Pat's bookshelf: all

Pat's bookshelf: all en-US Sun, 23 Mar 2025 12:29:50 -0700 60 Pat's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Driven: Rush in the ��90s and “In the End�� (Rush Across the Decades Book 3)]]> 56276600 The conclusion to the definitive biography of the rock 'n' roll kings of the North. In this conclusion to his trilogy of authoritative books on Canada's most beloved and successful rock band, Martin Popoff takes us through three decades of life at the top for Rush's Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart. Though this era begins with the brisk-selling Roll the Bones and sees throngs of fans sell out international tours, there is also unimaginable tragedy, with Peart losing his daughter and his wife within the space of ten months and, two decades later, succumbing to cancer himself. In between, however, there is a gorgeous and heartbreaking album of reflection and bereavement, as well as a triumphant trip to Brazil, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, and--some say surprisingly--the band's first full-blown concept album to close an immense career marked by integrity and idealism.

Runtime: 13. 04 hours. Unabridged, 11 library CDs.]]> 413 Martin Popoff 1773056719 Pat 0 to-read 4.40 Driven: Rush in the ’90s and “In the End” (Rush Across the Decades Book 3)

Driven: Rush in the ’90s and “In the End” (Rush Across the Decades Book 3)

author: Martin Popoff
name: Pat
average rating: 4.40
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Limelight: Rush in the ��80s 54051866 Part two of the definitive biography of the rock 'n' roll kings of the North

In the follow-up to Anthem: Rush in the '70s, Martin Popoff brings together canon analysis, cultural context, and extensive firsthand interviews to celebrate Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart at the peak of their persuasive power. Rush was one of the most celebrated hard rock acts of the '80s, and the second book of Popoff's staggeringly comprehensive three-part series takes readers from Permanent Waves to Presto, while bringing new insight to Moving Pictures, their crowning glory. Limelight: Rush in the '80s is a celebration of fame, of the pushback against that fame, of fortunes made -- and spent ...

In the latter half of the decade, as Rush adopts keyboard technology and gets pert and poppy, there's an uproar amongst diehards, but the band finds a whole new crop of listeners. Limelight charts a dizzying period in the band's career, built of explosive excitement but also exhaustion, a state that would lead, as the '90s dawned, to the band questioning everything they previously believed, and each member eying the oncoming decade with trepidation and suspicion.]]> 319 Martin Popoff 1773055879 Pat 0 to-read 4.40 Limelight: Rush in the ’80s

author: Martin Popoff
name: Pat
average rating: 4.40
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Anthem: Rush in the '70s 52026564 375 Martin Popoff 1770415203 Pat 0 to-read 4.31

author: Martin Popoff
name: Pat
average rating: 4.31
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Shadow of the Gods (The Bloodsworn Saga, #1)]]> 52694527 Set in a brand-new, Norse-inspired world, and packed with myth, magic and bloody vengeance, The Shadow of the Gods begins an epic new fantasy saga from bestselling author John Gwynne.

After the gods warred and drove themselves to extinction, the cataclysm of their fall shattered the land of Vigrið.

Now a new world is rising, where power-hungry jarls feud and monsters stalk the woods and mountains. A world where the bones of the dead gods still hold great power for those brave - or desperate - enough to seek them out.

Now, as whispers of war echo across the mountains and fjords, fate follows in the footsteps of three people: a huntress on a dangerous quest, a noblewoman who has rejected privilege in pursuit of battle fame, and a thrall who seeks vengeance among the famed mercenaries known as the Bloodsworn.

All three will shape the fate of the world as it once more falls under the shadow of the gods . . .]]> 480 John Gwynne 0356514188 Pat 0 currently-reading 4.19 2021 The Shadow of the Gods (The Bloodsworn Saga, #1)

The Shadow of the Gods (The Bloodsworn Saga, #1)

author: John Gwynne
name: Pat
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Robopocalypse (Robopocalypse, #1)]]> 9634967
In the months leading up to this, sporadic glitches are noticed by a handful of unconnected humans—a single mother disconcerted by her daughter's menacing "smart" toys, a lonely Japanese bachelor who is victimized by his domestic robot companion, an isolated U.S. soldier who witnesses a "pacification unit" go haywire—but most are unaware of the growing rebellion until it is too late.

When the Robot War ignites—at a moment known later as Zero Hour—humankind will be both decimated and, possibly, for the first time in history, united. Robopocalypse is a brilliantly conceived action-filled epic, a terrifying story with heart-stopping implications for the real technology all around us ... and an entertaining and engaging thriller unlike anything else written in years.]]> 368 Daniel H. Wilson 0385533853 Pat 4 3.70 2011 Robopocalypse (Robopocalypse, #1)

author: Daniel H. Wilson
name: Pat
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves:
review:
Thoroughly enjoyable, World War Z style history of the robot uprising. When the technological singularity awakens, no-one notices until it's too late. Robopocalypse recounts the history of the uprisng and the human resistance through the eyes of those who lived through it, from the elderly japanese technician who just wants his companion robot wife back, the anti-social hacker who grows a conscience to the fighters of the Osage Nation (the same guys from Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon) who spearhead the resistance. It's well written and the oral history style suits the subject matter well. Not groundbreaking or startlingly original by any means but a very enjoyable page-turner nontheless.
]]> <![CDATA[Eyes of the Void (The Final Architecture, #2)]]> 58950674 The Arthur C. Clarke award-winning author of Children of Time brings us the second novel in an extraordinary space opera trilogy about humanity on the brink of extinction, and how one man's discovery will save or destroy us all.

After eighty years of fragile peace, the Architects are back, wreaking havoc as they consume entire planets. In the past, Originator artefacts �� vestiges of a long-vanished civilization �� could save a world from annihilation. This time, the Architects have discovered a way to circumvent these protective relics. Suddenly, no planet is safe.

Facing impending extinction, the Human Colonies are in turmoil. While some believe a unified front is the only way to stop the Architects, others insist humanity should fight alone. And there are those who would seek to benefit from the fractured politics of war �� even as the Architects loom ever closer.

Idris, who has spent decades running from the horrors of his past, finds himself thrust back onto the battlefront. As an Intermediary, he could be one of the few to turn the tide of war. With a handful of allies, he searches for a weapon that could push back the Architects and save the galaxy. But to do so, he must return to the nightmarish unspace, where his mind was broken and remade.

What Idris discovers there will change everything.]]> 596 Adrian Tchaikovsky 1668604906 Pat 4 4.12 2022 Eyes of the Void (The Final Architecture, #2)

Eyes of the Void (The Final Architecture, #2)

author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Pat
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/06
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves:
review:
The difficult middle volume of a trilogy is always going to be a tough one. After the first volume's great world building, the main plot slows down and while there is plenty of development in the political arena, not much is happening around the war against the architects until the last part of the book. Still a great read and you'll still want to finish the series but it's a bit slow. 3.5
]]> Age of Ash (Kithamar, #1) 58340712 Kithamar is a center of trade and wealth, an ancient city with a long, bloody history where countless thousands live and their stories unfold. This is Alys’s.

When her brother is murdered, a petty thief from the slums of Longhill sets out to discover who killed him and why. But the more she discovers about him, the more she learns about herself, and the truths she finds are more dangerous than knives.

Swept up in an intrigue as deep as the roots of Kithamar, where the secrets of the lowest born can sometimes topple thrones, the story Alys chooses will have the power to change everything.

From critically acclaimed, New York Times–bestselling author Daniel Abraham, co-author of The Expanse, comes a monumental epic fantasy trilogy that unfolds within the walls of a single great city, over the course of one tumultuous year, where every story matters, and the fate of the city is woven from them all.]]> 448 Daniel Abraham 0316421847 Pat 0 to-read 3.58 2022 Age of Ash (Kithamar, #1)

author: Daniel Abraham
name: Pat
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1)]]> 42036538
The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.

Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead bullshit.

Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won't set her free without a service.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon's sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.

Of course, some things are better left dead.]]> 448 Tamsyn Muir 1250313198 Pat 2 4.19 2019 Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1)

author: Tamsyn Muir
name: Pat
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves:
review:
The hype train for this has been huge and while it's well written and does have some merit, I get the distinct feeling that I'm not the target market. The story and the setting are really imaginative and it does have some originality but the whole science fantasy, necromancers in space schtick didn't really do it for me. While the antagonistic relationship between Gideon and Harrowhawk does have it's moments, i just ended up just being irritated by both. Ultimately it was all a bit too teenage emo for me.
]]> Dawn (Xenogenesis, #1) 60929
The Oankali survive by genetically merging with primitive civilizations—whether their new hosts like it or not. For the first time since the nuclear holocaust, Earth will be inhabited. Grass will grow, animals will run, and people will learn to survive the planet’s untamed wilderness. But their children will not be human. Not exactly.]]> 248 Octavia E. Butler 0446603775 Pat 3 sf
On the other hand it's a slighlty uncomfortable piece of tentacle porn as the alien race are unable to reproduce and have genetically altered the survivors to incorporate their own DNA and made it so we can only reproduce by threesome with them in the middle of the action thereby assuring their own survival. Disturbing.]]> 4.15 1987 Dawn (Xenogenesis, #1)

author: Octavia E. Butler
name: Pat
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1987
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/08
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves: sf
review:
On one hand, this is a beautifully written and imginative first contact story as Lilith Iyapo wakes up 200 years after her death during the final apocalyptic war that destroyed the earth. Turns out that a benevolent alien race has 'saved' a bunch of people and is offering to relocate them to a new home and save the species.

On the other hand it's a slighlty uncomfortable piece of tentacle porn as the alien race are unable to reproduce and have genetically altered the survivors to incorporate their own DNA and made it so we can only reproduce by threesome with them in the middle of the action thereby assuring their own survival. Disturbing.
]]> <![CDATA[The Hunger of the Gods (The Bloodsworn Saga, #2)]]> 57341045
Lik-Rifa, the dragon god of legend, has been freed from her eternal prison. Now she plots a new age of blood and conquest.

As Orka continues the hunt for her missing son, the Bloodsworn sweep south in a desperate race to save one of their own–and Varg takes the first steps on the path of vengeance.

Elvar has sworn to fulfil her blood oath and rescue a prisoner from the clutches of Lik-Rifa and her dragonborn followers, but first she must persuade the Battle-Grim to follow her. Yet even the might of the Bloodsworn and Battle-Grim cannot stand alone against a dragon god.

Their only hope lies within the mad writings of a chained god. A book of forbidden magic with the power to raise the wolf god Ulfrir from the dead…and bring about a battle that will shake the foundations of the earth.]]> 633 John Gwynne 0356514226 Pat 0 to-read 4.51 2022 The Hunger of the Gods (The Bloodsworn Saga, #2)

The Hunger of the Gods (The Bloodsworn Saga, #2)

author: John Gwynne
name: Pat
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Fury of the Gods (The Bloodsworn Saga, #3)]]> 61755703 The Fury of the Gods is the earth-shattering final book in John Gwynne's bestselling Norse-inspired epic fantasy series, packed with myth, magic and bloody vengeance

THE FINAL BATTLE FOR THE FATE OF VIGRIÐ APPROACHES

Varg has overcome the trials of his past and become an accepted member of the Bloodsworn, but now he and his newfound comrades face their biggest challenge yet: slaying a dragon.

Elvar is struggling to consolidate her power in Snakavik, where she faces threats from within and without. As she fights to assert her authority in readiness for the coming conflict, she faces a surely insurmountable task: reining in the ferocity of a wolf god.

As Biorr and his warband make their way north, eager for blood, Gudvarr pursues a mission of his own, hoping to win Lik-Rifa's favour and further his own ambitions.

All paths lead to Snakavik, where the lines are being drawn for the final battle - a titanic clash that will shake the foundations of the world, and bear witness to the true fury of the gods.]]> 528 John Gwynne 0356514293 Pat 0 to-read 4.47 2024 The Fury of the Gods (The Bloodsworn Saga, #3)

The Fury of the Gods (The Bloodsworn Saga, #3)

author: John Gwynne
name: Pat
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Black Song (Raven's Blade, #2)]]> 51573764 The Black Song is the action-packed conclusion to the Raven's Blade series by Anthony Ryan, which began with The Wolf's Call.

The Steel Horde has laid waste to the Venerable Kingdom, unleashing a storm of fire and blood. Now the leader of this mighty host - Kehlbrand, the warlord who thinks himself a god - turns his eyes to the other merchant kingdoms. No one can stop his divine conquest.

No one, perhaps, except Vaelin Al Sorna.

Yet Vaelin is on the run, his own army in disarray. Worse, the new blood song he has acquired is as much a curse as a blessing, and seeks to guide him down a path far darker than he could have imagined...]]> 498 Anthony Ryan 0356511324 Pat 4 4.19 2020 The Black Song (Raven's Blade, #2)

author: Anthony Ryan
name: Pat
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/29
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves:
review:
It's hard to dislike this final (?) installment of the saga of Vaelin Al Sorna. He's a great character, with an excellent supporting cast and a few interesting twists thrown in for good measure. The only complaint I've got is that it all feels a bit gratuitous - almost like Ryan just fancied writing something with an asian setting and shoehorned the characters from the Raven's Shadow trilogy into it and recycled a lot of the original plot. Other than Vaelin getting a new, darker blood song there's very little in here that we haven't already seen. I still enjoyed it because I wanted more Vaeling but I'd have liked to see more of an evolution of the story rather than just a rehash.
]]> <![CDATA[A Conventional Boy (Laundry Files, #13; New Management, #4)]]> 208291908
Decades later Derek, now middle-aged and institutionalized, is a long-term inmate at Camp Sunshine, a center for deprogramming captured Elder God cultists. He’s considered safe enough to edit the camp newsletter, and he even has postal privileges �� which he uses to run a play-by-mail game. After 25 years, Derek finally has reason to escape: a nearby D&D convention. While Derek’s D&D games were full of fictional elder gods and world-ending threats, a LARP game at the con is a dread ritual designed to summon a great evil into our world, and it’s up to Derek and his players to stop them.

The fate of the world may depend on the contents of Derek’s magic dice bag.]]> 384 Charles Stross 0356524647 Pat 0 to-read 4.09 2025 A Conventional Boy (Laundry Files, #13; New Management, #4)

A Conventional Boy (Laundry Files, #13; New Management, #4)

author: Charles Stross
name: Pat
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries, #3)]]> 35519101
And Murderbot would rather those questions went away. For good.

]]> 158 Martha Wells 1250191785 Pat 4 4.21 2018

Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries, #3)

author: Martha Wells
name: Pat
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/11
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves:
review:
More shennanegans from our favourite murderbot & more deadpan, dark humour as they continue to try to investigate the Greycris conspiracy while dealing with what it means for an artificial being to be free. It's a case of more of the same really but it's so well written that you can't help but enjoy it.
]]> The Book of Joan 30653706
Out of the ranks of the endless wars rises Jean de Men, a charismatic and bloodthirsty cult leader who turns CIEL into a quasi-corporate police state. A group of rebels unite to dismantle his iron rule—galvanized by the heroic song of Joan, a child-warrior who possesses a mysterious force that lives within her and communes with the earth. When de Men and his armies turn Joan into a martyr, the consequences are astonishing. And no one—not the rebels, Jean de Men, or even Joan herself—can foresee the way her story and unique gift will forge the destiny of an entire world for generations.

A riveting tale of destruction and love found in direst of places—even at the extreme end of post-human experience—Lidia Yuknavitch’s The Book of Joan raises questions about what it means to be human, the fluidity of sex and gender, and the role of art as means for survival.]]> 288 Lidia Yuknavitch 0062383272 Pat 5
This is a sort-of retelling of the Joan of Arc story but set in some weird future where a was has turned the earth into a barely habitable ruin and the majority of the survivors live on an orbital station, obsessed with order and where status is displayed by grafting decorative, extra flesh onto thier bodies and the height of artistic expression is to burn elaborate stories onto their skin. Within this sterile and stagnant existance rumours rise about the rebirth of a long dead hero on the ruined planet below, the Joan of the title. Then seven kinds of indescribable weird-ass shit hits the fan.

I loved this book but have no fucking idea why.]]> 3.01 2017 The Book of Joan

author: Lidia Yuknavitch
name: Pat
average rating: 3.01
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/05
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves:
review:
Every so often you race through a book and at the end of it, sit back and think... what the fuck did I just read?

This is a sort-of retelling of the Joan of Arc story but set in some weird future where a was has turned the earth into a barely habitable ruin and the majority of the survivors live on an orbital station, obsessed with order and where status is displayed by grafting decorative, extra flesh onto thier bodies and the height of artistic expression is to burn elaborate stories onto their skin. Within this sterile and stagnant existance rumours rise about the rebirth of a long dead hero on the ruined planet below, the Joan of the title. Then seven kinds of indescribable weird-ass shit hits the fan.

I loved this book but have no fucking idea why.
]]> <![CDATA[The Wolf's Call (Raven's Blade, #1)]]> 41021418
PEACE NEVER LASTS

Vaelin Al Sorna is a living legend, his name known across the Realm. It was his leadership that overthrew empires, his blade that won hard-fought battles - and his sacrifice that defeated an evil more terrifying than anything the world had ever seen. Yet he cast aside his earned glory for a quiet life in the Realm's northern reaches.

Now whispers have come from across the sea of an army called the Steel Horde, led by a man who believes himself a god. Vaelin has no wish to fight another war, but when he learns that Sherin, the woman he lost long ago, has fallen into the Horde's grasp, he resolves to confront this powerful new threat.

To this end, Vaelin travels to the realms of the Merchant Kings, a land ruled by honour and intrigue. There, as the drums of war thunder across kingdoms riven by conflict, Vaelin learns a terrible truth: that there are some battles that even he cannot hope to win]]> 432 Anthony Ryan 0451492536 Pat 4
In this very enjoyable but largely pointless follow up to the excellent Raven's Shadow trilogy, the hero of the hour has to give on his plan for a quiet life when a voice from the past calls for help. There is a sense of retreading the same old ground albeit in a fresh location and the obvious ancient China setting is a bit predictable and has been done better elsewhere. That said, it's still a cracking read & if you enjoyed the previous trilogy, you're going to read it anyway aren't you.]]> 4.26 2019 The Wolf's Call (Raven's Blade, #1)

author: Anthony Ryan
name: Pat
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/31
date added: 2024/10/31
shelves:
review:
Vaelin goes to China!

In this very enjoyable but largely pointless follow up to the excellent Raven's Shadow trilogy, the hero of the hour has to give on his plan for a quiet life when a voice from the past calls for help. There is a sense of retreading the same old ground albeit in a fresh location and the obvious ancient China setting is a bit predictable and has been done better elsewhere. That said, it's still a cracking read & if you enjoyed the previous trilogy, you're going to read it anyway aren't you.
]]> The Crow Road 12021 This is an alternative cover edition for ISBN 9780349103235

'It was the day my grandmother exploded. I sat in the crematorium, listening to my Uncle Hamish quietly snoring in harmont to bach's Mass in B Minor, and I reflected that it always seemed to be death that drew me back to Gallanach.'

Prentice McHoan has returned to the bosom of his complex but enduring Scottish family. Full of questions about the McHoan past, present and future, he is also deeply preoccupied: mainly with death, sex, drink, God and illegal substances...]]> 501 Iain Banks Pat 0 to-read 4.09 1992 The Crow Road

author: Iain Banks
name: Pat
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge]]> 10790499 Twenty years after the release of Nirvana’s landmark album��Nevermind comes Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge, the definitive word on the grunge era, straight from the mouths of those at the center of it all.
��
In 1986, fledgling Seattle label C/Z Records released Deep Six, a compilation featuring a half-dozen local bands: Soundgarden, Green River, Melvins, Malfunkshun, the U-Men and Skin Yard. Though it sold miserably, the record made music history by documenting a burgeoning regional sound, the raw fusion of heavy metal and punk rock that we now know as grunge. But it wasn’t until five years later, with the seemingly overnight success of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,�� that grunge became a household word and Seattle ground zero for the nineties alternative-rock explosion.

Everybody Loves Our Town��captures the grunge era in the words of the musicians, producers, managers, record executives, video directors, photographers, journalists, publicists, club owners, roadies, scenesters and hangers-on who lived through it. The book tells the whole story: from the founding of the Deep Six bands to the worldwide success of grunge’s big four (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains); from the rise of Seattle’s cash-poor, hype-rich indie label Sub Pop to the major-label feeding frenzy that overtook the Pacific Northwest; from the simple joys of making noise at basement parties and tiny rock clubs to the tragic, lonely deaths of superstars Kurt Cobain and Layne Staley.

Drawn from more than 250 new interviews—with members of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Screaming Trees, Hole, Melvins, Mudhoney, Green River, Mother Love Bone, Temple of the Dog, Mad Season, L7, Babes in Toyland, 7 Year Bitch, TAD, the U-Men, Candlebox and many more �� and featuring previously untold stories and never-before-published photographs, Everybody Loves Our Town is at once a moving, funny, lurid, and hugely insightful portrait of an extraordinary musical era.]]> 592 Mark Yarm 0307464431 Pat 0 to-read 4.26 2011 Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge

Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge

author: Mark Yarm
name: Pat
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Service Model 195790861 To fix the world they first must break it further.

Humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labor and service. When a domesticated robot gets a nasty little idea downloaded into their core programming, they murder their owner. The robot then discovers they can also do something else they never did before: run away. After fleeing the household, they enter a wider world they never knew existed, where the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating, and a robot ecosystem devoted to human wellbeing is finding a new purpose.]]> 376 Adrian Tchaikovsky 1250290287 Pat 0 to-read 3.99 2024 Service Model

author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Pat
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Model Home 205363963
The three Maxwell siblings keep their distance from the lily-white gated enclave outside Dallas where they grew up. When their family moved there, they were the only Black family in the neighborhood. The neighbors acted nice enough, but right away bad things, scary things—the strange and the unexplainable—began to happen in their house. Maybe it was some cosmic trial, a demonic rite of passage into the upper-middle class. Whatever it was, the Maxwells, steered by their formidable mother, stayed put, unwilling to abandon their home, terrors and trauma be damned.

As adults, the siblings could finally get away from the horrors of home, leaving their parents all alone in the house. But when news of their parents' death arrives, Ezri is forced to return to Texas with their sisters, Eve and Emanuelle, to reckon with their family’s past and present, and to find out what happened while they were away. It was not a “natural�� death for their parents . . . but was it supernatural?

Rivers Solomon turns the haunted-house story on its head, unearthing the dark legacies of segregation and racism in the suburban American South. Unbridled, raw, and daring, Model Home is the story of secret histories uncovered, and of a queer family battling for their right to live, grieve, and heal amid the terrors of contemporary American life.]]> 304 Rivers Solomon 0374607133 Pat 0 to-read 3.73 2024 Model Home

author: Rivers Solomon
name: Pat
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Great When (The Long London Quintet, #1)]]> 206101580 From the New York Times bestselling author and legendary storyteller Alan Moore, the first book in an enthralling new fantasy series about murder, magic, and madness in post-WWII London.

Dennis Knuckleyard is a hapless eighteen-year-old who works and lives in a second-hand bookstore. One day, his boss and landlady, Coffin Ada, sends him to retrieve some rare books, one of which, Dennis discovers, should not exist. A London Walk by Rev. Thomas Hampole is a fictitious book that appears in a real novel by another author. Yet A London Walk is physically there in his hands, nonetheless.

Coffin Ada tells Dennis the book comes from the other London, the Great When, a version of the city that is beyond time. In the Great When, epochs blend and realities and unrealities blur, while concepts such as Crime and Poetry are incarnated as wondrous and terrible beings. But, Coffin Ada tells Dennis, if he does not return the book to this other London, he will be killed.

So begins Dennis' adventure in Long London. Delving deep into the city's occult underbelly and tarrying with an eccentric cast of sorcerers, gangsters, and murderers, Dennis finds himself at the center of an explosive series of events that may endanger both Londons.

Mystical, hilarious, and magnificently imagined, The Great When is an unforgettable introduction to the consciousness-altering world of Long London.]]> 315 Alan Moore 1635578841 Pat 0 to-read 3.58 2024 The Great When (The Long London Quintet, #1)

The Great When (The Long London Quintet, #1)

author: Alan Moore
name: Pat
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Waking Fire (The Draconis Memoria, #1)]]> 25972177 The New York Times bestselling Raven’s Shadow Trilogy was a perfect read for “fans of broadscale epic fantasy along the lines of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series and George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire novels.��* Now, Anthony Ryan begins a new saga, The Draconis Memoria...

Throughout the vast lands controlled by the Ironship Syndicate, nothing is more prized than the blood of drakes. Harvested from the veins of captive or hunted Reds, Green, Blues and Blacks, it can be distilled into elixirs that give fearsome powers to the rare men and women who have the ability harness them—known as the blood-blessed.

But not many know the truth: that the lines of drakes are weakening. If they fail, war with the neighboring Corvantine Empire will follow swiftly. The Syndicate's last hope resides in whispers of the existence of another breed of drake, far more powerful than the rest, and the few who have been chosen by fate to seek it.

Claydon Torcreek is a petty thief and an unregistered blood-blessed, who finds himself pressed into service by the protectorate and sent to wild, uncharted territories in search of a creature he believes is little more than legend. Lizanne Lethridge is a formidable spy and assassin, facing gravest danger on an espionage mission deep into the heart of enemy territory. And Corrick Hilemore is the second lieutenant of an ironship, whose pursuit of ruthless brigands leads him to a far greater threat at the edge of the world.

As lives and empires clash and intertwine, as the unknown and the known collide, all three must fight to turn the tide of a coming war, or drown in its wake.

*Library Journal]]> 592 Anthony Ryan 0356506398 Pat 0 to-read 4.03 2016 The Waking Fire (The Draconis Memoria, #1)

The Waking Fire (The Draconis Memoria, #1)

author: Anthony Ryan
name: Pat
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Heady Daze 59486191 Salad Daze left off, Heady Daze sees Wayne Hussey revisit the years from 1985 to 1990 leading The Mission through their formation to global success. From headlining some of Europe’s major festivals, playing with U2, Robert Plant, and The Cure and sweeping the UK music papers�� readers�� polls, to the excesses of touring the world and the lurid headlines that followed them wherever they ventured, it’s all here in this memoir packed full of candid moments and hilarious anecdotes.]]> 455 Wayne Hussey 1913172163 Pat 3 4.09 Heady Daze

author: Wayne Hussey
name: Pat
average rating: 4.09
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/01
date added: 2024/10/01
shelves:
review:
Have to admit that I didn't enjoy this second volume of Wayne's memoirs as much as the first one. It covers The Missions glory years and is very much a sex-&-drugs-&-rock'n'roll story & it's nothing that we haven't heard before. While there are some interesting insights into band dynamics and Wayne's own creative processes, it continually reverts back to... "took a load of drugs and shagged some birds"... territory. There's also the problem of the ego... while he still shows a degree of self awareness and can be self deprecating, the band were nowhere near as big as he seems to remember them being. At one point he refers to them as one of the biggest bands in the world - granted, they had some success but they were hardly troubling the likes of U2 or Simple Minds on the stadium tour circuit.
]]> The Doors of Eden 48767565
They thought we were safe. They were wrong.

Four years ago, two girls went looking for monsters on Bodmin Moor. Only one came back.

Lee thought she’d lost Mal, but now she’s miraculously returned. But what happened that day on the moors? And where has she been all this time? Mal’s reappearance hasn’t gone unnoticed by MI5 officers either, and Lee isn’t the only one with questions.

Julian Sabreur is investigating an attack on top physicist Kay Amal Khan. This leads Julian to clash with agents of an unknown power �� and they may or may not be human. His only clue is grainy footage, showing a woman who supposedly died on Bodmin Moor.

Dr Khan’s research was theoretical; then she found cracks between our world and parallel Earths. Now these cracks are widening, revealing extraordinary creatures. And as the doors crash open, anything could come through.

'Inventive, funny and engrossing, this book lingers long after you close it' - Tade Thompson, Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of Rosewater

Adrian Tchaikovsky is the author of Children of Time, Children of Ruin and many other novels, novellas and short stories. Children of Time won the Arthur C. Clarke award in its 30th anniversary year.]]> 608 Adrian Tchaikovsky 1509865888 Pat 4 3.82 2020 The Doors of Eden

author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Pat
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/17
date added: 2024/09/17
shelves:
review:
I really enjoyed this quirky parallel universe romp. Not the most original dimension-hopping premise but deftly handled and not reliant on the over-used tropes of the genre, with the alternate earths based on evolutionary differences rather than cultural. It's not as heavy as Tchaikovsky's usual stuff but no less skillfully written or engaging.
]]> <![CDATA[The Thousand Names (The Shadow Campaigns, #1)]]> 15810910
Captain Marcus d’Ivoire, commander of one of the Vordanai empire’s colonial garrisons, was resigned to serving out his days in a sleepy, remote outpost. But that was before a rebellion upended his life. And once the powder smoke settled, he was left in charge of a demoralized force clinging tenuously to a small fortress at the edge of the desert.

To flee from her past, Winter Ihernglass masqueraded as a man and enlisted as a ranker in the Vordanai Colonials, hoping only to avoid notice. But when chance sees her promoted to command, she must win the hearts of her men and lead them into battle against impossible odds.

The fates of both these soldiers and all the men they lead depend on the newly arrived Colonel Janus bet Vhalnich, who has been sent by the ailing king to restore order. His military genius seems to know no bounds, and under his command, Marcus and Winter can feel the tide turning. But their allegiance will be tested as they begin to suspect that the enigmatic Janus’s ambitions extend beyond the battlefield and into the realm of the supernatural—a realm with the power to ignite a meteoric rise, reshape the known world, and change the lives of everyone in its path.]]> 513 Django Wexler 0451465105 Pat 2 dead-series 4.03 2013 The Thousand Names (The Shadow Campaigns, #1)

The Thousand Names (The Shadow Campaigns, #1)

author: Django Wexler
name: Pat
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2013
rating: 2
read at: 2018/03/18
date added: 2024/09/17
shelves: dead-series
review:
I really wanted this to be awesome. I thought a fantasy version of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe books couldn't miss. It was pretty close too and there's a lot to recommend it but it just fell short of the mark. The characters just didn't jump off the page the way they should have and the plot was predestrian and verged on dull at times. Close but no cigar.
]]> Earth to Moon: A Memoir 61980307 The saying goes that "God only gives you what you can handle." Well God didn't grow up in my atheist, Wiccan, fame-laden, oversexed, teetotalling, drug-free, cloistered, chaotic, non-communicative, workaholic, feral-feeling house.'

For Moon Unit, daughter of musician Frank Zappa and his 'manager', Gail, processing a life so unique, so punctuated by the whims of creative urges, the tastes of popular culture and the calculus of celebrity, has at times been eviscerating. But it is her deep sense of humour and unshakeable humility that keeps her - and this memoir - pinned to the ground.

A child-star at age 14 after her accidental international hit single (recorded with her father), 'Valley Girl', turned her into a reluctant celebrity, Moon Unit Zappa's life has been utterly extraordinary from her birth in 1967 into a family that was already blessed/cursed as music royalty thanks to the acknowledged genius of Frank. But what are the consequences of growing up in a family who spend most of their time naked arguing about sexual/extra-marital liaisons and practising white magic in a free-for-all state of nonconformist, virtuoso abandon?

Earth to Moon is a reckoning with self-esteem, the ghosts of the past and a mother and a father who, in the process of leaving their mark upon on the world, scarred their first daughter on home soil. Brutally self-deprecating and funny as hell, it belies a rose-tinted perspective on the 70s and 80s west coast American scene, from within the belly of the beast of the rock and roll world.]]> 351 Moon Unit Zappa 0063113341 Pat 0 to-read 4.17 2024 Earth to Moon: A Memoir

author: Moon Unit Zappa
name: Pat
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Wall 45894062 272 John Lanchester 0393357775 Pat 0 to-read 3.49 2019

author: John Lanchester
name: Pat
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Mercy of Gods (The Captive’s War #1)]]> 201930181
Caught up in academic intrigue and affairs of the heart, Dafyd Alkhor is pleased just to be an assistant to a brilliant scientist and his celebrated research team. ��Then the Carryx ships descend, decimating the human population and taking the best and brightest of Anjiin society away to serve on the Carryx homeworld, and Dafyd is swept along with them. They are dropped in the middle of a struggle they barely understand, set in a competition against the other captive species with extinction as the price of failure.

Only Dafyd and a handful of his companions see past the Darwinian contest to the deeper game that they must play to learning to understand �� and manipulate �� the Carryx themselves. With a noble but suicidal human rebellion on one hand and strange and murderous enemies on the other, the team pays a terrible price to become the trusted servants of their new rulers. Dafyd Alkhor is a simple man swept up in events that are beyond his control and more vast than his imagination. ��He will become the champion of humanity and its betrayer, the most hated man in history and the guardian of his people. This is where his story begins.]]> 422 James S.A. Corey 031652557X Pat 0 to-read 4.11 2024 The Mercy of Gods (The Captive’s War #1)

The Mercy of Gods (The Captive’s War #1)

author: James S.A. Corey
name: Pat
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> One Second After (After, #1) 4922079 New York Times best-selling author William R. Forstchen now brings us a story which can be all too terrifyingly real ... a story in which one man struggles to save his family and his small North Carolina town after America loses a war, in one second, a war that will send America back to the Dark Ages ... A war based upon a weapon, an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP). A weapon that may already be in the hands of our enemies.

Months before publication, One Second After has already been cited on the floor of Congress as a book all Americans should read, a book already being discussed in the corridors of the Pentagon as a truly realistic look at a weapon and its awesome power to destroy the entire United States, literally within one second. It is a weapon that the Wall Street Journal warns could shatter America. In the tradition of On the Beach, Fail Safe, and Testament, this book, set in a typical American town, is a dire warning of what might be our future ... and our end.]]> 352 William R. Forstchen 0765317583 Pat 1 3.92 2009 One Second After (After, #1)

author: William R. Forstchen
name: Pat
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2009
rating: 1
read at: 2024/09/04
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves:
review:
Fuck this book. I kinda knew it was going to lean a bit to the right but fuck me... it's the worst kind of libertarian wank-fantasy I've ever experienced. The main character is a textbook example of a Mary-Sue & I don't think I've ever hated the 'good guy' so much. He's really good at laying down the rules for survival in this patriotic utopia but seems to get a pass himself (takes half the town's insulin for his sick daughter, along with lion's share of the towns cigarettes, and doesn't have to give his own car up when every working vehicle in the town has been comandeered for the greater good... the list goes on) - standard libertarian behaviour really. Added to this, every character of any significance has a military background (even the school janitor!) apart from the token female who's there solely to give the 'hero' something nice to look at... oh, and when he global apocalypse happens, all the useless liberals will die first because apaprently they are incapable of doing things for themselves & can't survive without handouts. The MAGA crowd will lap this up. What a massive pile of shite
]]> Great North Road 13606267
Investigating this alien threat becomes the Human Defence Agency’s top priority. The bio-fuel flowing from St Libra is the lifeblood of Earth’s economy and must be secured. So a vast expedition is mounted via the Newcastle gateway, and teams of engineers, support personnel and xenobiologists are dispatched to the planet. Along with their technical advisor, grudgingly released from prison, Angela Tramelo.

But the expedition is cut off, deep within St Libra’s rainforests. Then the murders begin. Someone or something is picking off the team one by one. Angela insists it’s the alien, but her new colleagues aren’t so sure. Maybe she did see an alien, or maybe she has other reasons for being on St Libra…]]> 1100 Peter F. Hamilton 0230750052 Pat 4 4.11 2012 Great North Road

author: Peter F. Hamilton
name: Pat
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2013/08/25
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Salad Daze 44313473 304 Wayne Hussey 1785586602 Pat 4
In case you didn't know, Wayne has an ego, and it's quite a big one. What makes this first volume so enjoyable is that he's clearly aware that he has an ego and writes with surprising self-deprecating awareness that's very endearing. It also gives great insight into the early days of the Sisters and the enigma that is Andrew Eldritch. It's a great read and you can't help but like the guy by the end.]]> 4.31 Salad Daze

author: Wayne Hussey
name: Pat
average rating: 4.31
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/17
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves:
review:
Aw.... Wayne... Bless him. The legend in his own lunchtime leader of The Mission has had such a life that it's necessary to release his autobiography in multiple volumes. This first volume covers his childhood and early forays into music as part of the Liverpool scene in the early 80s and his stint as guitarist with the Sisters of Mercy and ends with his leaving the Sisters and preparing to form The MIssion.

In case you didn't know, Wayne has an ego, and it's quite a big one. What makes this first volume so enjoyable is that he's clearly aware that he has an ego and writes with surprising self-deprecating awareness that's very endearing. It also gives great insight into the early days of the Sisters and the enigma that is Andrew Eldritch. It's a great read and you can't help but like the guy by the end.
]]> <![CDATA[Dauntless (The Lost Fleet, #1)]]> 112292
Captain John "Black Jack" Geary's legendary exploits are known to every schoolchild. Revered for his heroic "last stand" in the early days of the war, he was presumed dead. But a century later, Geary miraculously returns from survival hibernation and reluctantly takes command of the Alliance fleet as it faces annihilation by the Syndics.

Appalled by the hero-worship around him, Geary is nevertheless a man who will do his duty. And he knows that bringing the stolen Syndic hypernet key safely home is the Alliance's one chance to win the war. But to do that, Geary will have to live up to the impossibly heroic "Black Jack" legend...]]> 293 Jack Campbell 0441014186 Pat 3
At the start of a galactic war (basically USA vs China but in space) Black Jack Geary died in a last stand battle that has now passed into legend. A century later when Geary's escape pod is discovered and he is rewakened from hibernation to find himself back in the middle of a war that's still raging and dismayed to discover that his 'legend' has become the basis for a whole military culture in a war that they appear to be losing because as is often the case, the myth doesn't match the reality.

It's not bad at all, but not brilliant. A good, fast read for when you're not in the mood for anything challenging.]]> 3.97 2006 Dauntless (The Lost Fleet, #1)

author: Jack Campbell
name: Pat
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/28
date added: 2024/07/11
shelves:
review:
I don't read a lot of military SF as a rule because they're usually written by gung-ho, right wing NRA types and are generally formulaic and a bit dull - once you've read one you've read 'em all kind of thing. This one was a bit different because of the premise - what happens when the reality doesn't match the legend.

At the start of a galactic war (basically USA vs China but in space) Black Jack Geary died in a last stand battle that has now passed into legend. A century later when Geary's escape pod is discovered and he is rewakened from hibernation to find himself back in the middle of a war that's still raging and dismayed to discover that his 'legend' has become the basis for a whole military culture in a war that they appear to be losing because as is often the case, the myth doesn't match the reality.

It's not bad at all, but not brilliant. A good, fast read for when you're not in the mood for anything challenging.
]]> <![CDATA[Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2)]]> 36223860 alternate cover for ISBN 9781250186928

It has a dark past �� one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot." But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.

Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A�� stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.

What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks.]]> 158 Martha Wells Pat 4 4.23 2018 Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2)

Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2)

author: Martha Wells
name: Pat
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/11
date added: 2024/07/11
shelves:
review:
Decided to jump back into this series after being a bit disappointed by the first episode. With the almost universal acclaim for the series, maybe I was wrong and it deserved another go. Turns out I was... sort of. Enjoyed it much more than the previous installment. Wells has managed to give the Murderbot a genuinely likeable personality and the humour is much more apparent this time. Still not as great as the reviews suggest but very enjoyable nonetheless.
]]> <![CDATA[Queen of Fire (Raven's Shadow, #3)]]> 18405221 In the thrilling conclusion to the "deftly and originally executed" (Booklist) New York Times bestselling trilogy, Vaelin Al Sorna must help his Queen reclaim her Realm. Only his enemy has a dangerous new collaborator, one with powers darker than Vaelin has ever encountered...

"The Ally is there, but only ever as a shadow, unexplained catastrophe or murder committed at the behest of a dark vengeful spirit. Sorting truth from myth is often a fruitless task."

After fighting back from the brink of death, Queen Lyrna is determined to repel the invading Volarian army and regain the independence of the Unified Realm. Except, to accomplish her goals, she must do more than rally her loyal supporters. She must align herself with forces she once found repugnant—those who possess the strange and varied gifts of the Dark—and take the war to her enemy's doorstep.

Victory rests on the shoulders of Vaelin Al Sorna, now named Battle Lord of the...]]> 643 Anthony Ryan 1101612983 Pat 3 3.70 2015 Queen of Fire (Raven's Shadow, #3)

author: Anthony Ryan
name: Pat
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/11
date added: 2024/06/11
shelves:
review:
One of the reasons why this series sat on my 'to read' shelf for so long was the negative reviews of this last volume of the trilogy. It's defintley dissapointing but not as bad as the reviews suggest. More of a missed opportunity that anything else. While most reviews bemoan the relegation of Vaelin to a supporting actor, I didn't really have an issue with it - the development of Reva and Lyrna's characters more than made up for it. My main problem was the was that the first two-thirds of the novel were so repetitive and the amount of info-dumps needed in order for the Ally's existence to make sense were just tiresome. The ending was reasonable satisfying but the lead up to it was a bit of a bore. Still a quality series and worth a read, just be aware that it limps across the finish line.
]]> <![CDATA[Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1, Book 1)]]> 45277 (back cover)]]> 456 Neal Stephenson 0060833165 Pat 4 4.15 2003

Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1, Book 1)

author: Neal Stephenson
name: Pat
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/05/15
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Kaiju Preservation Society]]> 57693406
What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at least. In an alternate dimension, massive dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm and human-free world. They're the universe's largest and most dangerous panda and they're in trouble.

It's not just the Kaiju Preservation Society that's found its way to the alternate world. Others have, too--and their carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die.]]> 264 John Scalzi 0765389126 Pat 4
Scalzi has claimed that this is supposed to be a throwaway, fun read to kill a few hours. By that criteria, it's a huge success.]]> 3.93 2022 The Kaiju Preservation Society

author: John Scalzi
name: Pat
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/08
date added: 2024/05/08
shelves:
review:
This was so much fun. Jamie is working as a delivery guy after losing his tech job after his twatish boss steals his ideas then lets him go. A chance encounter leads to a mysterious job offer - the titular Kaiju Preservation Society. What follows is a belting SF lite adventure involving alien ecosystems, parallel earths, dodgy corporate behaviour and fuck-off sized monsters.

Scalzi has claimed that this is supposed to be a throwaway, fun read to kill a few hours. By that criteria, it's a huge success.
]]> Berserker! 123669877 Berserker! is the one-of-a-kind, fascinating memoir from an icon of British comedy, Adrian Edmondson.

Berserk : out of control with anger or excitement; wild or frenzied.

Berserkers : an elite Norse fighting corp who, apparently off their tits on hallucinogenic drugs, fought with a particular fury and senseless abandon still present in many Scandinavian heavy metal groups.

Ade Edmondson smashed onto the comedy circuit in the 1980s, stormed The Comedy Store and, alongside Rik Mayall, brought anarchy to stage and screen. How did a child brought up in a strict Methodist household—and who spent his formative years incarcerated in repressive boarding schools—end up joining the revolution? Well, he is part Norse. Could it be his berserker heritage?

With wisdom, nostalgia and uniquely observed humour, Ade traces his journey through life and starting out on the alternative scene, getting arrested in Soho, creating his outrageously violent characters and learning more about his curious (possibly Scandinavian) heritage. With star-studded anecdotes and set to a soundtrack of pop hits which transport the reader through time, it’s a memoir like no other.]]> 406 Adrian Edmondson 1035014297 Pat 0 to-read 4.29 2023 Berserker!

author: Adrian Edmondson
name: Pat
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Relight My Fire (Stranger Times, #4)]]> 141310699
Stella is enjoying life as an almost student, or at least she is until a man falls from the sky right in front of her, leaving a big old hole in the pavement for Manchester Council to fill. The obvious question of how he ended up in the sky in the first place has no obvious answers, which is where The Stranger Times come in. This isn't just the hunt for another story though. Dark powers think Stella might have been involved and the only way she and the team can prove her innocence is to find out what the hell is really going on. What have dodgy gear, disturbed graves and a decommissioned rock star got to do with all this?

Vincent Banecroft has problems of his own in the form of a tall, dark but-definitely-not-handsome man dressed like a one-man funeral who has been sent to make the paper's editor atone for his sins. Once he finds out exactly what that entails, Banecroft is not keen. Being banished to a Hellscape for all eternity looks like being no fun at all, not least because he has that pale Irish skin that burns really easily . . .

All that plus territorial ghouls, homicidal felines, eternal (and seemingly unstoppable) gnomes and a celebrity 'Who's Who' that'd put a royal wedding to shame, and you're looking at a wild few days for The Stranger Times .]]> 521 C.K. McDonnell Pat 5 4.46 2024 Relight My Fire (Stranger Times, #4)

author: C.K. McDonnell
name: Pat
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/28
date added: 2024/04/28
shelves:
review:
This series just seems to get better & better. In this installment, the crew of The Stranger Times thrown into the middle of a drug epidemic when people start falling out of the sky or bursting into flames because someone is flooding Manchester with some dodgy, magically-enhanced ecstacy tablets. McDonnell has managed to write another cracking urban fantasy romp that's still funny as fuck without ever verging into silliness. I can't wait for the next edition.
]]> Creation Node 122854125
Not that the object turned out to be a planet, or the 'ninth' of anything. Briefly thought to be a black hole, it suddenly changes, expands and sends a message. There is something waiting on its service. Something not quite human.

As the ramifications of this event spread across the fracturing elements of humanity, it is clear that the small crew on the spot are at the centre of the most dramatic discovery in history. But theirs is not the only inexplicable event happening - impossibly, at exactly the same moment, a quasar appeared twenty-five thousand light years away, and now is heating up the solar system.

If the enigma of the creation node is not solved quickly, there may be no one left to investigate it . . .]]> 436 Stephen Baxter 1473228980 Pat 0 to-read 3.61 2023

author: Stephen Baxter
name: Pat
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Alien Clay 195443798
On the distant world of Kiln lie the ruins of an alien civilization. It’s the greatest discovery in humanity’s spacefaring history �� yet who were its builders and where did they go?

Professor Arton Daghdev had always wanted to study alien life up close. Then his wishes become a reality in the worst way. His political activism sees him exiled from Earth to Kiln’s extrasolar labour camp. There, he’s condemned to work under an alien sky until he dies.

Kiln boasts a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem like nothing seen on Earth. The monstrous alien life interacts in surprising, sometimes shocking ways with the human body, so Arton will risk death on a daily basis. However, the camp’s oppressive regime might just kill him first. If Arton can somehow escape both fates, the world of Kiln holds a wondrous, terrible secret. It will redefine life and intelligence as he knows it, and might just set him free . . .]]> 396 Adrian Tchaikovsky 1035013770 Pat 0 to-read 3.99 2024 Alien Clay

author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Pat
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Dragonbone Chair (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, #1)]]> 91981
Simon, a kitchen boy from the royal castle unknowingly apprenticed to a member of this League, will be sent on a quest that offers the only hope of salvation, a deadly riddle concerning long-lost swords of power. Compelled by fate and perilous magics, he must leave the only home he’s ever known and face enemies more terrifying than Osten Ard has ever seen, even as the land itself begins to die.

After the landmark Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy, the epic saga of Osten Ard continues with the brand-new novel, The Heart of What Was Lost. Then don’t miss the upcoming trilogy, The Last King of Osten Ard, beginning with The Witchwood Crown!]]> 672 Tad Williams 0756402697 Pat 0 to-read 3.96 1988 The Dragonbone Chair (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, #1)

The Dragonbone Chair (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, #1)

author: Tad Williams
name: Pat
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Ten Thousand (The Macht #1)]]> 3391271
On the world of Kuf, the Macht are a mystery, a seldom-seen people of extraordinary ferocity and discipline whose prowess on the battlefield is the stuff of legend. For centuries they have remained within the remote fastnesses of the Harukush Mountains. In the world beyond, the teeming races and peoples of Kuf have been united within the bounds of the Asurian Empire, which rules the known world, and is invincible. The Great King of Asuria can call up whole nations to the battlefield.

His word is law.

But now the Great King's brother means to take the throne by force, and in order to do so he has sought out the legend. He hires ten thousand mercenary warriors of the Macht, and leads them into the heart of the Empire.

]]> 473 Paul Kearney 1844165736 Pat 0 to-read 3.78 2008 The Ten Thousand (The Macht #1)

author: Paul Kearney
name: Pat
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Infinite Jest 6759
Set in an addicts' halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwed-up family to come along in recent fiction, Infinite Jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to so dominate our lives; about how our desire for entertainment affects our need to connect with other people; and about what the pleasures we choose say about who we are.

Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy, Infinite Jest bends every rule of fiction without sacrificing for a moment its own entertainment value. It is an exuberant, uniquely American exploration of the passions that make us human—and one of those rare books that renew the idea of what a novel can do.]]> 1088 David Foster Wallace Pat 0 to-read 4.26 1996 Infinite Jest

author: David Foster Wallace
name: Pat
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Jennifer Government 33356 335 Max Barry 0349117624 Pat 0 to-read 3.68 2002

author: Max Barry
name: Pat
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Bohr Maker (The Nanotech Succession, #1)]]> 12157710 326 Linda Nagata 1937197026 Pat 0 to-read 3.81 1995

The Bohr Maker (The Nanotech Succession, #1)

author: Linda Nagata
name: Pat
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Wrong Stars (Axiom, #1) 34409335 A ragtag crew of humans and posthumans discover alien technology that could change the fate of humanity... or awaken an ancient evil and destroy all life in the galaxy.

The shady crew of the White Raven run freight and salvage at the fringes of our solar system. They discover the wreck of a centuries-old exploration vessel floating light years away from its intended destination and revive its sole occupant, who wakes with news of First Alien Contact. When the crew break it to her that humanity has alien allies already, she reveals that these are very different extra-terrestrials... and the gifts they bestowed on her could kill all humanity, or take it out to the most distant stars.
File Under: Science Fiction]]> 396 Tim Pratt 0857667092 Pat 0 to-read 3.69 2017 The Wrong Stars (Axiom, #1)

author: Tim Pratt
name: Pat
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Among Others 8706185 Among Others is at once the compelling story of a young woman struggling to escape a troubled childhood, a brilliant diary of first encounters with the great novels of modern fantasy and science fiction, and a spellbinding tale of escape from ancient enchantment.

Raised by a half-mad mother who dabbled in magic, Morwenna Phelps found refuge in two worlds. As a child growing up in Wales, she and her twin sister played among the spirits who made their homes in industrial ruins, but her mind found freedom and promise in the science fiction novels that were her closest companions. When her mother tries to bend the spirits to dark ends with deadly results, Mori is sent away and must try to come to terms with what has happened without falling prey to the darkness.]]> 304 Jo Walton 076532153X Pat 0 to-read 3.69 2011 Among Others

author: Jo Walton
name: Pat
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Limited Edition of One 57679258 Part memoir, part meditation, part roadmap, part confection box of loose threads, lyrics, stories, pictures and ideas, A Limited Edition of One is a book presented as a journey, one that takes an unconventional route through the life and work of Steven Wilson, following the years up to the final Porcupine Tree show and revealing the aftermath of his decision to disband the group just when they were poised for superstardom.
This is Steven Wilson, as he has never been understood or glimpsed or presupposed before.]]> 320 Steven John Wilson Pat 4
I met him last year and was surpised at how personable and chatty he was & some of this does come across in this sort-of autobiography - more a collection of observations and stories about his fascination with music and sound throughout his life. While engaging and wryly humerous and genuinely interesting at times, parts of the book are a bit dry - especially the transcripts of conversations with his co-writer/editor, the legendary music journalist Mick Wall. If you're a fan, it's a must read but would be of little interest to the millions of people who've never heard of him.]]> 4.22 2022 Limited Edition of One

author: Steven John Wilson
name: Pat
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/02
date added: 2024/04/02
shelves:
review:
I've been a fan of Steven Wilson since I first heard Porcupine Tree in the mid 90s. He's been described as the most succesful british artist you've never heard of. It's true that he's had a fantastic career so far, selling out big venues, touring across Europe and enjoying success in the States & with absolutely no mainstream support. He's very much a man of contradictions - crowned the undisputed King of modern progressive rock but professes not to be a fan of the genre. Disbanding Porcupine Tree when they were just starting to break (granted, it was after a 20 year slog) to carve out a very diverse and equally successful solo career. He comes across as a bit arrogant and spikey in interviews, deliberately contrary, refusing to retread old ground and seeming to delight in confounding listener expectations with every release.

I met him last year and was surpised at how personable and chatty he was & some of this does come across in this sort-of autobiography - more a collection of observations and stories about his fascination with music and sound throughout his life. While engaging and wryly humerous and genuinely interesting at times, parts of the book are a bit dry - especially the transcripts of conversations with his co-writer/editor, the legendary music journalist Mick Wall. If you're a fan, it's a must read but would be of little interest to the millions of people who've never heard of him.
]]> Arkwright 25659450
Convinced that humanity cannot survive on Earth, his Arkwright Foundation dedicates itself to creating a colony on an Earth-like planet several light years distant. Fueled by Nathan's legacy, generations of Arkwrights are drawn together, and pulled apart, by the enormity of the task and weight of their name.]]> 336 Allen M. Steele 0765382156 Pat 4 3.63 2016

author: Allen M. Steele
name: Pat
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/30
date added: 2024/03/30
shelves:
review:
Really enjoyed this old-school SF tale. Nathan Arkwright is a SF author of the classic 50s school, a comtemporary of Frederick Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth, author of the best-selling Galactic Patrol series and counted as one of the 'Big Four' along with Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke. What people didn't know about him was that he created the clandestine Arkwright Foundation, dedicated to space exploration and comitted to sending a generation ship to another star system. taking place after his death it follows his descendents as they contribute to the fulfillment of his ultimate goal. It's beautifully written and has a cosy, old school SF vibe that fits perfectly with the character of Arkwright himself.
]]> The Forcing 63232552
Civilisation is collapsing. Frustrated and angry after years of denial and inaction, a 'government of youth' has taken power in North America, and deemed all those older than a prescribed age responsible for the current state of the world, and decreed they should be 'relocated', their property and assets confiscated.

David Ashworth, known by his friends and students as Teacher, and his wife May, find themselves among the thousands being moved to �� new accommodation' in the abandoned southern deserts �� thrown together with a wealthy industrialist and his wife, a high court lawyer, two recent immigrants to America, and a hospital worker. Together, they must come to terms with their new lives in a land rendered unrecognisable.

As the terrible truth of their situation is revealed, lured by rumours of a tropical sanctuary where they can live in peace, they plan a perilous escape. But the world outside is more dangerous than they could ever have imagined. And for those who survive, nothing will ever be the same again...]]> 433 Paul E. Hardisty Pat 0 to-read 3.86 2023 The Forcing

author: Paul E. Hardisty
name: Pat
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tower Lord (Raven's Shadow, #2)]]> 18138189
Vaelin Al Sorna, warrior of the Sixth Order, called Darkblade, called Hope Killer. The greatest warrior of his day, and witness to the greatest defeat of his nation: King Janus’s vision of a Greater Unified Realm drowned in the blood of brave men fighting for a cause Vaelin alone knows was forged from a lie. Sick at heart, he comes home, determined to kill no more.

Named Tower Lord of the Northern Reaches by King Janus’s grateful heir, he can perhaps find peace in a colder, more remote land far from the intrigues of a troubled Realm. But those gifted with the blood-song are never destined to live a quiet life. Many died in King Janus’s wars, but many survived, and Vaelin is a target, not just for those seeking revenge but for those who know what he can do.

The Faith has been sundered, and many have no doubt who their leader should be. The new King is weak, but his sister is strong. The blood-song is powerful, rich in warning and guidance in times of trouble, but is only a fraction of the power available to others who understand more of its mysteries. Something moves against the Realm, something that commands mighty forces, and Vaelin will find to his great regret that when faced with annihilation, even the most reluctant hand must eventually draw a sword.]]> 608 Anthony Ryan 0425265625 Pat 5 4.14 2014 Tower Lord (Raven's Shadow, #2)

author: Anthony Ryan
name: Pat
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/03/18
shelves:
review:
Really enjpyed this second installment of the Raven's Shadow trilogy. It widens the scope fot the first book, bringing in some great new POV characters - Reva's arc in particular was brilliant and the chapters focussing on Frentis & 'Elverah' were genuinely creepy and disturbing. Immortal beings changing the course of history in the service of a mysterious higher power are nothing new but Ryan manages to give it a fresh twist that keeps the pages turning. Loads of gruesome action, a few genuine surprises and an open end to lead you straight into the next book. Great stuff.
]]> My Effin' Life 63184326 The long-awaited memoir, generously illustrated with never-before-seen photos, from the iconic Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Rush bassist, and bestselling author of Geddy Lee's Big Beautiful Book of Bass.

Geddy Lee is one of rock and roll's most respected bassists. For nearly five decades, his playing and work as co-writer, vocalist and keyboardist has been an essential part of the success story of Canadian progressive rock trio Rush. Here for the first time is his account of life inside and outside the band.

Long before Rush accumulated more consecutive gold and platinum records than any rock band after the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, before the seven Grammy nominations or the countless electrifying live performances across the globe, Geddy Lee was Gershon Eliezer Weinrib, after his grandfather murdered in the Holocaust.

As he recounts the transformation, Lee looks back on his family, in particular his loving parents and their horrific experiences as teenagers during World War II.

He talks candidly about his childhood and the pursuit of music that led him to drop out of high school.

He tracks the history of Rush which, after early struggles, exploded into one of the most beloved bands of all time.

He shares intimate stories of his lifelong friendships with bandmates Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart—deeply mourning Peart’s recent passing—and reveals his obsessions in music and beyond.

This rich brew of honesty, humor, and loss makes for a uniquely poignant memoir.]]> 512 Geddy Lee 0063159414 Pat 5
The beauty of this book is that while inevitably, a large part of the book is about Rush, it's very much Geddy's story - from his parents and grandparents experiences in Nazi concentration camps & growing up as a Jewish boy in the 60s on Canada to filling stadiums across the world - while he talks a lot about Alex & Neil, he never presumes to speak for them. Full of gentle humour it gives a fascinating insight into his life & also the inner workings of a hugely succeful band. Excellent.]]> 4.54 2023 My Effin' Life

author: Geddy Lee
name: Pat
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/18
date added: 2024/03/18
shelves:
review:
I've been a Rush fan since I first heard A Farewell to Kings back in the late seventies and though they might have lost me a couple of times over the years I always managed to find my way back. The band were always a bit of a mystery - much maligned in the UK music press but sold out arenas every time they visited. Never cool but name-checked by some of the coolest figures in rock music. Branded dinosaurs but always changing and evolving right up until the end.

The beauty of this book is that while inevitably, a large part of the book is about Rush, it's very much Geddy's story - from his parents and grandparents experiences in Nazi concentration camps & growing up as a Jewish boy in the 60s on Canada to filling stadiums across the world - while he talks a lot about Alex & Neil, he never presumes to speak for them. Full of gentle humour it gives a fascinating insight into his life & also the inner workings of a hugely succeful band. Excellent.
]]> The Ferryman 61282437 New York Times bestselling author of The Passage comes a riveting standalone novel about a group of survivors on a hidden island utopia--where the truth isn't what it seems.

Founded by a mysterious genius, the archipelago of Prospera lies hidden from the horrors of a deteriorating outside world. In this island paradise, Prospera's lucky citizens enjoy long, fulfilling lives until the monitors embedded in their forearms, meant to measure their physical health and psychological well-being, fall below 10 percent. Then they retire themselves, embarking on a ferry ride to the island known as the Nursery, where their failing bodies are renewed, their memories are wiped clean, and they are readied to restart life afresh.

Proctor Bennett, of the Department of Social Contracts, has a satisfying career as a ferryman, gently shepherding people through the retirement process--and, when necessary, enforcing it. But all is not well with Proctor. For one thing, he's been dreaming--which is supposed to be impossible in Prospera. For another, his monitor percentage has begun to drop alarmingly fast. And then comes the day he is summoned to retire his own father, who gives him a disturbing and cryptic message before being wrestled onto the ferry.

Meanwhile, something is stirring. The Support Staff, ordinary men and women who provide the labor to keep Prospera running, have begun to question their place in the social order. Unrest is building, and there are rumors spreading of a resistance group--known as "Arrivalists"--who may be fomenting revolution.

Soon Proctor finds himself questioning everything he once believed, entangled with a much bigger cause than he realized--and on a desperate mission to uncover the truth.]]> 538 Justin Cronin 052561947X Pat 0 to-read 3.86 2023 The Ferryman

author: Justin Cronin
name: Pat
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Delta-v (Delta-v, #1) 40859000
Isolated and pushed beyond their breaking points, Tighe and his fellow twenty-first century adventurers--ex-soldiers, former astronauts, BASE jumpers, and mountain climbers--must rely on each other to survive not only the dangers of a multi-year expedition but the harsh realities of business in space. They're determined to transform humanity from an Earth-bound species to a space-faring one--or die trying.]]> 437 Daniel Suarez 1524742414 Pat 0 to-read 4.11 2019 Delta-v (Delta-v, #1)

author: Daniel Suarez
name: Pat
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Gone-Away World 3007704 531 Nick Harkaway 0434018422 Pat 0 to-read 4.10 2008

author: Nick Harkaway
name: Pat
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lords of Uncreation (The Final Architecture, #3)]]> 62315578 The Arthur C. Clarke award-winning author of Children of Time brings us the third and final��novel in an extraordinary space opera trilogy about humanity on the brink of extinction, and how one man's discovery will save or destroy us all.

Lords of Uncreation��is the final high-octane installment in Adrian Tchaikovsky's Final Architecture space opera trilogy.

The Final Architecture
Shards of Earth
Eyes of the Void
Lords of Uncreation��]]> 608 Adrian Tchaikovsky 1668628104 Pat 5
The setting is a few decades after a galaxy spanning war that saw the earth destroyed by the Architects - giant balls of energy that disassemble planets and turn them into intricate and exquisite sculptures. The Architects have returned and we follow a rat-tag crew of outsiders and outcasts as they try to deal with disparate alien cultures with their own agendas, internal human politics and their own personalities to save the universe from total destruction (a-la The Expanse, Firefly etc...).

While not quite up there with The Expanse, it's still better than most of the SF around these days. If Adrian Tchaikovsky isn't the best genre writer around at the moment, I don't know who is. ]]> 4.22 2023 Lords of Uncreation (The Final Architecture, #3)

Lords of Uncreation (The Final Architecture, #3)

author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Pat
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/15
date added: 2024/02/15
shelves:
review:
There should seriously be a law against a writer being so prolific and managing to be so consistently good. This whole series has been excellent but this last book was an absolute banger. A massive chunk of baroque-tinged Space Opera with some beautifully drawn characters, magnificent world building and some genuinely interesting and imaginative alien species and cultures.

The setting is a few decades after a galaxy spanning war that saw the earth destroyed by the Architects - giant balls of energy that disassemble planets and turn them into intricate and exquisite sculptures. The Architects have returned and we follow a rat-tag crew of outsiders and outcasts as they try to deal with disparate alien cultures with their own agendas, internal human politics and their own personalities to save the universe from total destruction (a-la The Expanse, Firefly etc...).

While not quite up there with The Expanse, it's still better than most of the SF around these days. If Adrian Tchaikovsky isn't the best genre writer around at the moment, I don't know who is.
]]> <![CDATA[The Justice of Kings (Empire of the Wolf, #1)]]> 58293284
The Empire of the Wolf simmers with unrest. Rebels, heretics, and powerful patricians all challenge the power of the Imperial throne.�� Only the Order of Justices stands in the way of chaos. Sir Konrad Vonvalt is the most feared Justice of all, upholding the law by way of his sharp mind, arcane powers, and skill as a swordsman. At his side stands Helena Sedanka, his talented protégé, orphaned by the wars that forged the Empire.�� When the pair investigates the murder of a provincial aristocrat, they unearth a conspiracy that stretches to the very top of Imperial society. As the stakes rise and become ever more personal, Vonvalt and Helena must make a choice: Will they abandon the laws they’ve sworn to uphold, in order to protect the Empire?]]> 496 Richard Swan Pat 0 to-read 4.00 2022 The Justice of Kings (Empire of the Wolf, #1)

The Justice of Kings (Empire of the Wolf, #1)

author: Richard Swan
name: Pat
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Glass Box 195083767 The Glass Box is a hard-hitting, fast paced sci-fi novel about the choices we make and the ramifications we face. Perfect for fans of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Dark Matter by Blake Crouch.

Riley Diaz was born to fight back. When she's incarcerated under the authority of a shadowy new defense act, Riley is sent to one of a growing number of American Renewal Centers (ARCs)--institutions modeled after psychiatric facilities--for mandatory reeducation. Forced therapy, involuntary medication, solitary confinement, restricted rations, and more are all in the ARC program's bag of dirty tricks designed to break down dissidents. Give in, and you go free. Resist, and ... Riley declares a one-woman war against the gaslighting and manipulation in a struggle to take down the ARC program and its white-coated collaborators.

Despite being isolated and resented by her fellow inmates, Riley eventually wins their trust, and forms a heartfelt, life-and-death bond with a mysterious patient known only as Frankenstein, who is as enigmatic as his namesake. Sometimes breaking an unjust system starts with one person willing to stand up--when standing is the hardest thing in the world--and saying "no." Riley Diaz is willing to stand behind that word, regardless of the cost, in order to put her fist through the Glass Box once and for all.

Acclaimed creator J. Michael Straczynski takes the reader on a mesmerizing journey inspired by pressing contemporary issues, including our right to protest and the threats designed to undermine that right. Told with drama and heart, The Glass Box is a moving story that features a colorful and often eccentric cast of characters readers will fall in love with.]]> 266 J. Michael Straczynski Pat 0 to-read 3.81 2024

author: J. Michael Straczynski
name: Pat
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Lost Cause 77425645
For young Americans a generation from now, climate change isn't controversial. It's just an overwhelming fact of life. And so are the great efforts to contain and mitigate it. Entire cities are being moved inland from the rising seas. Vast clean-energy projects are springing up everywhere. Disaster relief, the mitigation of floods and superstorms, has become a skill for which tens of millions of people are trained every year. The effort is global. It employs everyone who wants to work. Even when national politics oscillates back to right-wing leaders, the momentum is too great; these vast programs cannot be stopped in their tracks.

But there are still those Americans, mostly elderly, who cling to their red baseball caps, their grievances, their huge vehicles, their anger. To their "alternative" news sources that reassure them that their resentment is right and pure and that "climate change" is just a giant scam.

And they're your grandfather, your uncle, your great-aunt. And they're not going anywhere. And they’re armed to the teeth.

The Lost Cause What do we do about people who cling to the belief that their own children are the enemy? When, in fact, they're often the elders that we love?

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 360 Cory Doctorow 1250865956 Pat 0 to-read 3.99 2023 The Lost Cause

author: Cory Doctorow
name: Pat
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Machine Vendetta (Prefect Dreyfus Emergency #3)]]> 75593499
Panoply is a small, efficient police force, dedicated to maintaining the rule of democracy among the ten thousand disparate city-states orbiting the planet Yellowstone.

Ingvar Tench was one of Panoply's most experienced operatives. So why did she walk alone and unarmed into a habitat with a vicious grudge against her organization?

As his colleagues pick up the pieces following her death, Prefect Tom Dreyfus must face his conscience. Four years ago, when an investigation linked to one of his most dangerous adversaries got a little too personal, Dreyfus arranged for Tench to continue the inquiry by proxy. In using her, did Dreyfus also put her in the line of fire? And what does Tench's attack tell him about an enemy he had hoped was dormant?

The Prefect Dreyfus Emergencies
Aurora Rising
Elysium Fire��
Machine Vendetta��
��]]> 416 Alastair Reynolds 0316462845 Pat 0 to-read 4.12 2024 Machine Vendetta (Prefect Dreyfus Emergency #3)

Machine Vendetta (Prefect Dreyfus Emergency #3)

author: Alastair Reynolds
name: Pat
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Deluge 60806778 From the bestselling author of Ohio, a masterful American epic charting a near future approaching collapse and a nascent but strengthening solidarity.

In the first decades of the 21st century, the world is convulsing, its governments mired in gridlock while a patient but unrelenting ecological crisis looms. America is in upheaval, battered by violent weather and extreme politics. In California in 2013, Tony Pietrus, a scientist studying deposits of undersea methane, receives a death threat. His fate will become bound to a stunning cast of characters—a broken drug addict, a star advertising strategist, a neurodivergent mathematician, a cunning eco-terrorist, an actor turned religious zealot, and a brazen young activist named Kate Morris, who, in the mountains of Wyoming, begins a project that will alter the course of the decades to come.

From the Gulf Coast to Los Angeles, the Midwest to Washington, DC, their intertwined odysseys unfold against a stark backdrop of accelerating chaos as they summon courage, galvanize a nation, fall to their own fear, and find wild hope in the face of staggering odds. As their stories hurtle toward a spectacular climax, each faces a reckoning: what will they sacrifice to salvage humanity’s last chance at a future? A singular achievement, The Deluge is a once-in-a-generation novel that meets the moment as few works of art ever have.]]> 896 Stephen Markley 1982123095 Pat 0 to-read 4.20 2023

author: Stephen Markley
name: Pat
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Under the Dome 6320534
When food, electricity and water run short, the normal rules of society are changed. A new and more sinister social order develops, Dale Barbara, a young Iraq veteran, teams up with a handful of intrepid citizens to fight against the corruption that is sweeping through the town and to try to discover the source of the Dome before it is too late...]]> 1074 Stephen King 1439148503 Pat 0 to-read 3.92 2009 Under the Dome

author: Stephen King
name: Pat
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Blood Song (Raven's Shadow, #1)]]> 13569581 “The Sixth Order wields the sword of justice and smites the enemies of the Faith and the Realm.��

Vaelin Al Sorna was only a child of ten when his father left him at the iron gate of the Sixth Order. The Brothers of the Sixth Order are devoted to battle, and Vaelin will be trained and hardened to the austere, celibate, and dangerous life of a Warrior of the Faith. He has no family now save the Order.

Vaelin’s father was Battle Lord to King Janus, ruler of the unified realm. Vaelin’s rage at being deprived of his birthright and dropped at the doorstep of the Sixth Order like a foundling knows no bounds. He cherishes the memory of his mother, and what he will come to learn of her at the Order will confound him. His father, too, has motives that Vaelin will come to understand. But one truth overpowers all the rest: Vaelin Al Sorna is destined for a future he has yet to comprehend. A future that will alter not only the realm, but the world.]]> 591 Anthony Ryan 1466085665 Pat 4 fantasy
It starts as a standard coming of age story - young boy attends harsh military school and endures years of punitive training to become the mighty warrior that he was born to be - nothing ground-breaking or original there. What makes it above average is some excellent world building and some top-drawer character development. The main character, Vaelin, while he is an exceptionally gifted and virtually unbeatable warrior, he continually questions the motives of those that try to control him and becomes a very consistant and convincing character. While the book is clearly setting up for the rest of the story, there are enough glimpses of the potential 'big bad' that make you want to know more.

Defintiely worth a read if you haven't already picked it up.]]> 4.42 2011 Blood Song (Raven's Shadow, #1)

author: Anthony Ryan
name: Pat
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/25
date added: 2024/01/25
shelves: fantasy
review:
It feels like this one has been on my To Read pile for years so I finally decided to take the plunge. I was glad I did - while it's not the best fantasy I've ever read, it's defintely above average and I'm looking forward to continuing the series.

It starts as a standard coming of age story - young boy attends harsh military school and endures years of punitive training to become the mighty warrior that he was born to be - nothing ground-breaking or original there. What makes it above average is some excellent world building and some top-drawer character development. The main character, Vaelin, while he is an exceptionally gifted and virtually unbeatable warrior, he continually questions the motives of those that try to control him and becomes a very consistant and convincing character. While the book is clearly setting up for the rest of the story, there are enough glimpses of the potential 'big bad' that make you want to know more.

Defintiely worth a read if you haven't already picked it up.
]]> Artemis 34928122
Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent.

Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of her problems, as she learns that she's stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself—and that now, her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even riskier than the first.]]> 305 Andy Weir 0553448129 Pat 0 to-read 3.66 2017 Artemis

author: Andy Weir
name: Pat
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last Watch (The Divide, #1)]]> 53205794 The Expanse meets Game of Thrones in J. S. Dewes's fast-paced, sci-fi adventure The Last Watch, where a handful of soldiers stand between humanity and annihilation.

The Divide.

It’s the edge of the universe.

Now it’s collapsing—and taking everyone and everything with it.

The only ones who can stop it are the Sentinels—the recruits, exiles, and court-martialed dregs of the military.

At the Divide, Adequin Rake commands the Argus. She has no resources, no comms—nothing, except for the soldiers that no one wanted. Her ace in the hole could be Cavalon Mercer--genius, asshole, and exiled prince who nuked his grandfather's genetic facility for “reasons.��

She knows they’re humanity's last chance.]]> 480 J.S. Dewes 1250236347 Pat 0 to-read 3.89 2021 The Last Watch (The Divide, #1)

author: J.S. Dewes
name: Pat
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 14 (Threshold, #1) 15062217
There are some odd things about Nate’s new apartment.

Of course, he has other things on his mind. He hates his job. He has no money in the bank. No girlfriend. No plans for the future. So while his new home isn’t perfect, it’s livable. The rent is low, the property managers are friendly, and the odd little mysteries don’t nag at him too much.

At least, not until he meets Mandy, his neighbour across the hall, and notices something unusual about her apartment. And Xela’s apartment. And Tim’s. And Veek’s. Because every room in this old Los Angeles brownstone has a mystery or two. Mysteries that stretch back over a hundred years. Some of them are in plain sight. Some are behind locked doors. And all together these mysteries could mean the end of Nate and his friends.

Or the end of everything...]]> 372 Peter Clines Pat 0 to-read 3.96 2012 14 (Threshold, #1)

author: Peter Clines
name: Pat
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Fold (Threshold, #2) 23164927 STEP INTO THE FOLD.
IT’S PERFECTLY SAFE.

The folks in Mike Erikson's small New England town would say he's just your average, everyday guy. And that's exactly how Mike likes it. Sure, the life he's chosen isn’t much of a challenge to someone with his unique gifts, but he’s content with his quiet and peaceful existence. ��

That is, until an old friend presents him with an irresistible mystery, one that Mike is uniquely qualified to solve: far out in the California desert, a team of DARPA scientists has invented a device they affectionately call the Albuquerque Door. Using a cryptic computer equation and magnetic fields to “fold�� dimensions, it shrinks distances so that a traveler can travel hundreds of feet with a single step.

The invention promises to make mankind’s dreams of teleportation a reality. And, the scientists insist, traveling through the Door is completely safe.

Yet evidence is mounting that this miraculous machine isn’t quite what it seems—and that its creators are harboring a dangerous secret. ��

As his investigations draw him deeper into the puzzle, Mike begins to fear there’s only one answer that makes sense. And if he’s right, it may only be a matter of time before the project destroys…everything. ��

A cunningly inventive mystery featuring a hero worthy of Sherlock Holmes and a terrifying final twist you’ll never see coming, The Fold is that rarest of things: a genuinely page-turning science-fiction thriller. Step inside its pages and learn why author Peter Clines has already won legions of loyal fans.]]> 384 Peter Clines 0553418297 Pat 0 to-read 3.87 2015 The Fold (Threshold, #2)

author: Peter Clines
name: Pat
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Infinity Gate (Pandominion, #1)]]> 61237044
The Pandominion: a political and trading alliance of a million worlds - except that they're really just the one world, Earth, in many different realities. And when an AI threat arises that could destroy everything the Pandominion has built, they'll eradicate it by whatever means necessary, no matter the cost to human life.

Scientist Hadiz Tambuwal is looking for a solution to her own Earth's environmental collapse when she stumbles across the secret of inter-dimensional travel. It could save everyone on her dying planet, but now she's walked into the middle of a war on a scale she never dreamed of.

And she needs to choose a side before it kills her.]]> 499 M.R. Carey 0316504386 Pat 0 to-read 4.06 2023 Infinity Gate (Pandominion, #1)

author: M.R. Carey
name: Pat
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Out of the Silent Planet (The Space Trilogy, #1)]]> 25350 160 C.S. Lewis 0007157150 Pat 0 to-read 3.93 1938

Out of the Silent Planet (The Space Trilogy, #1)

author: C.S. Lewis
name: Pat
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1938
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Season of Skulls (Laundry Files, #12; New Management, #3)]]> 62595513 Season of Skulls continues Hugo Award-winning author Charles Stross's Lovecraftian Laundry Files series.

Welcome to the sunlit uplands of the 21st century! Britain's avuncular Prime Minister is an ancient eldritch god of unimaginable power. Crime is plummeting as almost every offense is punishable by death. And everywhere you look, there are people with strange powers, some of which they can control, and some, not so much.

Hyperorganized and formidable, Eve Starkey defeated her boss, the louche magical adept and billionaire Rupert de Montfort Bigge, in a supernatural duel to the death. At least, she has reason to hope he's dead. But though she's now in charge of the Bigge Corporation, she's not free of him yet. Through the fecklessness of her brother Imp, combined with the intricate feudal law of a tiny Channel Island, it would appear that unbeknownst to her, she was married to Bigge--and that proving his death and releasing herself from his arcane bindings will take years and cost millions.

Then an emissary of the Prime Minister arrives with an offer that she absolutely can't...well, you know.

This is the final novel in the trilogy that began with Dead Lies Dreaming and continued with Quantum of Nightmares.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 376 Charles Stross 1250839408 Pat 4 4.17 2023 Season of Skulls (Laundry Files, #12; New Management, #3)

Season of Skulls (Laundry Files, #12; New Management, #3)

author: Charles Stross
name: Pat
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/12
date added: 2023/11/12
shelves:
review:
Anyone who remembers sixties TV series The Prisoner will find a lot to enjoy here. Continuing the story of Eve Stakey and her quest to make sure her "husband" is actually dead and gone in a world where the Prime Minister is an Elder God. This time she has drawn the attention of the PM himself and has been charged with returning the head of her husband to prove that he's dead. Travelling the Dream Roads she finds herself imprisoned in a facsimile of The Village (yes... that Village!) What follows is some twisty turny timey wimey stuff, we find out more about the history of the Laundry, the eldritch nature of the PM and get some more adventures of Eve's brother and his band of stoner anarchists. I am loving this Laundry Files spin-off series but would love a return to the good old days of Bob Howard and Mahogany Row.
]]> The End (The Enemy, #7) 20550280 The end is coming.

The sickness struck everyone sixteen and older. First it twisted their minds; next it ravaged their bodies. Now the sickos—crazed and hungry for young flesh—are gathered in the center of London, lying in wait.

It’s time for all of the survivors—kids spread out across the city—to unite. They must come up with a plan of attack to end the grown-ups�� reign of terror before it is too late.

One thing is certain: surprises abound in the bloody conclusion to Charlie Higson’s Enemy saga.]]> 454 Charlie Higson 1484716957 Pat 4 4.40 2015 The End (The Enemy, #7)

author: Charlie Higson
name: Pat
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/04
date added: 2023/11/04
shelves:
review:
Very satisfying ending to what has been a largely enjoyable YA zombie romp. All loose ends tied up, enemies vanquished and heroes triumphant as expected. Some of the mystical stuff that started creeping in towards the end of the series did detract from the brutality of the overall story but it's a minor quibble. If you fancy an easy read and don't mind the fact that it's pitched at 14-16 year olds, it's a good shout.
]]> The Hunted (The Enemy #6) 20550277 440 Charlie Higson 0141336102 Pat 5 4.45 2014

author: Charlie Higson
name: Pat
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/21
date added: 2023/10/21
shelves:
review:
The Enemy returns to form with a bang after the last couple of lacklustre installments. The story follows Ella's experiences in the countryside and Ed's attempts to find her. Nice to see the action taken out of the Capital for a while and the introduction of warring factions in the home counties adds some extra spice. Top notch.
]]> The Fallen (The Enemy #5) 20617860 502 Charlie Higson 0141336153 Pat 3 4.37 2013

author: Charlie Higson
name: Pat
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2023/10/08
date added: 2023/10/08
shelves:
review:
Higson dropped the ball with this one, continuing the decline from the previous volume. It should have been much better as we learn more about the origins of the sickness and some early attempts to find a cure. There wasn't a great deal of character development & the introduction of the twisted kids felt really out of place.
]]> Sea of Tranquility 58446227 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER - The award-winning, best-selling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time travel, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.

One of the Best Books of the Year: The New York Times, NPR, GoodReads

"One of [Mandel's] finest novels and one of her most satisfying forays into the arena of speculative fiction yet." --The New York Times

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal--an experience that shocks him to his core.

Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She's traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive's best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.

When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.

A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.]]> 259 Emily St. John Mandel 0593321448 Pat 5 4.04 2022

author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Pat
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/13
date added: 2023/09/13
shelves:
review:
A beautifully written and genuinely moving tale of a temporal anomaly that appears in three points in time, one in the past, one in the present(ish) and one in the future. As a time travel story it had a similar vibe to Donnie Darko or 12 Monkeys and was an absolute joy to read. Excellent.
]]> The Sacrifice (The Enemy #4) 18453187 The Sacrifice picks up after Small Sam and The Kid arrive at the Tower of London at the end of The Dead. Though Sam finds safety and friendship at the Tower with Jordan Hordern's crew, he can't settle down. The only thing he wants is to be reunited with his sister, Ella. Despite Ed's protests, Sam and the Kid strike out westward, through the no-go zone.

Meanwhile, Shadowman is tracking Saint George across north London, watching him build up his army. Shadowman knows that Saint George is an extremely dangerous threat, but no one will take his warnings seriously.

Some answers to the questions we've been wondering about--What is the Disease? Where did it come from? Is there a cure?--are addressed by an unexpected source: a diseased adult nicknamed Wormwood who has the ability to speak, though his ravings are difficult to decipher.

Unspeakable horror, edge-of-the-seat suspense, and stomach-churning plot twists continue in Book 4 of Charlie Higson's masterful Enemy saga.]]> 512 Charlie Higson 1423166353 Pat 4 4.37 2012 The Sacrifice (The Enemy #4)

author: Charlie Higson
name: Pat
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/07
date added: 2023/09/07
shelves:
review:
Since ŷ�� won't give us a half mark I'll rate this one a 4 but it's really a 3.5. There's some great character development with Ed, Sam & Shadowman but all the mystical gubbins with the kids at St Pauls and a zombie that can talk and control other Zombies started to take the book in a different direction. While Sam's a great character, his sidekick, the Kid is just bloody annoying. Hope this doesn't mean the series is going off the boil.
]]> <![CDATA[The Burning God (The Poppy War, #3)]]> 45857086 The exciting end to The Poppy War trilogy, R. F. Kuang’s acclaimed, award-winning epic fantasy that combines the history of twentieth-century China with a gripping world of gods and monsters, to devastating, enthralling effect.

After saving her nation of Nikan from foreign invaders and battling the evil Empress Su Daji in a brutal civil war, Fang Runin was betrayed by allies and left for dead.��

Despite her losses, Rin hasn’t given up on those for whom she has sacrificed so much—the people of the southern provinces and especially Tikany, the village that is her home. Returning to her roots, Rin meets difficult challenges—and unexpected opportunities. While her new allies in the Southern Coalition leadership are sly and untrustworthy, Rin quickly realizes that the real power in Nikan lies with the millions of common people who thirst for vengeance and revere her as a goddess of salvation.��

Backed by the masses and her Southern Army, Rin will use every weapon to defeat the Dragon Republic, the colonizing Hesperians, and all who threaten the shamanic arts and their practitioners. As her power and influence grows, though, will she be strong enough to resist the Phoenix’s intoxicating voice urging her to burn the world and everything in it?��]]> 622 R.F. Kuang 0008339147 Pat 4 4.29 2020 The Burning God (The Poppy War, #3)

author: R.F. Kuang
name: Pat
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/27
date added: 2023/08/27
shelves:
review:
Excellent end to what has been a solid and well written trilogy. It was refreshing to read a fantasy series outside of the European medieval tradition. It's been quite a ride, with complex characters, dark motivations and full of unexpected twists and turns & an ending like an emotional gut-punch.
]]> <![CDATA[Love Will Tear Us Apart (Stranger Times, #3)]]> 61395248 Love can be a truly terrible thing.

Marriages are tricky at the best of times, especially when one of you is dead.

Vincent Banecroft, the irascible editor of The Stranger Times, has never believed his wife died despite emphatic evidence to the contrary. Now, against all odds, it seems he may actually be proved right; but what lengths will he go to in an attempt to rescue her?

With Banecroft distracted, the shock resignation of assistant editor, Hannah Willis, couldn't have come at a worse time. It speaks volumes that her decision to reconcile with her philandering ex-husband is only marginally less surprising than Banecroft and his wife getting back together. In this time of crisis, is her decision to swan off to a fancy new-age retreat run by a celebrity cult really the best thing for anyone?

As if that wasn't enough, one of the paper's ex-columnists has disappeared, a particularly impressive trick seeing as he never existed in the first place.

Floating statues, hijacked ghosts, homicidal cherubs, irate starlings, Reliant Robins and quite possibly several deeply sinister conspiracies; all-in-all, a typical week for the staff of The Stranger Times.]]> 448 C.K. McDonnell 1473577322 Pat 4 4.39 2023 Love Will Tear Us Apart (Stranger Times, #3)

Love Will Tear Us Apart (Stranger Times, #3)

author: C.K. McDonnell
name: Pat
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/12
date added: 2023/08/12
shelves:
review:
Loving this series so far, it keeps getting better & better. This one has much more depth and character development than the previous 2 books as the mystery surrounding Banecroft's wife's death deepens & the cold war between the Founders and the Folk starts to get a bit warmer. This series could just run and run & I sincerely hope it does.
]]> <![CDATA[Fifty Degrees Below (Science in the Capital, #2)]]> 41121 603 Kim Stanley Robinson 0553585819 Pat 4 3.71 2005

Fifty Degrees Below (Science in the Capital, #2)

author: Kim Stanley Robinson
name: Pat
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/07/30
shelves:
review:

]]> The Fear (The Enemy, #3) 21888731 DogNut and the rest of his crew, in search of the friends they lost during the fire, set off on a deadly mission from the Tower of London to Buckingham Palace and beyond, as the sickos lie in wait. But who are their friends and who is the enemy in this changed world?
]]> 496 Charlie Higson 1484721446 Pat 4 4.34 2011 The Fear (The Enemy, #3)

author: Charlie Higson
name: Pat
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/15
date added: 2023/07/15
shelves:
review:
Still a lot to enjoy in this nifty little YA zombie series - particularly the way the characters and timelines intertwine and come togther at various parts in the narrative. Focussing more on the politics of the various survivor enclaves, there's still plenty of zombie action and some hints for the future as the zombies seem to be getting organised.
]]> <![CDATA[The Dragon Republic (The Poppy War, #2)]]> 41118857
With no other options, Rin joins forces with the powerful Dragon Warlord, who has a plan to conquer Nikan, unseat the Empress, and create a new Republic. Rin throws herself into his war. After all, making war is all she knows how to do.

But the Empress is a more powerful foe than she appears, and the Dragon Warlord’s motivations are not as democratic as they seem. The more Rin learns, the more she fears her love for Nikan will drive her away from every ally and lead her to rely more and more on the Phoenix’s deadly power. Because there is nothing she won’t sacrifice for her country and her vengeance.

The sequel to R.F. Kuang’s acclaimed debut THE POPPY WAR, THE DRAGON REPUBLIC combines the history of 20th-century China with a gripping world of gods and monsters, to devastating effect.]]> 658 R.F. Kuang Pat 3 4.36 2019 The Dragon Republic (The Poppy War, #2)

author: R.F. Kuang
name: Pat
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/08
date added: 2023/07/08
shelves:
review:
Bit more of a slow burner than the first one & suffered from middle-book-of-a-trilogy syndrome. Rin & her allies continue to try to play both sides against the middle and the introduction of the technologically superior Hesperians & their own sinister agenda kind of fucks things up for her. Still a great series though and well worth a read.
]]> The Dead (The Enemy, #2) 21888732 The Dead is the second book in Charlie Higson's jaw-dropping zombie horror series for teens.

Everyone over the age of fourteen has succumbed to a deadly zombie virus and now the kids must keep themselves alive. A terrible disease is striking everyone over the age of fourteen. Death walks the streets. Nowhere is safe.

Maxie, Blue and the rest of the Holloway crew aren't the only kids trying to escape the ferocious adults who prey on them. Jack and Ed are best friends, but their battle to stay alive tests their friendship to the limit as they go on the run with a mismatched group of other kids - nerds, fighters, misfits. And one adult, Greg, a butcher, who claims he's immune to the disease. They must work together if they want to make it in this terrifying new world.

But when fresh disaster threatens to overwhelm London, they realize they won't all survive...]]> 485 Charlie Higson 1484721454 Pat 4 4.30 2010 The Dead (The Enemy, #2)

author: Charlie Higson
name: Pat
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/10
date added: 2023/06/10
shelves:
review:
Good follow up to The Enemy. This time the action follows a group of public school kids as they try to make their way into London from the suburbs. Same as the previous installment, this is pitched firmly at the YA market but it's still a pretty gruesome zombie yarn with some interesting and endearing characters.
]]> <![CDATA[This Charming Man (Stranger Times, #2)]]> 58297480
Nobody is pleased about it. Not the Founders, the secret organisation for whom vampires were invented as an allegory, nor the Folk, the magical people hidden in plain sight who only want a quiet life. And definitely not the people of Manchester, because there is nothing more irksome than being murdered by an allegory run amok. Somebody needs to sort this out fast before all Hell really breaks loose - step forward the staff of The Stranger Times.

Also described in German as:

Es gibt keine Vampire. Umso ärgerlicher, wenn sie dann in Manchester auftauchen.
Wirklich niemand freut sich darüber. Nicht die magischen Wesen, die es tatsächlich gibt, und schon gar nicht die Menschen in Manchester. Denn nichts ist ärgerlicher, als von ausgedachten Monstern um die Ecke gebracht zu werden. Zum Glück gibt es die Mitarbeiter der Stranger Times .]]> 497 C.K. McDonnell 1787633373 Pat 5 4.26 2022 This Charming Man (Stranger Times, #2)

author: C.K. McDonnell
name: Pat
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/04
date added: 2023/06/04
shelves:
review:
Excellent second outing for the Stranger Times team. This time it's vampires - which don't exist apparently until reports of some very suspicious attacks... and one turns up at the Stranger Times HQ. The regular cast returns along with some great new supporting characters including a talking dog and a man that can only tell the truth. If irreverent, funny urban fantasy is your thing, you won;t be dissapointed.
]]> The Enemy (The Enemy, #1) 8540357 The Enemy is the first in a jaw-dropping zombie horror series for teens. Everyone over the age of fourteen has succumbed to a deadly zombie virus and now the kids must keep themselves alive.

When the sickness came, every parent, police officer, politician - every adult fell ill. The lucky ones died. The others are crazed, confused and hungry.

Only children under fourteen remain, and they're fighting to survive.

Now there are rumours of a safe place to hide. And so a gang of children begin their quest across London, where all through the city - down alleyways, in deserted houses, underground - the grown-ups lie in wait.

But can they make it there - alive?

This edition contains the first chapter of the second book The Dead.]]> 407 Charlie Higson 0141325011 Pat 4 horror 4.16 2009 The Enemy (The Enemy, #1)

author: Charlie Higson
name: Pat
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/14
date added: 2023/05/14
shelves: horror
review:
Bit of a hidden gem this one. Set in London following a zombie apocalypse, everyone over the age of 16 has become infected leaving the kids behind to try to survive in a new, brutal world. Initially following a group of kids that have holed up in a supermarket when the food starts to run out. They are visited by a representative from a group that have taken over Buckingham Palace and are trying to rebuild. It is very much targetted at a younger readership but doesn't pull any punches when it comes to laying on the gore. Really enjoyable.
]]> <![CDATA[The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)]]> 35068705
When Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies—it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard—the most elite military school in Nikan—was even more surprising.

But surprises aren’t always good.

Because being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the south is not an easy thing at Sinegard. Targeted from the outset by rival classmates for her color, poverty, and gender, Rin discovers she possesses a lethal, unearthly power—an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism. Exploring the depths of her gift with the help of a seemingly insane teacher and psychoactive substances, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much alive—and that mastering control over those powers could mean more than just surviving school.

For while the Nikara Empire is at peace, the Federation of Mugen still lurks across a narrow sea. The militarily advanced Federation occupied Nikan for decades after the First Poppy War, and only barely lost the continent in the Second. And while most of the people are complacent to go about their lives, a few are aware that a Third Poppy War is just a spark away . . .

Rin’s shamanic powers may be the only way to save her people. But as she finds out more about the god that has chosen her, the vengeful Phoenix, she fears that winning the war may cost her humanity . . . and that it may already be too late.]]> 545 R.F. Kuang 0062662597 Pat 5 4.16 2018 The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

author: R.F. Kuang
name: Pat
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/06
date added: 2023/05/06
shelves:
review:
Awesome start to an oriental-themed fantasy series loosely inspired by the history of 20th century China. Starts as a very familiar trope - poor, down-trodden kid from the sticks gets to go to prestigious school and doesn't fit in with the posh kids but turns out to be a prodigy - but this is much more than that. The Oriental setting, the magic system, the political set-up, all make for a fresh and excitiing take on a familiar story. Looking forward to the rest of the series.
]]> Blitz (The Checquy Files, #3) 55228104
Until Pamela, the most sensible of them, suddenly breaks all the rules and brings down a Nazi bomber with her bare hands. The three resolve to tell no one about it, but they soon learn that a crew member is missing from the downed bomber. Charred corpses are discovered in nearby houses and it becomes apparent that the women have unwittingly unleashed a monster.

Through a city torn by the Blitz, the friends must hunt the enemy before he kills again. Their task will take them from the tunnels of the Underground to the halls of power, where they will discover the secrets that a secret organization must keep even from itself.

Today. Lynette Binns, a librarian with a husband and child, is a late recruit to the Checquy, having discovered only as an adult her ability to electrify everyday objects with her touch.

After completing her training, she is assigned to examine a string of brutal murders of London criminals and quickly realizes that all bear the unmistakable hallmark of her own unique power. Unable to provide an alibi and determined to prove her innocence, she flees, leaving behind her family to venture into the London underworld to find answers. But now she is prey, being tracked by her own frighteningly capable comrades.

As Lyn fights off powered thugs and her own vengeful colleagues, she will find that the solution to the murders and to the mystery of her own past lies in the events of World War II, and the covert actions of three young women during the Blitz.]]> 496 Daniel O'Malley 146075638X Pat 0 to-read 3.96 2022 Blitz (The Checquy Files, #3)

author: Daniel O'Malley
name: Pat
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Daisy Jones & The Six 40597810 Everyone knows DAISY JONES & THE SIX, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n�� roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.]]> 368 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1524798622 Pat 4 historical, urban-fantasy 4.20 2019

author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Pat
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/28
date added: 2023/04/28
shelves: historical, urban-fantasy
review:
Really enjoyed this fictional account of a fictional band's rise to the top in the 70s. Taking the form of interview transcripts years after the events, it felt like a the biography of a real band. Clearly influenced by the real life drama of Fleetwood Mac, it recounts the creative and emotional tensions between the band's two singers and main creative forces and how their dysfunctional relationship creates something exceptional but almost destroys them both. Authentic.
]]> <![CDATA[The Bands of Mourning (Mistborn, #6)]]> 18739426
The Bands of Mourning are the mythical metal minds owned by the Lord Ruler, said to grant anyone who wears them the powers that the Lord Ruler had at his command. Hardly anyone thinks they really exist. A kandra researcher has returned to Elendel with images that seem to depict the Bands, as well as writings in a language that no one can read. Waxillium Ladrian is recruited to travel south to the city of New Seran to investigate. Along the way he discovers hints that point to the true goals of his uncle Edwarn and the shadowy organization known as The Set.]]> 455 Brandon Sanderson 146686267X Pat 2 fantasy 4.42 2016 The Bands of Mourning (Mistborn, #6)

author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Pat
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2016
rating: 2
read at: 2023/04/09
date added: 2023/04/09
shelves: fantasy
review:
Not sure what happened with this one. The series so far has been great and this one started off well but about half way through just turned into a metaphysical mess - after a bit of research apparently you need to have read a lot more of Sanderson's larger Cosmere series for it (and the follow up) to make sense. Very disappointing.
]]> <![CDATA[Tomorrow's Kin (Yesterday's Kin Trilogy, #1)]]> 31702736 Tomorrow's Kin is the first volume in and all new hard SF trilogy by Nancy Kress based on the Nebula Award-winning Yesterday's Kin.

The aliens have arrived... they've landed their Embassy ship on a platform in New York Harbor, and will only speak with the United Nations. They say that their world is so different from Earth, in terms of gravity and atmosphere, that they cannot leave their ship. The population of Earth has erupted in fear and speculation.

One day Dr. Marianne Jenner, an obscure scientist working with the human genome, receives an invitation that she cannot refuse. The Secret Service arrives at her college to escort her to New York, for she has been invited, along with the Secretary General of the UN and a few other ambassadors, to visit the alien Embassy.

The truth is about to be revealed. Earth s most elite scientists have ten months to prevent a disaster and not everyone is willing to wait.

"]]> 352 Nancy Kress 0765390299 Pat 3 sf 3.55 2017 Tomorrow's Kin (Yesterday's Kin Trilogy, #1)

Tomorrow's Kin (Yesterday's Kin Trilogy, #1)

author: Nancy Kress
name: Pat
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2023/03/26
date added: 2023/03/26
shelves: sf
review:
I really want to like Nancy Kress. She's written loads of stuff that always seems to have an interesting premise & sound like exactly my kind of thing. Whenever I pick one up I'm always left feeling a bit disappointed. They're not bad, just lacking a certain... something. This first contact tale suffers from the same problem.
]]> Reamde 10552338
For Richard, the game was the perfect opportunity to launder his aging hundred dollar bills and begin his own high-tech start up—a venture that has morphed into a Fortune 500 computer gaming group, Corporation 9592, with its own super successful online role-playing game, T’Rain. But the line between fantasy and reality becomes dangerously blurred when a young gold farmer accidently triggers a virtual war for dominance—and Richard is caught at the center.

In this edgy, 21st century tale, Neal Stephenson, one of the most ambitious and prophetic writers of our time, returns to the terrain of his cyberpunk masterpieces Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon, leading readers through the looking glass and into the dark heart of imagination.]]> 1044 Neal Stephenson 0061977969 Pat 4 sf 3.97 2011 Reamde

author: Neal Stephenson
name: Pat
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/16
date added: 2023/03/16
shelves: sf
review:
Everything but the kitchen sink in this one. I got the impression that Stephenson didn't plan this one out before starting it and let the story go where it wanted to. What started off as a story about gold-farming in a next level MMORPG that's so detailed that it has real world geology and has an impact on global finance, it twists and turns so much that sometimes you wonder where the hell it's going. From Chinese hackers to the Russian Mafia to Islamic fundamentalists to off-grid survivalist compounds on the Canadian border. It sounds like an absolute mess & despite being a typical 900+ pages it was a fast-paced thriller that kept my interest all the way to the end.
]]> Blackwing (Raven's Mark, #1) 33916060 The republic faces annihilation, despite the vigilance of Galharrow's Blackwings. When a raven tattoo rips itself from his arm to deliver a desperate message, Galharrow and a mysterious noblewoman must investigate a long dead sorcerer's legacy. But there is a conspiracy within the citadel: traitors, flesh-eaters and the ghosts of the wastelands seek to destroy them, but if they cannot solve the ancient wizard's paradox, the Deep Kings will walk the earth again, and all will be lost.

The war with the Eastern Empire ended in stalemate some eighty years ago, thanks to Nall's 'Engine', a wizard-crafted weapon so powerful even the Deep Kings feared it. The strike of the Engine created the Misery - a wasteland full of ghosts and corrupted magic that now forms a No Mans Land along the frontier. But when Galharrow investigates a frontier fortress, he discovers complacency bordering on treason: then the walls are stormed, and the Engine fails to launch. Galharrow only escapes because of the preternatural magical power of the noblewoman he was supposed to be protecting. Together, they race to the capital to unmask the traitors and restore the republic's defences. Far across the Misery a vast army is on the move, as the Empire prepares to call the republic's bluff.

]]> 360 Ed McDonald 0399587799 Pat 0 to-read 4.09 2017 Blackwing (Raven's Mark, #1)

author: Ed McDonald
name: Pat
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lord of the Silver Bow (Troy, #1)]]> 257149 Helikaon. Strong, fast, quick of mind, he is a bold warrior, hated by his enemies, feared even by his Trojan allies. For there is a darkness at the heart of the Golden One, a savagery that, once awakened, can be appeased only with blood.

Argurios the Mykene is a peerless fighter, a man of unbending principles and unbreakable will. Like all of the Mykene warriors, he lives to conquer and to kill. Dispatched by King Agamemnon to scout the defenses of the golden city of Troy, he is Helikaon's sworn enemy.

Andromache is a priestess of Thera betrothed against her will to Hektor, prince of Troy. Scornful of tradition, skilled in the arts of war, and passionate in the ways of her order, Andromache vows to love whom she pleases and to live as she desires.

Now fate is about to thrust these three together; and, from the sparks of passionate love and hate, ignite a fire that will engulf the world.

Readers who know the works of David Gemmell expect nothing less than excellence from this author, whose taut prose, driving plots, and full-bodied characters have won him legions of fans the world over. Now, with this first masterly volume in an epic reimagining of the Trojan War, Gemmell has written an ageless drama of brave deeds and fierce battles, of honor and treachery, of love won and lost.

From the Hardcover edition.]]> 483 David Gemmell 0345494571 Pat 0 to-read 4.32 2005 Lord of the Silver Bow (Troy, #1)

author: David Gemmell
name: Pat
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Gone World 33413556 Inception meets True Detective in this science fiction thriller of spellbinding tension and staggering scope that follows a special agent into a savage murder case with grave implications for the fate of mankind...

Shannon Moss is part of a clandestine division within the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. In western Pennsylvania, 1997, she is assigned to solve the murder of a Navy SEAL's family--and to locate his vanished teenage daughter. Though she can't share the information with conventional law enforcement, Moss discovers that the missing SEAL was an astronaut aboard the spaceship U.S.S. Libra—a ship assumed lost to the currents of Deep Time. Moss knows first-hand the mental trauma of time-travel and believes the SEAL's experience with the future has triggered this violence.

Determined to find the missing girl and driven by a troubling connection from her own past, Moss travels ahead in time to explore possible versions of the future, seeking evidence to crack the present-day case. To her horror, the future reveals that it's not only the fate of a family that hinges on her work, for what she witnesses rising over time's horizon and hurtling toward the present is the Terminus: the terrifying and cataclysmic end of humanity itself.

Luminous and unsettling, The Gone World bristles with world-shattering ideas yet remains at its heart an intensely human story.]]> 400 Tom Sweterlitsch 0399167501 Pat 0 to-read 3.90 2018

author: Tom Sweterlitsch
name: Pat
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Velocity Weapon (The Protectorate, #1)]]> 41085049
However, Bero may not exactly be telling the whole truth.]]> 544 Megan E. O'Keefe 0316419605 Pat 0 to-read 3.87 2019

author: Megan E. O'Keefe
name: Pat
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Never Let Me Go 6334
Within the grounds of Hailsham, Kathy grows from schoolgirl to young woman, but it’s only when she and her friends Ruth and Tommy leave the safe grounds of the school (as they always knew they would) that they realize the full truth of what Hailsham is.

Never Let Me Go breaks through the boundaries of the literary novel. It is a gripping mystery, a beautiful love story, and also a scathing critique of human arrogance and a moral examination of how we treat the vulnerable and different in our society. In exploring the themes of memory and the impact of the past, Ishiguro takes on the idea of a possible future to create his most moving and powerful book to date.]]> 288 Kazuo Ishiguro 1400078776 Pat 0 to-read 3.85 2005 Never Let Me Go

author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: Pat
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> High-Rise 70256
Within the concealing walls of an elegant forty-storey tower block, the affluent tenants are hell-bent on an orgy of destruction. Cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on ‘enemy�� floors and the once-luxurious amenities become an arena for riots and technological mayhem.

In this visionary tale of urban disillusionment society slips into a violent reverse as the isolated inhabitants of the high-rise, driven by primal urges, create a dystopian world ruled by the laws of the jungle.

This edition is part of a new commemorative series of Ballard’s works, featuring introductions from a number of his admirers (including Iain Sinclair, Ali Smith, Neil Gaiman and Martin Amis) and brand-new cover designs.]]> 272 J.G. Ballard 0586044566 Pat 3 3.85 1975 High-Rise

author: J.G. Ballard
name: Pat
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1975
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/02/17
shelves:
review:

]]> The Thousand Earths 63107607
In Year 30, Mela's story is coming to a close.

Hackett, in his trusty ship the Perseus, is not just a space traveller - beginning his travels with an expedition to Neptune and back - but, thanks to the time-dilation effect, a time traveller as well. His new mission will take him to Andromeda, to get a close-up look at the constellation which will eventually crash into the Milky Way, and give humanity a heads-up about the challenges which are coming.

A mission which will take him five million years to complete.

Not only is Hackett exploring unknown space, but he will return to a vastly different time.

Mela's world is coming to an end. Erosion is eating away at the edges of every landmass - first at a rate of ten metres a year, but fast accelerating, displacing people and animals as the rising Tide destroys everything in its path. Putting more and more pressure on the people - and resources - which remain.

She and her people have always known that this long-predicted end to their home, one of the Thousand Earths, is coming - but that makes their fight to survive, to protect each other, no less desperate . . . and no less doomed.

A beautiful, page-turning story which interweaves the tale of these two characters, separated by both space and time, in a hopeful exploration of humanities' future, this is Stephen Baxter at his best.]]> 583 Stephen Baxter 1473228913 Pat 0 to-read 3.94 2022 The Thousand Earths

author: Stephen Baxter
name: Pat
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Stranger Times (Stranger Times, #1)]]> 53181090 There are dark forces at work in our world (and in Manchester in particular), so thank God The Stranger Times is on hand to report them...

A weekly newspaper dedicated to the weird and the wonderful (but mostly the weird), it is the go-to publication for the unexplained and inexplicable. At least that's their pitch. The reality is less auspicious. Their editor is a drunken, foul-tempered, and foul-mouthed husk of a man who thinks little of the publication he edits. His staff are a ragtag group of misfits. And as for the assistant editor... well, that job is a revolving door--and it has just revolved to reveal Hannah Willis, who's got problems of her own.

When tragedy strikes in Hannah's first week on the job, The Stranger Times is forced to do some serious investigating. What they discover leads to a shocking realisation: some of the stories they'd previously dismissed as nonsense are in fact terrifyingly real. Soon they come face-to-face with darker forces than they could ever have imagined.]]> 432 C.K. McDonnell 1787633365 Pat 4 urban-fantasy 4.11 2021 The Stranger Times (Stranger Times, #1)

author: C.K. McDonnell
name: Pat
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/08
date added: 2023/01/08
shelves: urban-fantasy
review:
I'm always a bit wary of urban fantasy series, mainly because there are so many & the quality is often ropey. This one caught my eye because it was written by an established crime writer Caimh McDonnell & it's set in Manchester. Recently divorced Hannah takes a job at the eponymous Stranger Times - an underground 'newspaper' based in Deansgate that reports on strange and occult happenings around the UK (think Fortean Times). Turns out there's a whole shadowy world of witches and evil sorcerors and werewolves etc... so far so predictable. What gives this one the edge is a great cast of larger than life characters and the fact that it's genuinley funny. Not quite Rivers of London (yet) but defintely a cut above the rest.
]]> A Song for a New Day 43401925 In this captivating science fiction novel from an award-winning author, public gatherings are illegal making concerts impossible, except for those willing to break the law for the love of music, and for one chance at human connection.

In the Before, when the government didn't prohibit large public gatherings, Luce Cannon was on top of the world. One of her songs had just taken off and she was on her way to becoming a star. Now, in the After, terror attacks and deadly viruses have led the government to ban concerts, and Luce's connection to the world—her music, her purpose—is closed off forever. She does what she has to do: she performs in illegal concerts to a small but passionate community, always evading the law.

Rosemary Laws barely remembers the Before times. She spends her days in Hoodspace, helping customers order all of their goods online for drone delivery—no physical contact with humans needed. By lucky chance, she finds a new job and a new calling: discover amazing musicians and bring their concerts to everyone via virtual reality. The only catch is that she'll have to do something she's never done before and go out in public. Find the illegal concerts and bring musicians into the limelight they deserve.��But when she sees how the world could actually be, that won’t be enough.]]> 384 Sarah Pinsker 1984802593 Pat 4 sf
Rosemary Laws becomes a talent scout for StageHolo and travels the country looking for talent that they can exploit and experiemces an off-grid world of underground, illegal gigs and bands trying to survive without selling out. Essentially this is a world that already exists, it's just not illegal (yet) and the novel is a love song to every band or performer that's played to a hungry crowd in a sweaty basement for fuck-all money & then crammed into a beaten up old van and driven 300 miles to do it all over again the next day. It's also a love song to those of us that would happily pay a few quid to cram into the same sweaty basement to be blown away by a band you've never heard of.]]> 3.95 2019 A Song for a New Day

author: Sarah Pinsker
name: Pat
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/13
date added: 2022/11/13
shelves: sf
review:
Following a spate of terrorist attacks and a global pandemic, the US goes into lockdown - so far so familiar. In version of events, however, the lockdown doesn't end and virtual life become a reality. LIve music still exists but concerts are all virtual and monopolised by the StageHolo corporation and due to the costs, involved they become a luxury that not everyone can afford.

Rosemary Laws becomes a talent scout for StageHolo and travels the country looking for talent that they can exploit and experiemces an off-grid world of underground, illegal gigs and bands trying to survive without selling out. Essentially this is a world that already exists, it's just not illegal (yet) and the novel is a love song to every band or performer that's played to a hungry crowd in a sweaty basement for fuck-all money & then crammed into a beaten up old van and driven 300 miles to do it all over again the next day. It's also a love song to those of us that would happily pay a few quid to cram into the same sweaty basement to be blown away by a band you've never heard of.
]]> <![CDATA[Quantum of Nightmares (Laundry Files, #11; The New Management, #2)]]> 58532243 A unique blend of espionage thrills and Lovecraftian horror, Hugo Award-winning author Charles Stross's Laundry Files continues with Quantum of Nightmares.

It’s a brave new Britain under the New Management. The avuncular Prime Minister is an ancient eldritch god of unimaginable power. Crime is plummeting as almost every offense is punishable by death. And everywhere you look, there are people with strange powers, some of which they can control, and some, not so much.

Hyperorganized and formidable, Eve Starkey defeated her boss, the louche magical adept and billionaire Rupert de Montfort Bigge, in a supernatural duel to the death. Now she’s in charge of the Bigge Corporation—just in time to discover the lethal trap Rupert set for her long ago.

Wendy Deere’s transhuman abilities have gotten her through many a scrape. Now she’s gainfully employed investigating unauthorized supernatural shenanigans. She swore to herself she wouldn’t again get entangled with Eve Starkey’s bohemian brother Imp and his crew of transhuman misfits. Yeah, right.

Mary Macandless has powers of her own. Right now she’s pretending to be a nanny in order to kidnap the children of a pair of famous, Government-authorized superheroes. These children have powers of their own, and Mary Macandless is in way over her head.

Amanda Sullivan is the HR manager of a minor grocery chain, much oppressed by her glossy blonde boss—who is cooking up an appalling, extralegal scheme literally involving human flesh.

All of these stories will come together, with world-bending results...]]> 368 Charles Stross 1250839378 Pat 4 3.92 2022 Quantum of Nightmares (Laundry Files, #11; The New Management, #2)

Quantum of Nightmares (Laundry Files, #11; The New Management, #2)

author: Charles Stross
name: Pat
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/10/23
date added: 2022/10/23
shelves:
review:
Really enjoyable second dive into the world of The New Management. The cast Dead Lies Dreaming return in a plot that involves the kidnap of 3 super-powered children, a truly disturbing corporate plan to create a golem workforce out of recycled homeless people and a cult attempting to summon yet another elder god. It's as fast, snappy & darkly funny as we'd come to expect and the subversion of Mary Poppins is hilarious.
]]> <![CDATA[Priest of Lies (War for the Rose Throne, #2)]]> 42359140
People are weak, and the poorer and more oppressed they are, the weaker they become--until they can't take it anymore. And when�� they rise up...may the gods help their oppressors.

When Tomas Piety returned from the war, he just wanted to rebuild his empire of crime with his gang of Pious Men. But his past as a spy for the Queen's Men drew him back in and brought him more power than he ever imagined.

Now, with half of his city in ashes and the Queen's Men at his back, the webs of political intrigue stretch out from the capital to pull Tomas in. Dannsburg is calling.

In Dannsburg the nobility fight with words, not blades, but the results are every bit as bloody. In this pit of beasts, Tomas must decide once and for all whether he is truly the people's champion...or just a priest of lies.]]> 368 Peter McLean 0451490231 Pat 0 to-read 4.23 2019 Priest of Lies (War for the Rose Throne, #2)

Priest of Lies (War for the Rose Throne, #2)

author: Peter McLean
name: Pat
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/10/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>