Abstract Reader started reading Revenger by Alastair Reynolds

Revenger by Alastair Reynolds
Tens of millions of years in the future, sisters Adrana and Arafura ('Fura') Ness are skilled bone readers—the primary method …
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Tens of millions of years in the future, sisters Adrana and Arafura ('Fura') Ness are skilled bone readers—the primary method …
I originally picked this up because the tag-line looked like this book would be about Roko's basilisk. While this is technically not wrong, the concept really just plays a world building role (like FTL travel and ansible communication) rather being the focal point of the story. It is not even explained, just implied and the reader is expected to know about it already.
The main theme of the story are cosmic horrors and the relationship between science and spiritualism, done in a very interesting way. It should be noted that although this is about cosmic horrors, it is not at all scary. Overall, it was not at all what I was expecting but nonetheless very nice!
Autistic scientist Yasira Shien has developed a radical new energy drive that could change the future of humanity. But when …
Autistic scientist Yasira Shien has developed a radical new energy drive that could change the future of humanity. But when …
This is quite different from what I usually read but I liked it a lot. It's just very funny in the beginning, later on it gets a little more dramatic. The only criticism that I have is that the book is ~700 pages of buildup for ~100 pages of payoff, but that seems to be by design.
ONE OF THE MAJOR POST-WORLD WAR II EUROPEAN WORKS OF LITERATURE AND AN INTERNATIONAL BEST-SELLER FROM THE AOUTHOR OF THE …
I have to admit to picking this up because it looked quite similar to Dune, which I like quite a bit. On the surface, it is about a warrior tribe living in the desert (which seemed quite similar to the Fremen).
And indeed, there are quite some similarities when it comes to setting/general plot. However, one aspect that is handled more gracefully here is imperialism and colonialism. While a human enters the tribe (an unprecedented event) he is never made their leader but is rather just part of multiple extreme, unprecedented circumstances for the people of the mri. While Dune is also intended to be anti-imperialist, the actions taken by the characters really do not bear this out. In my opinion, this is done more skillfully here as well: While there always are empires in the mix, there are also always people resisting/circumventing the bureaucratic machine.
Overall, if you like …
I have to admit to picking this up because it looked quite similar to Dune, which I like quite a bit. On the surface, it is about a warrior tribe living in the desert (which seemed quite similar to the Fremen).
And indeed, there are quite some similarities when it comes to setting/general plot. However, one aspect that is handled more gracefully here is imperialism and colonialism. While a human enters the tribe (an unprecedented event) he is never made their leader but is rather just part of multiple extreme, unprecedented circumstances for the people of the mri. While Dune is also intended to be anti-imperialist, the actions taken by the characters really do not bear this out. In my opinion, this is done more skillfully here as well: While there always are empires in the mix, there are also always people resisting/circumventing the bureaucratic machine.
Overall, if you like stories like Dune (foreign planets and cultures, court politics and intrigue) you will like this as well. I liked it even better.
This is a story of diplomacy and warfare of conspiracy and betryal and of three people from two enemy civilizations. …
This is a story of diplomacy and warfare of conspiracy and betryal and of three people from two enemy civilizations. …
I'm still not quite sure what to make of this. The most interesting aspect of the book, I think, is that you get to see a lot of quite technical topics in logic through the eyes of a journalist who is not really a mathematician. Also, the language is quite nice. Overall, I liked it.
I was somewhat disappointed with the second book in this series because it didn't really deliver on what I wanted out of this. This is not at all a problem here; you are getting exactly what you expect: Lots of violence in interesting settings, involving interesting characters. If you liked the first one, you will also enjoy this one (you could actually skip the second one without much harm, I think).
Richard K. Morgan has received widespread praise for his astounding twenty-fifth-century novels featuring Takeshi Kovacs, and has established a growing …