This is a pretty good book. It’s got a lot of interesting twists, and the post-apocalyptic world is both terrifying and fascinating. Also, it’s very well written. So why am I DNFing it? Mostly because I don’t have the stomach for this kind of story right now. It’s very depressing. The post-apocalyptic world of the …
Tag Archives: Science Fiction
Joe Reviews: The Black Hole by Alan Dean Foster
When I was about five or six years old, I saw this movie and it gave me terrible nightmares. I only remembered bits and pieces of the story, mostly just the scenes and images that had left an impression. So when I saw this novelization at the used bookstore, I decided to pick it up …
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Joe Reviews: Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
The first four Murderbot books make a complete story arc, so this one in a lot of ways felt like a satisfying wrap up to the series, even though of course there are other books. I strongly suspect that Martha Wells wrote these with the intent of self-publishing them, but her traditional publisher gave her …
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Joe Reviews: The Folk of the Fringe by Orson Scott Card
Out of the thirteen books that I’ve read so far in 2021, this one is the first (and so far only) one that I’ve given five-stars. I read this book just before the January 6th riots at the Capitol, where the lead-up to that event and the controversy surrounding the 2020 elections had acquired an …
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Joe Reviews: Archangel Down by C. Gockel
I really need to get a handle on the rapidly growing backlog of books to review, so I’m going to focus on books that I’ve read this year and catch up with the older ones as I go. This book showed a lot of promise, and to be fair, it held my interest through to …
Joe Reviews: Jerusalem Fire by R.M. Meluch
DNF after 50 pages. Here’s why: 1. The story is just too convoluted. It starts out with the main character leading an evacuation, and preparing to go down with his ship to lead the enemy away from the refugees… except then, he’s attacked by the mysterious Flying Dutchman, which appears out of nowhere… except, he …
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Joe Reviews: Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
This review is going to have spoilers for the first book. If you want to read my take on the series as a whole, read my review for All Systems Red. Of all of the Murderbot books, this one is my least favorite. It’s still pretty good, but not as good as the first. Thankfully, …
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Joe Reviews: All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Ah, the Murderbot diaries. If you haven’t heard of these books yet, you’re in for a treat, because this is one of the best ongoing series currently in science fiction. This review will mostly just be for the first book, but since my reviews of the other books will probably contain spoilers, much of what …
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Review: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
There were things that I really, really loved about this book, and things that I found extremely frustrating. Overall, though, I enjoyed it very much, and found that the story stuck with me long after finishing it. First off, the good parts. The science fiction elements are really amazing, especially the evolutionary world-building of the …
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Review: Anti Life by Allen Kuzara
I got to about the halfway mark of this one before I gave up on it. When I skipped to the end, though, it looked like the action picks up in the second half, so if none of my issues are problems for you, it may be worth checking out. First, I felt like there …