Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
My rating : 5 of 5 stars
Series: Standalone
Genre: Science Fiction, Thriller
Published: July 26th 2016 by Broadway Books
“Every moment, every breath, contains a choice. But life is imperfect. We make the wrong choices. So we end up living in a state of perpetual regret, and is there anything worse?
Dark Matter made for an exhilarating, unsettling, intense and thought-provoking reading experience!
I love how short stories are making such strides in popular fiction, as is speculative fiction. The Forward Collection is a great demonstration of this, and brings together vastly different authors to theorize on what the future might look like. What binds these stories together is their exploration of possible technological advancements in the not too distant future, without ever really giving away if the changes such advancements would bring would be for our collective good or ill. In most of these stories, technology is both our destroyer and our savior. Below you’ll find micro-reviews of each story, progressing from those I enjoyed the least to those that resonated the deepest. As I listened to the audio version of each story, readers are mentioned with the authors. …
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Series: Wayfarers (Book 1 of 3)
Genre: Science fiction
Published: 2015 by Harper Voyager (US) and Hodder & Stoughton (UK)
This is one of the most endearing and charming novels that I’ve ever read.
I’ve had this book for quite a while but never got around to reading it. From all the reviews I’ve seen, I got the idea that it is one of those stories which the focus is around the characters instead of the plot and I wasn’t sure how I would feel about that. Perhaps I happened to pick this up at the right time, because I absolutely adored this captivating story of individuals just interacting with each other, and as a tight-knit multi-species crew they are as a whole much bigger than the sum of its parts.
…
ARC & Review copy provided by the publisher—Tor.com—in exchange for an honest review.
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Series: The Locked Tomb (Book #1 of 3)
Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery
Pages: 448 pages
Published: 10th September 2019 by Tor.com
Gideon the Ninth is a damn fine example of why readers’ reviews are incredibly important.
If you have been active on bookish social media, you should know by now that Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir’s debut and the first installment in The Locked Tomb (or The Ninth House in the past) Trilogy, has been tor.com’s most hyped book of the year. The buzz and praise for Gideon the Ninth has been immense to say the least. Knowing nothing other than the fact that “Lesbian necromancers in space” was stamped on the front of the gorgeous cover art (illustrated by Tommy Arnold), I gave the ARC a try a few months ago only to find myself disappointed by how much it didn’t work for me back then. If I may be brutally honest, I DNFed the novel around 120 pages in on my first read-through. Since then, readers’ reviews have started pouring in, usually resulting in absolute love or disappointment; there’s almost no in-between. But there’s one common consensus shared by both factions: the second half improved significantly. After receiving another copy of this book, a limited edition with black sprayed edges and many goodies, it was only fair that I give it one more try. The result? I enjoyed it remarkably more than I did on my first try. I truly believe that knowing the right things to expect out of this book ahead of reading it will improve the reader’s enjoyment so much more.
Picture: The book and the goodies I received!
Dark Age by Pierce Brown
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Series: Red Rising Saga (Book #5 of 6)
Genre: Science fiction, Space Opera, Dystopia
Pages: 800 pages (UK Hardback edition)
Published: 30th July 2019 by Hodder (UK) & 30th July 2019 by Del Rey (US)
Gory (literally) damn insane, violent, bleak, and ruthless. Helldivers, prepare your soul to be hell-drilled by Dark Age’s brutality.
“During war, the laws are silent.”—Quintus Tullius Cicero
Two things first. If it has been a long time since you’ve read Iron Gold or Red Rising Saga, I strongly recommend you to reread the entire series before you read Dark Age. I didn’t do this and I truly believe that my reading experience of this book suffered from it. Secondly, throughout the years since Red Rising publication, many people still insist that this series is for YA audience; by the time you read this book, you’ll probably be traumatized or maybe even loathe this book for its extreme darkness. Seriously, Dark Age is one of the darkest, bleakest, and goriest novel I’ve ever read in my life; the humor and heartwarming aspect of the series that’s usually common to find are close to non-existent in this installment. I will edit this review in the future when I’ve reread the series from the beginning in preparation for the sixth and—maybe—last book of the series, but for now, this is my thoughts and opinions on my first read-through Dark Age.
“With every new endeavor, there’s always the hope that you will find happiness, be less lonely.”
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Iron Gold by Pierce Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Series: Red Rising Saga (Book #4 of 6)
Genre: Science fiction, Space Opera, Dystopia
Pages: 624 pages (Hardback edition)
Published: 16th January, 2018 by Hodder (UK) & 16th January, 2018 by Del Rey (US)
A bloodydamn spellbinding return to my number one favorite sci-fi series of all time.
There haven’t been any changes to my list of favorite authors of all time for a year now. I’m gratified to say that after reading his Red Rising trilogy and Iron Gold, Pierce Brown deserves to be included in the list.
For those of you who don’t know, Iron Gold is the continuation of the highly acclaimed Red Rising trilogy, which has now become a saga; making this book the fourth installment in the Red Rising Saga. The story takes place ten years after the end of Morning Star and to tell you what the book is about—spoiler-free, of course—there’s really no better way than to let Pierce Brown himself explain it:
“Iron Gold is about the struggle to preserve liberty in a bleak landscape, where heroes of the past look suspiciously like villains and the inspiring dream of liberty has been hijacked by politicians, dirtied by social strife, and muddled by interest groups and competing factions.
How in such a world can good prevail? On the back of one man? Certainly not. It takes a village—a host of disparate people who, despite their conflicting views and disparate pasts, must band together to find their own purpose, to replenish the dream of liberty with their own sacrifices and come together for the common good…”
– Pierce Brown
Full article here: https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1…
There you have it. And as for my thoughts and review, here it goes. …
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars.
Series: The Sparrow (Book 1 of 2)
Genre: Science fiction, literary fiction
Published: 20th anniversary edition, 2016 by Ballantine Books (first published in 1996)
“Matthew ten, verse twenty-nine: Not one sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it.”
“But the sparrow still falls.”
The Sparrow is a multi-award-winning science fiction novel about first contact. After reading it, I could understand why. I came across this title over two separate occasions. First was when a friend recommended it to me many years ago, but I’ve forgotten about it. And then it was mentioned in the Great Course audiobook for How Great Science Fiction Works, which I’ve recently finished, under the sub-topic of ‘Religion in Science Fiction’. The context in which The Sparrow was discussed in that Course finally tipped me over to pick it up.
…
Recursion by Blake Crouch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I’m so amazed by Blake Crouch. With Dark Matter, he enthralled the reading world with a wild plot and breakneck action. With Recursion, he proves that Dark Matter wasn’t a fluke. Crouch delivered a level of intensity that I’ve rarely encountered in the written word via a fascinating, disturbing premise. More surprisingly, he crafted a romance unlike any I’ve ever read. After reading Recursion, Crouch has become an insta-buy sci-fi author for me.
“Nothing can be controlled. Only endured.”
One Word Kill by Mark Lawrence
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
One Word Kill is my first experience with Lawrence’s science fiction and, while it didn’t resonate with my soul as deeply as his Book of the Ancestor, it was a solid, fun, fast-paced read that I very much enjoyed. Here we have a nerdy group of friends, similar in dynamic to the crew that has taken the world by storm in Netflix’s Stranger Things. This group finds themselves facing external strife through contact with a plot that could have come straight from the pages of Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter. But just as harrowing is their internal turmoil as they learn that one of their number is currently in a battle for his life against the grimmest of foes: cancer.
In hospital they ask you to rate your discomfort on a scale of ten. I guess it’s the best they can come up with, but it fails to capture the nature of the beast. Pain can stay the same while you change around it. And, like a thumb of constant size, what it blocks out depends on how close it gets to you. At arm’s length a thumb obscures a small fragment of the day. Held close enough to your eye it can blind you to everything that matters, relegating the world to a periphery.
Recursion by Blake Crouch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Recursion has become the first sci-fi standalone to be included in my favorite shelves.
As many readers probably did, my first experience with reading Crouch’s work was for Dark Matter. I was super impressed by it and after hearing that the author has a new sci-fi thriller that’s highly recommended for readers who loved Dark Matter gave me so much joy; it would be insane for me to not take a look at Recursion. Do note that taking a look at Crouch’s novel can be surmised as reading the novel non-stop until completion. This book was undoubtedly exceptional; it was so good that it made Dark Matter—which I loved and rated 4.5/5 stars—felt like a practice novel so that Crouch has the skill to unleash the full capacity of his brain towards the creation of this cleverly crafted insanity. …
