Reviews and Comments

David Bremner Locked account

bremner@book.dansmonorage.blue

Joined 2 years, 2 months ago

computer scientist, mathematician, photographer, human. Debian Developer, Notmuch Maintainer, scuba diver

Much of my "reading" these days is actually audiobooks while walking.

FediMain: bremner@mathstodon.xyz

bremner@bookwyrm.social is also me. Trying a smaller instance to see if the delays are less maddening.

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Ancestral Night (Hardcover, 2019, Gallery / Saga Press) 4 stars

Solid space opera

4 stars

It would be unfair to call it derivative but it seems clear the author is an Ian M Banks / Culture novels fan. What makes the book interesting for me is the exploration of the question of "what if effective and precise self-regulation of brain chemistry was possible". This has interesting ripple effects on politics and the definition of personal autonomy.

The Unbroken (Paperback, 2021, Orbit) 4 stars

Touraine is a soldier. Stolen as a child and raised to kill and die for …

Overall I found it decent, but it was a bit of a slog. I think most of the character + world building could have been done with less words. I listened to it on audiobook, which usually makes long books somewhat easier to (passively?) take.

Space Opera (2018, Gallery / Saga Press) 4 stars

"Mankind will not get to fight for its destiny. They must sing. A century ago, …

Good, but not that kind of Space Opera

4 stars

Fans of Alastair Reynolds, beware, this is not your stuff. Fans of Douglas Adams, you will probably like this, if you can admit that on some level, Valente is the better writer. Or perhaps it just seems so to me because the satire is more on point for current events.

The overall arc of the story is not too surprising, but there are many extremely quotable quips. Valente seems to have a gift for humorous (pop or otherwise) culture references.

Not to talk down the book, which has no pretensions of being more than what it is, but I look forward to reading Valente putting that raw wordpower to something a little more ambitious.