Recent Science Fiction Book Reviews

Here are some of the more recent books I've read which I've actually liked and managed to get past the first chapter. That does seem to be my problem nowadays, that if I don't like a book then I tend to stop reading. Below are some of the books that have managed to defeat my legendary short attention span. Obviously this doesn't mean the books that haven't are awful, (and it wouldn't be fair to judge them on the first chapter anyway) but that simply I've got to the point where I know what I like and don't force myself to read what I don't.


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.

NANOWRIMO

For those of you not in the know, Nanowrimo is a worldwide movement where you sign up to the NANOWRIMO website with the express task of writing a 50,000 word novel during the month of November.

Many books have been written during Nanowrimo by authors other than myself, although I have tried infrequently to have a go with mixed results. You know, those times when you think you have a good story, but really you just have a good beginning and it peeters out quite quickly into blurgh. Before 2019, I would say the most amount of words I managed was 12,000 and these were not words I look back on fondly and did not grow into anything worthwhile even after November.

But 2019 was a funny old year, a bit different to previous ones. For one thing because my children were/ are? getting older, I had a couple of hours to spare each day. From 0 to 2 hours is a big increase, I can't say it was a 200% increase because that would obviously be a numeric misnomer, but 2 hours seems like an infinite expanse of time when you are used to having none whatsoever.

(It did have its downside in January, because after years of writing nothing at all I forced myself to write a novel that probably will never see the light of day. I did this with the intent of proving to myself I could still write. Needless to say, that proof was not forthcoming.)

I digress, after going to the SFWeekender in October 2019 on some late giveaway tickets I met a few authors. The ones I remember most are Ian Whates and Zen Cho who were two of the most jovial and happiest of authors ever to discuss their writing lives in the vague hope of selling a few copies of their books. I didn't have the courage to mention: 'I'm a writer, please read some of my stuff', but Zen Cho somehow surmised this anyway and spoke to me at length about how writing was worth it even if you aren't particularly successful. (She actually is successful, but that is beside the point). Anyway, after the weekender and listening to all these writers I decided it was time to write something good with my 2 hours a day.

On 1st November 2019 I entered NANOWRIMO for the fourth or fifth time with the idea of attempting to write something completely different to what I had written before. I was going to write a fantasy novel! This started out as REDACTED REDACTED. I can't say any more without giving it away. Needless to say, I started well, Chapter One was okay, and then Chapter Two to Four were okay, and then I had finished beginning and actually had to get into the nitty gritty of the story. So I slowed down, and thought this was going the same way as my previous efforts, precisely nowhere.

In week 3 something happened, I introduced a few new characters and the ball was rolling again. By then end of Nanowrimo I actually managed 43,000 words. That is the most I probably will ever manage on a Nanowrimo, but I was impressed and then drifted a bit. It took until the end of January 2020 to write the remaining 29,000 words but I did it. I finished the first draft of my first fantasy novel and currently am facing the horror of completing the second draft.

I can honestly this is better than my previous attempted no go science fiction novel which may be buried forever in digital oblivion. I just have to make my fantasy novel publishable now and perhaps try a different publishing route than I have in the past.

Onward we go...