Little Mushroom (Novel) Vol. 1 by Yi Shi Si Zhou: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Little Mushroom vol. 1 by Yi Shi Si Zhou

Back when Peach Flower House publishing went bust, I couldn’t get my hands on Little Mushroom: Judgement Day. The publisher had a print on demand publishing model and the books disappeared instantly. I have the second volume, Revelations, but what fun is that when I couldn’t read the first book. But luckily, Seven Seas bought the rights and now the first volume is available again, as an ebook too, with a new translation and illustrations.

Little Mushroom is set in far future where humanity has faced several extinction events that began with magnetic poles disappearing, followed by natural disasters, radiation sicknesses, and finally wild mutations that instantly change a human. Only two human bases are left of four there originally were, those protecting the new artificial poles, one in China and one in the US. Everything outside the bases is left for mutations, but some people risk their lives venturing out to forage materials for the bases.

An Zhe is a mushroom living in the Abyss, the worst contamination area. A human, An Ze, has come to his cave, badly injured, and in his attempt to heal him, An Zhe absorbs An Ze’s entire DNA and memories. Eventually, he’s able to take the man’s form too. When An Ze dies, An Zhe decides to head to the human base. His objective is to find his spore that humans have taken from him. An Ze has warned him not to go there, because humans kill all mutations at sight. The worst of the humans is The Judge who is able to detect mutations others don’t see.

When An Zhe finally reaches the base, after memorable events where the humans helping him either mutate to huge insects or get eaten by those, he comes face to face with the Judge himself, Colonel Lu Feng. But instead of killing him instantly, Lu Feng is unable to decide for the first time and takes An Zhe to be tested, only for the results show that An Zhe is human.

From there, An Zhe sets to survive in the base while looking for his spore. He settles in An Ze’s home, finds himself a job, and even makes friends of sort. But all around him, mutations increase and they’ve reached the base too. And every time Lu Feng is there, killing them. But he’s always there to help An Zhe survive too, and so he decides the colonel must be a good person.

And then comes the Judgement Day. A catastrophic breach lets mutations swarm the base, and the only solution is to save a few humans and sacrifice the rest. Thanks to Lu Feng, An Zhe is among the saved. But humanity isn’t safe. Just as things are looking a bit better for An Zhe, with a new job, budding friendship with Lu Feng, and finally finding his spore, the worst happens. The artificial pole breaks and the world is about to end once more. The first volume ends with that.

This is a good story. Despite all the death, it’s fairly quiet and melancholy. An Zhe observes humans and goes about his days. He comes close to being badly hurt or tricked a few times, but always avoids those in the last moment. Lu Feng remains a distant, scary figure for most of the book, but becomes more of a real person towards the end. This really isn’t much of a romance, even with all the tropes; just a friendship that neither party really understands but which both of them need. Yet it feels like one, and the reader roots for An Zhe and Lu Feng.

At the core though, it’s a harrowing tale. The desperate struggle of humans for survival against great odds, and the sacrifices they make for it. An Zhe, coming from a species and a place where the survival of the whole requires sacrifices of the few, understands where the leaders of the base come from. But individual humans, with the voice of An Zhe’s friend Cole, argue that it’s useless to save humanity if we lose what makes us human in the process. The base isn’t a happy place, but it’s the only place. And at the end, there might not even be that anymore.

The book is fairly well written, with minor inconsistencies and repetitions. Since I haven’t read the earlier translation, I can’t tell if there are changes there. Art is good and the characters resemble those of the manhua, which keeps the visuals consistent. 

Little Mushroom Manhua vol. 1. Art by Yuchi Jinze & Maomao Tou

 

Radiant Star by Ann Leckie: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

Radiant Star by Ann Leckie

Radiant Star is part of the Imperial Radch series, but a stand-alone. While it’ll work best if the reader knows the world and the previous events, it can—to an extent—be read as a stand-alone too. It’s set during the timeline of the original trilogy, but it’s only tangentially touched by those events.

Planet Aai is drifting in space without a sun, completely encased in ice. But it’s inhabited, and the city of Ooioiaa is a thriving underneath the ice. The ecosystem is delicate though, and the planet is heavily dependent on outside provisions. The culture and society are delicate systems too, which the Radchaai discover a bit too late after they conquer the planet.

Thirty years after the arrival of the Radchaai, the planet finds itself cut off the rest of the universe. Since there’s no communication and no way to travel in and out of their space, they don’t know what’s happening or how long it’ll last, and there are no provisions. The Radchaai governor realises that food will soon become scarce and introduces the Radch food stable, a fast-growing algae, into the ecosystem. At first, it works fine. And then the ecosystem collapses and the governor has a famine at her hands.

The governor has other problems too. The local religion that worships the Radiant Star, waiting for its return, is fractured into sects that are constantly fighting, and she has to share space with them. An introduction of the last saint—a practice the governor is trying to end—pushes matters to a point, destabilising an already fragile society.

Within this framework of a city on a brink of collapsing, three people emerge. Speaking Savant Keemat, who becomes convinced that they should be the last saint; Jonr, a neglected son of a consoror system who was supposed to be shipped out of the planet before the Radchaai arrived, but who has been stuck in a stasis pod for three decades, only to emerge to a changed world with no place in it; and Iono, whose father is supposed to be the last saint, which pushes him into a personal crisis and questionable choices. Other characters feature too, but these three are the main stories. Everything is narrated by an all-knowing, unknown person years after the events of the book.

The stories are, in a way, about small personal goals that either work or fail. They don’t come to a point simultaneously, and only Keemat gets the ending they wish and work for. Iono, who isn’t a very likable character, gets what he has coming, but also not. Jonr’s story is the one I had highest hopes for, but it ended up being the most neglected one. It doesn’t really lead to anything but a status quo for him, nor does it have any impact on the overall plot. We don’t even get a last chapter or epilogue from his POV, nor do we learn what had happened to the consoror he’s in charge of.

The chaos that the planet finds itself in comes to a surprisingly peaceful closure soon enough. Nothing much changes on the planet in the end. The Imperial Radch has changed, but that doesn’t really impact the story here. All the solutions to the governor’s problems seem a bit like deus ex machina, as the narrator divulges information as they see fit, the actual plot happening behind the scenes. Most of the time, the plot was revealed backwards, after the fact.

This was perhaps the simplest, most straightforward book in the series so far, and most readable and easiest to follow. Ancillaries featured, but weren’t a POV character, so there were no complicated scenes where the reader had to follow many events at once. The plot was simple, about the consequences of meddling with the ecosystem. The characters were mostly grey and a bit difficult to root for, except for Jonr who deserved all the best. The problems solved fairly easily and I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but the book ended.

This was an engaging book, but it wasn’t mind-blowing like the previous ones have been. But anything Leckie writes in this universe will interest me, and I’ll definitely read more.

Platform Decay by Martha Wells: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

Platform Decay by Martha Wells

Platform Decay is book 8 in the Murderbot Diaries. Like most books in the series, it’s more a long novella that only took four hours to read, but it’s a complete and satisfying story, with no cliffhanger ending.

Murderbot has arrived on a humongous planet-circling torus to free Dr Mensah’s family members Farai, Sofi and Naja, who have been captured by Barish-Estranza corporation in retaliation to events in the previous book. They’re already in a safehouse. Murderbot simply has to get there and take them safely back to their escape shuttle. But things get immediately complicated, because the person who has been helping them wants Murderbot to save other people too, and they’re in a completely different part of the torus, to a wrong direction from the shuttle.

The rescue mission takes them through different zones of the huge torus, some of which are civilised and some that are more like the Wild West. Some zones belong to B-E, others don’t, but that doesn’t stop the corporation from chasing them. Transportation turns out to be the greatest problem though. Murderbot isn’t happy with having clingy humans and their emotions to account for. It’s even less thrilled with its own new emotion module that keeps interrupting at worst possible moments.

This was an exciting flight through imaginative environments. Murderbot was mostly its sarcastic self again, with no imminent mental breakdowns anymore, as the emotion module did its job. It was trying new things like direct communication, which went about as well as one can imagine. And it realises that having some emotions isn’t all that bad, and sometimes it’s nice to be thanked and praised. Especially if it comes from small children.

The story isn’t entirely satisfying emotionally though. The setting is new, and the characters are again people the reader hasn’t really met before. They turn out to be nice additions, but the emotional connection isn’t there, like with Mensah, Amena or ART. Their interactions with Murderbot weren’t as funny or poignant either, though an understanding formed between them in the end. But there was Three, the SecUnit Murderbot freed, exercising its free will with unpredictable results. It was nice to follow the bond between the two. And the ending was satisfying, leaving everyone in a good place. I hope we’ll get more books soon.

Jitterbug by Gareth L. Powell: review

3/5 stars on Goodreads

Jitterbug by Gareth L. Powell

Jitterbug is set in near future of our solar system that’s been drastically altered. All the outer planets have vanished one by one by invisible forces, with Mars being currently devoured. It’s only a matter of time before the Earth is gone. In their place has appeared a ring of artificial planetoids shaped like wedges of orange that curve towards the sun with nothing on the backside towards the outer space. The humanity has inhabited the insides of these planetoids.

Criminals, too, like to hide in the vastness of these new habitats, and to capture them, a system of bounty hunters has emerged. Copernicus Brown and his three-person crew (two women and a man) are bounty hunters on Jitterbug, a former freight ship he has inherited from his father. A distress call brings them to a scene of a pirate attack, from which they save a woman, Amber Roth. Things go sideways from there.

Roth is carrying a message that people are willing to kill for. It brings the crew to the attention of a leading politician, and together, they go to the outside of the spheres to find the origin of the message—only to learn that the humanity is about to come under attack by alien forces. Are they the same who created the sphere in the first place or is something else going on? Whatever it is, Jitterbug and her crew has to deal with it and fast.

This was a competent sci-fi adventure, a small-scale space opera. Told by four first-person point of view characters, one of which is Jitterbug herself, it brings the humanity to the brink of extinction and offers an out of space and time solution to it. It wasn’t entirely engaging though. It was mostly narrated to the reader, and apart from the first chapters, the first-person narrators didn’t manage to bring the reader in the story with them. The intimacy of first-person wasn’t there, and the reader didn’t learn anything about the characters except what was necessary for the scene. The inevitable romance especially suffered from this, when neither narrator even hinted at romantic feelings before it was already a reality.

The ending twisted this readers brain, but I’m not going to question the time-bending solution. It brings the story to a full circle, the prologue finally getting an explanation in the epilogue. It’s a satisfying ending for this standalone story. No need for more.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Astrolabe Rebirth by Fei Tian Ye Xiang: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

Astrolabe Rebirth by Fei Tian Ye Xiang

I’ve read a couple of books by Fei Tian Ye Xiang and they’ve been a hit and miss with me. Astrolabe Rebirth is more of a hit. It’s a stand-alone sci-fi set in a unique world of Astrolabe. The City of Steel is a dystopian place for humans, enslaved by Father, an AI that rules the city with camera surveillance, robots and human clones. It’s a miserable, polluted place, where humans are likely to meet an untimely end for violating strict rules.

A-Ka is 16 and has just begun working as a technician mending robots and clones, a job he has unique aptitude for, but he dreams of freedom. He’s found his way out of the city, and is building a mecha for himself in secret to escape. One day, he rescues a man from the sea, preserved in a sleeping pod. He has no memories, so A-Ka names him Heishi.

The two mean to go their separate ways, but fate intervenes in the form of a clone uprisal, and the two are swept along with it. They find themselves outside the city, fleeing with humans and clones to the other side of the continent where free people live.

As Heishi regains his memories, he remembers his purpose: rebooting Astrolabe to remove everything that has gone wrong with the system since it was initiated. But Father has the same command system, and may get there first, rebooting the system to its liking. Humans and clones must work together to help Heishi to shut down Father before the AI destroys everything. But the reboot requires a special human component, and that’s A-Ka, the only human Heishi has learned to love.

This was a good story. It was hasty, the world-building was shoddy, and descriptions were confusing if they existed, but the core story was interesting. It wasn’t much of a romance, but A-Ka and Heishi learned to love each other through their hardships. It has some sad moments that were slightly weakened through miraculous twists, but the ending was very good.

A-Ka was a great protagonist, downtrodden but resourceful and resilient. He gained a miraculous ability, but it wasn’t overused. Heishi remained distant, but as he gained his memories and learned about humans, he became more interesting. There were some good side characters too, with proper purpose for the story. I would’ve wished for more romance, but the story was satisfying as it was.

The Martian Contingency by Mary Robinette Kowal: review

3/5 stars on Goodreads

The Martian Contingency by Mary Robinette Kowal

In the fourth book, it’s 1970 and Elma York, The Lady Astronaut, finally lands on Mars with her husband Nathaniel with the second wave of settlers. Earth hasn’t had a clear sky since the asteroid hit it and the mere chance of seeing stars at night is lifting their spirits.

But from the start, Elma feels something’s off. Accidents have clearly taken place during the first wave of settlers that no one has reported back to earth and hateful messages have been painted on the wall. No one is willing to tell her anything when she tries to ask about it, even though she’s the second in command.

Small accidents keep happening too. They’re fairly harmless at first—until they aren’t. It’s clear that they’re deliberate sabotage. But is it someone on the planet with them behind it, or is the mastermind back on earth?

Despite the intriguing premise, this was surprisingly boring book. Focus was on technical details and religious rituals, and even the who dunnit was solved elsewhere behind the scenes. Most of the cast was new, the familiar characters like Stetson Parker only appeared through radio transmissions, and even Elma and Nathaniel spent large part of the book apart. The new characters were none of them interesting, nor were they given any backstories that would’ve made them more than talking heads, useful for each scene only.

Character relations were antagonist. Instead of building the inclusivity through open conversation, nothing happened until after a confrontation, however small. It made the whole process feel angry and negative instead of a hopeful chance to build a better world mentioned in the book’s description. It made for a heavy read and I didn’t enjoy this as much as I hoped I would.

In the end, everything was solved as well as it could be. Elma and Nathaniel settled down to their forever home, and they seemed content with where they are now. If this was the last book, it leaves them in a good place. But there’s a lot to explore in space left.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton

The Fourth Consort is a sci-fi novel set in a universe where the earth is still very much like present, but part of the space-faring Unity, after aliens showed up to make sure humans don’t destroy the planet. But the Unity isn’t quite that altruistic and they always get something in return. From the earth, they get people.

Dalton Greaves is an engineer, a former soldier, and an all-around accomplished person who has lost the grip of his life after his father died. No other family is mentioned. When even his girlfriend dumps him, he’s more than willing to accept an offer to work for the Unity and leave the earth.

Three years later, somewhere deep in the universe, he’s starting to question the wisdom of the decision. For years, he’s travelled from one potential planet to another in a three-person grew captained by Boreau who is a giant slug representing the Unity, and Neera, a fellow human who recruited him. He hasn’t really had a chance to do what he was hired to do, diplomacy to win over the inhabitants of whichever planet they want won over. Mostly, he and Neera are very bored.

When they finally find a promising planet with intelligent civilisations, it turns out they’re not the first ones there. The Assembly, a rivalling alien organisation on the same mission as the Unity is there as well. Dalton, Neera, and the representative of the Assembly have barely landed on the planet, when both their motherships are destroyed, stranding them.

For Neera, the proper way to handle things is immediately to kill the person from the Assembly, an insectoid species derogatorily called stickman, though we never learn what they call themselves. Dalton refuses. As a former soldier who has done his fair share of shady missions in Bolivian jungles, there are things that shouldn’t be done, and unprovoked killing of an unarmed person is one. Miffed, Neera decides to stay in their landing craft while Dalton and the stickman go to negotiate with the natives of the planet, giant ant-like people called minarchs who live in underground hives.

The negotiation takes a bizarre turn though, when the queen of minarchs (First Among Equals) decides to make Dalton his fourth consort. Consorts two and three (Bob and Randall) are still around, but the first consort has met an unfortunate end. Consorts don’t have any power—males are powerless in the female led society—and Dalton finds himself confined to a harem and sidelined from the negotiations.

For minarchs, exchanging consorts is a way to deal and consolidate power with neighbouring hives. But choosing Dalton, who they see as a prey species, is an odd choice that triggers a coup to remove the queen. And the easiest way to do that is to kill Dalton.

That’s only the beginning of his troubles. He’s constantly juggling between trying to stay alive, the pressure from Neera to kill Breaker, the stickman he’s sort of befriending, and making sure the Unity wins the negotiations. But it seems that the only thing he has any influence on is choosing how to die, honourably—according to the codes both minarchs and Breaker subscribe to—or dishonourably. Someone will be disappointed, no matter how he chooses. But increasingly, he’s starting to lean towards disappointing Neera and the Unity.

This was a really good and entertaining novel. It’s deceptively small; it takes place in one hive, and nothing major happens, even if a coup is going on in the background. Dalton sort of drifts from one event to another, with no real agency over anything but his own reactions to them. But he’s not helpless, and in the end, he pulls through on his own terms.

Dalton is a great character with a good moral code, even if Breaker and the minarchs don’t understand or respect it. Neera, for her part, is a corporate drone and her actions are dictated by her fear of the Unity leaders. Breaker is the aloof knight type of a character, a teacher or sensei, who is more atop of things thanks to his clearer understanding of what kind of people minarchs are. He has the teacher’s hope of elevating Dalton to his and the Assembly’s level, and in the end, the two come to understand each other as friends. (The description mentions a bizarre love triangle, but that’s misleading in every way, as there is no third or even a romance.)

The ending is good, and while it concludes the story, it does have a seed for a new beginning. I’d definitely read more stories of Dalton travelling the universe.

Bob and Randall forever.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Gravity Lost by L.M. Sagas: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

Gravity Lost by L.M. Sagas

Gravity Lost is the second book in Ambit’s Run sci-fi series that began with Cascade Failure. The series is set in fairly far future in a space-faring world ruled by the Trust and the Union for profit, with the neutral Guild keeping peace between them with its rangers.

Ambit’s crew, Guild rangers Eoan the AI captain, Nash the mechanic/doctor and Saint the XO have spent months on a space station waiting for Jal, the former ranger they rescued in the previous book, to recover and connect with his family. They’re preparing to leave, when someone abducts Jal’s sister, Regan, sending the crew on a rescue mission.

Someone wants Dresdyn, the agitator the crew captured in the previous book, and so the crew has no choice than to break him free from prison, making them fugitives in Guild’s eyes. But the abductor evades them at every corner, luring the crew into a trap. They have unexpected help though: Dresdyn wants the abductor dead as badly as the crew wants to free Regan. And it turns out, the enemy is someone closer to them than any of them could’ve imagined.

This was a good book, but not quite as exciting as the first one. The entire universe wasn’t at stake, the action was more limited, and the death-defying situations were smaller, although more personal. While it was easy to sympathise with Jal’s need to find his sister, it didn’t give the reader a similar sense of urgency, and while there was a very personal betrayal again, the reader wasn’t connected with them the same way than in the previous book, where there were chapters from the traitor’s point of view even. And we didn’t learn anything new about the main characters.

Nevertheless, the world remained interesting, the characters were as loveable as before, and the narrative was rich and good. While the characters didn’t have similar arcs as in the previous book, the reader cared for them and rooted for each of them, even Dresdyn. The ending was good and left the crew in a new place. I’m interested in reading more about their adventures.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Moonstorm by Yoon Ha Lee: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Moonstorm by Yoon Ha Lee

Moonstorm starts a new Lancers YA sci-fi series by Yoon Ha Lee. It’s set in New Joseon, an empire inspired by the Korean past. It’s a collection of moons and artificial planets orbiting together in Moonstorm, what seems to be a vast asteroid field of sorts filled with ether where people can survive for a moment, instead of void. The empire is held together by gravity that is created by peoples’ adherence to rituals and respect for the empress.

But Moonstorm has rogue moons and planetoids in random orbits too. They belong to clanners who hold their gravity with different rituals and don’t bow to the empress. The two different gravities don’t mix and the two sides are at constant war.

Hwa Young is ten when her clanner moon is destroyed by the empire. As the sole survivor, she’s taken to New Joseon and given an education as the ward of the empress. She’s made a conscious decision to become a good citizen of the empire and hide her clanner past, because she wants to become a lancer in the empire’s military, a pilot of huge mechas that operate in space.

At sixteen, she’s unexpectedly given a chance to enter the lancer program. And that, inevitably, leads to her going to a battle against the clanners. It’s all very abstract to her, until it turns out that it’s her former home she’ll be attacking against.

The war isn’t going as well for the empire as the news propaganda gives to understand. Hwa Young is forced to consider the possibility that the empire isn’t entirely right. And it turns out, there’s such thing as too much devotion.

This is a great start to a series. Lee has once again created a world that is unique and interesting, and which has an integral role in the story instead of being a mere prop, although the Korean elements could’ve been brought out more clearly. The mechas with their sentience are more interesting than usually too.

Hwa Young is a fairly typical YA heroine, a headstrong loner who makes emotional decisions at wrong moments. There’s no romance; a good decision, although she seems to be eyeing someone in that light. I hope it doesn’t lead anywhere, as I didn’t really feel the pairing. Side characters were interesting with lives of their own.

The ending leaves Hwa Young in a completely new place in the world. It’ll be interesting to see where that’ll lead.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

p.s It’s seldom that a book has two such vastly different cover images. I chose the YA version that brings out the Asian characteristics of the story. The other is more hard-core sci-fi with completely different vibes:

 

Cascade Failure by L. M. Sagas: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Cascade Failure by L.M. Sagas

Cascade Failure starts Ambit’s Run sci-fi series. It’s set in a far-future, space-faring galaxy that still has a connection to perfectly liveable Earth. Everything worth anything is owned by Trust, which aims at making profit no matter the human cost. They’re only kept in reign by the Union who protects the labourers. Between them, as a sort of a police and military, is the Guild.

Jal is a deserted Guild ranger. He’s been modified genetically for mining work, and is stronger and faster than others, with eyes that can see in the dark. He’s fleeing from something towards an unknown goal, and for that, he needs a ride. He thinks he’s landed on a ship that has no connection to the Guild, but turns out he’s wrong. And it’s not a coincidence he’s on the ship.

Ambit is a small Guild vessel that takes on riskier jobs at the edges of the galaxy, and looks the part. Her captain is Eoan, a sentient AI with holographic projections and a yearn to learn everything, especially about humans. XO is Saint, a gruff former Earth soldier turned Guild ranger. He’s Jal’s former commanding officer and there’s huge baggage between the men, though their relationship is never made very clear. Then there’s Nash, who is both the mechanic and the doctor and equally good at both. She likes feng shui and crocheting in her spare time.

The crew’s plan to take Jal to be court marshalled takes a turn when they answer a distress call. They find Anke, a chirpy programmer who’s learned of a Trust code that destroys terraformed planets in mere moments. She has a counter code. She just needs to test it. The crew decides to help her. Things don’t go as planned.

This is a very character-driven sci-fi. Each character is given their point of view chapters, and much time is spent in interpersonal relationships. No romances, though there are some hints that could’ve been made stronger and clearer for bigger emotional punches later.

The focus is on Jal and Saint with their past. We learn why Jal deserted, but his life since is sort of glossed over. He emerges as my favourite, though there’s a huge gap in how his chapters present him and how others see him. Anke too, has a clear role. Nash and Eoan didn’t necessarily need their own chapters, they slow things down, but Eoan goes through a transforming event, which was good to see from their point of view.

The plot is fairly straightforward, sort of secondary, and a bit slow, but good. Nothing is black and white, and the bad guys aren’t necessarily bad, or are bad in an understandable way. There are betrayals and sacrifices, and the solutions aren’t easy. The biggest reward for the reader doesn’t come from the plot, but from the characters themselves.

This might have been a four-star book, but it’s so well-written and balanced, especially for a debut, that it gets full five stars. The ending hints at the crew’s next mission. I’m definitely going to read that too.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Jumpnauts by Hao Jingfang: review

2/5 stars on Goodreads

Jumpnauts by Hao Jingfang

Jumpnauts is set in near future where a war has split the world into two factions. In the middle of this, a signal from space is detected that’s fast-approaching earth. Three young Chinese, two men and a woman, with their own interests in the matter decide to investigate.

I was looking for a modern sci-fi with a fresh take from a new, non-western perspective. This wasn’t that book. The premise is tired and went out of fashion with von Däniken in the 70s. The idea that humanity is too stupid to evolve without outside help would require a truly innovative take to make it work. This wasn’t it. Not even our imagination is our own, and the icons of Chinese culture like the dragon (loong) are just reflections of alien cultures. The book doesn’t even ask what made those aliens so much better that they can evolve, but humans can’t? Moreover, they haven’t even evolved beyond wars.

The three main characters, Jiang Liu, Yun Fan and Qi Fei, were really annoying with absolutely nothing to redeem themselves. The reader never gets a proper reading of them. They’re emotionless (like absolutely zero emotional response to anything, be it space, aliens or a scolding mother) and don’t have any inner monologues that would explain their actions and reactions. For the first third, we’re stuck with some sort of triangle drama that doesn’t even exist. Yun Fan said no, and the two men weren’t even truly interested in her. They just needed a reason for constant cockfighting.

The story doesn’t really pick up when the three finally manage to get to space to meet the aliens. The past is rehashed again, and then the story pauses for a philosophising of the garden variety. Everything ends with a kumbaya moment where all the humanity’s differences are put aside for a chance for space exploration.

But above all, the book is boring. The narrative has no driving force from the inside. The characters react to outside prompts and are pushed by them through the story. Not once do they rise above themselves or evolve (and no, the mind-reading ability doesn’t count.) In the end, the reader is left empty.

Learning from the author’s bio that she’s a physicist and economist explains a lot about her attitude to humans as an afterthought and passengers in their own story—and why Yun Fan would be such a bad archaeologist. But the author is not much of a physicist either. I’m all for innovative take in science when it comes to fiction; it doesn’t have to be based in real world science. But it has to be consistent within the book. Here, it’s best seen like cultivation magic in Chinese webnovel xianxias. Whatever suits the narrative at any given moment.

The writing is only marginally better than in xianxias too (and I’ve given five stars for far messier of those), and the translation by Ken Liu can do only so much with the childish narrative. I’ll stick with xianxias with their jumpy narrative and bad translations. At least there’s emotional reward in those.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

System Collapse by Martha Wells: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

System Collapse by Martha Wells

System Collapse is the seventh MurderBot diaries book and it continues right after the events of the fifth book, Network Effect (book six, Fugitive Telemetry, was a skip back in time). SecUnit, ART the highly autonomic AI ship (or Asshole Research Transport), and their humans are still orbiting the planet that suffered from alien contamination. This time they’re trying to convince the colonists to evacuate—or at least not to accept the offer made by one of the horrid corporations, Barish-Estranza, as that would lead to slavery for them.

The story starts with SecUnit being in a funk of some sort, but it keeps redacting the explanation, like it often does with memory files it doesn’t want to handle. But the reader soon figures out it’s suffering from some sort of episode that is compromising it and its ability to make decisions, which isn’t good in a highly volatile situation where everyone relies on its ability to react fast. It takes a while before it’s ready to share with the reader what’s wrong with it.

SecUnit needs to pull itself together though, when it accompanies two of ART’s humans and Ratthi to an isolated colony they knew nothing about, hoping they get there before Barish-Estranza. They don’t. It’s time for SecUnit to save the day again, with the most SecUnit way so far.

This was a great book. SecUnit’s struggle to understand what is going on with its systems was real and relatable. The cast was small and things were kept tight, and while there were some action scenes, they didn’t take over. I had some trouble remembering who was who at the beginning, as no handy hints were given to the reader; I especially struggled to remember who Three was. But it didn’t matter for long. The ending was good, as SecUnit finally figured out what it wants to do next and who with. I simply must have more.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  

Translation State by Ann Leckie: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Translation State by Ann Leckie

Translation State is another brilliant addition to Imperial Radch series. It has a less complicated plot than the others, touching the lives of three people—two of them profoundly. But it asks what it is to be human, a question that gets a whole new meaning in a universe where all kinds of beings claim the word for the sake of the treaty with the terrifying Presgr. By stating that everyone has the right to decide for themselves, the book stays true to the inclusive heart of the series.

Enae has been given a task to find a Presgr Translator who disappeared two centuries ago, a fool’s errand until sie succeeds. Reet knows he’s a human, even if he’s not exactly genetically like the other humans. Learning that this isn’t the case, and that in order to survive, he will have to become someone else, isn’t easy for him.

Presgr Translators are genetic constructions the Presgr have created to communicate with humans. Qven is being grown to become a Translator once they are an Adult, which requires merging their being with another of their kind. But they’re terrified of it. So when Reet is thrown in their way, claiming that he’s a human, they also want to become one.

Their demand creates a diplomatic problem that involves several spieces and the intelligent ships with their ancilliaries who also want to be recognised as human. But before a solution can be found, the Translators demonstrate just what in their genetic mix comes from the Presgr.

This was kind of a slow story, but constantly interesting enought that it didn’t become boring. Enae could’ve been a pitiful person, but sie found hir strength. Reet with his search of connection like any orphan was very relatable. Qven was the most alien of the three, and also most complicated. It was an interesting choice to have their chapters in first person point of view (others were in third), as it emphasised their individuality among their kind. All three wanted to belong somewhere and with someone, and in the end they succeeded.

The universe becomes larger and more colourful with every book. There weren’t any complicated point of view chapters where a ship would observe several scenes simultaneously, so the narrative was easier to follow. We still don’t know what the Presgr are, but maybe they’re some kind of dimensional beings that exist in all places and times simultaneously. I’m looking forward to learning more.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Hel’s Eight by Stark Holborn: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Hel's Eight by Stark Holborn

Hel’s Eight is the second novel in Ten Low sci-fi-dystopia-western-paranormal series, a combination that shouldn’t work, but which does, beautifully. The first book, Ten Low, was one of my favourite reads the year it was published.

We return to Factus, a desert moon at the edge of the universe that has resisted all attempts to terraform it. It’s a harsh, dry, airless place populated mostly by former convicts. Societies are violent, water is scarce, and games of chance mean automatic death—by the beings that were there first.

Ten Low is a former army medic trying to atone a massacre she was instrumental in. In the first book, she discovered the Ifs, as they are called, beings of possibilities that live on humans, and the Seekers who have dedicated their lives for them. At the end of the book, she became their mouthpiece.

Where they go, death follows, so Ten has lived five years outside all civilization. But then an old friend/enemy comes asking for help, and the Ifs are pushing her to action too. Reluctantly she agrees.

A businessman wants to harness the Ifs so that he can guarantee a future where he is the ruler of the moon. He believes Ten is Hel, the controller of the Ifs, because she’s able to manipulate the possibilities the Ifs show, so he wants to capture her. Ten knows she’s not Hel, because she knew the woman who was. But the Ifs know differently—and to become Hel is to die.

The second book was as interesting and good as the first. The world is unique and the atmosphere tense and creepy. But it was a bit more difficult to get the hang of. I had no recollection of the Ifs, and since they weren’t explained in any way here, I’m not sure I understood them correctly. I’m not entirely sure what Hel was either, a leader, prophet or a speaker of the Ifs, or something else. In addition, the title of the book never became clear.

The book is told in Ten’s first-person point of view, but there were additional notes too by Pec Eight Esterhazy who was the previous Hel, as she discovers the Ifs decades before Ten. Ten remained an interesting character struggling with her past and the actions she had to take, including killing people even though she had sworn never to do that. Side characters were a bit distant, but I was invested in them. The ending was good, but maybe a bit hasty and vague, though that could be because the review copy seemed to be missing some scenes. But it leaves the door open for more books. I’m looking forward to reading them.

I received a free copy from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Frontier by Grace Curtis: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Frontier by Grace Curtis

Frontier is set in the 29th century Earth. It’s a dry, desolate place that most humanity abandoned several centuries ago to conquer the space. Only a small fraction remained, a religious sect called Gaians who believe in the divinity of goddess Earth. No technology newer than 21st century (for some reason) is allowed and even the talk of space is sin.

Noelle, a scientist, wants to visit earth, the first time in three centuries, for humanitarian and other ideological reasons. With her as a security is Kei, a former army captain who has resigned from her post after a massacre. A romance forms between the women during the six-month travel through space. When they finally reach Earth, everything goes wrong. That’s where the book begins.

Stranger finds herself in a frontier town. She has no idea where she is, but she needs to find someone. For that she needs a communicator. But in the technology averse world, those don’t exist. So she travels, rather randomly, towards the only city where one might exist. On her way, she encounters people who either help her or try to kill her. She changes from Stranger to Courier to Darling, with no name of her own that she would introduce herself with, and no clear indication who she’s looking for, other than her love.

The book consists of encounters that are almost short stories from various points of view. Reader gets a good idea of what the life on Earth, or at least in that small part of it, is like. Some encounters remain one-off, some people appear again just when they’re needed. We don’t get the backstory of the main character until after the half-point, and only then does she get a name and we learn who she’s looking for.

This was a good story, easy to read and interesting. The atmosphere was a bit gloomy, and the main character remained distant, even in the chapters told from her point of view, thanks to the odd decision to not name her or give her any backstory until after the half-point—odd, because the MC really didn’t seem poetic enough to think of herself in terms other than her name. From then on, the book came to life in a whole new way, and Kei became a real person.

The world was interesting, a good combination of space travel and dystopian. But I wasn’t entirely convinced of the logic of the life on Earth. There was no new technology, and everyone seemed to be living on what they grew or scavenged, but there was petrol for 21st century cars—still in use several centuries later—and fabrics for clothes, for example. Only printed books existed, even though people didn’t leave earth until the 24th century—though it was interesting to think that Alexander Dumas and Jane Austen were still read a thousand years after their books were first published. And in three centuries, no one had rebelled and started creating technology that would make life better for everyone. An outsider was needed to save them from the ill-effects of their religion.

I didn’t feel the romance between Kei and Noelle either. They were an uneven pair, and it seemed Noelle only spent time with Kei because there were no other options. For her part, Kei’s devotion to Noelle fit her single-minded character, but not so much that it made a believable character motivation. There was the massacre she felt guilty about; saving her crew to atone herself would’ve been a much stronger reason. Now it went completely unused other than in her reluctance to kill people.

Despite my misgivings, I enjoyed the book. For a debut, it was excellent. It’s a stand-alone with a satisfying ending, but I wouldn’t mind reading more about Kei.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Downfall by Louise Carey: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Downfall by Louise Carey

Downfall concludes Carey’s excellent Inscape trilogy set in post-apocalyptic London that’s been divided between two corporations, InTech and Thoughtfront, that are at constant war over resources and technology. Tanta used to be an InTech posterchild, until she learned the extent with which the corporation controls the minds of its residents with technology, and rose to oppose it with Cole who is the architect of the mind control system.

The previous book ended with InTech uploading an improved version of the programme, which completely wipes out everyone’s personality. Tanta and Cole barely escaped in time, and they are now fugitives hunted by InTech. They must try to remove the improved programme, which is a threat to them too if they return to InTech, and end the mind control system for good.

I had small trouble getting into the book, as it opened with a POV of a side character I didn’t remember, but the story soon gained speed. The book broadened the world a little, showing that there are settlements outside the corporations where people are surviving and even thriving. Their residents are willing to help Tanta and Cole, but in the end, it’s up to the two of them to not only to save the residents of InTech from the corporation, but to save InTech from Thoughtfront too.

Tanta’s and Cole’s friendship continued to be the core of the story, despite Tanta constantly pining after her former girlfriend Reet, who’s now the enemy. I liked the odd dynamic where they are in turn the teacher and the pupil, parent and the protegee. I especially liked how it didn’t turn into a romance. I wasn’t as interested in the other characters in their team. They had their uses, but I was never so attached to them that I would’ve mourned if they had died. Reet was never my favourite to begin with.

The ending was great and not the solution I saw coming. It’s conclusive enough that the trilogy can comfortably and satisfyingly end here, but open enough that if the author wishes to return to her world, there’s room for it. I wouldn’t mind reading more.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Only Bad Options by Jennifer Estep: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

 

Only Bad Options by Jennifer Estep

 

Jennifer Estep is a prolific writer of fantasy and urban fantasy, but Only Bad Options, Galactic Bonds 1, is her first sci-fi novel. It has action and some romance, but mostly it’s about the trauma of being abandoned and maybe finding someone to ease the loneliness with.

The world is a combination of science and magic, a collection of psionic abilities, where the latter complements the first, like in making new technological innovations. Humanity has spread all over the galaxy, there’s faster than light travel, and no non-human people. Everything is clean and technologically advanced, and if there’s suffering, it isn’t shown. Much of the world is derivative, but everything works within the framework of the book.

There is a constant war going on between aristocratic Regals who mostly have psionic abilities, a technological alliance no one knows anything about, and a third faction that mostly control the raw material like minerals. All the technological advancements are in the service of the war.

Vesper Quill is a developmental engineer working for a Regal family that manufactures weapons and spaceships for the ruler of the galaxy. She has some magic that helps her see how tech works, which she has put to a good use, only to have others steal her designs.

A spaceship has crashed and she’s the only one who knows it was because of a technical flaw in the design. When she tells the leader of the family the truth, she suddenly finds her neck deep in trouble on a war zone. Her only options are to die or to find an ally that is likeliest to survive.

Kyrion Coldren is a Regal and the leader of Arrows, the ruler’s special forces who fight with a combination of weapons and psionic abilities. He’s feared throughout the galaxy as the ruler’s assassin. When he’s injured in a battle, he finds himself being saved by Vesper, which forms a galactic bond between them—a connection between two people, romantic and non-romantic, both metaphysical and physical—a much desired but incredibly rare occurrence. And he instantly wants to break it, by killing Vesper if nothing else works.

Little by little, they form a truce and then alliance. She’ll help him figure out who tried to kill him, and he’ll help her to reveal the truth about the design flaw in the spaceships. After that, they’ll break the bond and go their separate ways. But nothing is ever as easy as that.

This was a great book with mature characters who had believable backstories and a lot of baggage. The romance was very slow, taking all the steps from enemies to neutrals and then friends, without quite reaching the lovers stage. That will hopefully happen in the latter books. The narrative was first person from the point of view of both Vesper and Kyrion, which gave a deeper insight into them. I liked both, separately and together.

There weren’t all that many side characters and only a couple of them had a meaningful role in the story. Bad guys were thoroughly bad, but there were a few characters that might have been either way, making them a bit more interesting.

The book was full of action, intrigue, and betrayals, some healing and a lot of self-discovery. It didn’t quite have the emotional impact that the best of Estep’s books have, but I’m sure that’ll change in the upcoming books. The ending was satisfying, but open enough for me to look forward to reading what happens next.