science fiction

I am now a Tade Thompson fanboy

Rosewater by Tade Thompson

December 8, 2018 by dAvid Leave a Comment

The Kinokuniya bookstore above Shinjuku Station in Tokyo has become one of my favorite stores for its excellent selection of English-language books. They have a really good sci-fi/fantasy section, and on a recent visit, they had a whole rack dedicated to recent award winners where I noticed the winner of a new award for African speculative fiction — the Nommo Award — and was intrigued enough to buy a copy. And let me just say that if there’s a better science fiction book this year than Tade Thompson’s Rosewater, then I want to read it, because this book was freaking […]

12/8/2018 dAvid's CBR10 Review No:65 |

This series is so great, I can’t recommend it enough.

Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries, #4) by Martha Wells

December 4, 2018 by narfna 5 Comments

And the final Murderbot adventure is over. Well, not final, I guess, since there is going to be a Murderbot novel in 2020 (hooray!), but final FOR NOW. The initial arc of Murderbot becoming a person has concluded. We come full circle in Exit Strategy, with Murderbot traveling back to rescue Dr. Mensah, and teaming up with the initial group of humans from All Systems Red. Murderbot’s irrational grudge against Gurathin continues to give me life: “I don’t want to be a pet robot.” “I don’t think anyone wants that.” That was Gurathin. I don’t like him. “I don’t like […]

12/4/2018 narfna's CBR10 Review No:161 |

Just as good as the first, maybe better?

The Consuming Fire (The Interdependency, #2) by John Scalzi

November 30, 2018 by narfna 2 Comments

I was not disappointed by this sequel. P.S. writing this on my phone. I don’t actually have much to say about the book. I enjoyed it a lot, and I was worried that I would have forgotten everything that happened in the last book, and I sort of had, but Scalzi makes it easy for you to catch up. Cardenia is still emperox, Kiva is still a profane little firecracker, Marse is traveling around giving lectures about the flow collapse, and the effing Nohamapetans are still messing everything up like the galactic class assholes they are. They are all trying […]

11/30/2018 narfna's CBR10 Review No:158 |

Transformers meet Voltron

Mech Cadet Yu by Greg Pak, Takeshi Miyazawa and Triona Farrell

November 29, 2018 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

Transformers meet Voltron in Mech Cadet Yu Volume one by Greg Pak, Takeshi Miyazawa and Triona Farrell. I would like to point out when I say Transformer and Voltron I do not mean the modern-day versions but the awesome 1980s versions I grew up on. The story itself is totally today, but still the creators are paying honor to the classics. The story is every few years giant robots from outer space come to bond with cadets from the Sky Corps Academy. Sixty-years ago, the first one bonded with a young boy scout out in the desert, to help Earth […]

11/29/2018 BlackRaven's CBR10 Review No:440 |

…to wound the autumnal city.

Dhalgren by Samuel R Delany

November 28, 2018 by Mrs Smith Reads 3 Comments

[BINGO 3] I’ve read Dhalgren so many times. Every time is different. Sometimes I devour it, blocking out everything else going on around me. Other times, I read it slowly, with long breaks, dipping in here and there, and savouring each section as I go, as if it was just a collection of stories. I’ve been reading it again in 2018, and not surprisingly, this time felt completely different. One thing is for sure about Dhalgren, it is regarded as Samuel R Delany’s masterpiece of science fiction, but from what I can tell, very few who read it actually like it. It’s weird, […]

11/28/2018 Mrs Smith Reads's CBR10 Review No:25 |

Everything I knew I always wanted

The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin

November 10, 2018 by llp 2 Comments

I keep hearing things about N. K. Jemisin, but my reading list is so long. HOWEVER. Jemisin ticks so many boxes for CBR 10 Bingo – award winner, birthday, start of a series, etc that I made space. I was very surprised to find that my library had no Jemisin books in the collection, so requested a copy of The Fifth Season via interlibrary loan based on recommendations on the CBR FB page. Thank you, folks, for the excellent recommendation! This is the first book in a trilogy, with the story following three different protagonists at three different time periods. […]

11/10/2018 llp's CBR10 Review No:25 |

Science fiction I actually enjoyed!

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

November 8, 2018 by Malin 3 Comments

#CBR10Bingo: Cannonballer Recommends (this was a CBR Book Exchange gift from Yesknopemaybe (my paperback copy), it has also been favourably reviewed by MathildeHoeg, ingres77, dAvid, badkittyuno, belphebe, emmalita, narfna and faintingviolet, among others) Rosemary Harper is trying to escape her old life and doesn’t want anyone tracking her down. She pays a lot of money to get a new identity and gets a job on a run-down and patched up spaceship, where no one from her old life would ever think to look for her. Aboard the Wayfarer, with its eclectic, but mostly affectionate crew, she finds a sense of community and […]

11/8/2018 Malin's CBR10 Review No:95 |

Well, thanks a lot for leaving me with further emotional scars for a whole year, Brian!

Saga, vol 9 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

October 30, 2018 by Malin 1 Comment

4.5 stars This is volume 9, it is NOT the place to start the series. Do, however, get to your nearest retailer of comics/graphic novels and buy volume 1, it’s pretty much the best thing out there right now. You won’t regret it. Normally, the volumes of Saga tend to vary between heavy and emotionally wrenching storylines, followed by something a bit more funny, light-hearted and uplifting. Vol 7 ended on a very sad note, and Vol 8 was an exploration of grief and loss and not exactly a barrel of laughs either. Lured by the cheerful cover illustrations (the back of […]

10/30/2018 Malin's CBR10 Review No:94 |

andtheIToldYouSos on I Have Always Imagined that Paradise Will Be a Kind of Librarythis looks excellent- although, I am also on board with algorithmic bagels. Well, bagels in general. All bagels. I am too hungry to be reading...
andtheIToldYouSos on An excellent trilogy of thrillers (with a fourth on the way!)boy howdy, you had me at Tana French!
andtheIToldYouSos on An unattended wound gets infectedCongratulations on your Half!!! Also- well done. I'm adding this to my list!
sistercoyote on (Bingo: Pajiba) All shall fade into the whiteness of deathThe end of this was pretty grim, I gotta say. And yes -- I absolutely agree it was challenging and provoking and I have notes...
narfna on Angsty, charming, good….and problematic?I never understand when people complain about "unrealistic dialogue." Who says every book has to proscribe to realism? It's art! It can be whatever the...

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