Jackson's Updates

Jackson liked a readstatus

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 13:47:34 -0700

Jackson liked Jessica’s status update

Jackson is on page 205 of 352 of Gogmagog

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 13:46:53 -0700

Jackson is on page 205 of 352 of Gogmagog.
Jackson wrote: This has been on my back burner for a while. I dip in occasionally but I think it may be a "right book, wrong time" type deal. Think I'll slowly push through, and if I feel I haven't done it justice I'll reread it later.

Jackson is currently reading 'Detonation Boulevard'

Sat, 26 Apr 2025 04:39:08 -0700

Jackson is currently reading Detonation Boulevard by Alastair Reynolds

Jackson added 'Berserk, Vol. 3'

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 01:01:32 -0700

Jackson gave 5 stars to Berserk, Vol. 3 (Berserk, #3) by Kentaro Miura
bookshelves: 2025
Ok... I'm fully in at this point. This was brutal.

Jackson liked a userstatus

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 23:23:46 -0700

Jackson liked PAR's status update

PAR is on page 21 of 541 of Babylon's Ashes

Jackson added 'Ports of Call'

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 08:22:04 -0700

Jackson has read Ports of Call (Ports of Call, 1) by Jack Vance
bookshelves: 2025
This was somehow both meandering and repetitive, and after the first 1/3 almost entirely without a plot.

A lack of a plot can be made up for by great characters, but the characters here where just... fine. Nowhere near interesting enough to carry a story on their own.

The writing was fine. I definitely want to read more Jack Vance in the future, but I certainly won't be reading the sequel to this particular book.

Jackson added 'The Expanded Earth'

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 02:22:42 -0700

Jackson gave 5 stars to The Expanded Earth (Kindle Edition) by Mikey Please
bookshelves: 2025
The Expanded Earth is exactly the book I wanted it to be; a fun, fast paced, British science-fiction story, with a great central premise and well-explored themes of environmentalism and familial responsibility.
This is, without a doubt, my favourite book released so far this year. I enjoyed it immensely.

We first join a man named Giles. He, alongside everyone else around the world, has just been shrunk to a tenth of their original size. Not many survived this bizarre process (only about 1/10 in fact, and most of those children) and apparently nobody knows how or why this happened either.
But - if the answers are to be found anywhere, they'll be found in the second character's perspective; a dry, snarky and humourous older lady called Dr. Goodwin, who certainly knows much more about this than anyone else.

There are also brilliant little "Elsewhere" chapters that function as interludes to the larger parts of the central narrative.
From an astronaut looking down at earth, and a prison island where the criminals and guards are trapped and isolated together in this new oversized world, to an outcast leper in the middle-east who has a unique experience with the shrinkage.
These chapters fleshed out the world and gave some much-needed context to the event and it's wider global impact.

This shrinking of humanity made for a brilliant perspective narratively, and while we've seen the idea before elsewhere in fiction, I think this might be my favourite implementation of it.
Mikey did such a great job of analysing the world around his characters, and following their thought processes logically, that it made it very easy, fun and sometimes terrifying to imagine yourself in the same situations.
This immersion, and the ability to completely suspend my disbelief, made me look at the space and the physical objects around me, and imagine how I'd use it all if I were somehow made the size of a paperback book.
Clothes, transport, food, power, weapons, other animals... When we are no longer top of the food chain, when we are made small and fragile, when everything is an obstacle... what does this new world look like? And what is our place in it? The Expanded Earth does a great job of exploring those questions and making the journey of finding out a thoroughly engaging and enjoyable one.

On top of everything else, this book also has wonderful art, and plenty of it, done by the author as well - it is truly superb, and elevates the book into something very special.

I'd say this book sit somewhere in the recommendation venn diagram between John Wyndham, Cixin Liu and Adrian Tchaikovsky.
The humour, Britishness, and the strong concept makes this a very memorable story and I am excited to see where the series goes from here.

5 stars

Mikey Please is an author I'll be following the career of with interest, because I am very impressed.

Jackson liked a readstatus

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 01:15:00 -0700

Jackson liked Jessica’s status update

Jessica is currently reading The Rush

Jackson made a comment on Anna’s status

Sun, 20 Apr 2025 14:25:10 -0700

Jackson made a comment on Anna’s status

I hope this is better, or at least more enjoyable for you, than the last one you read! This one and it's sequel are extremely popular right now.

Jackson started reading 'The Fifth Head of Cerberus: Three Novellas'

Sun, 20 Apr 2025 05:02:02 -0700

Jackson started reading The Fifth Head of Cerberus: Three Novellas by Gene Wolfe