Rosewater by Tade Thompson
A Complex Tapestry Of A Story, Beautifully Realised
A complex story, the lead character's experiences recounted
from various points in his history told in parallel. As the narrative
unfolds events happen in careful and detailed increments including
psychic powers related to alien microbes, love, desire, and a deadly
mystery that requires solving. By the end of the book I'm not sure the
mystery is solved, but as there are two more books to go, I imagine the
mystery will only deepen before an answer is forthcoming. This book is
an experience, so go ahead, experience it.
Planetfall by Emma Newman
City At The Edge Of The World
It's a book about pain, grief, lies, cowardice and self acceptance. A terrible wrong that cannot be taken back. The writing pulls you in as you slowly get to know the narrator and understand the depths of their love and suffering that leads to a surprise ending I won't ruin here.
Beneath The World, a Sea by Chris Beckett
What Lies Beneath?
For the 'good' policeman Ben Ronson, tasked with an impossible job in a jungle environment like nothing else on Earth, all his self-editing, his need to be a paragon of officialdom, is peeled away layer by layer by the mind bending effects of the almost alien environment and its human and non human inhabitants.
It's a slow burn and I'm still thinking about it, to be honest. But I always enjoy the ones that make me think the most.
Sea Of Rust by C. Robert Cargill
War Of The AI's
There is this idea that the singularity will create a perfect world because the machines will do a much better job of running it than we ever can. Not so with 'Sea Of Rust' because the machines inherit all that is good and bad from humanity in a desperate war for the survival of the individual. There is love, hate, regret but most of all desperate people (albeit robots) doing desperate thing just so they can keep hanging onto life by their (figuratively speaking) fingernails. Compulsive reading from beginning to end, it will definitely not be the same in a hundred years time.