Tag: 2018

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Guest Post: How to Survive Blogger Burnout by Little Red Reviewer

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  I am super excited to host today one of my favourite bloggers Andrea Johnson a.k.a. Little Red Reviewer. Andrea has run her book review blog since 2010 and has published over 400 reviews covering all sorts of science fiction, fantasy, and everything in between. She is also the creator of #VintageSciFiMonth which happens every January (do it do it do it!!! … no pressure), and has organized read-alongs and blog tours. She was a contributor to SFSignal and is currently the author interviewer at Apex Magazine. Andrea lives with her husband in a college town in Michigan and their … Continue reading Guest Post: How to Survive Blogger Burnout by Little Red Reviewer

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Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty

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This is a very cool locked room murder mystery in space. As such, anything I really want to say about it will be a spoiler. Dagnabbit. I enjoyed Mur Lafferty’s Shambling Guide to New York City earlier this year, but that in no way prepared me for Six Wakes, which is in a whole different league – tense, fast-paced and un-put-down-able. Whereas upon finishing Shambling Guide I was feeling both impressed and a little disappointed, after reading Six Wakes I am nothing but captivated. The basic set up is as follows: The six clones that make up the crew of … Continue reading Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty

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Alien Earth by Megan Lindholm

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I don’t know how long I’m going to manage coherency here, before this just becomes one long gush of everything I loved about this book, but I’ll give it a go. Megan Lindholm (A.K.A. Robin Hobb), writes characters and the tensions between them so, so well that I found myself gnawing at my knuckles and completely unable to disengage over the two days it took me to read this book. I got angry, I got frustrated, I chuckled, I nearly cried, I sighed a huge, heartfelt sigh of relief at one point … man, it was a great ride! For … Continue reading Alien Earth by Megan Lindholm

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Beholder’s Eye by Julie E Czerneda

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  I bought Beholder’s Eye earlier this year, in April in fact, right after Little Red Reviewer had Julie E Czerneda as a guest on her blog to promote her latest Web Shifters book. (It’s a really good post, which you can read here if you’re interested). Hmmm, you don’t seem as impressed as you should be. I’ll say that again with more emphasis: this book I’ve just read was bought this year. I just read something in the same year that I bought it! This never happens! Be impressed (you can pretend – I’ll not know)!! J It normally … Continue reading Beholder’s Eye by Julie E Czerneda

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Places in the Darkness by Chris Brookmyre

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I did not intend to read this. I already have a healthy pile of books to fail spectacularly at reading for #RRSciFiMonth and this isn’t one of them. But you know how it is, sometimes you get caught without a book (emergency!) and you grab whatever’s to hand. Enter Places in the Darkness stage left … The Ciudad de Cielo, or ‘City in the sky’ (A.K.A. the CdC or SeeDee), is a space station orbiting Earth and dedicated to the building of humanity’s first colony ship. It is a city-sized station populated by the best scientists, doing all the research … Continue reading Places in the Darkness by Chris Brookmyre

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Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb

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One of my Book Bingo tasks this year was to read a book I previously DNF. Now before you start throwing stones at me, I was really sick when I first tried to read Assassin’s Apprentice. It took me at least an hour to read the first chapter and a little of the second before I put it down. At the time I blamed the book for not grabbing me, but it was far more my fault. I just wasn’t in the right headspace. And then I never gave it another go. Until now. What the heck was wrong with … Continue reading Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb

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Heart’s Blood by Juliet Marillier

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Before I begin, can I just say that it’s a complete fluke that there are fairy-tale-retelling elements in Heart’s Blood, after last week’s Kingdom of Sleep, and that this parallel in my reading was in no way deliberate. Just one of those happy accidents. I picked this up having been inspired by both Maddalena of Space and Sorcery and Karina of Karina Reads to try Juliet Marillier’s books (hearty thanks are due!). I have Daughter of the Forest on the book pile at home, but I got caught short at work without a book to read (drama!) and Heart’s Blood … Continue reading Heart’s Blood by Juliet Marillier

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Kingdom of Sleep by E K Johnston

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After really loving E K Johnston’s A Thousand Nights I shouldn’t be surprised that I was a little bit disappointed with her next offering. To be fair though, that’s on me more than on Johnston – I was never going to love a retelling of Sleeping Beauty (the title character does nothing/ heroic prince and damsel-in-distress princess/ true love’s kiss – bleurgh!) anywhere near as much as a retelling of Scheherazade’s story. And while Kingdom of Sleep lacks some of the cleverness and sheer beauty of A Thousand Nights, frankly, if all YA fiction was to this standard it would … Continue reading Kingdom of Sleep by E K Johnston

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Bill the Galactic Hero by Harry Harrison

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It’s fatal for someone to tell you that if you don’t find a particular thing funny then you don’t have a sense of humour. You’re undoubtedly not going to find that thing as funny as they feel you should. With that in mind … This was recommended to me by an older customer who was reading all the big names in scifi when they were first published back in the 60s and 70s – Asimov, Clarke, Delaney, Aldiss, Heinlein. He’s a great guy and I love talking to him about books. Recently, I expressed an interest in what he would … Continue reading Bill the Galactic Hero by Harry Harrison

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Twilight Robbery by Frances Hardinge

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First off, while nothing I say here is going to spoil Mosca and Eponymous’ first outing, Fly by Night (my thoughts here), for anyone, I do feel that you should read that book before you tackle Twilight Robbery. The events in the first book have created the situation in the second, and, more importantly, Mosca and Eponymous’ relationship is more touching here if you see first how it began. “They shared a love of words, a taste for adventure and a dubious relationship with the truth …” This relationship is so very well written. It’s not something that Hardinge makes … Continue reading Twilight Robbery by Frances Hardinge