User Profile

Stephen

tinheadned@ramblingreaders.org

Joined 2 years, 3 months ago

I read when I can't sleep, so yes there's a lot of books here. Nearly all SF.

he/him

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2025 Reading Goal

31% complete! Stephen has read 14 of 45 books.

TJ Klune: Under the Whispering Door (Hardcover, 2021, Tor Books) 4 stars

Welcome to Charon's Crossing. The tea is hot, the scones are fresh, and the dead …

Nice but verging on saccharine

3 stars

It's another TJ Klune book. I didn't like it as much as the House in the Cerulean Sea. The protagonist is supposed to be "bad" but not-really-a-spoiler, redeems himself. Except unlike Cerulean, where there's a slow change of someone discovering themselves (albeit with a lot of foreshadowing), in this one we have one scene of Wallace being bad, then a few chapters of being dead and confused, and then he's nice.

reviewed Head On by John Scalzi (Lock In #2)

John Scalzi: Head On (2017, Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom) 4 stars

Hilketa is a frenetic and violent pastime where players attack each other with swords and …

Another great thriller

4 stars

And again without being "too" funny. Scalzi has reached a good balance now and it's a treat. I didn't like the start of this one though, as it begins with a news account of a match and it just doesn't really read like a news account at all. I realise it's there for worldbuilding but I found it weak and jarring. The rest of the book is much better though.

reviewed Lock In by John Scalzi (Lock In #1)

John Scalzi: Lock In (2014, Tor Books) 4 stars

Not too long from today, a new, highly contagious virus makes its way across the …

Good, with a bit of disbelief

4 stars

I think if I'd read this in 2014 I'd believe a lot more that the world economy would change to support survivors of a pandemic. The one described here is much worse than COVID, and there's also a bit of cynicism about how it affected the wealthy, but still now I think society would prefer to forget.

However it's a great thriller, with some interesting ideas although some of the tech and biology doesn't stand up to much scrutiny. The characters are funny without being "too funny" which I think Scalzi has strayed into before.

reviewed Skyward, Vol. 1 by Joe Henderson (Skyward, Vol. 1)

Joe Henderson: Skyward, Vol. 1 (Paperback, 2018, Image Comics) 3 stars

Beautifully drawn, nonsensical comic

3 stars

This is a lovely piece of art, really enjoyable to look at. But the plot doesn't make sense. Gravity is off. And it has been off since the protagonist was a baby. And she's barely 20. But lots of people have forgotten what gravity was like. And you can zip off if you fire a gun down, which isn't really how momentum works.

Sci-fi thriller shorts

4 stars

Bought this a long time ago, and re-reading it on coming out of the attic. It's a good set of near-future-twenty-years-ago sci-fi thrillers. In some ways it's funny to read now as some tech in it is here and boring now, and some stuff we know is much harder, and yet more bits are politically less palatable. As is the author.

But there's a network of experts that's sort of a secret but most people know about them (like Torchwood) and they all have Ellis' trademark catchy swearing.