A fun read you could describe as "the cast of Star Trek TNG meets the cast of Firefly".
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zaratustra rated Phoresis: 3 stars
zaratustra rated The Outside: 4 stars
The Outside by Ada Hoffmann (The Outside)
Autistic scientist Yasira Shien has developed a radical new energy drive that could change the future of humanity. But when …
zaratustra reviewed Under Fortunate Stars by Ren Hutchings
Fleeing the final days of the generations-long war with the alien Felen, smuggler Jereth Keeven's …
Review of 'Under Fortunate Stars' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
zaratustra rated This Census-Taker: 3 stars
This Census-Taker by China Miéville
This Census-Taker is a 2016 novella by British author China Miéville. It tells the story of a boy who witnesses …
zaratustra reviewed Thrall by Mary SanGiovanni
Review of 'Thrall' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I read it until the end? That means I am basically okay with it? I guess?
Thrall is a city where things in various flavors of Spooky happen. These Spooky things aren't very thematically related, they're kind of a mash of various horror tropes reminiscent of a Netflix series. Jesse is going in to face his old demons, with a shotgun.
zaratustra rated Six wakes: 3 stars
Six wakes by Mur Lafferty
"A space adventure set on a lone ship where the clones of a murdered crew must find their murderer -- …
zaratustra reviewed On by Adam Roberts
Review of 'On' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
What you'd get if you asked Franz Kafka to write a coming-of-age sci-fi novel of the "the Dome is the World" variety.
The majority of the book has the protagonist teenage - that obviously believes the World is not the Dome - having various forms of abuse put upon him. The theories about the Dome never amount to much. Characters often talk past each other rather than to each other.
At some point a Doctor Who comes around and explains the backstory of the premise. Then there's a few more pages, and then the book ends.
zaratustra rated Jennifer Government: 4 stars
zaratustra reviewed Providence by Max Barry
Review of 'Providence' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
It's well-written and innovative, but feels like it primes you for a twist that never actually comes.
zaratustra rated Lexicon: 4 stars
zaratustra reviewed Antkind by Charlie Kaufman
Review of 'Antkind' on 'Goodreads'
1 star
good heavens this was painful
the first half of the book is charlie kaufman restructuring the basic woody allen/larry david character for the 21st century: the nebbish yet inexplicably popular with women middle-age white male, integrated with every "beta male"/"soy boy" stereotype to form a hideous creature whose ramblings about paying lip service to "wokeness" while secretly getting off on being humiliated populate roughly three hundred pages
i feel like i felt when i was watching Adaptation, which is to say, what you get when charlie kaufman is not directed towards more fruitful pursuits and away from his primary obsession: charlie kaufman
anyway the second half of the book goes a bit away from that, and in the process, disintegrates into various plot threads that "intertwine", or rather, clip through each other like videogame characters with shitty hitboxes. nothing builds upon anything else - if anything, things subtract from each …
good heavens this was painful
the first half of the book is charlie kaufman restructuring the basic woody allen/larry david character for the 21st century: the nebbish yet inexplicably popular with women middle-age white male, integrated with every "beta male"/"soy boy" stereotype to form a hideous creature whose ramblings about paying lip service to "wokeness" while secretly getting off on being humiliated populate roughly three hundred pages
i feel like i felt when i was watching Adaptation, which is to say, what you get when charlie kaufman is not directed towards more fruitful pursuits and away from his primary obsession: charlie kaufman
anyway the second half of the book goes a bit away from that, and in the process, disintegrates into various plot threads that "intertwine", or rather, clip through each other like videogame characters with shitty hitboxes. nothing builds upon anything else - if anything, things subtract from each other. in a chapter tonally and characteristically isolated from the entire rest of the novel, the protagonist fucks a mountain.
the book ends, at some point. small mercies
zaratustra rated This Is How You Die: 3 stars
zaratustra rated Dispersion: 2 stars
zaratustra rated Semiosis (Semiosis Duology, #1): 3 stars
Semiosis (Semiosis Duology, #1) by Sue Burke
In this character driven novel of first contact by debut author Sue Burke, human survival hinges on an bizarre alliance. …