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Rated 84K 8/10

After I got used to the technical aspect of the writing, a really engrossing story.<br/><i></i><br/>The book is written in a way that quite often ends right in the middle of a train of thought. Reading on a kindle it was hard to work out if it was intentional or if there was a problem with the Kindle edition! After a while I got used to it, and learnt to just to either let go of the sentiment or ignore it.<br/><br/>The story uses time jumping *a lot* but thankfully the book is written in a way that it was easy to know when we had jumped back or forwards through time.<br/><br/>The story is set in a dystopian alternative reality, which frankly isn't far from our reality now and it's easy to see how our society could get there. Which makes the entire story even more scary. <br/><br/>The story primarily follows Theo Miller a person who has lived in the world as it becomes worse and just gone along with it because "that's just the way the world works". <br/><br/>He weighs crime for indemnity, of course rape has a power indemnity than sexual harassment (because… Men made the rules 🤦), and the rich can afford to pay of any indemnity including murder whereas the poor can't pay the company taxes and are thusly thrown to the Patty lines - effectively slave labour.<br/><br/>I did wonder a few times in the book whether if I'd completely missed a key chunk of the story, but it did indeed come back together and make sense. <br/><br/>A good read. Bleak, but good.

Rated How Not To Be a Boy 6/10

Not what I had hoped.<br/><br/>I basically ended up disliking Webb even more than I already (suspected) I did. I felt like he just came off like a bit of a smug, privileged git - which really wasn't where I thought it was going to take me.

Finished reading The Two Cultures

Rated A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Stories in Our Genes 10/10

Goodness me, this was a good book! Right from the start, Rutherford states that the book won't be littered with references to research papers throughout and the book reads very much like Rutherford is quite literally telling me _a story_ (I should add that references are added in the appendix of the book if you want to validate and have further reading on the subject of DNA).<br/><br/>I always feel like when I read non-fiction I'm supposed to be a little smarter once I've finished, and somehow retain my newly acquired knowledge so I can wax lyrical later on in the pub in years to come…<br/><br/>The subject of this book is (as the title suggest) genes, DNA and how it all works. The book is fascinating, and although I'm certain that I'm zero percent smarter now (sadly my own failing!), Rutherford's book was littered with fascinating stories from both recent and distant history - which have so far stuck in my head.<br/><br/>I got wind of this book via my own genealogy research, and being able to find every step in my ancestry to William The Conqueror, I posted a tweet and eventually saw a reply from Adam Rutherford explaining "that's cool that you can demonstrate it with genealogy, but it’s literally true for all British people too. Edward 3 is the direct ancestor of every British person". <br/><br/>That snippet reply alone piqued my interest in reading this book, and damn glad I did - I think I highlighted nearly two pages worth of kindle notes, partly to help me remember and partly because there was some superb stuff in there, including:<br/><br/>> borborygmus, which is a technical word for a rumbly tummy.<br/><br/>Rutherford's writing and storytelling is entertaining, informative and even regularly funny.

Rated Rogue Protocol 8/10

As usual from the MurderBot series: excellent, fresh and entertaining.<br/><br/>I felt like the story dug deeper into MurderBot's character, anxiety and it's attempt to understand it's feelings.<br/><br/>Definitely feels like this third book is pulling together an overarching story that will be concluded in book four - which I can't wait to read!

Rated A Closed and Common Orbit 8/10

Enjoyed this story - it had a lot of warmth.<br/><i></i><br/>I have to admit, I was fairly upset to realise that Wayfarers book 2 did not continue with the characters I'd grown to love so much from Wayfarers book 1. I'm still secretly hoping to find the crew from the Wayfarer again in another book.<br/><br/>This story however, picks up right after the closing events from book 1 - but instead follows Pepper and Lovelace back to Pepper's adopted world to find acceptance both within and without.<br/><br/>The story focuses on the two characters and bounces back and forth between the two (and along two different periods of time). I didn't find myself laughing in this book (I did in the first which is what spurred me to immediately read this and the third) but it was a touching story of individuals trying to find their place in the world and the loneliness that comes before.<br/><br/>In a way, I felt like the book was a pair of stories about mother and daughter - and whilst I'm neither, I found lots to relate to. And as with Chambers' first instalment of Wayfarers, I find myself wanting this future for our own humanity.<br/><br/>There's something both charming and utterly beautiful about the universe that Chambers has created for us. It was nice to travel to a new place and follow new characters (even though I still want to hear more about Kizzy and Jenks, and Dr Chef and Sissex - I suspect their on their own journey).<br/><br/>Good stuff. Very sweet. Very warm and loving story.

Wants to read The Martian Chronicles

Wants to read Notes on a Nervous Planet

Rated Dogs of War 10/10

Wow. I loved this book. I'm not entirely sure how I found it - I suspect Amazon randomly recommended it to me, and it was definitely a random purchase - but so glad I did.<br/><br/>I'd just finished reading Snow Crash which has a small character which is an enhanced dog (called a Rat), and a few years back I'd read <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22358.We3">We3</a> which has animals who escape a tyranny of human kind…so I think I was expecting something like that. I was wrong!<br/><br/>The book opens from the point of view of Rex, a "bioform" dog - part machine, part dog, part human DNA. The first few pages read as a little trite "I am Rex. I am Good Dog" etc - but this quickly falls away as I realised the darkness of what was being described from Rex's point of view. <br/><br/>Then each chapter is told from different individuals point of view, including Hart - the engineer/carer for the bioforms, Honey - a bioform Bear and many other characters.<br/><br/>The story is split over 5 parts that, I can assume, is covering several years. It starts in a war torn country, but once this part is over, the story goes on to raise the question of the bioform's rights, and whether a human-made thing can be human if it can feel for itself. By <em>human</em>, we mean the condition rather than the species.<br/><br/>The story is a mix of the future of AI and augmented lifeforms, fear of different, corporations and their relationship with slavery - and through it, somehow, the protagonist is a dog that I can actually relate to as he even evolves through the book (the author does a brilliant job of evolving Rex's language and vocabulary as Rex is exposed to more of the world and the story moves on).<br/><br/>Other thoughts that this book brought up for me:<br/><br/>- If humankind make a <em>thing</em> and a thing can think for itself, should it have rights? What does that process look like - and how long does it take?<br/>- Can and should humankind survive in it's current state. Is an augmented human less or more human? <br/>- A fully autonomous intelligence is effectively immortal, so it can also outlive generations of humankind until the generations come to accept it?<br/><br/>If you're interested in how technology can evolve in our future with AI, singularities, and the like, then I'd definitely recommend this book. <br/><br/>I loved this story, really great stuff!

Rated Christmas Jars Collector's Edition 6/10

A sweet tale of kindness. I asked for recommendations for Christmas–feelings books, and this is one that came up, and it does indeed do a good job of getting those feel–good vibes going.<br/><br/>The story is a little sickly sweet, but that's okay. I particularly liked the first 1/4 of the story that follows Louise, an unexpected adopted mother to Hope. This part is particularly tender and gentle.<br/><br/>The book definitely left me with the desire to follow the Christmas traditions that's created in the story, which as the book ends, it's followed by real life stories of individuals who did just that.<br/><br/>I have the kindle version that, unbeknownst to me, included some twenty-odd true stories at the end, making up around 20% of the kindle edition. I read a few of these, but they did follow the same pattern, and eventually skipped over a few feeling it was similar to reading an appendix of a book (and yes, this makes me a little bit of a terrible person!!!).<br/><br/>Overall: does the job I had hoped it would do: get me in the mood for Christmas by reminding me of the "gift of giving (love)".

Rated Stories of Your Life and Others 10/10

I absolutely loved this collection of stories. Inspiring, beautiful, not-so-sci-fi that it was disconnected from our world. <br/><br/>What I also loved about these stories is that they made me think about my own world and and I wanted to share these conversations and thoughts with those around me.<br/><br/>I _think_ my favourite story was 'Story of Your Life' (made in to the film The Arrival) closely followed by 'Tower of Babylon'. But even the _short short_, 'The Evolution of Human Science' was superb, right down to the very first opening paragraph!

Rated The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 1: Squirrel Power 8/10

Nice alternative to the super heroes I've read in the past. A very strong young woman (that I'd want to share with my kids), and surprisingly doesn't kick butts as often as she alludes to, but uses sensible discussion and compassion to bypass her foes.

Wants to read Anathem

Wants to read Armada

Rated The Afterlife of Walter Augustus 4/10

A bit obvious, uneventful and a miss for me.<br/><i></i><br/>As always this review is based on my experience of reading this book and not reflective of the actual content or story for a broader audience (I say because I'm not particularly glowing in my rating!).<br/><br/>If I had this on holiday then I may have warmed to it a little more. It definitely feels like the kind of book that doesn't require much thinking.<br/><br/>I found the twist "baddie" very obvious but at the same time lots of the story moved forwards without any real reason.<br/><br/>I came away from reading the book like it had been 100 pages or so. Maybe it's because I felt like the characters didn't have any depth - the sister Victoria is cruel and unkind to the protagonist Letty, but it seems for no reason other than to make a bad character (in the living world). <br/><br/>Then there's Walter, living in the afterlife (or the interim, or maybe even purgatory…), it's unclear why he's been there for so long - what was special about his name. He wrote a book of poem, god knows how many hundreds of years prior to the current day, so I'm not entirely sure why he doesn't pass on.<br/><br/>Later we meet Hector. I'm not sure how he's part of Walters "life". Maybe it was explained and I skimmed idly past it, or perhaps it's just some rando that has a larger part to play - and even then, when Hector plays his hand, he kind of just falls off the pages.<br/><br/>All in all, a bit of a miss for me.

Rated Lord of the Flies 6/10

Stressful, but solid, reading.<br/><i></i><br/>My rating is based on how much I _personally enjoyed_ the story. It was pretty heavy reading, and perhaps more so as I knew there was an underlying bullying aspect that ran through the story - and bullying always puts me on edge.<br/><br/>The book itself is brilliantly written and the climax of the story is masterfully executed. Golding does an excellent job of slowly building up the tension throughout the story until it's crashing so hard at the end of the story it seems like there's no way out.<br/><br/>Ralph's (one of the protagonists) feeling of peril at the end of the book is visceral. Reminding me of my typical nightmares and stress dreams where I'm unable to escape the terror no matter what choice I make.

Wants to read Who Fears Death

Wants to read Beartown

Rated Paper Girls, Volume 3 6/10

Wants to read The Count of Monte Cristo

Rated Artificial Condition 8/10

Uh! I love this character! This is the 2nd book in the murderbot books and the main character, who I realise now doesn't have a name (nor gender as it's a bot) is so fun to read. <br/><br/>The murderbot is so dry and grumpy and so different from previous characters I've read in sci-fi.<br/><br/>The first book definitely works as a stand alone, and although there's a self contained story in this second book, it definitely carries through a decent number of references to the earlier story that I'd not recommend reading this on it's own.<br/><br/>Since the books are only around 160 pages, I'm moving right on to the next installment and looking forward to it already.

Wants to read The ZX Spectrum Ula: How to Design a Microcomputer

Wants to read A Monster Calls

Rated Annihilation 8/10

<div>I am quite late to the party with this book, but I enjoyed it enough to get the next installment from the library. I listened to the audiobook, which leant itself well to the diary style in which it was written.</div>

Rated Exit Strategy 10/10

I read the first installment of the Murderbot a few months back (as an Amazon single), but after reading it, I decided I was going to pony up the £8 for the following 3 books - although probably the most I've spent on a single book, let alone 3 books - absolutely totally worth it. I **loved** this series.<br/><br/>The series follows Murderbot, a rouge security unit, mostly good at killing but who would rather just watch TV and be left alone. The first book reads easily as a stand alone, and I'd say the second book does too. <br/><br/>The third and fourth pull together all the previous adventures into an overarching story that we see Murderbot learning about itself and struggling with the the concepts of emotions and desires.<br/><br/>In fact, the Murderbot ends with that huge question of: what do you want.<br/><br/>There's so many things I enjoyed about this series: it's a sci-fi that doesn't really require you to understand all the ins and outs of the political systems that exist in the world. I've read a few sci-fi books that really struggle to make the world believable because there's often so much to take in - the Murderbot diaries does this in a way that reads easily and lightly.<br/><br/>The action sequences are really well written and fairly easy to follow - another thing I've struggled with in other books.<br/><br/>Even though we know that the Murderbot is a construct, it exists in a time that emotions can be simulated - and therefore felt - by the Murderbot, which, just like any one of us, they don't relish having to process those emotions, and they'd much rather just shun away and hide away escaping with TV.<br/><br/>Finally the characters are refreshing. As a white man myself, I'm too quick to assume the gender and race of the characters I reading about, Martha Wells does a really good job of keeping me in check, reminding me that Murderbot _doesn't_ have a gender, there's people in the universe that don't identify as one gender, and that not everyone is white. I love this, and I appreciate it in the books I read (in the hope that it shifts my mindset).<br/><br/>Loved it.