Wants to read The Martian Chronicles
book
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.
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.
Rated The Galaxy, and the Ground Within 8/10
Surprisingly difficult to connect with.<br/><i></i><br/>This is still a well written, interesting, continues the Wayfarer universe and prompts some challenging thoughts.<br/><br/>Where I did struggle was connection with the characters. Because they're exclusively alien, and entirely so: 4 arms and a shell, tiny sloth like swinging creatures, laru furball bendy things (though I imagined the creature from Ice Age oddly enough), because they're hard to visualise in my head I found it harder to connect to the characters.<br/><br/>I do also suspect this is a way of putting the reader in a position of a minority, to be unable to recognise oneself amongst the peers, which is what kept flipping back and forth in my head whilst continuing with the tale.<br/><br/>As with other Becky Chambers' books, the story isn't some fantastical explosion of events, but a soft observation of life and interaction of species and races living together - and that's something I'll continue to love about their books.<br/><br/>My favourite is still the first book, I'm not sure anything is going to top that for many years, but this is still a solid entry into the Wayfarer world.
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.
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>
Wants to read Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race
Wants to read Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Rated Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years 6/10
I had a hard time reading this book, took me a long time as I found Mole and the surrounding characters extremely…sad or pathetic or selfish. It continued on like this until about 80% where I started to enjoy the book a little more and the characters finally start to bloom and become more complex, and endearing. <br/><br/>It ends on a hopeful note, and after realising this was the last Mole story that Sue Townsend wrote before passing away, leaves me a little sad that this life sort of vanishes with her. I had read The Secret Diary when I was a teenager back in the 80s so Mole has always existed for me, almost like a character from a reality show. <br/><br/>So even though I struggled with this book, I'm glad to have read Mole's final chapters, and hope that he's happy somewhere in his literary universe.