zombie and the rest of the time being a touch of an arsehole. I'm not exaggerating. The guy's an actual (view spoiler)[rapist whose actions are excused by his victim because his behaviour is "natural". (hide spoiler)]
Then there's the fact that this kind of dystopia was a bit "been there, done that" back in the 70s when it published. Today? Seen it all before. ...more
Whoever did this to me was overwriting nature’s programming and taking control of evolution itself. That was a precarious game.
I'm quite the Black
Whoever did this to me was overwriting nature’s programming and taking control of evolution itself. That was a precarious game.
I'm quite the Black Crouch fan at this point. His sci-fi thrillers always seem to draw me in instantly and drag me along for the wacky ride. Upgrade succeeds precisely because it is more of what the author does best.
Basically, Crouch takes a sci-fi concept-- be it alternate universes, memory preservation, artificial intelligence or, as the case is here, genetic modification-- and adds a ton of fast-paced thrills like running from the government, dramatic twists, betrayals and "oh, you thought that was bad, try this on for size."
In addition, his sci-fi thrillers (I'm speaking specifically about this work since 2016) have a very human, often romantic component. His protagonists love their families deeply, fall in love so entirely, adore their children, and feel a sense of compassion towards humanity as a whole. It makes his stories emotionally engaging as well as thrilling, which is what I personally need as a reader.
Whoever did this to me was overwriting nature’s programming and taking control of evolution itself. That was a precarious game.
Set in the near future, this one sees Logan Ramsay experiencing some... changes, after a raid ends in an explosion. He can retain information better, solve complex problems, move a little faster, all on less sleep than before. It looks like somebody, for some reason, has used him as a guinea pig for genetic modification. And what's scarier is that it looks like this might just be the tip of the iceberg, the first stage of a much greater plan.
I find it quite amusing that Crouch convinced me to read almost to the end of this novel without my realising that what I was reading was essentially a superhero story. It was so well told, Logan such a compelling character, that I didn't even pick up on it.
I guess the best authors are those that can retell an old concept and make you believe you've never read anything quite like it before....more
I think my job is to solve the Petrova problem. …in a small lab, wearing a bedsheet toga, with no idea who I am, and no help other than a mindle
I think my job is to solve the Petrova problem. …in a small lab, wearing a bedsheet toga, with no idea who I am, and no help other than a mindless computer and two mummified roommates.
Guess I was wrong to resist reading this for months. Thing is, I liked The Martian and really really disliked Artemis. In fact, Weir's second novel bored and annoyed me so much that I was set against ever reading his future books. But after seeing positive review after positive review and having friends tell me to read this, I finally did. And Project Hail Mary was so much fun. And science-y. And a bit sad. But mostly fun.
It's a different sort of story, but Project Hail Mary contains a lot of the stuff that made The Martian good. The stakes in the novel feel immense, the chance of coming up with a plan and getting out of the central predicament seems tiny, and all of this science drama is juxtaposed with the narrative voice-- basically, a funny, can't-help-but-love-him nerd who manages to put his brain to work in the direst of circumstances.
We begin with Ryland Grace waking up on a spaceship with no idea who he is and how he got there. Exploring his surroundings, he quickly discovers that his crew mates are dead and he is humanity's last hope for survival. I won't reveal his mission because I think learning about it through flashbacks is part of the fun, and the more we learn the more impossible his mission seems.
I'll leave it at that. The book alternates between the past in the run up to the mission as we discover the huge problem humanity faces, and the present in which Ryland Grace attempts to save our planet. The world of the novel gets bigger and wilder and I have to say I very much enjoyed the adventure and mystery.
It's not five stars for me because I felt it ran on a little long in the middle with the characters having one nerdgasm after another (which seems to be a thing with Weir) and I also saw the "twist" coming, if you can call it that (view spoiler)[the one about what Stratt did (hide spoiler)]. But the later chapters of the novel were really strong and quite... bittersweet, actually....more
The Machine Stops was a really good short story. Forster, writing in 1909, predicts Facetime / Zoom, amongst other things, though he sets it in a creeThe Machine Stops was a really good short story. Forster, writing in 1909, predicts Facetime / Zoom, amongst other things, though he sets it in a creepy nightmare future where humanity lives underground and everything they need is controlled and delivered by the Machine.
There are certainly parallels with our own world and concerns. The Machine is perhaps best likened to the Internet-- it connects people (who live in solitude) with others around the world, plays music, caters to their every need and whim. In this world, people view mountains, nature and people through the machine, but rarely, if ever, have any direct contact with any of them. People worship the machine and cannot imagine life without it. While we're not exactly living in Forster's dystopia, some aspects of it are eerily prescient.
In my copy of this book, it also came with the short story 'The Celestial Omnibus', which I didn't care for. It was silly and, maybe because it came so soon after my reading of The Machine Stops, it lacked impact. My rating is for The Machine Stops only....more
“Isn’t that why we’re here? To leave a mark on wilderness?”
I was one of the few readers (or so it seemed) left underwhelmed by Mandel's Station El
“Isn’t that why we’re here? To leave a mark on wilderness?”
I was one of the few readers (or so it seemed) left underwhelmed by Mandel's Station Eleven when I read it back in 2014. The hype and gushing reviews seemed at odds with the very okay novel I read, which is why I passed on reading The Glass Hotel.
Now I'm wondering: should I go back and read the author's other stuff? Because I have to admit I found Sea of Tranquility riveting and beautiful.
From what I remember, it is not stylistically that different to Station Eleven-- both are quiet, slow-build stories-- but I found the characters here fascinating and the exploration of both the simulation theory and what, if anything, that means for humans, deeply moving.
We begin with several chapters (or "Parts") of seemingly unrelated characters and stories, each set in a very different time and place-- Edwin arrives in Canada in the year 1912, Mirella goes to speak to the brother of an estranged old friend in 2020 NYC, Olive visits Earth for a book tour in 2203, scientists investigate the theory that the world is a simulation in 2401. Similar motifs appear in each story and it is clear they are linked, but how?
As the stories weave together and overlap, we begin to see the recurring theme in each one until it all comes together in a big picture at the end.
I really enjoyed it. There is this nostalgic quality to Mandel's writing that made me feel like I was revisiting places I'd been long ago, even though I obviously hadn't. I don't know if all the pandemic subplots were strictly necessary and I think the author could have achieved the same goal without that being a recurring theme, but this is a small complaint.
The novel touches upon the big questions like the meaning of it all and the nature of reality, as well as exploring the human obsession with the end of the world:
“I think, as a species, we have a desire to believe that we’re living at the climax of the story. It’s a kind of narcissism. We want to believe that we’re uniquely important, that we’re living at the end of history, that now, after all these millennia of false alarms, now is finally the worst that it’s ever been, that finally we have reached the end of the world.”
And, in the end, it all seems to be saying that maybe there is no meaning, maybe none of it's real, whatever that means, maybe the world is always ending, and maybe the real question is: does it even matter?...more
He found himself directing research on a small ballistic missile for the army. His rockets are light-years behind von Braun’s, but few people under
He found himself directing research on a small ballistic missile for the army. His rockets are light-years behind von Braun’s, but few people understand mathematics the way Hsue-Shen does. We have been bouncing ideas off each other for almost a decade, and I just wrote to him about my CO2 conundrum.
I hate to say it, but I think this book might exist on a level of nerd I'm incapable of reaching.
You can tell Neuvel put a lot of research and heart into his latest project, but I do wonder just how big the audience is for a book like this. I'm sure there are people out there looking for a convoluted sci-fi about the Soviet side of the space race if powerful aliens were aiding them in an attempt to get humanity off the planet before it all goes to shit, while simultaneously being hunted by Trackers (I mean, I think that's the general plot), but how many there are... who can say?
I've been stopping and starting this book for months and, in this, my final successful (sort of) attempt to finish it, I realized it had nothing to do with my own personal book slump and everything to do with the fact that this story is just not for me. I say "sort of" because I will readily admit that there was some skim-reading in the last quarter. I'm sorry. I did try not to.
The book is heavy on the scientific and technological details, which is a big snooze for me. The aliens - the Kibsu - seemed interesting at first, because they all work in mother-daughter pairs, with Mia and her mother being the Ninety-Nine (I'm not explaining this very well because it's hard to explain, and possibly I don't fully understand it). This has been going on for centuries. But I did not find we were ever encouraged to warm to any of the characters. If I was supposed to connect emotionally with Mia, it never happened. I was always kept at a distance.
Neuvel uses real people as characters - Wernher von Braun and Sergei Korolev. Just as in our own history, both have a major part to play in the advancement of space flight, though here we see Mia and her mother, Sarah, aiding them in escaping Nazi Germany so they can assist the Soviets in the space race.
It's a creative premise, to be sure, but without characters I cared about, I felt little attachment to the events of the narrative. It was also - for me, who is not a scientific genius - quite confusing. There was a lot I didn't understand.
I felt, too, that the book moved painfully slowly. This is quite surprising, really, as Neuvel returns throughout to the same style he used in the Sleeping Giants trilogy, which I loved, having the story unfold through dialogue. Where in his previous books, this kept things dynamic and exciting, I found these sections dragged here.
There are a couple of people I know who I may recommend this to. Hardcore space buffs who care more about techie details than they do about feeling something for the characters. If that sounds like you, I would check this one out. For myself, I think I'll just wait to see what Neuvel writes after this series....more
I read right to the end of Klara and the Sun to be really sure there wasn't a moment, a dark depth lurking somewhere, that would make me love it. I puI read right to the end of Klara and the Sun to be really sure there wasn't a moment, a dark depth lurking somewhere, that would make me love it. I pushed through an underwhelming narrative of recycled sci-fi themes, waiting, surely, for Nobel Prize-worthy goodness. The kind that made me fall for Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day. But I couldn't find it.
So then I went to read the starred reviews from critics who raved about this book to see where I went wrong. I read the gushing Publisher's Weekly review that cites the author's "astute observations of human nature" as being star-worthy, pulling the following quote as an example:
“There was something very special, but it wasn’t inside Josie. It was inside those who loved her,” Klara says.
...and I couldn't help wondering why the best example they could come up with reads like something from the most saccharine of children's novels.
I turned next to Kirkus who uses examples of solar-powered androids and vague mentions of pollution to present this as some kind of climate change/dying planet parable. Despite listing few, if any, original ideas in the body of the review, and, in fact, declaring it "familiar territory" to readers of Aldiss or Collodi, Kirkus slaps a star on the work anyway.
Is it just that no critics will dare say anything bad about an author of Ishiguro's standing? Is this also why I felt such a complete disconnect between what the reviews said about Atwood's The Testaments and what I was actually reading?
Klara and the Sun takes on the same old sci-fi themes authors have been exploring for decades, and does nothing new with them, in my opinion. A girl called Josie and her mother purchase an AF (Artificial Friend) called Klara, who then observes their interactions, plus the interactions between Josie and her friend, Rick. Much time is spent looking at the sun, sketching, and navel-gazing. I cannot figure out if we are actually supposed to be surprised by the info Ishiguro reveals halfway or not, because it is obvious from the moment Klara is purchased.
The story is deliberately vague, which here feels lazy rather than mysterious. Klara's stiff AI narrative voice makes for a dull read, and it is even more disappointing to discover we are not being led anywhere remarkable.
And I would like to say here that I actually have very high tolerance for quiet character studies about human behaviour. Give me some Anne Tyler or Celeste Ng any day. But I sadly did not find this to be a very successful one of those either. Klara, Josie, Rick, and Josie's mother are not characters I will remember. This whole book lacked a spark for me....more
But now everything had changed. He'd have to learn, all over again, how this world worked.
The Mother Code was a challenging read for me. Stivers is a Silicon Valley biochemist and, I have to say, this book feels like it was written by a Silicon Valley biochemist. Which I know will be a huge plus for many readers. But, unfortunately, some of the jargon went straight over my head and a couple of times I did pause and wonder if I should continue. Still, I'm glad I did.
From the blurb, I thought this was a book about artificial intelligence and robots, and it sounded almost identical to the movie I Am Mother, but that is only part of the book and it actually has little in common with the movie. It's actually also about a manmade pandemic-- an experiment in biological warfare gone wrong --and so obviously it hit a lot closer to home than I was expecting. It really is the most disquieting feeling to read about the collapse of society due to a pandemic while you're sat in quarantine.
The Mother Code alternates between the "past", starting in 2049, in which several government employees attempt to find a cure for the leaked virus whilst also keeping it secret from the public, and the 2060s, in which a young boy called Kai is raised by his robot mother, Rho-Z. Eventually the past catches up with the present and we see how the robots came to be. But now Kai and other children like him are being told it's time to destroy the only mothers they have ever known.
In the "past" chapters, the book captures the panicked race to find a cure/solution and protect humanity. A small team of esteemed scientists and doctors work around the clock to find an answer to the problem. Though the panic tapped into a fear that is all too real right now, I never really felt a close connection to James, Rose, Rick and Sara. And I really couldn't summon any interest when the author introduced some lukewarm romantic subplots. Similarly, the kids all felt a bit like YA stereotypes - the leader, the spunky tomboy, the introvert - and not like fully fleshed-out humans.
But what this book lacks in characterization it makes up for in philosophical questions. What I loved most about the book are the questions it raises about mothers, motherhood and the mother/child bond. Rho-Z might be a machine, but to Kai she is his mother, his protector, and for a long time his only companion. This is not a bond that should be taken lightly.
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