This book by Walter Moers is both strange but very enjoyable, but also hard to pin down what type of book it actually is. The front cover and pictures inside the book makes it look like a children's fantasy book, but it is not usually found in the that section of a bookshop - and if you actually try reading this to a young child I am sure you would very quickly find the language and ideas a little heavy. This is a great, guilty pleasure for adults to read a book with pictures that is full of great images, ideas and a good story and be reading it for us.
The story is set in the continent of Zamonia, starting with a Blue Bear as a tiny baby floating next to a giant whirlpool in half a walnut shell. Minipirates rescue him, teaching him seamanship skills and then dumping him on an island of hobgoblins when he is too big for their boat. From there he goes on to meet a whale-like creature with one-eye; island that is a carnivorous plant; pterodactyl hero; giants; wolf-like characters; a seven-brained professor and knowledge that is a infectious bacteria; and the list goes on.
An imaginative book that is throughly enjoyable but don't be mislead by the book's cover and use images inside the book there is plenty hear to keep grown up interest. If you liked this book Rumo is worth a read as well.
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The first part of the Human Division series that is being released on the Kindle. For a while these books have being popping up on the list recommendations and I have being ignoring them. I am glad I stopped ignoring them and gave it a try especially at the price (65p).
The story revolves around
- a diplomatic mission that has gone to pieces (literally in this case) with the one of the best diplomatic team being killed and negotiations going wrong even before they have started;
- Earth and an alliance of human populated planets not getting along;
- Alien fractions forming alliances that are potentially not in the human's best interest;
- The eponymous B-Team, they don't know they are called that, a team of diplomats and naval-types who at the start of the story don't get the most high profile jobs, but have to step in to save the day in their own way.
There is good character development in such as short book, with characters that are quickly being fleshed out with their likes and dislikes; their faults and strengths coming out. Both for the B-Team itself but also the powers behind them Egan and Rigney and the political games they play.
This book did surprise me, in that I enjoyed it so much. I am looking forward to reading Walk the Plank, the next episode - downloaded and ready. If you are after a good quick read with plenty of action consider this book.
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This is a good short story (no suprise there), but unlike most Alastair Reynold's stories it is set on Earth, admitted a future Earth. The population of Earth (expect a few thousand) is cryogenically frozen for reason that are explain but it would be a spoiler to explain why here. One of the first to be frozen, a former CEO of an AI company, is selected to be revived for caretaker duties on what sounds like oil-rig-like structures where the whole of human race is being stored.
Creatures of the deep, AI emergence and other dimensions all play a role - so you won't miss out on the elements of Reynold's other books.
Confession time - when I first download this onto the Kindle I wasn't aware it was short story/novella in an anthology Apocalyptic SF by Mike Ashley, I thought it was a short story by Alastair Reynolds. I enjoyed it so much I download the anthology.
Other reviews can be found at: http://bestsf.net/alastair-reynolds-sleepover-the-mammoth-book-of-apocalyptic-sf/
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The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce has the eponymous hero travelling from Devon to Berwick one step at a time, initially one postbox at a time.
A bittersweet story, about an essentially lonely man (even though he is married) travelling to say goodbye a dying friend who we find out he thinks he has wronged. His apparent estrangement from his wife and son, is explained through the book and his rise and 'fall' as a folk hero as the story of his journey is becomes more widely known is interesting.
This book is full of different themes and kept my interest throughout, it could easily have been a story of a man who finds himself (which in part it is) with public acclaim and everything is rosy for this reluctant hero. The book is more than this, there is elements of his journey helping others but some of it is people being able to tell their secrets to a stranger because they know they are never going to meet again. Cult of celebrity comes under the microscope a bit, as do many other issues that would be a spoiler if revealed here.
I enjoyed this book and I can see why some recommendation sites are linking it with The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared. There are links but they are very different books the latter is an adventure book in many cases (I know that is a little unfair on such a good book), this book is a more personal account. On the Kindle version several portions of the book, usually relating to the more philosophic parts, have been highlighted by many readers. This is not a 'heavy' book it is accessible without insulting the reader.
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Douglas E Richards' Wired is a great technothriller sci-fi book. The story is action packed; revolving around, initially, a search for a potentially psychopathic female genius Kira Miller who is said to be working for a jihadist terrorist group...things are not what they seemed. The story develops quickly to what appears to be a government agency who want her because she has developed a drug that radically improves the intelligence of an individual, but also because whilst using the drug she created a treatment that extends life by an expected seventy years.
Many themes are explored. Including what does it mean to be human and what the effected of technology could be on society?.
This is a hard to put down story (I read the kindle version in just over a day - which is quick for me). The pace is fast, with so many twists. I am looking forward to reading the sequel Amped (which a bit confusing as Daniel H Wilson also brought out a book Amped recently).
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