Tag: Books

Howl’s Moving Castle, Book Review

~ Veselin ~ 2 Comments

A sweet fairytale about three sisters coming of age in a magical world. The eldest is doomed to failure, according to fairytale traditions. The oldest sister must take care of the family business. On top of that, she is cursed by the Witch and turned into an old woman, and her joints hurt.

The story is very low-stakes, low-stress, and almost romantic. 5/5 from me.

And a photo of me, reading the book while waiting for the peloton to arrive: Also shows the beautiful print quality by Artline Studios.

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini, Review

~ Veselin ~ 4 Comments

It takes courage to write something like this and even more courage to read it.

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini is a monumental space opera. It’s 1219 pages, printed in small letters, sprawling across planets, ships, battles, and alien diplomacy. The story meanders between strongly engaging, tolerable, and occasionally exhausting, but it never becomes boring.

Despite its weaker scenes, particularly the space battles, I think it’s an excellent novel. It’s very ambitious, brave, and enormous in scale. It’s not the kind of science fiction you see often.

The premise is fantastic. Kira discovers an alien parasite with great superpowers, reminding me of Venom. Their connection starts a series of catastrophic events that only she and the parasite can stop. From there, the novel launches into a difficult to explain interstellar war. Spaceships fly left and right through the void, missiles hit and miss, long battles, strange species. Nothing to win and everything to lose.

There’s plenty of action, though the book is also emotional and a little sentimental.

I liked it, but I may not try reading another 1200-page space opera any time soon. Kira and the parasite are cool. 5/5

This is row 1 of the Nebula series, Paolini’s book is #3 from the left. 12 down, 3 to go.

Mickey7 by Edward Ashton, Book Review

~ Veselin ~ 3 Comments

Mickey is a colonist on the wrong planet. It’s cold and icy, and also inhabited by the metal-eating creepers. His only advantage is that he can be respawned, if the colony considers his respawn worthy the loss of calories. The cold and icy planet doesn’t provide much food sources, so everyone is hungry. Respawning might not be a priority.

Quite a terrible situation for the 7th iteration of Mickey but it gets worse when he survives to only discover that Mickey8 has already been spawned, without him being dead. Having two copies of the same person is considered a mortal sin, punishable by death. The twin Mickies will have to figure it out.

This is supposed to be a distant future space opera, but it felt like a post-apocalyptic thriller in the world of Silo. Either way, it is a fantastic sci-fi. A creative person in a terrible situation. 5/5.

This is also the 12th book from the Nebula series I finish. I might be able to read the whole series, if I only have the bravery to start Children of Ruin.